HAPPY HAPPY HALLOWEEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh it's halloween today!! YEAH~!~ I have always loved halloween and of cource with that is fall so what can be better!! 

Yesterday actuall was nice out pretty windy but the sun came out and it wasnt too cool.  I am so glad as some of the towns around had trick or treating and in Saugatuck/Douglas they had the halloween parade for everyone!  We have gone before and loved seeing everyone dressed up and having a terrific time but I was so beat I ended up goin to bed pretty early.  It was our last sat market in South Haven and there was only 3 of us but alot of people knew about us being there and we had alot of drive bys that stopped in to see what we were doin there. 

So this week I start my craft shows and change hats a bit... I am planning on makin more mixes up and also prepackaged cookies and chocolate treats, fudge, pretzels, turtles and some truffles for my show next sat.  I am splitting a big booth with my friend who makes all herbal teas and soaps and herbal salves (which by the way are awesome) She gave me a cold remedy salve and I have been using it faithfully the last week as I have really started gettin that dang cold, yukky feelin.  And being out in the cold wet weather for market thurs didnt help it along at all it was sooooooo cold but it was our last one there too so I just "cowgirled up" and dealt with the elements as best I could.  Yepper we did some complainin but we made it thru just fine. 

I hope yall have a wonderful day and enjoy the last of our fall as next week they are predictin ....................yepper I know that yukky S*** word **** actually I love the s.n.o.w. but just not ready quite yet maybe in a few weeks though.  LOL 

Talk to yall soon!!

HUGS

*Darlene*

ps. we are gonna be in St Joseph MI at the american legion for the show  sat.  They have over a hundred booths I hear!!  Stop on by for some samples if yall are in or near that area!!

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Fun friday cookie day and a giveaway here!

Hey yall!! Happy friday!!
Gosh it has been a really long time since I did a giveaway huh!!???

I did manage to make some cute little decorated sugar cookies for market tomorrow. just a quickie decorating job and they are cute!   A ghost, a witch hat and a punkin will be bagged up together.  I love decorating and sugar cookies are just fun and fun to eat!  LOL  The girls are back up to laying eggs again after a brief molting period plus our young uns will be layin more regular and regularly shaped eggs too!@!  I always laugh as they start the layin in their lives as you will get the little pullet eggs then as they mature they get the hang of it and slowly they start laying more of what looks like an egg! 

Nekked ghosts!

I like the punkins!

These are my maple apple pecan pies.  Flemings homemade pure maple syrup and some fresh crunchy pecans top a deep dish apple pie.  I used some of our farm's apples and some I bought at market last week.  Each apple pie has some MacIntosh, jonamac, empire, and gala apples for a nice flavorful explosion!  To me that is the only way to have anything apple, use a variety of them in everything.  My mom and I are gonna make some apple pie in a jar this weekend and it is so yummy to just put ontop of some vanilla ice cream or I like to just heat it up and eat right out of the jar!!

More nekked cookies!

(sorry this pic keeps flippin back on it's side!) These are my Grandmother Rose's pumpkin pie muffins topped with cinnamon sugar and pecans.  So yummy out of the oven with some melted butter.  I did cut back on the sugar and used a touch of maple syrup in them. If you like pumpkin then the recipe is perfect it is punkiny!! 

Well it sure did cool off round here compared to last week!  only in the 50s now but more like october weather. 

I will have eggs at market tomorrow in South Haven in wolverine's parking lot along with some breads, cookies, muffins and other goodies.  And I did make some homemade turtles for tomorrow and also I will have some of my jellies with  and we still have a few butternut squash I can bring too. . 
On sunday I want to experiment with some fresh cranberries I bought at a nearby farm, making some cranberry bread pudding and some cranberry orange pound cake.  I will post all about it next week!! 
I hope yall have an awesome HALLOWEEN WEEKEND!~    I kind of miss those days of dressing up and being wild n crazy just for the fun of it! (lol that was only just a couple of years ago ya know) HEE HEE!!  I think if I did dress up for a party I might be......................hmmmmmmmmmm............gosh I am not sure what or who I would be??  The best costume I did was my beau and I at the time went as Rhet and Scarlet Ohara!  I had rented a full burgandy gown with a big ol hoop under and a dark wig. We were in a parade and everyone had a blast.  That was alot of fun!!  What would you dress as if you were goin out on the town? So to the giveaway info!!  All you have to do is  leave your ideas and one lucky person will recieve a prize from me!!  I will draw a name from comments posted after november 8th!!  GOOD LUCK!!  
HUGS everyone!!
Darlene  ~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Happy Weekend!

I cant believe it is saturday already!  The days just keep right on flyin by dont they?    I made a couple of my triple berry lemon buttermilk cakes for an order and they just turn out so pretty!  Love them too they are super duper moist and filled with fresh frozen from our farm blueberries, red raspberries and blackberries they are flavorful.  The bling here is a lemon glaze on top.  

I did some in the smaller 8 in pan too and they look just as pretty and is the perfect size for 3-5 people.

And it is that time to start doin my dipped pretzels for shows.  I take them to my craft shows with me and they are super good.  They first get dipped in my homemade caramel then in chocolate then rolled in toppings like crushed oreo cookies, asst nuts, m & m candies, kisses well pretty much any kind of topping.  I will be listing some on my etsy and ebay site too today.

My buster brown was tired here! 

It is windy windy windy here and is suppossed to start rainin round 10 am or so and rain thru monday.  I love fall but the winds sure take care of all the pretty leaves on the trees quickly.  

And the baby loves to be covered up!! 

So does Bubba too!  Everyone was snoozing except mommy!!   Instead of goin to the kitchen I worked around the house outside all day!!  Bry and I have a good system for wood this year.  He cuts and we both work on splitting it then when he is at work I haul it to our pile and stack it.   I cheat instead of using the wheelbarrow I use our golf cart and put a trailer behind it and haul it that way.  Much easier!!   Hubby finished making his log splitter last weekend so we have been havin lots of fun using that!!  I am so very proud of him it took all summer to find the right pieces and parts and put it together but he did it and it works beautiful!! It is on a trailer thingy and works off the pto of one of our tractors, the jubilee and is safe enough for me to feel comfy using it too!!  Easy peasy that is for sure!!  even the large knotty pieces slide thru and split with ease!!  Well our 10 anniversary was last night and we did exactly what we love to do had a nice supper at home with our "boys" and watched the blind side movie.  Oh my gosh I loved that movie!!  Love Sandra Bullock and it was a great touching movie!! so inspirational and sweet!  We usually get movies and this time of year we are in the house early so watch them in the fall and thru the winter and since it is gettin dark right around 7pm now the nights are a bit longer, otherwise we are outside til at least 10pm workin and putzin around the farm.  

Oh and these turned out just delish!!  Susan and I made these from a Julia Child book and oh my gosh I could eat a whole one alone!! I love a crusty fragrant brick baked bread and these french bread loaves are it!!!   I made them into smaller loaves for market and they are excellent just lightly toasted with a bit of butter and sorghum of cource!!  Oh and I am so excited to report my inlaws are in KY this week visitin kin and they found some sorghum so I will have the small jars for sale again!!  It was a bad year I guess because they went all over tryin to find some and no one had any in stock.    At least we still have some at home but really not much at all surely not enough to make it thru the winter and no one and i mean NO ONE sells it in michigan around us!!  I would much rather go and get it direct from the makers! 

so YEAH!! YEE HAW!! YIPPEE!! LOL

Well I better get myself together here and get the day started it is finally gettin light out now and I am late doin chores. 

Have a great weekend!! 

HUGS

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

TGIF

Good mornin yall!~    WELL IT IS FRIDAY!! YEAH!!  gotta love fridays!  well everyday is good!  When I worked monday was my very very least favo day of the week but now I love everyday!!  Ok so I am thinkin of goin to the kitchen and cannin some apple today, apple pie in a jar just sounds way too yummy!!  If only I could come up with a way to do the crust in chunks in with the apples and sauce and it stay a bit on the crisp side that would be wonderful!!  Last fall I did pumpkin cake and applesauce cake in jars and they stayed great and were really tasty!  Love tryin new things.  Oh and by the way hubby bought some apple pie ice cream and oh my goodness that was delish!!  I think maybe hudsonville made it and it is absolutely one of the best it rates right up there with raspberry chocolate chip to me!!

Susan and I decided to play with a new pizza crust recipe.  I just love this time of year since we have more time each week to experiment and play in the kitchen it is awesome to be little baking scientists!!  HEE HEE!!   So this particular recipe is from a favo bread book called the crust and crumb and has exceptional bread recipes in it as far as this crust recipe welllllllllll not likin it too much!!  we really didnt think it was worth all of  the effort and time put into makin it.  Not that it wasnt good just not what we were expecting.  it starts with makin a poolish one day, settin in the fridge overnight, then adding your ingredients on the second day, proofed it for 3 hours then scaled out and started shaping it.   The dough is very very sticky wet and we pretty much had a thick pancakey dough everywhere!! LOL but it was fun to try.

mixing in some additional flour, the dough is still very wet but manageable.

we did 20 crusts. 

one fresh out of the oven, these were a perfect size for a 9 in crust.  we prebaked for only 5 min on the stones and they actually came out pretty nice.

dusted with cornmeal they had a very nice texture.   I made one for us for supper that night topped with some homemade sauce, canadian bacon slices, mushrooms, fresh mozzarella chees, colby jack cheese and topped with a touch of parmesean and romano shreds. 

So this is our pizza hat!! LOL this one blew up in the center you cant really see it but it looked exactly like a little crusty hat!   I couldnt get Susan to put it on though,  LOL there were a few that went for chickie feed and they loved them!    The first batch was sure a learning experience, between shaping, dusting with cornmeal and using a pizza spatula to slide them in the oven on the stones is quite a sight.  needless to say we had a few mishapen globs land on the stones.  But such fun!!

I did make one of my favo cookbook authors recipes Carole Walters crumb cake.  This cake was so delish I will definetly post a recipe for yall. 

Finished but lackin the bling!!

There's my cake "farmgirl bling" just a good dustin of powdered sugar and then I added some pure maple syrup drizzeled ontop!!  Just the right amount of sweetness and flavor!!  There isnt much sugar in this cake and the flavor and texture is so pleasing on the palate it WILL be made again!! 

Also in the line up was some excellent tater bread, this is a really nice textured bread that I never had made before and will surely be added to the list for markets.

So with my craft shows right around the corner fastly approaching and I do mean fastly!!!!!!! I decided to work on some gifty items.  I have to tell ya I purchased some pre made templates from etsy from SusieQ's and they are adorable!!  Here is one I made up for my coffee creamers.  This is the gingerbread coffee mix with this set I got the lable, a tag and even the recipe included!!

I figured with them being more of a gift item and since they are coffee I wrapped them in the cone shaped brown coffee filters you buy, ( i have a huge stash of them for my altered filter scrapbooks I make) wrapped a holiday themed strip of scrapbook paper around then printed the tags out backed them with a bit of cardstock and tied a piece of wool thread to them. 

I think they turned out adorable and will make some mocha hot cocoa ones today. 

These will make perfect stocking stuffers or just little gifts for coworkers.  The package makes 3 cups of coffee so just the right amount. 

Oh and I made some red raspberry butter crumb topped muffins that I forgot to take a pic of but reserved some of the raspberry juice and made a pretty pink glaze for the top of them.  Red raspberries are just about my favo fruit!  and they are wonderful paired with buttermilk and lemon zest!  In fact I am gonna have one for breakfast this morning with my espresso!!

And by the way Sorry Sorry Sorry to everyone for me missing market yesterday!  IT was so windy and rainy in the mornin when I went out I decided to skip market as I sure dont want to get a cold now.  So my mom, Joey and I went out to breakfast then I took Joey to holland and browsed thru some thrift stores and Michaels!!  FUN and if yall are in or near Saugatuck you have to and I mean HAVE TO stop in a IDA RED'S resteraunt.  THEY have the best ABSOLUTE BEST breakfast!!  Joey had the whole wheat pancakes which were delish, my mom had the omlet special and I tried something new the breakfast tacos!! oh my gosh they were superb!! IDA RED's is our favo breakfast place and in the summer my mom and I love to go early in the am and eat outside on the porch!!  Stop by there you will not be disappointed at all I guarantee it!!  great service and great food in a vey quaint cozy cafe!!    With all that said it is about time Buster and I  head out to do chores now.  I hope yall have a blessed friday and I will share more tomorrow!

HUGS

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

A recipe to share day!!

I have had a couple of requests for my shortbread recipe.  Here it is scaled down to make 3 dozen cookies.   Now the shortbread as most of you know I use for alot of different cookies, above these flowers are cut with a cookie cutter, these are my lavender shortbreads.   I let fresh organic lavender stems steep in powdered sugar (in a gallon glass jar) for a few weeks then strip the stems of the blossoms and pulse it on food processor.    I also used this recipe and added different spices and extracts to make my pumpkin spice cookies and my almond butter cookies.  You can pretty much add just about any flavor and they are awesome!!  plain shortbread is my hubbys favo so I always leave a bit of dough out just for him. 

This is also my shortbread only put into a cookie press and topped with some halloween sprinkles. 

And then dipped in melted almond flavored melted chocolate.  I also make them with a chocolate ganache' filling and sandwich 2 of them together.  YUMMY stuff here!!

Chicken Scratch Basic Shortbread Cookies

7.5 oz all purpose flour

7 oz cornstarch

1 pinch salt

sift these together

Cream in mixer till smooth (about 5 min)

1/2 pound good sweet cream butter

5 oz sifted confectionary sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract (or another flavor is fine too)

on low speed add the sifted dry ingredients to the mixer just until blended DO NOT OVERMIX! chill until rollable and easy to handle (use flour sparinly when rolling them out)

The baking time is hard for me I am so used to the big convection ovens I believe just bake at 350 until golden on edges you dont want them to get too brown at all.  I am thining maybe 12-15 min or so? you will have to be the judge of that one I havent baked in a regular oven in so long!! LOL way too long!

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

These are my pumpkin spice shortbreads dipped and drizzeled with chocolate!! 

 Ok so HAPPY BAKING YALL!!! Share what you did with the recipe and I will post it on here!!

Apples, turtles and kolachky oh my!!

Hey yall!! happy monday mornin!! 

What another beautiful michigan fall weeekend we had! Hope yall enjoyed yours and it was just as nice out as ours!!

We cut and stacked lots of wood, hubby tilled the gardens, and we spent lots of time with our boys!! yeah!~! great weekend~

So I made my grandma Rose's apple walnut bread pudding for market sat and it was gone quickly.  A creamy cinnnamon sauce was also included in a cup when you buy the pudding. 

Chopped up french bread and some of our egg bread too.

Ready for baking complete with egg custard and chopped walnuts.  Love the taste of walnuts with apples.

These pretty red MacIntosh apples were used for the pudding and the dumplings and I did caramel apples with some others drizzeling melted white and milk chocolate on top and added some cute halloween sprinlkes!!  Sorry I didnt take pics of them but will surely make more this week for Allegan Market on thurs!!

Apple dumplings just out of the oven!  Oh if you have ever baked with apples and cinnmaon yall just know that wonderful aroma in the kitchen!! OH love it!!

Each one came with a cinnamon syrup to drizzle ontop of them and maybe then serve with some wonderful vanilla bean ice cream~  YUMMO!~

I also made some of my mothers sloveninan Kolachky cookies!!   The dough is very simple to make and easy to work with.  Just being sure to chill dough overnight, or at least a few hours.   The ones I made for market this past week were filled with homemade orange marmalade and red raspberry preserves.

After they cool they got a treatment of my "farmgirl bling" some pretty sifted confectionary sugar. 

And to the turtle part of the day! Chocolate pecan turtles filled with my homemade caramel.   These are so yummy I have to package them as soon as they cool so I wont be tempted to eat too many!!  They are really good!~!  I will put some on my etsy site for sale soon!  and my caramel candies too!  Those are just melt in your mouth creamy yummyness!! 

Well that was about all of the things I got done friday and I also made some decorated sugar cookies for halloween, I have a set left and will have to take some pics they were just too stinkin cute!! A ghost, a witches hat and a pumpkin were packaged up in a clear bag tied with some raffia!

I will be doin them for xmas too maybe a snowman head, a mitten and a gingerbread man would be cute and they are just too fun to decorate!!

So have a beautiful fall day!! I will be back soon to share more with yall~~

BLESSINGS

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~