T Stands for Tuesday & Greetings to the T Gang

   Hello Friends,

    Dropping in this week for Bleubeard & Elizabeth's T link up. It has been awhile. Life has been more busy and a bit crazy here, so I don't link up if I don't have proper time to visit everyone, read and reply. I did want to visit and say hi to everyone this week.

  Tuesday is the beginning of a new month. I have really enjoyed our October this year.  For the  most  part lovely weather here most of the month. We did get needed rain and also had two days of hard freezes in the 20's f, since then no more freezes. The sunrises have been spectacular this month with lots of reds, purples, and sometimes bright yellows.

 Every new morning brings us joy to see a new sunrise. I took this video over the weekend. Better viewing at full screen.

FYI That was the screen door shutting you just heard

  I haven't done any crafts really since I mailed out the Fall postcards which I believe were towards the end of August or early September-so it's been awhile. Today (Sunday) I decided to be lazy (while washing-drying clothes) and play with watercolors. My first attempt with the watercolor crayons I didn't care much for, and tossed out that page. I used the water brushes to take off the paint from the crayons and that resulted in lots of splatters over my page. Next time I try I will make paint from them on a pallet.  Today I dug out my watercolor paints and for inspiration I am looking at a fall photo with lots of rocks and water. ahhh so so, I need to really set up a regular practice day each week for painting to try to improve.  It is fun for me so for now this is a good thing, but I would like to paint better. I am on Craftsy and just found a really good teacher for watercolors and mixing colors So am hoping this will help me.

  We invited our new friends over for another pizza dinner-they loved the last one. These pizzas turned out even better. Didn't get photos, but I also made chocolate cupcakes as our new friend Mary lovesssss chocolate-anything chocolate.  These turned out really good. I turned a Bob's red mill gluten free yellow cake mix into chocolate, and searched online for a keto frosting to not add more sugar to these. Yummm sooo good. This frosting recipe is a keeper, and you can freeze the left over frosting for up to two months. These needed to be stored in the refrigerator with this frosting, and I had the perfect containers for that. I even found Halloween cupcake liners in my pantry.

I also found Halloween sprinkles in my spice cabinet So I served these after the pizza 

  We opened up a bottle of red wine to go with the pizza-of course forgot to take photos but this is the last of it. This was a really nice red. We have had this bottle for quite awhile. Back when Lilburn was still with us he bought the rest of a liquor and bait shop at an auction. Most of the labels were a bit dirty-I just washed them off with soap and water

I haven't been reading much either, which I usually do allot of in the evenings especially if nothing much is on the tv. I do have books waiting for me though.

  We have always loved birds and watching them, and we are up close and personal now as we are feeding seed on our deck. One day last week, Larry was so excited as a Hawk landed on the railing-we are thinking he wanted one of those little birds for his lunch. We haven't seen him again.

  I will be driving back to the woods house again this week, but I will be around to visit.

  The beauty of autumn was at it's peak here in the Ozarks this past week-so beautiful. This is looking out at the lake on the deck. They have been doing allot of work there where the smoke is.

   Enjoy your new week-and looks like also Welcoming in a new month. I don't think I am ready for November just yet.

  

   

Another Surprise & Lemon Meringue Pie

   I did make us our favorite lemon meringue pie a couple days ago. There is one piece left. We did share with a friend yesterday too.

   This juicer is one of my first hand made pottery finds back in the early '70s I have always loved using this. I also used that tool in the back for the lemon peel

The ingredients-egg whites, egg yolks, lemon juice, lemon peel cornstarch and the water and sugar was on the stove

I made a ground pecans (homegrown from Arkansas) and gluten free graham cracker crust

I haven't been posting as much so I think I forgot to share a pretty card from Deb, which looks pretty on the mantel

   A dear friend messaged me I had a surprise package coming in the mail-Wow this was a total surprise-a bundle of hand dyed fabrics and hand dyed threads. all different sizes and textures of cloth-Loving it.  Some of these may find their way into my little sashiko bags that I have not started as of yet.

This pretty piece was on the bottom

Thank you so much dear friend. (I didn't get permission yet to share the name of who I am thinking she would rather be incognito-smiles)

I have always enjoyed caramel apples during the fall season, I used to make my own. Now I do enjoy it the "senior way" haha  I made up a bowl last night. This is one large apple sliced thin, with sprinkled pecans, and drizzled on top warmed caramel sauce.

  Happy Friday and Weekend.  I will be  making up homemade pizzas tomorrow and inviting the couple over that loved the pizzas I made awhile ago

Watercolor Crayons??

   Good morning Thursday,

  I subscribe to Crayola and in my inbox this month was a coupon for a large discount for my birthday. I have read a little bit about watercolor crayons-so I thought I would get those. Thought they would be fun to try out.

  It arrived really fast, but the brush was missing, looked all through the packaging-nope no brush. So I wrote them online thanked them for the coupon and fast ship, but no brush. Told them I did not expect them to send me the missing brush but just wanted them to know about it. A few hours later the company apologized and is sending me out a whole new replacement. Wow did not expect that at all, I have always liked Crayola products through the years. Around Christmas shopping time they have large discounts-so that's when I stock up if I need anything.

  Have any of you used watercolor crayons? I found this video They work allot like the watercolor pencils but looks like perhaps more color from the crayons?

   I have not had any art days for many weeks now-I need to do that and soon smiles

Sharing a Lovely Surprise in my Mailbox & a Misty Sunrise Today

   A few days before my birthday (the 24th) I received a surprise in my mailbox. My friend Barbara told me she was going to send me something and it arrived just before my birthday (although this gift was not a birthday gift)

  When I unwrapped the gift I almost cried. We have been friends for many years now and Barbara remembers our wolf family member Nikita-our hearts still miss her so much. 

  Barbara has sent me a couple things with her beading, and I know now this art is more difficult for her hands, so this was even more special to me.  This looks just like Nikita too.

  So I am able to view this piece every day, I placed it inside this vintage pottery bowl that is filled with arrowheads we found on our woods property and other nifty rocks.

  On the bottom are knitted fall leaves that another friend sent me several years ago now.  I am blessed.

    Thank you again Barbara this is really a special gift I Love it so much!!

After the two days of rain and then yesterday afternoon very very strong winds that came through, last night dipped to the low 30's F  so this morning early we had the fog-steam coming off the lake.  This morning's sunrise early

The fall colors in this area are now at their peak-and gorgeous. We went to town yesterday and it was such a lovely drive.

  Here is my view out the wall of windows

and out the front door-where the eagles like to sit

Happy Mid week!!

Good Morning Monday-a Little Catch Up

   Good morning Friends,

I am a bit sore but I did manage to get the main things accomplished I wanted to over our 3 day 80's F long weekend-that was wonderful to be outdoors and with no humidity. Although the humidity has moved in today as any time now we have lots of rain coming in over two days. We do need the rain but not so much at one time. The rivers here in this area will be over their banks for sure.

  Larry also finally got help to get the roof on the rest of his dock. We had two people working on it Early in the day the lake was pretty quiet.

 

         Looks like a dock now-it's almost finished finally

I was able to clean up the perennial garden area. I have zinnia and marigold seeds drying now indoors. I wanted to get the flower heads in before the heavy frost last week

   I started to trim back the butterfly bush and decided I better look that up first-glad I did as I am not suppose to trim it back. smiles  I did cut off all the flower stems. I left a few plants that were still blooming as I wasn't sure which were annuals or perennials. I laid out allot of mulch around the plants too We have had two hard freezes in the 20's last week but the lemongrass still looks fine-however around here the lemongrass is an annual plant. I did dry a pretty big bag full for teas I also planted a big bag of large yellow daffodils in this area.

   My other project was to dig up all the grass and weeds that I had killed off and then added in the garden soil-5 large bags I will need to add more next spring. This area has been used by too many people parking here and I wanted to stop that.     Sooo the top area was hard as cement and full of rocks. So difficult to get through. I decided to save time and just skim off all the dead plants-lay them back on top of the ground and then add the soil on top-this should break down and hopefully loosen things up a bit over winter. I will put ground cover plants in here next spring and I am thinking of planting annual seeds like cosmos etc.

   I didn't get to the edging work though-I need rain first for that to loosen up things. so perhaps end of the week or next weekend I can tackle that project before winter.

  Our property line is just past that new sewer system down by the lake (a round plastic green cover on ground) and just in front of the row of trees on the left facing the little road we made down to the lake. So part of this area I worked on is the neighbors-just the top little corner. They gave me permission to do what ever-and will save them needing to weedeat that space.

 A glorious sunrise for my birthday today. sorry these are not in order; the sky was dark and then more and more reds came in, and then greys, purples and pinks-the yellows is the sun behind the clouds.

  We have been enjoying some really beautiful sunrises this month-above photos all taken early this morning.

    I am not making a special birthday dinner today, but I did make up some awesome baby back ribs to enjoy over the weekend. This afternoon I will bake us up a from scratch lemon meringue pie-one of our favorite pies.  Actually I am doing something with our leftover hamburgers that I had grilled on Friday for our main meal at 2 pm So a simple meal for today-I  sautee'd  mushrooms, sweet pepper, poblano peppers and sweet onion-heated up the hamburgers on top of the hot sautee'd veggies. 

Update on this: It is raining pretty good now, so thought perhaps not good to make the meringue on a rainy day-so I looked that up-yep says don't bake this pie on a rainy day, as the meringue will turn out sticky.  Bummer as all the ingredients were at room temperature. Will bake after the rains have moved on.

    I have been enjoying little surprises in my mailbox last week. I also received a couple happy birthdays through email  The small card in the middle is from a friend in Colorado, it's her photo of the aspens beginning to change-she knows I loved Colorado back in the late '70s when I lived there. At peak color the aspen yellows are a lovely bright yellow.  In the front is the too awesome stamped card from Elizabeth along with a couple napkins for me to craft with.

   Thank you all so very much, nice to be remembered-hugs

Happy new week everyone

It's Friday Here & Fruitcakes Update

  Happy Friday everyone,

We are waiting for it to warm up a bit this morning before we head outdoors-I have lots I want to accomplish over these 3 days of 80' F  Since it is fall it is slow to warm up, thinking around 10 am I can get outdoors. We do have full sunshine today and no wind-a biggy, but they added us back into the red flag situation which means No burning.

  I took some photos of the baked fruitcakes and the process to age it-if anyone not familiar.

I cut each long bread pan into fourths

These baked up nice-a tad overbaked but these will hold up well with soaked brandy cheesecloth

I cut the 8 pieces of cheese cloth so ready to go, a dish of brandy-place the cheesecloth in to soak a bit-squeeze gently, still want it to be damp

 Wrap the cakes

I had picked up these containers a few years ago to store christmas baked goodies and candies-since I am only making the one recipe of the fruitcakes now-these are perfect for that-4 in each one. I then place these in another sealed container and store in a cool spot in the house. Check every month or so if need more brandy or not

Happy Friday and weekend everyone.

 

Brrrr It's Cold Out There & Fruitcakes

   Happy mid-week everyone,

 We have been waking up the last couple mornings in the mid 20's F so we definately have had a hard freeze. Slow to warm up as well. The first night it did not seem to effect my perennial garden too much but this morning-yes a frost has hit.

  Monday the road trip to the cardiac unit at Mercy in Springfield Missouri was a long one. Although the route we took this time-almost the same amount miles of 100-was a route through rural Missouri and Amish country instead of all 4 lane highway. We even saw the Niangua river area that flows into the Lake in the Ozarks. I hadn't seen that before, but Larry and his late friend Lilburn would launch the boat in this area to fish. Pretty country. Took 2 hours to drive in, very little traffic to deal with til we got into the city which is always bumper to bumper now no matter the time of day.

  The test results were sadly what we were thinking, less heart function than two years ago. A couple options hubs will need to decide if he wants to or not. My husband has been ill or in constant pain since childhood this is one more life struggle for him-sadly. I will push him to do more fishing and forget about house projects going forward. He has always worked all the time, never time for himself or fun-I will insist on it now.

  This morning I baked up Larry's favorite holiday treat-an English dark fruitcake. I know many don't care for this and it is full of sugars but homemade is totally different than those cakes you find in the stores.  I even dug out a handmade pottery bowl which I enjoy using.

Ready for the oven-vintage baking pans I found years ago perfect for this recipe

These will bake for 2 1/4 hours-rest, and tomorrow will wrap up in cheesecloth soaked with brandy.  My gluten free version from 2 years ago is still good-I keep it in the back of the frig.

and in comments about the pineapple upside down cakes, someone asked to see the bottoms Mine are not as pretty as the photos in the recipes show with the pineapple rings and cherries but these tasted really delicious (and we don't like those cherries) and since I stored them in a sealed container they are still very moist and good tasting

 I had taken my camera along to hopefully grab some fall photos, but the lake area is much further along than the areas we drove through so sorry no scenic photos this time.

An October Sunday

 Good morning Friends,

    Yesterday we had invited over new friends and a couple friends from the woods house area-to celebrate Larry's birthday (which is today) and to also enjoy fishing on the dock. I really did not know who if any were going to come-ended up everyone came except for one and he called us that he had an emergency. (his granddaughter totaled her car by crashing into a deer-she is ok-thank goodness).

   I made this into a simple event-homemade bbq beans, lots of different dips, toppings for the brats, chips and dippin fritos. Larry and I both searched for artisan brats and smoked sausages, so I offered a large variety. 

   Grilling in the kitchen on two cast iron grill pans I was busy doing that and did not get much in photos to share.  I bought nicer buns too for the guys-but was surprised most did not eat the buns-but they did eat many brats and most of the bbq beans--this Larry told me after I mentioned we only had 3 brats left but all these buns-that was a surprise to me.  I also picked up from the deli a layered bean-guacamole, sour cream dip, and also a humus dip. One person brought a large pasta-veggie salad.

  Most of the food was gone so I would say they enjoyed everything-smiles-and everyone thanked me and gave big hugs on their way out. I only got a photo of the serving table I had set up before the perishable foods came out.

and the BBQ beans

  I had thought of baking up the pineapple upside down cupcakes for the gathering-but since I hadn't made those before decided to bake today.

  I used a quality gluten free cake mix and added pineapple extract to the batter. I only had one pan that was a bit larger in size (a vintage cupcake pan), so with batter left over I filled up just the batter into the smaller size pan.

  I just took them out of the oven to cool-the upside down ones are wet on the bottom outside-so I placed them into another cupcake liner.  Looking online for recipe ideas most just greased their pans with no cupcake liners-I thought that could be a real mess to get out of the pans. After they have cooled will let you know how they turned out.  Also reading the recipes they were all over the place on how much melted butter and brown sugar to use on the bottoms. So I just melted 1/4 cup of butter and stirred in keto brown sugar sweetener til mostly absorbed into the butter-placed that on the bottom of the liners and added the drained crushed pineapple. I only like to use drained crushed pineapple for the upside down cakes. I think the thick rings are more difficult to eat and we don't like those cherries-haha

In the back are my Yellowstone water bottles, my hot cocoa mixes, and a hand burned cutting board-she designed it to be similiar to our lake here

    Tomorrow will be a very long day, so instead of working outdoors today I am going to relax with watching football. 

    Since 1967 when I was in college the Green Bay Packers were my team to follow. As I moved around to different areas of the country through my lifetime, I would also follow the local football team.  I did stop watching most sports with their disgraceful kneeling to our great flag for a few years now. Go protest elsewhere not while you are being paid to play is my opinion still. I worked for the phone company and would have been fired for such behavior  Ok enough of that---My hometown team now since moving to Missouri is the Kansas City Chiefs-I love their coach and Mahomes is the next one to watch-he is a very exciting quarterback to watch play the game.  To avoid all those commercials-I record the games and then buzz over the commercials-more enjoyable to watch for me.

Enjoy your Sunday and new week 

"update"  the cupcakes turned out pretty good. The  need to be totally cool before taking off the papers though. I tried one warm and the bottom goodies stuck to the paper-once cool the were fine. Next time I would add more crushed pineapple on the bottom-but the edition of the pineapple extract into the batter was a nice touch.

Looking at the weather for this upcoming week-Tuesday and Wednesday we will be in the low 20's F for evenings, so that will be a hard freeze for sure. Our first freeze here

Good Morning Saturday-Amazing Pre-Sunrise

 Happy weekend friends,

    The weatherman has lowered our temperatures for the weekend and next week, but still hoping to get some things accomplished outdoors. and Saturday around 4 pm we are hosting a small fishing-birthday party for Larry. His birthday is on the 16th which is a Sunday. We have looked around and purchased some hand crafted brats, some mild some very hot. Larry didn't want potato salad just munchies and dips. I am thinking of baking upside down pineapple cupcakes too. Should be fun. Originally we were to be in the mid 70's all weekend which has changed to the mid 60's instead.

   We are also on a red flag alert-conditions ideal for wildfires-so I won't be firing up the grill this weekend.

   We woke up to an amazing looking sky this morning-early. When the sun rose it was soooo bright I couldn't look at it, so didn't get a photo of that.  We also viewed lots of little ducks in small groups-some flying over and some swimming in the lake.

  These photos are shown in order while we watched  We both have always been early risers-never people to just stay in bed late-if we did we would have missed all this beauty

The reds now gone-sun beginning to peak through

The little ducks that we watched on the lake

  In the first photo can you see them??

This one was taken indoors-sorry through dirty windows

This week I made us bean soup with a little bit of ham and cornbread

and my recipe-the best ever in my opinion I have shared this in the past-this one is gluten free and I love the method of mixing this up

Sharing the cornbread recipe I use. I found this online in 2004 on King Arthur Flour's site. It is no longer there.

I always really liked this one because it uses only cornmeal no added wheat flour so this is gluten free too. This is also not sweet which I prefer

This recipe is made for a cast iron pan-could be made in a different pan but won't be the same for the crunchy bottoms and sides.

I use my 9 3/4" inch square cast iron pan. The recipe calls for an 8" cast iron pan. I double this recipe which will fill my pan nicely as it bakes. This is awesome baked outdoors over and under coals in cast iron too

Not-Northern Cornbread by King-Arthur Flour

4 teaspoons bacon drippings or I use 4 teaspoons olive oil

1 cup cornmeal-divided ( if you can find it popcorn meal is really good too added with the cornmeal)

2 teaspoons sugar (I use splenda)

1/2 teaspoon salt (I omit)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup boiling water

3/4 cup buttermilk (I make my own-add 3/4 tablespoon lemon juice to milk or half and half)

1 large egg lightly beaten

Warm up your oven to 450 degrees F when oven to temperature add in your cast iron pan with fat to heat up

In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together 2/3 cup of the cornmeal, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

In a small bowl combine the remaining 1/3 cup cornmeal with the boiling water-stir to blend. Add the buttermilk whisking til most of the lumps are gone. Stir in the beaten egg.

Stir together the wet and dry ingredients, mixing til just combined. Remove the hot skillet from the oven and pour fat into the cornbread batter. Spoon the batter into the hot skillet, spreading it evenly over the bottom. Return the skillet to the oven and bake the cornbread for 20 minutes or til it's starting to brown around the edges, and the center springs back when lightly pressed with your fingertips. Remove the skillet from the oven and transfer the cornbread to a cooling rack. It should slide out of the pan easily

Happy Friday and weekend