T Stands for Tuesday & Pumpkin Bread

   Hi everyone, Wow the last Tuesday of November-can you believe it??

   Those of you in the USA, hoping you had a wonderful Thanksgiving long weekend. For us it's just the two of us but I do try to make the meal festive. My sweet potato pie was really delicious. I froze the second pie in quarters so we can get that out for a treat later.

  I love pumpkin most anything, so I wanted to make a pumpkin bread. I don't have a good recipe anymore for gluten free. Searching the internet, reading lots of recipes I found the perfect one for us. I loved it especially since I didn't need to substitute ingredients-it already included Bob's Red Mill 1-1 gf baking flour, coconut sugar, coconut oil which are the ingredients I like to use in allot of my baking. It also included a little pure maple syrup too. Here is a link to the recipe-This is a keeper recipe for sure. Some recipes had 4 eggs which for me is just too much. This one had 2 eggs I also soaked some raisins-drained and added those in the batter. One small can of pumpkin is just shy of 2 cups. The recipe called for 1 cup so I made two loaves and froze one.  Larry who is not a big fan of pumpkin really liked this bread too--so I will bake this again for sure.

   I would suggest to know that your gluten free bread is baked all the way through is to use an instant read thermometer  I learned this the hard way over the years that it is really difficult to tell if a gluten free bread is actually baked done. It would brown up and look baked but after cooled I have had sooo many that were not baked all the way through.

   I google for what temperature I need for what I am baking now. The pumpkin bread needs to read 195 degrees f to 205 degrees f.  I bake according to the recipe-and then start using the instant read thermometer-this one needed quite a bit more time.

  The bread is very moist-really a perfect pumpkin bread and not sweet, which I like too.

   These last few weeks I have been ordering different food products online, since the small Wal mart store here still has allot of bare shelves  and they are getting better with more gluten free choices but I still find more online.   For gluten free products I like Vitacost  allot-and they have excellent packers and fast shipping. I buy wild sourced tuna, salmon products, and they have allot of organic canned fruits and vegies, mushrooms too. They offer free shipping after a certain dollar amount, and always have sales going on-a big one is on today. and what is nice about them they have allot of coupon codes for different products and at check out you can use all the coupons you want. I used about 6 this time  I do find gluten free products like crackers and such on Amazon as well.  and I have been using Sam's club online to buy more items-that are so much better priced than locally, and free shipping with our card. We no longer make the long drive to a Sam's Club-they are always at least an hour or more from where ever we live.

   Have you been shopping food products and such more online too?

For my drink share I am sharing a beverage I haven't had around for awhile-I get it at Vitacost-a gluten free-decaf tea Teeccino has many flavors and different herbs available to choose from. I have never seen it in a local store.  and these make the best dried tea bags to re use for crafting-dark with lots of patterns in them

  The eagle pair has been visiting again these last few days. I really zoomed in my old camera so the photos are so so. We so enjoy seeing and hearing them sing.

The early  morning sky over the lake has been gorgeous this month-pre sunrise

Happy T Stand for Tuesday

  and I thought of our Elizabeth when I spotted this in my Snoopy Group

All Kinds of Weather for AJJ

   Good morning Sunday,

      The sun is shining here, quite a few fisherman on the lake but brrrr it's quite chilly out there for us. Perhaps this afternoon I can get outdoors to move rocks or burn leaves.

    I shared a journal page the other day using my bear stamp but I wasn't quite happy with it, so I made another late yesterday that I really liked but before I messed it up with the stamped lettering. So this morning I thought 3rd time the charm?? smiles.

   I think I showed the stamp image better in this newest page, and am happy enough with my collage of papers and stamping to share over at Art Journal Journey with Chris's theme All kinds of weather.

  This is spring weather in Yellowstone park: Spring Awakes in Yellowstone.

I used a magazine page from a vintage Ideals magazine and grabbed the bear stamp again which reminded me of Yellowstone bear 399 and her 4 cubs born 2020. They are all grown up this year and stayed with Mama another year.

  I am still working in my German cookbook for mixed media journal pages. I used one page from the magazine and cut it up a bit before adding to page as background. I added the wolf-for Yellowstone's wolves, a trout as the park is still working on saving the native trout in Yellowstone Lake from invasive fish. and the bear stamp with 4 cubs.

all photos will enlarge just click on them

I grabbed watercolor pencils to color in the bear stamp, and blend it in with the background

Cast Iron Saturdays-Thanksgiving Leftovers

   Good Afternoon, I was heating up tamales and turkey soup for our main meal today, when I remembered just then I hadn't done my Cast Iron Saturdays post yet. For those of you that enjoy these posts-sorry for my tardiness.

   I almost didn't write one since I am so late in posting, but decided to check out ideas for Thanksgiving leftovers.

   My oven seems to hold the temperature well for one cookie sheet. My turkey came out pretty good but it ended up being overbaked a bit, this oven is not working the best but I am managing to work around it as the part is too expensive for this old stove, and I want to replace this electric with a gas stove-oven eventually.

    I always make a stock from whole chickens and turkeys for soups-so Thursday after we ate-all the bones, skins, juices from roasting all went into a large pot with cold water  I also added in the wings, and some of the white meat that was a bit dry. I let this large pot slow simmer for a couple hours.  Strained that off, let sit overnite in the frig, and discarded the fat that rose to the top of the pan.  I turned this big pot of stock into a very thick soup the next day, using up the rest of the fresh green beans I had bought for our dinner, more mixed frozen veggies, stirred in Bob's Red Mill's instant mashed potatoes to give it some body and all the turkey that was left over from dinner. I wanted a rich stock and later a very thick soup-turned out really good.  and I have two containers in the freezer for later after we ate the soup again today.

  Soup stock can be cooked down in a large Dutch oven, but I grabbed a large enamel stock pan-lighter in weight for me to handle now.

  The gluten free rolls that I had made were really delicious. They stayed fresh for one more day-after that gluten free breads go stale fast. I crumbled up the rolls and dried them in a very low oven. Perfect for our turkey soup-these soaked up the stock and tasted like little dumplings, and I had no wasted rolls.

  

Online I found this Leftover Turkey bake  Perfect for those of you that have left over dressing (stuffing), gravy and turkey plus sour cream

Leftover Turkey Pot Pie in Cast Iron

Thanksgiving Left Over Skillet   this one uses shredded turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and adds cheese

Thanksgiving Skillet Pizza  this sounds really good

Thanksgiving Left Over Sandwich--thought this recipe looked good if you eat sandwiches-just grill it in your cast iron grill pan or skillet

Pumpkin/Squash Pancakes   this is a good looking recipe if you had served roasted plain pumpkin or squash for Thanksgiving-turn the left overs into pancakes The recipe shares sweet or savory

Hoping this gives you some ideas if you ended up allot of leftovers.

  Happy weekend

One More Page for AJJ

   Late this afternoon I decided I wanted to make at least one more journal page for Chris's theme All Kinds of Weather over at Art Journal Journey

  Not too long ago when I was browsing woodland rubber stamps on Ebay I fell in love with the stamp with a bear and four cubs. I have been following since the spring of 2020 Yellowstone bear 399 and her 4 cubs. She is an older Mama and does so well raising her cubs. They all survived and Spring 2021 she has been watched again in Yellowstone and the Tetons with her 4 grown up cubs. I follow beautiful photography Yellowstone groups on Facebook, so I can feel like I am there too.

  So I grabbed this stamp for the theme and naming this page Spring time weather in Yellowstone.

I struggled with this page, I had added  flower stamps and watercolor flowers to the lower right area and the stamped image came out way too dark, so I searched in my papers for something to cover most of that of up and blend in. 

    I like this journal entry so so.

My supplies were my German cookbook for mixed media pages, rubber stamps and ink, watercolor pencils, and water brushes, and papers. I first painted gesso over the page-but didn't worry about covering all of the print-more of it had shown through before I added the cut out piece.  The owl is from a snail mail card.

I had spent almost an hour auditioning different pages-I almost left it til morning but decided wanted to finish

The color of paper with the bird and trees does blend in with some of the green watercolors I chose.

   and it did cover up some of my yellow flowers-but I decided to just call it a day on this one

       I enjoyed putting this page together for the most part, but since I am not totally happy with the composition, will not add it to AJJ

Happy weekend everyone

Pie Anyone?

   I have been in the kitchen most of the day today. Started out making dinner rolls from a Bob's Red Mill gluten free bread mix I found in the freezer. I baked them in cast iron-and they were really good-tasted like "real " bread.  They are a bit browner because I was going by the time it would take to bake a loaf of bread, and these only took half the time-I caught them just in time.

I made the chunky fresh cranberry sauce. This time I added softened dried cherries and dried blueberries to the fresh cranberries.

and I was very pleased with the sweet potato pies. I made one with a walnut crust and the other with a pecan crust. I had the exact amount of sweet potato mashed up for two pies so I just made two.  We like pie for breakfast with our coffees, and in case someone should stop by I will have pie to share. (not expecting anyone but one never knows haha)

This is the recipe I used for a reference from Taste of Home  I used half splenda and half coconut sugar for the white sugar, and I changed the milk to half and half. After reading allot of recipes online I cut the nutmeg to 1/4 teaspoon as many suggested less nutmeg and more cinnamon.  The nut crusts are gluten and carb free.

Have you been working in the kitchen today?

T Stands for Tuesday Craft Projects & Tamales & a Bit More

    Hi everyone,

       Happy T Stands for Tuesday where we gather over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog for T. You are most welcome to join us just share a drink related photo in your post and link up. Have fun visiting everyone

    Last week I ended up getting some things done-at least it feels like I have been busy-haha.

   I have not yet started weaving-sigh, I am too tired to concentrate in the evenings, or my days have been busy it seems-a good thing though.

  I did grab my big Yellowstone inspired quilt I made last year to try the hand quilting again. I had made the wool quilt, two gift quilts, and this very large one last year. I think by the time I got to this one I was "quilted out" for awhile. I made the  quilts--3 completed plus this one in less than 2-3 months.

  I tried using the three different sized wooden hoops I kept, but none were comfortable for me to hand quilt, and this is a large and thick flannel quilt so I had a hard time getting it tight top and bottom in the hoops. I did figure out simple line stitches as it was hard for me to manage curves for animals on this thick quilt. My hands are not as good as they once were either. So, I made room for my vintage Sears quilt frame-set it up and it's ready to stitch now. That took me a bit to remember how the frame went together and which was the right direction to work at as well.  I ended up re pinning the quilt on three times to get it right-I am getting too slow these days.

  After my Yellowstone trip back in 2017 I collected these fabrics over several years. they are quilt quality flannels or brushed cottons and I love the flannel wide backing that is all one piece and I put in a wool batting. This quilt will be warm and cozy.

and I took this photo from behind the loom--so this room is quite full now-my vintage oak desk with computer and printer are to the left of these photos and to the right are vintage cabinets, dressers, book shelving.  This room is off the kitchen and I think originally the previous owner said this was a porch of some sort that they converted to a room with a large closet-which is to the left by my desk-this room has no venting for heat or a/c but it is always comfortable to work in. It also has a door to the outside of the house-which I thought would be perfect to store firewood, when we get the woodstove working 

  I also ordered the oblique calligraphy pen, two nibs and india ink to teach myself calligraphy-wanting to be able to address pretty envelopes in the least.  The pen and nibs arrived Saturday but still waiting on the ink.  So as you can see I am set up for a few months ahead with fun craft projects.

  Saturday, we finally had no wind so I could start the long process of burning leaves. There are soooo many here for such a small lot. In the woods I only raked away from the house and never burned them.  Here, I need to burn them or figure out a way to compost them-but then we have allot of black walnut trees and those are not good for the soil-so I need to research that out if after burning or composting if safe for the garden or not. Do any of you gardeners know? Black walnuts have something in them to prevent seeds and plants from growing around them, but not sure about the leaves

A friend gave me these, and I thought they were the strangest thing-but they work sooo well scooping up lots of leaves to put in above burn pit

My water bottle

  

    Friday, My  husband finally got brand new tires-his were bald, two needed to be aired up frequently, and when he had gotten a flat-I said that 's it please order tires-so he has safe tires now. 😀 My car is really old and has some issues and living so rural,  we need one very reliable vehicle.  

   I made tamales one day last week. We really like them but they are time consuming to make. I made around 30 and then froze the rest to make later.

I also made a batch of Chex mix with all gluten free cereals, crackers and pretzles, and I use less salt-I don't add in the salt that is in the recipe except for the Worchester sauce.

Pre sunrise photos over the lake this weekend

Sunday morning early, I did a big food shopping trip and saw these amaryllis bulbs and brought one home with me. I love them and haven't had one in awhile This came in a pottery pot too. They either had red ones or Minerva I chose the later as it looked like a more interesting bloom color.

    My herbal tea cup is in front. I have been adding a Bigelow green tea and lemon tea bag along with the two herbal teas which makes a delicious tea.

Happy T everyone.

  and Update Happy Thanksgiving to all those in the USA

Cast Iron Saturdays Thanksgiving Sides

   Good morning Saturday,

      I ended up spending 5-6 hours last night setting up my old Sears quilt frame for the very large inspired Yellowstone quilt I made last year. I dug this quilt out a few days ago, pretty much figured out how I wanted to hand quilt it-needs straight lines for me with the thickness of the flannels front and back. I tried two days sitting on the couch using a wooden hoop frame-Just not working out well-so decided to give the frame another go.

    I stopped working on the set up around 11 pm and had totally forgotten about my cast iron post til now. Smiles   (photos soon on the quilt set up)

    Cast iron works out great for many Thanksgiving side dishes.

Taste of Home has 40 recipes here I will share a few from this site

Skillet Rolls

Skillet Sausage Stuffing

Skillet Hasselback Sweet Potatoes

Sauted Radishes with Green Beans-so much fresher than that green bean casserole-which is a double ugh for me haha

Shredded Ginger Brussel Sprouts

Gruyere Scalloped Potatoes

Southern Fried Apples   this would make a nice side dish and includes pecans

Keto Cranberry Sauce

Cast Iron Cranberry Crumble   for me I would change to keto sweeteners, and gluten free oats and gluten free flour-or use gluten free oat flour

Happy weekend everyone!

At The Lake

   Good morning,  It has turned very cold and windy here at the lake. Which has stopped my progress with the rocks for a few days. 

   Sharing a few photos

                                     Nature's Surprise

This was unusual to see-late lavender blooms

This squirrel was fun to watch-his tail was moving with the wind

So I took a video

Last night a gorgeous full moon out my window over the lake

Happy Friday