So Many Tomatoes........and Hurricanes.

Hi there everyone.....hope you all are having a good week. Yesterday Habitat for Humanity came to put up our fence.....I sure do love it. I took a lot of "before" and "after" pictures of the fences. That will be my next post in a few days.

So yes....I have been busy this past week....cleaning things up in the back yard to get it ready for the new fence. This Saturday, the Habitat people are going to paint the floor of my front porch. So I have to clean the porch of the lawn chairs, tables and fountain. I will probably spray the porch down to get the dust off. So just a little bit more work to go.

In between the cleaning, my tomato plants have been producing an abundance of tomatoes....I have been amazed.

In this picture I am drying some tomatoes....my first batch, I seasoned the tomatoes with salt and pepper. The second batch was a sandwich seasoning.....the third batch....just salt. Oh my, the tomatoes are delish....like candy. I might dry some more tomatoes tomorrow.

In the picture below is some salsa....chopped up tomatoes, peppers, onions, 1 teaspoon cilantro, 1 teaspoon taco seasoning and mixed together. I added some cheese to the salsa which was good too. Sooooo good. I just may make some more salsa this weekend. I should can some too.

Here's a peek at the tomatoes in different stages of ripeness.

I still want to make some canned spaghetti sauce, along with canning just plain tomatoes. I am having lots of fun with my tomatoes. Tonight I had a plain tomato sandwich with mayo on toast. So good. A tomato Quiche is on the agenda to make yet....maybe tomorrow for breakfast.

I am so sorry for and have prayed for those that suffered in Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. So much devastation. I can't imagine what it was like. Tornado's are scary, but a hurricane sounds even more scarier. To lose everything, no money, water, electric, housing, food.....sad.  Leaving your home to evacuate and not know if you will have a home to come back to. I don't know, so hard. Maybe Wisconsin is not so bad when it comes to weather....snow and cold, I will take it.

Well time to close. The weather is supposed to be really nice this week....summer has come back. 85 degrees on Saturday....I will let the Habitat volunteers paint the porch....maybe I will pull a few weeds around my rose bushes.

Have a great week and talk to you soon. Keep looking up....better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

A Few New Cards Added to Etsy

Hi everyone........not sure how many that is, but hope you are all having a wonderful Saturday.....so much to do, so little time. Been watching some cooking shows on TV this morning and now I am ready to cook. My direction is towards tomatoes and peppers. Received a great surprise early this morning, JP came home with a big box of tomatoes and peppers from work. On one of the cooking shows, Lydia from Italy made "stuffed tomatoes" gonna try this one today for dinner, I have some big peppers in the frig, so I need to stuff them too. Made a big pot of rice and added some little sausages to that rice. Deydrated some peppers and tomatoes and will make some salsa also.

Was reading on another blog that today is "World Make a Card Day". Well for sure I will be making my Christmas cards tonight, but thought I would add come cards already made to this blog. Hope you like them.

The above card "Happy Anniversary with the two doves" was made a couple of weeks ago and just added it to my Etsy store a couple of days ago. (the card is $3.00 + shipping and postage) It was basically easy to put together. Using Wabashi taped on the card and the 3 silver hearts were punched out and glued on top of the tape. A border punch at the top for added pzazz. The doves were from  an Amuse die set, using the frame from the die cut and dabbing with pink ink to get the affect I wanted. The inside of the card says "Thinking of you on this Special Day"

This is my "The Flying Duck 1" card which I just added to my Etsy store last night the card  is priced  for  $3.00 + shipping and postage. A very fun card to make using a flying duck templates and stamping a scenery stamp on top then dabbing ink around the duck to fill in. A scripture verse added and the lines drawn in and studs added to embellish. 

I added this Christmas decoration along with a few other decorations to Etsy this past week. Little round disks punched out and folded to form the horn like sections then dabbed with gold speckles. Each section is glued together to form the wreath, Peace is calligraphied and speckled and the tree added for embellishment. This ornament can be added to your tree, on a present, on the door where ever you want to display this lovely ornament. The price is $7.00 + shipping and postage.

I have not added this card to Etsy as yet........it's a very fall looking card and looks like the duck is flying into fire or a sunset or sunrise. You can see the scenery stamp pretty clear here. Done pretty much the same way as the above duck card only adding squiggly lines. This card will also be $3.00 + shipping and postage.

As this post has gotten pretty long, I think I will close here for the day. You all take care and enjoy your Saturday and Sunday and keep looking up for your redemption drawth nigh.
Cheers ~ Louise

Microwaved Potato Chips MMMMM Good!!!

I haven't added a recipe on my blog for a long time, so here is one I just tried tonight. I have no idea how many points it has for you Weight Watchers, calorie wise, there are 198 calories per serving and 220 mg. sodium, oh.....but they sure are good!!

I got the recipe for Jacques Pepin's cookbook "Simple and Healthy Cooking" on page 66, I shall attempt to type out all that Jacques said on this recipe.............here it goes.

Microwave Potato Chips with Salsa Cruda ~ yield: 6 servings

It is amazing how potato slices dry and brown in the microwave oven without the addition of any fat or salt. It is important to cut the potatoes into very thin slices in a food processor fitted with a slicer disc attachment or with a hand-held potato slicer. The only drawback to this recipe is that you can cook just 10-15 potato slices at a time (depending on your microwave's size).

To make larger batches of chips, lightly coat a large jelly-roll pan or cookie sheet with vegetable cooking spray. Arrange the slices in a single layer, without overlapping, and spray the surface of the slices. Bake the slices at 400 degrees for 16-18 minutes, watching closely and removing slices as they become brown and crisp.

3 large potatoes (about 2 1/4 pounds), peeled
3 cups Salsa Cruda
(another recipe he has in his cookbook....for now, just open a jar of Salsa. I did not use salsa with my chips tonight and they were just fine the way they were. I did add some pop corn salt and spices).

Using either a slicing disc fitted on a food processor or a conventional potato slicer, cut the potatoes into 1/16" slices. Wash the slices in a large bowl of cool water and dry them thoroughly with paper towels.

Arrange some of the potatoes in 1 layer on a waffled microwave tray and microwave on high heat for 5 minutes, or until crisp. Remove. Repeat until the remaining potato slices are cooked. Serve with Salsa Cruda. (or your special jar of Salsa)

So there you have it, chips whenever you want them. I don't usually keep chips in the house, cause I can polish off a whole bag by myself..........(Chips are my temptation). Sometimes I have a taste for chips...........now I can make them and they taste really good!!!

Well, it is getting late so I shall close this blog for tonight. Keep looking up for your redemption draweth nigh!!!
Cheers ~ Louise