French Silk Pie

I'm always asked to bring dessert for Easter, and I'm happy to do it. It needs to be sugar free for my parents, which adds an extra challenge, so I have to get a little more creative. I normally make a glazed strawberry pie, which is fantastic, but I wanted to try something new. Yesterday I made my first French Silk pie. It was incredible, if I may say so myself. I used this recipe from allrecipe.com: French Silk Pie III I decreased the butter to 1 cup, as suggested by the other reviews, then I used Splenda in place of the sugar. I used real eggs, we raise our own eggs, so I don't have to worry about freshness, but I would recommend using pasteurized egg product if you have health concerns or are just worried about salmenila. The pie turned out perfect and was enjoyed by all. I can definetly seeing it be repeated.

Crown Worthy

I am an organized person, or at least I like to think of myself that way. I have recently discovered a new and stylish way to help me keep up my image as an organized person. Crown Bindery has the most beautiful, stylish and functional binders to help keep me organized. I bought two of them. A triple crown, which is full sized and will hold regular 8 1/2 x 11 paper, and a half crown, which is a half notebook, designed for half sheets of paper. The triple crown is now home to all of my Habitat For Humanity board information. The half crown is now a resident of my lovely, red Fossil purse, where it's function is to give me paper to jot notes down on, control the grocery list and to do list, as well as keep track of all those pesty receipts and coupons.

Pecan Pear Muffins

I got a fabulous deal on pears. Since it was so fabulous, I bought a few too many. Now it was time to figure out what to do with them all. I looked through old recipe book, on line and through newspaper clippings I have saved. I found an old recipe for pear bread. I modified it a little and have now made Pecan Pear Muffins. They are fabulous. So moist and soft, I used apple sauce in place of the oil, which lowers the fat and keeps them moist. I plan to add these to my etsy site within the next few days, so keep a look out for them.

Sorry I have been absent

I apologize that I haven't been keeping up on this blog. I will try to do better. School is over half way done. It's wonderful to be this far through the year and I think I am getting the hang of things in the fourth grade. Etsy has slowed down for me. I think everyone is recovering after the holidays, both physically and financially. I'm assuming things will pick back up again come February. I'm sure our economic issues are a factor in the slowing of sales as well. Buying homemade cookies and breads is a luxury and not a necessity. Paying a mortgage or rent is definitely more important. I look at the economy as a pendulum. What goes up, must come down, and what goes down, will come back up. It's a matter of time. Until then, I will keep doing what I do and business will get better.

Apricots

Happy 4th of July everyone. I hope everyone is having a fabulous and safe holiday. It's been a fun and relaxing day for us. I have been busy getting ready for the farmer's market which is tomorrow. I can't decide if we will be run over with customers because it's a holiday weekend, or if no one will show up because it's a holiday weekend.

We have discovered that we have two apricot trees out our house. We moved here last August, so we didn't know what all we had. Later, after it gets cooler, I will be outside picking lots of apricots. They are beautiful. Now to figure out what to do with them all. I do plan to take some to the market tomorrow, and hope someone else knows what to do with them. I like apricot pie, and will make some of that. If you have a favorite apricot recipe, please share it. I will have lots of apricots to experiment with.

Zucchini

It is zucchini season at our house. We are picking about three per evening, but it will pick up even greater very soon. Tonight we had zucchini fritters for supper. After supper I made blueberry zucchini muffins and they are yummy. I thought I would share my very favorite zucchini recipe though, Chocolate Zucchini Cake, it came out of the Inman Kansas Centennial Cookbook. I will be making this tomorrow in mini bunt cake pans. When the cakes are cool I will put them on a plate and sprinkle them with powdered sugar and take them to the farmers market. But for those of you not close enough to come buy one, here is the recipe.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

1/2 cup margarine
1/2 oil (I use apple sauce)
1 3/4 sugar (Splenda will work)
Cream these three ingredients together.
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
1/2 sour milk or sour cream
2 cups shredded zucchini
2 1/2 cups flour
4 tablespoons coco powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup nuts (I usually leave these out)

Cream together the first three ingredients. Add the eggs, vanilla, sour milk and zucchini to the mixture. Add together the flour, coco powder, soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir into the batter. Add chocolate chips and nuts. Grease 9 x 13 pan, pour in cake batter. Bake at 325 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle.

Enjoy!

Making a few changes

I will be making a few changes to the way I do things. I've been going with my bread business for just over a month now, and am starting to learn the way things go. I have been going to a farmer's market in a larger town two days a week, as well as my internet orders through etsy.com. Beginning this week I will go to our local farmer's market on Thursday's and the larger one on Saturday's. I had to figure out what my goal with this business was. For me, the goal is to become a part of the community, so that one day, when I open up a full time bakery, people will know me and my products. To do this, it's important to be a part of the local group. Besides, the local farmer's market is so much fun. It runs from 6:30 in the evening until 8 pm. and it's a huge community event, people just hang around, shopping, eating and chatting. It's in the town square which has beautiful old shade treas and a lovely fish pond. The kids love it, their parents love it, so it makes the vendors happy. It will also be nice, because I can bake all day Thursday and sell that night. Before I was baking all day Wednesday and selling most of Thursday, so this will help me out time wise. I hope it's a wise decision and good for business, but I also hope it's good for our community.