When we lived in ‘the city’, we used a lot of leaded glass to decorate with – and occasionally even as window coverings instead of curtains. Here in the country, couldn’t find enough windows to hang all the leaded glass (and sizes didn’t match) – so I decided to use some of them on the walls like a picture. Not exactly conventional, but I enjoy it.

Almost all of our leaded glass came from either garage sales or auctions – which means in most cases we’ve had to do a little ‘fixing up’ and/or repairing. With most of the glass pieces being quite heavy, if they weren’t originally designed to be hung with fixed hangers on the top, we’ve had to improvise and frame them out; then attach screw hooks into the wood for the chain. Now that I’m wanting to ‘hang’ them on the walls, David is having to re-work them and use mirror clips to fit over the edges. And, in some cases, he’s having to set the bottom edge into a piece of grooved molding. This gives them a steady base and only requires a couple of mirror clips along the top to keep them from falling forwards. This molding is especially helpful if the lead is fragile or broken in some places.

I’m still on the hunt for a really pretty piece of glass that used to hang in the den window. It’s the largest piece we have and in shades of deep blues and greens – with a heavy oak frame. Took me forever to refinish it. It’s probably buried somewhere in the barn – but I’m on the hunt and aim to find it.

As many craft projects I’ve done over the years, stained glass is one I’ve never tried and probably won’t now but I bet it’d be just like oil painting . . . only with glass.

“Stained Glass” Cookie Recipe

Found this recipe for stained-glass cookies. Sounds like a lot of work (you know me, I like easy!) and can’t make them sugar free so doubt if I’ll bake them – but for those of you that may want to try it – they sound like they would be a fun cookie. They can also be used as decorations on a gift or at Christmastime on the tree. Note: You’ll need to start the day before you want to bake these as the dough needs to chill for 24 hours. This recipe is from my favorite cookie cookbook ever by Sunset.

What you’ll need:

•  4″ round cookie cutter
• assorted small shaped cutters for center cut-outs
• ribbon if you plan on hanging them

 Cookie Ingredients:

•  1/2 cup butter softened
• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 3-3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

 ’Stained-glass’ filling:

• 2cups sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup water
• food coloring
• 1/2 – 1 teaspoon flavoring of choice

Directions:

1. Use electric mixer to beat butter, shortening and 1-1/2 cups sugar until creamy
2. Beat in sour cream, vanilla, egg
3. Mix together dry ingredients in separate bowl and then gradually add to butter mixture, mixing thoroughly
4. Cover dough tightly and refrigerate for 24 hours
5. Divide dough into 4 pieces working with only 1 portion at a time keeping the remainder in the refrigerator
6. On a floured board roll to a thickness of 1/8 inch
7. Using the 4 inch cutter cut out rounds and transfer to a greased cookie sheet, 1 inch apart
8. Refrigerate sheets as you fill them
9. When cookies are cold cut out centers with smaller cutters
10. Bake cookies at 375 degrees for 6-7 minutes or until firm but NOT browned
11. Let cool for 5 minutes
12. Arrange cookies (right side up) on greased baking sheet

Note:  If you plan to hang these cookies or tie them to a gift now is when you would cut 1/4 inch ribbon into 8 inch lengths looping it through the center and tying a knot at the top.

For candy center:

1. Place two 1-cup glass measuring cups in a 375 degree oven to preheat before making syrup
2. Combine the 2 cups sugar, corn syrup and water in a 2-quart pan
3. Cook over medium-high heat stirring until sugar is dissolved
4. Continue cooking until syrup reaches a temperature of 280 degrees, i.e., hard crack stage (do not stir during this time)
5. Remove from heat and stir in food coloring and flavor
6. Carefully remove one measuring cup from oven and pour half the syrup into cup (leave remaining syrup on low heat)
7. When syrup in cup has stopped bubbling and using a potholder, carefully pour syrup in slow stream into center of cookie to fill
8. Repeat process with remaining syrup and measuring cup until all cookies are filled
9. Let cookies cool completely
10. Twist the pan to loosen cookies, slide off and store in airtight container in a single layer

The plum trees are loaded with fruit so I used the ones we picked yesterday and baked a Peach-Plum Crisp for dessert today. The peaches were the ones frozen from last year! Surprisingly, the taste was just fine as was the texture. That was the last of the peaches so now I’m ready to freeze the ones we pick this year. Having fresh fruit, berries and veggies is one of my favorite ‘country’ perks.

I’m always looking to save a few dollars and when I saw I could buy a dish soap ‘foaming’ dispenser in one of the catalogs that came the other day, I knew there must be a way to mix your own foaming soap – and not have to buy the expensive ‘foaming’ refills. Did a little sleuthing on the Net and came up with a formula that works.   Of course, you’ll need to have one of the foaming dispensers – but I just refilled my old Dawn pump . . . or you can purchase a pretty foaming dispenser.

Since this was my first time to try this, I will need to do a little adjusting to the formula next go around (not enough suds for me), but for a first-time effort, I was very pleased. I’m going to post the adjusted formula I’ll use next time.

Home-made Foaming Soap

• Into the empty dispenser, pour 2/3 cup of regular dish soap (I used Dawn).
• Fill the bottle with the amount of water necessary to reach the ‘fill line’.
• Gently shake, and you’re done.

Compared to what the foaming refills cost, not to mention I can’t always find the refills at the stores around here, this is going to become one of my favorite ‘tricks’. Depending on the brand of dish soap you use, you may find you’ll need to make your own adjustments to the amount of soap used.

Note: This formula would also probably work when needing to refill those expensive foaming bath and hand soaps.

Perfect Boiled Eggs

I know there’s no such thing as perfect – but this method of cooking boiled eggs is as close to a perfect boiled egg every time as you can get. An old friend, many years ago showed me how to do this and it never fails. Thanks Theresa!

• Place the eggs in a single layer, in a saucepan and cover with tap water.
• Bring to a low rolling boil over medium-high heat and allow to boil for three (3) minutes.
• At the three minute mark, remove the eggs from the heat and allow them to sit in the hot water for fifteen (15) minutes.
• Removed eggs from hot water with a slotted spoon and place into ice-cold water (this stops the cooking).
• Cool and use or store in refrigerator for later.

These eggs come out with the whites white, the yolks do not have the grayish-greenish outside, they don’t have an off taste and they have no smell – making them perfect for any use.

FYI – The gray-green discoloration you see appears when eggs are boiled too long. The thin discoloration around the yolk is due to the formation of ferrous sulfide which is formed when the iron in the egg yolk reacts with the hydrogen sulfide in the white. Not pretty – but still edible.

There are probably as many deviled egg recipes out there as there are cooks. But our favorite uses mayonnaise and Durkee ‘Famous Sandwich & Salad Sauce’- plus salt and pepper to taste. The Durkee Sauce has a less tart taste than using traditional mustard.

Finally - the easiest way to mix up the filling for deviled eggs is to place the ingredients into a small-sized plastic zip bag, smush everything together and then cut off one corner (not too much) and pipe the filling into the whites. When you’ve finished, just toss the bag and you’re done.

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Everyone likes saving money – so for those of you that might have old furniture that’s not in the best of condition or maybe there’s a piece you no longer use or need, visit TexasAntiqueMall.com for some new ideas on how to use old furniture. Lots of good ideas for the person that enjoys crafting.

For quite a while now, I had been wanting a tall, narrow cabinet to put in the bathroom, behind the door. Somewhere I could store all the things I had no other place to put . . . like the extra bottle of bleach, hairspray, nail polish remover, cleansers and whatever might find its way there. BTW – It’s off limits to David.

Saw exactly what I’d been wanting in a Lakeside Collections catalog couple of weeks back – so David ordered it for me. It came today and surprisingly, it only took about an hour to put it all together. Gave it a freshen-up of lemon oil and behind the door it went. Fit just perfectly and I can now stash to my hearts content.

Projects Update

We’ve actually been doing really well on finishing projects this year. The last flower bed to put in is coming along nicely – all the weeds are gone and the borders are in. Going shopping this weekend for compost and flowers.

We started painting the faux bricks on the new ‘star deck’ – and that is looking really good. To do this, we’re using a brick form like you might use for making a cement ‘brick’ walk (that’s the form laying on the step in the flower bed picture above-left) and cans of black  spray paint.   We’re working down the middle to help keep everything even.  To make this happen, David used a chalk line to snap a guide for us.

Before we started painting the bricks, David put a wire mesh barrier along the existing fence along the orchard side to keep out the small animals that roam at night. Otherwise, the yard would be full of holes (armadillos).

Improvised Lady Fingers

Don’t know if you’ve tried the Lady Finger Napoli  recipe posted a while back, but haven’t heard the end of those around here. Unfortunately, lady fingers are non-existent at our country stores so… had to do a little improvising and use cake.

Followed the same recipe, just replaced the lady fingers with yellow cake that was baked in a large rectangle pan and sliced horizontally  . . . wanted it nice and thin.   Then cut those pieces into equal slices to stack. (Since there are only two of us, I use half a box yellow-butter cake recipe at a time - using two eggs, and adding 1 teaspoon of vanilla to the recipe.)   Next, trimmed the edges to make them even, then stacked the cake layers with sugar-free vanilla pudding between. Topped it off with ‘Splenda’ powdered sugar glaze and the chocolate swirl. Refrigerated it overnight – it was yummy the next day.   Lasted for about three days or 6 servings. (The cake pictured was made by using half of the baked rectangle cake from 1/2 box. Other half is in freezer waiting for next time!)  Enjoy!

We headed out right after breakfast driving ‘north’. The trip was really nice – lots of wildflowers blooming, and the traffic wasn’t bad. Around 11-ish we started looking for a place to eat lunch. Not the same old burgers and sandwiches for us today. We wanted something special. We spied - in fact passed and had to go back to – a very unique looking BBQ restaurant…. The Purple Pig, located between Palestine and Tyler on State Hwy 155 South.

With its rustic exterior and full parking lot, I just knew the food had to be good… and it was. The beef was fork tender, the wide variety of side dishes offered something for everyone – and best of all, the portions were generous. The staff – including Manager, Deb – were courteous and helpful. We’ll definitely be going back – even if we have to make a special trip just to eat there.

After lunch we headed on to Tyler and then to Edom. Edom was having a street fair and the town was packed with all manner of booths selling crafts and food. We didn’t want to have to walk the half-mile or so back to the fair from where we’d have to park the car, so we left Edom and headed down the back roads to Lake Palestine .

Along the way we passed Blue Moon Nursery. Seems to me it was out in the middle of nowhere but you would not believe the number of people shopping. Cars were lining the highway with people walking along the highway shoulder coming and going. We stopped just long enough to get this picture.  

Then on to the lake. Saw a sign directing people to a public marina – that sounded promising – so we took a quick right turn. Beautiful homes and lovely condos were everywhere all along the road… and then the water – for as far as we could see. We parked the car and went for a walk. I can imagine that in the middle of summer it could be scorching hot there – but today was perfect. The nice breeze coming off the water kept the temperature comfortable. . . almost cool. Needless to say we didn’t want to leave, but after an hour or so, it was back to the car and home. Now that we know the lay of things in that area – we’ll be going back. Soon I hope.

 Recipes

 OK, now for the two recipes: Smothered Steaks with Mushroom Gravy and Smoked Salmon Dip. Tried them both this week. The smothered hamburger steaks were really good – very tender. David loved them!! I made them out of 80/20 Angus hamburger meat, slices of bread, dried chopped onions, salt, pepper, then simmered them in a gravy made of mushroom soup, dry brown gravy mix and butter. You can get the complete recipe with directions here.

The smoked salmon dip I liked… David not so much. But then he doesn’t like salmon and he doesn’t like cream cheese – the two main ingredients. I used fresh salmon I had smoked myself, but you could use canned salmon (drained with skin and bones removed) along with liquid smoke, or purchased smoked salmon. The drier the salmon texture, the better. I only used ingredients I had here at the house (one of the drawbacks of country living) but for me – it turned out good. I liked it – especially with crackers. You can get the recipe here.

IF I were going to change anything – I think I might use fresh lemon (not lemon pepper) and add some sour cream to ‘thin’ the consistency down some. Otherwise, not bad. Or if you’re adventurous, try adding in some of your own favorite ingredients like horseradish, cayenne, paprika, etc. Enjoy!

The picture of the pond was taken very early in the morning when the fog was just starting to rise. That was the morning we went to Palestine for an appointment and, of course, I had to make a trip back to Lowe’s to check out the flowers on the clearance racks.

 Ended up buying the Asiatic lilies you see here. Plan to plant then in the front yard – in baskets of course as my war against the moles is ongoing. Which brings to mind, the mole ‘elixir’ recipe of a while back – apparently it’s working. After David poured a jug of it into the various mole hills in the front yard couple of weeks ago – we’ve not seen any more activity. I am encouraged that this may be the answer to the whole mole problem . . . and what I like best about it . . . it’s non-poisonous, can be made at home, and is inexpensive . . . or as I like to say ‘cheap’!  You can get the recipe here.

Spring cleaning is in full swing around here. We even cleaned out the old truck on the back porch last weekend. Originally, we intended to use it to hold yard shoes. But, over the years it had become a catch-all for any and every thing. So on Saturday, we decided to take all the junk out of it, sort everything and trash what we didn’t need.

Once we finished doing this, there was plenty of room to hold not only our yard shoes but also all the wires and extension cords David uses when he has to hook up the generator. Now if we lose electricity,  all the things he needs are in one convenient place. No more hunting around in the garage with a flashlight.

Haven’t been doing much cooking this week – or anthing else for that matter –  since we’ve been gone so much.  Have big plans for projects this weekend . . .  weather permitting, and also  have a couple of recipes I want to try next week. One is for a smothered steak with mushroom gravy and other one is for smoked salmon dip.

I’ll let you know how they turn out – but you’ll have to trust my opinion on the salmon one – David doesn’t do salmon . . . but I’ll bet he won’t have any problem with taste testing the smothered steaks.

In borderline panic, we called AVG and were given additional instructions about alternate ways to rid the computer of the virus, however, we couldn’t get past the first step. On attempting to follow directions, the computer went wild, browser screens were opening faster than David could close them. This warranted another call to AVG (still in semi-panic mode) – where a tech took remote control of our computer.  If we had only known . . . he was the first of three techs, that would work on the computer over the next 24 hours to get it back up and running. Not to mention that at one point the computer black-screened (full blown panic). We thought for sure it was a goner. The last AVG tech worked 8 hours to recover David’s computer from the black screen, and ended up using more adware, spyware and malware programs than you can imagine to clean it. Many we’d never heard of. Over the course of this last eight (8) hours, the tech gave us some very good tips about keeping our computers safe. If you would like to read more about the free anti-virus, malware programs, and see the list of recommended tips for protecting your computer, visit this link.

I have really been enjoying the weather of late. Have the garden finished and the star deck is completed with the protective base coat on. Have to wait for that to dry really well before we can paint the bricks on. Had hoped to do that this weekend – but, weather report is forecasting rain… so will have to wait and see.

Overall, we’ve really been enjoying the breeze while sitting on the covered deck, listening to the waterfall in the pond and watching the birds… especially the hummingbirds. They arrived last week and I have my feeders out. Even bought a new one that is so much easier to use. Fills from the top and has a vacuum feature that allows you to turn the nectar off and on. Keeps me from spilling liquid when moving it from the kitchen to the outside. Nice!

The pretty red flowers (top photo) are Amaryllis.  They are next to the step leading to the deck right in front of the Star Jasmine vine which is in full bloom and smells so sweet. That is just about the prettiest spot in the yard right now. The petunias in the bird bath are one of my super special hanging basket purchases I found at Lowe’s. The bird bath is right outside my kitchen window, so I get to enjoy the flowers when I’m in the kitchen – which is quite a bit of the time. If you’re wondering about the birds missing the bird bath….not to worry, there is another one in the front yard they can use.

Also, have plans to finish my back porch table this year. You may recall I had plans to tile it (and paint it) …. hmmmm, maybe a couple of years ago. Well I finally found some tile I liked, bought the mortar and have plans to get started on it next couple of weeks. But want to finish the star deck first. I don’t like having multiple projects going at one time…makes me feel too scattered. Also before I start, will need to have David get out the tile saw to cut tiles for the round edges. (Hope he can find it.) Cutting tile is a very messy job with water going everywhere, so we try to do that on a very warm day as he ends up getting soaked.

Cooking tip – David loves crispy anything… chicken, shrimp, fish, etc. So I’m always looking for a way to make those foods crispier. While I don’t like a heavy coating, I was looking for a way to make the coating different and still maintain good texture and flavor.

My last attempt at ‘crispy-different’ was a winner.  I found that if I put cracker crumbs (three crackers) in the dry breading mixture, regardless of what I’m frying, it comes out with a wonderful light crunch. Have no idea why three crackers would make such difference, but they do. And, of course, we only use David’s favorite crackers – Club. In case you’re wondering, my favorite mixture for frying  fish and shrimp is Zatarine’s Fish Fry and Panko Crumbs; for chicken or chicken-fried steaks I use Seasoned Flour and Panko Crumbs…. both with crackers added in now.

Looking for some light, fresh recipes for summer? Check out Lemon Chicken  and Lemon-Baked Sole Fillets. Lemon is such a wonderful flavor for just about anything…. and it’s also great around the house. Here are three uses for lemons in the kitchen:

1. Clean laminated counter-tops – squeeze the juice from a lemon half onto a laminated counter top stain. Let is sit for a few minutes, then rub with the outside of the lemon peel until the stain is gone. Rinse with water.
2. Garbage disposal – grind pieces of lemon peel in the disposal to clean and freshen.
3. Polish copper – cut a lemon in half, sprinkle with salt and then use to polish copper pots and pans.

Last but not least, if you are one of those people who likes to frequent garage and estate sales, trade days and flea markets looking for scrap gold and silver you can sell, you don’t want to miss our article about some non-traditional  items you might be overlooking. Read about those non-traditional items here.

Can’t even imagine how many ants it takes to build something of that size – and what’s even more amazing, you’ll see places like this all along the roads out here. My guesstimate is that the whole community of beds must be about 18 feet across with multi-levels going up the side of the road into the woods. Some of the entrance holes to the hills were golf ball size. Didn’t want to get out to measure or disturb anything- just took the picture from the car window and left. Thank goodness we don’t have anything like that in the immediate area around the house.  David has found that spraying around the house in Spring with Home Defense (available at Lowe’s) keeps the spiders, ants, scorpions, and other creepy-crawlers away. I still use my trusty can of Raid to kill ants in the yard and we’ve also discovered  that Raid works just as well on wasps – as long as you don’t need to spray at a distance. My opinion, Raid is still the most cost effective ant killer out there.

Feeling good about the yard this year. I even have my herb garden planted!!! Granted, the flower bed surrounding it still needs clearing out – but that’s coming and I hope to have it finished before it gets too hot. David has plans to get the new ‘star’ deck painted this weekend and it will be a perfect time to work on the flower bed. Especially since I bought a whole table full of plants at Lowe’s. Hadn’t intended to – but they were on the ‘clearance’ rack selling for a fraction of the original cost. Just couldn’t resist them. Who could pass up hanging baskets for $2.00 and 6-pack bedding plants for fifty-cents??!!

Have most of the vegetable garden cleared of weeds and ready to plant this weekend. The head board and foot board in the flower bed is ready for beans. I like recycling things, so when last years bird netting we used for the blue berries got torn, we cut it into sections and tied those to the lower portions of the ‘bed’ trellises for the beans to climb on. Did this after re-painting the trellises green. Looks really nice and should provide support even for the tiniest seedlings.

My friend Becky is always a wealth of good information. So when I received an email from her this week loaded with information on the benefits of eating okra – just knew I had to post it.

Okra is one of those foods you either love or hate. It’s not like some foods, that you can say …. “oh,yes, I love deviled eggs but on the other hand – absolutely hate soft boiled eggs“. I love okra – David hates it. I don’t think there is anyway on this Earth to entice him to eat it – even if I were to put it in shrimp gumbo (and you all know how much he loves shrimp). Anyway the email was very interesting – and you can read it all right here.

Now, for those that may not have heard, there were some terrible tornadoes here in Texas first of the week. We were very fortunate in that we only had some rain, wind and very minor hail – no damage. Dallas and some of the areas from Cleburne northeast from there suffered terrible devastation. One of the most amazing videos taken was of a tractor/trailer lot (I believe off I-20) where the side-by-side semi-trailers were literally picked up by the tornado and went flying through the air. If you haven’t seen this video, it worth watching just to see the amazing strength of Mother Nature.

Chomp! Chomp! Yes, we’ve been trimming trees – and also taken on a new project. First the trees. I mentioned David received a JawSaw from his brother as a Christmas gift. He couldn’t wait to get out in the yard and start chomping limbs. As a matter of fact, I made him promise he wouldn’t start cutting anything until I could go with him. David is very good about the yard being my domain, but there have been one or two occasions over the years when he took it on himself to ‘help’ with disastrous results. Like the time he was ‘weeding and feeding’ the yard in Houston so he thought my newly planted petunias could use a little feeding, so he gave them a generous spray… ‘weed and feed’ is not ‘weed or feed’ – it does both, so you can imagine… next day I went out to water my little flowers and everyone of them were laying flat on the ground – deader than a door nail. Maybe that’s why a few years later, he bought me 150 bedding plants when I mentioned I wanted to put some color in the front yard. Do you have any idea how long it takes one person to set out 150 bedding plants?! A long time. In fact, I was getting so tired of them, towards the last 50 or so, I was putting 2-3 plants per hole. Yikes!!! Never again!!

Back to my story. Have to say the JawSaw (look towards the bottom of the Amazon page for the JawSaw) works as advertised. It is safe (as safe as any chain saw I’ve ever seen) and is easy enough to handle and work – as long as you follow the directions. Can’t cut too much at one time or the weight will cause the chain to come off…. but it is easy to put back on. We ended up trimming the cedars, the oak and some of the cypress trees with ease.

Next we started on our project which was to extend the small deck-walkway between the fence and the deck. We enjoy sitting out there at night watching the stars but the area was too narrow so David decided to cover the whole space with plywood.  (He drove the truck around and used it as a work station for cutting so we wouldn’t have to carry the pieces so far.)  Once finished we’ll paint it to blend in with the rest of the deck. I’m thinking black bricks would look good. Had the red brick look before, but it is a bit overpowering.

So where does the saw fit in? In order to steady the plywood, David had to put some bracing underneath the plywood that was overhanging the existing walk. He had a large (18+ foot) 4 x 4 so we carried that over to the deck area where he proceeded to cut it with his new saw. Really didn’t think the saw would work as well on a piece of lumber, but was pleasantly surprised when it cut right through it without any trouble. One good thing about the saw – aside from the fact that the cutting part is protected – is that when you are cutting limbs of any size, or anything else for that matter, there is no vibrating or shaking. The jaws hold steady whatever is being cut and you just slice through.

On a little different note. Received the following email that I thought had a lot of good advice for life. Thanks Becky for sending it to me.

“Someone has written these beautiful words. One must read and try to understand the deep meanings in them. They are like the Ten Commandments to follow in life all the time.

1) Prayer is not a “spare wheel” that you pull out when in trouble; it is a “steering wheel” that directs us in the right path throughout life.

2) Do you know why a car’s WINDSHIELD is so large & the rear view mirror is so small? Because our PAST is not as important as our FUTURE. So, look ahead and move on.

3) Friendship is like a BOOK. It takes few seconds to burn, but it takes years to write.

4) All things in life are temporary. If going well enjoy it, they will not last forever. If going wrong don’t worry, they can’t last long either.

5) Old friends are like Gold! New friends are Diamonds! If you get a Diamond, don’t forget the Gold! Because to hold a Diamond, you always need a base of Gold!

6) Often when we lose hope and think this is the end, GOD smiles from above and says, “Relax, sweetheart, it’s just a bend, not the end!

7) When GOD solves your problems, you have faith in HIS abilities; when GOD doesn’t solve your problems HE has faith in your abilities.

8.) A blind person asked St. Anthony: “Can there be anything worse than losing eye sight?” He replied: “Yes, losing your vision.”

9) When you pray for others, God listens to you and blesses them; and sometimes, when you are safe and happy, remember that someone has prayed for you.

10) WORRYING does not take away tomorrow’s TROUBLES; it takes away today’s PEACE.”

God Bless!

PS – Don’t forget, if you like antiques, the Round Top Spring Antique Show is going on through April 7.  Information on the shows is available on Texas Antique Mall Show Page