baking and baking and more baking............

Hey everyone!!  What a fun and exciting week so far!!  I have made some new and absolutely delish goodies up!!
First is my new CHERRY BLACK RASPBERRY PIE, with a butter streusle topping, then I made up some ice cream cakes that were pistachio and red velvet with locally made vanilla ice cream (disaster happened to them)  some strawberry lemonade sorbet, chocolate ganache filled chocolate thumbprint cookies with pistachios, rhubarb cakes, cardamom sugar topped black raspberry muffins,

I am trying to use up the rest of last years crop we had frozen, cardamom goes so well with berries I made a nice little sugary topping with some cardamom for these muffins. 

My cherry pie filling along with some black raspberries for added sweetness and a bit of zing flavor burst!! 

Some butter crumb streusle topping on top

all baked and ready for market. 

My Grandma Roses's southern buttermilk shortcakes! 

Scooped out middles of my red velvet cupcakes replaced with some cream cheese frosing

And the scooped out part makes a cute little hat for these guys!

These are my sweet roll dough filled with some cinnamon streusel crunch

A pretty pink peony in the garden. 

Strawberry banana muffins

Another new one for me my Coconut Macaroon Pies

If u like macaroons then this is a must have for ya!!  LOL I just have to drizzel chocolate in the bottoms and ontop and they would be perfect for me!  LOL

Some graham crackers, hamburger buns, blueberry lemon buttermilk muffins, carrot cakes, and lots of cookies and I think that was about it for the last 3 days of baking.  I still have some things to make for market on saturday but tomorrows market goodies are done!  NOW on to our little disaster!  The big freezer at the kitchen shut off in the middle of the night last night, of cource yesterday Susan and I made some wonderful little ice cream cakes and sorbet and some ice cream sandwiches made with my chocolate chip cookies that all became one bit melted glob at the bottom of the freezer!  I so wish I would have taken pics of the cakes, they were so adorable and well we just had to try one too and we all loved it!! the bottom layer was my pistachio cake, then a layer of locally made vanilla ice cream then a layer of red velvet cake and top it all off with another layer of ice cream and some chocolate sprinkles on top.  CUTE CUTE and YUMMO!!  but all gone..........=( oh well I will make more on friday. 

Hope yall have a great night!

Talk more soon!

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~~

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~~