I'm back with more ornies!

Oh today was a snowy day for sure!!  WE got alot of snow!!  **LET IT SNOW ** LET IT SNOW** LET IT SNOW*** sing it with me!! LOL  LOVIN IT OUTSIDE!
This time of year it just might as well snow!! Sure dont like rain now so this is good!!  I am thinkin if we keep goin this way we are surely gonna have a WHITE CHRISTMAS! YIPPEE!! Christmas in beautiful sw michigan isnt the same without snow!! 
So here's a peek at what I did in my spare time today!  LOL at 5 this am!

Using up all stash items in my studio I made more ornies!! These little guys will be perfect on a spindle tree, feather tree or to use as gift tags on presents.

This is a slide mount ( FYI  I have wayyyyy too many of them laying around) so pulled the white cardstock off from the inside frame and added some pretty little holiday scrapbook papers, some pics of snowmen recycled from old xmas cards and tags (which by the way are always dirt cheap after the holidays so I obviously stock up) LOL

Oh and using my wonderful snowflake punch by MARTHA STEWART I added a flake and a bit of my 'farmgirl bling" to each one using her glitter and a little sticky gemstone for sparkle and a bakers twine hanger.  I did splatter paint some white on after they were done for more snow!!

I do think this guy has to be my absolute favo!! but I love the snowman I paint that is reaching up to touch that perfect snowflake in the sky too! 

Oh too cute! this was a gift tag I cut the snowman off of. 

This was the view out of my truck window this am goin to the shop.  OH SO PRETTY!!

I decorated some old flower boxes around the farmstand with pines and some pinecones and twigs and little candy canes I found. 

One of the table arrangements that went out on deliver today

My brother who is handicapped has the herb business and is helping a job coach he has to make these centpieces for a craft show he is in this week.  Him and I searched the thrift stores for unique tins to put them in and a good recycling project too!

Happy holidays ornie.   FYI the ornies are $5.00 each plus travel expenses.  I have sold a few today and will make up more all different ones.

Another microscope slide ornie

Some decoration by the farmstand door.

 So that is about all for today I have to make some toffee tonight and get my cookie recipes ready for tomorrow at the kitchen.  Hope yall have a blessed snowy evening and if you are driving out in it BE CAREFUL!  we seen several cars off the roadway and into ditches and into trees today.  I have to bring in a load of wood for the furnace and then it will be time to make some more ornies too.  OF cource one of our favo shows is on tonight BIGGEST LOSER and we watch that if hubby is home in time if not I let it record and we will watch it later tonight, he is workin on our plow truck right now.  Yepper ya know our drive is usually the very last to be plowed out!!   LOL oh well I still love him dearly and would be totally lost without that man in my life!  my boys would miss their daddy too!! 

Talk to ya more tomorrow!!

GOOD NIGHT!

hugs

Darlene

!~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Bakerella's cake truffles and more

I just love cranberries and orange together so made up a batch of muffins.

And here's the "farmgirl bling" a nice orange glaze for the tops.

Just the right amount to even the tart cranberries out.  I do put my cranberries thru a quick trip in the food processor as I dont like too big of chunks in the muffins or in cakes so this gives em a nice rough chop. 

Some of my pumpkin bread puddings. 

I made a quick cinnamon, brown sugar and butter struesel topping for them.    And since finding BAKERELLA  last year I love making her cake pops!! I havent had much luck with them staying on the sticks so instead decided to do some cake truffles instead.  That way they will travel to shows and market much better packaged in the little candy cups and in boxes.  so here are 4 pans ready for the oven.

 

After baking and cooling off I chopped up the cakes and put them in the freezer before shaping. 

Here's the cake after adding a homemade cream cheese frosting.  Yepper she suggested using your hands to do this and it makes all the difference to get that frosting competely mixed in. Wearing gloves makes it easy peasy too, I didnt care for rolling them out by hand so I relied on my trusty cookie scoop.  This is the middle size scoop and makes the perfect bite size rounds.   

2 batches made today, an  orange creamsicle, orange cake with vanilla pudding and the other is dark chocolate cake with choc pudding.  both have cream cheese frosting in them and they will be dipped in chocolate.  I am thinking of dipping the orange cake in white chocolate with maybe some orange drizzeled ontop and then the chocolate will be dipped in choc with white choc drizzeled ontop.  They are in the freezer at the kitchen waiting to be dipped.  IT is best to let them freeze up before dippin. 
Chocolate chip and peanut butter sandwich cookies were made and also some of my orange marmalade filled kolachy cookies.  I am taking some things to a store today and see how that goes!!  hopefully they will have luck with everything. 
And here's the pan of kolachy before bakin, they are not exempt for my "farmgirl bling" either they get a very generous dose of powdered sugar after cooling.  These are my grandma Rose's recipe that my mom and I make every year to put on our christmas cookie trays.  Speakin of we need to start gettin things in order for them xmas is right around the corner and we deliver trays of asst cookies and some candies to friends and businesses that deal with us.  And of cource the mailman gets a surprise in the mailbox, the trash guy, neighbors and family!!  Typically we make up about 15 kinds of cookies, some toffee and some barks and this year we will add maybe some mini muffins or a little loaf of a sweet bread too. 
I always look forward to holiday baking and experimenting with making up the trays and tins full.  I am gonna make some up for the shows in the next few weeks too.  While at Michaels and Hobby Lobby friday I found some great printed up holiday goodie boxes and bags so bought way too much but love that kind of stuff!! and it makes such nice gifts.  I would so rather have a gift that was handmade than something store bought.  We look forward to my mother and father in laws candy they give us each year so much!!  Yes I even like to recieve food gifts from others!  LOL  Lots to get done today, I have 4 more snowmen signs to finish up and then work on a sign that a friend ordered, go and dip the truffles,  make up some cookie doughs for next week markets and deliver an order and then maybe relax!!  LOL.  It is startin to cool off too and we are expecting rain sometime today too so good day to work inside!! 
Have a great weekend!!
Talk to yall again soon!!
HUGS
Darlene

  ~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

TGIF

Good mornin yall!~    WELL IT IS FRIDAY!! YEAH!!  gotta love fridays!  well everyday is good!  When I worked monday was my very very least favo day of the week but now I love everyday!!  Ok so I am thinkin of goin to the kitchen and cannin some apple today, apple pie in a jar just sounds way too yummy!!  If only I could come up with a way to do the crust in chunks in with the apples and sauce and it stay a bit on the crisp side that would be wonderful!!  Last fall I did pumpkin cake and applesauce cake in jars and they stayed great and were really tasty!  Love tryin new things.  Oh and by the way hubby bought some apple pie ice cream and oh my goodness that was delish!!  I think maybe hudsonville made it and it is absolutely one of the best it rates right up there with raspberry chocolate chip to me!!

Susan and I decided to play with a new pizza crust recipe.  I just love this time of year since we have more time each week to experiment and play in the kitchen it is awesome to be little baking scientists!!  HEE HEE!!   So this particular recipe is from a favo bread book called the crust and crumb and has exceptional bread recipes in it as far as this crust recipe welllllllllll not likin it too much!!  we really didnt think it was worth all of  the effort and time put into makin it.  Not that it wasnt good just not what we were expecting.  it starts with makin a poolish one day, settin in the fridge overnight, then adding your ingredients on the second day, proofed it for 3 hours then scaled out and started shaping it.   The dough is very very sticky wet and we pretty much had a thick pancakey dough everywhere!! LOL but it was fun to try.

mixing in some additional flour, the dough is still very wet but manageable.

we did 20 crusts. 

one fresh out of the oven, these were a perfect size for a 9 in crust.  we prebaked for only 5 min on the stones and they actually came out pretty nice.

dusted with cornmeal they had a very nice texture.   I made one for us for supper that night topped with some homemade sauce, canadian bacon slices, mushrooms, fresh mozzarella chees, colby jack cheese and topped with a touch of parmesean and romano shreds. 

So this is our pizza hat!! LOL this one blew up in the center you cant really see it but it looked exactly like a little crusty hat!   I couldnt get Susan to put it on though,  LOL there were a few that went for chickie feed and they loved them!    The first batch was sure a learning experience, between shaping, dusting with cornmeal and using a pizza spatula to slide them in the oven on the stones is quite a sight.  needless to say we had a few mishapen globs land on the stones.  But such fun!!

I did make one of my favo cookbook authors recipes Carole Walters crumb cake.  This cake was so delish I will definetly post a recipe for yall. 

Finished but lackin the bling!!

There's my cake "farmgirl bling" just a good dustin of powdered sugar and then I added some pure maple syrup drizzeled ontop!!  Just the right amount of sweetness and flavor!!  There isnt much sugar in this cake and the flavor and texture is so pleasing on the palate it WILL be made again!! 

Also in the line up was some excellent tater bread, this is a really nice textured bread that I never had made before and will surely be added to the list for markets.

So with my craft shows right around the corner fastly approaching and I do mean fastly!!!!!!! I decided to work on some gifty items.  I have to tell ya I purchased some pre made templates from etsy from SusieQ's and they are adorable!!  Here is one I made up for my coffee creamers.  This is the gingerbread coffee mix with this set I got the lable, a tag and even the recipe included!!

I figured with them being more of a gift item and since they are coffee I wrapped them in the cone shaped brown coffee filters you buy, ( i have a huge stash of them for my altered filter scrapbooks I make) wrapped a holiday themed strip of scrapbook paper around then printed the tags out backed them with a bit of cardstock and tied a piece of wool thread to them. 

I think they turned out adorable and will make some mocha hot cocoa ones today. 

These will make perfect stocking stuffers or just little gifts for coworkers.  The package makes 3 cups of coffee so just the right amount. 

Oh and I made some red raspberry butter crumb topped muffins that I forgot to take a pic of but reserved some of the raspberry juice and made a pretty pink glaze for the top of them.  Red raspberries are just about my favo fruit!  and they are wonderful paired with buttermilk and lemon zest!  In fact I am gonna have one for breakfast this morning with my espresso!!

And by the way Sorry Sorry Sorry to everyone for me missing market yesterday!  IT was so windy and rainy in the mornin when I went out I decided to skip market as I sure dont want to get a cold now.  So my mom, Joey and I went out to breakfast then I took Joey to holland and browsed thru some thrift stores and Michaels!!  FUN and if yall are in or near Saugatuck you have to and I mean HAVE TO stop in a IDA RED'S resteraunt.  THEY have the best ABSOLUTE BEST breakfast!!  Joey had the whole wheat pancakes which were delish, my mom had the omlet special and I tried something new the breakfast tacos!! oh my gosh they were superb!! IDA RED's is our favo breakfast place and in the summer my mom and I love to go early in the am and eat outside on the porch!!  Stop by there you will not be disappointed at all I guarantee it!!  great service and great food in a vey quaint cozy cafe!!    With all that said it is about time Buster and I  head out to do chores now.  I hope yall have a blessed friday and I will share more tomorrow!

HUGS

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Rainy and windy wed

Well I have to start out saying I am so sorry for not posting regularly right now life has just been crazy!  The markets are busier than ever and I have recieved alot of special orders which is wonderful just limits my time on here more. 
I did make some of my coconut macaroons yesterday but blinged them up a bit by turning them into "almond joy" macaroons and they are super delish!!   Also made some espresso cookies with chocolate drizzle, my flour free loaded oatmeal cookies, lemon glazed lemon tea cakes, peanut butter whoopie pies (these are a weekly itme that people request more of each week!) and I tried a new Paula Deen recipe for a cream cheese filled red velvet cake!! OH MY GOODNESS!! I love makin red velvet cakes anyway but the filling is just gorgeous in it!!  I topped it with just a plain vanilla glaze and baked in a bundt pan.  I will take my cam with today and take pics of them!! one is gonna be sliced and sold by the piece at market tomorrow!  LOVELY!!  My "eggcellent egg" bread braids were beautiful I have to say it was really warm and they rose quick so had to keep a close eye on them so they didnt over proof! 
And I got some cookie dough done for today, snickerdoodles which are gonna be a soft n chewy cookie.  Today is gonna be a new recipe day a bread filled with cheese and sausage n onions just for us at market tomorrow to enjoy!  Also made up my babka dough and brioche dough to bake today also on the lisht it will be a  muffin day!  I do have to make some cheddar pepper bread but that will be first thing this am then I will work on some new muffins and maybe some more cookies.  Labor Day weekend is a big deal in south haven so I want to have a good supply of things for customers so I better close now and get myself ready to head over to the kitchen and play!! 
Enjoy your day it is windy and rainy and a bit warm here you can sure tell we are approaching fall which is just insane to me seems like summer just started yesterday!!  It really has been a weird weather summer though but FALL is my absolute favo time of the year!! I love everything about it including halloween!! decorating will begin in a couple of weeks, scarerows to dress, cornstalks to tie up and put around, even though pumpkins and gourds are about ready now hope they will last for us!!
Ok so have a beautiful wed!!
HUGS
Darlene 

This baby will be goin to tractor show very soon!!  hubby's great grandfathers

Farmall H~~she is a doll!! LOL braided egg bread loaves streusel topped babka loaves

  ~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~