Month: June 2025

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A very tasty way to end…

Wow! I can’t believe that the last day of June 2025 is almost upon us AND that this is the last “Tasty Tuesdays” recipe this month. However, I think I’ve saved the best for last! This week’s “Tasty Tuesdays” recipe is…

Chocolate French Toast!

Anything with chocolate is great, but chocolate for breakfast? That is AWESOME! When I stumbled upon this recipe online (see my note below), I knew that I had to try it, primarily because Sweet Thing is a chocoholic (which just might have something to do with his nickname…). Haven’t made it for him yet, but it’s on the menu for later this week!

And now, without further ado, here is the last “Tasty Tuesdays” recipe for June 2025

Chocolate French Toast

3 large eggs

1 cup 2% milk

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

12 slices day-old bread, crusts removed

3 milk chocolate candy bars (1.55 oz each), halved2 tablespoons butter

Confectioner’s sugar

  1. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Pour half into an ungreased 13×9-inch baking dish. Arrange 6 slices of bread in a single layer over the egg mixture. Place 1 piece of chocolate in the center of each piece of bread. Top with remaining bread; pour remaining egg mixture over all. Let stand for 5 minutes.
  2. In a large non-stick skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Toast sandwiches until golden brown on both sides. Dust with confectioner’s sugar. Serve warm.

So, there’s the recipe for Chocolate French Toast — that was, for me, one of those “Duh! Why didn’t I think of that?!” moments. I’m sure Sweet Thing will like it since (1) he already likes me to make french toast for him, and (2) he LOVES chocolate! I’ll let you know what Sweet Thing had to say about this recipe — once I’m finally able to make it for him! I’d love to hear about (1) what you think of this recipe for Chocolate French Toast AND (2) your own favorite french toast recipes!

Note: When I published this post, I couldn’t remember its source, but I (the Queen of Tabs) will go through my browser history to see if I can track down the Web site where I found what is sure to be one of our go-to breakfast recipes!

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How breakfast used to be…

In today’s “Tasty Tuesdays” post, I’m going to be sharing with you some thoughts about breakfast from Mrs. Isabella Beeton (in her “1861 Classic with Advice on Cooking, Cleaning, Childrearing, Entertaining, and More” — “Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management”). Although breakfast was usually only mentioned in passing throughout this book, I was intrigued by the “Bills of Fare” that Mrs. Beeton presented for breakfast — as well as for the other meals of the day, including “luncheons and suppers” as well as “a bill of fare for a picnic of 40 persons”. So… Here’s what Mrs. Beeton had to say about breakfasts:

“It will not be necessary to give here a long bill of fare of cold joints, &c., which may be placed on the side-board, and do duty at the breakfast table. Suffice it to say, that any cold meat the larder may furnish, should be nicely garnished, and be placed on the buffet. Collared and potted meats for fish, cold game or poultry, veal-and-ham pies, game-and Rump-steak pies, are all suitable dishes for the breakfast-table, as also cold ham, tongue, &c. &c.

The following list of hot dishes may perhaps assist our readers in knowing what to provide for the comfortable meal called breakfast. Broiled fish, such as mackerel, whiting, herrings, dried haddocks, &c.; mutton chops and rump-steaks, broiled sheep’s kidneys, kidneys a la maitre d’hotel, sausages, plain rashers of bacon, bacon and poached eggs, ham and poached eggs, omelets, plain boiled eggs, oeufs-au-plat, poached eggs on toast, muffins, toast, marmalade, butter, &c. &c.”

So, there you have it: Mrs. Beeton’s “bill of fare” for “the comfortable meal called breakfast”. I read through “Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management”, hoping to find a recipe for something on her bill of fare, but I couldn’t find anything. (Guess she expected that most Victorian women (and/or cooks) would already know how to make such things.) So… I did what I generally do when looking for new recipes to feature in my “Tasty Tuesdays” posts: I did an online search, specifically for “Victorian Breakfast Recipes”, and I found an article called “Victorian Era Breakfast Recipes: 11 Morning Meals From the Past” on the following Web site: littlethings.com, and because I liked the way this article started, I’m going to begin with that. So, here goes…

“Breakfast is probably — no, definitely — my favorite meal of the day. In fact, I see no problem with enjoying some yummy eggs or piling up a plate of pancakes for lunch or dinner, too. This is why I was so happy to stumble on these scrumptious Victorian breakfast recipes!

… Obviously, things were much different back in Victorian-era England. Still, they certainly knew how to make a good meal that would fill one up for a long day of work. Some of their ideas might seem a little strange to us, but I guarantee that you’ll find more than a few things you’ll want to whip up in the morning.

Take a look at these Victorian breakfast recipes, including a few by Queen Victoria’s own chief cook!”

Although this article featured eleven recipes for such things as bread steaks and egg fritters, I want to share a recipe for something I usually think of as Victorian (or at least, British)… CRUMPETS!

Crumpets

(from: littlethings.com)

Ingredients

1/2 cup milk

2 Tablespoons unsalted melted butter

1/4 cup lukewarm water

1 Tablespoon active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in 3 Tablespoons water

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Scald the milk, then add melted butter and the lukewarm water. Mix in the yeast and sugar. Stir over heat until frothy. Allow to rise for an hour or until it has doubled in size. Butter muffin tins without bottoms* and arrange on a buttered skillet. Spoon the batter into the rings and cook for about two minutes on each side. Remove the ring and cook again for about three more minutes.

Note:

*If you can’t find bottomless muffin tins for this “true English muffin”, you can use clean tuna cans with both ends removed! (Such a clever idea!)

Because I’ve never really liked “English muffins”, I thought I’d give this recipe for crumpets a try to see if I like these “true English muffins” better. At this point, the verdict’s still out, so I’ll have to let you know when it’s in and what it is. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts about Mrs. Beeton’s bill of fare for the “comfortable meal called breakfast” AND what’s on your “bill of fare” for breakfast. What’s breakfast like for you?

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Another tasty breakfast recipe…

Hello! The theme of “breakfast” continues with a recipe that I have often heard about but never tried myself. So… That is going to change just as soon as try what I hope will be worthy of a “Tasty Tuesdays” post: Baked Oatmeal

Now, before you say anything, I realize that oatmeal is one of those “love it or hate it” foods. Personally, I’m on the “love it” side, but Sweet Thing is on the opposite site, preferring Cream of Wheat instead. (Hmmm… I think Cream of Wheat is another of those “love it or hate it” foods: He loves it, and I hate it. That’s a discussion for another day.) While going through one of my Amish cookbooks (“The Essential Amish cookbook” by Lovina Eicher), I came across the recipe for Baked Oatmeal. As I said earlier, I’ve often heard about baked oatmeal, but I was intrigued by the addition of eggs in this recipe, so I thought I’d give it a try myself — finally! And now, without further ado, here’s this week’s featured breakfast recipe:

Baked Oatmeal

1/2 cup butter, melted; or 1/4 cup applesauce

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup milk

3 cups quick-cooking oats

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Mix all ingredients together in bowl. Pour into greased 2-quart baking dish (or a 9 x 13-inch baking pan). Bake 350 degrees F for 40 minutes.

For added flavor, after the oatmeal is baked, top with any combination of chopped fresh fruit, such as apples, peaches, or strawberries, as well as raisins and chopped pecans or walnuts. We sometimes like to pour cold milk over the top when serving.

Makes 8-12 servings, depending on portion size.

Lovina’s note:

My dad had oatmeal almost every day for breakfast. I do not care for the taste of oatmeal, but a few of our children like it, so we have it once in a while.

So, there you have it: Lovina’s recipe for Baked Oatmeal, and she confirmed that oatmeal is, indeed, a “love it or hate it” food — some of her children like oatmeal, but she doesn’t. Which “camp” are you in: the “love it” OR the “hate it”? Please leave a comment to let me know whether you love or hate oatmeal AND what you thought of this recipe.

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June 2025’s “7th of the month” Journal Post

Welcome to yet another “7th of the month” journal post highlighting the previous month, which, for this entry, spans from 7 May through 6 June 2025. As Ive done ever since I starting writing this kind of post, I’ll be following the same pattern — by discussing events that fell into the following three categories:

  • Holler,
  • Personal, and, of course,
  • Writing.

Holler Happenings

Hello from “my holler in Kentucky”! This month, I spent some time working outside — once I finally recovered from whatever was ailing me the first two weeks of May (more on this later)! During my “spring cleaning” sessions outside, I picked up trash that either marauding raccoons or a neighbor’s dog had found while rummaging near the barn, where we keep our trash cans; got all of the burnables, recyclables, and trash out of the house and carted off to where they belong; and cleared off the “wood processing” side of the front porch, so we can start stocking up on firewood this summer.

In addition to doing some “spring cleaning”, Sweet Thing and I spent some time talking about our plans for the holler, and we came up with a “plan of attack” — an ordered list of what we want to accomplish in the coming months (and beyond):

  • finally build a place to store all of our trash cans;
  • relocate the trailer to the “back 40” (which will eventually become my “writing retreat”) AND get at least one load of gravel;
  • build a storage shed behind the reliquary;
  • build a ramp up to the front porch (I’ve never liked stairs, so I’m REALLY looking forward to getting this project finished); and finally,
  • build the much-anticipated “loft storage” in the reliquary (so we can turn half of the space into a guest house and the other half into a workshop).

Hopefully, the price of lumber will come down enough to allow us to tackle ALL of these projects between now and the end of this calendar year.

Another “Holler Happening” occurred on 21 May 2025 when we experienced a late-night power outage. I was exercising on the treadmill when the power glitched for the first time, and I was almost thrown off the treadmill when it quit working! Unfortunately, that experience seems to have had a lasting effect on me: I’m VERY leery whenever it’s time for me to get off the darned thing! I need to look down at my feet to check — and double check — to make sure that the moving belt on which I’m walking is no longer moving! Hopefully, I’ll get over the trauma that this late-night power outage seems to have caused.

Anyway… The power was out for two hours and ten minutes, and once I’d recovered from the “treadmill incident”, I spent most of the time shutting down computers: Denny, my desktop computer, and Zenny, my laptop computer. Since I tend to have A LOY of open tabs on both of my ‘puters (being affectionately called “The Queen of Open Tabs” by Sweet Thing), the power outage proved to be agreat time for me to do something about ’em — bookmarking those I wanted to revisit and CLOSING all of them! In addition, I saved and closed all of the documents and other things that I had open. Shortly after I’d finished shutting down both computers, the power was restored, but I can’t help but wonder just how many people were late to work that morning. I am a “night owl”, so I was well aware of the power outage and was able too reset the clocks in the holler house. So, yeah… I wonder how the “early to bed/early to rise” folks fared during/after the late-night power outage.

Well… That’s about all the “news” I’ve got to report about “holler happenings”, so I’ll now move on to the next category: “Personal Events”:

Personal Events

The month of May began with me getting sick after our trip to “Flordida” for my darlin’ daughter’s college graduation! Don’t know how I got sick, but I finally felt ready to “rejoin the living” and get my life back on track — after TWO full weeks of being sick! Unfortunately, I also got sick again near the end of May, but I was able to “sleep off the sickies”, so I wasn’t sick for as long as I’d been at the beginning of the month. Being sick is definitely NO FUN!

Once I was finally feeling better, I got back to working on “Butterflies”, another “Trip around the World quilt that I started during my second “quilt-along” class at the LGCHC. I had stopped working on this quilt so I could get another quilt (“Purples” finished in time to give my daughter after she graduated. I finished the inner border on 20 May, and I expect to have it finished before the start of my third “quilt-along” class on 10 June 2025. By the way, I started taking these “quilt-along” classes in the fall of 2024 after finding out about them when I started working on repairing my daughter’s (well-worn) “trailer quilt” that a dear family friend had given her decades before! I think I’m definitely hooked on quilting! In fact, I suspect that I’ll be writing a few books that will feature quilts and the Amish women who make them.

Anyway… Here are a few more things that fall into the “Personal Events” category:

  • spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what I need to do to get my life back on track — after the focus of the first four months of 2025 being on getting ready for the ROAD TRIP down to “Flordida” to attend my daughter’s college graduation. After that event became history, I was at a loss as to what I want to focus on now.
  • the “checking on you” phone calls from my darlin’ daughter continued throughout the month, including one during which she managed to get her brother on the phone — a rare, but greatly appreciated, treat. (Found out that he’s still alive (sometimes I wonder…) and working at a Winco — at least I think that’s the name of the grocery store where he works!) In addition, I also had an enjoyable chat with one of our family’s neighbors when I was growing up! It had been quite a while since I last spoke with her, so it was great to catch up on what’s been happening with her ever-growing family!
  • I read a couple of books by Danielle Steele: “The Butler” and “Five Days in Paris”. I’ve never really been a fan of Danielle Steele, but I read those two books to give her another chance — to see whether my “literary tastes” had changed. I like the concept of “The Butler”, but as a romance (which is what I was expecting), it didn’t cut it for me. I much preferred “Five Days in Paris”. Anyway…
  • I FINALLY got DJ back from the repair shop — after over TWO months (much of which was waiting for parts). Thankfully, the repair bill was A LOT less than expected! A VERY pleasant surprise.
  • I created a “Summer Bucket List” — of things that I want to accomplish this summer! It includes many of the things I keep saying I want to do each summer but never do. Hopefully, this is the summer that things like (1) going to see movies at a drive-in theatre and (2) make at lease one batch of homemade ice cream! Once again, I’ll have to type it up, print it out, and post it somewhere prominent, so I’ll be able to check to see how close I am to accomplishing everything on this list.
  • I ended this “month” ( on 5 June 2025) with something I know is my “civic duty” but is also something I dread: JURY DUTY! Unlike jury duty in the state where I used to live, jury duty here is an all-year responsibility — mostly due to the lower population. Thankfully, the local judge understands that jury duty isn’t always a favorite activity for the folks around here, so she does her best to make it so that the “petit court jurors” don’t have to come in until they’re really needed. Well… It turned out that these jurors, including me, were actually needed for a jury trial that day (and into the next), so I spent that morning listening to every that was going on in the courtroom — AND taking notes, so I could possibly include a scene in which one of my main characters has been summoned for jury duty. The taking of notes actually helped keep me calm during that whole “ordeal”, BUT I am VERY grateful that my name was NEVER called for me to become a juror for that trial. I was able to walk away from the courthouse breathing BIG sighs of relief. In addition to NOT being called, there was another bit of good news: the judge’s calendar was filling up fast for jury trials in the other jurisdictions in which she serves, so I won’t have to worry about jury duty again until OCTOBER! Only time will tell whether I’ll be summoned for jury duty in October…

And on that note, I’ll move on to the third, and final, category in June’s “7th of the month” journal post: my writing!

Writing

As far as my writing is concerned, I FINALLY got back to my writing on the 8th of May (after being sick for a FULL TWO WEEKS!), and one of the first things I did was to get all of my postcards mailed for April 2025’s postcard swap! With virtually all of my attention in April focused on our ROAD TRIP (for my darlin’ daughter’s college graduation), working on my postcards got pushed to the back burner. Consequently, I made working on those a priority once I (finally) regained my health! “Better late than never!”

In addition, I continued researching Amish life by perusing Web sites such as “Amish America: Exploring Amish Culture & Communities”, which is a treasure trove of information about the Amish in this country AND by ordering a book called “Pocket Guide to the Amish”, by Mindy Starns Clark, and author of Amish romance novels. (I also checked out her author Web site, too — to get more ideas about what kinds of things I might want to add to my own Web site!) Although this book is small in size, it is packed with LOTS of information that will probably be incorporated into some of my own Amish romance novels in the future!

Speaking of my own Amish novels, I decided to use my jury duty experience as research for a scene to include in my current work-in-progress or, possibly, into a “short” story. I figured that doing this would help keep my mind occupied and off the possibility that my name might be drawn as a potential juror! So… I started taking notes about jury duty as soon as I got into our “little white roadster” (thanks to Sweet Thing agreeing to drop me off and pick me up since there’s a distinct lack of parking at the local courthouse) and continued to do so throughout the whole nerve-wracking experience. Thankfully, I made it out of the courtroom WITHOUT my name being called! (THANK YOU!) Once outside, I called Sweet Thing to let him know he could come pick me up, and then I proceeded to walk to our agreed-upon pickup location: a place that might be a good place for me to park should he not be able to drop me off in the future. Anyway… Now that I’ve got pages and pages of notes from my three-hour jury duty service, I need to start thinking about how to incorporate such a scene into one of my own Amish romance novels (or a short story)! Coming soon to a book near you: JURY DUTY!

The last thing worthy of noting in this “7th of the month” post is that Sweet Thing introduced me to ways AI can help authors, including (1) creating characters, and (2) coming up with plot points for a story based on a given genre and a one-sentence description. For a long time, I’ve been hearing about AI, but I’m rather old-fashioned and just didn’t want to have anything to do with AI. However, that all changed when he started giving me examples of what AI could do the help me as an author. Now, I see the potential that AI has, so I’ll probably be “playing with” it — though NOT as much as Sweet Thing has been doing lately. At this point, “the jury is still out” about how much I’ll allow AI into my writing life, but I would love to hear about your experiences with AI. So… Please leave a comment below.

On that note, I’m going to close June’s “7th of the month” post. Stay tuned for another glimpse into my personal (AND professional) life. As always, I look forward to hearing from you! In the meantime… Take care.

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Let the day begin — in a tasty way!

The theme for this month’s “Tasty Tuesdays” posts will be BREAKFAST, and each featured recipe will be a tasty way to begin your day. This first recipe is for a tasty treat I first discovered in a bulk bin at one of my local supermarkets back when I was living in the High Desert of California decades ago! It was French Vanilla Almond Granola, and I just could NOT get enough of it! Consequently, I tried time and again to recreate the recipe at home, but what I made NEVER tasted as good as what I purchased in bulk from Winco! So… When I heard that my daughter was going to Winco a couple months ago, I asked her to purchase four pounds of it for me. Thankfully, she did — AND she brought it all the way from California to Florida to give to me when she saw me at her recent college graduation. It was just as good as I remembered! However, knowing that I would soon run out of what she’d bought for me, I started looking online to find a recipe that just might turn out as good as what she’d purchased from Winco before her trip, and I found it — on the Delicious As It Looks food blog! And now, without further ado, here is that recipe…

French Vanilla Almond Granola

Ingredients

4 cups old-fashioned oats

1 cup sliced almonds

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup canola oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

  1. Heat oven to 200 degrees F. Line a large, rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats and sliced almonds.
  3. In a small saucepan over medium heat, stir the sugar and salt into the water. Cook and stir until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat. Stir in canola oil and vanilla. Pour into the oat and almond mixture and stir until thoroughly combined.
  4. Spread mixture out on the lined cookie sheet and bake for 2 hours, or until dry. * Do not stir! Remove from oven and let it cool before breaking apart into chunks. Store in an air-tight container.

Notes

  • I’ve found that when I increase the recipe, it requires more baking time. When I double the recipe, I have to bake it for almost 3 hours total.

So, there you have it: French Vanilla Almond Granola… a recipe for granola that rivals what can be purchased at Winco. Since there are no Winco grocery stores in my “neck of the woods”, I’m so delighted to have found a recipe that will satisfy my cravings for granola AND get my day off to a tasty start. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I feel a craving for some granola!

As always, I’d love to hear what you think of this recipe for French Vanilla Almond Granola as well as what your favorite granola recipe is, so please leave a comment below. In the meantime… Take care!