At a Standstill.... Or a Stalemate....

 Either of the above could be right... I am not accomplishing anything today.  At least not much... I keep plugging along at the knit and crochet projects.  Finished by Christmas?  I doubt it.  Maybe...

 I am not at liberty to start a new project on the table, now that it's clean. 

Kota has decided that it is his table... I laid his favorite blanket on one side... Thinking that he would lay on it and the table would still be clean... Not happening.  He likes the antique, handmade Italian tablecloth... At least he has good taste in linens.

Nope.  No workroom activity either.  I could go in here and attempt more cleaning...

See me stomping my feet and shaking my fists, a la Tessie?

I am still trying to decide... Maybe I will just not worry about it... Maybe I will just go make fudge instead... Yup!  That sounds better than cleaning.  Want to join me? I am going to do it with a bag of dark chocolate chips and half a bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Chips. You can use any combination of chips.


Easy Fudge.

1 1/2 bags(24 oz) of chocolate chips
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla
a pinch of salt.

In a saucepan, melt chocolate chips and milk over medium heat. Stir while melting.
When melted, remove from heat.  Stir in vanilla and salt.  Add 3/4 c. chopped nuts, if desired.

Spread in an 8" square pan. Refrigerate.  When almost hard, cut into squares.

That will be much more fun than the other stuff.

See you tomorrow.

Teamwork!

OK  Tessie and I are a team this morning....  I bribed her by making Chili Cheese Quiche.  It is a family favorite large and small...

Recipe?  Sure!

 

Chili Cheese Quiche...

1/2 c. butter, melted.                           10 eggs
1 tsp. baking powder                           1/4 tsp. salt
1- 8 oz. can of chopped green chili     1 pt. cottage cheese
1/2c. sifted flour                                  1# Jack cheese, grated.

Melt butter in the microwave.  Use a bit of butter to grease a 9X13 pan.  Beat eggs with fork.  Add flour, baking powder, salt, melted butter, chili.  I usually put in about a half cup of deli ham or turkey cut into small pieces for extra flavor.

Add cheeses and mix well.  Pour into the 9X13 pan and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.  Then at 350 for 40 minutes.  Let cool a bit and enjoy.

I make it to freeze.  Then when we want a piece or two, we put it in the microwave for a minute or two and it comes right back to  good eats!

After I finished that, I cut out the pieces of illustration board that I will need for the cabinets in the kitchen of the Forest Fantasy Cottage. 

Tessie kept track.  I still need to cut a back and two long sides for the outside of the cabinets.  And I haven't cut the open shelves yet...

I put Tessie to work, shoving pieces of steel wool into a bottle of white vinegar.  It was agreed that, if I made her some quiche, she would do the stain. 

Besides, her hands are smaller than mine for shoving the steel wool in the neck of the bottle. I did help some.  We put in about half a roll of #0000 steel wool to three quarters of a bottle of vinegar.

You see, we need stain for barn wood in the kitchen... I think that I watched one to many episodes of Barnwood Builders on DIY network yesterday...

!!!!!An added note!!!! At about 4:00 PM  I had a disaster!!!  If you try this, don't use a plastic vinegar bottle.  I have always used glass.  This time, I used plastic.... Bad Idea!!!!!  I closed the bottle and left it sitting... It exploded!!! I think it was a reaction between the plastic, vinegar and the steel wool!  I have never had it happen with a glass bottle.  So... Fair warning.  The mixture was not good.  I am still trying plastic, but not closed... I want to see if it still turns brown.  I will let you know how the mad scientist does with this experiment...!!!!!

Now all we have to do is eat quiche and wait a day or two fore the vinegar to turn the right color. 

We are getting there slowly, but surely... I need to start putting the cabinets together.  In the meantime....

Back to watching the vinegar bottle...

See you tomorrow.

Cooking 101.7

Today the fun starts.  I get to do the pre Christmas cooking.  I thought that Tessie and I would share a couple of recipes.

This first one is one that I found on the net several years ago. It's hard to make a bowl of mashed potatoes look exciting...

Tessie is nothing, if not helpful.  She is perfectly happy if I hand her a spoon and tell her to try whatever I am cooking.

You can see that this recipe is well used.  So is the bowl that it is in.  This is one that Seth made for me several years ago and it gets used a lot.  It can go from fridge to oven and has done so many times.  I love the glaze that he put on it.  I will have to show you some of the other ones that he has made for me.  He is a gifted potter.

The other thing I did this morning, was this bean salad.  The original was a pretty plain three bean salad from a Pennsylvania State Grange Cookbook.  One of those where everybody's mom contributed a recipe.

I have played with it for a number of years and it is now a Balsamic Bean Salad.  I still use the canned beans, just like the original, but I have changed the dressing somewhat.

Here Goes.

1 can of yellow wax beans.                I added a can of black beans.
1 can of cur green beans                     1/2 cup raw onion diced
1 can of red kidney beans                   1/2 raw green pepper diced
Drain and rinse all of the beans well.  Then dump them in a large bowl with the onion and pepper.

Dressing
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup Pompeian white balsamic vinegar
fresh ground black pepper to taste

Mix well.  Pour over bean mixture and stir well.  Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight before serving.  It gets better the longer you let it sit before serving. 

Very easy and very good.  At least that's what Tessie says...

I have to go now and make a breakfast casserole.

See you tomorrow.

Us Versus Them....

This morning I went out shopping for a while.  A bit of Christmas and stuff for baking...

When I got home, I made two kinds of cookies, in less than a half hour.

Since I didn't do any minis, I thought that I would appease you with a couple of GOOD and easy recipes.

Some of you may already have the recipes, but I will write them down anyway, for those of you that are angry with me for not doing minis....If you make these, I guarantee that you will be in the comfort zone as soon as you taste them.

The first ones are Saltine Cookie Bars. If you like chocolate, these will make you very happy, indeed.

Saltine Cookie Bars.

Line a large cookie sheet with foil and butter it well. 
Lay a single layer of saltines, close together,  side by side on the foil.

In a sauce pan, boil 1c. Butter and 1c. Sugar for two minutes.(after it comes to a boil and be sure to stir it.

Pour over crackers and make sure that they are all covered.  Bake for 4 minutes in a 400degree oven.
Remove from oven and sprinkle with a 12 oz. package of chocolate chips.  When chocolate is soft, spread around evenly.

Put them in the fridge to harden and then break into pieces.

Zar likes these and he was first in the kitchen...I was putting half of them in a plastic bag labeled "Us" on the outside and the other half in a bag labeled "Them".  He naturally thought that the "them bag was for he and Tessie, since the other one was labeled "Us". 

He immediately opened the bag, sat on the edge and started munching.  He approved.

Next I made Tessie's favorites.  They are called Graham Cracker Nut Bars.

Give Spike one of these and he will follow you anywhere....No chocolate.  Safe for dogs.

Graham Cracker Nut Bars.

1c. butter.
3/4c. sugar.
Graham Crackers
1c. pecans.

Line a large cookie sheet with foil.  cover with  graham crackers, side by side, close together.
Combine butter and sugar together in a saucepan. Cook over low heat for 3 minutes, until butter melts and sugar dissolves, stirring constantly. 
Pour over graham crackers and spread evenly.  Top with chopped pecans.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.  Put in fridge to cool and then break apart into cookie sized pieces. (An added bonus...All of the nuts that don't stick to the cookies become sugared pecans.)


Of course, Tessie and Spike had to grab the "them" bag of these.

I tried to tell them that I made them for gifts....They all answered with "Thank you very much.  We appreciate it."

Thank goodness, they can't eat a whole bag, each, at one sitting.  As soon as they stuff themselves, they will go off for a nap.  That's when I grab the bags and hide them behind the milk. 

Tomorrow, I will tell them that they ate them all and there aren't any left.  Having stuffed themselves to the brim, they will believe me.....I hope.

I have to fill three tins with cookies before Christmas.  You may be stuck with recipes a couple more times....Hopefully, between cookies, I will be able to decide on my next project.

Now go bake yourself some cookies and relax.  You will feel better after a few of these. Trust me.  I feel great!

See you tomorrow.