April Camping

Sunset on the lower place. Stunning vistas of weather, color and DEER! Jon said he saw deer everywhere he turned.

 Love spring over here in Eastern Oregon. Everything is colored in stunning shades of greens and up in the hills there are only a few flowers blooming. Next month, the  hills will explode with the other colors.

 Jon was amused to find a previous camp site under water. This one was from a few years back when Tony was home. Jon was going to use the rocks for a new spot, but they were really slimy.

 Jon did get stuck more than once. This was his 'first' mud run. Not too messy, just pretty wet.

 Jon noticed there were frogs everywhere this trip. He recorded a short video of frogs peeping. It was so loud and there were so many, it sounded like one noise!! This frog looks like his black markings are a smile!

 Jon really tried to pose some of these frogs. But, staging a frog shoot  needs cooperative frogs. Which, they weren't.

 Here is Jon's Bronco on its last camping trip before Kodiak (the newer brown one) is released from the shop. Jon effectively buried the front end deep in the water and mud. Thankfully, Steve was able to release it from the murk in about 30 seconds. Which made everyone very happy!

"a perpetual astonishment"

              Every spring is the only spring - a perpetual astonishment.  ~Ellis Peters

Today (well, yesterday) the Ann Voskamp  prompt for gifts to find was 'Three gifts budding/blooming." I have so many, I had to do a photo thanks! 

 

 The two photos above mystify me. Outside of the fact I can't change the red tulips to the proper orientation, these photos were taken only two years apart..the mystery? They are in the EXACT same location in my garden. And in 2012, these red open petal tulips were somewhere else. VERY strange. The red ones are this week in 2014, the yellow were in 2012.

Two of my daffodils from Aunt Kathy's yard. Most of the daffodils are done, but the different varieties are popping out and I'm finding several in my cutting garden. I particularly love daffodils. They seem to be shouting out "He is ALIVE!" with their trumpeting blossoms. 

 

 One of my favorite things about tulips is how they close up at night. So the fairies have a place to sleep~or so I have been told!

Also from Aunt Kathy.

 This actually turned out rather clever. I have had this 'basket' for quite a while and these particular tulips have been in a bad place. I don't really want to move them, but I  need to mark where they are. So, I placed the basket on them and they look pretty good!

 The next few photos are my flowering trees. Hopefully, this year they won't get frosted and we'll get fruit from the pink peach tree and the white pear tree...and blooms from the lilac buds!

Another perpetual astonishment for me is this blog. It is sooo hard to get the blog to look as pretty in the public view as it is in the one I create. So, apologizing in advance! 

Not Tracy's Fudge Bars

I got this recipe several years back from one of my favorite people in Tillamook. I noticed when I found this recipe, I have SEVERAL recipes from Tracy. She's a pretty good cook! After posting the photo on FB, it was suggested I needed to post the recipe. So, I contacted Tracy and she said I could share it! She's a pretty great friend, too! I call these Tracy's Fudge Bars, but she actually got it from someone else in Tillamook.

So, without further ado:
Tracy's Fudge Bars
This is in two steps. One for the oatmeal cookie part and one for the fudge part.

Cookie Part:
1 cup butter/marg softened
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 C oatmeal
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
(may add in 1/2 cup PB and I, of course, added a tsp of cinnamon)
Mix together and pat 2/3 of cookie dough into 9x13 baking pan. Reserve 1/3 for topping.

Fudge Part:
1 can sweetened condensed milk (not sure how many oz are in a normal sized can)
12 oz chocolate chips (I used semi sweet, but dark chocolate may not be too bad at all!)
2 TB marg/butter (now Tracy had 2 tsp, but I have this scratched out and replaced with TB)
1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp vanilla
Melt these together on low heat (keep an eye on it so it won't scorch on the bottom) and pour onto the oatmeal cookie bar.

Use remaining batter to dot on top of fudge layer-I used my cookie scoop and managed to get about 14 or so blobs of dough that I spread out with a knife.

This then gets popped in the oven at 350 degrees for about 25 min or so. I left mine in for 30, but my oven doesn't run as hot as I think it should!

Super messy, deliciousness! Jon said it was like 2 oatmeal cookies with a fudge cookie in between.

An Adventure with Peppermint Patties

Bob (http://photographyonthekenai.com/) and then Celia (http://goddessdigitalart.wordpress.com/) shared this on their FB pages (are not all the best recipes first shared on FB!?!) and I discovered it was actually a link for Peppermint Patties from my favorite cooking website. So, I decided to try it. I have rarely met a recipe from that particular site that was horrid. (read reviews!)

 First step is to read as many of the reviews as possible. (As stated in previous paragraph!) This is very helpful in recreating a recipe. I learned I needed to use parchment paper instead of waxed, that you CAN use a whole can of sweetened condensed milk (which is good, cuz only a part of a can is not useful for anything!), and using foil cups is a very good idea.

 There are only a couple of ingredients in these and you want to mix the milk and the extract together before adding the sugar. Jon thought the mint was a little understated, and I did add more than the recipe called for. Next time, I'll add at least a half a tsp more. (making it 2 and a half tsp for a full container of sweetened condensed milk)

 I did discover I should have added more powdered sugar. I used almost 2 lbs, but it was still kind of sticky. I could never have rolled them out as suggested by many reviewers. BUT, I was doing something else. I wanted them to fit in foil muffin cups and so used about half of a cookie scoop of mixture. I thought I had a small round cutter, and I do, it just wasn't a TINY cutter that could fit inside a muffin cup! I patted them into shape and I let them dry for an hour on one side. When I flipped them over, I had to use a spatula since they were tacky on the bottom.

 Many of the reviews suggested freezing them before dipping. Since I was not dipping the things, I didn't freeze them. They were VERY soft. After trial and error, I found placing a bit of melted chocolate in the bottom of the cup, dropping in the patty, and then spreading chocolate on the top worked the best. The chocolate was melted chips with the shortening. Which I will NOT do again. The foil cups come with a paper lining, I tried both ways to see how it worked..as you can tell from the rest of the candies, I ditched the paper part.

 Jon showing off how the chocolate stuck to the paper--and how lovely the patties looked! Although, they were VERY messy. I had thought it was because they were not quite hardened yet. I was wrong.

 I really like the edges on the patties after being formed in the foil cups. It sort of gives them a Reese's kind of look. Which also makes me wonder if I can use this technique and make my own Reese's PB cups....As we discovered, the mint flavor was almost overpowered by the chocolate, but they really aren't too bad at all. They were given a thumbs up by all 3 of my testers~

 Using the whole container of sweetened condensed milk gave me 60 of these little guys. Which meant I spent a lot of time dinking around with chocolate. I made a complete MESS of my apron (you can't exactly tell, since the moose are already brown!). They took a very very long time to make and I want to try them again. I think I would use a pastry brush on the patties and in the cups, since the spoon was not as efficient as I had hoped it would be.

After being refrigerated, the chocolate was STILL gooey. I also think keeping a candy in the fridge is sort of silly. Especially if you are going to have it at a party. These were not made for a party, these were made just for fun! Next time, I will use almond bark. NOT that candy quick stuff (I find that gicky). The foil cups were spendy, but a great idea. I could stack them in the plastic container and they wouldn't stick to each other and I could use the cup as a spot to place the messy chocolate patty as I was eating it. . 

As I was putting these together, I thought about using the Oreo cookie recipe I have and taking one cookie, putting a bit of mint on top, and then encasing it all in chocolate. I am pretty sure I've had cookies like this before, but I can't recall what they are called. When I make them, however, I will make sure I have all day to create them. They DO take awhile!

February Skies

February 2014 has been full of different kinds of weather. We've had snow, cold, sunshine, and rain. We even have had a chance to see northern lights this week! This afternoon, as the sun set, the skies clouds put on an amazing show for those of us on earth. I love how the lowering sun shone on the locusts and other trees in the yard. 

The interplay of shadow and texture on this roof shot we fun to watch.

Sometimes I get so frustrated with this blog program~be that as it may, as the sun set the world turned pink and blue and  mauve. The first pictures were in the backyard, these are off the porch looking East.

Walking in a winter Wonderland~

Every year I post hoarfrost photos. 

This is a series Jon took today (Jan 26,  2014) up in the mountains at the lower place. . 

The simplicity of winter has a deep moral. The return of Nature, after such a career of splendor and prodigality, to habits so simple and austere, is not lost either upon the head or the heart. It is the philosopher coming back from the banquet and the wine to a cup of water and a crust of bread. ~John Burroughs, "The Snow-Walkers," 1866