I shared the method to make hard boiled eggs that are always easy to peel along with our family recipe for Deviled Eggs on my Facebook page today. You will never have to worry about destroying your eggs when peeling again! The link is below:
Monthly Archives: March 2015
Lemonade Cake
With spring coming I thought I would share our lemonade cake as it’s full of spring colors with a hint of lemon flavor.
The recipe is simple and the cake is dense and delicious!
The one above was made last spring and decorated with our homemade light lemon frosting with store bought yellow frosting in the tube to decorate as it was being entered in a “cake share” party.
You can see the ingredients are simple.
When I made this cake last week I kept them as single cakes because the tween queen prefers no frosting and I used the same lemon frosting on the other cake but because it was for us, I spared myself the task of decorating!
Lemonade Cake
1 and ⅓ cups sugar
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon lemon zest
3 tablespoons lemonade concentrate, thawed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 and ¼ cups buttermilk
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
In a large bowl combine sugar, butter, lemon zest, lemon concentrate, vanilla extract, and eggs.
Add buttermilk to sugar bowl slowly stirring well.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients until a smooth batter forms.
Spray two 9 inch round baking pans with cooking spray and divide batter evenly into pans.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Frosting:
1 cup butter, softened
2 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar sifted
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice or extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons milk
Beat butter in a stand mixer for 2 minutes. Slowly add powdered sugar until incorporated. Add lemon juice, salt, and milk. Beat until smooth (approximately 3 minutes)
This is a great recipe for summer parties and won’t disappoint 🙂
Circle of Life
Living on a farm it’s very important to teach the kids at the earliest age possible about the circle of life. We have had many animals that have touched our lives here. Flash was one of them. He was a one of a kind rooster for sure and lived a good long life for a bantum chicken. When he started showing his age last week we made him as comfortable as possible.
His funny personality and antics will be sorely missed, but we are thankful for the 7 years he was a part of our family.
You can see more pictures of our Flashy on my Facebook page here: Flash
Super Simple Smores Bars
These are ridiculously easy and so absolutely delicious! The graham crackers blend perfectly with the chocolate and marshmallows and the brown sugar is almost like a carmel. Top that with the butter and it is the perfect combination.
You mix everything together in 1 bowl
Add the melted butter and break up the graham crackers a bit more while stirring to combine all
Spread in a well greased (or sprayed) pan and press slightly
Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes until all is browned and the brown sugar is bubbly
Let cool or eat warm and enjoy the buttery chocolate gooiness.
After cooled they cut perfectly into bars to store in an air tight container!
Smores Bars
3 cups crushed graham crackers (these do not have to be finely crushed but broken into small pieces)
3 cups miniature marshmallows
3 cups chocolate chips (or you can use half white or butterscotch as well)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup melted butter
Mix all in a bowl making sure graham crackers are broken up
Spread in a 13X9 greased cake pan
Bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes or until the marshmallows and top is slightly browned
Cool and cut into bars. Store in an air tight container
**TIP** you can make these in a 9×9 rectangle pan and they will be thicker
Making Maple Syrup
We tapped 2 maple trees in our yard this year to collect sap. This is a super fun project for the kids. They get off the bus and run to the buckets to see what has dripped in during the day. This Syrup is the best you will ever have!!
IMPORTANT NOTE: keep in mind it takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup.
In 4 days we collected 6 gallons (after losing a gallon to a bucket falling off the tree because of the wind).
Today I decided to process what we have so we can prepare over the next few days to boil a few more gallons before the season is over. The best time to collect the sap is when the days are sunny and above freezing temperatures yet the night is below freezing. The season may be short or long. You will know it’s over when the sap stops dripping from your tree.
We bring the sap in and pour it through a mesh strainer lined double with cheesecloth. This filters out the impurities.
You are left with clear pure sap. The best way to store it is to keep it in cold temperatures until you are ready to boil it. I store it in the refrigerator.
When you have enough to boil, fill the pot and bring it to a rolling boil. NOTE: this throws off humidity and will fill the whole house. I open a few windows and don’t mind the humidity as it feels tropical!
The sap will boil down and each time add more to fill the pot using all the sap you have collected. I started with 3 gallons in our bucket and boiled 6 gallons over the course of 6 hours. I also scoop out the foam every once in a while.
The sap will begin to turn a light amber color. When you get to this point it’s important to continue boiling until the syrup begins to foam. That is when you know it’s ready.
It’s a darker color and will thicken.
Remove from the heat and strain again through the cheesecloth into your mason jar or container you are using to store it in.
You can cover it tightly after cool and store for up to 6 months in the refrigerator. You can also can it (I personally have never done that but there are directions all over the internet).
Our 6 gallons yielded 1 pint of syrup but the tween queen had to have a separate container she could eat with a spoon before I could get it all in the jar for a picture!
INSTRUCTIONS:
Collect sap
Strain through cheesecloth and store in the refrigerator
TO MAKE SYRUP:
Fill a large pot with the sap and bring to a boil
When it boils down keep adding the rest of your sap until it’s all in the pot
Continue boiling stirring once in a while and removing the foam when needed
Test to see if it has turned a light amber color after it has boiled down the final time
Continue boiling until the sap is beginning to boil and foam, is darker in color and is slightly thicker
Remove from heat and strain through cheesecloth into the container you are storing it in
Let cool and store in the refrigerator for up to 6 months
Winter winds down
The winter is giving way to spring. Slowly the snow melts and adds to the little streams which run to the creek.
The creek is already bursting at the seams and taking over the lowlands of the woods. Mud on the trails begins to peer through.
Beautiful old farming equipment is exposed once more still holding onto the secret of how they ended up so far back in the woods and abandoned so many years ago. These pieces are about 1/2 mile away in an area that is not cleared and is wooded. I’ve often thought about pulling them out to display at the house but they are a piece of history, our property history, so I leave them to remain in their final resting place and enjoy my walks past them in all seasons.
Is this the luck of the Irish on display for me today or rather just a gold mylar balloon that somehow passed through the taller trees and ended it’s flight on our trail?
And on the way back to the house the ice pond is a gentle reminder that Old Man Winter has lost his battle with the newborn spring and is going down slowly.
Let the season begin
Goodbye relaxing nights and those extra 20 minutes of sleep in the morning. You are being replaced with garden “engineering” which includes layout, planning, planting, weeding, working, and non-stop love and care!
Today’s project was getting some of our late producing vegetables planted. We did pumpkins, butternut squash, kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts and peas. The kids love to help with this and the tween queen planted a container of Morning Glory, Cosmos and Zinnia.
And of course there’s always a jokester in the group!! I knew something was up when the giggling was getting out of control.
If you saw my garden tip on Facebook, these are the little cups I save throughout the winter to use as planters. These are lemon ice and yogurt containers. Poke a few holes in the bottom and they are perfect for starting plants.
You can store these on a tray with sides and fill with water from the bottom so it hits the roots and nourishes the plant and you don’t have to water each one individually or with a sprayer. This is a HUGE time saver!
And now they are gently covered with the sunlight hitting them to begin their growing process. Fingers crossed they all produce.
Happy Saturday
Candles
I always have candles lit in my house. In the evening with the candles lit all around the house, I feel cozy and the house feels warm and comforting.
Two years ago I bought my first set of battery operated candles that have a timer on them. They go on at dusk and shut off after 6 hours. I bought them from a Christmas section in the store for the Holidays. I have never taken them down.
I love the soft yellow glow they have all year round. I replace the batteries about every month or sometimes a little longer. It’s well worth it to not have to worry about turning them on or off and they look so nice when you drive by the house at night. It looks like a true country home.
It’s the little things sometimes that mean the most.
Homemade Body Scrubs
Body scrubs are an excellent way to exfoliate your body in the winter and summer. They also moisturize and nourish your skin. Store bought scrubs are expensive and contain all sorts of ingredients and sometimes the scent is overpowering.
We make our own and it’s very inexpensive and making it in small batches allows us to make many different scents.
Tonight I decided to make a quick Eucalyptus scent as both of my children are sick and I felt I needed a breath of fresh air in my scrub. Eucalyptus reminds me of days spent in Florida years ago when my parents first moved there and I would visit. I would lay in the guest room and take in the wonderful fresh smell from the woods near their home.
Last week the tween queen and her friend made an almond scented scrub. They used Almond flavored food extract to scent it and it smells fabulous.
We use simple ingredients you can purchase right in your grocery store and they last a long time. Here is how we make ours. There is no “exact” measurements because sometimes I will make enough for 2 showers and other times I will make a larger batch as a gift for a friend. There is no way to mess this up.
Ingredients:
Sunflower oil
Organic Cane Sugar
Extract or essential oil scent of your choice
Jar or plastic container with a lid
To make the scrub put the amount of cane sugar in your jar for a small or larger batch. Pour in just enough sunflower oil to make it a bit runnier than a paste. Add a few drops of your scent and mix. Store in the shower area with the lid on closing after each use.
Scrub it on and feel the softness of your skin when you rinse it off.
It also works wonders on those heels and your hands!!
Sharing on: Simple Saturdays Blog Hop
chase n chance ranch 