Afternoon Snack

It is quite a challenge keeping house, tending the yard, sewing, grocery shopping and all the other things I try to do. Today I rested more and let things go, while I enjoyed the lively paintings of Gregory Frank Harris, which you can see on Rehs Gallery and other places on the web. It must be wonderful to dress up and be inspiration for art like this, and, what nice scenery goes with it. I hope when I get my "line of clothes" sewn this year, that I can get such pretty places to show them.

 

The recent Victoria Magazine has a lovely recipe in it, for these toasty bites of asparagus and meat, but since I only have very basic ingredients in my pantry and ice-box, I made a passable substitute. The original recipe has several specialized ingredients that are not abundantly available in my local grocery store,

so I first toasted thin slices of baguette bread in the oven on a baking tin, and then covered them in cream cheese, sprinkled with a little Italian seasoning. Topped with pieces of Sarah Lee smoked turkey and fresh cooked asparagus, this was delicious. I served it with apple juice and it made a splendid snack.

It is a good issue this month, with lovely bouquets and places to visit, such as historic home tours, and other things.

The snow is gone and the primroses are in bloom outside.

Below are these interesting cedar tree cones that have seeds inside. When the cones dry, they fall apart.The pieces look like little roses, and crafters use them to paint or put in dried scented mixtures for the home.

These are cedars of Lebanon from a tree out behind the house. The temperature is still cool, but warm enough to take an outside picture.

The only thing I really have been thinking about to share today is to be focused on your home and family and catch yourself and bring yourself back to reality if ever you find that you are losing ground by letting distractions cause you to get sidetracked.

Being home means you are your own boss, and it can be a challenge to guide your home. You have to map out your day and generally plan to keep up the laundry, clean the kitchen and provide meals, without creating a lot of tension for yourself. This can be done by finding ways to enjoy it. Whatever you can do to make the tasks at home enjoyable, do it. It may be having soft music or it may be wearing a pretty cotton dress and an apron and nice shoes. It might be having a lovely scent in the house, or something in the slow cooker while you do the rest of the house work.

Read some of the blogs you see on my sidebar, or go through some of their blogs, and you will see that a lot of ladies at home have some very good techniques for making life pleasant at home while they do their daily work. Sometimes all it takes to inspire you might be a picture.

At our dollar store there is a young man who always asks the customers what they are going to do today that is interesting or special.I always tell him how I am going to use the merchandise I just bought, and it makes him laugh when I answer, "I am going home and put that Ti-d-bowl in the tank, put this stem of roses in a vase, (and sometimes they sell fresh roses at Dollar Tree) hang up my fresh shower curtain, and mail something to my mother in this padded envelope."

What are you doing today?

I am going to enjoy using my new honey-almond soap that I got at Dollar Tree today. The scent is absolutely exquisite, like the expensive bath products in the honey stores here and bath & body stores in the malls.

All paintings by Gregory Frank Harris

 

Posted with Blogsy

Feeding People

Waiting for the Ferryman

by Daniel Ridgeway Knight

I have been taking pictures for a few days to show some ways to serve meals to those who, for various reasons, cannot attend a meal with the family at the table. While everyone else got the same meals, the one on the tray always looked more appealing.

These fourth-yard pieces of fabric I have collected can be used to make the same old gray tray look a little more colorful. These fabrics are made by a  U.S. company called Fabric Traditions,  for Wal-Mart and other stores. 

Lay a piece of it in the tray first, folding the edges under, to make it fit. 

Then, to protect the fabric, cover it in a piece of shiny clear plastic. You can hardly tell  it is covered when you use this high quality type of plastic, which you can buy in small quantities from  rolls at fabric stores.

Some of these trays are meals, and others snacks. I think it is important to keep them colorful, by varying the  kinds of foods.

You can probably tell this is an afternoon tea with scones and cream.

I try to find different tea cups to use.

It is all comfort food,  prepared in different ways: potatoes, eggs, salads, vegetables, rice, sandwiches, fruit and herbal teas.

If you have no fabric, cut a piece of gift-wrap to fit the tray, or use a gift bag, all under the plastic.

These little round paper doilies are perfect for absorbing any drips in the saucer of the tea cup set. They sometimes can be found at dollar stores, or they can be hand made, just by cutting circles of paper and folding them to make cuts as in paper snowflakes.

Have a look at this cute crocheted rag pad that someone made. I use it under the little stainless steel hot water pot on the tray.

A toile print, for something different.

The roses were a dollar each at Dollar Tree this week, so I could not resist having one, since our own roses are not in bloom yet.

 I think trays like this might be enjoyable by everyone at the table together, once in awhile.

This piece of fabric has a metallic thread in it, which the photo does not show, but it looks so bright with this snack:

It helps a lot, I think, to be situated in front of a great scene, and I like the way this tree, which is viewable from the front window,  makes a lacy shadow on the grass

Making Scones

One day my kitchen crew decided to let their parents sleep while they came over and helped me make scones. We laid out the utinsels on the left: measuring sets, mixing bowl and spoons. The ingredients are on the right. The oldest boy of the crew said he really likes the brand of flour because he enjoys the picture on the bag. He liked it so much his mother cut it out and put it in scrapbook for him. The recipe is in the previous article.

Place two cups of flour in the bowl.





Add 4 teaspoons of baking powder and blend very well with a spoon.



Now mix the liquid ingredients: 1/2 cup olive oil, 3/4 cup of milk and one egg well mixed.






















Next, pour the well mixed liquids into the dry flour mixture, and stir it, and make it into a ball that sticks together. Dough will be sticky.






Sprinkle a handful of flour around the top of the sticky mound, and then turn it over and sprinkle some more on the other side. Do not mix in.











This is a recipe that does not require a greased pan, however, if you rub a little butter on it by holding the cold cube in your hand and running it across the pan several times, it makes the scones taste good and does help if your pan sticks. (I don't grease the pan with this recipe).

Divide that mound into two circles, and pat into a round of about 4 inches. That way, your scone will be "mile high" and will puff up quite nicely.







Now cut each mound in half and then half again and so forth until you have 6 or eight wedges. Separate the wedges slightly with the spatula.













The youngest chef sprinkled the scones with a sugar-cinnamon mixture.

















After 15 or 20 minutes at 375 degrees F they are cooked and looking tall...


Remember that clean kitchen I showed you yesterday? This is what it looked like when we got ready to eat the scones, this is what it looked like. There are no clean plates to eat our scones!















Oh wait. Here are some paper towels I got at the dollar store the other day.













They make good placemats.




























These scones taste very good with Gingerbread tea which is herbal non-caffeinated.












NOte: if you have too much liquid, the dough will be too doughy and spongy; if you have too much flour, the dough will be too stiff and hard. Just practice til you get it right.