Day after Memorial Day 2012

Memorial Day was tons of fun, family visiting and eating a big lunch with us including some new recipes.  Tom, Shannon, Kaelyn, Mason and Mom & Dad all were here and we had a great time.  Kaelyn & Mason wanted to see the 'Pig Boiling Pot' from my Great Grandfather Weidler - I have it currently in the shed. Tom had to move the Corvette out of the garage to help with some, 'Get this put on the patio, get this shutter back on the house' time.  So after he got the tasks done, he and Shannon took a ride in the Corvette, on the back country roads around our house.

The Oven Fried Chicken IV recipe that I used for the first time, was a hit with everyone.  Changes I made, followed the hints in the allrecipes.com reviews.  Some milk (1 cup) with 16 Oz sour cream, some French's Onion Rings crushed with the corn flakes, substituted Thyme for Rosemary (I do not stock Rosemary and am now out of Thyme), I also reduced the garlic powder to 1 1/2 tablespoons and I also added the seasonings to the sour cream mix, not the crushed flakes. Smelling the garlic in the recipe while the chicken was cooking was throwing me off, and I thought it would be too heavy with garlic, but it was fine.  I did 3 baking pans of chicken and coated the racks with Pam before, but the racks and pans still needed a bit of soaking to loosen up the drippings and stuck on coating that came off some of the chicken.  All in all, a fairly easy cleanup while Adele took a rest, reading and napping.

The Pretzel Bottomed Reese's Peanut Butter Pie recipe was also slightly changed.  We had a store bought graham cracker crust, so I used that for the crust.  Most of my pretzel crusts have always been too hard to chew (could it be my oven temp that is 50 degrees high causes that?).  Of course I kept thinking we needed a 9" crust, so I was OK with the smaller store bought crust, but then after filling and baking the pie on Sunday, I reread the recipe, and lo and behold it says use a 10" pie or tart pan.  Oh well, I did everything as shown until adding the flour / salt / baking soda mixture, that had to be hand mixed as my old Sunbeam does not work well with heavy mixes.  I needed 45 - 50 minutes to get everything cooked to perfection (??) but it was a huge hit with everyone.  Talk about a sugar high - this dessert is one of those type. We added a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream as a topper for the pie. Clean up was nothing except throwing away the tin foil pie pan.

Adele added her Mother's Potato Salad recipe to the lunch and a fresh fruit salad that she made on Sunday.  Sometimes we bump into each other so much in the kitchen, we need to allocate separate cooking times for our recipes.  She is a easy going cook, and I am an up-tight, what is next, Oh Gosh - Not sure I have that!, "Adele - I need you!", better lay out all the ingredients before I start (sometimes) kind of cook. It is much better that we do things at our own times in the kitchen when preparing for a big meal.

Well - I mentioned a few times that the recipes I made were first time ever recipes for me, and added that 'Family is where we should be able to try out those new things', and everyone took that in stride, and the food was great!

We all had a good time talking and sipping coffee afterwards, while the kids played with each other. Mason took home a stash of Vette magazines, we sent the rest of the pie back with Tom & Shannon also.  This week will be one of finishing all the left overs, which should be easy to do.

I hope and pray everyone had as good a Memorial Day weekend as I did.  See you all later.

Rick

May Flowers and other such stuff

Here we are in May and everything is growing like wildfire outside.  Adele needs to do everything outside, as I had back surgery on April 9th, and am under doctors orders to exhibit caution when doing any lifting, bending or even sitting.  We did have the youth group - ICON - from church over on a Saturday for some help in getting the front yard plantings prepared.  They did a great job ripping out old plants and getting the peat moss cultivated into the soil.

Adele has planted annuals in that area, and planted some shade plants under one of the large maple trees.  We also tried to dig out all the old tulip bulbs, as they are becoming anemic after 6 years in the ground.

Now to prepare for Memorial day on the patio (or inside if it is really 90 degrees) with Mom & Dad, Tom & Shannon and the kids. I am planning an 'Oven Fried Chicken "IV"' recipe I found on allrecipes.com.  For dessert I am making a 'Peanut Butter Cup Pie' again found on the Internet.  I do love making new things for guests, I get a better feel for whether the recipe should stay in my list of good things to make or not.

My next doctor appt is on June 8th, and I might be able to start mowing again after that.

Thanks for watching our posts.