Grandma's Apple Strudel

 Last week, my 90-year-old grandma gave apple strudel making lessons! She was excited about sharing her knowledge, and we were excited about learning her technique. She had 3 copies of her recipe already handwritten for each of us along with a square of cotton sheet cut and hemmed for us to take home. The cotton cloth is the secret to successful strudel rolling!

 My step-mom(Barbara), myself, and my cousin's wife(Denise) watched intently as she rolled out the dough almost paper thin. Barbara asked how old her rolling pin was. Grandma Bessie replied, "You'd have to ask MY grandma". I think it is safe to say it is an antique!

 Here is mine all buttered and ready for the oven. We wrapped them and placed them in the freezer until the end of the day and baked them at home.

My most memorable moment of the day was when Grandma Bessie told me she was so excited to have been able to teach three teachers something they didn't already know! (Denise and I are currently teaching, and Barbara is a retired homemaking teacher and counselor.) Grandma's filling is chopped apples, crushed saltine crackers, chopped pecans, raisins, coconut, sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on the dough that is covered with melted butter.
I hope to make some strudel soon and take more photos of the steps involved. I was too busy watching and helping to take my usual photos!
Y'all come back!
Lorilee

Double-toe Jam!

Stars and Stripes Cloggers had a wonderful weekend clogging at the Double-toe Jam in Waco, Texas last weekend. Take a look.

Giraffe theme cake.

My son requested a Giraffe themed cake for his girlfriend's 16th Birthday. This is what I came up with.

I also decided to make the inside spotted like a giraffe. I didn't get a photo of it sliced because I was unable to attend the actual party. I was attending the Double-Toe Jam. I will post about it on the Stars and Stripes Cloggers blog soon.

The cake is frosted with buttercream, while the "spots" are done with homemade fondant using this recipe. The cake is a Duncan Hines yellow cake with whole milk substituted for the water.

Bad Kitty!

 He likes to look innocent! I know him better than that!

 I see him sneaking up through those bluejeans over the chair. (Its laundry day for me. Well MOST days are laundry day!)

 Scat Cat! You don't belong on the table.

UH OH! This is one of the many reasons cats don't belong on the table! The Pysanky eggs have now been moved to a safer location INSIDE a display cabinet.

Out on a limb

The little kitty (I still don't call him Bernard.) has discovered trees! He adores climbing them.

Of course, this upsets the dogs because they can't climb trees!

All they can do is watch from below.

Beach II

 This house has always fascinated me. Well, most old houses fascinate me, but this one is definitely a favorite.  This is Oakhurst, now known as Fulton Mansion located in Rockport/Fulton.

 It was built in 1877 to withstand hurricanes with 8"  thick wood (constructed by stacking and spiking pine planks) and shellcrete walls. The kitchen was in the basement. It was the only house in the area to have gas lighting, central heating and running water. The water was stored in cisterns in the basement. The water was hand-pumped into a cistern above the tower room. Gravity took it to the bathroom that included a flush toilet.

 I highly recommend stopping by for the one hour tour when in the area. My family, however, is not as enthusiastic as I am. They took their time walking to the entrance!

 They sat on the porch and waited for the tour to begin. I wandered around looking into the basement windows!

 THEY were anxious to get to the water. Floating was their goal! I floated, but discovered that I feel the effects of the motion negatively! I did OK as long as I floated on the boogie board on my tummy facing the waves. Pretty pathetic!

Of course, the laughing gulls had to be fed. Brian had to demonstrate for his Dad how the gulls would take the bread from his hand or the top of his head. The beach wasn't as pretty this trip. There was lots of seaweed washing ashore. Of course, that is preferable to tarballs or jellyfish!
Y'all come back,
Lorilee

 We had a low-key Independence Day celebration with our immediate family and a few of the boys' friends. Of course, hot dogs were the main menu item along with potato salad, coleslaw, chips, beans and cake. Lucky for us, our town's fireworks display has been moved closer to our house, behind our mall. All we have to do is sit in our front yard and look down the street for a spectacular view! I love it! No traffic to contend with and a bathroom nice and handy.

After seeing Anne Marie's old party barn banners made from bandanas, I decided that my patio needed some in red, white and blue for the 4th of July!

To make my banners, I cut each bandana into 4ths to give me 4 triangles. I straight-stitched along the raw edges so that they could unravel just a bit. Then I folded the top edge over my string and straight-stitched again. I did stitch up over the string on each end of each triangle to keep it from slipping along the string.

I hope everyone had a blessed Independence Day. I will end with a few borrowed words.

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases. If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it, and if it stops moving, subsidize it"-Ronald Reagan 1986

"The inherent vice of capitalism is an unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is an equal sharing of the misery."-Winston Churchill

Y'all come back,

Lorilee

P.S.

I changed my post editor to the "Updated Edition"  under settings. This seems to have solved the issues I was having with links, text color and size. Yippee!

10 hour power outage and Salsa Verde

I sure wish I could keep up and post in REAL time. I seem to run days behind. It seems there is either nothing worth mentioning or no time to mention it! Also, I returned home from clogging practice last night to find that my garage door opener didn't work. I left the trailblazer on the driveway and went inside the front door. It was sure dark and warm. I was informed that there had been a lightning strike VERY nearby, and we lost power around 5:45. I had left around 5 and it was now after 8. David and I had leftover potato salad and coleslaw for supper while sitting outside on our front bench! When we still had no power at 9:30, David pulled the generator out of the garden shed while I gathered the extension cords, fans and a floor lamp. We ran an extension cord through the window and fixed ouselves up with a lamp and fans so we could go to bed. David got up for work at 2:30 a.m. and still no power. There were trucks on our street. I went outside to look for myself since I hadn't been sleeping well anyway. The men climbed the poles and did something around the transformer behind our house and the one a few houses down. That did the trick. TEN hours later power was restored! I returned inside and turned off all the lights that were on when the power went out and went back to bed!
So, that said, I will backtrack and attempt to catch up through the next several posts. Last Saturday, I finally made the Salsa Verde that I had been contemplating. All the ingredients were finally gathered, and I learned some new things in the process. For example, I learned that long green chilies is another name for Anaheim peppers. They are also milder than jalepenos. I also learned how to roast them. After much googling I found a recipe here http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/harvest/msg0712353015673.html that sounded good.

Then I found great instructions for roasting the peppers on the grill here. http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2009/09/how-to-roast-anaheim-green-chiles-on.html

Here are my Chilies all roasted and readied to be covered with plastic wrap.

I removed the husks from the tomatillos and washed them. They tend to be sticky.

May the chopping commence! I had never seen inside a tomatillo before!

All of my ingredients-tomatillos, Anaheim chilies, jalepenos, onions, and garlic were combined and simmered. I did not use oregano, but I did add plenty of fresh Cilantro during the last minute of cooking.

MMmmmm good!

The recipe!

5 cups chopped tomatillos

1 1/2 cups seeded, roasted and chopped long green chilies (Anaheim)

1/2 cup seeded, finely chopped jalepenos

4 cups chopped onion

1 cup lemon juice

6 cloves garlic, minced

3 TB oregano (I used lots of fresh cilantro instead)

1 TB cumin

1 TB salt

1 tsp black pepper

Combine all ingredients (except cilantro) in a large pot and stir frequently over high heat until mixture begins to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring often. Add the chopped fresh cilantro at the last minute. Ladle hot salsa into jars, leaving 1/2 " headspace. Add lids and rings and process in boiling water canner for 15 minutes. Yields 3 1/2 pints.

Y'all come back,

Lorilee