A "Making" Kind of Day

Hi there everyone. How is your Saturday going???? Thought I would take a minute or two to say HI....and just report I am in a "Making" kind of day. You say "What?" Yeah, so far I have:

• Made a Rhubarb Pie
• Making "Slow Cooker Ropa Vieja (Cuban Beef) in my Power Pressure XL. I had ALL the ingredients, so why not make it.
• I also will be making my bed, changing sheets and putting a new foam mattress on it...hopefully that will feel better.
• I will be making some dried tomatoes today.....green tomatoes this time. Have lots of green tomatoes that may not get a chance to turn red before the first frost.
• I will be making a few cards tonight. I am hoping to get a card and note out to a "survivor of the mass killing" in Las Vegas today....have the note typed, just need to find a nice card and send it off to the Hospital.
• Making some iced tea right now.

Yeah.....so much to do and so little time.

 Last week I made this lovely dish from Blue Apron "Seared Steaks and Roasted Potatoes with Balsamic Glazed Mushrooms" Gosh, this was good. I made two other meals from Blue Apron, but this is the only one I took pictures of.

I am in the midst of reading this book, "Killing England". If you love History, this is the book for you. I picked it up at Sam's Club after hearing about it on the Sean Hannity show. There are some really interesting facts....did you know George Washington had hemorrhoids and had to sit on a pillow while riding his horse. POOR MAN!!!! I feel for him. Back then, there was no Tucks or Preparation H!!!! Gosh, and I am sure he did not carry around Kleenex or toilet paper, not even the soft kind. What did they use back then....leaves, cotton material....ouch!!!! Poor George!!!

I am only in Chapter 1...so I am just beginning this journey. But so far it has been very interesting. Bill O'Reilly and his co-writer go into a lot of history, they go into the archives of many places, Valley Forge, Monticello, Mount Vernon and the Independence Hall to name a few places where they got information for this book.

The men and women of those times were fighting for their freedoms just as we are STILL fighting for our freedoms now.....nothing new under the sun is there????

Well, I better go, or I will not get all the things done that I want to and will have to carry over to Sunday. Have a great day and keep looking up.....better days really are coming.

Cheers ~ Louise

Rhubarb Pie and Ashby's Teas

Hi there everyone.....hope you had a good day. I have been very laxed in my blogging lately, not sure why???? Maybe cause I don't have that many visitors and/or commenter's. Gosh, just not sure how one goes about having regular readers and commenter's. Or....maybe my life is not that exciting that people don't care to come by and see what I am up to.  That's okay....no problem.

I for one, have a few blogs that I like to visit daily, I don't comment much, one reason is, I have to be in Google Chrome to comment, for some reason blogger won't let me comment when I am in Internet Explorer.....just don't know why things have to be so hard. Oh well, I guess I must be more diligent a commenter in order to receive comments and be in Google.

Right at this moment....this rhubarb pie is baking. The rhubarb is from our backyard....yum, I can hardly wait for a bite....better pull the whip cream out from the freezer. It's really an easy recipe. I use a freezer pie shell or Pillsbury pie and roll it into the pie pan. The filling is:
4-5 cups of cut rhubarb
3/4 to 1 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 egg (it keeps things together)
Mix together with your hand is the best.

Pour into the pie shell and cover with a topping of 3-4 Tablespoon butter, 1/4 to 1/2 + cup flour and mix together till crumbly (you may have to add more flour to make it more crumbly) Then I add some cinnamon to the mixture then spread across the pie.

The pie is baked at 425 for 10 minutes then turn the temp down to 350 for 30 minutes. Cool and serve with ice cream or whip cream.

Today in the mail, I received this wonderful tea, "Ashbys Tea"....so good. I never heard of it till I went to Doloris' house to cut her hair and she served me this tea.....the purple one is what I tried, "Cinnamon Plum Tea".....I always like something new and this sounded so delicious. The other tea I tried at her house (6 weeks later) was "White Pomegranate Tea"....oh my, that was good too. I vowed that I would buy some and that was like in January.....finally I ordered the teas on Monday and the teas came today.

I decided that I need to go back to my tea drinking, been doing too much coffee lately. I think the added cream sure can add calories to ones body.

I used to think my ducks all had to be in a row, and if they weren't I would shoot them....which is what I told one of my former bosses 14 years ago....we just laughed about it, because I found out later, he needed to have all his ducks in a row too!!

 

Anyways, I found these signs on the Internet....I think the duckies were on Facebook, the bottom sign, (probably Facebook also) they both brought a smile to my face and I needed to have them for my files. Which reminds me, I have been slowly working on cleaning up my picture files and putting all my 2015 pictures on the memory stick....no telling how many pictures I have. But it seemed to clear up some space, so I was happy about that.

Yep....sometimes I could use a little help around this house.....wonder what it is like to have a chef, butler and a maid????????????? Guess I will always wonder about that one and just do it myself. I don't mind the chef part, as I like to cook. A maid that cleans the house......that would be nice as I am not a cleaner.....just do the basics. A butler?????? now that would be interesting.

Watching hockey at I type this post, the Nashville Predators and San Jose Sharks are playing.....the Predators are losing miserably 5-0 and this is the last chance for the Predators, 7th game....oh well, looks like the Sharks will be playing the St. Louis Blues, not unless some miracle takes place for Nashville.

Tonight's dinner for JP, when he comes home, will be pork steak with applesauce, roasted cauliflower, fruit and rhubarb pie....well rounded I think, it was delicious as I already had some pork and applesauce.

Well, as soon as this game is over, I shall go downstairs and get my cards ready for Hospice tomorrow. I thought it was last Friday but after checking the schedule....I found I had one more week to work on cards. It will be the usual 50+ cards, but at least I am not rushing to make them.

Well, you all have a great evening and keep looking up.....better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Food and Father's Day Cards

Hi there everyone....hope you are have a great Sunday and a Happy Mother's Day....weather was mighty fine today. We went to church, I got a little purple petunia to plant some place. Made a Blue Apron meal "Spring Chicken Fettuccine with Sauteed Asparagus, Kale & Rosemary"  (It was "ok"...but not great) Then I sat down to watch some hockey and fell asleep. I really should have been outside doing something, but never made it....took Kylie for a walk and now here I am finishing my post that I actually started last night. Maybe in a little bit I will go downstairs and do some cards. (After I make my rhubarb pie though)

The running of the Kentucky Derby was yesterday....I was watching #10 Whitmore (the jockey caught my attention, always winking at the camera) and #13 Nyquest (named after a Detroit Red Wing hockey player) Nyquest WON!!!! He was at 2-1 and paid $6.60 (guess I would have made $4.60 betting $2.00 to win...hahahahha). When I was still living at home, (in the 60's) my step-father was a gambling man and we went to lots of sulky races in Maywood and regular horse races in Arlington Heights....yep, I did a little bit of betting.) Sad to say, my step-father lost a lot of money because of his betting. Guess that is why he lives in Las Vegas now....so he can play his games)

In these two pictures are some recipes I made from Blue Apron last week....as usual, they were delicious. The above recipe is: "Zucchini & Parmesan Quiches with Red Leaf Lettuce Salad & Pink Lemon Vinaigrette"

The spinach was cooked then pressed to get all the liquid out then chopped. The zucchini, diced and cooked with garlic and seasoned with salt and pepper. Eggs mixed and crème fraiche, lemon zest and 2 tablespoons of water whisked together, the zucchini and spinach whisked together and poured into the pie shells and topped with shaved Parmesan cheese. While baking at 425 degrees for 18-20 minutes (these were small pie shells, a larger pie shell might be 40 minutes)

The salad was chopped and the vinaigrette is a shallot-lemon juice mixture with salt and pepper to taste and slowly whisk in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until well combined. Combine with the lettuce and top with the rest of the shaved Parmesan cheese.

This recipe is "Grains of Paradise-Crusted Steak with Mashed Plantain, Collard Greens & Ginger Peanuts" Yum the steak was pretty tender this time around....and now to find the Grains of Paradise seasoning....gosh that was good.

Something interesting about this meal was the plantain....I rather like this fruit/vegie, not really sure what to call it...looks like a banana but is more tougher and you can boil or fry them and they are so good. In this recipe, they were boiled then mashed, butter, lime zest, salt and pepper was mixed in then set aside.

The steak was seasoned with salt and pepper and the crushed grains of paradise then pan fried to your desired doneness then left to rest.

Crushed peanuts and ginger were cooked together and set aside. Collard greens were cooked down. Parsley and the juice of a lime, oil, salt and pepper mixed together and served as a sauce for the steak.  The mashed plantain was dished out, then topped with the collards and then the steak and peanut crunch and then topped with the herb sauce. My this was pretty tasty, for sure.

These next four cards are the Father's Day cards I made for Hospice. I probably will make some more of these cards to give to a few men.....I like the hot air balloon card the best and probably will make one to send to the step-father in Las Vegas. He is going to be 90 years old in July....so maybe one of these cards will be a birthday card for him also.

Someone gave me the stamp for this next card, it's been sitting around for 4-5 years and finally used it....looks like a stained glass window card, sorta.

And last but not least....my golfer....I have had him for over 10 years at least. He has been on Birthday cards and Father's Day and I always seem to pull him out every couple of years with a different idea.

So there you have it....another day in the life of Louise...just doing time till Jesus returns for his church....can't be long now what with the way things are going on in this world. Just when you think you  heard it all....something else takes the cake. Sometimes I wonder where people are getting their brains. Don't you? How in the world do we keep sane in an insane world????

Well, I am off to go bake a rhubarb pie. You all have a great day and keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise