Pinwheel Biscuits

Sunday morning breakfasts are usually more than just a quick bowl of cereal. These pinwheel biscuits are one of JoPapa's frequent requests.  I've gotten a bit lazy so I use Bisquick instead of making my biscuit dough from scratch. I usually only make a half batch because these are best fresh from the oven.  But I have been known to make extra pinwheels just so we can have a few to nibble on for snacks later in the day too. To make biscuits, follow the mixing directions on the box. Once the dough is kneaded and rolled out, spread some melted butter over the top.

A little butter makes everything better!

Then generously sprinkle cinnamon sugar all over.  I have a sweet tooth and I sprinkle a lot of sugar! There isn't a correct proportion here, you get to make them to taste.  I keep my cinnamon and sugar mixed and ready to go at all times too.  It's handy to have to sprinkle on toast too!

Covered with cinnamon sugar and the melted butter.

Then roll up the dough.  Slice into rolls and place on a cookie sheet to bake.  I use a spatula to carry the rolls to the cookie sheet so my cinnamon sugar won't fall out.  I forgot when I moved the fist one over, so I had some clean up to do!

Rolled up dough.

Here they are ready to bake in a preheated oven according to the directions on the Bisquick box.

Ready for the oven.

It took 10 minutes at 450 and they cooked up beautifully.  Using Bisquick feels like "cheating" but the biscuits are always fluffy and delicious!

Sunday breakfast!

Can't you smell them? These are quick and easy to make so I won't even tease you about mailing them your way.  If you want to come eat breakfast some time, or just have a chat with me, a cup of tea and some pinwheel biscuits let me know! I'd love to see you! Or, I bake lots of things by request so if you aren't hungry for biscuits, I'll cook up something else!

Here's looking forward to 2013. May you have healthy, blessed, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Chunky Cranberry Applesauce

One thing I love about this time of year is that we can purchase fresh cranberries! They are so tasty and good for us to eat. I was craving some fresh cranberry applesauce and by the time you finish reading this, maybe you'll be hungry for some too!





Naturally red from the apples and cranberries!

First I wash my apples and cranberries, then core and cut up the apples. I don't peel my apples, because I don't want to waste any of their natural goodness. In a 2-quart sauce pan (or larger), put one bag of cranberries, six apples, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon of cloves. Stir and bring to a boil. Let it simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. I've found that it takes a varied amount of time to cook depending on the type of apples I use and how strong the simmer is going. But you will know it is cooked, when the apples are soft and mushy. I have a wonderful old sieve that I inherited from my grandmother that I usually use for applesauce. If I knew in which box I packed it, I would put all this in the sieve and make it a smooth sauce. But since I can't locate that (or the keys to our old house) I am eating a chunky sauce. I was surprised that I liked this texture. More surprising is that JoPapa likes this and asked for some at supper. That's a big compliment coming from a 'meat-n-taters' kind of guy!
Let me know what you think of this recipe.  I could can it and ship it, but it's best if you cook this one yourself.  An added benefit, is the lovely smell of apples and cinnamon.  It makes a great air freshener! Enjoy!

A place for everything?

If you know me even a little bit, you know I like things to be in order. You know the saying, "A place for everything and everything in it's place." So you can imagine how unsettling it is for me to be trying to settle in a temporary place.  Nothing is in a place where I can find it! Yes, I'm still searching for the set of house keys we meant to leave behind.  We have lots of boxes we've opened, searched, resealed and marked "No Keys".



No keys. :-(

Well, at least we left one key with our wonderful realtor Paula Hubbert! Oh, and there were garage door openers too. So the new owners weren't totally locked out.  Hope they have made a few duplicate keys.  Some day, we'll find those keys - it's always in the last place you look! But then, why look any further when you find what you've searched for already!

Ok, back to my topic...to try and regain a bit of balance in my life, I do try to keep things in order.  I like to make things neat and tidy if and when I can. 



Before. Chaos!


 So here's something I make and would be happy to share with you. These handy and adorable electric cord holders can be made in a variety of colors and patterns.  They are so handy....if you make me an offer I can't refuse, I can even ship them to you! In time for Christmas!



After. Neat and tidy and in it's place!

 Now, back to searching. 
:-)

Silver Tea and Bake Sale

If you like chocolate, you'll love these!  I'll be bringing these delicious cookies to the Silver Tea and Bake Sale on Saturday, November 10th at the Bolivar United Methodist Church.  Be sure you show up at 1:00 p.m. to purchase these before they sell out.  I'm frosting them with special dark cocoa so they have to be extra loaded with antioxidents! (If you are not a chocolate fan, no worries! We will have fresh bread, dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, cookies and lots of other goodies for you to buy.)

This is a hand-me-down recipe from JoPapa's side of the family.  The title said "Aunt Sally's Cocoa Drops".  I never had the pleasure of meeting Aunt Sally, or even knowing if she was one of this family's aunts, but she must have been a good cook, because these are good cookies! Sometimes I use my large tablespoon-sized cookie scoop instead of the smaller teaspoon size.  The problem with a big chocolate cookie is that it's hard to eat just one.  So I can eat lots more of the little nibble sized cookies!  The other problem I've had when I make the large size cookies is that I make too much frosting! Then, it's like when I eat mashed potatoes and gravy...if there are too many potatoes on my plate I need more gravy. If I get too much gravy (is there really such a thing?), I have to have more potatoes to use up the gravy.  So it goes with left over chocolate frosting...then I need to bake something else to frost!

As always, I can be convinced to ship these yummy cookies to you!  Let me know if you want large or small cookies then make me an offer I can't refuse!  Or, you can come purchase them at the Silver Tea and Bake Sale on Saturday, November 10th at the Bolivar United Methodist Church!  Come and get them!!

ANUT SALLY'S COCOA DROPS

COCOA DROPS
½ cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
¾ cup buttermilk
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 cups flour
½ tsp. Soda
½ tsp. salt
½ cup cocoa
1 cup chopped pecans
　
Mix shortening, sugar and egg. Stir in milk and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients. Add nuts. Chill one hour. Drop from teaspoon, 2" apart onto lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake 8 – 10 minutes at 400 degrees. Cool. Frost with chocolate icing

SIMPLY SWEET ROLLS!

If you feel daunted by baking, come to the Silver Tea and Bake Sale on November 10th at the Bolivar United Methodist Church.  We will feature these rolls as well as many other delicious treats like Cocoa Drops, fresh baked bread, crescent rolls, and a whole list of other items you may purchase and freeze so you can serve them up at your Thanksgiving feast!

Simply Sweet Rolls - fresh! Can you smell that cinnamon?

This recipe came from Bill and Vanessa. We made tons of these to sell when we were raising funds for the Youth Group Ski Trips – many years ago. They are as delicious as they are quick and easy to make. I always have the ingredients on hand so I can make and take these any time. Just recently, I baked some up to share with a grieving family; a small bit of comfort - fresh baked breakfast rolls.

Baking yeast rolls isn’t as difficult as some people make it out to be. First, gather your ingredients. Mix everything up – I use my Kitchen Aid Mixer. Let the dough rise. Roll out the dough and spread the butter, sugar, and cinnamon mixture. Roll it up into a log, the slice into rolls. I use a bit of cotton yarn or unflavored dental floss to easily cut the dough. Place the rolls in the pans. Let the dough rise again. Bake and then drizzle while they are still warm from the oven to make a nice glaze. I did learn the hard way that you can put too much sugar and frosting on a sweet roll. Who knew? Now you do!

SWEET ROLLSMakes 16 large 3 cups warm water
¼ cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
1 ½ tsp. salt
2 tbl. yeast
2 tbl. dry mil
3 cups flour
Mix well. Then add
4 cups flour – one at a time.
Let double.
Roll into rectangle. Spread with:
½ cup margarine (melted and cooled)
1 cup white sugar

2 tbl. Cinnamon
Roll into a log, slice, place rolls in pans, let rise, bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.
Ice with powdered sugar icing while still fresh from the oven.

SMOKED TOMATO SALSA

Fall weather makes me want to warm up from the inside out! Makes me want to eat something spicy like my salsa! Or making soup or chili using some of my salsa instead of plain old tomatoes.

 
At the request of my kids, I tried a new twist with my salsa…actually I finally got on board with the fad of smoked and roasted vegetables! We sliced up our tomatoes and put them in the smoker. Wow! What a wonderful flavor that incorporated into the finished product.


Smoked tomatoes

Make sure you keep your smoker at the correct temperature.



Starting with the gardening process, a hobby I enjoy because I get to be OUTSIDE, we till, plant, water, weed, and anxiously wait for tomatoes, onions, and peppers to appear and ripen. Why does that seem to take sooooo long? When we finally get to harvest the produce, I set aside a couple of hours to cook and can.

Collecting my fee!

Homemade salsa is a labor of love…and I enjoy sharing my labors – for a fee of course! My fee varies depending on who is asking. ;-) I delivered my smoked salsa in person, to Portland, Oregon. That fee included several days of visiting, camping, one river float trip, and LOTS of hugs!


The first step of canning is to make sure everything is clean.  Sterilize the jars and lids you will be using. Place the jar lids and rings in boiling water just before you are ready to fill the jars.

Use a jar lifter to put the jars in boiling water and to put the filled jars back in to process.

SALSA
Thanks for this recipe goes to Joni my long, lost neighbor and friend!


4-5 onions
2 bell peppers
9-11 jalapeno peppers with seeds
¾ cup sugar
1 cup white vinegar
3 tablespoons salt
8 to 12-oz tomato paste (depending on your preference for thick salsa)
Approximately 22 medium tomatoes un-peeled
Chop in food processor until chunky.
I put all these ingredients in a 6-quart pan and put the tomatoes in last to fill the pan.
Bring to a boil and gently simmer 30-40 minutes stirring ocassionally.
Fill jars to within 1/2 inch. Clean the jar rims and place lids on just finger tight.
Process filled jars in boiling water bath for 20 minutes.



Stir up all the chopped ingredients and gently simmer for 30 to 40 minutes. Then fill the sterilized jars.


If you would like more detailed information on canning, the internet is full of helpful tips or you can invite me to your kitchen for lessons.



Salsa!



Me and My Shadow

Me and my shadow, (or should say I, my shadow and I) also known as JoPapa Bear, have driven and pedaled our way from "sea to shining sea" this year. It wasn’t a plan in January, but that's how it turned out!

This spring we had an opportunity to go to Florida. We dipped our toes in the Atlantic Ocean.

Windy Daytona Beach with Dave Esser and JoPapa.

We visited Cousin Dave, toured Daytona Beach and had a great time thanks to Dave's hospitality.  We met up with Susan Morales our "angelita" foreign exchange student (whom we hadn’t see in 12 years). She was in Orlando starting a honeymoon cruise. What a sweet hubby she married ! He took time from a honeymoon for a visit with us!

Susan has a happy reunion with PapaJoel. Thanks for taking time, Arturo!

We then rode our bikes into the sunset in the Keys, in the Everglades with alligators, and stopped at every beach along the coast of Florida.  We were surpised when we ran into our friend Shelby from Bolivar when we stopped to watch the dolphins.



Sunset melting into the water in Key West, Florida.




My Shadow on 7 Mile Bridge



It's a small world, Shelby! Who knows when you'll run into someone from home

He's just a little alligator coming up to say hello to me on my bike!

Of course we've spent time on the Ozark Greenways Trail.  One perfect day in August (excluding that little bike crash at the beginning) we rode to Springfield and back.  



Can you see me and My Shadow looking over the edge into the Sac River? No alligators, just fish, turtles and snakes.

In September, we drove to the Pacific coast for a visit with Joel Jr. and Mary in Oregon. We biked and ate our way around Portland. While we were there, we stayed at a lovely AirBNB hosted by Ada.  Next time we go to Portland, we'll be staying there again! The acommodations were great. Contact Ada at orangeada@gmail.com if you plan to visit Portland. 

We got to join The Joel and Mary's friends for a float trip on the Clackamas River. It was a perfectly warm day...to help keeps us warm from the cold river. Rapids, a rope swing, laughter!

While The Joel & Mary were being great wedding photographers on Saturday, we drove to Seattle. We had a lovely visit with Doug, Rita and nephew Mike. We went to a festival and toured the Mukilteo Lighthouse. Back at Doug's grill, we enjoyed a fabulous salmon dinner. 
And a free car wash! Thanks, Doug!!



Then we spent three days camping on the Oregon coast with Joel Jr and Mary. They cook some amazing meals over a campfire! I highly recommend their smoked nachos!

Me and My Shadow camping in Oregon. 

Me and My Shadow with Joel Jr and Mary at our campsite on the Oregon Coast.

Joel Jr - kite sailing on the beach. The kite is WAAAY up there!

Watching the sunset on the ocean off the Oregon coast.

After our fun camping adventure, we had to say goodbye to the kids.  We then drove to South Dakota where we rode 109 miles on the Mikelson Trail Trek.

Me and My Shadow at a rest stop on the Mikelson Trail Trek.

Me and My Shadow on the Mikelson Trail. No alligators here either, but we saw a large herd of buffalo!

The following weekend and closer to home, we fought the cold and wind (no I’m not whining, I’m bragging) as we pedaled to raise money for a cure for Multiple Sclorosis. We did the Bike MS ride from Olathe to Lawrence and back again. This was Joel's 29th year of riding to raise money for MS research.

See the frost on my glove? Me and my shadow are in the mirror.  I took the photo while freezing and pedaling but we didn't wreck this time!

We are blessed to have had the time and health to ride across this beautiful country. What a blast we’ve had! It's a great day for a bike ride and I’m always ready for more. Next weekend, we get to do the Dam Stockton Ride. We love to find new places to ride and enjoy. Thank you, God for my shadow who finds fun, sun and bicycle trails for us to ride!