CHECKING THINGS OFF MY LONG TO DO LIST

The weather was nice enough today to remove debris from six flower beds. I cut down the dead stalks and put them on the compost piles. I still have lots of other flower beds to clean and tomorrow is supposed to be nice and I'll try to clean several more. I also picked up my old rusty metal shelves and brought them downstairs to clean them and repaint them with rust proof paint later on when I have time. These shelves were damaged in the flood of 2008. They were supposed to be disposed of but they just stayed there so now I'm trying to resurrect them.

My vegetable garden needs to be cleaned too and the parsley needs harvesting. My husband's annual job is to dehydrate the parsley.  I use it in soup a lot.

This evening I took down my Halloween decorations and put them away until next year. I started to add a few little things every year. This is only the third year that I bother to put out Halloween decorations. I never did before.

I'm waiting for another cow to give birth. Her water broke around five o'clock today and she still hasn't delivered. My one day old heifer calf is doing really well and she is so big and strong.  She was born outside in the wee hours of the morning and it was cold. I put a calf jacket on her to keep her warm. I may have photos tomorrow.  JB

CARROT CAKE & BRUSSEL SPROUTS

I  thought that I better post my Carrot Cake receipe before I forget.  This cake is moist and delicious without the cream cheese frosting, but I usually cheat and buy the Betty Crocker Cream Cheese Frosting just because my life is so busy or maybe because I'm just plain too lazy to bother.

                                                         CARROT CAKE
2          cups all purpose flour
1 1/4    cups brown sugar
2 tsp.    baking soda
1 tsp     baking powder
2 tsp     cinnamon
1/4 tsp   salt
4 large   eggs
3/4 cup  vegetable oil
3 cups   grated carrots
1 cup    chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour Bunt or tube pan. Mix dry ingredients together.
Add eggs and oil and beat until well blended, scrape sides.
Mix in carrots and walnuts. pour in prepared pan.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until done. Test with a tooth pic . If the tooth pic comes out clean , it is done.
Cool on  cake rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan. When completely cool, frost with Cream Cheese Frosting.   NOTE  In my oven, the cake is ready in 50 minutes.

                                                       CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

6 oz.     cream cheese
2 Tbsp  butter
2 cups   icing sugar
1 tsp.    vanilla

Beat cream cheese and butter, add icing sugar and vanilla, beat at high speed until fluffy. Spread on
carrot cake.

My daughter Jackie came over today to harvest the rest of her beets and the Brussel Sprouts that her daughter planted this past spring.  She started her own seeds and then transplanted them in the garden on the other side of our cedar edge. There was so much Brussel Sprouts that my daughter gave me 5 full plants and I filled a grocery bag with the sprouts. I had some last week and they were absolutely delicious.

Thanks for the visit and for leaving a comment. JB