19 September 2020

 It was a gorgeous day yesterday.  Had a nice time at the flea market. Bought some sheets for the RV and an old, round style tupperware container.

We stopped at a place called Billy's Boudin and Cracklins for some fresh cracklins. 

And at home, I saw this.

I do love spider lilies.

You all be safe and God bless.

Sunday dinner

Hi Mom. Promised you a picture or two. :-)

I made my version of spring rolls. They are nothing like real spring rolls. Usually I use spring roll wraps to make them; but this time I made the mistake of buying Lumpia wrappers.
I still made the spring rolls, just turn out different.

So when I make them I cook up some hamburger. Youngest said "ground beef". Well, yes. After that was drained, I added a can of bean sprouts and a can of sliced mushrooms.
Looks like this when you start. Almost forgot. Mozzarella and cheddar cheese. Or some mix of cheese.

There is also a mix of corn starch and water to help seal the wrap.

Here it is wrapped up, haha.

And after frying.

You can bake them also, but hubby doesn't like them that way.

So there you have it. Sunday dinner. Takes a while to get it all together; but not long to fry and eat.

You all be safe. God bless. And thank Him for what you have.

Thank you, Mom!

So my Mom sent us some money for Christmas and we used it to take everyone to lunch.
We did not go to the Paragon Casino again. As much as I love their buffet, hubby does not like driving all the way to get there.
I did some thinking and we decided on Noodles and Grill Asian Cuisine. It's right in town and has something that everyone can eat.
They were really

Youngest son Patrick.

He has several health issues, among them being that we never know what is going to make him sick. It is a problem we have been chasing for several years now and is still ongoing. We know a lot about what it is not, but not what it is. Spice of any kind and most seasonings, too, are a definite no no; as are potatoes in any form. So he got the beef fried rice.

Fried rice is pretty much always safe for him. This place doesn't make theirs with soy sauce like a lot of places do, which is also a plus.

One thing we like about this restaurant? Bean sprouts. It may sound picky, but a lot of Asian restaurants around here don't serve bean sprouts. Even the Tao restaurant in Lafayette doesn't. But they do here and we like bean sprouts.

Middle son Robert.

He did two tours in Iraq and has PTSD. He likes things spicy, so he got the Penang Udon.

He said it wasn't as spicy as it looked; but was still very good.

Hubby ordered Wonton Egg Noodle Special.

I ordered the Pepper Steak. When it came out it didn't look like pepper steak, but I tried it anyway and it was really good, with just a bit of a bite to it.
When we got the receipt, it turns out it was Triple Meats with spicy Garlic Sauce.

All in all, a great lunch. THANK YOU, MOM!

God bless you all and Merry Christmas. ♥

I swear sometimes I am hopeless. ;)

Did you know you can hard boil eggs by steaming them? Well, you can. Works great. I got the idea from Fresh Eggs Daily.

I don't have a steamer, so I used my metal colander. Set it in my small enamel pan, and put a large lid over it to hold in most of the steam.

However, my skill at hard boiled eggs ends there. I tried to follow the instructions, but the rolling and peeling still wasn't quite as easy as it should have been. I am certain the fault is mine as this is a skill I still need to master. I did have a few eggs that peeled nicely, but most of them looked like the Rat Pack and been nibbling on them. (Sorry, Mike.)

Oh well, today I'm going to try the egg salad portion of the instructions and see how that goes. Lisa makes her egg salad like I make my jerky. No measuring. Haha. Might be a disaster in the making, but we'll see how it goes.

You all have a great Thursday! :-)

---

Update: Hubby loved the egg salad! Yay! :-D

I like it when

hubby tells me "I can't think of any way you could have made dinner any better." :-D
I am not a cook. My mom didn't really cook. My dad did a lot of cooking. But he liked everything Very Well Done. So I do too, haha. It has taken me years of practice to not burn everything. And often times I still do. Hubby can throw stuff together and it often turns out quite excellent. I throw stuff together and it's often a disaster. ;-)
So, I was quite happy last night. :-)
Thanks for all the comments on my last post. Glad to know I'm not alone sometimes. ♥

Sunday afternoon

Real home fries. ;-)
The little round one tasted just like mashed potatoes. I will definitely grow potatoes again. I think the fact that I got any at all makes them a good beginner's plant. :-)

I'll do a few more posts about the last trip to the farm, but if you want to see the pictures now, I updated my picture links with the new album link.

Thanks to all of you for being friends and for sharing your experiences and knowledge. Makes me really happy to know you all! ♥

Happy Sunday to you all and I hope you all have a blessed week.

I am so clueless.

Really, haha. While I hesitate to show my ignorance, I know everyone (me included) likes a little chuckle in the morning. So I thought I'd do a little post. :-)
As you know, we travel a lot. (Well, it seems like a lot to me.) And as I have a black thumb,  I don't have a nice garden like so many of you. But, I thought maybe I could garden in buckets. (The first thing I've learned is having a smaller area doesn't mean they will grow faster, heh.)
The box store had broccoli and brussels sprout plants last fall, so I figured it must be time to plant them. They would know, right?
Well, as you know, we have had snow and freezing temps. Not quite as bad as the South, but bad enough that the plants were not amused. I did cover them with plastic (trash bags) and a little bit of burlap (but not thick burlap because I wanted the sun to get through).
And despite my best efforts, I've manged not to kill them! The harvest, however, would probably be appreciated by guinea pigs or rabbits, if we had any such. I am hoping the wild rabbits won't get them though. Really.  Though I suppose they are too busy laughing to eat them. ;-)
Let's see if Blogger will post the pictures for me...
This is my biggest head of broccoli.

The brussels sprouts have been completely unimpressed with the weather. And oddly, the peas I planted - mostly for the nitrogen for the plants - have not been impressed by the weather either.

I uncovered them yesterday because it was warmer, and I was hoping they'd get a bit more sun that way; but I think it's supposed to freeze again tonight, so I'll be 'bagging' them back up again this afternoon sometime.

Ah well. Got to start learning somewhere, right?
I'm linking to my webshots album this time. Just to see how it works. I'll post a link to the actual album in case you want to take a closer look.
Happy Wednesday, everyone! :-)

Fat Lip

That's what I expect I will have by tonight. A fat lip. I was getting a box with some of my extra canning supplies out of the closet and it whomped me right in the mouth.
Tooth cut my lip. *pouts*
*sigh*
Thought perhaps I should give you an update on that pickle canning disaster. I suppose since it was my first try at canning anything, I should properly call it an exercise. Yes. A learning exercise.
Well, I guess they turned out okay.  I put a jar in the fridge for several days, thinking perhaps that cold pickles would be better than room temperature, and then opened today. They seem to be sort of okay. I mean they tasted like pickles...
I let hubby try some the end of last month and he said they were salty. I expected that and considered tossing the whole batch, but left them sit till today - which is very nearly as long as I read somewhere that they needed to sit after canning.
I had way more pickle stuff than pickle juice. Hard to figure out how to divide that stuff - not to mention messy. Ah well. Live and learn. :)

So what is the secret to peeling eggs?

Hard boiled eggs, I mean. If they are a pain in the behind does that mean I didn't boil them long enough? Did I let them cool too long? Should I have put vinegar in the water or something?

I swear, I am hopeless, haha.

Ugh. It's a good thing I was planning on trying my hand at making egg salad, because I certainly would have failed at anything else today.
And the egg salad is still in question, too. ;)

So I've learned something today

Read all the instructions on the pickling salt package several times. And then read them again.
I am canning today. For the first time ever. I wish my grandmother had made me pay closer attention. ;)
I bought my supplies at WalMart. Bought Ball's pickling salt because it had a recipe for Bread and Butter Pickles and my husband loves bread and butter pickles.

The part about reading them again? I used the whole bag of salt on my cucumbers and onions and wondered why it wouldn't dissolve. ;) It wasn't until after I was rinsing them out that I realized I was only supposed to use, like, a quarter cup.
Oops.

Second thing I learned? I need a BIGGER STOVE for canning. I can't keep the jars and lids hot, boil the cucumbers and syrup and heat the canner at the same time. :/ Just not enough space on the stove, or my counter either, for that matter.

Just how critical is head space, anyway? Is it okay to have a bit more, but not a bit less?

And another thing. How do you know the temp inside the canner, after you put the lid on?

Can you tell I am hopeless and clueless?

If any of these jars seal, and if the pickles actually turn out? I'll be really amazed. Do Bread and Butter pickles actually have to sit a month before you can eat them?

Oh, and the fan on my stove vent? It only works in high now, and it won't shut off. I suppose that's better than not at all?

Sorry for the quality of the picture. I didn't want to use the flash, and I couldn't figure out how to take a normal picture, haha. It's pretty sad when the equipment is smarter than the operator. ;)

Beautiful weekend!

The weather has been really nice this weekend. A cool front came through. The nights have been in the 40s. We took the granddaughter fishing yesterday. For such nice weather, the fishing was not too good. But we did catch a couple.
A bass, which we let go, as we don't like bass.

And a couple bluegill/pumpkinseed - one of which we let go because it was a female getting ready to lay eggs.

We also went to Harris Teeter last night. They often have really nice naval oranges. And they did. So we got 8 nice, almost softball size oranges. And much to my surprise, they had smelt!  I fried some up with the bluegill that we kept. Yummy!

And here's a picture of just the smelt. :)

Really brought back memories of when my dad and older brother would get up really early to go up to Northern Michigan for the smelt run. I loved eating them growing up and I still love them when I can find them. I was just thinking of them last week, too! :)

Hope you've all had a really nice weekend, too.