Lemon Yogurt Crumb Cake

That my darlings is homemade lemon curd on top of the crumb cake.

 I had a nearly overly ambitious baking moment and made this cake from a Southern Living recipe. I have never made lemon curd before but I will again. It is like lemon meringue pie filling only more luscious. I felt proud and accomplished after making the lemon curd.  We are having lemon curd on biscuits for breakfast tomorrow.

Pride comes before a fall.

 The cake recipe almost exhausted me. For what amounts to a coffee cake there is an extraordinary amount of fiddling with eggs and such. But it is all worth it for the end result. The lemon curd is dolloped on the batter and you swirl it through with a knife. Then a crumb topping is applied. 

The folded egg whites make it rise beautifully. 

Next time I will cut it while it is hot. I had remarkable restraint and did not cut it until our Bible study on Friday night. It is delicious and full of citrus flavor. The cake tastes like a sour cream pound cake recipe that I have been baking for over thirty years.

 You can click on the cake and lemon curd recipe here. 

I made the lemon curd one day and the cake the next day. 

Lemon curd last for two weeks refrigerated.

You can make the cake without the lemon curd if you wish. 

The lemon curd also can be added to cheese cake, 

biscuits, scones, and many other desserts.

What is your favorite lemon dessert?

joy and peace

Olive

Mimosas

Ingredients

1 Cup orange juice

1 (750 ml) bottle champagne

1/2 Cup grenadine 

Directions

Fill 8 flutes 1/4 full with orange juice. Top 3/4 full with champagne. Slide two tablespoons grenadine down the side of each flute. This allows the syrup to go to the bottom of the drink and makes it pretty. Joe laughs at me because it has to be pretty.  I add a cherry*

We serve these for breakfast or brunch Christmas morning
 but they are good any time.

joy and peace

Olive

Cornbread

Cornbread for cornbread dressing. 

I have not made dressing in years and am taking my time doing it this year.

 I did learn the trick for cooking cornbread in cast iron pans.

  Hot pan and cold batter.

I heat the pan in the oven with oil in it for nine minutes at 450 degrees.

 I never leave the kitchen when I do this. 

This makes the cornbread crispy and it does not stick.

This image above is the batter hitting the hot cast iron. 

Celery and onion are the flavor base for the dressing. 

I will bake it in the morning.

Needless to say we are not counting fat grams on Thanksgiving. 

Joe picked up our smoked turkey a few minutes ago.

 We bought one and gave one away.

CC made this coffee, vanilla wafer, and pudding dessert 

while I fiddled with cornbread. 

This Thanksgiving is particularly bittersweet because 

she will be a student in Korea next year.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends.

I am also thankful for all my European and Canadian friends.

joy and peace

Olive

Vanilla

Slit three vanilla beans length wise with a sharp knife. 

Place in a clean bottle. 

Add Vodka (unflavored) to cover the beans.

♦♦♦

In about three to four months you will have vanilla for baking. 

These vanilla beans have been in the Vodka for two weeks

 and are giving off that beautiful brown color already.

I am starting late but I think it this would make a lovely gift.
 This is my first attempt at making vanilla.
I have friends who make delicious baked goods.
Their cookies and bars are a step up from mine
and it is because of the homemade vanilla.
 If you make vanilla please give tips in the comments.

Amazon.com sells Madagascar Vanilla Beans 10 for $12.99 here.
I have also seen them at the Williams Sonoma store.
The medium glass bottle came from TJ Maxx.

happy baking

Olive

White Pimento Cheese

White Pimento Cheese

Shred two 8 oz bars of white Vermont Sharp Cheddar Cheese. 

Add 4 oz of drained chopped diced pimentos. 

Add one to two teaspoons of sugar. 

Add black pepper as desired. 

Stir in enough mayonnaise to bring it all together (I use less than 1/2 cup).

♦♦♦ 

I do not add salt as the cheddar is already salty.

Serve with crackers or on bread. 

You can also top your grilled hamburger with this pimento cheese.

Enjoy

Olive

Remarkable Hash Browns

Remarkable because we grew the potatoes.

It was a happy accident.

The potatoes grew in our compost pile. 

Joe had never dug potatoes and it was fun seeing him dig for the little brown treasures. We also have two volunteer tomatoes and a watermelon growing under our picnic table.

We don't flip our compost often enough.

 One of the tomatoes is growing next to a new hydrangea because I placed compost around the new plant. They seem happy together. We had large green tomatoes hanging on the plants and deer came through the yard and ate them last week. 

Maybe potatoes is a safer crop for us

Linking@Open House Party

happy gardening

Olive

Fruited Rice

 We like the many varieties of rice we can find now. 

 Many are organic and combined with quinoa. 

We do not eat white rice often but when we do we prefer jasmine for it's fruity notes. 

Yesterday I showed you my rice station in our small kitchen (scroll down to last post).

 Today let's make fruited rice.

♣♣♣

 Do not fret if you cannot find puffed organic rice and quinoa (found at Costco).

 Any favorite rice of yours can be substituted. 

We like jasmine rice with dried fruit, citrus juice and zest.

This is the Fruited Rice above, it also has quinoa in it.

 Quinoa gives the dish added protein.

Step 1: Prepare whatever rice that is to your liking. (I use a rice cooker which I cannot do without)

Step 2: Chop whatever dried fruit that is to your liking while your rice is cooking. 

Step 3: Add dried cranberries and nuts if you so desire to your assembled dried fruit.

Step 4: Zest a citrus fruit and juice it. (I often use the juice and zest of a navel orange or a lemon)

Step 5: Add chopped dried fruit, zest, and citrus juice to cooked rice and stir lightly and fluff

Note: To make a curried fruited rice add the best curry powder you can find about two to three teaspoons to the finished rice. We love a curried fruited rice.

Note a: Dried fruit is expensive and sweet but a little goes a long way in rice

If you do a lot of zesting a microplane is the tool for that task. It is sharp and does the task quickly. I found mine at a garage sale but they are at Williams Sonoma and at Amazon.com.

Linking with Yvonne for On The Menu Monday for the first time because y'all know I post recipes every third full moon on a blue Monday (recipes cause me great anxiety). Yvonne is eight kinds of awesome do visit Stone Gables as her blog is lovely and she is as well inside and out.

happy cooking

Olive

Rice Station

I created a rice station in my small kitchen last week. 

I removed a large stand mixer, which gets used during holidays, and put the rice in it's place.

 I cook brown rice or quinoa at least three times a week. 

I use a rice cooker which I do keep in the pantry because it is big and 

can make sixteen cups of rice if needed. 

I make eight cups of fruited rice and it disappears at our small group meetings for church.

The jars are organized on a 1970's tray made in Japan that I just adore. 

I have two of them.

 They do not really blend with anything else I have but sometimes it does not matter. 

Live with what you love and it all works out.

The brown rice is organic.

 The quinoa and puffed rice mix is from Costco but you could easily just cook quinoa by itself.

 The mushrooms are dried shiitakes. 

The McCoy cookie jar holds our coffee filters.

 Every item on this part of the counter must have a function.

If I can get it worked up {I throw random amounts in there my darlings} I will share my fruited rice recipe soon. 

I simply do not use recipes really unless I bake.

Linking with Elaine for Sunny Simple Sundays.
&
Kim for Wow Us Wednesday's

have a blessed sunday

Olive

Cupcakes From?

Cupcakes on the bar.

Double Chocolate, Chocolate Pear, and Mango Margarita

You may be surprised where these homemade and delicious confections came from.

I get them from The Goodwill Cafe at the GoodBooks store inside Goodwill in Augusta, Georgia. This store is one of two upscale Goodwill's that will be models for more that will be developed across the country. The other is in Macon, Georgia.  With coffee, chicken salad, tuna salad, sandwiches, and desserts now there is no reason to leave Goodwill for lunch anymore.This is a brilliant plan.

♣♣♣

I am still not feeling well and will not be posting my regular series on Tuesday. 

Thank you all for your kind comments yesterday.

Linking with:

Wow Us Wednesday's 

Tabletop Tuesday 

joy and peace

Olive

~ironstone and chocolate birds nests~

Happy Friday My Fine Feathered Friends

CC and I made Chocolate Birds Nests badly yesterday.

 I will not be sharing the recipe.

I ran across these six Homer Laughlin China platters at our Catholic thrift store.

 I love them.

I cannot lift them. 

But I love them.

Next time I melt chocolate in a double boiler I will slow down and let the water simmer. 

I have a need for speed.

It must come from working in that fast paced hospital.

Have a terrific weekend.

joy and peace and good chocolate

Olive

The Glitter Project

The yellow house is glitter central. 

The eight seventh grade girls, and their counselor, arrived at 5 pm, ate supper had a home devotion then left for church by 7pm.
We have prepared far too much food for this age group and will know better next time.
They promise me they will eat bacon in the morning.

They returned at 11pm and ate snack food and then decorated and altered T-Shirts at midnight.
They might have gone to sleep by 2 am.

 Adorable aren't they?
They have cut those t-shirts and made them in an incredible short period of time.
We all have hot pink glitter bracelets on except for Joe.
The dining room is covered in glitter and paint.
Thankfully the paint peels right off.
Nothing here can be hurt as you all know every item we own is second hand.

The blonde young woman sitting in the floor is the counselor and she is an adult
but looks like one of the students.
She gets full credit for the t-shirt project.
We do housing, cooking and cleaning only.

Each student brought a 2L drink and a snack.
The two suppers are being provided by our journey team and Joe and I provide breakfast.
 Lunch is provided at the 180 meetings. We also have volunteer drivers who pick them up and deliver them to and from the meetings. Multiply that by 22 host homes and 7-12 kids per home and that is a huge level of organization.
This is our first time hosting and we will definitely do it again.

This is what Clovis thinks about the whole affair.
He is not impressed by this invasion into his space.

These cookies I made are almost gone but I fear that Joe, me, and our sweet drivers are entirely at fault.
The girls will be back in one hour for a short rest and supper.
Joe and I did go to a big sale at the fair grounds today and found some real bargains.
I must run I think I have glitter in my teeth.

joy and peace
Olive

{curtains&camellias}

Pink Camellias have made their way inside to the kitchen island.

One delightful outcome of adding this humble vintage piece is that 

 it is in a fabulously sunny spot for photographs.

You have been forewarned my darlings.

Last night I ironed those tab cafe curtains in the window. 

We found them at the Catholic Thrift Store for a few dollars. 

The window needed some softening.

They need hemming but for now they can be as 

caddy wampus as the island and me for that matter.

Here is a close up of the pattern.

 I like it and they are from Ikea from the worn label.

 The camellias almost look like three fluffy cupcakes.

We feel as if our little kitchen received a mini low budget make over. 

It feels very cozy and we both can chop vegetables within a foot of the sink and cook together.

And Dear Lord, I might share a recipe tomorrow. 

That scares me by the way.

joy and peace

Olive

Muffins and Thank You

All of you get a virtual muffin this morning.

 

 

For listening to me "carry on" yesterday. 

Thank you.

Double chocolate muffins for all even if they are rather short...oops.

I would send each of you an ivy if it were possible. 

I have been transplanting and rooting ivy like a fiend.

By the way all these images were edited in Photoscape and it is getting easier and it does have many features that are wonderful. I watched their tutorial last night and it is quite helpful. I have managed to watermark these images. Now I must learn to use the Batch Editor. That is my next goal.

I still have no access to my e-mail and am trying not to think about it.

may joy and peace surround you

Olive