ZenJen's Dream Board

Sandy at Peaceful Daily says it best:
A vision board is a place where you keep everything that you want
to create in your life.

For several months now I've had the idea for a dream or vision board rolling around in my head. I've been thinking about what pictures and words that I needed to help me concentrate on what I want in life. I knew that a dream board would help me visualize these thoughts, and give me something to focus on while I was meditating. Or, I suppose I should say while I am trying to meditate because I'm not very good! Yet.

But, I never got down to the nitty-gritty and actually created one. I was going to create it the manual way - cutting out pictures and words that I liked and posting them to a board. Using my own calligraphy to write out words that would help me.

Words like Friends, Family, Strength, Travel, Peace...

But a few weeks ago, while reading my emails - I read about dream boards in my Peaceful Daily email. I enjoy getting these daily updates, and have used several of the ideas in my life. When I read that there may be an easier way to create a Dream Board, I was ecstatic. Then I saw that it was on Oprah's website, and I was not sure. I have a lot of respect and like Oprah, but I don't watch her show (I don't watch daytime television) and until today I had never visited her website. But I will say I was very impressed with how easy it was to create my own board. I didn't use any of my own personal pictures, but you can if you have them on your computer. I'm very happy with my first board, although I will probably use some of my own pictures, and calligraphy for my second board. I'm already thinking of making another with other goals and hopes!

I hope that you will make your own board, it is quick and easy at
O Dream Board. I look forward to seeing what dreams you have!

A delicious Almond Blueberry Coffeecake to say I'm sorry

I knew it had been a long time since I've written, but I hadn't realized just how long it has been until today. Wow. I'm not exactly sure what I've been up to for the past - ahem - 2 months or so. But, I feel as though I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off. There have been so many days when I've made something, and thought "I have GOT to write about this!", and then haven't done so. There have been more days when I've been busy in the kitchen, and once I taste the finished product, have thought to myself "Nope, not good enough to share."

We didn't buy a lot of packaged foods before, but I think I have been doing quite well with using even less. I've made several batches of crackers, and last week I spent hours fighting cherries and blueberries making a ton of freezer jam. I noticed this morning that my fingers are finally back to a flesh color!

This was only some of the mess I made while crushing the cherries. There was cherry juice EVERYWHERE.

This is only the cherry jam. When I was done with the blueberry jam, I was so tired, I forgot to take a picture. But I didn't mind the mess or the exhaustion because now we've got plenty of jam in the freezer to add to our homemade yogurt, and to use in recipes.

Lately, every morning for breakfast, Patrick has a yogurt and something extra. This week, I asked him what he had a craving for, and he requested a coffeecake. I don't make coffeecakes very often, and when I do make them we usually eat them as dessert. As soon as he mentioned it, I knew I wanted to use some of this bounty of jam I have stashed in the freezer.

I looked through a lot of my cookbooks, and couldn't find a recipe that matched what I had already come up with in my head. One of my favorite cookbooks is "The American Country Inn and Bed and Breakfast Cookbook" by Kitty and Lucian Maynard. I have both Volume One and Volume Two as well as the Best Recipes Collection. In Volume One I found a recipe for an Apple Coffee Cake from Murphy's House Bed and Breakfast in Great Fall, Montana that I knew I could tweak to get the results that I was looking for. This will definitely be a recipe that I make more often!

Almond Blueberry Coffeecake

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
approximately 20 ounces of jam, any flavor
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.

In a medium mixing bowl cream the 1/2 cup butter and the 1 cup sugar with an electric mixer. Add the eggs, the almond extract and the milk, mixing well after each addition.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture.

Pour half of the batter into the prepared baking pan. Spoon half of the jam over the batter. Repeat with remaining batter and jam. Sprinkle the top of the final jam layer with brown sugar and nuts. Drizzle with melted butter. Bake for 35-45 minutes until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Serve warm.