HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I want to wish everyone a bright and sunny day New Year. Happy New Year blogging buddies.



I'm thinking about gardening now. Just sayin. In the planning stages.

Merry Christmas - This n That

Yuck - look at our weather today. And tomorrow will be 80% rain but the weatherman is calling for a slight chance of rain for our Christmas day (that is so far - subject to change). It is rather warm for this time of year but the cold front is coming down to cool us down over the next day or so.

I hope you all are having a nice day even if the weather is nasty where ever you are. Are you ready for the holiday? This is a busy time of year and with it often comes stress due to just trying to so much. I used to worry about making sure my kids had enough presents of the things they asked for and things I thought they needed. Always thinking are they equal. Wouldn't want to do more for one than the other. My stress consisted of getting dinner on the table. Trying to see everyone I needed to. Since the children are grown I don't worry so much. It is what it is and that is all I can do. And that is how I see it now.

I was thinking of doing something different than the traditional Christmas dinner we ALWAYS have. Was thinking of grilling steaks and all the fixins. Maybe.

I stopped in the local Goodwill and I was happy to find these plates. They will be perfect in my red kitchen when I get it done. I am going to hang them on the wall.

I ended up with lots of pecans this year. Roasted these and they are very good. Melted 1/2 stick of butter, mixed in 1 tea of sugar and poured over the nuts. Sprinkle with salt and bake at 225 for about 30 minutes stirring every 15 minutes. Increase the heat to 250 and bake for 40 more minutes stirring every 10 - 15 minutes. Let cool and enjoy.

I have done lots of baking and candy making this year. Loving the memories that is coming with the baking this year. Haven't done this much since my kids were home and my kids would get in the kitchen and help me out. My butter cookies with the icing on it - well let me say they taste way better than they look. Butter cookies, shortbread and PNB cookies. Butter cookies here http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/patrick-and-gina-neely/the-neelys-butter-cookies-recipe/index.html  - Gina and Pat Neely's recipe. Of course Gina has these cute little piggy cut-outs. I sliced mine. Gina loves her little piggys I tell ya. The icing on the cookies is a first for me. The cookies turned out ugly with absolutely not color so I decided to add some. Needless to say it didn't turn out the way I wanted but they taste super good. I flavored each of the three icings with lemon and butternut and third with caramel flavoring. The shortbread cookies here http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/shortbread-cookies-recipe/index.html and Ina makes some good cookies. I added butter flavorings to all my cookies in addition to the vanilla.

 Fudge, Martha Washington Balls, PNB fudge, Snowballs.

 Took this sky pic last week and just wanted to share a prettier sky pic than the one at the beginning of this post.

I just had to share my house babies. Sorry about the poor pic quality. These two don't sit nicely for photos. In fact Buddy will hang his head when he sees the camera. go figure.

 This one still doesn't have a name but I think Kitty will do. She answers to Kitty and nothing else - well she does answer when I shake the cat food bag. She is running toward me.

Wishing each and eveyone of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Hope you have the best family time this year. Be safe out there. I will be traveling on Friday and Saturday and I'll be watching my speed. (got pulled over for speeding yesterday and talked my way out of a ticket and got a warning. I was doing some smooth talking too and pleading for him not to spoil my perfect record).

My Christmas Tree and a Recipe

 My Tree.

Martha Washington Balls.

2# conf sugar

1 can sweetened cond milk

1 stick butter

4 c finely chopped pecans

1 pkg of semi sweet choc chips

1/4 block of parafin wax

Mix butter and milk and add sugar - mix and add nuts. Roll into balls. Melt choc and wax together in a double boiler. Using toothpicks dip balls into choc and set on wax paper to cool.

Scrumptious Peanut Butter Fudge

2 c sugar

1 sm can of evap milk

1 tbl butter

1 tea vanilla

1 tea caramel flav

3 heaping tbs of smooth peanut butter

combine sugar and milk in saucepan and stiring constantly and bring to boil. Boil for 4 minutes or till therm reaches 234 degrees. remove from heat and add margarine and flavorings and peanut butter. Stir till combined and pour into a buttered square pan. 

Fantasy Fudge (oh and the crumbs you see well they will not go to waste. just saying) recipe on marshallow creme jar.

Have a great day. Only 11 days to go till the big fat jolly man pays a visit to the children. Oh the magic of Christmas in the eyes of those little ones.

Happy Holidays

Good morning everybody. I can't believe it has been over a month since I last posted. Not much to catch up on here. I've been cooking/baking a lot and enjoying every minute of it. Busy making candy and cookies. Made my first batch of peanut butter fudge and it is so yummy. One fav I haven't made in a very long time is Martha Washington Balls. Sooo good. All this candy and cookie and cake baking just takes me back to when my kids were young and we used to do this every year.

I received my seed orders and looking forward to a beautiful spring. I have put down lots of seeds this fall and many are coming up already. I'm hoping for some beautiful breadseed poppies. Catherine blessed me with these poppy seeds a couple years ago and they have been passed on to many of you and I still have plenty. Seeds go on to live forever. I love that.

I bought myself a present - a Gateway laptop. Don't laugh but I don't know how to use it. I'll figure it out. Now I won't feel so bad blogging and posting while I am at home instead of at work.

I do have some things in bloom and I'll get my lazy carcus out and get some photos. Does anyone else just kinda forget about the gardens this time of year? I'm just not that into it right now but wait till January and all that changes.

Hope you have a great day.

PS thank you to all who have asked about me.

Fall Blooms

I'm still here ya'll. I know I've been MIA and don't really have an excuse other than I just am. Anyway not much going on in my world. I took these pics a few weeks ago and just haven't gotten around to posting them.

Bougainvilla is doing great considering the time of year. I am falling in love with this plant.

 Kitty Cat loves the garden.

Have ya'll seen the new 'skinny houses'. I really don't know what they are called but they appear very small. I first saw these on HGTV during one of the reality shows where they each had to decorate one of these type homes. Notice they are long and narrow. This is how homes were built a long time ago and were called 'shotgun' houses'. They got that name because you could open either door and shoot strait through to the other side. These are the only 'skinny homes' I've seen. It will be interesting to see how these fair in a hurricane.

 I bet they are designed for efficiency and storage. Probably making use of every inch of the home including the ceiling and attic if it even has one but I bet it does. These two homes are facing each other as you can see.

 

I just thought they were interesting so I wanted to share them.

This is what fall looks like here on the gulf coast. Very little color but the weather is so nice. Our weather has been seasonable for the most part with hi's in the 60's/70's and lows around 50 or so.

I've been doing some baking and still loving it. This is Sand Tarts and the recipe is can be found by going here: http://beccascookingspot.blogspot.com/

Hope you all have a fabulous day.

Changes are on the way for our weather. Expecting a 20 degree drop by tomorrow. Highs today in the mid 80's and tomorrow it will struggle to reach the mid 60's. Brrrr is what we say here on the coast. Most people here are still wearing summer tanks and such.

Hope you all are having a nice day.

I got to work this weekend on digging a new garden for the spring. I'll share pics later when I get most of it done. It felt good to be digging again. It is such a stress reliever. But let me get stressed and digging is not what I'm thinking of.

I was busy in the kitchen this weekend. Baked up a red velvet cake and a carrot cake. They both turned out so good. I only tasted of the carrot cake since I filled it with pecans (I'm not suppose to eat nuts) but it tasted heavenly. The red velvet cake was divine. So so good.

Anyone know what this is. This is growing wild along the roads all over the place and I never really noticed them before but they sure are pretty. Perhaps in the goldenrod family?...

Have a great day.

A Little This n That

Good morning blogger buddies. I found a few things blooming this morning. It is cloudy and it is morning and I was shaking while taking these so I hope I don't hurt your eyes too bad.

I am surprised at some of the things in bloom right now. I don't remember my canna's blooming this time of year. I appreciate it though because the yellow adds a lovely bright spot in the garden.

Osteoporum (sp?) has only a few blooms. I suppose I should douse everything with some fertilizer.

Love these begonias. They bloom freely throughout the season taking a break during the hottest periods.

Ya'll I picked the best out of pics. This one is horrible blurry. The buddlei is blooming well. I forget which one this is.

Red verbena laying on the ground and hardly any leaves.

Mums.

Bougainvilla blooming again.

Pulled this old bed out of the shed this weekend. Originally I had thought I would sand it down and use it in a bedroom. Now I'm thinking I want to put it in a garden. It is extremely heavy and the iron is thick. It's not real fancy but I like it. I'm not sure how it will stand in the garden since it is so heavy. It may need to be anchored somehow. I also like it leaning against the tree. I'm planning to let vines run it. Of course you see there is a footboard and I'm thinking it may not be so hazardous to use it in a garden if I can bury enough of it.

I spent my time in the kitchen this weekend. I baked some apples, brownies and banana bread and cookies. Didn't get a pic of the brownies or apples. Oh well sometimes you just have to dive in before you think of the camera.

Perfect bottoms on my cookies. Just the right amount of crunch. You can get the recipe here http://beccascookingspot.blogspot.com/search/label/cookies

Here I have bagged everything to give away (except the apples - they were all mine).

I love baking and love to share. I got this idea I've had for as long as I can remember - it is to bake/cook for a cafe or bake shop - rather to own my own place. I am getting ready to put myself out there and see where this may go with selling my baked goods. My ideas for an avenue include online site, flea markets, festivals and flyers. Down the road perhaps to have a permanent location. The town I live in does not have a bakery so that is wide open right now. I do not decorate cakes as that is my sisters specialty and she is definately good at it. As I said I've thought of this for a long time and possibly working my way towards that goal. Still thinking though. Sure could use the extra money too.

Hope you all have a great day. It is hump day so counting down to the weekend.