Cooking Thursday: A Couple of Yummy Quick Breads

 

Hello beautiful Friends!

It's a cozy rainy Thursday here and I've been soaking up the vibes. I got a new blackberry jam candle at bath & body recently and it smells so good! I have that going and a pretty early Fall scene playing on the tv with pretty piano music.

*I love that the lid of the candle looks like the top of a jam jar 

(it's the little things 😊)

 

And one thing I love to do on cozy days is bake. I recently made these 2 breads (about a week apart) also on gray cozier days. The first one I want to share is for an apple cheddar bread I made a few weeks ago before Annie left. She thought it sounded delish so I gave it a go. 

I had found the recipe at gimmesomeoven.com 

It's a pretty straight forward quick bread and I didn't use the sage it called for and used thyme instead and I also added some cinnamon. I just measured with my heart on both and didn't add a specific amount. I also just cubed up the apple and didn't shred it in.

We all thought the flavor was amazing and this would be such a great bread with soup in the Fall. It had a very kind of biscuit texture to it. My notes on this were that I think next time I'd use a little less flour and I would shred some of the apple in and cube the rest. I think it would make the bread a little less biscuit-like and more moist. Either way though we gave it a thumbs up! Of course it helped that I made a cinnamon honey butter to top it with too. 😉

The next bread I made more recently. I had a can of pumpkin in the cabinet and wanted to use it up...so I thought August was close enough for our first loaf of pumpkin chocolate chip bread. 🎃  I found the recipe at sallysbakingaddiction.com (she has the best baking stuff!). It turned out amazing and the only thing I did was add milk instead of orange juice (I didn't have any oranges and that was her suggestion if you didn't). And I did add the chocolate chips (because of course I did 😋) and some chopped pecans I needed to use up. Total 10 out of 10! It tasted so good to have my first taste of something pumpkin!! I brought some to my Mom and step Dad too. Definitely recommend this one for Autumn. 

Have you started any Fall baking yet? Do you have a go-to you like to make on rainy days? 

If you try these I hope you enjoy! 

xoxo

Happy Homemaker Monday

Happy Monday Friends!

I can't believe it's been a week since I posted last. 

It got a bit busy last week packing Annie up and spending time with her before she left for FL. (she has since arrived there). And I had some other busy things going on last week.

And today I needed to take Ruby for a vet appointment and I have been busy catching up around the house too. So I'm getting to this post a little late too. We went to the lake for the weekend but during that visit I threw my back out a bit. (ugh!) Makes me feel like an old lady. Lol It's feeling a bit better but probably going to take a few days to fully be ok. Thank goodness for good pain meds and muscle relaxants. They have sure been helping! 

Matt, of course, has been wonderful and so helpful. And thankfully I am functional. I had a little trauma flashback to when I herniated my disc a few years back...and how awful that was. So, when I tweak my back I go into panic mode. 🙈 But it's definitely not like that and I am fine. 

Anyways, enough old lady talk. It's a beautiful sunny day and it's sure feeling like summer yet. So we have been soaking up time out in the yard and on the deck. As well as soaking up lake time this past weekend with Matt's folks. It rained all day Saturday so we never got out on the water, but it was nice to just get chill time there. 

How was your weekend? I think some of you are still dealing with horrible hot temps. I'm grateful that even though we have warm days the nights have been cooling off nicely. I hope wherever you are that you are able to soak up these fleeting summer days. ☀️💛

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

 

iced protein coffee and a piece of pumpkin chocolate chip bread (yep, I had a can of pumpkin and I wasn't afraid to use it! Lol) 

*I had also made a loaf of apple cheddar bread when Annie was still here and I will share that recipe in the future.

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

Ruby vet appt, errands, groceries later in the week (planning a BBQ for my Dad & my son's birthdays), shopping and helping my Mom, hospice work

THINKING ABOUT: 

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

when Matt grabs my hand to hold when we're just out running errands ❤️

CURRENTLY READING

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower volumes 1&2 (I've continued to be terrible about reading - other than a Fall cookbook 😂 - and that I need to get back to regular reading time)

 

ON THE TV TODAY:

We have been all over the place with shows and have mainly been watching old and new episodes of Big Brother. Ted Lasso. I did watch Seeking Persephone and thought it was sweet. We need to finish House of Dragons too. We just haven't been watching as many shows - we often like to sit outside in the evenings and visit, or play cards.

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY - papperdelle pasta with grilled chicken and tomatoes (easy Costco dish we picked up), and I'm going to roast veggies that I will then add to fresh greens for a salad (partly from our garden) with a balsamic vinaigrette, feta cheese, and pistachios 

TUESDAY - soup dumplings, veggie spring rolls

WEDNESDAY - leftovers/clean out the fridge

THURSDAY -  garlic & herb pork loin roast, roasted red potatoes, green beans

FRIDAY - maybe out for dinner?

*Need to work on a grocery list yet for later this week. I'm thinking for celebrating my Dad & Aaron's bday's we will grill steak (Dad fave) but also have sub fixings (Aaron doesn't care for beef), veggie pasta salad, corn on the cob, melon & berries, brownies (with ice cream) for Aaron and I may make apple bars for my Dad - so we will have a few options for dessert. Lol But I want to bake what both of the fellas each love.

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

paint, catch up with my Girl on the phone, read

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

 

FROM THE CAMERA:

Scenes from the lake (the sky was putting on a show the night before it rained all day) And a loaf of yummy pumpkin chocolate chip bread. I will share recipe for that in the future too. 

PRAYER LIST:

 For an end to the conflicts all over the world and anyone living in war & fear, especially everything going on in the middle east right now. For peace and unity in this country, especially from hate and shootings or violence.  For anyone sick, suffering, in pain, fear, loneliness etc ... that God bring them comfort and peace. 

For the Lord's love and peace to fill all ❤️'s.

For Christ's Light and Love to cast out the darkness everywhere and help the world find its way to loving our neighbors as ourselves. 🙏🏻

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

Blessings to you dear Friends!

I'm sharing this with Sandra of Diary of a SAHM for Happy Homemaker Monday.

Happy Homemaker Monday

Hello dear Friends!

Happy Monday to you. 💗

I can't believe we're already to the part of August where my Annie is beginning to pack up and head back to her college in FL. Her boyfriend Kristopher was up visiting and just went back to FL last week. She is leaving later this week and I'm not ready for my sweet baby Girl to go. But we were able to have a lovely 1:1 weekend together this past weekend. 

An old family friend was visiting Matt's folks at the lake so he felt like it would be good for him to go see them...and he wanted to let Annie & I have good girlie time. He's such a thoughtful sweetheart.😍  So Annie & I had a great time hanging out, watching shows, playing cards, planning her new apartment, and we may have even done a bit more shopping too. 😉

Saturday night I went to mass, and there was a scary moment. One of the parishoners had a medical emergency during the service. Father didn't miss a beat though. He led us in a rosary and we said prayers for that person as they waited for the ambulance to come. We then continued mass after that and I just pray that the person is okay. 

Then last night my former SIL, Julia,  (the one that carried Annie for us) came over for dinner so we could have a catch up with her before Annie leaves too. I made a big Italian themed dinner (Julia is traveling there next year!) and then we played some ladderball in the yard and had dessert on the deck. Obviously, she's an extra special Auntie and if you click here you can read a bit about our special story. 

It was so fun to hear about things in her world. Her oldest son (Annie's cousin) just got married. My kiddos were at the wedding too. She also just bought her own home and is having it renovated. She divorced my ex's brother several years ago. She shared about her folks and siblings too. And she is now in the dating world and it was fun to hear about those adventures as well.  Overall she just seems so healthy and happy and I'm so glad we've stayed in contact. She wants me to go check out her new place once it's all done. 😊

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

 

iced protein coffee

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

errands, Annie's hair appt, help Annie with final laundry and packing up, check-in meeting with the designers and construction for our future bathroom reno, yard work Matt & I want to do, hospice work

THINKING ABOUT: 

That I'm so excited to see where this year leads Annie...but also my heart hurts thinking of her going. She is my baby and I'm sure you fellow moms understand that. 

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

catching up with an old friend while sipping good wine and having yummy nibbles 

CURRENTLY READING

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower volumes 1&2 (I was bad about reading last week - need to finish these)

 

ON THE TV TODAY:

We have been all over the place with shows and have mainly been watching old and new episodes of Big Brother. Ted Lasso is back (yay!) and we watched the first episode of that. Also, I think the Pack plays preseason football this week so we will watch some of that too. I may start Seeking Persephone

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY - naan bread pizzas with mini pepperonis & hot honey (a rare occasion Annie will eat meat), leftover pasta & salad from last night - we also have some peach pie leftover I made yesterday to have a la mode

TUESDAY - orange dijon grilled chicken, roasted red potatoes, lemony asparagus (a couple of Annie's fave side dishes)

WEDNESDAY - probably eat up any leftovers or if Annie requests anything

THURSDAY -  Mexican street corn tacos

FRIDAY - maybe out for dinner

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

hopefully read, hang with Annie, work in the yard

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

 

FROM THE CAMERA:

Before Kris headed back home we took a pontoon ride out on Lake Superior - you can tell the FL boy thought it was a bit chilly though. Lol 

The rest of the pics below: some summer scenes from around the house, a couple of cute black cat Halloween decorations I found when shopping with Annie, green beans finally ready for picking from our garden, and Annie did some fun and crazy gel nail work on me. 

PRAYER LIST:

 For an end to the conflicts all over the world and anyone living in war & fear, especially everything going on in the middle east right now. For peace and unity in this country, especially from hate and shootings or violence.  For anyone sick, suffering, in pain, fear, loneliness etc ... that God bring them comfort and peace. 

For the Lord's love and peace to fill all ❤️'s.

For Christ's Light and Love to cast out the darkness everywhere and help the world find its way to loving our neighbors as ourselves. 🙏🏻

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

I hope you have a great week ahead! 

I'm sharing this with Sandra of Diary of a SAHM for Happy Homemaker Monday.