Christmas Cookies Are Good For Breakfast!

I love Cookie exchanges!!

(what I'm not going to show you is the ugly mess of a lemon tart I just made! It was supposed to be for my dear SIL's bridal shower. Bummer. I think I will be buying cream puffs on the way out.)

Happy Halloween!

Finger pretzels. Yummy.

Hope you had a fun & safe Halloween night!! We sure did!

Binge baking

I tend to bake in binges. Once I start the oven & get out the mixing bowls it's just so easy to keep cooking!

Yesterday, I made a double batch of apple pie filling to freeze. Then, I made apple bread. Yum!! I will be making apple bread again. Soon. The boys loved it! (I thought it was a little dry, they said it was so good they didn't care!-What Nice Boys i have.)

Today, I made a lemon meringue pie. For a very important birthday gift. If I wasn't on my way out the door, I'd really like to bake up a cake and maybe some cookies for the freezer. Mmmmmm.

Found it!

I found my camera! Hooray!!--And I didn't even have to clean my house!!


But I did have a house full of kids... who worked on building a fort in the back yard! Rad!!(between playing video games & watching movies. They'll miss the summer so!!)


While I tried to work on lesson plans. If I focused & wrote things down all at once & stayed on task I'd probably be planned for half the year already!! But I did get some practice sheets printed, folders & name cards labeled & uh...thought about stuff. (Stuff like "I really like turquoise" & "birds are nice" & "I wish the library didn't limit book holds to 25!!"--Yep, just like my students.)

I also Baked!!--I made 2 cakes for our church potluck on Sunday & by the time I got there--They were only crumbs!! I was sad. So, i re-made one today YUMMMM!! Chocolate bunt cake with chocolate glaze & sprinkles. I think it looks like a giant donut!!




AND...I finally picked some blackberries. Muffins for breakfast, anyone?

It's hot here!

This week has been crazy hot!!-We broke 100 yesterday and all the chocolate chips melted in my cupboard!
It's supposed to be over 100 today and tomorrow, too! Yikes. I've been making ice as fast as the water will freeze, I put 2 quilts and all the rice bags I could find in the freezer. And we have plans to swim later then, have dinner with friends who have air conditioning AND live on a lake(actually it's BBQ night for our small group, but the timing is perfect!)

But what about dinner tomorrow?? No way am I turning on the stove! How about grilled pizza?


heat up some super hot coals, clean & oil your grill rack.
Roll your dough out thin(1/4 inch)-keep it personal pizza size.(I kept each one on a floured piece of wax paper)
brush one side with olive oil-grill oiled side just a few minutes-keep a close eye, it goes fast-oil the uncooked side of dough.
flip the crust onto a cookie sheet grilled side up.
cover thinly with sauce, cheese and toppings.
carefully slide pizza back onto the grill until bottom of crust is cooked.
move pizza to indirect heat to finish melting the cheese and warming the toppings.
repeat for remaining pizzas
Sooo GOOD! We did this on Friday and Monday and will be having this one more time this week!


Drink lots of water! Stay in the shade! Have a great day!

In the freezer

The first pie has gone into the freezer!! Along with a double batch of strawberry muffins and 2 batches of strawberry jam and 1 batch of apricot jam, Yum! (we ate the pie in the picture...plain strawberry is not my favorite pie...Shoulda got some rhubarb!)
Processing and preserving food for my family for later makes me feel happy.

As to the Pie Makin' Apron for Tie One On...Didn't do it. But I finished 2 quilt tops so, those should be done sometime this summer!

200 Cupcakes

Attended a precious wedding last night. The bride was absolutely stunning! The evening was full of sincerity and love from family and friends of bride and groom! Congratulations Danica & Eli!!
This is my contribution. 200 cupcakes!

My good, good friend Shalisa baked half and taught me how to use the decorator bag. She also helped me decorate them. all of them. (Thank you!) It was a little all consuming and I'm glad to be done, but I think I'd do it again. Later. Like in a year.(Amy?)

The table was impressive covered in a mass of cupcakes-the gaps are where people already started eating them (before dinner!)! The room smelled delicious and my house still smells a little chocolaty.

Happy Easter!!

Phone pick of my first ever attempt at hot cross buns. (I used craisind instead of raisinsand added orange extract to the glaze) Yummy!

Wishing everyone a happy, hopeful, generally lovely Easter!!

Thankful Wednesday

Today I am thankful for a fridge full of groceries, 4 baked pies (4 to go!), a quietish house, the radio playing Christmas music, family day trip in the works, and looking forward to tomorrow! I love Thanksgiving!!

Busy Week

Baked for a school bake sale.
Put the binding on this wallhanging at craft-night(oh, how I love craft night! thanks Shalisa!)


Finished these skirts for my little niece. (who wore all 3 at once--CUTE) They used to be shirts. I just cut the top off under the arm holes, put in a casing and elastic, hemmed to the length I wanted and -done!
And, all the regular work & family & Mom stuff. I'm still tired. whew! But-off to process some pie pumpkins for freezing & later baking!

But no Plum Kuchen

Chocolate zucchini muffins, zucchini bread, granola (slightly burnt) and pear sauce. YUM

Domestic Sunday

My first Busy Little Quilting Bee fabrics!!! I already know how I want to put my blocks together!!! Today will be buzzing :)
AND...

Fresh produce picked right off the tree!! (Maybe Monday we'll pick blackberries!)

My parents have a fig tree! And a plum tree! The pears came from their neighbor...Pear butter maybe?! I promised the boys a plummy treat if the picked the tree clean! They did it. (Grandpa helped and taught R how to use the lopper. Fun) Plum Kuchen? We ate some of the figs chopped in vanilla yogurt with toasted pecans and mini chocolate chips. I liked it.

A day for sewing and baking! YAY!...The trick will be staying on task...

Sunday afternoon

More muffins and pies for my freezer!!

Four-Pie Mess

-or-The Freezer Is Full!

• Sugar-free Blueberry Pie
• Sugar-free Peach/Blueberry Pie
• Blueberry Pie
• Peach/Raspberry Pie
• Strawberry Jam
• Raspberry Jam
• Blueberry Muffins
• Chocolate Zucchini Muffins!

(pies today, the others on other days)

I wonder why I can't keep the kitchen clean...

Polka crosses

YAY!! this is the finished quilt for my little nephew. I'm so excited to give it to him. It's heavily inspired by this quilt (beautiful, isn't it?)I saw on Flickr. I'm so very pleased with it! And... I machine quilted it in the ditch with my walking foot! I love my walking foot. There are no puckers in this quilt because of it's wonderful technology(I'm sure it's simple mechanics, but for all I understand it's magic)

Recipe box swap

This looked like fun and a great reason to pull out old favorites!

Thanks to i have to say for the fun!

July="BBQ-main dishes and sides".

My mom used to make this in the summer all the time. Now my boys love it, too!(I actualy only use half an onion)

INCREDIBLE EGG SALAD

• 1-7.25 pkg. Kraft mac and cheese


• 1-10 oz. pkg. frozen peas,thawed


• 1 med. onion,diced


• 3/4 C. miracle whip


• 1/2 C. celery-cut up


• 1 medium tomatoe, diced


• 4-6 hard cooked eggs


• salt & pepper

prepare dinner as directed. add peas, tomatoe, miracle whip, celery, onion & seasonings. Chop eggs, add to mixture. chill. add more miracle whip if desired. serves 6
garnish with egg or paprika

I dyed.

What is it about dying eggs that is so fun! We did these as a family and all 4 of us wanted to do more! Now we have to eat all the eggs. egg salad, deviled eggs, eggs on green salads, eggs for lunch, eggs for dinner eggs, eggs, eggs.

AND...Ta-da!!!! I sewed!! It's a cheese pincushion! I made it for the way cute little mouse pin that my friend Bambi gave me. I didn't use a pattern and am very happy with the way it turned out. I sewed a cheese.

Sometimes I Bake

I love baking (and then eating it), and on a rainy, blustery fall day pumpkin bread just seems like the thing to bake. So I did...




Whole Grain Pumpkin Bread (I got this from iChef.com and changed it a little)

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees, grease 2 loaf pans

1 1/2c. flour

1c. whole wheat pastry flour

1/3c. wheat bran*

1/3c. wheat germ*

1/3c. oat bran*

*or 1c. total any grains you like or have on hand

2ts. baking soda

2ts. cinnamon

1ts. cloves

1ts. nutmeg

1/2ts. salt

1/4c. finely chopped pecans (I leave these out)

Whisk these all in a large bowl

2 eggs, beaten

1c. Oil

1 1/2c. packed brown sugar

1/2c. molasses

16oz. can pumpkin

Whisk these together

Add the liquids to the solids, stir well. Pour evenly into your 2 loaf pans and bake 1 hr. until pick comes out clean (mine always smells like it is burning about 10 mins before it's done, but it's not) This tastes best out of the fridge the next day for breakfast with some chai. Yummm...

Hallow-late

This is what I did for Halloween this year...
(sorry, it's blurry)

And this is just fallish and pretty...see the cricket?