Tree Towne

Sunday was Christmas tree shopping day.  After a brief search elsewhere we ended up at our favorite lot, Tree Towne.  We left the choice up to Meg who chose this Noble Fir which she has named Tim. (She names everything.  LOL!)

Tim is a fine specimen of a tree.


While I was paying for Tim I caught a glimpse of Meg out on the little "merry-go-round."

You may remember from an October post just how much she loves that little thing.

 She didn't even mind it when I approached and snapped more photos.

 

This little piece of playground equipment will always hold a special place in all of our hearts.

Dueling Weather Apps

My dear friend Catherine just blogged about the -1 degree temps they were having earlier this week in Idaho.  As a Floridian for the past 32.5 years, that is nothing short of BRUTAL.

In stark contrast, here is our weather snapshot taken on the same day here...

That's a difference of 81 degrees!   In the days since then however south Florida has been deluged with rain which is expected to continue through the weekend and possibly into Monday.   Our current weather is a cool and drizzly 73 degrees, perfect for turning off the AC and opening up the French doors.  I had hoped to get our outdoor holiday decorations up but other than that, I honestly don't mind the rain.

A little funny...Meg and I were watching The Weather Channel earlier this morning.  The meterologist was commenting on the unusually mild temperatures in MN.  He remarked that while 40 degrees was still sweatshirt weather, it certainly wasn't parka weather.  Meg's immediate response was "that IS parka weather, and another parka and then another parka."  ROFL! That's my native Floridian for ya.  

Finley Friday

It's time for another Friday Focus on Finley and it just so happens that I received the cutest photos from Colleen yesterday.  All but one were too grainy to enlarge but the one I'm sharing tells it all.

This dapper little guy was in line for his first visit with Santa.

I say it every time but "is he not the cutest guy ever?"

Colleen said he was very good, especially given how long the wait was, but he did cry at a bit at the end.  I'm not sure if that means she got happy Santa photos, sad Santa photos or a mix of both.  I do know that I will be anxiously stalking my mailman waiting for my Christmas photo card.  :-)



And if you can possibly stand any more cuteness, I received these photo last night...

Am I wrong when I tell everyone that "he's the cutest little guy ever!" ?

I didn't think so.   :-)

Holiday Baking - Quick Breads

It's smelling really good in my house right now.

Tonight is the second meeting of our local bookclub and I'm baking pumpkin bread to bring as my goodie.  I also plan to wrap and give a loaf to each member to take home as a little holiday gift. (Photos at the end of this post.)

As promised, here are the recipes I use to make the BEST mini coffee cake and pumpkin loaves. First up, my famous pumpkin loaves.

As you can see by this photograph my recipe, taken from The Good Housekeeping Cookbook, circa 1970s, is extremely well worn and loved. The basic recipe makes two regular sized loaves of bread. Over the years I have experimented with different pans and have found that the entire batch fits nicely in one of the Pampered Chef fluted stoneware bundts but it looks like they are no longer available except through Ebay.  Currently, however, my favorite method of baking the loaves is in mini loaf pans.  As you can see in the photo above, I have two pans which each contain four loaf segments.  I tend to double the recipe, yielding 12-13 mini loaves total.

The coffee cake recipe was given to me by Catherine.  I've never prepared it in a cake pan, always opting to use the same mini loaf tins and baking temp/time as above.  These are really, really good as well.

Both breads, when wrapped tightly and frozen, are good for several months and will taste as fresh as the day you bake them.  (Good luck keeping them that long, however.)  


While writing up this post my first batch has cooled sufficiently so that I am able to share finalized little gifties with you.

The cute bags (or something similar) can be purchased in the baking departments of any Michaels, Joanns or Hobby Lobby.  I created the tags using this stamp set from Taylored Expressions.  (It's going to get a lot of use.) The tag dies are Decorative Tag 1 from Pretty Pink Posh.  (I love that they aren't your tradional looking tag.)  The cardstock and ink are Pure Poppy and Tropical Teal from PaperTreyInk, two of my favorite "go to" colors.  

Today's batch yielded 13 loaves.  I will be taking these seven as gifts and three to share during our meeting tonight, which leaves poor Meg (who was so excited to see me baking this morning) only three loaves.  She is going to be so disappointed but I promise, there will be more next week.  

Aren't they purdy?  Admit it.  Martha ain't got nuttin' on me.    :-)

Post Holiday Recap

I can't believe that it's December already.  I know it sounds so cliche, but really, where did this year go?

Last week was a busy one here in our house.  I began my food preparations Monday evening with cinnamon coffee cake loaves. The recipe is from an older Betty Crocker cookbook and passed along to me by my dear friend Catherine.  I have been unable to locate this exact version online so I'll share it in another post. It's definitely blogworthy.

My parents arrived on Tuesday to help start the holiday baking.  Dad prepared both homemade French bread and Parkerhouse rolls while Mom made a cherry pie and a pumpkin cheesecake. Everything was made from scratch with lots of love and the taste reflected it.

Because the rest of my family (minus Jay, Colleen and Fin) were arriving on Wednesday I needed to put on my big girl panties and pretend to be Catherine and/or my other dear friend Kelley, both of whom are very comfortable cooking for crowds.  I made three different lasagnas for Wednesday night's meal.

Pioneer Woman Best Lasagna Ever

Taste of Home Seafood Lasagna

Julia's Butternut Squash and Spinach Lasagna


Honestly, I could not begin to pick a favorite.  They were all fabulous, if I may say so myself.  My mom made a delicious salad with three types of homemade dressings and we used Dad's French loaves for garlic bread.  No one walked away from the table(s) hungry.

On Thanksgiving we had our usual carb-fest which includes turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, dressing, Aunt Ellen's corn (another recipe I need to share), green bean casserole, candied sweet potatoes and my dad's rolls.  It was carbohydrate overload but oh, so very delicious.  We ended the evening with pie. Lots of pie.  In addition to the two my mom prepared, my sister and her daughter brought with them homemade apple and bourbon pecan pies.  Meg and my youngest nephew, who are not pie lovers, opted for s'mores over the propane chimney.  (Here in Florida it was in the mid 70s but they didn't mind.) Again, no one walked away hungry.

Friday's evening meal was prepared by my parents and my oldest nephew Clay. Once again we feasted on carbs but it isn't a family gathering without our homemade chicken and noodles.  (Refer back to this post for more details.) Again, oh so very, very good.

With all of the cooking/baking going on all week I was not able to fit my "famous" pumpkin bread into the mix.  While everyone loves my bread, I think it's my nephew Ben who looks forward to it the most.  He is becoming quite a baker in his own right so I let him in on my "secret recipe."  We spent some time Saturday morning baking a double batch of mini loaves.  I packaged up three loaves to send home with him which I am sure are probably history by now.  :-)

We had a wonderful visit.  The only thing missing was Jay and his family *insert sad face here* but we are looking forward to their visit at Christmas.

Crazy Days on the Horizon

I am headed out of town (as in right this very minute) to spend the night with my girlfriend down south. Tomorrow is our bookclub meeting which is being held at a restaurant in Miami Beach at 2:00 PM.  We will be leaving directly from there and heading straight back here for my friend's annual RAK party at 7:00. We'll no doubt be fashionably late but it's important to me that I make both events.

Come Sunday I will be planning/shopping/cleaning/baking for a visit from my extended family for the Thanksgiving holiday.  (Unfortunately Jay, Colleen and Fin are unable to attend but everyone else with be here.)  I am anticipating next week to be very hectic so I'm using this moment to officially call a Blog Break.  :-)

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday with those that they love.  See ya in December!

High School Sports News

Our varsity basketball players had their first game of the season last night.  Meg was a bit nervous but there was no need.  They were fabulous.

I promised her that I wouldn't be that mom.  As a compromise I took my zoom lens and kept an inconspicuous distance away from the girls.  (For the most part anyway.)  The result was about two dozen really bad gymnasium photos.  My apologies up front.



The girls and JV players waiting to greet the varsity squad....

Her varsity squad consists of twelve girls, freshman through senior.  Something new to me is the fact that they cheer from a small set of bleachers behind one of the hoops.  They're getting their spacing determined here...

Meg is the tall blond in the back.




They take the floor between quarters and half time.

I was very surprised at the small crowd.  It's been over 35 years since I've attended a high school basketball game but "back in the day, in a tiny town in the midwest" we had huge crowds. Last night both sets of fans shared the home side.  I'm not sure if this is always the case but hopefully the Friday night games draw a larger audience.


I love that Meg is involved, having fun and making new friends.

Our guys played well winning their first game of the season.

In other sports news, our varsity girls won the Class 6A state volleyball title last week.   How awesome is that?