Cookies and Cleaning

Today it is raining and very cool. It's such a perfect day for cookie baking and bathroom cleaning. The Mister is keeping busy with a complete GI job and will soon get a tasty treat.

This recipe will use my supply of brown sugar and raisins. Restocking ingredients like these is an ongoing update of cupboard foodstuffs.

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These are what I call "cakey cookies" because they aren't chewy except for the raisins.

SIMPLE Raisin Cookies Preheat oven to 375° and place the oven rack in the center of the oven. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or "Release" foil. In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat together the flour, baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon. Add the brown sugar, softened butter, egg, milk, and vanilla extract and beat for one minute. Add the raisins and beat until incorporated. Drop the batter by heaping teaspoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing the cookies a couple of inches apart. Bake the cookies for about 8 - 10 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies are just barely touched with color yet the edges are golden brown. Remove from oven and transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.  Makes about 4 dozen cookies. Ingredients: 2 cups all purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 cup light brown sugar (or dark) 1 1/2 sticks softened butter 1 large egg 1/4 cup milk 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 cup dark raisins (or golden raisins)

Sundry Shoots

Yes, I was able to find a Monarch Butterfly but it wouldn't stay put for the best shot. Meanwhile, back at the cabin my larvae is gobbling at the leaves in the jar. 

Up in the old rock garden the Mister's geranium is thriving in its pipe pot.

At one end of the garden the Wild Snapdragon (aka Toadflax) haven't bloomed but at the top of the area they have. Pretty yellow fellows!

There is a large group of this plant but I can't seem to identify it. HELP! It gives off a medicinal type aroma when crushed. No flower buds are evident.

And up on the edge of the road the Thimble Berries are beginning to form. The problem is that just as soon as one is mature, the birds eat them and there is no chance of me even plucking a cupful of ripe ones. I was lucky to even see them today!

Chomp, Chatter and Ladybird protect the garden from the local bear.

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Looking for a Butterfly

BUT found flowers and bees instead. I did bring home a Monarch caterpillar eating milkweed and hope to watch it develop into a chrysalis and then fly away. I did this once many years ago with quite a few and they hatched within my large screened-in porch so I had to shoo them out the door.

A neighbor invited me into his yard to take pictures and it is on a steep hillside where I don't ambulate very well but was successful with some closeup shots.

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click on link below to learn about Monarch cycle

See Egg to Butterfly Information

To the Farm Market

It was a nice ride through the countryside and the parking lot was full when we arrived. Of course we got corn, and a cantaloupe plus one large tomato. I wandered around the parking lot and enjoyed the flowers that are so very fitting for a farm market atmosphere. There were many sunflowers growing along the fence but only in one area were they large and in bloom; there are many more to mature. The cosmos flowers are all around as are the zinnias. Inside, I noticed many freshly pulled large onions, cabbage heads - already stripped of outer leaves and ready to use - cucumbers galore and peaches too. I plan to wait for the Loring freestone peaches which come in at the end or the month. In my opinion they are the VERY best! I now have a dehydrator that was a Christmas gift from a daughter and I plan to use it very soon. 

My brother visited and brought some of his homemade peach and wild blackberry jams. WOW are they tasty! He called me to say he had many ripe berries and wanted to know if I would like some. I had to turn him down. I just don't can anymore and wasn't in the mood to make freezer jam, either. No seeds in the blackberry as I requested. Yes, I have special requests once in a while. 

The pictures of the teasel at the end here, show the bands of flowerets as I took a ride on the golf cart to cut off two more. I thought they were interesting. 

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Tasty Casserole

A friend called me a "FOODIE" and I think it is a complement - anyway I'll take it as one. Yes, I like to bake and cook and encourage others to use some of my recipes. I share them all. So...here is another foodie story.

A friend gave me some summer squash and I used my old Bluffton slicer and ripped right through the tender vegetable. Carrots and onions were shredded with the old type of utensil and then I made this recipe. I will tell you it was very good and the mister and I ate almost the entire casserole bowlful!

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I admit I added some extra bread crumbs on top, hoping it would bubble up and create a crispy crust. It didn't. The next time I make this I will try baking it in my cast iron skillet. That will brown the edges as the glass dish didn't do that. I used Progresso Italian bread crumbs in this recipe. I also used carrots as we don't care much for peppers.

Recipe

How to make Scalloped Squash: By Suzanne McMinn

2 cups (or so) sliced yellow squash
1 cup chopped onions and/or peppers (hot or sweet)
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg
2/3 cup milk
1 cup bread crumbs
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup shredded cheese (Cheddar or whatever)

Depending on how big the squash is, after slicing, either cut in halves or quarters.

Cook the squash and onions (and/or peppers) in butter till tender.

Combine egg, milk, bread crumbs, and a dash of salt and pepper in a large bowl. For me, one cup of bread crumbs is one thick slice of Grandmother Bread, crumbled finely in my mini food processor.

Stir in the squash mixture and the shredded cheese. Pour into a 1.5 quart greased casserole dish. Top with a sprinkling of fresh chopped chives if you’ve got ’em! My herb garden this weekend (the chives just got a haircut):

Bake at 350-degrees for about 30 minutes.

Also excellent for zucchini!

Now go forth and scallop.

http://chickensintheroad.com/cooking/its-summer-and-the-living-is-squashy/

Another Rideabout

On my "Sunday Golf Cart Ride" blog of July 30, I showed you photos I took of the Teasel growing in a field.  I was very brave yesterday and went back and cut one off - YEOW! They aren't even dried out yet but the stickers, especially on the stem are nasty little things. I poked the stem into a plastic straw so I could bring it home to study and display. No matter what end I view, all I see is nature's beautiful balance and geometry.

I hope you can enlarge the image by clicking on one to view it up close. 

I passed by a dead tree that is displaying crab apples; interesting too. It makes me wonder how apples grew on a dead tree!

Hungry Hummers

A week ago the feeder on the porch was accidentally broken late in the day. The next morning the Mister went to town and picked up a replacement. He tried to get one that was similar -  it is.  It was funny and yet concerning to see the little ones fly in only to be disappointed not to find their evening and early morning sweetness. They looked, and looked, then checked out every other hanging thing then flew away. As soon as I washed and filled the new one they arrived back but it did take a while for them to be comfortable and they knew something was different. The flowers were softer and the perch went all around the bottom. After just a couple of days, they were all coming (and fighting) as many as before and it was good.

At the beginning of this week I received a gift box in the mail and it contained a new hummingbird feeder to replace the broken one. Well it is beautiful! I snatched the metal hanger to use right away, but am keeping the new glass feeder for next year's arrivals. I just don't want to confuse them more this late in the season.

Guess what!  This is the very first time I have had two at the feeder, perch and drink at the same time! I take the pictures through the indoor and storm window so I can capture them better.

Did you notice the pretty hanger?

Here is what they will drink from next year!

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