Category Archives: Kitchen-Cooking & Misc

Time to bring the herbs in

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Our area finally got a break on the hot weather. It’s been quite cool here during the night and really nice during the day. I decided it was time to bring my herbs in the house.
20160929_060609I put the netting back on my rosemary a couple weeks ago. I’ve kept it trimmed and it’s grown thick and pretty. So far there hasn’t been any critters appear on it. I’m going to keep the netting on it for a quite a while just to be sure.

p1070459Since my basil is in 5 gallon buckets and way too large to bring in the house, A month ago, I started a few basil plant from cuttings. I want to try and grow basil indoors during the winter. The basil rooted really easily in about a week. When I transplanted them, I made nettings for their pots and kept them covered.
They look pretty neat in my kitchen window. My husband made me a wider window shelf just so I could set the herbs there. He’s a such a good fellow about helping me with stuff like that.

I hope my herbs live and grow here in the house. I plan to take them outside when the temps are warm enough and then bring them in at night.

I’ve been sidetracked this week, I’ll be around catching up on my blog visiting.

I hope you all are enjoying pleasant temps and having a pleasant week.

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Old Timey Apple Pie

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applepie-1My husband has been reminicing about the homemade apple pies that I used to make. He talked enough to get me wanting an apple pie. I bought a bag of apples and got out my ‘Old Timey Apple Pie’ Recipe. I was particurilarly excited about making a pie because I finally figured out how to make the lattice pie crust and wanted to try it out. It wasn’t as hard to do as I once thought. I used to make the solid pie crust top.

We enjoyed the pie… However, if I ever make it again, I will have to adjust the recipe because it was way too sweet. That’s the thing about the old timey recipes, some are sugar-heavy, this recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups.

All-in-all, it was a pretty decent pie. We enjoyed it over the course of a few days. I enjoyed making the pie and plan to make another one someday with adjustments to the recipe, or maybe another recipe all together.

I hope you all have an enjoyable week.

applepie

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Baked Small Wonder Spaghetti Squash – winter squash

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*This is an Edited post from 2011 from my ex-blog.
I thought it might be helpful to anyone new to small spaghetti squash.

~~~*~~~

Small wonder spaghetti squash are winter squash.
The largest small wonder squash that we
harvested in 2011 was around 6 inches tall.spegsqua2—————–
Here’s how I prepare, bake and serve Spaghetti Squash.
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Baked Spaghetti Squash

The squash skin is tough and quite slick,
so to help keep it stable I set it on an old dishtowel.spegsqua3Carefully cut slits all around the squash.spegsqua4Carefully cut joining slits in spaces between
making one slit around the squash.
*Be extra careful cutting on the bottom dimple and the stem,
they’re terribly tough and hard to cut through.spegsqua5Pull the squash apart & openspegsqua6clean out the seeds and pulpspegsqua7Place halves side by side face down in a baking dish.

*In the bottom of the pan, Add about a 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch of water.

**Check on the water level throughout the baking process.
Add more water if it evaporates too much.

Bake in a 375° preheated oven for 30 minutes.
Stick a fork in the squash to check for tenderness and doneness.

Remove from oven when done and allow to sit for 20 or 30 minutes
or until cool enough to safely handle.spegsqua8Carefully remove squash halves from baking dish
and scrap the spaghetti strings out of them.spegsqua9Add your favorite sauce and serve.

Happy cooking!

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Pumpkin Muffins

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0P1050644a2Except for a half teaspoon, I had a full 15oz can of freshly opened pumpkin that I needed to store or use.

puppmknI thought about freezing it in cubes to cook with later on, that’s what I usually do.

My husband suggested that I make cookies or bread with it. That sounded good, but also like a lot of work.

I thought for a bit and decided to add some of it to a box of Jiffy Muffin Mix to make pumpkin muffins.

The first batch, I tried to keep it minimal and only add pumpkin pie spice and some of the canned pumpkin to the Jiffy Mix. Unfortunately, it was a big fail. The muffins were heavy and pretty much tasteless. I promptly tossed them in the trash.

The second batch was a winner though.
0P1050632I started the second batch by adding what I thought would make pumpkin muffins taste sweeter and have a better texture. When I was finished adding a half dozen more ingredients to the Jiffy Mix, my batter was large enough for 12 muffins.  They smelled wonderful and baked up beautifully. Even before I tasted one of them, I was pleased with the results.

To give the muffins a bit more sweetness, I made some strawberry cream topping and served it with the muffins. My husband and I really enjoyed the muffins and the strawberry cream together. The 2 different flavors complimented each other deliciously.

It really is fun for me to make new recipes using familiar and basic products. I’m always pleasantly surprised when after a couple tries I get the recipe right and it turns out tasty and edible.

Do you enjoy adding ingredients to familiar mixes to either spruce them up or make something different? Do you have a favorite?

Wishing you happy cooking!

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Poached Egg In A Tomato

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P1050612Saturday evening, I was home alone. My family was out doing their own thing. I didn’t want to make a large amount of food nor a big mess for supper. I thought about several foods and then I remembered my blogging buddy Sheryl posted a delicious looking  ‘Poached Egg In A Tomato’  recipe on her blog. I went to her blog and followed her easy directions and recipe.
I’m quite pleased with the results. I love that a hundred years ago this simple dish was made and enjoyed. Thank you Sheryl for sharing the recipe. It was a mighty tasty supper for me. 🙂

8-27-2016-tomatoegg

*To cover the ramkin, I didn’t have parchment paper per se, what I do have is a pan liner  that’s parchment on one side and aluminum foil on the other. It’s super slick and worked just fine.

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