Wordless Wednesday

A sample of what we find in our driveway rocks. Fossils!

Magic Elizabeth by Norma Kassirer

I found this book a few weeks ago in our daughter's bookcase. It came from an old box of books that had been mine when I was a kid. I had forgotten that it was there, & as I looked at it a flood of memories came to my mind. I think that this is the very first book I ever read.
Magic Elizabeth by Norma Kassirer

I had thought that James and the Giant Peach was the first book I read. I remember reading it in 3rd grade. I remember sitting at my desk in school & reading the part where the sharks are trying to take bites out of the peach as it floats in the ocean. They couldn't get a bite because of their long noses. (snouts? I can't think what you call that on a shark!) Anyway, I thought that was my first memory of reading a chapter book. But as I stared at the cover of Magic Elizabeth, the plot slowly came back to me...& I'm pretty sure I read this book first. At least it is my first mystery novel. :) I was probably around 8 years old when I read it. It was a Scholastic book that was published in 1966. My copy had to have the cover taped because it was torn. And the pages are so yellowed they are more of a tan color. And...the cover said it was 50 cents!
As I looked at the cover & brushed away the cobwebs in my brain...I told my daughter the plot.
I actually remembered! This little girl, Sally, has to stay with her great aunt for a while (I couldn't remember why). While staying there, she sees a large painting of a girl that is about her same age. The painting is from the late 1800's, & the girl looks very much like Sally, and she is holding a doll. Amazingly, I remembered the 'who done it', AND...I remembered who the girl in the picture really was. :) There is also a mystery about the doll, that Sally solves.
So I took time off from reading The Lord of the Rings to read this book again.
I really got a kick out of it. It was a good mystry novel for young girls. It was sweeet too.
As an adult, I could see the foreshadowing from a mile away, LOL, but still, it's a great "first mystery". As for one of the mystries, there is a twist in the end that I thought was really neat when I was a girl. As an adult, I did remember who the girl in the painting was. But all through the book it makes you think it's someone else.
After searching Amazon, I found that this book has been re-released. It has a new cover too.
And, it's a little pricey, I'm not sure why. Here's a link to the new edition. I hope they didn't change any of the book, they may have had to change dates though.
Anyway, I enjoyed visiting my childhood reading a few weeks ago, & just thought I'd share.
Here's the first page & the first illustration which were done by Joe Krush. (I even remembered ALL of the pictures...lol)

Wordless Wednesday

GREEN! (ok, that's one word)

Salmon Patties

This is such a cheap meal, we usually have it about once a month. Pink salmon is usually under $2 for a can, & red salmon is under $4. So even buying the more expensive, it's still a really cheap meal.

Salmon Patties

1 can of pink or red salmon with juice, deboned

1/2 onion, diced

1/2 green pepper, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 T. lemon juice

1 t. lemon pepper (or more)

about 1/2 package of saltines

salt & pepper to taste

Olive oil & butter for frying

Mix all together. You may need to add more crackers. If you get too many, just add a few more drops of lemon juice. It should be thick enough to form patties. Fry in a combo of olive oil & butter about 5 minutes on each side, or until you get a nice crust on the outside. I learned early on to not flip too quickly or they'll fall apart. Get a nice crust on it before flipping.

*sometimes I add different spices & stuff to see what happens. You can use garlic powder instead of garlic, sometimes I add Old Bay Seasoning, once I added Italian seasoning. I sometimes add season salt. Also, you can use more or less of any of the ingredients, well, except for the salmon. lol

We like them best on buns with mayo, mustard, pickle, & onion. :)

Hot Mushroom Turnovers

I found this recipe while looking through a cookbook called Start with Appetizers...end with Desserts, & it was published in 1996 by JCPenney for the United Way. It is just appetizers & desserts. The 1st recipe I tried from this cookbook was not good. lol It was for 'cheese straws' & they pretty much tasted like spicy cheese flavored pie dough. Gross. But these mushroom turnovers were definitely a hit. :)

Hot Mushroom Turnovers

dough:

9 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. butter, softened

1 1/2 c. flour

filling:

1 lg. onion, diced

2 T. butter

1/2 lb. mushrooms, chopped

1/4 t. thyme

1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. pepper

2 T. flour

1/4 c. cream

Filling: Brown onion lightly in 2 T. butter. Add mushrooms and cook 3 minutes (or so). Add thyme, salt, & pepper; sprinkle with flour & stir well. Stir in cream & stir until thickened. Set aside.

Dough: Mix cream cheese & butter. Add flour & blend until smooth; chill 30 minutes. Roll dough 1/8 inch thick on floured surface. Cut into 3 inch rounds ( I used a glass as a round cookie cutter). Place 1 teaspoon of filling on each & fold over. Press edges with a fork & prick a few holes in the top. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 15 minutes, until lightly brown. The recipe says to bake at 450.....but that's pretty high for my oven. I think I baked these at 400 & just kept a close watch. It also said the yeild was 50, but I only got about 30, maybe I didn't roll them as thin as I should have. Here's a picture of the whole plate of them (I should have put that one that broke open in the back! lol).

I would serve this as an appetizer. Maybe we'll add this to our line-up of snacks on New Year's Eve.
The day I made these, I added them to our supper. We had crawfish gravy on mashed potatoes.
It was actually a nice pairing, we thougth it was good. :)

Scones

I had never made scones before. Actually, I had only tasted them once. A lovely blueberry one... So when I saw a recipe for "Traditional Scones" in my Taste of Home magazine, I thought I'd try 'em. They turned out really well! Everyone really enjoyed them. They reminded me of biscuits. And they were SO easy.


I served them with homemade strawberry jam, & we also had pork chops, stuffing, & steamed broccoli that evening.

They were a hit with everyone. My dh kept saying that he thought they'd be very good when we have biscuits & gravy. You know, they were easier than rolling out & cutting biscuits. I may just make these next time instead of biscuits.

Traditional Scones (this comes from page 29 of the April/May 2008 issue of Taste of Home magazine)
2 c. all-purpose flour
2 T. sugar
3 t. baking powder
1/8 t. baking soda
6 T cold butter
1 egg
1/2 c. buttermilk

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder & baking soda. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In a small bowl, whisk egg & buttermilk until blended; add to crumb mixture just until moistened.
Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface; gently knead 8-10 times. Divide the dough in half; pat each portion into a 5 in. circle. Cut each circle into 6 wedges.
Separate wedges & place 1 in. apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with jam.

I have to say I was a little shocked to see it called for 3 Teaspoons of baking powder. But I made it as the recipe called for it & they turned out great. I later did a google search on scones, & found that most recipes just call for 1 teaspoon. Hmmmm... I also found this site that has a lot of scone recpies (and in their basic recipe, they add 1 t. of vanilla! That would be good, I think!). I always have raisins so I'd love to make cinnamon raisin scones. Yum.
We had left overs, so the following day I shared them with the babysitting kids. They loved them too. Even the picky one. lol We had beef stew that day (just the canned stuff) & I always put my beef stew on a piece of bread (now that I think of it...I only do this with canned beef stew, not homemade...that's kinda odd). Well, I decided that these scones were so much like biscuits that I'd have my stew on top of scones insead of plain old bread. Wow, it was SO GOOD!

(and yes, I did eat from the John Deere plate that day...LOL)

Penne Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce

This is another recipe that I got from visiting
The Pioneer Woman Cooks. It is SO good! The link to her origional recipe is here.
I don't think she has a 'printer friendly' version, so I will type up the recipe here, but I want to make sure and give proper credit to Ree. I've probably made this 3 or 4 times since last fall. It is that good. :) And here it is in my big bowl that I got from my S-i-L for Christmas. I LOVE this bowl!

And here's my plate. With this dish (any pasta dish, really), I usually fix Texas Toast using Black Pepper Onion Bread. But the last two times I fixed this I didn't have any in the freezer & didn't have time to make the bread. So on this day, we had it with cottage cheese & sauteed scallops.

Penne Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce
16 oz. box penne pasta
shrimp
3 T. butter, divided
3 T. olive oil, divided
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 c. heavy cream
1/2 c. chicken broth ( or white wine)
salt & pepper
1 T. chopped fresh parsley (I used dried)
A few basil leaves ( I used 1 t. dried basil)

Saute shrimp in 1 T. butter & 1 T. olive oil for a few minutes until shrimp just turns pink. Remove from skillet.
You can dice it into bite sized pieces if you like (I don't).
In a large skillet, saute diced onion & garlic in 2 T. butter & 2 T olive oil.
Add chicken broth (or wine) & stir. Add tomato sauce & stir well. Add cream & stir well.
Add the parsley & basil. Stir well & turn on low while finishing up the dish.
Meanwhile, have a big pot of water come to a boil & add penne pasta. Boil for 7-9 minutes & drain. Add to tomato cream sauce, also add the shrimp. Add just a little bit of salt, & fresh black pepper to taste. Stir to toss & serve.

YUM!

At the bottom of my recipe I have written in bold letters, "THIS IS A KEEPER".
I love finding new recipes that are keepers! Thanks Pioneer Woman!
We had it again tonight for supper, & again, I didn't have any Black Pepper Onion Bread in the freezer, so we had freezer corn (from the garden) & tangerines. The freezer corn really is worth all that work!