Wednesday Night Dinner

*This was in my drafts folder. I have no idea why but I'm sending out and/or deleting all of these as I tidy things up and prepare to write more regularly!

Wednesday Night Dinner

It has been raining here for two days and it is gloriously windy outside. I’ve been thrilling over the display outside my writing windows. My heirloom roses are all greenery right now but they seem to dance in the wind and continually tap the wide window in front of me as if to get my attention. “Look out here,” they seem to say… and I do. Cardinals are everywhere!

Nestled in the branches of this ever growing rose bush… a gift from my FIL so many years ago… are males and females. They sing to each other and are happier than I’ve seen them all year. They fly right through the thorns without grazing their feathers and flit from one plant to another.

Tonight, they were decorating my now all brown and branches Confederate Rose like ornaments on a Christmas tree. The heavy rains had turned into a soft piddle paddle and water was pooling up from here to our vehicles. These startling red birds (males) and those with a watercolor red (females) were pecking all over the ground and playing in the water. It was the nicest gift from my faithful Father. He knew how dearly I could appreciate such a special sight this day.

Venison is browning slowly on the stove top for our venison chili tonight. We’ll top our steaming bowls with chopped onions and shredded cheddar and maybe even add a wee scoop of sour cream. Smiles.

A dear friend once told me (and for those of you who read the other time I shared this, forgive the repeat) to always keep the supplies on hand for making chocolate chip cookies. She said that no matter how tight the finances got… it offered a bit of comfort. I’ve found her to be very wise. I haven’t always managed to keep the supplies up with grocery prices rising but I try. I find if I have enough flour, sugar, butter, and other basics to make up something to bake…it serves us well. Just a note for those who must keep a watchful eye on the grocery budget!

My daughter adores brownies. I would say she loves them but adore sounds more emphatic somehow and this girl is very fond of chocolate-y rich brownies. With all the rain and wind going on and since we missed going to church as planned, I knew we needed something warm from the oven.

These brownies were easy, made the entire kitchen fill with a bakery like fragrance, they were very pretty and delicious! We ate our squares hot from the oven with a cold glass of milk.

Peanut Butter Brownies2 cups sugar
1 cup flour
½ cup cocoa
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup butter
½ cup peanut butter
4 eggs
¼ cup sweet milk
Mix all ingredients together and pour in 11 X 17-inch pan. Cook until toothpick comes clean.

Recipe used from:
“Sharing Our Best”
A Second Helping
A Collection of Recipes by: Trinity United Methodist Church

The cookbook was a gift from my mom since I always picked it up when visiting her to flip through the recipes. I found out it was very special to her because my oldest sister gave it to her in 1999 so it meant even more to me when I realized she parted with something close to her heart. I tried to not take it but she insisted I did so I think of her goodness and beautiful spirit every time I open it. I also think of my sister because she shares our mother’s giving heart.

Thermo Mix

Pretty amazing. I know most of what I already have in my kitchen will do what the demo shows and then some but.... this is sooooo neat.

http://www.thermomixcanada.ca/thermomix-tm31-2.html

The cost will probably be so prohibitive that it won't end up on my counter but it is a cool concept.

Goodness!

I am just lost with the new blogspot format!
Being tech savvy is obviously not my strong point when it comes to online things. I finally had a grip on how to manage posting, adding html codes to put badges and such on and it is back to square one. Bear with me? Perhaps the simplicity, plainness and overall less than catching view here will hide behind the light of Christ! Him shining through ... isn't that what I should be striving for anyway?!

It is the busiest baking time of the entire year for me as soon as the summer heats starts fading and any cool winds beging blowing. Of all times, my oven has been acting up and working perfectly well at times while not reaching the set temps at other times. I will just keep baking breads and other baked goods and see how it goes. Aren't you blessed to have me share all that? Smiles, sisters and saints ... I'm just sharing from the world the way it is or can be around here.

I wanted to share the homemade apple pie recipe (using one recipe for the crust in my food processer and another for the filling using dried apples!) along with a deLICIous chicken and dumplings recipe with herb flavored dumplings. My printer hasn't been working so I just scribbled the recipes down on different papers and took them to the kitchen. I didn't save them on here so I now have to locate the papers to share but I hopefully and prayerfully will find them soon. There were other recipes done the same way I haven't shared yet but would like to so be looking for those at some point....

Smallest note...

I am having the hardest time with blogger's new format. There are lots of neat and new things, I know but I am not very good with things like this. Everything is all over the place on at least one of the blogs and I wish I had been better at keeping with a main topic so I could have more easily written everything in one place!

I am so tired that I want to cozy up under some covers and read and write until I fall asleep for hours. There is still a lot to be done so I have to keep the idea of comfort on the backburner for awhile longer.

If and when I gather all the recipes I've been making lately, I will have to send them all at once or a few at a time.
Until then, I'll s hare from where -ever...

Cranberry Corn Bread

Recipe Details Cranberry Corn Bread 9 Servings, Prep Time: 15 Minutes, Cook Time: 40 Minutes Description During the holidays, I make several pans of this sweet cake-like corn bread for family and friends. Whole blueberries--coated in flour--can be used in place of the cranberries. Ingredients 1/2 cup butter, softened 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup cornmeal 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups buttermilk 1 cup cranberries, halved Directions In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs; mix well. Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Fold in cranberries. Transfer to a greased 9-in. square baking pan. Bake at 375 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Serve warm. Nutritional Information Servings Per Recipe: 9 Amount Per Serving Calories: N/A Nutrition information is not available for Personal Recipes and for a small number of Kitchen Approved recipes Sent from Allrecipescom Your Kitchen Inspiration™ for the iPad ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. © 2010 Allrecipescom

Sent from my iPad

A scribbled list...

 One of my busy kitchen days...
This draft was the start of something I had planned to write but didn't finish. I guess I got too busy doing more of the same or similar. Smiles!

Two whole chickens
Three skillets of ground beef
Two big pans of chicken tenderloins
Kefir
Cleaned and washed dishes
Did laundry
Swept
Delegated trash take out
Checked kids' chores
Worked on menu

Do you write down what you need to do in your kitchen and/or what you've done in a given day?

Potato -Salmon Chowder

It was cold here yesterday! All day long, we had chilly weather and I planned to make homemade bread and soup. It was so busy moving around our bedroom remodel project and tending to an under the weather grandbaby that I didn't get to the bread. I did manage a dutch oven full of potato/salmon chowder and served it with turkey sandwiches.

I started this post weeks ago and never finished it! The potato/salmon chowder was similar to the ones I've made (and maybe posted?) in the past.

You can make this kind of thing your own as easy as just about anything. I just peel, quarter and boil some potatoes and boil them until tender. For an added boost of nutrition, I usually throw a peeled clove or few of garlic in the potato water. Speaking of the water potatoes are boiled in --- it works for a great liquid for bread making, to stir into your soup or chowder and more. I drain my potatoes and keep the potato "broth" in a liquid measuring cup so I can easily grab it and pour for the rest of my cooking.


Just saute some chopped onions in olive oil and maybe a pat of butter and towards the end, add some chopped garlic. When the onions and garlic look the way you want them (sometimes we like them with more of a bite and other times, caramelized so it is up to your personal tastes) ... add some sea salt and freshly ground pepper and any seasonings you like. I add whatever strikes me at the moment and for this one, I used garlic salt, and parsley.
Add more olive oil and/or butter if needed to make a good roux (white sauce) and sprinkle some white or whole grain flour over the pan of onions, garlic, oils and seasonings. Whisk it until it is smooth and blended and then add some potato broth, some chicken broth (I use broth I've made and frozen/thawed) and stir well. Add milk or cream, potatoes and any extra seasonings to taste. When the chowder tastes and looks like you want it, add a can of salmon with or without the juice. I usually take the bones out of mine and add to the dog food but my husband's beloved grandmother used a spoon to smash hers all in the meat because she said it was more nutritious and less wasteful.

Many recipes call for a lot of cheese to be stirred into things like this but I don't like the mess or the loss of cheese flavor. I opt to serve it with a generous amount of shredded Parmesan, aged white cheddar, or any other cheese we might have on hand. Sometimes we have a small bowl of sour cream to add a spoon or two of and it looks beautiful with a small sprinkling of parsley, freshly ground pepper or something like that to the top.

We have eaten our chowder with whole grain crackers, homemade bread, or crispy toast from the oven rubbed with garlic cloves.

Toppings are according to preference. Crumbled, cooked bacon and chives are delicious!
Have a blessed day/evening, dear reader.