almost weekend time~~

Yippee!  I cant wait for 3pm sat!! then I have the rest of sat and all of sunday to spend with my wonderful hubby and our "boys".   We just dont get enough time together anymore! both of us are busy and life is hectic so usually by the time he is getting home I am exhausted and am ready for bed! 
My mom and I had another busy week at the kitchen.  We did up lots of muffins, red raspberry butttermilk, blueberry buttermilk, lemon poppyseed, and some breads, my glazed pistachio, blueberry, raspberry, pine zucchini, and banana blueberry.  

I so love making muffins!!  And love BIG muffins!!  they rise up over the edge of pans making them so pretty!

These are the lemon poppyseed which were just lacking something.............yep yall know me!! added the "farmgirl bling" a fresh lemon glaze after they cooled off. 

here are some ready for packaging.

dilly beans

I so wish the beans would stay that pretty fresh green color!! and I did up some of our purple, green and yellow and of cource when u cook the purple ones they turn green!!  =( so pretty and would look beantastic in the 3 colors in a mason jar!! dangit!

My favo piece of kitchen equiptment!! the little hobart mixer making foccacia

here are a couple pans of garlic pepper foccacia cooling

My mom and I also made this yummy pasta casserole.  It has egg noodles, homemade tomato red pepper zucchini sauce, with sauteed onions, green peppers, zucchini, and then fresh pamesan cheese, and aged cheddar topped with fresh basil pieces.  YUMMY!

Ok so I am blessed to have awesome dear friends in this world thanks to my little farmstand!!  I have a couple of friends that let us walk thru their beautiful and I do mean BEAUTIFUL gardens.  While strolling around you are transformed into an enchanted peaceful place.  And it is just down the street from us.  So many gorgeous blooms and not just in one spot, they are all around their house. 

These bushes were so full and the flowers are so pretty! 

One of the many floral beds, yes as I was taking this pic the sprinklers came on and welllllllllllllll that cold water did feel pretty good!! LOL

This coleus is so pretty, looks like someone took a paintbrush and detailed each petal. 

I love these colors together.  What a relaxing place!!

Zinias are one of my favorite flowers and these were gorgeous. 

And look at the color of this rose of sharon.  My mom has one I bought her for mothers day and it is so pretty

And last is my absolutely favo pic!  they remind me of sunflowers! and I made sure to get the white rocker chairs in the pic!! LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!

So I have a busy day tomorrow.  More zucchini bread, more pistachio bread, graham crackers, cookies, and some fruit, oatmeal and yogurt parfaits, plus more!! 

Hope yall have a wonderful evening!!

THANKS MOM for all the help at the kitchen lately!!

LOVE YOU!!  YOUR"E THE BEST!!

HUGS

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Hey yall!!!  Goodness it is almost november!!   I sure hope tomorrow will be nice outside for all the kiddos to have fun trick or treating or going to halloween parties!!   I remember having snow and ice here one year for halloween and it was miserable!! 

So what did I do last week???  Well I made some new things like below this Martha Stewart recipe for a carmalyzed onion potato tart.  Ok NOT my favo but some of my customers really liked it.  I did however make it to my liking by omitting sliced taters and sauteed some fresh zucchini and garlic.  THAT was delish!!!  I will make that again!!

It is just pie dough, u can buy pie dough in the store but I love my old pie dough recipe.   Carmalzye your onions with a bit of salt and pepper.  On the pie dough spread some herbed cream cheese, the recipe called for 2 tablespoons of italian seasoning.  Which is basically equal parts of dried basil, oregano, parsley and a bit of salt and pepper.   Top cheese mix with (in my case) one sliced and sauteed zucchini, then onions and fold over edges.  I did do an egg warsh on the dough and a bit of sprinkled seasoning.  YUMMO!!

Parmesan topped foccacia loaves.  Just about ready to come out of the oven. 

And since It is almost halloween I thought I would add a couple of my handmade scarecrows. 

And punkin heads on sticks 

My favo pair of scarecrows.  I leave em up on my mantle year round!!  I need to make some for next year.  Maybe if I start now they will get done by oct next year!! LOL

So this week I have on my menu vegetable minestrone, creamy cauliflower soup, creamy tater soup with cheese, vegetable alfredo lasagna, a vegetable rice salad, some black olive sage baguettes, foccacia, lemon blueberry muffins, apple dumplings, butter crumb topped apple pie, fresh chunky maple applesauce, and a chicken n stuffing casserole bake.   So it should be a pretty busy mon tue getting these things ready.  Which is ok then I have market wed and thurs.  So friday and Sat are me days!! hopefully crafting days!!

Hope yall have a spooktacular day tomorrow!!

be back soon with pics!!

HUGS

Darlene

**dont forget if yall are near me I can deliver my chicken scratch gourmet items to ya***

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

windy windy day

No market today!  This is my first saturday all season to miss market!!  (except our vacation) due to weather.  It is so incredibly windy there is no way my things are going to survive so I will set up times to deliver the csa orders and then I think I am goin to work on some snowmen things I have been wanting to make!!  YEAH!! WOO HOO!! craftin time!  LOL  and maybe a nap with my boys today too. 
Yesterday was a full day at the kitchen too.  These cinnamon swirl buns were rising and boy did they rise!!

As u can see the rose nice above the top of the muffin pan.  Nice n light n fluffy too.

They are a bit plain so had to do the "farmgirl bling" thing!  A healthy drizzeling of a cinnamon vanilla glaze.

I had more orders of my tomato mushroom quiche so those got finished up.

I also made some cheese ravioli and a nice tomato basil sauce on top.  

Another view of the finished buns.    I talked with a friend of mine who owns Evergreen Lane Creamery, they make artisan goats milk cheeses along with other dairy products, and will be brining and offering that to my customers at markets and in my CSA this winter to see how it goes.  They make amazing goat cheese and I thought it would be fun to make some homemade crackers to go along with it or maybe some nice french bread baguettes.  YUMMY!!  She is taking a cheese cource in Vermont so will start that as soon as she gets back.  How exciting!!

Things are goin great with my csa program so I am just thrilled.  If you are near Fennville, Allegan or South Haven MI leave me a comment if you would like info on joining and recieving my newsletter emails.  My program is weekly, no committment no minimum orders.  I will be delivering this weekly thru the winter and also have some avaialble at my winter markets too.  I want it to be affordable for everyone.  I sure am havin a ball going thru all my old cookbooks digging thru my grandmothers books to find ideas.  And I am also offering at least one vegetarian option too. 

Hope yall have a wonderful weekend!   I am hoping to get a few things accomplished so will let yall know how that goes!! LOL

HUGS

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Stuffed cabbage and soup day

Week 2 is here already and it was a gorgeous gorgeous fall day.  Sunny and warm this afternoon so my mom and I took my brother to pick apples which are absolutely wonderful  I forgot my camera but will try to take it as we are getting more tomorrow, we have red delicious, golden delicious, and macintosh.  I see apple dumplings for market this week! and maybe apple oat bread or apple pies or welllllllllll apple stuff!!  LOL

Early this am I made hubby a pot of tater corn chowder soup.  He loves taters and will actually eat the carrots in the soup since I chop them up really super small!!  Using as much local produce I am making soups daily now.  This was one of my featured soups last week. 

This is my favo soup I make!! My creamy tomato veggie soup with homemade egg noodles.   OH MY GOODNESS!! I have to say this might be the best pot of this kind of soup ever!!  I make it all the time in the winter when we have tomatoes frozen but I used fresh ones and some cream and roasted some red peppers that I put in the processor with some sweet basil from my brothers herbs.   YUMMY!! 

I love it but hubby is not a fan so I will take some over to my mom and dads and make another pot, hopefull just as good for my markets this week!! I love being a guinnea pig sometimes! LOL

So tomorrow we will be making stuffed cabbage rolls, and getting prep work done for a busy busy wed.  I like to get all my veggies cut up and prepped for the week on mondays and tues, and try to get all my dry ingredient mixes up and ready so wed I just add the wet and bake everything.    My menu this week also has on some smothered fresh green beans with red peppers and bacon and onions.  We will have some tonight to try it out and tweek it a bit to make wed for my csa menu.    I am also doing a vegetarian dish so it will be black bean vegetarian chili. A chicken enchilada casserole will also be on the menu.   Made this before and hopefully I can remember how I made it since it was really good.    Another dish for my csa this week.   I will be offering black olive sage baguette bread, cornbread or muffins,  And for desert options they get to choose either pumpkin cake, pineapple cake with coconut icing, or apple cinnamon bread pudding with a creamy cinnamon sauce.  So that means to make some french bread too.  Goodness  I need to write these things down as I make it and forget all I put in something.  *NOTE TO SELF* write it down!!!!  LOL

So hope yall had a wonderful monday!!

Talk to ya more tomorrow!! with pics at the kitchen!!

HUGS

Darlene

 This week~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

First day of fall baking~

Today was the offical start of fall here in beautiful sw michigan it was gorgeous!!  The trees are just starting to show some colors and I cant wait til they all show their beauty.  Fall is my favo favo time of year!!  The colors, the sounds in the air, the smell around us and the fact that it is almost halloween!! my favo holiday to decorate for.

These are my butter crumb struesle topped zucchini muffins

plain ol zucchini muffins

butter crumb walnut struesle topped apple bread

Apple pie cakes, with butter crumb topping

these look and smell yummy, they are in the oven right now

I love how tall these muffins got!  and soooooooooo yummo!

nekked punkin cookies

nekked sugar cookie leaves

they will have some yellow and reddish color frosting on them.

I also made some white chili, stuffed peppers, potato corn chowder soup, my glazed pistachio bread and some banana muffins and mango passion fruit filled thumbprint cookies.   And some peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips, lavander shortbread flowers and some chocolate chip brownies.    A few other cookies and I am ready for market tomorrow.    We have a 60% chance of rain and storms tomorrow sunday and monday  and tuesday but wed and thurs look gorgeous!!!  I will be decorating for fall tomorrow after market so hope it doesnt rain tooo much1!
Hope yall have a wonderful weekend!!  Talk to yall soon!!
HUGS
Darlene

 ~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Pickles and butterflies

HAPPY HAPPY MONDAY!! Well today was a fun day making pickles!  I did 48 pints of bread n butter pickles for markets since we were sold out quick.

I did round slices and then also long slices for sandwiches or burgers.

The first batch just out of canner

ready for labels

This guy was outside on the butterfly bush looking so so pretty

Stinker everytime I tried to get it's pic it would turn around

That one was the best

Sour cream cinnastrueusle filled muffins

blueberry bread

these pound cakes were delish!!  orange poppyseed with a nice orange glaze ontop

I just love bundt cakes!! this week since we are in peach season I am making fresh peach pound cake, peach praline crisp, peach praline muffins, and some peach bread.   Also I bought a couple of rotiserrie chickens and am making chicken veggie pies, stuffed peppers, and some fresh spinach fettucini.   

Markets this week

Thursday-=Allegan 

Saturday=South Haven

if you want to order anything and pick it up at markets just call or email me!!

I will gladly make it up and bring it for ya!

Have a happy night!

HUGS

Darlene  

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~