last outdoor market today!

And of cource it is raining!! LOL we have gotten sooooooooo much rain this fall!!  making up for the drought this summer I guess!! but naturally it has to be coming on our market days!!
So this is South Haven's last outdoor market day and then November 3rd we start inside at Foundry Hall for our Winter Market with a great line up of farms/vendors being there!! I will post about that once we start and also give pics!!

So yesterday was a long day baking at the kitchen.  I feel blessed to have a dear sweet friend MARY join us baking! WHEW!! I would probably still be there getting ready for market if it wasnt for her and Susan making things!!

I made up some lavender shortbread cookies

Susan made praline pecan bars *when I took this pic they just came out of the oven still bubbling!*

Mary made this delish batch of chocolate coconut biscotti bites!! oh my goodness I could eat the whole batch!~! SERIOUSLY** love biscotti!!

hmmmmmmmmmmm maybe if we have some left I make buy a few and hide em!! LOL

this is Susan's Aunt Rosalee's crispy molasses cookies that Mary made!! Oh my these guys are pretty and yummy too!!

these little guys baked up so nice!

oh they look so pretty!! 

I also made a batch of pumpkin spice bars with cream cheese frosting which are pretty tasty too!!

and then I was so so pleased with this pinterest recipe I just had to make!!  Cinnamon Braid Bread

You roll it up jelly roll style then cut in 1/2  twist the two ends together and fan out the edges and shape into a circle.

 (I will find the original post and link it up here, she has awesome step by step directions)  I highly recommend making this bread it is easy peasy!!

So you see these beautiful layers of cinnamony goodness!! oh and buttery too!!=) 

They look so darned pretty but we had to cut one up to see if they matched up in taste!! 

a little "farmgirl bling" of just powdered sugar and water drizzeled on top. 

Ps. they are not only pretty but yes yummy too!! 

So a big THANKS TO MARY AND SUSAN!! and a sneak peek, more marshmallows to come next week!!  Mary is making a special seasonal flavor!! WOOHOO!! 

Have a blessed weekend I will be back soon!!

Sunday is our 12th year anniversary and hubby and I are doing something special with our "MY boys" lol for the day!!  and I am making a special supper for us maybe I will even get a bottle of wine or wellllllllllll probably a sweet fruity one since we dont care much for wine!! LOL

Hugs yall!!

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Hey yall!! WOW it is almost 1/2 way thru August already!! where the heck do the days go??  wayyyyyyyyy to fast that is for sure!
So last week my mom and I were busy busy!! We had the annual blueberry festival in South Haven on saturday and then I had market thurs in Allegan plus we had lots of rain and storms again and more coming possibly tonight!!  Fingers crossed we dont loose power again!   We roasted some zucchini slices for the vegetable lasagna.  Oh my goodnes!! zucchini at it's finest here!! I will never never ever fry it again!! We sliced them lenghwise into thin strips, sprinkled with olive oil, salt and pepper then placed in a hot oven for 10 minutes.  These were better than any kind of fried veggies~~I think this week we are gonna make some zucchini chips.  Keep them in the oven a bit longer til crunchy!~~ cant wait!!~

tater gnocchi ready for sauce!

Gnocchi dressed and chillin

coconut macaroons  YUMMY!!

these are my zucchini lasagna pans

My mom decided to add a bit of bling to them and sliced up some fresh tomatoes and parm cheese

this was a squash casserole, we topped it with crumbled butter crackers, only Ritz will do for this job!! LOL and baked til golden!!

Our newest idea!! Cake cup parfaits!! We did my loaded carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and then red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting *oops forgot those pics* they looked so amazingly yummy!!

5 sheets of my cinnamon graham crackers baking

all done and baked to crunchy perfection!

red velvet cupcakes patiently waiting for their filling.  I take an apple corer, pull out the centers and add cream cheese frosting up over the top and then top with crumbled cake.  they looked wonderful!  Red velvet is probably my favo cake!!

homemade gazpacho, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, onions, herbs blended up.  I did leave it a bit on the chunky side and it was delish!!

Swiss chard, zuccchini, sweet red peppers, red onions and pork sausage sauteeed for the breakfast casseroles. 

dilly beans out of the canner

rustic round rosemary loaves  so yummy and super easy peasy to do! The recipe is in my album on pinterest  Darlene Stumpf-Westfahl

Farmers morning breakfast casserole 

my mom aka pretzel princess did 2 pans of these up.  First dipped in homemade caramel, then in our milk/dark chocolate and rolled in chopped peanuts.  

So that is about it for now to share!!  This is gonna be a full week too.  Tues night market in Kalamazoo, Thurs Allegan, Saturday South Haven, we have a full day baking tomorrow!! cookies, breads, cakes, muffins. 

Be back soon to share more!!

Hugs

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

CSA workin wed

Hey everyone!!   WHEW!! What a wild wed it has been!!  This am I took my brother to his job, he volunteers with a job coach at Habitat for Humanity resale store.   He wipes things down and dusts shelves and so on.  His regular lady who he has had for umpteen years had to resign her position and we all miss her but I have taken on some of her things she did with him.   We had fun!!     when I got back it was time to get my butt to the kitchen and get things ready for tomorrow!!  This week's csa menu had the main entrees of :  tomato mushroom quiche with a cornbread crust and fresh thyme,  a pasta casserole with andouille sausage from Young Earth Farm and my homemade tomato sauce, our homemade cheese filled ravioli with a tomato basil sauce and then for bread options they had cheddar pepper bread or italian herb foccacia.

The filling chopped ingredients for quiche

Brought a couple dozen of our chicken eggs for the quiche  it took 22 eggs!!

The cornbread crust with a bit of fresh chopped thyme from Joe's herbs

Baked up and nice n golden

Cheddar pepper bread

nice and brown in the oven almost ready to pull it out!

my tomato basil noodles waiting for sauce

and there is the sauce

I thought it would look finished with a bit of farmgirl "bling"  LOL yepper it isnt just for baked goods!! LOL  some fresh chopped baby spinach and some parm bread crumbs 

I also got some double chocolate gooey butter cakes made, some pumpkin cake rolls filled with cream cheese filling, red velvet cake frosted with cream cheese frosting, red velvet cupcakes, pumpkin spice bread, pistachio bread, pumpkin muffins with cinnamon sugar tops, and the italian herb foccacia.  So WHEW!! I am one tired chic here.  NOW it is time to kick back and watch surviror and eat my wonderful supper my dear sweet hubby made.  We are having breakfast which is fine by me!! LOVE bacon, eggs, hash browns and my fresh cheddar bread!!
Have a wonderful evening!
HUGS
Darlene





~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Happy fall monday

Happy Happy day here!!  I am so doing a happy dance right now!!  Last week at market my necklace broke which had my silver heart charm on it my hubby bought me last year for our anniversary, it was special to me as he and our Bubba dog went to pick it up after being engraved with my boys names on it!!  As some of you know we lost our Bubba in feb this year and it just made me treasure it even more!  So this while goin thru my bags there it was on the bottom under some papers!!! WOO HOO!! YEE HAWW~ so happy happy now!

So here is a pumpkin guy I finally finshed up yesterday.  He is gonna greet customers in the farmstand but not for sale I like him too much to sell him!! LOL

This clump of trees is in our pasture and every fall it gives off such a wonderful show of color I had to take another pic of it! 

These are along the pasture just starting to change.

I made up some soft n chewy pumpkin cookies and topped them with a bit of "farmgirl" bling.  Some clear sugar crystals.

Glazed pumpkin latte cakes.

Smaller version of the pumpkin latte cake

And made some more of my pumpkin poke guys.  They are just too darn cute to stick around here and there.  I sold all of what I had at market so made up13 more. 

one more of my sweet punkin jack. 

It is gonna be another beautiful fall day here in the 70s so I am off to get my grocery shopping done and maybe head to the kitchen to get a few prep things done up.  I just really really want to stay at home and play outside with the boys ya know.  Oh well hope yall have a wonderful monday and will be back soon with more fun things!!

HUGS

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~