What's going on.

As in 'this is what's going on'.  It's a slow day, a Netflix day. It's raining, we need it, our water source lake is something like 11 feet low.  We are on stage 4 water rationing and can only water our yards twice a month and then only between 6 and 10.  As of right now my candles on the deck are floating in 4 inches of water.  Woo hoo! 

I completed my second week of school.  Last Monday and Tuesday we had Open Enrollment.  We had over 100 kids grace our doors, probably close to 120.  About 50 didn't come with either their proof of residency or immunization records, or they were sent back to get needed immunizations.  These kids won't be processed until we have the proper records, all others I managed to process and enroll Wednesday and Thursday!  I've never typed so fast in all my life.

Last year I acquired over 50 hours of comp-time processing folders.  Granted I was new to the district and learning a new system.  This year so far I only have 2.75 hours so far.  That's awesome since it's really hard to take a huge chunk of comp-time.  I'm feeling really good about this. :)
 
Warning to those that don't like foodie posts, this is about to become one:   I thought I'd show you what I do every Sunday after lunch.

Breakfast Biscuits - Back off Ronald McDonald and take your friend Hardee with you!

I guess it was during the summer that I decided I'd start making breakfast biscuits for the hubby.  After 33 years of marriage, he'd decided that he really should eat breakfast.  I think I read something to him about people who eat breakfast are less likely to have trouble loosing weight.  Something like that...  Yeah he could drive through, but that starts adding up over time.  I can make them for mere pennies.

I picked up this awesome pan at a hardware store.  I'd been making the biscuits in a 9X9 pan but they weren't coming out round even though I used a round cutter and the empty corners ended up in Hubby's lap on his drive to work.  That whole square peg in a round hole thing was going on.  I was also using 3 tiny 3inch iron skillets to cook the eggs.   It was a bit of a time consuming endeavor, but hey, I've got plenty of time.  With this new pan, my biscuit assembly line takes about 40-45 minutes, the biscuits take 30 of that.

It's a Lodge Biscuit Pan - check Amazon

Biscuits are cooled and opened. Add Canadian Bacon

Cook those eggs in the pan too!  Wash it first.

Add more bacon for Bacon Bacon Biscuits

Flip those eggs after the salt and pepper. Did you notice I broke the yolks?

Add the eggs on top of the bacons.

Cheese 'em up!

Put their hats on and wrap them in paper towel.

 I let them cool down after I wrap them.  That way they don't sweat in the bag that they go into the fridge in.  It's the sweat that makes them go soggy.  In the morning Hubby just pops one in the microwave for a 1.5 minutes and out the door he goes. 

I'm loving this pan!  Just think.... corn bread, tiny little pineapple upside down cakes, chocolate lava cakes!!  And when we have a breakfast for dinner night, no egg cooking in shifts!!!  I'm so excited.  Maybe I'll try pancakes!

Have a great week!  Don't skip breakfast.... it's the most important meal of the day.

Making yogurt, it's really easy!

I'll go ahead and post this because Nita is coming Thursday and we'll be busy... shopping, cooking, the movies and going for facials and massages.  Oh and don't forget the wine drinking!!

Nita getting home from the clinic the last time I was at her house.

I've been making yogurt for almost a year now.  I just got tired of paying so much for the Greek yogurt that I absolutely love.  Did you know all you have to do to make greek yogurt is to strain the whey out of regular yogurt.

I started researching how to make yogurt on the internet and found lots of different methods.  I didn't want one of those plug-in kind of yogurt makers and found the Easiyo Yogurt Maker.  I found mine on Ebay, but they also have them on Amazon.  It's like a big thermos and really easy to use. 

Here's how I make yogurt in the Easiyo maker.  You'll need to buy 1 container of yogurt with LIVE cultures, it'll say so on the container any brand will work.  You'll also need some powdered milk (this just makes the yogurt thicker and richer.)

You'll need a thermometer so you don't over or under heat the milk.

I don't use the plastic container that came with the set. I use a quart Mason jar.  That's my 'starter' yogurt in that little jar.

 I have this phobia about putting hot things in plastic containers or putting plastic containers into hot water or mixing plastic with heat.  I use plastic, I just don't like it around my food. So if you want a couple of Easiyo containers let me know and I'll send them to you.

Once the milk reaches 185F remove it from the heat.  Now's the hard part, waiting until it cools down to 110F.  If you add the hot milk to your 'starter' you'll kill it, so you have to wait.  Or you can set your double boiler pan in a bowl of ice water to bring the temp down.  Just don't get any water in your milk.

Once the temp is down to 110F you can begin ladling some milk into the jar.  To this milk add 1/4 cup of powdered milk and mix it well.  Then begin adding more milk, mixing well with the powdered milk mixture after each addition.  When you get the jar half full add the 'starter' yogurt, about 2 tablespoons and mix well.  Add the remainder of the milk and stir.  I use a little whisk to do this.

With the Easiyo you'll need boiling water too.  You fill the container with boiling water up to the designated area, place the jar in and put the lid on the container.

I just put the canning lid on the jar with the ring and set it down into the hot water in the Easiyo container. Put the container lid on and let it set for 12 to 24 hours.

It's sitting.

 Recently my yogurt hasn't been setting up in 12 hours like it was in the winter.  Maybe it's because our house is cooler Jody likes it cold... we could hang beef in here now that it's summer.  I'll explain how I took care of that below. 

After the yogurt is set I remove the Mason jar from the Easiyo container and put jar in the fridge.  I usually leave it in the fridge for 12 hours.  Then I strain it, this makes it Greek yogurt.  Before I strain it I'll scoop out 2 tablespoons to use as my starter the next time I make yogurt.

I pour the yogurt out of the jar into a mesh strainer that is lined with a clean flour sack dish towel set over a large bowl.  It's already pretty thick, but I like it even thicker.

I let the yogurt drain for 4 to 8 hours in the fridge, the longer it drains the thicker is will become.  The small jar contains my 2+ tablespoons of 'starter' for my next batch.  I save this liquid (whey) and add it to my juice and smoothies for added protein.

If you strain the yogurt for longer than 12 hours it becomes Yogurt Cheese.  It's a lot like cream cheese! It's great on bagels with guava jelly.

 Now for the part where I tell you that you don't need the Easiyo!  A few weeks ago my yogurt didn't set after 12 hours.  (I just poured the water in the container out and put in more boiling water and let it set another 12 hours.)  But I was worried.   Internet to the rescue!! 

There were a couple of methods, so I tried two of them the next time I made yogurt.   One method was the oven method, the other was the heating pad method.

First the oven method.  I made my yogurt as usual, only I made a double batch.   I added 3 tablespoons of 'starter' and 1/2 cup of powdered milk,  1/2 went into my jar that I placed in my cold oven.  I turned the light on and begged Jody not to turn the light off.   The next morning....  YOGURT!  That easy!  That's pretty amazing that the tiny oven light makes that much heat.

But back up a bit,  in the other half of the batch I added Lemon Essential Oil!  I hear you... "no way!"  Yes whey! If your Essential Oil is food grade you can add any scent/flavor to food.  I say any, but I mean the food oils, I don't think I'd use cedar, tea tree or sandalwood.  I'm thinking lemon lavender next time.

In some little jars I put a tablespoon of honey, then I added the lemon flavored yogurt to the jars.  I put the lids on them and set them on a thick crocheted dish drainer that was set on a heating pad on top of a wood cutting board. 

These little jars hold a surprising amount of yogurt.

Cutting board, heating pad on low, dish drainer or you could use a doubled dish towel.  I didn't want the heating pad directly on my counter top.

 Once all the lids were on the jars I placed a bath towel over the top of them that I had folded in half and in half again.  I wanted to hold that heat in.

Viola!  Thick yogurt in the morning!

It was REALLY yummy!

I've been eating the lemon-honey yogurt with frozen blueberries or peaches.

I know this process seems time consuming, but it's really easy and if you like yogurt as much as I do, but hate waiting for those sales, you should try this.  Canning jars are cheep right now with it being 'the season'.

Y'all have a good weekend. 

Shhhhh, listen to the silence.

It's no wonder that I walk in every afternoon and just zone out on the couch in the quiet.  My day starts with people chattering/asking for this and that and phones ringing, kids crying/screaming/kicking/throwing things, text messages and cell phones ringing.  It's not unusual for me to be wearing a headset that connects me to the phone in my office while I'm sitting at the receptionist's desk out front talking on her phone while taking a text or cell call.  It's something NOISY all day long.  (I come home for lunch just to get a 20 minute break, thank goodness we're only 2 blocks away.)  So if I never call you or rarely talk to you on the phone, please don't get your feelers hurt....  I just go into a sort of trance once the buzz of quietness hits me when I walk in the door.

This week was a bit different.  If you follow Jolea on FB then you know she set out from Key West on the 5th headed North and then West.  She was traveling with a friend of a friend to Sedona, AZ.  Taking a few months off from the island life during hurricane season and getting some much needed quiet after living above a bar for over a year.  They were not in a real hurry as they couldn't get into the house they'd be staying in until the 15th, so Jolea, being the little social butterfly that she is, found them places to stay for the night with friends along the way.  Destin, New Orleans, Houston (at Nita's where they spent a few nights eating well) and then up to our house (eating well again.)

As with every visit from Jolea it's a whirlwind of activity.  I took a day off from work to spend time with her you never know when she'll get back home, and do some shopping.  D, her traveling companion had never been to Texas and like many a traveler from the northeast, wanted to shop for REAL cowboy boots, hats, belts and buckles, etc.  I don't think he was prepared for the boots in Texas to be priced in the $500 range.  He did find a pair of boots, a hat and shirt in his price range, but after seeing the buckles in the case with a $1K price tag, he put the belt on hold.

We stopped by the Oil and Vinegar store on the way home, which turned out to impress him more than the western wear store.  D is a Master Chef.  Good thing we didn't stop here first or he'd blown his boot budget.  We headed home to make some lunch and glean some wisdom from having a Master Chef in my kitchen.

Jolea had her heart set on a fried ham sandwich with a side of pickles and a Dr Pepper.

And don't forget to top it off with a couple of Double Stuff Oreos.  This meal was a standard if Jody had to prepare lunch for the kids when they were little.


That kind of lunch didn't appeal to me and never does, but what did appeal to me was to watch D open the fridge and cupboards and start grabbing this and that and throwing things together to make a meal.  Oh I would LOVE to be able to do that!

So here's what he found and created....

First he fried up some prosciutto and set that aside.

 Then he rough chopped some pistachios and toasted those in a pan on the stove and set them aside.  He also thinly sliced a tomato.

 He lightly grilled a couple of pieces of Naan bread and drizzled a little olive oil over them.  Then he placed the tomatoes on the bread and chopped some chives and baby spinach, and maybe some basil I think.

 He then placed the bread, one in a iron skillet and the other on an iron griddle, he loaded them up with the spinach, chives and basil and tossed on some Mexican Queso Fresco cheese!

Just a quick broil to melt the cheese and finished them off with the pistachios, crumbled prosciutto and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.  OMG, I can make this!!!!

Then later that night he made some grilled zucchini/goat cheese rolls and we cooked tenderloins out on the grill he realized that YES everything is bigger in Texas when he saw the size of our tenderloin steaks. What???  Everyone doesn't get tenderloins the size of my hand?  But the grand finale was grilled white peaches with a light grating of Parmesan cheese and a drizzle of CHOCOLATE balsamic vinegar from the Oil and Vinegar Store.  I can make this too!   

 And Jody made this.... yeah, it's an Ant Farm.  He always wanted to make one.

And he made this... yeah, he always wanted to make an aquarium too.  We have two cute fish in it and they love the bubble thing that launches bubbles from the rocks.  "Ohhhh burbles! Ah lurv burbles!"


Jolea and D left Wednesday morning heading to the ranch thank goodness I was getting lazy having D doing all the cooking.  Gracie was relieved too, she's very shy around people and D's little dog Daisy was messing with her calm. 

They spent a couple of day's out at the ranch visiting with Michael and Andee (Di was in California or she and D would have had a cooking fest.)  Jolea said D's camera was in overdrive taking pics of all the 'ranch' scenery.  I bet those longhorns blew his mind.  They even took him to a real Texas Honkytonk.

Jolea texted me last night around 10 AZ time that they had made it to Sedona.  I'm excited for her to see the place in the light of day.  I love that, driving into an area in the dark and then when you get up the next morning it's like Christmas!  Although she missed out on seeing some beautiful scenery driving through western NM and eastern AZ after the sun went down.  Oh well, maybe Kev will take her sight-seeing.

Now.... shall I watch a movie we have or go rent something new....  or just veg out with my knitting listening to the aquarium bubbler?  

We're tired!

Woo Hoo Summer is here!

I'm a day late for that statement.  Yesterday was officially my first day of summer vakay.  I was just too busy to post.

Had my whole day lined out, starting with YIP Yoga in the Park, but the Thunderstorms were building and banging all around us, so common sense won out.  A person would be a fool to go stand in a park in 'down dog' in a thunderstorm especially next to a huge cottonwood tree.  We've been hammered with thunderstorms lately, lots of hail and high winds too.  Some of you may have even seen the news footage a few nights ago presented by Diane Sawyers they are so amazed at golf ball and baseball sized hail stones.  Lucky for us, we haven't had hail, only wind.  As I write this, I can hear roofers a few blocks over replacing a roof on a home.  Double lucky for us, our roof hasn't been blown apart like many of our neighbors.  We had shingles from the house next door in our yard this week. 

So back to yesterday.  A few weeks ago I was reading one of the blogs that I follow and she had posted that she made a sort of sorbet using only papaya and coconut milk.  It was so pretty and yummy looking, I thought that I'd give it a try.

Wednesday night, I cleaned a small papaya, and since I don't have a large blender only a small smoothie type I put the papaya in the food processor and processed it until smooth and then added it to the coconut milk that I had tried to whip into a whipped cream consistency in my big Kitchenaide mixer.

I had seen on Pinterest aka the crack website that you could quickly and easily whip coconut milk into a whipped topping.  LIARS!  Maybe if you have 24 hours to do it.  But I didn't so I just dumped the papaya in after about 10 minuets and gave it a whirl to get it all incorporated.  After a little taste, I decided that I had to make an adjustment.

I don't care for fresh papaya.  I read recipe after recipe where they make it seem like papaya is a fruit from heaven.  But every time I have it in something where it's taste is predominate all I can taste and smell is BURP!  A really bad BURP!   So I added a mango.  That helped immensely.  One other thing... my 'sorbet' was not the beautiful neon orange/pink color that M's was in her blog.  It was a very washed out peach color.  I wasn't about to add food coloring so it is what it is.

I poured this mixture into a glass dish and covered it and placed it in the freezer.  I had all intentions of giving it several stirs with a fork during the evening.  At 2:30 Thursday morning I woke up and probably said out loud "Oh CRAPS! my mom's favorite saying I forgot to stir my sorbet!"  That's right, not one single stir after I put it in the freezer.  Oh well...

When I got up the next morning I just moved it from the freezer to the fridge and left for work.  Later that evening I still had to chisel it out of the dish to put it back in the food processor, it had barely thawed.  I gave it a helluva work out in the food processor, making it really smooth and sorbet like.  I also added two maybe three tablespoons of Cream de Coco.  Oh my gosh! This was going to be SO good no burpy taste here.  I transferred it into another container and stuck it back in the freezer.

So Friday morning this is what I had.... the creamiest, yummiest sorbet.  Yeah, I had it for breakfast!!!   I whipped the left over Cream de Coco a little in the blender that's what will turn into a whipped topping.  The Cream de Coco made a really nice sauce.  The only thing I would possibly add is maybe some mini-chocolate chips!

The rest of my day was filled with

•  hair cut
• shopping for cat food and cat litter what I like to call In and Out for the cat  
• shopping for me that I didn't need to do, but too cute to pass up on
• brief visit with Jeff as he was grabbing a fishing pole and looking for a folding chair in the garage, trying to get him to go to a Doctor because his left arm looks like a Popeye arm, he pulled a muscle last week and it was fine until today.  He didn't have time to go to no doctor, he was headed to Arkansas to go fishing, was I crazy?
• a nap 
• happy hour with some of the girls from work
• picked up some dinner for Jody we got one of everything on the appetizer menu at HH.  
• the regular Friday night phone chat with Nita over a couple of glasses of wine.  

This morning I had a long chat with Di over plans for my visit to the ranch. 

I think I'm off to a good start...

Time for breakfast!  What did I do with those mini-chips?
Hmmm, this may even turn out well blended with some rum later this evening!

We don't say Happy New Year....

... I wonder if we should?

When you work in the Education Field you mark time by when the school year starts and ends not by the regular January to December calendar. So this past week was the first week of the year for me and for many. It was a VERY good week too. This may sound funny to some but what made it so nice was that Lourdes and I were at work by 8:00 (which normally we are there much earlier), we didn't turn the phones on (that didn't stop it from ringing constantly, we just didn't have to answer it), and we kept the doors locked (no enrollments, tee hee!) Think about it... if you could go to work without the outside distractions wouldn't your job be so much less hectic? I know it would be a little hard to do if you were waiting tables or you relied on the public to kick start everything in the morning. Well come to think of it I guess I do rely on the public to kick start us, but at least this week I got to gear up for them, they'll be knocking the doors down in a few more weeks. And by Friday we were enrolling new student's at the rate of one per hour, that will pick up the closer we get to the actual First Day of School.

One of the things I do at work may fall under the category of Event Planning/Catering. I have 4 events to work in the 3 weeks before the actual First Day of School. Five if you want to count making sure an outside group who is meeting at our school has coffee for their meeting (just one more thing to poke into a crevice of my fully packed brain.) I hope I don't forget them.

The first of these meetings was Friday morning, I needed to have Breakfast and lunch for 12. They were meeting at the school. All I needed was food, the Administrators pretty much did all the set up for me. I catered the lunch, which was 4 different salads from a local (fancy schmancy) grocery store that I just needed to pick up. I couldn't make up my mind on what to get them for Breakfast so I decided to just buy ingredients and make it myself... it's just 12 people, it's not like feeding an army. I like to have a variety of things, I don't want anyone to say "Yeah we had that last Tuesday too..."
I just cut up some fruit, made a couple of loaves of Amish Friendship Bread (no picture of the bread, use your imagination...)

and a Sausage and Egg Casserole. How simple is that? I really need an oven in my office so I can serve this when it comes out and is all puffy like a souffle. It's so pretty then. I learned that I'm never going to use bananas again, you just can't keep them from turning brown, and I need to experiment with the bread.... I think it needs more flour. I'll be using the office staff as guinea pigs in the future.

I made a Spring Fruit Charlotte for their dessert. I need a new oven at home too. Ours has a mind of it's own and I'm not going to list all the things that are wrong with it. It's ridiculous. Baking makes me angry these days, because I can't do it to my liking. Jody would say I'm giving it bad vibes but as long as it acts like a ceramics kiln, it's going to get some vibes from me.

I had to take this Charlotte out almost 20 minutes before it was due to be finished because it was starting to burn on top! See where that little drip is on the bottom right of the dish? See that pie shaped untoasted part? That's where I took the kitchen shears and cut the burned edge off! I went all around it and trimmed the burnt, or should I say overly toasted parts. Gggrrrrrr! Then I did a Julia Child repair..... I snowed on it! I covered it with powdered sugar. It was beautiful. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it before I served it at school. (Lourdes informed me that the oven in the lounge at school isn't any better than what I have at home and she also said Kat Corra scrapes burned toast on Iron Chefs.) This is another one that should have been baked at school and served warm with vanilla ice cream but we used whipped cream. They liked it! And Cristie told me I can't go into the catering business with Nita and Di just yet I still have work to do at school, catering work. But I do like cooking for people, so maybe someday.

One down 3 to go! Have a good week!

West Texas Pictures part 2.

The backyard at my brother's house. Looking sort of Southeast.

And looking South... see that rise in the center of the picture? That's a huge mesa, Jeff rode his little pit bike all the way over there one day and then called me. I got the binocs and spotted him on the ridge.

Di in the garden. She's very proud of her produce.

As with every first garden, there's always an abundance of something... this year it's squash. We ate squash at almost every meal.

Momma and baby Longhorns were everywhere.

more babies.

They don't even move when you drive up to them.

And if you get too close to the babies they will come after you. I later learned this is the meanest one.

From across the tank.

First catch of the day.

Later Michael and Jeff worked on getting the TV out on the patio.

BEEE-utiful!

So peaceful!

Some may think it's odd to have such fire-power strapped to the dashboard of your jeep. We don't. There was also a rifle mounted just above the sunvisors.

Nice fish! (sorry it's blurry, I was watching for cows.)

That fish broke his $16 fishing pole......

Michael went out to try to get the herd to come up closer...

...and they did, this bull's name is Brisket. I wonder if they have plans for him later on?

Michael and I left the fishermen and went back to the house to prepare breakfast ...

Di was on the phone setting up her next commercial, she produces commercials. I think this one involves Tiger Woods and some sheep.

Voila' breakfast taco, with guacamole, salsa and sour cream and some bacon. YUM!

See they do have some bigger trees on the ranch, it's not all mesquites.

This area is set up for campfires and picnics, with benches and tables, there is a creek just behind those bushes behind Jeff.

Key West may brag about their sunsets, but I think we have something to brag about too.

The next morning Nita and I spotted these two Vinagaroons on a stroll around the outside of the yard.

Wildflowers

There they go again.... off to the tank to fish.

Look! A baby deer! It's at the edge of the water on the right side of the pond.

Michael's house.

This is the 'red' house, where we stayed. It was once a hunting lodge.

Yes, that's a Bobcat. It's a pet of one of Michael's friends. It started storming shortly after this picture was made and put a huge damper on our trip to the lake to watch the Fourth of July Fireworks.

Sunday morning and someone was telling us it was time to go home.... still pouring down raining. I was sitting in the courtyard of the 'red' house looking toward the screened BBQ room.

The Barn Swallows didn't like me being there, but after they figured out that I was going to sit still, they began zooming in and out all around my head. They have the navigation skills of a bat.

Here are some pictures of the inside of the 'red' house. From the kitchen door looking into the dining room with the living room beyond.

Looking from the dining room into the living room.

Another angle of the living room. This house is like a museum. There are thousands of things to look at in here.












Looking back toward the dining room and bar.















Looking into the kitchen from the dining room. That stove was awesome! There are two commercial size refrigerators on the left side of this room. They would put on yearly company parties at this house. They are set up to accommodate around 100 people for a party.








And one last picture for the Meerkat Crew.

That's what I did on my summer vacation. Going to a place like this, sure makes a trip to West Texas worth going.

THANKS Michael and Di for having us at your house for the weekend.