Blooming trees and baking

Hey everyone!~  What a gloriously beautiful time of the year!!the peach trees are full in bloom with their pinkish color blooms, the daffodils and their buttercup yellows, the shades of pink lavender and white hyacinths... oh and the smells of fresh fallen rain and the sounds of all the spring birds back!! LOVE SPRING!  this is I think my favo favo time of year! I do love fall and those smells and colors and of cource halloween!! 

On my CSA menu this past week was some of the following:    This was a white bean dip I made.  You cook cannellini white beans then let them cool and puree them with some spices, cilantro, fresh lime juice, green chili peppers, a chopped jalapeno pepper, sauteed red and yellow peppers and some roasted garlic. 

Sauteed yellow squash and zucchini, garlic and onions.  Add a bit of olive oil and parmesan cheese to top pizzas

Made some homemade pizzas with vegetables. 

Fresh mozzarella and tomatoes made this so yummy!! When they came out of oven I drizzeled olive oil on top and sprinkled with parmesan

Tomato Spinach baked pasta with a balsamic vinegrette dressing. 

Plain pizza skins.   I made these to freeze for hubby and I to have during the week. 

Garlic parmesan topped flatbread

Bean dip that I am going to be  as a sauce on the pizzas next time. 

Personal baguette loaves!!OH my had to slice one out of the oven and super yummy!!

Next week I am making some chicken enchiladas with green chili sauce, a greek tomato snap pea penne pasta with homemade tomato creamy sauce, another pizza this one with fresh mozzarella and spinach and roasted garlic, some pistachio bread, frozen breakfast burritos, pulled pork, meat and cheese enchiladas, and a Paula Deen pie filled with corn, tomatoes, chives, with a biscuit cornmeal crust.  YUMMY! Will be sure to take the camera with me to kitchen and share with ya!!

Hope yall have a wonderful weekend!! Off to do chores...

HUGS

Darlene

So ~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

2 new additions!!

Well today was my birthday and oh what a wonderful day it was!!!   I took my brother out for lunch and we did some shopping then spent the afternoon with my sweet mommy getting 2 little 7 week old puppies!! If you remember back in feb she lost her buddy Axel and has been without any dogs since.  I cant remember a time without at least a couple of dogs around from the time my brother and I were born there were always dogs in our home filling our home with the pitter patter of puppy paws or giving us those special doggie kisses or just laying near us being our faithful pal!!
These 2 captured our hearts the minute we seen them.  They are boxer/lab mix just like my Buster Brown, one is even blonde the other is black with a bit of that boxer white stripe on her neck, and both are little girls.  Buster met them outside and played today so cute!! he always loves everything and everyone!!  I am so excited and this will also hopefully help him loose a bit of weight. 

Not sure of the names just yet but my mom liked Abby for the blonde one?  I will say she looks just like My Buster did when he was that size, she is a love bug, loves to cuddle, be held and just loved on!!  I held them the way home and both laid on my lap and fell asleep together. 

The little black one was the runt of the liter and oh just look at that little face!!it melts your heart!!  

they are just little cutie pies!!

Isnt she a doll!! 

And this one I think is gonna be full of the dickens!!  She is the explorer and full of spirit!!  Oh what fun!!  It has been a couple of years since we had the pitter patter of puppy paws around it is very welcomed!!  My dad wasnt too thrilled with getting 2 but when he got home from work tonight we laid the 2 babies on the couch right next to him, well the blonde one stretched right out alongside of him and was fast asleep, the black one laid on his pillow next to him!!  I THINK  HE IS SMITTEN with them already!!  And even though they said they arent gonna sleep on their bed!!HA NOT I can see them being curled up on the bed next to my mom and dad by the end of the week!!!  LOL

Hope yall had a great day and I will be back soon!!

Tomorrow is BRONSON WINTER MARKET kalamazoo!!

HUGS

Darlene

 **LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY**and SIMPLY~~CREATE SOMETHING EACH DAY!!

Busy monday

Hey yall!!   What another lovely day outside here in beautiful sw mi.   It was in the 60s and boy I can sure get used to this!!  The birds were singing and there was that smell in the air that tells you spring will be arriving soon!!  YEAH!! LOVE IT!!  
It was a busy day today at the kitchen!!  I made a recipe that I pinned from pinterest for peanut butter bars! A corned beef is in the crockpot taters on the stove, desert is made!! LOL of cource, ! ok..............let me say these taste just like a reeces peanut butter cup.
I did make mine a bit different since I wanted a nice thick n chewy bar to cut up for market.  Another thing this recipe is easy peasy and quick too!!  You wont be disappointed if you are a peanut butter lover....the original recipe is from the-girl-who-ate-everything  blog.
I am gonna post the recipe then below with my changes..
*PEANUT BUTTER BARS*
1 box white cake mix

1/2 cup melted butter

1 cup peanut butter

2 eggs

1 (12 oz) package semi-sweet chocolate chips


1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

2 Tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup coconut (optional...my sister did not like the texture of it in there)

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2) Combine cake mix, melted butter, peanut butter, and eggs in a large bowl using a mixer or spoon. Press this into a 9X13 pan reserving 1 1/2 cup of the mixture to crumble on top.

3) In a small pot, melt chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and butter. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and coconut.

4) Spread chocolate mixture over the mixture pressed in the pan and then crumble the 1 1/2 cups of reserved cake mixture on top evenly.

5) Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

NOW MY CHANGES!!!
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
Instead mix everything together
I also added 1 cup chopped roasted peanuts
then when cool I cut them into equal pieces and drizzeled melted white chocolate ontop of each to dress em up a bit.  YUMMY!!

This is such a handy dandy super terrific baking accessory.  It is a frame that actually will fit up to a 1/2 sheet pan *that is what is in the pic*

Here they are just out of the oven

This frame will fit into pretty much any size pan and works awesome I use it for my browines, personalyzed cakes and bars. 

U can see they are nice n thick

Here they are dressed up with my "farmgirl bling" 

I also made some zucchini bread, gotta use up what we stored from last season. 

Peach upside down cake

and our infamous "eggcellent" egg bread or challah bread

I used to do this in a braided loaf but people wanted to have sliced bread for toast and this bread is so rich and buttery I started just making it in loaf form.  Plus we have it at home for french toast or our bread pudding. 

One of the loaves cooling 

Love this bread and using our free range chicken eggs it is a nice golden color.    I also got done a couple kinds of cookie dough and the dry mix ingredients for some rosemary bread, my cheddar pepper topped foccacia and muffins.   Lots to do tomorrow.  I do have a helper at the kitchen my dear friend Barb and she is perfect there.  She loves cooking and baking and it a joy to be around!!  We have fun and get alot done... boy she will be a gem this summer!!  With 3 markets a week I sure needed help!

I will be back with more sharing!!

Have a blessed evening!!

HUGS

Darlene

I am off to curl up on the couch with my sweet "boys" and watch tv now!!

*MARKETS THIS WEEK:

Wed South Haven Foundry Hall 3-6

Friday Bronson Winter Market Kalamazoo 10-2

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

snow again

Hey yall!! Well it snowed last night and pretty hard too, we went shopping and boy by the time we got out of a store it was huge wet flakes coming down making everything slippery.  But we ended up only getting an inch or so, so not too much!  I did check on our blueberry bushes the other day and there are leaf buds and most of the trees around are showing the same.  Hope it keeps being fairly nice out and we dont loose the fruits this year.  We have had snow and extreme cold in may before but I dont know I feel optismistic that we are gonn have a nice early warm spring! fingers crossed too!!

 cranberries from a local farm became cranberry orange  bread

Getting things ready to make vegetable quiches'

empty pie shells

sauteed zucchini, mushrooms, onions for filling

sautee'ing zucchini

the quiche's baked

loaded carrot cake muffins

warm cranberry bread

Now this was delish!!  A hot cocoa chocolate cake that you cook in your crockpot!!  I got this wonderful recipe on pinterest and it is really decadent!! Would work super for those late night chocolate cravings!!  I will try to post that recipe today for yall to try! definetly one to do!!

Marshmallows are melted on top of cake, I put a few extra ontop and also drizzeled melted chocolate ontop of that!! YUMMY!~

So with all that we also made some of my Grandmas old fashioned chicken n veggie pies, espresso cookies, pumpkin spice muffins, artisan rosemary crusty bread loaves, banana nut bread, cheesey corn chowder, vegetable minestrone and also some vegetable burritos.

Ok so I am off to do some house cleaning and play with the "boys" on this sunday.  Laundry is waiting on me too so will be a full day and daddy is home with us today so we will probably watch a movie or maybe take a walk outside or play video games together!! Loving today!!

Hope yall have a blessed sunday!

HUGS

Darlene

a sneak peek at this weeks menu; vegetable lasagna, stuffed green peppers, cheddar herb buttermilk biscuits, cinna-streusel topped blueberry coffee cake, espresso cupcakes with chocolate ganache filling, veggie pasty's and more!! will share this week!!

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~