Cheese Blintz

I was up extra early this morning and in a cooking mood. I thought I would attempt this cheese blintz recipe from Smitten Kitchen

add a little fried potatoes with scrambled eggs, crumbled bacon,cheese, and sour cream for a yummy breakfast...

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Poached Eggs and Chocolate Chip Scones

Looking good so far!!



Looking REAL REAL good now!!



I am a little confused. I do not understand how poached eggs work..



I am not sure about this leftover stuff in the pan...not so appetizing



I really wanted to give up and make fried eggs but I persevered

This was by far the best looking poached egg I made





P.S. about half of the poached eggs ended up in the trash deemed not edible by the kids...too gooey..gooey eggs are not appetizing.

The scones were an A++ so it made up for the poached eggs.

Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

Peanut Butter

We acquired a bag of peanuts last week. (Thanks again Audrey!)

I was splitting them up between the kids.

One of the kids wondered if we could make peanut butter from them.

Good question!



Let's try!!



Get the coffee grinder filled.



Pretty neat.



The kids thought our homemade peanut butter needed some sugar and ACTUAL butter in it because it is called peanut BUTTER.

They were a little disappointed by the taste of our homemade peanut butter.

It was fun to try anyway!

Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

Rock Cakes

I have a few Harry Potter fans around here.

I know, I know Harry Potter is one of those controversial topics in some circles

BUT

Ha Ha

I declared myself free from those circles a while back.

They are a tad tiring

and so

with that freedom

we ate delicious Rock Cakes made by Nolan and Alan.

And boy were they tasty!



I was a tad too lazy to actually type out the recipe so I took a picture of it for you.

I think you can read it well enough to make it.



Enjoy!

Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

A Summer Breakfast

It is hard to believe summer is coming to an end.

I thought that the girls and I would eat outside before we started school.

Flowers for the table.



Josh added one from his garden.



Mmmm...my makeshift 'we have nothing for breakfast' breakfast. *



Naomi and Odell do not seem to mind it!



Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

My makeshift 'we have nothing for breakfast' breakfast recipe

A greased 13 x 17 pan
a dozen eggs mixed with about 2 cups of milk
a loaf of bread ripped into little pieces
About 1/4 cup sugar
cinnamon

Put the bread pieces in the greased pan. Mix the sugar and cinnamon in with the egg mixture. Pour that over the bread. Bake in a 350 oven for about 30 minutes or it looks done. Serve warm drizzled with syrup.

Very Good!

My frugal large family granola!

A 42 oz canister of old fashion oatmeal
four sticks of butter or margarine melted
Two or three cups brown sugar depending on how sweet you like it. White sugar and corn syrup work well in place of the brown sugar,too.
Cinnamon


Mix the above ingredients together and put the mixture in a big pan.
Cook in a 350 oven for about 30 minutes or until brown. Stir every ten minutes.
The less granola you have in the pan the more you would want to stir it so it does not burn.





Once the granola is cool you could add things like raisins,other dried fruit, chocolate chips,marshmallows(?),or whatever you have around.

If you wanted to add seeds,nuts,or wheat germ you would want to add those things before put your granola in the oven so they get nice and toasted.



Someone must still be hungry.



Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

Farmers Rice

Have you ever made Farmers Rice?

You take this (flour and eggs)



you mix it all up



and mix it some more




add it to boiling milk and stir for about 5 minutes



then stir in sugar,vanilla or maple extract

You then get this.



Have you ever tried Farmers Rice?

My family says maybe you shouldn't.

Just their opinion though.

Warmly,A Patchwork Mommy

P.S: Yes ,yes I actually served this for dinner the other night. Shame on me. What was I thinking...

A Pot of Good Looking Beans and Fun in The Mail

Isn't this a beautiful sight?



I got creative.

Two pounds of beautiful mixed dry beans
about 24 cups of water
a bunch of onions
one 26 ounce can of spaghetti sauce
one pound of cooked sausage

Very tasty




Carmel sent me these lovely things all the way from Israel! Thank you SO very much Carmel!!!

Carmel hand made the pretty bag.It is so very sweet. The girls went crazy over it.




Carmel also sent me some very pretty fabric Pieces. I have a project in mind for them.



I have been enjoying reading the Arabesque needlework book. Most of you know that I had desired to be an Archaeologist when I 'grew up'. Of course, the job I have now trumps any ancient find. A close second to Archaeology was historical costume design. I personally think those two areas are connected in a way but maybe only in my mind. Anyway, Arabesque has been a very enjoyable book to read.

Read this: "Embroidery from the Holy Land,like other crafts, preserve ancient motifs that have been passed down from generation to generation. The motifs reveal traces of the various empires and cultures that have flourished in this part of the world."

Isn't that so neat!? See how the book is very fitting for me.

Warmly,
A Patchwork Mommy

Wednesday,December 30, 2009

Gee,I still do not have any show-and-tell sewing projects to blog about!

I did get out my iron and ironing board to iron up some fabric that a customer bought from my Dragonfryesupplies Etsy shop. That is as close to anything sewing-ish I have gotten this past few weeks. Believe me,my mind is swimming with projects I would like to start but I should finish up the scrappy 5" square quilts and the quarter log cabin quilts I was working on before I cleaned it up a few weeks ago.Maybe this weekend.

This evening Elena had six of her girlfriends over to eat dinner and hang out. It was a perfect night for that. No AWANA,youth group,or school tomorrow for her friends that are in public school. They spent most of their time chatting in Elena's room,fixing each other's hair and even playing with some of the younger kids for a bit.I sure do enjoy Elena's friends. They are a nice group of young ladies. They fit in so well with our family and they are very kind to Elena's younger siblings.


I did made dinner for all 22 of us tonight!Isn't that impressive? We even used regular plates and silverware. We used plastic cups because we do not have 22 drinking glasses,though. Pretty impressive!

Actually,our dinner was just a simple modest spaghetti meal and adding six more mouths to our family of sixteen was not hard at all.I can not believe I am saying that...cooking for twenty two is not hard at all!! We did not even have to move up to bigger size cooking pans or take out extra crock pots than what we usually use.

It took just four pounds of spaghetti noodles instead of our usual three pounds,a fourth can of spaghetti sauce instead of our normal three,four pounds of frozen corn,and two loaves of french bread.I think we could have used a few more loaves of the french bread,though.Everything was eaten. I am not sure if people went away full or hungry but it was fun to cook for the whole group.Ok,I'm getting that expand-the-family itch...It is kind of like baby fever but encompasses baby age on up.

We(Jeff and myself) made two batches of this great fudge that
Laura posted on her blog The Mouro Family for dessert tonight and it is so good!

Coffee Shop Fudge

1 can sweetened condensed milk
3 c. semisweet chocolate chips
1 c. walnuts
2 T. strong brewed coffee, room temperature
1/8 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon

Line an 8 inch pan with wax paper. Melt chocolate chips with the condensed milk in a saucepan. Remove from heat when smooth and stir in remaining ingredients. Spread in pan and chill for 2 hours. Cut into 1 inch squares.





On another note, I absolutely fell in love with an Etsy shop named Little Girl Pearl. Her items inspire me! Those out there who have little girls and like to sew,I am pretty sure you will be itching to start on a few dresses like the ones she makes. The fabrics she chooses for her little girl dresses are just beautiful. I was just at Hobby Lobby in Mankato Tuesday evening and they have beautiful fabrics similar in look to what she uses.

Little Girl Pearl has a blog as well. Her most recent post is a tutorial of a little girl's bag.Just beautiful!

Elephant Ear Anyone?

Looking good so far...



The ones I did looked very much like this one...not quite what I imagined them to look like.




Elena jumps in to help poor old mom



this one turned out perfect! Elena saves the day!



Elephant Ears

1 pkg active yeast
1c. warm water
2 eggs
6 T. sugar, divided
4 c. all-purpose flour
Vegetable oil
1 t. cinnamon

Soften yeast in water,cool. Combine yeast mixture with eggs, 3 tablespoons sugar and flour; blend well. Divide dough into 12 pieces and let rest 20 minutes. Roll each piece of dough in a large circle on lightly floured surface; stretch with your hands if needed. Heat one inch of vegetable oil in large iron skillet, and cook each circle until lightly browned, turn once, surface will bubble. Remove and place on paper towels. Combine remaining sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over each circle.

More Soup!

My Soup Poem

Soup in the morning,

Soup at noon,

Soup at dinner,

Soup, Soup, Soup!

Written by a veteran large family soup maker

We really are kind of big soup eaters. Soup is a very inexpensive meal for a larger family.No meat no problem! Soup turns out pretty good no matter what the ingredients that are put in it.(Remember reading about button soup or rock soup?) Well,it usually turns out good unless the soup burns. Note: pinto beans and navy beans can burn pretty quickly sitting at the bottom of a cheap thin soup pot. It doesn't taste as good then.

Soup is kind on the dishwasher's young hands. No parent would ever think put her child through the washing of extra pots if everything can just as well be thrown into one would she? Actually,Jeff usually does our pots. He does not mind the extra pot washing work but soup is still fun to make.


Tonight's no-name soup

Ingredients:

One left over chicken carcass from last nights meal
1 onion quartered
22 cups of water
2 15 oz cans of corn
1 15.5 can chili ready tomatoes
2 15.5 oz can chili beans
2 boxes penne noodles (2 lbs)
Salt,pepper,garlic salt

Boil chicken carcass and onion in the 22 cups of water for a few hours. Take out all the chicken bones and onions from the broth.



If there is any chicken meat to pick off the carcass and put back in the soup that is an extra bonus! We usually do not have chicken meat left over. Add the corn,tomatoes,and chili beans to the broth. Add more water if you need to. Add seasonings to your liking.Boil for another half hour.



Add penne noodles and boil until the noodles are done. Serve with bread. Enjoy!!



Serves sixteen

You Had WHAT For Dinner?

What a treat! I'm really not being sarcastic. We had a precious pound of hamburger. This is not seen here very often. We are usually chicken and turkey meat people to keep grocery costs down. I needed to put my thinking cap on and think of how to make the most of our hamburger. Here is what I came up with...

Presenting my version of

Macaroni Ratatouille Soup

1 lb hamburger
1 onion chopped up big enough so the kids who do not like onions can pick them out
1 can 26 oz can spaghetti sauce
22 cups of water
2 cans of green beans
1 1/2 pounds of dry elbow macaroni noodle
Hot Sauce
Garlic salt

Fry the hamburger and onion until hamburger is cooked.Sounds odd but draining the meat is not necessary.It adds flavor to the soup but drain if you want.Combine 22 cups of water,the can of spaghetti sauce,the two cans of green beans and hamburger/onion/grease mixture in a big soup pot.Add hot sauce and garlic salt to taste.Boil for about a half hour.Add the dry elbow noodles and cook until elbow noodles are cooked.Serve with bread and enjoy!



Feeds two hungry adults and fourteen very hungry children. Sounds and maybe looks unappetizing to others but this was 100% approved here. Not a drop left over!