Sniff, sigh, repeat

Song of Solomon 2:13 (New Living Translation)
13 The fig trees are forming young fruit, and the fragrant grapevines are blossoming. Rise up, my darling! Come away with me, my fair one!”

Fig leaves - hooray the fig tree we planted last fall came through the cold winter without freezing back to the ground. With our warm weather there will be fruit this year - I'm optimistic and excited to find our first figgy fruit.We have wild plums around here - they aren't good to eat (unless you are desperate for a really sour tiny piece of fruit or a bird). In the spring for just a short time the fragrance of these plum blossoms floats on the air - even standing in our goat pens (which are fragrant in a WHOLE different way) I can almost taste the smell. Once the blooming time is over the trees seem to fade into the background of our wooded areas.

It smells good on Buhlaland - Spring is a renewing blessing God - thank you!

Peachy Keen

I'm not a great gardener - I like to garden and my favorite part of gardening would be watering my garden on warm summer mornings. We would be hard pressed to survive on what I am able to harvest from my gardening endeavors. When we first moved onto Buhlaland we industriously planted an "orchard" - 5 or 6 fruit trees guaranteed to be good for this area. The peach blossom you are seeing ---- is not from one of those trees.
Our little orchard was stone cold dead in less than 12 months - I'd picked a spot with clay in the soil, easy access for deer (who like to nibble tender young trees ----to death!) and difficult to keep watered sufficiently. DH dug a trench and ran a water line up to the orchard but it was a case of too little too late.
Being an optimistic soul by choice and inclination - I blew another thirty dollars on a genetic dwarf peach tree. It is an itty bitty thing, but has made it through a winter in our yard and actually has the appearance of being alive in a thriving sense of the word.
well WOO HOOO! If we harvest this year from the tiny twig looking peach tree - they will be the most expensive peaches we have ever eaten. Hope they taste great! It is drought level dry around North Texas right now so I'm thinking, hoping, praying rain. Rain encouragement will extend to washing cars today and making plans to be outside Sunday - do you think my program will work?

Very quiet worship video - I love the words - here on Buhlaland it is good when it rains down - we are asking for physical and spiritual showers.

Buttery Goodness

We bought a panini press (you know I use the term "we" quite loosely since DH only said well if you want it). For Sunday morning breakfast I thought I'd lose my mind oops should have read get creative. From a plain, storebought croissant (Albertson's on sale, Golden Harvest which means a teaspoon of whole wheat flour to give it color!) to toasty gooey deliciousness in less than 15 minutes.
Gather up 4 tablespoons cream cheese, three croissants each split in half, 2 tablespoons sweet orange marmalade, and soft salted butter - seriously only 4 ingredients. Preheat your silly extravagance Panini Press or a waffle iron might work too. Mush up the cream cheese and orange marmalade with a fork (we're talking low tech here ) it's good if there are little lumps of cream cheese. Just mush it together to make a spread. Butter the outsides of a croissant - I used Light Butter which has some canola to appease my inner food police. Spread about one third of the cream cheese mixture on half the croissant and reacquaint the top and bottom croissant halves. Put the totally reunited croissant in your hot panini press (or aforementioned waffle iron) for about 2 minutes. Should be rather flattened, quite crusty golden. If you are making several (easy to double recipe so simple) put the crispy goodies on a rack so they won't give off moisture and become soggy. The finished product was dusted with a bit of powdered sugar. Add some big sweet strawberries with only a touch of sweeter on them - either equal or real sugar - just don't go crazy with the sugar or your berries will be runny. Absolutely delish - all 3 members of the household rolled their eyes and made yummy noises. If you can't stand one of the mere four ingredients - you can use some other marmalade/preserves but I'd be cautious with jelly or jams - too runny. Blueberries or the berry or banana or sliced peach or whatever fruit of your choice would be grand. I wanted to do something simple, fast and guaranteed to look as if you were a Martha Stewart ( or in my case probably Paula Deen!) of your neighborhood. If you need to get really jazzed - garnish with a sprig of mint or flowers.
Now I won't tell you about the panini with chocolate and fresh berries - that would be too much - y'all enjoy - we are wearing loose waistbands and big smiles in Buhlaland. Oh yeah - and just a touch of powdered sugar on our chins! To quote a friend's blog"taste and see that the Lord is good"Psalm 34:8 Oh yes He is!

Oatmeal,fruit and carrots - it's gotta be healthy!

DH is such a great guy - and I'd be a better wife for him if I didn't cook goodies - that said - here is what I cooked today:

Yep - look innocent enough don't they? My adaptation of an older B. Crocker recipe -

I've cut it down to a half of the original recipe - portion control don't you know? Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Have an 8 inch square pan at the ready. No need to oil it but if you want very neat results - you can line it with aluminum foil so when they cool you can lift 'em right out and cut into squares.

Ingredients in bold letters: 1/2 cup softened butter, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, one cup quick cooking oats, 3/4 cup all purpose flour, 3/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir the butter and brown sugar together in a medium sized bowl - get it well mixed and soft. Then add in oats, flour, baking soda and salt. When the mixture looks very crumbly (I ended up using antique utensils - yes fingers were here before forks!) pat half of the mixture into your pan. Bake about 10 minutes or until it looks as if it is beginning to brown.

The filling - one cup dried cranberries (usually called craisins), 3/4 cup white chocolate chips, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/3 cup sugar ,one tablespoon all purpose flour, finely grated peel of one large lemon, one teaspoon of vanilla extract, and one egg. Stir together in a bowl. When your crust part is done - pour filling over the crust and crumble the remaining oat mixture over the filling. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Allow to cool before you try to cut them up - they are very crumbly.

Lest you think I am only a dessert maker - well here is proof we eat veggies in forms other than zucchini bread. Carrot salad - yummy!

Shred 10-12 ounces of carrots - Add one shredded cored apple - don't peel it ( I used a gala apple but almost anything other than a very tart apple would be fine). One cup of raisins (I always rinse off raisins before I use them - I've seen how they are made!) one cup of toasted, chopped pecans (I live in the south y'all).

Dressing: in a separate bowl - whisk together 1/2 cup mayonnaise, one tablespoon cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons applesauce, and 1/4 cup honey - it may sound too sweet but it won't be. Once the dressing is thoroughly mixed - pour over the combined fruits, nuts and carrots and refrigerate until ready to serve.

There you go - Linda Sue's healthy foods for the day. I served this today with spaghetti, steamed broccoli and iced tea. We are all overly full and have plenty for tonight or lunch tomorrow. See I can take healthy ingredients and zap up the calorie levels without any stress at all! It is good in Buhlaland and we are all too full!

Diospryos Virginiana

Our neighbors across the road have a most interesting tree - from a distance - it looks like a tree of small pumpkins! It is actually a persimmon tree! I've done a little googling about it - not finding a lot that would be blogworthy. The primary reason I took pictures this morning was during our first walking turn down the drive - there were two sizeable bucks over there. I said something wothy of Animal Planet - "look big deer,over there" to DH and the deer disappeared through the clearing behind persimmon tree and that concrete barrier. Must have been health conscious deer, upon investigation there were several recently nibbled fruits!

It is fun to think it is a pumpkin tree. I'll have to ask permission to try out this american persimmon. Supposed to be very tasty fruit, but only at the right stage of ripeness - too early and they'll serioiusly attack your pucker factor.! See - you can even get botanical information here in Buhlaland.