Hello out there in Blogland!

I really should apologize for my long, long hiatus - but I don't think I will. I have been so busy living life that my journaling was set aside for a time. I think that there are sometimes in life that some things become "less important" to us. Not that my blog is not important, I just refocused for a while.

My dear mother-in-love has been visiting us from St. Louis. We have had such a good time - Went on a museum tour, the local carnival, out to eat, for drives and walks. Good times.

God has been so good to us. We have purchased a new car. Well, not brand new, but new to us. Honey's younger daughter is in need of good transportation and so we will be giving her our current car. It is still a good car and will last for a good while longer. Through God's grace and Honey's relentless pursuit, we found a really, really good deal. We will go pick it up next week or so.

I have thoroughly enjoyed yesterday and today - no set schedule, just the natural rhythm of things. Time spent cleaning, visiting, cooking, resting - very enjoyable. Peaceful. Time spent with family. Comfortable time. Loving time.

As I had to work on the 4th, we had our holiday dinner last night. We had:
Brisket, cooked in the slow cooker until it was just falling apart - served with BBQ sauce on the side.
Fresh sliced tomatoes, the first we have had this year, sprinkled with sea salt and fresh ground pepper.
Potato salad, my Mom's is the very best I think.
Corn on the cob, oh-so-sweet and dripping with butter.
Baked beans, cooked slow in the oven with onion and little bits of smoked brisket.
Fresh cucumbers and Vidalia onion in Vinegar, so refreshing.
Fresh Bing cherries and cantaloupe.
Pickled baby beets, jewel-toned and sweet-sour.
Cheese cubes - Colby and pepper jack.
Coleslaw with vinaigrette dressing.
Deviled eggs, my SIL's specialty.
Watermelon, juicy and sweet.
Iced tea, liquid amber coolness, sweet and fresh.
No bake cookies - just the perfect ending, crumbly chocolatey goodness.

Sorry for no pictures, DS has my camera just at the moment.

I am going to leave you with my recipe for:

Cucumbers and Onions in Vinegar
Fresh cucumbers - I bought small ones at farmer's market
Vidalia onion - I bought a 10 pound bag from the Shriners when they had a sale **
Sugar
Salt
Apple Cider Vinegar
Water
Fresh ground pepper

Scrub your cucumbers well. I used regular Kirby cucumbers, the kind used for pickling, the ones with the bumps. Just slice off either end. A good way to check them to make sure they are not bitter - stick your tongue on the cut end. You will be able to tell if they are bitter, I guarantee! Anyway, slice your cucumbers fairly thin. You can do this with cucumbers from the store, just peel them first.

Slice your Vidalia onion thinly. I used about half an onion to 4 smallish cucumbers, use more or less to your taste. My cucumbers were probably 5-6 inches in length, maybe 1-2 in around?

Put cucumbers and onions in a bowl.

In the bottom of your liquid measuring cup, mix together about 1/2 teaspoon sea salt and about 1-1/2 tablespoons sugar - more or less of these to taste. Then for the amounts listed above, I used 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/2 cup water. Mix until salt and sugar are both dissolved. Pour over the cucumbers and onion. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper. Refrigerate and let flavors mingle, preferrably for a couple of days.

These are so refreshing in the summer. Low cal. Fat free. I like to put them on some bread and butter and make a sandwich - great at tea time.

**Tip for storing onions: I leave mine in the mesh bag and store them on the floor of my basement or garage, out of the light. They stay fresh a long time that way.

Well, I must be up and about, living and loving. Much love to you all - Raquel

Christmas Cheer

I hope that all of my readers had a wonderful Christmas day, remembering the reason for the season - the glorious gift of salvation given to us by our blessed Savior.

We had a great day, quiet and peaceful. We made phone calls to loved ones and had a wonderful dinner with my parents.

Our menu was:

Peach Glazed Spiral Sliced Ham - this ham is from Burger's Smokehouse in California, MO, a City Ham. They do great hams and bacon.

For the peach glaze, I combined a can of Delmonte Harvest Spice peaches, drained, approximately 1/4 cup country Dijon mustard, about 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice and 2-3 tablespoons brown sugar. Pop that in the blender and then spoon over the ham while baking. (sorry for the pic, I forgot to take pictures until AFTER we ate - duh me!)


Winter Salad Supreme - just a nice green salad - I used mixed spring greens. Then top with Ranch salad dressing, some dried cranberries, tiny dice of swiss cheese and some caramelized almonds.

To make the caramelized almonds in a saucepan melt 2 Tablespoons butter. Then add 3/4 cup of sliced almonds. Stir and toast for about 4 minutes. Then add 3 tablespoons of sugar. Stir and cook for another 3 minutes or so. Dump onto foil to cool and break apart into little clumps.

No picture here as I used all the lettuce! Mandarin oranges are nice with this, instead of the cranberries - or use a vinagrette dressing.

Delmonico potatoes - I was looking for an Au Gratin recipe and stumbled across this. Very nice, we all loved these. From the Taste of Home Recipe book.

Makes an 8 x 8 pan.

5 medium potatoes

Scrub potatoes well. Place in pan, cover with water and cook 30-40 minutes or until fairly tender. Do not peel, do not cut. Drain potatoes and cool overnight in refrigerator. Take potatoes out, peel and shred coarsely. Grease an 8 x 8 pan. Place potatoes in pan.

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cream
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
8 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Place milk, cream, salt and spices in sauce pan and heat gently. When bubbles appear around the edge of the pan, stir in cheese. Stir in until good and melty. Pour sauce over potatoes and stir a bit.

Bake at 325F for approximately 50 minutes. I topped it with french fried onions for the last 10 minutes or so. Very moreish!


I believe next time I will stir in just a bit of lemon zest, spark it up a bit.

Brioche rolls - this is the recipe I posted earlier, please see the side bar under breads. Light and fluffy, smeared with real butter, a gourmet's delight! Sorry, I forgot to take a pic of these.

English Trifle - this is just my regular trifle, if you will scroll down in my side bar, I did a couple of posts on trifle earlier in the year. Homemade almond pound cake, sandwiched with seedless strawberry jam, sprinkled with Amaretto syrup. Then sliced strawberries (frozen) with sugar poured over top. Homemade trifle custard, flavored with a bit of rum extract on top of that. Then topped with homemade chantilly cream, some of my caramelized almonds and chocolate flakes. Can we say to die for?



All in all, a simple, yet quite tasty meal. As most of the prep work can be done the day before, very easy to execute also! I made the rolls, cake and trifle custard the day before. Also cooked my potatoes. The ham is as easy as taking out of the packaging, putting in a pan and baking, then glazing. The trifle just needed to be assembled. The salad was washed and put in a bowl, then toppings passed, as they were optional. That gave me plenty of time to enjoy the day with my family.

I hope each and every one of you had as good of a day!

Corny

Some things in this life are just . . . corny. My son loves to come and tell me corny jokes, always has. One of those little things that I treasure down in my heart of hearts.



We live in corn country. Well, sorta. Actually I think they grow more soybeans around here. But we live in the heartland, the bread basket of America. Fields of corn that go on forever! While on vacation in Nebraska, that was practically all we saw. Corn. The corn grown there is soooooooooo good! While we were there, we had corn on the cob at my brothers. Ohh, steamy hot, dripping in butter, crunchy and delicious!


As you can guess, we like corn just about anyway you can fix it. (I don't particularly care for creamed corn, but I fix it once in a while anyway) While at our Eatin' Meetin', our pastor's wife made this salad. Ohhh, yummy! And Soooooo easy! Sorry, no pics again!

Mary's Corn Salad

2 cans whole kernel corn, drained
1/2 cup green and red bell peppers, minced
1/2 cup onion, minced
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup mayonnaise (I never said low fat!)
1 bag Chili-Cheese Fritos, crushed

Mix first 5 ingredients together in bowl. Chill. Just before serving, stir in Fritos. Done! This is best eaten the day it is made, as it does not keep well. If you have problems eating it all that day, see me!

If these stairs could talk . . . .

How often have we heard that expression? If these walls could talk, what stories they would have to tell! On vacation this past week, we stayed in the house where my grandmother and 4 of her brothers and sisters were born. We estimated the house must be at least 100 years old. It is out in the middle of nowhere, probably at least 7 miles off a minor highway, on an old gravel/sand road. My grandmother had one sister and 4 brothers. Of these children, 3 of the boys never married. One of them was born in this house, lived in this house all of his life, and died in the house. Wow! Don't hear of that much anymore!

What I found most amazing I think, was the stairs in this house! They are very narrow and actually have grooves worn in the steps from countless feet going up and down them! It sent goosey-shivers up my spine when I first saw them. I wish I had a dime for every time someone went up or down them - I believe I could go on vacation with that money!

Sorry about this picture, not sure if you can see what I mean, but Photobucket is being stupid.



We have determined that the stairs were actually added later, as they go across a window! It gave me just a warm, fuzzy feeling to know that I was sleeping in that house where SO much history was!

We had a great time, the food was wonderful! One of my cousins works at an Ore-Ida plant, so he fried onion rings, potato planks, mozzarella sticks, brownie bites . . . We had hamburgers on the grill, watermelon and I made some Pasta Salad.

Pasta Salad

Serves at least 12

1 lb. dried pasta (I used penne)
Water to cook pasta
1 can sliced black olives
1 green pepper, sliced
1 medium red onion, sliced
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and sliced
1 large ripe tomato, seeded and diced
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (or whatever your preference is)
1 small package sliced pepperoni
1 bottle Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing

Cook pasta until al dente in boiling water. Drain, but do not rinse. Put pasta in large bowl and add all but cheese and pepperoni. Pour over 1/2 bottle of dressing and mix well. Let sit until cool. Add in cheese and pepperoni, mix well. It may seem a little dry and if so, add in some more dressing. Pop it in the fridge for a few hours. Before serving take out and stir. Add the rest of the bottle of dressing. Serve forth.

Now, I usually add in some broccoli and cauliflower, maybe some sliced raw zucchini. You can use whatever veggies you like, whatever cheese (I like a combination of parmesan, sharp cheddar and mozzarella) and whatever kind of meat, ham or what have you.

No pictures, I think this was gone within about 15 minutes of my putting it out.

Homegrown

I like things that are homegrown. Homemade. I love to go to Farmer's Market and buy fresh produce. Better yet, I like to grow it myself, but I have limited time and space to do that. And usually my allergies will not let me do much. There is just something so satisfying about harvesting, fixing and eating your own produce. That way, you know what has went into it. You appreciate it much more.

We do not have a lot of garden space here. Last year we put in cucumbers and dill and made over 100 jars of pickles. We have several half-barrels that we plant tomatoes in. I think that is the way to go with tomatoes, easier to get the weeds out of for sure.

This year it has been very wet and cool, so we have our tomatoes in, but in the garden spot we just planted dahlias. We did find two bush cucumbers and have those planted in pots and have a few peppers also. We are going to get a bush zucchini, too.

We did plant some lettuce early before it gets too hot. Here in Missouri, we usually go straight from 50 to 90+ overnight and then it stays hot and steamy until late September. Ugh! This spring, however, it has stayed cool and nice and is just now heating up.

So without further ado, fresh from our garden, I give you:

Wilted Lettuce

Fresh leaf lettuce, washed and trimmed
Bacon, fried and crumbled - reserving 1 Tablespoon drippings
Hard boiled egg, chopped
Red onion, chopped



Dressing
1/2 cup cider vinegar
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup water
2 Tablespoons flour

Into your hot bacon drippings, stir the flour to make a roux. Stir into that the vinegar and water. Cook until thickened and bubbly. Sprinkle over brown sugar and stir until well-blended.



Pour hot dressing over lettuce and top with bacon, egg and onion. Munch down!


It is that simple and you can have a delicious, old-fashioned (if not calorie-conscious) treat! When we have a lot of lettuce, this makes a supper for me!

What are some homegrown pleasures you enjoy?

Poe-Tay-Toe . . . . .Salad

There are just some dishes that your mother always can make better than you can. I can make potato salad, but somehow, Mom's always tastes better. Maybe it is because I get creative with mine and hardly ever make it the same twice?? I like to have fun with my food.

Potato salad is one of those things that people usually have one kind that is their favorite. For example: some people use sweet pickles, some people dill pickles. Some people use red potatoes, some Yukon Gold and some russets. Some people mash their potatoes and some chunk them. Some use a vinagrette dressing, some mayonnaise-based dressing.

I like to mix it up. I usually look and see what I have lurking in the fridge.

Here is a potato salad that I made recently that was quite good.

I turned this:


Into this:


Potato Salad
Serves 8

5 Large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2 inch dice
5 Large Eggs, boiled, peeled and diced
2 Stalks of celery, washed and diced small
1/2 large onion, peeled and diced small

First of all, boil your potatoes. Then, when potatoes are done cooking, drain them and put them in your serving bowl. Then toss the onion over top of your hot potatoes. This takes a little of the bite out of the onions and it smells good, too.

Put your eggs on to boil. Now, this is way that I cook my hard boiled eggs and they peel easily and do not turn green. Put the eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Put on the stove over medium-high heat. When the eggs begin to boil, set timer for 5 minutes. When timer goes off, turn off heat, but do not remove eggs from the stove. Let them stand for another 2 minutes. Then drain hot water off and cover with cold water. Let them stand for at least 10 minutes, drain that water off and cover them with cold water again. Let stand for another 10 minutes and then peel. Now we have a ceramic top stove, so I am not sure how this would work on a gas stove.

So, dice your eggs and toss with the potatoes and onions. Dice up your celery while your eggs are cooking and throw that in there too.

Now, for the dressing.

1/3 cup Italian salad dressing
3 Tablespoons prepared mustard - Dijon or yellow, does not matter
3/4 cup mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
1 heaping tablespoon pimento, minced or roasted red peppers, minced
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 Tablespoons sweet pickle relish
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Now, these ingredients are approximate amounts, use more or less to your liking. I usually throw it in until I think it looks good. Stir it all up in a bowl.

I usually put my dressing on while the potatoes are still warm, I think it tastes better that way.

Stir it all up together. I garnished this with fresh chives and some black olives that were sitting in the fridge.

So that is my potato salad, and next time it will be different! I like to put sour cream in, cook the potatoes with crab boil in the water, use homemade dill pickles or our homemade jalapeno relish, put in some chopped green pepper, crumbled bacon, tiny chunks of cheddar cheese, green olives. My motto is be creative and if it works, write it down!!