Week 14

I have been so busy the past two weeks that I haven't had a chance to update.....(so I am dating this post from when it actually occured instead of when I am actually posting it!!) Last Friday, Brad and I and my brother all drove up to Waco (kids in tow) to move my younger sister from her apartment. She graduated from Baylor in this past December and is taking some time off before she has to join the "working world" and now has decided to live with us!!! We are thrilled!! The move went pretty smoothly and rather fast....we drove up friday night, moved most of her things into a U-Haul, woke up early, moved the rest of her things and we were driving back home at 3pm. Isabella and Elijah are now sharing a room and she has Elijah's old room and the kids LOVE it! It was great to clean out Elijah's room since I needed to do it anyway before we brought our kids home from Ethiopia! There were definitely lots of "little treasures" we discovered during the clean out process of his room.....little boys are always so "curious"! Brittany also has a little poodle, Beaux, who the kids adore and they are loving having a little dog in the house!

We have now entered into our 14th week of waiting for a referral and I asked Elijah if he could make a "14" with something. He immediately rant to his bin of cars and started "racing" the cars in line to make his "14"! He was very excited about it that he wanted to make another "14" with his train tracks (I can see that coming in the next few weeks!!).
Tonight, we celebrated our 14th week with Malva Pudding! It is a South African recipe that I have and it is delicious!!! We made it for Christmas Eve dinner this year but somehow during the baking process "someone" turned the oven up to 500 degrees! It was rather crispy and dry, so we thought we would give it another try tonight. Brittany actually made it for us (I am glad we both share a love for cooking!!) and everyone enjoyed it! I forgot to take a picture of it but I have one that was attached to the recipe. It is simliar to bread pudding and so good that I thought others may like the recipe: (you cannot taste the apricot jam in it so I am really not sure why it is there except maybe to moisten it)

INGREDIENTS:
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp. apricot jam (or preserves, chopped very finely)
5 ounces all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. butter (a generous tablespoon)
1 tsp. vinegar
1/3 cup milk

SAUCE INGREDIENTS:
3/4 cup fresh cream
3-1/2 ounces butter
5 ounces sugar
1/3 cup hot water
1 tsp. vanilla essence

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat or whip the sugar and eggs, preferably in a food processor, until thick and lemon colored. Then, add the apricot jelly (or jam) and mix thoroughly. Sieve together the flour, soda and salt. Melt the butter (do not boil!) and add the vinegar. Add this mixture, as well as the milk, to the egg mixture in the processor, alternately with the flour. Beat well.Pour into an oven-proof dish, and bake for 45 to 50 minutes. In a pot, melt together the ingredients for the sauce. When the cake is halfway baked, take it out of oven. Make holes in cake and pour all the sauce over the pudding. Return to the oven. Delicious!!