Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day everyone!! I hope you day is happy!

Hi Everyone!! We got Mom some catnip for Mother's Day but she wouldn't eat any so we did!! Can't let it go to waste. We didn't even give her time to transplant it. We just dug in. Our human sister gave Mom the orchids...now how can anyone eat something like that. We decided we had to talk to her before next year. Catnip is much much better.

We hope you all have a nice Mother's Day.

Lemon Yogurt Muffins

You probably think I quit cooking since all I've been doing is cleaning and posting some of my beautiful treasures so I thought I would share the muffins I made for breakfast this morning. I found the recipe in The Breakfast Book. It is a great breakfast book with lots and lots of ideas and recipes. Do you remember the lemon cake recipe that you poked holes in and then poured over it some kind of lemon glaze to soak into the cake? This recipe reminded me of that cake so I thought I would try them. When my daughter took the first bite this morning she said "Oh it's like the cake you used to make!! These bring back memories!! " I don't remember how the glaze was made for the cake because I haven't made it in years and years and have no idea where the recipe is. If anyone out there has it, please let me know. The muffins are very easy and yummy too!! I hope you enjoy them.

After I got all my errands done I came home and made some tea and had another muffin. My daughter had two for breakfast and I only had one so I figured I deserved another one. Good excuse anyway!!

Lemon Yogurt Muffins

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar

2 T honey

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups plain yogurt

1/4 cup melted butter

1 T grated lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 375 and butter muffin tin. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, mix sugar, honey, eggs, yogurt, melted butter and lemon zest until thoroughly blended. Add the flour mixture and mix until blended. I didn't dirty the kitchen aid for these I just used a wooden spoon.

Spoon batter into buttered muffin tin. Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown. While the muffins bake make the syrup.

Lemon Syrup

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/3 cup sugar

3 T water

Combine ingredients in a small pan and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute and set aside. When the muffins are done poke the tops with a fork a few times. Drizzle syrup over the top letting it run over the top and edges.

Bon Appetit!

I found this cake recipe at Alosha's Kitchen and made it last weekend. You can get the recipe here. It is so easy and springy. We really enjoyed it.

OK that should keep you busy this weekend and I'm off the put clean sheets on my bed. I stripped it down to the mattress and washing everything today. We are having ANOTHER cool rainy weekend. I'm trying not to complain because we need the rain but it could be 70 on the weekends and 50 during the week instead of the other way around. At least it's too warm to snow. Blackberries were on sale so I'm making a blackberry slump this afternoon. Blackberries always make me think of my Grandparents. They lived in Missouri and we had a ditch as Grandpa called it (it was a really big deep ditch!!) and there were lots of wild blackberries growing so we would go pick them and Grandma would always make blackberry pie. I should add that they did most of the picking and my sister and played and hid in the bushes. We did pick some though when Grandma reminded us if we didn't have enough there would be NO PIE!!
Have a great weekend!

My Forty Shoes

And no two are alike!! I collect shoes and this is where I keep them. On top I have my French enamelware but I cut off the top of the coffee pot. The middle one is a French lunch box. Way too cute!! Any way back to the shoes. When my Grandmother passed away I inherited her "boot collection" as she called it. There were probably 10 in all and as you can see I have added lots and lots to the collection. I'm always on the lookout for an unusual or one I don't have. I have a couple that are similar but no two are alike. The newer styles in the pictures were all gifts. Hallmark has a shoe collection and people thought I should include those but I like the old ones and that is what I buy. When I go somewhere new I always bring back a shoe to remember my time there. Even a special day.

As you can see I need a new cupboard to keep them in. I bought this one at a flea market a couple of years ago. It sits on top of a small bookcase where I keep some of my cookbooks. Did you catch the word some?

The green shoe is Vaseline glass. I purchased that on in Canton, TX. Believe it or not I remember where most of them were found. The little one on the left is a pin cushion.

The boots in the last row were some of my Grandmother's collection.

The glass shoes on the left are all Fenton.

The small boot on the right with the purple flower is from Cape May, NJ. The little pitcher was my Grandma's too. The sandal has a magnet top so the shoe actually is two pieces. What you would put in it would be any one's guess because it is so small.

See the shoe with the baby on top of it.

I love the one with a picture of an old lady too!

And some of my cookbooks. You notice I said some. This is where I keep Ina, Giada, Martha, Julia, Jacques and all my French cookbooks. Or at least most of them. As you can see it is overflowing and some are stacked between the bookcase and the wall. I hope you enjoyed seeing my shoe collection. I always smile when I look at them. Wonder what I'll find this summer at the flea markets and my adventures.

And last but not least is this beautiful award I received from Nancy. Thank you Nancy!! It is a beautiful award.

March and April Snowflakes

Since I didn't get around to posting the March snowflake and my April has arrived I'm showing both of them. I have no clue as to how Crystal does these but I am so enjoying receiving them. I'd love to watch someone tat and see how these lovelies are created.

This is actually a good post to end the week because for the last two days we have had so much snow and rain. It's been great because this has been the driest winter on record and we so needed the moisture. If this had all been snow it would have taken us until June to dig out. There were big beautiful white snowflakes and rain Friday and yesterday it rained all day. What a slushy mess it was for awhile. Today the sun is shining and the sky is blue.

I hope you have all had a wonderful week. I'm getting a fun post together for later in the week all about my shoes!!

Happy Easter

I hope everyone has a wonderful and happy Easter. Eat lots of chocolate too!! I bought my Tulips today while grocery shopping for tomorrow's dinner. I love tulips and the colors in these look so happy and Spring like so I had to bring them home with me.

My nest I got the other day from Vintage by Crystal. She was on Martha awhile back making these and since I've been so busy I knew I'd never get one made so I ordered one. I'm so happy it arrived by Easter so I could display it for awhile.

Banana Cream Pie and Antiques

I hope everyone has had a good week. It has been very busy around here so I haven't accomplished much. The weather is beautiful. Still so very dry that I'm getting worried about fire season. This is the driest winter on record unless things change. It's nice having 70 degree days but this wind is awful. I'm getting spring fever early this year. I was watching Martha the other day and she made a banana cream pie and it sounded so good that I had to make one today. I almost burnt the meringue because I was getting out my taxes so I could finish them. And speaking of taxes if anyone would like to donate to help me pay mine, please let me know. But on to better and happier things now. I also made a huge batch of marinara from the rest of the tomatoes I had in my freezer. I'm trying to get it cleaned out and use everything I froze last year. I put two containers in the freezer and then added Italian sausage to the rest for spaghetti tonight.

As I've been cleaning out closets and drawers I'm trying to take pictures of some of my treasures and yes, some of my junk. This was my grandmothers fur collar. I think she used to wear it to church.

She also loved these little hats. Her hair was down to her waist and she always wore it braided and twisted in a bun at the nape of her neck. She always wore a little hat when going to church. The black one reminds me of a beret and I remember her wearing it.

I have two sewing stands. This one I found in some junk store many many years ago.

This is my favorite. When I was in Kansas and bored out of my mind I started working auctions on weekends and I got the bug so I started going to a few. I bid on this one and I didn't think the lady was going to quit. I learned to put a maximum bid in my mind and if it went over that I would quit. Well needless to say I lost a few things I really wanted. I did get this sewing stand though and I had a feeling the other lady was upset with me so I gave her one of my biggest and happiest smiles!

My hope chest was a Christmas present my senior year of high school. The upright style is the only one I've seen so I don't know if they make them anymore. I like it because I can store blankets and linens on the shelves. I should have opened it and taken a picture of the inside. I keep a lot of vintage linens in the drawer.

So my high school Christmas present is now a vintage item? Have a good week everyone.

Roast Pork, Coconut Key Lime Cake, Awards and Gifts.

Happy weekend!!! Bailey would like to thank everyone who came to his birthday party. He also wants you to know that he is being very very good now that he is all grown up and he is not spoiled!!! Yeah right Bailey. I hope you have had a good week. It was springtime here and we were supposed to have snow today and it did for 5 minutes. I wish it would, it's been a warm dry winter. I know some of your are shuddering because you've been so cold and snowy.

I received this wonderful award from Penny. She is so sweet and so creative. Thank you Penny.

My February snowflake arrived too!! This is my third snowflake from Crystal. I look forward to them every month.

I made this cake today. It is in the Gourmet magazine and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to make it. The hardest part was squeezing 1/2 cup of key lime juice. Lucky for me my daughter came in the kitchen as I was grating the zest to see what I was doing and I asked her if she wanted to squeeze some lime juice for me. She said yes and I handed her the key limes. She said "Out of these little things?" I just said start squeezing honey!! The recipe is here.

I made a pork roast with roasted pears that was so good. I got the recipe from a Williams Sonoma catalog. You can find it on their website here. I must be in a roasted pear mood this winter. I made a chicken with roasted pears not long ago that I got from Mimi's blog. Mimi always takes you on wonderful trips to Paris or walks with her Grandmother. She is a wonderful story teller and writer.

All these recipes should keep you busy for the awhile. I'm making a new mac and cheese recipe tomorrow. I'll let you know how it turns out. I'm still spring cleaning but took last weekend off for my Mother's 90th birthday party and this weekend I'm just too lazy to do much. I have my bathroom and living room to do and I'm done. I just have to get back in the cleaning mood. Have a wonderful rest of the weekend.