Whoopie Pies

 I've never made these, but have wanted to for years and I figured it would be a fun thing to make when our granddaughter was here one day. She likes to help with everything I do and that makes everything fun. 

DH walked in as we were putting them together and asked Little E what they were. 

She piped up excitedly, "Whoopie Pies, Pap! Here! Have one!". 

These turned out great and only got better after I refrigerated them overnight, but the official taste testers couldn't wait that long

Lots of sugar. Very sweet. But a fun treat that I'm adding to my favorite recipe binder. Here's the recipe I used: Whoopie Pies. You can find more details there. The only change I made was to use regular brown sugar instead of dark brown sugar. And I'd like to find a more traditional filling that doesn't begin with the marshmallow cream. 

Whoopie Pies

1 2/3 C flour (212 g)

2/3 C (57 g) dutch processed cocoa

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1 stick (113 g) room temperature unsalted butter

1 C  (200 g) brown sugar 

1 large egg - room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 C (296 g) room temperature buttermilk

Filling:

297 g (a little less than a 13 oz container) marshmallow cream filling

15 Tbsp (212 g) unsalted, room temperature butter

1 C + 2 Tbsp (140 g) powdered sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

*Preheat oven to 375°. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl.

In 2nd bowl, beat butter and brown sugar for 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. Beat for another 3 minutes.

Add 1/2 the flour and 1/2 the buttermilk to batter. Mix until well combined. Add remaining flour and buttermilk, mixing well.

Use a cookie scoop to drop onto cookie sheet, 2" apart. Bake for 11 minutes or until pies spring back when lightly touched. Cool for 5 minutes on cookie sheet before removing to cooling rack to cool completely.

For filling: 

Beat marshmallow creme and butter until combined. Mix in powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt. Beat for 3 minutes until very smooth and soft. Using cookie scoop, sandwich filling between 2 cookies. Refrigerate.

Another Week in the Rearview Mirror

 Sheesh! I've really fallen off the blog wagon this month. And yes, all is well, everyone is happy and healthy, I've just misplaced my posting mojo and although the little bits and bobs of daily life fill up our days, it doesn't seem like they fill up a post. 

I did get my America 250 quilt top together 

And I pieced all the border sections

Binding stitches were added during UFC fights. Not many though because I'm a big UFC fan...have been for 20+ years. Folks are always surprised to know that.

The barn kittens are growing (there are 8)

Our jungle hen that raised 3 babies in June, immediately began sitting on another clutch of eggs the minute she deemed her 3 independent and now she is raising 10 more!

                                                         

DH's new toys always mean more work. He gets frustrated that he's not getting more done. Our son piped up, " Rome wasn't built in a day." #1 son speaks truth. 😉

                       

Since I am nowhere near Greenland, Iceland, Spain, or Portugal, I missed out on the recent solar eclipse, but being 32 miles from a small village in one direction, and 53 from a town another, leaves us with incredibly dark skies and the best seat in the house to enjoy the Perseid meteor shower in the predawn hours. Not even pretending to capture the show with a phone camera. Just sat back and captured it with my inner astronomy nerd self.

Little E was over one day 

Pap and her daddy made plans 

and worked on the never-ending fence project

                                                 

DH can hardly walk by the end of the day, but his hip hasn't stopped him from tackling this project although the doctor said it would keep a normal person from walking, but he IS part mountain goat. His surgeon is currently deployed so we're in limbo for the time being. 

                                                       

Little E and I spent a lot of time in the kitchen where she was excited about her new pink sponge.

We made a mess, but even cleaning up can be fun

                                                  

We're still enjoying garden produce

And I enjoyed having help with the windows

We also made Whoopie Pies...recipe coming soon!

Lately

 Seems like our days are filled with little odds and ends, like yours, that make up a life...a good life.

Celebrating a special birthday

Taking your daughter to work day. 😉          

 

Finding out that my mountain goat needs a new hip

Exploring with Skeet

Building Fences

         

Sneaking in a stitch now and then

Dancing with Daddy

Soaking in the treasured moments

Savoring summer

Mastering new skills

Kicking off a new school year

Keeping everyone fed

Tending to the garden

Horsing around

Praying for rain

Thanking God for the dawning of each new day filled with His presence. Caught this beautiful sunrise while we were out feeding horses the other morning.

Terrifically Tilda Quilt Finish

 In June 2022, the only UFOs I had were at the quilter's and I was ready to start something new.  I had been on a mission to sew up my collection of jelly rolls. This is a different type of fabric than I usually gravitate towards, but I'd noticed it in a few quilt shops back when it came out and I was drawn to the quilts made with it. I never bought any and by the time I decided to, I ran across 2 Tilda Plumb Garden jelly rolls on sale in 2020 and brought them home. 

I don't buy Tilda fabrics anymore because they are more expensive and I really have come close to reaching my capacity for stash storage anyway. And I finally decided I love fabric so much more once it's in a quilt so I am challenging myself to use what I have and that's pretty easy to do when I've got so many great choices. That led to these becoming a Jelly Strip Stash Buster Quilt. 

You can find the tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew HERE. I didn't want to think, I just wanted to run fabric under the needle and this fit the bill although it probably took me longer to pair up fabrics than it should have. 

Still, 42 blocks came together over the course of about 10 days. And then it sat. For almost 4 years. Yikes. But I finally dug it back out in March and made another 39 blocks

I was short 1 block and cobbled one together

I still have the 2nd jelly roll, but didn't want to break it open for 1 piece. I cut a variety of the chambray fabrics for a scrappy binding

Sandy quilted a design called Asian Fan that complements the quilt top nicely

I was stumped for a backing. I couldn't find anything in my stash that I thought would work and I finally settled on this print that I picked up at Hobby Lobby. I wasn't completely sold on it, but I really like it now.

I like the way everything came together and at 62" x 74", it'll make a good throw quilt

I'll have to come up with another plan for the 2nd jelly roll. But for now, I think this will work. I like this simple, modern take. It looks somewhat like patchwork which is always a winner in my book.