BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

I discovered the most delicious and simple way to make muffins! Sunday morning, I often bake something special for breakfast.  This week, I decided to experiment with my blueberry yogurt. I think I get a bit more protein and calcium in the end product by using yogurt instead of milk.

So here’s what I did:  I mixed two cups of Bisquick, one egg, and two 6 ounce containers of yogurt together, stirred in about a cup of frozen blueberries (no, I didn't wait for them to thaw), and made the best tasting, lovely textured muffins!  I am already missing my blueberry bushes.  Maybe we'll plant new ones here so I can have blueberries on hand next year too?


BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

2 cups Bisquick baking mix
2 6 oz. Containers of blueberry yogurt
1 egg
1 cup blueberries

Mix all ingredients together.  Spoon into paper-lined muffin tins. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.  Serve hot with butter! 

These have tasted very good frozen and reheated too.

Last week, I mixed blueberry yogurt and Bisquick together and made drop biscuits. They were really tasty too! By adding the egg, the texture changes into muffins!

Let me know if you try either of these experiments too.  I imagine any flavor or even non-flavored yogurt would be good! 

WHY ME LORD?

I am so blessed! Why me Lord? I ask that all the time.  I have so much and am so grateful! Days like yesterday, give me pause to give thanks! We are settling into our new home, we have all we need, and the sun is shining! Thank you, Lord!

It was so much fun to enjoy cooking dinner with Dayna last night too! She can easily get here after work and we chatted the hours away! Then she took a plate of food for Travis’ dinner too! 

Yesterday, I saw a FB post about baking garlic biscuits in a ring and they looked like the perfect accompaniment for our baked chicken, potato casserole and green bean dinner (aren't you hungry now?)  The recipe I saw called for canned biscuits and a bundt cake pan, but since I didn't have access to either of those (I don’t keep canned biscuits around and the bundt cake pan is still in a box), we improvised!  I do keep Bisquick baking mix, and Dayna showed me how to use a round cake pan with an inverted bowl in the center for a make-do bundt-ish type pan.  The results were just great!  Next time, I think we'll also mix in a cup of grated cheddar cheese. I need the calcium!

Mixing ingredients

We used the Bisquick recipe for family-sized biscuits, rolled that into a log, and sliced eight biscuits. Then we melted 4 tablespoons of butter and mixed in 1 teaspoon of onion powder, and 1 teaspoon of chopped garlic. She used Pam to spray the baking dish, then dipped each biscuit, and placed them in the pan. 

Clever use of inverted bowl inside the pan to make a ring of biscuits!

 Then she scooped the rest of the garlic and butter over the top of the biscuits.  She put the pan in the oven to bake for 15 minutes and came out beautifully delicious! 

Golden and delicious!

See what I mean? Why me Lord? I get to enjoy dinner while watching the sunset in my new house with my sweet hubby and my dahling daughter, Dayna.  A perfect way to end the day. Thank you Lord!

SPICED TEA

Oh, these chilly winter days make me wish for something to warm me up from the inside out. Today felt like the perfect day to mix up some Spiced Tea. It’s a simple recipe with just a few ingredients and it makes enough that I have plenty to share. And, I can mix it standing on one foot!

I remember a dreary winter day at BPS when so many of us there had the sniffles. I brought in some spiced tea mix and as we sipped this tea, it seemed to soothe those scratchy throats and bolster us just enough so we could get through another day with a smile for those little kiddos!

I use Tang in my Spice Tea mix because it has Vitamin C included. That might be why a cup of this tea makes me feel so much better!

SPICED TEA
3/4 cup instant powdered tea
1 1/2 cup Tang
1 2-quart package of lemonade mix
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon powdered cloves
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger

I gather all the ingredients, measure them into a big bowl and stir. I increased the cinnamon to two teaspoons because I like that flavor. You can adjust the spices to suit your tastes too.  Be sure to store the mixture sealed tightly in a couple of glass canning jars.

Gather ingredients, measure, mix and enjoy!

To serve, stir two teaspoons of the mixture into a cup of steaming hot water and then sip and relax! Voila! Warmed from the inside out!

I can be persuaded to make this and ship it to you...for a small shipping and handling fee of course.  Or if you are in the neighborhood, drop by and we'll visit over a couple of cups of tea!

Stay warm!

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