Favorite things

K has been after me for quite some time to make these certain muffins that she just loves. Im pretty sure her exact words were...You always make blueberry. Why cant you make the other ones? (Please?)

So, the other morning I pulled out my trusty recipe box.


I started with some brown sugar. Really? I didnt start with brown sugar at all. I just liked the way it looked when I put it in the bowl.


I made up my muffin batter and filled the cups half full...then added some brown sugar filling.


About now is when J comes running in to the kitchen. Look, mom! Look! I was outside and look what I found for you!

Isnt it beautiful?

I took a break to give him a huge hug and to thank him, of course.

Then it was added to my small collection that began when we moved in here.

Okay, cool surprise, right? So, then I added the other half of the batter to the tops of the muffins and sprinkled the streusel on top.


Fresh from the oven.


Yummy good!


Something so simple, yet she enjoys it so much.

First harvest and Yum

Over the past few days we have had our first harvest from our garden.

We pulled in green beans.


At a whopping weight of:


5.875 oz for those of us who prefer more accurate measurements.

We got a handful of pickling cukes.


Which when laid end to end, look like this.


And weigh this much: (6.25 oz)


We also picked one Suyo Long cuke. It is an Asian, burpless variety. The description says that when you trellis them they will grow straight. I use a trellis. Im not sure that I would call this straight.


This guy weighs: (4.625 oz)


In news that is equally as delightful....donut peaches are at the farmers market. I look forward to these EVERY SINGLE SUMMER. These are one of those kinda fruits that you just cant walk into any ol grocery store and have them taste anything like they do when they are grown locally. Believe me. Inquire at your local farmers market next time youre there....they are SO worth it.

To end our Sunday staying within the tasty things theme, K and a friend made this yummy brownie pizza. You want some? We have plenty.

A day to celebrate

You really dont have to ask me twice to do some baking in the kitchen. It happens to be one of my favorite things to do. And given that we had reason to celebrate yesterday it made it all the more fun.

Did you know that things go a lot smoother when you have all your ingredients out and ready? The sugar was looking a little low, so we thought it best to fill it up.


Oh dear.


Lets try again.

This time we made it to the counter. And amazingly enough the bag was still intact.


Fill er up.

Can you guess what we are making?


Now for the wet ingredients. (Only after he asks if he could have a drink of it, of course.)


Mix it all up.


Official taste tester.


Look mama. I made some art.


Happy Birthday, Hunny.


Im pretty sure you should have had more candles on that cake.


Make a wish.

Sticky Sunday

I decided to do some baking this morning.

What looked like this in the oven....


Soon looked like this once they were inverted....


After breakfast was over, I was really thinking that maybe(just maybe) I should have possibly, perhaps, had some of this instead. Only because that clementine there on the left. Yeah, that one. It was giving me mean looks the whole time I was eating my sticky bun.

Sourdough weekend and Monday

When I visited Danni this last time, she sent me home with some sourdough starter. Here it sits on Danni's counter getting ready to go on a very long trip.


Here is my suitcase in which it travelled.


Here it is after I got home and got up the courage to look in my suitcase for fear it had blown up all over everything. Luckily, for me, it hadnt. (Good thing we double bagged it. Im just sayin.)


Now it sits on my counter! Yay!


And out of the bag. If you look closely you can see the lid is a little rounded.....Im not sure how much longer it would have played nice and stayed in the container.


Now I get to open it up. It had sloshed all over in the container, but was a good girl and never tried to actually get out.


This is the beginning of my wonderful sourdough starter. It traveled from Ang, to Danni, and now, to me. Michigan to Oregon to Illinois.


That was over a week ago. So this weekend I decided it was time to break out some sourdough goodness. What better way to do that than to make that great sourdough carrot cake. Its Monday now and this is all that is left.


And then today, I made some sourdough bread. (well, actually rolls.)
I did use the bread machine to make the dough.


But before you get ready to call me a great big cheater head...it was just for the dough. JUST the dough.


Then I punched it down and made it into little bun type rolls.


Then I let them rise.


Then I baked them. They were not really browning up very well, so I brushed on some melted butter and then turned on the broiler for a few minutes. That seemed to help quite a bit.


They were very tasty. They had a crispy texture to the exterior and a nice airy, tenderness on the interior.

But as someone I know would say, they didnt really have enough sourdough taste to them. It wasnt that knock your socks off sourdough tang that I was looking for. Sigh. Ah, well....I guess Ill have to go back to the drawing board and try out some of those great tips that Danni mentioned to enhance the sourdough flavor. I was kinda hoping that there would just be great yeast waiting to be captured here in Illinois...