Make it, bake it, eat it!

What do you do when you are reading books with recipes? Cook!!! The bread was from a recipe a friend sent. It is a cheesy bread with cojack/parmesan and I threw in some garlic flavored Mrs. Dash. When I make dough, I cheat and use the bread machine. It works VERY well! 

 It rose quite a bit too much since I stuck it in the addition to rise--where it was warm. It also got a little lopsided! 

 However, it baked quite well. I would have preferred a denser loaf, but as I said, it rose too far. It is supposed to rise just over the edge of the pan. As you can see, it rose quite a bit above the pan!

 The outside has flecks in it-you can see the cheeses and spices. The inside doesn't show much, but the flavor is amazing! It has a lovely chewy crust.

It went well with the beef stew I had planned. Yeah, it was 88 degrees today, but when you have ingredients for something, you gotta use them! 

 For dessert and lunches, I thought I'd make brownies using a recipe from one of Ruth Reich's books. I took several photos, but alas..they didn't turn out well. I don't think the brownies did what they were supposed to, either. However, the verdict from Jon was brownies should be all gooey and Steve said they were good. This recipe came from her book 'Tender at the Bone.' (I wonder if I should have taken a photo and posted it.......thankfully, the picture is a bit fuzzy!)

Another Nook

I love quiet private nooks. I've been attracted to them since I was a young child. I'd hide in out of the way places with books, finding special spots no one else knew about. Living on the Oregon Coast, my entire back yard was in an out of the way spot. I wanted to make a haven in Eastern Oregon, I think it is almost ready. The ladybugs have always liked it, I hope people will, too! 

 It has taken several trials to get the place where I kind of like it. The photo below was taken in April of 2014. It has grown a lot since then.

In 2011 Jon, for one of his Eagle badges, created a pond/stream ecosystem for the yard. Eventually, we blocked up the stream and turned it into a dry creek bed. The locusts and chokecherry were too much work for this lazy mom!!!!! Those leaves, berries, and blossoms were a pain to dig out from the rocks in the stream. The pond is more than enough and you can see how small it is. 

The pink bathtub I wanted to put strawberries or petunias in has evolved to a container over which the hops grow. And the cute stairway to nowhere is perfect for the cats. (the photo below was a few years ago)

This year, after I made the garden bling with the space theme, I decided to take out a part of the chokecherry tree/bush thing. I had to be careful. I wanted to protect what little of the spice bush plant there is. Last year, this plant still had several flowers on it. This year, there were none. (photo taken in 2010)

 I used several dead lilac branches while I was putting my ideas in order. They add definition, are easy to find, and help hold different kinds of things. I used one above a fairy garden, I'll probably add metal butterflies or flowers. My garden needs more things in it for young visitors to play with.

 I also used a branch to help hold up the plant in the blue bucket. Rose Campion gets really tall and leggy. When it is planted in groups, they hold each other up. This pot has a single large bunch and needed help showing off.

 The birds love places to sit. I've had a LARGE  lilac piece since 2008 which was just sitting in the garden. Steve hung the feeder Jon got me this spring over the branch, marrying the two nicely.  I especially appreciate the seeds falling into a dead area of the yard. Not much grows in this spot, so it is ok to have it littered with seed.

 All in all, I'm pleased with how things are turning out in my backyard. I like the peace found in the colors and the privacy.  The quiet burble of the water in the pond paired with birdsong make a perfect spot to read or take a nap on the grass if I want!

Different Points of View

 Seeing the ranch from the lens of each son. They take similar photos, yet the subject matter is a bit different! Most of their time was at the Upper Place.

 I was glad Tony took these. It is always good to have documentation of getting stuck and needing your dad to pull you out. These are from the Lower Place.

Sunset over the towns. 

Simple Snacks from a Biscuit Mix

I mentioned this one in FB. Super salty and super easy. They are called (I believe) Roll Ups or Spam Pinwheels. It is a recipe from around the 70's or so. 

  They were fairly simple to create. You need 1 can of spam, minced (next time I will use the low sodium stuff); 2 1/4 cups Bisquick (or other biscuit mix); 2/3 a cup of milk; and about 3/4 cup of shredded cheese. Combine the Bisquick and milk to make a soft dough. Roll out into a large rectangle. Spread minced spam and cheese on dough and roll long way into a jelly roll. Cut about 3/4 of an inch thick and place on parchment paper or lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 450 degrees for 8-10 min. (many people also place them on the sheet, seam side down-I liked them this way, too)

  Then, there was this other recipe I found. It is even easier and uses sausage. I think making it with pork sausage instead of deer might make it stickier. I'll try that next time, but I had the deer sausage thawed out already.
  The second one is known as 'Sausage Balls' and has 3 ingredients. 1 pound ground pork sausage, 2 cups of biscuit baking mix, 1 pound shredded cheese. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine sausage, flour mix, and cheese in a gallon sized plastic bag. Mix thoroughly. Form into small balls and place on parchment paper. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

They would make a good bite sized appetizer. My half recipe made 24 balls about the size of my cookie scoop.

Garden Bling!

I am amazed and humbled. This is a plant which I have had dubious relations with. It seemed to grow and bloom poorly and it narrowly missed being evicted many times. This year? It is covered with healthy leaves and dozens of buds. It must be the new trellis Steve made for it...Or maybe it appreciates having the nightshade I grew next to it gone???? 

 This, however, was my project today. I have wanted to do something with this section of the fence for quite a while. After Tex's SIL trimmed back the bushy tree, it opened up a whole new section of sunshine. It is still heavily shaded, so I wanted to do something shiny and festive. This cedar fence is full of knotholes. Empty, boring holes in the weathered wood. I had read articles about sprucing up fences with marbles. Steve was getting rid of bits of wood, one of which was a giant moon shape. I decided space was in my future!

 I also had a sort of a vase shape in the yard, aching to be planted. Unfortunately, the majority of the pieces of wood were prototypes for a gumball machine Steve made in HS. The toy and the bits were walnut, which does NOT do well with plain old staples. Thankfully, I was able to enlist Jon's help. He wasn't super impressed, but he had great ideas which worked. We put up the sort of forget-me-not flower after most of the rest of the wall was done. He thought of twisting a green Mardigras bead necklace for the stem.

 Jon also added the first gold bead section to my 'bird netting space grid'-he said they could be meteors. The pale shapes (stars) are supposed to glow in the dark. In the photograph there are two 'planets' (a red one and an orange one--they have old CD's behind them to help them shine), the moon, spaceships, and a board, which will hold a ticket to the moon (yes, ELO!). There are also bits of shiny necklace beads that had broken off from a fancy necklace, crystals from somewhere, dangling over holes too big for marbles, and assorted bling from various other places. Jon said this part was 'Art'.

 The marbles, however, caused the most heated discussion in the whole project. All the articles I looked over said to drill holes in the wood, hammer in the marbles, and there you go. I pressed several marbles in knotholes, hammering them in lightly, if needed. But, I wanted more!!!! (it is an addicting decoration!) Jon saw what I had done, liked it, and was skeptical. He insisted the marbles needed to be glued in because not all marbles were the same size and the holes would all be off. I was not going to let him do that. The glue would surround the marble and make it not see thru. I was also annoyed the holes he had drilled were not completely thru the wood. Eventually, we realised we were both right. He used the drill to make complete holes in the boards and I let him use glue. It was a perfect agreement. We did the space corner and then added more marbles to the rest of the fence.

 Amazing fun! It will look super in the morning light on Tex's side and it looked festive in the setting sun on mine! Win win situation. I may even sneak into her yard with more marbles and finish filling in knotholes from her side of the fence.

BLT--Bacon, Lettuce, Turtles!

Once again, I made these yummy treats. (Tony wanted them!) This time, we called it a seafood lunch. Tony and Jon brought home leftover fish and shrimp from the Fireman's Banquet, so they were a perfect side for the turtles. I have gotten better at making these critters. I don't weave the bacon. It is too fiddly and uses a LOT of bacon. Wrapping it is quicker and more efficient. 

I use a mixture of ground meat. I generally mix together about 2 and a half pounds of meat with  two eggs, 2/3 cup of bread crumbs, seasoning, and a  half a cup of milk. I have a favorite meat loaf recipe I use for turtles. Any left over meat makes great meat balls. I take about a 1/4 pound of meat and form it into a patty. In the center I place cheese, minced pineapple, or shredded veggies.I form another patty and place it on top, pressing down the edges to make a mound of meat. Then, I take 4 strips of thin bacon and wrap them around the burger.This means one turtle only has 3 pieces of bacon, but it is doable. (Oddly, bacon packages have 11 pieces and not 12. Crazy!) For the appendages, I use smokies. They are the perfect size for slicing into tails and heads and toes. (You need to cut 6 smokies per turtle.) Once they are all assembled, I add two cloves for eyes on the head. The smokie doesn't taste too strong after having cloves baked in it! Toothpicks are added in order to keep the turtle 'shell' from curling up during baking. 

 A weave makes for a prettier turtle. Wraps make for less work. I assembled these guys with about 10 min per turtle. NOTE: I forgot to put down foil in the bottom of the baking pan. Making for a LOT of work in clean up.

 Turtle with shrimp and salmon and on a bun with lettuce~

 Sucking the leg off a turtle! How can something so wrong be so right?????