New baked goods

Hey yall!!!
I tried out a couple new recipes from my grandmas old cookbooks and I am in love with one of them and will surely make again!!

As you can see I made this recipe x 4 and made some in jumbo muffins pans for personal size coffee cakes, in small tins and also in my smaller bundt pans. 

Cinnamon Mocha Coffee Cake!!YUMMY YUMMY!!
The cinna mocha struesle looks pretty swirled thru the middles

I did make a cup of espresso and just brushed it over all the tops to give a bit more moistness and coffee flavor to them and then just dusted them with powdered sugar. 

LOVE bundt cakes!!

Here is the recipe for these:  (this is just the actual recipe x1)

Cinnnamon Mocha Cake

streusle filling:

In small bowl combine am mix:

1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons baking cocoa

1 tblsp instant coffe (I used espresso powder instead)

1 tblsp cinnamon

Cake Batter:

Cream together until light and fluffy (approx 5 minutes)

3/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cup sugar

Add 4 eggs one at a time beating well to incorporate into batter

Beat in 1 tsp vanilla

In bowl mix together:

2 1/4 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

Alternate adding dry ingredients to creamed mixture with  1 1/2 cups or 12 oz sour cream starting and ending with dry ingredients. 

*optional you can add nuts or/and chocolate chips*

Grease and flour your pans

Place 1/3 of batter in pan then sprinkle on your streusle topping, then top with remaining batter. 

Place in preheated 350 degree oven until golden.  (I make sure internal temp is 200) and it also depends on what size pans you are using.  I would say in a regular oven a bundt pan usually takes 35-40 minutes.  Muffins are usually 20 minutes for jumbo.

After the cakes/muffins cooled I brushed over the tops wtih a strong cup of coffee and then sprinkled with powdered sugar.

**ENJOY**

I also made a batch of our gingered carrot soup, which I think is one of my all time favo soups. 

Red velvet brownies with cream cheese swirl

After running a knife thru the batter it looks so pretty.  I think next time I try these I will reserve a bit of brownie batter to add in globs ontop of cheese layer. 

Veggie pot pies

Topped and ready for oven. 

I had some left over crust so made some little personal size veggie pockets. 

And had just enough to make my lunch =)

And some halloween fun sugar cookies that will be decorated with frostings.  They went in the freezer to work with next week. 

I also made some more of my grandmas zucchini apple bread, black olive baguette loaves, Ezekiel bread loaves, zucchini muffins, espresso cream filled espresso cookie pies and chocolate walnut brownies.

I so missed my mom at the kitchen this week~~ she closed the flower shop in June and is packing everthing up and selling things.  If you are interested in any floral supplies we are having a big sale and things are going to be listed!!  I can say we have alot of satin ribbons in various widths, wedding supplies, corsage supplies, and tons of baskets available.

Give a hollar if you would like to see something I can email you pics of everything.

*Sad to say but I actually didnt go to market today, I have been up all night with a sinus/allergy infection and a horrible migraine and sore throat.  Needless to say calling the doctor monday morning. And we have a wedding to go to tomorrow so I am 100% sure my boys and I are taking a long nap today!! Just feel miserable right now =(  tis the allergy season I guess.

Hope yall have a great weekend!! I will be back to share more next week it is Blue Coast Artists Fall Studio tour next weekend and I have an order for lots of cookies to make so next week will be all about COOKIES!! WOO HOO!!

HUGS

*Darlene*

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

HAPPY EASTER

Wishing you and your families a very very BLESSED EASTER SUNDAY!
Well we had quite a day yesterday, kind of an ambush!! I went outside to take my chickens some bread and for some reason no one was around, I didnt hear or see anyone.   I walked in the pen and found feathers everywhere!!  in the back big pen there I found the remains of 7 of my poor sweet chickens!! 4 roosters and 3 hens all dead!!  The only culprit that kills and leaves em is a weasel!!  they are just relentless little creeps!! 2 were missing their heads so that is a sure fire clue to this killing.  And one of the roosters was my little Charlie!! he followed me around the farm and has his little heirem of girls with him all the time!!  DANG vermin out there!!~ So we closed everyone in the coop and they will have to stay inside for a couple of days now since this dang killer will surely keep coming back.  That is so disheartening to find. 

Saturday was our towns prom so thru and fri I helped my mom at her shop make coursages and bouts.  I have to say we had the NICEST bunch of kids this year!! so friendly and happy and polite too!!

Here are some pics of some of the corsages we made.   This year I came up with an idea for them, we had girls say they want something really small and tiny so made some bracelet type ones. 

This is a pretty alstromeria and daisy long corsage.

A bracelet one made of pink tea roses

This is the bout and matching corsage with purple accents.

I really liked this one she wanted small and bracelet kind with purple and black tipped baby breath and a bit of black ribbon.

Love the all white ones.  Tea roses, baby's breath, white caspia and some ferns wtih white ribbon tails hanging down. 

One wanted red roses tipped with silver so here they are prettier than I was thinking it would turn out but the white alstromeria really blends well since it has red specks in the petals. 

My batteries died after this and I forgot to put a couple more in my camera case so that was all I could take.   We have some planting to get done today and work in the greenhouse and also in the chicken coop.  The sun is out and they changed the forcast to just a small percent chance of rain!! yeah!! since we have rain pretty much everday this week predicted.  Almost asparagus pickin time!! oh cant wait!! I have to pickled alot more since we were out very early in the season last year.  We do plain pickeled and cluckin hot -n-spicy ones too.  
so off to work!!  hope yall have a wonderful day!!
Talk more tomorrow!!
HUGS
Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Sunny sunday

Sorry I havent been here this week!! It was just a very difficult week for me to do much of anything.  I cant believe it is already a week our little Bubba is away in heaven.
I am slowly working on a memorial frame for my dear sweet hubby in Bubba's memory.   I so want to do more and raise awareness of how serious things can get with our dear pets!! this experience has left us very angry and bitter towards a vet and really I want people to know and hopefully prevent another family and furry kid go thru what we have.  Just not sure how to go about this task at hand but I promise you I will come up with something to help others learn for this.

I did find this quote and want to share it with you, this will be on an element for the frame I am working on.

WHEN A PET DIES, THAT SPECIAL WARM PLACE IN OUR HEARTS SUDDENLY BECOMES EMPTY....... AND AS IN ALL PAINFUL EVENTS, IT WILL TAKE TIME TO GET OVER THE LOSS.....
BUT WE REALYZE, AS TIME PASSES, THAT ANIMALS HAVE A WAY OF TEACHING US ABOUT LOVING, ABOUT LOYALTY, JOY AND FRIENDSHIP..... AND WHATEVER WE'VE SHARED IN THEIR PRESENCE CAN NEVER REALLY BE LOST...........author unknown...
This is so very true..

Hopefully I will get a creative kick in my butt this week and make some things and create art~ I do have markets so it is going to be difficult to be away from Buster and Barney but I have to bake and tomorrow is goin to be spent at the flower shop making pretty posies to put a smile on someone's face.
FLORAL TOUCH FLORIST FENNVILE, MI  269-543-4815  if you need to send flowers to Saugatuck, South Haven, Fennville, Pullman or Glenn we can take care of that and make something extra special up for you!! 
Have a blessed evening!!
HUGS
Darlene and the boys
Thank you for all the lovely heartfelt comments and emails!! I so appreciated them all! and shared them with hubby and the boys too!! THANK YOU!!
~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

A winner and OWOH starts

****Just happened upon your blog! By reading some of your posts, could your present be a Sizzix or CriCutter (I think that's the name??!!) Anyway, it was fun reading your post - I could feel your excitement. I'm a new follower - I also like raising chickens (although at the moment I am chickless!) Here is the winner of the guessing game today!!!***** 
Yepper I got me a cricut expression cutter!~  and have been playin all day with this cute bug!!

Please send me your addy and I will pop your prez in the mail asap!!
TY!!

Ok also almost forgot to post about ONE WORLD ONE HEART!!  This is the 5th and final year for this amazing and fun blog hop!!  I have been in it for 3 years and have met some wonderful bloggin friends on here!!  SOOOOOOOOOOOO now I have to figure out what I will make for this event!  Last year I sent out a pendant, some paper rosettes and also an altered framed captured fairy so with this being the last year I gotta come up with something extra special!! Will post asap!!

You can figure this out someone will definitely recieve a pkg of mixed things cut with my little bug too!! LOL   It is aquamarine my birthstone color~~ YEAH!! that is kind of cool!! 
Have a great night!!
HUGS
Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Sketch lo 8

HAPPY HAPPY MONDAY!!

According to the forcast we are gonna get a few inches maybe on wed but not much before then.  That's ok though as it has been really really cold this am it was only 16 and now it's a whoppin 27 out.   So this am I  worked on number 8 sketch for our sketchathon over at scrap-friendzy.  This really has been fun and challenging to make a lo using someone else's sketch.  I love a challenge!! 

The black and white photos didnt need much other than I matted them with some great black paper with old vintagey handwritting on and a solid black cardstock back.   I love how the flowers turned out, layers of vintagey sheet music paper by THE PAPER STUDIO at Hobby Lobby and then distressed the edges and added a bit of bling with at light pink gem.

a few words cut from another piece of The Paper Studio patterened paper and some more bling to the top.

17 is the title of this page.  This pretty gal is Brandi my stepdaughter, so hard to believe that little freckled face kid is almost graduated from high school!!  GOODNESS where do the years go!!  Hubby cant believe it either.

This by the way is her graduation pic.  I love the splash of pink in her flower and have always been drawn to black and whites. 

I really have to get busy today and get sketch 10 done which was posted this am.  It should be a busy week as I have things to get ready for markets next week and there are 4 next week!!  So can do up my dry ingredients and some mixes to get ahead of the game and the pierogi well they can be in freezer for a week so they really should be done this week.  A new on is on the menu will post about after we try and sample to see if they are sellable!!  LOL.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments and emails about my card from the CR84FN8 color challenge.  I cant wait to do next weeks!! I actually think that will be a good thing for me as I dont usually do color ones so add that to my challenges I am lovin! 

Hope yall have a great monday and I will talk more later!!

HUGS

Oh and I posted on fb but wasnt sure if I did here yet but it sure was a sad day we lost our oldest rooster the other night!! RED FRED!! he actually had been in several customers pics as since he was such a sweet thing people would ask to have their pic taken holding him!  I did baby him a bit as he was up in age and the younger roosters picked on him so I would bring him over whereever I was working outside and he would talk to me in his rooster jibber (yes I got to know it and could chit chat back to him) LOL, and just stay near me and when I called him he came running like a dog would!!  Oh my dear sweet Red Fred rest in peace my friend!!!

Here's my pretty boy, he was an auracana rooster and when the sun would shine down on him his neck and back feathers loooked like they had gold in them and his beautiful dark green tail feathers just glistened, and thank goodness back in the day was quite busy as we have several offspring of his!   He was 13-14? years old and that is really old for a rooster!!  He actually is kind of famous a dear customer came here one day and took pics of him for a childrens book she was writing and wanted to include Red Fred in it!!  Gotta find that book now!!

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

sketch lo #7

Day 7 and another sketch lo done!!  I am on a roll!!
This is a pic of my hubby's cousin little guy Jax and his grandpa!!
JAX and POPPY.   My Minds Eye wonderul paisley print paper is the backround sheet.  The elements are  plain cardstock mattes and some fun layered flowers. 

I used my flourish die with my accucut machine and cut it out of blue jean paper.  Then using my large scalloped round punch I cut out various circles and along with my 2in and 1 1/2 inch punches added the layers.  Each one is distressed with TIM HOLTZ distressing inks and a silver snap is added for the centers.    That way it is a bit masculine.

Jax and Poppy are stamped on striped pp using my alpha stamps by JUST RITE STAMPS. 

I am happy with the way this turned out.

so we sure did get alot of snow like 15 inches if not more last night and this am!!  It isnt snowin right now and I am not sure how much more we are gettin but it sure is pretty out!!

Off to finish up a submission so will talk to ya tomorrow!!

Have a great night!!

HUGS

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

HAPPY NEW YEAR!~~

Hope you have a  HAPPY AND SAFE NEW YEARS!! 2011 here we come!!

Well I played a bit with one of my xmas gifts, yepper another kitchen gadget!! LOL A mini donut maker and they are baked NOT FRIED!! so healthy at that!  I whipped up a batch of my favo red velvet cake and tried some in this cool new toy.

Hubby will be home from work early today so thought they would make a nice little snack for him.

I made a quick vanilla glaze and topped them with a bit of crystal red sugar.  OK so they so are not the ones you are used to buying at all!! but they are good and oh so cute to eat!  Not full of grease and calories either!

Cute!

We have decided to stay in tonight at home and ring in the new year with the boys!  I so hate having to leave them alone, especially this time of year it becomes increasingly difficult to leave the house since I am home more and they really love having mommy home with them.  I take them to do errands with me, or when I go out to get mail or do chores someone goes with me and we play and oh their favo thing to do is we all take a nap on the couch!!  They really do get happy!!  they play and get vocal and climb on the couch near me and get comfy cozy and they are out!!   Thank goodness we have an extra large couch and the ends recline so there is plenty of room.  They get happy when daddy comes home and we all go to sleep together at night too!!  about 10 min of playin around and tossing blankets and making their beds in their blankets.

AHHHHHH so much fun!! love these guys!!

So have a happy happy happy new year and I will be back with more in 2011!! (seems so strange to say that)

Thanks for all the nice comments in 2010 and for the support here and at our farm we surely couldnt do this without all our great customers!!

HUGS

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

50 degrees!!

It is already 38 degrees and they are predicting in the 50s today!! crazy mi weather we are havin this december!!   I really hope we get all the snow in jan/feb then more like spring march april may !! yeah right!!

I know I am dreamin

Here are a few pics from xmas at my inlaws house!  We had alot of fun!! 

Hubby's Grandpa Bill with Carissa the youngest member in the family.

Family pic, for once someone is NOT doing anything crazy!! ususally someone is looking away or being silly or for another example while my inlaws were remodeling their home they had one shade up and one shade down on the windows in back of us, or they had the windows covered with sheets before they put up their new curtains, just little things like that!! kind of disappointing that this looks pretty normal!! LOL

My sleepy little guys on the couch next to me!  Barney still has to lay somewhere on Buster!

AND here we have GRANDMA JAN!!  Being silly!!

someone gave her this great santa hat bra for xmas and she walked in wearin it for us!  She is a kidder and we love her very much!!  I told her she needed jingle bells on the pompoms!!  LOL  next year I think all girls should wear santa hats (on their heads) for our family pic.  And they guys should wear antlers but I am about positive that wont be happening!!  We are just missing the "boys" in our family pic. 
So I am off to work on a magazine submission I have been playin around with the deadline is jan 7 and that is fast approaching!!  I will share it when I can with yall!!  Hard to think about summer stuff when we are in the start of winter. but you have to be ahead of the game and ready when they need to get them on time to print! 
Have a happy happy thurs and HAPPY NEW YEAR!! hope it is a joy for yall and be safe!!!
HUGS
Darlene
~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

a few more ornies

 Here are some more ornaments I made today.  FYI!! these are all for sale for $5.00 plus travel expenses in a bubble mailer.   These have been just wayyyyyyyyyy too much fun to do!!

The backs have a bit of stamping on them and scrapbook papers.

 You could also let me know if you want someones name on one or a special saying that is fine just let me know!

LOVE this snowman!

More coming soon!!

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~