This week I have surfed a lot of great blogs. However, this week I am going to only post one blog link.
The horrible devastation the Tornado caused in Alabama. I would love it if you checked out this blog, and if you can do anything to help. Please do.
Tonight we’re having Matzo ball soup. Specifically we’re having Adele’s Matzo Ball Soup. Foodie for two’s website has a wonderful step-by-step on how to make this soup.
Tonight’s dinner is a taste adventure for us because it’s new to us. We’ve never had Matzo balls before.
Cutting the chicken was interesting.
Note to self:buy a whole chicken that has already been cut up for you. Cutting a 5 pound chicken up into pieces isn’t fun.
and finally in pieces I had to cut the veggies.
Parsnips smell like spicy carrots. I like them.
Leeks are super dirty. Super dirty. Did I mention dirty?
I got my soup into my cast iron cooker and it bubbled away for 3 hours.
My house smelled WONDERFUL.
Most of the family loved the soup and the Matzo balls. The picky one (aka: my daughter) liked the soup, but not the Matzo balls. I think next time I make this soup I will make extra Matzo balls, because the teen loved them. This soup is flavorful, it’s just wonderful. I’m thankful that I found Foodiefortwo’s blog post (where you can find the soup recipe).
An oak seedling was trying to grow between the cushions of one of my patio chairs. It’s been rainy and windy. I’m sure that’s why it was so confused. I saved it yesterday and put it in a pot to grow. Once it’s bigger I’ll plant it in the yard.
Things have been on the move in the garden this week. Not all the moving was good.
I transplanted 2 cantaloupe plants, 3 zucchini plants and 1 squash plant from the raised garden and pots into my side garden. The plants that I moved seem to be accepting the move. =GOOD
One of my tomato plants tried for an unscheduled move yesterday. The wind blew it off the top of our hot tub. It crashed to the ground and about half of the plant was damaged and had to be removed. =BAD
The other one is doing fine. Flowers, but no tomatoes yet.
Don’t ask why I was using the top of the hot tub to store plants.
If it’s a flat surface I feel compelled to put things there. 
The raised bed is doing great. I’ve got little green peppers growing, the lettuce
is happy, the pea plants and okra plants are getting bigger everyday.
The squash and zucchini are huge!
I’ve even got a few strawberries.
Here are the rest of the raised garden pictures.
How is your garden doing this week? What have you planted?
Food dehydrator..check
Fresh sugar snap peas..check
Dried sugar snap peas? Chec….erm not so much a check.
I wanted crisp, flavorful little sugar snaps. I’ve got little green weapons. The dehydration project known as sugar snap was not a success. Not at all.
freshly washed, dried and placed into the dehydrator
5 hours in, looking pretty promising
at 10 hours (2 hours less than the 12-16 hour time frame advised) I removed them. They are hard.:(
My little weapon of destruction
They are NOT crispy and delightful, as I hoped they would be. They are crunchy and not at all pleasant to eat.
My search for a way (other than raw) to snack on sugar snaps will continue, oh yes it will.
I’m not confused or anything. I want to tell you about an easy (monkey bread) type bread that we call ummmm. It’s called ummmm mostly because I could not think of a name and my teen called it ummmm.
It’s not from scratch, and it’s not very healthy. It sure tastes good though. The idea for this pull apart sweet bread came from an abundance of Pillsbury Grands! in my refrigerator after a grocery sale. Not sure what to do with the 10 or maybe it was 15 cans I got free after coupons, I started getting creative. I tried using them in different ways. They worked great in chicken and dumplings, not so great when I rolled them in Parmesan cheese (BURNT!). They also freeze well, by the way.
Here’s the recipe.
2 cans of refrigerated biscuits (8 count) I used Pillsbury Grands!, but any brand would work fine.
Cinnamon sugar. About 1/2 to 3/4 cup.
1/3 stick of butter. Diced.
Optional ingredients
1-2 Diced apples
1/2 to 1 cup raisins
1/2 to 1 cup dried cranberries
Pre-heat oven to 350 deg.
Coat a bunt pan with baking spray. Sprinkle the bottom if the pan with cinnamon sugar.
Open 1 can of refrigerated biscuits. With kitchen shears or a knife cut biscuits in strips and place in the baking pan.
Once you have finished cutting the first can sprinkle the strips with cinnamon sugar (fruit if you’re adding fruit) and 1/2 of the diced butter. Open the 2nd can and repeat the strips, sugar, (fruit if you’re adding fruit) and butter.
Bake for about 45 min or until top is toasty and if you poke the ummmm it’s not mushy.
Remove from oven, cool and enjoy!
A little slice of heaven.
An Ummmm Thief!
That is how you spell, well success….which is what I have in drying banana chips. 
At 13 1/2 hours.
almost there
they were not quite there yet.
At 14 1/2 hours. Sweet, sweet success!
They don’t get “crisp” until you let them cool. I kept waiting for crisp in the dehydrator. It never happened. Once they were not soft anymore I took them out. I let them cool and TA-DA crisp banana chips.
I’m fairly sure there is a learning curve. It’s possible that the chips were ready at 14 hours, but until I took them out and let them cool I had no way to know if they were going to get crisp or not.
The dehydrator sounds a bit like the window unit A/C you might find in a motel. It’s a little loud, lucky for us the kitchen and the bedrooms are on opposite sides of the house.
Here’s a look at the finished banana chips.
Done! 14 1/2 hours drying
cooled and ready to put into a container
a small bowl full of banana chips
Really, its small. The bowl fits into the palm of my hand.
I washed and dried the trays. Now I have sugar snap peas in the dehydrator. I’m still on my never-ending quest to make my snap peas into a crispy snack. Here’s a peek.
two layers of sugar snaps
a closer view
Wish me luck!
Good morning Ladies and Gents. I woke up this morning excited to see my dried banana slices. I tiptoed into the kitchen and opened the lid of the dehydrator and the banana slices are not done yet. Boo!
They are still chewy. Not done yet. The recipe stated that the drying time for bananas is 12 to 16 hours. So, it’s possible that I have up to 4 hours to go. I’ll be checking them and taking pictures. I’ll keep you updated.
Here is what they looked like at the 10 hour mark.
10 hours into the drying process
At the 12 hour mark.
12 hours into the drying process.
I just purchased a food dehydrator. I’m excited to start learning how to use it. Since I have a veggie garden, I’d like to get comfortable with my new toy dehydrator before my garden starts producing.
I have searched for recipes, found many. I have decided to try bananas first, even though there is a loud, constant cry for jerky in my home.
happy little slices ready to dehydrate
4 layers of bananas
The manual says that banana chips should take about 12 hours. I am going to run the dehydrator overnight, and hopefully in the morning I will have nice, crisp banana chips. I’ll keep you posted.
Image via Wikipedia
I noticed a few of my friends on Facebook asking this question, and this morning the Dallas Morning News had an article about leftover eggs. So, here they are 5 things you can do with those hard-boiled eggs.
Written by Bill Hogan of the Chicago Tribune.
1. Asparagus mimosa: Sprinkle a chopped egg yolk over cooked asparagus that has been lightly tossed in a Dijon mustard vinaigrette.
Making a Dijon Mustard Vinaigrette:
The Reluctant Gourmet’s Basic Mustard Vinaigrette
Ingredients:
1 glove of garlic, smashed
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
5-6 tablespoons oil (vegetable, corn, canola, olive or some combination)
pinch of dried parsley
pinch of dried thyme
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
How to Make at Home :
In a clean jar or small bowl, add the vinegar, garlic, mustard and mix well. Slowly add the olive oil while either whisking or stirring rapidly with your fork. Add the parsley and thyme, salt and pepper, taste and adjust seasonings.
Simple, you bet, but this straightforward recipe will blow away any store bought salad dressing on the market. Start experimenting with your own ingredients and you will have Paul Newman getting nervous. Enjoy.
2. Wiener schnitzel: Garnish fried, breaded veal or pork cutlets with lemon slices, sliced hard-cooked eggs, anchovies and capers.
3. Oeufos mayonnaise: Coat egg halves with mayonnaise (thin commercial mayo with extra-virgin olive oil); garnish with pimento strips.
4. Scotch egg: coat whole egg in ground sausage, dip in beaten egg, coat with bread crumbs and deep fry. (oh my!) Halve eggs before serving.
5. Smoked salmon deviled eggs a la Jeanne: This recipe from Jeanne Ambrose’s Heartbreak Recovery Kitchen is published in the April-May issue of Organic Gardening Magazine.
Cut in half 8 to 10 hard-cooked eggs. Mash yolks in a small bowl with a fork. Stir in 3 TBSP Greek yogurt, 2 TBSP chopped smoked salmon, 1 TBSP each of mayonnaise and mustard, 2 tsp drained capers, and 2 tsp finely chopped green onions or fresh chives. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon the yolk mixture into the ess white halves. Cover; refrigerate for up to 24 hours. Garnish before serving with smoked salmon, capers, chopped green onions, chives or garlic scrapes.
Wowzers! Those are some very interesting ways to use your hard-boiled eggs.
Image via Wikipedia
I usually make deviled eggs, sans the salmon, and egg salad sandwiches. What do you usually make?
I love my slow cooker. Make that slow cookers (plural) I have 4. We’re having slow cooked pork roast and sweet potatoes for dinner tonight.
Place veggies, pork, seasoning and some liquid in the slow cooker.
I used a dash of white wine and chicken broth. 1 package of frozen shredded carrots, 1/2 package of diced onions, green peppers and celery, 1 TBSP of garlic salt and 1 tsp of chopped parsley.
Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
It will look like this when it’s done.
The cooked roast
I failed to take a picture of the sweet potatoes before cooking and mashing them. Oops! Wash the potatoes, skin them, cut into evenly sized pieces and boil in salted water until tender. Drain, return to warm pan, add 1 or 2 tsp of butter and a dash of milk. Mash them and add more milk or butter if needed. Season, I like to add 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice, and serve.
Serve with a lovely spinach salad.
Here’s the finished meal.
Spinach tomato salad
The meal
And a desert
pineapple upside-down cake
What did you make for dinner tonight? I’d love to hear from you.
