How about this weather?

It's 70+ out here this morning!  No wonder the AC is cranking.  We had a fire in the fireplace Friday night.  Yeah, we are still in Texas.

Speaking of Texas, you know how we not me are about football here... well our High School had been #1 in the state last year, maybe even the year before, I don't keep up with it sometimes it's just shoved down my throat and I have to choke on it.  Well, they were in the playoffs yesterday and lost, boo who gives a shit hoo.

Evidently not our wayward daughter either.  I'd included one of those little red stretchy support bracelets that had the name of the team on it in Jolea's care package last week.  The color guard was selling them and since my co-worker's daughter is in the color guard and I had a dollar....  there goes my coffee and Blurberry bag, lol you know what I'm talking about.

Jolea had gotten her care package last Wednesday and she had been wearing the bracelet.  Last night I texted her to tell her that they'd lost their playoff game at Cowboy's stadium and she texted back "I just threw that bracelet across the bar LOL!" 

Oh my gosh,  that was the funniest response to a text I think I've gotten in a long time, well at least a week. 

Let's see... what else is going on....

This stuff turned out hard as a flipping rock.  If you make it be sure to eat it all as soon as you get it out of the oven.  It's like a biscotti!

I'm making Jeff a cap with the leftover yarn from Di's chemo cap. My $3K eyes are going to burst!

My herbs are going wild!!!!

I need to sweep the leaves off the porch or either make a sign that reads "Beware of snakes in these leaves" to keep the door-to-door solicitors away.  Maybe they'll think the bigger the pile, the bigger the snake.  It amazes me the amount of door-to-door sales we get in the hood.  I guess they think we don't have internet. 

That reminds me, Gracie took a snake into the house about an hour ago and I never saw her bring it back out.... I guess Jody hasn't found it, I haven't heard any little girl screaming.

We like some chocolatey treats around here.

I made this today.  I'd put the last piece of Chocolate Sheet cake in Jody's lunch this morning.

This recipe looked way to simple and was only supposed to take about 20 or 30 minutes to whip up.

The butter melting took almost as long as the baking.

Sort of just a dump and stir process.

dump and stir,

dump and stir,

 and stir,  mine doesn't look anything like the other blog's pictures.  Why is that?

What kind of fancy schmancy photography set up do those food bloggers have?

Yeah I have a budget Kodak crap camera, yeah I don't know anything about taking pictures and the aperture or any of that other technical photo jargon.  But I do know how to do chocolate.   I sure hope Jody likes this.

Is it boring here or is it just me?

I was catching up on some blogs Friday evening, Jody was working late.  As I was reading the Barefoot Kitchen Witch's post for that day. After reading what they were up to I thought that it would be so fun to do something like that.

The witch family is so cool.  They do the neatest things with the kids. They have the greenest thumbs too, HUGE garden, and Jayne is always cooking something, bread, cheese, 47 dozen cookies, cakes that are works of art.  I wish she could be my next door neighbor I'd be fat as a hog.

So I fired up the wood burning stove.

I knew I'd have to heat the little skillet for quiet awhile in order to cook something.  We keep the red pot on the stove top with water in it to add moisture to the house.

This was going to take a lot longer than my Rachel Ray record breaking 20 minute meal.

Actually, Jody called and said he was on his way home an hour and a half had already past so I zipped up to Dairy Queen and got us some burgers. 

 Oh well, I tried it again Saturday morning.  Jody was about to leave for work and he stoked the fire up for me and gave me the pirate look when I said that I was going to cook something on the stove. 

 Here we go!

 Not hot enough :(  That egg white should have turned the instant that it hit the pan.

Back to technology.  You have got to have plenty of time to cook on a fire or fire place.

 Within minutes... it's done!

Speaking of done... one sleeve done the second started today.  It's been a good knitting weekend.

I did toss a piece of bread with a slice of cheese on the stove to see what would happen.  I forgot about it....  started cleaning house and found it later in the day, cold and dry, the cheese had melted a bit but dried out after the fire died out.

Y'all go check out all the yummy stuff that Jayne and her family create.

The Craving

(Duder, it's a food post. You've been warned.)

While I was visiting Jolea in Key West last month, she took me to an eating establishment called Sweet Teas.  The menu there consisted of a lot of Home Style standards like Turkey and Dressing, Pot Pie of the Day and Meatloaf to name a few... I was aiming for the Pot Pie, but I didn't get past the meatloaf.  I'm sure they have other yummy stuff too.  They also serve a whole assortment of side dishes to go along with the yummy entries.  Jolea and I chose the meatloaf like I said, I'm wishing I'd had the chance to try the Pot Pie.  I can only remember a couple of things we choose for the sides, mashed sweet potatoes and mac and cheese.  Come to think of it these were Jolea's choices.... I don't even remember my choices, they were different from hers so that we could share.  I do know that I was surprised that she ate sweet potatoes. My kids were always such picky eaters growing up.  She also said that their mac and cheese wasn't as good as mine she always says that, said it about Paula Deen's too.  I don't know why she bothers ordering it.

We were given the chance to try something that I'd never tasted no matter how many times my Daddy offered from across the table every time my Momma cooked them for him.... Collard Greens.  Daddy love them, no one else would dare eat them.  Well that night in Key West the bartender brought out a bowl for us to try yeah, Jolea tried them too.  All I can say is OMG!  They were unbelievable.  They were something that I am kicking myself for never trying and missing out all those years of enjoying them.

So, once I get home all I can think about is Collard Greens.  I have to learn to cook them.  I find a recipe online... allrecipes.com.  I also called my friend Deanna.  She laughs at me as she tells me how her family prepares them.  In her words "you people don't eat this kind of food." Well this people does! Jody says it's my backwater Oklahoma roots showing.

Yesterday I decided that I'd cook Collards as dad would call them, I promised Jody that the house wouldn't smell when he got home.

 I washed them and removed the center vein as directed.

I removed the meat from a smoked turkey leg and chopped it up like Deanna had told me to do.  I used this in place of the ham hock that the All Recipes recipe suggested.  I was a little leery of the whole hock thing.

I put in one container of chicken stock tossed in the cleaned washed 3 times greens, salt pepper, a little Paula Deen House Seasoning since I bashed her mac and cheese, and what looked like enough pieces of pecans to equal one whole pecan.  The All Recipes comments had said this would take the stink out of them.  It was worth a try.

 On goes the lid of the trusty pressure cooker....

 And now a word from our sponsor...  Tamales, it's what's for lunch when you can't wait on the Collards.  And a big ole glass of Agua de Sandia.....

Thirty minutes later we have "a mess of collards."  They aren't very pretty but they sure were good over cornbread I waited and had them for dinner.  Jody said the house didn't even smell bad, it smelled like I was cooking pinto beans.  I guess that pecan did the trick.

 Let me get that not so nice picture of Collards out of your brain with this lovely picture of some Mochi.  Aren't they pretty?  I guess I could have had them for dessert and called it Eating Multicultural.

It's gonna be another hot one today!  84F at 5:45AM!  We did get a few sprinkles this morning, so I started the sprinkler in the back yard, sort of a challenge to those clouds.  They wimped out as usual and turned the humidity up.

Oh well...