Tasty Tuesday

Last week on my 'other' blog I talked about some cupcakes I made. Then it hit me that I should put up the recipe for you here! It's not fancy or even traditional scandinavian, but it does fit in with the season here in the states.
Please, enjoy!


Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

For the cupcakes:
1 box of yellow cake mix
ingredients listed on package, minus water
1 can of pumpkin puree
1-1/2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice
Mix all ingredients together, and divide among 24 paper cupcake liners - batter will be thick.
Bake at 350F for 15-18 min until toothpick comes out just clean. Cool well while you're mixing the frosting.

For the Frosting:
2 packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups of powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp of vanilla
1-3 tsp of Cinnamon, as desired.
Whip them all together, adding the cinnamon until it has the right amount of cinnamony goodness for your personal tastes.
Pile onto cooled cupcakes & top with a candy corn, if desired.

They are tasty, pumpkin-y and fit well into my tastebuds with the fall weather.

Don't Mess With Mama!

A couple of weeks ago, my hubs informed me that one of my favorite birds had not only shown up for the year, but had already set up shop. OH BOY!!! I was a little worried when he described where Ms. Killdeer had chosen to place her nest. It's in the general area between my roundpen, and the fence. This could be problematic when it comes time to mount my horse.

Of course, the first thing I had to do was to go out & find the nest. Why not bring the camera with me? I do love these little birds! They are so cool!

So, camera in hand, I walked out, fed the horses, and removed the lens cap. Time to hunt for my little feathered friend. It was a frosty morning, so I figured she'd stay on the nest as long as she could to keep from getting them cold - boy oh boy. I got within 10 feet of her on the nest before she stood up. Then she hot footed it FAST a good 30 feet away to play her little dance. You see, because they have a ground nest, Killdeer mothers will pretend to have a broken wing to draw predators away from the nest.

What can I say? There are some excellent mama Killdeer out there. I have seen some excellent shows put on by these girls- one year, one of them even rolled over on her back crying like she was ready to croak any second! This one just wanted back on the eggs.

But she put on a pretty good act anyhow. So, I snapped a few shots of her doing her thing.... then I crept over just a little more, and snapped a pic of the nest. I like to know how many long legged fluff balls I need to watch out for. There are 4 dirty rotten cats that hang out here, and I didn't want to draw too much attention to the nest.

I can't wait to try to get pics of them. They are adorable!!! The other thing that was so cool about this mama - after I stood up to leave, she just kind of did a double take. Like 'what? no chase??'

Later in the day, I went out to start cleaning up the pasture of winter debris, and as I walked past her, she didn't even get up.

The following day when I rode my horse, she didn't get up. She just watched me as we tromped within a few feet of her, with hardly a care on her little feathered face. We walked over ground poles (also quite close to her) and she just watched us. I guess she figured out I wasn't out to get her.

When I showed Rosie last week, I peeked over at her to see if she was going to panic, but I tell you, I have never seen a Killdeer that was so relaxed in my presence. She just seems to know that I mean no harm. And I love it. She is so very cool.

Potato Bacon Soup

Here in southwestern Michigan, we have had one strange spring so far. Not strange for here, mind you - just strange in general. In the span of a month, we went from a semi-gradual warm up to record high temps for 3 days straight .... yep. We went to a semi normal 45 all the way up to 80 - 82. There were a few days of upper 70's both before and after the 80 days, but remember, this is April. The red buds have fallen off the trees and the leaves have been poppin' out and starting to green up the landscape. Lawns all over the whole area are starting to look like they might be expecting a trim soon.
My cozy winter fare days were looking to be numbered. About to make my springtime switch from thick hearty soups to brothy veggie filled ones. Then, the normal Michigan weather kicked in, and we got a little cold snap. 2 days ago, it was in the 50's. Tonight, our forcasted low is around 24. Good hard freeze. All those poor fruit farmers here in the midwest's 'fruit belt' are going to be taking a hard hit. Peaches, Cherries & Grapes will be hit hardest, I expect. But, that's not really here nor there for me. I don't farm fruit - at least not on a scale that I can't protect it.
No no.... the snow blowing in from the northwest this afternoon on big gusts simply made me crave a good hearty soup. Oh yeah. Something that is really 'guy friendly'. Something that you can have with a little homeade bread & butter & be happy. Something that can go good with beer - but doesn't have to. Something like potato soup .... only more manly. Oh, I got it... Add bacon.



It's really simple, tastes heavenly, and I haven't met a guy yet that wouldn't at least try it. Killer fare, ya know? So .... here are the basics. I don't have a set recipe. You just kinda go with what works best, and for how many people will be eating it.
For a family of 4 - 6 people for dinner, or more than that for 'cups' at lunch time, try this:

Start with a pound of bacon, diced into bite sized pieces, and throw 'em in a big ol pot. Get them nice & browned & crispy, then throw in a good sized *not monster* onion all diced up, and let the onions turn clear - do NOT brown them!! (you can also use 2-3 leeks here, if you don't like the flavor of onion quite so much.... makes for a milder soup)
When the onions are clear, add in a few inches of chicken broth, and 3-4 cubed potatoes. Let cook for a while, until the potatoes are cooked through, then pull out your masher & smash about half of them. At this point you will want to add in some half & half or heavy cream. You can put in a little butter, if you feel it needs it - what the heck! Why not?
If you like it thicker, add more potatoes when you get to that point, as written, it's pretty thin. I like it thicker, and even have been known to add some flour to the mix to thicken it, or if I hit the liquid too hard, even some potato buds to thicken it up a bit.
Ladle it out, sprinkle on some chives, and more crumbled bacon, if you got it (or cheese if you swing that way) and make sure you have some good warm homemade (or like homemade) bread along with it. It is incredible.

Enjoy it, and please, let me know if you try it how it turns out!