When we lived in Houston, there were lots of places close by we could frequent – with every manner of food. At that time, one of our favorite places – although it wasn’t technically a restaurant – was Luby’s. David liked the variety of food and one of his – and my – favorites was the carrot-raisin salad. We always considered it our ‘dessert’ because it was so very sweet. We liked it well enough that I bought the Luby’s 50th Anniversary Recipe Collection. Not only does the cookbook have the salad recipe but lots of other recipes that we enjoyed and have been dubbed ‘most requested’ – like Spaghetti Salad, Cheese Enchiladas with Chili Sauce, Coconut Meringue Pie, Chicken Fried Steak, Baked haddock Almondine, Baked White Fish, and many more.

Granted, David probably shouldn’t be eating that particular salad (too much sugar) – but sometimes you need a little treat – and we still have our little treat here at home. Surprisingly so – the salad I make tastes just like the one Luby’s serves. (Note- it’s always better the next day.)

For those that might like to try the carrot-raisin salad, I’m posting the recipe below and under the original Luby’s recipe I’m placing a ‘low-fat’ version for those that are on a more strict diet.

The low-fat recipe still uses some powdered sugar – however, if you want to really trim the calories you might try using Splenda powdered sugar.

Have to say, I’ve not tried making the low-cal salad using Splenda  because some things just taste better with real sugar – and I think this might be one of them.

Each recipe should give you 8 servings.

Carrot-Raisin Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds carrots, peeled and trimmed
• 1 cup raisins*
• 1 cup canned crushed pineapple, drained
• 1 cup ‘good quality’ mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Shred carrots using large holes of grater
2. In a large bowl, combine carrots, raisins and pineapple
3. In a small bowl, mix mayonnaise and powdered sugar until well blended
4. Pour mayo/sugar mixture over carrot mixture and gently toss making sure to coat evenly.
5. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours

* I soak my raisins in water for about an hour before I make this salad. This helps plump them – just be sure to pour off all the excess water before using.

Low-Cal Carrot-Raisin Salad

Ingredients:

• 4 cups carrots, peeled, trimmed
• 1 cup canned crushed pineapple (in own juice) well drained
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 cup fat-free vanilla yogurt
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated orange peel

Directions:

• Shred carrots using large holes of grater
• In a large bowl, combine carrots, raisins and pineapple
• In a small bowl, using a wire whisk mix together the yogurt, sugar and orange peel
• Pour mayo/sugar mixture over carrot mixture and fold over making sure to coat evenly.
• Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Enjoy!

First thing I want to tell you about is a WOW!  David got an email from a friend with pictures attached.  Seems Texas might have a Bigfoot running around.  At least you might come to that conclusion from looking at the size of that footprint. 

The photos were taken on their property in central Texas (after a rain) and not only is the print HUGE – yes, that is a yard stick being used for measuring – but would seem that whoever or whatever might also have  six toes.  After looking at those pictures did a search on the Net to see what other information I could find about Texas having a  Bigfoot and was surprised to find a website dedicated to sightings and other ‘pertinent’ information www.texasbigfoot.com – just copy and paste in the address bar if you want to read more.    I’ll be curious to hear if they have more sightings on their property.  If so, I’ll be sure to pass along the details.

Haven’t been outside much – but have been watching with astonishment the gopher or mole that has been wrecking my flower bed.  Seems he has decided to make himself a home right under one of my Nandina plants.   That pesky rascal has almost covered the plant with dirt – not once but three times this week!  I have no idea where all the dirt is coming from or why the ground hasn’t collapsed underneath the plant.  During the past week David has gone out and stomped the dirt back down twice but the gopher?  just keeps coming back.  Guess I’ll  have to get my garden book out and see if there is anything I can do to make him go away – something using household agents.

You’ve heard me say that on Sunday mornings we like a quick breakfast of coffee cake or muffins.  On occasion we’ve had the cinnamon rolls ‘in the can’ – the ones you buy in the dairy section -  and while we’ve enjoy them to a certain degree, they don’t have a home-baked flavor.  So I set out to see what I could do to make them taste better.   Tried cutting them up in pieces then baking them in a pan so they would be similar to ‘monkey bread’ – adding brown sugar and butter to the pieces.  Didn’t really care for that – bottom pieces were too brown (almost burnt) and the center pieces  weren’t cooked enough.   On hindsight – probably should have used a tube pan to help even out the heat …. but  don’t think I’ll try fixing them like that again because my second try was much better.

Took the dough and placed it in a well buttered glass pie plate with the cinnamon side up.  I then cut an ‘ X ‘ across the top of  each cinnamon bun about 1/4 inch deep.  Next placed a thin slice of butter in the middle of each ‘ X ‘.  Next finely chopped  about 1/8 cup pecans and sprinkled them over the tops.  Next sprinkled streusel (recipe below)  over the chopped pecans and baked according to directions.  When the rolls come out I have some frosting ready (optional)  – but don’t put it on the hot cinnamon rolls until we’re ready to eat.  If you put the frosting on as soon as they come out of the oven,  the frosting  will melt and disappear into the roll never to be seen  . . . meaning we’ll have to smear more on when we sit down to eat them . . .  and that is just too much sugar for us.   

Streusel is  a crumbly mixture of regular flour, granulated sugar and butter.  I don’t have a recipe for this but just mix the ingredients in a bowl with a fork until it is the texture and has the taste I like.  We prefer our streusel a little more sweet and buttery.   Typically I use about  1 tablespoon of butter, 2-3 tablespoons of flour and 3-4 tablespoons of sugar.  Adjusting butter as needed.  You want enough butter so that the mixture is pea-sized crumbles.  

Frosting for cinnamon rolls -  1 tablespoon butter softened (or melted), 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, powdered sugar and water.  Again no recipe – just add everything together until I get the consistency and taste wanted.  You would probably not want to use over 1 cup powdered sugar and 1+ tablespoon of water or you’ll have too much frosting leftover.  You don’t want the rolls smothered in frosting – just a taste because the streusel already makes them sweet – just not sweet enough for David!

Read about the ‘other’ golds, i.e., how much gold is really in ‘rolled gold’, etc. and what you need to know before buying ‘other’ gold jewelry. Click here to read more.  And to follow the market value of gold and calculate how much gold is in your 14K, 18K other K jewelry – visit this link - for online tools and more.  And finally….. if you have checked out our new online antique store – please take a minute to see what we’ve been up to.  We’ve got over 600 items in dozens of categories – adding new items weekly – and of course, shipping is Free!

Either one of these would have been more than enough by itself – but two !?! . . . then you add in the ‘boy toys’. I’m sure you’ve all heard the old saying, “The only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.”. Both of these projects afforded David the opportunity to use two of his new ‘boy toys’ – the cement mixer which we bought a while back and his pride and joy – his new saw. It’s the one that has the two blades that go in opposite directions allowing it to cut through anything! Which I have to say – it performed as advertised. We had to cut cement board and some acrylic sheets for the well house – no problemo. So, if any of you are thinking about buying one of these saws for your significant other – they do work. Just be sure to get the saw with the 10amp engine – a little more expensive but anything less and the motor tends to burn up . . . or so I’m told.  (The actual name is Rigid Twin-Blade circular saw – 10Amp )

I’m not going into anymore of the details on pouring the cement other than to say the mixer worked equally as well as the saw and …. I’m just glad to be through with both projects.

We’ve gotten totally hooked on fried potato skins. In fact, I’ve found that if I dredge them in Zatarin’s Fish Fry mixed with a sprinkling of Paul Prudhomme’s blackened seasonings before frying, they are even better. But, we don’t like eating – and I might add,  can’t eat -  fried skins plus a pot of mashed potatoes in one day, it’s just too much . . .  so I’ve taken to keeping which ever part we’re going to save for another day -     skins or peeled potatoes – totally submerged in a bowl of water in the fridge.   I’ve found they keep quite well for at least a couple of days.  I don’t even add anything to the water – as long as they are completely submerged,  they won’t turn brown.

While looking the other day for a new way to fix my peeled potatoes – I remembered a recipe my mom (nickname Charlie) used to fix many years ago. I’m not sure what it was originally called, or even where she got the recipe – but I decided to try and re-create it based solely on memory – and, I’m not even going to tell you how many years I had to go back to remember this one!

I did remember it being layers of sliced potatoes, onions and cheese (sounds like au gratin doesn’t it) – but then she would take a mixture of egg, milk, salt and pepper and pour over the top and bake it all. I’ve modernized it a bit – for a faster cooking time and a little thicker bonding by using some corn starch in the egg/milk mixture. We enjoy it and it reheats well if you have any left overs. Since I don’t have a name for this dish – I’ll just call it …

Charlie’s Potato Casserole

Ingredients:

• Thinly sliced 4 russet potatoes;  pre-cooked in the microwave for about 8-10 minutes. You don’t want them mushy – so depending on your microwave you may need to adjust the time downwards here.
• Thinly sliced onion rings - 1/2 medium-sized onion
• 4 ounces of finely grated cheese (we like the Mexican 4 mixed cheeses you can buy already grated – but Cheddar or American will work, what ever you like)
• 2 tablespoons of butter cut into about 8-10 thin slices
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 heaping teaspoon of corn starch
• salt, pepper – to taste
• 1-1/2 quart casserole dish

Directions:

1.  Spray the casserole with Pam or use an additional tablespoon of butter to coat the bottom and sides (keeps everything from sticking and makes for a nice crust)

2.  Begin layering the ingredients as follows …

Half of the potatoes, half of the sliced onions, 4-5 butter slices placed on top of onions, half of the grated cheese

Repeat the process using the remainder of the potatoes, onions, butter and cheese

3.  In a bowl mix the eggs, milk, corn starch, salt, and pepper with a whisk until smooth, and then pour evenly over the top of the layered casserole (Don’t worry about it too much as it will fill in between the potatoes and rest of ingredients)

4.  Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until the top is lightly browned and bubbly.

Note: If you use less ingredients, i.e. potatoes, or if your casserole dish is larger – so the layers of potatoes, onions, etc. are thinner – you’ll need to adjust the cooking time so they don’t burn.

PS – It rained most of  Wednesday afternoon and the fall colors were spectacular – so just had to upload a few pictures I took from the front porch so you could see how pretty everything is.  This is one of those years that the trees are exceptionally colorful. 

BTW – when I fry my steaks, to keep the breading from falling off, I dip the tenderized steaks in the dry flour before dipping them in the wet dip of egg and buttermilk.  Then it’s back to the dry flour dip and into the pan. 

We’re hoping for a nice week – weather wise – we need to get down and finish the well house. David went down there last week and put down some new 2×4′s and we’ll probably try to get the roof back on by the end of the week.

Whenever we go down there to work – it’s like taking a short trip. We have to take water, food (in case David’s blood sugar drops), tools, and a gun. We take the gun because we never know what we’ll see. Had a fox run across the driveway Saturday when we were leaving and what with all the brush and junk around the well house – there could be snakes, skunks and Lord knows what else hiding down there.

We even saw what we thought was a cougar or mountain lion about 3 weeks ago tearing across the property. Haven’t seen it since – thank goodness.

And, saved the best for last.  Got a new recipe this weekend from Nancy. It’s for an oatmeal cake – that is really yummy and moist. I’m sure she won’t mind if I share it with you – so here goes…..

In a bowl put:

• 1 cup uncooked oats
• 1 stick butter or oleo
• 1-1/4 cup boiling water

Let this sit for about 20 minutes

Mix:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 whole eggs
• 1-1/4 cup sifted flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix well and add oat mixture – Pour into greased and floured pan (13″ x 9″)

Bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees and ice with following recipe…

Icing:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup evaporated milk
• 1 stick butter or oleo

Bring above ingredients to a rolling boil then add….

• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup coconut
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Spread on cake and place under broiler until browned

PS – Check out I Can’t Believe It’s Sugar Free – for 2 new chocolate cake recipes.

Coming Soon!

With hunting season right around the corner, if you and your family like jerky you’ll want to get  – Perfect Jerky – everything you need to know about making the best homemade jerky.   There’s also 2 Bonus books that come with it  – some of my favorite dessert recipes and recipes for making your own jerky marinades. 

Worked in the yard last weekend – and got so much done. Got out the weed-eater and trimmed everything (front and back), pulled weeds out of the flower beds and did some much needed raking as the leaves are starting to tumble from the old oak in the front yard. I love to burn the leaves – such a wonderful fall smell – but haven’t been able to do that lately as we’re still under a burn ban due to the drought. Maybe if we get some more rain we’ll be able to burn. I sure hope so. If not, I’m tempted to bag up some of those leaves and save them to burn somewhere along the way just so I can enjoy that lovely fall smell.

Bit of a surprise while coming and going getting out the yard tools on Saturday. Can you say snake? Yup – had another snake encounter, only this time it was just the skin. David found the snake ‘shell’ in what we call the ‘back shack’ where we keep yard stuff along with other much needed ‘guy’ stuff like grease guns, metal wall brackets, miscellaneous cans of paint and scraps of wood. The odd part of the whole encounter is that the skin was in a box of tools about 3 feet off the floor. Hmmmmm…. didn’t know that snakes could get that high. Considering that there was nothing under this shelf other than the ground. I have to wonder how he got up there. Guess I’ll need to be more watchful when getting things off of shelves in the future.

I’ve been experimenting with a new shrimp recipe. Lemon-pepper shrimp. These are so easy to make and to eat . . . too easy in fact. But we like them and they make a good compliment to Chinese fried dumplings or if you like, they would make a great appetizer… just pile them up on a plate and let people have at them with toothpicks.

The recipe is below,  if you want to give them a try. Serves 2. (Before I start, I do not measure when I cook – so these are approximate measurements. You may find you want more or less of something.)

Ingredients:

• 24 Medium shrimp, totally peeled and veined
• 1 Heaping tablespoon of corn meal (yellow or white)
• 1-1/2 Heaping tablespoons of flour
• 2 Teaspoons of Lemon-Pepper seasoning
• 1 Teaspoon of black pepper
• 1/4 Medium sized onion thinly sliced
• Dash of salt
• 1-2 Tablespoons of corn oil for frying

Directions:

1.  In a bowl mix together the corn meal, flour, lemon-pepper seasoning, black pepper, and salt.
2. Into the combined mixture add the shrimp and gently toss to coat. Set aside.
3.  In a nonstick skillet place the oil and heat to medium-high. Add in the onion slices and cook for about 1-2 minutes, stirring once or twice to keep them from burning.
4. With the onions still in the skillet, turn up the heat a little and add in the shrimp. Try not to get any of the left over coating mix that may be left in the bottom of the bowl into the skillet.   Cook the shrimp for a minute or so and stir carefully. You want them to cook quickly but you don’t want them to burn or the coating to fall off. I think I cooked mine for about 3 minutes total. If your shrimp are larger – it will take longer. Just use your own judgement here.
5. Remove the shrimp from the heat once they are done as you don’t want them to continue cooking or they will get tough.

Hope you enjoy them!

And just in case you ever wondered, I’m a very messy cook – take a look at my sink when I finished fixing those shrimp! Please don’t let this deter you from trying them – they really are worth the trouble.

Texas Fall Get-Away

PS – If you’re looking for a Texas get-away this fall, consider a trip to the Lost Maples State Park.  The park is located near the town of Vanderpool.  For information about Lost Maples and Vanderpool – visit Day Trips on This is Our Texas or go directly to the Vanderpool - Lost  Maples page here. 

PPS – Check out I Can’t Believe It’s Sugar Free - I’ve added a couple more recipes.

Up until today it still felt like summer…so much so that one day last week when I went out to feed the fish in the pond – I encountered a LARGE snake on the deck. I can only imagine he was out there sunning himself as the temperature was in the upper 90′s. I got about 3 steps onto the deck and heard this strange rustling sound – and there about 6 feet in front of me was this snake – looked to be about 4 feet long – gliding across the deck towards the house.   When he got to the edge of the deck he fell over and disappeared in the crack that’s between the house and the deck floor. I just froze – first off I couldn’t believe I was seeing a snake and secondly, couldn’t think of anything to do. Don’t think the snake was poisonous as it was totally black, so my best guess – being in a frozen state of mind – was that it was probably a coach whip. Haven’t seen it since – but you can bet I’m on the lookout.

With fall upon us and winter not far behind, going to have to start thinking about winter foods. All those dishes we enjoy in the winter but for some reason aren’t quite as tasty in the summer. One of our favorites is cheeseburger pie. This is a really simple dish using ground hamburger and a biscuit mix. I’ll be posting that recipe plus a couple more next few weeks. In the meantime, if you like lemons, check out the Lemon Chess Pie recipe on I Can’t Believe It’s Sugar Free. It’s an old-time favorite and I’ve put up two versions. On for making a traditional pie using sugar and the other sugar free using Splenda. Enjoy!

The air has been filled with smoke from fires around the Crockett area (about 30+ miles away) and just the other day David and I could see a huge billowing smoke cloud in the distance – from our front porch. Thankfully it was gone in about 2 hours so I can only think that it was put out in short order. I’m really glad now for all the efforts we’ve made during this hot, dry summer to keep a green belt around the house. In fact, I’m sure we’ll continue to water until we get some sort of significant rain . . . hopefully in the not too distant future.

Potato Skins

Every now and then I get a wild idea to try something – either just to see what would happen or maybe see what something tastes like. Had this happen the other day when I was peeling potatoes for lunch. Looked at that large pile of potato peelings and thought, ‘ what a waste!’. Got to wondering what they would taste like if they were fried. Now I know you’ve all heard me say David will eat anything fried – so thought I put this to the test and since I love to experiment – it was the perfect match.

Took my potato peels, cut them into lengths about 3 inches long, dried them with a paper towel so they wouldn’t spatter too much, and fried them up in hot oil. Took them about 3 minutes to cook and they came out with lightly browned edges and while they weren’t crunchy like a potato chip or a traditional French fry – they were actually good. Have a nice texture and the skin gives then a somewhat nutty flavor – especially sprinkled with a little salt.

We had that first batch served along with hot dogs and David being the creative eater that he is – ended up dipping his fried potato skins into some of the leftover chili. That was good too. Bet they would be good served with just about any type of dipping sauce. Anyway – make a long story short – we no longer throw out the potato peels, but fry them up. In fact, they’ve become one of our new favorite side dishes. Like today when I served up a batch of them with another one of our favorites – a Gyros sandwich.

Gyros

We used to enjoy eating Gyros sandwiches in Houston but around here they are no where to be found. If you’re not familiar with Gyros it’s a Greek/Lebanese style meat loaf that is typically served with pita bread, tzatziki sauce and tomatoes. (Tzatziki sauce consists of yogurt, cucumbers, garlic, salt, olive oil, pepper and sometimes lemon juice and parsley.)

So that we could enjoy Gyros here – I was able to find a good recipe for the spices on the Internet so I could make my own. It isn’t exactly the same (flavor or texture) – but we enjoy it and I can make a large pan of the meat, cut it into serving sizes and freeze it for future enjoyment.

While the traditional Gyros is made with ground lamb and beef – I also find it hard to get ground lamb so we end up using only beef. Served on flat bread – same one I use for the pizzas – with either yogurt (if you like it) or some buttermilk ranch dressing, tomatoes and onions – it makes a different kind of sandwich.   Hey Jerry – remember all that bread I bought last trip to Austin – we enjoyed some of it today with our sandwiches.

If you think you might like to try making your own Gyros, this is the recipe I use, and while I only use beef, I would have had at least 25% of the mixture ground lamb if I could find it just to give a little more traditional flavor.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 medium sized onion cut into chunks
• 1 pound ground lamb
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin (I didn’t have cumin , so left it out – we still enjoyed  it)
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1 teaspoon ground dried rosemary
• 1 teaspoon ground dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:

• Process onion in a chopper until finely chopped; squeeze out liquid.
• Place onions in mixing bowl along with meat
• Season with remaining seasonings and mix well
• Refrigerate for 1-2 hours to allow the flavors to blend
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
• Place the meat in a food processor and pulse for about a minute or until the mixture feels tacky
• Pack the meat into a lightly greased loaf pan (leave no air pockets)

I’m giving you the rest of the recipe that calls for using a towel in a roasting pan, but I just baked my Gyros covered with foil and it came out fine. I then followed the same last two steps below to finish off the gyros.

Rest of Directions:

• Line a roasting pan with a damp kitchen towel
• Place the load pan on the towel and add enough boiling water to reach half way up the loaf pan.
• Carefully place  in oven
• Bake until the meat has an internal temperature of 165 degrees F; typically 45 minutes to 1 hour.
• Pour off any excess fat and allow to cool before slicing or freezing

Helpful Hint:  When packing the meat into the loaf pan, keep your hands wet – this will keep the meat from sticking to your fingers.

Still hot (100+) and still inside this week. Pretty much just been doing some cooking. Since I really like to save $$$ by using leftovers, I’ve been concocting some new dishes – as you know I don’t like eating the same thing two times in a row if I can avoid it – and I don’t like throwing food out. So since we had spaghetti on Sunday, I had enough spaghetti noodles left for another meal – but wanted something other than meatballs and tomato sauce…again. After scrounging around in the fridge, I came up with (in addition to the noodles) broiled chicken breast and cooked spinach. Sounded pretty good to me. So I set to work. Before I start, this can be served a couple of ways…. casserole or a more traditional spaghetti plate as pictured. I’ll give you both versions.

First, in a small skillet saute about four cloves of chopped garlic in a little butter over low heat. While this is cooking, in a separate pot make a recipe of Alfredo sauce (recipe here) or if you like you can use an Alfredo sauce from the store. There are some sauces available in jars as well as dry-packaged mixes.

When the garlic is tender (don’t let it burn), add in cut-up bite-sized chicken and mix. Pour this mixture into the finished, hot Alfredo sauce and stir together.

Now you can decide if you want to make a casserole or serve on a plate like a more traditional spaghetti. The latter is what we did and served it up with a slice of garlic bread – it was delicious.

Had I wanted to make a casserole, I would have use a small greased ovenproof casserole dish, and then layered the ingredients as follows:

• Chicken alfredo sauce (divide into 3 portions)
• Spinach (2 portions)
• noodles (2 portions)

Repeat layering sauce mixture, spinach and noodles using up all the ingredients, ending with the chicken alfredo-chicken sauce on top.

I probably would have put some shredded Mozzarella cheese on top or maybe some of the shredded Italian 4-cheeses you can buy at the store.

Bake in 350 degree oven until cheese on top is bubbly. Or cool down and freeze for another day.

Either way, it’s a flavorful, quick dish – especially if you have leftovers you want to use up.

Reviving Green Beans

Bought some green beans at the grocery – they weren’t the prettiest green beans I’d ever seen. Some were kind of puckered in a couple of places, some maybe even had a few shriveled spots… but – hey, they were on sale! I brought them home and cut off the ends and then put them to soak – completely covered – in a bowl of very cold water. Let them sit there for about 2 hours. When I came back you would not have known they were the same beans. Soaking in the cold water rehydrated them. No more puckers or shrivels. They looked nice and fresh and I was able to cook them, and have them turn out fine.

If you have a veggie that’s borderline like these beans - try soaking in some cold water. If this works - you’ll need to cook the veggie immediately or at least same day.   These rehydrated vegetables don’t maintain their ‘new life’ for long  but the cooked vegetables will keep for a few days in the fridge.

Thursday – PS

Good news… we had a huge rain storm come through late Wednesday afternoon (almost 2 inches rain!!). Bad news… we were without power for 12 hours starting around 5:30pm same day.

Since we hadn’t had any supper, that was a challenge. Didn’t want to set up the generator … just yet… so we had a 3-salad supper. I mixed up some tuna salad (by flashlight) we could eat with crackers, there was a mixed green salad already in the fridge and I added a cantaloupe-cherry salad for some ‘sweet’. We dined by ‘LED lantern’ and then went outside to sit on the front porch to wait… and wait… and wait.

At about 10:30 last night David decided it was time to hook up the generator and we connected the fridges and freezers. Also, used the power for a lamp and to run a fan to help keep us cool. After living all these years in the country we can pretty much bet that if the power isn’t on in 2-3 hours it’s going to be a long wait. So after getting everything hooked up, we settled down in the den to spend the rest of the night. Sleeping on the floor (on cushions) with the fan blowing on us was much easier than dragging wires through the house to the bedroom and surprisinigly so we stayed pretty cool… especially after opening the kitchen windows. Power was back on about 5am Thursday morning. Guess those guys must have worked all night to get things fixed – and we thought we had it rough.

PPS – David took the picture below from the front porch of the sky after the storm had passed through. It was quite beautiful.

Italian Chicken Pie

Ingredients:

• 1-1/3 cup Pioneer biscuit mix
• 2 cups of white navy beans, cooked, drained and mashed (any white bean will work)
• 1/3 cup Italian dressing
• 1-1/2 cup cooked, diced chicken
• 1 package (10oz) of frozen, chopped spinach (thaw and squeeze out the water)
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 3 eggs (lightly beaten)
• 1-1/4 cup milk

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix Pioneer mix, beans and dressing. Spread mixture in bottom and 2 inches up the sides of an ungreased springform pan (9×3). Bake this for 10-12 minutes or until set.
2. Next layer the chicken, spinach and mozzarella cheese over the crust (in that order).
3. Mix the eggs and milk, then pour over the cheese.*
4. Bake uncovered for about 50 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes sout clean.
5. Let stand for 10 minutes. Loosen edges; remove from pan.

* Add toasted nuts on top before second baking for a nutty crunch.

Favorite Veggie Pie

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chopped broccoli or sliced cauliflower  ( or 1 cup each)
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped green (or red) bell pepper
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 3/4 cup Pioneer biscuit mix
• 1-1/2 cups milk
• 3 eggs
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease pie plate or torte pan (approx size 10×2)
2. In boiling water pre-cook the broccoli and/or cauliflower until almost tender (about 5 mins.)
3. Mix pre-cooked veggies, onion, bell pepper and cheese in pie plate.
4. Stir together biscuit mix, milk, eggs, salt and pepper. Pour this mixture into the plate over veggies.
5. Bake (uncovered) for about 35 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Let stand about 5 minutes before serving.

Quick Cardamom Rolls