It's Friday!!

Wow its almost the weekend already!! GEE where do the days go?  I worked at the kitchen yesterday afternoon and boy did I miss it.  Mon-wed all I did is paint and get ready for a show next weekend and those days were busy ones but absolutely good ones cuz i could be home with my precious boys!! 
I made cranberry orange muffins yesterday and got a few mixes ready for today to bake.  My kolachky, some cut out sugar cookies and some sandwich cookies will be baked today to take to a shop in Saugatuck.  SPICE MERCHANTS will be trialing some things in there to see how it goes!! YEAH!!  They are an awesome tea and spice shop and it just smells so divine in there.  They are along butler street so if yall are near there stop on in!!    So most of my day will be spent baking and playin in flour of cource and that is fine by me! the only thing that would make it better would be to have my "boys" there but that is not possible.  At least though they are only 7 min away from me and yepper I do call home a few times to let them know I love em and miss em!!   Dave my market buddy always pics on me at market when I call home, he says boy "maybe I should call the cows at home and see what they are doin?" LOL oh well I know my boys hear me when I call and leave em a message on the machine!!  Usually it always ends with "and remember mommy loves you more than daddy!!" and there have been times my sweet hubby calls home too and leaves them a message and says "mommy's lying daddy loves you more"!!  Oh we love these guys!! 
Another nice day in mi today, cant believe this it has been in the upper 60s and into 70 this week!! all week too!! just gorgeous!! but they are talkin snow next week so more like our november should be round here.  That's ok I love the snow just really been spoiled this fall. 
The girls are doin pretty good they are however very mad at me!! and I do mean very mad!!  They are closed in their coop and pen for a few days as something in mid daylight killed one of my hens tues, no tracks and it wasnt typical of a hawk, coon, weasel, or coyote  so not quite sure what it could have been but there were feathers strewn about like it shaked her alot.  My poor little black hen it looked like one of our younger ones and you know I was home all day workin in my studio, I heard the guineas having fits talkin outside but each time I went to check I didnt see anything around.  So they are being grounded "safe grounding" for a few days.  We have 20 little ones that I have been waiting to intro them into the flock but will wait a bit longer since this attack.  My girls are free rangers and usually make their rounds around the property and pasture and then back home round dusk so now being closed in their pen they are MAD!! and acutally it is a nice size totoally enclosed pen 70 feet long x 16 feet wide and then their front pen to go into the coop so they do have alot of room yet but still it is not the same.  When I walked back to the house yesterday mornin they were standing lookin at the gate and just squakin away!! probably wonderin what I was doin and not opening the door for them.  Well better safe than sorry I dont want whatever was here to get used to lunch on me each day!! 
You know yesterday afternoon I took my brother to Holland to do some quick shoppin, our usualy spots hobby lobby, michaels, gfs, meijers and family fare and just happen to come incontact with some very friendly nice folks.  Usually everyone is just hurrin here and there and busy with things on their minds but for some strange reason I had a few people say comments to us.  One was while walking into meijers grocery store a lady was in back of us and when I pulled a cart out she hit it with one she was pullin out and they kind of got tangled up a bit , she said Oh I am so sorry and we laughed I told her no problem and she said have a nice day to us.  Then in the checkout a guy and I were goin to the same one and I stopped since I had more and told him to go ahead of us he looked so surprised and said are you sure?  like it was a huge deal and said thanks alot I will remember this!!?  then while walking out of the last store I was pushing the cart back to the storefront and a gal said Oh I will take that cart then you dont have to walk all the way back and I need one and also said thanks and have a great night!!  SO NICE to hear just the little comments and be nice to each other!  IT really made me feel good inside.   It just goes to show a smile,  a thoughtful greeting, or even just a word to someone makes an impact. 
Have a wonderful friday I will be back tomorrow with pics from today!!
HUGS
Darlene


~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Cookies, Cookies and More COOKIES!!

Today was all about cookies!!  I did 6 batches of shortbread cookies, one was my newest! lemon poppyseed, a batch of very vanilla 1/2 dipped in melted chocolate with toasted hazelnut pieces on top, a batch of raspberry flavored with toasted almond pieces in them,2 of  just  plain and a batch of mini chocolate chip ones.   Chocolate chip cookies, my peanut butter whoopie pies, cranberry lemon pecan cookies,  some sugar cookies, some bears and flowers made into pops (sorry forgot to take pics of them they were the last to get baked) I will decorate them tomorrow and take pics.   Also I did some bacon dip mix and a herbed veggie dip mix.  My friend and I are having booths at the St. Joseph Lions club craft show this sat in St. Joe MI!!  I also made up some of my pumpkin spice dip and taffty apple dip so have for samples too!! 

And I made up some cookie boxes with some of the asst shortbreads.  Each box still needs to be dressed up with a lable and tag and probably some cute ribbons!

Here is an example of the boxes of astt shortbreads, youl get 3 of the big dipped cookies, 8 lemon poppyseed and 6 rasp almond.  A nice sampler box for a guick gift.

Here's a prebaked chocolate chip cookie!!

The first batch of cookies in the convection oven!

cranberry lemon pecan cookies using locally grown cranberries!

my hubbys absolute favo!! my  plain ol shortbread.  I just have to remember when makin them to OVERBAKE yepper I said overbake on these!! LOL he loves them on the dark side! 

These are quite tasty!! but I do love toasted hazelnuts with chocolate! 

Here was the first batches mixed up.

Some of the cookies like my peanut butter get a smooshin!!  LOL they just dont spread out too much and these are my whoopie pie ones so with just a tiny bit of presssure from my awesome expensive smoosher gadget!!  (a small bowl bottom)

  they are perfect!!

What a glorious day it was first my mom, brother and I went out to our favo place early this am IDA REDS in Saugatuck!! absolutely the best food ever!! and a very cute quaint spot to eat!! WE love goin there and usually I get an omlet since they are filled with such yummyness but today I tried something new!! their french toast!! Oh my goodness it was heavenly! Just the best ever!! great bread toasted just with the edges a bit crispy and the insides melt in your mouth yummo!!  Hold on taste buds!!

then after that I went to the kitchen and played with cookies!!  now I just have to get everything loaded in the trailer and ready to leave tomorrow afternoon to set everything up!! I will try my best to take the cam with and share pics!! 

Hope yall have a wonderfully blessed evening!!

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~~

Kalamazoo MI Indoor Market

My boys playing with some of the toys they still had left from xmas. As u can see they can be kind of naughty with toys!! LOL well I dont ever think my boys can be naughty!!

My newest creation!! Peanut peanut butter cream filled whoopie pies!! I came up with a thick soft cookie
filled with homemade peanut butter cream filling and rolled in crushed honey roasted peanuts!! They are listed on my esty site for sale but you could always order directly from me here!!

Here is a pic of a round birthday cake I made last week. I did light pink sweet peas on a vine. and just some scalloped edges.

frosting sweet peas, i had to practice havent made them since last year or so.

Tomorrow is market day!! Kalamazoo Market at Bronson Hospital in the cafe!! So today I am goin to be making my rustic cinnamon raisin loaves, apple something? not sure yet what, cookies, and SOMETHING new for market tomorrow!! Spinach flavored fresh pasta!! Yepper first time for me making pasta and I cant wait to try it out!

OK also I want to post here about a fundrasiser this weekend!! Sat from 11am to 4 pm WISHBONE pet rescue is hosting a carnival pet adoption event sat in SAUGATUCK at the masonic lodge. Bake sale and some other goodies available for purchase including some great coffee from UNCOMMON GROUNDS in SAUGATUCK MI, and I am gonna try to whip up some goodies tomorrow after market. This is a great organization and they really love and care about the pets that they have so stop on by!!

It has been sleeting and snowing and there is a sheet of ice on everything!! 5-7 inches of fresh snow coming today so hopefully not too bad for market in allegan today.

I am so happy to have my camera back to post pics!! well the program back anyway!! Thank You to my loving, smart, handy, creative, handsome, silly hubby!! LOVE YA Babe!!

Have a great day yall!!

~HUGS~

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Douglas Brewery market pics

Egg Bread Braids

Cinnamon Raisin Bread rustic rounds

Here are a few pics from the holiday market I was in thurs night at the Douglas Brewery!! WHAT a great place!! If yall need a banquet room for any special occassion check it out! It is right off BLUE STAR HIGHWAY in DOUGLAS MI. It was so nice and decorated and festive, and there even was a guy playing christmas songs on the stage. What a nice touch!

Arent these rugs gorgeous??>>>>>>>>>>>>

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

This jewlery was beautiful!~

Everything was handmade by local crafters/artists.. Oh and guess who forgot to take pics of their own table?? YEPPER ME!! LOL I was so busy taking others and being with my friend Ruth who I havent seen since market ended I ran out of time..~~oh well so here are a couple of pics of things i baked today.

We are having an open house holiday sale at the flower shop

FLORAL TOUCH FLORIST IN FENNVILLE, MI 6434 124th Ave M-89 this tues night from 4pm to 8pm with alot of snacks and baked goods to buy.

Summertime Market pics

Strawberry Rhubarb streusel topped muffins for market tomorrow

My newest creation!! cinnamon raisin swirl bread, this is prebaked, cinnamon and brownsugar, and raisins are rolled into the bread then it is topped with some melted butter and sprinkeled with more brown sugar and cinnamon!! oh my goodness did the kitchen smell yummy when this was baking!! I cant believe it but i didnt take any post baking pics, they do look gorgeous!! I want to eat one!! LOL

These were an experiment gone OH SO RIGHT yesterday, rosemary sandwich loaves filled with more rosemary and asiago, parmesean, mozzarella, swiss and some kosher salt. AND they are super yummy!!

ARENT THESE FLOWERS GORGEOUS!! they will have seasonal fresh flowers there for sale too.

Inside counter pics. Andrew and Melissa were busy settin up when I got there this am so not everything is in place but wanted some pics to share with ya.

YUMMY radishes!!

Some maple syrup, my jams, cookies, and some honey

Outside store.

HEY THERE YALL!~ I took some pics of the new SUMMERTIME MARKET IN SAUGATUCK MI~~ I have jellies and mixes and some shortcakes oh and my granola cereals, and granola mixes there. I love how rustic and country but yet sophisticated it looks!! COOL HUH!!?~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~