Thinking of Cherry Pie

   Being home full time now has its up and downs.  As much as I love being able to work in my pajamas and sipping coffee while working here on the computer I do miss a few things from being downtown. Now I don't want to mislead anyone when I say downtown. I live just outside of Montello, Wisconsin so, downtown consists of a few main streets and a handful of shops, a few taverns, beauty shops and gas stations. We do have a pharmacy and a grocery store.



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One of my favorite shops in town I have mentioned before is the Teapot Quilt Cottage and after looking over the February class schedule noticed that on Saturday February 20th they are having Cherry Pie Day.  Seeing that I just had to ask what was going on.  In the past we have had chocolate tastings, a pumpkin pie bakeoff, christmas cookie and others all in the Cottage. People would enter their tasty dishes for a chance to win a gift cerftificate or small prize, bu the real winners were those who stopped in and tasted, then voted on their favorites. So much fun.  This time Jean is giving out Cherry Pie slices on this day. What a nice treat when you stop in and see alll the great things she has. From quilting supplies and yarn to produce in season and plants. You could make an afternoon of it, just in her shop. 
     Jean and I also started the Easter Bunny Parade in town, over the past few years it has grown into quite a fun tradition for the families in town and those visiting Grandmas on that weekend. Since we started the New Montello Group, about four years ago,  we have worked very hard to get visitors to stop in their journey through Montello and see what there is to offer.
   As of late it seems some things have changed and maybe not for the better.   Promoting a small town is an ongoing project, as each small town is working to attract visitors to keep it alive and growing.  Montello has so many great natural resources and such nice people it just needs to say " HEY, look at me" and get some good attention. Just about one hour north of Madison and about four hours from Chicago it is a great place to visit with the family or maybe a girls weekend.  All that said back to cherry pie
  Since reading about the cherry lices, I went to one of my favorite websitres to look for a recipe to try .
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/01/cherry-cake-pudding/
Over the past few weeks I have made about a dozen recipes from this site and all were raved about.
Cherry Cake Pudding

Ingredients
■Cake
■1 cup Sugar
■2 Tablespoons Butter, Softened
■1 whole Egg
■1 cup All-purpose Flour
■1 teaspoon Baking Powder
■⅛ teaspoons Salt
■½ cups Whole Milk
■1 can (15 Ounces) Cherries In Syrup (NOT Cherry Pie Filling) Drained, Juice Reserved
■½ cups Pecans, Finely Chopped
■Sauce:
■1 cup Juice From Cherries (add Water To Make 1 Cup If Necessary)
■1 cup Sugar
■1 Tablespoon All-purpose Flour
■1 Tablespoon Butter
■½ teaspoons Vanilla Extract
■Unsweetened Freshly Whipped Cream

Preparation Instructions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Generously butter a square 9 x 9-inch baking dish.
Cream sugar and butter. Add egg and mix well. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt then add to mixing bowl alternatively with milk. Add cherries and chopped nuts and mix gently. Pour batter into buttered pan and smooth out the surface. Bake for 40 minutes, or until golden brown on the surface and no longer jiggly.
While cake is baking, make the sauce by combining cherry juice, sugar, and flour in a small saucepan. Boil for 8 to 10 minutes, or until thick. Turn off heat and stir in 1 tablespoon butter and vanilla extract.
Drizzle 1/3 of the sauce on the cake as soon as you remove it from the oven. Spread to distribute over the surface and wait ten minutes before serving so the sauce will seep into the top of the cake a bit.

Spoon out pieces of warm, sticky cake and top with unsweetened whipped cream

I can't wait for hubby to get back from the store so I can get this in the oven.

by the way Walmart carries The Pioneer Woman new cookbook, a must have!  I ordered mine online from Walmart as our store was out of them.

All of this cooking has cut into my "hooking " time. I am trying to get a good amount of bunny and spring hats done. I have some of them destined for Josephines in Watertown and the others for Grammas Gifts the Etsy shop. I also just signed on for a show on April 8th in Fitchburg so I will need to get busy.

Window washing

In the shop window washing takes on a whole new meaning.....if I was them it is to PAINT on them. During city wide clean up I was able to pick up a few really nice windows and today I was in the mood to paint them. The new enamel paints make it so easy . Hopefully these fly out of the shop over the weekend to give me more incentive to paint a couple more.

another MOOSE type recipe

“Antler Munch” Popcorn

22.5 oz Crunch and Munch® or Fiddle Faddle® Popcorn (your favorite flavor) (3 7.5 oz bozes)
1 cup Nuts (pecans, almonds, cashews), optional
12 oz Semi-sweet chocolate chips
12 oz White chocolate chips
2 tsp Crisco, divided

Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat. Set aside.

Place semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 tsp of Crisco in a large microwave safe bowl. Microwave for about 30 seconds. Stir. Continue until chips look shiny. Remove from microwave and stir until all chips are melted.

Quickly stir in 1 box of popcorn and ? cup of nuts, if using. Note that popcorn does not have to be perfectly covered with chocolate. Spread onto the prepared cookie sheet, separating kernels as much as possible. Cool completely and break into pieces.

Repeat the process with the white chocolate chips and remaining Crisco. Stir in a second box of popcorn with another ? cup of nuts, if using. Add the white chocolate chips and put on the 2nd cookie sheet as described above.

When both pans of chocolate covered popcorn have dried, combine the white chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate and the remaining box of popcorn. Combine the nuts with the popcorn. Store in airtight container out of the heat.

In the shop I am busy finishing up painting for the fest, it is fast approaching May 1 & 2 . This has been a great opportunity for Montello and the surrounding area.FREE Icecream for the visitors, hot air ballons, carnival and 10 Pro fisherman to take kids 9-14 fishing for FREE, Bring the family out to see the natural resources we have as well as all the vendors and attractions brought here this day. Our group is busy trying to finalize plans and make this event a huge success. think FUN . The shop will be getting updated as soon as I find some spare time,

Apathy?????

This morning as I sit and work on things for the Moose Fest, I find it hard to come up with ways to jolt the people in and around town into coming out to the downton are to see all it has to offer. Don't get me wrong they are all very nice people but, they tend to drive 20 minutes to shop in Portage or maybe and hour to Madison,,,,, when right here they can find those very same things, save gas, time and build their community. The New Montello Group has been working for 3 years to get locals involved in their downtown through events like the Easter Bunny Parade and more. Well enough whining on my part. My project this morning was to create a coloring contest page to be handed out at the local school and a couple surrounding towns. I did find a MOOSE for them to color and will get this off to the printer. With that behind me and no emergency calls yet I can sit down and get some painting done. I am hoping to get the shop full to the brim before the fest. A nice weekend in May would put the season off to a good start. So today, I will stay away from the computer and paint black bears and a moose of two on some camping and cabin signs.

Easter Bunny Parade

was a HUGE success. Here is a picture from the Waterfall..
to see more phots and a list of the sponsoring businesses vist the New Montello Groups Blog

Happy Easter

Moose on the mind in Montello

Well, we have wiped the winter off the windows and are well into spring.  So, with Moose on everyones mind here in Montello, we are finding new ways to bring MOOSE into the shop.

Starting Saturdays we will have MOOSE POOP cookies, and other treats.

Something for the Moose Hunt followers and those gearing up for Moose Fest.

Hopefully I can get some Mooose Welcome Friends donae along with some Moose on cabin signs and logs.

Here is the first MOOSE POOP Cookie recipe we will try !

Ingredients

•2 sticks of butter (1 cup)

•3/4 cup brown sugar

•3/4 cup white sugar

•2 eggs

•1 tsp vanilla

•2 cups flour

•1/2 tsp salt

•1 tsp baking soda

•3 cups oatmeal

•1 cup chopped walnuts

•2 cups chocolate chips

Directions

.Mix all together, drop by 1/4 cup portions on a

.greased cookie sheet. Bake at 325 degrees for 20

minutes.
Sounds easy enough , I'll let you know

This little "Stinker" was amazed at how many Moose Hunt players came to Grandma's shop !     Saturday found us very busy at Pattibears Place with more than 40 people getting in on the Great American Moose Hunt. It has been alot of fun chatting with visitors and finding out where they are from and sending them on their way to find more Moose Hunt tickets around town and then throughout the state.

    I was also shocked when I listed this adorable skunk hat on Craigs List and got orders almost instantly. So I am off to paint and crochet and get the orders out.

Thank you to all my new customers and those who come back time and again for a great weekend!  See you soon