Elena is Two! (and a yummy Honey Vanilla Frosting!)

This past weekend we celebrated my daughter Elena’s birthday. We took her to the Zoo in the morning with my sister Katie (unmarried), my dad, and my sister Christina with her husband and two young children. Children are so wonderful. While going to the Zoo as an adult may not be quite as thrilling anymore, seeing the Zoo through the eye’s of your child makes it an exciting and interesting experience. Elena’s favorite animals were the monkeys.

(Before going into the Zoo, we stop to see a train)

Afterwards we came home for naps, and then had a feast of wonderful food for her birthday dinner. It was a relaxing and fun time.
Finishing up her birthday soup

We are so thankful for the privilege of being Elena’s parents. She has brought so much joy and happiness to this little family. She really is a sweetheart and though she didn’t seem naturally attracted to being physically affectionate, she now loves to give hugs and kisses. When her daddy leaves, if she is up, she will stand at the door and send many kisses and waves to him as he leaves.

Some of her favorite things to do are: Helping Mommy with her chores, playing with her blocks, reading books, counting, watching her learning DVDs, looking at her flashcards, and playing in her pretend kitchen. Since we have chosen to have me be a “stay at home mom” as much as possible, Elena and I do everything together. She usually will want to help me in the kitchen when I am making something. From a fairly young age she has helped stir, dump ingredients, and other simple chores.
The really sweet thing is that it’s usually her who comes up with a way to help me. She is very observant, so she will actually watch to see how she can help. For example, from watching me sweep, she knows that I need the dustpan. She will always go get it for me when I am sweeping. Or, if she sees I am going to feed the chickens, she will go and take the lid off of the trashcan we keep the food in.

We have been also very thankful that Elena has been a relatively healthy baby and child. Because I had a lot of antibiotics right after she was born, she was plagued with stomach gas for a long time, but we have worked hard to improve her digestive system and it seems to have really paid off.

I wanted to make a special cake for her (and, of course, I wanted it to be a healthy one!), so I made a Pumpkin Coconut Flour cake. It turned out great (even though I had to make it twice) and I can’t wait to share it with you all.

But today, I thought I would share this wonderful recipe for a healthy frosting that I used for the cake. I have always loved 7 minute frosting, but we always used to use white sugar to make it. I was thrilled when I saw this recipe in my Mom’s 1970’s era cookbook, Naturally Delicious Desserts and Snacks by Faye Martin, for a honey sweetened recipe. Oh, it was delicious. My only change was cutting a bit back on the honey. We were glad that we did, because it was very sweet, even with cutting back on the honey, and very flavorful. I have made just one change in the directions (they said to beat on low, I had to beat on high to achieve “soft mounds”.

Honey Vanilla Seven Minute Frosting

3 egg whites
2/3 cup of honey (I used a scant two-thirds a cup)
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Put the unbeaten egg whites, honey, and salt into the top of a double boiler over hot water. Beat with an electric beater on medium to high speed, while you bring the water to a boil. Continue to beat for 7 minutes, or until the mixture forms soft mounds. Remove from the heat, add the vanilla slowly and continue beating until frosting is stiff enough to hold it’s shape.

Yield: 3 cups