Sunday, April 04, 2010

Foodie night!!!

I was sitting in my kitchen at 6:10 and I realized I had no idea what I was going to make for dinner!  I went to Allrecipes.com to look up recipes for chicken leg quarters and I found a few that I liked but nothing thrilled me.  I noticed that my recent copy of Everyday Food was sitting on the table next to the computer so I looked through it and found a great recipe from Emeril called Emeril's Chicken-patty pockets.  Now, I really wanted to make them but I had no ground chicken and no pitas---so I decided to make it all from scratch.  Yes,  I am crazy, LOL!

I found some pita recipes, I decided to make a white pita for the kids and whole wheat pitas for me.  Here are the recipes:

Whole Wheat Pita Bread
Ingredients:
1 cup warm water
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry
yeast
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups white flour
cooking spray
cornmeal for dusting
Directions:
1. In a bowl mix the water, yeast, molasses, and salt. Let sit 5 to 10 minutes, then gradually mix in the whole wheat flour and soy flour. Turn out onto a floured surface, and knead until smooth. Place in a large bowl lightly coated with cooking spray. Cover with a towel, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
2. Punch down the dough, and knead for 5 to 10 minutes. Divide into 6 pieces. On a lightly floured surface, flatten each piece to about 1/8 inch thick with a rolling pin. Cover with a towel, and let rise 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Warm a baking sheet in the preheating oven for about 2 minutes, then remove from heat and sprinkle with cornmeal.
4. Arrange the dough rounds on the prepared baking sheet, and bake 6 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from heat and cover the bread with a moist towel to soften. When cooled, slice in half and use a knife to cut pockets in the bread.

  Pita Bread

Ingredients

  • 1 1/8 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Directions

  1. Place all ingredients in bread pan of your bread machine, select Dough setting and start. When dough has risen long enough, machine will beep.
  2. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gently roll and stretch dough into a 12 inch rope. With a sharp knife, divide dough into 8 pieces. Roll each into a smooth ball. With a rolling pin, roll each ball into a 6 to 7 inch circle. Set aside on a lightly floured countertop. cover with a towel. Let pitas rise about 30 minutes until slightly puffy.
  3. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C). Place 2 or 3 pitas on a wire cake rack. Place cake rack directly on oven rack. Bake pitas 4 to 5 minutes until puffed and tops begin to brown. Remove from oven and immediately place pitas in a sealed brown paper bag or cover them with a damp kitchen towel until soft. Once pitas a softened, either cut in half or split top edge for half or whole pitas. They can be stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for 1 or 2 months.

Emeril's Chicken-Patty Pockets (from Everyday Food issue 71)

Ingredients

1 lb. ground dark-meat chicken
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
1/2 cup plain dried breadcrumbs
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 T. minced garlic
1 t. course salt
1/2 t. cayenne pepper
1/2 t. ground coriander
1/4 t. ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 T. olive oil
whole grain pita pockets
lettuce, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, for serving

Preparation

1. Heat broiler, with rack in highest position. In a large bowl, combine chicken, egg whites, bread crumbs, onion, parsley, garlic, salt, and spices and mix until well blended. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and drizzle with 1 T. oil. Divide chicken mixture into 8 portions (about 2 1/2 to 3 ounces each) and place on sheet. Shape each into an oval patty and use your hand to flatten slightly. Drizzle 1 T. oil over patties.

2. Broil until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Flip and cook until cooked through, about 4 minutes more. Serve in pita pockets with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and Tzatziki sauce.
Ok, so I had no ground chicken, but I did have 10 thawed out leg quarters so I decided to make my own ground chicken.
Here are 10 leg quarters reduced to this plateful.
 
Here is my old trusty Kitchen Aid.  It's been rebuilt by Scott twice because I blew out the motor making bread dough 2-3X a week.  Now it's only good for grinding meats and whipping cream.  That's ok, my all powerful Bosch is behind it!!
Here it comes!  The kids were grossed out, LOL!
I didn't take pictures of the preparation of the patties, my hands were covered in raw chicken and I was so involved in what I was doing, I forgot!  Here is the end result, though!
OMG these were SO good!
Ok, here is the pita prep---
White pita dough and whole wheat pita dough.
Here they are all rolled out and risen and ready to bake.
And here they are all baked and ready to go!
And here is the end result.  Sorry the picture isn't clear, I didn't realize it was fuzzy until after dinner and after everything was eaten.  They were very good, everyone liked them, even the kids and they said the recipe was a keeper!

Friday, April 02, 2010

Spring has sprung! FINALLY!!!

Wednesday:  Good day to all!  It's a glorious day outside, the sun is out, it's 66 degrees and my plants are budding all over the yard!  The chickens are happy the snow is gone (they don't like snow on their toes!)  The cats are rolling around in the sun beams and the dogs are playing like they are puppies again!  And we are all stuck in the house with a horrific cold.....

 I'm not breathing well from this cold, my asthma gets triggered easily when I am ill so I have to take breathing treatments every 4 hours and keep my inhaler close.  I hate having asthma, I have missed out on so much because of it---and I've tried most of the drugs available, most are just too expensive and I can't afford the one that keeps my asthma under control.  STINKS!!!

Oh gee, I digress, LOL!

Anyway, I told the boys the get their shoes on, we're going for a ride!  I put some gas in the van (OMG, gas!  The cheap place that is 20-30 cents cheaper than all the others was $2.69!  Who knows what it was in town!)  We made a pit stop at Dairy Queen for some cruising ice cream, turned up the radio and cruised through our neighborhood.  We live in the country---so for our cruise today we drove within 10 miles of the house.  Here is what we encountered, I call this---barns of Medina County:  Click on the pictures to get actual size.

An Amish farm in the neighborhood, they have their laundry on a pulley system, sometimes it goes all the way to the silo!

Another Amish farm, they have their laundry hanging on the front porch.

This is an Amish one-room school that is in the neighborhood.  I believe classes were in session when we passed, as there was a buggy parked in front of the school, most likely the teacher's.

This is a big Amish farm/family compound, there are 3 or 4 houses here, I believe.  They, too are doing laundry, Wednesday must be laundry day!

Another family compound.  There is someone working on something in front of the barn but I don't take close or face pictures of the Amish, it is against their beliefs so I make sure I respect that.

A beautiful red barn

This was an Amish boy, probably around 12 years old, pulling a wagon of manure! Stinky job!

Another compound and more laundry, LOL!

Amish haystacks.  They are so much more interesting that the big, giant, round bales from the "English" farmer!

Ok, that's enough of my neighborhood for now.  Next time I'll take pictures of Lodi's square and city, it's a quaint little town with a lot of history!

Friday:  Now, for gardening news.....

My garlic is growing nicely, I thought I had lost it all last fall, but it is coming back strong!  I don't have much planted, but a little to get us through and maybe some garlic scapes so I can make garlic scape pesto  YUM YUM!  I'll post the recipe at the end of this post.

 Garlic coming up.

I started cleaning out the herb spiral, the chives were coming back with a vengeance.  Unfortunately, my rosemary didn't make it through the winter, sometimes it does, this year it didn't.  I'll have to order more from Territorial Seeds.

The thyme is bouncing back nicely as is the oregano.  I'm starting some basil, lavender and cilantro this weekend, and whatever else I have in the box, I have to get it out of cold storage and see what I have.

Chives coming back from the dead.

Front of spiral getting cleaned up and weeded.

My garden beds are atrocious!  Since I was so sick last fall, I didn't get to do any weeding or preparing for winter so mother nature just took over and weeds came back with a vengence!


You can't tell the difference between the bed and the path!

So, I have my work cut out for me.  Seamus goes back to school on the Monday after Easter, and Jeremy is on spring break that week so I plan on recruiting him and Sean and Jaret to help get these beds ready for planting.  I also want to start planting some lettuces, we have some old patio doors and I can put them over the beds at night for a cold frame to protect them from frost.

This is the small creek that runs through our property.  In the dead heat of summer, it dries up but it runs well from spring until late July/early August.

A snake that Jaret found in the yard. This was his 4th of the day!

Our chickens happily free ranging.

That's it for today.  I'll be posting gardening updates and tips throughout the weekend, probably.  We weren't planning on having family over for Easter, since we've been sick no one wants to come over, boo hoo!  But, I can't blame them so our Easter feast is being post-poned for a week while we completely heal and get back to health.  I hope you all have a nice weekend, the weather here in Ohio is supposed to be awesome, I hope it is where ever you live as well!  It's 84 degrees right now, on the 2nd of April!  WOO HOO!!!!
We need this after the winter we went through!

TTFN!

Leslie:-)

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Some of my collections and other happenings

Hiya everyone!  Sorry I haven't updated since the Emmy's, it's been crazy around here the last few weeks!



Seamus started school and LOVES it!  His teachers say he is adjusting well, he hasn't cried at all since the first day and he's adjusting to the school schedule with no problems




There was one problem, though

Two days after he started school, he became very ill and ended up in the hospital for 2 days.  At first the doctors thought it was appendicitis, but that was finally ruled out.  They think he just had a bad intestinal virus.  He bounced back after 4 days and was ready to head back to school!

 Sean and Jaret and I have been adjusting to our days without Seamus, it's been strange, the house is so quiet, no one is running after a little one constantly.  We miss him, but I have to admit it is nice to be able to get things done.  When he comes home from school it's all back to normal!

I have been displaying these apron banners and signs on my site for ages and never bothered to show my aprons.  I only had 3 of my own that I had found in antique stores, but my mother gave me a treasure.  I now have 6 of my Grandmother's aprons, I am so excited!  I remember her wearing these, it is so wonderful to have these aprons that were so much a part of her.  She is the only person I remember that wore an apron, so I will proudly carry on the tradition and after I lose a little weight, I will wear her aprons proudly (I can wear them now but they look better on a slimmer figure ;-)

My Grandma's Aprons





This one I got at an antique shop, I'm doubting that it is very old.



Aren't they lovely!?

Ok, now here is another one of my collections, I just started collecting vintage salt and pepper shakers last year.  I like weird and silly styles.  My collection isn't too big yet, I am very picky about what I purchase so I don't get new sets often.  Of course, I don't hit the antique stores often so that may be the real reason it hasn't grown, LOL!




















My newest collection is very small but I hope to add some more to it.  I love pigs, especially pigs from the 40's-60's.  They can't be too cutesy, but these are just right!

It just happens to be that they are both planters, I am considering getting a nice golden porthos to plant in the yellow piggie and maybe a philodendron for the other.

Big news for me, my cube shelf is finally done!  Hubby worked on it over the weekend and Sean and Jaret and I painted it yesterday.  Here is the IKEA Expedit shelf I wanted---


And here is the Scott version:



  Mine's bigger, LOL!
Who needs IKEA????  Well, I do---they have some delicious dishes that I want to get---only $25 for an 18 piece set!  I wish they had a store in Ohio--other than Cincinnati---it's closer for me to drive to the Pittsburgh store than the Cincy location!  Scott did an awesome job on this, I am so proud of him and happy to be a recipient of his talents!

Anyway, I'll be working on organizing my sewing room and getting the cube shelf filled up this week and maybe by this weekend I'll be able to sit and sew!