Strawberry Fields Forever

Baby Sister and a friend (and their mommies) went to pick strawberries this morning.

Think someone forgot to tell Baby Sister that after you pick the berries, 

you're supposed to put them in the basket--not eat them.

The berry farm is near our farm. The phone call I got when they were done was, 

"We're on our way to see you. Could you run some water in the bathtub for Baby Sister?"

She was sticky from head to toe.

They shared some of the berries with me. Best berries I've ever had.

After everyone headed home this afternoon, 

I made muffins like Jessica made last week. So easy and so delicious

Strawberry Lemonade Muffins

2-1/2 cups self-rising flour

1-1/4 cups sugar

1 (8-oz.) container sour cream

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

2 large eggs, slightly beaten

1-1/2 cups diced strawberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine flour and sugar in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture.

Stir together sour cream, butter, lemon zest, lemon juice and eggs; add to dry ingredients and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Gently fold strawberries into batter. Spoon batter into lightly greased 12-cup muffin pans, filling three-fourths full. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup sugar over batter. (Use all of this extra sugar.)

Bake at 400 degrees for 16 to 18 minutes or until golden brown and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans for one minute; remove from pans to wire rack and cool 10 minutes.

Makes 12-18 mufflins (depending on size of your muffin pans--my old pans will make 18)

...recipe from Southern Living, April 2012

Lemon zest is easy if you have a Microplane grater, a fairly new kitchen tool. But for juicing the lemons, I like my old glass juicer dish I got from my mother. You still see them in antique/junk stores. I haven't found anything that works better.

Early Weekend Start

Favorite lap. Favorite lapful.

Our weekend started early. We headed to the lake Thursday night after a little baby sitting and helping get Big Sister out the door for a beach trip with her other grandparents, 

Before Big Sister left on her trip, she finished her knitting project all by herself. This one went at lightening speed. Less than two days. She was even impressed at how fast she can knit now. And she doesn't need me anymore to help start or finish. I'm out of a job!

After all that Granddaddy and I managed to spend a couple of nights at the lake, doing nothing but enjoying the cool weather. Weird weather, but welcomed! Not many chances for those kinds of days. 

Checked out the Laurens Farmers Market on the way home and we're back. Now to get food ready for Mr. Busby's 100th birthday party tomorrow. Wow! 100 years old. Happy birthday, Buzz!!!

Random Things I Know (Now)

100 grams of yarn does NOT equal 100 yards of yarn. (For sock yarn, it's more like 100 grams = 376 yards.) I now have about 2000+ extra yards of lemon/lime sock yarn. Should have read more carefully before I ordered. Lesson learned.

Porches

Had an email chat this week with a Ravelry friend from upstate New York about the wonderful-ness of screened-in porches. I remember seeing an episode of House Hunters on HGTV once when a lady was looking at houses in South Carolina. She found a house she liked--except that it had a screened porch. She said if she bought that house, the first thing she would do was remove the screen. Hope someone explained to her WHY we screen in our porches. The outdoors belongs to the bugs--and they let us share it with them.

Granddaddy and I spent lots of time this weekend on porches. Last night at the lake. Tonight here at home. Totally different kinds of porches. Totally different kinds of wonderful.

At the lake...

 A place to watch the boats and the fishermen.

 A place to prop your feet up and knit or read a book.

A place to enjoy supper while it rains outside.

At home...

A place to listen to our favorite Saturday night radio show.

A place to enjoy Granddaddy's good grilled supper--which included vegetables 

from our garden.

A place to enjoy watching the rabbit family that lives in our back yard,
to watch the gliders in the evening sky, and a place to watch the hummingbirds.
It's my favorite spot in the house.

I had a 5'x5' excuse of a porch in my first apartment out of college and I thought it was fabulous. I didn't know what was yet to come. One of the perks of getting older turned out to be having better porches.


Random things I know:

Use dry hands and a dry paper towel on a dry ear of corn to easily remove the silk. Then rinse before cooking.

In The Kitchen Tonight

In the summer no one wants to stand over a hot stove. Probably no one wants to do that anyway. So here are a couple of quick and easy recipes. Short ingredient list. Short prep time. One recipe is one we've used for years and we are having for tonight's supper. The other is new to us this year and Big Sister made it by herself for their dinner last night. You have to try it. You can't let a 10-year-old outdo you!

Pork Chops & Brown Rice

1/2 cup regular rice
1 can beef consomme
3 or 4 boneless pork chops
slices of onion and green pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Put rice in a 1-1/2 quart baking dish. Pour most of the consomme over the rice. Brown the pork chops quickly in a hot skillet. Put the chops on the rice, top each with a slice of onion and a couple of pepper strips. Pour the remaining consomme over the chops. Cover and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

The nice thing about this recipe--other than it is delicious--is that it is well suited to smaller families. And it only takes a few minutes to get it ready for the oven. Then you can go do something else for an hour. If you choose to double it, leftovers freeze well. Because the pork chops bake in liquid, they are always tender. We've been making this for years and years.

And now, here is Big Sister's recipe. She has made this three times since Christmas. Hmmm...... Looks like Big Sister's recipe is more complicated than mine.

White Chicken & Broccoli Pizza

1-1/2 cups fresh broccoli florets, cut into small pieces
2 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 cup Alfredo sauce
1 (12-oz.) baked pizza crust, such as Mama Mary's
2 cups shredded Italian-blend cheese
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Place  pizza crust on a baking pan. Stir mushrooms, chicken and broccoli into Alfredo sauce. Spread over pizza crust. Sprinkle cheeses over the top. Mix basil, oregano and garlic salt and sprinkle over cheese. Bake 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Slice and serve.

If you buy pre-sliced mushrooms, a bag of broccoli florets and use leftover or rotisserie chicken, this a quick fix, too.


Random Things I Know:



Seeds from a bell pepper can be left to dry and then used as potato chips in a doll house. Very tiny potato chips.