Sunday, June 29, 2008

GREEN BEANS!

We have green beans!

We are needing to weed the green beans, & you won't believe what our most prominent weed it right now.... volunteer tomato plants! We get so many every year. They have grown up right with the beans, & if you look close enough in this picture you can see them.

We just picked half a row of green beans this afternoon & this is what we have:

I wanted to fix them with our supper, & I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Something different...something I saw Claire do a while back. She ROASTED them. Here's the link to Claire's roasted green beans. (I didn't think to put onions in mine, I wish I would have done that.) We've grown green beans for years, & have had so many green beans, but I've never roasted them. And as much as we now love roasting cauliflower & asparagus in the oven, I just HAD to try roasting green beans.
We all liked them a lot! It made them different. We usually fix them the same or nearly the same way every time, which is in a pot with onions, potatoes, & some bacon grease (shhhh....don't tell).
Well this was different, & it was mighty good! Thanks Claire!!!

Roasted Green Beans
1-2 pounds fresh green beans
olive oil

salt & pepper

Wash the green beans & break off the stems. Pat dry. Place on cookie sheet & drizzle with olive oil. Salt liberally & add cracked pepper.
Place in 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes, turning after 15 minutes.

I forgot to take a picture of my plate (way too anxious to dig in!) but here's the small amount of left over green beans we had with grilled pork chops that had been marinated in Dale's sauce. Thanks for that tip Ashley! We really loved Dale's on pork chops!
So it looks like we need to pick the one & a half rows of green beans in the next few days & get our first canning of the season underway. :)

Thursday, June 26, 2008

My Dad

I'm missin' my dad. He went home to Jesus two years ago today. I canNOT believe it's been two years already. Yet at the same time, it seems like it's been SO long since I've seen him. And if I live as long as he did (into his eighties) and the Lord tarries, it'll be another 40 years or so until I see him again. This is my Daddy & me years ago (1967). :)
He was white headed even then!
I sure miss you Dad. I love you.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

YUM-O!



Oh my goodness! Look what I won!
Thank you SO MUCH 5 Minutes for Mom!!!
Rachel Ray's cookbook, YUM-O The Family Cookbook!
I am really looking forward to receiving it!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Monday, June 23, 2008

Garden Update

The Herb garden has been weeded!
Here it is from the front.
And here it is from the back. You can see that our 5 year old son has been helping me collect rocks (right out of the garden!) to put boarders around the different areas.
Here's the basil after it got weeded. I'm pleased with how many of the seeds came up!

Friday, June 20, 2008

Friday Felicities


Oh! Better late than never!
These things have made me happy:
  • Daughter home from church camp.
  • Flowers blooming.
  • Being DONE weeding the herb garden.
  • Homemade angel food cake.....mmmmmmmmm
  • Finishing the last book of The Lord of the Rings! I feel like I've been on an epic adventure!
  • Half-way through reading a funny novel (Miss Julia Speaks her Mind).
  • Strawberries
  • Watching 5 year old son try to hammer in a nail like Daddy.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Angel Food Cake

I made my first Angel Food Cake last week, from scratch!
I got a tube pan at a garage sale last summer for a quarter & I thought it was high time I fix an Angel Food Cake. I got out my old, trusty 1982 edition Betty Crocker Cookbook that I got for high school graduation from an aunt & uncle (in '84). It has a recipe for Angel Food Cake Deluxe on page 243.

The cake turned out great. Here it is after just being turned out of the tube pan:

And here it is topped with strawberries from our garden & whipped cream! YUM!
This cake did not last long!


Angel Food Cake Deluxe

1 C. cake flour
1 1/2 C. powdered sugar
1 1/2 C. egg whites (about 12)
1 1/2 t. cream of tartar
1 C. granulated sugar
1/4 t. salt
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1/2 t. almond extract

Heat oven to 375. Mix flour and powdered sugar & set aside. Beat egg whites & cream of tartar in large mixer bowl on medium speed until foamy. Beat in granulated sugar on high speed, 2 tablespoons at a time; continue beating until stiff and glossy. Add salt, vanilla, and almond extract with the last addition of sugar. Do not underbeat.
Sprinkle flour-powdered sugar mixture, 1/4 cup at a time, over meringue, folding in just until flour-sugar mixture disappears. Push batter into ungreased tube pan, 10X4 inches. Cut gently through batter with metal spatula to remove large air bubbles.
Bake until cracks feel dry and tip springs back when touched lightly, 30-35 minutes. Invert pan on a funnel ; let hang until cake is cold. Remove from pan. Spead top of cake with icing if desired.

I had some strawberries in the frig that I had added 1/2 C. sugar to so it had a nice strawberry sauce. This cake was DELICIOUS with the strawberries! And really, it wasn't difficult at all. I am sure going to make this again soon! I have to tell you what my biggest problem was, & that was the weather. I was making this cake last Friday. Our 17 year old daughter was going to come home from church camp that evening & I thought it would be nice to have a homemade Angel Food cake to surprise her with. As I was folding in the flour/sugar mixture I noticed the sky looked pretty dark. I quickly got the cake into the oven & got on-line to check our radar. Sure enough a good sized storm was headed our way, & at that moment it was hitting the church camp.
So I prayed, then I put out a prayer request to my on-line friends, & then snapped this picture from our front porch. This was actually a different day than the storm picture I posted yesterday for Wordless Wednesday. This picture was taken Friday, June 13, & that picture (WW) was taken on Father's Day afternoon. We've had a bunch of storms lately!


I'm happy to say there was no damage. And our electricity stayed on so the Angel Food Cake got baked until done! LOL
And a few hours later we had our daughter back home & we were eating Angel Food Cake with strawberries!