Some Cards Made for Secret Stamper

Hi there everyone, hope you are doing well....guess the virus is still going strong in some other places in our country....be glad when life can go back to normal, when ever that will be. Our Governor has allowed some places to be opened and still others are still closed. Such a shame. Some people have lost everything or are about to lose everything. The world has turned up-side down for many.

April 18th, I started my sourdough starter. 6 days later, I started making bread, pizza crust, doughnuts, waffles, cookies (yes, sourdough cookies) fried bread, muffins, corn bread, scones, cinnamon raisin bread, short bread, biscuits and more bread. (Not all in one day...lol over the course of 5 weeks) I finally put my starter to rest yesterday, just for awhile. 

Actually I have 4 cups of sourdough starter in the freezer. So when I want to start another month of baking, I will pull out one cup of frozen starter, defrost and add 1 cup of warm water and 1 cup of flour. Starting all over. Some of my favorites were the pizza crust, cookies, scones and short bread and of course bread.

I have gone shopping 3 times this month and possibly tomorrow. That will be 4 times this month. Saving some money and YES, I will wear my mask, but I will need to lift it up to get some oxygen in my lungs. We are running low on TOILET PAPER!!!! Least now there will be some on the shelves this time around.

So I made some cards, finally got myself downstairs to finish up the cards I needed to make for the secret stamper group. This butterfly card was easy, I die cut the butterfly. My secret stamper lady gave me the "On your Special day" background.

I sent the flower to my secret stamper....this is my rendition of the flower, done in yellow. Her rendition was in pretty pinks. If I receive the cards from Staci, I'll show you both cards together.

In this card, I sent the die cut of a Heart, being it was for February, it made a good Valentine Card.

Here's my vintage man by a bike....always a good one for Father's Day. Traci's card turned out cute too.

I will show you more cards next month, maybe by then I will have received the cards from Traci and Carrie (my secret stampers). You can compare the cards I made, to the cards Traci and Carri made. Always fun to see how each person comes up with one idea and the other, another idea using the same images.

I planted some seeds in my planter on Saturday. (last years planter). This year so far, Roma Beans, Cucumber seeds, Morning glory seeds, scallions and oregano seeds. Covered the bean seeds with wire fencing so the squirrels and chipmunks would stay OUT!!!

So I went outside today to see how things were growing...…..holes all over the place. The planter with scallions and oregano seeds  planted, the divider was knocked down and there were holes all over.....that upset me very much. How do you grow things when the critters destroy everything????? I would like to know!!!! 

Well, I asked "Cortina" what keeps chipmunks and squirrels away from the garden....."add SPICE to the garden"!!! Cayenne pepper!!! I found some in the cabinet and marched out to the planter and peppered it down. So much so, I started sneezing....that should keep those critters away!!!! We will see how that works. I still have a larger jar...just have to find it. Do you think my Roma Beans will be spicy???

Gonna close here now you all take care and keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Some Cards & Sourdough Muffins

Hi there everyone...how you all doing this 1st day of the Merry Month of May???? We are still in quarantine till the end of May. I must say....Been doing a lot of baking and cooking of different things. Been really having fun using my sourdough starter. She was in the fridge for a couple of days and I brought her out today to warm her up and then take 1 cup out, gave her another feeding and will probably put her back in the fridge for a couple of days. I will be needing some bread in a couple of days. Still have some buns in the freezer, so that will be good for a couple of days. 

While doing this post, I am in the midst of making "easy sourdough muffins" (okay I am back, another pan of muffins going in the oven). I will give you the recipe at the end of this post.

So these two cards, I made Wednesday night. The top one is going to my brother-in-law down in Illinois. I really like the way it turned out....very manly-man card. It's a die-cut, forget the name of who makes it. I just taped it to white card stock then used copic markers to color in the triangles and squares (guess there are not too many squares)...kinda fun to do, very relaxing. The Happy Birthday is a die-cut also, used sparkly paper, then glued the back to the top of the card.

The Hello card below is done the same way, except in pinks, blues and lavenders. The Hello is a die-cut done in silver. I then added gems to embellish the card. The card is going down to Indiana to a fellow blogger....she has been missing from blogland for a month or so....found out her computer pooped out. Gosh, being in quarantine and not able to be on the computer, that's got to be a double whammy!!!!

So here is what my muffins look like...not quite.....lol!!! Picture looks good though, doesn't it??? I shall have to try one before I end this post and give you a rating!!!

These easy sourdough muffns use up some discard to give your muffins a delicious sourdough taste!

This recipe is for a 10-12 muffins. 
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 c. sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 large egg, room temperature
1/3 c whole milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c liquid fat(oil, or melted butter, shortening, lard or coconut oil) 1/2 c. sourdough discard (make sure you stir down the bubbles before measuring.)

1. Preheat oven 425 degrees, Line a muffin tine with muffin liners or spray with nonstick spray.
2. Mix Dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
3. Mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, vanilla, oil and sourdough discard until well combined.
4. Combine wet and dry ingredients together, stir with spoon or spatula until well combined. The batter will be lumpy. Do not over-mix or the muffins will become tough. If using, fold in any add-ins.
(blueberries, raisins, chocolate chips, etc.) I topped the muffins with a butter, flour, sugar crumble. (this mixture added to the muffin very nicely. I usually use this crumble for my apple pies)
5. Divide the batter evenly between the 10-12 muffin cups.
6. Bake at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes and then turn the oven heat down to 350 degrees for about 5-7 more minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs.

Okay, these muffins were dangerously delicious, cooled down with a smear of butter....ummmmm....not thinking there are too many calories in these muffins....but they sure were GOOOOOOOD!!

I am rating these muffins from a 1-10??? I think they are a 10

Well hopefully JP will have enough goodies to last him for the week end. Chocolate chip cookies from Schwans, one donut and some soft sourdough cookies from last week.

Well time to close here....did lots of stuff today and I guess I am a little tired....so much to do so little time. Looks like it is time to work outside and do some planting...maybe some radishes and spinach...cold weather stuff that grows better in the early spring.

Keep looking up better days are coming and us prisoners will be set free!!!! Yes, free at last!!! Cheers ~ Louise