Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Christmas gifts and more


Hope yall had a most blessed Merry Christmas day!!  We had a joyous peaceful day at home on Christmas and were in pjs most of the day lounging around with the boys!  They were excited Santa paws brought them lots of presents to open.  What fun watching these guys open them and play!

Here are a few of the kinds of cookies my mom and I made at the kichen for the cookie trays we made up and boxes.  Coconut macaroons, linzer tart, mocha, chocolate hazelnut espresso cookies, decorated sugar cookies, cranberry lemon, orange marmalade filled kolachky, butter candy cane, peppermint topped chocolate, chocolate dipped butter squares, red velvet cake truffles, sugar cookies and I think that was it. 




I bought alot of boxes from Hobby Lobby after xmas last year and they looked great. 

Susan made a chocolate cake that was to die for!!!  super moist chocolate cake, peppermint infused buttercream frosting topped with chocolate ganache' and marzipan holly.  Super delish!!

these are the butter squares, just butter cookies cut with a pastry wheel baked and dipped in chocolate and topped with xmas non pariels


decorated sugar trees

cranberry pistachio biscotti 

peppermint swirl marshmallows

butter candy canes, topped with some crushed peppermint candies

linzer tart cookies filled with red raspberry preserves

candy canes

here are the butter squares I cut up


This was a block set I did up for my niece, only had to redo the r  oooppppssssss!!  It was on backwards, lol  I got up at 2am to make this so no wonder I did something wrong! 

I painted this old milk can for my hubbys boss.  Love it!!  I was very pleased with how it turned out. 

and a close up of Carissa's blocks for her room.

Well 2013 is just round the corner now!!  Hope yall have a great week and I will be back in the new year with some exciting new news and also more goodies and treats!!
God Bless!!
HUGS
Darlene
~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Friday, December 14, 2012

Cant believe we are just days away from Christmas!!  I dont think we are gonna see a white Christmas here in Michigan! IT has been in the upper40s and actually it is most pleasant!  I love the snow and yall know that but this is kind of nice too. 
Tomorrow Dec 15th is our last holiday farmers/artisans show.  I was able to find a bit of time, well at 3.00 in the mornings to work on some more snowmen signs.  These 3 are done and ready and I have 3 more almost finished. 


I so love the words around the border! 

This is my favo of the 3 I think LOL


Black currant buttermilk cake with vanilla glaze

Red raspberry muffins

and a red raspberry buttermilk cake   LOVE making bundt cakes!!

cinnamon quick bread

carrots cooked and mashed ready to be made into soup!

crumb topping for bars

blueberry apple bar filling I made

and here are the bars just out of the oven!  These are so yummy!  maybe they need a touch of powdered sugar sprinkled ontop! 

from pinterest!!  Snowflake stamped shortbread cookies.  They are so pretty! and quite tasty too!

the cinnamon bread needed "farmgirl bling"
So that was it for yesterday.  Today is gonna be a busy day I have to make a pot of creamy potato soup, cheddar foccacia, andouille cheese n pepper topped flatbreads, cookies, and mocha cinnamon coffee cakes.   Thank goodness for my mom helping at the kitchen!  Susan made this adorable and very yummy decadent chocolate mint holiday cakes.. arent they adorable? 


chocolate cake, peppermint buttercream frosting topped with chocolate ganache' and marzipan holly


this was 1 of the crates full ready for market filled with linzer tart cookies and some ciabatta rolls.
YUMMY!! 
Goodness with all the shows, markets and orders I have been so busy I am definetly ready for a break.  In january!  LOL  Next week is all about cookies and cakes for 3 markets!  We will be making our annual cookie trays up and then with Christmas fast approaching I want to be sure we have plenty of desserts available.  Red velvet bundt cake with cream cheese frosting, maybe some rum cakes and then let the cookies bake!!  So far we are making cranberry lemon, linzer tarts filled with raspberry or apricot filling, kolachky filled with orange marmalade or honey walnut, gingerbreads, chai crescents, russian tea cakes, peppermint candy canes, decorated sugar cookies, hazelnut shortbread, cranberry pistachio biscotti bites, brown sugar shortbread and make a couple others?  That should be enough!  LOL busy busy week! 
Hope yall have a wonderful weekend!!
Foundry Hall in South Haven winter holiday farmers/artisans market tomorrow!!
Hugs
Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Saturday, November 24, 2012

altered wood frames and more

Hey yall!!
Hope you and your families had a most blessed Thanksgiving day!!
I have so much to be thankful for and feel truly blessed for everything and everyone in my life!! 

We spent the last beautfiul warm sunny day outside working pretty much from sun up to sun down thurs.  Hubby was home and we really needed to do the outside chores before the snow comes.  I am glad our family understood it was 60 outside.  I split the big pile of wood while hubby drained and cleaned the pool out, moved things around and also we had to do the goats hooves, close in the windows on the coop and fix the gated door for the "girls", and well let's say we stayed busy every minute!! but it was fun to work with him together.

My brother was needed a project of something he could assist in making for a couple of craft shows he is in so we came up with some altered wood frames.
This pic is my first dog on my own Ozzie, oh he was a sweetie!! 
So of cource we had to do some frames for dogs!!  These are all for sale for $6.50 plus shipping and we can personalyze them too!! 

another dog one

pretty pinks with some Prima gorgeous flowers

I love the light soft blue and black together

oh an some nekked cranberry pistachio biscotti

And I finally finished up some enamel pan lids I have been collecting and some gingers I made last year! =)

Another pinkish one love those beaded flourishes!! I take them apart and use bits n pieces of them to add some "bling"

"thank heaven for little girls" on a sticker across the top

the finished dipped biscotti!! no longer nekked! LOL
Yesterday and now today the wind is just whippin around outside!! On my way out I took pics down the road so you can see how wild those waves are!! and cold!!



Cheddar foccacia

orange glazed cranberry orange bread

and some small round loaves of cheddar foccacia!  Love making foccacia, next time though I am going back to baking on the stones

This was our adventure last week  a 10 day sourdough bread  nice slices in the top and ready for the oven

after baking

while baking in the oven they plumped up ALOT!! 

and another done one!

they were most excellent!! I do however like the ciabatta we made better!! This recipe was good but with all the work of making raisin water and all the days inbetween while it soured up it really wasnt worth the work!  The ciabatta to me had such a more intense flavor and only was  a few days!!  The crust on the sourdough was nice and crisp and the inside as you can see had nice air pocket and was moist!!  I dont think I would make it again for quite awhile though.   We are experimenting with alot of bread recipes this winter so watch for another one soon!! LOL
TODAY IS SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY!! dont forget to shop locally!!
We are having our market at Foundry Hall in South Haven today with a couple new vendors popping in!! so stop on by 11-3 today!
have a wonderful weekend!!
Hugs
Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~