A Parmo Anyone?

 

My Parmo with a side of chips.

 

ha-ha

 

Delicious!!

 

 I am feeling so European.  



 

 

 

P.S. I really did not eat this whole Parmo by myself. I probably could have, though. I split with Elena and Jeff. I also made another one for some of the boys to try. 

 

The impressive parts aside from the yummy-ness were:

 

A. I learned to butterfly cut the chicken breast.

 

B. I deep fried the breaded chicken breast. I had never cooked chicken like that before.  

 

C. I made an awesome (but a tad lumpy) béchamel sauce which is the layer between the chicken and the cheese on top.

 

It is ok to be a little impressed...

 

I was.

 

Warmly,

Me    

  



Wednesday This and That

Another morning goody.

Sour cream cinnamon coffee bunt cake.

Better than yesterday's cheese blintz.

To some of my young men, a clean sock is a clean sock even if the socks do not match and one happens to belong to his six year old sister and the other to his 17 year old sister. Face and name withheld for obvious reasons but this young man might be a McDonald's Manager and hitting the big 19 in June. But like I said, identity withheld. You could not torture the name out of me.

Loki finally let me get back to my quilt.

It turned out VERY pretty!

I have two more quilts waiting for their bindings and then it will be time to put my Brother away for a while and go back to dress sewing on my Kenmore.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

A Little Treat

Elena made these very fun cookies this evening!

A closer look.

Cookie dough ( chocolate chip without the chocolate chips) baked in tiny muffin tins with a mini Reece's peanut butter cup placed in the middle after the cookie dough crust was cooked. Kind of like a thumb print cookie.

They are SO good!

Jeff brought me home some flowers this evening. Very sweet guy!

P.S. Missing Grant very much. He is in Ghana now safe and sound and doing well.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Sunday Random-ness

Everyone was pretty tired today but for being tired the big kids all found lots to do through out the day.

Joel and Lily were not feeling well today so I let them sleep late. They were pretty upset with me that I 'made' them miss church.

I saw a recipe on Smitten Kitchen's blog that I have been wanting to try.

Italian Stuffed Cabbage

Mine did not turn out as pretty as hers but it tasted very good.



I finished quilting this quilt today



and my cute baby doll one



I have one more quilt to quilt but I think I am going to do something kind of fun and different with it. My fun different thing does not require my quilting sewing machine just my regular sewing machine so back into your storage place you go my quilting Brother.

Here is the stack of the four quilts I quilted this weekend.

Good progress.

They are just waiting for their bindings now.



P.S. Why has Alice Cooper's song Poison been running through my head all weekend? Not my veins...ha ha...um...funny if you know the song...

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Tuesday What Did You Bring?

Well...just normal-ness, I guess.

Thanks for asking.

Ha ha.

My mind isn't flowing cleaver-ness except in making up words that really do not exist.

I gave Josh, Anya, Naomi, and Ekie had a multiplication fact test today and for a job well done I thought they would enjoy making a special treat.



Melted chocolate, smooshed up pretzels, peanut butter, and mini marshmallows combined in any ratio will never fail.



See, told you so.




Always love the colorful paper route complaint slips. The pretty cheerful colors almost make me forget they are complaints. It is kind of like Marry Poppins when she sings:

A Spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
The medicine go down-wown
The medicine go down
Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
In a most delightful way




Three buds

Zach H. Alan and Josiah



This was my day.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Worth the Effort

Want another Happy Jack quote?

I could go on for days sharing Happy Jack's wise squirrel words.

Thrift is the meat in the nut of success.

So thrift it is!!

I had four cans of cranberry sauce that we were given this past holiday season. I had stashed them away but unlike Happy Jack who always remembers were he hides his acorns, I had forgotten.

I came across them and thought a late afternoon treat would hit the spot!

I had been SO tired today so I spent most of the afternoon on the couch napping but off the couch I got because this little treat would be worth the effort.

Lily my helper.

Looking good!!

A happy helper!!

I forgot to take a picture of our cooked cranberry crisp. The couch called me back.

BUT

the effort was worth it!!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

P.S. No sewing for the 5th day in a row. I really must be tired.

Pretty and Not So Much...

First,the pretty things I made today:

A sweet little toddler cowgirl dress.

and a very patriotic dress.

This is from On the Road with M' Liss fabric line.

I am still trying to figure out how to take good pictures of my dresses without Lily to model them for me. I am not liking these in front of the quilt ones. They do not show just how cute the dresses actually are. I will try something new the next time.

And now the not so pretty that I made today...

I made pitas!

I can not begin to tell you how terrific they taste!!!!

They did not look very pita-ish but boy did they taste good!!!

Someday I will learn to make homemade hummus.

I forgot to show you what was driving down our street today.

Only in Waseca!!!

Did I ever mention the Journey (the original) is totally AWESOME?!!!!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Improvising Tina Style

I call it 'improvise cooking Tina style' and it is usually how meals are created around here.

We very rarely have all the correct ingredients that a recipe calls for.

I am getting very good at knowing how to fudge with some recipes.

Yesterday it was pancakes frugal style!

Feeds 17 people

6 cups of flour
3 tablespoons of baking powder
1/2 tablespoon of salt
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup melted butter
6 eggs
6 cups of water
1/3 cup white vinegar

Mix the dry ingredients together then add the water,eggs, and melted butter. Mix well.
add the vinegar and stir well. Let the batter set for a bit before cooking on a hot griddle that has a nice coating of melted shortening on it.

What makes this a frugal pancake recipe?

See no need for any milk. If you actually had milk, which we usually do not,just exchange the milk for the water. Maybe you have powdered milk? Add about 1/3 cup powdered milk with the dry ingredients for every cup of water you add.

If you do not have vinegar just leave it out.

Only 5 eggs? Then just use what you have adding more water or milk to make the batter the thickness you desire.

Only have a half of a cup of butter or none at all? Use melted shortening or a combo of shortening, butter,and oil but probably just not all oil.

Add more or less white sugar or a combo of white sugar and brown sugar. You really can not fail.

We did not even have syrup so we used powdered sugar instead. At times I have made syrup by heating to a boil brown sugar or white sugar with water. I have even boiled jelly and some water for a bit for a treat. We have even used straight corn syrup.

They might not be your Perkins variety or like the ones your mother made,or even 'politacly correct' health wise but they are frugal, tasty, and when cooking for a large family, perfect.

P.S. Our church passed on to us a ton of little cute pre-packed butter dabs which we really appreciate!

They made our pancakes look fancy.

A side note: If,say,we ended up not having any butter to mix up our pancake batter I would have just opened up a lot of the pre-packed butter dabs and used them. See 'improvise cooking Tina style' is not a hard thing once you get used to it.

But then again, company usually does not happen to drop by during meal times...


Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Jeff...I am Just Curious ?

I have a serious question for Jeff.

An important one.

Very important.

BUT

before I get to that a recap on my day (in photos,of course) is needed.

I put some fresh cranberries on the crock pot overnight with some sugar and water.

I was not sure what I would wake up to

I was very pleased with the results!

Yum!!!

I forgot to show you the flowers Jeff brought me the other day.

Thanks Jeff!!

This evening, I finally sat down to quilt the two quilt tops I finished last week.

My meandering flow is very rusty but I was too lazy to practice before I started on the quilt.

For being rusty, my meandering was not so bad. I am pleased but look at the gooberish wrinkle on the back.

~sigh~

I decided to not fix it. I thought I would made it look worse by taking out the quilting stitches and attempting to redo it. Besides, it is close to the edge. It now has character in the form of a gooberish wrinkle.

I love the Bambi quilt. I did not meander but straight line quilted it.

Ok, on to my question for you, Jeff.

Are you reading?

Paying attention?

Make sure you are.

This is serious.

Here goes...

Why do birds suddenly appear

Every time you are near?

I guess...

Just like me, they long to be

Close to you!

I love you!!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mom

As Random As Random Can Be...Kind-0f Anyway

The countdown is well on it's way!!!

In just about 36 hours Grant will be on the plane heading towards Ghana!!!

I am getting more anxious because Grant is getting more anxious. I do not like seeing my usually cool as a cucumber,laid back young man anxious and stressed.

Do not forget to pray for him!

I do know that we need to speed up on the packing.

Exactly what items can/should go in a carry-on bag?

Meet Lily's Penny Saving Barbie.

Confused?

So was I until Lily showed me her Barbie's penny saving head.

Pretty peppers. I cut them up for the kids before bed snack this evening.

I made something called Zucchini pizza boats. They were SO SO good! Thanks Jeff for doing the clean up!!

P.S. A HUGE thank you to our kind church community for giving us all the wonderful food you did!

See kind-of as random as random can be...

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mom

Fish and Corn

What a special treat this meal was!

Thanks once again Barney's!!

Fish, corn, and bread compliments of Barney's.

I seriously could eat this meal every night.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

P.S. The ring suckers and licorice ropes were a hit!!!

Two Up and Coming Chefs

The girls ate well tonight!

Grilled pizza sandwiches

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Another Bun of a Day!!

I do really love french toast.

Today I did not pass off my bun french toast as little tea party treats since Elena was gone...

but I did make special strawberry syrup to go along with these tasty bits of goodness.

Ah these look SO good!!!

So good that they needed a special table spread!

and thanks to the Red Falcon Ranch for these beautiful eggs!!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy