How Are You All Doing???

Hi there everybody....how are you all doing??? How is this quarantine treating you??? I think I have gained a few pounds....although I have not jumped on the scale for 21 days....not sure I want to for fear of seeing a gain of too many pounds. 

As you can see, this is going to be a food blog today. Been cooking up a storm this month. The spaghetti recipe below was really fun to make and delicious. "One-Pot Spaghetti" 

2 Tbsp. butter or veggie oil
1 lb. ground beef (I added one small chopped onion and 6 sliced mushrooms)
1 - 1 1/2 oz, envelope Spaghetti sauce mix
1 tsp. salt
1 - 6 oz can tomato paste
6 c. wter
1 - 8 oz. package spaghetti

Melt butter in a dutch oven over moderately low heat. Add meat; cook and stir over moderate heat until brown and crumbly. I cooked the onions and mushrooms with the meat. Add spaghetti sauce mix, salt and tomato paste and blend well. Add water and bring sauce to a rolling boil over moderate heat. Add spaghettis, boil gently, uncovered 10 minutes, or until spaghetti is tender and sauce is thick, Stirring occasionally. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. Serves 4

With the spaghetti is some home made bread, toasted, and garlic spread topping it....mmmmmmm!!

Not sure if the bread in this picture is the garlic toast in the top picture.....may not be. Been making so much bread lately, I am losing track. The buns in the back became hamburger buns....gosh those were good hamburgers. This loaf of bread did not last too long....don't want it to get too old. Makes good toast with peanut butter on it.

I made a "sourdough starter" on Saturday....so now I have been making sourdough bread, buns, and waffles today....so good. Will have to do something sourdoughy tomorrow. I found a web-site that has 75 sourdough recipes....so I am all set to use my starter for quite awhile. 

Above is a chocolate cake I made on Easter Sunday.....nothing special....just a packaged cake mix with peanut butter frosting topped with crushed walnuts and sprinkles. It's all gone now. 

Made this apple pie on the 3rd of April....my favorite way to make....with the crumbly top. Along with that pie was some banana fudge ice cream....yummmmmm!!!

Made this scrumptious pizza pie along with the apple pie.....another pizza winner!!!

In the bottom picture is "Cheesy Rice" This was a good recipe...it did not last long. As JP gobbled it all down. It was soft and easy for him to chew and eat. 

I guess out of boredom I have been cooking more, looking up recipes that I have never tried and it can't be spicy or hard to chew, as JP has a set of bad teeth that all need to be pulled. One of these days out ship will come in and we will be able to take care of his teeth.

So according to my calender, I have been making a lot of things...Apple pie, pizza pie, Bean soup and British beans(that was good), cup cakes, focacsa bread, a loaf of bread and buns, cole slaw, fried cabbage and more bread. More beans and green pea soup more bread and sourdough starter. Sourdough bread and waffles. Someone need some sourdough starter???? I just hope I can keep up with this starter. Maybe after about a week I will be able to keep it in the fridge which might slow down the growth some.

Well, now that I have made you very, very hungry, I should close here. It's been a busy month for cooking....but we don't order out for food and I am just used to cooking at home. You all have a great rest of the month and keep looking up....better days are coming and we will no longer be under house arrest!!!! Cheers ~ Louise

Delicious Bread and 2 More Cards

Hi everyone...keeping warm and toasty??? I was out and about today. Mailed a package, and went to the local meat market for some hot dogs and hamberger, pizza crust and some mild Italian Chicken sausage for my Lasagna Soup. Got some bacon in the oven right now, JP is having eggs, bacon, baked potato, toast and fruit for dinner at 1:00am (he'll be impressed with his "WoW" as I put each plate on the table)

So in the above picture is the wonderful "fresh out of the oven bread" I made yesterday. (See previous post) The bread is all sliced up, looks pretty doesn't it? And, it was very tasty too!!! This bread is so easy to make and in a pinch, when there is no bread to be had, this is on the menu. Oh and I might add....this bread makes a wonderful turkey and pepperoni sandwich!!

This is another Get Well card I made last night. It was lots of fun to make. I colored the tulip with dye ink then sprayed it with water. The effect, when stamped looks like a water-colored tulip. I wrote "Get Well Soon" on cardstock that has a black board finish, that was rather a new technique for me. I think I am needing to go to Archivers to get more of that cardstock and special pen for writing as everything at the store is 40% off right now.

In this card, I must have made the stamped and embossed image a couple of years ago. Actually I made quite a few....so now I have enough to make more "get well" cards or whatever else comes up.

So there you have it.....my set of "6 Get Well Cards". Next on the agenda is a set of 6 Birthday, 6 Thank You's, and 6 Thinking of You. I really need to get more cards and things up in my store....so that will be my focus for the next couple of months. I'll probably sell the cards 6 for $15.00 + postage.

Well, time to close for the night. Need to go ride my bike for 4-5 miles. Straighten up my stamp area for the next session of card making. So take care and keep looking up. Spring is right around the corner....(wink)!!! Cheers ~ Louise

Fresh Out of the Oven Bread and Get Well Cards

Hi there everyone. How is your day going so far? I slept in today.....till almost noon...yikes! Course I did not go to bed till almost 3:15am. I guess I am a night owl @ ♥. Was up making cards for someone that special ordered some "Get Well" cards from my Etsy store. I love when an order comes in, so I can create something new. The order is for 6 get well cards. So as I make this order up I am also making a similar order to put in my Etsy store. I will be selling the cards for $2.50 a piece so 6 cards X 2.50 = $15.00 + postage (might be around $2.50.) Tonight I will finish up the order and put the cards up in my Etsy store for the lady to buy. Then off to the Post Office tomorrow to mail them out. Those are the plans for now...(smile)!!

Here is a picture of my "Fresh out of the oven bread" Oh my is it delicious, as I sit here blogging and bite into my turkey and pepperoni sandwich!!!! I did not take a picture of the sliced bread as it was too warm at the time of this picture. As you can see I baked the bread in my dutch oven with parchment paper. Directions said to heat the oven up to 450 to 500 degrees then place the bread dough in the dutch oven. Turn down the heat to 425 degrees and bake 30 minutes with a cover. Then 15 to 20 minutes without the cover. Being very careful not to touch the dutch oven as it is VERY HOT!!

After cooling, I took the bread out of the dutch oven, lifting up with the parchment paper and let cool some more. Then I sliced a little piece for tasting purposes...(wink)!! Let me just add.....this sandwich is out of this world delicious!!!! The recipe is really easy.

Now I cut this recipe in half for one loaf of bread, but here is the recipe in full:
6 1/2 cups regular flour
3 cups warm water
1.5 tablespoons yeast
1.5 tablespoons salt

Thats it. Mix the flour, yeast and salt well in a large bowl. Add water and mix, making sure the flour at the bottom gets incorporated. It will be sticky, no worries.

The original recipe (which I got from "Biz" at www.mybizzykitchen.com ) says to let rise for two hours, (My dough was not rising, so I let it go overnight, covering with a bowl and sitting it in the oven with no drafts, by morning it had doubled in size). Preheat your dutch oven in the stove at 450 degrees (another recipe said 500) Place the parchment paper in the pot with the dough and bake, turning down the heat to 425 degrees.

So between the two recipes, I came up with this beatiful loaf of bread....I need to add, there is no kneading required for this recipe, so that makes it very easy too. In a few days I will add a picture of the sliced bread (already took a picture of it and it is already in JP's lunch bucket).

So here are the pictures of my get well cards. I found this idea in one of my many magazines, trying to get ideas for get well cards. I thought this was a pretty card and can be for Birthdays, Thank you, Thinking of you, maybe even Mother's day too! I really liked the way it turned out. Ready to make some more.

This is my House Mouse get well card....used water-color pencils for this one, the ice cube and cotton is covered with speckles. Poor little mousey must have a touch of flu.

This card is a picture of my roses. I took this picture back in 2006, I am thinking. I have used these roses for many different things, mostly as a banner for my Etsy store. Just love this picture and thought, now wouldn't they make a nice card too...need to do some more of these. I added the butterfly for a little embellishment. Turned out very pretty.

Here is another view of the roses from a different angle and focused on different flowers in the full bouquet.

This get well card is a stamped picture of a sea-scape. I colored it in with pencils then must have run it off on the copy machine to make more copies.

So there you have it, just a few cards. Tonight I will finish off the order and get them ready for mailing. So you have a great evening and keep warm, make some tea and cuddle up for a long and cold winters night. Keep looking up. cheers ~ Louise

Mexican Lasagna and Pizza Bread



So today we took Kylie to the groomer. From there we went to Festival Foods for a few things, like dog food, flour and grapes. Usually on Tuesday and Thursday's Festival puts out "dented and scratched" food in a box for $10. If I get there at the right time, sometimes there is a box or two left. Today, I got a box of canned goods, noodles, soups, seasonings, cookies, juice, puddings, pickles. There was some lasagna noodles, diced tomatoes and refried beans. I thought, hummmm, wonder if I could make a "Mexican Lasagna". So I looked up on the internet www.cooks.com and found a recipe. Although I did not have all the ingredients, this is what I came up with, using what I had in "the box".
Lasagna noodles
Can of refried beans
Can of diced tomatoes
1/2 pound hamburger
1/2 chopped onion
1 bag of shredded cheese (mozzarella, Cheddar, or mexican)

Brown hamburger with onion (drain if you need to) add can of tomatoes and refried beans. Layer in a small lasagna pan, 1st layer is mixture, then cooked noodles, mixture, cheese, noodles, mixture, cheese, noodles, mixture, cheese, noodles, mixture, cheese (I think that is four layers), depending how tall your pan is, layer accordingly. I baked this at 350 for about 30-45 minutes.
It was not very spicy so if you would like to add hot sauce to a layer or two, that would be good.



Pizza Bread
Now this was really good!! Found the recipe from a book I got from the library. Called "Everything Flax" More than 100 easy ways to work flax into  your everyday diet.

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup light Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1 Tbsp. baking powder
2 tsp. crushed dried oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 1/4 cups skim milk (or 1%)
2 Tbsp. canola oil
1 egg
1 small tomato, sliced
1/4 cup diced green bell pepper
1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Cover the sundried tomatoes with boiling water and let stand for 10 minutes, drain and dice.
Preheat the oven at 350, spray an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
In a bowl, combine rehydrated sun dried tomatoes, flour, Parmesan cheese, sugar, flaxseed, baking powder, oregano, salt and pepper.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, oil and egg and pour the liquid ingred. into the dry ingred. Stir just until the dry ingred. are moistened.
Pour into the prepared loaf pan.
Sprinkle the fresh tomato, bell pepper and mozzarella cheese over the batter.
Bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour or until the wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove from the oven, and transfer the bread to a rack to cool.
This can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

MMMM Good!!!!!!!

I know the pictures aren't that great, but it all did sure taste good. Well, you have a great day and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh. Cheers ~ Louise