SUSAN EICHER'S BIRTHDAY CAKE
THE AMISH COOK
BY SUSAN EICHER, Age 17
Hi, I am Susan, I decided to write for Mom this week. My 17th birthday is tomorrow the 24th so my treat to Mom is to write the column for her. I made monster cookies yesterday. I wanted to have some to treat everyone for my birthday. I am here at my babysitting job. I brought some cookies for them too. The children really like the cookies. I think monster cookies are a treat for the children especially since they have M & Ms in them. Today I have only the twins here. They are two years old and the girls name is McKenzie and the boys name is Cole. On Mondays and Fridays I also have their four year old brother, Hunter, to babysit for. Hunter makes me laugh. When nap time comes he can really talk, thinking I will forget about his nap. They keep me busy but are a joy to be around. They are all very cute. McKenzie and Cole are coloring in their books while I am writing. They think I am coloring too because they wanted to color when they saw me writing.
It has been a very cold week so far. I don’t drive the ponies when it is this cold. I have two more ponies here to train. Sunny belongs to my boyfriend Mose’s sister’s family. They want me to train her for their little boys. He is a miniature pony and is doing well with the training so far. The other pony is named Roxy and she is mine now. Mose’s Dad gave her to me. She did have some training before but is still really rowdy. I need to keep working with her but she makes me laugh at how stubborn she can get.
This is Friday morning and I had a very nice birthday yesterday. Dad and Mom went to the funeral of Dad’s cousins wife. She lost her battle to cancer. How sad for the family. I stayed home and folded laundry, washed dishes, a nd cleaned up the house. Around 2:30 Mose came and took me along to town. He had me pick out what I wanted for my birthday. I picked out a nice office chair which I will have in my bedroom by my desk. I will use it a lot. I also picked out an “around the house toolkit”. Now I’ll have my own set of small tools if I need to fix or hang something up. Mose bought me a Dairy Queen ice cream cake and brought pizza home for the whole family for supper. Mom and Dad had returned from the funeral by then. It was a treat for everyone. Since we didn’t have to make supper we had time to finish the 750 piece puzzle which we started on Sunday afternoon. It is oval shaped and has deer on it. We got the puzzle from a reader last Christmas. It was fun to put it together. Mom wants to do it together because my brothers want it hung in their bedroom.
Mose has two new nieces that were born 5 days apart. Last Friday evening I went with Mose and his family to meet his sister Polly’s new Baby girl named Delilah Louise. She is so sweet. Tonight I am planning to go with Mose to see his sister Hannah’s baby girl name Alissa Fern. Mose has twenty one nieces and nephews, he has six brothers and six sisters. I will share the recipe I used for the monster cookies.
(Editor's Note: Monster Cookies from one of my recipe-testers)
MONSTER COOKIES
Preheat over 350 degrees
Baking time 10-12 minutes
Cream butter, & sugars (white & brown) add eggs, on at a time, vanilla, corn syrup, baking soda, peanut butter, mix well until smooth, add oatmeal, mix well, scrape side of bowl, add chocolate chips, mix, add M&Ms mix , drop batter on ungreased cookie sheets in spoon fills, (Tablespoon) . Edges should be golden brown. Let cool on cookie sheets about 3 minutes before removing to cooling racks. Makes 4 ½ doz. plus
Linda from KY
Happy Birthday, Susan! You're just over 1 year old than my youngest daughter, Jessica. She turns 16 on January 30. How nice to make cookies to share for everyone. Your boyfriend sounds like a really sweet guy to treat you to such nice birthday gifts, as well as a pizza and ice cream cake meal for the whole family. My condolences and prayers to your family in the loss of your dad's cousin's wife, and congrats to Mose's family on the addition of two sweet baby girls. They both have beautiful names.
lorraine stoddard
Happy Birthday,Susan!
mike watts
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY SUSAN. from french lick in.
Tom
Happy Birthday, Susan! Sounds like you had a great one!
Tammy
Happy Birthday! I love that Susan made cookies to share for her own birthday. I love a servant's heart like that!
Helen
Happy Birthday Susan. Sounds likje you had a very nice birthday. Your cake is very pretty.
Barb Wright
Happy Birthday,Susan!!
Rhonda
Happy Birthday Susan!! The 24th is my birthday also!! I'm much older than you, but it's nice to know someone else has my birthday, which I've not encountered before!! Have a great day!
Dianne
Happy Birthday Susan and many more. Your article was really nice. Thank you, and I bet your Mom thanks you also.
Patrice Anita
Really nice column Susan! Happy Birthday! I envy you being able to train horses...what a great avocation! Enjoy!
Deb
Happy Birthday Susan sounds like you are blessed by people that love you.
linda fennell
Glad to hear you had such a very good birthday. You do very well w the column. Maybe next time you could tells us a little more about how you train the ponys. I can't even imagine how you even start. Do you use ropes a corral or? I enjoy hearing about your family each week and have been reading it since your Grandma was writing it. I have learned and continue to learn so much. Happy late Birthday.
Carolyn
Happy belated Birthday Susan. You did a superb job with the column. Hopefully when your mom decides to retire from the column you girls will take her place. I never tire of reading it.
Carolyn
PS. Wish I could give you a birthday hug. Anyway consider yourself hugged.
Karen
Happy Birthday, Susan, so good to read your column. Your babysitting job is very important because it is so hard for working parents to find trustworthy help with the children. Your cookies sound yummy.
JoAnn
Happy birthday susan, hope your day was enjoyable as mine, reading your article. thanks for the cookie recipe, going to try them tomarrow. have a great week
Judy
There is no flour in the recipe for Monster Cookies. Does it not have any
flour in it?
Robin
I'm glad you had a nice birthday Susan. I enjoy your mom's column very much, you did a great job filling in for her this week.
Barb W.
Happy Birthday Susan, you have grown into such a lovey young lady.