Saying Goodbye to 2010 and Hello to 2011!

I'm not sure where the year went, but I know it was a year of ups and downs for us.

I've had a few days off of work. And you would think that I would be busy around here, but I've been a little on the lazy side. Of course, this cold is hanging on, and makes me tired. 

I did make a nice dinner last night, and we've had leftovers today. I love leftovers! I had two turkey drumsticks leftover from Christmas and decided to boil them down and make some broth. I added the meat from the drumsticks to the broth, and then added celery, carrots, garlic powder and onion powder, salt and pepper. I let it simmer for about 20 min. or so, just until the carrots and celery was tender. I made up some instant rice (since that was what I had on hand) and added it to the soup. It was good!

Along with the soup I made Pull-Apart Garlic Buns, I found the recipe in the newest Taste of Home magazine (it's the small magazine that has the tear out recipe cards).

Pull-Apart Garlic Buns

2-1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp. sugar

1 pkg. (1/4 oz) active dry yeast

1 tsp. salt

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup water

2 Tbsp. shortening

1 egg

1 tsp. paprika

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 Tbsp. sesame seeds

In a large bowl, combine 1-1/2 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt. In a saucepan, heat the milk, water

and shortening to 120-130 degrees. Add to dry ingredients; beat until just moistened. Add egg; beat on medium speed for 3 minutes. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic; about 6-8 minutes. Do not let rise. Divide into 12 pieces. Shape each into a bun. Combine paprika and garlic powder. Dip each bun into melted butter, then in paprika mixture.

Place six buns in a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan; sprinkle with half of the sesame seeds. Top with remaining buns and sesame seeds. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled; about 45 minutes.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool.

For Christmas, I received a new camera. I love it! It does so much better than my old one! :) So, I've been using it quite a bit.  With the weather being a little yucky, I haven't had too much to take pictures of. Annie, our dog was the first "volunteer". She's not to excited about having her picture taken.

Emily is always up for having her picture taken. The trick is being fast enough to get a good picture of her before she moves. Thank goodness for digital cameras!

Emily received a kids makeup kit for Christmas.

I think we need to talk about how "less is more". 

 Emily with Tiggy, our barn cat.

I've brought him in the house before, but he is just too ornery!

Emily with Annie in the barn.

Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! Hope you have a wonderful day full of good food, family, love and a good gift or two! :-)
We'll be staying home this Christmas...thats just how it goes on a dairy farm. My dad is planning on coming early in the morning and staying for the day (hoping more than one day, if we can talk him into it!)
We went to Christmas Eve service at our church. It was wonderful. They dim the lights, and we each get a candle. Of course we sing Christmas hymns and have a couple of songs sung to us. And we have the Lord's Table (communion).
The not so fun thing about this Christmas, I have a cold. Talk about not fair! But, feeling much better this evening. I am looking forward to tucking in tonight.
Our cows will be tucked in nicely tonight, and will have Christmas music turned on also. They are spoiled girls! They even get a little extra grain on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. :)

Merry Christmas!

Our Gingerbread House

Last weekend our milk hauler and his wife left a gingerbread house kit on the milk tank for Emily.
We put the house and sleigh together, and then turned Emily loose with all the candy, and I even dug out some tubes of different colored frosting. She had a lot of fun!

We have a cookbook winner!!!

After punching in all the info over at Random.org, we have found a winner!

Kate (aka Organic Tea by Kate) was the chosen winner!!  Congratulations!

Thank you everyone who commented and have become a follower of my blog! I hope that you enjoy the recipes that I have shared. And I will continue to share recipes that I make often, along with the daily happenings on our dairy farm.

There will be other "Early Bird Reviews" throughout the coming year, and there will be a few more cookbook giveaways! So keep an eye on this blog for more chances! :-)

Recipe Review #3! Chocolate-Caramel Brownies

Here is the final Early Bird Review recipe!
And today I will be randomly drawing a name from those who have left comments on the posts that have had the "Early Bird Reviews" badge (the picture at the top of each review post that tells it is an Early Bird review).
I can't wait to pick a winner!!
I will post the winner on my Facebook pages, Gooseberry Patch's Facebook page and on this blog!

Ok...so here is the recipe!

Chocolate-Carmel Brownies

21-oz. pkg. brownie mix

16-oz. container milk chocolate frosting

6-8 Tbsp. caramel ice cream topping

Optional: chopped nuts

Prepare brownie mix according to package directions. Let cool. Mix together frosting and ice cream topping in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for 45 seconds; stir and spread over brownies. Top with nuts, if desired. Makes 2-3 dozen.

This is, again, so simple to put together, and so delicious! I love to bake with my daughter, but sometimes we are pinched on time, so something that is quick to put together is perfect!

Hope that everyone is all ready for Christmas, or getting the final touches done! I'm planning on making up some Buckeyes to give out this week. We've also made up gift baskets with cheese, crackers and some other goodies and have given them out as gifts as well. 

Tomorrow afternoon is our Christmas party at work, and I'm looking forward to that!

Today, along with the yummy brownies, we're also planning on making a gingerbread house! Our milk hauler and his wife left a gingerbread house kit on our milk tank on Friday night when they picked up our milk. Emily is so excited to do this! I'll be sure to post some pictures of this! I'm sure it will be a lot of fun!

Have a great Sunday, and Good luck in the drawing! :)

Recipe Review #2 and Giveaway Reminder!

It has been so hard choosing which recipes to make, since I really want to make them all. Actually, I want to make them all in one day, and eat them all in that same day!

Tonight, I made Double Chocolate Cookies. The first batch came out of the oven, and all I can say is YUM! I will be hiding these so that they stick around for Christmas cookie trays. Easy to put together. This is what I am loving about this book, the recipes are all so easy to make, and take little time! Perfect for those who are busy!

Double Chocolate Cookies

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup butter, softened

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 tsp. salt

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup baking cocoa

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Garnish: additional sugar (I used white sanding sugar for extra sparkle!)

In a large bowl, mix sugar, brown sugar, butter and eggs. In another bowl, whisk remaining ingredients except chocolate chips and additional sugar.

Add flour mixture to sugar mixture and combine until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Form dough into one-inch balls; roll in the additional sugar. Place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Makes 3 dozen.

Just a reminder, you can also leave me a comment on this post, as well as any post that has the "Early Bird Reviews" badge on it, and be entered to win this cookbook! You'll be receiving it before it is available in stores!

Gooseberry Patch Early Bird Review #1!!!

I have received the newest cookbook from Gooseberry Patch to do an Early Bird Review! So, I've picked out 3 wonderful recipes to make! I've already made the first recipe, and it was delicious!

The cookbook, due in stores in January, is called 101 Cupcake, Cookie & Brownie Recipes.

The recipe I've made for today's blog post is called "Luscious Banana Bars". The recipe made about 3 dozen, and guess what?? We ate them all by that evening!! I had planned on saving some to give out with my usual cookie trays. They were so yummy! The best part, they were so easy to put together, and turned out so pretty!

Luscious Banana Bars

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups bananas, mashed

1-1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup baking cocoa

Beat together butter and sugar; add egg and vanilla. Blend until thoroughly combined; mix in bananas. Set aside. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; blend into banana mixture. Divide batter in half; cocoa to one half. Pour vanilla batter into a greased 13x9 inch baking pan; spoon chocolate batter on top. Cut through batters with a knife to swirl. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool; cut into bars. Makes 2-1/2 to 3 dozen.

This is a wonderful cookbook! I think I could make each thing that is in it, and I most likely will, and my goal is to make many things from this book for my cookie trays next week!

Keep checking this blog over the weekend! I plan on doing the next two recipes soon!

You can also try to win this cookbook! Just post a comment to this blog post and/or the next 2 blog posts that is about the review recipes, and your name may be picked and you will get this cookbook sent to you!

Giveaway starts....now! It will end on Sunday evening at 6 p.m. Drawing will be 7 p.m. Sunday evening.

So make sure you leave a comment and enter to win this Gooseberry Patch cookbook!