I'm dreaming of a white kitchen

I am a baker. Really. I owned a bakery, and baked every day. I enjoy baking. I think it is fun, fun, fun! Especially when there is no pressure to create maximum product in minimum time.

But, I currently have no kitchen. I may have mentioned that a time or two hundred. I am a baker without a kitchen.

I can dream though. And, this is what I would bake if I were able.

Pumpkin Praline Biscuits.

I would welcome the cool, prematurely dark days with pumpkin.

I love these delicious sweet biscuits. I found them in Better Homes and Gardens years ago, when I still liked Better Homes and Gardens. Make them please, and tell me how delicious they are so I can enjoy them vicariously.

Pumpkin Praline Biscuits:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine, cold and cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 tbsp. butter or margarine
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup half-and-half or light cream
1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
2/3 cup sifted powdered sugar

1/4 cup pecans, toasted and finely chopped

1. Toast pecans, separate and chop. The pecans for the top should be more finely chopped than those in the biscuits.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut in the 1/2 cup cold butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the 1/2 cup pecans. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture.
2. In another bowl combine canned pumpkin, milk, and 1/2 cup brown sugar; whisk together and add all at once to dry mixture. Using a fork, stir just until moistened. Drop dough onto greased baking sheet, forming 16 mounds. Bake in a 400 F oven for 12 to 15 minutes or till golden.
3. Melt 1 tablespoon butter or margarine over medium heat. Stir in 1/3 cup brown sugar, half-and-half, and 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice. Bring mixture just to boiling; reduce heat and boil gently for 2 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in powdered sugar. Beat until smooth. If it seems a little runny, let it sit a few minutes. If it seems thick, you can thin it with a little more half and half while still bubbling, but keep in mind it should set up like a praline.
4. Spoon the topping over the biscuits and quickly sprinkle with the finely chopped pecans before the topping sets.

Yum! Please love this!

Location:Hull, Ma

Oh, the places you'll go

I don't know where Oconnell Way, Boston is. But it sounds awesome, so I won't correct my location finder. Or turn it off, which is what paranoid, conspiracy theory type people do.

I will just commence in my original mission which is to enlighten all 6 followers of my blog, who I recognize are hoping for bakery recipes and not boring histories of my life, where the last 26 mostly fabulous years of marriage have taken me.

I will start at the end, because that is what prompted this post in the first place. Last weekend Dave and I took Milo, the only dependent currently living at home, to A Fox and Hounds to board for the weekend (why has no one invented weekend boarding for children?) and celebrated our anniversary (which was August 14) by shopping for home building supplies.

That sounds bad, but it wasn't. It was the fun kind of shopping. For cool antique pieces, which it turns out do not exist in our price range, at Brimfield and in New York City. It was a fun weekend. One of probably 15 which have occurred in New York in the last 26 years. Half of them since McKay and Annie moved there 17 months ago. They might be getting tired of us.

In the early years most of our vacations involved all night driving to Spokane, LA, or Seattle from Utah where we were students. I am no longer capable of working all day, packing a carload of small children and stuff, driving all night, and then going straight into a full day of vacation fun. I'm too old and tired for that stuff!

Later, we graduated to flying vacations, although I have driven cross country from Boston to Washington State a time or two. Or 5. And back again, of course.

Some of our favorite family vacations have been to Disney World. I love Disney. I am a true fan. I suggest going the second week of December, when it is decorated for Christmas, but responsible parents are making their children go to school. It is beautiful, and relatively quiet.

We also had a wonderful family trip to Puerto Rico. We do love a vacation that involves sunshine and sand. We definitely recommend Puerto Rico over Cabo, although we have decided that the vacation activities offered tend to be very similar regardless of the tropical location you choose. Parasailing, glass bottom boat rides, jet skis and ATVs, and those crazy individual submarine numbers where you just stick your head in a bubble and go investigate life under the sea. Who came up with that idea?Yes, I have done all these things although they all fall into categories of things that tend to frighten me. I even rode the roller coaster at the top of the Stratosphere in Las Vegas, although I drew the line at the Big Shot and let the rest of the family go without me. To be honest, I won't even ride those things when they start at ground level.

It turns out family vacations often involve things I find frightening. Like our hike to the top of Angel's Landing at Zion's. People die there, semi regularly. I, fortunately, did not. Nor did my family, for which I am grateful.

Ah, good memories of good times. I can't wait to see where the next 26 years take us!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Oconnell Way,Boston,United States

The education of a self declared GC

This is the house the day before the storm. They hauled off the dumpster as a safety measure so I took advantage of the opportunity to see the front of the house.


I am learning so many important things building this house.

For example: 2 x 4 construction can hold R 15 insulation. We need R 19. Thank you to the 'expert' who recommended that as a way to save money :).

You can buy 'prison series' sinks online. Ummm, why?

I have a wonderful imagination which the design industry has not kept up with.

No matter how you time it, things you do not yet need will be sitting in the way of the plumber and electrician, and things you need now will not.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Hull, MA