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. 

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.

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

At any rate, tried to get into one of the files…. nothing…. even my computer couldn’t see the ‘new hardware’ when I plugged the drive’s connection into the USB port. Panic set in. That drive had about fours years of files on it – I couldn’t even imagine trying to duplicate some of them as they had taken me so long to develop.

After about a dozen tries at getting it to work on three different computers – we made a desperate ‘midnight’ call (it was actually more like 10:30pm) to a friend of David’s who is nothing short of a computer guru-miracle worker. We explained the situation to him – he said “not to worry – think I can get them back”. So we made a special delivery trip to get the drive to him and he went to work. The before/after picture above is of the dis-assembled drive after he finished with it. Don’t have a clue as to what he did or how he did it – but YEAH!!!! – he was able to retrieve and save all my files. Just got the discs back Saturday.

So now I’m on a dedicated program to have everything backed-up in at least three different ways – portable hard disc drive, jump drive and CDs. I think this important enough that on our ‘Power to Earn Money’  blog I’ve posted about the five (5) ways to back-up your files . . . as well as discussing the good and bad features of each. If you have anything of value in your computer, pictures on digital camera sticks or in your cell phone … particularly files you haven’t downloaded ….you really need to think about  backing everything up and saving it elsewhere. Read more about back-ups here.

Now on to something that I enjoy more than working on the computer – cooking. Made a loaf of zucchini bread on Sunday – I do this about once a year because we love it and will sit down and eat half a loaf at one time… not good. I had one zucchini squash left over and since I don’t like to waste food – needed to figure out a way of using  it. David won’t hardly eat squash in any shape or form (except something that’s a kin to cake) – BUT he will eat just about anything that is fried. So Zucchini Fritters to the rescue.

I’d not ever seen any zucchini fritters or zucchini pancake recipes so I set out to do my own thing… and they weren’t bad. In fact we decided we liked them well enough to have them with the next Chinese meal we have here at home. They are not unlike Egg Foo Yung (David said they tasted like an egg roll with out the wrapper) - and were really good with a little bit of Sweet and Sour sauce on them.

They were a quick fix and didn’t require any unusual ingredients. This is my recipe. . . .

• 1 medium sized zucchini (shredded)
• 1 tablespoon fineyly chopped onion
• 1 egg
• 1 heaping tablespoon flour (maybe a little more depending on high you heap)
• 1 tablespoon water
• salt & pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and fry in oil that has been pre-heated to medium high (about 1/2 inch in depth). Spoon heaping tablespoons of the mix into the oil, flattening it a little, so you have pancake looking fritters. Fry until golden brown; turn and fry until second side is golden brown. Remove from oil and place on paper towels to drain. Serve hot.  This recipe will make four fritters.

While talking about these at lunch and trying to decide what would make them ‘better’ – in addition to the Sweet and Sour sauce – we thought they might be good with a few bean sprouts thrown in as well as some finely chopped shrimp mixed in with the batter. May give that a try next time, especially if we have them as a side dish with maybe a P.F. Chang dinner…. sounds good to me.

Although if you would have asked me about that yesterday,  you probably would have gotten a different answer.  Our bad weather started shortly after 4pm and lasted all the way to midnight - coming in waves of strong wind, heavy rain and lots of hail. At one point, the rain and hail were so dense we couldn’t see the fence in the front yard and that’s not far at all  (maybe 20 feet) and the front porch looked like it was carpeted in white marbles.  That whole scene was totally eerie with the wind blowing the rain and hail around – so much so I felt like we’d  been engulfed in a white cloud or worse yet – a Stephen King novel.

I have to say – for me – the scariest part was when I was heading into the kitchen and the pressure in my ears changed…significantly.   Enough that it stopped me in my tracks.   I’ve not been in an actual tornado but I’ve heard people talk about the pressure changes – I just knew we were about to have a tornado hit in the house in the next few seconds.   Thankfully, we didn’t. And, believe it or not, we didn’t even loose our power – now that is amazing!

We’re pretty much back to normal today. David did have to do some repair on the sky lights in the garage. They had little round holes from the hail; and some of the plants and seedlings in my garden took a  beating so I’ll have to do some re-planting … maybe.  Otherwise everything else is OK.

Last Auction?

Went to what we think will be Johnny’s last auction in Reagan this past weekend. It was good to see everyone and – of course – who can go to an auction without buying something?   Didn’t buy much, but couldn’t resist a box of c1940′s Family Circle magazines. I enjoy thumbing through old magazines looking at the vintage ads and reading some of the old recipes and ‘home remedies’.

Hadn’t really noticed until going through this last batch of magazines just got how much recipes and photography have changed over the years. From the looks of the pictures – especially the food ones – not a lot of care was taken in how the food was presented.   And I would also have to say that stuffed olives and pimento were really big in the 40′s. In the magazines I went through, they were both used to garnish everything from vegetables to cake. That’s right – cake.

One such recipe was for a nut cake frosted  with cream cheese  (no butter, no powdered sugar, no vanilla – just cream cheese)  and then decorated with slices of  stuffed olives.  Another ‘strange’ recipe was for a  lime ice box pie made with lime and avocado.  David’s favorite ‘old-time recipe’ was shredded cabbage cooked in a milk sop! Can’t imagine fixing any of these.

Quick & Easy Breadsticks

Guess the difference really popped out because I’d just received my 2011 copy of  Taste of Home Annual Recipes – my kind of book.

It’s full of great recipes from cooks all over the country. Haven’t had a chance to look at it other than flip through a few pages. One recipe that caught my eye was for Pesto Breadsticks made from store bought dough. They looked good and  like they’d go with spaghetti, soup or salad.  I’ve placed the recipe below.

Ingredients:

• 1 tube (11 oz.) refrigerated bread stick dough
• 2 tablespoons prepared pesto (see recipe below)
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic-pepper
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Unroll and separate the dough placing it on an ungreased baking sheet
2. Combine pesto, garlic-pepper then brush over bread stick dough
3. Twist each bread stick 3 times
4. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-13 minutes or until golden brown
6. Enjoy!

Pesto

* Here’s a quick recipe if you want to try making your own pesto at home:

You’ll need 2-1/2 oz fresh basil, 1/2 cup pine nuts, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 2 cloves garlic (more if you want a stronger flavor), salt and black pepper (both to taste) Combine nuts and garlic together in a food processor and pulse to break them down before adding other ingredients. Add in remaining ingredients and pulse to desired consistency. (Note: Get a more aromatic flavor by lightly toasting the pine nuts in a dry skillet before using them in the recipe; or try replacing the pine nuts with walnuts.)

PS -  If you’ve ever wanted to put together your own cellophane gift basket, I’ve  put up a post on Perfect Jerky  about what you’ll need and how to put the basket together.   

•  Strawberry Cake … made from a box mix and frozen strawberries  and
• Sweet Potato Casserole…made from fresh or canned sweet potatoes, brown sugar and pecans. 

Both are delicious!!   Enjoy!

At any rate, have to say the time off was enjoyable. Spent Christmas with family and New Year’s with friends – can’t get much better. For myself, the new year causes me to look back a little – see what was accomplished, what wasn’t accomplished but most of all – to look at all the things we have to be thankful for – like health and home.

Resolutions?

I know there are those that like to make new year’s resolutions, but I find it just as satisfying to follow a certain few guidelines during the year. My top three (3) are the following:

1. If something doesn’t happen like I want or in the time frame I expect – let it go… more often than not it will work out better in the long run anyway.
2. Keep my mouth shut and understand that I don’t have to respond to everything said to me (this one is tough- I’ve always got an opinion) …. but sometimes the less said the better.
3. Finally, treat people with respect and consideration – especially those you love…. because you don’t know what tomorrow holds and you never know who’s watching.

I say this because one day when shopping at the grocery – probably 25 years ago – I saw a remarkable couple.

The man was elderly, well dressed but in a wheel chair. … he must have been in his late 70′s or early 80′s (doesn’t seem so old now) – he was having difficulty navigating his chair through the aisles and couldn’t read the labels very well. His also elderly wife was with him and for grocery shopping she was elegantly dressed – nice suit, high heels, hair nicely styled, etc. Aside from the fact that they were both very well dressed, I couldn’t help but notice how she treated him … with love and patience – even though you just knew most of her day must be dedicated to taking care of his needs which couldn’t have been easy.

They were ahead of me for quite a while and never once did she become impatient, complain or get upset at him about anything.  She was the most patient person I’ve ever seen.   If he wanted to see something, she handed it to him; if he couldn’t read it – she read it to him. You could just see her devotion as well as the mutual respect they had for each other.  For me, this was one of life’s “defining” moments and something I’ve never forgotten . . .

Can You Help?

Too often we become wrapped up in our own wants, desires and maybe forget how our actions affect those around us or maybe what others are going through. With that I’d like to ask all of you to offer a prayer for my cousin’s grandson who suffered a brain aneurysm in December and is scheduled to have brain surgery this month.

Most of those in the family already know about Kaleb’s condition, but if you don’t and would like to keep up with his progress you can visit his website at KalebSkalickyBenefitFund.info

And if any of you have any dollars laying around – I know the family could really use them and they would be much appreciated.

BRRRRRRRRR

I hear we’re in for some super cold weather this coming weekend (no snow as far as I know) – so David’s out making sure the faucets are all covered, the generator is full of gas and running and the heat light is on in the well house  -  the pipes froze last year and it was a HUGE mess.

No Name Soup

I’m planning on cooking up a pot of soup – probably Friday – and have it on hand. Soup is easy to heat up if we loose power.

This is a quick to fix “no-name” soup  using:

• 1 can of vegetarian vegetable
• 1 can water
• 1 can of chicken broth
• 1/2 can black-eyed peas
• 1/2 onion (sauteed)
• 1 cup macaroni
• 1/4 cup tomatoes (canned or fresh)
• 1/4 medium head cabbage (chopped and pre-cooked in microwave-drain water)
• 1 link of cooked sausage in bite-sized bits (BBQ smoked or Eckrich are best)

Directions:   Saute onion in a little olive oil till soft, add soup, water, broth – cover and bring to a low boil.   Then add in macaroni and cook till almost tender.  Add in black-eyed peas, tomatoes, partially cooked cabbage, and cooked sausage – cover and cook over low heat for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Serve or store. This soup gets better each day – but ours never lasts more than 2 days.

 Totally Amazing

If you haven’t heard or read about it, a discovery of caverns in Viet Nam has been made. Some of the caverns are so large as to be able to accommodate a 747 airplane – and one report said a New York city block could fit.

The National Geographic has some totally amazing and beautiful pictures online - one might think they’ve been transported to another world. You can see the slide show from this link….Largest Cave

And…..really glad to have you all back!  We’re going to have a great year!

You may remember that we were putting wood paneling on the west wall.  This was partly done so that we could help insulate against the summer heat – and I have to say that the radiant barrier David installed behind the paneling seems to be doing its job – and partly for a change in the look. I like the look,  the room has been staying cooler and the electric bill went down for September – and yes,  it was still pretty hot here during September.  So we’re pleased that all those efforts paid off. Even though, doing just that one wall was quite a mess and turned out to be more work than we thought.  

Do you know that it took 19 different ‘tools‘ just to finish the job!!   They were… Step ladder  -   Rotozip  -   Skill saw -   Accu-cut -   Screwdrivers (2 types)  -   Hammers  -   Razor saw  -   Straight edge  -   Power shot  -   Saw horses  -  Box cutter  -   Flat blade chisel  -   Clamps  -  Level  -   Chop saw  -   Nail gun  -   Compressor  -   Power screwdriver  -   and Wet/Dry Vac.

And I’m not including the various pencils that got lost, the note pads for measuring and the several different tape measures we used – or the square edges for cutting!

Of course, during this process all the furniture had to be moved around, curtain rods taken down, windows cleaned, and then everything put back. I think the most difficult part of the whole job was doing the cut-outs for the various wall plugs. This took quite a bit of measuring and transferring to our paper pad.    

We then had to transfer those measurements to the back side of the panels.  We did the cutting from the backside to keep the wood from splintering when David cut out the holes with his Rotozip - keeping our fingers crossed that everything would fit the openings from the front side when we tuned it over.  Check out the picture of my worksheet.   It’s a wonder anything fit!  But…I’m very proud of us – we didn’t mess up one hole!!

  Eggnog Ice Cream

It’s been in the 40′s in the mornings and I’m thinking Thanksgiving is right around the corner…. which of course brings me to Eggnog Ice Cream.  

I whipped out the old recipe and mixed up a batch just yesterday and have it firming up in the freezer. Can’t wait to eat some of it. It’s my favorite ice cream ever – but have to say I’m thinking of trying my hand at a pumpkin-cheesecake ice cream as well – sounds good … but not sure if it will work – may be too heavy . . . too many ingredients to blend . . . or too  something else.   But if it turns out, I’ll let you know. Otherwise – my lips are sealed.

….

Convenience Foods

I’m not much on the convenience foods you find at the store – usually too expensive and too much stuff in there we don’t need – ie, fat and sodium. But while passing the cooler at the store the other day saw the whole thing full of bags of hash brown potatoes. Stopped dead in my tracks. Hash browns pass the ‘are-they-good-for-us’ test. So I bought a couple of bags – especially since they were on sale.

Aside from the obvious of having them for breakfast, I like to use them for making potato pancakes. All that grating work is already done for me.  So that’s what I did – made up a batch of potato pancakes – served them with some smoked pork chops and some spiced apple rings. What a perfect fall meal. I’ve got some of the uncooked hash browns left-over and will divide them into serving size amounts and then freeze them to enjoy later.

Here’s my quick fix potato pancake recipe using store-bought ‘Simply Potatoes’ hash browns.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz Simply Potatoes shredded hash browns
• 1/2 Cup flour
• 1 Egg
• 1/3 Cup (approx) water
• 1/4 Cup finely chopped onion (if you like onion use 1/3 cup)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Oil for frying

1. Chop the onions and set aside.
2. In a medium sized bowl mix the egg, water, flour and salt/pepper together.
3. Add in the onions and mix.
4. Next, gently blend in the potatoes folding them into the batter.  (You may need to adjust the ‘batter’ by adding a little water if too thick; or adding in a little flour if too thin. You want the batter part to look like a thicker pancake batter. You don’t want it runny as the pancakes will loose their shape when put into the oil.)
5. Set this aside to rest while you heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
6. Once the oil in the skillet is medium-hot, use a large tablespoon to carefully place heaping spoonfuls of the mixture into the oil. Each pancake should be about 3 inches in diameter. Use the back of the spoon to flatten the pancake out to an even thickness. You can usually get 3-4 pancakes in a regular sized skillet.
7.  Cook until golden brown, turn to cook other side. If you find them cooking (browning) too fast, turn the heat down as this will result in their being uncooked in the center with the outside over done or burned.
8. Removed cooked pancakes to a plate lines with paper towels to allow them to drain off any excess oil. Finish cooking remainder of pancakes.

These go well with ham, pork chops, sausage, bratwurst or just about anything else you can think of. And, if you don’t have any of the spiced apple rings on hand – try substituting applesauce or cranberry sauce.