Blueberry Oat Muffins

Today was the perfect day to try out this delicious looking blueberry muffin recipe in my new issue of Hobby Farm Home magazine. So this morning Gabriel helped me whip up a batch. They are super yummy... this is definitely going to be recipe used regularly around our house!

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup quick-cooking oats
2/3 cup sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups blueberries
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In large bowl, combine dry ingredients and stir well. Fold in blueberries. In small bowl, beat eggs, milk, oil & vanilla. Add liquid to dry ingredient and stir until thick. Bake in muffin tin for 20 minutes.

He even lined the muffin tin all by himself

Broken Computer: Update

We got our computer back from Apple yesterday... the hard drive was dead (just what we thought) and NO I didn't have it backed up. Most of the pictures from before Gabriel was born I had on disks. A lot of the pictures I took in the last two and a half years have been from my phone (all still saved on the phone thank goodness) but I have no pictures from Gabriel's birth or his first 8 months. I am just really glad we have lots of Grandmas that like to take lots of pictures of the kids cause I am going to need some. (I bet I have some on Facebook.) The only other thing I am bummed about are the 100+ episodes of Curious George we had on it! George is on iTunes so we can just save up our "Entertainment" budget and get them that way (or hope for iTunes gift cards for Christmas) and back them up!!!

What is this THING?

I found this at the local farm market (Adams Farm) and couldn't pass it up!







They had it labeled "Peanut Squash". After googling "peanut squash" all I could find were links to Delicata Squash (also called a peanut squash). So I did what any other googler would do... I googled "squash with peanut like wart" and found some people are calling them "Peanut Pumpkins". Come to find out it is called Galeux d'Eysines and it is a French heirloom traditionally used in soups and sauces. YUM!! I plan to put the 15 pound giant in the oven today.


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Oh no... a broken computer

I have a few updates but the computer broke (with pictures already on it). So I decided I had better get an app for blogging.

The best news is that Mia is LOVING her new school. She has started band and is playing flute. Her papa Ron (the Douglass one)(She has 3 papa Rons, a papa Jon and a papa Don!! That's a lot of "ONs".) has been working with her this summer because at her new school they start band in 5th grade. She also is running for class representative for student council. It was very surprising to me because Mia is very shy before she gets to know people. (according to Mike she is shy for a minute then she is in your lap.) But she told me "I'm going to be more outgoing and less shy at my new school". So, I guess a new school, a new Mia. We will find out if she will be on student council on Friday... I will keep you posted.

A Winter Garden

We are starting to prepare our winter garden! The plan was to get a hoop house but we don't want to spend all that money right now. So we are going to go with low tunnels this year. I am very excited about veggies from the garden this winter cause I had a lot of fun with my garden this summer. BUT next summer should be even better if I get a earlier start (we couldn't start the garden till June this year when we got the house) (that's 3 month later than I would have liked to start things). Here are some pictures...

Bean plants (before beans)

Crookneck squash

One of the 37 tomato plants (all kinds of varieties) this happens to be one of the 2 kinds of cherry tomatoes we had.

Watermelon

Eggplant (I thought I had a picture of this guy when he was all grown up but I can't seem to find it.)

I also planted Beets (never made it past the sprouts cause I put them in the ground too late), Zucchini (just started making its fruit cause I started them too late), Sweet Potatoes (not time to dig them up yet), Peppers (got about 2 bells and 10 jalapeño), Cantaloupe (got one that we ate today it was yummy!), Broccoli, Cabbage and Cauliflower (that the woodchuck ate ALL OF the same night I put them in the ground!!!). That's what is great about having a garden... There is always next year.

But we did get 21 bags of this Tomato Glut Sauce roasted and in the

freezer for the winter. I can't wait to eat it!!

Our Monarch Butterfly

Between having Nickie and Aunt Cori home, Mia had her cousins spend the night. As Cora was dropping Ryan and Emma off she found a monarch caterpillar in our field that was ready to form its chrysalis. We took it in the house with some milkweed and put it in a box with plastic over the front so we could see what it did. Cora told us what to watch for so we could see it form the chrysalis and watch it when it was opening up. We missed watching both of these amazing acts of nature because when we woke up the next morning it was a chrysalis and it popped out when we were shopping for school clothes. But the kids LOVED watching the butterfly fly away!

Cori's Visit Home

As we all know Mike is traveling a lot for work these days. He had a two week trip to Paris in the middle of August but didn't leave me home to fend for myself this time. He used some of his airline miles to fly Cori home for a week (what a great husband)! We had a lot of fun and even got a few things done around the house, like painting the playroom. We didn't tell my dad she was coming home and that made a great birthday surprise for him.