Weekly update - including some new recipes

 Wow.  What a week.  It's only Tuesday when I started this post.  I find that I can save it so it is easier for me to write a bit at a time and then post,  So my meal plan was:

Roasted Greek Chicken Drumsticks - I have 4 packages of those huge drumsticks that are taking up space in the freezer. I will use those. It basically it is baking chicken after marinating it in spices. - The chicken marinade was made and I'm letting the chicken drumsticks marinate for around 8 hours.  Then they go into the oven.  I am thinking of a side of a bit jazzed up rice. - turned out pretty good.

Then there is a Creamy Chicken spaghetti casserole that looked interesting. The only problem is that after making the chicken drumsticks, I won't have any chicken left. LOL. I believe that I might substitute Italian sausage in the recipe. I think it should work. - Only so so.  Not sure I'll make it again.

The third dish will probably be the no roll pie crust and make tuna quiche. -   I finally am making the pie crust and baking tuna quiche.  Talk abut an adventure!  First I ended up with flour all over due to a measuring cup that started to tilt.  The next adventure was the tablespoon of sugar that went flying when the measuring spoon was hit because I was trying to stop the flour from going all over.  Had a bunch of clean up to do so that ants wouldn't find their way to all the goodies.  I also ended up adding more water to my pie crust and thought I could have probably added another couple of tablespoons.  I'll see how it turns out. - done and it turned out ok.

The true question is what to make for the upcoming week.  I will admit that I'm in a brain fog and really don't know what I want to make.  I want to make a potato and ham casserole but  I also don't want to start up the oven,  The other possibilities, since the temps are supposed to be between 85 - 95F are:

breakfast for dinner 

tuna salad

thaw out some leftover dinners from freezer

and??????

This post is so uninspiring!  LOL.  I'll let you know what I make.  I will be going to the store towards the end of the week so it might just be some salads in there also.  We'll see.

Wish me luck!

I have some 

I made progress...sort of...

 The good news is that I managed to get some things done.  So with that said, let's look to see what this week has been like.

I didn't finish this week's Blackwork Stitch a Long filler.  It's about 1/3 done.  It will be shown next week.

I did manage to get three words (Rejoice, tree, and Merry)finished on the Words of Christmas cross stitch.

The next row is some sort of design and then the word Christmas.  I'm not exactly sure what the design if supposed to be.  You'll see when I finish that section.  

I also  managed to finish up my Rose of Sharon (RoS) block.

I think I posted this last week but this is a better picture.  The RoS blocks will be put aside for a little bit in order to get other things done.  

I am almost finished with my horseshoe block.  All I have left to do is the leaves.  There are 18 leaves so I'll break it down by how many I need to get done in a day.  I think I can get 3 or 4 of them done each day which means it COULD be finished by next week.  The week after that without any problems.

I've also decided that I needed a new table runner so quickly did this top.  It is called Ripple Runner.  

The top is done but I need to sandwich it and then quilt it.  I was thinking of quilting by hand doing Big Stitch.  If I'm not burned out after doing that, I might bring out another project to quilt by Big Stich.  We'll see.  This table runner would be easy to do on my domestic machine so it is up in the air right now which way I'll go.  

Soon I want to work on a tote bag.  I think I will do a cotton fabric one as a sample and then go and get canvas painter's cloth for the final messenger bag.  This will be a bag for me when I go to SCA events.  Can't afford the leather version but perhaps eventually.

So I'll leave you with this Mark Twain quote...

So to all my great friends and readers....stay safe.

See you next week.

This weeks cooking

No roll pie crust - Didn't make but it will be made soon.

Homemade egg noodles (where you make like pancake batter - I made this and it wasn't bad.  It wasn't good either.  I think it would be ok if I poked the holes with something larger than a toothpick.

I didn't make the pork and rice casserole but something similar to that might be coming online to cook this week.

I did make the mini pretzel bites.  They were delish!  I need to cut down on how thick of an egg wash I use.  My dips were an Everything bagel dip and honey mustard sauce.  They both were good but I liked the honey mustard sauce best.

I also made Enchilada Springform Layer Casserole.  This was a huge hit.  Dan has mentioned more than once how good it was and has even commented on my Facebook posted I CAN vouch for this recipe. Take it to the bank, ya'll".  I will admit that I got a kick out of that.

Another recipe I made this week was a version of Chicken Cordon Bleu that was done on the stovetop.  I am eating the last of that tonight.  I did some green beans with onions with a splash of balsamic vinegar in them and some garlic powder.  That tasted really good so it inspired me to add some spices to my canned mixed vegetables that I added some thyme, garlic, and rosemary.  

Since I made all that and ate the leftovers (some with the help from Dan), I'm back to another week wondering what I will make.  So are I think I will be making:

Roasted Greek Chicken Drumsticks - I have 4 packages of those huge drumsticks that are taking up space in the freezer.  I will use those.  It basically it is baking chicken after marinating it in spices. 

Then there is a Creamy Chicken spaghetti casserole that looked interesting.  The only problem is that after making the chicken drumsticks, I won't have any chicken left.  LOL.  I believe that I might substitute Italian sausage in the recipe.  I think it should work.

The third dish will probably be the no roll pie crust and make tuna quiche. 

That is about all I can think of right now...and leftovers of course.

What's on your plate?

Progress....yes you read it right...PROGRESS

 This was a week of ups and downs.  The ups?  I managed to make progress on the Rose of Sharon block.  The downs?  I gave up on a cross stitch project.  Let's start with the cross stitch project that I gave up on.  Start with negatives and end in positives, right?

As many of you know, I love Heaven and Earth Designs (HAED).  I have several of them but never finished any.  My first one, Mini New Owl, is the one that I finally gave up on.  I have restarted it twice and this last time  was the end of it for me...for now.  I actually cut out what I had done so I could use the aida cloth for something else.  I don't know what I was thinking but I had some blue in the area that should have been creams and browns.  The only excuse I *might* have is that I was doing it when I was having eye problems and either misread the DMC number or couldn't see the colors well enough to catch it earlier.  Either way it took me 4 hours to unpick 10 stitches.  Then I looked at that area and you could still see the blue.  The back was a mess which meant no easy unpicking for me.  I set it aside and picked it up another day.  This time I was thinking that perhaps I could just take out a section all around the stitches.  Ummm.  Needless to say that didn't work either.  This time I managed to unpick 10 stitches in 3 hours.  Progres?  I guess.  So I am totally disassembling this project and stuffing it away because it pissed me off.  LOL.  I am salvaging the extra aida cloth and will use it in another project.  Am I giving up on complex cross stitch?  Nope!  I just need to set this one aside.  I have another HAED that I had started so I will dig that out and take a look at it to see if I made a mistake on that too.  That means today is a refile back all the floss that I had pulled out for the HAED project.  That is around 85 floss bobbins plus any other bobbins that need to filed back.  If I'm pulling out 18 floss organizers, I will go ahead and file back all the floss that is sitting out after projects.  I keep them all in one place for when I do get to refiling.  :)

I have around 5 more containers that have floss already pulled for individual projects.  I'm still deciding if I'll also merge them back in or keep them pulled.

Once I had filed the stray floss bobbins, I realized that it was time for me to work on my exchange block for June.  I thought and thought and then the lightbulb went off over my head.  Not only did I get my idea for my block for June but also for JULY!  I know what July will be but I didn't print out my pattern or anything yet.  On the other hand,  I did print out my pattern for June and now the block is fused down and ready for me to match up colors and stitch.  What did I pick?  I pulled out my book Inspired by Tradition.  June's block will be a horseshoe.  Why a horseshoe?  Because of what it represents.  In these days and times, we can all use some luck.

It is fused on with the opening at the top so that the luck will stay in but it was a debate.  Another alternative story is that you display it with the opening at the bottom so that luck can fall out and spread throughout your house and to your guests.  I love both stories don't you?

That is what I will be working on but what about the projects that I normally work on?  Well no Blackwork stitch a long this week.  I got it half way done and then my placement was off.  I'll have to go through again tomorrow and see where I made my mistake.  Why is it when I see a simple pattern it turns out to be difficult?  Ok, perhaps that was a bit of exaggeration.  It isn't difficult but I do need to concentrate on it more.  It will be done for next week though.

I *did* finish up my Rose of Sharon block.  That makes a total of six blocks done.  Here is a picture but unfortunately it is not a good one.  I'll post up a better picture later.

 I did get to work on the Christmas word cross stitch stocking.  I didn't take a picture this time but I should have a finished work by next week.  I found that I was off on my placement but since I am now working on the second half of the stocking and word by word, I can adjust a little bit.  I should have enough Aida cloth so I won't be running out.  Of course since I just posted that, then perhaps I WILL run out.  LOL.  We'll see.

What else is happening?  Hmmm.  The landlord notified me this week that I won't have to worry about mowing the lawn.  He has hired out a friends son to come every couple of weeks and mow it.  That is a huge relief.   The kittens have enjoyed running around in the tall grass and pouncing on each other but they will adjust.  LOL.  

Now before I sign off on this weeks edition of what I've been up to, I want to share  this piece of advice that I saw the other day.

Keep your hearts and minds open and stay safe.

The results are in on what I made this week...

 

Brazilian Beans and Rice (one pot dish) - Made on Thursday.  YUMMM

Sheet pan pancakes - not made because I couldn't decide on what toppings I wanted on them

Olive Dip - made - very salty - I used it more like a sandwich spread

Homemade Ranch Dressing - didn't make.  Had too much left in my bottle of ranch dressing in the fridge

Turkey Sausage Patties - it turned out a little spicy.  I like milk sausage and this was more of a medium but I'll make it again.  Perhaps I'll adjust the spices and if not just mark it as medium strength.  I used it in a spaghetti sauce and it worked pretty good in that.

Spaghetti and meat sauce - not the one with 10 cloves of garlic since I forgot to get garlic cloves but I did make Spaghetti sauce and used the turkey sausage in it.

As a side note, I didn't have any Fennel to use in the Sausage Patties so I googled substitutes.  In case you ever need to substitute for fennel here are some options (1 to 1 ratio)...

Cardamom

Celery Seed

Cumin

Dill Seed

Tarragon

I used Cumin but I also had celery seed so it is nice to know of options.

So what will the next meals be?  Good question.  

I watched a video on making a "no fuss no roll pie crust" and thought I might try that.  I could use it for tuna quiche.

I also watched a video on making homemade egg noodles where you make the dough runny (think like pancake batter), put it in a ziploc baggie which you put in a large bug to hold while you put the dough in.  Then you pick up the bag of dough, poke like 10-12 holes in the bottom of the bag with a toothpick, and "pipe" the dough into a pot of boiling water.  No rolling out or getting our table top/counter all floury etc.

That left me needing one more recipe to make.  I'm thinking of a pork and rice casserole.  I will have to decide that later.

Another option might be to make some mini pretzel bites.  They are made with biscuit dough.  I saw how to prepare biscuit dough for keeping in the freezer so for the pretzel bites, I might just use one or two of the biscuits and freeze the rest of the raw dough for later.  I'll report back next week if I decide to make it or not.

The rest of the week will be leftovers.  Can't forget them!

That's it for this week cooking.  I'll let you know things turn out.  

What's on your menu?

Thursday Thoughts...

 Another week has gone by and another week that I didn't manage to get everything done that I wanted to.  Such is life.  The important thing is that I still worked on things and made progress.

The first (and only) thing that I actually finished was this weeks filler for my Blackwork Stitch a Long.  Here is what it is now looking like.

I am liking how it is turning out.  There are errors but nothing I feel the overwhelming urge to rip out.  Hehe

I didn't work on the Christmas Words cross stitch this week because I made the decision that I would finish the Rose of Sharon BOM block from 2014.  I didn't finish it this week but I should by next week.  Here is my progress pictures.

This first picture shows how I basted the pieces down.  I know that I have been complaining about how the glue on the fusible was no longer effective so I finally gave up and basted the pieces down  That enabled me to finish everything except for the Celtic design part.

It is hard to see in the first picture how much I have finished so here is a picture of the back.  Not the prettiest back but you can see how much progress was made in the vines (Celtic design part).  

I think I should be able to finish the block this week.  Then I will go back and work on the Christmas Words Cross Stitch.  Once that is finished, I will probably pull out my HAED cross stitch and start on correcting an error that I had made in it.  I'm not looking forward to it but it needs to be done.

It isn't much to report on but at least I am taking baby steps to getting things done.  Before I leave though I wish to give you...

I also want to remind you that...

Have a good week everybody!

What I'm going to try to make this week...

 Before I get to what I would like to make this week, let me say that I didn't stick to last weeks menu much at all.  To remind you, 

I was going to try to make:

Spaghetti with garlic and oil. I will need to pick up more garlic since it takes 10 cloves. I will use ground red pepper instead of pepper flakes and probably parmesan cheese instead of grana padano cheese. - Didn't happen.

Jewish Style Olive Dip - if I remember to pick up green olives - Didn't happen - yet.  Although I did remember to pick up the olives.

Wagon Wheel Breakfast Pie - If I remember to pick up a couple ingredients that I ran out of. - didn't happen.

So what DID happen?  

I tried a new breakfast idea that didn't turn out.  On the other hand, I tried a  new breakfast idea that DID turn out.  I'm calling them Breakfast Tarts.  Think Pop Tart but with breakfast filling that used pie crust for the outside.  They were delicious and Dan ate two of them very quickly and said I could make them again.  That's my gauge on how they really turned out.  If he volunteers that I can make the recipe again without prompting from me, I know it is a really good recipe.  :)

I also made a Mexican tortilla chip casserole that I ate for the rest of the week.  LOL.  I still have some left which will be leftovers for this week.

I did remember the olives to make the olive dip but then got distracted and never made it so perhaps this week.  I still have a little bit of the tortilla chips left over.  My leftovers this week included leftover Pizza from Pizza Hut.  Yeah, that will NEVER get old.  

This week I will TRY to make:

Brazilian Beans and Rice (one pot dish)

Sheet pan pancakes

Olive Dip

Homemade Ranch Dressing

Turkey Sausage Patties

Spaghetti and meat sauce - not the one with 10 cloves of garlic since I forgot to get garlic cloves.

We'll see how much gets done and what will get substituted.  :)

What's on your menu this week?

It's that time of the week again...

 Yes another week has gone by and it is time for an update.  This has been such a crazy week but I still have progress reports to make on my crafting and yardwork.  First up is the yardwork.  If you look back at last weeks post, you'll see two pictures of the stump.  Guess what.  The stump is no longer there.  Dan came over and it wasn't even five minutes later that is was cut down further and he put it to the side of the tree where I stack up yard waste for the city to pick up.

Yes that is a pipe that you see there.  I'm not sure why there was a pipe but the tree had started to grow around it.  Dan will come over sometime and cut it down for me.  I was afraid that people might trip over it or something so I put a yellow plastic bag from Dollar General around it and we fastened it with duct tape.  There is still al little bit of the tree trunk left but he was running out of charge on his saw.  His saw...OMG!  It was the cutest thing.  It was a small one handed chain saw.  It cut off huge chucks of that tree trunk and then he used it also to get rid of some of the other dead branches and limbs over on the other neighbors side by the metal fence.  It worked great!  It was also cordless so no need for long extension cords etc.  An update on this is that after dragging all those limbs onto the brush pile, today the city came with their chipper and now my brush pile is so much less.  Most of what is left are weeds that I pulled etc.  I will probably ask Dan for another 50 gallon yard garbage bag.  Then I can put that in it and put it in my garbage can and roll it out to the street for garbage pickup. As long as it fits in the garbage can on wheels, they will take it.  :)

I also have made some crafting progress.  For those of you who are following my Blackwork Block of the Week Stitch A Long, I am caught up and here is my progress pix.

This makes 18 out of 56 weeks.  This weeks filler I messed up a little bit and had to unstitch it.  That's what I get for stitching when I'm tired but I'll get to that after I post this picture of my progress on the Words of Christmas.

This finishes the top half of the Words of Christmas and now I can start to work on the bottom half of it.  It feels good to be half way done.  I try to work on one word at a time and not think ahead.  Otherwise I will get overwhelmed again and put it aside.  Mind you that I still might put it aside once all the stitching is done but that will depend on how long it takes me to figure out how to finish it.  Do I frame it?  Do I make a pillow out of it?  At least it would be all stitched by that point.

This week I also sent off my bluebird of happiness block to my partner in the Block Exchange.  She received it according to the tracking number but hasn't posted it yet or anything.  I get so impatient about these things.  

My other craft thing that I'm working on yet is my Rose of Sharon BOM from 2014.  I finally had to figure out what to do when 4 more leaves fell off.  So today I am loosely basting down everything that I haven't stitched down yet and hopefully that will solve the problem.  I'll let you know next week.

In between working on these things, Dan and I made a trip to the Crowley Ridge State Park which is in Walcott, AR.  We were scouting out the place for a possible site for next year when my group has to host a big event.  It is about an hour away from me but we had fun even though we both returned super tired (after eating at Golden Corral).  I don't know about Dan, who had another 30 minute drive after dropping me off, but I took a 2 hours nap!  Here are some pictures of the place.  They have a separate area for groups to rent out so it might not be exactly like what it would be if you went there by yourself.

Our group would be renting it out for the weekend so we checked out what the cabins would be like.

Each of the group cabins have 4 bunk beds and three of the four have a trundle bed.  The cabins are air conditioned and one cabin is handicapped accessible.  

It is the kitchen that I loved though.  There is a huge area to set up 11 long tables and you can see two or three different types of chairs available to use.  

In addition the kitchen is an industrial one.  Here is the six burner gas stove with a griddle and two ovens as well as a third oven-ish that you can light and pull out an actually grill (under the griddle)

The microwave and coffee maker is a necessity when you are having the area reserved for the weekend and that is an upright freezer.

Also you have a double door refrigerator, of course the sink but best of all...an ice maker.  We wouldn't have to drive 30 miles away just to get ice.

They have showers (men and women's separately) which also are handicapped accessible, a covered picnic area which has 6 long picnic tables, small grills by each of the cabins, huge firepits that they have grill work, upon request, if you wanted to cook outdoors.  But don't worry...THEY come in daily to empty all garbage cans, restock the toilet paper and make sure nothing is stopped up (and if it is, we can call them to come out to fix it), and sweep up the ashes in the grills and firepits so you don't have to.

You can have liquor there and smoke but you can't smoke in the buildings or within 25 feet of them but otherwise ok.  There is a walking path around that lake that is 1 mile.  So yeah, I like this place.  I can see it saving us a lot of time with them doing the garbage etc.  And each of the buildings has an electronic lock on it that we set the code for.  They will come by periodically just to make sure we aren't doing something we aren't supposed to but otherwise it sounds pretty good.

So if you're in the are sometime and are interested in places to stay....

https://www.arkansasstateparks.com/parks/crowleys-ridge-state-park

There are lots of curves and ups and down in the road to get to it though.  Oh well, nothing is perfect.  Hehehe.

That's it for this weeks update.  I hope everybody has a great day.  Tomorrow it is supposed to start rain again, as in rain for four days, one day no rain and then a week of Thunderstorms.  Perhaps that will give me stitching time then.  LOL.  

What's on the menu?

 How did I do with my meals this week?  Let's see...

Leftovers - obviously. cut up some of my pork loin to use in Pork Fried Rice. I also thinly sliced some of it to have either in sandwiches or to have with mashed potatoes and gravy. - turned out great!

Bean soup - since I picked up some sliced ham to use in it - I burned the bean soup.  I forgot to set my timer and the beans boiled dry.  This is why I should never rmake bean soup unless it is in the crock pot.  lol.  I only used half of the bag so I can still make it another time.

Salmon -  didn't happen - made creamed peas, beans, and potatoes soup with a little ham in it.

Yumesetti - didn't happen but it is in the freezer so I can have it any time.

Burrito casserole - this uses cream of mushroom soup mixed with sour cream instead of a tomato base. It will also be leftovers. - YUMMMMMY!  Tonight I gave Dan my last two pieces out of the freezer to have.

Baked Chicken Wings (really Drumettes) - turned out pretty good.

My Pork Fried Rice made so much I ate it almost 3-4 days this week.  Sometimes for breakfast, sometimes for lunch, and of course sometimes for dinner.

Now onto this weeks attempts.

I am going to try to make:

Spaghetti with garlic and oil.  I will need to pick up more garlic since it takes 10 cloves.  I will use ground red pepper instead of pepper flakes and probably parmesan cheese instead of grana padano cheese.

Jewish Style Olive Dip - if I remember to pick up green olives

Wagon Wheel Breakfast Pie - If I remember to pick up a couple ingredients that I ran out of.

Leftovers and anything else that I can think of.

How does that sound?  Anybody going to take bets on how much I will or will not make?  You never know (nor do I).  LOL.