Flower Art Friday - 08/31/2012

Blanket flower (Gaillardia grandiflora). Picture taken beside the interstate where these lovely flowers have been planted. :) Edited with Pixlr Express.

Linking up with Flower Art Friday, Floral Friday Fotos, Orange You Glad It's Friday and Mandarin Orange Monday.

Cowboy Cookies

Howdy ya'll! This here is a cookie that will satisfy them hardworkin' cowboys in your life. Why shoot, even the little buckaroos and buckarettes down to the Farmers' Market have told me, "Miss Candy, them are some mighty tasty cookies!" Just so's ya' know, these ain't no chicken-livered girly cookies. Nope, they're chock full of oats, raisins, chocolate chips and walnuts. They'll make ya' sit up and say "Yee-Haw!" Why, you could even grab one or two on the way out the door to see you through them early mornin' chores. I know my cowboy can go through several before the sun has even come up! ;-)

Okay, let's git down to bakin'!

Cowboy Cookies               **Click here to print this recipe**

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups Baking Mix
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups uncooked quick or old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup golden raisins or regular
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs; mix well. Add Baking Mix, cocoa and oats; mix well. Stir in chocolate chips, raisins and walnuts.
Drop dough by tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. I flatten the dough a bit as it doesn't spread very much.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until bottoms are lightly golden brown. Cool on pan for 2 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

I haven't done an "ingredient" picture in awhile but I wanted to show off the new mixing bowl that I picked up at a thrift store in Willcox a couple of weeks ago. It is marked Robinson Ransbottom and probably isn't particulary old, the company was in business until 2005, but I have always wanted a heavy crockery mixing bowl and the price was pretty good! :)

Linking up with The Country Homemaker Hop, Rural Thursday, Farm Fresh Friday and Farmgirl Friday.

Barn Charm - 08/28/2012

We don't have a whole lot of barns around these parts and the ones we do have, I don't usually consider charming. This one was probably pretty charming back in the day but now, it's pretty much just waiting to fall down. It is located right next to a new freeway interchange.

Most of the wooden barns in this part of the country have been replaced by metal ones due to a really, really bad problem with termites!

All of these pictures have been edited with Pixlr-o-matic.
Linking up with Barn Charm and Tones On Tuesday.

Sunday Photo - Melon

I had two of my Athena Cantaloupe plants grow to maturity and I ended up with exactly two beautiful cantaloupes. At least they are both nice and big, with firm flesh and really great flavor! :)
Linking up with the new Orange You Glad It's Friday, Straight Out Of the Camera Sunday, Mandarin Orange Monday and The Country Garden Showcase.

Flower Art Friday - 08/24/2012

This is the last gladiolus from the garden with some caryopteris and catnip thrown in. I love the combination of yellow and purple flowers.

Edited in Pixlr using Vintage Craquelure, a free texture from Bonnie at Pixel Dust Photo Art. (Layer Multiply 75%, duplicate layer Overlay 51%, flatten image, lighten image, add border, add watermark.) Jeez, I hope that makes sense! LOL!!
I want to thank everyone who puts that kind of info on their photo art, it is really helping me start to figure out how to do some of this stuff! :)

Linking with Flower Art Friday, Floral Friday Fotos, Weekly Top Shot and Your Sunday Best.

When Life Gives You Pumpkins...

...make Pumpkin Scones!! I sure hope ya'll aren't sick of scone recipes yet because here is another one! :)

I have been gifted several pie pumpkins in the past week or so and after cooking and pureeing the pumpkin, I decided to see how it would do in some scones. The pumpkin puree, an egg and some molasses were the only wet ingredients I used and I added some dried cranberries and vanilla chips. I also used my homemade pumpkin pie spice, you can find the recipe at the end of this post. (That reminds me, I need to make that Applesauce Molasses cake sometime soon!)

Pumpkin Scones

2 1/3 cups Baking Mix
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
6 tablespoons cold butter
3/4 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup vanilla chips
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
1 tablespoon molasses
Turbinado sugar for the tops

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a medium bowl, stir together Baking Mix, sugar and pumpkin pie spice. Cut in butter until it resembles small peas; stir in dried cranberries and vanilla chips. Make a well in the center. In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin puree, egg and molasses; mix well. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry and mix lightly until incorporated. Do not overmix.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently for 4 or 5 turns. Roll or pat dough into a circle 7 inches in diameter. Cut into 6 or 8 wedges and place on a baking sheet. Make sure to leave enough room between the scones as they will rise a bit and spread out. Brush the top of each scone with a little heavy cream or milk and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
Bake at 375 degrees for 18 to 22 minutes until golden brown.

I had some of these for sale at last week's Farmers' Market and they went fast, guess it's getting to be pumpkin season, my favorite time of year!

Linking up with The Country Homemaker Hop, Rural Thursday, Farmgirl Friday and Farm Fresh Friday. Thanks ladies for hosting these wonderfully fun blog parties! :)

Railroad Bridge

Union Pacific Railroad bridge spanning the San Pedro River in Benson, AZ. Edited with Pixlr Express.
Linking up with Tones On Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday and Black And White Wednesday.