I hate scumbags!

As you know I am a dog lover and I love all other animals too. What I heard on the news(local news) last night made me very angry. One or more of those lowlife scumbags broke into a local humane society and stole about $500 worth of cans and bottles that the society had collected and saved. They planned to use the money for pet food, vaccines or medications for the animals but now it's all gone! It's bad enough that those helpless animals have no home because their previous irresponsible owners don't want them anymore, and now this happened to them.
You can read all about this here: http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/shear_1260438___article.html/society_buys.html

Hubby and I are planning to buy a few bags of dog food and drop them off on Saturday. That's the least we can do.

New Garden Area

This year I will be adding a new garden section for corn, potatoes and horseradish. The best place for this new section is shown in the pictures below(in pink). I haven't quite decide how big it should be yet. I know it has to be big enough for 4 rows of corn and another 3'x5' area for potatoes. I can't make it too big as the dogs would probably protest that they are losing their space.

This is June protesting that I'm taking up their space for a new garden. :-)

I like to research and learn more about different vegetable varieties out there and of course pick the ones that are best for my gardening zone (I'm in Zone 5). I found this site, by Cornell University, in which you can search and read reviews of over 5000 vegetable varieties! If you sign up(and it's free), you could create your profile and then search the varieties according to your zone. If you are not sure which zone you are at, there is a map that you can refer to. You could also write reviews on the varieties that you have planted. Please click on the picture on the right to go to the site. I will also put a little search widget here on my blog. Thank you Craig for providing me with the code.

Rugelach

Doing the "Brought to you by the letter..." meme last week had inspired me to make some rugelach over the weekend. These little Jewish pastries are so flacky and delicious, you can't eat just one! I am serious! The first dozen was gone in less than 15 minutes after it came out of the oven! We managed to control ourselves and saved the second dozen for the next day.

This is a very simple and easy to make recipe (the recipe looks long but it's not complicated at all). The unbaked dough freezes very well. Just make them and freeze individually. When you crave for some, just pop them in the oven and add about 5-10 minutes to the baking time and you got yourself a treat!

There are many varieties for the fillings, pretty much it's whatever you prefer. I personally love the cinnamon sugar filling and raspberry jam filling. I have seen chocolate & walnut filling but have not tried it yet. Some people prefer apricot jam with raisins.

Rugelach
This recipe makes 4 dozens. Feel free to make only the portion you want and freeze the rest of the dough. Or make all of it but bake only what you want and freeze the rest of the unbaked rugelach individually.

Ingredients:
Dough
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I was out of vanilla extract so I used 1/4 tsp orange extract, it gave the dough a nice hint of citrus)
2 cups AP flour
a pinch of salt (optional)



Filling - Cinnamon Sugar
4 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon



Filling - Raspberry Jam
Raspberry Jam, stirred to loosen it a bit (I didn't measure how much jam, I just scooped it out of the jar and spread on the dough, so I guess you will have to kinda "eye-ball" it)
A handful of chopped nuts (optional)



Topping **Note: You could do this step or you could do what I did: just roll the rugelach in the cinnamon sugar mixture before placing them on the baking sheet
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon



Instructions:
1) In a mixing bowl, cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy(you could use an electric mixer or food processor).
2) Beat in sugar and vanilla extract. Scraping sides of bowl occationally. On low speed, beat in flour and salt until incorporated.
3) Scrape the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap/parchment paper and press it together to form a ball. Divide the dough into 4 portions and wrap each portion with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
4) For filling, combine the sugar and cinnamon and set aside. Line baking sheet(s) with parchment paper.
5) Remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow to sit on the counter for about 15 minutes or until it's malleable to roll.
6) For easy rolling of dough, place one sheet of plastic warp(10" - 12" wide) on the counter, lightly floured the wrap and then place 1 portion of the dough on the plastic warp. Place another sheet of plastic wrap on top of the dough and roll out the dough into a 9" circle (about 1/8" thick). Remove the top sheet, flip dough over and remove the bottom sheet of plastic wrap. Now you are ready for the filling.
7) Brush melted butter on the dough and sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar. For Raspberry filling, spread jam generously on dough, sprinkle with chopped nuts if you prefer. I sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on the jam, taste pretty good. Use a knife, cut the dough circle into 12 triangles or "pie pieces".
8) Start at the wide end, roll up the triangle. You could bend the ends to form a crescent shape. Place the rugelach, point underneath, about 2" apart on the prepared baking sheet. Refrigerate, covered with plactic wrap, for at least 20 minutes. The dough is chilled to maintain the most even shape.
9) While you wait, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. If you are making more than a dozen, repeat steps 6-8.
10) For the topping, brush the rugelach with milk. Mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and sprinkle on the rugelach.
11) Bake for 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned. For even baking, rotate the baking sheets halfway through the baking time.
12) Remove from oven. Using a spatula, transfer rugelach to wire racks and cool completely(that is if you can wait that long). Enjoy!

Consider yourself warned: You can't eat just one!!!

Order Up

I placed my seeds orders yesterday. I've been planning what to plant this year. I wrote a list of what I want and went through the seeds that I still have from last year and finally decided on what I need to order. There are a few things I'm not trying again and there are a few new things for the garden, but more on that at a later post.

If you recall, last year was my first year starting my own seedlings and I really enjoyed it. Some of my seeds for last year came from my neighbor and some from Lowes & Tractor Supply store. This year however, I have decided to order them. Here are what I've ordered:

From Johnny 's Seeds: Cherokee Purple tomatoes and Purple Haze carrots...Yes, I have a thing for purple stuff, can't help it, purple is my favorite color!

From Pinetree Garden Seeds: Honey & Cream Corn, Cue Ball Zucchini, National Pickling Cucumber, Tomatoes (Opalka, Yellow Pear, Betterboy, Beefmaster & Black Cherry)

Where do you normally buy your seeds from? Is it the same place every year or do you like to order from different places each time?

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

Snow, snow and more snow...just some pictures of the girls playing in the snow and my snowy deck.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it...

I accept.

I've been tagged again by Warren. The actually game is called "Brought to you by the letter..."

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to post about 10 things you love that begin with your assigned letter. When people leave you a comment saying they would like to play, you will assign them with a letter and it goes on from there.

Warren had assigned me with the letter "R":

Retrievers - I love all retrievers especially Golden Retrievers. I'm sure you know by now that I have 2 wonderful and very goofy Golden Retrievers, Samantha & June. I love them very very much.

RazorFamilyFarms - My blogger friend, Lacy's blog. She blogs about simple living, country lifestyle, her husband and her children, her animals(golden retrievers Logan & Dustin, cat Remington, chicken, gunny bunny and so on), organic gardening, food, soap making....Her blog rocks like KISS!!!

Roti - Roti is an unleavened flat bread in these languages: Malay, Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali.....The one I grew up with is roti in the Malay language, which means bread in general. But here I am refering to Roti Canai (pronounced "chanai," not "kanai") , which is a type of flatbread found in Malaysia, often sold in Mamak stalls. You can read all about Roti Canai here.

Rascal Flatts - I normally listen to Rock n' Roll music but occasionally I would listen to country music. There are a few country artists whom I like and Rascal Flatts is one of them.

Rome - I would love to visit Rome or anywhere in Italy someday.

Rings - I don't wear many rings or jewelry. In fact the only jewelry I wear are my rings. I wear my engagement ring, wedding ring, 1 year anniversary wedding ring and another wedding ring we got in Aruba. We had a little wedding ceremony 3 years after we got married becuase my parents were in Aruba with us and they didn't get to attend our first ceremony.

Rugelach - I love this Jewish pastry. The butter/cream cheese dough is very flaky and melt in your mouth. The different fillings can include raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, chocolate or apricot preserves which are rolled up inside. I personally love cinnamon and also raspberry jam fillings.

Round - Round zucchinis, I think they are just so cute!

Recipes - I enjoy looking up recipes and I love trying out new recipes.

Ranch - Ranch dressing that is. This is my favorite salad dressing along with Blue Cheese and Parmesan Peppercorn dressing.

Mission Complete!

To my dear blogger friends:

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to leave me a comment saying you accept the mission and I will assign you with a letter.

Should you decide not to accept, you could still leave me a comment.

This tape will self destruct in 5 seconds.....

A Tag

I was tagged by Kim at Achorn Farm to do this, at the same time I saw some pictures at Warren's blog and according to him anyone who looked at those pictures and has a blog has to complete the same challenge.

I'm suppose to pick the 4th picture from my 4th picture folder, or something like that. I am picking the 4th picture from the 4th folder from each 2008, 2007, 2006 and 2005.

2005 - Our trip to Aruba. This was taken at one of the ruins 2006 - Samantha enjoying a spray of water from her daddy 2007 - Grace, my niece's 1st birthday

2008 - Our camping trip

And now, as to whom I should tag...

TAG, YOU'RE IT!!!

Eggshells

I don't know about you but I'm really looking forward to growing season this year. I know I have a few months to go yet but it's never too early to start planning. Last year was my first year growing plants from seeds and I am hooked!

This year I will be doing the same thing by starting most of my seeds indoor. I know those of you who has the priviledge of long summers will be starting sooner than those of us who are up north. So, here's a tip I would like to share with you. I learned this neat tip from watching an episode of P. Allen Smith Garden Home show.

Use eggshells as your seed starting pots. They are biodegradable and they add nutrients to the soil, specifically calcium. Calcium is an important part in plant growth, as calcium will help stop blossom-end rot. If you would like to learn about blossom-end rot, click here.

Gently wash and dry the eggshells. Pierce the bottoms of eggshells with an ice pick to make a drainage hole. Set the eggshells in the cartons and fill with potting soil. Now you are ready to sow your seeds. When the seedlings are ready to transplant, plant them(with the eggshells) directly in the garden. And there you have it!

Apple Spice Cake

Happy New Year everyone! Our new year's weekend was quiet and uneventful but that's fine with me, lots of R&R. Now you would think with my very uneventful holiday schedule, I would bake and bake and bake. I didn't. After baking Christmas cookies and cupcakes, I really haven't been baking any desserts until this passed weekend.

Our friend gave us a gift basket for Christmas and there were some apples in the basket hence this Apple Spice Cake(recipe from The Joy of Cooking cookbook). It's very moist and delicious . If you like your cake a little spicy, add another pinch of spices to the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped apples

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Dry Ingredients

1 1/2 cup flour

1 cup packed brown sugar (light or dark)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

I added a dash of ground ginger too

Wet Ingredients

1 cup buttermilk **Note: I didn't have any buttermilk, so I used 1/4 cup sour cream, mixed with apple cider to make 1 cup

1/2 cup oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons brandy(optional)

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8X8 cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. I only have a 9" round cake pan so I used that.

2) Peel, core and chop apples and mix that with chopped nuts.

3) Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Using your fingers, break up any brown sugar clumps into small pieces.

4) In a different medium bowl, mix all the wet ingredients together.

5) Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients bowl, stir and mix well. Stir in apples and nuts.

6) Pour into baking pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick insert in the middle of cake comes out clean. Mine took only 35min because of the bigger cakepan. Cool.

The cake is very delicious without any frosting or glaze. But if you would like, you could serve it with vanilla ice cream or some kind of glaze.

Enjoy!