Sunday Recipe's - It's What's Cookin' at Liljeani's

I love Sundays! I especially love to cook on Sunday's. Great Smells from the kitchen make me never want to leave home!

Today's Specials in Liljeani's Kitchen:

- Carrot Currant Apple Muffins
- Beef Pot Roast

I admit, I haven't always been the greatest cook and I am certainly no Martha Stewart, but I do love it when my experiments come out not only edible but delicious!

I recently purchased a Jack Lalanne juicer. My favorite and easy juice is apple carrot. After I juice, the pulp is left over and being thrifty, I hate to waste, so I use the pulp to make muffins. Up until today, they were just edible, good for you sure, but not good enough to share the recipe. I have always started out with a tried and true recipe, usually from Better Homes, always something simple and quick. So I started out with Better Homes and Gardens recipe for Apple Raisin Muffins and made it my own.

Liljeani's Currant Apple Carrot Muffins

• 1 and 3/4 cups all purpose flour ( I use the natural white with no bleaching)
• 1/4 cup sugar (I like to use Raw sugar)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt (sea salt may be substituted)
  
• 1 beaten egg ( I use organic, free range, grain fed)
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup cooking oil
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1 cup of apple/carrot pulp from juicer
• 1/4 cup of concord grape juice (organic and 100% juice)
• 1/2 cup or more of currants
• 1/4 cup of nuts - (I was going to try hazelnuts but forgot them) :-(

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add egg, milk, oil, pulp, and juice. Stir just until moistened. Then fold in currants and nuts.

Grease and Flour Muffin Pans. Fill 3/4 way full with mix. Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes. Yum!!

Liljeani's Crock Pot Beef Roast

O.K. again I started with the tried and true recipe, this time coming from the Rival Crock Pot's recipe book and made it my own.

• whole new potato's - enough to cover 1/3 or more of the bottom of the crock pot.
• fresh baby carrots - same as above
• pearl onions - same as above ( used frozen for convenience)
• beef stock (I used canned for convenience)
• beef roast - I like Angus - any size that will fit the crock pot or if you are just cooking for 2 like me you might want only a couple pounds.
• 1/4 cup of dry red wine
  
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (unless your beef stock is salted - then you can omit or you can you a seasoning substitute for salt)
• 1 teaspoon sage
• 1 teaspoon basil

Add vegetables to bottom of crock pot. Mix spices together and season meat. Add meat on tip of vegetables. Mix together wine and beef stock and pour over and around beef. Cook on low 8-10 hours or on High 4-6 hours.

When the Pot Roast is done, you can make a simple gravy out of the left over stock. I like to use Gold Medal's Wondra - the recipes are on the can. Add some canned biscuits or my favorite crescent rolls for a wholesome easy dinner! Note: I don't like using any canned biscuits that have Hydrogenated Oils, and they are sometimes hard to find without it. For an easy alternative try drop biscuits - if you have a favorite recipe - or some tricks you've learned along the way - let's hear it!

My furry kids and husband

I can't ever take them for granted! Sitting curled up behind me, pleasantly warm, is my Min Pin Lily, self contorted and crammed into my desk drawer lies my one year old cat, Aniken, and last but not least at my feet is my best Pug pal, Lukei (pronounced Lucky), well, he was there a minute ago, hold on a minute...ok, I'm back, let me explain, Lukei is 14 and although my Vet assures me that old age is not a disease, it brings along some pretty common characteristics, for instance; his step falters, he's sometimes confused, and is VERY hard of hearing. To keep him safe, I keep a more watchful eye on him these days, which is why I had to go looking for him.

I checked his usual haunts, the roll away bed in the guest room, his wooly dog bed in the living room, and when he was nowhere to be found, began to panic. Had he gotten outside? Had he fallen or squeezed
himself into a place to small for his pudgy belly and now couldn't get free? He is not a barker, so I would never know if he was trapped, he was just hang out there till I found him. Or my worst fear, had he hid himself away to die?

I called down to my husband in a hopeful yet fretful voice, "Is Lukei with you?" "No, what, call him" was the reply. Call him, I thought, call him, is he crazy, the dog can't hear! Fear driving me, I checked every nook and cranny upstairs to no avail, so I began the descent into the basement, where my husband was sitting on the couch, right next to Lukei, playing a video game. I was flabbergasted! "Call him",  he said again. Husband's cant live with em, can't shoot em!

As usual, not paying attention!

Check out: My Sunday Morning Blog

Hi followers, not sure if your really following are not anymore. I have be AWAL! So sorry, will be catching up soon, I have missed you all!

If you are interested in becoming an author or already are a published author, please check out my new blog. I plan on adding some cool tools, sites and information along with my usual ramblings. Hope to see you there!

I'll be back on this blog now and then to Paws to Dream!

Father's Day without Dad

I woke up this morning and didn't want to face the day. It is the First Father's Day since my Dad passed on and it makes me sad. All the good and happy memories come pouring into my head like a flood bursting through a dam. The not so happy memories, the bad, the ugly ones are trailing along below, lost in the undercurrent. This is on purpose, I choose to remember the good times. Vacations with lots of site seeing and laughter. Games of Checkers, Uno, and Monopoly. Singing and Traveling were the two loves of his life. They remain a part of me and who I am, but somewhere, below the surface, in the deep lies the bad and the ugly.

Depression is a selfish disease and so I push my own self away and think of my nieces, Terry's children, how they lost their Dad so young and how they must be feeling today on Fathers Day. All grown up now, as it has been 9 years and 7 months, since Terry died. But, I can not stay with them in my thoughts for I still cry for our loss. It is still too overwhelming for me to except completely, and I wonder why? Why is it that I cannot seem to except this one fact that my brother has died without tears and then the pushing back of tears, until the idea of it seem completely ludicrous?

Dad and Terry having died 9 years and 4 months apart, but are forever linked in my mind and heart. If truth be told, they are linked to me by mental disease. Dementia and Depression stretching around them and me like a great noose, choking the life from us. Of the three, I escaped into the river of life and find myself floating and being carried along that wild and raging river to a peaceful shallow stream, never delving beneath the surface, lest I be swallowed up by the dangerous aforementioned undercurrent, and so it here that I remain a shallow soul in shallow waters, until at last I am swept under and away to join them.

The Heretic's Daughter: A review

The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I found this book to be utterly profound. My patriotic blood runs feverishly through my body as I gain a truer understanding of courage. I have never had to make a stand that would mean my life or death. Although, I must admit that I have pondered the question of how would I face such a situation, would I be like Patrick Henry "Give me Liberty, or give me Death" or would I change sides like Benedict Arnold? Many of our soldiers today may face this question. I pray for them.



Of course, this story takes place about 100 years prior to the revolutionary war, but nevertheless the spirit of personal accountability that lead to heroic patriotism is ever present. Martha Carrier as described by her daughter's fictional narration is a multi dimensional character; neither white, nor black, but many shades of grey. Her strengths are passed onto her daughter but only through a haunting paradox; Martha dies because she speaks the truth while Sarah lives because she speaks a lie. Sarah is haunted by the idea that she is partially responsible for sending her mother to her death only to realize that no one took her mother's life, but her mother proudly lay it down, on principle.



I am reminded that death is the great leveler. So, we do not save ourselves from death, but only postpone it, but at what cost? For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul: Mark 8:36




View all my reviews.

Dracula

Just finished reading "Dracula" by Bram Stoker. Bram Stoker did a remarkable job of telling this story from each character's perspective. As a would be writer, I can tell you that this is no easy task. The only problem I have with this book is there is nothing from the main character, the one to whom the book was titled. I think a better title for this book may have been "Van Helsing" or "Madam Mina" at least. Having been a devout fan of the Bela Lugosi film version of "Dracula" I was disappointed that the book revealed very little from Dracula's perspective, the only dim view we have is from early on in the book when Dracula speaks to Mr. Harker, and this again is from Harker's point of view. Lugosi, revealed much of the character through only a few words and a stare, but oh, what a stare! The story of Dracula, Prince of Darkness, has been told many times. If anyone knows of a thoughtful version from Dracula's point of view, I would love to read it!

Writing is Fun, Writing is Hard

Spent most of last evening working on Chapter 1 of my WeBook - Unveiled. Check it out it's linked on this site. I'm sure it still needs work, but I am moving on to Chapter 2. Need an editor anyway.

I love writing and become so involved in this other world that I am creating I lose track of time, but on the flip side, it is really difficult, there is soooo much to consider - plot, sub plot, character development, grammar, pace, etc. My head is spinning! I wonder if all writers find it this difficult when writing their first book. Is it easier or harder on book two?