Bible Quiz Day 76

Answer to question 75 - Athens (Acts 17:22)

Question 76 - __________ and __________ were the parents of John the Baptist.

Oh, Martha!

I was so excited to make Martha Stewart's

homemade strawberry cupcakes

with homemade strawberry meringue buttercream frosting.

Just look at this wonderful recipe. :-)

I watched the little video on the left 

and fell completely in love with that beautiful frosting 

and the tiny wild strawberries.

I read the reviews of all the trouble 

that others were having with the frosting, 

but I was not to be deterred! ;-)

Did I make the beautiful, lovely, buttercream??

NO!  I made a sloppy mess like most of the others did that tried it.

Luckily I had some cream cheese in the fridge -

Aunt Lauren's wonderful cream cheese frosting

to the rescue!

I just added some

Bonne Maman strawberry jam.

I am still a huge fan of Martha, 

the cupcakes were very tasty, 

and I do want to succeed at the 

strawberry meringue buttercream,

one day!

The garden at two months in...

Strawberries!

Did you know that May is

National Strawberry Month??

Here are some of our favorite strawberry recipes...

~strawberry jam~

~strawberry pizza~

~chocolate covered strawberries cake~

~fresh strawberry pie~

~strawberry streusel muffins~

~strawberry cheesecake muffins~

~strawberries and cream scones~

~chocolate strawberry parfaits~

~strawberry spinach salad~

What are your favorite ways to use strawberries?
Leave me a link in the comments -
I would love to find some new recipes!

Menu Plan Monday

Supper Menus
May 16th-21st 


Monday
homemade pizza, olive garden salad
Tuesday
summer sub sandwich, potato chips, cucumber slices
Wednesday
chicken parmesan burgers
Thursday
tortellini salad, focaccia bread, chocolate strawberry parfaits
Friday
out for supper
Saturday
grilled steaks and peppers, baked potatoes, sour dough bread

I am linking up with Laura at Menu Plan Monday.

Bible Quiz Day 75

Answer to question 74 - Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5)

Question 75 - In what city  was Paul when he said, "I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious"? 

Cherry Chocolate Chip Scones

Cherry Chocolate Chip Scones
8 servings

3 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
5 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold butter, cubed
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1 cup milk chocolate chips
extra sugar

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Combine eggs, milk and extract.  Combine with flour mixture until just blended.  Gently stir in chocolate chips.  Knead dough several times and then shape into a flattened circle.  Separate dough in to 8 wedges.  Sprinkle with extra sugar.  Bake at 450 for 20 minutes or until golden brown.  Enjoy!

3 Year Blogiversary Giveaway!

A blogiversary is always a good time for a giveaway!

I thought I'd celebrate 3 years,

by giving away 3 issues

of Mary Jane's Farm magazine.

Feb/Mar, Apr/May, and Jun/Jul 2011

They are just chock full of good stuff!

recipes 

great ideas

gardening 

lovely articles

crafting and decorating

If you'd like to enter the giveaway,

just leave your name.

And, please tell me if you're a follower,

so I can enter your name twice!

 I'll draw a name in two weeks.

Good luck!

Harvesting and Learning

We are so thankful to be doing some harvesting 

along with a lot of learning with this garden.

The cucumbers are going crazy and we've learned 

to dig around in all  the vines because they tend to hide themselves quite well.

And they seem to grow, literally, overnight!

All the tomato plants are doing very well.

We are picking them at the very first sign of pink

and letting them ripen on the window sill.

Hopefully this way we will eat more tomatoes than the birds will. ;-)

We've got lots and lots of jalapenos

 and I've already used several

in enchiladas and homemade salsa.

Squash is doing great -

we can grow squash!! ;-)

The regular bell pepper plants aren't doing much,

but this Cajun Bell variety has lots of little ones appearing.

The corn's getting tall.

And, we found three baby watermelons today!

I just love the pretty blossoms.

I could sit outside and take pictures of them all day.

Mr. H. would probably like me to spend some of my picture-taking time 

for weed-pulling time! ;-)

This is an okra blossom!

The bees are doing their job,

that's for sure!

And, here are today's pickings. :-)

"The moment one gives close attention to any thing, 
even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, 
indescribably magnificent world in itself." 

 ~Henry Miller

As the garden grows...

squash for supper

lots of blooms on the cucumber vines

and several tiny cukes

lots of tomatoes

several bunches of grape tomatoes

a bell pepper getting bigger

and a blossom on the watermelon vine! :-)

New Favorite Dinner Roll Recipe

Fluffy Dinner Rolls

is one of those recipes that is like a treasure when you discover it.

I made these on Easter Sunday and again this evening.

They are yeast rolls that take less than an hour to prepare.

They are fluffy and dense at the same time - perfection.

(I've never liked those yeast dinner rolls that are so light and full of air 

you can smash them in to a tiny ball...know what I mean??)

They are a bit sweet and I think they would be delicious for lunch 

with a bit of ham and swiss cheese tucked in side.

Or maybe some chicken salad.

I could go on and on,

but I won't.

Just try them!!

Another recipe keeper from Jamie Cooks It Up!