What to Give for Christmas Gifts

I just had a delightful conversation with a client from Louisiana. She loved the Blueberry Crunch and Apple Crisp so much that she ordered more and will give them as gifts. She wanted to know how to determine who to give which mix.




The answer is...if your friend or family member cannot bake or does not like to bake, then the Blueberry Crunch, Cherry Crunch or Peach Crunch is the easiest mix to bake.



The Heirloom Applesauce Cake, Dark Chocolate Cabernet Cake, Bourbon Brownies and the Super Chocolate Brownies are also right up there with easy to bake. Most of our mixes are so easy to make, that they are all good for gifts.

The beer breads are extremely easy to bake, too. Place the mix in a bowl, pour the beer (or I like Vanilla Cream Soda), stir, plop it on a cookie sheet and bake.


Of course, the Root Beer Cookies are our best seller, so giving them something unique is so much fun! I love the Mega Mint Chocolate Cookies, so any chocolate and mint lover will love you for giving them a box of the best cookie mix.

I cannot cook and am not much of a baker (Michael is the best at both - that is why I am Director of Taste Testing), but I can make all of the pancakes, the breads, the brownies and cookies. If I can do it, anyone can! You can take full culinary responsibility for creating the mix from scratch. We won't tell!

Don't forget to buy mixes for stocking stuffers, mixes for your child's teacher, your delivery person and for your hostess at all of the Christmas parties that you will attend. You are so thoughtful!

Have fun shopping! Happy Thanksgiving!

Tipping Over Chicadees

Last evening, I was making salad for dinner and realized that we were out of carrots.

Michael volunteered to go to the garden and pull a few for me.

On his way to the garden in the dark of night,
Michael walked by one of our spruce trees
and was startled by a rush of chickadees!

They had been soundly sleeping,
so were just as startled by Michael as he was of them!

They flew away in a buzz of wings.

I wonder how long it was before they came back to bed?

If we get bored at night, Michael suggests that we go chickadee tipping!

Kevin the hero

It was a dark and stormy night.

We were at Meijer, buying our groceries for the week. We unloaded our cart and put the cart in the cart corral. We drove home, unloaded most of the groceries and received a phone call from my mother to call a man who was at Meijer.

My mother lives in Jackson, but a very nice, honest man named Kevin, called her and told her that he found my purse in the cart. Kevin had to do some sleuthing to find mom's phone number, but he found it and called mom and she called us and we called Kevin and we went back to Meijer and gave Kevin a box of Root Beer Cookie mix and a surprised Kevin gave me my purse, not knowing why I handed him a box of Root Beer Cookie mix.

We are so grateful to Kevin for finding my purse and taking the effort to find me and for meeting me at the entrance, just to give it back to me. God Bless Kevin!

Kevin, enjoy your Root Beer Cookies!

The Goat Coat

A few weeks ago, Michael and I were walking past our neighbors house and saw a goat.
It was not just any goat. It was Oden the goat with a coat. It was not just any coat.
It was Oden the goat with a blaze orange coat.
It was originally a dog coat, but it fit Oden the goat very well, so it became a goat coat.

Oden wore the blaze orange goat coat to protect him from hunters who might think
he was a deer while he was in the pasture.
I think Oden is a very handsome goat with a coat.

Last week, we we took another walk and found a new goat with a coat.
This is Oden's sister, Ally. Ally has a blue goat coat.

I am so glad that our neighbors goats are fashionable!

It's A New Record!

I am so excited to announce that we sold our 16,000th baking mix today!

Last year, we were 90 mixes away from that goal on New Year's Day. This year, we are two months ahead of last year!

This year, our goal is 20,000 mixes! I cannot wait to see when that will happen!

Thank you to all of you who ordered on line, bought mixes at the farmers markets or craft shows, or purchased them at retail stores around the country. We are so grateful for your continued support and for God's blessing on our "funny little business." That is what Michael calls Creekside Grains when we pray every night.

We are blessed!

Poor Little Girl

I was enjoying lunch today, when POW!!!, a female goldfinch crashed into our window.
She hit so hard that I was sure she had died.
I grabbed gloves in case she was alive and went out to check on her.
She was very sad looking.
She looked like she had broken her neck and I saw damage on one foot.
I accessed the situation, and chose to do the "when the bird hits the window" routine.
I lined one of our small coolers with several paper towels, picked her up and put her in.
We usually use a shoe box, but the cooler was closer at the time.
I kept the lid open just enough for her to get air, but closed enough to keep her warm.
I brought her into the office and waited.
After about an hour, she was still shivering, so we covered her with a bubble wrap blanket.
Bubble wrap is very warm when you are a very little bird who needs to be warm.
I went to Fed Ex and when I came home, Michael said she had made a remarkable recovery.
She was ready to fly!
We took her outside, opened the cooler lid very gently and she was gone in a flash!
First she flew to one tree, then to another, then we lost sight of her.
Michael could not believe that this very sad bird could make such a quick recovery
and fly as if she had not injured herself at all!
I hope I can see her at the feeder, so I can see how she is doing.
Today, God's eye was on the Goldfinch, and I know He's watching me.