Muffins for Breakfast; Muffins for Tea

We adore muffins for breakfast

They're easy to put together

They bake up in a thrice

And there are so many different kinds of muffins

that you could go at least a month 

without having the same muffin twice!

Poppyseed poundcake muffins

Baked in grandmother's cast iron "gem" pan

It makes great muffins

Not too big

But not mini-muffins either!

And a pan of muffins

with homemade jams

Or rather lime curd and crab apple jelly

With cups of steaming hot coffee

Make a great breakfast

But alas, eleven muffins are too much for the two of us for breakfast

Even smaller size ones

Leftovers, however

Make a great afternoon tea!

And these muffins are as good with tea in the afternoon as they were with coffee in the morning

A shameless beggar

both at breakfast and tea time.

She figures that no one can resist that face.

(and Husband Jim can't!)

POPPYSEED POUNDCAKE MUFFINS

2 c. flour

1 T. poppy seeds

1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. baking soda

1 cup sugar

1/2 c. butter, softened

2 eggs

1 cup plain yogurt

1 t. vanilla

In small bowl, stir together flour, poppy seeds, salt and baking soda.    In large bowl, cream sugar and butter.    Beat in eggs, one at a time.    Add yogurt and vanilla extract; mix well.    Stir in flour mixture until dry ingredients are moistened.    Spoon batter into greased muffin tins.

Bake at 400 for 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean.    Cool on wire rack for 5 minutes before removing from pan.

Yield:   1 dozen regular size muffins.     (I got a few more in my smaller pans)

NOTE:   I added the zest of an orange and for tea time, I glazed them with a bit of orange juice and powdered sugar.    I recommend both additions.

It's Thursday and I'm sharing breakfast and lunch with Susan at Between Naps On the Porch  for Tablescape Thursday and Cuisine Kathleen for Let's Dish.

Roses

The gardens of Linderhof have flowers as well as herbs

And 2014 is definitely a "rose" year!

The "Knock Outs" are well a knock out

for they're blooming profusely.

And this time of the year is the reason that I placed the bird bath there  . . 

for the rose petals in the water!

The William Baffin 

Reaching for the sky!

And a yellow rose

A last year's mother's day gift from Daughter Sarah

One of three

And the only survivor

The summer of 2012 was hard on newly planted plants.

With the abundance of roses in the garden

A trug of roses finds it's way to the kitchen

A plethora of colors

And the blossoms from Sarah's rose

Lined up on the drainboard

Vases

All freshly washed and shining

Ready to be filled with flowers

The filled vases lined up on the island

So that the inside of Linderhof

can have an abundance of roses as well

The yellow roses in the guest room

Daughter Sarah's old room 

Yellow roses because the room is yellow and white

papered in yellow because a frequent guest was 

Aunt Jewell

And yellow was her favorite color.

Roses in an amber Bohemian vase

on a side table in the living room

Pink roses in a crystal rose bowl

on the side table between the two chairs

Not roses but peonies

The fragrance is heady downstairs

In an old blue and white milk pitcher

A long ago gifted crystal ice bucket

filled with roses on Husband Jim's dresser

A crystal vase filled with pink roses on my dressing table

The sweetest roses

Pink and very fragrant

The plant came from Washington State

on a farm next door to the

"Egg and I" place

She, Betty McDonald, was a favorite author of mine

In winter we settle for dried flowers, potpourri and the occasional supermarket bunch

to decorate the tables at Linderhof

This year our daffodils were sparse

It was a long late winter

But the roses have more than made up for the lack of daffodils.

We'll continue to fill the vases as long as the roses last.

The fragrance in the house is amazing!

And there are plans to plant some more

On the south side of the house

And I'd like some climbers for the arbor that divides the patio from the herb garden

The latter will definitely be a purchase this year!

It's just a matter of price and color!

We Thank Our Nations Military

It's Memorial Day

The Last Monday in May

The day that Congress has designated

"Memorial" Day

A day first named

"Decoration Day"

for the custom of 

decorating

the graves of the fallen

soldiers of the Civil War.

It is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service.

Fort Scott National Cemetery

National Cemetery Number One

Established in 1861

Veterans of all wars are buried here.

On Monday, you'll find us here at 10:30 a.m. 

 for the  Memorial Day Service.

Basil

We plant lots of basil in the garden at Linderhof

It's one of our favorite herbs

And it is a summer herb

It doesn't like to be cold

And so the temperature

especially the ground temperature

needs to be warm.

We don't plant basil at Linderhof

until Memorial Day or after

We planted this weekend

Little basil plants

A half dozen

(and we'll probably add a couple more during the next week or so)

There are two things about basil --

You never let them go to seed

And if you pinch them back by about a third two or three times during the growing season

you end up with big bushy plants!

We do pinch

Always right after we plant

Taking about a third of the plant

Just about a spot where two leaves branch out.

Our "pickings" find their way to the kitchen

A respectable amount from the six plants

Our first basil of the season.

It's always a red letter day

The day we plant basil.

And those clippings make one of our favorite dishes

We call it margarita pasta

Pasta (your favorite kind), basil (chiffonade the bigger leaves and we leave the little ones whole), cherry tomatoes halved, olive oil, salt and pepper and a good shower of Parmesan cheese!

It's a favorite supper

And will be repeated many times this summer

Especially when we have garden cherry tomatoes!

Dinner was al fresco in the garden

The pasta, homemade bread, and a wilted lettuce salad

We'll have many more snippets of basil in our meals this summer

And the next time I clip in a month or so, there should be enough to make the first batch of pesto for the freezer.

Rosemary Jelly and Raisin Scones for Tea

Friday, 

I made some apple rosemary jelly

Two jars

One for now and one for later!

The now jar

Was perfect with the fruit (raisin) scones that I baked off for tea

 A "mix bag" of tea things

The Whieldon Ware Antique creamer, plate, cup and saucer

I especially like the cup for it's a bit bigger!

Spode Blue Room teapot

And a Spode Camilla cake plate to hold the scones.

English mother-of-pearl jam spoon and butter knife

When I take tea alone, my company is usually a book

The herb garden is growing with wild abandon

And so my tea reading material has been mostly books about herbs

both growing and cooking!

The scones are easy to make --

I often make a half a recipe

which is just perfect for the two of us

for I prefer "fresh" scones!

It's an adaptation of one of the Barefoot Contessa's recipes:

Fruit Scones

2 c. flour

1 T. baking powder

1 1/2 t. salt

12 T (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced

1/2 c. cold cream

1 cold extra large egg

1 egg, beaten with 1 T. water

1/2 c. raisins

Preheat oven to 425

Place 2 cups of flour, the baking powder and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer filled with the paddle attachment.    With the mixer on low, add the butter and mix until the butter is the size of peas.

Combine the cream and egg in a small measuring cup and beat lightly with a fork.    With the mixer still on low, quickly add the cream mixture to the flour mixture and mix only until moistened.    In a small bowl, mix the raisins with a small handful of flour and with the mixer still on low, add the raisins to the dough.    Mix only until roughly combined.

Dump out onto a well floured board and knead lightly about 6 times.    Roll the dough out to a rectangle 10 x 5 inches.    Cut with a round 2 inch cookie cutter or biscuit cutter.    Brush the tops with the egg wash, sprinkle with sugar, if desired, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are browned and the scones are cooked through.     Serve hot or warm.

NOTE:   I halved the recipe and I divided the egg (I measured by spoonfuls) and put halve in the recipe and made an egg wash out of the second half.    

It's Tuesday and I'm joining Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage for Tea Time Tuesday and Marty at A Stroll Thru Life  for Inspire Me Tuesday and Bernideen for Friends Sharing Tea.

The Baker's Rack . . . and Sunday Lunch

The Baker's Rack on the patio

undergoes a transformation in the Spring

it comes

alive!

With shelves filled with plants

A favorite faux bois planter

It's a favorite and it looks good planted with a woodsy look

And I like the unexpected

a rusty iron rabbit

Rabbits belong in a woodsy setting!

 The top shelves -- 

houseplants and a geranium which wintered over indoors

A fuschia which was a gift from a dear friend

And two red geraniums

The woodsy log, a statue and the watering can

 Below are the topiaries and a big begonia

Before garden time, however, there was Sunday Lunch

(a custom we adopted while we lived in England that spring)

Roast pork loin with rosemary and finished with a apple rosemary jelly glaze

Broiled new garden carrots and roasted asparagus

both Farmer's market buys yesterday

After Sunday Lunch

the pork went into the crockpot

with chicken broth, BBQ sauce and the rest of the jar of Hoison sauce

and simmered the afternoon away

while I was in the garden

It made great pulled pork sandwiches for supper

with a homemade dill pickle

And will be our lunches this week until it's gone

Cleaning the freezer doesn't have to be a chore

A package of four mini tart crusts

Were baked off

And made into lime curd tarts

(for I had lime curd in the fridge)

The pork is easy to bake.   Heat the oven to 400.    Mix 2 or 3 T. olive oil, a tablespoon or so of chopped rosemary, salt and pepper.   Mix together and rub on the meat.    Bake for 45 minutes.    The last 15 minutes, glaze with apple rosemary jelly.   (If you don't have any jelly, just bake it for 1 hour)

Let rest about 10 minutes and then carve and serve.

It's Monday and I'm joining Susan at Between Naps On the Porch for Met Monday and Yvonne at Stone Gable for What's On The Menu Monday.

A Garden Tour

May is the start of Garden Tour Season

Communities open wide their garden gates

for various groups

which use the tours as a fundraiser.

This Saturday, 

 Held their Garden Tour

Friend Priscilla and I went

And came back with ideas . . . 

Plant Labels

Flowers and water stations

Fairy Gardens

Herbs and Lettuces

Do you ever wonder what to do with the old big satellite dish?

A perfect solution!

And there were vendors and I brought home

A potting shed for the fairies

Which is a replica of the one in Linderhof's garden

We stopped mid tour for lunch

at my favorite restaurant in Paola

Beethoven's

I had the sauerbraten

And mashed potatoes

And red cabbage

I took food home

And was too full for dessert!

It was a fun day

This first garden tour of 2013!

It's Sunday and I'm joining The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays.