My Tangent - Not Only Genealogy But Muffins Too...

Good Day,

Yes, I am obsessed with genealogy... and quilting. But I do have a couple other likes that from time-to-time bide my time.

Today was the third time in a couple of weeks that I set myself back to another one of my long-lost loves; baking.

Who'd'a thought that running a bakery that many years ago would necessarily put me back into the mood to start again? But first, let me explain, I'm not starting a bakery... I'm just doing the baking. I think that there is also the sticker shock after I purchased some baked goods at a specialty coffee and goodies shop.

And I've started off with muffins.

The first batch - Banana, sour cream, and toasted walnuts. Didn't have enough sour cream so I substituted half required with yogurt. Not a bad result, and they didn't last long out of the oven.

The next dozen was Cranberry and orange. But this one doesn't count. This was from a box off the shelf. I was being a bit lazy and thinking that everything would be pre-measured and in easy plastic compartments if I used a box/package. I definitely wanted to see and taste if there was a real difference between homemade and packaged goods. Damn right there's a difference... But I am confused, why did the package mix instructions only state that the resulting batter would make 11 regular-sized muffins?

My next homemade batch was a mixture of cornmeal, flour, bacon, green onions, and three types of cheeses: Asiago, white cheddar, and mozzarella. These were terrific, and you can tell that "Chopped" is definitely having a lasting effect on my approach to cooking.

Today's experiment was blueberry, sugar, and grated lime peel. The recipe called for lemon peel, but I only have a key-lime tree in the back-yard. A blueberry sugar reduction was made to swirl into the batter of each muffin. Also a mixture of sugar and lime peel was mixed and sprinkled on top. Fresh out of the oven, only half a dozen left.

And yes, the above image of six lime-sugared blueberry muffins are the ones out of my oven.

And here's to fairly good baked goods.

Now I will focus on A Genealogy Hunt on my Mystery of the genealogy and life of ggg-grandfather Brayton C. Placeway. Also, got to work on the next new Quilt SB designs.

Enjoy,

Jim

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My Tangent - Morning Carmen Miranda - A Genealogy Hunt and Quilts SB

Morning,

This morning I followed a usual routine. I got up a bit earlier than usual and I walked the Pack. I then fed all and got myself some breakfast and coffee. I turned on the PC and checked out all my messages. Stopped in at the regular sites and checked the rankings at Top Listed and found that A Genealogy Hunt was at the number 2 Rank and Quilts SB hit 3rd for the first time. As these are real time numbers Quilts SB is now ranked at 6th.

I checked out Google Analytics for June 23rd. The Bounce Rate for A Genealogy Hunt had reduced to 36.4%. (According to Wikipedia the Bounce Rate “represents the percentage of initial visitors to a site who “bounce” away to a different site, rather than continue on to other pages within the same site.”) This is good news and the Bounce Rate has been slowly decreasing. It means that more readers are checking out and into A Genealogy Hunt. The rate for Quilts SB is 44.0% which is also a relatively good rating. And of course this is the statistician in me… I have to check.

And this morning I found a great piece of correspondence from Dawn who may or may not have some Smith in Grenada connection to my ggg-grandfather James Smith. It’s a lead, and after responding to her queries it was time to get ready for the rest of my day.

I now know what it feels like to wear the market stall of Carmen Miranda. This morning, in the shower I began reading the labels and ingredients of the hair and soap products. First there was an avocado pre-conditioner. Then a mango shampoo followed by hemp conditioner… The body and facial washes were of various citrus, plus one hell of a lot of 25-cent long words that certainly don’t fit into my vocabulary. And all I could think about was boom-chi-chi-boom-chi-chi-boom. Ms. Carmen had all the right ideas on top… I wonder if she ever had stock and shares in J&J…

Oh and last two night suppers: Guyanese Chow Mein and Curry Shrimp, Chicken and Vegetable Stew.

Enjoy,

Jim

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