Los Angeles Natural History Museum and Yang Chows

Today was Mothers Day, Part ll. Mom and I braved the 100 degree plus weather and the horrific I-5 Freeway. Nothing would deter us in our quest for dino bones and gem stones. And slippery shrimp.

Why, hello North American Bison!

The Los Angeles Natural History Museum is one of my favorites. Large dark, quiet rooms with lit displays of stuffed animals, birds, plants. Well, the plants probably weren’t stuffed. I saw things I have never seen there before. Endless rooms with birds of all kinds, hands on exhibits in the upstairs kids area. Lots of deer stuck up on the walls.

The look on her face says “get me away from these noisy kids”

There is one other thing I don’t remember. Bus load after bus load of yelling, hollering and screaming students.

I guess this officially marks me as  crossing that great divide between parent and oldtster.

Parents tend to tune out the noise, seeing it as kids having a good time. Being let loose, setting them free among educational displays.

Oldsters want quiet contemplation. They want room to move around without being jostled by a kidlet. They want to enjoy the show.

And really, I don’t remember our children’s groups being so noisy back in the day (just a few years ago). I did see some smaller groups, perhaps families or home school groups, that seemed to be more self-contained. But the general masses were running  amok like a bunch of natives in a King Kong movie.

Wheres the respect? Just before snapping the picture of mom in front of Mr. Polar Bear, some four boys were looking to see if the bear still had his genitals.

Pumba! What happened? Where’s Timon?

Thank the Lord for AC! Some of the rooms were quite chilly with it. I tried to soak it into my bones, to arm myself for the afternoon trip home.

Have a little gold…and a little more…

There were so many jaw droppingly beautiful stones and gems, I didn’t think to take pictures very often.

 

Hellaphants and woosles…are very…unusualls…

The heat must be seeping into my brain. No, thanks for asking, I do not have central air. But I can’t really complain. Its cooling off this evening and there is a box AC in the bedroom. I am just comfortable at my desk. Sweaty, but comfortable.

And out of granola. How am I going to make more granola? I am not turning on the oven! We will just have to wait it out. Actually it’s so hot, I could probably make a solar oven and bake some granola in there. Hey, my youngest was a boy scout for years! I wonder…

Well, just up the infamous LA freeway of doom, right in China Town, is a restaurant called Yang Chows. First, once you find this little hole in the wall,( and you better have a guide or you will never find it,) you have to snake your car in between 2 tall buildings into a small back lot. Then the ‘valet’ who is actually Houdini reincarnated, magically takes your car away and somehow squeezes it into a space with all the other magically parked cars. Maybe the lot is bigger on the inside? I think he somehow stacks them when we aren’t looking.

Then you go inside and usually wait to be seated. In fact, when it opens at 11:30, there is the customary line forming out front. Workers from the downtown area and Chinese alike visit here. But we got there later and were seated right away. They are known for the ‘slippery shrimp’ which is a crusty coated shrimp with a sweet and peppery sauce poured over it. I cannot imagine how many shrimp these people must buy every day! Every table is laden with slippery shrimp. And soup or noodles or rice or duck or …

Lunch for me, supper for the rest of the family tonight. See the slippery shrimp in the upper left corner.

The food is served family style, as you can see. They have lunch specials too for individuals. The soups come for 2 or 4. Too bad it’s all the way up in LA. Geographically, it is not very far. But throw traffic into the mix and it may as well be in another state. In fact, CA is really just several little states lumped together. The state of San Fransisco, the state of Los Angeles, the state of San Diego. With satellite states hovering around their perimeters. I would be in the state of OC.

Scarves at the museum I didn’t buy, but admired…longingly.

So other than a headache from the heat and yelling children, we had a memorable and fun day. Slippery shrimp has a way of erasing lifes little annoyances. I am sure dinosaur bones and bison will be fondly remembered.

Happy Moms day mom!

New ‘strings n things’

Here are some of the new posts on chicken wings n apron strings.

Sunshine Chimes and Broody Hens

Baking tools, essentials and extras

Homemade Yogurt

And tomorrow the results from a batch of yogurt made with non-homogenized milk. Cream top yogurt? Or buttery cheese gone bad?

New posts-Homemade Ricotta, raw milk, GMO;s

After taking a break I am trying to find my blogging mojo again.

In the meanwhile I am transitioning to my other blog title.

chickenwingsnapronstrings

(Boy, am I learning to type that name fast. So darn many letters.)

So click below to see the new posts on Chicken Wings n Apron Strings

Homemade Ricotta and Ricotta

Raw Milk, basic information

GMO’s and the FDA

I am still trying to get the blog ball rolling. All future posts will be on ‘wings n things’.

Such as a post on some lip smacking lasagna, shamrock cookies, as well as a post on Irish Soda bread, regular and deluxe, which brings us to the post on how to make candied orange peel. (for the deluxe version).

There will be more posts on breads, canning, raising chickens, juicing, desserts and lots more.

See you around the internet!

Downton Abby-Sybil..WHAT???

 

Okay, I am taking a break from my writing break to ask…

***SPOILER ALERT, DON’T READ IF YOU DID NOT WATCH LAST NIGHTS EPISODE OF DOWNTON YET***

just what is up with Sybil dying in childbirth? Did you see that coming?

At first I was just in shock. Then I boo-hooed through the entire rest of the episode. I even looked up eclampsia afterward.

Dave knew. As soon as the other doctor came in. As soon as the doctors had a disagreement he saw the writing on the wall. But really,

So they threw the old family doctor a bone finally. After getting pretty much every diagnosis wrong in every other episode, now he has to be right and Lord Grantham doesn’t trust him. Well quite frankly, I wouldn’t either. But still, better safe then sorry in this case. And I find it hard to believe that such a renown childbirth doctor would cast away the signs of the illness, even after a urine test. Thats a little hard to believe. Then the doctors just stand there while Sybil dies and the family wails, calling to her to breathe.

Gasp. What a night. Paul, our 15-year-old, actually watched an episode with us last night. “Oh great. Wouldn’t you know this happens when I finally watch an episode.” He was sitting next to me on the couch and I think his hair was awash with my tears.

And Lady Grantham, hello, of course she is going to blame her husband. In these circumstances you have to blame someone and even he had to admit he was partially at fault. So he will be living in a very expensive dog house for the rest of the season, if not their lives. I have to quote here a little snippet from an article by Meredith Blake in the LA times:

“Cora turns on her husband almost immediately, kicking him out of the marital bed and blaming Sybil’s death on his and Sir Philip’s interference, marking perhaps the first time ever that  I am 100% Team Cora. While something tells me she and Grantham will eventually work things out, I am far less certain that  Branson will forgive and forget. At the moment he’s overwhelmed by grief, but that Irish temper is sure to return with a vengeance, and if he’s ever had a justifiable reason to resent the Crawley family, it’s now. In other words, Carson better make sure all the smoke detectors at Downton Abbey have fresh batteries.” Boo-ya.

The whole baby thing overshadowed the rest of the episode. How Daisy has become a hateful bee-otch. how Mrs. Crawley, mother of Mathew, is trying to save Edith, the ho, from a life of depravity, and what are we going to do now with the chauffeur, father of the child? And what is the baby to be named?

Sigh.

I know women died in childbirth quite a bit. It has always been a risky business. But what a nasty shock this was.

I also am more sympathetic about the doctor than I might seem. I mean, no x-ray machines, no antibiotics, no nothin’. At the beginning of the 1st season he was a simple country doctor making do with what they had back then. Squat basically. So wrong diagnosis was probably pretty common I imagine.

Then too, I suspect Lady Mary Crawley was seeking out and using some kind of birth control. Remember one episode recently where Mathew comments that he saw her leaving the doctor’s office and what was up? She brushed it off with a ‘nothing’ attitude, but I am suspicious, now that he is worried about his sperm count and all, if she is not afraid to have babies and is sneaking some kind of 1920-something birth control. After all, the doctor Mathew was talking to was not the family doctor and would not know if she was using or not. Only time will tell. If you have seen it already and know (Jessica) don’t tell me, I want to find out the hard way, with time to think about it and change my mind 50 times before next Sunday night.

Until then good-bye dear friends and let us mourn poor Sybil.

Merry Christmas!

Wow, has it really been so long since I have posted? Well, I’m sure you understand, being this time of year and all.

I hope you and yours are having a safe, warm, fuzzy holiday time. Not too stressful. Not too frantic. Not too expensive!

I wanted to share today with you. Once a year we all gather together and go to a mall. Now this may not sound like much, but as a rule, we don’t do malls. We just don’t. It’s not our idea of fun. And we don’t shop together. Sometimes me and a son might shop, or my hubby and myself. Never all of us together.

But at Christmas we (and usually a friend, the car has room for 1 more) pile into a car and hit up either Fashion Island (otherwise known as ‘Fascist island’ by my husband) or if the weather isn’t up to snuff (if there is a drizzle for example, you know we are all made of sugar down here) we will go to South Coast Plaza, these being the 2 high-end Orange County malls.  We check out the lights, the giant trees, the holiday decor and go to stores we might otherwise not dare to enter.

I was really hoping to see a flash mob. That would have been pretty exciting. Guess I need to spend more time hanging around airports and train stations.

Here are some of today’s highlights…

First off, we went to California Pizza Kitchen for a late lunch. Sorry, no pictures. But it was a grand feast with appetizers, pizzas, salads, desserts, ahh. Oh and wine.

What is that on a leash?

Can it be?

Kitty!

Now I noticed this outdoor mall did not have as much decorations. It had the largest Christmas tree on the west coast, if not west of the Mississippi, but just a smattering of decorations. Inside the stores there were lots of lights and bows and garlands. When we go to South Coast Plaza and the neighboring Crystal Court, they are indoor malls and are festooned with holiday decorations.

We strolled past numerous tempting stores. Like Sperry’s topsiders, shoes to wear while boating or reading about boating, or watching boating movies. And a pet store with an old cockatiel in an open cage that our friend Celina kept petting. It was a lovely white with salmon undertones and he kept bending his head down in a ‘give me neck rubs dear friend’ kind of way. Which she did. For quite a while in fact. Why didn’t I get any pictures? Guess I was too busy looking at kitties in the window.

But the bread store…ah. Where else but in Orange County can you spend $11 on a loaf of bread? At Le Pain Quotidien is the place. It started with us walking by the big inviting window. Oh look, 50 lb. sacks of King Arthur Organic flour, piles of them! My heart started racing…it was like getting injected with a cup of coffee in my veins. Can I act casual?

“Oh, lets see whats in here?” I fool no one. They all crowd around the window, showing polite interest. Actually, we have all become bread connoisseurs in our own way. And here was a store brimming with big, rustic loaves, all perfectly browned, slashed, glossy with a special wash, or all floury and crackly. Yes my friends, we spent $11 for this loaf of bread. When it comes to bread, I have no self-control. I don’t even pretend to.

Thanks Dave for indulging us all! Whole wheat sourdough.It will feed us for a week.

Then this one too…

Olive and rosemary, yum. I have the recipe but never tried the bread. Now if we love it, I can try it myself, albeit without the steam injected ovens.

And my Dave picked out one for himself…

Hearty Rye

These are works of art. Beautiful. Almost too good to eat. But I will slice them up, freezing the extra slices. Hmm, seems I remember some brie and blue and Gouda in the fridge. All we need now is to open a bottle of wine…la buona vita!

Somewhere along the way we found a koi pond where my older son stuck his fingers in the water and the koi tried to nibble on them. Celina squealed as they made the water sucky noises.

Finally we found our favorite store. “Anthropologie”. Dave wants to be a buyer for them in his next life. What a fun place full of the unusual, the quirky, the lovely and, of course, the expensive. If you wear a size 0 to 6 you might be able to buy clothes there. I, although I am sure I could squeeze in, (ahem) go in for the drawer knobs, books, candles, butter dishes, aprons, and other assorted nick-nacks. They have loads of handmade plates with bees or cats or utensils painted on them. I saw what looked like a small log with 2 wicks coming out the top. Here is what the boys got me last Christmas from there…

He holds a special place of honor in the china cabinet, standing guard until a holiday comes when he guards the butter with his life.

This year I picked up a couple of gifts for friends and something for our daughter, who is in Paris at the moment, house sitting. (A whole other story) I wont divulge what we got her, in case she is reading this. (Bonjour Jess!)

Here are a couple of gifty things…

A special bowl  to indulge in some ice cream, or some morning yogurt with bananas and granola.

What special kind of tea would this cup likely hold? I love the little flower near the handle.

I would say hot cocoa and marshmallows, but then you might not see the pretty flowers looking up at you from inside.

When I was growing up we would drive around and see lights on houses. Even when the kids were little, now and again we would still look up in the paper where the blocks with the most Christmas spirit showing where and go drive or walk them. Once I remember, when they were real little, going caroling! Me, who can’t hold a note! But it was fun. What I lacked in musical ability I make up for it in loudness. Its Christmas carols after all and it was fun to take the kids. Not like a tabernacle choir or anything.

But recently, the last 3 years or so, it has turned into going to the mall. Just as a novelty. Its festive, there is food. Since we don’t go all year, it makes it special. “Wow, this looks just like in the movies!” my youngest said the first time we did this. Garlands everywhere, Santa’s village, giant trees, waterfalls…if it wasn’t for the commercialism abounding, it would be heaven! But we also enjoy coming home with gifts we hide from each other, behind our backs, pretending we don’t see each other buying them. Mostly it is spending the time together. Anything can be fun when spent with those we love.

I pray you are spending some quality time with those you love.

Joyeux Noël everyone!

Kale Salad with Sweet Potatoes, Avocados and Apples

I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving last month. I wanted to share a recipe for an unusual, delicious and healthy salad my daughter made here for the dinner. I have made unusual before. I have made delicious before. I have even occasionally made healthy before. But this combo was magic!

I know dark green vegetables are really the best for you. Which is why I tend to stay away from Iceberg lettuce and romaine hearts. I feel like I struck gold when I find a big untrimmed head of Romaine to use for salads and sandwiches at home. But kale? I thought that was something you grew in the garden to look ornamental. And something foreigners ate.

But I guess I was wrong. (I know you’re not gasping with surprise here.)

Here is the star of the show:

Can you pretend those young arms and hands are mine?

Lets look at most of the other ingredients:

You do need to cook the sweet potato in advance. We wrapped it in foil and baked it along side the turkey. Or was it the rolls? Anyway, we baked it until tender, then my daughter, the healthy food guru, diced it up.

While that baked, she put the kale in the largest bowl I could find and put the dressing on it to wilt and tenderize the tough kale. The acids in the lemon juice must be what does it.

Doused in dressing and ready to wilt.

Then she diced up the cucumber, the avocado and the apple. She toasted the pepitas and let them cool.

When it was time to eat, she gently tossed together all the vegetables and the nuts together with the kale.

I admit, I ate more than my share. But wait, it was Thanksgiving! So thats okay.

Something else I like about this salad, it’s autumn fare. Avocados, at least on my moms tree, are just coming into season. And it is apple season as well. We get cucumbers all the time and lemons (as well as oranges) are also just coming into season. Kale is also a cool weather green, so this is perfect for all those northern hemisphere living peoples! (Sorry Fran, a bit late for you. Do you grow avocados in Tasmania?)

Here is the recipe again:

• Yield: 6 Servings
• Prep: 20 mins
• Cook: 60 mins
• Ready In: 1 hr 20 mins

This is a sparkle of healthy and delicious for your holiday or everyday meal.

Ingredients

• 1 full bunch kale chopped into bite size pieces
• 1 lemon juiced
• 1 sweet potato baked
• 3 radishes sliced thin
• 1 Avocado peeled and diced
• 1 small cucumber sliced thin
• sunflower or pumpkin seeds
• Feta or goat cheese
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 piece ginger
• 2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 1 apple washed, cored and diced.

Instructions

1. To wilt the kale, put the bite size pieces into a large bowl. Add a couple splashes of olive oil, the juice of one lemon and plenty of salt. Massage these ingredients into the kale. Don’t be afraid to be rough! Knead this into the fibers vigorously without tearing the fibers. Set aside to marinate.
2. Meanwhile prepare the other vegetables, like dicing the baked sweet potato, slicing the radishes and cucumbers and cubing the avocado.The original recipe did not have all the same fruits and veggies, these are what we like. Have the cheese and nuts handy
3. As an optional plus, you could add cooked, diced chicken breast.
4. After the kale has marinated for at least 20 minutes, add the apple, vegetables, nuts and cheese. Toss
5. Mince the garlic and ginger. Put this in a mixing bowl and add the mustard, vinegar, a couple good glugs of olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Whip this together with a whisk, then drizzle into the salad. Do not drown the salad. Remember the kale already has lemon and oil on it, so go easy. You can save dressing in the fridge for another day. Toss again and serve!

Pumpkin Pie, its messing with my head

I am sitting here clacking away at the keyboard with pumpkin spatters all over my shirt.

Forgot the apron. Thought this would be so easy-speasy I would not need one.

Dont you just hate it when you are making something from scratch and everything seems to be going so well, you just put your food in the oven and you are feeling pretty good about the day…then you turn around and see a crucial ingredient still sitting on the shelf?

I know you’ve done it too. Don’t deny it. We all have.

You can almost hear the balloon of your hopes pop.

I am making 2 pumpkin pies, one for us, one for a friend. And of course, I can’t just leave well enough alone. I can’t just use the recipe on the back of the Libbys can, a perfectly good recipe mind you, without thinking, “well, what if I …” and there it goes.

So I looked up some good recipes. Like the one from Paula Deen, which I will try next time. (I would try it this time, but I am also making a pumpkin cheesecake as well).

Or this one, an adaptation from Americans Test Kitchen, which, to no ones surprise, is more complicated, but promises an astounding pie. It has candied yams as well as pumpkin, which tickles my fancy and makes me want to try it. Besides which, Test Kitchen has never let me down. But I actually found this recipe on Debi Waylands site, Life Currents.

That is also for another day, as I don’t happen to have any candied  yams and I am ready to bake now.

I feel I make a great concession to simplicity by using store-bought pie crust. The rest of the pumpkin pie is easy-breezy.

Just mix them up, pour them in, bake them!

Well…I decided to use my hand mixer and blend them over a slow heat, just to warm it up and brighten the spices. I used Trader Joes Pumpkin pie spice. (I am finally using it for pumpkin pie! I use this spice for lots of other things as well. Stock up if you can, they don’t sell it all year.)

I thought I might use half brown sugar, half white. I almost used some maple syrup, then thought against it. It might compete with the brown sugar taste and I am not wasting maple syrup. Not at that price! I also noticed recipes using more egg yolks than whole eggs. Hmm.

I  was torn about the crust. About half the recipes called for pre-baking, the other half not. I went the lazy route and did not pre-bake.

So there I am tra-la-la, mixing my ingredients, pouring them in the 2 pie pans and popping them in the oven.

Mixing nicely, thinking all is well. Doesn’t having light make such a difference in picture taking? I love having light now. I did not realize how much I was living in darkness in my previous kitchen cave.

Then I turn around. (music here from shower scene of ‘Psycho’)

There sits a can of evaporated milk.

The recipe calls for 2 cans. No wonder the batter seemed sparse! I thought as I poured “Shouldn’t this have filled it up more?”

Heaving big sigh.

So I yelled, turned off the oven, pulled out the pies. I poured the batter back into the saucepan and watched the now soggy crust get misshapen and messy. I added the other can of milk, mixed it up. Did my best to wipe off the crust and make it look reasonably pretty. Okay, it’s not likely to be pretty anyway. But it did fill the shells decently.

And it is just pie. Nothing to jump off a bridge about. But I will be paying better attention for the pumpkin cheesecake, I tell you!

Here is the recipe as I made it. I am waiting to see how it turns out, but other than ugly, I am not too concerned. (I licked the pan. It made me feel a little better about my morning.)

Pumpkin Pie

• Yield: 2 Pies (16 Servings)
• Prep: 15 mins
• Cook: 55-60 mins
• Ready In: 1 hr 10 mins

This is a slight adaptation to the recipe on the back of the Libby’s can. If you can remember to put in ALL of the ingredients, this should be pretty easy.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 4 eggs 3 whole, 1 just yolk
• 1 29 oz can pumpkin make sure it’s not pumpkin pie mix
• 2 12 oz. cans evaporated milk
• 2 ready-made pie crusts or your own if you want

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a large saucepan, mix in all the ingredients and mix with a hand mixer. Remember you are using 3 whole eggs and 1 extra egg yolk. I had the heat on low to gently heat the mixture. I don’t know if I would bother doing that again. You could just do it in a mixing bowl. If you choose to warm it first (for flavor boost I hope) then reduce baking time by about 10 minutes.
3. Lay out your pie crusts and set into the pie pans. I use a fork to decorate the edging.
4. Pour in the pie filling. Put the pies in the hot oven. After 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 350 and set timer for 40 minutes. Check and if it looks too underdone, let it bake in 5 minute increments until done. It should still be a bit jiggly in the center.

 

Wrapping up Alabama with a bow and how to make quiche.

’cause real men eat Quiche.

So my sheriff uncle says he must not be a real man. Hard to believe when he is geared up in the vest and guns and cuffs and stuff. But he doesn’t like Quiche., so I don’t know.

I don’t think there is a point there.

I am going to sum up the last few days of my visit in beautiful Alexander City, Alabama.

I have met the most interesting people. For instance, just this morning I met the overnight guests that were here last night. They are from China, working for IBM. He is Australian. She is American but spent many years in London. They recently had a trip to Mt. Everest. Before that a while back it was the Himalayas. How they ended up in Alabama I am not sure. They were on their way to Florida. She did mention that the small town feel, the good mannered politeness and the slower pace reminded her husband more of Australia than, say, the east coast. But they were interesting to talk to, or listen to. Thats the way its been my whole visit. Interesting people with interesting stories. I love it.

I leave tomorrow and while I will miss the small town feel, the good mannered politeness and the slower pace, as well as my family here, I can’t wait to get back to my family back home too. I miss ‘em, bless their little hearts.

Thats what you say here in the south a lot. And it has a variety of meanings. “Bless your little heart”. It can mean, “what a cute thing to do” or “you horrid creature, go find your mother and make sure she beats you with a stick”.  I saw a tee-shirt that said “You’re not from the south? Well, bless your little heart”. I think it’s what southerners say when they don’t want to say something rude. (And rude does not fly here in the south!)So had you better watch their eyes when they say it. Watch for that glint of steel.

Tonight was a miracle. There was a wedding here in the side yard. An older couple getting remarried. Then they came in for dinner. All 57 of them. Imaging how much fun we had preparing and cooking all that food. I picked up some good tips. But what amazed me was the fact that they all came in to eat at 5:00 and by 6;10, the food was gone, the dishes were cleared, the chairs were put back and the house was back in order! Thats one hour! I can’t fathom it. They were still here opening gifts and throwing bouquets. But to eat and clean up, it was like the road runner and Speedy Gonzales were in charge or something. Is it that these southerners just take their eating so serious? They get right down to it, move on to the cake and out the door. My mind was spinning.

I got to visit the Cracker Barrel the other day. I did not realize it was an event. It thought it was just lunch! But the store in front of it was a blast to the past! I wanted everything, but had luggage size issues to keep in mind. So I just bought a bunch of old-time candy for the stockings. The food was just what I had been looking for, good southern fare, inexpensive and unpretentious.

Aunties chicken n dumplings. Oh be still my heart!

Barbecued shredded pork sandwich, my favorite.

Then we hit the flea market. I am not sure I can describe this place. It’s as big as a large grocery store inside. It’s like a huge yard sale. You go in needing nothing in particular and come out with a cartload of stuff you wonder how you could live without! I took some pictures to send to my family and I might as well share them with my blog friends too. I don’t though have a picture of the stuff I bought. A french tablecloth and a vintage tablecloth. And some vintage cookie cutter, like the kind I got rid of or lost ages ago when they got replaced by newfangled ones.

sharp objects anyone?

Now that should fit in my luggage.

They got one. of these out here too?? I’ve seen one in LA

Well, thats the gist of it. I think Auntie is part energizer bunny because about half way through I started in to whining and was trying out all the soft chairs up and down the aisles. (Me feet! Me legs!)

I have already been listening to Christmas music for the last week ya’ know and just found out that the Mistletoe Bough has a chestnut tree! So they really could roast them on an open fire, like the song says!

Well, the squirrels already got to the nuts, but here is the hedgehog outer shell of the things. Auntie says she really doesn’t like them much anyway. So could the squirrels please eat these and leave the pecans for us poor humans who can’t quite scamper up the trees like ya’ll?

Now I am going to share a Mistletoe Bough secret with you. Some people have raved about the coffee. I will share the secret ingredient, but  you must keep this to  yourselves now.(shh).

It is cinnamon in the ground coffee! Who’da thunk it?

I really have to go get ready to ship myself home. I could go on forever with all the interesting and fun times I have had here. But I promised you a Quiche recipe, didn’t I?

Auntie is all about streamlining and making it easy. So we are going to start with a premade pie crust. But its the pan that fascinated me. I hadn’t seen one quite like it before. I wonder if they still make them? Look here:

the screen helps keep the pie crust from getting soggy. Isn’t that just the bees knees? I want, I want!

Chop up some meat of your choice and some scallions.Put in the bottom of the quiche crust.

Now mix together 3 eggs, a can of evaporated milk, italian seasoning, salt, pepper and 1/4 cup of flour.

She says this is the only way to get the flour to mix in.

Pour the mixture into the pie crust and if you want, use a fork to crimp around the edges to make it ‘purdy’.

Now top with some shredded cheese…

And now pop the beauty into a 350 degree oven for about an hour. Slice and serve while warm.

To be served with a fruit cup, cheese muffins, toasted apple walnut bread and juice.

I think I am about to go downstairs and sneak some leftovers.

I must go and I will miss each and every one of you that I have had the privilege of meeting here. (sniff, I said I wouldn’t cry).

Take care of yourselves till the next time and swing my by place next time you are anywhere near Disneyland.

I will post this Quiche recipe on Chickenwingsnapronstrings.com soon.

And bless your little hearts!

Still here in Alabama, Chicken Parmesan and some amazing homemade pound cake

I’ve got my spies. Minions who tell me what is going on.

And mama ain’t happy with some of the news about a dirty house, about letting the dog in, about chips and stains on the floor while she is Alabama!

Mama is very happy to see some pictures of the new kitchen, almost done. But I am not heading home until the dishwasher is installed, just so you know.

Day, what is it now? I lose track. Day 5.

We are preparing for dinner guests. I get to play in this nice big kitchen today, making dinner for 8 of us. Easy-peasy. I hope.

First, here are some photos I took around the inn this morning while I walked around looking for pecans to pick up. I plan to raid Aunties freezer of pecans, which cost more than gold back home, so I want to help contribute by harvesting them. Good thing I don’t make a living at it. I hardly had a pocket full.

Here is my helper. His name might be Pudgy, but I’m not sure. As you can see, he/she is very timid.

Here is his brother, socks, on guard duty, watching for squirrels that might steal our pecans. “Just make my day.”

Here is part of the wrap around porch.

Originally built by a Jewish Banker, this door piece is one of the few remaining relics of its time.

There is going to be a wedding out here this weekend. It will be my first time being here for a wedding.

Okay, now back to dinner. I will give you the recipe here for my chicken parmesan. Then the homemade pound cake recipe will have a link to where you can find it on my new site, “chicken wings n apron string”. More on that in a moment.

Chicken Parmesan: for 4

2 chicken breasts, slice in half such that you have two thin pieces.

some parmesan, grated, about 3/4 cup

2 eggs

flour, some for dredging

salt and pepper

favorite spaghetti sauce, your choice

mozzarella cheese, grated, about 1/2 cup

1 lb. pasta of your choice

It is easier to slice the chicken if it is partially frozen. Slice carefully and watch the fingers. Slice it through the skinny way.

Put the flour in a plate.

Put the eggs, mixed up in a bowl.

Put the parmesan in another plate.

Get a skillet hot and put some oil in it.

Dip both sides of the chicken in flour, then dip in the egg, then the parmesan. Set aside on a plate. When the skillet is hot, lay the chicken in it, not overlapping. I cooked 2 at a time, so they wouldn’t crowd. You only need to fry them about 2-3 minutes, then turn them over and fry another 2 minutes.

In the meantime, while they are frying, get out a baking pan. Put some spaghetti sauce, either homemade or jarred, into the bottom of the pan. Just  few spoonsful, not much, but enough so that the chicken is laying on some sauce. As the chicken is fried, lay it in the pan, spooning some sauce around the sides. I do not cover with sauce.

Put the pan  into a 350 degree oven and allow to bake 20 minutes. Too long and it will dry out. Too little and they may not finish cooking. Just as it comes out of the oven, I sprinkle on some mozzarella and pop it back in oven for another 5-10 minutes.

While this the chicken is baking, boil some water for pasta. When boiling, cook your pasta of choice. I made mostaccioli pasta which are like penne. When they get done, I drain them and rinse them a little to keep them from sticking. You can also spoon some sauce in with the pasta and it will keep it from sticking. Then hold it until everything is ready. If need be, heat back up my mixing in with the bubbling sauce.

Then I spooned some al dente pasta in a pasta bowl, then some sauce, topped with a piece of chicken.

On the side we had a salad and a slice of Italian Cheese bread. I will have to see if that recipe is posted yet.

This is the first time I made this using regular Gold Medal unbleached flour and not my usual high protein flour and it made quite a difference. Usually the recipe fills the springform pan and puffs up to double the pans height. At least double. But here it is, same recipe (imprinted in my mind) and it barely reached the top of the pan. But you know, it came out alright anyway. A little softer. I liked it this way. It did not have the big hollow swirl inside it usually has.

For the sauce, I just took a bottle of Ragu, with veggies. But first I browned some diced onions in olive oil. Then added a big heap of garlic. Sizzle, sizzle. Sprinkled in some Italian seasoning, then poured in some wine. I wish I could say it was red. It should have been. But you know, white works just as well. And we had a bottle handy. So I glugged in about..mm…1/3 cup of wine and let it reduce down as it simmered. Then I added a large can of crushed tomatoes and then the Ragu. Some salt, some pepper. Voila! Red sauce madness. Or is it Mad Men Red Sauce? Or Men Mad for Red Sauce?

Earlier in the day, Aunty did what she does best, gets the table setting ready. She has an eye for a lovely table.

With that glow about her I would say she had some holy divine inspiration.

Of course it wasn’t the food or the setting that really made the dinner, but the people sitting around the table.

I will share a picture of the dessert, but you will have to go follow the link to find the recipe. It is an old tried and true recipe, just the kind I like to use. And take my word for it, it was even better the next day. Moist, soft, sigh…

So my new friend, Mrs. Linda Blair made this pound cake to share with dinner. Seems she has been making this recipe for her family forever. It comes from an old church cookbook. Well, wouldn’t you know that I am collecting recipes from old church and other organizations fund raiser cookbooks! I just figure that many people still have them around and may have family favorite recipes in them. So rather than let them stay hidden in the recipe dustbins of time, I would bring them out of obscurity by posting them on my other new blog, www.chickenwingsnapronstrings.com. 

So that is where, tomorrow morning, I will post her recipe here as my first “fund raiser recipe”.

If you have any recipes you use from a church or other organization fundraiser cookbook, go ahead and sent me the information at:

linda@chickenwingsnapronstrings.com

and thanks in advance!

A day in Montgomery

Hello and here we are with day 4 of visiting Alabama. Today we went to the state Capitol, Montgomery. It was a very historic visit with marble pillars, fire ants and a trolley tour.Let me explain.

No, that would be too long.

Let me sum up.

At the old railway station in Montgomery there is a tourist center that has a trolley to take tourists around, describing the historical sights. The man who ran our trolley spoke ‘hickish’ with such a southern accent I could only catch the gist of what he meant. But he was very nice. He went off the route to drop us off at a place to pick up some lunch. Mind you, we were the only ones on the trolley.  So he was pretty accommodating. Then he said something using words like ’30 minutes’, ‘hour’, ‘route’. We had a southern lunch that was your average southern quick lunch and then had to try to figure out what he might have meant and when we might get picked up.

So we walked to where my Aunt was sure he would come to…eventually…we hoped.

And we waited.

We played I spy and laughed ourselves silly because I didn’t know how to play it right. and Aunty found a fire ants nest and stomped on it to show me what how they reacted. She hates fire ants with a passion. One too many of the little devils has bit her and she will wreck her revenge on their entire species. They are the ultimate illegal immigrants.

We still waited and noticed how this one big building was called the “Renesant” and she thought is was supposed to be Renaissance and they just spelled it wrong.

We talked about walking back on our own. I suggested getting an ice cream across the street, but we were sure the trolley would come just as we were getting our cones. I told her I would go get them and she would have to throw her body in front if it if the trolley actually did show  up but I was beginning to think the whole thing was a figment of our imaginations when suddenly…

There he was, rolling up in his little red trolley.

So we boarded, still alone but for one young woman I took to be his daughter sitting behind him. This time he showed us around the old town district to relocated old buildings, the courthouse, Dr. King Jr’s house and church,  a Hank Williams museum and so on. I got a few pictures that did not turn out blurry, so you can get a glimpse…

start your day with a good breakfast…

fire ant nest, a nasty piece of work.

apply foot to fire ant nest, then jump back and watch them scurry. We never lose the fascination. Besides, we were bored.

Courthouse, maybe.

This used to be a local tavern

Dr. Kings home

Some beautiful trees saying howdy

There is a capped well under this fountain. Here is where people used to gather to have slave auctions.

Here is a playhouse where the infamous John Wilkes Boothe once played. No, it’s not the theater Lincoln was shot in.

Here is the train station. There is still one track back there where there used to be at least 6 in the bustling time before automobiles.

I wish I had gotten some pictures at the waterfront. The tracks were right by the first docks in Montgomery where the first steamboat came to call. there was still the ramp where the wagons full of bales of cotton used to roll. Somehow I missed those river photos.

Who doesn’t love reliving the history of these old towns. It is fascinating for sure. When we were done there it was time to hit some stores for ornaments, then head on to the movie theater where we went to see “Cloud Atlas”. We wanted to see Lincoln but they had some sorry excuse that it wasn’t out yet.

The movie had an all star cast with Halley Berry, Tom Hanks, whats-his-name and Susan Sarandin and so on.

The photography was beautiful, the acting great. And if you see it, please explain it to me because we just didn’t get it. We left the theater bewildered and still can’t even agree on what it was trying to say or be about. There were 5 or 6 stories going on at the same time, following a similar line of plot or maybe  not or…and they had almost 3 hours to try to tell us the story.

There was only one other couple in the theater with us and Auntie asked what they thought and in their southern twang they replied “That was awful!”

We all laughed though. Then, since it was 8 o’clock by now, we went to Mimi’s for some great onion soup.

And we didn’t hit any deer driving home, thank you very much Auntie.

Here is the link to the recipe for the maple twists.

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