Cooking up a Storm

This morning after writing on my blog about my birthday package I decided to make a big pot of hamburg soup. I will bring a container to my parents and also some to my auntie.  For my soup I used a 46 oz. can of vegetable tomato juice, sliced green cabbage, onions, celery, diced canned tomatoes,  french style green beans, carrots, 1 clove crushed garlic, zucchini, mushroom, cannelli beans, 93% lean hamburger, salt and pepper and a little water. This soup doesn't have a lot of calories.

soup and homemade French bread slice

While the soup was cooking, I decided to try making a quick and easy French bread recipe from Pinterest

I had a new bag of King Arthur flour and dry yeast on hand. I have a French bread baking tube somewhere buried in the back of the kitchen cabinets, but I couldn't put my hands on it. I bought it many years ago and never used it. Anyway, the bread was easy to make, but it flattened out on the pan instead of staying nice and high. I baked the bread about 5 minutes longer than the recipe called for, but I think I could have given it a few more minutes of baking time. When the bread cooled slightly, I cut a piece and slathered butter on it, and it tastes good. I got 2 big loaves out of the batch.

While the bread was baking and the soup simmering, I took out 4 bags of quahogs from the freezer. I didn't realize I had so many put away. Again, thanks to my son's friend, Larry.

I rinsed them quahogs off well, put them in a 6 quart colander and started shucking away. The quahogs open easily when frozen  solid.

6 quart pyrex bowl filled with frozen quahogs. Now, I have to chop the quahogs and make the stuffing. When I finished I got two jelly roll sheet pans of stuffed quahogs. I ran out of bread, and so with the leftover stuffed quahogs, I will make some more in the next day or two and freeze those.

video I found on the internet..showing step by step process

Elaine

A Wonderful Birthday

Yesterday I celebrated my birthday, and what a wonderful day it was. The phone started ringing early in the morning and continued thru out the day with calls of birthday wishes. On facebook I received numerous birthday well wishes. Then more birthday greetings on my yahoo groups, in emails and e cards.  I feel so blessed.

I was taken out to lunch by my good friend, Shirley and then we went shopping in Plymouth for a bit. I was treated to a birthday supper by my oldest son, Tommy and his family.  I enjoyed a lobster roll plate, as that is what I chose to have for my birthday meal. The restaurant gave me a choice of  any dessert on the menu for free, and I chose a dessert of chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream, hot fudge sauce and whipped cream that was huge. Yum!!!

An Affair with Art yahoo group that I belong to, I had signed up for the birthday club. All who signed up were given a persons name to send a birthday box. The box had to include a handmade item along with birthday goodies. I will be sending my box out in October, but my sender, Liane just floored me with her generosity. I was speechless as I kept unwrapping the tissue decorated packages. Liane, I absolutely love everything and can't thank you enough!!!! 

inside cardboard box when I opened the package. With card and bookmark. And wait to you see all the wonderful awesomeness that was packed inside my package. Liane, you are the best!!!!

book mark and card

cover of gorgeous hand made book

inside front cover, page 1

p.2 and 3

p. 4 and 5

p. 6 and 7

p. 8 and 9

p. 10 and 11

p. 12 and 13

inside back cover

spine of book

     altered book rubber stamp, embellishments, Tim Holtz tissue tape and tape dispenser

 heavy glass bird wind chime

tall drink glass with cover and straw with my initial

decorative mat of papers with butterfly embellishments

       lovely fabric

3 Tim Holtz dies

I was just overwhelmed with Liane's generosity. I love all of beautiful items that Liane selected for me, and the book she created is absolutely beautiful with all of the awesome embellishments on the pages. I am sure you will all agree I was spoiled beyond belief  by Liane. 

I also received gifts of money, and gift cards. Don't you think I was thoroughly spoiled on my birthday?

Elaine

The Flock has flown to Carver

In June, I came home to find a flock of 5 pink, plastic, flamingo's on my front lawn (read about it on my blog post from June 20th, Laugh for the Day). The flamingo's were used for a fund raiser for a Relay for Life cancer event.

The flamingo's were on my lawn until last Thursday, when the birds were picked up and headed to their new destination in Carver.

For a $5 donation you can have the flock removed, for a $10 donation you could send a  flock of 5 to someone else's yard, and for a $20 donation you could have a big flock of 20 sent to someone else's front yard. I sent a flock of 2o and they arrived last Friday. I rode by this morning and took a picture. Where the flock ends up next, I don't know, but I do know that they were much enjoyed at their new home over the weekend.

I still don't know who Flocked me, but I am glad they did, as it is for a good cause, and we got a lot of laughs from the flamingos.

Today was another beautiful day, in the 80's but not humid. I was taken to the Olive Garden for a birthday luncheon by my son Steven, Robin and Bella. Steven has Monday's off and so we celebrated my birthday a day early.

Elaine

Keep Calm and Carry On

Another hot July day, but thankfully it is not humid. I worked in my flower garden for a bit early this morning, but after lunch I decided to rubber stamp a card. I came across one of my Kliban cat stamps (American Art Stamps) that I had never inked up, and decided to use the stamp since I've been painting with water colors lately.

I stamped the image with Memories black ink onto a speckled cream colored cardstock,water colored the image and then added the Keep Calm ribbon which I bought at Michaels.

Elaine

Lazy Saturday

Didn't do much on this hot and humid day, other than take a quick trip to Michael's to use a 50% off coupon to get a cartridge for my Xyron.

This morning before I left the house I water colored this sailboat scene. I think I am going to add trees in the distance.

I can't believe I put the oven going to make homemade pizza for supper. Oh well, it sure smells good. For toppings I used  linguica, hamburg, onions, garlic, peppers, mushrooms, sauce and cheese.

Hope you had a nice Saturday.

Elaine

Special Treat for my Dad

 

Larry, who is a good friend of my son, Steven has a shellfish permit to dig for clams and quahogs in Duxbury.                         Every time Steven and Robin have a cookout, Larry and his wife, Jen bring a big container of little necks. On the fourth of July, Larry and Steven shucked small littleneck hard shell clams to make clams casino. Everyone loves this special treat.                Larry gave me a bag to bring home to make clams casino for my Dad.

I had a hard time opening the small clams, and so I put the clams in the freezer for about 40 minutes, and then I had no problem opening the clams with my shellfish shucking knife.

Below is how Larry and Stevens make Clams casino.

Shuck the small little neck clams and loosen the meat from the shell. Discard 1/2 of the shell. On a cookie sheet place, arrange clams in 1 layer,  put a piece of bacon on top of each clam, and sprinkle generously with parmesan cheese. You can either bake the clams in a 500 degree oven until the bacon is nice and crisp, or broil on low until the bacon is crisp.

Above..pan of clams casino before Dad ate them all.

 

My Dad enjoyed the treat I brought over to him a little while ago and so did my mother's care giver.

Elaine

In the Mood for more ATC's

Lately, I have been in the mood to create ATC's. They are quick and easy little works of art. I have several more ATC's in the various stages of completion, but not quite finished. I will share those with all of you as I finish them up. Today, I am sharing 2 of my creations with you.

First a simple ATC...using polished stone background that I created, collaged papers and image, and then to finish, I rubber stamped Fly Away.

The other ATC I created was a little more work as I had to do some cutting for this folded ATC.

  Front of folded ATC... sorry, I know it is hard to see, but I used patterned double sides scrapbook paper, cut out my pattern, added touches of gold with a sponge brush. I cut off the shanks of buttons and then glued the buttons to the 4 points.

inside of ATC..I used fragile, 1800's printed paper from an old magazine, collaged a photo, and stamped ART.

back of ATC with touches of gold paint.

I had fun creating these, and I hope you enjoyed my creations.

I don't care for air conditioning in the bedroom, and so at night I have the windows open and have the ceiling fan on. I have day lilies growing under one of the bedroom windows, and the sweet fragrance that comes in with the night breezes is heavenly. The lily stalks are over 5 feet high. The stalks are loaded with buds and blossoms.

Elaine

Rebuilding more cranberry bog

I have shared photos before on my blog of rebuilding a cranberry bog, but today I am sharing a few more photos taken the other day of more of the process of rebuilding.

The bog has already been stripped of the old vines, leveled off, and new sand leveled onto the bog sections. The photos below are of  the new irrigation pipes that were buried and tested to see if all were working before the bog is planted with new varieties of cranberry vines. The newer varieties of vines will be planted once the irrigation system for the bog is in place.

blog post on rebuilding a cranberry bog from last June                     if you haven't read my old post before there are photos of the vines being planted.

While driving my dad around the bog I stopped to take a few photos of section of bog with experimental varieties of cranberries. These berries are early berries. Just like in other fruits, cranberries have early and late  varieties.

Cranberries are not grown under water. The irrigation systems is used for cold frost nights and dry weather. The bogs are flooded for the cranberry harvest if the grower is wet harvesting. In the winter the bogs are flooded during extreme cold weather for short periods of time, and then the water is dropped so the vines can get oxygen. Also for ice sanding as the bog needs new layers of sand about every 5 years so the roots stay covered.

close up- milkweed flower

milkweed, butterflies love these flowers.

This morning I spent over an hour at the registry waiting to renew my driver's license. I guess it could have been worse, but at least there was air conditioning. It is another hot and humid day.

I also want to wish my great nephews Kyle and Cody a very happy birthday. I can't believe they are now 5 years old and will be starting kindergarten in the fall. I can remember holding them the afternoon they came home from the hospital. Wow, time flies.

Cody and Kyle

Elaine

Lemon Bird Nests

Yesterday in the grocery store, I saw in the bakery at Shaw's, lemon filled sponge bird nests. I loved these fancy little cakes when I was a kid. On a whim, I bought a package of 4.  I got to thinking that I could make these easy enough, but don't know what the sticky, clear stuff on the sides of the cake holding the coconut on is.
I searched on the internet for a recipe for individual sponge cakes filled with lemon filling or lemon curd.  Have any of you made these bird nest sponge cakes? To make the cakes at home you could buy the little  shortcake sponge cakes they sell in the grocery stores, fill with lemon, and pipe a topping around the filling. Or make your own sponge cakes by baking in the shortcake pan from Wilton.

I've had no luck with my search. I wonder if it is a heavier simple syrup that the sponge cakes are rolled in and then dipped in coconut.
lemon birds nest sponge cake. Served up on my vintage snowflake pattern Corelle dish. I bought the snowflake Corelle dishes in 1968.
I'd love to hear from you if you know what is used. Thanks!

Back in December of last year ( 12/24/2011), I posted photo's and the recipes for chocolate and lemon roll cakes on my blog. The roll cakes are favorites with our family. A couple of days ago, my oldest son called and wanted to know how to make the chocolate rolls. After I explained how to make them, he called me back a couple of hours later and told me he made a chocolate roll and it came out really good. I hope he saved me a piece of the chocolate roll so I can taste it. :-)
Both of my sons love to cook and our very good cooks. Our oldest son does catering and pig roasts as a side business.
The weather is hot, cloudy and so very humid here. It rained earlier and more rain is expected later today.
I hate to bake in the summer as the house gets so hot, but I got up early this morning and made chocolate chip cookies. I also made a bowl of cole slaw to take to a cook out. Hopefully the rain that is predicted will hold off until after the fireworks tonight.
If you are traveling be safe. Have a Happy 4th of July.  Happy Birthday America!!!
Elaine

ATC's...Folded

    

Here are 2 of the Red, White and Blue 4 th. of July themed ATC's that I put together. The 2 ATC's are the standard size 2 1/2  x  3 1/2 when they are folded closed. Since the ATC's have a fold/flap they didn't lay flat when I took photos.

I bought the scrap book papers when a local scrap book was closing.

   

Yesterday I took my parents for a ride, and of course my dad wanted to go around the cranberry bogs.

Above ...Crimson Queen berries starting to turn red. A month early.  The vines above are a year old.

The vines below were planted this spring in May. By next year you won't be able to see any sand as the vines will have spread and throw off runners to create a carpet of green vines on the bog.

                                

Elaine