Cooking Thursday

Today's recipe is another one I made for Easter.  It's a creamy, refreshing lemon pie which goes together quickly.  We all enjoyed it!

Sour Cream Lemon Pie

Crust:
1 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
5 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Mix together graham cracker crumbs, butter and sugar.  Press into a 9 inch pie pan.  
Bake for 12-15 minutes until crust begins to brown.
Allow to cool.

Filling:
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch plus 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
1/2 cup lemon juice
3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, cubed
8 ounces sour cream
1 cup whipping cream, whipped for garnish
lemon twists for garnish, optional
Combine sugar, cornstarch, lemon peel, lemon juice, egg yolks and milk in heavy saucepan. Whisk ingredients together.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens.
Remove from heat and stir in butter.
Allow to cool to room temperature, then stir in the sour cream.
Pour into prepared graham cracker crust.
Garnish with sweetened whipped cream and lemon twists.  
Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Wordless Wednesday

 

A visit to the Greenhouse

We made our first trip of the year to the Greenhouse near us last week.  People come from all over the state to go to this greenhouse.  It's huge, the greenhouse itself is 21 acres.

Here's an arial shot to give you an idea of the size.

Look at all the ferns when you come in.

Look at all the plants!

I got this planter for our porch.

We also bought some Lenten roses to plant in our woodland garden.

We'll be back to get more once the chances of frost are gone.  It's always a fun visit!

The Big Lake

We like to go to Grand Haven and enjoy Lake Michigan and the lighthouse there.  Once it gets warm out, it's full of people and eating at restaurants there means a long wait.  So, we decided to go the other day before the crowds appear.

We had supper at a nice place on the channel. This was our view from inside.  Can you see the lighthouse in the distance?

After we ate, we walked part of the pier.

The last time I was here, there was still ice in the water. It's so good to see the sun shining on it now!

Just a few people on the beach right now.

Even with a cold wind blowing, it's fun to visit the big lake and the lighthouse!

Friday Funny

 

Cooking Thursday

Today's recipe for biscuits is one I've seen people talking about online but had never tried it.  However, we had friends coming for Easter Dinner right after church.  In looking for food I could make ahead of time, these popped up again and I made them.  The name is intriguing, but they weren't at all greasy, were tender and very tasty. You can whip them up in no time at all!

Butter Swim Biscuits

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Place stick of butter in 8x8 glass pan and melt butter.
Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.  Stir in buttermilk until combined; be careful not to overmix.
Spoon batter over melted butter in pan. Spread to sides as best you can.
Cut the unbaked dough into 9 squares (3x3).
Bake for 28 minutes or until top is golden.
Allow to rest for about 10 minutes before serving.  You can make these ahead of time, just let them cool completely, then cover tightly. Heat for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Happy Post!

Guess what?  After a long, cold, snowy winter, Spring is showing up! I think it's such a happy time of year; blues skies, sunshine, warmer temps...   and flowers!

I wandered around the yard and here's a few signs of Spring.

This is a spirea bush that has burgundy leaves when they open up, but starts out this orangy color.

This cute little blue flower is a wild flower named Star of Holland or woodland squill, that grows in our wooded area.  It's tiny but grows in little patches that we can see from the house.

Here's what it looks like in a patch.

I love seeing these tiny little buds. It amazes me how fast they grow and pop open.

Even the pine trees have new growth.

The daffodils are so cheerful!

Reaching for the sun!

Happy Spring!

"For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land."
Song of Solomon 2:11-12

Easter Celebrations

I hope you all had a blessed Easter! 
We had our kids over on Saturday evening and started the evening with an egg hunt.

Bob and I had hidden eggs in the back yard before they came, but when Laura and Aaron came, they brought a bunch with them too.
When the kids went out to hunt, eggs were scattered across the yard, so they didn't have to look too hard!

 

Alaina and Ruby were very helpful in pointing eggs out to Cassie.

They all came in with plenty!
Here's Cassie....

and Alaina...

and Ruby!

Speaking of Ruby, she was excited to wear these earrings. They are Peep earrings!

Connor was watching all the fun!

We had a nice supper together which included this finger jello for the kids. Can you see what it is?  Those are bunny butts!

On Easter, we had a wonderful service at church, had friends over for dinner after church and then had a relaxing afternoon.
It's good to be together with family and friends and even better to celebrate our risen Saviour.

Friday Funny

 

Cooking Thursday

I've heard of beef bourguignon often, but have never tried it. I recently found a recipe for it that's made in the crock pot and decided it was time to give it a try.  It turned out really good, the beef was tender and fell apart, the veggies were tasty and it was all contained in a tasty broth.  If you want to try it but don't want to watch over something on the stove all day, here's a recipe for you to try out.

Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon

5 slices bacon
3 pounds chuck roast, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 cup red wine*
2 cups chicken broth, separated
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons dried thyme
5 carrots, sliced
1 pound baby potatoes
8 ounces sliced fresh mushrooms

In a large skillet, cook the bacon until crisp and add to slow cooker. Salt and pepper the beef and add to skillet. Brown for about 2 minutes on each side and add to slow cooker.
Add wine to skillet, scraping in the browned bits on side of pan.  Allow to simmer and reduce.
Stir in 1 cup of broth, tomato sauce and soy sauce.
Whisk together 1 cup of the broth with the flour, until smooth. Stir into sauce in skillet and allow to thicken slightly, then pour into slow cooker.
Add garlic, thyme, carrots, potatoes and mushrooms.  Stir well and cook on low for 8 hours.

* Alcohol in the wine will cook out so this is safe for children. You can substitute broth for wine if desired.

Wordless Wednesday

 (Why did the turkey cross the road?)

Renovation Time!

You may remember that I told you Bob was building new kitchen cabinets for Heather and Andrew.  They have a pretty small kitchen and the current cabinets weren't in good condition.  The plan is to do one section at a time, so the kitchen isn't totally unusable for a long time.  Bob had the upper cabinets made that went over the sink, so a week ago Saturday he and Andrew tore out the old ones.

Here's the before of that area.  For some reason, there was a big bulkhead and the cabinets were hung down low.  You can see that the counters could hardly be used because the cabinets were in the way.

The old cabinets came out quite nicely.

The bulkhead wasn't so easy though, and it made quite a mess!

Then drywalling had to be done.  Bob was at their house almost every day last week, putting up drywall, mudding the seams and sanding.

Andrew put this picture on Facebook last week as Cassie was very involved in "helping"!  Bob said everywhere he went, she was with him telling him "Grandpa, I can help you!"  He loved it.  :)

Andrew did some touch up painting after Bob finished the drywall so that this past Saturday the first set of cabinets could go up.

Bob built these ones to go up to the ceiling, giving them extra storage space.

Happy to have made this much progress!

You can see where the old cabinets used to hang, all the way down by the windowsill.  Heather is already appreciating being able to use the counter space!  Trim needs to be done here yet, but otherwise the uppers are done.  Next up is starting the base cabinets!

Spring Flooding

We live near the Grand River and this time of year, it always floods, mostly from the snow melting.  I always like to go down to the riverfront to see it, and although it's not nearly as flooded as it has been some years, it's interesting to see how high the water can be.

I went to the little riverfront park near us last week and this is how things are looking.

This is the bayou next to the river.  The road that runs next to it is closed, because as you can see, it's impassable!

It's kind of a bleak beauty I think, no leaves on the trees yet and water everywhere.

I always walk under the bridge to see how high the water is.

 

The water is usually quite a bit away from these trees.

On Saturday, I was driving along the river in a different area which shows more of the flooding.

The river is the area in the back.  The area with water in the front of the picture is usually a pasture with cows grazing there.

Here's another shot of that same area, you can see how much water is flooded from the river.

As I said, it's not nearly as bad as other years, but still interesting to see.