Biscuit Mix

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 I needed to make sausage balls for our thanksgiving meal and of course my store bought bisquick mix was out of date.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.

November 23, 2010 4

A Mountain of Rolls

One of the things I am taking tomorrow for our thanksgiving meal at church will be these rolls. I froze them ahead of time and have been baking them all day today. The one difference I have noticed is that the frozen dough did not rise as much as it would if it had not been frozen. They taste the same though and I guess thats what counts. I am also making cinnamon rolls to take. Not sure what else yet. After our meal, the youth of our church will go shopping. Every year they get two “angels” from the angel tree. A boy and a girl. Each family in the church contributes $5.00. Then the youth go shopping. They boys buy for the boy and the girls buy for the girl. It is a very nice tradition. Our youth really look forward to going. One year, they were shopping and picked out something they wanted to buy and they were a little short on the money needed to buy it. One of the boys said he had some extra from a job he had done that week. He gave the extra so they could purchase the item. I love that. Children being raised to give generously and without expecting anything in return.

Yesterday I had a WONDERFUL surprise. Jessica and Sam came up for a visit. I did not know they were coming. They just walked in the door. I was so happy. Daniel and David were at home. She stayed until after lunch. The bible study ladies had not gotten to see Sam yet. It was a great surprise. Have I mentioned I love happy surprises?

Beautiful day here in Floyd. Very nice temperatures with lots of sunshine. A great day for being outside. Enjoy your day and God bless.

November 20, 2010 4

Just Beautiful

Our Christmas cactus is blooming so beautiful this year. It adds so much color to the room. This plant was a gift years ago from one of the bible study ladies. It is an easy plant to keep alive.

Today is ladies bible study. We will be watching the movie “The book of Ruth”. This will be the first time we have watched a movie on bible study day. We thought that since we had just finished our study on Ruth it would be good to watch the movie as a little break before we start our new study next week. I will also be busy making rolls for our thanksgiving meal at church. I have never frozen the dough before so I hope it works out well. I think I might make some cinnamon rolls to take also.

We have sunshine here today. A little cool but not too bad. I think I will be able to hang our clothes outside to dry. Enjoy your day and God bless.

November 19, 2010 3

Favorite Chore

This is my Shadow’s favorite chore. He loves to follow me to the clothesline and then “guard” the clothes. He has done this since he was a young dog when we first inherited him from Jess. I’m sure I’ve told the story of how we got Shadow before but as I am getting older I forget if I have or not. If you already know it, skip this part, if not read on. 7 years ago when we first started working on the farmhouse getting it ready for us to move into, Dave and Jess already lived here on the farm. Shadow was their dog. They had got him from another lady who said he was just too much dog for her to handle. He is a rather large dog-chow and retreiver mix. Anyway, as a pup he was very energetic to say the least. They acquired him when he was under a year old. At the time we were working on the house, I estimate him to have been about 1 1/2 yrs old maybe close to 2. Jess would come over almost every day that we worked on the house. Shadow would always follow. He loved the girls. He considered himself their own private guardian. If they were outside, he was always with them. He wouldn’t let them go in the cow field or old buildings. He would stand in front of them and bark until I came to see what was going on. Remember they were only 4 and 3 at the time. By the time we were ready to move in, he had completely left Jess and Dave’s and stayed here at all the time, even when we left at night. He would just stay until we came back. We laugh and say we did not choose Shadow, Shadow chose us. Well, that says it all. We all love him and he loves us.

Today is overcast and chilly. I did hang the clothes outside but I’m not sure if they will be able to stay. They are calling for rain this afternoon. Enjoy your day and God bless.

November 18, 2010 2

Cushaw and Pumpkin

Today along with my many other duties, I will be processing these beautiful cushaw and pumpkin. There were 3 cushaws altogether but one is already in the steamer. I plan to steam them enough to cut the peeling off, puree them in the sauce maker and then freeze the puree. You see the pumpkin in the box, I have never tasted this type of pumpkin. The lady who gave it to me said she thought they were called cow pumpkins. She said they were very good for pies. The cushaw was a gift from my mother-in-law. Thanks, Judy.

We had a nice afternoon yesterday. Hubby needed a haircut so we went over to our friends house who cuts our hair for us. We shared coffee and an excellent dessert she had made. Then after he got his hair cut, Hubby and Faye got out their guitars and we enjoyed singing some old hymns. I so enjoy these times. The dessert she made was very simple. 4 large apples, 2 containers of store bought crescent rolls. Quarter the apples and place a quarter in each crescent roll. Roll the crescent around the apple. Put into baking dish. Heat 1 stick butter, 1 cup sugar, cinnamon (to taste) and 1 1/2 cups water until melted. Pour this mixture over the apple dumplings and bake at 350 about 45 minutes or until cresents are golden brown. Serve warm topped with whipped creme. They were delicious. I guess since I am working up pumpkin today I thought this recipe would work with pumpkin instead of the apples. I think I would change the sugar to brown sugar, also add a little nutmeg. Maybe I’ll try that today. We’ll see. Sunday is our Thanksgiving dinner at church. I need to get started making rolls.

The sun is shining here today. Lots of wind-gusts of about 30 mph. This made walking a little more difficult. Hubby went with me though and that made it much more enjoyable. Enjoy your day and God bless.

November 17, 2010 2

Will I or Will I Not?

I know many of you are thinking “what is this picture of”. Did she make a mistake? No, this is the view from my front porch this morning as I comtemplated my walk. It was raining, the wind was blowing, everything was muddy and as you can see, it was foggy. Today was the first test of my determination to walk every day. It would have been so easy to just say YUCK! I’m not going today. I’ll do something else (which I knew I would not). I did finally put on my raincoat, gloves, hiking boots-which of course was another excuse not to go because I do not like to wear all this. I then stepped out in the yuck and began my walk. Guess what? It was exhilarating!!!!!!!! I really did enjoy it. Yes, I did get wet, my pants and my face and that was not too pleasant but it wasn’t too bad either. I really want to walk as long as weather will permit so I know I just have to stick to it. Pray that I will continue to be strong.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

November 16, 2010 3

Beautiful Morning

What a wonderful way to start a Sunday morning! Sitting on my front porch, drinking a cup of coffee with my favorite man in the whole wide world, and looking at this special presentation from the Lord. Beautiful! We had a really good weekend. We watched the movie “Fireproof” Saturday evening with some friends from church. Then our Sunday School lesson was on marriage. This was not planned to be that way-just our Lord at work. I said we had an unplanned marriage retreat weekend. We started the day with the beautiful sunrise and then on the way to church last evening the Lord gave a beautiful sunset to look at all the way to church. (of course, I did not have the camera with me then) How good is the Lord we serve?

Here is a picture of my first attempt to make english muffins. They turned out pretty good-a little dense I thought but good. I used a recipe I found on line to make the dough in my bread machine. Next time I think I will try making them by hand to see if they are different. I am trying really hard to make as much of our food at home as possible. This really lowers the grocery bill and of course is healthier for us and usually tastes much better. Well enjoy your day and God bless.

November 15, 2010 2

Come Walk With Me

I thought you all might enjoy seeing some of the things I see on my morning walk. I have been trying to walk every morning now for 2 weeks. My goal of course is (1) to lose some weight and (2) to lower my blood pressure. I hope to keep up my walking as long as weather will permit, then I will have to come up with a different workout. Anyway, this is the route I take. This picture is at the beginning of the walk. I walk on what we call the “tractor road” .

I walk past our pond.

A close up of the hill behind the pond.

The first little hill.

The second hill.

A view from top of second hill.

A little color still left.

One of my walking companions. Okay so most days, he walks about 1/2 of the way then just lays down and waits for me to get back. I have to keep reminding myself, he is not the young pup he used to be. However, it is good to know he is close by. Well, that’s some of the highlights of my walk. Enjoy your day and God bless.

November 13, 2010 3

Am I Cute?

This is one of our new kitties. You may remember there are 3 of them. The other two were being shy. This one the girls call Fuzzy Wuzzy. I wonder why. He is so chubby and fuzzy he waddles when he walks. Very cute.

Today has been a beautiful day here in Floyd. All week has been really, really nice. The mornings have been pretty chilly-mid 20’s. The days however have warmed up nicely with lots of sunshine-low 60’s. Amazing! We have hung our clothes outside on the line all week. How good is that! Almost mid November and this warm. I like it.

Today was ladies bible study day. We finished our study on Ruth. Our next study will be on Women Who Believed God. It looks like it will be a very good study. I always love starting a new study. I think it is so exciting. I can hardly wait to see what the Lord will reveal to us.

Lots to do so take care and God bless.

November 12, 2010 2

My Accomplishment-Pumpkin Roll

For many years, I have thought about trying to make one of these. However I have always been intimidated by the idea of rolling it up. I’m not sure why as I make many other things that need to be rolled. Anyway, today was the day I put my fears behind me and tackled it. Guess what? It was not near as difficult as I thought it would be. With a little practice, I think it would even be easy.

Today is an absolutely beautiful day here in Floyd. Temperatures are in the mid 60’s. Lots of sunshine. Just beautiful! I can hardly wait to get my stuff finished and get out in this wonderful weather. Yesterday I cooked a large pork roast in the crockpot. We had pork roast, cheesy potatoes and pinto beans. Tonights menu will be pork bbq with homemade buns, home fries and slaw. I think there will be enough pork left over for burrittos tomorrow night. I like to do this. Cook a large amount of meat and then use it in several different ways for supper over the next few days. This speeds up cooking time in the evening.

I think I need to get busy. My “green swing” is lonely and needs me to come keep it company. God bless.

November 10, 2010 4