Coffee break…

 Actually a long ‘coffee break’. I went on a business trip with Shannon this week. We’re in Lancaster, PA right now with the truck and trailer loading up playhouses and some other stuff.
Here’s our load:
truck.jpg
Heading back to WI tomorrow. I should be back in my kitchen on Saturday. Meanwhile, I’m enjoying eating other people’s cooking! :) Have a good week!

Ahhhh, this is the way to start a day! (and other rhymes)

…start it with raspberry cream cheese rolls and coffee!

Sometimes I wonder if I should try a post that’s in poem format. This would be a good one to do that on because the title rhymes… and that just happened, didn’t even try it. The best poems are ones that flow, that you can’t tell the poet was working hard to get it to rhyme. An example of working too hard to rhyme would be like this:
My friend and I met
this morning at eight.
Our coffee we drank
and our donuts we ate.
You just don’t say “our coffee we drank” and “our donuts we ate” in regular conversation, you say “we drank our coffee” and “we ate our donuts”. That is one of my pet peeves in poetry. I know it’s ‘legal’, but it just makes it sound so much more formal. It would be much better to say,
Coffee and donuts
and a friendly chat,
Breakfasts don’t get
much better than that.

I used to get a kick out of writing poems in my adolescent years. My favorite has always been a 6-line style where lines 1& 2 rhyme, 3&6 rhyme, and 4&5 rhyme. I don’t know what it’s called, kind of like a limerick, but not quite. Around 16, I wrote a whole poem consisting of about 10 stanzas in that style. The first stanza was:
In August we moved
To what actually proved
To be home at Valley View Orchard.
At first, work was fun,
But before all was done,
We thought we were seriously tortured.
…and so on it went, about life on our orchard.

My dad was/is great with poems. I still remember when I we were growing up, Dad would start making up a poem about this or that and just kept going and going for quite awhile, not having to pause to think of a rhyming word. It was amazing to me even at a young age how he could do that. Of course, the bar was pretty low because we were just kids and were thrilled with anything that rhymed.

Anyway, when I started this post, I had no clue I’d get into poems! So, instead of erasing the poem parts, I went up and added “(and other rhymes)” into the title. I was just posting to tell you that I made raspberry cream cheese rolls this morning AND that I finally have a new FAVORITE coffee mug once again! Here are both:
coffee-rolls.jpg

My friend, Shannon, from OH,  sent me that coffee mug. It’s perfect. The ‘walls’ are thick, just how I like them. It’s heavy and solid. And the design is great. And she said that they’re hard to break… which is good! Did you know that I break more dishes than my 2 children do?! Sometimes I wonder if I’m clumsy. Anyway, it’s a Longaberger mug, if you’re interested in getting one. She tells me Longaberger mugs are the best. And I think I’m convinced.

And those raspberry cream cheese rolls (here is the link to the recipe), they are just the best! Seriously, try them! I just thought of it now, I got the recipe for these rolls from Shannon, too (same one that just gave me the mug). These rolls are easier than they look and the dough is SO nice to work with because it doesn’t stick to anything… not to the rolling pin, not to the counter, not to your hands. The raspberry filling is just regular pie filling from the grocery store (I put it into a plastic storage bag, cut a corner off, and pipe it on). It doesn’t have to be raspberry, in fact, this time I used strawberry. I put it in the food processor so there wouldn’t be big chunks. The cream cheese filling is from a bulk foods store in plastic bag tubes. BUT, Barb, if you’re reading this, you had asked a question about the cr. ch. filling if you don’t have a bulk foods store around. I made it from scratch this time just to experiment and it turned out great! I edited the post that the rolls are featured on and added that filling recipe.

So, now everyone, tell me what you had for breakfast in a comment! You can make it in poem form if you want to. :)

Here I’ll start:
My roll was first-rate
My coffee was great
And Shannon confirmed that when he ate his.
You may have guessed
These are the best
And I don’t care who your grandmother is!

Featuring: Cooking with the Horse and Buggy People cookbook

Ok, I’ve been talking about this cookbook lately and so I’m going to share it with you. Well, just part of it. Because it has 275 pages.

cookbook1.jpg

I think it’s my favorite cookbook (right now anyway, I go in spurts) in my cookbooks-that-don’t-have-pictures section of my collection. Ha, no, I don’t have my cookbook collection categorized. I’m not that organized or that much of a perfectionist. Anyway, if I would take the time to do it one day, guess who’d be the one messing them all up again by not putting the cookbook back in it’s proper place. Me.

Maybe one reason that it’s my favorite is because… you know how cookbooks are divided into categories? This cookbook has 14 categories and guess which category has the most recipes in it. The COOKIE category! Now, if that wouldn’t make you love a cookbook, I don’t know what would. There are 113 cookie recipes. I’d love to just start at the front with the ‘Oatmeal Chip Cookies’ and go thro’ all 113 ending with the ‘Snow Balls’. I know, you’re probably tired of me forever talking about snow on this site when you’re having Spring, but this isn’t the real thing this time… it’s name is most likely coined from the fact that the last step in the recipe is rolling them in powdered sugar.

Another reason I like this cookbook is because there is something very unique about it. Using this cookbook makes me feel like an accomplished cook who knows her way around the kitchen. As though I’d be as kitchen-savvy as my mom is. Seriously, though, a new cook would be a bit lost with this cookbook. Here, I’ll give you some examples and when you read these recipes, picture yourself as a very amateur cook who’s about to make them…

recipe1.jpg

recipe2.jpg

recipe3.jpg

recipe4.jpg

recipe5.jpg

recipe6.jpg

Wasn’t that kinda fun? Alot of the recipes do have good directions, but alot of them also have brief instructions like not saying what temp to bake or what size pan to put it in. And quite a few recipes have just the ingredients listed like the Beef Barbeque Sandwiches recipe above, then you gotta figure it out from there. I think the Fudge Nut Bars must be a typo, with the last half of the directions missing… just this evening, 22 pages later, I found another recipe about like it with more directions. I was going to have you guys help me figure it out because I was dying to make them, but now I think my problem is solved.

I don’t even remember where I got this cookbook, but I’m just glad I have it. It’s just so perfect for my cookbook collection, with that unique feature in it. And I look forward to featuring more recipes from it… even if I’ll have to ask Mom to fill in the blanks for me with more directions once in awhile.

Do you have a favorite coffee cup?

You know, the one that you use every morning for that mandatory first cup of coffee. I don’t have one. Not anymore anyway.

My dishwasher is on the blink right now, so the other day when I was washing dishes by hand, I was washing my good ol’ faithful coffee cup and wasn’t watching what I was doing and slammed the handle down on the edge of the sink. The handle broke off. I nonchalantly told my husband, “Uh, I just broke my coffee cup.” But, in my mind, as I was carrying the broken parts to the trash and as I put them in, I actually felt like crying.

Yeah, I’m not kidding about that. But don’t take it too seriously. I’m overly nostalgic. I won’t go into a long list of all the stuff I’ve got lumps in my throat over, like an old trailer house that I used to live in, and leaving the 1900s behind, entering the 2000s.

Do you want to know what my coffee cup looked like? It’s right up there in my header. Ah, I’m so glad I used it for my header, now I can still see it every day. Sleek and black. Not just any ordinary shape… instead of curving out slightly at the top, mine curved slightly in. It had thick walls, which is more my style than thin dainty cups. I get all thumbs when I’m holding dainty teacups, like at my Aunt Ruthie’s tea parties.

I love going to tea parties though… all the elegance and lovely snacks, BUT whenever I’m invited to one, the first thing I think of is those dainty teacups. And, well, I’ve been to tea parties where I didn’t even drink tea just because I’m sure I’ll drop and shatter my cup. And then the more I worry about doing it, the more nervous and left-handed I get, and the more chance there is of me actually bobbling and dropping it.

Anyway, back to the coffee cup… or rather, the lack of one. I am now officially in search of a new coffee cup to once again become my personal favorite. I’ve been looking and just haven’t found the perfect one yet. There are so many different ways I could go. I could go the classy route, the cutesy route, the authentic route, the decorative route, the vintage route. Anything but like what I had. If I’d find a cup exactly like I had, I wouldn’t get it. That would seem like it was just some ol’ coffee cup that can easily be replaced.

So, for now, I’m just using one of the many Coca-Cola cups in the cupboard. Just grabbing whichever one is closest. Nothing special. 
coffee-cups.jpg

What about you? Do you have a favorite coffee cup? I know my aunt Ruthie has a favorite tea cup and when she has a tea party, she puts it out with all the other teacups, serves herself last, and it usually happens that her cup is one of the ones left and she gets to use it! I think that’s neat.

Peas… not just for lunch anymore

ankle.jpg

This is my foot, and that would be my ankle under those peas. I sprained it. :(

← Previous Page — Next Page →

   Her Blog Directory