Shoofly Coffee Cake

How about a piece of Shoofly  Coffee Cake! 

Very moist and tasty! I used Blackstrap molasses as that is what I had. Delicious!

Mickey. I put him on the scale a few days ago and he weighs 15.2 pounds! He has to push and shove to get his bulk through the cat door. He talks to me all the time, and if I leave the room, he follows me and lays down near my feet. If I leave and he doesn't see me leave, he meows an meows, calling for me. It can get quite annoying. I don't know what he does when I'm at work all day. He usually follows me to the door when I get ready to go to work.

It seems that I haven't been keeping up with this blog very well lately, in spite of my best intentions. Life has a way of taking precedence over our 'want to' do things sometimes. But I am here now so here are a couple of photos for you, Mom. This is your kitchen table from the farm.The sugar and creamer set is from Aunt Marge, on one of her visits. I like it there on the table.

I  think it is kind of pretty. Nice and bright.

And here it is dressed up a little bit. Lois, this is the table cloth that you gave me. It fits perfectly.

This is a butter slicer that I bought at a yard sale during the summer.

The three pieces. You can make just 'sticks', or sticks all cut into 'pats'.

Put your block of butter on it...

Put the stick cutter in place and push it through the butter.

Half way through. Cold butter is best. Frozen is too hard. Soft butter just flattens.

Here is the 'pat' slicer.

This one is pushed down from the top, and all the slices are all the same.

And there you have it! I usually just make sticks and put them back on their wrapper and back in the fridge and they are ready to use! A little hot soapy water and it is ready for the next one. I cut more than one block and put them back in the fridge, so I don't have to do this as often.

So who was the ingenious person that invented that thing? Inquiring minds want to know!

The caramelized onions were a success! I put about 3/4 cup fulls in ziplock freezer bags and put them in the freezer. Now it will save me cooking time when I want some for a sandwich or for breakfast eggs!

I would certainly do this again. 

Anyone know how to discourage deer from eating the garden, that really works? We have put the dog in the garden area, with a doghouse so he is out of the weather if need be. The deer are coming in the garden, not 15 feet from the dog, and eating the green beans! Ed has put repellant on them several times and so far nothing has worked! Apparently they are doing this when the dog is asleep because if he was awake, NO DEER WOULD BE SAFE IF HE COULD REACH IT!

Do you see any leaves on those beans? NOOOO! But they did have lots of leaves and lots of small beans that weren't ready to pick! But no more!

These are beans on an A frame to make them easy to pick! But all we did was make it easy for the deer to pick them. The dogs' house is 12 to 15 feet to the right of this frame!

So to give the deer something to think about he moves the dogs' house every couple of days. The red arrow is the beans on the A frame, and the green arrow is the beans with no leaves, and the orange arrow in the lower right is where the dogs' house is right now. Within deer grabbing reach! Will we get any beans? Don't know. Time will tell, but we are pretty upset at the deer. They also eat the tomatoes if they can reach one. Ed has them in cages but they have chowed down on several already. Green ones! It seems like we are surrounded! We can look out and see them in the edges of the fields often. 

This morning I had to rescue a fawn that had gotten into the back yard. Before I left for work, I put Buddy (our deer dog, Ha!) in the back yard and I went to water the flowers on the porch. I heard this awful bellowing in the back yard. This was just about 5 minutes after putting him in the yard and closing the gate. I went running down the hill, and he had a fawn down, on its back, biting it. It got away from him, and he got it down three more times before I could get my hands on him. I finally got him on a leash, which I had in my hand and the baby ran along the fence trying to get out. It was in a panic and was just running into the fence trying to get out of the yard. I took Buddy and chained him in the barn. He barked his head off as I interrupted his fun. I went back down the hill but couldn't find the baby. It had some superficial skin injuries, but wasn't seriously hurt. I saw it running along the fence line just after I caught him and it didn't appear to be damaged. Just scared out of its wits. When Ed got home tonight, we both went down there and couldn't find it. I think when things got quiet it must have jumped back over the fence. That is the only way it could have gotten into the yard in the first place! I sure don't want to have to do that again, and that was the way my day started. I could just do without all that excitement, and I think that baby could too.

I AM NOT DEAD!

It has been more than a year since I have put anything on my Blogger page. A lot of water has gone under the bridge, so we will just begin today as if I just left off yesterday. OK? OK. 

Ed and I have been making hay most of this and last week, It feels like it has been going on for weeks, but thankfully, it has finally ended! For now. Later in the fall, we will bale the second cutting. We put 702 bales of first cutting hay in the barn! This hay was about 5 or 6 weeks over mature but that couldn't be helped as the weather didn't cooperate. That is the most we have ever had in the loft and it is stuffed! There is no room to put a second cutting, as it stands now. Ed has suggested we take a trailer load to Rockville and sell it at the hay auction, (that would be 80 bales on the trailer) just to make room. I particularly want to keep the second cutting of hay to feed Solomon as it is much less stemmy and easier for him to eat at his advanced age of 26 years old. I don't have any photos as we were just too busy, too tired and exhausted. Ed said we will never cut that whole field at one time again. Just too much for two and a half people. (Neighbor helped a little, as we baled his small field for him and it made 45 bales for his two horses. He has no where to store more than that.

And on to other things. Some time ago, I found a recipe for Caramelized Onions cooked in a crockpot. I finally got around to trying them today. They are cooking right now. Supposed to cook 8 to 10 hours on low so we will see how they turn out. Love to add them to sandwiches, scrambled eggs and omelets. I've made them in my cast iron frying pan before, but it takes a while to cook them properly. I hope this works out. These are about half done in this photo.

My garden is looking nice so far. I am trying something new this year. We were in Rural King during the spring sometime and I found a package of Bush Zucchini seeds. I have three plants in the garden and one of them has a 4 inch zucchini on it! (The were put out quite late and were long and lanky but they have recovered nicely). My garden is pretty small at 16 X 12 feet, so I don't have room for the usual sprawling veggie plants. These are not supposed to spread more than 3 feet across. That is still big, but I wanted some zucchini to eat! I always grow Bush Cucumbers on a small frame that Ed made and they produce well, with smaller plants and yet the cukes are regular size. Tasty too. I have already picked one cucumber and there is another that is about 4 inches long. I have 4 of those plants, I think.

 I planted Elephant garlic that Sarah gave me several years ago and they have prospered and multiplied. Anyone need garlic? They are ready to dig now, and then they are normally planted in the fall again.

Mom and Dad, here is a photo just for you! Mickey said to tell you hello and he hopes you come and visit sometime.

 He eats too much but is healthy and happy. I have never had a cat that talks so much! He even talks more than my Siamese used to! He has a lot to say! He follows me about the house and lays down near my feet, and then follows me somewhere else in the house and flops down and waits until I go somewhere else. Loves to be petted and fussed over, but don't try to comb out all that dead hair! He bites me when I try that! Other wise he is a sweetie.

Here is the NuWave cooking a pork roast from the half hog we purchased with our neighbors. I cooked it like the directions said to do so. When the internal temperature reached the required 160 degrees, we let it rest and then served it up. But...when I cut it, it was still red inside. We could do a little pink maybe, and I think it was supposed to be that way, but it isn't how we like it, so I had to cook it longer. Then, it was very tasty. I used that rub that we used to use on a pork roast when we lived in Dallas Texas, that we liked so much. Yum!

I love English Muffins! I have been thinking about making some for a long time. Then this week, King Arthur Flour came out with a recipe in their weekly emails. So I just jumped in and tried it out.

They have already raised once and here I formed them into rounds and placed them into the cast iron fry pans to raise a second time. I don't have a griddle, so these were fair substitutes. The cans were to add a little weight, to try to keep the tops flat.

There were cooked slowly, so the interior would cook through too. First side cooked with the lid on, second side with the lid off.

These were made for toasting with butter and jam! They were sooooo good! Fresher and better tasting than those in the store. I will make them again. And they freeze well too!

Goodwill Find!

Found this at Goodwill for a couple of dollars. Was not sure what it was but there were recipes on the roll of paper! So I bought it and after getting it home and looking at the instructions, it was made to bake a round loaf of bread! It is glass, and is made of Pyrex.

So I thought I would give it a try and see what happens! Use a paper towel and grease the inside, then put a couple of tablespoons of cornmeal inside and roll it around to coat the whole inside.

My dough after kneading, before it raised.

After it raised the first time and after punching it down and shaping it to fit. Fold a long sheet of waxed paper and stick it through the tube.

Place dough on one end of waxed paper, pull it through until dough is in center of the tube. Then roll the tube to dump the dough off of the paper! Then...let it rise again until nearly doubled,

and it will almost fill the tube.

Place aluminum foil over each end so the dough doesn't dry out and place it in a warm place. I use my oven that has been slightly warmed then turned off. (had another bowl of dough rising too, for refrigerator rolls).

After baking and cooling, it is ready for slicing and being spread with garlic butter and eaten with your spaghetti!!

Sam  R.I.P. 2000-2012

We had to put Sam to sleep today. He couldn't hardly walk, was very wobbly, was mostly deaf, and nearly blind. Last summer he woke up from a nap on his rug here in the house and was very disoriented, head and eyes going back and forth. He was Ok after about 10 minutes. Yesterday he was doing it again and also today. I asked the vet if it was a stroke, and she said no. It was something with a long name that I can't remember. She could see his eyes doing it today. His rear legs or hips couldn't hold him up anymore, so it was time. He was a good dog.

Snow!

This is way too much snow! It is very pretty, but is cold and inconvenient! Makes getting from here to there, difficult! Ok, I am done whining now. It makes the landscape beautifull.

Maddie was sure enjoying herself! She layed down and jumped up and did it again, at least three times, then she...

took off bucking and jumping! But even the horses are tired of it now too.

The hay wagons are looking for warm weather too!

This is my favorite photo, so far. I like the hint of faded red in this.

A chilly scene!

Fruitcake!

Do you suppose there is something wrong with me? Why? Because I love a good fruitcake! First you have to collect the ingredients. Lots of dried and candied fruit.

Then you have to cut some of it into halves, toast the nuts, etc.

Wow! 16 1/2 cups of fruit and nuts! This fruitcake never comes out the same, each time I make it, as I use different amounts and varieties of fruits and nuts. The recipe came from an old cookbook, from the 1940's I think, and it was called Dark Fruitcake.

Then you get a VERY large bowl, and mix it all up! That is a 5 pound bag of flour, for comparison, sitting next to the bowl.

Then bake it SLOWLY for 3 hours.

And then you have...dark, wonderful, fruity fruitcake! This recipe makes a 10 pound cake. I made this a few days after Thanksgiving, and it was stored in a cool place to mellow until Christmas. It is yummy!

My latest  experiment was this bread baked in my cast iron dutch oven. It worked perfectly, but the bread had a bit of an odd texture.

It tasted ok, and really made good toast. The ingredients were only bread flour, yeast, salt and water. You start it the day before and let it sit at room temperature for 12 to 18 hours. I would do it again. Maybe my kitchen was too cold? Don't know.

Then, I made this! Persimmon Pudding with Caramel Sauce. I have never been a fan of persimmon pudding. I don't like the wet texture. Last year, I discovered a young persimmon tree at the edge of the hay field. Last year it only had a few, maybe a dozen persimmons on it. This year it had lots of them. I can't stand to see anything go to waste, so I picked them up and looked online for a cakey recipe. My sister made one last year, that I thought was really good. It was not so runny and wet as most of them. So I made one using her recipe. I also came across someones suggestion to use a potato ricer to separate the seeds from the pulp. Well, it worked very well! It wasn't messy, and I would do it again. Back to the cake itself. When mine came out of the oven, (and I baked it at least 20 minutes longer than the recipe stated), it was still wet! Yuck! We let it cool, and ate some of it anyway. Tasted wonderful! But the texture, ick! After sitting in the refrigerator, it was firmer, but I want to find a recipe that is more cake like. Anyone have one like that?

Catching Up!

I have had all kinds of trouble with Blogger and trying to post, and since at the moment it is being kind, you will get all my previous posts, all in one day!

I had some plum puree in the freezer, and didn't quite know what to do with it. I recently came across a recipe that I was able to adapt for Plum Butter that was made in the microwave.

Well, I like a challenge! Here are the key players,

And here is the result! I liked it so well, and it was so easy to make that I made four batches! Love it!