Fridge - My Most Favorite Appliance

........that doesn't vibrate.

LOL. Sorry,  had to add that laugh in there.  It beats all the vibrating ones too!  LOL

I could do without a TV, although I thought I couldn't.

I could do without a microwave, for sure.  I could even do without a stove and an oven.  I made it 6 weeks without a car!  But not the fridge.

It is cold so you can't even cozy up to it.  And it gives you ice.  Which is not really a necessity, but more of a nicety.  I don't drink a lot of ice anyway.

the best thing about a fridge is that it lets you keep food for later.  Right after we moved into the camper, both Glen and Greg (I know a lot of people with the letter G) tried and tried to get the fridge working.  Neither could. 

Glen couldn't stand my whining so he went and bought me a dorm fridge.  No freezer to speak of, but a 2.5 cu ft space for perishables.  In the early days we stuffed it full of water and nothing else.  Just having cool water was like manna from heaven.

I bought jelly for the peanut butter sandwiches.  And Frank wanted milk for his cereal (imagine that) so I got a pint of milk for him.  And a squeeze tube of mayo, some lettuce, ham and cheese for deli wraps. 

We bought 6 eggs one day but didn't have to make room for them because Frank immediately dropped them upon returning home.

And that, my friends, is about all you can stuff into a 2.5 cu ft fridge.

Oh I lie.

We went to the Little Village for dinner on Saturday.  That is such a big thing that it requires reservations!  And I ordered the most divine piccata!  I brought half home for dinner tonight.  But I ate all of the tiramisu.

yesterday I re-purchased the 6 eggs and some butter.  I made fried eggs and grits for breakfast this morning.

Did I ever tell you I really don't like many breakfast choices?  Eggs, cereal, oatmeal.......I put up with them but don't like them much.  I have had cereal every morning so far.......with and without milk.  Eggs were definitely a diversion.

to accomplish that, I had to buy  a spatula and a pot. So now I own a bowl in which to make pancakes, a sauce pot and a skillet from the Pioneer Woman.  I figured it was a fitting brand to own in a camper.    I can also count a French Press coffee pot and that amazing crock pot among my possessions.

Not much more will fit into the camper.   With the daily rains, sometimes meals are delayed because neither of us wants to get soaking wet just getting to the food and utensils. 

Catch 22

Several Culinary Wins!

I finally got the date for the cooking class that was cancelled by the storm last week.  Lisa finally has power again, but she was one of the last to get it back.

The Menu will be:


Raspberry “Mom-Mosas”, 
Savory Cheddar Waffles with Creamy Scrambled Dill Eggs & Avocados, 
Stone-Ground Grits with Roasted Tomatoes, 
Strawberries with Praline Cream

Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? 

Along with some friends we were able to score a table in one of the hardest places to get into.  The Velvet Cactus.  It is a fantasitcal place with incredible LA-Mex food.  The best Sangria, even better than I make!  I had tacos with jalapeno cream, enchiladas with shrimp and pesto and plantains!  

Now my next conquest will be to get into The Rum House.   It is Caribbean based Louisiana cuisine.  I have heard it is wonderful but difficult to get into like the Velvet Cactus.

And today, Frank and I hit Dairy Queen after the Hibiscus Show for the chili cheese dog and sweet iced tea!  Can't get better than that!

 There are some 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners among the general population of those offered to the judges. 

   This was one of the Grand Champion winners, in the single petal category.

This was one of my favorites.  When have you ever seen a beige flower?

This is a double or triple flower.  The colors were gorgeous.

The yellows were incredible as well.   I wanted to buy this one but I really don't have a place for it right now.

This was the Best In Show Grand Champion bloom!  Looks like velvet.

52 Photos - Fragrant - Smells Heavenly Week 41

My week will be ruled by things I MUST do!

Last night I put together another quilt for the wedding boys.  This time a very modern, very bright Dr. Seuss.  I will show that later when I can get the batteries charged on the camera, I really don't like phone photos!

As many of you know, I love to cook.  I grew up in New Orleans.  In Southern Louisiana there are so many wonderful  things that can go into  a pot.  Louisiana is an amazing place to eat.  Those who hate the South have never taken a Food Journey here.  You would never leave if you did. Open yourself to the spices, the ingredients, the love that goes into a dish.  You will never want to live anywhere else!

I have taken a lot of classes from some top notch chefs over the years.  I have a ribs recipe that makes grown men cry!  My Italian heritage gave  me the bone structure to handle the fact that I do eat what I cook.  Well, sort of handle it!  My vision of myself in my head is quite different from the one in the mirror

Often times, Frank comes home from a hard day on the road eating lunch with his customers, and breathes in the wonderful smells the fill the house.  It must be a really tough thing to be a BASSET HOUND in my house!  Poor guys, they must think I am the ultimate torture expert, they never get table food!  Although they do try!

So..........

I  cook.  And it smells heavenly!

 I make bread, and it always smells so wonderful when it is baking.

 OMG Gumbo!  A great fragrant pot that will simmer all afternoon and I can quilt without guilt!

 I always begin with the Holy Trinity - onions, celery and bell peppers.  I always add garlic as well.  From there I decide what to cook!  If you add meat of some sort and a few spices you will have any number of wonderful dinners.

 Yes, I make my own Won Ton for the soup of the same name.  They are made like little nurses' hats.

 We are so lucky here in Louisiana.  Not only do we have fresh seafood everywhere, we have the most amazing strawberries grown just down the road in Pontchatoula.  They are HUGE.

 Some of that dough goes to make Calzones!  Gotta be true to my Italian heritage as well!

Okra, ham seasoning and tomatoes.  Side dish or gumbo.

Oyster Artichoke Soup.  One of my favorite things in the world!

Can you smell all my wonderful things?

A Month of Freezer Meals

I don't know about you, but I am dog tired!  As I look around my house, the dogs are the only ones who really are not tired!  Frank was in the yard today and yesterday and Wednesday, changing out the fence boards, mulching up the leaves, cleaning out the bird baths; doing all sorts of odd jobs that kept him outside in the beautiful weather.

I mostly sewed on Wednesday, just making a few dishes for the Thanksgiving meal at Carrie's with her in-laws.  And today i spent all day cooking.  And Frank says, hey, lets go to Walk On's for dinner!  LOL  All that cooking and he wants to eat out.

I generally do some extra cooking ever once in a while, keeping my freezer in quickie meals so I can sew all day long, or shop all day long, and still have a nice meal on the table at night.  when Carrie was little, we both had high power jobs and Fran was out of town so much.  I kept the freezer full of meals for Carrie and I so we didn't ave to do fast food all the time. 

I haven't done meals in a long time, and when I cleared out my freezer a few weeks ago, it just looked empty and lonely!  So today I cooked.

I spent $140 at the grocery store this morning, and made:

4 Chicken, Black Bean and Corn Soups
8 meals of Lentil Sausage and Kale Soup
4 meals of Chicken Enchiladas with lots of sharp cheddar cheese
4 meals of Roast Chicken Breasts with Carrots Beans and Potatoes
6 meals of Spaghetti Sauce for pasta or whatever
40 Meatballs
3 meals of Chicken Breasts marinated in soy, honey and garlic that will get grilled on skewers with  
             veggies

and I still have 5 lbs of ground meat to make hamburger patties tomorrow.

It is amazing how much you can cook for so little money.  I have often thought I would teach a class to  welfare mom's with families to feed.  My meals are cheap, healthy and delicious!

 I think I would be good at that.

My freezer is humming away chilling all my meals.  All I have to add to each meal is a nice crusty bread for the spaghetti or Lentil Soups, or some sour cream for the enchiladas and soup.  And a salad or some fruit. 

I see a lot of sewing time in my future!  I was looking through a few of mom's old magazines and came across 3 quilts I would like to do and I have the new Bonnie Hunter Mystery to work on as well.

Busy, busy busy.  I am glad I have dinner made!

Beating Cholesterol

For as health conscious as we are, Frank has a moderate range cholesterol level.  He used to take cholesterol lowering drugs but after looking into the drugs he decided not to continue taking them. Dr. Oz says that over 97% of the people taking these drugs would not need them if they would lose weight and change their eating habits.

So last year he decided to test that.  After one year his cholesterol level is just 219.  Over the desired 200 but not much.  Two years ago, my own cholesterol was 208 and I refused the prescription my doctor offered me.

It is working, but it can work better.  In that vein, I am trying to change some of the things we eat.  We actually eat pretty healthily, but of course we can do better. Wait till you see tonight's dinner!

It was a casserole.  And smelled heavenly while it was cooking and I kept saying that I hoped it tasted as good as it smelled!  Luckily it did!

Get a pound bag of large Lima beans and boil them in water for an hour to rehydrate them. Drain in a colander.  Take a large leek chopped, 4 green onions chopped and about 2 lbs of rinsed and drained spinach leaves (I used a mix of baby spinach and baby kale). Put the spinach into a LARGE bowl and add a cup of plain yogurt (mine was homemade!!) and 5 oz of crumbled feta.  Mix well.

In a 13x 9 dish, layer 1/2 the spinach mix, the beans and then the rest of the spinach mix.  Top with grated cheddar cheese and 3 chopped Roma tomatoes and some Italian bread crumbs.  Bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hours.  Let sit 15 minutes and eat!!!

It was as delicious as it was healthy!!!!  And actually filling.

 And we have enough for 37 more meals!!  Which is not really that good, because Frank does not like spinach!!!!!

LOL, do I care?

Food Sayings Quilt

I had beautiful parsley, but this week it was eaten by this handsome guy.  Of course he is a has been now.  And I do have one tiny eggplant growing.  It's beauty is incredible in it's blackness.

I have long wanted to make a quilt with veggies on it.  As soon as I get Dan's quilt off the frame and the Paint Chip challenge done with this Thursday, I get to start something new!!  Not the kind with the fat quarter fabric that you cut into squares and just make a regular quilt.  I want to paper piece veggies and add words on the quilt.

Hence, food sayings.

I ahve collected quite a few.  See how many you can think of and maybe we can ALL make some food quilts.  If not that, maybe a food table runner?  Certainly at least a food UFO.

And I want to include some words, since after this Paint Chip Challenge I will certainly be the Queen of Words on Quilts.

Ok, here are some of mine.......as you can see, I have been thinking hard on this subject and have committed it to my little book.

Cool as a cucumber
Piece of Cake
peaches and cream complexion
cake walk
carrot top
cut the mustard
butterfingers
easy as pie
As the cookie crumbles
apple a day
hot as a chili pepper
just peachy
egg on my face
slow as molasses
cool beans
kiss my grits
nutty as a fruitcake
in a jam
in a pickle
skinny as a string bean
red as a beat
icing on the cake
say cheese!
cake walk
cherry on top
meat head
tall drink of water

So, can you think of more?  Did I miss any cool food sayings?

I have several other ideas that I want to incorporate words into.  I have a great idea for a dog quilt.  But that will wait for another day.

glen

Stash Report and How the Food Turned Out

used this week	-9
used in july	-9
added this week	0
Add in July	0
Used YTD	-113.25
Added YTD	108.18
Stash reduction	-5.07

YES!!!!!! Finally back in the RED!  It was those duffel bags and the Paint Chip Challenge Quilt that made the difference this week.  Let's see if I can finish that Paint Chip Challenge this week and get the Lizard BQ quilt off the frame and the Paint Chip Challenge Loaded up so I can get that finished for the August meeting.

The dinner last night was an incredible success:


First we started off with a beautiful antipasto tray.  I used black olives wrapped in provolone, calabasso and steamed asparagus with some pearl buffalo mozzarella.




I roasted a green and an orange bell pepper over my fire and lightly sauteed them in a nice olive oil.  The whole kitchen smelled like sweet peppers.  The roasting made the peppers caramelize their sugars and they had none of the bitterness I don't like.  They totally were transformed by the fire.  The peppers joined the rest of the stuff on the antipasto dish for serving.  I also added a portabello mushroom that has been soaking in some nice balsamic vinegar for a couple of hours.  The mushroom head was large and I saved the second one for tomorrow's lunch!








 DiNozzo slept.

I cooked the Marinara Sauce earlier and put it into the ice box to cool.  Cooling the sauce allows the flavors to mix.  The pasta was thick and freshly made.  They look like tiny Lasagna noodles!

 And the wine was a nice blend of 5 different wines.  I don't like dry wines, which is why I don't like most reds.  But this had an incredibly wonderful taste.  I would recommend it.  It was not sweet like an Argentinean Malbec, but it was not dry either.  I really liked it.

The bottle was called Colby Red.  And the cherries were perfect with it as we talked.

The dessert was made by none other than aspiring baker, Margaret.  She spent the week choosing and making the beautiful cupcakes that melted in our mouths as we paired them with Caramel Macchiatos from my expresso machine.

Oh, yes.  Talk about being in high cotton!  Good company, good friends and good food.

glen

Yogurt is Good But Calzones are Better!

In the oven

I made a calzone last night.  It was so exciting.  I grabbed a hunk of my Olive Oil dough sitting in the fridge, and rolled it out in a flat circle.  I spread some mozzarella cheese, ricotta with spinach in it, and sprinkled some pepperoni slices on it.  Once it was folded over it was set to bake for about 20 minutes and it came out beautifully golden.

I really could have used less dough and rolled it thinnner but it was good for a first try.

The yogurt came out so beautifully this morning.  I will do another batch and make some frozen yogurt tonight with this one.  The glass jars are nice to have but not necessary, the plastic ones did fine as well in the other set up, when it was working, I mean.

The interesting thing is that EuroCuisine has a statment on their box that says if you have trouble you can bring it back to the retailer, but they would really like you to call them.  They want  to make sure you have a working unit and are happy!

So unlike Waring Pro who didn't care whether my unit was working or not.  Nor did they care to replace it with a working unit.  So I think I will call EuroCuisine in Los Angeles and let them know how much I appreciate that statement!



glen

Maybe some quilting but definitely food

After I finish this post I want to get in there and get that Cotton Robin piece done and off hopefully on Monday.  I was going to spend some time with embellishments but since she does not want embellishments that makes it much easier on me!  Just some quilting and binding and it is off!

I found the most perfect backing and binding yesterday at the new Quilt Shop, which will probably always be called "the new quilt shop" hence into eternity.

I have been busy this morning.  I stopped off to visit with Josh and get some dietary info and set up and some exercises to relieve some of this pain.  I am looking forward to the resulting muscles in places I have missed them.  Frank, by proxy or rather proximity, will have a new diet and a work out plan as well.

Peaches were on sale, a great find yesterday just wandering around the place.  I cut up a gallon sized bag of them for freezing yesterday and have another bag and a half today.  The pineapples need ripening, did you know they should be inverted on to their tops to ripen?  I did not.

I could not resist the fact that there was bread to be baked in the fridge.  So I baked it and will bring Amber some tonight when I see her.  I added some new toppings such as flax seed and oatmeal and Italian seasoning.  Ann, are you up for some bread?  LOL.  I was afraid to leave it in much longer, although they say if the crust is hard the inside will stay moist.  One never knows.

Did I show you the huge beets I bought at the Farmer's Market on Saturday?  Maybe not, take it from me they were huge.  I used the greens in smoothies all week and decided to do some beet bread because it was a fabulous pinkish purplish color in the photos.  But when I cut my beets open, they were like this:

How did that happen?  I know there are golden beets, but they didn't say that to me when I bought them.  Hmm.  I will puree some of them for the bread and hope the red color comes out.

We have the ever present and perpetually happy grand-dog with us this weekend while his momma and dad go to a wedding in Florida.  Now I have two of them in the bathroom with me.  Both jockeying for position.  It does get comical.  Chloe could care less if I slipped and fell and killed myself.

Now, off to see if I can sandwich this piece before Christmas.

glen