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"I can't believe you made Dad ANOTHER batch of those yucky cookies . . . a double batch no less . . . before making me some of MY favorite cookies! How long has it been since I've gotten ANY of my Molasses Apple Cookies anyway? Huh? HUH?"
No matter how old you are there are times when you just have to let it all go and revert back to being a little kid when the universe revolved around you and only you. You have to stomp your foot and throw a small hissy-fit.
This was the scene that took place in my kitchen yesterday when my daughter popped in on her way to her office in town.
A little background material. This child (I say "child" even though she's well into her fourth decade of life) dislikes walnuts. A lot. Her father's favorite cookie at the moment is Walnut Clusters which are chock full of walnuts and a picture of which appeared in my blog post yesterday. It so happens that at first glance Walnut Clusters look very much like Apple Molasses Cookies which are my daughter's favorite. (A cookie, by the way, that I don't think she has EVER made herself. I know, I know, Mom's always taste better.) Glancing at that picture in my yesterday's post, she thought I had made Apple Molasses Cookies . . . her desire for which she has been hinting strongly recently. Then imagine her plummeting hopes (not to mention primed taste buds) when she realized they were NOT her beloved Apple Molasses Cookies but, yet again (!), those yucky Walnut Clusters.
Well, I guess I know what I'll have to squeeze into my schedule today. 'Sokay, it's a cold day, a good day for baking cookies. What kind? Oh, I don't know. Maybe I'll make some Molasses Apple Cookies for a change.
I am one tired gal this morning. I went to bed last night early eager for a good night's sleep. I'm sure I was asleep by 9:30. At 3 a.m. this morning my eyes popped open and I was awake. Wide awake. But still feeling very tired. How could that be? It was so warm, so snuggly, so comfortable in bed, why-oh-why couldn't I fall back asleep?
Finally got up at 3:30. Poured myself a big glass of o.j. (I've always preferred cold beverages over hot), and made out my shopping list for supplies for Thanksgiving . (Which will be very different this year, but more about that in an upcoming post.) Then I sat on the couch and propped my feet up before an open fire and read from cover to cover my first issue of MaryJanes Farm. (Thanks again to my sweet niece, C, who started a subscription for me.)
Before I knew it, the clock said 5:15 and, of course, I was falling asleep. I didn't want to go back into bed because I knew the alarm was going to go off in 45 minutes. So I laid down on the couch and immediately fell into a deep, deep sleep. When hubby came out of our bedroom a few minutes before 6, I woke up but couldn't get off the couch because of the semi-truck parked on top of me. Ugh.
But enough whining. A new day has started. Ready or not, here I go.
I read Jo's blog post this morning over at 14 Acres about her putzy (but very productive) day yesterday. She and I must have been on the same putzy wave length because my day was much like hers except she still had a few things to pull from the garden.
I made a double batch of Walnut Clusters because hubby seems to be on a Walnut Cluster kick and had requested same.
Seems as though I couldn't find the time all summer to replenish our granola supply so I made a batch of that.
You know I get panicky when I don't have a back-up supply of frozen soups in the freezer so after making some Bean Soup with a saved ham bone on Monday, I stirred up this vat of Minestrone yesterday morning.
I even managed to get into my quilt studio (whoopee!) and start on the Christmas water color wall hanging for my daughter's office. Considering this represents about two hours of work, it doesn't look like much, does it? I've got to have this done by her Christmas Open House and Sale on December 4th. Yikes.
I had no part in this chore (except documenting it). Hubby decided to get up on the roof before it got a heavy snow cover to clean our two chimneys. Nothing in there but a bit of soot, but it's always good to know there's no build-up of dangerous creosote.
Okay, hubby requested breakfast at 7:15 this morning (he wants to be out and going on finishing putting up the siding on the north side of the garage by 8 a.m.) and I'm already behind. Gotta run.
For me to enjoy muffins, they have to be moist and heavy. (Remember my aversion to most cakes? Blech, too dry!) Well, here's a muffin recipe that fits my criteria to a "T."
I made these a week ago and then forgot to blog about them. Took a plateful to a get together where they were gobbled up by all attendees including one person who walked by the meeting room, ventured in and readily accepted a muffin. I love it when I bake and people enjoy the product!
The recipe started out as a darn good one for blueberry muffins. Then one day I was trying to think of a way to use up some of the frozen raspberries I had in the freezer and decided to substitute raspberries for half of the blueberries. The combo proved to be so outstanding that now I can't remember the last time I made them with all blueberries.
BLUEBERRY-RASPBERRY MUFFINS
1/2 cup butter
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups flour
1-1/4 cups frozen blueberries
1-1/4 cups frozen raspberries
In medium mixing bowl, combine the softened butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs and milk. Add the salt, baking powder and flour. When making muffins, it's important not to over-mix so using a good old-fashioned wooden spoon will give you better results than using a mixer.
Then fold in the berries.
One of the reasons I like making these muffins with my frozen berries is that the berries don't smoosh when you fold them in as they would if they were fresh. When you have that cache of frozen berries in the freezer in the winter, this is a perfect way to use some of them. Plus, with their bursting fruit flavor they taste like summer sunshine during a time of year when we all need a little infusion of that.
Line 18 muffin cups with paper inserts and fill evenly. Sprinkle some sugar over the top of each muffin. (I usually use a sugar-cinnamon mixture.)
Bake at 375° for 25-30 minutes.
These freeze very well. At least they would if I ever had any left over to freeze.
P.S. If you haven't already seen the blog post my daughter put up today, you might want to go over there (The Tales of Chicken Mama, Lady Homesteader) and check it out. If she comes across as completely crazy to you, you may assume she takes after her father. If you think she's a super-competent, intelligent, strong, self-sufficient woman, well, she gets that from me.
We had a great phone conversation with hubby's niece way out in California land yesterday. Our 6-year old grandniece also got on the phone to tell us the news that her two backyard hens are molding. We can sympathize with her because our chickens are "molding," too.
This is the sum total of eggs our twelve hens have squeezed out in the last five days. It's funny that all summer we got maybe a half dozen eggs total from our three little bantam hens. I guess they were saving them for now when the bigger girls are on strike. Bless their little fluffy butts. We'll take every pee-wee egg they have to offer.
Our wonderful neighbors to the east stopped over yesterday morning to bring us some venison. This past weekend was the second of a two week/three weekend deer season up here and D and his two boys who came home to hunt were all successful. They brought us beautiful steaks and chops. I made some of the chops, mashed potatoes, pickled beets and green beans for our big meal of the day Sunday. Venison from right in back of our property and the rest from the garden. We're blessed with great neighbors and a bountiful harvest.
The downside of the venison/deer kill was that while hubby was working outside yesterday afternoon, Zoey the Wonder Dog disappeared. She's trained to return to a whistle but after fifteen minutes of blowing so much he almost hyperventilated, a thought occurred to hubby. He hiked over to our neighbors and asked if D had dumped any deer guts in the woods. He said he had put just a small amount up in the woods for the scavengers. Hubby asked where and D told him. So sure enough, when hubby got there, guess who was there gobbling up the delectable tidbits? She is now grounded and known as Zoey the Bad Dog for not coming when called. I was glad she at least didn't roll in it. I suspect it wasn't ripe enough to tempt her to do that.
I thought the perfect mirror image in the pond today was cool. Our temps rose into the upper 30s today and I expected more of our snow would melt but it seems to be hanging in there. The prediction is for night time temps in the teens starting Wednesday night so maybe we won't see bare ground again until April.
My computer monitor has been dying a slow death for about a month now and today I finally couldn't stand it anymore. You know how if you rub your eyeballs really hard and then you stop, your vision is momentarily weird with swirly patches of red dots? That's what my monitor looked like. Luckily, we had a spare one to hook up for me until we can get some other arrangements made. I tell ya, when it comes to computers it seems if it ain't one thing, it's another. (Could be worse, eh? Ya sure, you betcha.)
As you can readily tell, I have nothing of importance to impart here so I'll sign off and go get my ironing done.
These are the Walnut Clusters.
And these are the Molasses Apple Cookies.
. . . me and that demanding little daughter o' mine, Chicken Mama.
