Merry Christmas everyone!

 Rick, Pam, Dublin and Max!

Remember the days....

My cousin brought me this picture a few weeks ago. This is me around 10 or 11, 1977-78? (Yes I am dating myself LOL Could be a little later, but then I started riding our gelding.) gaming on our old mare Silky. She was a pretty one, had all the chrome! Four white socks and full blaze.

I have no idea what obstacle it was. We used to go to game shows all the time. Obstacles were, Poles, Barrels, scuries (two jumps and run around a barrel and back over the jumps, its not done anymore.) figure 8, and a few other ones I am not remembering. My Mom and I used to both ride Silky, so she would compete twice. She was a good horse.

Spam

Sorry I had to turn on Word verify for a little while.
Getting a lot of anonymous spam.

Sorry Karen

My first Gumdrop cake!

I have very fond memories of the Christmas box my Grandparents would send, when I was little.

My Grandma would bake Gumdrop cake, and put one in the box with Christmas presents for all of us.

The only changes I made to the recipe was to soak the raisins in Captain Morgans Spiced Rum, I remember Grandma doing this) and a cup of hot water, may leave out the water next time. I called my Mom to consult with her about the recipe too.

Should have used more Rum! LOL can barely taste it. But it turned out wonderful!! Raisins, spiced gumdrops (no black ones) and walnuts. It is basically an applesauce cake.

 Smells great! Very thick.

 Full pan! It bakes for 2 hours!

 Looks good! Colorful! It has always been my favorite Christmas, and after Christmas breakfast!

Gumdrop cake

Ingredients
2 lbs gumdrops (mine came in a 1.8lb package, that was plenty)
1 cup of butter
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 1/2 Cups sweetened applesauce (I used unsweetened)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 lb light or dark raisins
1 1/2 Cups chopped nuts (I would love to try hazelnuts)
4 Cups flour

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 300* Dissolve baking soda in 1tsp hot water.
2. Cream butter and sugar in mixing bowl. (large one!)
3. Add applesauce, dissolved baking soda and eggs.
4. Add 2 C flour, cinnamon, cloves, salt.
5. Mix nuts, raisins and gumdrops in separate bowl. (here is one change I made, I didnt mix in the raisins because of the liquid, just added them after.)
6. Sift remaining 2 C flour over gumdrop mixture then add to the creamed mixture.
7. Grease and flour an angel food cake pan. ( I used a bundt pan, cuz thats the shape I remember as a kid!)
8. Pour batter into pan and bake 2 hours.
(next time I will check after about 1 hour 45 min., I have a convection oven and although it seems done perfect, it is a little crunchy on the bottom(top in pan). The only other thing I want to try is, well, more Rum! and adding some vanilla.
Prep time: 15 min    Total time: 2 hrs 15 min       Servings: 8-10 (a lot more than that!)

This recipe is one of my most favorite Christmas memories! Much better than fruit cake!

Belles Journey, book purchase

I wanted to share this book with my horse friends. I read the review and the story touched my heart. I have been collecting horse books of all types for awhile now. Garage sales, thrift stores, Amazon, where I found this one. The price was $1.00, plus $3.99 shipping and it came from a Goodwill store in Connecticut. Its about an old horse, that saves her little girls life in a snowstorm on the Canadian Prairie.

 About the author.

 The girl wished for a new younger pony to ride back and forth to school and piano lessons.

 Until Belle brought her home that day.

 She gets a stall in the barn for the rest of her days after getting her girl home. See she was frozen to Belles back and Dad had to cut her skirt to get her off.
It brought tears to my eyes when I read it. I hope to share it with grand kids someday.
Published in 1993, there were a few more available cheap on Amazon if you are interested. I think its kind of interesting it found its way back to Washington, where its US publisher is.

I love horse stories and I have a few old books that are in great condition, by C.W. Anderson, Margeret Henry, etc.  And a lot of newer ones.
I hope you like this story as much as I did.

A new endeavor!!

I have finally decided to take the plunge and open an Etsy shop!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/RedDunDesigns

I have named it Red Dun Designs, after my favorite critter Emma.

Wish me luck! and stop by and check it out! I will be adding more things soon.

So far it is Christmas ornaments that I have painted, the ones I have blogged about
a few times.

Here is my last booth at The Fern Prairie Grange Bazaar.

 I still have most of these left! ( I have a lot of inventory! I have been painting and storing for a year!)

 The Cowboy Santa at the top middle is on Etsy. So is the same shape Santa on the left of the Cowboy.

 I have listed the two sleighs on the left on Etsy.

 Most of my $2 gift tags are on Etsy too, the ones top left. Next I will be taking pics and posting some of my memo clips, like the Hope snowmen, upper right.

I will be listing the ornament on the left too, it takes awhile to coordinate items and pictures, and get them posted!


I hope this works out!!