Nature Friday

 We are joining Rosy this week for Nature Friday~~

We have had the dreariest and wettest days for too many days in a row and they aren't over yet.

My sissy gave mom these solar ornies for Christmas and we had beautiful sunny weather last Sunday and they were lit up at 5pm and stayed that way until the next morning and looked so festive and pretty.    We haven't seen them lit hardly at all since. 

Miss Laura's house is always so festive even in the dreary weather.

Happy New Year's Eve!

Love ya lots♥

Molly

Almost Wordless

 My FurDry bathrobe~

My reward~

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Love ya lots♥

Molly

Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas to all of my friends~

May you have the gladness of Christmas which is hope;
The spirit of Christmas which is peace;
The heart of Christmas which is love.
          ~ Ada V. Hendricks

Love ya lots♥

Molly

Christmas Eve

 This morning, mom cut into the cheesecake to make sure our guests would love it.

It is creamy and rich and yummy~

Of course, I NEEDED to sample it too!

The cranberry sauce has been made.    Evil mom wouldn't share any of that with me.

She told me that she had something that I would like even better.

She is right!  The giblets are cookering away on the stove.   They are for ME☺

Look what came early from Santa!

Merry Christmas Eve, everybuddy!

Love ya lots♥

Molly

Cheesecake Baking with Mom

 We have never made or eaten a Cannoli Cheesecake before.  This is the year for it!

The recipe:

8 biscotti (large dry almond-anise, or your favorite biscotti)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted)

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

16 ounces cream cheese (at room temperature)

8 ounces mascarpone cheese (at room temperature)

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (from 1 lemon)

3 eggs (at room temperature)

3/4 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips

cherries (Italian, in syrup, such as Amarena, for serving, optional)

  

Special equipment: a 9-inch springform pan.

• 
  
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Pulse the biscotti to fine crumbs in a food processor. Drizzle in the butter, add the salt and pulse until the mixture has the texture of wet sand. Press into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.
• Bake for 8 minutes, until the crust smells toasted and is beginning to brown. Set aside to cool while you make the filling. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F.
• In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, mascarpone and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally with a rubber spatula. Add the salt, vanilla and lemon zest; beat on medium speed until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the chocolate chips.
• Pour the cream cheese mixture over the crust and spread evenly. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the center of the cake still moves just slightly.
• Allow the cheesecake to cool on a wire rack for 1 hour. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Run a knife around the edge of the pan before releasing the collar.
• Top each slice of cheesecake with a spoonful of cherries, if using.

We started with the anise cookie crust.   Mom doesn't have a food processor so we have to do it the old fashioned way.

The crust after 8 minutes baking in the oven~

It smells wonderful!

We have never had mascarpone before.   To mom, it tastes like a spreadable heavy cream that is VERY rich!  

The batter is on top of the baked crust and ready for the oven but not before I got to lick the beaters!

Yes, the batter really is that white!

It took our cheesecake about an hour to bake.  It was still too jiggly at 45 minutes.

We need to wait for it to cool before we can proceed.

It was cold this morning on our walk and the weather peeps are saying that we may be waking up to a wee bit of snow tomorrow☺

Happy Thursday, everybuddy!

Love ya lots♥

Molly

Tasty and Thankful Tuesday

 Mom and I got early Christmas pressies from Mackie and his Doodle brother, Jett!

Mom never buys me jerky.  You guys rock!   

This jerky is beyond yummy!

Time to take off the socks, mom.   My feets are hot!

Thank you so very much, Mackie and Jett!   You boys are wonderful shoppers!

Happy first day of Winter!

Love ya lots♥

Molly

Molly Monday

 We are baking cranberry orange bread today and I'm helping!

This is a Christmas gift and the ingredients were more than was needed for the 8" X 4" pan so.......

I bet you think that I got to eat a whole muffin all by myself, right?

Wrong - mom is very stingy when it comes to anything with sugar in it.    

We have more baking to do this week and mom wants me healthy so that I can continue to help her☺

Our empty chair is ready for our most special company♥

Happy Monday, everybuddy!

Love ya lots♥

Molly

Nature Friday

 We are joining Rosy today for Nature Friday.

We didn't think that we were going to find much interesting on our walk but we surprised ourselves.

We found a cute little pine cone right next to the road in perfect condition.

We found mushrooms growing up this tree.  They look like little roofs!

We even found frozen perennial bachelor button flowers!

The money plant is still here but not looking its best.

We never get tired of red berries - beautiful red berries!

Happy Friday, everybuddy!

Love ya lots♥

Molly

Wordless Wednesday

Love ya lots♥

Molly
 

Nature Friday

 We are joining Rosy, Jakey and Sunny this week for Nature Friday~

We weren't out on the roads yesterday.  The weather peeps said that roads were icy and mom won't chance us getting run into by any out of control sliding cars.

Mom has been dragging leaves in our woods for weeks and it only took one tiny snowfall to flatten them out a LOT!.    That's our remembrance bell hanging from the tree.  

Yup, we STILL have leaves on some of our trees~

The holly berries are so pretty covered in snow.

The snow helps us to see the red berries on this barberry near our front door.

There are still a couple of unpicked Chinese Lanterns in the garden.  

Happy Friday, everybuddy!

Love ya lots♥

Molly