Tasty Tuesday

Between planting mums on Saturday and sawing logs (actual, not metaphorical) yesterday, I am too pooped to do much of anything, including offering a coherent post.  So, rather than sit here reading nothing, I suggest you do what I did on Saturday afternoon... make yourself some brownies.

Basic Fudgy Brownies

3/4 cup butter or margarine 

3/4 cup unsweetened baker’s cocoa

3 eggs

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease sides and bottom of 8 x 10 baking pan.  Gently melt butter in medium saucepan.  Remove from heat and stir in cocoa powder until well combined.  In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla until light and frothy.  Add cocoa/butter mixture and stir to combine.  Sift flour over the mixture and gently fold in until just combined.  Bake on the center rack for 30 minutes.  (Toothpick inserted in center may not come out completely clean.)  Do not over bake.  May serve warm after 10 minutes, or cool completely before cutting to store.

Apple Cranberry Crisp

Since a friend of mine asked, I thought I'd post this recipe today.  Enjoy!

Apple Cranberry Crisp

6 medium apples

1.5 cups whole fresh cranberries

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 T white sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp Apple Cider mix

---

1 cup brown sugar

2 T white sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup quick oats

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp Apple Cider mix

6 T butter (cold)

 

Preheat oven to 350F.  Peel, core, and slice apples to about 1/4" slices.  In large bowl, stir together apples, cranberries, both sugars, cinnamon, and cider mix.  Set aside.  In medium bowl, stir together both sugars, cinnamon, oats, flour and drink mix until well combined.  Cut in butter with pastry cutter until mixture is crumbly.  Pour fruit mixture into 9x13" pan, spreading it out so it's evenly distributed.  Sprinkle topping liberally over fruit, making sure you get it into the corners and along the sides.  No fruit should be visible.  Bake in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes or until topping is browned along the edges and the fruit is fork tender.  Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Sunday Update - Week 23

Hey there, hi there, ho there.  It's time to wrap this past week up.  

I only wrote on one day this past week, but I laid down about a thousand new words and found a place for a scene I'd written a while back, giving me a net gain of about 2700 words.  On SCUI4.  :shrug:  Gotta go where the inspiration strikes these days.

Perhaps inspiration struck on that because I actually did some marketing.  I posted on Thursday night/Friday morning about Dying Embers being only 99c and sold 3 books.  One each of the series, so yay.  I need to slap some more posts out there.  

In reading news, I only finished one book, but it was a good one.  I also started reading a suspense yesterday.  So far, so good.

On the baking front, I made carrot cake!  I'd never made one before, but I got the idea that I wanted to make one, so I went looking for recipes.  And the ones I found that I liked called for way more carrots than I had in the house.  So, when I went shopping on Thursday the idea was to buy another bag or two.  The little bags looked piddlin' and doing a cost comparison, it just made more sense to pick up the big bag.  The FIVE POUND bag.  I already had a pound of carrots - I didn't realize the little bags had 16 oz - so 6 pounds of carrots total.  I spent yesterday morning cleaning and shredding carrots.  One big carrot yielded 1 cup of shredded.  One carrot.  I cleaned probably 10-12 carrots to start and still had about 3/4 of the 5 lb bag untouched.  Anyway, I got my 4 cups of shredded carrot.  Plus two quart baggies of carrot sticks.  Then I made the cake.  It turned out amazing, by the way.  Recipe below.

I'm still falling down on the activity thing.  Only one day wherein I walked the loop.  So 1.1 miles added to the total.  19.3 miles for the year.  That's kind of pitiful.  :shrug:  I did finally weigh myself and I'm holding steady, though.  Weight: 181.6.  Unfortunately, not moving is making me squonky.  Not that I didn't get a boatload of upper body exercise grating those carrots, but that's not quite the cardio I'm going for.  

I did something else this week that I've been thinking about for a while now.  I'm not ready to talk about it and nothing may come of it anyway.  No, it's not anything bad or medical.  Or relationship related.  Okay, fine.  I applied for a job.  The right job came along and I had to go for it.  If anything, I'm overqualified for it and my resume will probably freak the people out.  But it's like 2 miles from here and it utilizes my office skills with some new stuff thrown in to make it interesting.  And hey, it might even help add a new flavor element to my writing.  :shrug:  Like I said, nothing may come of it.  If something does come of it, I'll let you know because changes will have to be made.  Anyway, I'm kind of excited.  

Speaking of excitement, we found a big ol' rat snake in the garage this week.  He was probably 5-6'.  There were some comical elements to his removal, but we finally got him outside.  Hubs then proceeded to spray the area to deter the snake from coming back.  

Also, exciting... we have a fawn!  And it's Lumpy's!  Yay!  

Okay, that's more than enough out of me this morning.  Thanks for reading all the way down to here and I hope you have an awesome day.  How was your week?

Recipe:

Best Ever Carrot Cake

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 1/3 cup vegetable oil

4 cups grated carrots

3/4 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350F.  Coat bottom of 9x13" pan with cooking spray.  Plump raisins, drain, and set aside.  In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in oil.  By thirds, stir in dry ingredient mixture.  Fold in carrots and raisins until just combined.  Spread evenly into prepared pan.  Bake for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool completely and frost with cream cheese frosting.  

Pizza!

There's nothing quite like homemade pizza.  Hot and fresh and probably better for you than frozen pizza.  And it's super simple.  

Here's my recipe...

Pizza Crust

2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 T white sugar
2 tsp yeast
3/4 warm water
2 T olive oil
Extra flour for dusting (may take 1/2-1 cup)
Extra olive oil for coating the bowl

Start off by putting the yeast in a small bowl.  Add 1/4 cup of the warm water.  Stir and set aside.  In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and sugar until combined.  Make a well in the center.  Pour in the yeast mixture.  Put the remaining 1/2 cup of warm water into the yeast bowl, swirling and stirring until all the yeast residue is incorporated and then pour that into the flour well.  Add the olive oil to the well.  Wash your hands well and then starting in the center of the well, using your fingers, stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  (I do concentric circles outward with one hand, keeping the other goo-free.)  

Now, here's my weird part.  I knead my dough right in the bowl.  When you've got it all mixed together, dust your gooey hand with flour and get all the dough off and into the bowl.  Smoosh that into the dough as you go.  Knead the dough for 7 minutes, dusting in more flour every time you start sticking to the dough again.  When the timer goes off, you should have a round ball of dough and a clean bowl.  Sparingly coat the bottom and sides of the bowl with olive oil.  Put the dough ball into the bowl, turning it until the dough is covered with oil.  You just want enough oil that the dough doesn't stick to the bowl while it's rising.  Cover with a slightly damp dish towel and put in a warm place for 1-2 hours or until it's roughly doubled in size.  How long you let it rise depends on how warm your place is.  Summers here, I put the bowl out on the sun porch and it takes an hour to rise.  Winters, I put the bowl in my bathroom and leave all the lights on.  Then it takes about 2 hours to rise.

Start preheating the oven now.  475F

Once it's risen to where you want it, punch the dough ball.  Right in the center.  One hit... pow.  Now, here's the other weird part for me.  I don't knead the dough again.  No more kneading.  Seriously.  You've done enough damage to your wrists already.  Just take the dough ball, upside up, and place it in the middle of a large pizza pan (mine's 16") that I've already sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.  Gently coax the dough, in concentric circles, from the center out to the edge of the pan.  If I want a thicker crust, I don't go all the way to the edge.  The closer you get to the edge, the thinner the crust.  

Here's a yummy thing I do next that isn't necessary, but is oh so good - melt like 3 tablespoons of butter in the microwave, stir in garlic salt, and brush that on the crust before you add your toppings.  Outer crust, if you like, or all of it, if you're feeling naughty.  THEN sprinkle the edge with Parmesan.  Mmmmmm.  Then put your toppings on.  Do it up however you like it.  I usually do pizza sauce and mozzarella, then add my toppings.  Last night, I did ham, pepperoni, mushrooms, and black olives.  

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the crust is golden and the cheese is bubbly.  If you like a little brown on your cheese, hit the broiler for like a minute or two max.  Take it out and let it cool for like 5 minutes before slicing and serving.  I got 12 slices out of last night's pizza.  We ate four pieces and the rest went into the fridge for munching today.  And probably tomorrow.  LOL

You can also take the dough, cut it in half after you punch it - use one for dinner and the other can go into a baggie and into the freezer.  If you do that, take it out of the baggie while it's still frozen and thaw in the fridge in an oiled bowl.  Trust me, you do not want to thaw it in the baggie.  It sticks and it's messy.  Half the dough makes like one medium thin crust or one small thick crust.

And there ya go.  Pizza.  You made yourself.  Your way.  With a tender, yummy crust.  And bones you won't want to throw away.  (Mom always called the edge part the bone, and yeah, I've throw away many a bone in my life.  But not these.)

One last point... if you're not used to kneading, be prepared to have ouchy hands, wrists, and arms the next day.  Mine are killing me today.  It's totally worth it, but I'm giving you fair warning.  ;o)

What do you like on your pizza?

Super Easy Christmas Cookies

Want a super-easy Christmas cookie to make?

1 box chocolate cake mix
2 eggs (slightly beaten)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
enough small mint patty candies* to equal the number of cookies you're making

Preheat oven to 350F.  Dump the first 3 ingredients into a medium size mixing bowl.  Stir until well combined.  Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto baking sheet lined with foil, leaving about an inch or so between to allow for spreadage.  Bake 8-10 minutes or until not gooey in the center**.  Remove from oven and immediately press a patty into the middle of each cookie.  Let cool for a couple minutes then remove to your cooling-down location of choice.  (I use paper towels.)  Do NOT touch the patty part until it cools completely.  Repeat until all the batter is used.  Should make around 25-35 cookies, depending on how much batter you drop in each spoonful.  

Note: You can also use Hersey kisses or little peanut butter cups instead of patties, if you're anti-mint.  I'd recommend turning the peanut butter cups top down before you plant them in the cookies, but that's me.

*Not the big York ones.  I use cheap Zachary brand ones I get at the Dollar General.  They're about an inch in diameter, so perfect for the center of a cookie.  And you get a couple dozen in a box, for like a buck, so win win.

** if you've made cookies before you probably know when that is.  If you haven't, you might want to start with yellow cake mix and cook until lightly browned on the edges.  At least until you get your cookie legs under you.  Chocolate cake doesn't show the browning very well, doncha know.

Sunday Update - Week 16

 Hello again.  Sixteen weeks into 2021.  The weirdness continues and we're holding our own.

I got back to work on writing Friday night.  Duke Noble 2 is on its way.  Between Friday night and last night, I got out just over 3200 words.  Yay.  Already has a twist.  Heh.

I really need to do some marketing and have a sale.  I'll see what I can do this week to make that happen.

In other writerly news, I received the last proofs and now all of my books are available in paperback form.  In addition to the Kindle form.  I'm still waiting on the author copies of RHI, but those should be here tomorrow.  :fingers crossed:  I have at least two people who want to buy a copy.  Maybe a third, but I haven't talked to her yet and I probably won't see her for another couple weeks.  

It wasn't a great reading week. Only finished one book.  And the Zane Grey I was reading got set aside for another time because I just wasn't into it.  I picked up a fantasy instead.

In baking news, I got a wild hair and created my own recipe.  Chocolate Walnut Upside-Down Cake.  It was awesome.  So I posted the recipe on FB.  Except I forgot to put down something when I wrote the recipe - mini chocolate chips.  Oops.  I bet it's still good without them.  (corrected recipe below.)  I also did a batch of granola bars.  And it's not baking, but I made a vat of beef stew yesterday.

On the activity front, I did something 5 out of 7 days - skipping Friday and Saturday.  The weather was chilly and wet, so I used that as an excuse.  the other 5 days, I walked, did gardening, did some windows, went shopping, and went fishing.  Weight: 185.2 - up 4/10ths of a pound.

When I was fishing I caught 3 little bluegills and a little green sunfish.  None of them were keepers.  

If you want gardening news, go over here.  

Hubs found an antler in the yard!  Eight years we've been looking for antlers and suddenly there it was.  It was only a spike, but hey, it's a start.  It's long past when deer drop antlers.  We're thinking a squirrel found it in the woods and was dragging it somewhere to eat when it dropped it where Hubs found it.  It's in the garage for now.  I'll clean it up and put it in the house eventually.

From the sounds of it, Hubs is killing a mouse in the garage as I type this.  Must've got one in the trap and it didn't die.  I hope it was the one chewing in the wall for the past hour or so.  It was driving me crazy.  (Update:  It was a mouse, but it wasn't caught.  It was running around.  He didn't get it.  Drat.)

Other than that, not much going on around here.  Hanging in there.  Watching the country I love circle the drain faster and faster.  Not much I can do about it.

Oh, I went to Wallyworld earlier in the week.  About thirty percent of the people weren't wearing masks.  So I took mine off.  Freedom!  I still stayed as far away from people as possible - it's ingrained in me now more than ever.  If I get the crud, you can say I told you so.  If I don't... neener neener boo boo.  

Okay, now that's really enough out of me.  How was your week?

Recipe:

Chocolate Walnut Upside Down Cake

1 stick butter

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 1/3 cups chopped walnuts

-------

2 cups white sugar

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ cup baking cocoa powder

2 cups water

1 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp white vinegar

1/3 bag mini chocolate chips 

Preheat oven to 350F (175C).  While oven is preheating, put the stick of butter in a 9x13" cake pan (sliced for quicker melting) and place the pan in the oven.  Remove as soon as the butter is melted.  Stir in brown sugar until combined.  Stir in walnuts until all nuts are coated and then make sure they're evenly placed.  Set aside. 

In a large mixing bowl, sift together sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder.  Add water, oil, and vanilla.  Stir until combined.  Stir in vinegar until smooth.  Pour batter over the nut mixture in the pan.  Bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Allow to cool completely before cutting and serving.  Overnight is best.  (If you don't let it cool, the still-warm cake falls apart.  Trust me on this.)

 

Sunday Update - Week 5

Five weeks into 2021.  I'm trying to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.  So, basically, nothing new.

I'm not currently in writing mode, so don't expect any of that any time soon.  As for editing, I pulled my head out of the mire and got back to work.  I'm at 48% done with my first round.  Pages and pages of notes accumulated.  Some of it as simple as adding or deleting a comma.  Some of it as deep as rewriting whole scenes.  (Just the note to do it, not actually rewriting it yet.)

As for marketing, Dying Embers goes on sale Wednesday to celebrate its book birthday on Saturday.  Just the one book this time.  It'll be 99c/99p through the 16th.

Once again, I only finished one book in reading last week.  It was a REALLY good one, though.  I'd totally recommend it.  (And it is in Audio format, for them what does that.  Warning: if you follow the link, the description has spoilers.  Damn them.)

In baking news, I made a meatloaf (recipe below) and a batch of drop biscuits.

On the activity front, I cleaned and organized three times and walked once.  Eh, it's better than nothing.  Weight 182.2.  

It's been almost two weeks since we lost Kira.  It's still pretty hard to not wake up thinking I have to feed her or take her to the litterbox.  Or to look for her when I get ready for bed.  It still throws me when I walk into the office and she's not laying on her bed.  And to not look at her dishes and think that she needs kibbles.  Yes, her dishes are still out.  So's her litterbox.  Seeing those spots empty would be sadder than having those things in place right now.  I've been obsessed with thinking about dogs.  I need to stop that.  We can't have a dog right now, for most of the same reasons we couldn't get one before.  With the exception of not wanting to stress out Kira.  I still don't have the time, the patience, or the fundage to have a pooch.  I'm being an adult here.  Sometimes being an adult sucks, but it's better to be one than to regret not being one.  Once upon a time, I had two dogs and in retrospect, I never should've gotten them.  I didn't have the time to devote to them.  I know better now.

Okay, I think that's it for me today.  How was your Week 5?

Recipe:

Meatloaf

1 - 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 tube saltine crackers (crushed)
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese (the dry stuff)

Preheat oven to 275F.  In a large bowl, combine all ingredients but the Parmesan - using your hands to squish it all together.  When it's all combined, squish in enough Parmesan to make the mixture dry enough to form a ball - usually about a quarter cup for me.  (The wetness of the mixture will depend on what grade beef you use, how much beef there is to mushroom soup, how big the egg is, etc.  Too wet a meatloaf won't hold its shape, hence the Parmesan.) Spray the inside of of whatever baking receptacle (I use a blue glass casserole dish) you're using with non-stick cooking spray.  Bake for 2.5 hours uncovered.  Slice and serve.  Great hot.  Awesome cold for sandwiches.  Also yummy inside a grilled cheese sandwich.

Sunday Update - Week 1

Well, the first week of 2021 didn't go so well.  But I really don't want to talk about all that this morning, so I'll just deal with me and my stuff.

On the writing front, I plugged along for most of the week, except for Thursday when I hit a stride and wrote 3100 words.  After that, I hit a wall.  All told though, I wrote five out of seven days for 6461 words.  Not bad, but not the best week I've ever had.  I'll try to get some words out today.  I might've thought of a way around the wall.  :fingers crossed:  I'm thinking if I keep my head down and write, I should be able to finish the book this week.  Current word count: 41531.

No marketing to speak of.  Someone bought each of the last three books in the genie series (Once Upon a Djinn) one day after the other.  I assume they got a free copy of the first and liked each of the successive novels enough to read all the way through.  Yay.  I wish that would happen more often, but I'll take what I can get.

I had an okay reading week for the start of the year.

On the baking front, I made stew... yeah, that's not baking but to go with it, I made drop biscuits.  I started out with my usual recipe, but in the beginning, I had a major brainfart.  For some daft reason, I thought a stick of butter was only a quarter cup, and the recipe calls for a third cup, so I added in two more tablespoons of butter and started cutting that in.  Partway through cutting in the butter, my brain turned back on and I realized that instead of a 6 tablespoons, I'd put in 10 tablespoons.  Ack.  In an attempt to save my biscuits, I added more flour and, after I cut all the butter in, 1 1/2 cups of milk instead of 1 cup.  I dropped them onto the baking sheet and crossed my fingers.  And they were the best biscuits I'd ever made.  Recipe below.  I also made a chocolate oil cake with peanut butter frosting yesterday.  Yummers.

Let's not talk about activity.  I started the week out pretty good with a big trip to the store and a 1.6 mile walk.  And then nothing.  Weight unchanged at 181.6 lbs.

In Kira news, this cold has been kicking her furry gray butt.  I probably didn't mention it, but we got another round of antibiotics for her a couple weeks ago and it didn't do squat.  Which led me to believe that she did not, in fact, have an upper respiratory infection but rather some kind of virus.  I hit the internet and discovered that cats can get colds.  It's a different virus from the ones humans get, but it acts the same.  And as with humans, the quicker you catch it, the sooner it goes away.  Well, since we were treating her for something else, the cold dug in deep.  Plus, she's like 86.  (17 equals 84 and two years for the half.)  Anyway, the internet said L-Lysine might work, so we're trying that.  250mg crushed into her food twice a day.  I also did the steam thing, which seemed to help.  And I upped the temperature in the house.  And I started warming up her food.  Some combination of all of that seems to be working.  She's breathing easier and starting to walk around the house more.  And eating way better.  It's hard to eat when you can't smell your food, doncha know.  

And there's my week - writing, reading, baking, cat slave.  What went on in your world in this first week of 2021?  (I don't want to know about the rest of the world.  I mean, I know, but I don't really want to know, if you catch my drift.)

Recipe:

Drop Biscuits

2 1/2 cups flour
1 T baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 T white sugar
1/2 cup + 2T butter (cold)
1 1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 425F. Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Cut the butter into slices, drop them into the dry ingredients, then use a pastry cutter until the mixture is crumbly. Add in milk a third or so at a time, mixing well each time, until you get a uniform, sticky dough. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet. Bake for 12-26 minutes or until the biscuits are just starting to brown around the edges. Makes about 12 biscuits.

Sunday Update - Week 53

Yep, it's the 53rd week of this horrible year.  I checked.  Figures 2020 would have an extra week.  At least it's days were over as of Friday.  Yay.  Here's to a better this year.  K?

For a horrible year, I did get some writing done.  In fact, I wrote 73044 news words in 2020.  Not gangbusters, but not bad all things considered.  Last week saw me writing 6538 new words for Duke.  Right now, it's at 35070 total.  Yay.  I only wrote 5 out of 7 days, but that's okay.  Each day I missed, I wrote the next day.  Fall off the horse, get back on.  I'd like to get this book done this month, edited next month, and in your hands in March.  Sooner, if I can swing it, but I'm not making promises about anything this year.

I didn't do any marketing this past week.  I did, however, sell three books yesterday - the last three of the genie series.  I assume this was residual from giving the first book away last month.  I'll do my year-end sales wrap-up over on Outside the Box sometime this week.  Tomorrow maybe.  We'll see if I'm up to looking at depressing figures today.

I read a couple good books last week.  Yay.  Unfortunately, I also missed my updated yearly goal by two books.  Read 88 instead of 90.  Oh well.  I set my 2021 reading goal at 75. 

In baking news, I tweaked the apple-cranberry crisp recipe again.  And we have a winner!  It turned out super yummy.  Recipe below.

My activity level blows.  I only did active things 3 days last week.  Here's to getting back on that horse for the new year.  According to my activity spreadsheet, I walked about 88 miles last year.  Let's see if I can do 100 miles this year.  Starting weight for 2021: 181.6.   A pound less than I started 2020 at.  So yay.

Not sure what this year will bring.  I'm taking it day by day right now - hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.  I'll keep doing these weekly updates and my reading wrap-ups.  And like I said, look for wrap-ups of 2020 throughout this week.  Wrap it up and put it behind me, ya know?

How was your last week of 2020?  Are you looking ahead?  

Recipe:

Apple Cranberry Crisp

6 medium apples (Granny Smith 5, Gala 1)

1.5 cups whole fresh cranberries

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 T white sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp Apple Cider mix

---

1 cup brown sugar

2 T white sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup quick oats

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp Apple Cider mix

6 T butter (cold)

Preheat oven to 350F.  Peel, core, and slice apples to about 1/4" slices.  In large bowl, stir together apples, cranberries, both sugars, cinnamon, and cider mix.  Set aside.  In medium bowl, stir together both sugars, cinnamon, oats, flour and drink mix until well combined.  Cut in butter with pastry cutter until mixture is crumbly.  Pour fruit mixture into 9x13" pan, spreading it out so it's evenly distributed.  Sprinkle topping liberally over fruit, making sure you get it into the corners and along the sides.  No fruit should be visible.  Bake in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes or until topping is browned along the edges and the fruit is fork tender.  Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Sunday Update - Week 49?

Another week of 2020 is finished.  2021 will soon be here.  I have great hopes that it will be a better year, but I'm not holding my breath.  I had great hopes for this year and look how that turned out.

Anyway...

I wrote about 150 words on a weird little story that popped into my head.  I'm calling it Bert the Immortal.  I got mired in researching his backstory and then got bored with myself.  Never a good way to start a book.  The premise is sound, though, so I may go back to it once I get out of my own way.

Last week's marketing was wrapped up in Friday's post.  

I wrapped up last week's reading yesterday.

In baking news, I made another pumpkin cheesecake and I also made Peach Jam Squares - recipe below.  (Okay, they were supposed to be half peach and half strawberry, but I accidentally grabbed sugar-free jam instead of regular and I don't like usually sugar-free jam to bake with, so I ended up with 1/4 strawberry from the old jar and the rest peach.  Turns out the peach was yummier anyway.)

In deer news, the rut must be over because the does are gathering up again and they're pretty much ignoring Arthur when he feeds with them.  (He's ignoring them, too, so it's all good.)  Here's hoping we see lots of fawns in late spring.

Not sure if any of you need to read this, but here's an awesome article: Put an End to Emotional Abuse.  I got out of my wicked spiral of emotionally abusive relationships a while before I met Hubs. I can't even begin to count the number of people I've known over the years who were either in an emotionally abusive relationship or who had already escaped one.  Hell, I met another gal the other day who told me about the crap she once put up with.  We commiserated.  If you're in one of these poisonous relationships or if you, too, have escaped one, you're not alone.  There's a sea of us out there.

I sat down and watched Steel Magnolias yesterday.  (The original one.)  Balled like a baby, as always.  The funeral scene... need I say more?  I also cry during the first beauty shop scene because I know what's coming.  Let me also just say, I love Weezer.  I think I'm turning into her.  "I'm not insane.  I've just been in a bad mood for 40 years."  ;o)

And on that note, I'll let you get back to your day.  Have a great one, wherever you are.

How was your week?

Recipe:

Peach Jam Squares

1 cup butter (softened)
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 3/4 cups flour
2 cups quick oats
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup peach preserves

Preheat oven to 400F.  Grease or nonstick spray a 9x13" baking pan.  In a large bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar until smooth and consistent in color.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, oats, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Stir into butter mixture until well combined.  Stir in walnuts.  Set aside two cups worth of the dough.  Press the remaining dough into the bottom of your prepared pan.  Spread the preserves over the it until preserves covers every inch.  Crumble the set aside dough over the top of the jam and press it down until it's flat.  (You may still see some jam here and there, but that's okay.)  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the crust is golden and the jam is bubbly.  Cool completely before cutting into squares.  Store the squares in an airtight container.  I refrigerate mine. (You can easily use any type of fruit preserves for this.  I like peach best.)

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Today, I'll be making pumpkin cheesecake.  Now, just so you know, my cheesecakes are not like most people's cheesecakes.  I don't have any special pans to make a cheesecake in, so they're made in pie pans.  And they're super creamy.  No dry cheesecakes in this house.  If you're into that, here's the recipe.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

 

Crust:

 

1 3/4 c. graham cracker crumbs

1/2 butter or margarine (melted)

1/4 c sugar

dash cinnamon (to taste)

dash ground cloves (to taste)

 

Filling:

 

1 8 oz pkg cream cheese (softened to room temperature)

3/4 c packed brown sugar

3 eggs, beaten

1 15 oz can pumpkin puree

1/2 c whipping cream

1/2 tsp brandy

1 tsp cinnamon

dash ground cloves

1/4 tsp salt

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter standard 9" diameter pie pan.  Mix together cracker crumbs, spices, extract and sugar.  Add in melted butter and stir until well combined.  Press crumb mixture into pan as evenly as you're able - along bottom and up the sides to the edge.  Bake 8-10 minutes.  (Some shrinkage will occur.)  Allow to cool completely before adding filling.

 

Re-preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Beat cream cheese with brown sugar until smooth.  Add in eggs, cream, brandy and pumpkin - beat until smooth.  Add in remaining ingredients and beat until smooth.  Pour into pie shell.  Bake 35-45 minutes or until center is set.  Chill overnight, slice and serve with whipped cream topping.

I didn't get any brandy this time, so that's out, but I left it in the recipe so you can add it or not.  And, of course, if you're into nutmeg (:shudder: I hate nutmeg) then feel free to add a dash or two.  

Enjoy!

What are you making for Thanksgiving dessert?