Beans, Beans......

Good for your heart.....

Hahaha!!!
As you all know by now, I am married to a bean lover.
Actually I am a beanaholic too!
My obsession goes in spurts tho.
Right now after eating like an old sow hog for the past several weeks, I am craving healthy foods.
I am craving a healthier lifestyle all around, this could be coming from my new position as a Cardiology nurse!!!
I guess I had better practice what I preach huh?
So today I have a pot of
15 bean soup on simmering with a small hambone left over from the Honey Ham that Robin brought from the Honey Ham store! OMG!!!
Talk about a good ham, if you have not had the privilage you should!
Luxury hams at their best!
I am sure this will be a yummy pot of bean soup too!
Sure is smelling good!

Now this is Danny's Christmas gift from me.
Yes I do think about him when I am Christmas shopping......
This was the gift that we teased him that he would never guess, not even after opening it!!
We were right!





I found this at Red Hill General Store and thought it would be so appropriate for a bean lover like Danny!
I have to say that their prices were so much better than at Amazon.
They also had the 3 tiered Tiffin Set just like this one for a fraction of the cost.
I may have to go back and get this one too!




Isn't it cute?
So Laura Ingallsish!
He loves it!
Didn't take him too long to figure out what it was!





We are going to get him a little one burner propane stove so that he can carry some beans, soup or chili, etc etc etc and heat it up out in the woods at work for lunch!
Here I go getting the Wife Of The Year Award yet again!
Sorry gals!!

I have been researching bean recipes online and there are so many websites devoted to the almighty bean! Toot Toot!
Robin has a very close friend and neighbor who has published this cook book all about beans too.
It's called Stretching the Bean!
I will be getting one of these soon.

Now I just have to share a funny story about beans with you......I may have shared this in the past but please forgive me if I have cause I have a poor memory any more.
Now my brother still says that I can remember things that happened before he was born and he is two years older than me!!
I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday
But I can remember this from when I was four years old as if it was yesterday......

I was staying with my Grandma Goldie, and she had taught me this little bean slogan.........
We were in her dark basement when she heard a knock on her front door upstairs.
She ran upstairs to see who was knocking.
I slowly meandered around in the basement and I knew that there was a gentleman upstairs, an insurance salesman.
I decided to come up the stairs.......
I started at the bottom in a chant that matched my every stomp of my feet on each step as I climbed each step stomping very loudly and shouting even louder.........
Beans.....
Beans.....
Good for your heart.....
The more you eat.......
The more you........
My Grandma slung that door open so fast it would make your head spin as I made it to the last step. She slapped her big ole hand across my little mouth and muffled my very last word so as to assure that the insurance salesman did not hear me shout
"Fart"
and when she released her grip on my mouth I shouted the rest of my little song.......
"Want"

I had no intentions of saying a dirty word such as fart.
Now my brother on the other hand always said that and I knew better, why I was a little lady!!
Grandma and the insurance salesman had to sit down to keep from rolling in the floor laughing at me!!!!
LOLOLOL!!!!
I got her good!!

Bestest Banana Bread ever!!!

I am truly not a lover of bananas or banana bread or banana ice cream but I do love banana pudding!! I had 4 overripe bananas Tuesday and decided to hunt up a recipe for them before they went bad. I was also in a cooking mood.

I sucked it up and tried this recipe for banana bread and I knew if I didn't like it that it probably would be ate by Danny. Afterall he always places his cakes in a big glass of milk and eats it with a spoon. That was one of the hardest things for me to get used to when we got married!! Turned out his whole family does that with most every type of cake, even the ones with a thick layer of frosting!!! I also couldn't get used to the fact that he and his father took their boots and socks off in the living room and then walked to the bedroom leaving their boots til the next morning!! Blew my mind!!! hahahaha I am sure that I was just perfect and did not have any weird quirks when he married me!! teh heeeee!!

Back to the banana bread.....I am really tired of typing out the word banana too........IT WAS SO GOOD!!!!!! THIS BREAD IS CAKE!!!! Yes he has ate it in milk or without!! It is very very moist and simply delicious. I am now a fan of BB!!!!! I think you all should give it a try! I was just dreaming of a nice cold slice of this slathered with a big ladle of Boiled Custard!!! YUMMO!!! I think I will be making that tomorrow and serving the BB warm with warm BC or the BB cold with cold BC, either way it will B OK in my book!!!


Well it seems that I can not get you to the link for this perfect BB that I have already told you about. Sorry but I am too sleepy to keep trying to find it. I did print the recipe off and hopefully it has the link at the top of the page. I know your mouth is watering and I shouldn't tease you like that but I did! (I bookmarked the recipe but it won't come up now????)

Goodnight!!! Sweet dreams coming my way filled with BB and BC!! I will be back tomorrow with the recipe even if I have to type it all out for you!!!

Good Mornin!! As promised last night here is the link to the best Banana Bread ever. I was so tired that I forgot the name of the recipe too....it's Banana Banana Nut Bread!!!!! Enjoy!!! I am off to have a slice with a nice hot cup of French Vanilla coffee!!

Spring has sprung!!!!

This is how we celebrated the first day of Spring down on the farm.

We had to throw a fishing party!

Here's Danny with his 14" Large Mouth Bass!

Poor thing is still sick...........me too. Yuck, when will this stuff ever end?

I went to the grocery store today and I thought I was going to have to sit down half way thru the store. He said he is just incredibly drained too. Of course he cut wood this morning and hauled a huge dump truck load in before he went fishing with us.
Now if you have ever talked to any of my family they would surely have already told you some of the funny funny stories about the happenings around our fish pond. If it involves a critter that can habitat around or in water we have a story to tell about it.......well no alligators YET!!
Shown above is Morgan's minnow trap that she kept set last year beside the dock and she would go down every day to see if she had anything in it. Of course we would always tell her that she would pull it up with a snake in it one day............oh yeah they like our pond too! Funniest story ever involved a snake and a poll vaulter!!!!! hahahaha
So today Colton ran over as soon as he got to the pond and grabbed the trap up out of the water and said "it's something in there."
Leslie walked up behind him and said "Let me see is it a snake?" "Oh yes it is a snake!!!!!" well not so calmly I might add here......
Of course this was going to be a Nikon moment and I sure as heck wasn't going to be caught on the dock this time!!...........Remember the poll vaulting story...yep that was me caught on the other end of the dock from the snake and I was just about to go swimming!!!




Oh yuck yuck double yucky yuck!!!!!!
The trap was full of lizards!!! I mean full of lizards!!!!
Of course we were all kinda excited because that meant some big bass would be on our hooks shortly...since we had our hook baiter with us today!! I can do worms but no lizards!!
Wrong!!! The pond is full
of lizards and the fish didn't want them today.
Danny caught his bass on a rubber worm.
The only fish caught today.
~
While I have been so sick for sooooooooooo long I have watched a lot of Food Network. I have really fell in love with the Neely's.
This morning they were making Chinese and boy it "Flung a craving on me"......ever heard that saying? It's Jerry Clower at his best!!
So I had to go to the grocery store and get the fixings for some down home southern style chinese food!!! Oh boy I am glad I did too!!


Well not exactly a Chinese dish here, but we had Tiramisu for dessert!
That was really good and soothing on my sore scratchy throat. Shoulda made that weeks ago!


The best part of the meal.........Pulled Pork BBQ and Cole Slaw Egg Rolls.....well smack your mama!! Dipped in a homemade Spicy Peach Dipping Sauce....could you imagine?? Well I thought I could imagine how good they would be but I was oh so wrong.............they were so much better than I could have ever dreamed they could be!!!!!! Those kids were on to something here!!!


I made Cashew Chicken and the Neely's version of Fried Rice with ham.....
Super duper yummy way to celebrate the first day of Spring!!!!!!!!
Sunshine, good food and good family times!!!
Happy Spring to all!!

Good food for the sick.......

I have promised you the story of my Homemade Noodles and here it is.....

These babies are a hit around this farm.

Danny is not a noodle fan....well

he wasn't a noodle fan until I started making these.

He just ate them because noodles and any type of pasta is a staple in my book.

I am the mac-n-cheese queen.

I have made several batches of these yummies in the past week!!

We had 2 pots of chicken and noodles last weekend when we both were starting to get ill.

That's when Danny really loved them, said they made his throat feel real good.

They just made me feel good all over!!

We have a K&W Cafeteria here in these parts and they serve Chicken Stew.

It is by far my favorite dish that they serve and I nearly cry if they do not have it when I go in.

I have tried and tried to make that same dish at home to no avail.

I have to tell you that

this recipe for noodles + a big pot of stewed chicken= K&W's Chicken Stew!!!!!
Be still my heart!!

My life has been changed for the better!

Thank you Miss Canned Quilter!!

I also love Chicken and Dumplings and I can make a mean pot of them.

The oldfashioned way of course, with the big fluffy biscuit type dough dumplings and a thick gravy around them!! Yummy!!

However I have tried a lot of different ways to make them over the years

and I hear the same thing from Danny each time I color outside the lines...

"Now why did you go off and ruin this pot of dumplings by doing that?"

One time I think it was last summer,

he told me that I had finally learned to make them just like his mother did!!

My sil's mother (Cass) made the very best dumplings I have ever ate.

When I was a wee child I would go to her house, with my best friend who is now my niece,
and on Sunday afternoons Cass would have these dumplings.

They were like a big pot of extra fat and yellow chicken broth with the chicken pieces, and these huge fat dumplings that resembled homemade yeast roll dough. The broth was clear, no thickened gravy texture to it.

I have tried to recapture that taste and texture all my married life and nothing has compared to hers.

I am so happy with this new recipe for noodles because it is so versatile and easy to make. Did I mention they are delicious?? Well honey they are!!

I was lying around today on my death bed and I still have an appetite, so of course I was thinking about food all day long.

I just happened to have a batch of these in the freezer that I whipped up on Sunday and decided to try them with spaghetti meat sauce........oh yeah baby another big hit and they sure did feel good on the sore throat!!

Danny said it was better than any store bought noodles I have ever made!

Now I can't wait to get up the energy to make up a bunch of these for the freezer. I bought a 25 lb bag of all purpose flour Monday just for this project.

How many batches do you think I can make with 25 lbs of flour?

I'll let you know!!

I am also wanting to try them with beef.....now doesn't that sound yummy??

Now if I can just find me one of those pasta roller/cutters like the Canned Quilters!!!

Bon Appetit!!

Can you believe this?

1. That Danny and I have both been very sick? I started last week with the cold/sinusy/junky

stuff and it carried on for the most part bearable until yesterday. I was driving Danny to the Dr with the same stuff that hit him hard on Saturday and he was wanting to go to the Dr yesterday so honey you better know he was sick!!

I was driving him there when the nausea hit me.

I was only going 70 down I-81!!

We debated calling Leslie to come to the Dr's office and pick us both up and drive us home.

2. That this Dr that we have been seeing for about 5 years as patients and I have worked along with for longer than that, was SO INCREDIBLY RUDE TO US? Well let me rephrase that she was down right mean. I have never even heard a Dr talk that bad to any patients in all my years of nursing!!! Well she is history in my book! Mama says if you have nothing good to say about anyone don't say anything so....That's all I have to say about that!

3. That .......insert drum roll here......no make that the soothing peaceful sound of a harp, my head still hurts pretty bad...............

MY TAXES ARE FINISHED AND READY FOR THE ACCOUNTANT!!!

when I have no more upset stomach that is!!!

Whew what a burden lifted off of my shoulders!!!!! AMEN!!!

4. That Robin and I made this perfect trade this weekend? She needed a pressure canner and I needed an easel for my painting....so you got it. We each had what the other one needed! We are both very happy with our little trade! She got a new pressure canner that I just happened to have bought on ebay last year to have as a spare and she had purchased a great portable but heavy duty easel also from ebay and found she didn't really want to paint....she would rather can beans!! She is part of the new Radical Homemakers Movement too!! Go girl!!

5. That.....it is almost 60 degrees out there today?

6. That my snow is finally melting? Whew!!!

7. That we saw the Robins flying over yesterday? Just about made me cry!!!

I can't hardly believe any of these things, can you?
The proof is in the pudding tho, so I am a believer now!!

I have a lot of catching up to do, I am behind in reporting the happenings from the farm to all of you who follow me so faithfully ;-))))

I still have to tell you about the great fur exchange from the great white hunters!!

That exchange took place on Saturday! I have stories and pictures of that!

I need to tell you all about my homemade noodles that were an exceptionally big hit around this farm and many more exciting things........ such as I have learned that

I must be kin to Annie Oakley and I have been doing some awesome target practicing.

Danny can't hold a candle to me anymore!!!!

So bear with me and let me heal from this flu that we have here and then I'll be back!

(of course the friendly Dr wouldn't even check him for the flu and could really care less what he had, labeled it as a virus and gave him some cough syrup that doesn't work as good as his Halls cough drops)

STAY WELL EVERYONE!!

Do you act like this?

Or am I the only one around besides my dad who has such a temper?

I have spent the morning repairing and cleaning up a big, well a BIG mess

that I myself made back before Christmas.

I had the Christmas tree up in the foyer by the window,

as I am sure you remember with all the

photos that I shared of that tree

that I did not like.

I didn't like the photos or the tree!

I also had an electric tart bunner

plugged in to the same outlet as the tree lights.

Do you see where I am going here?

Hot melted wax, me befumbling around with tangled cords?

You got it.

I spilled hot but very nice scented

Pumpkin Crunch Pie wax allover everything in the foyer.

It was sorta behind the tree.

It was allover the little white table that it was sitting on, the floor

and my white walls! Urgh!! It was soaked up into a crocheted doily that was under it.

Everything immediately turned a nice shade of Pumpkin!

I just took a deep breath and let it out.

Then I most patiently walked away from it!!

Isn't that what you guys would do?

If I tried to clean this mess up I would have been wearing a Christmas tree

around my neck or I would have gotten so

"frustated" (not a typo, you American Idol watchers will know what I mean here)

that I would have thrown everything in there out the window into the snow.

So instead I decided to wait until today to clean it all up.

What a mess. I was right about how hard it would be to clean up too.

It involved sandpaper, a chisel, Clorox, lots of hot soapy water and a paintbrush and bucket of white paint.

Need I say more?

No pictures cause it was TOO big a mess to show off!!

While on my cleaning frenzy this morning, I found this unfinished tablecloth from several years ago. I have a nice storage bench under the halltree that houses several UFO's.
I would really like to know what I was thinking when I got this one started.
Did i really think that somewhere in my lifetime I would actually have enough little 4" blocks
for a tablecloth?
Maybe a dollhouse tablecloth!!
Oh yeah that's right I have an unfinished dollhouse too.......
hahaha that darned ADD again!
Maybe I will do better after next weekend when daylight savings time kicks in again!
Oh happy days!!!!!!!
No I won't do any better but I may very well get these 42 blocks put together to make
a very pretty table runner. I mean tablerunners are more in vouge than tablecloths, right?
Yes my dear friends, I am almost finished with
Baby Bubbas Crocheted Log Cabin Baby Blanket!!
Aren't you all proud of me?



The sun is shining so beautifully today and
I am feeling a little Springy
so I had to make this wreath.......

and hang it on my front door!
I am doing some other Easter/Spring decorating today too.
Pictures later!

So my friends I think it paid off to wait until a pretty sunny day to tackle that crazy mess I made
and not let my temper get in the way.
Not that I didn't whisper little bad words to myself with each new obstacle I ran into while
trying to get the mess cleaned up!!

Off to the foyer again!

I sure hope Spring has Sprung in your neck of the woods!!

ps. here's the sourdough bread recipe I hope you all try it!

My Kitchen ~ The Movie

You can go here and see a slideshow of what I did with some of the items that I got at the thrift store today. This is my first shot at making movies!!

I hope it was worth it....

Now let me 'xplain this Lucy. I had a miserable night last night and woke up with a stuffy nose this morning. I have severe allergies....well I call them severe ;-) ..to smoke and chemicals and dust......and of course I have Sarcoidosis and my lungs are full of little sarcoidosis nodules. The combo of sarc and smoke will just do me in. Hence the reason for our outdoor wood furnace, so I do not have to endure the wood smoke inside. Even though I wasn't diagnosed with sarc until the past year I was still highly allergic and stayed sick all the time.

So with that said......I had the snotty nose this morning and Robin and Morgan were here and getting ready to leave for Atlanta. Well it just so happens that Shoney's is on the way to Atlanta! Becky decided in all her wisdom that the three of them needed a huge breakfast bar this morning. Well funny thing the 2 of them agreed. So off we trot to Shoney's and it just so happens that my second favorite antique/thrift store is beside of Shoney's.

I just had to go in because it has been a while girls since I have had my antique/thrift fix. My very favorite store is GREAT except for the fact that the precious little owner who I could pick up and squeeze each time I see her, smokes in the store. I can only go in the summer or during warm weather when she has the big doors open for ventilation. I will be choked up for days after going to her store. Yes grant it most of the time it is worth it because I come out with such great things as enamelware milk pails, chenille bedspreads, Pyrex etc etc etc......

So now this second favorite store of mine has never had a smoker in there. I opened the door this morning and smoke hit me immediately. I am so sensitive to it....just ask Danny what I put him thru after he puts wood in the stove ....I practically have to hose him down outside or the smell will drive me into a funk that takes me forever to overcome!! I started to turn around and leave cause I could hear a couple of men talking and laughing at the counter and I just knew they were standing around shooting the breeze and smoking cigarettes. I almost cried. I just couldn't turn around and leave cause I just knew that there was some good stuff in there with my name written all over it. Turns out it was a woodstove that had a big fire in it but the flue wasn't drawing very good today and was letting a lot of smoke back out into the building. It also turns out they did have a lot of great items with my name allover them!!

I have been wanting one of these toy stoves to display in my kitchen forever!! (A lot of you guys with your really cool blogs and really cool kitchens already one of these) I have been wanting a half pint milk bottle forever!! I love Corning Ware and have almost every piece except for this one and couldn't refuse it too. I also have been wanting me a white cow creamer.........for how long? Yeah baby you guessed it...FOREVER!!! I am so happy that I endured the smoke filled room to find my treasures today. I sure hope it was worth it cause it will take me FOREVER to get over the smoke!!! I will be decorating with these items and that will help me to recover, I am sure!

The bread shown in the picture is a couple loaves of Sourdough Bread that I whipped up yesterday and let me tell ya girls if you want some good bread this is it. All of you need to have a starter going at all times and make this bread. It is really awesome! It is a new recipe and it was so easy. I apologize for the delay but I will try to find the link to the recipe and post it later. If you are very impatient please email me and I will scan it to you promptly. I know that you will want to try this stuff!!

So wish me a lot of luck with trying to breathe while I am decorating my kitchen yet again!!

Putting up with Becky

Gotcha!!

You thought I was going to talk about someone having to

"PUT UP WITH ME"!

haaaahhhaaahahahahaah that's funny!!

I mean putting up food to feed my family

all 2 of us!

I spent almost the whole day today in the kitchen.

I made French Bread

and

Italian Bread.

Do you know the difference? I do!

I started a bowl of sourdough starter.

Yes it's in a bowl this time.

A huge 4 quart mixing bowl, with a towel under the bowl just in case it does like all my other starters have done in the past.........heat up and boil over the sides like a science project gone mad!! I am armed and ready this time around!!

I do not want to be cleaning that wood stove tomorrow morning!

Smooth as a babies butt when I first covered it.

In a couple hours she was a cooking!!




Remember my Valentines Day present from my sweetie?
Well I asked for them anyway.....a bushel of sweet potatoes!






I decided to go ahead and precook about 1/2 of the bushel.
I baked them slowly in the oven and then peeled them and put them in the freezer.
They are ready for me at anytime to thaw and make a quick sweet potato dish.






Yummy!!

I also was in the canning mood!

This old yellow pressure canner has been with me since my first Christmas as a married woman.

34 years and she is in better shape than I am.

She has been thru the wringer and back again.

She has been run over by a tractor trailer.....oh yes this is true....Danny used her to wash his big rig one time and forgot about her sitting there behind when he moved and ran right over her!!

She must be a Timex!

Oh yeah, I got ran over by a tractor trailer one time too.

I have a few blemishes from that one tho!!!

I am married to the great beans and potato eater.

He has never met a bean he didn't like.

I am one step ahead of him now......with all this beautiful spring weather that is right in front of me.....and a garden in dire need of repair...that means a lot of long hours outside and no time to cook a pot of beans......wallah...canned pintos ready to pop open right before he gets home and he'll think I slaved in the kitchen all day!!

October beans for the same reason.....a quickie in the kitchen!

7 quarts of Pintos

7 quarts of Octobers

Then I made homemade tortillas and beef and bean burritos for dinner.

Topped the evening off with a funny crazy movie and 2 hours of American Idol.

I am now officially pooped.

My dearest bed buddy seems to never sleep well anymore and when

he doesn't sleep neither do I.

For some reason he slept good last night.

I had to touch him this morning to make sure he was still with me cause he was so quiet.

It sure made me feel good today and I feel even better knowing how much I accomplished today.

Amazing what a good nights sleep will do for you!!

It makes you not be able to decide whether you should cook French, Italian, Mexican or American cuisine ........or just make them all in the same day!!!

I am killing my husband...........

one little meal at a time.

That's what he told me last night after I held that gun to his head and made him eat a HUGE plate of slow cooker pork loin and gravy.

I MADE him go back

"3"

more times.

I made him say to me

"this is the best stuff I have ever ate"

and

then I MADE him eat pie!

~

Then while he was laying back on his chaise lounge,

watching TV,

with a big belly bulge...that was putting it nicely my friends......

He had the nerve

to look over at me

and say

that I was killing him by the way I cooked.

I said "Oh yeah, maybe I shouldn't have held that gun to your head."

"Maybe you should start practicing a little portion control?"

"Huh?....just maybe that would be the issue?"

He said "NO, that's not it."

"You just have to cook only a little bitty bit for both of us, so I can't go back for seconds."

(or thirds or fourths)

~

So there goes my ideas down the drain of cooking enough to last for a couple days. The plan was to have several meals including lunch for me here during the day.

Now I am going to go and burn all my cookbooks and feed him a playing card size piece of grilled chicken breast and a broccoli stick tonight!

He comes in from work so hungry that he will not remember telling me this......I know it was his overly stretched belly doing the talking last night.......but he better think about those words for a while!! Be careful what you ask for!!

I am also going to hide the remote so he will hit the treadmill tonight!!

~

There will be no more

"Becky what you cooking today?"

"Honey what's for supper?"

"Hey I was thinking about an ice cream cone!"

Nope no more of that.....he will get what he wants and that's rabbit food!

This is coming after he had to go up a pants size in his jeans last week....but that's all my fault.

He does have familial hyperlipidemia..high cholesterol and lipids. He was on medication for this and it was working wonders but they wanted it even lower so they doubled it up. Danny immediately couldn't sleep at night because of shoulder and arm pain.

Crying like a child with pain.

He took himself off of it because Dr Danny knows these things.

Said he had to die of something and he couldn't stand the pain.

Now he can't eat anything that he wants.

~

I will try my best to help him with this one.

I just love to cook!

Better yet I love to eat!!!

Please wish us luck on this one!!!

Love is in the air & Chocolate Caramel Pie!

Is this not precious? I mean lovebirds!! Come on!! Get a room, already!!!
Why did ya come in here looking like that?

Yes you guessed it. Breeding season!!

I know everyone else on here is experiencing kidding season but why would I want to be like everyone else? I am always a day late and a dollar short!!! You know kinda off beat!! Off the beat or something like that! The truth is that I got a really late start last year by trying to find a buck and that in turn messed this year up too. I can't say that I didn't like not having to be worrying about kidding in the cold weather though!! July worked quite well!


I can say that I like warm weather! We had a beautiful day and of course I took advantage of some sunshine to get the laundry out! .........and to get the chicken coop cleaned out, some spray painting outside, cleaning porches etc etc etc....... and playing in the mud!
Better than snow and ice!!!!


I just love this picture! Still playing with my camera ;-)



The guineas loved the warm weather too! This picture looks a little tropical with the green bamboo! We'll just pretend that is sand in the background, OK????
Watch your step, sandspurs ya know!!

Now for the celebration I made this pie! I took pictures but I decided that since the pictures don't do it justice that I will save you from having to endure them. The pictures and the pie look pretty rough. However it looks pretty darned good too. It's in the fridge chilling as we speak and in about 30 minutes I plan to be ready for dessert!!

~

I have something to celebrate now. I mentioned a couple posts back about a phone call that I received with a job offer and an interview scheduled for the next day. I got the job offer!!!! Woo wooooooo!!!!

~

That's not what I am celebrating though. I am celebrating the fact that I came to my senses and declined the job offer!!!!! Double woowooowooooowoooowoooo!!!! I know I probably shouldn't feel that way about it but it is like a great big black cloud settled in on my shoulders right about the time I made it to the interview and did not leave for 3 days until I made up my mind not to take it!! Why mess up a good thing? We are certainly not going hungry! Actually far from it!!

~

So come back in about 30 minutes and we'll have coffee and

Chocolate Caramel Pie!!

Of course I could have been a good blogger and typed out this recipe for you but I am not a good blogger and this is how I do things. OK?????? Shut up and go make you some pie if you won't come and have a piece with me. Better hurry cause Danny looks hungry ;-)

Pie update:

Don't go get your shoes and coat on quite yet. No need to hurry over. It was just so so because the crust tasted almost burnt. It was really dry and sorta scorched. Didn't look like it so I think it was probably not good to begin with cause you all know I couldn't up mess up a pie if I tried! Wrong!!!

I baked it on an airbake cookie sheet too. ??????

The filling, however is to die for chocolate. A cross between a chocolate mousse and a chocolate cheesecake! Smooth and heavenly! I will make this one again with a different crust!

Like they always say......

where there's a will, there's a way!

I really wanted to make this Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake yesterday.

I had all the ingredients, which is remarkable in itself, but found I did not have a springform pan.

So after many hours of contemplating on whether or not another pan would suffice and many encouragements from others. Danny, Leslie and finally Terri. I decided that I better get creative. Terri mentioned that Peter The Pot Man may have a springform pan and be happy to just run it out to my house!!!!! I knew that if this idea didn't work I could always call him.

I needed a pan to make the cake in with straight sides and one that it would release from with no trouble. It was to be 9". My Calphalon skillet was 10" but I knew it would release from it no matter what......at least I thought that!! Then came the problem of having a pan big enough to hold the skillet that I could place the boiling water in. My oh my, we can surely get creative when our mouths are watering over the idea of a Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake, Can't we?

So I did use one of Peter's Townecraft dome lids turned upside down, placed the skillet in it, put a wooden spoon under one of the handles to level the pan, poured boiling water around, put it in the oven for the required time and in a couple hours it was called cheesecake!!!!


I had to leave it in the pan overnight in the fridge. I got up at 5AM.....I told you I wanted cheesecake!............flipped it out of the pan and then back up the right way. Perfect other than a few cracks across the top of the cake.....which apparently wouldn't win me a blue ribbon at the fair. In Danny's opinion I think I would get a blue ribbon!!




So I got these pictures here....see how it had released from the sides of the skillet as it was finished cooking..........and then this morning my batteries were ALL dead!! Rechargeable and all. No batteries in the house to fit either camera, so no pictures of the slice of cheesecake. You will just have to envision in your pretty little mind the perfect piece of Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake with the waves of dark purple blueberries swirled throughout each slice just so. Also you will just have to close your eyes and dream about the taste of this velvety confection as it hits your tongue and then slides slowly down leaving just a hint of tart blueberry mingled with the sweet...............



Terri also posted about her Blueberry Baked French Toast and gave us all the recipe. I plan to try that one this weekend on the crew at The Fairy's Rest.......if the Good Lord is willing and the weather holds out. We are setting here with all the snow and ice, teen's and 20's for temps and more ice is to come tonight. The boys have a big hunt planned this weekend and it's not looking very likely that will happen. Maybe we can at least get away and carry on our cabin fever in a different cabin!!!!!
Note to self:
Get batteries and take camera!

My lifesavor's.......

These were in the mail yesterday! Did some one hear my prayer requests? I have cabin fever/spring fever so bad right now. I always get so tired of the cold days of winter but never this early. I am by no means bored. Don't get me wrong there because I have more hobbies than you could shake a stick at but I am so over the snow and cold. The snow is just "laying around waiting on somemore"...as my father-in-law used to say! Well come on and get it over with!!!!
Be still my heart!
When I opened this catalog I was in heaven. I knew that there was a light at the end of the tunnel! That there was a promise of Spring!
I love squashes and cucumbers. I dream of making more of my lime pickles. I made almost 60 pints of them last year and haven't hardly touched them, I think I am hoarding them! I believe I will make potato salad and deviled eggs today!! Sounds like a warm weather meal to go along with my dreaming of warm weather theme! We had the blah blah blah winter bean soup yesterday.......but it was down right yummy!!!!! A winter 6 bean soup. yum yum!!


I love peas and beans


What more needs to be said here?
I will be able to start my own seeds for all my plants again this year since I am not working! We are always so much happier when we do that. Other than the fact I can't stand to let a single plant go to waste and feel that I have to plant them all even I do have 43 tomatoes already planted ;-)

My Blue Angel!

Heard that song?

Well this little beauty made my heart sing! Danny even liked it! I have/had a New Dawn rose on either end of my pergola that is in my front garden. The pergola is dead as is one of the roses and the other rose has gotten sooooooo big that it looks like a rose tree now. I think it is past repair. I have been promised a new pergola but he didn't get around to it this past summer but maybe this spring! What you think about 2 Blue Angels one on either side and meeting in the middle??

I told him I thought we needed a pergola at The Fairy's Rest with Blue Angel's too........he didn't give me an angelic reply to that one!!!!

Ooohhhhhh!!!! Oouuhhhhhh!!! Aaawwwwwhhhh!!!!

My blueberries! I have a freezer full of them too. Yep I am a hoarder! I get that honest though. My mother just "knew" that everyone would starve when Y2K hit! She had so dagummed many cans of Treet on the shelves in her cellar that they could feed all of Virginia on Treet alone for a week!!!

I was trying to decide yesterday what I wanted to make with blueberries and never got around to deciding on anything. Leslie called me this morning to tell me that she was making this! I have been to this site before.... Blueberry-Recipe.com but I don't remember if I made anything or not. I think I will find something today!

Leslie also told me immediately how happy she was that she had this same seed catalog in the mail yesterday!!!

See, great minds think alike!!!

If you are a gardener you will know where I am coming from here! If you are under a foot of snow that won't move you should know where I am coming from too! Either way I hope I have put a little glimmer of hope for warm sunny days in your heart too!!