Chicken Scratch Farms csa meals and beautiful blossoms

Hey yall!!! What a nice week we got our much needed rain and also some sun too.  With the warmer temps and the rain we enjoyed one of our most favo treats of spring!!  Morels!!

Those weird ruffled looking things that are incredibly difficult to find but ohhhhhhhhhh so yummy fried with some salt and pepper and dipped in flour.   YUMMY!!  We are going out to look again this weekend and maybe will have enough for another supper treat.  

Cranberry m&m oatmeal cookies

We also made some pineapple cakes that had a creamy cream cheese frosting.    I will say after making these a few weeks ago I decided to add a bit of moisture into them after baking and it also added a bit more pineapple flavor.  While warm out of oven I brushed on some pineapple juice I saved from one of the cans of pineapple.  Absolutely wonderful!

This is my strawberry banana bread.  A recipe I made a few years ago for markets to jazz up plain banana bread.  They get a touch of strawberry powdered sugar glaze drizzeled on top to add my "farmgirl bling"

Pistachio bread in oven.

Mini bundt 7 up cakes 

And the 7 up cakes drizzeled with more "farmgirl bling" instead of lemon juice with the glaze I decided to use more 7 up for more citrusy flavor.  YUMMY too!!

Regular size bundt cake another 7 up cake.  These are so yummy and moist and they freeze super well!!  We just slice them wrap in saran wrap then in ziploc bags. 

One of my csa meal options this week was my tomato basil mozzarella topped flatbread.  Halved grape tomatoes are placed in a bowl with some olive oil drizzzeld ontop and sweet basil leaves to marry together overnight.   Then they are baked ontop of my pizza dough rolled nice and thin and more olive oil drizzeled ontop.  I love a nice extra virgin olive oil on my pizzas it adds some nutty flavor to the topping without a ton of extra calories. 

Another meal option was my farmers casserole.  I make this for us on weekends when we have lots of veggies.  There are some steamed diced red taters on bottom, then I layer steamed broccoli, cheddar cheese, crumbled cooked maple sausage, onions and pour over 7 eggs for each one of these 9 1/2 shells, they are deep dish pans so it makes a nice thick casserole for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner. 

Another of my new creations!! Mushrooms and zucchini are sauteed in olive oil with some crushed garlic cloves, basil and oregano then put ontop of my cornmeal pizza crust and baked with fresh mozzarella ontop.  I will say a tip when making flatbreads, or topped breads I like to wait til just about the end of baking time to add the cheeses.  they melt perfectly without burning or getting too crispy.  Flatbread perfection!! Will definetly make this again!! it was so good!!

Here's the tomato basil one baked up!

And I made some crusty baguette loaves too.

This bread has only a few ingredients and tastes like you had a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggg rise time!! but it really only takes 2 hours at most.  So crusty on the outside and chewy moist and flavorful inside.  

I soooooooooooo want my hubby to build me an outdoor brick oven!!  That would be so awesome for the flatbreads, crackers, crackerbread, ciabatta or just the loaves of bread!! dream on..........i know!! LOL

And here is the beautiful blossoms I spoke of~!  Dogwood is blooming here in SW MI and oh my goodness the trees are full!!  Lovely lovely blossoms!! 

Another clump of these pretties!!  OK so I am off to finish up next weeks menu options and then hubby and I are watching a couple of movies I picked up.  One being zookeeper!  Looks like a fun movie and I love Kevin Jame so should be good!! Hope yall have a most blessed weekend!!

HUGS

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Snowy Saturday!

Hey yall!!  Here are a few things I made for markets last week.  Apple crisp with some of our apples we have had in my parents basement this winter. 

Nice and thick cinnamony crisp topping.  When they came out of the oven I drizzeled some cinnamon maple syrup ontop of each one. 

Pumpkin spice muffins almost ready to come out of oven. 

Mushrooms, eggplant, onions, peppers roasting for the calzones

Filling for my pot pies, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, green beans, peas, corn, and lots of herbs. 

Calzone ready to be folded

ready for baking

YUMMY they smell so good!!  My roasted veggie calzones

And this is what it was like outside thurs am!!  We went to bed on wed with green grass and a bit of rain, and woke up to a winter wonderland!! huge snowflakes comin down made it so absolutely gorgeous outside!!

looking down the drive towards the pasture

down the driveway by the farmstand those bushes along the right side of the drive were just hanging down so heavy with wet snow caked on them

Thought this was pretty!!  snow covered branches.  So it was all about winter the last couple of days round here!  That is ok just as long as it is over by march I am fine with snow now!! LOL

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Be back soon!

HUGS

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

What's good wed?

Buster Brown being silly and maybe a bit disgusted with his food bowl~~ we usually feed them at night when we eat supper and while eating Buster was showing us in his own way he wanted his NOW!! and I mean now after these pics he decided to pick up his bowl and throw it down on the floor!  He is so silly!! makes me laugh!!

My little silly boy Barney!!

This is Pete our shop dog who is actually more wolf than dog but boy is he a great watch dog!!  He LOVES my dad and my hubby but no one else can get near him at the shop!  And he just loves his squeaky toys, I get him a new one regularly and boy that dog keeps them nice and plays with them, unlike my boys who trash everything seconds after gettin them!!

This is litttle Precious the  grandparents baby!!  She is a stink pot and just adores grandma and grandpa!! oh and she is NOT spoiled at all!! LOL

And little Bubba laying on Busters bed in the sunshine!!  HE will lay in the warm sun for hours!    So  I thought everyone could use a smile today and these guys all make me smile!! 

Whats good today you ask??  THE ELECTIONS are over!~!  Oh my goodness my phone will never be the same!!  I am sure it will be happy and I am so glad not to see anymore backstabbing commercials!!   I read over at musingsbyroxie's blog that is it terrible all these phone calls and it is all automated!! not even realy people anymore!! THAT IS SO TRUE!!   Our phone company just changed to Frontier from verizon and oh my gosh!! what a mess to have to call them!!!  We had no phone line the other day just an open line all danged day too (one good thing though I didnt have to hear the campaining that day) anyway I tried several times to call and report the problem only to listed to minutes and minutes of an automated person tell me there appears to be nothing wrong!  I was so angry it would not let me speak to someone at all and then wanted me to go outside *(not in the rain though) and take the cover off of the box on the side of the house and check the wires!!!  WELLL I have news for them it WAS raining and I wasnt about to monkey around with stuff like that!!  So instead I had to keep calling on my cell phone rackin up minutes to keep reporting it and at the end the recording just kept telling me nothing is wrong and if we have to send a service tech out you will be charged fees!!! STUPID! what the heck has happened to customer service in this country!! And dish network is the worst for this too!! You are also dealing with all automated lines but when you do get to speak to someone a person who (no offense anyone) cannot barely speak english gets on the phone and you can barely understand what they are saying or talking so fast you miss things and have to keep asking what did u say?  STUPID again!!  I am just so sick of it!!   I take time to talk to my customers and thank them for any purchase or even if they come to my booth at markets and say hi and look around.  It only takes a second and a smile makes a huge impression if you ask me!! How many times have you been to a store, restraunt, or in a business and the person you deal directly with doesnt even say "thanks" when you spend your hard earned money at their establishment!!!???  Makes me sick!! The other day while shopping at a local grocery store I made my purchases and the cashier didnt say one word NOT one!! not even to tell me the amount of my purchases but upon leaving the store the little greeter guy at the door say "Thanks for shopping at Meijers today and have a great day"  I told him thank you very much for being so polite and his smile will keep bringing me back to this store! I will just be sure to use the self check out lane!! LOL
So with all that being said I am on a mission to tell people to just remember one thing a day!! SMILE to someone, anyone, a spouce, a child, a parent, a customer, a boss, a coworker, a stranger ANYONE!!  just make an effort to smile at someone!!! or if you dont come in contact with anyone smile at yourself in the mirror it will make you feel better!!! 
So have a wonderful fall wed yall!!
HUGS
Darlene
i am off to the kitchen to bake today!! YEAH!! YIPPEE!!YEE HAW!!play time!

 ~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~