Karla's Cottage

What's for lunch? Light Chicken Pot Pie and Rosemary Potato Garlic bread recipes

Usually, I'm not a lunch person.  A protein bar or yogurt at my desk is perfect. But I do love socialized lunches and going out with friends. Or fixing something special for company.  For the Valentine Journal Workshop, we had organic springtime greens with herbs, a fruit salad, rosemary garlic bread, and some chicken thing with puff pastry. 

I don't know what to call it, only that anything you add puff pastry to becomes a special meal.

It was easy to make.  Here is how I did it:

I boiled 5 large, bone in, skinless chicken breasts in 2 qts of water seasoned with sea salt, pepper and garlic.

While deboning the cooked chicken, I added two cups of rice to the pot, along with 3 finely chopped carrots and cooked that in the broth according to directions on the rice package.

In  a skillet, I sauteed half a red onion, two stalks of celery, and a red pepper, all chopped up together, with a splash of olive oil and seasoned with sea salt.

The veggie mix and chicken went back into the pot with the finished rice and broth along with a raw,  chopped broccoli crown, and I removed the pot from the heat so the brocoli didn't over cook, the hot broth just blanched it.

To that, I added  a pinch of poultry seasoning, and  a few shakes of Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute.

8 ramekins were filled about 2/3 with the mixture, using a slotted spoon.  Over that, I ladled broth from the pot, just enough to cover the chicken, rice and veggies so it wouldn't dry out when baked.

With a cookie cutter, I cut hearts out of thawed puff pastry and added it to the top of each. The scraps from cutting hearts out of pastry got rolled together and bagged for the freezer to use later.

These bake at 375 just till the pastry browns.

But that's not all. This made enough to also fill an 8" round casserole pan, and I used the 2nd puff pastry sheet from the box to cover the whole dish, so I had a meal to feed my family later as well as individual dishes to feed my friends.  It can also be made up ahead of time, without baking, and kept in the fridge for a couple of days.  If you do that, you'll need to bake it longer.  Just enough to get hot through and through before the crust browns, so I set the oven a bit lower, 350, so the crust doesn't burn while waiting for it to get hot.

Its a lighter version of a pot pie, without the gravy and the bottom crust. 

All of my table cloths are from garage sales, and some are in better shape than others.  By layering them all on top of each other, no one noticed the stains or holes.  At least that was the plan. Plus, I like the sheer, lacy cloth over the rose patterned one, it makes it a lot more lush.

Our bread was home made too.  I make up my own recipes as I go, but I've fixed this so many times, I can kind of wing it to tell you how much of what went into it.

Rosemary Potato Garlic Bread:

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons organic sugar

2 teaspoons Guar Gum (helps the bread rise, keeps it light and airy, plus lowers cholesterol)

1-1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1-1/2 cup warm water

Add all of the above to the oiled pan in a bread maker

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1/2 cup instant potato flakes

1/4 cup golden flax seed

3 tablespoons dried rosemary

i tablespoon of fresh, minced garlic

3-1/2 cups organic, unbleached bread flour

Add to the top of the previous ingredients, do not stir.

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Make a well in the top of the flour pile with your finger and drop in 2-1/2 teaspoons of bread machine flour

Switch the machine to dough setting.  I don't leave mine in for the whole cycle, once it begins to rise, I transfer my dough to a greased bread pan and punch it down a few times.  Then I boil a cup of water in my microwave oven, and place the pan of dough in the microwave, to use it as a hot box to let the dough rise in.  My microwave is over the stove and has a light under it. I've found that with the light on, it stays warm.  If yours doesn't, try warming your stove with a pan of hot water in it, and then turning it off and setting the dough in the oven to rise.

It just seems to me that the bread is so much better when baked in a pan, not in the bread machine.

I oil the top and  bake it on 350 for about a half hour, or till its brown and crusty.

I was able to make the dough before everyone arrived, and bake it while we worked. The mini casserole, fake pot pies were also made ahead, so it was an easy lunch to fix during a workshop. I had time to create a couple of pages of my own while we were in the studio.

The fruit salad was every bit as simple, three pears, one mango, one pineapple, a bag of frozen blueberries and a quart of strawberries. All cut up and spritzed with lime juice, with about a teaspoon of sugar on top. 

I was glad to have fruit salad to serve, because I forgot to turn on the oven for the chicken and everyone was hungry.

I brought out fresh bread and fruit salad to the studio, to hold everyone till the main meal cooked.  Oh well, these kind of things happen.  Quite often.  No one starved to death and I don't think anyone really minded waiting too much. 

I figure that as long as we are having a good time, and everyone has plenty to eat, eventually, no one expects perfection.  

Which is a good thing, because around here, they aren't going to find it!  I'd rather be relaxed and enjoying myself than worry about all the mistakes I could be making.  Life is too short to stress out over the little things.

The prettiest food ever

When we went to DC in December, I got to visit one of Twinkle's pups who now lives in VA.

HIs name is Buddy and he is a furry ball of delight.

He has a sister named Lola, from a previous litter of Twinkle's and she is a beauty.

While visiting the grand dogs is always a highlight of any trip I take, we also were treated to a fantastic holiday dinner at Rivercreek Country Club on the Potomac.

Not only was the food and wine fancy, there was also a sense of humor served with it.  The courses were created to represent all the markets in the country that my husband's region held.

  For Tennessee, the chef whipped up moonshine martinis!

I'm not a good drinker, two glasses and I start giggling or snorting, so I figured I shouldn't drink it.  I just ate the olive instead.

The liquor soaked, strong olive.  It was pretty tasty, but almost made my head spin.

Luckily, we had some of the world's prettiest food coming to soak up the liquor I'd just chewed up in that olive.

Usually, I'm not a fan of rare beef, but this was beyond amazing. It was cooked sous-vide and perfectly done. 

And I don't think I've ever had a dessert this good.  The disc thing on the bottom? I have no idea what it was made of, but when I bit into it, the thing disappeared into an explosion of flavor.  Really, it disappeared. Like eating some sort of tasty ghost. But it was more like powder, not like cotton candy, although a similar principle.  Delicious air.

It was all just perfect. So good that, looking at these pictures has made me sad about dinner tonight, and I had been looking forward to homemade pot pies in the oven before I started thinking about this meal.  It was quite a special treat.

Top Chef style dream food and a great night. I even made it through the evening without snorting after imbibing the moonshine.

Our Christmas

It's hard to say goodbye to Christmas this year, but on the other hand, on the 26th, I was itching to take down the tree.  I wasn't able to, due to other goings on, but I was ready to see it go. I think its because the lights all went out on the tree the minute the last gift was opened! That was some sort of sign. Plus, I feel like a dark tree is a bit sad. So, into the closet it goes, and I'll deal with the kaput lights next year.  

We had an extended Christmas celebration, with all the kids over on the 24th for brunch and gifts, with a hot cocoa and cookie party afterwards. 

Dewdrop came over with her parents on Christmas morning to see what Santa left under Grammie's tree while all the rest of the family visited other relatives. I think it was special for the youngest of 7 to have a whole morning of being the center of it all and opening gifts just for her. She was pretty excited, and a joy to watch.

We spent a lazy day, watching our littlest fairy play.  My son, Mr. Zen and his Gypsy cooked a great meal for us all.  Broiled lobster with seafood pasta.

YUM!  The only thing better than having someone cook a meal for you, is if the meal is lobster.

Sugarwings had a sleepover on Christmas night, so Santa could bring some gifts to Grammie's tree for her too.  She loves the whole spectacle of Santa, Christmas, and the arrival of gifts, but I think the stories and ambiance are what she appreciates even more than the presents. We decided that if we didn't buy a thing for her, and told her that the Grinch had come and taken everything out from under the tree, she would have been so excited, she would have popped.

That kid lives for fantasies and her imaginary world.  She'd love to be plopped into the middle of the Grinch story and wouldn't think twice about not getting a present.

On the other hand, she was in heaven with the magic of everyone's gifts.

Many of the photos I tried to take look like this.  She is darting about from one person to the next, excited to see what is under the wrappings.  When I'd snap the picture, I'd get a blurry image of Sugarwings racing in to check out the latest, greatest gift her siblings got to open.

Yet, in the middle of all the gifting frenzy, she did the sweetest thing ever.  We had 14 people squeezed into this little living room, along with three Christmas trees.  So, Aunt Sandy made herself comfortable on the stairs.

When Sandy got a gift, Sugarwings would take it to her and sit to watch while she opened it.  And finally, took her by the hand and led her to the center of the room and told her that she was "part of the group" and shouldn't be sitting by herself. 

I was so proud of our little angel, who was caring about her great aunt during all of the hullabaloo, and not wanting her to feel left out of all the joy.

And joy there was.  Plenty of it!

I think the dogs had a good time too. With so many kids around, there were plenty of crumbs.  Twinkle tends to park herself under the highchair at most gatherings.

We kept the meal simple, honey baked ham, French toast and hashbrown casseroles made the night before, sweet corn frozen from last summer's farmer's market with some peas added for color, and scrambled eggs straight from the hen house, with chopped spinach and red peppers to be festive.

Paper plates, plastic forks, and foil pans made it all even easier.  There was minimal clean up time, so we could get right to the fun stuff and gather around the tree!  For some of us, it was hard to wait for that part.

I'll leave you with some photos of our day and I hope that yours was joyful as well.

Carmel Apple Cake, and a little dinner party

 

Last week when our friend, Mary, came from VA to visit and haul pups across country to deliver for us, we threw a little dinner party.

And invited the pups of course!

Between kids and dogs and toys and all the rest, I don't know that my house will ever be cleaned up all the way again.  The floor is covered with all the critter stuff. And probably will be for a while. But, its nice to have the babies indoors again. They started out in a small crate in the living room, then moved to a child's wading pool there.  Soon, they were too big, and needed an enclosed area in the garage.

Then, that wasn't enough, and they ended up with about 75% of the garage.  Today, I took it all down, fences, panels, tables, chairs, all of the white trash bits of this and that I built the cage out of since our two pups are officially our own dogs and live in the house.  They wouldn't stand to be put in a pen out in the garage, Albie would have something very loud to say about that.

Its sad to have the rest of the babies gone, but I'm lucky to still have a couple left here with me.   In the past, I have raised pups and not kept any.  After this experience with Sugarwings, that will never happen again! It was heartbreaking for both of us and we were left sad and empty armed when the last pup was gone.

Three dogs went with Mary last Monday night. One to my sissy and he will always be family. One to Mary, who works with my husband, so that little guy will be around too. And Mary was kind enough to deliver one to my Bella friend, Heather.

 
The house seems pretty quiet without everyone, but the dogs we do have are keeping me busy.  How did I ever keep up with 9??? These were small pups, but man, could they fill up a potty pad.  At least they used them!  That was really nice, these babies were all really good about being paper trained fast. Now, the transistioin from paper to grass is the hard part. Especially with cold weather coming.  

I always said I'd never have a winter pup,  spring is so much easier for training.

But I'm glad I have Dorothy Rosebud and Albie Strong and Brave (Sugarwings kind of renamed him, she is also the one who named our cat, Sweet Sweet Sweety)

I am going to miss my Halloween decorations too.  This year, I really went over board, that isn't something I usually do. But having the family reunion and Romantic Gothic Ghosts was a good excuse to go all out.

While the place was spookily foofed up, I was happy for an opportunity to have a little dinner party.

My husband broke out the good wine for the night.  And we were given a bottle of Silver Oak as a gift from Mary thanking us for the puppy too!   We had given her a tiny girl a couple years ago and she was happy to get a baby brother for her little Lola.   But she did us such a big favor in delivering the babies across country, that was thanks enough. Plus, a free puppy really isn't all that cheap when you fly out to get it and rent a car to drive home!

It was so sweet of her to go to so much trouble for one of our babies.  We should have bought her a bottle of wine instead of her buying us one.

For dessert, I baked a carmel apple cake.  Easy to do, I used a yellow cake mix, subbed applesauce for the oil and added two large, chopped up, Honeycrisp apples.

I didn't know how to make carmel icing, so I winged it.

A whole bag of Kraft Carmels got melted in about 1/4 cup of milk, then I added a 1/4 stick of butter and started beating in powdered sugar till it turned to icing. It was almost fudgy, it was so thick.  Maybe less powdered sugar next time?  But while being very rich, it was also very tasty.

Over that, I sprinkled pecans, and drizzled melted dark and white chocolate, because the best carmel apples are those kinds with all the good toppings, not just carmel!

Decorating a family reunion on a budget

For the Faery Book Swappers-

Since the 1st is a holiday weekend, its ok to wait till Tuesday to mail your packages. And please note that it will take me a couple of weeks to make that many books and get them mailed back to you!

My Daddy came from a large family, and every year, we gather at our "Downey Dinner" to reconnect.  The 9 siblings take turns hosting, and as the family grows older and parents are passing on, it falls to the cousins to take over hosting duties for the pitch in meal.

This year was my dad's turn, so my sisses and I took over as co-hosts.

Of course, I felt like we needed to foof it up a bit! But we didn't want to spend much on top of our share of the costs that we already had (plates, cutlery, beverages, meat, and the hall rental). 

The Downeys are from Southern Indiana farm stock.  All nine kids grew up in this little house.  So, I thought the theme for the reunion should be kind of down home and country.  I chose red and white table cloths from the dollar store, and collected some old canning jars from garage sales.

My niece had a boxful of clear marbles, and we poured a few into each canning jar to weight them down, and then sat the jars on doilies (from my stash) in the centers of the tables.

At Michaels, I found a scrapbook tablet in just the right colors, called "Recollections"  in paper sack brown, sepia, and red.  There was a touch of forrest green too.  It featured love letters and memorabilia, some birds and other pretty little bits to cut out and use as embellishments for our project. It was a little fancier than I wanted, I'd hoped for calico or checks, but these colors were just right, so I went for it.

We decided to make the centerpieces be Family Trees.  So, we printed off a pile of pictures in different sizes and started cutting them out, and gluing them to shapes we'd cut from the scrapbook paper. We tried to make sure that all nine sibling's families were represented in the mix.

Then, we walked around to find some branches in Bobbie Sue's yard and discovered that the lilac bushes had branches that worked perfectly.  Lots of branchy little arms to tie pictures to.

Next, we punched holes and tied strings to the photos, and they were ready to tie to the sticks.

We got a little carried away with the photos and made extra, so we took everything off the bulletin board in the rented hall and I added a branch and pictures to that too.

After the meal, we announced that everyone could pluck photos from the trees to keep.  And when the party was over and clean up time came, there were none left, so I think that everyone enjoyed them. 

The Family Trees were a little tall for centerpieces, and I expected to see people moving them aside, but it didn't look like they were much of a problem.  And people spent a lot of time looking at them, and there was some extra mingling with everyone going from table to table to check out the variety of snapshots.

My romantic, sweetheart had tied a picture of me from the trees, to his shirt.  He now has it on his computer bag and carried it through the airport that way on his business trip.

There was plenty of paper left, after making the photo trees, so I decided to make a banner to hang up by the kitchen.

It was a fast and simple project, I cut out 6 large rectangles from paper that looked like it would make a good background, and inked the edges.  When there was something pretty on the page like the bird in this one, I cut around it, so it stood out from the side.

Next, I took some of the darker pages and cut out the letters, glued them down and drew around them with red marker.

Two holes were punched in the top and a length of ribbon was run through all the letters.

I made the letters free hand. It wasn't a planned project and I was in a hurry.  They are far from perfect, but they did the job. 

In the tablet, there were some pages that had this glittery, red "love" on them, so I cut a couple of those out to hang below two of the letters.

I used more scraps to make signs for the beverages.  This paper practically decorated itself, all I had to do was cut this out, fold it and write the words on it.

(a sliced star fruit and some fresh strawberries prettied up the jug of lemonade)

We took an idea from the Clampetts and covered the pool table to use as a buffet for the salads and main dishes.  The desserts had a separate table.  I knew a lot of treats were coming, so I washed off the piano bench (cleaning the legs and under part extra good) and set it on the table to make more space.  And this photo was taken early on, by the time all the goodies arrived, this dessert buffet was full to the brim!

This is just something I thought was funny, yes, I know, weird picture. It looks like the fried chicken is trying to escape from the foil covering it! (or maybe its just waving to the guests as they arrive?)

But you can kind of see the room behind the franken-chicken, and see the red and white tables with the Family Trees on them.

The hall was a nice space, and the perfect size.  There were some gorgeous antiques around the room and many of the framed pieces on the walls were attractive. The ones that were not pretty, or old, we took down for the day. I preferred plain white walls to pink and blue wreaths on the wall with our red and white decor.

After eating, we shoved some tables out of the way and set up a corner for group pictures, and I moved the banner over there to hang as a backdrop.

Actually, I didn't move it, I had the Bumbles do it.  Whats a Bumble? Remember the animated Christmas special, Rudolf? At the end, the abominable snowman, who Cornelias calls a Bumble, puts the star on the top of the tree. Whenever I need a tall person to reach something for me, I call them my "Bumble".

My sisses and I had a good time co-hostessing the bash.  It was just too bad it was such a quick trip, my husband and I packed up and drove 8-1/2 hours back home as soon as the room was cleaned up, so we could get back to the newborn puppies.

I'm glad my sisters are coming out for Romantic Gothic Ghosts!  That will make up for having our sister time cut short due to Twinkle's over active birth of nine tiny Yorkies.  When they get here, those pups will be running around under foot and will be such fun to play with.

I bought the $19 scrapbook paper with my 40% off coupon, spent $4 on canning jars, and $15 on table cloths.  We had the string, ribbon, doilies, clear marbles, and glue already.  The only other cost was printing the photos. We did a combo of some from the computer and 11 cent prints from Walgreens. 

We didn't have to spend a lot of time on the decor, besides cutting and gluing photos. And we like to have a craft day when we get together any how, so that part was fun. 

It was a fast and cheap way to decorate for a family gathering!

How to trap fruit flies

Thanks for your comments about my friend's place in Omaha. I sure would recommend it if you need a place to stay when in Nebraska!

Talking about wine reminded me about this little trick to get rid of fruit flies.  This year has been awful for the horrid little pests.  I discovered that they really love wine, more than anything and every evening when my husband poured a glass of his (purely medicinal-ha ha) red he'd end up with floaters.

So, instead of throwing out this bottle when I was done, I left about 2" of wine in the bottom, and covered the top with Saran Wrap, and taped it down tightly.

With a toothpick, I punched some tiny holes.

The insidious creatures can't resist the wine, fly in the tiny holes, and then get stuck. I don't know if its that they drink so much, they are too drunk to get out, of if they get fatter while in there, or if they find their way in by scent but aren't led out that way. 

Whatever reason, it works.  Of course, I could tidy up the plastic wrap and make the bottle look nicer, or use a better bottle of wine, not a $5 one from Trader Joes.  But I still think this looks better than fruit flies on the bowl of produce I have sitting out!!

But you don't want to make it too attractive, it would be awful to mistakenly pour this into your wine glass!

Now, if I could just get the chigger problem under control outside.  The hens don't seem to be making a dent in my daily itch quotient.  But they do pick grasshoppers off my begonias.

Strohm Vineyards, An Omaha Oasis

Over the weekend, we visited some of my husband's college friends for a mini reunion.  And I can't imagine a better place to stay than Strohm Vineyards.

My buddy, Lori, has always had a good eye for design, and has a beautiful home, a log cabin in the hills a few minutes North of Omaha in Fort Calhoun. 

I've always loved staying with them, John and Lori are excellent hosts, and lots of fun.  They are do-it-yourselfers who are always adding on, remodelling, and basically working their butts off to make their place better and better all the time.

Lori is a talented junker.  She finds the coolest pieces at garage sales and knows how to display them.  (the blue chest in the first photo was only $10!!)

And now their homestead, the "Strohmarosa" is even better than ever, with the addition of a vineyard and a new winery building.

The winery has a fledgling B&B too!  Upstairs, over the grape room is a cozy space that we hung out in.

If you are looking for a place to stay while in Omaha, and want to feel like you are NOT in Omaha, this is the perfect getaway.  It felt more like visiting a resort in California than a farm in Nebraska!!

This is the view from the bedroom window.  We spent a lot of time sitting out in the courtyard, listening to the fountain and enjoying the breeze in the evening.

The Strohms rent out rows of grapes to individuals who want to tend them and then make their own wine. 

If I lived closer, I'd want to get a row for myself, just so I could sit up here on the hill and soak up the view after working on the vines.

There are cute little seating areas all around the property, this one features a bonfire pit. 

I met the Bluebird of Happiness there! Lori has bluebird houses all around the property and everywhere I went, there were happy bluebirds flying by.

Plus Yorkies  too!  

That is my fault. I gave them this guy, Walker, 14 years ago and he started a dynasty of pups.  I got to visit my grand-dog and great-grand dog.

This winery building is new, and they will still be fine tuning and adding on. I think there are plans for renting the space out for events, and they are planting and landscaping around it with out door dining and weddings in mind.

Don't you love the labels on the wine?  Their son is a photographer and created the design.

The wine is not for sale yet, they don't have a liquor liscence. I will be first in line to buy a case when they do.  There was a sweet, white one that I really liked.

They have set aside a room in their home for wine storage, and that is where we sat down for meals, its also the dining room.

LIke every room in the home and winery, its warm and welcoming.

With wine themed details everywhere, like this old book.

The weekend went by way too quickly. Omaha is only 3 hours away, my husband and I need to make more of an effort to get up there. I love Old Town for shopping, the zoo is one of my favorite places to go, and we have these wonderful friends there too.

Heck, why did I say you might want to visit Omaha and not feel like you are there? I love Omaha, its got a LOT to offer.  Anyone would love a getaway to that city!

Yummy Bread Machine bread - too, too good

This week has been a hodge podge.  I repainted a fairy, finished another, signed up a TON of people for the swap (yay! This will be a fun one!), babysat my own little fairies, and baked a TON of bread.   I might just weigh a TON more now that I've experimented with my new bread machine a bit...

As the smell of fresh baked bread fills the house, my Sister-In-Law, Sandy, and I do all we can to stop ourselves from standing over it, each clutching a stick of butter in our greedy little paws.

You know you've baked too much, when you realize the 5 lb bag of flour is empty.

I'm not a measuring type, but I've tried to approximate measures, so that the machine will be filled with the right amounts, and not overflow.  And I've learned that as much as I love the pure whole wheat flour, it can be a bit heavy for most people.  I've switched to mostly whole wheat, and about a 1/3 bread flour.  Its lighter and breadier.   

Pure whole wheat does make a good, solid, filling peasant type bread though.

Here is my favorite made up recipe (sort of- my own measurements are eyeballed)

Yummy Bread (as Sugarwings calls it)

1-1/2 cup leftover coffee, still warm, not hot (I drink Starbucks Vanilla)

1/2 cup organic clover honey

3/4 cup dried mixed berries

1/2 cup roasted pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup roasted sunflower seeds

2 cups whole wheat flour (organic)

1 cup unbleached organic bread flour

2-1/4 tsp bread machine yeast

Dump into machine in that order. From what I hear, you want the liquid on the bottom and the yeast on the top.  I don't know why.

Bake on the whole wheat setting. 

Stand by with your stick of butter so you are ready when the bread is done! (notice that I didn't add oil or butter to the mix? I forgot to, and liked it better this way, it was moist and soft, and I put enough butter on top while its hot, that I do not need any inside the loaf too)

Bread machines are too, too easy to use.  It takes me less than five minutes to make a loaf of deliciousness.  If I keep this up, I will become housebound, too big to fit through the front door.  

On Thursday, it got up to 107 degrees.  In June.  Yes, 107. Dang!

I had both little girls here, and we really did try to play outside. We turned on the hose, made mud pies and stayed in the shade till almost noon. I was proud of myself for staying out that long.  As soon as lunch time came, I had the perfect excuse to give up on the great outdoors and get into the air conditioning.

Then, we did the same thing we do on blizzardy days. We built a fort of blankets over the dining room table, filled the floor with pillows and climbed in to watch movies and read books.  We also brought markers, and drew all over the under belly of the table. Sugawings traced her foot and I dated it.

It was too hot for the chickens today too, when I turned on the hose to water the flower beds, a couple of them dove in to cool off in the water.

 

There hasn't been a lot of time for making things other than bread this week. I did finish a few book covers for the swap, I need to keep on top of that and make a few here and there, so I'm not swamped with too many at the last moment.  We are at about 60 or so right now. 

I hope you'll join us if you haven't yet.

 

Believe it or not, I actually made time to list some millinery packs in the Boutique! 

Including some Halloween/Autumn tones. 

And one magnificent double white rose with white velvet ribbons!

Happy Birthday to my handsome husband

For my husband's birthday, I had some help whipping up homemade blueberry pies.

It was pretty exciting. But anytime Sugarwings does some baking, its a joy-fest.

I tried something a little different with the pies. We filled a shell with fresh berries, then topped it with a mixture of butter, organic brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour.  We drizzled a little water over it, added a heart cut out of pie dough, and baked it. The berries' juices mixed with the topping as it melted into the pie, and it was really yummy. It left a slight, crispy top, but not the same as a crumble, because I used very little flour in it.

Along with the pies, I made fried chicken,(catfish for the vegetarians too) mashed potatoes, gravy, corn (fresh from the cob) green beans, coleslaw and rolls.  Plus a strawberry cheesecake. 

whew. 

4 and a half hours in the kitchen, I made it all the old fashioned way, like my grandma and mom used to.  What a lot of work. How on earth did they cook like that on a regular bsis???

It was a good party, and the kids gave Pop Pop a book to read to his littlest grand fairy, plus he got plenty of hugs and cuddles, so he had a happy birthday.

They made him some flower pots, and he got a mint plant and lime tree to grow his own garnishes for cocktail hour. 

He's one hot grandpa, isn't he? 

ps- you can still enter the drawing to win this collage by leaving a comment

Beads, Baubles, and peas

This is the last of the four Tiffanys projects that I made in Cali.  It was in my pal, Lonnie's class.

I brought quite a few of my own supplies, including the blue enamelled flower along with me, but she provided high quality, pretty things to work with too. 

As a matter of fact, between what she gave us in the kits and what I brought, I was able to make two necklaces in her class.  I didn't really master the techniques she was teaching, I kind of went off on my own, but she was a good teacher and had a great way of doing her examples that made it easy to follow.

One of the necklaces that I made will be for me to keep, and the other is a birthday gift for a dear freind.

This post was written before I went to Raleigh and Nags Head, and as I am writing it, I am snacking on the latest dish from my Summer of Salads. 

Its a pea salad, that you can make with fresh, farmer's mkt peas, or frozen ones right from the bag.

• about a 1/2 bag of peas
• 1/2 a sweet red pepper, chopped
• about 1/2 cup of chopped purple cabbage
• 1/2 a sweet Vidalia onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup of fat free feta cheese crumbles
• 6 boiled eggs, chopped (mine were straight from the hen house!)
• sea salt, garlic powder, and pepper to taste
• olive oil based mayo, enough to moisten (I don't like a lot of dressing, so added mine a couple spoonfuls at a time till it looked right)

Another salad for the week was a simple fruity one.

• one honey dew, cubed
• one quart of strawberries, halved
• juice of one lime
• drizzle of agave syrup
• a splash of pomegranate juice
• two sprigs of mint leaves

My latest obsession is mint sprigs. Especially in this concoction-

• one can of lime selzter water
• a 1/4 packet of drink powder
• pour over a pretty glass filled with ice
• add a pink straw
• top with mint leaves

I sure don't miss Diet Coke when I have one of these in my hands. I used to think that those drink powder packets were silly. Why not just buy a drink already made up? They are meant for bottled waters, and I really thought it was ridiculous to buy a drink twice. The water, then the powder.

But, I got a sample of them, and took some along on my last trip and they are nice to have around and taste pretty good. Especially if you use club soda with them, and only a tiny part of the packet at a time, I usually get four drinks from one. And since I usually mix my soda with juice anyway, it doesn't feel extravagant to mix this in like it would if I used it in a bottle of water.

  
Please remember to leave a comment if you want to be entered into the drawing for a collage giveaway. 

And if you know of any good junking areas around Raleigh or Nags Head please email me with some shopping ideas!

karlanathan@sbcglobal.net