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? :)