Birthday's, Chocolate Fudge Icing, Pickles, and Granny's Vintage Blocks!

There is nothing better than being able to spend the biggest part of the day with your husband on his birthday!  My sweet hubby turned 57 today!  I baked him his favorite cake, gave him a McDonald's Big Mac (another favorite) for lunch and made him short ribs for dinner! Mid- afternoon we took a trip around some of the tobacco farms to see how everyone's crops were faring since we have had no rain, and we stopped at the Frosty Maid for a chocolate ice cream cone!  I don't think his day could have been any better!

His favorite cake is yellow cake with chocolate frosting!  My mom turned him on to a homemade old timey fudge icing and he absolutely LOVES it!  So, I went through her recipes and finally found it! It was my first time to actually make it myself but I did really good!  When I brought his cake out for him at lunch, I started crying because I know this was one of her favorite icings to make! We both shared a piece of cake for dessert after lunch and it was delicious!  As you can see, we made pigs of ourselves!

 I don't think mother would mind if I shared the recipe....

2 cups sugar  - 1/2 cup cocoa - 1/2 cup milk - 1/2 cup butter

Combine everything in a saucepan and bring to a rumbling boil, stirring constantly.  Reduce heat and let boil for 1 1/2 minutes, continuing to stir constantly. Remove from heat and beat with beaters for 5 minutes.  Pour over cake using your spatula to make it drip over the sides. Enjoy!!

I went into town earlier today by myself and picked him up this hat for his birthday.  I had already given him his gift but I had to go to the local Ace Hardware to get some buckets for starting my 14 day pickles and I happened to spy this hat!  He needs one to wear when he is in the tobacco fields.  I think he looks pretty cute in it!

After lunch I washed the cucumbers that my mother-in-law sent to me and got them ready to begin the 2 1/2 week leg of making my granny's 14 day pickles.  Granny made these every year and I really like them so I make them in honor of her every year!  My husband can take a jar to the recliner and just eat pickle while watching a movie. I have always wondered why she calls them a 14 day pickle though, when it actually takes 2 1/2 weeks for them to be ready to go in the jars???  It doesn't matter though...all that matters is that they are delicious!!  :)

For the past 2 days in between quilting, I have been working on some more of the vintage quilt blocks that my mother-in-law found in her attic!  Her mother made these 9 patch blocks but no-one had ever put them into a quilt!  There are 24 blocks in this pattern so I have decided to make 2 quilts! I have the first 12 blocks ready to be sewn together.  I wanted to show you my progress up until now.  I won't be able to sew these together until after July 1st but maybe by then I can show you both quilts!

I am linking this post up to Monday Funday!