Rainy Day Baking

As I arrived home from my first day back at school after a wonderful week of spring sunshine and warm temperatures I was greeted by lashing wind and rain as I entered the house.  There was no feeling of Spring on this day.  In fact, the day had the definite feeling that Winter is not quite through with us.  Perhaps that is a good thing as it has meant more snow in the mountains which also means more water for the farmers come summer.  However, it made for a rather chilly day for us.

Rain falling on the front brick courtyard The Investigator put in last summer.

It seemed like a perfect afternoon to do a little baking.  There is nothing like a warm kitchen with the scent of something deliciously sweet coming from the oven on a rainy day.   Since I had just spent a few hours weeding around the blueberry bushes a couple of days ago I was reminded of the bags of fresh blueberries I had in the freezer.

Summer blueberries in the garden.

I also had a couple of lemons in the fridge so I decided it was time to try a new recipe for Lemon Blueberry Nut Bread that I have been thinking about for a while.  I found it at one of my new favorite places http://blog.nellsoldfashionrecipes.com/  I followed the recipe exactly, except I put in only about half the amount of blueberries which seemed like plenty to me.

I need to grate a little lemon zest before squeezing.

 

 

 

Yummm!

 

 

I love making nut breads.  They are good for just about anything from breakfast to afternoon tea and are always well received as a gift to a neighbor or friend.  In fact, I think I will take a few slices to my widowed neighbor who just got out of the hospital. The bread turned out perfectly and tastes delicious.  I think I will be making this again. 

Bunny Sugar Cookies

It was about 60 years ago when my mother received a little metal cookie cutter shaped like a bunny.  With it was a cookie recipe that was going to become a family classic from then on.  Every year since then we have looked forward to a taste of Mom's bunny sugar cookies at Easter.  The recipe followed me as I left home to start my own family and I extended it to other holidays, especially Christmas time when it becomes stars, bells and Christmas trees but the taste is the same and my children still know it as the Bunny Cookie Recipe. 

This year, with my mother out of town for Easter, it was up to me to see that Bunny Cookies were on the table on Easter Sunday.  


I started with just a few basic ingredients, flour, sugar, eggs, butter, and shortening, as well as vanilla, soda and cream of tarter.

First, I mix the butter, shortening, sugar, eggs and vanilla together.

 

 After sifting together, the dry ingredients, I add it to the butter mixture.

  Everyone measures differently, so if the dough seems a bit too soft you can add a little more flour, but not too much.  Then chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes

After it's chilled, roll out the dough and then cut your shapes. I use my own little bunny cookie cutter which I have had for about 40 years. 

 The cookies will bake for just a few minutes and when they come out of the oven you will have a soft, tender yet flaky cookie that is not too sweet and perfect for frosting.

 Finally, I frost with butter cream frosting and decorate.  The original recipe calls for coconut that has been tinted green but a couple of kids prefer them plain so I do some of both.  

And there you have it, a perfect cookie for any season of the year.

Easter is over so I will just wish you a joyful celebration of Spring.

This is the day that the Lord has made.

Bunny Sugar Recipe

1/2 cup butter                                            3 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup butter shortening                            1 tsp baking soda

1 cup sugar                                                2 tsp cream of tarter

3 eggs                                                       1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Cream together sugar, butter, shortening and eggs and vanilla.  Blend well.  Sift together flour, soda and cream of tartar.  Add to batter and mix well.  Chill 30 minutes.  Roll out on a floured board to about 1/4 inch.  Cut with cookie cutter shapes.  Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 5- 6 minutes  at 425 degrees.  Cool and frost with butter cream frosting.

Butter Cream Frosting

1/2 cup butter

4 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla 

5-6 TBSP milk

Blend Well

Palm Sunday Crafts

I don't consider myself particularly creative, so how I found myself volunteering to teach the crafts for our Children's program called Journey I don't really know.  In my defense, I thought I was going to be handed all these cute little craft kits that I would just be showing to the kids and helping them put together each week. I learned really quickly that I was on my own.  So here I am two years later still as uncreative as ever.  However, I also discovered that Pinterest was to become my new best friend and I thank God every week for all those wonderfully creative people who are willing to share their creativity with me. The kids all think I am brilliant (if they only knew), and I have had a lot of fun along the way.

So, this last week the kids were learning about the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.  Naturally, that means palm branches and while the older kids got to learn how to make palm crosses (after I took a crash course from youtube, of course), I needed something a little more "kid friendly" for the little ones.  I came across this clever idea, palm branches made from "palms".

 

All we needed for our project was colored paper, paint stirring sticks and some glue.  So, after spending a late afternoon after work die cutting 450 little green hands, I was ready to go.

And here was our finished project all ready to take home.  Didn't they turn out cute? The kids loved them.

May this Palm Sunday be a blessed beginning to a blessed and Holy Week.

A Journey by Train, Part 2

 Is has been several weeks now since we returned from our journey across the country by train.  How different everything looks from the windows of a train compared to our usual summer road trips.  Here we have seen the back side of most of the towns and farms we have passed through and it has been very interesting to see the countryside through a different lens.

It was late in the day when we boarded the train for our return journey home.  The sun was already setting and so we only had time to get ourselves settled in, eat dinner and say goodby to the frigid farmlands of Wisconsin and Minnesota before curling up to sleep for the night.

We woke up in the morning to find ourselves in North Dakota and we looked out with interest, as it had been night time when we traveled through here before.  It didn't take too long to discover that there really isn't all that much to see in North Dakota, just miles and miles (and hours and hours) of ranch land interspersed with small towns and more of the cold snowy landscape.

  

 

 

 

A few times we were able to step off the train to stretch our legs for a few minutes in a small town station.

 

Occasionally we would have to share the tracks with a passing freight train .

As the day went on,we found ourselves gazing out at the signs of the big oil boom that is taking place in North Dakota. This is the place where our country hopes to achieve "Energy Independence" and we looked out at the evidence all along the way. There were miles of new tanker cars lined up along the tracks and cows grazing with oil pumps.  We even saw an oil refinery.  The boom has grown so quickly there isn't enough housing, as we could see by the clusters of RVs all parked together in small communities.

 

 

 But for the most part this land remains pretty empty and as we headed into Montana, the land settled back into a place of quiet open sky and grazing cattle.

So this is where our second day ended.  Soon darkness would fall again again and we would find ourselves settled in to sleep away the night as we traveled through the Rocky Mountains (photos in an earlier blog) and back home to the northwest, leaving the cold and snow behind.  We arrive home early in the morning to the gentle warmth of an early spring, ready to face the new day.  Adieu and may God's blessings fall on you as you travel your own life's journeys.

Early Morning

 The entire weekend we were kept inside by pouring rain and dark gray cloudy skies.  But yesterday morning when I looked out, this sight made me run for my camera.  I don't know that I really captured the beauty of this moment with the early sun peeking out between the clouds and the mist rising up from the trees to obscure the mountains in the background.  You can see the light reflecting down on part of the lake between the trees making the water look golden. 

The yellow flowers on this tree tell me the earth is waking up and Spring is arriving.

I love looking out over these mountains  They remind me every day that God is on His throne and I have nothing to fear for He is always with me.