Sunday Food and Pets Post - Lots of Baking!

Hello my Friends! :)

How did you spend your weekend? I spent mine doing a lot of baking. I finally found my toasting bread! It's a yummy Egg Bread that's just a little sweet - made with honey. It's very good toasted with butter!

This is not a dough that will fit into a loaf pan. I actually braided it and baked it on a baking sheet. Half of the loaf is in the freezer until I can finish the first half!

These Lemon Squares are very good. These are just too easy to eat, we finish them up in a day or two so I only make them occasionally now!

Too much lemon sometimes upsets my digestion, so I made a backup dessert: Crispy Oatmeal Cookies. They have some cinnamon and nutmeg mixed into the dough which makes for the perfect Autumn cookie!

For dinner the other night, I tried a new recipe, a savoury Vegetable Cheesecake. It's more like a quiche than what most people know as a cheesecake. It's really good and very filling. If you have zucchinis to use up, this recipe calls for four of them!

Produce is so cheap this time of year so I took advantage and got lots of it! These are very healthy and very delicious Mushroom Burgers, served with fries.

This is a new one for us, Buffalo Cauliflower Fajitas. 

Alex loves the hot spiciness of this meal and he drizzled Blue Cheese dressing on top. 

I can't handle spicy, so I made mine without all the spices. I did use my homemade Salsa and Sour Cream though and it was pretty good. You really need a lot of fresh cilantro to make my version tasty. I'd say that Alex's version was much better.

For dinner tonight I have a Tortilla Soup planned. Tomorrow is the Fall Equinox, do you have anything special planned? I'll be making another soup, this time it'll be a nice mix of Apple and Butternut Squash. I'll post the recipes next Sunday!

Window tomatoes: I had to pick my tomatoes because the nighttime temperatures are hitting the freezing mark now in the mountains. They are mostly green and I'm hoping they ripen up by the window. I used the "Panorama" setting on my phone's camera to get this shot.

Some of the tomatoes were nice and red, I'll be using those up this week.

In total I harvested 74 cherry tomatoes and 68 regular tomatoes (all mostly green). Not too bad I guess, but my secret dream is to be able to harvest over 100 pounds of large red tomatoes!

Cheese news!!! CHECK OUT MY RACLETTE CHEESE!!!! Isn't it gorgeous?? I posted a cheese update yesterday on Rainy Day Cheese Making and honestly from yesterday to today...it got even MORE orange. That's the rind forming! Great progress! It stinks to high heaven too so I know it's going to be delicious! It'll be ready in December - just in time for a Christmas Raclette dinner! :)))))

The Lazy Pet Files: I opened my cupboard to put some clothes away and found Baby Oscar all squished up on a blanket on the shelf. I don't know how or when he got in there but he wasn't in any hurry to get out!

Every morning after the cats finish eating, I put their dishes on the floor so the dogs can lick them clean. Lazy Marlene doesn't bother to get up anymore, she just stretches over to lick the bowls. Can you believe this???

If Leo could live on this cat shelf on the porch, he would. He hangs off it asleep...I don't know how they balance themselves!

As I watch television in bed, Jack often stares at me. Is he sad? Suspicious? Pining? I'll tell you what, I was eating a cookie and he gave me his best "I'm a poor neglected hound dog" face!

See you on Thursday for Rain's Art Date! Our theme is Mechanical, will you join in? :)

Thursday Art Date: Texture

Hello Friends :)

Welcome to Thursday's Art Date, today our theme is Texture. I wasn't sure how to add texture to Bugs Bunny at first, then I figured I'd just make him hairier!  What did you come up with for this theme?

I haven't done an abstract painting in a while, so I decided to try to do one that showcased texture. I started off with drops of acrylic paint and my palette knife.

And it somehow turned into this! I sprinkled on some salt while the paint was wet.

As the salt and paint dried up, it left some really nice texture on the painting. This was fun to do! And so was my next project!!

I love doing paper maché and I decided to do my skeleton hands for this theme as well. Here's how I did it:

I had some bamboo sticks that I cut the size of my fingers. I marked out where the knuckles should be and carefully bent the sticks at those points - being careful not to break them off totally; I then wrapped tape around the knuckles. I took some spare yarn and wrapped the fingers, making sure to add extra yarn around the knuckles so the'd stand out more.

For the wrist bones, I wrapped a few bamboo sticks in parchment paper and cut each one in half so I'd have four bones. I used a glue gun to glue the fingers and thumbs together.

The next step was gluing the hands to the wrists and putting large pieces of masking tape around the "fleshy" part of the hands.

Paper maché was the next step. I put these in a sunny window so they dried within 24 hours. 

The last step was to paint them. I used black and grey, then a wash of brown and water to create the look of decaying hands. I'm having fun with them!

This is only one of many paper maché projects I have in mind for the next month or so!

A few foodie photos: I made some coleslaw on Sunday but didn't know what to serve with it. I had plenty of fresh veggies from the market so I made Open Faced Garden Veggie Sandwiches.

I'm really not a vegetable person, but these sandwiches are so delicious with a mix of eggplant, zucchini, tomato, onion and garlic!

And I wanted to show you my babies! I have NINE wheels of cheese aging right now! They are all smelling divine and changing colours as they age. I can't wait to try them! :)

See you on Sunday for my weekly food and pet post! 🐶🐶🐶🐱🐱🐱

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A drawing I made during last year's spring cleaning

September 26th: Next Thursday's theme is Mechanical. Click on the link for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! :)

Thursday Art Date With Rain. Click on the link for a description of the art date as well as a list of upcoming themes.

Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! Please don't include a link unless you participate in the art date!

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Sunday Food and Pets Post

Hi Everyone :)

I hope you're all winding up your weekend in a relaxed state! What have you been up to? For me, it's been all about food and pets! I finished Jack's new sweater for the fall. I knit a new one for him every year. Doesn't he look smart? :)

Walking in the woods with the dogs is great in the fall. The air is crisp and there are no bugs!

Baby Oscar likes to nuzzle under the blankets and watch movies on my laptop!

I took out my Canon camera on Friday and got some great photos of the Full Harvest Moon.

I'm really enjoying quiches these days! This one is an Asparagus and Cheddar Quiche. We ate the entire thing in one sitting.

For pizza night, I made a Barbecue Pizza. I've always wanted to try a cheese-stuffed crust pizza so I filled the edges of the dough with Mozzarella. 

As you can see (or not) the cheese kind of disappears in the crust, we couldn't even taste it! It was such a fad in the 1990's, I thought maybe it might be as awesome as the Pizza Hut commercials had me believe back in the day - nope! First and last time - mustn't waste cheese now! :)

The second pizza was on my usual Thin Crust Pizza Dough - a Three-Cheese Pizza with Goat Cheese and Tomato Sauce (so technically it has FOUR cheeses in it!) VERY good!!

Here is something really good!! Spicy Tia Maria Kisses. Wow...and honestly they don't even need the chocolate kisses. They are so delicious!!

Last night I made a Chinese Fondue, or Hot Pot. As many of you know, Alex and I celebrate every 14th of the month. Our anniversary is actually March 14th, but we always have a fondue night on the 14th of each month to celebrate a new milestone. Usually it's a cheese fondue, but one of my fondue cheeses will be ready in about a week so we'll have our cheese fondue then (if the cheese turns out good!!!) - fingers crossed!!!

I'm going to make some kind of sandwich for dinner...not sure what yet; but I made some Coleslaw with Old Bay Seasoning as a side dish. 

I made it with my Homemade Mayonnaise.

I have a nice no knead bread recipe that I make all of the time - but I've been on the lookout for a good Plain White Bread that I can use for toasting. This one is just okay, but it toasts very well, so I thought I'd share it!

That's my food and pet post for today! :) Alex is getting creative with the bouquets of flowers he's picking for me! He wrapped one of the last wildflowers from the garden with fallen leaves from our maple tree. Autumn is definitely here! See you Thursday for Rain's Art Date!! :)