Good evening!  I'm sorry it has been so long since I have been on here.  Life....hectic.....you know how it is. 

Before, I had mentioned that my daughter and her 3 sons had moved in with us.  Well, the SIL decided that it was time to clean up his act and that he had a family to think about.  So, my house has gone back to just The Honey & I.  My spare room is back to my spare room.  My sewing machine is set up and doesn't have to be taken down every time I'm done.  (Christmas presents were made this year, unemployed really sucks!) 
Baking wise, where do I start.  I have been real busy in the kitchen.  Trying different things that had scared me before.  I could come up with pages of items that I did since fall, but I'm not going to bore you with that.  I will be back to posting recipes I have found and some pictures too.
Around Christmas time I always take one weekend and do ALL my cookie baking in two days.  This year I actually counted the cookies that I do, the final tally was 1,150 cookies baked in 2 days!!!  There were 11 different types of cookies that I had stored in coolers on the porch.  There were 22 tins that I was filling with cookies for people. 
The other day, I made some fluff.  PB & Fluff, remember?  The grands loved it!  The Honey said that I can't buy the tub of it anymore, I have to make it.  Lol!  I guess it was a big hit.  Thank god for pinterest!  I have found so many items on there! 
I just found some really cute aprons to make out of mens dress shirts.  I am going to go to the thrift store and see what I can find for real cheap and see what I can make.  Will put the directions and the pics on here when I am done. 
Here in NH, we have had too many below freezing days.  I am so ready to have tank tops & flip flops!  My motorcycle is lonely and wants to go for a ride.  Was out in the barn with The Honey the other day, and had both bikes running for a bit.  That was not good to tease me like that! 
Done for now, just wanted to get back on here and try and get back on track.  Thank you for reading and checking me out.
Have a great day!

Shhhh.....Listen........

Shhhh.....Listen......the sound of silence!  :)     Today, all day, it is just The Honey & I home!  The older 2 grands are in school all day, 3rd grade and kindergarten.  Grand #3 is at the sitters for the day. 
As I have mentioned, my daughter and her three boys are living with us at the moment.  Her fiancé decided that his friends and the bottle is what he wanted and has left (that is called a scumbag).  So to have 4 extra people in a one bedroom apartment has been fun.....yeah.....  Luckily we do have an extra room that has become a bedroom/closet for the boys.  The baby is in a playpen that gets moved around and my daughter is either on the couch or asleep in the recliner. 
It does get very noisy here sometimes (you think!!!)  I have not had a chance to get online much.   I have been working in the kitchen, but not baking like I would like too.  I'm in the dinner mode.  I forgot what it was like...... Lol!

Yesterday, we did go for a nice bike ride.  We went to Bath, NH (tiny ass little town) that boasts the oldest continuous running general store in the US.  I laugh, you look around the town (turn in a circle, you basically see the whole town) you have all these old homes, barns and then you have the double wide.....lol..  After Bath, we went east to the other side of the state towards North Conway.  Out through the woods on RT 302 is a nice quiet ride.  I told The Honey that I was going to ride bitch.  My back and hip where not feeling good, and I knew that I did not want to ride my bike.  So I was able to sit back (not really relax) and take some pictures of our lovey state!  Below are a few of the 89 that I ended up taking. 

Since it is quiet, I have already got the third load of laundry (kids, my god) in the dryer, only 1 more to go.  The dishes are done.  And I'm going to now make some lunch for The Honey before any one of our coffee regulars decides it's time to show up. 

Enjoy the day all, I just wanted to say I have had the blog in the back of my mind, but absolutely no time to even think of typing more than one sentence. 
:)

Hello there!  Nice cool evening tonight, will be crisp already for sleeping.  I can handle that.  Love to have the a/c off and the windows open, nice fresh air to sleep in!  The last couple of days we have gone to several different areas with the canoe and done some blueberry picking!  We ended up with about 20 cups!
It took me about 3 hours to pick through them all ( I don't like to have stems or dried up little ones) last night.  Today I cooked and canned up some preserves.  They tasted real good even though they were warm.  Now I want to get some more to freeze up to have some this winter. 
The Honey really likes to go out through the woods to travel.  We were on some pretty rough dirt roads (my poor car!) to get to a couple of ponds.  We got to see some wild life along the way.  You know, a turkey is a pretty ugly bird! 

 

So we finally get to the pond and I was in heaven!  There were a lot of berries to be picked!  Out and around the edges of the islands, one of them we got onto land and continued picking.  My poor arms and legs were so scratched up! 

After getting every thing all picked clean last night, my back & shoulders were killing me.  Today I made the preserves and a coffee cake.  Both came out well I think.  I will get those 2 recipes on here real quick.  Here are a couple of shots to see what a beautiful day it was for picking and being out on a pond with The Honey. 

 

Nothing like fresh picked berries!  So much better than buying them at the grocery store.  It is a lot of work associated with the picking, cleaning, cooking and canning.  But they are so worth it!  I do want to get some more berries and also want to get some black berries.  That will be the next adventure, to go & find them.  Time for bed, I just wanted to drop in and say hi all.  Have a good evening!

Biking & Baking

Good evening all!  In the last couple of days, I was able to get in both biking & baking!  Yeah!  As I had mentioned, my daughter and the three Grands moved in with us for a bit.  I'm still amazed how much stuff for 3 boys!  Haha! 

Biking :)
Yesterday, we had a beautiful summer day here in New Hampshire.  High 70's, no humidity and just perfect.  About 9:30am I'm telling The Honey that there is sunshine and it was time to hit the fair (Yes, can you believe that the fairs have started already!).  We had to have our coffee regulars that come over first, you know, grand fucking central station!!!!  3pm we finally left to go to Swanzey to go to the Cheshire fair (only about 2hrs away).   That was the first time we had been to that fair (we have now hit all the ones in NH).   We are not ones that will go on the highway very often at all.  We like to hit the back roads, less traffic, scenic, able to just cruise.  Coming back, The Honey decided he wanted to take a left, so we went left.  Ended up on this back road and then had to take a detour!  There was absolutely no other people on this road.  Was awesome!  Along a river (I couldn't catch a name sign anywhere) and peaceful.  Trying to get home we ended up about 50 miles west of where we wanted to be. Lol!  Not the first time that we decided to take an adventure.  !!!!

 

 

 

Baking -

 

So today, Grand #3 (6 months old) is not feeling well, pool little bugger.  Teething and I believe his ear may be bothering him.  He was trying to nap, and I was trying to keep Grand #2 (5 yrs) quiet.  So he was Meme's baking helper.  He tried to say that he couldn't be a baker because he had a tattoo on his arm (Smokey the Bear tattoo from the Forestry booth at the fair).  I was really trying hard not too laugh at that one.  I had to remind him that I do ALOT of baking, and I have several tattoos. So this picture is to show that you can be a baker with tattoos.  Love it!!!

 

Today, I had an abundance of lemons that had to get used up and found one of my recipes for lemon brownies that is real simple and delicious.  Just the right hint of lemon, not too tart.  Had the stamp of approval from S & B (which are another one of the coffee regulars that come over).  If I am baking anything, The Honey will take a picture with his phone and send it to S.  He will call right back and ask what time!!!  Lol.

Here is the lemon brownies

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter (2 sticks) room temperature
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 lemon zested & juiced

Glaze
1 cup powder sugar
2 - 4 Tbls lemon juice & some zest (I make it runny to just glaze the top)

:Preheat oven to 350 - line a 9 x 13 pan with parchment paper

  Stir the dry ingredients together.  Cut in the butter with a pastry blender ( or 2 knives) until course crumbs.  In a small bowl, combine the eggs, vanilla, lemon juice & zest.  Add to the dry mixture and mix to combine well.  Pour into pan and bake 25 - 30 minutes until set.  Let cool completely and then add the glaze too the top.  Enjoy!!!

Very good, not to tart, not too sweet.  Just yummy.  Sorry I didn't get any pictures of the baking or finished product. 

Well that's it for tonight, I hope all get to enjoy the evening and the goodies!  xoxo

Good evening.  Sorry it has been awhile, family stuff going on that has made it hectic. 
We have my youngest and her 3 boys staying with us for a bit.  I can say that I'm not used to having the boys here 24/7.  It has been awhile since I have had kids around like that. 
And you know, babies are so small, why the hell does all there stuff have to take up so much room! You have the tub, the vibrating chair, the walker, the walker table thing that takes up half the living room, the bassinet, never mind all the stuff that goes along with him.  I was laughing looking at all the items needed for 3 kids. 
Ahhhh..... at least I have an excuse to do some more baking.   I told The Honey this would also be a good excuse to get the bikes out and go for rides. 
Well, I am rambling, I'm tired and ready for shower and bed.  Have a good evening all.

(sweating.....)

Good evening all!  As all across the country can attest to, it is to friggen hot!!!  The humidity is like hitting a wall when you walk out of the door.  Has been way to hot to have the bikes out, and baking is most definitely out of the question right now!  (That part I don't like, I want brownies damn it!!!)  I just took some lemon bars  out of the freezer last night for coffee with a couple of regulars.  *I'll find my recipe card for that one and post that*  The crust was a different consistency and seemed more of a fudge said one of the coffee crew.  Still had the pucker from a tad too much lemon, but still good.

I also took out some lemon-poppy seed donuts out of the seal-meal bag, I did not freeze them first on a sheet pan then seal them.  They did not come back, so we have flat donuts.  Oh well the taste was still good, you could tell they were lemon and the glaze did not all stick to the bag.  * I'll find this recipe too*

Sunday is only supposed to be in the low 80's.  We are going to pack a lunch and head to the mountains on the bikes.  Will be much cooler, have lunch along the river some where. 

Thanks for stopping by, time to get a cold drink and take it easy.  :)

Hazy, hot & humid!

Good evening all!  It has been a bit, sorry, but with the weather, I am not baking at this time and it has been too hot to do a lot of bike riding. 

I was smart this winter when I was playing Betty Crocker every day, I actually put some goodies in the freezer just for these days that I will not be baking. 

Today, the honey & I along with a couple of friends jumped on the bikes and went for a ride.  One of those 200 mile rides that you don't go any where.  You all know what that is like.  We headed north to try and get a little bit of relief from the heat.  Glen Ellis falls is a beautiful area to stop and have lunch and walk down to the falls.

 

New Hampshire is such a beautiful state!  There are many things to see no matter what area that you go to.

 

I packed some goodies from the freezer to have with our coffee stop.  I made some baked donuts, and they went very good with the dunkins.    I have tried many recipes for baked donuts, and the one that is the best so far that I have found is the King Arthur Flour recipe for donuts.  Very good!!!!!  Everyone has said they are the best ones I have come up with.  You can add flavors, fruit, or crumble to make a coffee cake donut. 

 

Well, I really need to jump in the shower and get the heat off me now.  I hope you all have a great evening and don't forget,

Ride Safe!