a quick post before Church

Kathy requested the recipe I use for freezer biscuits,  I thought I had blogged about it before but I can't find it so here it is.  I have made many batches of these.

Freezer biscuits  - I either double or triple it when I make it

3 C flour

1 T baking powder

1 T sugar

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

mix all these dry ingredients together.  Then cut it

2/3 C shortening.  

I use a  pastry blender.  

When it looks like fine crumbs,  stir it

1 C buttermilk - 

( I usually use regular or powdered milk mixed with a little lemon juice)

Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead lightly until it comes together.

Roll out to 1/2 inch thickness and cut into biscuits. 

Now,  you can bake them in a preheated 450 degree oven for 10-15 minutes.  

Or,  you can freeze them.  I put them on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and freeze until solid.  

Then I bag them up in a freezer bag, squeezing out as much air as possible.  

To bake,  preheat oven to 400.  Bake biscuits 20-25 minutes until golden.  

When I just bake a few frozen biscuits,  I use our little toaster oven and it works great. 

 Much thriftier than heating up the big oven.  

remember that I dug up a few of the boxwood bushes?
Well,  the lady and her teenage son did come and dug up and hauled off the rest.
yea!

2 Knockout rose bushes that I planted last year

one lone Iris blooming
This is what it looked like Friday
but I think after all the rain Friday and Saturday night,  it is probably laying down now.  

the wind blew the lid off the turtle sandbox
Can you see the box and the lid are both full of water
and this is just from Friday night's rain!

Jeff assembling our first ever composter
it was a big job even for a very experience mechanic.
I think it would be very difficult for someone with no tool experience.
I am just hoping it makes lots of good compost.  

 Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday!  

Psalm 118:24:

   ²⁴ This is the day the LORD has made. 

      We will rejoice and be glad in it. 

some scenes from last week

My daughter and went to Oklahoma City to do our monthly grocery shopping last week,
Before we went,  I cleaned out our fridge and found some sad looking apples.
So I peeled them, put them in a crockpot with just a little sugar, cinnamon and cloves.
They cooked all day and turned into.....

Apple Butter~
see the yellow lid?  that is from a mustard jar.
Did you know that some peanut butter jar lids and some mustard lids fit perfectly on  standard canning jars?

I did not actually can this apple butter,  just put it in jars and will store it in the fridge until we eat it.  

Gavin helped me make a triple batch of ....

freezer biscuits.  They are even more delicious with apple butter.  

Daughter Nina embellished this tiny onesie for Andie for Easter.
She also did a shirt for Elizabeth.
Nina used her Silhouette machine - I don't know much about them  except Nina makes really cute things with it.  

Isn't this yellow rose pretty?
it bloomed so early, on a $3.97 Aldis rose bush.  

my 3 sweet little Easter Bunny Grandchildren

Do you belong to Kraft First Taste?  

They send out coupons for  new Kraft products a few times a year.  

In March,  they sent me  a free coupon for their new product that is flavored bread crumbs and grated cheese that you mix together to bread meat, then bake it.  

  With the free coupon, I got a package of

 KRAFT FRESH TAKE - CHEESE BREADCRUMB MIX - CHILI LIME & PANKO 

the instructions say it will coat 6 pieces of meat.  I was cooking 4 smallish pieces of chicken so I just used half the bag.  

this is what chicken looks like coated with the cheese and breadcrumbs.  We thought it was delicious and tasted like a restaurant entree.

In fact,  we liked it so much, that I used the second half of that bag the very next night to coat tilapia filets.

It was delicous!

Have you tried any of this Kraft cheese and breadcrumb coating?  it comes in 6 flavors but we have only tried the chili lime one.

What Happened?

4 freshly dug up Boxwood bushes on our sidewalk

What happened?  that is the question Gavin and Elizabeth both asked when they got here this morning.  

They aren't used to seeing bushes and so much dirt on our sidewalk.  

There has been a row of boxwood bushes along the front of our house since before we moved here.  

I never have liked them but just got around to doing something about them.  

A woman from our area Facebook FreeCycle group asked for bushes, trees, bulbs, etc to move to her yard.

I asked if she wanted the boxwoods and she does.  

I did not know how hard they would be to dig up. My stepson offered to bring his very large John Deere tractor over to pull them up.

But I like to do things myself so I got a shovel yesterday and tried digging them up.  

I softened the ground with water,  then used more water to wash off the roots once I got them up.  

See - I dug up 4 of them all by myself!  

It was hard, dirty work but doable.  

The lady from FreeCycle is coming over later with her 15 year old son to finish digging them up and to move them to her yard. .    

yea!  

I will be so glad to have these bushes move to a new home.  

After we do some dirt work,  I want to plant KnockOut rose bushes and zinnias where the boxwoods were.  

I think that will be much prettier,  don't you?

hodge podge of weekend pictures

our backyard garden
tomato and pepper plants doing fine
seeds for herbs, lettuce, cukes and squash - not yet sprouting

start at composting
if we are going to garden, we need compost and Jeff is reseaching ways to "cook" it in the backyard.
in the meantime, I got a big bowl from the junk pile waiting for the yard sale, and put the weekend scraps in it
peels from veggies and eggs and coffee grounds
starting somewhere!

bread

mixed in the bread machine and baked in 2 Pyrex pans

watching your son being a really really good daddy
priceless!

Baby Andie getting posed in Grandpa Jeff's Stetson
on the left is photographer Emily and Sheena -
Emily took 400+ shots of Andie and her parents
she posted one on FB and it was wonderful - I can hardly wait to see the rest  

some more of the photo shoot props
fun tutus, hair bows, outfits!

Nina brought over baby things that Elizabeth had outgrown to pass on  to Cousin Andie
Elizabeth wanted to take everything out of the tubs and show it all to Sheena in the driveway.
See her handing off so much stuff that Sheena can hardly hold it?


I've got a dirty house after a very fun weekend.  So I am off  to work on that for now.
hope you all had a fun weekend too!

toddler towels inspired by Pinterest

Gavin and Elizabeth have outgrown their baby hooded bath towels.  I've been looking around at tutorials and found this one and Nina liked it too.  She got the bright colored towels at Target and I sewed them up.  They sewed up fast but these towels turned out too too big for an almost 2 year old and a 3 year old.  

I was in Walmart looking at their towels, looking for smaller bath towels but did not find any.  I did find this inexpensive beach towel and decided to give it a try.    It is narrow enough,  just 27 inches but had more length needed.

My toddlers were not here when I was sewing so I used a long sleeve shirt that is a size bigger than Gavin to measure how long to cut the beach towel.  I cut off about 15 inches from the 58 inch length,  leaving the body of the towel about 43 inches.

From the 15 length strip,  I had plenty to make the hood and the 2 triangle pockets for the hands.
I used white thread that blended it really well,  and a zig zag stitch to seal up some of  the raw edges, others got turned under twice and then zig zagged,  There was a even a square of towel left to make a small wash cloth.

I could of cut the top of the hood straight but I cut it n the diagonal.  I think the point looks sort of cute and elf like.  But Nina said it reminder her of a KKK hood - but those guys don't wear sunshine yellow stripes, do they?

Here is Gavin modeling the new towel.  He liked it very much and Elizabeth did too, she was here at a different time and I did not get her picture.

So,  I will be buying several more beach towels to sew up more hooded towels to have here and their own homes.    I think they will be nice for bath time and after a swim in the wading pool.
This striped beach towel comes in several colors - I think there was a hot pink, grass green,  bright blue too - and they sell for $3.97.

Easter decorations 2012

Our mantle
I was inspired by Manuela to paint the mirror frame black and I really like it.  

sweet baby Andie napping with some little vintage thrift store bunnies.
Andie is doing great!
She had a checkup this week and has already gained 2 pounds in just 26 days- such an answer to many prayers.  

that pink tree bought on clearance about 4 years ago
We've used it for Christmas,  Valentines and Easter too.  

Close up of some or the ornaments.
My mom did the crocheted egg covers.
I did the cross stitch and plastic canvas ones.  

I am hoping to do a plastic egg wreath for the front door.  I have wanted one for years but never got around to making one.  So, since I've blogged it,  hopefully I will make one soon.  I've seen several tutorials for how to make them.  One type says to just use a wreath shape cut from an a big box for the base.  The others say to use a straw or styrofoam wreath for the base.
Any of you visitors made one and have any advice for me?

From Sue at Berkshire Cottage

I am very flattered to of been given this blog award from Sue at Berkshire Cottage.
Sue has a wonderful blog herself.  She does an amazing amount of cooking and stitching,  go take a peek and I know you will enjoy visiting her cottage too.

Liebster means favorite - we both learned a German word today.

Thank you dearly,  Sue.

Homemade Calzones - Wonderful!

Hello - sorry to be gone for so long but I was sort of on a vacation at home while my grandchildren's educator parents were on their spring break.  Gavin was with us for one over nighter and Elizabeth was here one evening while her parents went to a movie.  Other than that,  I was home alone and found so many things to keep me busy as well as plenty of time for just relaxing.

One thing I did,  actually did it twice as they turned out so very good,  was to make homemade from scratch calzones.  They are delicious warm from the oven.  They are also delicious when they have been frozen,  then reheated in a microwave for 90 seconds.

Mine were filled with browned up hot Italian sausage,  mozzarella cheese, bell peppers and onions and just a little homemade tomato sauce. 

the dough is really easy to roll out and has no weird ingredients.  

baked ones.


I divided the dough into 10 pieces but I think making 12 would be big enough for a  main course helping.
I also plan on making much smaller ones to have for my grandchildren.

I like the Italian ones but also plan to do some taco ones, breakfast ones and maybe some cheese and veggies ones with no meat.

after they cool,  I bag them in freezer bags and freeze.  Jeff has taken them in his lunch box several times and I like something easy for my lunch too.

this dough recipe is from the Fleishmans yeast site.

Dough
3 to 3-1 / 2 cups all-purpose flour  

(both of my batches have used 3 1/4 cups flour for the right consistency)
1 / 2 cup cornmeal
2 t yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1-1 / 4 cups water
1 / 4 cup olive oil

Directions

Combine 1 cup flour, cornmeal, undissolved yeast and salt in a large bowl. Heat water and olive oil until very warm (120^o to 130^oF). Gradually add to flour mixture. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes.    I do the dough in the bread machine on the dough cycle  

Divide dough into 10 equal pieces; roll each piece to 6-inch circle. Place 1/3 cup filling of your choice on one half of each circle. Fold dough over filling; pinch seam or press with tines of fork to seal.  I think they seal better with just a little water rubbed on to one side too

Place on greased baking sheets. Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

Bake at 400^oF for 20 to 25 minutes or until done. Serve warm.

Homemade Pigs in Blankets

I know Dawn from a homemaking list on YahooGroups and also read her blog.  She posted about making some good homemade calzones recently

The dough recipe is found HERE at Bread World.

The dough is basic yeast dough that also has some cornmeal and a little more olive oil than a normal crust recipe.  The oil makes it really easy to roll out and the cornmeal gives it just a little crunch.
I wanted an easy meal last week on a night when our grandson was here for supper.  I remembered 3 packs of Hebrew Kosher hot dogs in the freezer but did not think going to the store for buns or crescent rolls was something I wanted to do.  (with high gas prices and a toddler or 2 with me on most days,  I just don't drive to the store unless I have to,  I like doing things at home with things I already have and this recipe fits that plan perfectly)
So I just mixed up a batch of this calzone dough in the bread machine.  Half of it very amply wrapped up those 7 hot dogs.  I rolled out the other half  for a parbaked pizza crust.

We liked the pigs in blankets very much and the pizza crust was good too.  I plan to make some calzones for the freezer soon.

Rice Taco Salad

This is a recipe I cooked often when all our children were at home.  It is easy, thrifty and everyone likes it.
The recipe is from either Grit or Cappers -my grandmother was an avid reader and she saved these weekly newspapers for us.

It's been a while since this I made this recipe.   Then last week,  I saw a cup of leftover rice in the fridge so I made a half-recipe of Rice Taco Salad for just the 2 of us.   It does not use a lot of spice - just salt, pepper, a little cumin and garlic but it really is delicious.

I put my helping on top of some tortilla chips. This recipe is great for using up leftover rice.   We did not usually add the avocado the recipe calls for,  other than that,  I make the recipe just as it is written..

Everyone liked eating this recipe but I think Nina is who asked for it most often.

Fixing, recycling and making

We have more wear and tear to our towels than we used too.  I am assuming it is because things are just not manufactured with very high standards anymore.
This hand towel had a hole and some fraying at the bottom along that plain part on a towel.
To save the rest of the towel,  I trimmed off the entire bottom, then enclosed that cut edge with some wide black bias tape.
I think it looks pretty good - it will hang in the hall bathroom that has yellow walls and mostly black and white accessories.


I also had to big bath sheets that had very frayed edges but the inside part of the towels were in good shape.
I decided to recycle them into wash cloths.

I cut away the bad parts of the towels, then cut 12 inch squares - you can tell they are not all exact but close to 12 inches. 

I cut 12 inch squares from a vintage yard sale sheet and sewed them to each wash cloth,  then turned them right side out and sewed around the whole thing, close to the edge to seal up the turn spot and to keep them from getting too wonky as they go through the wash.

Those towels were so big,  I ended up with 16 wash cloths.  

We have been using them for about a month and like them just fine.  

These go in the master bathroom that is mostly white with a little blue in the curtains.  

The bibs I made earlier worked so nicely on Gavin and Elizabeth.  They really enjoy picking out the animal they want to wear.
Elizabeth's momma, Nina,  requested some big girl bibs for Elizabeth to have at home so I sewed up 6 bibs that next evening.  3 of them are a "Pooh" print and 3 of them are dessert themed fabric.  I used fabric I already had - the thriftiest way to do things right now - besides not spending money on the fabric,  I also did not use any gas for a trip to the store.

Bibs really are quick and easy to sew up,  if you need some for your toddlers or maybe a baby gift,  give them a try!