Strawberry the Elephant

My Friend Alex gave me this sweet little elephant that she’d made as a birthday present. :)

Birthday Cake

A made a two-layer cake based off of a recipe called “Lemon Cheese Cake”. It’s called that, even though it isn’t actually a cheesecake—nor does it contain cheese.

I put some of my homemade lemon curd between the layers (yum!); and decorated it with vanilla whipped cream and coconut.

Have a cozy day everyone! :)

Persimmon Jam

This jam is way too acidic for me! The recipe called for a lot of lemon juice. I used some in place of the citrus in a cheesecake and that helped a lot. :)

I do love how colorful it is, though! :)

Thanksgiving 2011

Oh, the table was decked in finery and laden with sparkling juice and cider, sweets, sides, and turkey. Not everything that was made was put on the table; but this shows a good bit of it. My contribution was a couple of pies. :)

“Praise ye the LORD:
         For it is good to sing praises unto our God;
         For it is pleasant; and praise is comely.”
Psalm 147:1

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Apple Butter Hand Pies

I used a single pie crust, homemade apple butter, with butter and cinnamon sugar on top, and baked them on 375 F for 22-23 min. Yum! :)

Our Snowy Day

Today was our first snowy day this fall. They fell in great big wet flakes. It was so beautiful. It is warm enough though, that whatever snow is left at this point (if there is indeed any) will probably vanish soon. I am alright with that. I am hoping for a mild winter; but I enjoyed the peaceful snow today.

Heifetz-Mendelssohn Violin Concerto E Minor (Op. 64)-Part 1 & 2 (Heavenly! :)

Psalm 91

Psalm 91

"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. ² I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
³ Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
⁴ He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
⁵ Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
⁶ Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
⁷ A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
⁸ Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
⁹ Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
¹⁰ There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
¹¹ For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
¹² They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
¹³ Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
¹⁴ Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
¹⁵ He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
¹⁶ With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation."

From www.biblegateway.com

Canadian Thanksgiving

Well, I made another meal for Canadian Thanksgiving this year. I made two pies, one tart etc., and ended up just using frozen vegetables for a side. I’m ok with that. :)

I made vanilla whipped cream to go with the pumpkin pie.

Persimmon tart

Canadian pork pie. It is really good! (my grandma’s recipe)

Apple Butter & Lemon Curd

Here’s most of the apple butter I made, and about half of the lemon curd. I’ll include a recipe below. :)

I used apples from a our local orchard. :)

Recipe For Lemon Curd

Tweaked from “The Magic Cookbook” (an old recipe book of my Grandma North’s).

2 sticks butter

1 cup sugar

2 lemons, juice and zest

2 whole eggs plus 1 yolk

1 tablespoon grated stale bread crumbs

Into a clean saucepan put the butter and sugar, cook on low heat until the sugar has dissolved, then add juice of lemons. Take egg yolks and whites, beat well together with lemon rind and bread crumbs. Stir this into butter and sugar mixture and boil gently for 20 minutes. Sieve mixture. Pour into 1/2 or 1/4 pint jars and process in a water bath canner for 15 minutes if wishing to preserve.

Yields: two 1/2 pints

Here’s to the Truss Bridges

I’m kind-of nostalgic about these bridges. They’re not in fashion and haven’t been for a long time; but they’re a part of my childhood and country. Really, the fact that they are mostly a thing of the past probably makes me appreciate them even more. When I stumbled across one the other day I decided to stop and take some pictures. :)

That was such a beautiful fall day.

Happiness Quote

“Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
― Nathaniel Hawthorne

from www.goodreads.com

The Italian Dish

The other day I was looking for a recipe for zucchini lasagna and ended up on a blog called “The Italian Dish”. It is so great! I’ll put in a link to her site.

http://theitaliandishblog.com/

Ok, here are couple of the things I’ve tried. I made a strawberry cheesecake parfait; but it ended up different from the original recipe in more than one way. I used strawberries and raspberries, added less sweetener etc. It was soooo good. I want to make something like this again. Definitely a winner, and so easy to make.

Also, aside from some buns I made ages ago (that were stubborn about baking all the way through)--I’ve never made yeast bread. She had a whole post about this really simple method of making artisan bread. (That’s my first loaf below! :) I baked off the last of that batch today and have another batch started in the kitchen. This time I added some shredded cheddar, though.

This blog is definitely a blessing from the Lord. I’m certainly not done having fun there! :)

Felt Leaves

Autumn leaves on I’m a Lily! :) I just listed them tonight.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/81821555/felt-autumn-leaves-decoration-or-kit-in

Stopping On the Road & Picking Berries

I recently discovered that we have elderberries growing along our road!

I wandered on our road, in and out of ditches, getting sunburned and…

came back with little jewels! :)

I ended up making jam with the elderberries and some raspberries from our garden.

Happy September everyone!

Pickled Beets & Salsa

Lately I’ve been a busy little beaver canning. I’ve done most of it by myself; which is good experience. :)

Before I am all done it will probably turn into several posts at least. Who knows? Maybe I’ll can into the winter. Here are (most of :) the jars of savories!

Pickled Beets…

And Salsa! :)

They’ve both been going pretty fast. They sure come in handy.

It has it’s moments of frustration; but canning has been really satisfying. I’d never gotten involved, this much, in canning until this year. I’m glad I did! :)

Amanda and the Scarf

I saw the lovely French ladies today…

Me and Amanda

Alex, April, and a little bit of Amanda and their mother Jenny. :)

Amanda, Alex, April…

and Alayna

Amanda was so kind as to model a scarf for my shop. Here’s the finished listing:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/80828790/womens-or-mens-wide-knitted-scarf-in

Also, here’s a link to Amanda’s Etsy shop! :)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/MamsyMoments?ref=ss_profile

Call Me Muffin?

I did sort-of-a conversion of a recipe from a lovely blog called “Call Me Cupcake!”.

Here’s a link:

http://call-me-cupcake.blogspot.com/

One of the things I changed was the berry. The lady from this blog said the next time she made this recipe she would use raspberries or blueberries. I used raspberries from our garden.

Well my grand dreams for pink cupcakes with white chocolate frosting didn’t quite materialize the way I had hoped. By the time I was done I had what would more aptly be described as raspberry muffins with a “different” color to them. They received a warm reception on more than one front though; so they should not be counted as a total flop. :)

Made any cupcakes or muffins lately? :)