Kitchen Fails Turned Into Hits in the Pumpkin Patch!

 

One of our pumpkin displays inspired by the cover of Harris Seeds catalogue!
Cute model not for sale! 

Daughter Beth takes her inspiration from all kinds of things, and cool garage sale finds! Now back to our regularly scheduled story!

I cannot be interrupted while baking for the pumpkin patch, it seems.

I've messed up a couple of standard recipes when folks interrupt me, then I come back wondering did I put all six cups of flour into the cookies or only three?

That leads to chaos... and some goofy cookies! 

But sometimes it creates opportunities!

The latest mess up was a combination of errors where it started with no mistake...

But I thought I made a mistake! So that was enough for me to then outsmart myself, make the first half of the recipe in Mixer #2, and then blend it with recipe in Mixer #1 and then.... 

Baked the first trays.... 

Only to realize I'd messed up.

Christina repurposing a former chicken coop that's now a firewood crib for customers!

So I adjusted and did sample trays, but by the time I got the ratio back to where it needed to be, I had six trays of these thin, crispy chocolate chip cookies that TASTED GREAT!!!!! But they weren't our norm, so I couldn't just sell them as our norm.... so I cut them into pieces and fed the masses and they loved 'em! So that was a good outcome, right???

Then my new baking partner Jon (let me say in Jon's defense, this kitchen is crazy on fall weekends, because there's always food being made for workers and baking and approximately 7 children under age 11 running here and there).... messed up a peanut butter cookie recipe that is now going into the file as a total and saleable success.

He halved the butter by thinking it said two sticks, not two cups.

Oops! 

Unloading pumpkins from the trusty pickup truck with workers of all ages!

But they were so good that I melted chocolate frosting, dipped the cookie tops twice, cooled them and sold them and people loved them! 

And I probably don't have pics because it's so busy then that I'm never thinking of pictures. Silly me!!!

I'm actually making those cookies again today to prepare for our upcoming busy, busy, busy weekend.

At least we think it will be busy. Beautiful weather and pumpkins and cookies are an amazing thing!

A fun weekend afternoon! 

My fifth graders that visit me 3 days/week... We've got this! 

I am not above tackling folks for photos because this mom had THE LOOK! Great pants, the saddle bag purse, the hat, and the wrap-around sweater. :) And yes, she knows I'm posting it! 

My 5th graders and donkeys!!! 

We're gearing up for another busy weekend this week... gorgeous weather predicted and we've got pumpkins and squash to sell... and other fun things, too! We are so blessed with the joy this venture brings to people. The chance to be outside, in a big, open environment, masks or no masks (their choice) and good friends gathering to make all of this happen.

Our volunteer crew on the weekend is amazing and we couldn't make this happen without them. They are the backbone of this business... well, them and Farmer Dave! 

And right now, in the thick of this, we see these blessings and the joy this brings to so many, and we are already talking about how we can expand for next year. But first... we're going to enjoy the work of so many hands this year!

Every fall, multi-published, bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne dons her farm and baking hat and works on her Western New York pumpkin farm doing jams and cookies and schmoozing customers because she loves schmoozing people while writing books in the middle of the night... She'd love to hear from you! Email Ruthy at loganherne@gmail.com, visit her website ruthloganherne.com and friend Ruthy on Facebook! 

4th of July Celebration!

Well, I was TRYING to make red/white/blue muffins.

So I got a cake-like muffin recipe....

Added triple berry mix to the recipe.

Muffins did not come out white with red and blue berries.

Muffins came out tan with no curve on top, too heavy and dense, and not one bit patriotic.

And I tried making a cinnamon coffee cake with the remaining batter.... swirled with cinnamon and topped with streusel!

YUM!

Nope.

Nope.

Nope.

The cake was dry and nasty and the topping sunk into the center as the outside rose to mountainous heights that could have been helpful in the muffins!

But to each life some kitchen fails must come, and that was my current one... so back to chocolate chip cookies for the WIN in our house and everyone will love, love, love me!

And doesn't that just feel so wonderful?

:)

But despite my failed attempt at a patriotically-themed muffin, I am still here to wish youse all a wonderful and Happy 4th of July!

God bless you, one and all!

Multi-published author Ruthy Logan Herne is not afraid to share her kitchen fails and her goofiness on a fairly regular basis because sharing is caring, right? :) Chat with Ruthy here or on facebook, follow her on Twitter and visit her website ruthloganherne.com. She loves getting to know new people!

Kitchen Fail Saved!

The count down is on!

In a little over six weeks (46 days, to be exact) we're closing on the sale of our current house...

...and in a little over ten weeks, we're closing on the purchase of our new home with this fabulous view!

Yes, I realize there's a four week gap there. I'll talk about how we end up dealing with that in future posts.

Right now I'm more concerned with packing and sorting, using and storing, and that brings me to my kitchen fail.

We had a funeral at our church last week, and I volunteered to be one of several people to take a dessert to serve with the catered lunch. Great! I had chocolate in my pantry left over from Christmas baking, so I made plans to use it up. I knew just the recipe!

Oh. Wait. I packed up that cookbook already.

No worries! We have the Yankee Belle Cafe! I knew one of us had shared this recipe at some time, and sure enough. It was one of Ruthy's.

Here's the link to Ruthy's post - a favorite at our house: Ruthy's Scotcheroos

I checked the ingredients, bought a couple things I didn't have in my pantry, and got ready for an early Saturday morning Scotcheroo session.

Everything was great until I was ready to melt the chocolate. Keep in mind that this is the last part of the recipe, so my time was beginning to get a little tight. I usually melt my chocolate in the microwave and it works every time.

Usually.

Not this time. This time the chocolate seized up on me. Think of one big, hard chocolate chip with bits of butterscotch chips mixed in. The more I tried to melt it, the harder it got.

So I went to the internet to do some research. It seems that chocolate will seize up if it comes into contact with a bit of water during the melting. So steam might be the culprit if you're using a double-boiler. But in the microwave?

Maybe my problem was that I mixed different kinds of chocolate as I was trying to use up my pantry stash. Maybe it was the butter that Ruthy adds to hers - did I add it at the wrong time? Maybe it was because I tried to double the recipe.

In the long run it didn't matter, because my chocolate was the consistency of mortar and hardening quickly.

And the clock was ticking.

The cure, one website said, was to add more water, then whisk away.

It sounded crazy to me, but I tried it.

I was pretty dubious. I divided my chocolate mess in half, and added 1/4 cup hot water to about 3 cups of chocolate and butterscotch chips. Then I whisked it together.

Wow! It was like magic!

Before long, the chocolate was the perfect consistency for the recipe. I finished up, made it to the funeral on time, and everyone appreciated the cookies.

Whew!

So the morals to the story: Don't try to make cookies at the last minute, and you CAN trust SOME of the things you read on the internet.

Have you ever used the internet to help fix a kitchen fail?

Jan Drexler spent her childhood dreaming of living in the Wild West and is now thrilled to call the Black Hills of South Dakota her home. When she isn’t writing she spends much of her time satisfying her cross-stitch addiction or hiking and enjoying the Black Hills with her husband of more than thirty-six years.

Bread Pudding Fail!!!!

I ruined bread pudding.

I thought I was so smart.

So cool.

So doggone amazing.

I used leftover donuts/doughnuts (spelling your choice) and added some apple pie filling to make apple cinnamon bread pudding...

SOGGY MESS.

Sigh. Big sigh.... Great taste, awful pasty consistency.

I am particular about my bread pudding. I like it firm.... I like it in a strong egg custard base, not too milky because I don't want it soggy, so when I got home tonight and had some:

#sadness
#sorrow
#longing

Yep. All of the above. And I should have known because donuts are cake and cake gets soggy in milk but I didn't think of that.... I just thought of using up those stale donuts and making folks happy.

Well... I used 'em up, all right! :)

I'll be making it again, with just stale bread and my standby recipe and no apples. I've got nowhere to go but up right now!!!!

In other news on the SUCCESS bandwagon, "At Home in Wishing Bridge" released today! And yes, if you click on that link, you go straight to my friends at Amazon and you can buy it!! :)

Amazon/Waterfall Press sent me this gorgeous framed print of my cover... for my office wall. Isn't that a cool thing to do?

Oh, happy day!

I'm so excited to have this story out and I hope folks love it the way the loved "Welcome to Wishing Bridge" last November.

And we have sold a lot of mums. Like a LOT.... and two days of rain Monday and Tuesday allowed me time to do a few things in the house and writing. Another big weekend coming up, Columbus Day weekend with an extra day off Friday for Superintendent's conference day so I'm expecting a busy four days.... So I'm making jams now and I'll start baking on Thursday for the weekend. Here are some farm pics from two weeks ago...

 Happy customers on a cool day, note the jackets!

 Stacking pumpkins everywhere you look!!!

 Mums on rustic pallets.... So many pretty colors!

Farmer Dave tying half-bales of hay for customers. A lot of folks don't want to use a big bale, so we cut them in half... and tie them half bales! And then they fit in the big refuse bags so we don't mess up their cars!

 Mandy straightening things up in the mums... as people buy display pieces we re-create them if they're stacks of pumpkins.... or we refill them if they're just fun things!

 Bakery and jam and fundraiser for Kenzie's gymnastics for 2019...

She's selling cups of cider for $1.00

Normally she's in that chair.... but not at this moment!

Paul and Matt (oldest Blodgett son) tying cornstalks... this is a big job every year because folks buy a lot of cornstalks!!!!

Only a few more weeks of crazy farm fun and then the relative peace of short days, very long nights and ol' man winter will slip into our neck of the woods.... and more writing time.

I am totally psyched about more writing time!!!!

Although it's easier to maintain weight when you're working outside for hours every day. Hmm....

But we'll face that dilemma next month!

That's it from the farm where I am the Writer in Residence.

Well, that's because I live here, LOL!

Multi-published author Ruth Logan Herne is literally living her dream of being a published author and a really cool Grammy to a whole lot of cute kids. Author of nearly 50 books, Ruthy lives on a pumpkin farm in Western New York and she loves having hundreds and hundreds of people come to the farm on brilliant fall weekends! Find her on the internet at ruthloganherne.com or friend her on facebook (she loves talking!) or follow her on Twitter @RuthLoganHerne

Burned Cheese, Rubber Chicken, and Other Kitchen Failures

by Missy Tippens

<Big, huge sigh.>

It's been a kitchen fail type week for me. I have nothing impressive to share today.

First, I burned cheese toast at breakfast the other day.

But doggone it, I really wanted that toast. That was the last of the cheese!

So... I carefully dug through and discarded the scorched part...

Ta-da! There was good cheese underneath the burned "skin!" I had salvaged breakfast (much to my family's chagrin when I shared the photos with them). Some comments from them that I read AFTER eating my rescued cheese toast:

Oldest Son: Yummy cancer.
Husband: I would have advocated starting over.
Daughter: LOL Woowww
Middle Child (sent no reply. He probably just shook his head.)

So I figured I was done with kitchen failures for the week. Then I quickly proved that assumption wrong.

I made my favorite chicken recipe the other night (here's the recipe). And for some odd reason, it was as tough as nails!! I mean I could hardly cut it with a steak knife. Do y'all think certain brands of chicken are tougher??? I really wish I knew what to look for and what to buy (instead of just buying what's on sale).

Then yesterday, I decided to force myself to eat that chicken leftover for lunch (because I knew my husband sure wouldn't try eating it again!). I thought I'd steam some sugar snap peas to add a veggie.

I put the bag of fresh peas into a deep skillet, add a bit of water, covered the pan, and put it on high to steam. All fine.

But then I walked away and forgot it!! Thankfully, I heard it and remembered. But when I walked into the kitchen, I could smell the scorch smell.

Ugh. Another dish ruined??? I snatched it off the burner, then grabbed some tongs. Only the bottom layer was mildly scorched! I could salvage something healthy to go with my rubber chicken! haha

I gingerly lifted off the top layer and enjoyed them with my lunch as my teeth and jaws got a workout chewing the chicken.

I have a feeling next week will turn out better. It has to! :)

MORAL OF THE STORY: ALWAYS USE A TIMER!


www.missytippens.com

Cherry chip cake disaster!

Hello, everybody! We made the most DELICIOUS cherry chip cake for my husband's birthday. Unfortunately... it didn't want to come out of the pan! WHY OH WHY didn't I use Ruthy's recipe?? But I have pictures so you can laugh along with us. Since it's probably user error and not really not the recipe's fault, so I'll share it, too.
But first, some of our recent happenings!

 We have a new project. We've done trunk refurbishes before and it's a BIG project. This is a steamer that my grandparents used in the early 1900's and we've had it for quite a while. But now is the time! Stay tuned for updates...

 So, my kids raised a ton of money for the Cub Scout pack and this was one of the rewards, hitting the den leader with a pie. I rolled my eyes when I heard, but apparently to an 8 year old boy, it's the greatest thing EVER.

 They were all good sports about it...
                                                      
Also one of the prizes they won- a walkie talkie set. This was very useful for when we delivered all those bags of coffee.They would run up to the door, and then they'd stop at the curb until I sad, "RETURN TO THE MOTHER SHIP".

 We just turned the last of our Easter eggs into deviled eggs and I hated to say goodbye. Our hens lay beautiful brown eggs and they turned out looking like dragon eggs!

 Also... baseball season is here. Goodness. I'm not a sports person but seeing these kids in their teeny uniforms... like goats in pajamas. SO CUTE.
                                                       
Of course, all this running around is in between viruses. We're STILL fighting different bugs. This time it was the stomach flu. Yuck.

 Cherry trees are blossoming!! Pray for good weather and no hail. A few years ago we lost most of the cherry crop in the area. It was horrible.

 Those clouds better bring rain (good) but not hail (bad).

 SO. That brings us to this delightful creation!!

 Here is my husband accepting his fabulous cake. With a smile, no less!!

It was absolutely delicious, so I'm posting the recipe. Just make sure to let it cool before removing from the pans. I wasn't in the kitchen at the time and my younger kids didn't know that step. Now they do.

1 10 ounce  jar maraschino cherries
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 large egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tspt salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons maraschino cherry juice


I also added about three drops red food coloring. Maybe that was my mistake?? LOL. Anyway, cream the butter, sugar, egg whites, vanilla and almond together. Mix the dry ingredients. Add, in alternating batches, the buttermilk and dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Add in the chopped cherries. 

Pour into greased cake pans and place in a preheated (350) for 35 minutes or so. GOOD LUCK. :D

All in all, it was delicious. We used a buttercream icing but you can also use a cream cheese frosting if you prefer. 

That's all for now! Be sure to stop by my authors pages at Virginia Carmichael or Mary Jane Hathaway for book news. 

All the Blue of Heaven was free last week....

And on the 27th, Purple Like the West will be on sale for .99! All to prepare for a new historical release on May 15th! 

Until next time!

Another Kitchen Fail

Missy Tippens

It's March, which means Speedbo month at the Seekerville blog (our home blog). Plus, this month I've had my normal family commitments multiplied by about a thousand. So not much time for cooking new recipes. Rather than share the same things I've shared in the past, I thought you might enjoy laughing at me for another kitchen fail.

So maybe this doesn't look so disastrous on the surface. But I messed up twice.

First, I forgot to rinse the beautiful scallops I had bought. ALWAYS RINSE SCALLOPS BEFORE COOKING.

You know why? Because they can have grit in them. Yes, you guessed it. Our scallops that night would sometimes crunch.

Yuk.

And if you look closely at those carrots, you'll see I roasted them way too long. I was in a hurry so cut them small so they'd cook quickly. Then I proceeded to cook them for the regular length of time!

You know how beef jerky feels when you eat it???

These were carrot jerky. Oh my goodness, they were awful to eat. I told my husband they reminded me of dried apricots, too. I could barely chew them.

So, the moral of this story is that even when you're in a hurry to throw together dinner, make sure you slow down long enough to do it carefully.

Yesterday, my son came for lunch. He's on spring break, and we had been dog sitting for them while he and his wife took a day trip. So he came to pick up the fur babies, and I cooked for him. This time I made sure to cut the carrots just the right size so they would roast nicely. And they were wonderful! :)

And so I can leave you with a beautiful photo of food, this is the dish my husband ordered at a new Thai restaurant we love, Fresh Bowl Thai Cuisine. Now, that's how vegetables should look. :)

www..missytippens.com

Even the Best Recipes Fail Sometimes...

Jan here, hanging my head in shame. This perfect recipe was a failure, and it was all my fault.

It all started last fall when my soon-to-be daughter-in-law...

Less than four weeks until the wedding!

...moved into the apartment the happy couple will be sharing after the wedding next month.

Around here, when someone moves it's all hands on deck! My dear friend, Vonda, wasn't able to help that day, but she made this to-die-for coffee cake for the workers.

It was fabulous, so (of course) I asked for the recipe. Would you believe she got it from the Pioneer Woman website? Of course she did. All of those recipes are fabulous. :)

(By the way, the link takes you to the Pioneer Woman's home page. I did that on purpose so you can browse if you've never been there before. If you want to go straight to the non-fail version of the Best Coffee Cake. Ever., follow this link: recipe)

So fast forward to last Wednesday. The day of errors.

First of all, the weather was bad and getting worse. Cold to the bone and getting colder, spits of snow, ice on the roads...and our Bible study group was supposed to meet at our home.

Which meant I got to bake a dessert! Woo-hoo! I had been waiting for an excuse to try this recipe!

So let's take a break from the sad story, and I'll give you the recipe:

The Best Coffee Cake. Ever. 
from the Pioneer Woman website, adjusted a bit by Jan

ingredients for the cake:
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups whole milk
3 egg whites, beaten until stiff

(Topping ingredients are below.)

So there's the cake. Easy, right?

I measured my dry ingredients into a mixing bowl (not the one that comes with your mixer.)

I separated my eggs. Sadly, this is a permanent separation. The egg yolks were added to the dog's food for a yummy, nutritious treat.

My butter was softened and waiting in my mixing bowl. I added the 2 cups of sugar and beat them together until they were fluffy.

Okay. So far so good.

Because this is a cake, the next step is to beat the flour mixture and the milk into the butter/sugar mixture, alternating about 1/3 of each and beating after each addition.

But I had forgotten to check the milk. The fridge was empty. It was gone.  Someone (Benjamin) had taken the last of it with him to work that morning.

So I figured I would substitute. After all, my pantry is well stocked, right?

It wasn't until later - much later - that I remembered that you should dilute evaporated milk according to the directions on the can. I put it in as-is.

Remember, as I'm making this I'm expecting company in a few hours, and I still have to vacuum the living room!

The next thing was to fold in the egg whites. But, alas, I hadn't beaten them to form stiff peaks yet! So the rest of the batter (with the baking powder doing what baking powder does) sat in the mixing bowl while I got out my trusty rotary beater and beat the egg whites.

You may read a magazine while you wait.

FINALLY, I was able to fold in those egg whites.

Except that I missed a little phrase in the Pioneer Woman's recipe: "The batter will seem a little stiff when you start folding, but before long the consistency will be just perfect." I stopped folding too soon.

Let's soldier on.

In the Pioneer Woman's recipe, she says you should bake this in a cake pan with high sides...or something like that. So I quickly got out my new 10.5"x15" baking dish and greased it up. I spread my too-stiff batter on the bottom and turned to the next step in the recipe.

The Topping

ingredients:
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 Tablespoons cinnamon
1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped

Sounds like heaven, right?

Except that during my Christmas baking spree(s), I happened to use up all of the brown sugar.

No problem, right? I know that I can substitute 1 cup of white sugar mixed with 1 Tablespoon molasses for the brown sugar.

Oh, and I had pecans in the pantry! (Not remembering that they were from Christmas 2015, not 2016.)

Sigh. Can I blame the coming storm? The dark wintry skies? The fact that my mind was on my next Work in Progress, trying to figure out a wrinkle in the plot line?

The topping looked good when I got it all mixed up.

I spread it on top of the cake batter and stuck it in the oven. 40-45 minutes @ 350°.

I vacuumed, dusted and decluttered for 45 minutes, then checked the cake. It smelled delicious! And the batter was no longer jiggly in the pan.

Out of the oven, it looked wonderful. It needed to cool for a while, so I went on with my preparations - a quick going-over of the bathroom was next.

Meanwhile, middle son Benjamin came home from work with the announcement: "It's really slick out there."

I looked out at the falling snow, and called an audible. I conferred with my husband (still putting in a full-day's work), and we decided to cancel our Bible study. I made the necessary phone calls, then went back to the cake.

I had told Benjamin he could try it.

It didn't look anything like Vonda's cake had looked back in October. And didn't look anything like the Pioneer Woman's cake.

And then there was the underlying odor of...what could that be? Oh. Rancid pecans. No wonder Benjamin scraped them off. :(

We had soup for supper, and I spent the evening cross-stitching. And trying to forget the coffee cake fail sitting on the kitchen counter.

But now that a few days have gone by, I think I know where I failed.

1) I didn't make sure I had all the ingredients ahead of time, because I knew I had them...but I was wrong.

2) I should have used a 9"x13" pan. That's the size Vonda had used, and I knew it would work.

3) I didn't use the evaporated milk correctly, which made the cake batter stiff. Way too stiff.

4) I should have tasted - or at least smelled - the pecans before adding them to the cake.

5) I was in too much of a hurry. I didn't read the recipe completely before starting it, and when I ran into the first snag, I didn't have time to regroup and do something else.

So please try this recipe - it really is wonderful - just don't do it the way I did!

Okay, time to 'fess up - what was your last recipe fail???

Jan Drexler loves her family, her home, cooking and just about anything made by hand. But she loves her Lord most of all.

Stop by Jan's website to learn more about her books: www.JanDrexler.com