Swapping

Thank You, Rhonda. What beautiful cookie cutters. I had fun in this swap. I hope you can enjoy my goodies too...neighbor *wink*.

A Thanksgiving Tale

Now, I'm sure you've heard it all. But you haven't heard it all from me..*wink*!
I tried some new recipes this Thanksgiving with mixed results. I started with the Pumpkin Muffins from Ree Drummond... see thePioneerWoman.com for the recipe. I would have taken a photo but her photos are much better and I don't have any muffins left! These muffins were DELICIOUS!
Two comments about this recipe. She uses the muffin tin straight up! Meaning... no cup cake liners! I said, "No cup cake liners!" "Can this be done?" You see, I have cup cake liners for Winter, Christmas, Halloween, Fall, Valentine's Day, Easter, and the old standy by pastels. I can't not use cup cake liners. I think I need to start a support group. Hello, my name is Sheila and I use cup cake liners. Soooo... I sprayed the tin(cringing all the while)and filled them with the batter. I let them cool and PRESTO, the muffins fell right out! Ok, I feel a little better, but I'm not sure I can do this all the time.
Also included with the muffin recipe was the frosting recipe. A simple cream cheese frosting. I was doing just fine, cup of this, teaspoon of that and then....whamo... a half POUND of powdered sugar! WHAT! Where is the half pound marker on my measuring cup. Quick, to the Betty Crocker cookbook... dang... no conversion for a half pound of powdered sugar! My blondness is blooming right about now. I ended up putting in the powdered sugar in a 1/4 cup at a time and had my handy dandy taste testers help me figure out when to stop. I felt compelled to let you know,an airhead like me had a few obstacles.
Next, I wanted to try the butternut squash puree. Ummm. I like butternut squash. And the recipe said to use butter (I'm in) and Maple Syrup(Awesome!) I baked the squash, scraped out the pulp and put it into the blender... all is good. Except, the blender. As Flannel Man put it... "it's not the blender but the person using it." Hmmm. Is it wrong for me to expect to put something in the blender and expect it to ...I don't know...BLEND!? I pushed the button..ok all of the buttons and nothing. Oh.. it whirred. But didn't BLEND. Flannel man said I needed a cement mixer to do all that squash.
I said, "SIGN ME UP. Do they sell one at Amazon.com?" "Well, Super Flannel Man,"I said, "what do you suggest I do?" He says, exasperatingly, "You have to take all that out and do a little at a time with water." "But dear," I say, "the recipe doesn't call for water." (I'm weird that way). So I pondered a moment, but I wanted to get done and did as he suggested. The puree was pretty, smelled good, but was ... a little watered down. OK. Check this off my list. Not an airhead approved recipe.
So, Flannel Man and I are moving on, he to the Sweet Potato casserole and me to the wilted lettuce. No problems there. But now there is a clicking noise. Now, I've heard this noise before and it hasn't been an issue. See we have a gas stove. (Do you know where this is going?) It's been clicking intermittently for a while, but has stopped in the past. Flannel man took off the element and plugged it back in. Still clicking. Oh well, we just kept on.. making the dinner. On to the mashed potatoes and gravy. The burner is still clicking. You know after a while that sound is annoying. I feel like its a timer and I'm on 'Beat the Clock' or something. Hurry, get that dinner done! Ahhh... stress!
Then flannel man turns on the burner and POOF! Yes, an actual, POOF! "Oh my," he declares. "Whoa," I say. He is reaching for the plug and I'm blowing out the fire...yes fire coming up through the knobs. Just to be clear, yes a gas stove has fire...on the burners. A fire, however, should not occur through the knobs. What an interesting odor. No longer did the house smell like sweet potatoes and turkey, but of an indescribable sulfur and electrical aroma. The gravy was finished but the rolls were not. We served the dinner. One of the darling daughters noted that we forgot to light our candles on the table. But she did come back with a witty reply..."That's ok Mom, We lit the stove instead"! *laughter all around*. Grandma shared our meal today and we are thankful that she is still with us,and that we have food and a warm home. We cleaned up after our meal and proceeded to move the stove out of the house.

We sang taps.

We are looking for a Black Friday sale on a stove!

Happy Thanksgiving.

Tie One On!

National Tie One On day.... An Apron of course!
For all those Apronista's out there... tie one on today!
This is the apron I recently finished for the Thanksgiving Holiday.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

'Twas the day before Thanksgiving

'Twas the day before Thanksgiving, and I'm scurrying about
with doctor appointments and forgotten ingredients from my grocery list.

When the going gets tough its time to take a break---
I'm going to make a pumpkin bread for Thanksgiving with a recipe from my friend Sue. (She won 1st place with this recipe at the Canfield Fair). How bad can I mess this up?
Don't you just love the little butters? Oops... this recipe doesn't use butter. Hmmm... a recipe without butter. What would Paula Deen or Ree Drummond say? What would Flannel Man say? Oh well, I'll be back butter.



Then I grabbed my mini loaf pans that I remember my Grandma using for her bread recipes. (For all my antique'e friends these are Cake King loaf pans--MADE IN THE USA! Obviously this is BC...(Before China)*wink* Come on group... how old are these?)

Then I dragged out my favorite baking bowl. Its a Longaberger Bowl that I bought for myself shortly after I married the Flannel Man. Ever since this has been my bowl for all my baking projects. The girls are warned within an inch of their lives not to break this bowl. They usually use another glass bowl of mine or the Tupperware! Sorry folks, but this is MINE.


And Voila! Through blogger magic a batch of pumpkin bread batter appears. It's missing something. I think I'll sprinkle some mini chocolate chips in...why put a good recipe in the oven without a good dose of chocolate. MMMMM... some for me... some for the batter.


Now we wait..... about an hour. I'll let you know how this pumpkin bread turns out.

Wait for it....

Wait for it...



YUM!!!

The Mail and a Fun Find

The mail came today and my seeds from the Campbell Soup company arrived. Go to the Campbell soup web site and see if you can still get some free seeds. I think I'm going to laminate the see packet after I plant next spring. The packet is awesome.

I was at the grocery store the other day and spotted this. Yes, I will buy a bottle of wine because of the label. I really want a truck like this for my farm one day. How do I remove the label without destroying it?
The day before I asked my local wine shop owner for some Christmas themed bottles. I'm thinking something in a Rudolph Red? *wink* He will look into for me. I can't wait to see what he finds.

Cookie Cutter Quest!

I am a lurker of other farming type blogs. I found one entitled Country Pleasures that is hosting a cookie cutter exchange for the holidays. So, you guessed it, I signed up. I thought this sounded like fun! Yes, I'm a geek! Since then I have been searching for cookie cutters. I am looking for local artisans, second hand shops for the vintage cookie cutter and online, just to see what is out there.
This is what I found. I think I found cookie cutter heaven! *simle*
Ann Clark Ltd. - the Cookie Cutter People from Vermont.
Enjoy the holidays with this awesome find.
To that end, my daughter is looking for a vintage 1930's ish typewriter, that still works. If you know of someone giving one away. Please contact me. Thanks.

Around the farm

I had the back door open this afternoon scrubbing my floors. The rooster kept crowing at me...relentlessly! So I put on my shoes and meandered back to the chicken run and let them out. Oh were they happy.

They went looking for bugs.

Hey...look over here.

Dirt piles aren't just for kids. Our chickens like them too! They took in a good dusting today. Just like me at the beach.

Happy Dusting.

Oh Yeah... Bring on the Mai Tais and Margarita's.

Ursula, however, is very busy and can't be bother with such lay abouts.

I am Ursula and I run this farm.

Mmmmmmmmmmm....I love when Mom gives us hay!

I can just lay here, and munch all day.

Munch, Munch, Munch

Today at the Craft Show

I simply love visiting our local Craft Shows. Our middle school PTA hosts one every fall before the Christmas Season.
Here are my finds:
A Santa ornament, cookie cutter ornament and this neat tree made on a cinnamon stick.

Some gloves for when I need to chaperone the band! Go Falcons!

And some yummy peppers. The lady selling these won a blue ribbon at the Canfield Fair. That's good enough for me!

More Pictures

Frost on the shrubs

My brother's horse...Sammy.

The Chickens.

Way Cool!

Ever hear of the phrase...frost on the pumpkin? Well, this morning there was frost on the pumpkins and everything else. The chain on the chicken gate was frozen. I thought, you know those farm gloves I bought would be great right now...I wonder where they are? The water was frozen in the buckets and the ground crunched beneath my boots. I was COLD. I'm so not ready for this at God:30 am!

Ok, the hay WAS covered by the tarp. However Mother Nature in her infinite wisdom decided to create a massive wind gust. I found the hay like this...this morning. Another mess to clean up! It never ends.

No more grapes this year. I thought this looked neat.

Frost on the Dill.

Frost on the Purple Cone flower pods. I can't spell echinechea (sp?)! And neither can spell check! LOL!

This is what God:30 am looks like and frost on the grill. Love the swirlies.