A Foodie Post

 

I know I said I wouldn't inundate you with food recipes and here I am doing a whole post on food. I have really enjoyed cooking this week. I had bought a new crock pot in September. It is so much nicer that the one I had which was at least 30 years old, and I would have kept using it but trying to rig things up for a lid was getting trying. Using my old cookbooks and figuring out how to make them crock pot friendly has been fun.

I will share some of  the food I have made this week.

One of my new favorites followed very loosely from a cookbook is called Teriyaki Chicken.
I will give you the recipe I made up for my crock pot.

2 Lbs chicken breast cut in strips
corn starch
2 eggs beaten
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup honey
1 T. sherry
1 clove garlic minced
1t. ginger.

My chicken was still partially frozen, so I cut it into strips. I put corn starch in a zip lock bag and dipped the chicken first in beaten eggs, with a little water added. Then dropped them in the corn starch and once they were coated I put them in the crock pot. I made the soy sauce/honey mixture and poured that over the chicken in the crock pot. I cooked it on low about four hours. About 30 minutes before I served it I made some more honey/soy-sauce mixture and poured it over the chicken and turned it on high. I am on this brown rice kick right now and I can't get enough of it. So I made brown rice and broccoli. There wasn't a scrap left.

I won't promise recipes on all of these. Here is a list of the food I made this week.
I made Chicken Parmesan Casserole.  Totally yummy, I never have thirds on anything and I did this.

Crispy Baked Onion Rings-wonderfully good, but too much fiddly work. I got this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction   
She is my favorite go to gal for new and yummy food.

Orange Cranberry Bread (with honey) 

I love just about anything with cranberries. Honey and orange. I had made Banana bread from my over ripe bananas from my Betty Crocker cookbook that I got for a wedding present. I think that cookbook will always be my favorite because everything just turns out.

It is not to say, I didn't have flops. I made a really yucky dinner, that I wished I had called out for pizza before I made them eat it. It was a recipe called Biscuit-Topped Beef. Icky!!

I think this might end up being a flop, I am still undecided.

Bacon Jalapeno Popper Cheesy Bread

Due to the copyright on this recipe, you will have to go check out the blog yourself.   I don't want to get in trouble. This is a recipe that sounded really good to me, but well, I think it might make better muffins with soup or chowders. That is my image, by the way.

Anyway, that is this week. Tonight we are having pork chops, scalloped potatoes and home made applesauce. Ron requested a pumpkin pie. I can maybe count on one hand how many times we have had pork. I have mentioned once before how my brother had 1000 sows. SO-MANY-HOGS!! It has taken me almost 40 years to eat bacon.

It is just cool enough, that when I turn on the oven to cook, it keeps the house nice and warm. Such a perfect time of year. Plus, I know I mentioned this, but I love my new crock pot.

I hope you have a wonderfully lovely day,
~Kim~

“Indian summer comes gently, folds over the hills and valleys as softly as the fall of a leaf on a windless day. It is always unexpected. After a sharp cold spell, we wake one morning and look out and the very air is golden. The sky has a delicate dreamy color, and the yet unfallen leaves on the bravest trees have a secure look, as if they would never, never fall.”
― Gladys Taber, Stillmeadow Seasons

Odds and Ends

 

I love Fridays! Don't you? What are your plans this weekend? I hope to get some more outside work done this weekend. Maybe some hooking. Lots of cooking. I am having such fun cooking right now.

I thought I would share that big old Give Ye Thanks rug. I worked on it off and on this week. My goal was to have it finished by Thanksgiving, I don't know if I will make it though.

Pattern by NotForgotton Farms-Spruce Ridge

I liked the bird.

I just need to get with it. It is so big it is going to take me a bit to get it bound. I have so many other things that I would like to do some more things. I got a Christmas pattern, so I need to finish up my fall rugs.

Pattern from Old Tattered Flag

It looks like a fun pattern to hook. I hope you have a lovely weekend. I have a whole bunch of things I want to bake today, so I am going to be playing in the kitchen.

Thank you so much for stopping by today,
~Kim~

“But housekeeping is fun. It is one job where you enjoy the results right along as you work. You may work all day washing and ironing, but at night you have the delicious feeling of sunny clean sheets and airy pillows to lie on. If you clean, you sit down at nightfall with the house shining and faintly smelling of wax, all yours to enjoy right then and there. And if you cook—that creation you lift from the oven goes right to the table.”
― Gladys Taber

Finally- November!

 

Oh Happy Day!!! Guess What? You will never guess so I will tell you. I got caught out in the rain!!! Isn't that awesome! I went out to feed and water the chickens and next thing I know, I am hiding under tree branches because the rain is coming down so much. I just had to walk back in and get soaking wet, and I actually got cold!!!

I decided I am a West Coast girl, in a East Coast body. I want cold and rain and snow and all of that fun stuff you write about on your blogs. This year, my goodness, we had nine months of hot weather. One of my friends actually said, "she was so glad this H-E double toothpicks of a summer was over. " She said that word that way and I thought it was so cute.)  Waiting until November to be able to breathe deeply is a long time.

 

I can say, that I think I got the last of what I wanted to get done outside this weekend. I got my clean flowerbeds planted with tulips, hyacinths and daffodils. Lots and lots. I moved and replanted my Iris bulbs.
We got the front lawn dirt reseeded with rye grass. It will be nice to look out on green instead of brown dirt. Hopefully, so come on El Nino.

I didn't hook at all. Nor sew. Today though, I am going to draw out rugs. It is a good day to be in side. Oh, I have to show you a picture of something I made Friday night.

Warm Skillet Bread and Artichoke Dip

 This is the best stuff ever. In fact, I would say if you like artichokes like I do, it is extremely dangerous.
Not to mention just a fun recipe to make. Here is the place I got the recipe from.

After living on summer food, for so long, it is so very, very nice to cook and play in the kitchen again.
I promise to not inundate you with food recipes. Even though, I am thinking far more about food and cooking than anything else.

Have a lovely day, where ever you are,

~Kim~

“Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one’s life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one’s side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music, perhaps . . . perhaps . . . love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath.” 

 

 

 L. M. Montgomery.

Almost Halloween

 

I haven't done a post in almost a week. My goodness. I can say that my chicken coop is clean, my flowerbeds are ready for winter. My house is clean and I feel like winter can come in at any time. I have tried to stay caught up with your blogs, I would work myself silly, and come in and take a break and see what you all have been doing. You are all so inspiring to me. It made me long for a needle and thread or a hook.

I don't share recipes very often, but I am going to share this one. I went through and cleaned out my old cookbooks. I had so many diet cookbooks and other kinds that I felt were just unhealthy. I got rid of almost a half of a trash can. We have big trash cans. I did keep Susan Branch and my Gooseberry Patch cookbooks.

Cookies in the cookie jar, I cannot take food pictures to save my life.

This recipe comes from "In the kitchen with Family & Friends by Gooseberry Patch."

Molasses Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup molasses
4 T. milk
4 1/2 cups flour
2 t. baking soda

Cream together butter and sugar; add molasses and milk. Combine flour and baking soda; add slowly to the molasses mixture. Roll the dough into 2 logs, about the size of a paper towel tube. Slice the dough into 1/4th slices. Arrange on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. ( I chilled the dough for easier handling about 5 minutes.) A perfect cookie.

Pattern from Notforgotten Farms

I finished Old Tom. Nice little pattern. It was fun to do and it came together quickly. I am still working on my Give Ye Thanks. I feel like I hook and hook and I just don't get anywhere. It is nice to have little projects to make me feel like I am accomplishing something.

That is it. I hope to have some super heroes over this Halloween.

My Super heroes.

 This was last year. They will be bigger this year. I don't know who they will be this year.  It is always fun.
Have a great Halloween too. Since I have been so lax in updating.
 Thank you so much for stopping by,
~Kim~

 “‘Dear God,’ she prayed, ‘let me be something every minute of every hour of my life.’”
—Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn