The Needle in a Haystack

Moroccan Chicken

 Recently in our Cravebox we recieved a jar of Mc Cormick Moroccan Spice:

. AND THEN,

They came up with this great recipe for Moroccan Chicken.

 This was so easy to prepare and very very delicious. We really like how the flavors blend together and the honey adds the right touch of sweetness.

 A great Sunday evening dinner for a rainy day!

 

How to Make Homemade Yeast Donuts

 

  What are those you say? Lea on her Krispy Kreme Donut kick again..... why no.. THESE ARE MY HOMEMADE YEAST DONUTS

   Hot diggity donut I was so proud of these donuts I couldn't stop raving about them... they taste just like a KK donut...

  I got the recipe from

Imstillworkin does so many wonderful videos and this one was a HUGE hit...

I found out that if a donut has the light ring around the middle its a good donut, cause that means it floats in the oil

Please note the white ring around my donut ( strut strut)

Here is the recipe off her channel, but I really suggest you go watch the video.. she's a hoot!

Yeast Raised Doughnuts

1 1/4 cups warm water
1 1/4 tbsp. dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar

1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup shortening
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
shortening for frying the doughnuts in

Glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Add 1 cup of the warm water to the bread machine, reserving 1/4 cup to start the yeast in. Add the yeast and 1 tsp. of sugar to the reserved water. Stir to mix well and set aside. Add the rest of the ingredients to the bread machine and when the yeast has proofed, add it as well. Set the bread machine on the dough cycle. When the dough is ready, turn out onto a floured surface and punch down. Let rest for 10 minutes. Roll out to 1/2" thickness and cut out doughnuts. Place on a very lightly greased and floured baking pan turned upside down. Lightly cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about 30 minutes or until double in size. Mix together the glaze ingredients and set aside. Very carefully remove the doughnuts from the baking pan and drop into a pot or deep fryer full of shortening which has been brought to a temperature of 350 to 360 degrees. Fry until lightly brown then flip the doughnut over and fry on the other side. This takes about 1 minute on each side. Remove the doughnuts from the oil and place on a paper towel to drain. Dip in glaze while still warm. Makes about 3 dozen, and this can vary depending on the size of your doughnut cutter, whether or not your doughnuts have holes in them and the thickness you cut the doughnuts.

Note: I would not substitute anything else for the shortening in this recipe. You are not likely to get the same results

 Lea's note:  I did not have a donut cutter so I used a glass and a soda bottle top to cut out my donuts... they ended up huge.... not complaining... I do not have a deep fryer so I used a cast iron pot and a candy thermometer  and fried at 325.

 

 Did anyone ever sing this song but me?

Well I walked around the corner and I walked around the block
And I walked right in to a donut shop

Well I scooped up a donut right out of the grease
And handed the lady a five cent piece

Well she looked at the donut and she looked at me
And she said this nickle is no good you see

There's a hole in the middle I can see right through
And I said there's a hole in your donut too!

Thanks for the donut, so long!

   I remembered it today when I was enjoying a donut with my tea...

My Bible verse really hit home today when thinking about this past couple weeks:

1Thess 4:11

and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you,

 Do I get an Amen?  Have a fine donut deliful kinda day!  All day long!

Valentine Trees and Fat Tuesday

When the boys were little we always had pancakes on Fat Tuesday. Bible story time would concentrate on the story of Jesus as n dult, his teachings, his miracles. This Fat Tuesday  the boys are grown but Chris and I decided that pancakes were in order, and a good reminder, no matter what day it is of everything  Jesus has done for us.

  This years pancake did not disappoint!

Oat/Pecan Pancakes

1 1/2 cups oats

1 cup flour

2t baking powder

1/4 t salt

3T brown sugar

2t  vanilla

2 beaten eggs

1 1/4 cups milk

2T melted butter

1/2 cup pecans

mix and drop by the 1/4 cup on hot griddle... we had them with country ham on the side and butter and maple syrup.

I realized we had not shared our Valentine tree.  We really do love looking t it so much in the corner of our den that we decided to make our Christmas tree into a Valentine tree

Its all glizty and sparkly..

..I finished this little pillow last week

 We are thinking about an Easter tree.... we'll see...

... and on a side note, has anyone else been chowing down on Girl Scout cookies like there's no tomorrow???

     Go out and make it a fine day.. all day long

Pumpkin Chocolte CHip Cookies

 I pry everyone survived the storms tht swept through the country yesterday.  Ours hit around 11:30 with winds and rain... Chris had to climb on the roof and replace a couple shingles and nail down some other stuff that found its way into the front yard... We lost a couple of trees... nerve wracking when you live in the country and you hear them crack but can't see them!

So while Mr E was on the roof I made some cookies from our pumpkin we grew this summer... I used the recipe from Gracious Hospitality Blog If you have not happened on LaDonna's blog may I suggest you do so,

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

A delicious, moist cookie that freezes very well.

2 cups sugar

1 cup oil

1 (15 1/2 ounce) can solid pumpkin puree

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 cups all-purpose flour*

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

12 ounces vegan semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts

Cream the sugar, shortening, pumpkin and vanilla together. Mix until well blended. In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture. Stir gently until combined. Add the chocolate chips and walnuts. Mix together. Drop by teaspoonsful onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees F. for 12 - 15 minutes.

 

 

Now go out and make it a fine day..... all day long!

Frozen Fog... and Bean Soup

Going out the other morning it was so pretty to see the fog frozen.... makes me appreciate living in the country that much more.

  We had a couple of snaow days this past week. We settled in with plenty of hot drink and food, even Cubbs found a cozy warm place to sleep

  I had read several books and watched some videos on canning beans, with the new shoppe opening we need open a jar meals... and I think I have found my favorite way to date. These turn out PERFECT, and along with a hot supper we have 5 meals sitting ont he shelf waiting to be heated.

to your clean jars add 1 cup of dried beans

1t salt

1T dried onion

a sliver of country ham bits ( optional)

fill to about 1 1/2 inch from the top with water.

add a lid and a ring  ( after you wipe the rim)

pressure can  under 10lbs of pressure for 90 minutes.

These are so tender and good.... we had ours with sausage.. so filling and perfect for a cold day..

 Go out and make it a fine day, all day long!

 

Casseroles and Gangs.. and another Shoppe!

.. or gangs and casseroles...

  Last week Chris and I attended a class on recognizing gangs, markings, clothing..etc... very very interesting. We know our shoppe is located in a high gang population town, so its good to have an idea of what you are up against.

    Makes prayer for our young folks even more urgent...

So, one of the markings we were taught about was the shaved eyebrow thing... one gang, M13 shaves one tick in one eyebrow and 3 ticks in the other to represnt "13".. I really wanted a visual of it so I went to our local news where they list the folks arrested, what they were arrested for, and their mug shot...

I was able to see several of the characteristics talked about in class...............

   ...and a rant... WHAT KIND OF PERSON CHEESES FOR A MUG SHOT, seriously,  some people look like they just got a pony for Christmas with the smile on their face. Is it just a reaction when someone says look at the camera??? I dunno.. rather disturbing...

  On to happier news:

    My dear sweetest and I have spent 25 years of goodness together. We will celebrate this summer... but what did we do today?

   We opened our satellite shoppe !  With priviledge license in hand we will be open Tuesday and Wednesdays right in the downtown area and we look forward to meeting all the other merchants around us and being a good neighbor.  We will certainly still be at our old location Fri, Sat & Sun.

   I drove home to throw lunch together for Chris and there was nothing but real food in the house. So I opened a jar of our canned chicken, added some broccoli, cream of chicken soup, a table spoon of mayo and some shredded cheese... preheated the oven to 350... topped all that stuff wiht a box of stuffing mix, baked for 35 miutes while I did laundry... and took lunch to one happy man...

I confess that having that chicken already to go has been a life saver... we will ceratinly be doing more in the future, homemade convience food!

Broccoli Chicken Casserole

Cooked boneless skinless chicken breast ( mine was canned breast meat actually)

1 T mayo, 1 can cream of chicken, 1 can cream of mushroom ( mix together)

1lb broccoli cooked and drained

1 cup shredded cheese

1 box stuffing mix

preheat oven to 350 degrees.

grease a 9X13 baking dish

layer:

broccoli, chicken, soup mixture, cheese, dry stuffing

bake for 35 minutes...

Great to have the ingredients on hand for a quick meal

.. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good... His love endures forever...all day long!

 

 

Canning Pork and Beans

Chris and I have been wanting to try this for some time and today we finally got around to it. I will link the video that got us started below. But first some notes,

These were good and we loved the convinence of the beans cooking in the jars while they pressure can. They come out just the right consisitancy.

 The allspice in the recipe would have been enough for us, and next time we will omit the cloves and add garlic.

We will also try brown sugar instead of regular next time, although I am not sure that will make a big difference.

We canned 6 quarts using this method, and like I said, this was so easy we will be doing it again.

Here is the recipe from the Ball Blue Book tweaked by Susan  int he video, I really do belive the tweaking is necessary.

Canned Pork and Beans

Pork and Beans
an adaptation of the Ball Blue Book's recipe

Makes about 8 pints or 4 quarts

2 pounds of dried navy beans
1/4 pound salt pork, cut in pieces
2 cups chopped onion
6 tbsp. sugar
4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
2 quarts tomato juice

Put beans in a large pot and add water to cover by at least 2 inches. It's best to add as much water as your pot will hold without boiling over. Boil for 2 minutes then remove from heat and let the beans soak for 1 hour. Make sure the beans are soaking in water, if not, add more water. Drain. Cover beans with boiling water by 2 inches and boil for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes. Drain. Combine onions, sugar, salt, spices and tomato juice and heat to boiling. Fill jar half way with beans, add a few pieces of salt pork, add more beans, filling jar 3/4 full. Beans will expand more as they are processing so don't over fill the jars with beans. Ladle hot tomato sauce over the beans, leaving 1" headspace. Remove air bubbles, wipe the rim of the jar clean, add the lid and ring. Process pints 1 hour and 5 minutes, quarts 1 hour and 15 minutes at 10 pounds pressure in a pressure canner. If necessary, adjust the pressure to suit your altitude.

NOTE: The processing times are the ones that are given in the Ball Blue Book however, when meats are being canned, the times are usually 1 hour 15 minutes for pints and 1 hour 30 minutes for quarts. You might want to increase the processing time. ( I processed my quarts for 90 minutes)

Anow the video, I use a ton of her recipes and suggest subscribing to her if you are interested. Lots of great tips

 

Go out and make it a great day... all day long!

Carrot Cake, Earwarmer/ Bernard

  Hey Bloggy friends, I had some sort of ear / throat thing going on today so I kept the chore list to a minimum.. ( or perhaps it was an excuse... I dunno)

  It had been awhile since we had one of our carrot cakes, Chris and I usually make a lunch or breakfast out of a big piece of this, whole wheat flour, pineapple, coconut, carrots, its justifiable...

I thought for sure I had written out this recipe before because we ahve had it so many times but I guess I hadn't so here goes"

CARROT CAKE

3 EGGS                                           

3/4C BUTTERMILK ( I use regular milk with vinegar , sour cream or yougart)

3/4 c oil                                   

2t vanilla

2t cinnamon

1/4 t salt

1 cup white flour

1cup whole wheat flour

2t baking soda

2 cups shredded carrots

1 cup  coconut

1 cup walnuts or pecans

8oz can of crushed pineapple with syrup

1cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9X12 pan

Mix flour, baking soda, salt & cinnamon and set aside

In a large bowl combine eggs,buttermilk, oil, sugar & vanilla and mix well

add flour mixture and mix well

add the rest of the ingredients and mix well

pour into  prepared pan and bake for 40-50 minutes until toothpick comes out clean

allow to cool and ice with cream cheese frosting

 

... Very very good  with a hot beverage, we had ours for dessert

I undecorated the bedroom today and did a cleaning in there, I hate to see the Christmas decos go... but then I would not appreciate them so much next year would I?

 I made the cutest ear warmer/ headband today using Tam's  @ Coffee n' Crafts  pattern . I needed something to keep my ears warm when we walk in the afternoons... I ahve a hat that is good for super cold days, but this would be great for the windy days too.

I used up a bit of the purple yarn

 I got the yarn on sale and from one skein have two pairs of the purple mitts and this headband with some left over... not a bad haul for 2.00

  As I promised myself I was going to work through cross stitch and other reandom crafts I have started so today I worked on Bernard

 I got his hat and face done today, good grief this is some tiny fabric... might end up blind by the time I finish.. but he is very very cute.

 Tomorrows big plan besides going into the shoppe is to write thank yous, and visit our dear friend who lost her husband right before Christmas I made her a special batch of her favorite christmas candy  to take over. I am sure during the holidays folks were around her all the time, but a couple weeks end the folks clear out and reality sets in. They had been married  over 60 years.

 I hope you all had a great Thursday... that it was full of JOY...

... carry thaksgiving in your hearts always... and have a fine day... all day long!

 

Happy New Year

.. I hope your day has been great!

  I know its been more then a couple days, but I really did need the break and now I think I might possibly have my bloggy mojo back...

 We ahve had such a nice day despite the rain, Christopher had a friend over to watch a movie and eat dinner.  I kept it rather simple for our foodage today.

 First off were these delicious cinna buns

 

    

 This is the best  recipe  I have made for cinnamon rolls

 Foodlion was running a special on pork butts  and when  I saw this video ( same person who did hte yummy cinnamon rolls) we had to try it... I must say if you are a fan of Carolina BBq then you must try this. I did not pull out the meat grinder but used the food processor of just a couple of pulses... a side of slaw and we were all happy!

 

                   We're STUFFED

 It was raining outside and the perfect day to snuggle up and read a bit.

Yes, I am STILL working on the Book Across America project...I think this is year 4 and I still am only about 75% complete... One goal is to finish this up this year, really its been too long...

  ..and in between reading I caught up on the Downton Abbeys...is anyone else in love with this like I am... it has been awhile since I have looked forward to soemthing on television... and during the dry season I think I shall revisit Upstairs /downstairs.. not as good but the same genre..

..and while I watched I made these:

  For a sweet neice of our neighbor at the shoppe...

 

..and I also cross stitched a bit on this:

 I think it is so cute!  

... and now the house needs a straighten, and the animals fed.

Lincoln Shot:

.. and tucker ourselves in bed...

 Prayers for all of you...and have a fine day, all day long!

Finishing Up

 

 Chris and I this year have takent he approach that if things get done they are important to us, if they don't they aren't.  

   Gifts are finished and bought, we just don't go overboard.. I really cut back on making gifts this year... No pressure to get things done so I can just enjoy stitching, sewing or crocheting.

 I did manage to stitch up a couple of ornies for my neice and nephew in SC.

  The snowman is from a lovely French blog filled wiht stitching goodness and plenty of free patterns... I would do everyone if my eyes didn't get tired

  You can find the snowman with lots of other snowman friends at  Gazette94, there is also a translator available if like me you forgot all of your highschool french.

  The reindeer is part of a wonderful design series by Daffycat. I have the other reindeer on my " to stitch" list for 2013.

 Now, I have a new love.... no , I haven't traded Chris in,  but my nightly beverage before I go to bed drink.

Peppermint Mocha

Noreen has a wonderful  you tube how to .... sooo good!

 

 

I am pretty sure this is by far my favorite hot chocolate mix...it 'might" make its way into a couple of gift baskets

 

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19

... have a fine day... all day long