Mr. FixIt and I enjoyed each other’s company yesterday. I made a nice breakfast of grits and eggs…one of our favorites. I’m happy to see the price of eggs is easing up a bit. I buy them by the case with 7.5 dozen in it. I know it’s a lot, but I don’t have to buy more for a month or so. We use a lot of eggs. We eat them just about every day and I bake with them a lot.
When my sweetheart left for the bowling alley, I headed to the kitchen to bake some homemade pop tarts. They are super easy with a simple, tender, and delectable crust with jam sandwiched in between. I used up the last of the Caramel Apple Jam that my friend Loretta gave me for Christmas.
I was happily mixing up a double batch of Betty Crocker’s Oil Crust and I thought the dough looked a little funny but I pressed on. I rolled the dough out between two sheets of plastic wrap, trimmed the sides to grease a rectangle then proceeded to cut each rectangle into eight smaller rectangles. I lined cookie sheets with parchment paper, placed a small rectangle of crust on it and spread a heaping teaspoon of the jam on it being careful to keep the edges clean. I placed another small rectangle of crust on top and sealed the edges down with a fork. I finished by poking holes in the top crust to let out any steam to further help keep the jam from leaking out the edges.
I love to keep the light on in the oven and check what’s baking. It’s very satisfying. I waited about five or ten minutes and checked the pop tarts and I was a bit confused. They were really puffy. That’s when it dawned on me. I checked the flour jar and sure enough, I used self-rising flour! Sometimes a mistake turns into a happy accident. Such was the case with these little delicate treats. They were so light and had a wonderful tooth. I would exactly call the pastry flaky, but it was really tasty. I might just try this “mistake” again next time I bake a pie or tarts.
It rained off and on all evening and I love that. I especially love sleeping in the camper when it’s raining. The sound of the raindrops on the roof is soothing. I played on the computer for a while looking at Google Earth. There is a feature now where you can look at a particular spot and see the changes through the years. I looked up The Farm, my Mom’s old house, my house in Colorado, and our house here in WV. It was fun seeing the changes taking place from one year to another. I took a screenshot of “Marshmallow Ranch” to give you an idea of the size of our fields. This is what I mow. I’ve slowly been adding a couple of pollinator gardens each year so I mow less and less as time goes on. I have to wean myself off keeping this place looking like a golf course.
I hope you had a good weekend. We’ll be heading to Athens today to meet friends for brunch. I’ll give you a review of the restaurant tomorrow!
💚
““When you bring a grain offering baked in the oven as an offering, it shall be unleavened loaves of fine flour mixed with oil or unleavened wafers smeared with oil. And if your offering is a grain offering baked on a griddle, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mixed with oil.” Leviticus 2:4-5 ESV
***Gratitude Journal***
Today I am grateful for the opportunity to visit with my dear friend and neighbor from long ago when we lived in England. You can make new friends…but you can’t make old friends. They are to be cherished like silver and gold.
