Snowman time

Hey yall!!!
Wow hard to believe it was 80 degrees outside yesterday!! and in the 70s today then tonight some storms coming thru and cooling it off!!  I so hope it does cool off some of my spring plants are turning green!!!  Not good!!  but with all the rain and warm weather we have been having things are crazy round here!!

I have been busy painting and altering some spoons into ornies for my friends store Farmhouse Chic.

I bought a bunch of nice large spoons this summer at thrift stores and of cource cannot find them now when I need em!!  I do that so often!

I did paint up some more of my little snow guys!!  I love their little faces.

And this gal is blinged up on an old glass jar filled with sparkles, lace and mini white feather tree. 

I did some of these altered frames last winter and they sold well so need to work on some more for the upcoming holiday season.  Cant really believe it is that time of year already!!  Goodness time flies!!

Hope yall have a wonderful day!!  WE have rain coming and windy today but clearing up and warm this afternoon and rain mostly in am tomorrow so not sure what to do for my market.  Guess I will wait and see what happens in am. 

HUGS

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Wed ramblings

Well  I did get quite abit done at the kitchen today for market tomorrow.My buttercrum topped blueberry muffins.  These are the most requested muffin at market and yepper they are yummo! A touch of lemon zest and some fresh squeezed lemon juice!

The buttercrumb topping is just butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, bread flour.

I do put quite a bit of fresh blueberries in each muffin

They look just awesome too!I sauteed some fresh red onioin and  a couple of white vidalia onions to carmellizing, made a big batch of foccaci bread and topped them with the onions, some dried chopped rosemary and a sprinkling of sea salt plus grated parmesean cheese.  These smelled super yummo in the oven, it is funny whenever you add fresh or even dried herba rhe smell is overwhelming.

It looks pretty too~  I just rolled them out to an oval shape and put them on a sheet of wax paper and in a clear bag. 

The edges are a bit crispy and would be perfect with a pasta dish or even a salad.

Here is one of my struesle filled babka cakes, since it is so hot outside I didnt make a glaze for them just some powdered sugar ontop and in a bag.  These are very fragrant too!  Babka is just about my favo dough to make~ but the foccacia is good and easy to make too.

We are suppossed to get storms tonight possilbly severe too! gee we cant seem to have a week of no rain or storms this summer!! crazy weather pattern thsese days but it looks all clear for tomorrow and sat~YEAH good market weather!! YEE HAW!!  I bettter get to figurin what we are gonna have for supper and then it is out to do chores. 

Hope yall have a great night!

~~HUGS~~

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Braided Egg Bread and more tues

One of my most requested breds at markets is my Braided Egg Bread.  There is quite a bit of time in makin this bread so I thought I would share with yall.  IF you want to try look up challah bread recipes as mine makes 9 1 pound loaves and that is alot plus it is mixed in a huge hobard machine.  So the dough is prepped and then let set to rise 1 hour.  After an hour you punch dough down and put back to rest and rise for 1 1/2 more hours then I weigh out 16 ounce pieces, set aside for 15 min to rest.  From that point the chunks are divided into 3 equal pieces then rolled to logs. The logs are then pressed together at end and braided down then sealed under.Here are the braided loaves which are then brushed with a pastry brush with egg yolk and set aside again to rise another hour.Then they are brushed again with egg yolk and sprinkled with organic sesame and poppy seeds.  And finally put into the oven.  They bake for around 20 min in a 330 convection oven baked until they reach 201 degrees. and as you can see nice and golden brown.  The rich smell and taste from egg bread is incredible!!  We love it made into french toast and dipped in even more egg!! LOL 2 1/2 dozen eggs here now and usin free range eggs gives these loaves even more golden color.  These are some cookies baking.  The light ones will be filled with my choc ganache,  or a white tea infused filled and the chocolate ones will have an espresso filling.  I am thinkin of puttin an assortment of these in bags.   Then I also made my pineapple black bean salsa.  This is a wonderful condiment for grilled fish, pork or chicken.  Some of my customers even like it with just tortilla chips.  I use unsweetened pineapple tidbits, chopped red pepper, green pepper, yellow and orange peppers, sweet red peppers, fresh cilantro, I just love all the color in salsas.  The fresh veggies are so vibrant!

And since we have been busy pickin blueberries I made a couple of batches of my blueberry jalapeno jelly!!  I will be givin samples of this at markets this week.  It is so fun to savor the pepper and fruit jellies as you first taste the strong blueberry then a min later the pepper flavor comes in.  like 2 different jellies!! super duper yummmo on a grilled turkey panini I might add!!  and of cource it is great with cream cheese on crackers, we also have had it on grilled pork and chicken brush it on just before it is done so it carmalizes a bit!!  OH and last year for blueberry festival Susan and I topped it on her homemade cheesecakes!! oh my gosh was that good we are plannin on bringin them to market again!!So as you can tell I made it back from the big CITY yesterday!!  I only got lost a couple of times and passed by the place I needed to be like 12 times!! LOL it was downtown which by the way was really kind of awesome!! but all the one way streets and busy hectic cars flyin by and then I have no clue about those parking ramps I was glad to find a spot along the street just had to put change in the meter and also I did put a quarter in the car infront of mine meter~ it was flashin the time was out and noone around so I played meter fairy and added a quarter for them.   My rak for the day!~  I survived and was so happy to be back home with my boys. dont plan on goin back anytime soon! 

I am off to do chores and sit and watch tv with hubby.  I will be postin a surprise guest on my blog!~ ZACH my new intern at the kitchen who will be startin friday!!  CANT WAIT~!~ Have a blessed evening yall!

HUGS

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Miss Fannie babies and flowers

This is my beautiful purple climatis plant which has been growing on a grapevine arbor I made a few years ago. I LOVE IT!! LOVE that color and it has more buds to bloom.

OK THIS IS MISS FANNIE and her absolutely ADORABLE babies!! a boy and a little girl. The girl is just beautiful with all her spots!!

Miss Fannie belongs to some dear friends of ours only a mile away. I so WANT A BABY!! arent they the cutest ever!???? The goat in the backround by the gate is due next week so just MAYBE I could sneak one over here!! hey it could ride home with me on the golfcart!! LOL

OH LOOK AT THE LITTLE DARLINS!!

Our chicks are growing up nicely and have moved into their new accomodations! A bigger area, still not big enough to be in with the "girls" but they have their own area and more room for them. Kind of like a playroom!LOL

Well I tried some new recipes out this am! I tweeked my zucchini bread recipe around and it turned out YUMMO!! made some buttermilk biscuits for market, they make good strawberry shortcakes, and for me are super with homemade sausage gravy!! hey there is supper!!, also made some banana bread with a butter crumb streusel top, some naner muffins, some more glazed pistachio bread, (had orders for that one), oh and 2 apple pies complete with cream cheese and nuts on top!! yummy!! did 2 big apple crisps that were cut up and put in a container for pieces.

I also did some mixes up to take of apple cinnamon muffin mix and more pancake mix. WHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that was it.

Tomorrow is gonna be a fun filled day too!! on the menu is homemade spinach pies, some baked tortilla chips with a fruit salsa dip, some cookies and maybe some more banana nut cakes, oh and luscious lemon bread and lemon poppyseed bread. That should be about it for market on thurs? but who knows I will end up making some more things I am sure!! LOL

OH THIS IS THE LIFE!! LOVIN LIFE AND ALL THE OPPORTUNITIES IT HAS TO OFFER!! hope to hear some good news on an idea too! will let yall know how it works out!! I have to make up some samples for a new business opening and am hoping to get some orders there!!!

go here to check out the sh market too.

southhavenmichiganfarmersmarket.com

Well have a blessed evening and will chat more tomorrow!!

~~HUGS~

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Happy Memorial Day

HEY YALL!! wow what a week!! Ok so this week went where?? LOL it just flew by and I dont remember too much of it!! I am working long hours but lovin it all!! We are in planting season so the taters, corn and maters are in the ground the first of many anwyays..., the markets are in full swing and went great last week!! and get this my canned hot pepper jelly sold out sat!! Just made those 3 batches and people loved it! So early this am I went to the kitchen and made up some strawberry apricot jam, did a few jars of pickeled asparagus and then made up some pumpkin spice pancake mix and apple cinnamon pancake mix, and also some shortcake mix. Seein how strawberry season is almost here!! YEAH! love michigan fresh strawberries.
So this has been a busy busy memorial day for me!! But please no matter what you do today and most days say a big thank you to all the men and women serving this great country we live in, and not just now but all those that already served and are home or resting in peace we wouldnt be here without them making these great sacrifies!!
And THANK YOU to all who have posted and signed the petition for BOSS!! as yall know we are big dog lovers here, well animal lovers in general but our dogs are our furry KIDS and we LOVE EM!! Well hubby is hollarin for me to come outside, we are planting the sugar snap peas and pea pods today!! SO>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

TAKE CARE and have a lovely monday!!
!!HUGS~

Darlene
~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

VOTE FOR BUSTER!!

Ok one of my babies is in a contest BUSTER the clown he is contestant number 5 so go and vote!! LOL not that you have to vote for him but he would be much abliged if yall do!! LOL
There are some ADORABLE fur babies on there too~~

Here is the site : so now run on over and vote vote and vote!!

http://petsjubilee-furbabies.blogspot.com/
GREAT SITE ! check out all the great fur baby goodies they offer!!

So i am gonna go to the kitchen again and finish up frosting the cupcakes, wrappin the bread, and packaging some of the cookies for market tomorrow!! DONT FORGET if yall are in and around ALLEGAN MICHIGAN the market is open from 8 am to 2 pm. Here are a few of my offerings this week:
I made a batch of hot pepper jelly and some packages of my apple crisp mix
some double/triple dipped pretzels
cream cheese frosted loaded carrot cake muffins
grandmas old fashioned chunky peanut butter cookies
some yummy chunky fruity granola cereal
cream cheese frosted red velvet cupcakes
banana nut bread, cheddar pepper bread (my favo), applesauce bread
chocolate chunk cookies
banana muffins
and today am making some scones and more cookies!! And I will have more at market on Sat in South Haven Michigan!! STOP ON BY!!

They are calling for 80 degrees today!! YEAH YIPPEE YEE HAW! love this weather and hopefully will get some much needed rain too!!! SO hope yall have a truly glorious day!! Enjoy!!
~HUGS~
Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~