Thursday, March 12, 2015

Let's Celebrate Pie

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Pi Day is celebrating mathematics? Not it in my world!  March 14th is to celebrate Pie!
I asked some of my foodie blogger friends to share their favorite pie recipes.
You have to see the mouth watering pies they shared!



I hope you are as inspired to go bake a pie now, as I am.
If you find some new blogs or pages here, stop by and check them out. These bakers are all amazing!









































And a recipe I have had pinned forever, because I need to try it...

Friday, March 6, 2015

Random 5 Friday

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Random 5 Friday is back, and I am so happy! Led by Nancy at A Rural Journal
what we share is "5 random facts about you, your day,  your pets, your kids, whatever!"



I watch American Idol.  Yes, I admit this. I really enjoyed last weeks performance by Adam.

Since Truckin' Man is working limited hours this winter, he is going to get the gardening going early, and start some veggies by seed this year.

We took a little road trip on Thursday and visited Antique Archaeology.  Anyone else watch American Pickers as much as my husband?

On our road trip we followed the Mississippi River. At the southern end of our trip, the river was not covered in ice. A lovely site to see.

 Temperatures are supposed to be above freezing this weekend. I could not be more excited!

Stop by and see all the other Random 5

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Irish Butter Shortbread Cookies

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It's time to Fill the Cookie Jar! The theme for March is St. Patricks Day. I really wanted to make something new and different this year because in the past my St. Patricks day sweets are always mint, and I just don't have a huge love of mint. After much searching I learned about Irish Shortbread Butter Cookies.


All of the recipes for this cookie that I ran into were nearly identical, and all led back to Rachel Gaffneys.  With only 3 ingredients, it is such a simple recipe. But, one ingredient looked to be a challenge, Irish Butter. Apparently, Irish Butter has a higher fat content than "American" butter. Kerrygold seems to be the most common brand of Irish Butter, but here in "Small town USA", I could not find that.  We do live less than 20 miles from Organic Valley headquarters, so that brand of products is easy to find. Our local co-op had Organic Valley European Style Butter, which is close as I was going to find to Irish. After a little research, I did learn this is the fat contents of the three butters I was comparing:

American: 80% fat (or possibly lower)
Kerrygold: 82 % fat

So, I ended up with the fattiest butter there is! Excited! The packaging even highlighted that this is "great for baking"! I kept getting more excited to try this!


The cookie dough didn't come together quite as easy as the original recipe indicated, so I added cream.
No point skimping on fat at this point, right?


I have never ever ever in my life tasted a cookie with as much buttery goodness as this cookie. They are definitely going to be a special occasion cookie, because I just can't have a cookie like this in the house very often!  If you can find this butter, I highly recommend you try this recipe, and these lovely butter cookies.

If you are interested in joining Fill The Cookie Jar group on facebook, fill out the form that can be found at Fill The Cookie Jar. Each month we bake a different theme for the cookie.
We bake, we share and we enjoy our cookies!

Irish Butter Shortbread Cookies (Adapted from: Rachel Gaffneys)

1 cup Irish Butter, unsalted ( I used European Butter)
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon, sugar
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 - 2 Tbsp heavy cream, if needed

Remove butter from refrigerator 15 minutes ahead of time to soften. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.

Cream butter and sugar, with paddle attachment of stand mixer. Turn mixer speed to low, and slowly add flour.  Mix until dough forms a ball. Add cream, one tablespoon at a time, if needed to get dough to pull together.

On floured surface, roll dough out to 1/4" thickness, and cut with cookie cutter. Place on lined cookie sheets.  Bake until just turning golden, about 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven, and transfer to cooling rack. Cool completely.

Enjoy as is, or decorate as desired.

Sharing this at:

Weekend Potluck



Sunday, March 1, 2015

New Adventure in Truckin'

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Truckin' Man has a new adventure in his trucking. He is no longer self employed! Lots of changes in this move, but most importantly he is still driving a Peterbilt!

With the type of hauling he does, he doesn't work much in the winter. That has meant I have not been online as much and having quite as much time for the blog and social media's. Don't worry though, I will pick up the pace here once he goes back to work.


One of the things he loves most about his new adventure, is that when he gets to his destination, he does not have to sit for HOURS upon HOURS waiting for places to decide they have time to unload his trailer. Now when he gets to his location, he loads and unloads his trailer himself! Sometimes there are other guys there for other loads, but they all work as a team and help each other. So, when he is working, he is home more!



Just look at what he is hauling! You know he is lovin' this!

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