A FEW AUTUMN PLEASURES

The season that I love the most!  When the dry, hot, late summer days are leaving and the cooler, damper beginnings of autumn are here.

 

I love to heat up the chilly early hours with the oven and something wonderful baking in it.  The Sweet Potatoes are just about ready to dig up here in Tennessee, so I share this wonderful recipe that will have your mouth watering!

These are the beautiful plants that you can start from a sweet potato in your own home.  I remembered doing this in school as a child.  Have any of you done it?

After the vines were growing well, I broke them off or cut the potato and buried them into the ground to root.  Be careful not to do this too early, your sweet potatoes do not like it too chilly!  Not only will you have Sweet Potatoes to eat, but beautiful vines with gorgeous flowers (you may also eat the flowers and leaves in a salad...they are part of the morning glory family, NOT nightshade like white potatoes!)

Now, if you so desire...just shop at your local store and pick some up from the people that grow Sweets for a living!

          Here is a preview of what you will be enjoying in the morning!

                               SPICY SWEET POTATO MUFFINS

Your sweets have to be cooked and mashed before you add them to the rest of the ingredients.  I usually use about 3 to 4 good sized taters and simmer them in a pot covering the potatoes with water.  I simmer them for about 20 to 30 min., then gently poke them with a meat fork.  You want them soft, but not falling apart.  When done, remove them from the water and allow them to cool just long enuff so you don't burn yourself while holding them to peel.  Cook first and the peels almost fall off!  Sometimes I will cook the sweets a day ahead...just one less thing to do in the morning :)!

Ingredients:
1.     2 cups whole wheat flour
2.     1/2 cup packed brown sugar (dark brown is best)
3.     1 Tablespoon baking powder
4.     1/2 teaspoon baking soda
5.     2 teaspoons cinnamon
6.     1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
7.     1/2 teaspoon cloves
8.     1/2 teaspoon ginger
9.     1/2 cup raisins (optional)
10.   1/4 cup walnuts / sunnies (optional)
11.   1 1/2 cups cooked, mashed yams
12.   3/4 cup milk
13.   1 egg...beaten

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees & oil muffin pans ( I use 2 mini muffin pans, great for snacks & small hands)

In a medium large bowl, combine ingredients 1 thru 10 and toss with a fork.
Add ll thru 13, and stir until mixed.  Your batter will be thick almost like drop cookie dough.

Fill the cups until all the batter is gone.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until the tops bounce back when lightly pressed.  Your house will be filled with the wonderful fragrance of the spices and mouths will be watering!

After they come out of the oven, they'll be easier to release from their pans if you let them sit about 10 to 15 minutes.

Have the butter & milk standing by so the first ones are still warm for discovery!
ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH MY GOD!!! I CAN SMELL THEM WHILE I'M SITTING UP HERE IN MY ART STUDIO!!!  MY MOUTH IS WATERING !!!  GOTTA GO MAKE SOME NOW!!!  

 

Animal Spirit Totems...Sister Spider Part 2

Welcome to my newest post, part 2 of my "dissertation" on Sister Spider as an Animal Totem or Spirit Guide.  I won't bore you with facts or fantasy from other sources...there are many out there if you are so inclined to do research.  I'm not here to do a "reading" for you or give you questions to answer to see if Spider is your Spirit Guide.  These are the "messages" that I believe Sister Spider had for me at this particular time.  Now please!!! Let's loosen up ....this is not generic woo woo, just some ramblings, perhaps insights and beautiful photographs of mine to share with you.

For me, Spider uses her tool of the web for my "lesson" she is trying to convey.  Webs are very fragile looking, yet are strong.  It is not only her home, but also her hunting ground.  She keeps herself centered, in the middle with all of the activity around her, with a 360 degree view.

The particular Spider that visited me this time, at first put her web up every evening and took it down in the morning, as she would if she were out in the trees and shrubs.  After a few days she understood that she was protected from too much sun, rain, and someone running into it during the day while she was resting.  Now all she had to do was repair any damage that was done the night before.  Lessons I was learning to apply to my own life at this time.

Sister Spider needed a lot of patience spinning again and again.  Creating and recreating...repairing.  I asked myself why would she need to do this over and over?  Hmmmmmmmmm, kind of like Art.  I feel the need and must go to work!  Always the same, but always changing...kind of like Life.   

 

It's raining today...renewal, replenishing,cleansing...a new beginning for all.

Thanks for visiting, taking your time to view what I am sharing.  This time I chose my Art to be my Photography and perhaps my writings!

Joy & Love
Diane

 

Animal Totems...Animal Spirit Guides

I have been inspired by Sarah Cross and her great Sunday Interview blog feature of my shop on etsy,here, to listen to the Animal Spirits.

Sometimes I hear their voices, sometimes they are in my dreams, sometimes they visit me in a physical body.

This time, sister spider decided to build a web across our sliding glass door.
She did this for several weeks...spinning at night, taking it up and retiring to the gutter during the day.  Her web increased in size as so did she!

At first I mostly watched with fascination at the building each night...it was awesome.  She started to move her web toward the South end of the house as she reappeared each night.

After a few weeks, she disappeared, I thought she was gone forever.
Last night (3 weeks later)...she reappeared and started all over.
I new she had messages for me woven into her web.

This is the beginning of a series on our Animal Spirit Guides or Animal Totems.  I'll choose an animal (or it will choose me) each month. We'll share stories, lore, different cultures ideas and see if any of you have been chosen by these animals.  If there is one that you would like to "check out", let me know!
I'll also be working on a painting of each totem throughout the month and will list it on my etsy shop when finished.  Perhaps you will be interested in your own original of your Spirit Guide, or a print of the "Spirit Totem of the Month".

I'll start with Sister Spider because she chose me and October is filled with magic as it leads us into Autumn, Harvest, and my favorite Holiday...Hallo'een!

Let's have some FUN!


click here to view

The Journey of our Chickens!

It all began for us in early April, when I went to the feed store to pick up horse feed and our new chicks.  I had ordered 5 Light Brahma pullets and 5 Polish Standard pullets.  For those of you new to chickens...pullets are very young hens that haven't started laying yet.  The people that raise the chicks for sale also sex them so you don't have to buy any roosters if you don't want them.  We already have a rooster...a beauty that regularly gifts me with feathers for my art.

The yellow are the Brahmas & the colors are Polish

 Their first day outside

 

When we received them, they were hatched just a day before.  They lived in the box with a heat lamp to keep them warm.  As they grew they were moved to a bigger box and when they didn't need heat anymore,  to their bigger chicken house. 

 

                                      A close up of a Polish chick

At first we let them Free Range during the day and locked them up at night.  Until one day sister Fox came to visit and we were minus a chicken in broad daylight!  We live very close to woods on 2 sides and the wild ones just thought we brought them lunch!
             The next day we enclosed their house and yard with a fence.

They were growing very fast...some faster than others!  Then the roosters started to crow!!!  I did not order any roosters!!  We ended up with 4 out of the 5 Polish Standards being roosters!  As we all know...roosters do not lay eggs and make a lot of noise crowing ALL...DAY...LONG!!
I took the 4 roosters back to the feed store and gave them to the nice people that run the store.  I do believe they fed their young family with the hapless cocks.

Now we fast forward to September.  It is getting close to time for the hens to start laying their eggs.  A grandson came to visit for a few weeks and we enlisted his help in building the nest boxes for our girls.

Dillon did a great job using recycled wood!

                   Here is Lil' Sis our Polish hen inspecting the new "digs"!
Well it didn't take long for those dear girls to do what they are with us for.
Bear in mind that when hens start laying, their eggs are very, very small and increase in size as the hens age.  This is very exciting for us to have fresh eggs from our own hens again!

 

 

Please visit again soon and I'll show what I make out of the shells of the eggs of our wonderful hens!

Thank you for taking a look...I hope you have enjoyed!!

Diane

 

For Cat Lovers Only

My name is Patience.  It was given to me by my human Mama.
I don't remember how I got lost from my kitty Mom....I only remember some great....big....monster with 5 tentacles wrapping around me and pulling me from my safe place.  I was sooooo scared.  At least the monster didn't eat me, but took me some where else where more humans put me in a box and kept looking at me.  I went way to the back and tried to hide.   They kept sticking their faces up to a cage like place and showing me their teeth.  I knew they were waiting to Eat Me....Oh No!!!

  I was at the pet store to buy flea poison for the dogs
 and canned food for my very old cat.  I go out and shop once a month for most of our provisions.  The girl at the check out counter asked if any one wanted to take home a kitten.  It seems that this little girl was found across the street at a car dealership and a kind man brought it to them.  I took one look at those big round eyes on a tiny cat and said, " I'll be back for her after I shop!"

 

I got her home after a stop at the feed store...parked the truck...told my husband (Daniel) her story and where she would go while we unloaded the truck so the dogs wouldn't find and eat her.  I carried the box she was put in into the house and into the pantry and closed the door.  I went back outside to unload the truck...opened the passenger door and a streak of grey leaped out and shot under the truck!!!!

I had to be very patient if I was ever to convince her to trust me and come out of the woods where she tore off to after hissing at me when I tried to pry her out from underneath the truck...hence her name.  Everything turned out well and now you get to watch the very first Home Movie of Patience!

 

 

 

Thanks for your Patience with me and my new "daughter & friend".

Reaching the Destination

If you can't make your pie in the same day that you picked your Blackberries....keep them in a cool dry place.  They will be fine for a couple of days and do better than in the fridge.  Don't wash them either, until you are ready to eat them.

I just add some fresh water to the container and kind of stir them with my hand.  The sticks and leaves just kind of float to the top.  Then....into the colander they go to drain.
Here is the filling recipe:
You will see the word "about"  because I am not hardline about anything :)
Feel free to substitute your favorite ingredients!

About 6 cups freshly washed Blackberries
About 1 cup white sugar ( I prefer brown, but white makes better juice)
Gently mix these together and let sit for about 10 min. while you assemble the Pie Crust ingredients.
You can preheat your oven at any time now to about 425 degrees.

The Pie Crust has its own story.......which you will now get to read:
     Many, many years ago I used to cry when I tried to make a pie crust because I could not get it to roll out well and it would fall apart before I got it into the plate.  Makes you NOT want to make pies.  However, I persevered and became a competent pie maker.  Later I discovered that I have an allergy to soy...which seems to be in everything.  Shortening is soy.  I'm not big on lard....so what to do?  I asked my mom and she had a simple oil pie dough recipe that you "mash" into the pan....really easy.
     I had changed the oil that I was using and started using Sunflower Oil.  If you like sunflower nuts, this oil gives a wonderful flavor to your pie crust.  I rearranged some of the other ingredients and here is the recipe for the crust:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup old fashioned oats (oatmeal)
1  tablespoon dark brown sugar (packed and heaping)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sunflower oil
3 Tablespoons milk

Mix it all together with a small spoon...put into your 10" pie plate and press the dough on the bottom and up the sides to make the crust.

Now to finish the filling:
Stir the Blackberries, they should be juicy by now.
Add 3 Tablespoons of Whole Wheat Flour one at a time and gently stir it in.  This will thicken up the berries, so all the juice doesn't leak out into the pie plate.

Spoon the berries into the crust and as soon as your oven is up to temp., pop it in for about 40 minutes or until it smells and looks like it is ready to come out!

We had some peach ice cream....it was delicious!

Bon Appetite!

Enjoy!

 

The Destination.....Homemade Blackberry Pie

Picking Blackberries is a renewed memory from when I was a teenager.   The pie is one of my own creations in the past month.

The journey is the experience of strolling thru the beautiful countryside in search of the wonderful blackberry.  This is where we're headed today!
This blackberry stand is in a cow pasture at the end of our property.  Some day I will figure out how to get the sound in my video, so that you can hear the birds singing and the breeze blowing.

For those that have never been on a berry hunt....this is how these critters grow.  The berries are perched on STICKER bushes...so beware.  Ahhh! but the stickers are a small price to pay for the flavor of the berry.

Here are some close-ups of these tiny jewels...the little pink and red ones need days of rain and sunshine before they are ready!

 

Sampling the biggest, juiciest berries is not only permitted...but required.

Be sure to take some time while you are sampling to look around for other wonders out here in nature...and listen to birds, frogs, ......

That little blacksnake is more frightened of you than you should be of him...give him a minute and brother snake will be on his way.

When our fingers are stained...when our tongues are black...that is the time to turn back!

 

Tomorrow we will finish the journey with our pie making and baking and best of all....Eating!!!

 

Hope y'all have enjoyed...I have

Thanks for visiting,

Diane