•  1 stick butter melted
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
• 1 cup canned pure pumpkin puree
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1-2/3 cups flour (I use 2/3 cup whole wheat and 1 cup all purpose)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter and brown sugar until smooth. Whisk in the eggs, pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, 1 teaspoon vanilla, the baking powder, the baking soda and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour.
3. Using an ice cream scoop or tablespoon, drop 12 generous mounds of batter, spaced evenly, onto each baking sheet. Bake until springy to the touch, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completelely
4. Spread the flat side of 12 cakes with the cream cheese frosting. Top each with another cake.

I got this recipe from http://www.rachaelraymag.com/Recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipe-search/dessert-recipes/pumpkin-whoopie-pies

Recipe: Homemade Flour Tortillas

Prep Time: 1 Hour30 Minutes | Cook Time: 10 Minutes | Difficulty: Intermediate | Servings: 16

 

Ingredients

• 2-1/2 cups All-purpose Flour
• 2-1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 1/2 cup Lard Or Vegetable Shortening
• 2 Tablespoons (additional) Lard Or Vegetable Shortening
• 1 cup Hot Water

Preparation Instructions

Beat eggs on high 3 min.  Gradually beat in sugar.  Stir in pumpkin, lemon juice.  In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients.  Fold into pumpkin mixture.  Spread into a greased 15X10X1″ pan.  Top with nuts.  Bake at 325 degrees for 15 min.  Turn out onto a towel sprinkled with powdered sugar.  Starting at the narrow end roll towel and cake together, cool and unroll.  Use wax paper to turn it out on. 

Filling

1 cup powdered sugar
6 oz cream cheese
4 tbsp butter-softened
1/2 tsp vanilla

Beat until smooth.  Spread over cake roll.  Roll up pumpkin roll and chill well.

Oatmeal Muffins
 
  1 cup oatmeal
 1 cup buttermilk (or sour milk)
 1/3 cup applesauce
 1/2 cup brown sugar
 1 egg, beaten
 1 cup flour
 1 tsp. baking powder
 1/2 tsp. salt
 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup raisins 

Mix all ingredients together.  Stir in nuts and raisins last after everything else is mixed. Put into muffin tin and bake at 400º for 20 – 25 minutes

Remember a while back I said we were working on a big surprise.  Well, here they are.  We have baby chicks!!!!!  Aren’t they sooo cute?   The girls and I are so excited.  Hubby is a little more reserved but we know he’ll come around.   Our friends, the Horns, gave us the red ones.  The others came from Tractor Supply.   We got them Saturday.  They spent the weekend inside as it was extremely cold here.  We moved them out to their coop yesterday.   We pulled a quilt down over the roost and put a light inside so they stayed nice and warm.   I will be posting more pictures all along to let you all know of their progress.

It is a little warmer here today.  At least no snow or ice.  Hopefully, we will be able to hang clothes outside to dry.   Today is supposed to be our warmest day of the week.  Colder with rain for the remainder.  Oh well, this is the last week of March.  In April, things start warming up more.  We will be doing school as usual today, with breaks to go check on the chicks.  The girls have already been out once this morning.  They want them to be used to them and not be afraid. 

I made a new recipe yesterday for pumpkin muffins.  They turned out pretty good.  The recipe I used is:

Original Recipe Yield 1 dozen muffins

Well, the snow did come yesterday-about 4″.  So no family coming today.  Hopefully, Dave, Jess and the boys will get to come about the middle of the week.  I’m not sure when Chuck will come.  The girls are excited today.  There is enough snow to make snow cream, which is a favorite around here.  There probably will be some sledding today too.  The winds are supposed to start later today so we’ll just have to see how everything goes.  The cows don’t seem to mind the snow at all.

I took these pictures from our dining room window.  Later today, we will be going down to the barn to get milk.  I will try to take more pictures then.

Hubby completely surprised me yesterday morning.  We very seldom get each other gifts at Christmas but this year he got me this wonderful mixer.  He even braved Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve to get it for me.  Complete surprise!  I got up yesterday morning, went to turn the coffee pot on and there it was.  I squealed out loud and he just smiled that beautiful smile of his that always says “I love you”.  He said with all the cooking and baking I do, he thought it would come in handy.  Well, it certainly will.  I made a batch of banana nut muffins in it this morning.  I used a different recipe than I normally use and I think I like it much better.  The recipe is:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I used whole wheat), 2/3 cup sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/3 cup applesauce, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup sour cream, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. allspice, 2/3 cup mashed bananas, 1/3 cup chopped walnuts.  Combine all ingredients.   Pour into muffin tin.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 min.  I used my large muffin tin and got 6 muffins.  Very good.

No church today because of the snow.  I sure am glad we got to go Friday night to the candlelight service.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Tired of buying this out of the store?  Well, today Jess and I came across a recipe to make our own.  We found it in our Mennonite cookbook.   I needed to make sausage balls for our thanksgiving meal and of course my store bought bisquick mix was out of date.   I will  be making this mix today but I felt confident enough in Mrs. Shank’s recipe to post it without trying it first.  I very seldom do that but every recipe I have tried from this cookbook has been excellent.  I feel confident this one will be also.   The recipe is:

8 cups all purpose flour, 1/3 cup baking powder, 2 tsp. cream of tartar, 3 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp salt, 1 1/2 cups dry milk powder.  Mix together thoroughly.  2 cups vegetable shortening.  Cut in until mixture is fine uniform crumbs.  Store in airtight container in cool dry place.  Yield  13 cups mix which makes 45-50 biscuits.  To make biscuits, blend together 3 1/2 cups mix and 2/3 cup water.  Stir just until liquid is mixed into the dough.  Form into a ball and knead slightly.  Pat or roll out to 1/2″ thickness.  Cut with biscuit cutter.  Place on greased baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 min.  Makes 12 large biscuits.

Temperatures are nice here today but the clouds are moving in.  I have clothes on the line, hoping they will dry.  Yesterday was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine.  I certainly am enjoying these warm temperatures.  I was looking on our calendar.  Last year on Dec. 5th we had our first snow and it snowed all winter.   It was a beautiful but hard winter.  I wonder what the Lord has in mind for this winter.

Time for school.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Here is a picture of the apple muffins I made this morning.  They were very good.  I definitely will be making them again.  Thanks for sharing the recipe, Cheryl.  Here is the recipe: 

2 cups flour (I used whole wheat), 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, 3/4 cup apple juice, 1/3 cup oil, 1 egg and 1 cup diced apples.  Combine all ingredients and put into muffin pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 min.  Next time I make it I will add nuts but I didn’t this time.  Anyway they were really good.

Today has been rain, rain, and then some more rain.  Extremely dreary.  Hubby is having trouble with the van  but has been unable to work on it because of the rain.  We did manage to sneak in a picnic lunch over at the park.  They have a shed there and we were fortunate enough to get to use the shed, otherwise we would have had to come home.  We had hamburgers on the grill, pasta salad and yogurt.  We got some more good pictures to share. 

I hope you all enjoy your day and God bless.

Grain Master Whisper Mill.  I use this for grinding corn and wheat.

Fresh ground corn meal.  To make this self rising, I follow this recipe.  4 cups fresh ground corn meal (or wheat flour), 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp baking powder.  Sift together.

Finished product, ready to enjoy.  What do you think we’ll be having for dinner?  God Bless.