Saturday, February 26, 2011

Blog Surfing

Recipes from other blogs that caught my eye this week:

From For the Love of Cooking: Parmesan Roasted Garlic and Basil Breadsticks

From The Sisters Cafe: Root Beer Float Cookies

From Tried and True Cooking with Heidi: Island ChickenChocolate Brownie for One


From Mennonite Girls Can Cook: Chicken StewShepherds Pie

From Recipe Shoebox: Thai Chicken Pizza


From My Kitchen Cafe: Mexican LasagnaChicken Pot Pie Crumble

From Real Mom Kitchen: Cream of Tomato Soup



From Taste of Home: Raisin Oatmeal Mix

From Une-deux sense: Magic Coffee

Friday, February 25, 2011

Orange Cardamom Streusel Coffee Cake

Over the holidays, I was hoping to bake something, anything really, with cardamom as the main spice. It is a fairly subtle flavor, but it is a really great flavor. I searched on and off for a couple days, looking for just the right recipe with cardamom that used the ingredients that I had on hand. I didn't end up baking this at the holidays but I did bake this during the first week that we moved into our new house.



I ended up using a basic recipe as my base, and added a few extra touches. It had the great cardamom flavor that I was looking for and I thought it turned out very good. The addition of the grated orange peel seemed to enhance the cardamom flavor. Everyone that tried it really liked it too! I had forgotten about it until I was going through my pictures from this new year. It is worth passing on.

A view of the inside

                                  

Orange Cardamom Streusel Coffee Cake

         

Coffee cake, cardamom, orange, pecan

         

        See Orange Cardamom Streusel Coffee Cake on Key Ingredient.     

    


Enjoy!

Thanks to Lisa at Sweet As Sugar Cookies for the invitation to be part of "Sweets for a Saturday."




Thursday, February 24, 2011

Barely Twelve Hours of Snow

Day 1 of our "Snow-magedon" lasted about 12 hours!

10 am
10 am - 30 degrees
The neighbors don't seem to mind
The view from upstairs

A view from the front of the house


Two hours later...

A balmy 36 degrees 
A little snow left in a neighbors yard and the roads are dry
 One of the perks of living in the Pacific Northwest!

Not Quite "Snow-magedon"

7:45 am - Blue sky and snowing lightly
Not quite the snow-magedon that was predicted, so far anyway!

It Actually Snowed

6am
7am

 


Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The Woods Come Alive!

I am fortunate to have a wonderful collection of "neighbors" that come out of the woods every day!














 



Another day with our "neighbors."

Monday, February 21, 2011

Happy Birthday Alan

It is hard to believe that you joined your dad and me 36 years ago and made us a family! We love you so much and are so happy that you are our son!

Follow the link to some Alan history!

My dad and Alan

And, a very Happy Birthday to my Dad, our sister-in-law Molly, our nephew Grant, and our dog Buddy, who is 3-years old today!