Saturday, September 1, 2012

Labor Day Weekend 2012

The smell of Roasting Herb Chicken is permeating the air. I love roasted chicken, but after a disastrous last time, with a whole chicken that had gone bad while in the fridge, I really thought I'd never fix it again. You are probably asking Why? Have you ever had a raw chicken go bad on you. usually you can have one in the fridge for a couple of days without freezing it, but this one well, maybe it had been put back into the cooler section at the grocery( from an non cooled section) but by the time I decided to fix it,, well i won't say anymore.

But today, the craving won out. We chopped fresh Sage, rosemary, chives & garlic. added a little sea salt, fresh ground pepper, lemon juice and a little olive oil. Mixed well and spread over my chicken then plopped him into my clay roaster (Pampered Chef). Cook for 1 1/2 hours at 350* or until done.

Sounds yummy. I really wanted yellow squash casserole to go with it.
So I boiled about 1 lb sliced yellow squash and 1 large onion (eigthed). until soft.
drain add 1/2 mayo only the real stuff will do, 1/2 cup  sharp cheddar cheese, 1/4 fresh  chopped finely  green pepper, 1 egg slightly beaten,  mix well add about 1 tsp sugar, salt and ground pepper to taste,. Pour into greased baking dish, cover with Italian or plain bread crumbs and pats of butter. bake for 30-45
@350  minutes until casserole looking.
note: a great cookbook with this recipe and others in it is Miss Daisy Celebrates Tennessee .(By Daisy King, )Mine is so dotted with splashes, its sometimes best to know the recipe(s) by heart.

What Else, well there are only two of us, so I'll probably just make up some Texas garlic toast and call it a meal. Oh yeah, one more thing if your from the south we have a little beverage called Southern Fruit Tea. It would perfectly top off this meal.
(this recipe was taken from www.tastykitchen.com)
Southern Fruit Tea

Prep Time
Cook Time
Servings 16Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 2 quarts Filtered Water, Divided
  • 4 bags (Family Size Bags) Tea
  • ¾ cups Sugar
  • 12 ounces, fluid Can Frozen Orange Juice Concentrate (thawed)
  • 12 ounces, fluid Can Frozen Lemonade Concentrate (thawed)
  • 48 ounces, fluid Can Pineapple Juice
  • 5 slices Fresh Orange For Garnish
  • 5 slices Fresh Lemon For Garnish

Preparation Instructions

Measure a quart of filtered water into a medium sauce pan. Heat water to near boiling. Add the family size tea bags to the near-boiling water. Cover the pan, remove the pan from heat, and steep tea for 15 minutes. Remove tea bags and add the sugar to the warm tea water. Stir to dissolve the sugar and add the remaining quart of filtered cold water to make 2 quarts brewed sweet tea.
In a gallon pitcher, add the brewed sweet tea and the thawed orange juice and lemonade concentrate. Stir gently until well blended then add the pineapple juice. Stir the pineapple juice into the tea mixture. Taste the tea. More water can be added to suit your taste. Some folks like this tea stronger and sweeter, others will prefer weaker tea. Serve in a pretty beverage dispenser with orange and lemon slices for garnish.
Refrigerate unused tea and stir before serving.

 

  • 48 ounces, fluid Can Pineapple Juice
  • 5 slices Fresh Orange For Garnish
  • 5 slices Fresh Lemon For Garnish

Preparation Instructions

Measure a quart of filtered water into a medium sauce pan. Heat water to near boiling. Add the











Enjoy everyone and have a Happy Labor Day weekend  (if your in the great USA)

-TNfrmgrl






























Friday, August 31, 2012

Updated 6/2013 Alcohol Inks & Sharpie Markers

I have been playing around for the last few days with alcohol inks, by Ranger Inks. Have you tried them out? If not you really should as these are so much fun.

I decided I wanted to make some drop necklaces for an upcoming Craft show and wanted something unusual. I saw a few pictures of these on Etsy and Pinterest. Its really about technique to create that something special effect using the inks. They don't mix , really & can become muddy if you add too much. I suppose if you do make a mistake one plus and a big one at that is you can correct it to a point by using a small piece of felt and the blending solution and "erase' and start again.

I also decided to make so tile art too. This was even more fun. Drop, drop , drop of ink, blow with can aired or straw , drop ink aging repeat,a few more times and viola! you have an amazing cool ( not heat) trivet, coaster etc. However, I would really cover your ink with MOD-PODGE or a glossy medium to protect  the surface design.Tried the drop style, did not like how it came out, but YOU can paint pictures with the alcohol ink, here are a few I did. Just remember you have to move quickly, because alcohol inks dry fast, any detail add after ink has dried, like the fir trees in the top left picture.                                                                          






As for the sharpie part of this note, well, I tried making Sharpie scarves, well lets just say, this project takes a lot of skills, now if you know me, I can't do it is not in my vocabulary. I love art, I will try anything at least once. For these i have tried three times.One on a cotton/mix base was okay, but nothing like the pictures I have seen from artist Suzanne McNeil and one of her workshops. She really made it seem simple. maybe i am over complicating it. The first I did on a silk scarf I had purchased for .50 cents. I artfully marked all over the surface, then i carefully dipped it into my alcohol solution. Mud does not even try and describe it. It totally fades out my art work, with faint sharpie lines still visible. Mmm... down one silk scarf, (maybe I can use it again). The second was the cotton/ mix base. But the third well I decided to use another silk scarf as this was really what i had them for, and I can't is not in my dictionary. We went with a zigzag print. I fold my scarf in half, set it on a plastic board,  and using  about twenty different rainbow chisel and fine tip markers i zigged and zagged over the entire piece, making sure to exert enough pressure to let the sharpie bleed through to the other side. I carefully gathered up my misting alcohol bottle and went outside to cover its surface in a well ventilated area and await the magic.
I suppose it did do what it was suppose to at least on half of my scarf. It bled beautifully, just not where it needed to bleed.


I want the washers to dry quickly so I
can finish the necklaces. They're colors are starting to lighten up and they have a nice rounded hard surface forming. I will probably add some wire and beads to glitz them up. And add a felt circle to the back so they will rest nicely on the skin.

Oh, yeah I stopped by a nice shop at Etsy called Wysteria, they had the most amazing variegated wool. I bought four packs. A blue, a green, a lavender and one called sunset with is orangy coppers.
May just make up some new clutches this weekend.


-TNfrmgrl

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Trees

 From last week : Well this week has been exciting, as we had a huge dead tree (Hack berry/elm) removed from our fence line . Starting on Wednesday and finishing up  late yesterday. While trying to trim the big wad of ivy out of the top a Opossum came out and ran into the tree topper, he said it came him a small fright. So yesterday when the other trimmer went up every few feet he would shake and thump a branch on the trunk announcing he was coming up. Luckily , no critters this time.:)
To get the machinery into our backyard and down our narrow driveway they had to cut back several still living trees, I was amazed at how much sunlight is in the yard now, It has made our once dim little yard into a brightly lit yard. Sunlight dabbled through it all day yesterday.


Since the dead tree was somewhat hollow and they were concerned about being on it and cutting on it, they decided to pull down the entire trunk (45 Feet of it) into the yard. I almost couldn't watch with the fear of them hitting the house(the tree was taller then the distance to the back porch).They said they were going to have it fall between the house and up the drive way, sure enough that's what they did. Amazing accuracy.