Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Wildflowers - Dandelions and Violets


I love wildflowers!

I picked them as a child and brought bouquets of them to Mom, especially Sweet Williams. And I loved the Jack in the Pulpits. I haven't seen either of these yet, but our yard is full of dandelions and violets.

Some people think of them as weeds. But I consider these colorful flowers one of God's beautiful creations.

After a long winter of drab and dreary landscapes, these yellow and violet creations pop out of the ground for us to enjoy.










What is a dandelion? It is a wild plant with a large yellow flower, deep taproot, and deeply notched leaves, that changes into a fluffy white ball of seeds.






From root to flower, dandelions are highly nutritious plants, loaded with vitamins, minerals and fiber.




This is a dandelion craft I made a few years ago. It says "Some see a weed, others see a wish come true. Make a Wish!"

We were told as kids,  "If you blow a seed head of a dandelion, the number of seeds remaining are the number of children you will have."

I've never tried it, but they say you can make violet jelly. If you would like to give it a try, here is a link to how you can do it. 

And, of course, here is the little poem about violets:

Roses are red
Violets are Blue
Sugar is sweet
but not, as sweet as you.
 

Do you know any dandelion or violet folklore or trivia?

Friday, April 17, 2020

Free Kindle Download and a No Sew Mask


Hi everyone!

I would like to announce that my newest book,

Fun Through the Seasons Volume Two 

is available for FREE  download through Sunday, April 19, 2020.

I would love it if you take this opportunity to download it and enjoy.

It is always free on kindle unlimited, but if you don't belong to it, this is a great time to get my ebook.

It is a good book for kids and adults, especially during this Pandemic when we are encouraged to stay at home and the kids are home from school.

It is filled with easy recipes, poems, fun and informative articles, and interesting facts. It also has colorful photos and illustrations.

If you download it, I would appreciate an honest review on Amazon.

click here to get the free download.  Remember it is only free through Sunday, April 19!

Reviews are one of the best gifts you can give an author.

Thanks and keep safe and healthy! 

A while back I showed you how you could sew a face mask. Below is a no-sew one.

I've sewn a few, but here I am in one of my no-sew masks. 
They're easy - get a large man's handkerchief or a piece of material
at least 16 x 16
fold in half once
then fold in half again
slide a child's ponytail elastic over both ends
push in a few inches and then fold the material on the ends toward the inside.
Put up to your face and slip the elastics over your ears. Adjust to fit.
Voila!



Sunday, April 5, 2020

Easy Peanut Butter Easter Eggs



Easter is almost upon us and we never bought any homemade Easter Eggs. Churches in our area usually make thousands of them and distribute them to different businesses for sale. A few weeks ago they had to stop making them because of the corona-virus outbreak.

Peanut Butter, cherry nut and maple nut are our favorites.

I have a recipe in my cookbook, Cook with Family Recipes and Remembrances, for Buckeyes. I thought I would use the recipe to make peanut butter eggs.

I halved up the recipe, because I didn't want to have a lot of them here at the house. I knew I would not be able to resist them.

In case you want to make an entire batch, the original recipe calls for -

1 cup of peanut butter
1 stick of butter
1 pound of powdered sugar
melted chocolate

Mix butter and peanut butter, stir in powdered sugar. Roll into small balls,. Melt chocolate bark in microwave. Dip peanut butter balls into chocolate until almost covered. Place on wax paper until chocolate is set.

I used 1/2 cup of peanut butter, 1/2 stick of butter (room temperature), around 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar and melted chocolate bark. This made three eggs about 1/4 pound each.

These are quick and easy!
 
peanut butter and butter

after stirring in powdered sugar


I put 1/3 of the mixture into these egg shaped pans I happened to have. 
I had made bunny rabbit cupcakes in them a long time ago. If you don't have a pan like this, shape them into an oval shape - flat on the bottom.

Here are the three after I took them out of the pan.

I melted the chocolate in the microwave and spooned it onto the eggs. 
Place in refrigerator until chocolate is hard. This doesn't take very long.
 If you want, you can wait until the top firms, turn them over and put melted chocolate on the bottom. 

 I melted some white bark and squirted it on the top of the egg for decoration.


These turned out really good. They are not real rich, which means you can eat a lot (tee hee)!

Unfortunately, I think Charley and I could eat one between us in one setting. We keep going back and cutting off another slice to eat.

What's your favorite flavor of Easter Eggs? 

Enjoy the eggs and I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during this outbreak.