Just Jane

Books Read in 2011

2012-01-16T21:56:00.002-05:00

It's been just over a year since I last wrote anything here. And now, I'm just listing my "books read list" for last year. I got some good reading in this year! And not much internet time, obviously. I finished up the Yada Yada series this year & am still reading on the Mitford series. I've read a few good biographies & a few classics that I've always wanted to read. I want to read a few classics every year. One of my favorite books I read in 2011 was Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus by Ann Spangler & Lois Tverberg. I also enjoyed The Hunger Games series, although I did not like how it ended. And there is one book in this list that I really didn't like at all. It was very popular, but not with me. Another favorite was finishing up the Narnia series as a read aloud with our now 9 year old son!
Here's my list of books read in 2011:

A Common Life (Mitford series #6) by Jan Karon

A New Song (Mitford series #5) by Jan Karon

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Adventures of B.J. The Amateur Detcetive by Toni Sortor

America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag by Sarah Palin

Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Catching Fire by Suzanne Cullins

Crazy Love by Francis Chan

Dick Van Dyke My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business by Dick Van Dyke

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back by Todd Burpo & Lynn Vincent

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terrror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson

In This Mountain (Mitford #7) by Jan Karon

James Herriot's Yorkshire by James Herriot

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Lunatic (The Lost Books #5) by Ted Dekker & Kaci Hill

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

My Life in France by Julia Child

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers

Out to Canaan (Mitford series #4) by Jan Karon

Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus by Ann Spangler & Lois Tverberg

Southern Plate by Christy Jordan

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

The Complete Jewish Bible

The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne

The Duggers: 20 and Counting by Michelle Duggar

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Hunger Games by suzanne Collins

The Inheritance of Beauty by Nicole Seitz

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

The Lord God Made them All by James Herriot

The Pioneer Woman Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Decked Out by Neta Jackson

The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Rolling by Neta Jackson

Books I Read in 2010

2011-01-01T23:20:00.003-05:00

I haven't forgotten this place. I just have a hard time getting here.
At the end of every year I post the list of the books I've read in that year. I figured I should get it done before I forget & end up doing it in July!
I had a really good year in reading. I enjoyed almost every book.
I read Truman Capote for the first time. I enjoyed In Cold Blood, but didn't really care for Breakfast at Tiffany's. To say that I "enjoyed" In Cold Blood seems really weird to say, but I did like the book. It was not my usual kind of read, but I could see that I really liked his writing. But I just didn't like Breakfast at Tiffany's. I read a few Bios. I read both Laura & President Bush's books. I enjoyed both of them. I really liked the new Bonhoeffer book. It was very meaty & not a quick read at all. I really liked it. It was an honor to read this book about this faithful man.
I've been reading The Chronicles of Narnia to our almost 8 year old son. That's a lot of fun, & it brings back memories of reading them to our almost 20 year old daughter when she was his age. Both our kids have birthdays this week, so I couldn't just say they were 7 and 19. :)
I really enjoyed the Circle Trilogy books by Ted Dekker. Wow, they were amazing. I do not have the words to describe them. I started reading the Lost Books that follow the charactors in the Circle Trilogy, but I have not finished them. I have two more to read, & then I think there are three more books that follow another storyline from that series. It's a bit confusing, but it is a fun series. Love it! This year I re-read To Kill a Mockingbird, which I want to do every few years. I love that book, like most folks do. And I re-visited with Corrie Ten Boom. Loved those books too.
It's been a year of great books. I'm starting off 2011 with one of my dad's books, so I'm starting the year with a great book.
It's been a year of not getting on the computer very much.
It's been a year of growth, especially with our kids!
It's been a year of loss, as we lost my husband's mom. I miss her & am still grieving her. I find that I cry when I talk about her, even if it's a funny story (it usually is something funny!).
It's been a year of battling cancer for my mom. She's a survivor. :)
So here's to another year.
Here's to life, growth, & most of all, trusting in God.
Here's to giving our lives, every day, for Him.
And here's to another year of great books!

Here's my list of books read this year:

All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot

Bonhoeffer Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy: A Righteous Gentile vs. the Third Reich by Eric Metaxas

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

Death Comes for the Archbiship by Willa Cather

Decision Points by George W. Bush

Healing Foods from the Bible by Bernard Ward

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

It's Not About Me by Max Lucado

Next by Michael Crichton

Spoken from the Heart by Laura Bush

Tara Road by Maeve Binchy

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis

The Circle Trilogy Book 0: Green by Ted Dekker

The Circle Trilogy Book 1: Black by Ted Dekker

The Circle Trilogy Book 2: Red by Ted Dekker

The Circle Trilogy Book 3: White by Ted Dekker

The Greatest Story Ever Told by Fulton Oursler

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

The Holy Wild by Mark Buchanan

The Lost Books #1 Chosen by Ted Dekker

The Lost Books #2 Infidel by Ted Dekker

The Lost Books #3 Renegade by Ted Dekker

The Lost Books #4 Chaos by Ted Dekker

The Oath by Frank Peretti

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Tramp for the Lord by Corrie Ten Boom

Herb Garden 2010

2010-05-29T16:14:00.008-04:00

HELLO! I'm Back!
Well, I haven't really been away.
Just not able to be online long enough to keep things updated here.
I have been busy as usual, but hope to be able to get back to posting recipes & things about our garden.
We've been gardening for years, but this is only my third year to have an herb garden. I love having an herb garden. Love it!
So here's the first garden update of 2010, specifically an herb garden update.

Today I havested my first load of Chamomile this year. I enjoy drying the flowers & having nice chamomile tea with honey in the cold weather.

You can see that our chives have flowered. Some folks like to add these flowers to a salad. Our 7 year old son likes to eat them right off the plant. Wow, it gives him BAD BREATH! LOL

You'll be able to see that I haven't weeded yet.
Actually, I haven't done anything in the herb garden yet, except pick chamomile flowers today.
You can see, it is quite a mess. But the chamomile are flurishing & flowering. The cilantro (to the left of the chamomile) seems to grow so quickly that it goes right to flowering & then to seed. I'll probably just pull them up, because I still have tons of corriander seed. Tons! You can't see the thyme, it's right behind the camomile, & I have plenty of it. Ha Ha, yes, I have plenty of thyme, but not plenty of time. It is flowering & looks beautiful with all its little pink flowers, & smells divine. There's a sage plant back there too, & the fennel is back also. I hope it flowers & goes to seed because I use a lot of fennel seeds. I also have weeds flurishing & I hope to get those out of there soon. :) The dill is coming back, and the basil has not arrived yet. I thought it was annual so I bought new seed last year, but the basil ended up returning. So we'll see if it comes back this year.

We have also planted most of our regular garden. We have planted our rows of corn & green beans, our hills of zucchini, 24 tomato plants plus 1 yellow tomato plant & 1 cherry tomato plant. We also planted our green pepper plants, broccoli, & cabbage. I planted half a row of radishes, & will finish the row in a week or so. That way we don't get all our radishes at once. We still have some planting to do. We've just been doing a little here & a little there, & we are almost done. We need to plant our beet seeds, & find a new place to plant cucumbers. We also still need to plant our onions.

Sorry I've not been able to keep up here. I have taken lots of food pictures & hope to post some recipes soon.
Tomorrow we're going to grill chicken, & I'm make KFC cole slaw this evening to go with it.

2010-03-22T22:57:00.000-04:00

Freezing Fog

2010-03-13T20:23:00.005-05:00

Now that it's almost Spring, I'm finally getting around to adding my pictures of the freezing fog.
I'm running a bit behind on things on this computer.
That's an understatement.
This winter season has been a long one on a few fronts.
I've had a lot of extra babysitting kids, which is a wonderful thing.
I had to quit a set of brothers that I've been babysitting for 2 1/2 years, which was an incredibly hard thing.
We've had a hard winter weather-wise. We've has lots of snow & wind & ice, & even some freezing fog.
February was the hardest with the loss of my Mother-in-Law. I was blessed to call her Momma for almost 25 years. I'm so thankful to know that she called Jesus her Savior, so I KNOW she's in no more pain & living with Him for eternity. Praise the LORD. I miss her & the grief hurts, especially for our children.

I'm ready, oh so ready for Spring. I've seen my first robin, which always brings tears of joy to my eyes, some years even more than others. I really had to choke back the sobs this year!

So just before we shout HELLO SPRING, here's one last quick look at something wintery:
Freezing Fog

This fog hit us for 3 or 4 mornings in a row. I'm not sure I understand how this freezing fog works. We had about 10 inches of snow on the ground, & these few days the temps were staying around ZERO, & we got this fog every morning. I wouldn't want to drive in it, but it sure was beaufiful to look at what this fog left behind.

The freezing fog left this really thick layer of what looked like snow, but was actually more of a freezing mist or frost. It was really cool.

Then the sun came out & burned away the fog, & left this beautiful sight.

Books I Read in 2009

2010-01-02T09:47:00.003-05:00

Here's my list of books that I read in 2009. I enjoyed reading almost all of these, but thankfully I have learned that I can put a book down & stop reading it if I'm really not enjoying a book that much. I used to have to finish a book I started.
My least favorite in this list was Before the Sun Goes Down by Elizabeth Metzger Howard. I just didn't like the story at all, & didn't care for the writing either. It was after reading this book that I decided that in the future I would put a book down & not go back to it if I wasn't enjoying it. I just do not have the time to put into a book I don't like.

I had a few favorites this year & can't pick just one. I would say my favorites were Chesapeake by James Michener, All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot, any books by Beth Moore, The Chronicles of Narnia books (I'm reading them out loud to our almost 7 year old son), & I also enjoy the Yada Yada Prayer Group books by Neta Jackson.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik

Anne of Avonlea by L.M.Montgomery

Armageddon by Tim Lahaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

Before the sun Goes Down by Elizabeth Metzger Howard

Bible (NASB-started read through 5-5-08 reading 4 chapters a day, finished 2-27-09

Blue Ribbon Recipes: Country Fair Winners (published 1968)

Chesapeake by James A. Michener

Desecration by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin

In The President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect by Ronald Kessler

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Jesus the One and Only by Beth Moore

Kingdom Come by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

Levi's Will by W. Dale Cramer

Maggie-Now by Betty Smith

Moon River and Me by Andy Williams

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Poems of Faith by Helen Steiner Rice

Prairie Tale by Melissa Gilbert

Praying God's Word by Beth Moore

Prophet by Frank E. Peretti

Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen

The Case of the Runaway Corpse (A Perry Mason Mystery series) by Erle Stanley Gardner

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis

The Gardens For All Book of Tomatoes by Dick and Jan Raymond

The Glorious Appearing by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

The Remnant by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

The Shack by William P. Young

The Winds of War by Herman Wouk

The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Real (book 3) by Neta Jackson

The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Tough (book 4) by Neta Jackson

These High, Green Hills by Jan Karon

5 Minutes for Mom Christmas Give-a-Ways

2009-12-04T19:57:00.003-05:00

Hello!
Yes, I am still here.
There have just not been enough hours in the day for me to get on the computer very much.
I know...I'm a broken record.
My son wanted me to look something up for him, & as I was bringing up the Moose A. Moose & Zee balloon math counting game, he asked me if I remembered when I went to 5 Minutes for Mom. LOL! How did he KNOW this or REMEMBER this?! So as I laughed, I clicked on over.
And I saw that they have a big Christmas give-a-way, that ends TONIGHT, if I'm reading it correctly. They also have an Under the Tree program for needy families.
So click on over to 5 Minutes for Mom (if ya see this in time) & enter to win some cool prizes!
I have added to linked buttons on the right hand side of my page, since I can't figure out how to add it in this post. LOL
You can click on my links or the buttons!
Hope ya win something.
:)

Fully Loaded Baked Potato Soup

2009-10-31T18:27:00.005-04:00

I got a great new comfort food soup recipe this month. I got it from the sample lady at our locally owned grocery store. This store is what used to be considered a large grocery store, but that was in the days before the gigantic super WalMart super de duper mega ultra stores.
I have to get our regular groceries at WalMart, just simply because of the prices. BUT, I will not get our meat or produce there anymore. I just simply refuse to now. This "little" grocery store just has what I need. Good food. Plus, an older lady who comes in on Saturdays to pass out samples. And it's not just product samples. It's almost always something homemade. And she has copies of the recipe for you to take along with your sample. Isn't that just really neat? One day it was chicken bbq pizza, another it was a hamburger & rice casserole. Last fall I remember trying a 3 bean chili that I really liked ( I even made it & took pics...I wander where that went to...I'll have to find that & post it!). Well a few weeks ago it was this potato soup. I took the recipe copy & after making sure I had all the ingredients, I took it home & made it that day. It was THAT good.

Fully Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Approx. 2 pounds potatoes, scrubbed & cubed fairly small (don't peel)
1/2 pound bacon, sliced into small bits
4 C. chicken stock
4 green onions, sliced
2 C. milk
1/4 C. flour
2 C. cheddar cheese, shredded
1 C. sour cream
salt & pepper

Cook bacon in a large soup pan until just crisp. Add cubed potatoes & cook on medium for about 10 minutes until they begin to cook. Add stock, green onions, & pepper. Continue to cook until potatoes are tender. Whisk together the flour & the milk until combined. Add to pan & stir while heating & thickening. Add shredded cheese & salt, & more pepper if you need it. Once all cheese is melted, add the sour cream. Server garnished with bacon bits & green onions.

This really is SO GOOD! I've never thought of a loaded baked potato as a soup before, but really, it works! And it's great on these nippy fall days. Look how much it thickens up in the frig overnight.

I just had to include this picture of the potatoes cooking with the bacon.
Nuttin' like taters & bacon cookin' in a cast iron skillet. :)

I hope you enjoy this comfy potato soup. We sure did.

Zucchini Custard Pie

2009-10-10T17:53:00.005-04:00

Here is a new zucchini recipe! You know how I am about zucchini...
An older lady from church gave me this recipe. Actually, she made this pie using zucchini I had given her, & then she called & asked for more zucchini to make another pie! She had told her sister she would save her a piece of pie, but then she got company & she served the rest of the pie to them. She told me her sister was mad at her, so she wanted to make another pie for her sister. I told her I must have this recipe! She gave it to me at church a few weeks ago.

As you can see from the picture, you put little pats of butter on the top when you put this in the oven. I don't think I'll do that again, it really doesn't need that. It was good, but I just didn't see the need of it, really. This is a wonderfully creamy, custard pie. And to be honest, you can't even taste the zucchini. So if you didn't want to tell anybody that it has a cup of zucchini pulp in it, you really don't have to. I didn't tell my family it had zucchini in it until we were nearly done eating it. *snicker*
Here's a picture of the piece I ate.

Zucchini Custard Pie
1 cup of zucchini pulp (peel & seed a zucchini. Cut it into chunks & cook in water until tender drain well. I used my hand mixer to turn it into pulp.)
1 C. sugar
1 C. evaporated milk ( like Milnot)
3 T. flour
2 eggs
pinch of salt
1 t. vanilla

Blend all ingredients in blender (I used my food processor) for 1 minute, put in pie shell. Top with cinnamon & add about 3 pieces of butter in chunks. Bake 375 for 45 minutes.

This was very tasty. It's a nice old fashioned custard. I had my pie cut into 8 pieces. I would say that my family of 4 really liked it, because there were only 2 pieces left.

And we had to split these last two pieces up the next day so we could all get another piece. :)
When we had this for dessert after supper that first evening, it was still a little warm. But I have to say that I thought it was even better really cold. Oh! it was delicious!
I want some more!

Sweet 'N Sour Beef 'N Cabbage

2009-10-07T09:57:00.005-04:00

I know I'm a week late, but I would like to submit this to Tammy's Recipe Swap. She featured cabbage last Wednesday, & I've thought all week that I'd like to get on here & post this recipe.

I found this recipe in an old cookbook that I was getting ready to donate to the library. I went all through it first to see if there were any recipes that I wanted to copy. This recipe jumped out at me! I love cabbage & I love cabbage rolls, though I haven't had them in years. This cook book is titled, Better Homes and Gardens All-Time Favorite Hamburger & Ground Meats Recipes. It was published in 1980, so the cover photos look a bit dated. It's funny, but back in the late 70's & early 80's I don't remember things looking this dated. LOL

Sweet 'N Sour Beef 'N Cabbage
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1/2 C. chopped onion
1/2 C. chopped celery (opt.)
1/2 C. chopped green pepper
2 T. quick-cooking rolled oats
2 T. chopped parsley
2/3 t. salt
1/4 t. garlic powder
1/8 t. pepper
1 medium head of cabbage
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1/4 C. cider vinegar
3 T. brown sugar
1/2 t. salt
dash pepper

In slillet cook ground beef, onion, celery, & green pepper till meat is browned; drain off fat. Sprinkle meat mixture with rolled oats, parsley, 3/4 t. salt, garlic powder, & 1/8 t. pepper.
Core cabbage; cut into six wedges. Place atop meat. In bowl combine tomato sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, & the 1/2 t. salt & a dash of pepper; mix well. Pour over cabbage & meat. Cover & simmer for 15-20 minutes or till cabbage is tender. Serve at once. Makes 6 servings.

This is really good. It has a wonderful sweet 'n sour flavor that is perfect with the cabbage.
I made this again a few weeks ago & my cabbage was pretty large. I cut it into more than 6 wedges, but I still had to cook it a little longer. I also go just a bit heavier on the seasonings too.

I hope you try this & enjoy it as much as we do!

Homemade Ketchup

2009-09-26T16:51:00.007-04:00

Yes, I made homemade tomato ketchup!
I have to say, that for years we've joked about it. I've heard more than just a couple people say that their moms made homemade ketchup once when they were kids. And they made a bit of an 'icky face' when they said it. LOL And, if you've ever watched the "Vacation" movies with Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, there's the scene where they are having a picnic with Cousin Eddie & his family. Ed is fixing hamburger helper (on the grill!) without any hamburger, & Ed's daughter Vicki is stirring the cool-aid with her hands. Trying to be polite, yet showing a bit of sarcasm, Clark fixes his "hamburger" & as he dips a thick red substance from a jar he says, "Reeeal tomato ketchup Ed?" LOL!

I found a recipe & I thought I'd just try making it once. It's a small recipe (& I even halved it so it would be smaller), so I figured it wouldn't be too much work or too many tomatoes wasted if we didn't like it. But, if we did like it, well, great!
I found this recipe here.
It's a nice link that tells about canning tomatoes. It's also where I got one of my spaghetti sauce recipes, but that's for another day...or two.

Tomato Ketchup
24 pounds ripe tomatoes
3 cups chopped onions
3/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
3 cups cider vinegar (5 percent)
4 teaspoons whole cloves
3 sticks cinnamon, crushed
1 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice
3 Tablespoons celery seeds
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup salt

Yields 6 to 7 pints

Wash tomatoes. Dip in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds or until skins split. Dip in cold water. Slip off skins and remove cores.
Quarter tomatoes into 4-gallon stock pot or a large kettle. Add onions and red pepper. Bring to boil and simmer 20 minutes, uncovered. Cover, turn off heat, and let stand for 20 minutes.
Combine spices in a spice bag and add to vinegar in a 2-quart saucepan. Bring to boil. Remove spice bag and combine vinegar and tomato mixture. Boil about 30 minutes. Put boiled mixture through a food mill or sieve. Return to pot. Add sugar and salt, boil gently, and stir frequently until volume is reduced by one-half or until mixture rounds up on spoon without separation. Fill pint jars, leaving 1/8-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process.

I processed mine in a hot water bath canner for 15 minutes.
Also, I really wasn't sure how I felt about using so many tomatoes for this in case we didn't like it, so I halved the recipe. My yeild was 5 pints.

Here is a picture of the juice. This is after you have cooked the tomatoes & have added the vinegar that has been seasoned & then run it through your colonder or food mill, so it's actually ketchup flavored juice.

And here it is after it has cooked down by half. It took me a few hours of simmering to get it to cook down by half & become thick enough. I couldn't get a good picture because of the steam.
My 5 pints are in my new water bath canner in this next picture. One of my very best friends sent this to me. I actually have no idea which one sent it, but I do know that it was 1 of 8 lovely ladies that have been my very best friends for years. Or maybe all of them sent it! Thank you ladies!

(There's some jars of tomato juice next to my stove that I hadn't found storage space for yet. And behind those jars sits my jars of my dried herbs. )

I forgot to take a picture of all my pints of ketchup until we had already opened one, it's the one in the middle with a different lid.

And here's a close-up. See, it does really look like real ketchup.

Oh! I forgot to mention this, & it's really important!

We really like it!

The first time our daughter tried it, she dipped a french fry into some. I watched her with intent anticipation. As she ate, I said, "Well????"

And she paused, took another bite, & then said, "It tastes like....ketchup."

To which I threw my arms above my head & yelled, "YAY!"

LOL

So, I am glad I made this ketchup. Since I halved the recipe, I only used about 12 pounds of tomatoes. It does take a lot to cook down to get 5 pints. But, it tastes good, so it was worth it.

Now while eating supper somebody just has to say, " Reeeeal tomato ketchup?"

LOL

Tomatoes

2009-09-14T12:58:00.004-04:00

This is what I am doing today:

Today I'm making 2 different recipes for spaghetti sauce. I've never canned spaghetti sauce before, so this is new to me. I have enough tomatoes here that I'm sure I'll be canning some more juice today too. One recipe calls for 4 gallons of tomatoes, so that's why I have some tomatoes in that 5 gallon bucket. That was the best way I could figure to measure 4 gallons of tomatoes.
Last night I made 5 pints of ketchup. I have never done that either. I wanted to try it. We'll see how it tastes in a day or two. If it's good I'll post the recipe.
And I'll post about today's spaghetti sauce too.
The house smells AMAZING.

Sorry I haven't been on here much, I'll try to do better! :)

Baby Corn

2009-09-02T08:53:00.004-04:00

We had a nice little harvest of baby corn along with our regular corn this year. Actually, it was the biggest amount of baby corn we've ever had.
Baby corn isn't just corn that's not ready yet. It is little bity ears of corn that grows with a larger ear of corn. Not every ear has baby corn on it. Sometimes there will just be one, usually there's two, but every now & then there's three! I picked up one ear to shuck & it had four! As soon as I started shucking it, I realized I should have taken a picture of it. It was really amazing looking. So the next ear that had three babies on it, I snapped this picture. You can see that everything about the baby ears is a miniature of the big ear. And you can see in the background to the left are the regular ears that have been shucked, & to the right is the growing pile of baby corn that has been shucked.

Also, sometimes the baby corn doesn't grow on the outside of the big ear, but on the inside, just under the first few layers of husk. So you may think you have two baby ears, & then start shucking to big one only to find one or two more on the inside!

Our baby corn filled a WalMart bag full. You can see that there's one piece in there that's not actually baby corn. It had produced a few kernals, so it was just an immature cob. Immature cobs do not taste good. It snuck into this bag, but it did get tossed out.
Here's what a nice bowl of cooked baby corn looks like. You can either boil it or steam it. Add a few tablespoons of butter & some salt & pepper when you serve them. They are pretty good. They don't taste anything like regular corn. I think you have to have a taste for them. My husband doesn't like them. I like them, & our both our kids LOVE them.

I fixed one bowl for supper that night, & then blanced the rest (boil for 6-7 minutes then submerge in ice water) & fill up some quart freezer bags. We've never had enough to freeze before. I usually just cook up all we get to be a side dish with our supper, & if it's a large batch there's enough left overs to have again the next night. But this year I got 6 freezer bags full!

To think that years ago I used to just toss these babies out when I was shucking corn!
If you get a chance to grow corn, don't throw the little babies out, steam 'em up & eat 'em.

They're delicious. That maybe didn't sound quite right. But you know what I mean. LOL

Harvesting our Indiana Sweet Corn

2009-09-01T10:59:00.004-04:00

One of the things that I love about Indiana, is the sweet corn.
It's so sweet & delicious that you don't care if you have butter running down your chin while you are eating corn on the cob.
Actually, that's part of eating it. :)
We had 3 50 foot rows of corn this year, & we were blessed with a wonderful crop.
This wheelbarrow is full of 1 row of corn.
Here the tractor wagon is holding the other 2 rows.

It took me quite a few hours to shuck this load. We also had a lot of baby corn this year, but I'll do a seperate post on them later.
We had a lot of really nice ears.

I love to see a sink full of corn!

Here is our process for preserving the corn by freezing it.

Freezer Corn

Shuck the corn & remove all the silk.
Rince the corn in a sink full of water.
Bring large pots of water to a boil.
Place the corn in the boiling water, & when the water returns to a boil, time the corn for 5-6 minutes.
Immerse the boiled corn into a sink full of ice water.
Cut the corn off the cob.
Place into freezer bags. (I put 3 cups into quart freezer bags.)
Write the date on the bags & put them in the freezer.

To prepare the freezer corn:
Remove from freezer & thaw overnight in the frig, or pop it in the microwave for 1 minute. Add 1-2 T. butter & some salt & pepper. Cook (microwave or stovetop) until warmed through. Easy. Delicious.

It really is easy. It's not near as tedious as green beans. After canning green beans I always look forward to doing the corn!
One 'trick' that I use is that I have a 'system' using my double sinks. If you've got a LOT of corn, you can set it up as sort of an assembly line. The corn can be stacked on the counter to the left of the sinks. The corn getting rinsed sits in the left sink. The corn that is done, that has been boiled for 5 or 6 minutes sits in the right sink. You wont get them mixed up, because the corn that has already been blanced is a deeper color than the un-blanced corn.

As far as cutting the corn off the cob, my husband likes to use a nice sharp knife. After you cut the corn off the cob, be sure to use the back of your knife & go over the cob again to get all the 'corn juice'. I like to use what I call a 'corn cutter'. I know that's not the name of it. It's not one of those plier looking things, it looks more like a slicer. I really like it. I can cut corn really fast with it. I've never cut myself with it, but it wouldn't be pretty if that ever happened. I have used this 'corn cutter' for at least 15 years. My M-i-L gave it too me, & I think she got it at a garage sale. You can also use an electric knife. That's what my dad always used.

Here is our table full of corn! You can see my corn cutter on the left side of the table. My husband & I work together & it makes it go faster. We each have a spot at the table with a pan of corn ready to be cut, our cutting areas (LOOK at those two mountains of corn!), & we also have a bag for the cobs but I moved it for the picture. When we've cut a bit of corn, I stop cutting & get it all bagged up. I put 3 cups per quart freezer bag. Then I rinse the bags (they get sticky) & set them on a towel to dry & go back to cutting. When I go to bag the next load I date the load I did earlier & put it in the freezer.

This year I didn't get a picture of all the bags when we were done, because we had so much I needed to put them away in the freezer as we worked.
Our total this year was 54 quart bags.
It's so great to fill the freezer back up with corn.
Thank you LORD our Provider for a wonderful harvest.

Wordless Wednesday on Saturday--TOMATOES!

2009-08-22T09:57:00.000-04:00

Deep Fried Zucchini Sticks

2009-08-13T19:51:00.003-04:00

This is one of my favorite ways to eat zucchini.

Deep Fried Zucchini Sticks

Zucchini, peeled, cut into sticks, or wedges like big oven fries
eggs
milk
Italian style bread crumbs OR flour
salt
pepper
and any spices you'd like to add...I usually add garlic & onion powder. Somtimes I add seasoned salt.

In a large bowl, stir together eggs, milk, salt & pepper.
In another pan (I usually use a pie pan, it's a good size for this) place the bread crumbs. OR you can use flour that you've add some seasoning too, like salt, pepper, & garlic & onion powders.

Drop each stick into a deep fryer with the oil set to 375 (you can use a big pan with oil in it on the stove, oil temp at 375). Fry for 3-4 minutes. Drain well, blot with paper towl, sprinkle with salt.
Let it cool a little (this is hard for me!), eat, & enjoy!

Here is a picture of the deep fried zucchini sticks made with store bought Italian bread crumbs:

And here they are dipped in flour:

I love them both.

Cucumber and Onion Salad

2009-08-10T19:34:00.003-04:00

Here is another recipe that my m-i-l gave me about 20 years ago. It's that sweet 'n sour cucumber salad that used to be at all family dinners & pitch ins.

Cucumber and Onion Salad

1/2 C. olive oil

1/2 C. vinegar

2 T. sugar

salt (to taste)

pepper (to taste)

1-2 thinly sliced cucumbers

1 large onion, thinly sliced

Combine oil, vinegar, sugar, salt, & pepper. Add the cucumbers & onions. Cover & chill a few hours before serving.

Adventures in Green Beans

2009-08-06T21:45:00.005-04:00

We had our first pickin' of green beans last weekend.
Our dogs, Louie & Otto, wanted to help us. Actually they wanted to sneak green beans & eat them. Here's Louie, pretending he's just relaxing & keeping watch while we're picking. He would get up & sneak a bean out of our boxes, & then go hide behind the onions (right behind him in this picture) to eat his bean. He thought we couldn't see him behind those onions! LOL

After 3 hours, here's what we picked.

My husband lit up our burn pile ( just various limbs & stuff that we burn every once in a great while) & we sat around a campfire for many hours, just breakin' beans & eating s'mores.
In this picture, you can see that Louie is gaurding the boxes of beans. He's pretending that he's just relaxing with his ball, but everytime I looked over at him, he had moved just a little closer to the beans. He was just waiting for us to not look at him so he could sneak another bean. LOL
And here are both of our gaurd dogs (bean gaurd dogs! LOL) on duty. Otto's snout looks funny in this picture...that's because he's eating a green bean!

I started canning late, WAY too late in the day for this big mess 'o beans. I put the first load in the canner about 3:00pm.
This is the first canning load of the season!

This was a beautiful sight... but by the early morning hours, quite frankly, I was getting a bit tired of it! LOL
We had so many beans, that for the first time in my life, I didn't finish canning them. I couldn't go on. At 5:50AM I took my last load off the burner. I drained the sink full that I still had in the sink, put them in big pans, put them in the frig, hoped for the best & went to bed. I had canned 70 quarts of beans.
Bless my dear husband's heart, I woke up at 10:30am (hey, I got 4 1/2 hours of sleep!) & he was finishing up canning the last of the beans! He canned 20 quarts, so our grand total for this pickin' was 90 quarts!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Here they are, all ready to be stored for the winter.

I had to find storage place for them quickly...to make room for my zucchini. LOL
You can see just some of those hiding behind the beans.
To be honest, we should have picked the weekend before, but we were just so busy with things that we couldn't do it. Then we weren't able to do it through the week, so it fell to last weekend. The unseasonably cool weather saved us on this one, because if it were as hot as it usually is here in Indiana in August, those beans would have been spongy if they'd been left on the vine too long. Normally, we would have had our first pickin' over a week ago & canned 40-50 quarts. Then picked again last weekend & got another 40-50 quarts. So really, this 90 quarts was 2 pickins' done at one time. LOL

Whew. It's a lot of work.
But it is very worth it.
I have been thanking God all week for this green bean harvest.

Now, I was hoping the corn would be ready this weekend, but it may be a few more days. And the tomatoes are coming on slowly, we get a few a day, but as soon as we have a few 90 degree days, we're going to have LOTS of them.

Buttered Zucchini

2009-07-30T15:45:00.002-04:00

I would have thought that I would have tried this method of cooking zucchini by now, but believe it or not, I haven't. I was looking for a quick way to cook up a zucchini the other day for lunch. I didn't feel like the mess of regular fried zucchini (dipped in egg then flour then fried...YUM)
so I just decided I'd saute them.

Zucchini sauted in Butter

2-3 T Butter (NOT margarine)
1-2 zucchini (depending on size) peeled (or not), & sliced
salt & pepper
garlic salt (opt.)

Melt butter in large skillet. Add zucchini, salt, pepper, & garlic salt. Cook until tender.
I like mine to get a little browned. The browning from real butter gives it such a nice flavor.
Mmmmmmm....it's so good! We'll be having some with supper again tonight.

I'm thinking zucchini needs a catagory all to its own on my side bar. Maybe I'll do that...yes, I will!

Coffee Chocolate Bundt Cake from Amish Friendship Bread Starter

2009-07-28T21:02:00.004-04:00

Coffee-Chocolate Bundt Cake (made from Amish Friendship Bread starter)

On day 10, after you have "fed your starter" & seperated new starters into different bags, there should be about 1 cup of starter left in your bowl.
To this add:
1 cup of oil (or 1/2 cup applesauce & 1/2 cup oil)
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Mix this well with your wooden (or plastic) spoon.

In a separate bowl, mix:
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 large box chocolate instant pudding
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3 t. instant coffee
1/2 C. chocolate chips

Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture & mix thoroughly. Pour into a well greased & lightly floured bundt pan. Bake at 325 for 1 hour. Cool for 10 minutes then remove from pan.

When cake has cooled (it could still be warm if you'd like...YUM) drizzle it with a powdered sugar glaze. We still had coffee in the coffee maker, so I put a teaspoon (or so) of brewed coffee into a half a cup or so of powdered sugar. Oh....it was so good!

I just made one of these again yesterday & put it in our freezer for a rainy day.
I also put my starter in the freezer...I need a break from it for a while. I've been making Amish Friendship Bread every 10 days since May 3rd! Besides, I have zucchini coming out of my ears again, so it's time to start baking zucchini bread & zucchini oatmeal muffins & put them in the freezer too. I still have a few pictures of the different variations of this Amish Friendship Bread, so I'll still post them when I get around to it, even though I'm DONE baking it for a while. :)

Lemon Poppyseed Amish Friendship Bread

2009-07-21T10:56:00.003-04:00

To my very few readers, I am so sorry that I haven't posted in so long! I haven't put anything on here since July 4th. That may be the longest I've ever "been away". I've just been really busy, that's all. I have continued to take pictures of food & even tried quite a bit of new foods this month, so I have a lot of material to post!
Since I posted about Amish Friendship Bread, I wanted to post some of the variations of this delicious bread. One of my husband's favorite is Lemon Poppyseed. One recipe of Amish Friendship Bread makes 2 loaf pans, or you could use just one bundt pan (& that sure helps if you're making more than one batch).

Lemon Poppyseed Amish Friendship Bread

On day 10, after you have "fed your starter" & seperated new starters into different bags, there should be about 1 cup of starter left in your bowl.
To this add:
1 cup of oil (or 1/2 cup applesauce & 1/2 cup oil)
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1 tsp. lemon extract
Mix this well with your wooden (or plastic) spoon.

In a separate bowl, mix:
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 small boxes lemon instant pudding
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2-3 T. poppy seeds

Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture & mix thoroughly. Pour into 2 large, well -greased loaf pans (OR 1 BUNDT PAN) that have been coated with with a thin coating of flour.
Bake at 325 for 1 hour

You don't need any icing on this, just slice & eat!
If you do want some icing, just add a little water & a little lemon juice to some powdered sugar to make a nice glaze to drizzle over the top.
I used to make this Lemon Poppyseed recipe a few years ago & I put it in mini muffin pans. It makes wonderful mini muffins. I made so many that I had our freezer stocked with them for a long time!

I sure hope to be better about getting on here & posting some recipes!

Happy Independence Day!

2009-07-04T11:41:00.002-04:00

Happy Independence Day!

I found this old poem written by Helen Steiner Rice. It was in a book of her poems that was published in 1981 after her death.

God Bless America

America the beautiful
May it always stay that way-
But to keep "Old Glory" flying
There's a price that we must pay...
For everything worth having
Demands work and sacrifice,
And freedom is a gift from God
That commands the highest price...
For all our wealth and progress
Are as worthless as can be
Without the faith that made us great
And kept our country free...
Nor can our nation hope to live
Unto itself alone,
For the problems of our neighbors
Must today become our own...
So in these times of crisis
Let us offer no resistance
In giving help to those who need
Our strength and our assistance-
And the stars and stripes forever
Will remain a symbol of
A rich and mighty nation
Built on faith an truth and love.

By Helen Steiner Rice

Amish Friendship Bread- Cinnamon Bread

2009-07-03T17:26:00.004-04:00

This is made from the starter called Amish Friendship Bread. You usually get this starter in a gallon sized ziplock bag. Today I'm typing up the "origional" directions for the first 10 days, & then the recipe for the cinnamon bread.

Amish Friendship Bread
DO NOT USE METAL SPOONS! DO NOT REFRIGERATE!
Day 1- do nothing
Days 2,3,4, & 5-"mush" the bag.
Day 6- add 1 cup flour, 1 cup of sugar, & 1 cup of milk to bag & mush the bag.
Days 7,8,9- "mush" the bag & let the air out of the bag.
Day 10-add 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup milk to the bag & mush it really well (get all the lumps out that you can).
Pour this mixture into a large bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon & pour four 1 cup starters into gallon zip lock bags. You can give all four away, or give away 3 & keep one as a starter four your next batch. All of these starters are now at day 1.
There should be about 1 cup of starter left in your bowl.
To this add:
1 cup of oil (or 1/2 cup applesauce & 1/2 cup oil)
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix this well with your wooden (or plastic) spoon.
In a separate bowl, mix:
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 large box vanilla instant pudding
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 t. cinnamon
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture & mix thoroughly. Pour into 2 large, well -greased loaf pans that have been coated with the cinnamon & sugar mixture (see below).
Sprinkle extra cinnamon sugar on top.
Bake at 325 for 1 hour.
Cinnamon & sugar mixture=1 tsp. cinnamon & 3 tsp. sugar

I *think* you can make your own starter by putting 1 cup each of milk, flour, & sugar into a ziplock bag. This would be day 1. I have read this online, but I've never done this myself though. **edited to add: Here is a link at recipezaar that tells how to make the starter. **

And, you can start giving your starter "half feedings" if you get too overwhelmed with too many starters every 10 days. Instead of feeding your bread 1 cup each of the milk, sugar, & flour, give it only 1/2 cup of each. Do this on day 6 & day 10. Then on day 10, baking day, you'll only have a total of 3 starters. I usually make 2 batches of bread & then only have 1 starter to keep it going.

I posted about half feedings here.

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: Amish Friendship Bread Half Feeding

2009-06-30T10:15:00.004-04:00

I thought of another tip. This is about Amish Friendship Bread. You know that starter that someone gives you in a big ziplock bag? You have to "mush" the bag for 5 days, & on the the 6th day you "feed it" 1 cup milk, 1 cup four, & 1 cup sugar. You feed it this same amount of milk, flour, & sugar on day 10, & then it's baking day. After you've "fed" the mixture on baking day, you have 4 new starters, plus 1 cup of batter that you use to make the loaf of delicious cinnamon bread. You usually give 3 starters away to friends, & keep 1 starter for yourself to start all over again (it's day 1 for these starters), & bake one batch of cinnamon bread. It's great...at first. After a few cycles of 10 day periods, you run out of friends to give starters too. Or, all your friends have already had this experience, & they quickly tell you ""NO!" when you offer them a starter. LOL It just gets hard after a while when you can't get rid of, I mean, you can't give away all your extra starters. If you have a hard time wasting things, you end up making several batches of bread on baking day. There are great variations to this recipe so you end up making not just cinnamon bread, but lemon poppyseed muffins, chocolate coffee muffins, caramel apple bread or muffins, & the list goes on & on. It's wonderful to have a freezer filled with so many different kinds of bread & muffins. But it really does make baking day every 10 days a lot of work.

Well, I had a starter in the freezer & I decided to get it out & have another go at it (it had been 3 years since I had done it). After 3 cycles or so I hit that time where I couldn't get rid of my starters anymore. I found a GREAT tip online. I can't find the link now. I was sure I saved it to favorites so I could link to it, but now I can't find it anywhere. You can actually give your bread "half feedings".
Instead of 1 cup each of the flour, milk, & sugar, you can feed it it a half cup of all of those ingredients. And the result? On baking day, you end up with 3 cups, which means you only have 2 starters & then 1 cup to make a batch of bread with. So you can bake 1 batch, save a starter for yourself, & then have 1 starter left over to either give away or just make a second batch.
On baking day I have been making 2 batches. It's not hard to do, I make them both at once. If I make bread, it means 4 loaves of bread. 4 loaves of bread to bake every 10 days is much more managable.
Another tip for this amish bread is that you can use a bundt pan in place of 2 loaf pans. So if you do it that way, every 10 days you make two bundt loaves, & then only 1 starter to keep going.
And when you get tired of it all & you need to stop, just put that 1 starter in the freezer & you can start the whole thing up later.

So if you've done this before & cringe when someone offers you a starter, try giving it another chance & only give your starter half feedings. It works really well & that bread really is so good!

I'm going to start posting some of the variations I'm been making, which can take the form of breads, bundt cakes, muffins, & yesterday I even made cookies.

To see more Kitchen Tips, please visit Tammy's Recipes!

Deep Fried Potato Wedges

2009-06-27T16:38:00.002-04:00

I had never made fried potato wedges. I've just always made potato wedges in the oven & called them oven fries. Oven fries are really good, but sometimes you just need batter covered, deep fried potato wedges. :)
So I searched the net for a batter recipe & found one on Cooks.com. I did alter it a bit by adding seasonings. It calls for 3/4 C. cornstarch & 1/4 C. flour. I was low on cornstarch & didn't use that much, but other recipes I found just called for 1 C. flour, so I think that's what I'll do from here on out. I'm not sure why it called for cornstarch really.
So here's the recipe I'll use, but may add *more* of the different seasonings.

Batter for Potato Wedges

1 C. flour
1/2 t. salt (or more)
1/4 t. peper
1 t. baking powder
1/2 to 1 t. garlic powder
1/2 to 1 t. celery salt
1/2 to 1 t. seasoning salt
1/2 C. water
1 egg, beaten

In a bowl stir together flour, baking powder, & seasonings.
In another bowl stir together the egg & water. Pour into flour mixture & stir until smooth.
Dip vegetables & deep fry.

We really liked these potatoes. I usually use 9 potatoes for our family of four, whether I'm making mashed potatoes, oven fries, & even cheesy potatoes. I don't ever remember deciding on 9 potatoes, but that's what works for us. It makes a nice sized amount, usually with some left-overs for snacking later. And these deep fried potatoes were delicious as left-overs...cold right out of the frig (what little left-overs there were).

I'm going to keep this batter handy. I think it would be great for onion rings, deep fried cauliflower, or anything I can think of to deep fry. LOL

Radish Sandwiches & My Dad

2009-06-26T00:26:00.003-04:00

This is one of my all time favorite sandwiches. Our radishes are producing abundantly & I fixed my first radish sandwich of the year yesterday. As I cut the radishes & buttered my bread I thought about my dad. He taught me how to make this sandwich when I was just a kid. We'd butter our bread, add the radishes, shake on some salt, & dig in.

I had some cantaloupe already cut up in the frig, so I added that to my plate. Then I grabbed the quart of pickled beets that I had chillin' in the frig. My mouth watered as I filled my plate, & then I smiled because this was a plate my dad would LOVE. I can still see his eyes light up when I'd bring him out a few quarts of pickled beets. He loved them as much as me. He loved cantaloupe & radish sandwiches were his favorite too.
So as I prepared my plate, I thought about my dad & how many things he taught me besides how to make a radish sandwich (or an onion sandwich, or a tomato sandwich...LOL). On my first day of school in 1st grade, he let me have a piece of gum. I look back at this a wonder, because we hardly ever had gum when we were little kids. Anyway, he gave me this little piece of Trident & told me that they might not allow gum at school. I told him that if they didn't, I'd go right to the trash can & spit it out. (it makes me giggle to remember this) He said, "Oh no. Don't spit it out, that's not very lady-like. Little ladies don't spit their gum out, they take their gum out of their mouths with their fingers, & then throw it away." I can see him kneeling down one one knee & telling me this. It was probably 1971, & he had a crew cut & his hair was already snow white. When on rare occasions I do chew gum (hardly ever) when I go to spit it out I always remember that & I laugh. It's just a silly thing, but it's something I remember from when I was really little, & my dad wasn't just my dad, it was when he was my daddy....& that was so long ago.

I realized yesterday as I was fixing my fun lunch & thinking of my dad, that the next day (today) is the anniversary of his going home to Jesus. He's been gone 3 years now. I hadn't planned on having a radish sandwich & having it turn into a tribute lunch for my dad, but that's exactly what happened. So I looked around for my camera, & set some things next to my plate that Dad would really get a kick out of. I put the big container of radishes near, & my quart of chilled pickled beets, & of course some salt.
If he were here, he would have loved this lunch & thoroughly enjoyed it as much as I did!

Here's to you, Dad!
I am so thankful that God blessed me with you for my DAD.
I sure miss you.
I love you.

Bride's No-Fail Rolls

2009-06-18T14:43:00.003-04:00

I found this recipe for Bride's No-Fail Rolls in an old cookbook titled Blue Ribbon Recipes County Fair Winners. I was looking through old books & came across this one. I kept hesitating before I put it into the "donate" pile. I finally set it aside because I knew I had to go through every recipe before I could let this book go, or I should say IF I could let this book go.
I'm just over half way through this cook book, & it's looking like it won't get donated. LOL I have personalized it by writing in the front cover the page numbers with the names of recipes that I want to try.
This cookbook was published in 1968, & each recipe has a lady's name with it & which county fair she won ribbons for it. For example, Bride's No-Fail Rolls was submitted by Mrs. Joan Deakins, Craig, Colorado, Moffat County Fair. Pretty neat, huh? I thought so too.

So yesterday I had smoothered chicken in the crockpot & I thought rolls would be good to go with our supper. I've been making breads for a while, but I haven't made rolls in ions. I'm no new bride (our 24th anniversary is in a few months), but since I haven't made rolls in years, I thought this recipe sounded like a good one to start with. And it was! My family loved them.
I wish I would have shaped them a little differently, but they were still really good. I didn't put them in muffin tins, or make cloverleaf rolls with them, I just made balls about the size of golf balls. They came out kind of looking like small buns, but they were so good.

Bride's No-Fail Rolls
1 pkg. yeast (2 1/2 t.)
1 C. warm water
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 C. sugar
1 t. salt
1/3 C. oil
3 1/2 C. flour

Dissolve yeast in water. In large bowl mix eggs & sugar. Add salt. Add oil. Stir in water & yeast. Mix in flour, 1 cup at a time, & stir well. Cover bowl with cloth; let rise until double in size. Punch center to let air out. Make into rolls, & place on lightly greased cookie sheets. Cover & let rise until double in size. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes. Yield: 2-3 dozen.

This recipe didn't call for any kneading, so I let the dough rise right in the mixing bowl. The dough is stickier than bread dough, so I put some flour on the table to dust my hands with while I was making the dough shapes.
The size I made (golf ball sized) yielded exactly 2 dozen. I served 1 dozen with our supper & under cooked the other dozen by just 2 or 3 minutes. When they cooled I put them in a large freezer bag & put them in the freezer. When I use them, I'll defrost them & bake them at 350 for maybe 5 minutes, & they'll hopefully be the same as just fresh baked rolls.
I didn't take a picture of my plate, because we were all so hungry we just dug right in.
These rolls are a definite KEEPER.

Grilled Cabbage

2009-06-13T00:02:00.001-04:00

I found this recipe in Country Magazine. I would love to get that magazine, I really enjoyed every single page. I received a free copy in the mail & it was the April/May 2009 issue.

Grilled Cabbage
1 medium head cabbage
1/3 C. butter, softened
1/4 C. onion, chopped
1/2 t. garlic salt
pepper

Cut cabbage into 8 wedges; place on a double thickness of heavy-duty foil (I just used regular foil). Spread cut sides with butter. Sprinkle with onion, garlic salt, & pepper.
Fold foil around cabbage and seal tightly. Grill, covered, over medium heat for 20 minutes or until tender. Open foil carefully to allow steam to escape. Yield 8 servings.

Here's my cabbage just before going on the grill:

And here it is after grilling.

It was delicious!

Grilled Tilapia with Pineapple Salsa

2009-06-11T21:58:00.003-04:00

I got this recipe from the current Taste of Home Magazine (June/July 2009).
It is on page 56 & is listed as "inspected for value: estimated cost per serving as $1.81".
I had never grilled tilapia before, & I had never ever made pineapple salsa before, so I was excited for us to try something new tonight.
Here's a picture of the beautiful & tasty pineapple salsa:

Grilled Tilapia with Pineapple Salsa
2 C. fresh pineapple, cubed
2 green onions, chopped
1/4 C. green pepper, finely chopped
1/4 C. fresh cilantro, minced
4 t. plus 2 T. lime juice, divided (I used lemon juice)
1/8 t. plus 1/4 t. salt, divided
dash cayenne pepper
1 T. canola oil
8 tilapia fillets (4 oz. each)
1/8 t. pepper

In a small bowl, combine the pineapple, onions, green pepper, cilantro, 4 t. lime juice, 1/8 t. salt, & cayenne. Chill until serving.
Combine oil and remaining lime juice; brush over fillets. Sprinkle with pepper & remaining salt.
Coat grill rack with cooking spray before starting grill. Grill fish, cover over medium heat for 3-4 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily with a fork.
Serve with pineapple salsa.

I served this with grilled cabbage, which was also a new thing for us.

I really liked this. The pineapple salsa was really good! Those flavors just tasted wonderful together. We weren't all of the same opinion on this though. My husband is not really a fan of fish, so he didn't really care for it. Our daughter didn't care for the salsa, but she really liked the fish. She dipped her fish it into a lemon herb tarter sauce. Our 6 year old LOVED it, he had two large helpings of the fish & salsa!

I'll post the recipe for the grilled cabbage next. Because I love cabbage, this was a big hit with me.

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

2009-06-09T00:01:00.003-04:00

My tip this week is how to keep mashed potatoes warm for supper (or dinner if that's what you say at your house).
Mashed potatoes cool down quickly, so you usually whip these up last. But, sometimes I mis-figure the time & like this evening, I had my potatoes done way too early. So I put my mashed potatoes into my 7X11 pyrex dish, dotted them with butter, sprinkled on a little parsley (this is optional), & stuck them in the oven at 225 to just keep them warm.
Here they were before going into the oven to keep warm.

And here they are about 15 minutes later after coming out of the warm oven when the rest of the meal was finally ready.

I reckon you could just use the microwave (especially in the summer), but the warm oven does truly keep them warm at an even temperature.

Trick #2 for this is to use your crock pot. I only do this for big dinners like Thanksgiving, but I'll make my mashed potatoes about 30 minutes before serving dinner & then put them on low in the crock pot. This keeps them warm while I'm busy doing other last minutes things, like turkey gravy or noodles. Just don't forget to turn the crock pot off when people start filling their plates, or right after dinner.

You can see more Kitchen Tips over at Tammy's Recipes!

Dill Sub Buns (or country white bread)

2009-06-08T10:34:00.007-04:00

Here's just a slightly different recipe than I usually use for sub buns.

I have a recipe for Amish Bread & Country White Bread that are identical except one calls for vital wheat gluten & the other calls for an egg. This is the one that calls for an egg. Plus I had a bunch of dill I just picked from the herb garden so I added a few tablespoons of fresh minced dill.

Here is how I roll them out for longer sub buns. This recipe made 7, plus a small sized one for our 6 year old. Actually, it could have made 8. The buns in the darker tray in the back were a little big. That dark cookie sheet in the back is really old, at least 40 years old anyway. LOL I remember making chocolate chip cookies on it when I was growing up & it was an older one even back then. My mom gave it to me way back, like back in my 20's, & it is one of my favorite. You can see all the lines on it from cutting pizza on it over the years.

Here they are baked. You can see the ones on the tray on the right are a bit too big. I need to remember to make them smaller, actually, I need to make them long & thin like the picture above. That tray turned out nice.

And here's the sandiwch, we had polish sausage sandwiches that night, along with homemade (KFC copy cat) cole slaw. It was so good! Some resteraunts actually serve cole slaw on top of sausage sandwiches. My husband did this and really liked it like that, I like my cole slaw on the side.

Dill Sub Buns (or Country White Bread)

1 C. plus 1 T. warm water
1 egg
4 1/2 t. olive oil
3 1/2 C. bread flour
1/4. C. sugar
1 1/2 t. salt
2 1/4 t. yeast
2 T. fresh dill, minced (optional)

Stir together the water & yeast & set aside. Mix remaining ingredients. Add the water/yeast mixture. Knead with dough hook on mixer for 3 or 4 minutes on low. Or, hand knead for 8-10 minutes. Add a bit of olive oil to a bowl, add dough & turn to coat. Cover & set in warm place for 90 minutes. Punch down. Put in greased bread pan for bread, or for sub buns roll them out long & skinny & place on greased cookie sheet. Cover & rise until doubled, about 45 minutes or so.

For bread, bake about 30 minutes. For sub buns (or even hamburger buns) bake about 15 minutes or so.

I found this picture when I made it as Country White Bread last fall. (Served with light brown beef stew that I haven't posted the recipe for yet.)

In Season Recipe Swap

2009-06-02T23:27:00.003-04:00

Tammy has a new thing on Wednesdays where you share recipes. She lists each week what the next week's ingredient will be. This week is Strawberries. You can see more recipes for strawberries at her site.
If I can only pick one, that would have to be a simple pound cake, strawberries & their syrup, & whipped cream. This isn't the best picture, but I can't go back & take another picture because the strawberries are all gone!

I love strawberries on pound cake. I used the recipe for pound cake out of my old (from the early 80's) Betty Crocker cookbook

Pound Cake

2 3/4 C. sugar

1 1/4 C. butter or margarine
5 eggs
1 t. vanila

3 C. all-purpose flour (do not use self-rising)

1 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

1 C. evaporated milk**

Heat oven to 350. Greas & flour 12 -cup bundt cake pan. Beat sugar, butter, eggs & vanilla in large bowl on low speed scrapping bowl constantly for 30 seconds. Beat on high speed, scraping bowl occasionally, for 5 minutes. Beat in flour, baking powder, & salt alternately with the milk on low speed. Pour into pan.

Bake until tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean, 70-80 minutes. Cool 20 minutes; remove from pan.

** I didn't have any evaporated milk. I did a search on substitues & there's not really a quick one for evaporated milk. You can't really substitute regular milk, because evaporated milk has about 40% less water in it. I didn't have the time to simmer some of the water out of regular milk, so instead of using a full cup of regular milk, I used just a little more than 3/4 of a cup, & then I added some non-fat dry milk to it to thicken it up just a bit. It worked fine.

The recipe for this pound cake turned out really well. When you buy a pound cake mix, it has much less batter than this recipe. When I've made box mix pound cakes with this bundt pan, the cake is much smaller, much shorter. This recipe makes a nice big, tall bundt cake!

Fresh strawberries on a homemade bundt cake are really good.

We also love strawberries on homemade angel food cake.

I got my tube pan (for the angel food cake) at a yard sale for a quarter.

I got this bundt pan YEARS ago at a yard sale for a nickle!

I'd say those were some good buys!

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

2009-06-02T00:01:00.001-04:00

I thought of a new tip. I keep thinking that I'm out of tips, & then I'll think of one more.
My tip this week is for no mess meat defrosting. Many times I have removed meat from the freezer & just stuck it in the refrigerator to thaw. It's kind of a gamble to do that though, because every now & again the package will leak blood as it thaws. Ewwwww...
An easy fix for this is to put it down in a plastic grocery bag. I know that they sometimes have little holes in the bottom, so sometimes I even double bag it. I also set the meat on a paper towel down in the bag. Double bagging & paper towel usually does the trick! It saves a gross clean up.

To see more kitchen tips, please visit Tammy's Recipes.

Homemade Hamburger Buns (or Amish Bread)

2009-06-01T13:11:00.006-04:00

Here's a nice white bread. My recipe card calls it Amish Bread. I have another recipe that's exactly like it except it calls for an egg instead of vital wheat gluten, & it is called country white bread. Both recipes make a nice loaf of bread.

A few weeks ago I had some chicken thawed to make chicken sandwiches. We have two favorites for chicken sandwiches, they are Bacon Chicken Sandwiches & Cajun Teriyaki Chicken Sandwiches. I didn't have any hamburger buns. I had been meaning to try making my own, so here was my chance.
I made the recipe for Amish Bread & after the 90 minutes rise, I rolled the dough into balls. I made a few different sizes, but found that bigger than a golf ball but a little smaller than a tennis ball worked really well.
I covered them & let them rise till double, about 45-60 minutes & then baked them for 15 minutes or so.
Wow! They are so good! I can't even describe how much tastier these are than store bought buns. And really, it wasn't hard to make them AT ALL. I've made them a few times now. We've had them with grilled hamburgers too.
Here's my chicken sandwich with this bun (with oven fries).

They also make great sub buns. My husband said it was the best sub bun he's had yet.
Here it is with a steak sandwich.

Go ahead and make your own buns, you'll be glad you did!

Homemade Buns

1 C. plus 1 T. warm water
4 T. olive oil

3 T. sugar

1 t. salt

3 1/4 C. bread flour

2 t. yeast

3 t. vital wheat gluten (my other recipe does not call for this, but calls for 1 egg)

Stir the yeast into the water & set aside.

Combine other ingredients. Add the water/yeast & stir until blended. If too sticky add a little flour, if too dry, add a few drops of water. Kneed for 8 minutes or so, or use your dough hook on your mixer for a few minutes. Put dough in bowl with a little olive oil. Toss dough to coat, cover & set in warm place to rise for 90 minutes.

Punch the dough down & kneed it a few times on a floured surface. Form into balls for hamburger buns or into a long roll (6 or 7 inches) for sub buns. Cover & let rise 45-60 minutes.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 15 minutes or until lightly brown.

Enjoy!

Our Garden is In!

2009-05-28T23:58:00.009-04:00

Thankfully! We have planted our garden! There has been so much rain here that we are behind on the planting. We could have planted earlier in the weekend, but we had something kind of big going on here.

Our daughter graduated from high school!

They had a big homeschool graduation on Saturday afternoon, & then the ladies at our church gave her a wonderful reception afterwords. It was really something special.

We started working on our garden on Memorial Day.

Here is the row of green peppers. We planted this row over by our 'not doing so well strawberries' & where we plant our cucumbers (they vine up that trellis).

Next to that we planted two rows of spinach. We have never planted spinach before. I love to try growing new things.

Here is the west end of our garden. Last year the corn was here, this year it's the tomatoes! It is three rows across the garden. And then we do have another row running longways. Boy, these tomato plants look so tiny.

Here's that big sage plant in my herb garden. I did read that you can let this thing bloom & it won't hurt anything. The blooms are very pretty & the bees love them. So once it's done blooming I'll trim it back.

Here's a picture of the herb garden. In this picture I still haven't done a thing to it
(but I did a lot to it this evening, just no pictures yet).

The thyme is also blooming. I'll do just like the sage, I'll let it bloom then trim it back.

The cilatnro is coming up all over the place! There was a lot of cilantro growing up in the middle of the regular garden....about 20 feet away from its little plot! I have already picked a bunch & have it hanging to dry. The cilantro plot is in the lower right hand corner. And in the dill. And in the camamile. And in the parsley. And in the chives. LOL

The bottom left is the parsley. I have already been picking it & using it in recipes.

The dill is on the far side & is coming up all over the place too. I love dill.

Here's another shot of just the cilantro.
Hello cilantro! I'll not let you go to seed this year before picking a bunch of you for drying. I have so much corriander seed & I don't know what to do with it. LOL

Tonight I did quite a bit of work in the herb garden.
I added a new little patch & planted oregano. This is new for me this year. I love oregano & cook with it a lot so I wanted to be sure and plant it this year.
I also added 1 fennel plant. I'll let it go to seed & harvest those. I love to add fennel seeds to pizza & to meatball sandwiches. YUM.

I also cleared all of the dill growing up in the basil spot. Basil is annual & so I have to re-plant.
Here is the dill weed-weeds that I pulled out of the basil patch.

That's a lot of dill already! I'll be using some of this fresh in the next few days & then drying the rest. I love dill in cucumber sauce. It's one of my favorite things.

I forgot to mention what we planted in the regular garden.

24 tomato plants
8 green pepper plants
4 broccoil plants
4 cabbage plants
4 cauliflower plants
1 jalapeno plant
4 chili plants (new for us)
3 rows of sweet corn
2 rows of green beans
1 row of radishes
2 small rows of spinach (new for us)
2 small rows of cucumbers
5 hills of zucchini
1/2 row onions
4 ice berg lettuce plants (new for us)

Oh, another thing, I found 8 broccoli plants coming up vonunteer! So I replanted them in the corner of the garden before my husband disced & tilled. A few got trampled by accident, but I do have 4 plants left. So I need to find a place to add those. It will be fun to see if they produce. I let one of the plants go to seed last fall & I meant to harvest the seed (I've never done that before & I'd like to learn).
I forgot & they froze, but I reckon some still fell to the ground & did what they are supposed to do!

I'll try not to stay away so long. We've just been so busy with graduation stuff, & other things that this site has suffered. I'll try to get online more! I have tons of food pictures that I have taken. I hope to get on here in the next few days & post my new hamburger buns that I've been making. Oh, they are SO GOOD!

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

2009-05-12T00:01:00.001-04:00

My kitchen tip this week is for the many uses for ice cream buckets. Every now & then I like to buy ice cream just because I love these buckets. Well, I'll eat the ice cream if you twist my arm...
Anyway, I love these because they are a good size, usually hold 1.5 gallons or more, & they have a nice handle. Once we've eaten the ice cream, I always save these big buckets & I use them for many things.
First, I use them for homemade ice cream. We actually make homemade ice cream more than we buy ice cream. In this picture you can see that that the label says Chocolate Revel ice cream. But the contents are actually homemade vanilla. I have an old fashioned hand crank freezer that makes a gallon and a half of ice cream, so I love these big buckets to store all that ice cream in!
They also make great cleaning buckets. I use them to spot mop the kitchen or bathroom floors. I have used them to spot clean just about anything. I have 5 babysitting kids, so spot cleaning a place on the couch (or anywhere) is very common. I only use ONE bucket for cleaning. I have marked it with a Sharpie, "CLEANING ONLY" & I keep it on a shelf in the laundry room with scrub brushes in it, so it never gets used for ice cream or any other food.

Another favorite use for my ice cream bucket it for weeding in the garden. I call it my weed bucket. (Isn't that clever? LOL) I've had this weed bucket for a while. It looks like I may need to go buy another bucket of ice cream so this one can retire. I love the handle. I think I've spent many hours with this particular bucket. It has held its share of weeds & one year a lot of rocks. I keep my little shovels & my gloves in it.

I also have two other uses for these buckets, but I'll spare you the pictures.
We have one marked as the "Puke Bucket". It stays hidden, but it is brought out whenever anyone is sick. Well, if you know someone is sick, they can have this bucket sitting on the bed table, ready to be used if needed.
It does help keep some of the mess down. It can be easily emptied & then washed out (& sanitized) & re-used... only as a puke bucket. It's NEVER used for anything else. We have a specific spot for it in the linen closet, & everyone knows what it's for & that it is never to be used for anything else. Ever.

The other use is to hold the plunger. You don't have to use a plunger very often (hopefully), but when you do have to use it, after you've finished, you don't have to set it on the floor. Just keep your plunger standing in one of these buckets (clearly marked that it's for use for the plunger ONLY). We keep ours stored in a far corner in the laundry room. But it's not on the floor, it's in this bucket.

I know my uses for these buckets are not just for the kitchen, but for many areas of the home.
Getting back to the kitchen, I've used these buckets for many strawberry pickins'. Back when our strawberry patch was really producing TONS of strawberries, I filled these buckets many times.
When I was picking dandelions the other day for fried dandelions, I used one of these buckets.
I bet I'll think of more ways I use these buckets after I finish writing this.
They have a handy little handle & they are a handy size.
They are handy buckets.
You just have to eat the ice cream out of them first.
It's a sacrifice, but someone has to do it.

You can read more Kitchen Tips over at Tammy's Recipes.

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T12:26:00.002-04:00

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!

Fried Dandelion Flowers

2009-05-09T19:05:00.003-04:00

Yes, I said DANDELIONS!

We have heard many times that fried dandelions taste just like fried morels.
Since we don't have a super secret morel hunting ground, I thought we'd give this a try.
We were all a little leary.
But we tried them.
And you know what?
They were Ok. Actually, they were pretty good!
Good enough that our daughter has asked for them often.
I have to admit, that they do not taste "just like fried morels". They do taste awfully close to morels, just not exactly like them.
Here's what a few of ours looked like. I guess I should tell you that you can't actually tell that these are fried dandelions. The first time I made them, I just made a few & I dipped each flower in egg batter & flour seperately. After deciding that we liked them & that we'd like to have them again, only more of them, I now use my "batter pro" gizmo to flour them. This makes some of them stick together, which is actually a good thing because it makes bigger sizes. I hope I explained that alright. I just mean that when a few flowers stick together, you have a bigger piece to fry.

Fried Dandelion Flowers
Pick dandelions that are fresh (not starting to close) & pick them close to the bottom. Dont use any of the stem. (that would be yuk)
eggs
milk
salt
pepper
garlic powder
onion salt

First, I soak mine in salt water for a little while to get rid of any bugs that might be hiding in there. We soak morels for at least 24 hours, but you can't soak dandelions that long, or they'll close up. If some of them close up it's ok though.
Fry these like you would fry anyting. I dip mine in an egg batter (eggs & milk) & then dip in flour that has your seasonings in it.
Now fry them in canola oil until crispy & brown.

As much as I would LOVE to fry up a big platter of fried morels...we just don't have any. :( If we did have some, I would just flour them up & fry them. Here's a good site that has recipes for morels. If you don't have access to any morals, my advise is to go there at your own risk. It made my mouth water, & I may have wimpered a few times.

If you are like us & you don't have any morels, you should try these dandelions sometime. They are really good, & they're FREE! And around here they grow in abundance! LOL Unlike morels....

Homemade Dog Treats

2009-05-04T21:44:00.008-04:00

Today I have a recipe for man's best friends...DOGS. :)
Our dogs are a huge part of our lives. They felt so special the day my husband & son made these homemade dog bones for them. Our 'boys' knew that Dad & Son were baking these for them. And they watched & waited the whole time!
I found this recipe quite a while ago over at the Left Over Food Queen's site. The original link with recipe can be found here.

In this first picture, you can see my husband & son working together.

I thought I should take a picture from further away so you could see our boys watching. They were very excited. They knew.

Here they are waiting & watching some more. Their names are Louis (6 years old, he's the sable one) & Otto (4 years old, black & 'red').

Otto has decided to be a little more patient. He laid down to watch.

While Otto rested, Louis decided that maybe the treats would be done sooner if he gave my husband & son the stare.

Finally, Louis got tired & decided to lay down too.

And while Louis laid down, Otto took on gaurd duty. He's got a pretty good stare too:

So, the cookies (bones) get rolled out on the table. We don't have a dog bone shaped cookie cutter, so our son picked out the candy cane cookie cutter. We thought that was about the same size as the dog bones we usually buy for them. There are 2 on the cookie sheet that I shaped into dog bone shape.

Here are the treats after they were finished. There are a few 'candy canes' & a few free hand dog bone shapes. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of our dogs actually eating these treats. You'll just have to take my word for it that they LOVED them.
These homemade dog treats are very healthy & it was nice knowing the exact ingredients that were in them. Unlike store bought bones, I can pronounce each & every ingredient. :) They were not expensive to make either. Compared to store bought, they were very cheap! I had all of the ingredients except for the wheat bran. I picked some up at the grocery store & found it in the flour aisle.

For our 'boys', this is a KEEPER recipe. :)

Dog Bone Cookies
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup non-fat dry milk powder
1/2 t. salt

6 T. butter

1 egg

1 cup water

3 t. wheat bran

3 T. Peanut Butter
Preheat oven to 350 F. Put butter and egg in food processor (or mixer) and process until smooth. In a seperate bowl mix the flour, milk powder, salt and wheat bran together. Add flour mixture, peanut butter and water alternately to butter and egg mixture and pulse processor until the dough has come together into a nice ball (you may not need to use all the water).
Roll the dough out onto a floured surface and roll to about 1/2 inch thickness. If you have a cookie cutter, cut the shapes out. If not, you can shape them by hand. Cut small (about 2 inch long) rectangles in the dough with a knife.
Fold piece in half lengthwise. Squish the middle of each end towards the center to make the 2 rounded knobs at each end. Flip over to smooth side and place on a cookie sheet (don't worry about spacing, they aren't going to grow).
Bake for about 15 minutes, flip and then bake another 3-4 minutes. Place on cookie racks to cool and keep out overnight to harden.
Makes about 60-70 cookies

It's Garden Time!

2009-05-02T16:33:00.010-04:00

We haven't planted yet, but that will be coming soon! I'm looking so forward to the garden of 2009.
Here's our main garden, just brimming with potential...and our 6 year old son's construction spot. He calls it his "soft dirt" & he plans construction stuff with it all summer. As you can see, he has already started on this year's work.The spearmint that I planted last year under the propane tank is already growing. I dried some of it last fall & I've really enjoyed having some in my tea. I had heard that peppermint was harder to go, & sure enough, the peppermint that I planted last year in a pot didn't return. That's ok, I really do like the spearmint too.

And here is my herb garden. Now keep in mind that I haven't done anything to it yet. No weeding, no nothin'. Last year was my first year having an herb garden. I really enjoyed it, & I really enjoyed cooking with some of my own dried herbs over the winter. Everything is coming back up on it's own, except the basil, & I'm pretty sure that's the only annual I planted.

Here's the flat leaf parsley. Wow, it's really coming up in thick bunches. I wonder if I can seperate it at all, so I can spread it out better. I don't know if it would handle that or not. Well, I might try it.

And my oh my look at the cilantro! Not only is it coming up well in it's little square plot, it is also in the walkway, I spotted one in the parsley, & some where the camomile goes! Cilantro is the only one that I didn't dry last fall & I hated it that I missed my window of opportunity to do that. It went to seed (corriander) before I realized it was time to do it. I still have a large jar of corriander seed. I need to find some kind of recipe to use it. This year I will dry some cilantro so we can enjoy it all year.

Here's my big sage plant. Because I'm new at this, I didn't know what to do with it over the winter. I bet I was supposed to cut it back. I thought it dried out over the winter. But now that it is warmer weather, the leaves are green again & appear to be normal.

You can see in this next picture that the stems are pretty "woody". Inside new leaves & stems are growing. I bet I'm supposed to cut this back so the new growth can grow. What do you think? My hand smelled like sage after taking this picture.
Here is the thyme & it has the same story as the sage. I didn't cut it back at the end of the year. I dried a ton of it, but still left so much to just stay in the garden over the winter. It seemed like the leaves all dried out in the winter, but like the sage, all the thyme is green again. This is the thyme left over from last year. Like the sage, there is new growth coming up under it, so I may need to trim these back too.

Just look at all the thyme I have! ( I wish I had as much TIME as I have thyme. LOL)

Here is the camomile coming back too. I have enjoyed my camomile tea over the winter. I just had some the other night. I like it with some sugar & a bit of honey....it's soooo good. There's also some cilantro coming up in camomile. I hate to say this, but there will be quite a bit of cilantro that will be pulled like weeds! LOL
Of course the chives are up & growing too! I've already been snipping some & adding it to salads & to sour cream on baked potatoes.

You can't tell what this is yet, but it is the dill. One of my favorite things to use dill is the cucumber sauce. Love that. I also made a dill bread that had cottage cheese in it. I never got around to posting that recipe, maybe I'll do that soon. About the only thing recognizable in this picture is the dandilion, LOL, but I can vouch that there really is a lot of dill there.

Here is the cucumber fence my husband made last year. We are really looking forwad to seeing cucumbers vine their way up this fence!
I really liked everything I planted in the herb garden last year. The only thing that didn't come up was the lavender. I think this year I would like to add oregano, & maybe fennel. I've never used fresh fennel, but I do use fennel seeds on pizza & in meatballs. I'll have to see about that though.

Well, there is my first garden post of the year.

Hopefully I can get back to the computer more often than I have lately.

Questions:

Do any of you know about the sage & thyme? Do you think I should cut it back so the fresh leaves can grow?

Lemon Bars

2009-04-22T14:42:00.003-04:00

This is an easy recipe for lemon bars. I've had this recipe since I was around 14 years old. I was the manager of the girls swimming team during my 9th & 10th grades in high school. One of the girls brought these for us to snack on as we were driven to an "away meet". We all raved about how good they were & the girl's mom made copies of the recipe for us. It's nearly 30 years later & I'm still making these lemon bars.

Lemon Bars
(crust)
Yellow cake mix (pudding in the mix)
1 egg
1/3 c. oil

(creamy part)
1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
1/3 C. sugar
1 t. lemon juice
1 egg

Mix cake mix, egg, & oil until crumbly. Take out 1 cup of mixture & set aside for topping.
Press the rest of the mixture into a 9X13 pan & bake at 350 for 10 minutes.
While the crust is baking, beat the cream cheese, sugar, egg, & lemon juice. Spread this over the baked crust layer. Sprinkle the reserved crumbs on the top. Bake an additional 10 minutes.
(the original recipe said to bake 15 minutes, but this is way too long in my oven. So if your oven runs a little cooler, you may need an extra 5 minutes.)

Sorry I haven't been around here lately. We've just been busy with school, babysitting kids, & graduation plans.

Beef and Barley Soup

2009-04-05T13:54:00.004-04:00

I thought with the weather gettting warmer, I'd post this soup recipe next fall. But we are having a cold snap here, maybe even getting some more snow in the next day or too.
This is one of many recipes that I've found over at Tammy's Recipes.
Here is a link to her original recipe. I have added a few things to mine so I'll add to the recipe below.
I have never used a roast in a soup. It seems like I usually use round steak cut into cubes. Using roast gave it a really nice flavor. For a meat, it seemes like it was a little sweet. It was delicious!

Beef and Barley Soup From Tammy's Recipes

2 pounds beef roast
1 large onion, chopped
6 celery ribs, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 3/4 cups barley (dry/uncooked measurement)
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
beef bouillon, optional
3 1/2 quarts water, approximately
4 carrots
1 quart green beans
freezer corn
Basil
Thyme

Instructions:
1. Trim fat from meat and dice into 1-inch cubes. Saute meat with garlic in a large (6-quart) stock pot. Brown on medium-high heat, stirring often.
2. When meat is browned, add part of the water (enough to cover the meat) and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for an hour. (I think I covered mine)
3. Add the remaining ingredients (except for the green beans & freezer corn). Bring to a boil and then simmer for at least 1 hour. If soup becomes too thick, add additional water according to your preference.
4. Add the beans & corn during the last 15 minutes of cooking.

This is a really wonderful & flavorful soup.
We all loved it!

Rocky Road Whoppers

2009-04-03T23:22:00.006-04:00

This is one big cookie. Now I understand why they named them Whoppers. It's not because there are Whoppers in them (there aren't), but because they are BIG.

I found this recipe at Cooking.com. Since we all love rocky road, I just had to give it a try.

The original recipe is here. I'll post the original recipe, but then will tell you what I'll do next time down below.

Rocky Road Cookies
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips, divided in half
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon instant coffee powder dissolved in 1 teaspoon water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
60 (about 2/3 cup) miniature marshmellows

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Stir flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl to blend. Set aside.
Stir 1 cup chocolate chips and butter in medium bowl set over saucepan of barely simmering water until melted and smooth. Transfer chocolate mixture to large bowl. Set aside.
Whisk sugar, egg, coffee mixture and vanilla in medium bowl until blended. Stir egg mixture into reserved chocolate mixture. Mix in flour mixture just until blended. Add nuts and remaining 1 cup chocolate chips.
For each cookie, drop 1 rounded tablespoon dough onto prepared baking sheet, spacing 3 inch apart. Gently press 5 marshmallows into center of each. Gently press 1 rounded tablespoon of dough atop each to cover marshmallows and form 2-inch-high mounds. Bake cookies until top is dull and feels crusty when touched gently, rotating baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through baking to ensure even browning, about 14 minutes.
Cool cookies on baking sheet 15 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool completely.
DO-AHEAD TIP: Cookies can be made up to 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.
Recipe created exclusively for Cooking.com by Elinor Klivans.
Makes 12 large cookies (serving size = 1 cookie)

I made mine just like the recipe, well, except I didn't have any walnuts so I used pecans. Also, I had half milk chocolate chips & half semi-sweet.

I have to be honest, these cookies were delicious, but they really were WAY too big.

Each cookie takes 2 TABLESPOONS of dough plus 5 mini marshmellows.

The whole recipe only made 12 cookies...so of course I doubled the recipe. *giggles*

But look, this big cookie sheet (about 10X15) could only hold 6 cookies.

I didn't get any pictures, but on the second batch I used a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon, & only used 3 marshmellows. It still made a really big cookie.
I think next time, I'm just going to fold the marshmellows into the dough & drop them by teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. This would be much better for us.
Now if you want giant, whopper cookies, by all means, follow the instructions above!
The other little problem I had was the marshmellows. They seemed to melt during the baking process. But, just after I made these cookies, I saw a recipe that Claire had over at Cooking is Medicine. She made some cookies with marshmellows in them & she suggested freezing the marshmellows first. I made her cookies, & freezing them did help, because the first few batches turned out wonderfully. The last cookie sheet that I put in the marshmellows had thawed so they all melted & then made the cookies stick. So freezing them before hand is good. Actually, it's highly recommended. :) Thanks for that tip Claire!

I wondered how in the world I'd get these cookies to fit in my cookie jar.
But I got them in there!

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays

2009-03-31T00:01:00.001-04:00

I love Tammy's new graphic for Kitchen Tip Tuesdays! Be sure to check out her site to see more Kitchen Tip Tuesdays.
My tip this week isn't just for the kitchen, it can be used in different areas in the house (including the kitchen) & even in other places.
I got this tip from The Home Show. It was a show that was on in the late 80's & early 90's. The host was Gary Collins & they had a few different hostesses but I can't remember their names. It was a nice show to watch. It had interviews with various people, home tips, crafts, recipes, & just things like that. It was a good wholesome show. Not many of those these days.
Carol Duvall used to do crafts & things on this show & I really liked this one & have been using it for years....at least 15 years, but maybe longer. LOL
I guess we could call it the "tube 'o bags" trick.
You know those plastic grocery bags (like WalMart's)? They are hard to put away, hard to have a nice place to store them. I know there are cute little hanging bags you can buy to put them in, but I've just always used this tube trick.
You take an empty paper towel tube & stuff a plastic bag down into it, leaving one handle sticking out the top like this:

Then you take your next bag & thread the bottom of the bag through the loop, like this:

Then you cram that bag down into the tube, also leaving one handle sticking out.

Repeat this process until your tube is full & you can't fit any more bags into it. You can actually get quite a few in there. I counted the other night & I got 10 bags into one tube.

You can see this one is full as the first bag is starting to come out the other end.

Since you hook each bag into the handle of the last one you put in, it makes it like a dispenser, you pull one out & then next one pops up, just like Kleenexes.

These little "tube 'o bags" fit nicely into drawers. I keep a few in one of my kitchen drawers. I also use these bags as trash bags in our bathrooms & in the little wastebaskets that are in each bedroom, so I keep quite a few of these tubes up on a shelf in our laundry room.
I keep a tube in our fishing boat. Years ago when our daughter was little we had a camper & I always had at least one, if not more, of these "tube 'o bags" in a drawer in our camper.
Also, you could decorate these if you want. I remember coloring flowers on one of these with our daughter when she was little.
I guess I think this is a pretty useful trick, I've been doing it for a lot of years! I learned it from The Home Show & have been using this trick ever since.

Parmesan Twists Breadsticks

2009-03-28T17:32:00.004-04:00

This is another recipe that I got from the internet quite a few years ago, so I have no idea where I got it & no way to link to it. I haven't made breadsticks in a few years & thought it was time to get back to it. I found this recipe in my binder & thought I'd give it a try. It was really good. I marked KEEPER at the bottom. That means that everyone in my family loved them & wants to have them again.
Here is a picture of them after they had risen & just before going into the oven:

Parmesan Twists Breadsticks
3/4 C. Water
2 T. olive oil
3 C. bread flour
1 t. salt
1 T. sugar
2 t. active dry yeast

2 T. melted butter for brushing on the breadsticks
Parmesan Cheese

You could use your bread machine for this if you'd like.
1. Combine water, yeast, & sugar in a small bowl & set aside. In mixer combine the olive oil, salt, & flour. Add the water/ yeast mixture & mix with the dough hook. I mix this way for 5 minutes or so, it takes the place of hand kneading for 8-10 minutes. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour. If it seems to dry, add warm water 1 t. at a time until you have a nice dough ball.
2. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning to coat it. Cover with a towl & set in warm place to rise for 60-90 minutes or until doubled.
3. Punch down. Divide dough into 20 equal pieces. Roll each piece into 10-12 inch rope. Pinch end of 2 ropes together & then twish them together & pinch them together at the end. Place twists on cookie sheet. Melt the 2 T. butter & brush onto the twists. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Cover & let rise in a warm place for 30-60 minutes or until doubled.
4. Bake in 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes.
Yield: 10 breadsticks
These are delicious served warm.

I baked mine for about 1 minute too long. I was in the laundry room & didn't hear the timer going off. As soon as I left the laundry room I heard it dinging so I RAN to the kitchen! Sure enough, just a little more golden brown than I like, but they were still delicious!

They were really good served with cheesy Chicken Spaghetti.
I think they would also be great with any tomato based pasta too.
And also served as an appatizer, maybe dipped in nacho cheese sauce, garlic butter, or marinara sauce.

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

2009-03-24T00:01:00.001-04:00

I have a pretty good kitchen tip today. And the funny thing is, I just learned it today.
I got a new widget on my sidebar. It's called chef's tips & each time my page is opened, a new tip is displayed. I try to remember to look at it each time I get online so I can learn any new tips.
I learned one today from this widget & here it is:
It said that to keep garlic from sticking to your knife when dicing it, spinkle it with a little salt first. I thought that sounded like a good tip & gave it a try today when making some sauce. It worked! I was mincing my garlic, so by the time I got done there was some garlic sticking to my knife. My first thought was that it really didn't work that well. Then about 20 minutes later I needed to mince up some more garlic for my meatballs. I did not salt the garlic & as usual it really stuck to my knife & my fingers. It really showed me the difference.
From now on I'll be salting my garlice before I dice or mince it!
It doesn't take much, not even a whole pinch of salt. I just used my shaker & salted it like I would salt something on my plate, which is definitely less than a pinch.

Also, click on widget if you would like to have it on your site too.

Happy Kitchen Tip Tuesday! You can find more tips on Tammy's Recipes.

Cheesy Tuna Tater Pie

2009-03-22T17:15:00.002-04:00

This is one of those really cheap, really easy, & really good (I think) meals.
Our local grocery store usually has free sample tastes of different recipes. Not like WalMart's free sample tastes, where it's just a taste of a product they are selling. This is where a lady sits at a table with a hot plate of something, but it's a recipe made up & there are little sample dishes to try, but there is also a stack of printable recipes & a few sample products sitting there so you can see what you need to get to make this recipe. (Saturday-yesterday- it was an oreo ice cream pie kind of thing. Yum!)
Well, that is how I got this recipe, & I know it was more than 6 years ago. I love that this hometown, locally owned grocery store does this. And I'm so happy that they are still here & thriving even after the Super WalMart moved in quite a few years ago. :)
If you like tuna, I'm sure you'll like this savory pie. If you don't like tuna, you may want to skip this one.

Cheesy Tuna Tater Pie

Crust:
1 Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crust
OR Make your own. Here' my recipe.

Filling:
3/4 C. Hungry Jack (or any brand) mashed potato flakes
6 oz. (1 1/2 cups) shreded cheddar cheese
2 T. chopped pimiento-stuffed green olives (I never add these)
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup (OR 1 batch of homemade condensed cream of chicken soup)
1 (6 oz) can water-packed tuna, drained & flaked
1 egg
1/2 cup canned french fried onions.

1. Heat oven to 400. Prepare pie crust as directed on package for one-crust. Bake at 400 for 5 minutes. (or use your own crust & bake in pie pan for 5 min.)
2. Meanwhile, in medium bowl, combine potato flakes, 1 cup of the cheese, olives, soup, tuna and egg; mix well.
3. Remove partially baked shell from oven. Spoon filling into shell. Return to oven' bake an additional 15 minutes.
4. Sprinkle top of pie with french fried onions and remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Bake an additional 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and onions begin to brown. Let stand 5 minutes fefore serving.
Makes 6 servings.

The only reason I never add the olives is because we all love olives here. If we have a jar in the frig, it never lasts long. So I never have olives on hand for this recipe. LOL I would like to try it with the olives in it sometime.

Andes Creme de Menthe Cookies

2009-03-16T14:10:00.003-04:00

Since I'm such a mint lover, these are one of my favorite cookies. I just got the recipe from the back of a bag of Andes baking pieces. I've been making these for a few years.
Here is a link to the official site's recipe.

Andes Creme de Menthe Cookies
1/2 cup salted butter - softened
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 package (10 oz.) Andes® Crème de Menthe Baking Chips
2-2/3 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350° F.
Blend butter, sugars, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla and eggs until mixed.
Stir in Andes Baking Chips and then flour. Chill approximately one hour in the refrigerator.
Measure out approximately 1 oz. of dough. Form a ball and slightly flatten.
Raise oven rack one level above the middle and bake on non-stick baking pans.
Bake at 350° F for approximately 8 - 10 minutes.
Cool on pans for two minutes before removing.
Yield:
4 dozen cookies.

Oatmeal Bread

2009-03-12T23:02:00.003-04:00

I think we have found our new favorite bread! Well, at least ONE of our favorites.

It's called oatmeal bread & I've had it printed & in my recipe notebook for so long I don't remember where on the internet I got it. It was a long time ago that I found it, because I printed up a lot of bread machine recipes. I haven't used my bread machine in a few years. You can use this in your bread machine, or do it by hand, or even in your mixer. I decided I'd use my mixer's dough hook this time & see how it did. It did great! And saved me some time & energy to boot.

I think I let the dough hook knead it for about 5-7 minutes.

Oatmeal Bread

1 C. warm water

1/4 C. molasses

2 T. butter

3 C. bread flour

1/2 C. quick cooking or regular oats

2 T. dry milk

1 1/2 t. salt

2.75 t. regular active dry yeast OR 2.25 t. bread machine or quick acting dry yeast

If you do it by hand (or mixer) add the yeast to the warm water & set aside.

Combine the rest of the ingredients. Add water/yeast mixture. Use the dough hook in you mixer to knead for 5 minutes or so. Put into a greased bowl & cover for 90 minutes. Punch down & knead for just a few minutes. Press into a roll about 12-18 inches long. Put on greased pan & cover with towel to rise another 30-60 minutes. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

This bread was delicious. My husband says that it is his favorite. It went really great with one of my favorite meals, roast, potatoes, & carrots (after I took this picture, I mashed up my potatoes & smothered them in gravy...*giggle*).

And the next day it made such a good sandwich. The bread was buttered ( with real butter, no fake stuff for homemade bread) & then slices of roast added with some of the gravy. Oh my.

This was a great sandwich!

The next day I had just a tiny bit left of one little piece of meat & some gravy. I shredded the meat into the gravy & had a beef manhattan on this bread. YUM!

'Course I forgot to take a picture...

And then later I made this ham & cheese on the oatmeal bread. Our 6 year old proclaimed it "the best sammy I've ever had!" LOL It was pretty good!

I like how this bread let me make some thin slices too.

It's very good bread. I've already made it again since these pictures were taken!

Kitchen Tip & Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

2009-03-10T00:30:00.006-04:00

I'm going to try to participate in both Kitchen Tip Tuesdays AND Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays. You can see more kitchen tips at Tammy's site & more tempting recipes at Lisa's site.

My recipe this week is Milk Chocolate Cookies with Malted Cream.

I first saw this recipe over at Cookie Madness

and the origional recipe is at the Food & wine site.
I LOVE malted milk, so I sure wanted to try them.

Milk Chocolate Cookies with Malted Cream

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
6 ounces milk chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
FILLING
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup chocolate malt powder, such as Ovaltine
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Make the cookies: In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter with the brown sugar and granulated sugar until smooth. Add the melted chocolate and vanilla and beat until smooth. In a small bowl, whisk the flour with the cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and beat at low speed just until incorporated. Roll the dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper to a scant 1/4-inch thickness and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.
Using a 2-inch round cookie cutter, stamp out as many rounds as possible and transfer to the baking sheets, 1 inch apart. Gather the scraps and chill, with the cut-out rounds, for 10 minutes. Reroll the scraps and stamp out more rounds.
Bake the cookies in the lower and middle thirds of the oven for about 10 minutes, until dry and set; shift the pans halfway through baking. Transfer the cookies to a rack and let cool completely.
Make the filling: In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter with the chocolate malt powder at medium speed until light, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and confectioners’ sugar and beat at low speed just until combined. Transfer the filling to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain tip. Arrange half of the cookies on a work surface, bottom side up, and pipe a 1-inch mound of filling onto each. Sandwich with the remaining cookies, pressing to spread the filling to the edges. Serve.

I just love to see my cookie jar filled with cookies!

I have to say that these were very good cookies. They were pretty rich, but rich is good.

I will make these again, but I think I do need to find a smaller cookie cutter. These were just a little big for how sweat they were. I think they would be great the size of oreo cookies. It would just be more work.

I also think these would be really good with a mint filling instead. I love the malt, I'm just a mint freak, so I'm thinking a few drops of peppermint extract & a few drops of green food coloring.

I do think I'll try that one of these days!

I hope you enjoy my tip & that it tempts your tummy!

P.S. PLEASE keep praying for Baby Caiden. He is still in ICU on a ventilator. He has been on the vent for almost 2 weeks. This last week he had pneumonia again, & now has an infection in his blood. I ache for your prayers for him.

Butterfinger Cake and a CELEBRATION!

2009-03-06T22:34:00.004-05:00

Look at this Butterfinger Cake! Oh mercy, it is so good!

First I want to tell you that I found this recipe over at The Southern Plate. Wow, she has some good recipes!

Here is a link to her cake & recipe.

I made this cake sometime last year, & let me tell you that it is DELICIOUS. And it gets even better after it has been if the refrigerator overnight. Good luck on waiting that out. Mercy.

I also just have to share why we had a celebration here.

Our 18 year old daughter got accepted into college last week!

She had just one college in mind, she applied, & she was ACCEPTED.

We are just so proud of her. We are THRILLED. And so very THANKFUL.

God led us to homeschooling when she was just a little thing, & we followed His call.

For 13 years we've been on this road, & it's been wonderful journey.

Sometimes the road was rocky, & sometimes it seemed like it was uphill a lot of the way (Latin 2 for me...LOL).

But it was the way we were led & it was so worth the journey. Gosh, I don't want to make it sound like it was all hard & uphill. It was wonderful. Teaching your own child how to read is just a joy that's so hard to put into words. Seeing that lightbulb come on when they realize what you're trying to teach them is also beyond words for me.

It was years of hard work & I wouldn't change it for anything. We'd do it all again (and we are, because our son is finishing up kindergarten this year)!

Now it's not just "my" grades that I gave her.

It's not just "my" official transcript.

It was her SAT scores.

And it was her getting an offer of admission to a big university.

I'd love to tell y'all which one. But because this is the internet, I don't really want to put it out there where our little darling is going to be. :) I will tell you that it is one of the 'big ones' here in Indiana. I'm not big on sports, but I think it's considered a "big ten" college. LOL It may have something to do with basketball....I don't know.

Before I chatter on & on, I want to give God all of the glory & honor & praise! Without Him, we simply could NOT have done this. Thank you God.

So we needed to celebrate! I asked her what kind of cake she'd like. Her favorite cake is Lori's Creme de Menthe cake. She did just have that cake a little over a month ago, so she picked this Butterfinger Cake. It had been a long time since I made it.

Butterfinger Cake
1 box devil’s food cake mix
1 bottle caramel topping
1 can sweetened Condensed milk
1 large tub cool whip
1 Butterfinger bar (I used 2 because I couldn't find a BIG one)
Prepare cake according to package directions. Immediately after removing cake from oven, poke several holes all over the top with a fork. Mix sweetened condensed milk and caramel together, pour over hot cake, spread it over the entire cake. Chill well. After cake has chilled completely, spread cool whip over the top and sprinkle crushed Butterfinger bar on top of cool whip.

Try this cake. It is amazing.

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

2009-03-03T00:01:00.005-05:00

My kitchen tip this week is how to make sub buns.
You can use any of your homemade bread recipes. On this day I chose Homemade Italian Bread.

Just make your bread as you usually would. After the first rise, instead of putting it in a loaf pan, hand shape it into abour 6 inch long skinny rolls. Place on greased baking pans to rise the second time (covered with a towel).

Here's a picture of mine right after shaping them:
And here they are after rising:

And after baking:
These homemade sub buns worked perfectly for these meatball sandwiches!

You can see more Kitchen Tip Tuesdays over at Tammy's Site.

P.S. I would also like to ask for continued prayers for my babysitting baby Caiden.
He just turned 3 months old on Sunday (March 1). He is in ICU on a ventilator. He has RSV & has been in Severe Respiratory Destress. He has been on the ventilator for almost 1 week. PLEASE pray for him. You can see a picture of him here & here.
Please feel free to put him on your church's prayer chains. Thank you so much.

I have just found Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. Please visit Blessed With Grace to see more tummy tempting recipes.

Baby Caiden

2009-03-01T01:05:00.005-05:00

I haven't had an update on Baby Caiden for 3 days. I hope to find out something at church this morning.
Thanks for praying for him & please keep it up!
Thank you.
This picture of him was taken while he slept in the sling I wear him in.
My good friend Stacey sent this wonderful sling to me!

Please Pray for Baby Caiden

2009-02-25T12:00:00.002-05:00

Please pray for Baby Caiden.
He is the newborn I babysit for. He is very very sick.
He was hospitalized a few weeks ago for pneumonia. After a week of recovery from that, he got sick with some kind of virus. He ran a high fever this last weekend & was put back in the hospital Sunday evening. He was diagnosed with Broncialitis (sp?) & was on oxygen, breathing treatments, & prednisone.
I was called this morning & told that he had to be put on a ventilator last evening. Then he had an allergic reaction to some meds. He has been given meds to paralize his body so he won't fight them, & will be having an echo done on his heart to check for "microcardia-something".
I hate to even type this part.....but his mother was told that he might not make it.
PLEASE PLEASE PRAY FOR HIM.
Please put him on any prayer chains you have in your churches.
Thank you so much.

Slanket Giveaway!

2009-02-23T20:34:00.003-05:00

Trish at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'? is giving away TWO of these slankets!

I would love to win this. Can't you just imagine being wrapped up all nice & cozy in this slanket while reading?!

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

2009-02-20T22:45:00.003-05:00

I got this recipe from the internet when we first got our computer (late 90's).
I think I'll type it up just as I printed it. It's a Basic Freezer Meatball recipe, then it has a lot of different ways to make them. The trick was to make a really large batch of meatballs to have in your freezer, so anytime you could take them out & make any one of many recipes, like sweet & sour, salisbury, hungarian meatball goulash (I've made this one too), herbed meatballs with noodles, slavic meatballs, and many more. It's a neat idea. And do you know that I printed out the basic meatball recipe & then 8 of the recipes, and it was more that TEN YEARS before I ever tried them?! It's true.
I'm glad I finally got around to trying them, because we really like them.

Basic Freezer Meatballs
4 pounds lean ground beef
2 C. dry bread crumbs
1 T. salt
1/4 t. pepper (I used more)
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 C. onion, chopped finely (I used more)
2 T. cornstarch
2 t. Worcestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 400. Combine all ingredients into a large bowl & mix well, using your hands. Shape mixture into 1-inch meatballs. Place meatballs on ungreased baking sheets and bake for 10-15 minutes until browned. Drain on paper towels.

To freeze, first flash freeze: Place meatballs on cookie sheets (not touching) and place cookie sheet in freezer until meatballs are frozen. Then place frozen meatballs in freezer bags & return to the freezer.
hint: freeze them 24 meatballs per freezer bag. That is usually the amount called for in the recipes, or if you use your own recipe, 24 meatballs is a nice amount for a recipe.

Yield: about 144 meatballs. *

I didn't make this big recipe, I halved it using only 2 pounds of ground beef, so I should have made around 72 meatballs. I only got 56 meatballs, so I must have made mine a little bigger. I divided them into 2 freezer bags so I could have 2 different recipes.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs
"This is not that sticky red sauce, but a sophisticated contrast of sweet and sour flavors and interesting textures. Serve these Oriental inspired meatballs with white rice." (not my quote, but quote from the original recipe.)

20 oz. can pineapple chunks in juice
1/2 C. water
1/4 C. cider vinegar
1/4 C. brown sugar
1 t. soy sauce
2 T. cornstarch
1 small green pepper, cut into 1/2 inch squares
5 oz. sliced water chestnuts (I didn't have these)
24 frozen meatballs

Drain the pineapple chunks, reserving 3/4 C. of juice (if there is not enough, add water to make 3/4C. ) Combine juice, additional 1/2 C. water, vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan and stir until sugar and cornstarch doissolve. Cook over low heat until thick and bubbling, stirring constantly. Add green peppers, meatballs, water chestmuts & 1 C. pineabble chunks ( use the rest elsewhere). Heat until meatballs are hot, stirring frequently. Serve with white rice.

We really liked this recipe. It was the kind of sweet & sour recipe that I've been looking for for years. Funny that it's been in my recipe binder for more than 10 years!
I'll post the recipe for the Hungarian Meatball Goulash soon.

Old Fashioned Sugar Cream Pie

2009-02-18T13:06:00.006-05:00

Lately I've been posting a lot of recipes that I've found on-line, especially foods that I have found on other food blogger's sites. I thought it had been a while since I've posted one of my own recipes (or even posted at all! I've been busy...), & after seeing the news a few weeks ago I got an idea.
You see, Indiana has just voted in the legislature to have an official pie.
And it's the Sugar Cream Pie!
Here's a picture of mine:

If you want to read about it, here is an article about how this came to be.
In a nutshell, it states that sugar cream pies are a tradition dating back to the 1800's in Indiana. It comes from the Amish & Shaker communities. They would start making these pies in the wintertime when the fall harvest fruits started running out. It also has a different recipe than mine that you bake, I might like to try it sometime.
Here is another article that tells about how it was a little controversial.
Quoted from the artical:

The resolution was not without controversy.
Besides private murmuring among members of the General Assembly about the primacy of pecan pie, some wondered aloud whether the legislature has more pressing issues.
"I think it sends the wrong message," House Minority Leader Brian Bosma said. "I'm not a critic of the issue, but I think we have more important things to deal with."

*snickers* I just got a little kick out of that.
So on to my recipe. I never had sugar cream pie growing up. Mostly we had apple pie, among others. I never tasted this delicious pie until I married my husband. His mother used to make it. I'm thinking this recipe had either been her mother's or her mother-in-law's. I can't remember which one it was. I just remember that years ago I asked her for the recipe & she got it out of an old cookbook that was falling apart. But the recipe may have been seperate from that, written on a piece of paper, if I remember correctly. And I *might* be remembering wrong, because I also have this same memory of her giving me the recipe for date pudding. LOL Either way, it's old. LOL It comes from my husband's mom, who got it from one of her moms.

Old Fashioned Sugar Cream Pie
1 C. sugar
1 stick butter
2 c. milk
1/3 c. cornstarch
1 t. vanilla
1/8 t. nutmeg
more pats of butter & nutmeg for the top if you desire

Mix cornstarch & enough milk to make a thickening ( I use about 1/2 c. of the milk). Set aside.
Stir sugar & remaining milk in pan over medium/low heat until sugar disolves. Add butter & cook over med heat until butter melts. Slowly add the cornstarch & milk. Mix while stirring constantly. Add nutmeg & cook until thick. Remove from stove. Add vanilla & stir well. Pour into baked pie shell. **This is where I stop. But the recipe does say to pat with butter & sprinkle with a little more nutmeg or cinnamon. Place in warm oven for 5 minutes or until butter melts. Remove from oven & let cool. I have done this before, but really, the pie has enough butter in it. LOL But if you want more on the top, by all means, add it. :)

You do need to let this set up for a little while. We do LOVE to eat ours warm though.
Cold of course is good too. This reminds me of something my dad said before he married my mom. My mom said, "I like to make pies. I sure hope you like pies."
My dad said, " I only like two kinds of Pie."
My mom thought to herself that she hadn't *thought* he was that picky, but before she could reply to him he said,
" The only two pies I like are HOT & COLD." !!!!!

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays

2009-02-10T00:01:00.001-05:00

Everytime I think I'm out of kitchen tips, I think of one more.
I was making cookies this afternoon & I reached up for the brown sugar. As I grabbed the bag, I thought, "Hey, here's another tip."
I keep my brown sugar & powdered sugar in gallon sized zip-lock bags. I still keep them in their origonal bags, I just put the whole bag into a zip type bag. It keeps them fresher longer. Also, once these bags are opened, we usually close them by twisting the bag & then using a twist-tie. But with brown sugar, it seems like grains of brown sugar stick to the sides of the bag & they can be crumbly & somehow work themselves out of the bag. Well, keeping the whole bag in a zip type bag keeps crumbs from getting out & making a mess in your cabinet, which could attract bugs or ants or other yuck things.

You can see more kitchen tips over at Tammy's Recipes.

Cheddar and Herb Biscuits

2009-02-08T00:03:00.004-05:00

When I put up my quick recipe for Cajun Beans & Rice, I mentioned that I had seen them made from scratch on tv. The show was called Down Home with the Neelys, & her red beans & rice sure looked good! She also served these cheddar biscuits with her rice. I thought they looked good, so when I made the the cajun beans & rice this week, I added these biscuits.
Here's a link to the original recipe.
I did make just a few changes. The original recipe calls for 1/2 t. cayenne pepper. That's way too much for us! Wow. I used 1/4 t. & they were too hot for our son to eat, so you could even go less than that if you'd like. I liked them at 1/4 t. & I thought they were pretty spicy (in a good way). I think my dh could take more cayenne in them though. So just use the pepper to your taste. The other change was the amount of melted butter that you brush on the biscuits. 4 T. was just way too much. I had melted butter left over & I really coated them all well. I just hate to waste anything. So 2 T. should be good for that.

Cheddar & Herb Biscuits
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons freshly chopped chives ( I used dehydrated onions because I didn't have any chives)
1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley leaves
3/4 cup grated sharp yellow Cheddar
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
( I think it would also be good to add some garlic.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and cayenne together using a whisk. Add the herbs, cheese and buttermilk. Stir together until dough forms. Once dough has formed, using an ice cream scooper, scoop out dough onto baking tray. With a brush, lightly butter tops. Bake for 15 minutes.
They were sure good dipped in the cajun rice & beans!

Cajun Beans & Rice

2009-02-06T19:24:00.005-05:00

Here's another recipe that I consider cheap, easy, & good.
I can't remember who gave me this recipe. I think it was somebody in our family, but I just can't remember. Years ago we ate it at someone's house & they gave me the recipe. I never would have tried it otherwise. It would not have sounded good to me if I just read the recipe. We're just not "rice people". Both my dh & I have never cared for rice. But we did try this dish & we really, REALLY liked it.
It's called Cajun Beans & Rice, and you use a package called Cajun Sides: Red Beans & Rice. It's made by Knorr, but used to be made by Lipton. You can just follow the directions on this packet & make some red beans & rice, or you can add a few other ingredients to "kick it up a notch".

Here's my list of ingredients:
1 package of Knorr brand Cajun Red Beans & Rice
1 T. butter or olive oil
1 package polish sausage, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 can diced tomatoes (I use home canned stewed tomatoes, pint size jar)
2 C. water

In large saucepan saute the polish sausage & green pepper in the butter until tender. Stir in the Red Beans & Rice package & 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover & simmer for 7 minutes. Add the can of tomatoes & simmer another minute or 2. Let stand for 5 minutes.

This is very good with bread & butter, or biscuits.

Just last week on tv I saw someone make this from scratch. I may want to try that sometime. As far as this recipe, it feeds a family of 4 for around $5.
The packet of beans & rice usually costs 99 cents.
The tomatoes are under a dollar (or nearly free if you have home canned).
The polish sausage has been running $2.50 at WalMart.
The green pepper is under a dollar.
So that qualifies it as cheap in my book.
And you see how easy the recipe is.
You'll just have to try it & judge for yourself to see if it is good. :)
I think most people would like this...
Our non-eating rice family does!

**Edited to add:
Try these Cheddar & Herb Biscuits with cajun beans & rice. YUM!

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

2009-02-03T00:12:00.002-05:00

My kitchen tip this week is one of the best uses for left-over icing.
Crackers. :)
When I decorate a cake, I usually have icing left over in a parchment bag with a star tip in it.
The kids love to get smiley face crackers for dessert.

Actually, the kids' favorite is to have icing on regular or chocolate graham crackers.

But I prefer plain saltines. There's just something magical about salty crackers & sweet icing.
YUM!
See more Kitchen Tip Tuesdays at Tammy's Recipes.

Impossible Cheeseburger Pie

2009-01-31T18:49:00.002-05:00

I got this recipe years ago from the back of a box of Bisquick mix.
It's easy, cheap, & good.

Impossible Cheeseburger Pie

1 pound lean ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 t. salt
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (sometimes I use more)
1/2 C. bisquick mix
1 C. milk
2 eggs

Heat oven to 400. Brown grown beef & onion until hamberger is done; drain. Spread into a greased pie plate (or any 8 or 9 inch pan). Sprinkle with salt & cheese.
Stir together the bisquick, milk, & eggs until blended. Pour over the cheese.
Bake about 25 minutes until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes.

Here's it's served with seasoned fries. I also serve it with oven fries & green beans.
And since it's so easy & cheap & good, I usually fix this about once a month.

Here I am!

2009-01-29T19:42:00.003-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a week! Saying it's crazy busy here is a bit of an understatement.
I started a brand new baby in my day care. Meaning BRAND NEW. I started him almost 2 weeks ago & he was 6 weeks old when I started him. Oh, his teeny tiny baby head has that new born baby smell. Happy sigh.....there's nuthin' in the world to compare to that smell.
He is a 'colic baby'....so he's an awful lot of work. But I'm very thankful & blessed to have him.
Also, our daughter is applying to college, so we're under the paperwork mountain right now.
I took 2 weeks off from the Bible study that I'm doing in order to get it all done. I'm still reading my 4 chapters a day in my Bible, but I just had to set my Bible study back a couple weeks. I miss it.
Since I haven't been here much, I thought I'd share our 6 year old son's recipe with you.
You may get a kick out of it. :)
He calls it Camp Salad.

Camp Salad

Cheerios
tortilla chips, broken up
cheese slice, broken up
cookie sprinkles
cupcake paper

Mix all together & put it in a cupcake paper. Put it in the frig for 1 hour, then put it in your tent to eat for a snack.

(he dictated the above to me) :)

Our son has made this twice. He says that he likes to put fresh parsley from the garden in it, but it's not in season right now. (LOL!!!)

I have a lot of pictures of food, so hopefully I'll be able to post something in the next day or so.

The Lemonade Award!

2009-01-22T21:05:00.003-05:00

Oh my gosh! I won my very first blog award! Cool!
Tracey over at $1200 Frugal Challenge 2009 nominated me for this award. Thank you Tracey!

If you are not familiar with the Lemonade Award, it is given by a previous winner to 10 people who have shown a great attitude or gratitude this week. It’s a great way to show these people that you appreciate them.
The following are my nominations for the Lemonade Award:

Becky Perry

Dana's So Many Books, So Little Time

Think Pink

Plaidhearts

Alas, A Squirrel Passes By

Lori's She Treads Softly

Stacey's My Unfinished Daze

The Diabetic Domestic Diva

Claire's Cooking is Medicine

For the Love of Cooking

Leann's Crunchy Culinary Capers

Tammy's Recipes

The Southern Plate

Ok, I picked 13. But the rules listed below say to pick *at least* 10. I take that to mean that I can go over 10 if I want to. :) I read each of these blogs faithfully. It may not be every day, & sometimes not even every week. But when I am able to get online & go blog visiting, these 13 are my 'must visit' blogs. I love every one of them!

What to Do Now:
I want to say congratulations to all the winners. Please share this opportunity with your favorite bloggers by doing the following:
Put the logo on your blog or post.
Nominate at least 10 blogs, which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude! Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

Thanks again, Tracey!

Chicken Spaghetti

2009-01-18T20:03:00.005-05:00

When I first saw the words Chicken Spaghetti, I cringed. It did not sound good to me at all. I pictured spaghetti, you know, with tomato sauce on it, with bits of chicken in it. That just did not sound good. Thankfully I read through the whole recipe, & we tried it! It's very good. And there's not a drop of tomato sauce in it. LOL
I found this recipe over at Pioneer Woman Cooks quite a long time ago.

I only made one little change from the original recipe. I do not cook the spaghetti in the chicken broth. Whenever I boil a chicken I save all the broth. I would just rather save all that broth rather than use it to boil spaghetti.
Also, a 9X13 actually makes too much for us (family of 4). I've made it quite a few times, & it makes so much that we eat it for supper, then the kids & I have it again for lunch the next day, & then because I HATE to waste anything, we have it for left-overs for supper. By then my family is ready to eat something else. LOL So, this time when I made it, & divided it up into TWO 9 inch dishes. One was round & one square. One went into the oven to bake for supper, & one got wrapped up, labeled, & put into the freezer for another day. Here's a picture of both of them before they got covered in cheese.

Chicken Spaghetti
2 C. cooked chicken
2 C. Cream of mushroom soup (or 1 recipe of homemade condensed cream of chicken)
2 C. grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 C. green pepper, diced
1/2 C. onion, finely diced
1 -4 oz. jar diced pimentos, drained
3 C. dry spaghetti, broken into 2 inch pieces (I use the regular 16 oz. box)
2 C. reserved chicken stock
1 t. seasoned salt
1/8-1/4 t. cayenne pepper
salt & pepper to taste
1 additional cup of grated sharp cheddar cheese

Cook 1 cut up fryer & pick out the meat to make 2 cups. Cook spaghetti following directions on box for al dente, do not over cook. While spaghetti is cooking combine the rest of the ingredients except the additional 1 cup of cheese. Add the spaghetti when it is cooked & drained. Stir well. Pour into a lightly buttered 9x13 pan. Add the additional 1 cup cheese over the top.
You can bake it now at 350 for 45 minutes. Or, you can cover & refrigerate for up to 2 days. Or, you can cover & freeze for up to 6 months.

I served it with homemade black pepper & onion bread (fresh out of the oven & spread with real butter....mmmmm) & a simple salad.

Whenever I boil a chicken to make a bunch of stock, I ALWAYS save out 2 cups of the chicken & 2 cups of the stock & put them in a large freezer bag. I mark on the bag that it is 2 cups of chicken & stock to be used for CHICKEN SPAGHETTI! I get quite a few meals out of boiling one five dollar chicken fryer! And because I put this into two smaller pans instead of one large one, I feel like the next meal is a freebie.
Thanks to the Pioneer Woman for this great recipe!

Homemade Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup

2009-01-16T22:34:00.007-05:00

Here is yet another recipe that I found over at Tammy's Recipe's.
This recipe replaces a can of cream of chicken soup (or any can of cream of soups) that you are adding to any recipe. I made it today & used it in Chicken Spaghetti Casserole (recipe coming soon).
It worked great! I plan on using some of the chicken stock that I have in the freezer to make some more & get a few bags into the freezer so I'll have some quickly when I need it. I think 1 1/2 cups of this recipe when finished equals 1 can of condensed cream of chicken soup.
Here is the link to the original recipe over at Tammy's.

Homemade Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
Yield: 3 cups (about 2 cans)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 dried sage leaves, crushed (about 1 t.)
about 1/2 t. dried thyme leaves
1-2 cloves of garlic (depending on size), minced
1/2 small onion, diced small
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt (or less; taste to test)
1/4 teaspoon parsley
dash of paprika
1 1/2 cups milk
3/4 cup flour

In medium-sized saucepan, simmer the chicken broth with the garlic & onion for about 5 minutes, or until onion is soft. Add 1/2 cup of the milk, and the seasonings & simmer for a few more minutes.
In a bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 cup of milk and flour. Add to boiling mixture and continue whisking briskly until mixture boils and thickens.
This gets really thick...like cream of chicken is when you dump it out of the can.
Use this in any recipe that calls for a can of cream of chicken soup.
You could add a few diced mushrooms (when you add the onion at the beginning) for cream of mushroom soup, or some diced celery for the cream of celery soup.
Thanks again, Tammy!

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

2009-01-13T00:01:00.001-05:00

My Kitchen Tip today is kind of an update on the drying herbs tip I did a while back. Here is a link to that post. It explains how I dried my herbs.
Today's tip shows you the end result of all that herb drying.
Here are all of the bags we had hanging up drying.

And here they are all put up in different sized jars. The tall jar in the back is a quart jar absolutely crammed full of thyme. I think I may have to seperate them into two jars. That's a lot of thyme! Next to the thyme in the back row is the parsley, sage, coriander seed, & peppermint.
The front row is dill seed, dill weed, basil, spearmint, & chamomile.

Here's a close up of the parsley. I was surprised at how green it stayed during drying!

Here is the sage. And it was delicious in the Thanksgiving dressing. :)
And the spearmint:
I have found that one little spearmint leaf crumbled up in my morning hot tea is very good! And so is just one chamomile flower (not crumbled, just immersed).

And here is that quart jar crammed full of thyme!
I have saved thyme in a bottle.....LOL..... I know those jokes are just sad. But I can't help myself. LOL

Here's the dill seed & the dill weed (or as I just refer to as dill). I only got a little bit of dill, because I wasn't on the ball with the dill & didn't get it harvested before it went to seed. That's why I have so many seeds! But we had a brief Indian Summer in October & a few dill shoots started sprouting. I left them alone until the night of our first freeze, then I went out & picked them so I would have a little to dry.

And lastly, here's the basil:
This was my first year having an herb garden, & I really enjoyed it. I loved having fresh herbs to go pick during the summer & fall. I really enjoyed drying them too. Hopefully I'll be more on the ball this coming year, & start harvesting a little earlier. I didn't get any cilantro harvested. It went to seed before I realized it was time to do it, hence all the coriander seed! (cilantro produces the coriander seed)

I would highly recommend growing your own herbs. It is very cheap, especially when compared to buying them in the store! I spent .59 on each packet of seed (although I did buy a few plants, but realized later that I didn't need them), & each packet produced a lot! And having the garden & drying the herbs is a lot easier than I realized. I wish I had been doing this for years!

You can see more Kitchen Tip Tuesdays at Tammy's Recipes.

Steak Fajitas

2009-01-10T16:42:00.003-05:00

I got this recipe out of a Hidden Valley Ranch recipe booklet.

(ignore that messy stove, lol)

Steak Fajitas

1 packet (1 oz.) Hidden Valley Original Ranch Dressing Mix

2 T. olive oil

1 T. water

1 1/2 lbs. beef flank steak, cut into strips

3 cups assorted bell pepper & onion strips

tortillas, warmed

Optional fillings: guacamole, salsa, sour cream, tomatoes, cheese, etc...

Combine dressing mix with oil and water. Saute steak strips in dressing mixture. Add peppers and onions; cook until tender-crisp. Place mixture in tortillas. Add fillings, if desired.

These are very good! I have also used a nice sirloin steak to make these. They always taste great. This mixture is delicious in pita pockets too! Yum.

Birthday Week!

2009-01-09T10:29:00.002-05:00

It's birthday week at our house!
Our little baby daughter, who was born the day after she was due, at 5 pounds 12 ounces & a whopping 21 inches long.....turned EIGHTEEN years old on Monday!
Ever since my friend Lori gave me the recipe for Creme de Menthe cake a few years ago, she always requests it for her birthday. It is delicious! You can find the recipe here.
(just ignore that first picture though, that was the first time I made it & I only used a little Hershey's candy bar. I now use the great big one they sell, & we totally cover the cake in chocolate curls. That first picture looks pretty sad....LOL)

And on Thurdsay, our little baby boy who was born a week before he was due, at 5 pounds 14 ounces, 19 1/4 inches long....turned SIX years old! Oh my goodnes, time really does fly! He is such a big boy!
He saw a tractor cake at WalMart last summer & said that was what he wanted. Instead of buying their $20 cake, I made one exactly like it. Nevermind the smudge in the 'dirt', that's where we had the candle in it last evening. I forgot to take a picture of just the cake until after we took the candle out.

We are so thankful to God for blessing us with these wonderful children!

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays

2009-01-06T08:58:00.003-05:00

I found a new tip last week when I was putting all of my dried herbs into little jars. I needed to label each lid & I was out of blank labels. I usually keep a sheet of blank labels in one of my kitchen drawers, just a sheet from the package that you use with your printer to print your own address labels. I use them to label left-overs that I put in cool whip bowls & into the freezer. But, I've been out of those for a while. So lately when I've been freezing things, I write on a scrap piece of paper what I'm freezing & then tape it to the lid. That's not very neat looking, but it doesn't really matter for left-overs in the freezer. I wanted something nicer for my jars of herbs, so I went hunting for one more blank label page, even though I knew we were out. LOL
What I found was better! I found two pages of those free address labels you get in the mail from various charities. I think one was from Easter Seals & one was from Saint Jude's Children's Hospital. One page had Christmas pictures on them & the other had flowers, & because these were herbs I picked the flowers. I just used white-out on the printed address. And that's it! It made very pretty labels.

And here's a peek at my chamomile.

I have used up nearly all of my mayo lids for these herbs! I'll have to start saving more. LOL
You can see more Kitchen Tip Tuesdays at Tammy's Recipes.

Cajun Teriyaki Chicken Sandwiches

2009-01-04T21:05:00.006-05:00

We had these sandwiches last evening & they were delicious! My dh found this recipe for me & printed it. It has only been in my 'to be cooked' stack for about a month. I didn't know the origional source on-line for this recipe because I think he got it from one of the MS forums. I did google it, & it came up as a George Foreman Recipe.

Cajun Teriyaki Chicken Sandwiches
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
8 slices cooked bacon
4 slices cheese (any type)
4 leaves of lettuce
1 cup roasted red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
4 tbsps teriyaki sauce
4 tsps Cajun seasoning
4 sets of toasted buns

Pound chicken beasts to about 1 inch thickness. Cut into 2 equal pieces.Rub chicken with Cajun seasoning and place on a medium hot grill. Grill forabout 5 to 6 minutes or until done. Brush with teriyaki sauce and remove from grill. Assemble sandwiches with 1 chicken piece, two strips of bacon, 1 slicecheese, lettuce and 1/4 cup of roasted bell peppers.Serves: 4

This recipe is a KEEPER! We all loved it. I did use 3 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, & I cut them in half to make 6 sandwiches. I also forgot to buy lettuce & the sandwich was fine without it. I also *splurged* & purchased a bottle of roasted red peppers. Oh my, DELICIOUS! I've had roasted peppers before (they are delicious stuffed), but I had never put them on a sandwich. It was really REALLY good! I look forward to doing this with our green peppers next summer.
I put pepper jack cheese on half the sandwiches & monterery jack on the rest.
Also, I didn't grill them, it's too frigid here right now! I just cooked them on the stove in a little olive oil.
This is a little silly, but I must say that this frosty mug of root beer washed it all down beautifully. :)

Books I Read in 2008

2009-01-03T21:37:00.002-05:00

Here's my list of books that I read during 2008:

1001 Gardening Secrets The Experts Never Tell You by the editors fo FC&A Publishing

A Light in the Window by Jan Karon

A Man Called Peter: The Story of Peter Marshall by Catherine Marshall

A Skating Life by Dorothy Hamill

An unpublished/untitled fantasy novel

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Apollyon by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

Assassins by Tim Lahaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon

Death by Darjeeling (A Tea Shop Mystery) by Laura Childs

Julie by Catherine Marshall

Life's Journeys According to Mister Rogers Things to Remember Along the Way by Fred Rogers

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Magic Elizabeth by Norma Kassirer

Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann B. Ross

Miss Julia Takes Over by Ann B. Ross

Mistaken Identity by Don & Susie Van Ryn and Newell, Colleen & Whitney Cerak

Nicolae by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

Obsessed by Ted Dekker

Parenting Isn't For Cowards by Dr. James C. Dobson

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

Rachael Ray YUM-O The Family Cookbook

Recipes from the Herbal Kitchen by Prevention Health Books

Soul Harvest by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

The Beginner's Bible (reading aloud to 5 year old son)

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Indwelling by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

The Last Sin Eater by Francine Rivers

The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, & The Return of the King) by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Mark by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

The Message by Eugene Peterson

The New Testament NIV

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan

The Strong-Willed Child by Dr. James C. Dobson

The Way They Learn by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias

The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Down by Neta Jackson

The Yada-Yada Prayer Group by Neta Jackson

When Christ Comes by Max Lucado

Peanut Butter Balls

2009-01-01T19:47:00.005-05:00

Peanut Butter Balls are pretty much tradition around here during Christmas time. This is my mom's recipe. It's simple, it's easy, & boy oh boy, they are delicious! This recipe makes a TON, so I did cut it in half this year, & I got approximately 200 peanut butter balls.

Peanut Butter Balls
4 C. peanut butter (40 oz. jar)
1 pound (4 sticks) butter or margarine
2 pound bag powdered sugar (& maybe a cup or so more)
Dipping chocolate

Mix the butter & peanut butter in mixer until smooth. Add powdered sugar (not all at once). I usually change my mixer over to the dough hook. You may need to add an additional cup or so of powdered sugar.
Roll into balls & place on a cookie sheet lined with wax or parchment paper. Chill in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Dip into dipping chocolate & place on another cookie sheet with wax or parchment paper & allow to harden. Sometimes I store mine in the frig, but you don't have too.

These also make wonderful little gifts. I made up little bags of them for all of my babysitting parents, my mom & m-i-l, the pastor & youth pastor at church, & we still had plenty! Of course they're gone now, but if I'd had the time to make a full batch, there would be some in the freezer. LOLMy friend Lori puts some rice crispie cereal in her peanut butter balls. I think that sounds really good & I'm going to try that next time. Here's her recipe.

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

2008-12-30T00:01:00.002-05:00

My kitchen tip this week is what to do with left-over chocolate. LOL That just makes me laugh & say, "Who in the world has left-over chocolate?" LOL
Well, I usually do have a teeny-tiny bit left-over dipping chocolate after I've dipped our peanut butter balls. I only had a small bit, maybe one-forth a cup. It was not enough to do much with, but way too much to just lick the pan. LOL!!!
So, the thing to do is pull out a plate full of pretzels & drizzle the chocolate over them. Don't go through the hassle of dipping each & every pretzel, just drizzle some.
I lined a cookie sheet with parchment paper & then lined the pretzels up close together & then drizzled with a spoon.

That's quite a few pretzels for just 1/4 cup of chocolate. Yummmmmmm.....here's a close-up:
Once they've hardened you can break them into 2 or 3 pretzel pieces. They looked really nice on the plate with peanut butter balls & Claire's Vanilla Nut Toffee Cookies.

You could also just add any chopped ingredient to the melted chocolate (nuts, crushed candy canes, etc...) & pour it onto some waxed paper to make a small amount of 'bark'. But I think the chocolate stretches further to drizzle the pretzels.

You can see more Kitchen Tip Tuesdays at Tammy's Recipes.

Touchdown Taco Dip

2008-12-28T15:20:00.006-05:00

I can't believe this is the only picture I have of this touchdown taco dip. I have made it enough times that you'd think I'd have a better picture. At least I should have placed some tortilla chips around it. Well, I found this picture & thought it would be a good time to post it. It's a great New Year's Eve dip to have on hand. Everyone always loves it & there's never any left over.

I got this recipe about 10 years ago from one of my babysitting parents. She was selling Pampered Chef on the side, & shared this recipe with me that was in one of her booklets. If I remember right, she had given a Pampered Chef party around super bowl time & this dip was one of the appetizers. So that explains the name of the dip. Although we've never been football fans around here, the name of this dip has stuck.

Touchdown Taco Dip

1 can re-fried beans

1 c. sour cream

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese

2 T. taco seasoning mix

shredded cheese OR nacho cheese

diced tomatoes

green onions

olives

1. Spread the refried beans in the bottom of a 8x8 pan.

2. In a mixing bowl mix the sour cream, cream cheese, & taco seasoning mix until smooth. Spread this over the top of the refried beans.

3. You can then either sprinkle with shredded cheese or nacho cheese. The origional recipe calls for shredded cheese, but I find this too stringy & we prefer the nacho cheese.

4. Bake at 350 until cheese melts & layers are heated through (about 10 minutes)

5. Remove from oven & sprinkle with tomatoes, onions, & olives.

We really LOVE this dip. It is so easy to make & I usually double this recipe & put it in a 9x13 pan. My friend Dana & her sweet girls enjoyed snacking on this when they came to visit us last summer.

You can click here to see our usual New Year's Eve snacks.

Vanilla Nut Toffee Cookies

2008-12-24T00:01:00.004-05:00

I chose these cookies that Claire made this last summer for one of our Christmas cookies this year. When I saw them on her blog, I just knew I had to make them sometime. That happens to me a lot! I've learned not to just bookmark a recipe, otherwise I never get back to it. If I know I want to try someone's recipe, I print it out & put it in my "to be baked or cooked" pile. That's a bit like a "to be read" pile for books. LOL So it took me more than 4 months to get around to making them. Oh mercy, they were worth the wait! These cookies are so good! The pecans & the toffee (which was Claire's addition) give them such a good flavor. So I wrote at the top of my recipe that these are called Claire's Vanilla Nut Toffee Cookies. :) Here is a link to her recipe for these cookies.

Vanilla Nut Toffee Cookies adapted from All About Home Baking
1 cup butter or other shortening (I used 1 stick butter, 1/2 cup shortening)
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 cups sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup toffee pieces
4 cups sifted flour
3 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cream butter until smooth. Gradually add sugars and cream until fluffy. Add eggs, nuts, vanilla, and toffee (to prevent overmixing later). Sift flour. Add baking powder and salt to it. Then add gradually to butter mixture. The dough will be stiff but not overly so. It can be crumbly but mine was not, it held together well. Split the dough in half. Roll each half into a 1 1/2 inch roll/log and wrap in waxed paper. Chill in refrigerator overnight or in freezer for a few hours if pressed for time (this is what I did). When ready to bake, preheat oven to 425F. Slice into 1/4 inch slices and place on baking sheet. Bake for five minutes or until done. Do not overbake. I recommend taking the cookies out when they are just barely starting to golden up. Let cool on pan for a couple of minutes. Remove to cooling rack for a few minutes. Makes 6-7 dozen.
I didn't change a thing in the recipe. Like Claire, I too used the butter and crisco. Another thing, I thought that 425 sounded really hot for making cookies. I turned my oven to 400, & the cookies did not get done within the 5-6 minutes I gave them. I kept having to give them 1 more minute, then another. So I followed the instructions & turned my oven up to 425. LOL And even after 5 minutes, I still needed to bake mine even 1-2 minutes more. You know how cookies are, you have to really watch them those last few minutes. They can be underdone & then burn within a minute! My rule of thumb is to take them out 1 minute before they "look" done. It's finding that 1 minute before done that's the key. :)
This is one of those recipes that I call a KEEPER.
Thanks Claire!

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

2008-12-23T11:37:00.004-05:00

My Kitchen Tip Tuesday is a little different this week. I think the only way it relates to the kitchen is that we did this craft IN the kitchen. LOL

This is the handprint poem with the children's handprints on them.

For those of you who don't know me, I have 5 babysitting kids that come full-time, Monday through Friday. Our son did one of these papers too, he's 5 years old. Our daughter is almost 18, so she didn't make one. LOL However, she did make one when she was around 4 years old. We put it in a picture frame & it is still hanging in my kitchen. :)

We used regular construction paper & washable poster paint. Our daughter typed the poem up on the computer & printed it out for me (she didn't write the poem, just copied it from the paper she had made when she was little). We used Elmer's glue to paste on the poem, & then each child did their hand print. It was a challange, as 3 of the kids are under 2 years old. One of them it took many tries as she wanted to finger paint instead of holding her hands still. LOL I would suggest that you take a couple practice runs on a plain piece of paper first. That's what we did & it really helped. Here is the poem:

Sometimes you get discouraged
Because I am so small
And always leave my fingerprints
One furniture and walls.

But all the time I'm growing~
I'll be grown up some day
And all those tiny handprints
Will surely fade away.

So here's a final handprint
Just so you can recall
Exactly how my fingers looked
When I was very small.

You can find more kitchen tips at Tammy's Recipes.

The Flavor Bible

2008-12-21T22:39:00.002-05:00

I won this book!
Special thanks to my friend Lori,

who directed me over to the book reviewer's blog who was having a drawing for 3 different books. The site is called B&b ex libris. I really enjoyed going through her book reviews. I book marked her site & plan to visit again.

Thank you B&b ex libris, this is the book I was hoping to win!

And to make it even more fun, Lori won the same book!

Onion Burgers

2008-12-18T09:08:00.003-05:00

This is one of those inexpensive & easy to cook meals that is tasty too.

Onion burgers
1 1/2 pounds hamburger
1 pouch Lipton Onion Soup Mix
3/4 C. water
Buns

Brown hamburger, drain well, & return to pan.
Add the soup mix & water. Stir well & simmer for 5 minutes or so.
We like to steam the buns on top of the meat mixture to soften them up a bit. Split the buns & place the inside part down on the meat mixture. Cover to to steam them for about 2 -4 minutes.

Serve with your favorite condiments. I like ketchup & pickles.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-12-17T00:01:00.000-05:00

Well, one word Wednesday:
COZY.

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

2008-12-16T00:01:00.002-05:00

My tip this week is how to perfectly cook hard boiled eggs. I don't mean that to sound arrogant, using the word perfect can lead to that assumption, & I don't mean it like that. :)

Years ago I was watching the Food Network & it was back in the day when it was fairly new. I think it was Emeril's first year. He looked right into the camera & said he was going to demonstrate how to perfectly cook a hard boiled egg. So actually, perfect is his word, not mine. LOL

Years ago when I'd make hard boied eggs, the yolk would usually look a little green on the outside part of the yolk. It didn't affect the taste, but who besides Sam I Am wants green eggs? I would tend to over cook the eggs because of being afraid of undercooking them.

But Emeril showed me a trick to fix that green yolk problem. He even asked, "Do your yolks ever come out green when you boil eggs?" LOL That got my attention. I listened to his 'trick' & thought to myself that they'd be undercooked. But I have to say that this trick worked, & I've been boiling my eggs Emeril's way ever since.

To hard boil eggs:

Place eggs in pan & cover with cold water.

Bring to a full boil & boil for only 4 minutes.

Remove from heat & cover with lid.

Let them sit in the coved pan for 9 minutes.

This is what cooks them perfectly.

Then, pour them out into the sink with cold running water. Cool the pan off in the water too. Return the eggs to the pan & fill with cold water & ice.

Crack & peel & eat!

I haven't had a green hard boiled egg in at least 7 years. :)

You can see more Kitchen Tips over at Tammy's Site.

Country White Bread

2008-12-13T00:01:00.000-05:00

I used to make this recipe in my bread machine a lot. Lately, I've just been making bread by hand, but I came upon this recipe in my binder, so I thought I'd try it again. It's really a nice white bread. It slices well & has a nice flavor.

Country White Bread
1 C. plus 1 T. warm water
1 egg
4 1/2 t. vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
3 1/2 C. bread flour
1/4 C. sugar
1 1/2 t. salt
2 1/4 t. active dry yeast

If you are using a bread machine, combine all ingredients in the order suggested by the manufacturer of your machine.
If by hand:
Mix the yeast into the warm water & set aside. Combine the rest of the ingredients. Add the water & yeast mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until you can't anymore & then turn it out onto the table. Use hands to finish mixing & then knead on floured table for 6-8 minutes, or until smooth & 'satiny' feeling.
Put 1 t. oil into bowl & turn the dough to coat it. Cover with a clean towel & put in warm spot to rise for 90 minutes. Punch down & knead for a few minutes. Put it into a greased bread pan, & cover to rise for another 45 minutes. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.
Please slice while still warm & slather it with real butter. It will make you happy. :)

Here is a really neat tip I learned from reading some of the links on Tammy's Kitchen Tip Tuesdays. I cannot for the life of me remember which site I read it on, or I would give credit where credit is due & link you to her site. The best I can do is say that this tip was linked on Tammy's site sometime within the last 4-6 weeks. Since reading it, I have been using this tip often. The tip was to use those big bags you get in the produce department of the store, those bags you put your onions in, or garlic, or even bananas. They are nice and big & are the perfect size for a homemade loaf of bread!
In the past I have wrapped loaves in plastic wrap, or used an expensive gallon sized zip lock bags. Plastic wrap can be a pain in the neck, & zip lock bags (the giant ones) are just too expensive. These bags you get (for free!!!) in the produce dept. are perfect to put your homemade bread in! I have saved my produce bags from the last two months & I have been using them.
My thanks to the lady who gave this tip! I'm sorry I don't remember which site I found this great tip. These produce bags keep my bread fresh!

Friday Felicities

2008-12-12T11:05:00.005-05:00

Peppermint Mocha Coffee Mate, I finally got some!

Finding out that Becky had a successful surgery.

Christmas dishes, my favorite is the snowman tea cup.

My Prayer Shawl

The Christmas tree twinkling in the dark living room in the evening.

Filling one of my empty babysitting spots!

Reading James Michener's Chesapeake I am really enjoying it. Alot.

FRIDAYS

WEEKENDS!!!!!

Sleeping German Shepherds, they're awfully tired. LOL

You can see more Friday Felicities at Becky's site.

Freezer Slaw

2008-12-10T00:01:00.000-05:00

I have been meaning to post this recipe since July. We used to have freezer slaw while growing up, but I forgot about it. Then a friend (an old babysitting parent) reminded me of that recipe when I told her I had a lot of cabbage in the garden. Here's a nice head of cabbage that came out of our garden back in June.
I have a recipe for slaw that is the kind with mayo. You can have your slaw with or without mayo. The mayo recipe I have is the copy cat recipe for KFC cole slaw. We really LOVE that slaw. Freezer slaw does not have mayo, it has vinegar in it & has that sweet & sour taste.
It is DELICIOUS. Everytime I get some out of the freezer, we eat it up quickly. It's a nice side dish to any meal. I know cabbage is more of a summer produce, but I have bought some on sale at the store lately, so I now I need to make more freezer slaw. I just couldn't pass up a head of cabbage for 49 cents!

Freezer Slaw
2 lbs. cabbage (4 cups)
1 large green pepper
3 large carrots
¾ c. onions, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 cup water
1 cup vinegar
1 teaspoon celery seed

Shred cabbage, green pepper, and carrots. (I did it in the food processor.) Add onion. Sprinkle with salt; let stand 1 hour. Drain. Combine remaining ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil; boil 3 minutes. Cool. Pour over cabbage mixture; let stand 5 minutes. Stir well. Pack in can or freeze jars or plastic freezer boxes. Seal; label; and freeze. Yield: about 5 pints.

When I ran out of those freezer containers, I used cottage cheese containers that I had washed & saved. I just made sure to write on the lid what it was, otherwise I might pull it out of the freezer & not know, because I have been known to freeze single servings or two servings of stuff (chili, soups, anything really...) in cottage cheese containers. It IS important to label them. LOL

And, here's a neat little thing about cabbage. It is like broccoli in that when you harvest it, you don't uproot the whole plant. You just cut out the head of cabbage & leave the plant there. In a few weeks more little heads will appear & start growning. They are miniature & will not grow to full size, but they are still good. And fun for the kids. Our 5 year old (almost 6 now!) loves to eat baby cabbages.
Here are some baby cabbages we harvested in September.
Aren't they cute?!

I hope somebody makes freezer slaw & enjoys it as much as we do.

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

2008-12-09T00:01:00.002-05:00

My tip this week is for a fast & easy way to fill deviled eggs.
Put your egg yolk mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. That's it. Squeeze the mixture out into each egg. It's really fast-it takes about 30 seconds to do that whole plate- and it makes them pretty too. I use disposable parchment bags, only because that's what I learned on, & clean up is a sinch. You can use a re-usable decorating bag, or even just a zipock bag. You can fill the ziplock bag & snip the corner off & you're good to go. You don't have to use a star tip, but if you have one, it sure makes them look 'purdy'.
Here's my recipe for deviled eggs:

6-8 hard boiled eggs
2 T. mayo (or more)
a little squirt of mustard
pinch of salt
pinch of sugar

Cut eggs in half, putting the yolk in a bowl & arranging the whites on a plate.
I use the mixer to get the yolks broken down a bit. Add mayo & mustard. I don't really measure the mayo, just 'eyeball it'. Add the salt & sugar & mix with mixer until creamy.
Fill pastry bag & then squeeze it into shells. You can them sprinkle the whole plate with a little pepper (if everyone if your family likes pepper) or sprinkle with paprika.
I don't usually end up doing this anymore. I leave them plain & put pepper & paprika on the table so people can put what they want on individual eggs. That makes everybody happy. :)

Oh! I just thought of another trick. It's a Two for Tuedsay! (snicker)
Here's a nice tip for storing these in the frig without messing up the tops of your deviled eggs.
Take a small drinking cup, either a child's sippie cup, or one of those really short glasses that come in a whole set of glasses. Turn it upside down in the middle of your egg plate. Then cover with plastic wrap. The cup in the middle acts like a sort of tent pole, so it keeps the plastic wrap out of your pretty eggs!
Whew! I thought I was about out of kitchen tips, but there's 2 for ya! :)
And I just thought of another, so I've at least got one more week in me. LOL
You can see more Kitchen Tips at Tammy's Recipes.

Wheat Bread

2008-12-08T10:46:00.003-05:00

I got this recipe from Tammy's Recipes about 6 months ago. We really like this recipe & I've made it many times. It is really good!

Homemade Wheat Bread (from Tammy's Recipes)
Yield: 1 loaf
Ingredients:
1 cup warm water (110-115 degrees F)
1 tablespoon milk
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons instant active dry yeast
Instructions:
1. *Combine first 6 ingredients in a large mixing bowl; stir.
2. Add flours and yeast, and knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 10-15 minutes. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover with a clean towel and let rise until doubled, about 40 minutes.
3. Punch dough down; knead for a few minutes until smooth and then form into a loaf. Place in greased loaf pan and cover. Let rise in a warm place until almost doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. If loaf starts browning too soon, lightly lay a piece of foil on top of the loaf to prevent too much darkening.
5. Remove bread from oven and allow to rest in pan for a few minutes. Remove to a wire rack and cover with a cloth. Slice and enjoy while still warm! Leftover bread can be stored in an airtight bag or frozen until needed.

If you would like your whole wheat bread to have a softer and better texture, you can add these dough conditioning ingredients to this recipe:
3 tablespoons vital wheat gluten (replace 3 tablespoons of the flour called for in the recipe with this)
1/2 teaspoon soy lecithin (we use granules of lecithin, and add it to the water at the beginning)
a pinch of citric acid (use sparingly!!)
a sprinkling of ginger

*The only thing I did differently was that I always add my yeast to the warm water & set aside. Then I combine all the other ingredients. Once I've done that, I add the water & yeast.
I also let it rise 90 minutes for the first rise & an hour (or less) for the second rise.
We really like this bread!
Thanks for another great recipe, Tammy!

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

2008-12-02T00:02:00.002-05:00

I'm just about out of tips. Everytime I think I don't have any more left, I find myself doing something that I realize would be a nice tip. LOL
I thought the mayo jar lids was my last tip, until the day before Thanksgiving when I was rolling out my pie dough. I got this tip from seeing just a portion of a Martha Stewart show quite a few years ago. I don't think I've ever seen her show, but one time I was flipping channels & there she was having a girl (I think it was her neice) roll out pie dough. It was unusual how she was doing it, so I thought I'd try it, just once. Well, since then (which was about 10 years ago), I use this trick probably 95% of the time!
It's weird, but it does make it easier, & it's simple. I think the trickiest part of doing the pie dough is picking it up after you've rolled it out to put in your pie pan. Sometimes it sticks to the table, even if you've used flour. This trick eliminates that problem. This simple trick is that you put the dough between plastic wrap!
You put down a section of plastic wrap (I call it Saran Wrap, even though I don't use that brand any more), & lightly flour it, & then put your pie dough on it. Pull out another section of plastic wrap & flour it. Turn it flour side down on top of the pie dough. Now, roll out your dough while it is between the plastic wrap. When you're done, remove the top plastic wrap, pick up your dough with the wrap underneath it & flip it over into your pie pan. Then remove that bottom wrap.
Simple & easy.
It's hard to tell in the pictures, but the first picture shows the pie dough between the plastic wrap. This was before I rolled it out.
And this was after I rolled it out.

The first time I tried it, it was a little awkard. The next time I did pies, I didn't use this trick & wouldn't ya figure, but I had trouble pealing that pie dough off the table. So I pulled out the plastic wrap & tried it again. I always end up using this method. It does make it easier. I do find that my dough needs to be a little bigger than what the width is on the plastic wrap. But that's ok, when I roll it out it does stick out each side a little bit, but it doesn't hurt a thing.

Here's my pie dough recipe to go with this. It makes two crusts.
2/3 C. plus 2 T. Crisco
2 C. sifted flour
1 t. salt
1/4 C. ice water
Mix together with a fork or pastry cutter the first 3 ingredients until crumbly. Add ice water & stir lightly & quickly. Take out of bowl onto lightly floured surface & mix with hands only until needed. Divide dough in half & roll out each one & put in pie pan.

If you only want 1 crust I found these amounts from another recipe:
1 C flour
1/2 t. salt
1/3 c. crisco
2-3 T. cold water
Make the same as the above recipe.

I found myself doing one more thing that I can think of as a trick & I'll share that one next week. And I just thought of another one, so maybe I'm still good for a couple more weeks on these tips. LOL
See more Kitchen Tips at Tammy's site.

My Dad's Books

2008-11-30T15:27:00.002-05:00

I took these pictures back in July, & I'm just now getting around to posting about them. This is one of my few 'personal' blogs. LOL I don't really get very personal here. I'm mostly about recipes & gardening in the summer. So here's something just a little more personal.

My dad loved to read. As I look back on it, my dad read a LOT. I can close my eyes & see him in his recliner reading a book. I didn't read that much as a kid. Oh, I read...just not like I read as an adult. I remember reading Magic Elizabeth & James & the Giant Peach. I also enjoyed reading The Littles.
After I was married in the mid eighties my dad started loaning me some of his books now & then.
One of the first books my dad loaned me was Christy by Catherine Marshall. It was a hardback & my mom had given it to him for Christmas in 1970. I really loved it, so he loaned me his book by the same author, A Man Called Peter. This is a hardback too, & was puplished in 1951. In the front it has his address sticker in it. I grinned when I first noticed it, because it was the address he had after coming home from the war & after he graduated from college at Purdue. He worked in another town. He was still a bachelor! He bought this book before he & my mom married in the 50's. I don't know why, I just got a kick out of that.
Years later he & mom were asking us if there was anything of theirs that we'd like to have after they were "gone". At the time I couldn't think of anything, & it felt funny to think like that anyway. A few weeks later I thought of these two books. They were two things of my dad's that I would like to have. I thought of it later & told my dad I'd like to have them, someday. He smiled really big & went to his bookshelf & got them down for me. He wanted me to have them now. I read them both again this last year & really enjoyed each of them again.
He really enjoyed bringing out out books for me to read, & for our teenage daughter to read. He'd even bring books for my husband to read too. He brought him books about Charles Lindbergh & Eddie Rickenbacher (sp?). I also remember him loaning my husband his North & South trilogy by John Jakes. David really enjoyed reading them & would tell me about them. So after he read them I read them too. Gosh...that was a long time ago! It was probably around 1988 or so. And not to leave our son out (he's only 5 so he didn't get very many years with my dad) I have pictures of my dad reading Richard Scarry's Biggest Word Book Ever to him. It was a present to our son from my parents. He still LOVES that book. :)
A few years ago Dad brought out a big crate of books to us. He said, "Here, maybe that'll keep ya busy readin' for a while." Here are the books in the crate he brought them in:

I said, "Wow Dad! I'll be a while before I get this back to ya." He smiled & said, "Oh, just keep them here." And he winked. He gave me these just a few months before he died. It's all of his James Harriot books. He knew we loved them. Our daughter had done a book report on All Creatures Great and Small quite a few years ago. She had borrowed his book. I think he stuck that Tommy Franks book in there for my husband, & that blue book is Treasure Island.

My dad died about two & a half years ago. My mom's way of dealing with things at the time was that she wanted us kids to go through his things & pick out things we wanted, the afternoon of his funeral! I just couldn't, really. I think we each got a few little things, but none of the four of us felt like 'going through his things' that day. I did pick out a few of his books, but none of my siblings had picked out any yet, so I didn't want to be greedy with them, if that makes any sense.
I didn't want to be grabbin' all his books up without the other kids having a chance to get what they wanted. So I just got a few that day.

Well, now it's been more than two years since he's been gone (wow, do I miss him!).
My mom started dating a man & they got married over the summer. In consolidating two households into one, they both had a lot of stuff to get rid of. My mom was calling a lot to see if I wanted this dish or that pot & what-not. One day she called & asked if I wanted any of Dad's books. I think I drove out to her house THAT DAY. LOL
And there were his book shelves, & they were still full. She said the other kids had already got what they wanted, so I figured I could get all I wanted. I asked mom if I was taking too much. She assured me that I could take them ALL if I wanted. Well, I didn't take them all, but I did get a lot! Here is most of them:

Here's a close up of his James Michener books. He loved reading Michener. I remember he'd get them for birthdays & Christmas. That little book there on top is an old copy of Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Here's another box. It has the Charles Lindsbergh book in it & one of the North & South books (Heaven & Hell), but we just couldn't find the first two books in the trilogy (he probably loaned them out). I also found some surprises! He had some Mitford books! I did NOT know my dad read the Mitford books! I only just discovered the Mitford books & just finshed book 2 last night, which was my dad's copy. I had checked out the first one from the library this summer. He had book 2 and book 5, so it looks like I'll be checking the others out from the library. I also didn't know that he had a copy of Through the Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot. I read that last year, again, checked out from the library. I also noticed that we ended up with two copies of Mutiny on the Bounty (well actually, it's The Bounty Trilogy) by Nordhoff & Hall. He loved this book (maybe that's why he had 2 copies? lol), he brought it out to me once years ago, but I just couldn't get into it.
I also got two books by Betty Smith, Joy in the Morning & Maggie-Now. She is the author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. He didn't have a copy of that, & I've never read it. I did read Maggie-Now YEARS ago, like probably 1985, & I thought it was so depressing! But, I'm more than 20 years older now, so maybe I'll see it differently & like it now. I'd like to read it again, as it was the first book I remember my dad loaning me.

In this next box you can see a book called, The Case of the Runaway Corpse! I thought that was funny. It's an old Perry Mason book. There's another old Perry Mason one in there too somewhere. They are old, they have that old address label in them, so I know he had these before he married my mom. There's also another copy of Mutiny in this box, so I gave it to our daughter. She got quite a few books too. Her favorite is Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

My dad also cut out newspaper clipping & put them in books. If it had something to do with the book, or if an author died he'd cut out the obituary & place it in one of that author's books. James Michener's obit is in one of his books. He's got quite a few clippings of Ernie Pyle in a book about him. He was a famous WWII correspondent. He was from here in Indiana & I remember my dad talked about him a lot. There's even a special postage stamp taped in there, a stamp they put out quite a few years ago with Ernie Pyle on it. My dad also got some books from his aunt who lived in Washington D.C. I got a few books that had her name in them, & sure enough, she did the same thing with newspaper clippings! So every now & then I get an additional surprise when I open one of my Dad's books.

Well, that's it. That's my long post on books I've been meaning to write. I hope you enjoyed it.
I know I'll enjoy these books for years to come. I have finished only a few of them. I just finished the 2nd Mitford book that he had, A Light in the Window by Jan Karon, & a book called 5o Trees of Indiana. I'm now ready to dig into one of his James Michener books.
But which one?!