Recipe: Cowboy Coffe Cake Muffins

My mom used to make this recipe in the form of a true coffee cake on Sunday mornings. I like the muffins just as well, and have always loved the streusel topping the best.

Streusel Topping

In a bowl add:
3 TBL flour
3 TBL brown sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Stir ingredients together.  Cut in 2 TBL of butter until the mixture looks like crumbs.

Stir in 3 TBL chopped nuts of choice (I used walnuts).

Set aside.

In another bowl combine:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt

Cut in 1/4 cup butter until mixture looks like crumbs.

Combine 1 beaten egg to 1/2 cup of buttermilk and add to the dry mixture, stirring until the batter is well mixed.  It may still be lumpy.

Spoon the batter into prepared muffin cups, but do not overfill. Top with the streusel topping. Bake in the oven at 400° F for 15 minutes or until done. Cool on a baking rack. Serve warm.

Words in the week: Nature in May #5

"Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower." 

-Hans Christian Anderson

"I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty." 

- Georgia O`Keeffe

Foto Friday: Back in the saddle

 

Our little girl has been overjoyed that she can now ride her horse.

Words in the week: Nature in May #4

"Love all the earth.  Every ray of God's light, every grain of sand or blade of grass.  Every living thing." 

~Leo Tolstoy

Small Stone #23

Rescued this weekend by a friend
and my husband.
And still I receive- as if rescue is not enough- :
a grateful heart,
a peaceful mind,
and a feeling of being
          caught in mid-air.

In my notebook: Fresh rain and the weather changes

A gentle rain has been falling since last evening. 

We need it, as always.  It's been so warm lately, even for our side of the state, that the land has started to dry out.  I have even watered a couple of times- already!  The surrounding landscape is still very green though, and oh so pretty looking around at what winter has left for us.  All that snow piled high was worth the endless days of waiting for it to melt.

Warm weather equals early run-off, and the streams and the rivers are beginning to bulge from the extra water.  Even our ditch has water, here again, very early.

I think about the quote: "Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while." ~Kin Hubbard

And here I am writing about the weather and unconsciously stating how much it means to our life, our surroundings.  Maybe it's because the changes the weather brings pulls me into the moment, and I can be present and at ease, at least for a while, amongst change.  Maybe that's why we all talk about the weather so much, we all know what it is at each moment through messages sent by all of our senses.  Weather is somewhat tangible, it's something we can grasp.  Although unpredictable, it's generally safe and comfortable.  If you're in the west everyone says- give it five minutes and it will change.  Even my kids say, "We better play outside while we can before the weather changes."

Perhaps I'll leave my thoughts with it's best to enjoy the weather, enjoy the change, enjoy the moment within it all.

Words in the Week: Nature in May #3

Since the grass is now green and the changes of spring are so apparent, I enjoy just gazing at the beauty all around...

"This curious world we inhabit is more wonderful than convenient; more beautiful than it is useful; it is more to be admired and enjoyed than used." ~Henry David Thoreau

"Are not the mountains, waves and skies a part of me and of my soul, as I of them?"   ~Lord Byron

  

Small Stone #22

May 4, 2013- First day of thunder

Thunder, there you are
You and your many voices

Foto Friday: Surprise in the hay

The other day my husband lifted a bale of hay and there were seven baby rabbits sleeping in a nest their mamma made for them.  My kids were very excited to see them, and their presence in the hay has been the subject of several conversations in our house.  Seven all at once, my goodness.

Small Stone #21

Under a blue sky
and the song of a Meadowlark on my roof,
I work while I can;
a few hours in the soil,
my patch of earth.

Words in the week: Nature in May #2

Because the rain across Wyoming is so very refreshing...

"Let the rain kiss you.  Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.  Let the rain sing you a lullaby."  ~Langston Hughes

"Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them?"  ~ Rose Kennedy 

 "It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.  We need the storm, the whirlwind and the earthquake." ~Fredrick Douglas

Foto Friday: Boar's Tusk, Red Desert in Wyoming

Words in the Week: Nature in May

The calendar says it is May, and yet large flakes of snow keep falling out my window.  On days like today I begin to get that itch to be in the outdoors for a hike on an unknown-at least to me-trail, a drive down a rocky mountain road exploring the landscape, or day floating down a river in anticipation of what I might see around the river bend.  In these instances I enjoy reading about nature- whether it be in the mountains, the desert, the ocean or the plains- and the insights and experiences that others have while being there. 

Since it may be awhile yet before I can get to some of the places I love due to snow pack and quick changing weather, the month of May Words in the Week will focus on nature- the beauty of it and our relationship with it.

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.        ~John Ruskin

"He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.  ~Socrates 

"I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.  ~John Burroughs