I Like Thursday #30 ~ Apple Picking Time

Good Thursday Morning!  

I am linking up today with the

I Like Thursday Bloggers @ Not Afraid of Color

where every week we pause to think about all the good things in life,

big and small. 

I am ever thankful for the gifts of life and love.

Wherever the road leads me in life, I am happy because I travel it with the people I love.

This week the road took us apple picking 

at our favorite hilltop orchard in Central Massachusetts,

Carlson Orchards

Cortlands are my favorite baking apples and they are always big and crisp here.

So I made my guy's favorite apple crisp! 

Here is my go-to recipe: 

Apple Crisp

6-10 apples, depending on size, I like large Cortlands

Half of a Lemon, juiced

1-2 teaspoons cinnamon (to taste)

1- 2 cups sugar (to taste)

¼ cup flour

Topping:

½ cup butter or margarine, softened

1 cup flour

¾ cup brown sugar, packed

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Set oven to 350 degrees  F

Mix topping ingredients to fine soft crumb and set aside.

Juice half a lemon into large bowl.

Peel and slice apples into bowl and toss with lemon juice.

Add sugar and cinnamon to taste and mix well.

Mix in flour.

Pour apples into shallow backing dish and pack down.

Sprinkle half of the topping onto apples and pack down. Add more if needed to completely cover apples.Sprinkle remaining loose topping onto crisp.

Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until apples a soft when pierced with a small knife and topping is golden brown.  Cover topping loosely with foil is starts to brown too quickly to finish baking.  Crisp is usually done when the juices start to bubble up on the sides.  I set my baking dish on a sheet of foil when I place it in the oven to prevent any drips from falling and burning in my oven.

Serve hot with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream or curls of cheddar cheese. 

I have taken out some of my Halloween quilts and made our home look fall festive.

Stop by for a cuppa and some crisp.

Happy Thankful Thursday ! 

Virtual Cookie Exchange Blog Hop 2017

"The cookies that taste like Christmas"

This is what my daughter calls these spritz cookies.

I am joining in the fun today at the

@

Just Let Me Quilt

I have been making them as long as she can remember.

My hubby bought me this battery powered cookie shooter about 30 years ago.

I have been making these cookies every year since.

The recipe is a small variation from the one which came in the box.

The box has long since been lost.

One year hubby let the barrel roll off the counter and it broke.
He ran out and bought another cookie press and replaced it
 before I knew what had happened.
A few more pieces have been lost or broken over the years,
but I still have enough to put it together
and it works as well as always.

This model is an old Proctor Silex and is only available used on ebay
or maybe at flea markets for about $10-$12 dollars,
which is what is was new 25 years ago.

The cookie sheets are at least as old, black coated steel and the surface is rough,
so I cover them with aluminum foil,
because they still bake the best cookies.

This the recipe ...

it is a my personal variation of the one which came in the box

Iced Spritz Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup white vegetable shortening
1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
(dash of salt, optonal)

Cream butter and shortening until light and fluffy.
Beat in sugar slowly in small additions.
About 5 minutes.
Add vanilla.
Beat in eggs.
Add baking powder to flour and mix into wet ingredients in three additions.
Batter will be very stiff.
If batter is not stiff, add a little more flour a little at a time
until batter is stiff and not sticky.

Fill your cookie press as directed by manufacturer and press.

You may roll the batter in small balls and flatten slightly if you do not have a cookie press.

If you refrigerate the batter until cold, you may also roll and cut with cookie cutters.

Bake spritz cookie at 375 degree for 10 - 12 minutes,
just until set,
not brown.
Do Not Overbake.

Makes about 11 dozen small cookies.

Icing

4 cups 10x confectionery sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
milk as needed to make a thin icing
food coloring as desired

Mix all ingredients together until icing coats spoon but is still thin enough to pour.

Dip tops of cookies into the icing and set on wire racks
that are set over foil to catch the drips.

Sprinkle with decorator sugar as you go.

When icing is completely dry,
store in tightly covered tins with waxed paper between the layers.

These cookies have a short shelf life,
only about a week.

They disappear so fast in my house that they never last a week.


This is my first batch of several
and they are for welcoming my daughter home for Christmas and gathering
and decorating our tree on Saturday.

I may have to make another batch by then ... ;)

The Tumbling Christmas Blocks Quilt 
behind the cookies is one I made a few years ago when a friend asked if I knew how to make the tumbling blocks pattern without "Y" seams.
At the time, I had never made this pattern, 
but the challenge was on!
I soon figured out that if I cut the top of the block into triangles 
and sewed the pieces into rows 
and then sewed the rows together,
it would be all straight piecing.
Easy peasy.

All the steps may be found here ... 

Part 1 ~ Cutting

Part 2 ~ Piecing

Part 3 ~ Adding the Border

Part 4 ~ Quilting and Finishing

These free tutorials are the most frequently visited posts on my blog,
month after month, year after year. 

If you ever try this method,
I would love to hear from you.

Giveaway Time!

I have been sew blessed this year
that I am sharing the gifts by giving away a

$25.00 Gift Certificate to the 

Fat Quarter Shop

This is a Rafflecopter Giveaway
Enter below ...
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to visit all my Cookie Exchange friends 
today for more yummy fun!

  December 7

 Quilt Doodle Doodles

Kris Loves Fabric

Life in the Scrapatch (you are here)

Home Sewn By Us

For The Love Of Geese

Stitch Days

Val’s Quilting Studio

Tu-Na Quilts

It’s A T-Sweet Day!

Just Let Me Quilt

Carol asked us to share a favorite seasonal memory.

One of my favorites is a small one.

My husband and I were doing some last minute grocery shopping for our

Christmas feast when our children were still very young.
 It was snowing.  We ran into the mother of one of our sons'

friends from his very culturally diverse public school.  Her family had moved to our country to escape a rigid regime that did not allow then to live their own way.  We were welcomed into her home and we learned about a culture from a far away, much warmer climate.

During our parking lot chat she commented on how she had never seen snow before.  

As we were getting ready to say our good nights, my husband wished her a very Merry Christmas.  This warm and lovely woman smiled broadly and said,  "Thank you!  As you know we do not observe this holiday ... but we love all the parties!"  

With this thought, I have gone through life celebrating all the parties life has to offer.

So I wish you a heartfelt ...

Merry Christmas!

How to Make Folded Fabric Ornaments Tutorial Here

Happy Holidays!

Celebrate Life! 

More Holiday Baking

Hot Milk Lightning Cake

Ingredients
2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk (see note below)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
4 eggs
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups sugar

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Prepare a bundt pan or 2 9-inch cake pans. I grease and sprinkle with flour.  

Stir together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

On medium heat, melt butter and milk together heating just milk starts to bubble around the edges.  Keep warm on stove.

Beat eggs until fluffy and add sugar slowly, beating about five minutes total time.  Add vanilla.

Add flour mixture in two additions and mix lightly.

Slowly pour in the hot milk mixture, stirring as you go.  The batter will begin to rise as soon as the hot milk meets the baking powder.  Pour quickly into prepared pans and set in preheated oven.

Bake about 50 minutes for bundt cake or 25 minutes for layer cake pans.  Test with cake tester.

Cake will be spongy on the surface.  

This makes a very spongy tasty cake that is excellent for just dusting with powdered sugar, filling with jam, serving with fresh strawberries and cream, or icing with a thin vanilla glaze.

Glaze for this cake:

Mix 2 cups confectionary sugar, 1 teaspeoon vanilla and just enough milk to make a thin pourable icing.  Sprinkle with holiday decors.

I think this is called Lightning Cake because of how fast it rises, but I call it Lightning cake because of how fast it disappears in my house.  I made this cake early in the week and it was gone in 24 hours.

Will make another soon ... :-) 

For more wonderful holiday recipes follow along with the

Virtual Cookie Exchange

Great recipes, quilts, goodies and great giveaways, too!

Here is the complete schedule ...

December 5 

Creatin’ in the Sticks

Creative Latitude

Gray Barn Designs

Domestic Felicity

Pieced Brain

Quiltscapes

Ms P Designs USA

Cynthia’s Creating Ark

December 6

 Sew Incredibly Crazy

Freemotion by the River

Moosestash Quilting

One Old Goat And Her Little Farm

A Little Bit of Everything, from Mike & Alisa

Hazel’s Daughter

Patchouli Moon Studio

Bumbleberry Stitches

Selina Quilts

Brenda’s Blog

December 7

 Quilt Doodle Doodles

Kris Loves Fabric

Life in the Scrapatch

Home Sewn By Us

For The Love Of Geese

Stitch Days

Val’s Quilting Studio

Tu-Na Quilts

It’s A T-Sweet Day!

Just Let Me Quilt

We are sharing the family favorite 

Christmas Cookie Recipe

tomorrow!

A Virtually Yummy Blog Hop is Coming!

Carol @ Just Let Me Quilt

is hosting her annual

Virtual Cookie Exchange Blog Hop

and I am joining in the fun this year.

I do bake cookies every year,

in many, many batches,

all through the month of December.

I was just looking at my Christmas photos, though, 

and could not find a single photo of the any of the many 

I have baked over the years ...

and packaged up and give away,

or served at our tree decorating party, 

or set on a decorative plate for Santa,

or enjoyed for dessert on Christmas.

All those cookies and not single snapshot in my files?

This year I share bake and snap

and share a few with all of you.

Until then, here is a recipe that have adopted many times for Christmas

This versatile recipe was

Blogged Here

For Christmas I like to make the version with the white chocolate chips, dried cranberries and walnuts and then dip half of each cookie in green tinted vanilla glaze 

and put on a few red decos.  Or dip in milk chocolate and add red and green M&M's

Do you have a recipe or Christmas tradition to share?

If so ... 

 read all the info Here

and join in the fun!

Mmmmmm ... warm sweet cornbread!

Scrapatch Sweet Cornbread 

It is a cool and misty Memorial Day here.

A good day to bake a favorite comfort food.

This is my go-to recipe: 

4 eggs, separated

3/4 cup melted butter, cooled

3/4 cup milk

1/3 cup sour cream 

1 teaspoon vanilla 

2 cups flour

1 cup cornmeal

1 and 1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

I use a seasoned stoneware sheet pan and I do not grease it.

Melt butter and set to cool.

Combine dry ingredients and set aside for adding later.

Separate egg yolks and whites.  

Beat the whites until stiff peaks form.

In large separate bowl, using same beater, 

mix eggs, vanilla, milk and sour cream until frothy.

Mix in cooled melted butter.

In two additions, mix in dry ingredients just until combined.

Do not over mix.

Fold in beaten egg whites. 

Spread evenly in baking pan.

Bake 25-30 minutes or until tests done.

Serve warm with soft butter or honey.

Yummy!

This recipe is very sweet.

Reduce sugar if you do not like your cornbread as sweet as I do. 

Enjoy!

A Banana Bread Day

Mmmmmmm ... warm Banana Bread squares from the oven!

This is a family favorite.

Made easy with my some of my favorite

Pampered Chef cooking tools and bakeware.

I have a well pampered kitchen.

This wonderful Banana Bread recipe

from Simply Recipes can be found HERE

Enjoy!

Very Berry Crumb Cake

My Crumb Coffee Cake

It is Sunday morning and time for a treat!

This recipe has been my family favorite for  over 40 years.

My Dad loved it and whenever I make it I think of him.

My Hubby loves it ... with lots of cinnamon.

My Boys love it however I make it.

My Girl loves plain crumb cake.

I love it with coconut and pineapple and nuts mixed into the topping.

Yesterday we found fresh raspberries and blueberries

 so today it is a 

Very Berry Crumb Cake

very berry = very yummy

My Coffee Crumb Cake Recipe

Cake:

3 cups all purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, well beaten

1 cup milk

1 cup butter melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Crumb Topping:

1/3 cup soft butter

1/2 cup sugar.

1/3 brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

2-4 tablespoons milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

To make it Very Berry ...

 1 cup fresh blueberries, rinsed, dried and lightly floured

 1 cup fresh raspberries, carefully rinsed and dried ... raspberries mush easily, 

 handle with care. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  

Butter 13 x 9 inch baking dish.

In small bowl: combine all topping ingredients to form moist crumbs and set aside.

In large bowl:  measure in dry cake ingredients and stir gently to combine. In large measuring cup, combine beaten eggs and milk and extract and then stir in warm melted butter.  Add immediately to dry cake ingredients in large bowl and stir with wooden spoon just until combined. Batter will be thick and slightly lumpy.  This makes a lovely plain crumb coffee cake as is.  

If adding the berries, add the blueberries and fold gently. Then add the rasberries and very gently fold. A few broken raspberries add to the goodness but try to keep them as whole as possible.

Gently spoon into prepared baking dish and spread to level carefully.  A few hills and valleys is fine.

Sprinkle the crumb mixture evenly over the top.

Bake 35 - 45 minutes or until puffed, lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center come out clean.

Set on wire rack to cool and combine the glaze ingredients and then drizzle over the warm cake.  Cool about ten minutes before cutting ... unless your hubby is standing over you and cannot wait that long. 

Store cold leftover cake ... if you have any ... in an airtight cake saver.

Variations:

Sour Cream Crumb Cake ... substitute 1/2 cup sour cream for 1/2 cup of the milk

Buttermilk Crumb Cake ... substitute 1 cup buttermilk for 1 cup milk

Greek Yogurt Crumb Cake ... substitute 1 cup any flavor traditional Greek yogurt for the 1 cup milk

Whole Wheat Crumb Cake ... substitute half or all the all-purpose white flour 

Nut Topped Crumb Cake ... add 1/3-1/2 cup of chopped nuts of your choice to crumb topping

Almond Crumb Cake ... add 1/2 teaspoon almond extract to the cake batter and 1/2 cup finely chopped almonds to the crumb topping.  Substitute almond extract for vanilla in the glaze

Apple Cinnamon Crumb Cake ... fold in 1-2 apples cored and thinly sliced  and 1 teaspoon cinnamon to the cake batter

Banana-Nut ... Fold in 1/4 cup additional flour to original recipe and stir in 3 medium size well ripen bananas beaten with a fork and 1/3 cup chopped walnuts or pecans after cake batter in combined

Pineapple-Coconut ... Drain small can crushed pineapple.  Add drained pineapple and 1/3 cup moist flaked coconut to the topping ingredients and add put the juice in a measuring cup and add milk to make 1 cup of liquid.

Cherry Cobbler Crumb Cake ... spread 1 can cherry pie filling (or any peach or apple) into bottom of the baking dish before spreading cake mixture; add crumb topping as above.

Create your own family favorites variation ... :)

Enjoy!