Winter is NOT over!

See?  I told you.  Winter is NOT over here yet.  Sunday... gorgeous weather.  Even Monday was pretty nice.  Tuesday?  SNOW!!!!!  Wednesday?????  MORE SNOW!!!!  The interstate was closed at least once each day.

The birds were in quite a frenzy to get food.  I kind of scared a bunch as I went to the door to take a photo.  Caught a lot of them in flight.

They all eventually came back, though.

Gosh, it was just a couple of days before that all creatures were enjoying such beautiful weather.  Thought you might want to see some yellow heads (yellow-headed black birds).  They're here in the photo with some red wings (red-winged black birds).

And here's one of our little robin friends enjoying some grapes. 

 

I think the robins are just counting the days until they might be able to find a worm or two - probably not in our yard because the soil is so bad.  But they like the grapes at our house.  Or maybe they're just counting the days until cherry season.  They really like cherries - not that they grow where we live, but we share from our fruit bowl.

Just yesterday I saw the white pelicans flying overhead, too.  The birds keep coming back to town, but the demise of winter is yet to be seen, I think. 

Today - May 17th (the MARVELOUS, MOMENTOUS, LOTUS PILE MOVEMENT DAY, as I am writing this)... we are getting rain.  Snowpack in the mountains for this date is 175% of normal.  The river (our house is on the 2nd river terrace) has been swelling and is nearly going out of its banks.  It has already flooded, and consequently closed, a portion of the greenbelt. 


I wonder if we have time to plant any cottonwoods before we get any more flooding.  

If you missed my blog from a few years ago when our yard flooded and the homeowners association had to borrow a huge pump from the city to drain our yard and our neighbor's, go to this link to see the post-tornado snow and flood, ducks swimming in our front yard, and a complete documentary of what happened.  Start with this link and then check out the next few posts following it.


http://martinsglasshouse.blogspot.com/2008/06/ark-survives-flood-victory-at-sea.html

First Grilling of the Year - May 8th!

 I'm really behind on blogging; but as you will see by later posts, I've been kind of busy this week.

May 8th.  We should have expected it.  The university graduation is always the Saturday before Mother's Day.  On Mother's Day, Sunday, all the boats and grills come out of storage and go into use for the season - not that it means winter is over, by any means.  But, everyone is typically hopeful.

Sunday, May 8th.  We actually got to grill on our deck!

Skippy and the guys enjoyed the sun on the deck, while I was busy in the kitchen getting all the last minute things done.

 Left to Right:  Adam, Jacob, Cody, Josh, Phil, Will... Terry, Emma and her mom arrived later.

  

Skippy the 3-Legged Beagle.  Soaking up the sun.  He loves the outdoors so much.  Hates to come in when the weather is so nice outside.  Even better if something is on the grill.  You never know when there is going to be some kind of fallout and someone - or somedog - has to clean up the deck under the grill.  Or taste test.  You never know... you just never know.  

A puppy needs to be on the alert at all times!  If you asked him, I'm sure he'd say, "I'm going to just stay here and look like I'm sleeping; but I'm going to keep my eyes open just enough to catch a glimpse of anything that lands suddenly on the deck under the grill.  And, if I hear, 'Oops' suddenly at any moment, I will be able to quickly leap to the call of duty to rescue that poor little piece of chicken!  I'll save the day.  I'll be a hero!"

Cody showed us the real reason for wearing a chef's apron when grilling.  Works great for carrying a load of corn out to the grill.  

I only have aprons with cupcakes on them.  Cody must have chosen the one with the pink bow on it because, as long as he had to wear one with cupcakes on it, he would go for all it was worth.

For dessert (start with dessert first!) I made a variation of those really great cookie bars using a cake mix.  This time I tried a butter pecan cake mix, added pecans and chocolate chips.  I think they were a bigger hit than the lemon bars... and certainly bigger than the ginger bars, though I think Phil liked all of them pretty much.

Marge loves 'em all, especially with ice cream.  She is a very patient "waiter," too.  It took a while for us to coordinate all the food, but eventually we got to eat.  It was mainly just great to enjoy such fabulous weather... for a change.

Cody did a lot of the grilling, with the help of Jacob on seasonings and prepping food for the grill.  We had chicken... corn soaked in butter and seasonings (I think it was a secret "sauce"... I just kept handing spices from the cupboard, and then when the guys realized where all the spices were kept, they just helped themselves to whatever they could find)...

And zucchini... and also a number of salads that were way more than we needed.

It was all really great.  Great food, great friends, great fun.  Great friends.

THE LOTUS PILE IS MOVED!

I've been really, really busy over the past week or so and have new blogs in the works to post; but this one really needs to be posted right away.  It is MONUMENTAL! 

 Wow!  Who knew?  Today turned out to be an AMAZING Day!  Today Should Be Declared a NATIONAL HOLIDAY!!!!!!!  Not only did that guy eat 25,000 Big Macs, but CHECK THIS OUT!

Here is the list I created back on August 15, 2005 ...updated on April 10, 2006... The Lotus Pile wasn't the #1 item on the list - it appeared on page 2.

Phil had been moving his Lotus parts around in boxes and piles since he crashed it in 1969.  He finally bought a fiberglass body for it about 4-5 years ago.  The body has been in "my" garage since then - being used as our "recycling center".  I'll get a photo of it for you later.  Maybe I'll even add that to my list to get it moved to "Phil's" garage!

But, you can see that by April 14, 2008, I was getting a "little" frustrated with that pile sitting outside the garage.  I should have taken a photo of it - maybe I have one somewhere. 

But, today - because we are FINALLY getting the holes in the driveway graded this Thursday (never made it to the list because I hadn't updated it in awhile, but believe me... I did quite a bit of "persistent suggesting" about it), THE LOTUS PILE WAS MOVED!  TO THE GARAGE!!!

Phil recruited the help of two of our Tech student friends (Whitney and Cody) to get it all moved.  (They actually came over to help Phil move the hay bales from around our trees since we keep hoping that winter is over, but it started to rain so they decided to move the Pile.)  Now if he is ever going to want to use his garage again, he is going to have a lot of stuff to move out of the way!  The Tech students would LOVE to help Phil rebuild the Lotus, though.  Everyone is standing around the kitchen looking at Lotus manuals and such... dreaming about putting the car back together again.

But, hey... they also found our WYOMING WIND CHIME!  One of these days, maybe we'll get it installed somewhere.  Phil suggested hanging gas cylinders from the ends of the chain.  I'm eager to see/hear that!

Only three dead mice were found under the Lotus Pile.  I really thought they were going to find rabbits because they've lived in the Lotus Pile for so many years.  In fact, we used to see rabbits running under the Lotus Pile, so we'd throw our carrot scraps out there to feed them.  I wonder where the rabbits will go next...

House Finches: Hawk Bait

We've been feeding grapes to the robins and house finches that frequent our deck bird feeder.

Yesterday there were literally ZILLIONS of birds in our yard besides house finches, robins and sparrows.  The grackles, brown-headed cow birds, yellow-headed black birds and female red-winged black birds seems to have all flown into town on the same day.  The male red-wings arrived here a while back. 

Rocky has been enjoying watching the birds...

He and Izzy crouch by the deck door for hours watching birds.  Usually they fall asleep by the door. 

It was about a month or so ago that we heard the first meadowlark back in town - and we got some good snow that same day.  I used to think that when the mountain blue birds were in town, soon it would be summer.  But, the blue birds came back a few months ago and it's been more like winter here than spring.  So, when I heard the meadowlark, I thought surely summer was around the corner.  We're still waiting.  Now I'm thinking that when we hear the peepers, then surely it will be summer.

The raptors have been coming back to town for a few weeks.  A few weeks ago, during a very wet rainy day, there was a drenched, immature hawk sitting on top of the bird feeder.  I guess he figured that would be where the birds would come so that he might get a quick, tasty morsel for breakfast; but I guess he hadn't learned to be more discreet yet on his approach.  Today there was a huge hawk hovering our deck.  I hope it doesn't swoop down to get the finches while they're eating grapes.  A lot of the birds seem to be staying away from the feeder today, and fewer robins have been coming to get the grapes.

I'll keep trying to get more bird photos so you can see just how many birds really come to the feeder.  Every time I move toward the door to take a picture, they fly away.  I will have to "neak up" on 'em.

The Cat Loves Anything Super Easy and Fast!

Today I made lemon bars using the same recipe idea as the Triple Ginger Bars that I made for our group lunch yesterday.  I'm pretty sure this will work for ANY kind of cake mix that you have on hand.  Today I served Marge one Triple Ginger Bar and one Lemon Bar with strawberry ice cream and rhuberry sauce.
You can't even tell which bar is which, can you?

Here is what you need:

A box of cake mix
1/2 cup butter or margarine (1 stick)
2 eggs
Sugar for sprinkling on top before baking

Mix together and pat or spread into a 9"x13" pan that has been sprayed with baking spray.  Sprinkle sugar on top.  Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes until top is golden and sides just pull from the edge of the pan.  Thoroughly cool before slicing.  If you have a 30-40 degree garage with a baker's rack in it, this only takes about 15-20 minutes!  :-)

You can melt the margarine, but if it's soft/at room temperature, you can mix it easily with a mixer.  If melted, it is easy to mix without a mixer. 

Here's a Tip:  If you microwave the butter to melt it, use the paper butter wrapper to put over the top of the small bowl you use for melting it - then it won't splatter all over the inside of the microwave when it gets hot.

The possibilities for making cookie bars with this recipe are endless.  You can probably add nuts, chocolate chips, raisins... depending on your preferences, with success.

The Cat Dragged in an Almost 6-Foot Burrito!!!!!

Today we celebrated Cinco de Mayo for our Sunday lunch with several young men from the local technical school - and one young woman from the university.  Adam and Josh had the challenge of creating a burrito and warming it up in our 24-inch oven!  Amazing!  And they did it!  They've been creating 3-foot burritos for a long time, so everyone was geared up for this thrilling feat.  We were ready!  I'd even found some genuine Fiestaware plates with matching napkins at a thrift shop, so what an unexpected treat to use them for this special holiday!

This is how Adam and Josh accomplished this culinary experiment:


First, assemble tortillas on your goal-length of aluminum foil.  Our goal was 6 feet, so we had a little bit longer length of foil.  "Glue" tortillas together with refried beans.

Next, pile on some rice...

Then some meat...

Then some cheese...

Look in the lower right hand corner of the photo.  That's Adam's kitchen knife!  He brought it with him.

Ready to roll?  This part is tricky... it takes two guys to do it!

Top with some more cheese, pull up the edges of the foil to make a "blanket" around the burrito, top with some jalapenos, and pop that baby into the oven.

Oh.  Did I happen to mention that they did this THREE times?  They used both ovens.  This is when we learned the Mexican motto from Adam:  "Don't Worry.  We can make it fit."

Meanwhile, all the sous chefs were busy making guacamole, cutting melon and pineapple and cleaning dishes...

 Emma saved melon rinds for her horse.  Cody made a great guacamole and cut up three pineapples - very yummy!

Then, when all the cheese on the burrito was melted, the jalapenos warmed (as if they needed more heat!),  it was almost time for everyone to arrive.  Adam and Josh removed all three sections of the burrito and joined them together on the foil on the island. 

Once joined, the burrito was topped with lettuce, tomato, some black bean-corn salsa... and in some places Cholula hot sauce and/or habanero sauce... and sour cream.

We found a meter stick to measure... the burrito ended up being about 4 feet long, but what it lacked in length for the 6 feet, it made up for in width.  It was about 9 inches wide!

Don't think from the photo that Josh (left) and Adam (right) were disappointed.  This was just training for them.  When they get back to the ranch later this year, they're going to attempt an 8-foot burrito!  We'd like to see that!

So... how do you eat a 4-foot burrito?  One bite at a time, of course!  Some folks just attempted more bites than others. 

Terry filled up his entire 9"x9" Fiestaware plate.  He took a section from the "spicy" end, without rice... but with extra jalapenos, habanero sauce and Cholula.

This is Emma's plate... Her slice is so small, its kind of hard to tell what section she has - with rice or without, but I think it's the "mild" end.

And here is what the table looked like with everyone enjoying the burrito. 

You wouldn't think anyone would want dessert after that kind of meal... but the Triple Ginger Bars (see the Betty Crocker website) served with vanilla bean ice cream topped with Rhuberry Sauce (strawberry-rhubarb) seemed to cool down burning lips from all those jalapenos and hot sauces.

And this is all that remained of the burrito by the time a lot of the guys packed up some leftovers to take home...

One plateful for Jacob who had to work when everyone else was here, but stopped by after work to pick up what was left.

And next Sunday we'll do this all over again - but with lasagna!  :-)  You're not going to want to miss those photos!

Stretchy Mississippi Mud Bundt Cake - Follow Up

I thought you might want to see what the Mississippi Mud Bundt Cake looked like when it was served.

Probably should have taken some PAM with me to spray the cake serving knife.  We had a thing going on with Stretch Marshmallows.

The knife, by the way, is a serving knife that I made with fused art glass and dichroic glass.

You can see more glassware on my Martin's Glass House blog at www.martinsglasshouse.blogspot.com.

Mississippi Mud Bundt Cake Experiment

Well, I didn't think I'd be making two posts in one day, but here I go!

Today's experiment:  Converting a Mississippi Mud Cupcake recipe into a bundt cake in less than 2 hours.

I had to have a cake to take to a dinner tonight and used up most of the morning working on the first post here, and looking for recipes to try to decide what dessert to take.  Decided on Mississippi Mud Cupcakes (from myrecipes.com in case you want to try that recipe); then decided it would be a lot faster to use a cake mix - though the cupcakes would come out less chewy and tasty with the cake mix than using the original recipe.

I decided it would also be easier and less messy to just dump the cake mix into one pan instead of 30 or so little cupcakes.  At high elevation, instead of getting 24 cupcakes from one box cake mix, we get 30... probably because, following high altitude mixing instructions, we add extra water (and more flour).

I usually also add a box of instant pudding mix (large package) to the cake when I make a bundt cake.  For some reason, at high elevation, if you add the pudding to the cake mix and make layer cakes, the centers of the cakes rise pretty high, then fall flat... actually, they sink in... so it looks like someone stepped on the cake.  Makes it tricky to decorate the cake then.  But, the pudding works OK in the bundt cake.

So, I baked the cake for an hour at 350F, took it out and let it cool enough to remove it from the pan (which I sprayed with PAM baking spray).  Tried to figure out a way to keep the marshmallows on the cake so that I could get it back in under the broiler to toast the marshmallows.  Decided to make a batch of chocolate frosting (see allrecipes.com for "Chocolate Frosting I" for the recipe that I always use), spread a little on top of the bundt cake and stick the marshmallows onto the frosting.

Stuck the cake with marshmallows under the broiler for just a couple of minutes until the marshmallows got toasty.  The frosting then got kind of bubbly and crunchy.  So, if you ever actually want that bubbly, crunchy effect from frosting, you could stick your cake under the broiler.  ;-)

Now, from the following photos you can see that in food photography, angle is everything.  You can tell a good story, or you can tell the truth.  The marshmallows stuck pretty well using the frosting trick, but there were a couple of "oops" areas.

Some marshmallows slid down the side.

And some slid down into the center.

But, should you want those effects on your final cake, then great.  No need to experiment anymore.  Just use this technique:  stick your marshmallow covered cake under the broiler.

Now you may have noticed that my marshmallow bits weren't traditional mini marshmallows.  I only had bags of the full-sized marshmallows.  Here's a great tip to know, though:  spray a knife with regular PAM spray.  If you cut up large marshmallows with a PAM sprayed knife, the marshmallow won't stick to the knife!  I got nine marshmallow bits from each regular sized marshmallow.  I cut the marshmallow into strips, dividing the marshmallow into thirds; then I cut the thirds into thirds.

Then I drizzled melted chocolate chips (about 1/2 cup chips + 2 tsp. shortening) in the microwave for about one minute.  Stirred the chips to make them smooth, and drizzled the chocolate over the top of the marshmallows.  Then sprinkled chopped pecans on top that had been oven-toasted at 350F for 8 minutes.  Less time would have been better... maybe about 6 minutes.  These pecans came out extra toasty - not burned, but borderline.  You'll have to see what works best for you with your own oven.  My lower oven tends to get hotter than the upper oven.

So, later tonight, maybe I can get a photo of what my cake looks like inside.  I was tempted to inject it with some kind of filling... but when all is said and done, I think what I ended up with will be enough sticky goo for most people.  I'll save the filling for something else for a future post.

c@

Midnight Bean Soup

So... I was up all night cleaning cupboards last night.

And what does this have to do with soup?

Well, because of Heather's "persistent suggestions" (i.e., bugging, pestering, nagging) to get a blog going, and because the soup turned out pretty good, I thought I'd blog this so you could see what the Cat dragged out of the cupboards and into the kitchen today.



This is what I've gathered up so far for the thrift shop (or "boutique" depending on where you live in the U.S.).  Three bags of stuff, and three boxes.  Now I just have to figure out where to keep it until I can get down to a thrift shop in Colorado again, or whether I can try to cram it into everything else that I need to do tomorrow.  Or... ????

And this is what our "Cove" looks like now that it's organized.  It got the name "The Cove" because it's on the north and coldest side of the house.  At Christmas time when I do a lot of baking, I can either store baked goods in "The Cove" or on a baker's rack in the garage.  Sometimes we all it the "Cookie Cove," but most often just "The Cove."


AND I also even have nearly a whole half side of the bottom cabinet in my hutch emptied!  I thought I was going to store all my platters and large serving bowls in the hutch, but decided it would be easier to access them from The Cove.  So, I had to organize The Cove to make room for them all.

I don't know why I had so much energy for staying up so late working on cleaning cabinets, but now I'm eager to tackle some other areas of the house the next time I do this "late thing".

At any rate, about 1 a.m. I started thinking, "If I start some beans tonight in the crock pot, it will be done for lunch tomorrow." 

1:00 a.m. I was up chopping an onion, cleaning beans, and popping everything into a crock pot to make bean soup.  It doesn't take long at all to prepare, as long as the country style pork ribs are already defrosted.


Then, I don't know what possessed me, but I went through my collection of cookie molds to see how many duplicates I have ended up with over the past year or so. 

These molds are for shortbread cookies - some from Pampered Chef, some from Brown Bag, and some other miscellaneous molds - most all of them I've found at thrift shops.  Some gifts, some purchased online.  But most at thrift shops. 

Maybe another day I'll show you photos of all the molds.  Maybe someday when I get around to actually making cookies again with the molds. 

Anyway, I got them all sorted and discovered that I really have duplicates of only two types - all Pampered Chef.  One is a heart mold (I have two of the same), and the other is a bear (I have three of the same -  three different shades of stoneware... seems kind of odd to me).

I was going to make a list, but sleep started to come over me once I sat down, so that will have to wait a while.

Finally getting to bed at about 2 a.m., I then woke up at 9 a.m. when I heard a text message come in on my phone.  My husband Phil texted me to see if I was up yet.  Between that and the smell of the beans cooking, I decided I'd better get up, especially because I kept lying in bed thinking, "That doesn't smell right."  So, I got out of bed to check the seasoning.

Taste.  More salt.  Thought about it... decided to add a little cumin and chili seasoning.  Cooked two more hours in the crock pot.  Taste.  Still not right.  Added a little more salt and some Bouquet Garni.  Cooked another hour or so.  Taste.  Perfect!  Though, I'm not sure I could re-create the seasoning to be the same next time, I thought I'd better blog this so I'll remember what I did. 

It actually tasted really very good, even though the beans were supposed to come out like refried beans, I think, from the recipe and description that my hair stylist gave to me; mine came out like soup.  So, if yours come out like refried beans, maybe you can just add more water in a big soup pot.  :-)

So, here's a shopping list:

3 country style pork ribs
1-1/2 lb. pinto beans, dry (bought in bulk - rinse well and remove icky pieces)
1 sweet onion, small dice
About 14 cups water (to come near to top of crock pot)
2-3 Tbsp. salt (add a little at first and then adjust to preference later)
1 Tbsp. Cumin
2 Tbsp. Chili Seasoning (Penzey's, with oregano in it - it has a medium kick)
1 Tbsp. Bouquet Garni

Directions:

Place ribs on bottom of crock pot; toss in diced onion, sprinkle with seasonings.  Add dry pinto beans over all.  Pour in water.  Set crock pot on high and go to bed.  Cook for nine hours and adjust seasonings as needed.  Continue cooking until you think you're ready to turn off crock pot to enjoy the soup.  Maybe with tortilla chips.  :-)

Mediterranean Stuffed Chicken Breasts

OK - so here is the photo of the Mediterranean Chicken that I made again last night.  Adtually, this is the remnant of the very last piece that was left.  I forgot to shoot any pictures before we ate dinner.

And it is really easy, really fast!  From start to finish (not counting shopping time) it takes a little more than 1/2 hour until you can eat dinner!

So, here's your shopping list:


2-3 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 oz. soft goat cheese
1/2 cup pre-blended/mixed mediterranean flavor vegetable "paste" or bruschetta topping
1/4 cup (approx.) good balsamic vinegar
Salt, Pepper to taste
Penzey's Tuscan Sunset (optional, but nice)

Directions:

Mash the goat cheese in a bowl and add about 1/2 cup of a mediterranean flavored vegetable/bruschetta "paste" from a jar.  I got mine at a place in Sonoma when Myrna and I went there, but the brand is missing from the label.  The original recipe called for making a mixture out of sun-dried tomatoes - I thought I had some, but didn't; regardless, the jar of vegetable stuff (which has kalamata olives in it, it's red color) was so fast and easy.

Then take 2-3 lbs. of chicken breasts and slice a "pocket" into the side of each piece.  Put about 2 Tbsp. of the goat cheese mixture into the pocket.  Place the chicken breasts into a PAM (olive oil type is good) sprayed pan.

Season the top of the chicken breasts with salt, pepper - and I used Penzey's Sunny Paris, also, because it had shallots in it.  The original recipe called for sauteed shallots, but this seasoning was so much easier.  Then I sprayed the chicken pieces lightly with PAM.

Then shake some really good balsamic vinegar over the chicken so that there is some extra balsamic in the bottom of the baking pan - not a lot, but enough so that you can see it's covering the bottom of the pan.

Then I baked the chicken for 20-25 minutes at 450 until the internal temperature was 155-160.  Then cover the pan with foil and let it rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

Notes:

The original recipe said to then add cornstarch/water to thicken the juices, but we found that with little bits of goat cheese and kalamata olives in the juices, it was fine to just spoon that over the orzo.

My 3-lb. package of frozen chicken breasts had some really unusual sized pieces in it, but I was still able to slice open almost every piece and had enough filling for all the breasts except for three really skinny pieces.

I served it with orzo (to which I added a little bit of Penzey's Tuscan Sunset and a tiny bit of leftover Bavarian mustard sauce - for which I can send the recipe to you, too, if you want... it's excellent over pork tenderloin, or even bake the tenderloin in the sauce).