This and That

  We are into August already and so far the last few days feel like autumn. I am reading from a lake area facebook group that the hummingbirds are migrating already-which is a month early-Wow they must know something about the weather that we don't.

   Tuesday brings us to T with friends hosted by Bleubeard and Elizabeth. You are most welcome to join in just show a drink related photo on your post and link up.

  I won't be linking up this week as Tuesday I will be up early voting, and then off to the dentist and then perhaps check on the woods house since I will be half way there. I may be going back on Wednesday as well.  I don't want to link up if I won't have the time to visit all of you.

   Over the weekend for Second on the 2nd I shared a dye project for curtains that I did several years ago.  I had forgotten about the fall yellow color yardage. The plans for dyeing that was to make curtains in the dining room where the walls I had textured and painted and glazed with yellows and golds to look like a country European kitchen.

   So after being reminded of this pretty fabric, I went in search for it-some of you will remember the super packed craft room closet filled with mostly spinning fibers and quilting fabrics. After spending most of the day on Sunday I can't locate it any where. I just can't think where it could be. It was not with the other hand dyed pieces. So of course this has me frustrated. I looked a bit in the weaving yarns too. I need to make it a priority to check on the woods house this week so will look again there-I can't imagine it is still there though. I am really at a loss as to where it could be.

   In my search though I uncovered a bag of small quilts my Mom had made for charity but didn't get them quilted yet. I brought them out to see what they are and work on those.

   I also got out my civil war reproduction quilt project of small hexagons. I brought that out in the living room so I can get back to working on those. I would love to be able to finish this one. It's just barely started though, but I am in love with the colors from that time period.

   Over the weekend I tried out a new recipe-keto mini donuts. I have had donut pans for baking for years now-I had found them at Publishers Clearing House before baked donuts were even popular. I have the mini pans, regular size pans, and also for jelly donuts.  The recipe I tried was made with coconut flour and very good tasting. However I had a really hard time getting them out of the pan. They didn't stick to the bottom but I think it was the shape of the donut-will fill them less next time.

     I glazed them with no sugar chocolate. They ended up quite a mess haha so didn't take a photo of the finished product. I will try this again Larry liked the taste of them though

  

   The weather has been brutal here for veggie gardens, but I was hoping for a few heirloom slicing tomatoes-Not -I have discovered that the chipmunks here love the tomatoes-and have eaten every single one sigh 

    I did save one small tomatoe that was almost ripe.  I will have to think again if I want to try and have a small veggie garden here at the lake or not. Gardening etc is in my farm girl blood so will see, not sure how to even battle these cute critters haha

   Enjoy your new week everyone

Upside Down Brownies Ready to Serve

    I had some left over fresh pears and pineapple that needed to be used up in the frig. So I thought I would use these up and bake into an upside down brownie. Too hot for the oven, too hot to bake outdoors over the coals, so I brought out my slow cooker which bakes cakes and such pretty nicely.
   I diced and sliced the fruits up in small pieces-added to the bottom of my slow cooker and added the last of my wildflower honey (about a tablespoon) and sprinkled on some coconut sugar. Sprinkled on some baking spice.  I set the slow cooker at medium high temperature and let it all cook down while I was doing other house stuff.
    After a couple hours the fruits were broken down, tasted delicious but I had a bit too much liquid-so I sprinkled on some instant tapioca to thicken it up. Once that was cooked down I had just a little liquid left which I poured off.
   Next up I mixed up a gluten free brownie mix and scooped it all over the fruit. It took about 45 minutes to bake.
  It flipped over really nice-I set in some parchment paper up next to the brownie and then flipped it over onto a cookie sheet.
   Soooo delicious especially warm.

For our dinner today I got out my heavy grill pan and got it good and hot and grilled up (indoors on gas stove) a pork sirloin roast--turned out just like I grilled it outdoors. That was one of my best cast iron investments. I used pork jerk no salt seasoning-I found this spice when I was going through all my spices and herbs last month.  I also grabbed a small cast iron skillet and saute'd fresh mushrooms and onion in grape seed oil. Before serving I added a splash of fig balsamic vinegar. Served with a huge fresh salad and steamed fresh asparagus-good eats.



Visitors enjoying watermelon rind, stale breads, cracked corn

 This raccoon usually stops by after dark to see if I forgot to bring Miss Calico kitty's food indoors or not but lately he or she stops by early evening to see what is being offered 

When I drove back from our little rural post office to pick up our mail and was driving home on our long drive way-up ahead-how sweet-a Mama deer and twin fawns. The fawns were newborns as they were so tiny. I stopped the car so as not to scare the little ones and let them get into the woods.  There is a couple paths on our driveway where the deer cross. I never think to bring my camera along with me Hopefully Mama deer will bring the twins up close to the house soon

You can see we have tall grass all around in the back. It got hot so fast here that it is not safe for Hubs (health wise) to get on the tractor and cut it. I am thinking there is allot of paper making grass out there ha ha.  We ended up hiring our friend's grand kids to cut grass around the house-but with the grass so tall now in other areas-one can't see where the rocks are to cut with lawn mowers-so hopefully we will get a cool down soon so he can start mowing it down.

Cupcake Anyone??

  The other day when I defrosted one of the commercial deep freezers-the one mostly with flours and baking items-I came across some gluten free mixes from Bob's Red Mill-they had gotten buried on me.
   I want to use these up and then go back to gluten free baking from scratch-I can control the sugar and salt better that way.

  I hadn't ever used this cake mix so I decided to make a batch of cupcakes-I never frost cakes to save on sugars but I had some cream cheese in the frig that needed using up-so turned that into a lemon cream cheese frosting. I also added fresh blueberries into the cake. I found some spring colors sprinkles-so what the heck I said lol
    They turned out delicious!  Coffee or Tea to go with your cupcake??