More baking & a little Sewing too!

Welcome in the month of ThanksGiving :)  Wow,November,already.  You know what that means right?  No,well that means that pretty soon the U R Priceless blog hop will be starting (Nov 5th),you can find the Schedule Here and my day to post is the 13th :)

Do you like monkey bread?  Me too,so when I came across a recipe for Lemon Monkey bread,well you know I had to try it!

Yes that is another whole casserole dish of Lemony Goodness :)  Want to give these a try yourself?  Of course you do!  The recipe can be found here.  I took all my baked goods to work this morning,and most of these were already gone by the time four o clock rolled around!

When I asked for help finding the fabrics above Kelli from Seriously.. I Think it needs stitches,suggested that I look at find my fabric dot com where I was able to find the Red & the Blue :)  Thanks so much Kelli!

Then my Good Friend Melissa from Sew bittersweet Designs sent me the Green :+)  You are the Best Melissa,Thank You sew very much!

Can you guess what project I will be working on this weekend?!  Also this evening I did a little sewing on my first little coin purse :)  Sorry,no peeking,you will just have to wait until the 13th ;)  Let me just tell you,it turned out super cute!

Cookie little girl?

So far this week,there has been not a stitch sewn around here.  Instead my free time has been spent in the kitchen.  Baking Cookies....

Monday after work and dinner it was Lemon Crinkles This was my first time making this cookie recipe,I was intrigued by the ingredients,not to mention that lemon is a favorite of mine.  Although my cookies do not look as pretty as the ones in the link above,they are still pretty tasty :)

Tuesday evening I made Pumpkin Snickerdoodles This is the second time making these little gems,and they are just as good as the first time!  This recipe is a keeper for sure :)  The pumpkin is not at all over powering,but rather subtle.  This recipe makes around 4 dozen give or take a few,depending on how big you make them.

Tonight I made these Cran~Pistachio Cookies Again mine did not turn out pretty and plump like the ones pictured in the link above :(  I think that it has something to do with the altitude,or the amount of butter used.  Next time I am going to try using a half a stick less of butter and see if my cookies do not turn out so flat.  This recipe also yielded about 4 dozen.

They taste like Pistachio pudding to me,which is fine since I like it,and it is one of Mr. P's favorites!  Have you guessed that I have a bake sale coming up this weekend?  I am keeping one dozen from each batch and taking the rest to the sale.

Laboring on Labor Day

Sorry for the sudden Hiatus peeps,I just was needing a break.  Half of the time I was on a much needed vacation,spent with my sis :)  While there we drove up to meet one of my blogger friends,some of you are probably familiar  with her blog,the sweet person I am referring to is Melissa from Sew BitterSweet Designs !

If it is possible to believe,Melissa is even sweeter in person than she is on her blog!  I was welcomed into her home like a long time friend,and it didn't end there.  After showing me around her  immaculately clean sewing room,and letting me check out all her quilt tops,she fixed us lunch :)  Then we were off to the LQS x2!  Thank You Melissa,for letting me invade and hang out with you and Anne for the afternoon,it was the Highlight of my vacation ;)

On to the Labor..........

The above photo is what I did all morning,Gil's "B" Day was Saturday!  He finally put in his request for what he wanted included in his Birthday box,goodie wise that is :)  Starting on the left there are,cinnamon Rice Crispy treat cookies,Pumpkin Snickerdoodles,Pumpkin Biscotti dipped in white chocolate & pecans,and on the cutting board are,Cherry Chip Scones.  Of course I kept some of each for Mr. P. to enjoy.

This afternoon after waisting spending time on Pinterest I decided to work on a test block for one of my Bees.  I finally gave up on the first one,the directions were written wrong.  On to the second one,which was also a royal pain in my you know what!  I lost count of the number of times I sewed,ripped,repeated!

Even tho it didn't turn out correctly,since I placed some of the pieces backwards....  Over all I still like it,and have decided to call it Puzzled Star :)  When I get it right,I will post a photo so you will be able to see what it is supposed to look like.

Cinnamon Basil & Sun-dried Tomato Artisan Bread

In keeping with my decision to start making/trying things that are on my boards on pinterest today was a day for baking.... Bread,two different kinds,and a casserole for dinner too!

I wasn't sure if my Romertopf was big enough to handle the amount of dough the recipe made so baked   it in two batches.  It turns out there is plenty of room so next time there will be one large loaf,instead of two small ones.

Mr. P. was chomping at the bit for me to hurry up and take the pictures already,so we can try it!

He almost blew a gasket when I told him he had to put the piece he was enjoying down for one last photo!  haha,poor guy!  No worries,he lived through it just fine ;)  In the forefront his piece with butter,in the back my piece with tomato jam mmmmm good!  Credit where it is due........
                                               Simply So Good Is the name of the blog where you can find the recipe,and make yourself up a loaf too!  Really, it is super easy!  Of course I had to make it my own,by using my own mixture of flavors,hence the Cinnamon Basil & Sun-dried Tomato :)

Next up Carrot and Zucchini bars with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting (excuse my doodles on the freezer paper)  This turned out great and is a keeper also!  The only thing I changed was adding less of the carrot and more of the zucchini.  The next time there will be even less carrot,since it has a much stronger flavor than the zucchini.                     Want to try out this recipe?  You can find it over at
                                                  Real Mom Kitchen

                                                        Picky Palate

Since I forgot to snap a photo of my casserole I borrowed the original from the blog the Picky Palate.
The name of this dish is called Cheesy Chicken and Wild Rice casserole,it is as good as it looks in the picture!  The only thing I did differently,was to add mushrooms,yum!  One note... This makes a large amount,so you might want to cut it in half,if you are only cooking for a couple of people.

Hungry yet???  Hope you have had dinner,LOL!

I will leave you with a parting shot of the first sunflower of the year!  This is one of the volunteers that came up in the flower bed in the garden,where they were planted last year :)  Call me crazy but,it looks like she is giggling behind those petals!!   Have a grrrrate week ;)

Whew!

This is what I did from around 3:30-9:00 this afternoon and
evening.
We are having our first bake sale for Climb to Conquer
Cancer,which will be at the end of April this year.
Hope it all sells :)

Baking update & recipe for Jolene :)

Just wanted to let everyone know that our first toys for tots
bake sale/cookout was a smashing success!
We ended up making $550.00!!!
Above is a photo of some zucchini bread I baked yesterday.
I actually baked 6 loves :)
Am hoping to get 6 more baked up today so that they can go into
the freezer too.

Here are some of the goodies that I baked up for the bake sale.
8 dozen cookies!
Also baked but not pictured were 2 loves of pumpkin bread &
2 cakes.

These are some yellow squash fritters that I made yesterday.
Mr. P was eating them as fast as I could make them.
So I had to tell him to stop long enough for a photo!

As promised,below is my recipe for home made Granola.
For You Sweetie :)  (Jolene)

Pecan & Cranberry Honey Granola

1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup orange juice
2 TBsp light brown sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups Old Fashioned Oats
1/2 cup raw pecan halves
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup coconut flakes
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup chopped apricots
1/4 cup dried cranberries
*NOTE*
You can use any dried fruit/nut combo that You like.

In a medium bowl,whisk together first four ingredients.
Add next five ingredients.  Toss to combine well.
Spread on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake at
350 degrees for 30 minutes,stirring every 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool 20 minutes.
Transfer to a large bowl,add all dried fruit and toss well.
Enjoy!

Baking up a Storm tonight :)

Since I have been to busy this evening to take any pictures
of my baked goodies (for a toys for tots fund raiser)
I thought that I would show you some of the goodies
from my garden instead :)

Top right~peppers
top left~yellow pear tomatos
Red tomatoes~ the one in the middle is a purple Cherokee
Yellow/orange tomatoes~Mr. Stripey

And here is my Modern V quilt top
All finished,now I need to find time to quilt it!

Want to enter my giveaway?  Go here

Will try to post some photos of all my baked
goodies tomorrow evening :)

You are So busted!!

So we were sitting on the deck this evening enjoying the nice
weather.  I happened to look over at the tree in the side yard.
The two pairs of doves were in the crab apple tree.
So I went and got the camera.
When I came back this is what I saw!
Mr. P is going to have to move the bird feeders to the higher & longer
limbs of the tree!

Here is one of the doves at the top of the tree.
Didn't get any sewing in this evening, as I was baking some
things for a charity bake sale.
Darn Good Chocolate Cake
Poppy seed cake
peanut butter swirl brownies
Yum!
Have a great weekend :)

Cancer bake sale goodies

I'm Baked!  Came home from work early today to do a bunch
of baking for our second Cancer bake sale.
Just finished a few minutes ago, whew!  I am about ready to
fall into bed :)
4 loaves of Herb Cheese bread (recipe here )
6 loaves of Cheddar English Muffin Bread (recipe here )
11 3/4 pound packages of Key Lime fudge (recipe here )
6 packages of Lemon Blueberry Scones (recipe at Rocknrecipes )
6 packages of Cherry,Triple Berry & Sunflower seed Scones
Yummy Overload!
Wish me luck at the bake sale tomorrow!

Epic Baking failures , I could just CRY :(

Well after spending the day in the kitchen with a almost 40
year old oven, I had some Epic Failures, a couple down right
disasters, and some sell-able goodies!  Above is the cinnamon
raisin bread that burnt in 15 minutes flat!

These are my scuffs!  They turned out great, but my kitchen Aid
food processor died while making them :(  Good thing I have all
spring and summer to try and replace it.  (will have to put it
on my gift wish list)
The recipe for these can be found at RocknRecipes blog
here 

This is a carrot cake in my sunflower bunt pan!  It turned out
great!

These two are my Darn Good Chocolate Cake!
They turned out pretty good too.
The Epic disasters are not pictured, and for good reason!
So even tho I really felt like Crying a few times through the
day, I still ended up with a few things for the bake sale :)