Author Archives: Janice

About Janice

I love California, both in and out of my garden. My passions are gardening and photography. My goal is to make Plum Bird Corner a happy place to visit often.

Ginger Cookies, Quick and Easy

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Ginger Cookies

Ginger cookies, with a glass of milk or a cup of tea, are a wonderful treat, especially as winter approaches and the days grow colder. I’ve been invited to a pre-holiday luncheon that includes a cookie exchange, so it seems like the perfect time to try another recipe I spotted in The Cruising Cook by Shirley Herd. I previously posted a recipe for cherry cobbler from this same cookbook. Please see that post if you would like a great dessert recipe:  Cherry Cobbler, Quick and Easy. As you can see, I love quick and easy recipes, especially for desserts. This one, like the cherry cobbler, calls for only three ingredients, or four if you count the water.Ginger cookie ingredients

Ingredients

  • 14 oz Gingerbread or Spice Cake mix
  • 1/2 cup chunky Peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup seedless Raisins
  • 2/3 cup water
  • Blend gingerbread mix with water and peanut butter. Mix well. The batter will thicken as you stir.
  • Add raisins.
  • Drop by teaspoons full onto greased baking sheet.
  • Bake 10-12 minutes in a 350°F oven.
  • When ready, cool and enjoy.
  • Makes approximately three dozen.

Cherry Cobbler, Easy and Delicious

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cherry cobbler

Warm cherry cobbler is the best, and if it’s easy to prepare, that’s even better. This is a recipe I found in Shirley Herd’s The Cruising Cook, a cook book designed for people preparing meals while living on board a boat. We owned a sailboat for many years, but ours didn’t come with an oven, so when I prepared this recipe I made it at home. It really is easy and delicious, with only three ingredients. Recently, while organizing our book shelves, I spotted the old cook book and was reminded of this dessert. I’m sure you will enjoy this slightly different version of the standard cherry cobbler.  100_3595

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups of cherry pie filling                                1-package loaf size yellow cake mix
1/3 cup butter melted

Spread pie filling in buttered loaf pan

Sprinkle cake mix evenly over top of the filling, then drizzle with melted butter

Bake 40 to 45 minutes in 350°F oven or until top is golden. Serve warm

Great with ice cream  Makes 9 servings

 

Get Ready Now for the Monarch Butterfly

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The Monarch Butterfly is beautiful, and easy to attract to your garden. Milkweed is the Monarch’s favorite food. Our milk weed plants are finally recovering now that the Monarch butterfly season is over for us. This was our second year with the Monarchs, and right now  I am watering and feeding the plants in preparation for spring. Last year, as the caterpillars devoured our plants, and adult Monarchs continued to lay eggs, we purchased several additional milk week plants. We quickly realized that this was becoming an endless cycle, so eventually stopped buying plants and let the adult monarchs look elsewhere to lay their eggs. FullSizeRender (5)

Here you see the monarch caterpillars munching on Milk Weed in our garden. The caterpillar stage lasts anywhere from 9 to 14 days and eventually the plants will become bare stems with roots. It is remarkable how these plants recover once the Monarch butterflies have flown from our area.

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These photos were all taken in our back yard, and if you would like to know more about the Monarch butterfly, please go to Monarch-Butterfly.com . They do a wonderful job of telling the full story of the truly awesome Monarch Butterfly.

Election Day Walk

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Today is election day in the United States. Yesterday I posted that my doctor has encouraged me to take a half-hour walk at least five days a week, so I decided to walk to my voting location instead of driving the car, as I usually do. As I headed to our nearby high school to cast my ballot, I felt like Meg Ryan in the movie “You’ve Got Mail.” I love that movie and envy the way she and Tom Hanks go most places on foot, because they live in Manhattan and it is much easier to walk than drive. We also have just about everything we need within close walking distance. After voting, I continued on to the grocery store to do a little shopping. I had to remember that I would be carrying my purchases home, so did not want to buy too much.  By the time I arrived home, I had done something wonderful for my health, and had also saved on the cost of fuel. It was such a positive experience that I plan to leave my car at home more often. I wonder where my walk will take me tomorrow! Tonight, election results.