Last Day of October

 Wow another month that flew by

God Bless America

Brown Bag Cookie Molds

 Are any of you that collect baking items--Are you  familiar with Brown Bag Cookie Molds?

   Back in the late '80s when we had our wholesale/retail Bird business we had a booth in Chicago at a trade show.

  When I was walking around I spotted this company and fell in love. This was a wholesale trade show-so all the prices reflected that. Of course I went crazy and bought lots of different molds at wholesale prices. These are pottery molds that make large cookies, they also had several small square or round shortbread molds.  Each mold was inserted into a brown bag-thus the name-Brown Bag Cookie Molds.  Over the years I bought several more pieces.

  I love all things kitchen items and I have a pretty huge collection of molds, cutters, stamps for cookies.

Anyways the instructions were not to bake in the molds. but form the cookie in the mold and then take out and bake. I didn't always have great success-especially with a gluten free dough.

 I dug out a Halloween shortbread mold and was looking for a recipe.  I found this awesome video and she bakes in the molds. Wow game changer haha. 

Here is the video sorry the video showed up but then when I posted said not available-strange.

   Here is the link 

   In the video you can see the molds. I looked online-Ebay and Etsy- and molds from this company are now considered vintage-so I guess I am more vintage than I thought-haha

  I looked online for a photo of my Halloween mold but couldn't find one-so here is a photo of mine

We finally got rain last night-lots of it with wind lightening and thunder. It  has been close to two months I think with no rain here.

Happy Friday and weekend

Good Morning

  We have had such a beautiful October month so far. Monday we were almost 90 degrees F. Wow and the leaves are beginning to fall now. We will start cooling back down rest of this week.

  I did get the last of this year's grass cutting done-what a relief that is. The guys have gotten the water projects fixed-sadly we got ripped off with the lift-wires were burned off or broken. Of course when Larry contacted the seller no reply. Larry is working on figuring it out. Since the lift goes up ad down it is a complicated motor-and expensive if he could fine one.

  Larry starts back on physical therapy this week-hoping that helps him get stronger. He still has one leg that will just go out on him with no notice..

 My slow stitched first bag is getting closer to having the stitching finished. In another day or two  I will be sewing the other panel to it and completing the first bag. Enjoying this project, and I think it will go faster going forward.

and----- today is a big one for me-I turn 75 today-haven't wrapped my head around this yet-smiles.

   I did bake up a cheesecake last night to celebrate both of our October birthdays. This time I swirled in blueberry preserves-it baked up pretty.. I always seem to end up with a big crack on top of my cheesecakes.

  Enjoy the last of these autumn days

Gorgeous Day Today

 I had a busy day today. Had to go to town this morning for a part for our water, cut some grass, and spent an hour pulling that mint that totally took over my perennial garden. Turned out the abundance of water was coming from the well-after fixing everything else about the too much water issue--  it was the well.

   So the mint took over everything and pretty much choked out most all of my perennial plants that I had started from seed. Such a bummer for me.  I did find our shallots-the last of what Larry's Grandpa brought back from Israel-so happy we didn't lose those.

    This photo you can see the shallots, and a couple of perennials on either side that I don't know what they are

The green spot in the middle is more mint to get pulled out

This is the big pile of pulled mint

I always liked this area-the big copper pot on top, old tree stump and I had planted a lot of perennials in this area. . Those red stalks are probably poke weed that needs to come out

Surprise found this blooming plant that has been hidden with tall weeds

a couple little blooms that came up from fallen seed of last years' plants

Larry bought this used lift to help get him up to the top-hoping it works. We paid one of our workers to drive to get it for us-if it works I am thinking I can put heavy groceries in this instead of getting it all down the steps

Happy new week

Is it Really Friday Already?? Slow Stich Update

    We woke up with a bit warmer weather this morning, and full sunshine-Nice. I may try to get some outdoor work done this afternoon. This morning I thought I would make us lasagna for our main meal at 2 PM -something I have not made in a long time

  I did bake us up fall cut out cookies-everyone loved them-we had our friend and the two workers that have been helping us here yesterday-along with one of their Moms, so I shared the wheat cookies They were a big "hit" with their coffees

  This photo is of  my gluten free cookies.  I was happy with the frosting as it hardened up in a couple hours. I used butter, milk, vanilla extract, meringue powder and half confectionary sugar and half keto powdered sweetener-turned out really well.  So the frosting was half the sugar as were the cookies I made for the wheat version-half organic sugar and half Splenda. I wanted to cut the sugar a bit

Note: All photos will enlarge for better viewing-just click on them

I did get more stiches done. This is going well, and I think each bag will stitch up a little faster now This orange hand  dye is now all stitched. I may consider stitching across this-not sure yet

Last night I stitched this section. 

   This piece was dyed with Pebeco sun dyes that I had added coarse salt to as it dried in the sun. That was a fun sun dye day with a neighbor that had never hand dyed before. The sun dyes are fun as you can put leaves or a flat object on top and after being in the sun it will leave the impression on to the fabric I made different things with those pieces already.  

  I have not removed the chalk lines yet-so that is what the white is. I went to my embroidery thread stash and found one that blends into the fabric

 The pretty clear yellow piece was hand dyed with mimosa leaves. In my opinion it gives the most lovely yellows from natural materials.  The goldenrod is a bit tricky or at least it was for me-it took me three seasons to realize as soon as you see yellow-must pull it out of the dye bath-or it will turn cloudy and a bit brown instead of yellow.

   At the woods house we had a beautiful mimosa tree-so I had looked up to see if it would dye or not. Once the tree is in bloom with their pretty flowers-that's when to collect the leaves and dry them for future dye.  Once dry-I pulled off those tiny leaves into a paper bag-as you do not want the stems in the dye.

Happy Friday and weekend 

    Any plans for the weekend?? We will have beautiful weather here at the lake

My Slow Stitch Progress & Mail Surprise

 Good morning Sunday,

  I have been slow stitching on my first bag, and am enjoying it so far. Nothing planned out til I start on a new block of my hand dyed fabrics.

   Some of the threads I am using are hand dyed variegated DNC embroidery threads that were a gift from one of my slow mail friends. I really like them a lot, so found out who the artist was and just ordered her Rockies collection.

  I finished that blue block first and last couple of days working on the rust dyed piece.

     I decided I did not want to stitch over the heavier rust dyed areas so stitching around those.

Photos will enlarge for better viewing

  There are some white chalk lines still showing up on the blue block

I really like these pins-they stay in place while handling the fabric when stitching. The straight pins would be coming out and stabbing me as well haha. These are special safety pins as they don't have that big curl on the bottom which would damage the fabrics-these lay flat and if that rounded end goes into the fabric-not an issue.

ooops I should have turned the photos on the next two as that will be the direction on the finished bag

This one below is the variegated hand dyed thread, as is the threads in the blue dyed block  I had started stitching this first to see how the threads would look on the orange-I like it-then decided I needed to stitch up the rust dyed block below it first

I just love getting slow mail and surprises in my mailbox-don't your??

  This handmade card is from Deb--I love it!!  I am enjoying it on the mantel with my gnomes

Update  around 1 pm  just finished the rust dyed block-  am happy with it

Peanut Brittle

   I have not made a batch of peanut brittle in a couple of years. I love it but my stomach sadly does not.

It is a fun candy to make, I buy a large bag of peanuts from the Amish grocery store every several years or so. I  make it now for one of our friends who also works for us when we need projects done.

  He is driving several hours away to pick up an outdoor lift for  Larry-he has a spot to put it next to the rock wall that will take him up to the top-and into his new electric chair-made for outdoor use.

  So I thought I would surprise our friend  when he gets back today, with a batch of peanut brittle his favorite.

 The last time I made it in the microwave-I still use a thermometer as only way to know if it gets to 300 degrees F or not. It turned out really good that way

  Last week it was a total failure-it would not get up to temperature so that was a toss in the garbage it went.. I could not remember which bowl I used last time so I think I used a bowl too large. . 

    So I looked around online for another recipe-and perfect he suggested getting a 2 quart Pyrex  I found an anchor hocking brand made in the USA   Happy dance! good results this time. The other tip I read was to use the instant read thermometer instead of those bulky candy thermometers-why didn't I think of that??? so much easier.

  I have a marble slab that Larry rescued from demolition back when he was in his 20's still in Chicago at that time  Perfect for candy making I also make my chocolate barks on this marble.

We will be back in the 90's this weekend 

 Enjoy your weekend

Foggy

 We are still in the fog this morning-which is cool to see early mornings. The air temperatures have been dropping in the early mornings but the lake is still warm

  The view early looking towards our neighbor-and I took these through the window so not bad

This one-surprise the sun shows up through the fog

This Morning's Sunrise

 

A New Week

 Good morning, a new week is upon us-we are full sunshine but much cooler now we have fall temperatures today.

    The lake was very busy do to events happening and our temperatures making it to the 90's-perfect for boaters. We saw many fisherman on the lake.

  Last week our workers got a lot done for us. Saturday I moved our large Weber grill close to the smaller one near the front of the house. Much easier to use there since close to the front door and kitchen. That was a job though as it is heavy and I moved a lot of the rocks too for around the base. This weber is probably over 30 years old now. Didn't get to the acorn ink project though. I did get gluten free and wheat batches of sugar cookie dough mixed up.

  I will be making another trip today to the local hardware store for more materials for our workers this week-to finish up the drainage project where Larry fell off the wall a year ago this month.

  Today the Kansas City Chiefs football and the Kansas City Royals baseball game will be playing at the same time tonight--so if I get the baseball game on the tv will be recording them both.

  I have watched a lot of film from phones of all the organizations and private people and business's helping the flood victims from the hurricane. I took down my rant post but for me it was important to express my thoughts. We must care about our fellow Americans.  Now on the fema page they say they are helping-however most all of the films I have seen the locals have not seen them or they are hindering.  Like refusing to let the independent helicopters land-who have been helping since day one.  It is a horrible situation Biden doesn't even know what is going on,   I am not in a position with my age and Larry's caregiver to go down and help so am praying for the victims.  Such a horrible nature's disaster.

  Happy Monday

Happy Friday and Weekend & Book

   Happy Friday,  

     We are quite cool in the early mornings for a bit but by noon we are in the high 80's or 90's.  This type of weather occurred soon after we retired to Missouri back in the fall of 2003  I like it because one can get a lot done outdoors in the mornings before the heat comes in.

   We have hired work done these past few weeks. The biggest problem was the water issue, Larry solved the water coming down the large hill across from us (where the eagles sit) and started working on another drainage issue when he got hurt a year ago. So the next project was to find the well, dig it up and see if that was the issue of the too much water.

  What a huge job that was, I have never seen a well set up this way and we have always lived rural with a well. The two guys were able to find the problem and fix it. One is a long time friend that lives near our woods property and his cousin came with-they are both excellent workers. We needed a small truck load of river gravel with the sand and the driver apologized for the high price-this load is usually around $30.00 delivered this time almost $300.00-Biden-Harris economics Yikes

  I bought J..D..Vance's book a few weeks ago and just finished reading it. This was a newer edition as he added an extra chapter from 2 years ago when it was first published.

    I had lived in North Carolina back in the late '70's and had seen rural communities very very poor. This book was a bit difficult for me to read in the beginning about when he was a child-on how very poor they were, his Mom always fought drug addiction, married numerous times, and the violence and screaming and yelling in most homes. His Grandma helped him through all this, encouraged him to figure out how to get to college. So he enlisted in the Marines, served in Iraq-learned a lot and used the GI bill for college. Then he went to law school. I thought this book was well written and  worth the time to read-an eye opener on just how poor so many of our population is still, but he found a way out.

The lake area will be very busy this weekend. That bass tournament with the $100 thousand dollar first place prize is this weekend, and in Versailles a city I go to for drivers license, the small Wal mart, etc is having their yearly huge apple fest-so I will not be driving any where over this weekend. Smiles.

 I need to go over the instructions again, and will set up one of the weber grills to make the acorn ink while we still have nice weather. Hope to do that this weekend, or early next week.

  Happy Friday and weekend! Hoping you have lovely weather too

Voted & Acorns

   Larry got his absentee ballot in the mail a few days ago-so he voted, and I drove in to the courthouse to vote. I called and was able to bring his ballot in with me, instead of mailing-I just had to sign some papers. I have always drove in on election day and voted-but I decided to drive in to the courthouse instead early and while the weather is much nicer too. 

  I was the only one there voting-I drove in early though, so it was really nice. My eyes are getting bad from the dry eye issue so wanted to drive in with less traffic too. This time there were numerous issues to vote on-the only one I said yes to was that only American citizens  can vote in our elections here in Missouri-no illegals that the left is pushing-I really don't understand that-they are illegals 

   The oak trees are fully loaded with acorns. Every day for a couple weeks now they are constantly falling on the roof down to the deck. The floor is totally covered every day-so I just blow them off. Yesterday I got to thinking-what about acorn ink or dye??  

  So I found a really good ink recipe that I want to make. Only thing is that this needs to be made outdoors do to the odors in the cooking process. I need to figure out a firesafe spot to do that.

  Here in this article that I found (I had read several but liked this one the best)   she gives  options with using the caps too or not.  I also found this dye recipe  and this was an interesting video by another artist  I have lots of my handspun wool that is white-but I am not up to the mordant process (fixative) right now

  I grabbed a little paper bag and gathered up a bunch of acorns and caps just now When they fall the caps come off the nut.

I need to bring this amaryllis pot of bulbs indoors soon-we got down to the low 40's F last night, this will not survive a freeze

Happy mid week!

Happy October

   October has always been one of my favorite months-both of our birthdays are celebrated in October, and when we lived in northern Illinois before retirement-I just loved the deep blue skies and gorgeous fall leaves.

   Here in SW Missouri we do not always get those deep blue skies and here with mostly oaks and hickory not as much leaf color as I was used to. The first colors are the deep reds of the sumac bushes, a few yellows from the nut trees like black walnuts, but the oaks are mostly brown-never knew that til we moved in the woods. A lot of the oak leaves stay on the trees too until the spring leaves push them off.

 We have early voting here in Missouri so I will be driving in to our courthouse to vote this week. I asked for an absentee ballot for Larry this voting cycle. I prefer to vote in person.

    We both celebrate our birthdays this month too-I turn 75-Yikes Have not wrapped my head around that one yet. smiles

    I do feel better since I lost a lot of weight-about 12 pounds so far-just need to get toned up and see if I can manage a walk around our steep hill of a road-that is also a circle. I have also stopped buying snack foods like chips, fritos etc I was addicted to those and my body doesn't like those anymore either. That was hard-as I always would  rather eat snack foods than a meal. Now I grab a small cup of fruit, or cut up an apple.

  I wanted to make us some fall cut out cookies this month. I have a very huge cookie cutter-stamps-molds collection-but only found cutters for a pumpkin, and an apple-so I also grabbed a bison, and a dog. I bought two leaves and an acorn cutter for more of a fall variety  Found a package of natural food colors too. Maybe this weekend I will start on those.  Was also searching for a keto frosting for sugar cookies-to keep the sugar content lower. One recipe called for meringue powder which I have not worked with before. I also cut the sugars in the baking recipe with splenda and keto sweeteners and use a little natural sugar with those.

  Looking at the weather forecast-Wow we will be in the 80's for a long stretch-loving that.

Enjoy your October