Needlepoint Stocking

 Needlepoint is so fun and so time-consuming! It is something like coloring by number with needle and thread but with very poor instructions. I ran out of some colors--probably because I guessed the wrong ones.

Seafood Gumbo Recipe--Mama's

 Ingredients:

3 Tbsp. bacon drippings

2 Tbsp. flour

2 ½ cups cut okra

1 large onion chopped

1 green pepper chopped

2 cloves chopped garlic

1 8oz can tomato sauce

bay leaves (2)

2 sprigs chopped parsley

1 tsp salt

1 tsp thyme

dash cayenne pepper

dash black pepper

2 quarts hot water (or chicken broth)

1 lb shrimp

1 pt oysters with liquid

chopped bacon or diced ham

1 cup crab meat

Cooked rice

Fry okra slowly in bacon fat until soft; add onion garlic and green pepper.  Fry until onion is soft.  

Add flour and blend; add tomato sauce and mix well. 

(Teresa’s note) Another option is to stir and cook the flour and and bacon drippings for about 20 minutes until golden brown--making a roux. Then add the next ingredients, including the okra, onion, and green pepper. )

  Add remaining ingredients.  (Teresa’s note: I add the shrimp at the very end and cook them just until they change color to keep them from getting tough.)

Cook slowly for one hour.  Gumbo should be dark and thick.  

Serve in soup bowls with a spoonful of hot cooked rice in center of each bowl.  

Serves 12.  Sprinkle with file’ powder just before serving.

This can be made a day early. I like to serve it for supper.

Excellent with toasted and buttered french bread. 

Reformation Meat Pies

 Reformation Pork and Beef Pie Recipe

Ingredients and directions:

1 lb of bacon

1 lb ground pork sausage

1 lb ground beef (I like 85/15 ratio)

Brown the meats--I did the bacon separately and then chopped it up (tore it in pieces!)

Aldi's packages of dried cranberries and chopped dates (or chop them yourself)

Salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, basil, sage (we grow herbs in our backyard, so I go out and pick some, strip the leaves, and toss them with the meat)

One chopped onion

Two cloves of chopped garlic or a tsp of garlic powder

Blue cheese and/or Feta cheese--I discovered this addition by accident while studying medieval recipes. The blue cheese adds so much flavor. I am thinking maybe 1/2 pound of cheese--one and a half of the regular size packages from Aldi's. The recommended cheese is Stilton, but blue cheese has a similar flavor and that is what I used.

Beef broth (chicken is okay too!) I don't know how much I put, but you want enough to make the meat juicy so it won't dry out but not drowning.

After browning the meats, add all the above items.

Make or buy a crust. (probably need two packages) (I get Pillsbury refrigerated crusts because it is easy.)

Roll the crust into a pie plate. This will probably make two pies, but I am not sure. I made three, but I may have had more than a pound of pork and beef.

Spoon the meat filling into the pie crust and top with the second crust. Cut small patterns in the crust to allow liquid to escape.

Bake in a heated 425º oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 400º and cook for about 30 more minutes. You may cover the edges of the crust with foil to keep it from getting too brown.

And that's it! I also use shredded chicken (I like thighs because they are more tender) for those who prefer chicken--bacon would be optional. 

More Vases and Flowers

 I have so much fun making vases! I use empty jars (olive, mayo, etc.), paint the inside white, and then add alcohol inks diluted with special rubbing alcohol--all in the Tim Holtz line. The inks are fun just to drip over the bottom and then swirl around into the alcohol. I find that two colors work best. After they dry, I add some gold lines just for fun. 

We had an online crafting class through our church that made white painted jars with burlap and ribbon around them. I tried adding ribbon to mine, but I think they look better without--I left some and took off some of the ribbon depending on what I liked. The green vase is a painted one color.

For flowers, I bought several bunches of large flowers, some tall filler, and picked Queen Anne's lace and ornamental grasses from our yard. I also threw in a few artificial leaves I had on hand.

Halloween Treats

A friend gave me a bunch of empty pringle cans, instant coffee containers, and plastic drink containers to use in our missions class. However, we aren't meeting until our governor opens the state again, and who knows when that will be! I decided to make Halloween containers for the neighborhood kids. I think our Wednesday night "Green" team might get to finish up a few too--we can't do much crafting outside, but it doesn't hurt to try!

 

Greek Salad Bowl

 Greek Salad Bowl--I used seasoned lamb, feta cheese, kalamata olives, cucumbers, basil, and fermented veggies. You can add black beans, rice, and/or lettuce as well. This is so tasty--the olives add huge flavor!

These vases were so much fun to make! I used empty olive jars and alcohol ink along with a blending solution. I painted the inside of the jars white so the colors would show up. On the orange jar, I painted gold lines after doing the alcohol paints. With the blue jar, I painted the gold lines first. I like that better. 

Alcohol inks are fun to play with since you add, subtract, drip, mix, spin, etc. to blend the colors. It will be fun to learn more about them!

New Sizzix Die/Father's Day Card

I bought a new Sizzix die--it took a while to put this card together. The die set has 15 pieces--lots of little square doo-dads to figure out, but I think I will find uses for the many pieces! I decided to print out the "Happy Father's Day" as well as a little note since I didn't have much room to work with. That part goes faster if you measure your workspace on the card! (I didn't at first and had to start over.) The saying "Measure twice, cut once" definitely applies when making cards!

Wreaths

I like to decorate my doors--they are old and need replacing, so it helps to cover them up! These are my CO-VID 19 wreaths. I ordered the supplies online and did the JoAnn's drive by to pick up everything. I made these to match my daughter's wedding colors--blue, peach, and green with a touch of white. I had to order online, and I wasn't really sure what I was getting, but all turned out fine. JoAnn's had a great sale, but even then, these cost about $35 each to make. I did have leftover flowers though that I used elsewhere.

To make these wreaths, I purchased background wreaths with the small white flowers. Then I glued in the other flowers with hot glue. I like the way the blue spikes spray out and add color to the white flowers. I bought the spikes, peach peonies, and blue cornflowers. I finished off with peach colored ribbon from the wedding section of JoAnn's. It is a sheer lightweight ribbon that I bunched up to make a bow and then let the streamers dangle.

Handmade Cards

Since the advent of email, we no longer send many cards and letters to each other. However, now that we all have to stay home, we have time to make and send cards! Here are a few that I have received, all handmade. 

I am going to work on improving my cardmaking skills.

Squash and Zucchini--Recipe Experiment!

Recipe for Squash, Zucchini--makes four Bryan sized servings

I am trying out something new! My husband brought in a bunch of squash from the garden and one pretty zucchini. I happened to be watching a bit of a cooking show with a squash recipe, and decided to do my own variation with food I have in the house.

Directions:

Line a pan with parchment paper to make cleanup easy.

I used a square cake pan.

Layer the following:

Sliced zucchini

Sprinkle with olive oil and a seasoning. I used Lawry's seasoning.

Sliced squash

Sprinkle with oil and seasoning again

Spread a cup of other veggies over the top--I had chopped tomato, onion and peppers

Spread about a cup of cheddar over that

Add olives and canadian bacon (or whatever you think would taste good)

Cover the top with sliced swiss cheese

Bake in the oven at 375º for about 35 minutes.  

Note: It had a good flavor. Holmes added a little salt, but he does that to everything! The flavors may be too complicated for kids, but if you have an abundance of squash, this takes care of a few!

Pocket Purses

My friend made these cute pocket purses for our girls' missions group at church. They are made from two pockets sewn together with a variety of ribbons/braids, etc for the handle! We decided to give the girls buttons and ribbons so they could add more decorations. Rhinestones and glitter could be added too.

Valence Change Up

I took advantage of a great sale at Michaels and bought some vines. I haven't liked the look of our valence with just the white fabric draped across it. So I added the greenery! I picked a vine with a little pink/red in the leaves since my living room colors are brown, green and mauve.

Fake Flowers

Playing with Flowers (artificial this time)

Flower arranging is cathartic to me. I have had this bucket with the large zinnia/mum type flowers for awhile. I decided to take advantage of a sale at Michaels and pick up some more flowers. I also had some left over flowers from wreaths I made so I used them as well. And this is how my new arrangement turned out!