Shelf Decor

Friendship Bread

Look what I got.

Yesterday in Sunday School, a gal shared some delicious coffee cake for a treat while we studied. After class, she gave me a "starter" of the Friendship Bread that the coffee cake was made from. So now I'm on schedule to "mush" the bag for 9 days, add more stuff on one of those days, then bake a yummy loaf of bread on the 10th day.

Sweet Cinnamon Biscuits

Made these the other night, sure didn't last long! Biscuit dough, but rolled and made kind of like cinnamon rolls.

Chocolate-covered Cracker Toffee

Super-Spicy Chicken-Onion Quesadilla

I had a hankerin' hit yesterday for a quesadilla. Well, my brain started churning about what-all we had on hand, and I came up with a plan. Hubby asleep (works nights), Younger Son at school, and Older Son was home on a day off. So I had just enough tortillas to fix Older Son and I each a quesadilla for lunch.

First, I sauteed most of a large onion and some jalapeno slices in some olive oil. As that got done, I added a big drained can of chicken meat, some salsa, and spices (salt, pepper, red pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, oregano and chili powder). Then I let all this simmer awhile. (Added a little water to keep it from being too dry and to help the spices mix through.)

The oven was heated to 350. I buttered one side of four tortillas. Put two buttered-side down on a baking pan. Sprinkled on a layer of shredded cheddar cheese. Spooned on the filling, topped with more cheese, then the other two tortillas, buttered side up. Baked for 15-20 minutes, and cut into wedges to serve. Some toppings would be excellent with these, such as sour cream, more salsa, olives, etc. It was delicious. AND SPICY. Older Son's more so, as he added some habanero sauce to his!

Shoo-fly Pie

We Will Be Spicy This Winter

Recently, we picked a BUNCH of jalapenos out of a friend's garden. Probably the better half of a walmart sack-full. The bowl in the first picture is just a sampling of them. I'd say there were several dozen. I finally got around to processing them yesterday for the freezer. I had a plastic baggy over one hand to keep the caustic juices at bay, but they still came through a little somehow, even with changing bags a few times, and my fingertips and thumb are sore today! But we will have good stuff to add to chili or whatever as the days go by. Ended up with halves, slices, and diced.

Old-time "Laundre 'Receet' "

"Laundre Receet" from about 1870 - author unknown. This is interesting, considering the "laundry woes" in this house for the last 2 months. I do count my blessings. :)

1. Build fire in back yard to heat kettle of rainwater.

2. Set tubs so smoke won't blow in eyes if wind is pert.

3. Shave one whole cake of lye soap in biling water.

4. Sort things. Make three piles: one pile whites, one pile colored, one pile work britches and rags.

5. Stir flour in cold water to smooth, then thin down with biling water.

6. Rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard, then bile; rub colored but don't bile, just wrench and starch.

7. Spread tea towels on grass.

8. Hand [hang] old rags on fence.

9. Pour wrench water on flower beds.

10. Scrub porch with hot, soapy water.

11. Turn tubs upside down.

12. Go put on clean dress, smooth hair with side combs, brew a cup of tea, set and rest and rock a spell, and count your blessings.

Fair Results

Entered chocolate chip cookies and a pink petunia in the local fair awhile back. The petunia was a total last-minute idea. There were four petunias in its class, and it got third (white ribbon), so that's really pretty good. I was happy. The chocolate chip cookies were the best I'd ever made, from a slightly different recipe, and they got second in their class.

Eats

Orange cake. The boys sure did like it, and it didn't last long. They want me to make another one.

(Who knows why the words and pictures aren't lining up!)

Chili dog.

Taco Soup

This recipe was floating around on facebook, and I thought it sounded easy and good, and perhaps fairly inexpensive.

"Eight-can Taco Soup"

1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15 oz.) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 (14.5 oz.) can petite diced tomatoes, drained
1 (15.25 oz.) can sweet corn, drained
1 (12.5 oz.) can white chicken breast, drained
1 (10.75 oz.) can cream of chicken soup
1 (10 oz.) can green enchilada sauce
1 (14 oz.) can chicken broth
1 packet taco seasoning

Mix, heat, serve with tortilla chips. Could also serve with cornbread. Can add toppings such as jalapenos, cheese, salsa, olives, sour cream, guacamole, etc.

My price breakdown came to $8.67 for the soup ingredients, plus a $2.00 bag of corn chips. Total, $10.67.

Soup with corn chips:

Four servings - $2.67 per serving
Six servings - $1.78 per serving

Soup only:

Four servings - $2.17 per serving
Six servings - $1.45 per serving

And it was DELICIOUS - I had seconds. :) Surely it'll be great warmed up as leftovers, too, if there are any.

We've All Gotta Eat

We all have to eat every day, I get a little wore out trying to keep up with groceries, "what-to-fix," and trying to keep the disaster kitchen under control (all 4 of us like to get in there and do stuff). BUT, I am THANKFUL for the food we have to eat, and it is kind of fun, if you make it so.

Since I haven't blogged in a long time, and it's almost the end of July and I have no posts for July whatsoever, here's an update from the last month or two!

Scrambled eggs with all kinds of stuff in them. Kind of looks a mess, but it was good.

Brownies with pecan pieces and colored sprinkles. This was supposed to look "patriotic" for Flag Day (June 14).

So simple, but we had this a lot when I was growing up - grapefruit half with sugar sprinkled on. And I have a CERTAIN way I eat it. :)

Breakfast burritos.

Hamburger-noodle casserole, boiled-buttered potatoes, custard pie.

"Pigs-in-a-blanket" - hotdogs, strip of cheese, rolled into a flattened canned biscuit, baked.

Chocolate-oatmeal no-bakes.

Had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich one day, and just had to cut it in "fourths" like I did when I was a kid.

Chocolate chip cookies and milk. What can beat that.

A personal tradition - making a chocolate cake for the Fourth of July.

Someone gave us some zucchini one day, so I made some zucchini bread from a recipe Mom liked to make from our hometown cookbook. It has cinnamon in it - so yummy! For some crazy reason, I can't find my loaf pans, I've shuffled stuff around so much trying to "organize," that they are out of sight somewhere. So I used round cake pans, and just baked less time. Still delicious!

Chocolate cookies with both chocolate and white baking chips in them.

A little "pre"-birthday ice cream in the Jadite bowl. It's the only piece of Jadite I have, and I found it in the thrift store, cheap. :)

Store-bought cake and ice cream ON my birthday a couple of weeks ago.

Yesterday evening, a friend shared some garden goodies with us. So after a tiring afternoon at the library (moving stuff back after carpet was laid), I whipped up a light supper. (This is just for me, the guys are not veggie lovers!) I sauteed the yellow squash, green peppers and tomatoes in olive oil and butter, plus salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder (didn't have an onion) and a dab of basil flakes. Then when it was steamed-sauteed, I topped it with shredded cheddar cheese and parmesan cheese. YUM! Also cut up the cantaloupe. Added a piece of toast. Had seconds on the veggie stuff and toast --- too good!

Good Eats

The other day, I made a "southwestern"-type salad, inspired by something I saw on Pinterest. Let's see if I can remember what-all was in it - lettuce, corn, black beans, fiesta cheese, croutons, honey-smoked turkey, Ranch dressing.



Then, part-way through it, I remembered the tomatoes! So I threw some in there anyway. ha ha



A couple days ago, Hubby made some Indidan Fry Bread, I put some powdered sugar on mine.



Last night I put some chicken breasts in the oven, with seasoning on them. Here they are baked, then I sliced and froze them, to keep on hand for fajitas and such.

Treats

Have enjoyed a few food treats recently ....

I grew up on a side dish called "bread and tomatoes." Or was it "breaded tomatoes?" Anyway, Mom fixed it a lot at home. It's sweet and tangy, and I like it. Looks gross, but it's good. It's a can of whole tomatoes, chopped up, then throw in quite a bit of sugar, maybe some salt and pepper, then 2 or 3 slices of bread torn up. Heat through.



A good friend of mine sent me a few recipes, and one was for coffee cake. OH WOW did it ever turn out good! It didn't even last 24 hours. Instead of making it in a 9 X 13 pan, I put it in two round cake pans, so I could do one plain, and one with pecans, thinking the guys didn't care for nuts. I think it went the fastest! The recipe calls for sour cream, so it's a VERY TENDER cake. I'll sure be making this again.





Then just this evening, I made a couple of pumpkin pies. I always have to make two anymore, as we all like it and it doesn't last long. I'm liable to make it any time of the year. Pie is pie. ha ha Just took it out of the oven a bit ago, and already one pie is over half gone! YUM. :) Here's my piece, with a little whipped topping on it. We're waiting on a storm to hit, hopefully it won't be too bad.

Fiesta!

Mom collected Fiesta Ware. I grew up with it. We used it all the time. It's "in my blood." When I went to the thrift store a few days ago, I did my usual thing of going through each section, checking things out. Got to the dish section, and my visual radar immediately went off .... FIESTA WARE! Two big green plates, and a smaller blue plate. MINE!!!! You don't see Fiesta Ware in there much. I found a black Fiesta Ware cup one time, and that's been awhile back. Cost of these plates? Thirty cents each. Total, ninety cents, plus tax.



Love the "Fiesta Ware" signature on the back.

Safe

Because it FROZE this morning - yes, on May 3 in Oklahoma ....



.... THESE were safe inside so they wouldn't get nipped.

New Home

Yesterday evening, I got my flowers transplanted to their big pot by the front step. As I took the orange flowers out of their little containers, the tags said "Cosmos." Here I thought they were Marigolds! But that's fine with me, 'cause I like Cosmos, too.

I think I got some Marigold seeds the other day, so I will plant them in another container.

Additions

Thrift store finds.

A nice sunflower potholder. $.30.



A VERY STURDY little bookshelf thingy. $1.00. Or, the lady that checked me out thought it might make a nice doll bed. :) A note stuck to the bottom said that someone made it in high school.

Today

Today .... I found a few things for the house.

Hopefully, this morning's freeze of 27 degrees on April 24 in western Oklahoma is IT for the season, so I got a few flowers to get started on the flower pot(s) by the front step. Marigolds, and some purple petunias.



Also got some seed packets - planning a "bucket-o-pansies," some sunflowers and wildflowers, and also got Younger Son a packet of peas to plant.



Then at the thrift store, I found some items. First, a graniteware stock pot, but it didn't have a lid. But it was in good shape, just needed cleaning. Only one blemish on the outside bottom edge, that won't hurt anything.



It didn't have a lid, but there was a container of lids on the shelf below it for sale. I picked up the first one I thought would fit, and it fit PERFECTLY. So what if it's a total visual mismatch, being stainless steel, it FITS!



Ta-daaaaaa. :)



Ready for canning or soup or food or whatever.



Then, there were four lightweight cotton tablecloths on the rack, so I grabbed one. Love checkered tablecloths, also when they have "designs" with the checker fabric.



Tablecloth closeup.