What did you get for Christmas?

 

 

   I have always loved to to crafts and paint, but I only painted with acrylics. I have secretly wanted to try my hand at oil paints but could not justify spending the money on it. When we were in Kentucky I met a women named Betty Travis. She paints  wonderful murals,in oil. I talked with her about painting with oils and she said I should just do it.  I told her I would love to  get the starter set I saw at Wal-Mart. I was shocked when on Christmas day I opened my gift and it was the starter oil set and some canvases  to start on! Steve was standing behind me when I said that I would like the set.  I was so excited ! And astonished that he got it!

I was a little bit discouraged after starting on Sunday, but I think I have gotten the hang of it.

I still have a lot of work to do ,but I can tell what it is and I think it has dimension. I have also started painting a Tuscan scene  on a plate that I have had for years and have not done anything with.

The paints go on very well on glass! If you don’t like it,wipe it off!

I was going to show you how I made my  Panettone bread but, I lost all pictures off my computer and and the pictures I took during the making are lost but I can give you the recipe.

• 2 pkg. dry yeast
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. salt
• 6 to 6 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 tsp. grated lemon zest
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups raisins (mixed golden and regular)
• 1/3 cup pine nuts ( reserve 1 tbsp. for garnish)
• 1 cup mixed, chopped candied fruits
• Melted butter
• Confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. In a large mixer bowl, combine yeast, sugar, salt and 2 cups of the flour. Heat water with butter and lemon peel over low heat until very warm (120 to 130ºF). Add liquid to dry ingredients; beat for 2 minutes at medium speed. Add 2 cups more of the flour and the eggs; beat 3 minutes. Stir in almost all of the remaining flour. Knead dough on floured board about 8 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place in a buttered bowl, cover and let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours. Punch down; knead in raisins, nuts and fruit. (Do not try  to mix in fruit with the flour, I did and it will not rise as well if you do. So please follow the directions and it should turn out right.  I like to try to find these things out for you, so you don’t have to mess up your bread!) I do what I can!
2. Shape into 2 round loaves and place in 2 greased 9" cake pans; brush lightly with melted butter. Let rise 1 to 1 1/2 hours until doubled in bulk.
3. With a sharp knife, slash the top of each loaf to make a cross. Bake in a 350ºF oven 45 to 55 minutes.
4. Turn onto rack. Brush lightly with butter. Garnish with remaining pine nuts. Dust with confectioners' sugar. Serve with Orange Butter.
5. ORANGE BUTTER: 1/2 cup butter,1 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar ,2 tbsp. orange juice,1 tbsp grated orange zest, dash angostura bitters (optional)
6. Combine all and beat until fluffy.
7. This bread is terrific toasted !

You have got to check out the bathroom vanity that Steve fixed ! I liked the way it looked before, 

But now it looks awesome!

 

Doesn’t it look so much better?

I should have gotten Him the table saw much sooner!

Now look at the bins in the kitchen, The idea was to use baskets, but I could not find another one to match.

But now it looks great! Steve turned them into pull out bins! They are so much better now!

We also got some new hardware for the other drawers to match,They are what I wanted to begin with!

Well I’m off for now ! See you back here real soon!

Wow How Time Flies!

 

    It Just seems like life has gotten in the way of me blogging about my life! I need to prioritize and set a time that I blog. Well, lets not dwell on my lack of life organizational skills and move on shall we… Good.

   First of all, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday! We did ! We traveled to Kentucky to my parents house. It was really nice  to spend quality time with them. I did bake an apple pie while I was there. I used a jar of my apples that I canned. It turned out really good.  We did miss having everyone at our house , but we look forward to next year!

    I am so looking forward to Christmas this year! We are able to do more this year for everyone, we have not been able to do that in a while! I am excited to see everyone open their gifts.

My Christmas,  Birthday and Anniversary came early this year! Steve got me a new stove! It is a convection oven ! I love it.

  I was really impressed with the convection feature Tuesday morning when I made a batch of scones! Oh how quickly they cooked,they rose so high! Then I read the  book and realized I did not even have it turned on to convection!!  So imagine how much I loved it when I actually used it!

We give cookies to all the members of our congregation, so I have been baking cookies almost non-stop since I got the stove on Monday! I have made sugar cookies,

The Best Ever Christmas Sugar Cookie

1 cup oil

1 cup powered sugar

1 cup butter (softened) do not use margarine

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs (room temp)

1 tsp vanilla

4 cups plus 4 Tblsp flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp salt

1/2  cup sugar (I used red , for rolling )

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream first 4 ingredients  , then add eggs and vanilla and cream again well. Sift dry ingredients together and add slowly to creamed mixture. Chill covered over night . Roll into walnut sized balls and then roll into sugar and flatten with a glass dipped in sugar and bake for 11 minutes. Do not over bake ! This will make about 6 dozen.

 

 

I have made chocolate chip (sorry no pictures),I made butterscotch chip cookies,

I made Peppermint Sandies,these are wonderful!

Peppermint Sandies with White Chocolate Glaze

Prep: 25 minutes
Bake: 15 minutes/batch
Stand: 48 minutes
Oven: 325°F

1 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup finely crushed striped round peppermint candies (about 11 candies)
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whipping cream
6 ounces white baking chocolate
Crushed striped round peppermint candies

Step 1. Preheat oven to 325°F. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add powdered sugar and 1/4 cup crushed peppermint candies. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in water, vanilla, and peppermint extract until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as possible with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour with a wooden spoon.

Step 2. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake about 15 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool.

Step 3. Meanwhile, for white chocolate glaze, in a medium saucepan bring whipping cream just to simmering. Remove from heat. Add white baking chocolate. Let stand for 3 minutes. Stir until smooth. Let stand for 45 to 60 minutes or until glaze starts to thicken.

Step 4. Spoon glaze on top of each cooled cookie. Sprinkle with additional crushed peppermint candies. Let stand until set. Makes about 48 cookies

Step 5. Smack your husbands hands to keep them out of the cookies or you won’t have any to give away!

Tip: To crush the peppermint candies, place them in a plastic resealable bag. Lay on the counter and use a rolling pin to crush.

To store: Place cookies in layers separated by waxed paper in an airtight container; cover. Store at room temperature up to 3 days. Freeze unglazed cookies up to 3 months. Thaw cookies, then glaze.

These cookies turned out real well,but let me give you some helpful hints.

Two words ,Parchment Paper! If you don’t use it ,your cookies will stick to the pan because the candy in the cookies.

You will also need to flatten the cookies out before baking, they do not flatten out as they say they will.

I also did not pour white chocolate over whole cookie, I just dipped one end in and sprinkled the candy over that.  I think they look good that way and not as rich. Other wise I really liked the recipe and would use it again.

I plan on baking some old favorites, peanut butter cookies and oatmeal raisin.

We put up a real Christmas tree this year!

I have lost my voice and I am  coughing , my eyes are itching and watering! But wow ! The tree looks great!   I thought it looked better the first time we decorated it…..But….It fell and the balls(shatter proof) went everywhere and we got to decorate it again! It is now secured to the window sill! Lessons learned!

I love to decorate the new dinning room for the holidays!

I searched high and low for these pretty red birds! I love how they look!

Even the back porch got a little Christmas cheer!

It snowed here last weekend and it was so pretty! In the end we got about 5 inches. We took a couple pictures,Oh how I love the winter time!

 

Steve has also been very busy! I like to keep a good honey-do list going just in-case he should get bored or in the un-likely event of him not having anything to do! Not going to happen but … I am prepared for it none the less!

I was really resisting hanging the TV on the wall!  I said I would if we could get a new entertainment cabinet that contained all of the electronics. I don’t like them all out on top. So I showed him some pictures of cabinets that I liked and this is what he came up with. He is so talented! How lucky am I?

I really like the dark finish! I like that it has a lot of storage and I still have room on top and in the shelves for knick- knacks and pictures of our sweet grandsons! We still need to put knobs on it , I think I’ll just keep Steve ! He is really very handy! He was always telling me he could build this or that if he had a table saw and a chop saw so…now he has no excuse!  He even has a pocket jig!

The Grand-babies have grown so much! I think they are adorable , I know you will too!

 

 

Has Trevor stolen your heart?

Well he has stolen mine! Look  at that expression on his face,don’t you wonder what he is thinking about? 

Zack is so handsome ,he is growing up so fast. He has such a wonderful personality. His parents are doing  a fantastic  good job.

Ryan,my sweet angel ! Look how he has grown! He is doing so well right now!  Ryan is such a blessing. I love to hold him and just look at him! He melts me! I love being Nana, there is nothing like it in this world. All the work that you put into parenting your children, is worth having grandchildren!

Well I am sorry about such a long post! I will try to post more often and stay on  top of things! We will see how it goes….. Tune in next time for, “ Our covered back porch.”

Hey Nana What’s for Dinner?

 

 

Hog jaws and chitlins and collard greens!

 

What?!? 

 

Naw…..

 

Lets have a big bowl of Jambalaya! 

Let start off by saying I am from Wisconsin not Louisiana!

So this may not be an true, authentic version of this recipe.

So with that said, lets move forward ….

 

Jambalaya !

 

  

1 chicken leg and thigh quarter

2 pints of home canned tomatoes (or 2 small cans tomatoes)

1 stalk celery (chopped)

1 onion (chopped)

4 to 5 cloves garlic (minced)

3 tsp paprika

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp or to taste red pepper flake

2 pieces of chopped

1 lb. chopped smoked sausage (or of your choosing)

2 cups chicken stock (or water)

1/2 lb shrimp, Cleaned and deveined

2 Tblsp tomato paste

salt and pepper to taste

4 cups cooked rice

 

Start by chopping up the bacon ,and put in a dutch oven and cook until browed.

Then mince garlic and add to bacon,turn heat down so you don’t brown the garlic.

Chop onion and celery and add to bacon and garlic. Cook until translucent . Then add the tomato paste  and cook until it browns to give depth of flavor. ( Yes, I watch the food network! You pick catchy phrases like ,depth of flavor)

Add the tomatoes and broth (I like mine more like a soup so I have more broth)

 

Add chicken ,sausage and spices,

 

cover and cook until chicken is done .

Remove chicken,

Then take chicken off the bone and shred or you may chop it what ever you prefer.

Add chicken back in the pan and simmer. I have used frozen shrimp.

I think it would be better to use fresh but it is ok to use what you have on hand. Do not add the shrimp until right before  you are ready to serve. It only takes a few minutes to cook the shrimp, if you over cook it it will be rubbery.  Traditionally you would cook the rice in with the broth but I don’t like the results of that. Two reasons, if  you have any leftovers it does not reheat as well with the rice cooked in it. I like it kind of soupy so I would rather have the rice in the bottom of the bowl and have some broth for the bread you serve with it.

 

You may serve with Tabasco sauce it you like it hot! 

It turned out really well! The taste was excellent!  Most recipes said it would take about 1 1/2 hours to prepare, but I think it benefits from the all day simmer. All of the flavors marry and gives much better results. You could go through the steps of sauté the vegetables and then put in slow cooker  to cook all day.

 

We have finished the other half of the Dinning Room! Oh Glory ! I think it looks wonderful! What do you think???

 

I would like to sit in there even if I am not eating!

Have a look at the neat little fall ceramic gourds I picked at the antique store for $1.99 a piece . Aren’t they sweet! 

I put them on my cake stand and put a strand of leaves from the dollar tree. With them on the cake stand you can pick up the cake stand and move the whole center piece if need be,rather than having to move it piece by piece.

Ya’ll come on back  and sit a spell!