Category: MISC

Camera Critters ~ Sady the beggar

Who can resist critters? Come join us and have some fun.
You can get more information at Camera Critters.

This is Sady. She’s 10 years old. Her momma must have met with an ill fate as I found her and her 2 sisters abandoned behind my garage in 1998. They were only a couple of weeks old. I raised the 3 of them with baby bottles and mush food. Sady grew on me and begged to stay. I found great homes for her sisters and she settled in to our household like she’d always been there. After all she’d been hand fed so she expected to continue to be!

Forgive our subfloor for showing, but we haven’t done these floors yet. Sady truly believes she’s entitled to people food and hubby indulges her every whim. He’s taught her to sit up for her treat.


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Scrumptious Sunday ~ Picnic Edition ~ Fried Chicken

What is a picnic without fried chicken?

12 pieces of chicken
1/2 cup kosher salt
1 1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons buttermilk powder
2 sticks butter
salt and pepper to taste

  • In a large bowl combine salt and warm water to cover the chicken pieces.
  • Soak for 1 hour.
  • In a large cast iron pan melt one stick of butter.
  • Drain chicken pieces and pat dry.
  • In a large Ziploc bag combine the flour and buttermilk powder.
  • Dredge chicken pieces in the flour mixture, shaking off the excess.
  • When butter is melted and hot arrange chicken pieces to fit into the pan.
  • Salt and pepper to taste.
  • DO NOT turn chicken pieces until you see blood.
  • Salt and pepper to taste on the second side.
  • Cook until golden on both sides and you cannot see any blood.
I do the memes: Menu Plan Monday hosted by Laura at I’m an Organizing Junkie, Favorite Ingredient Friday hosted by Kathryn at Overwhelmed with Joy, Freezer Food Friday hosted by MJ at mjpuzzlemom, Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks, Tasty Thursday hosted by Pumpkin Patch, Watchin’ What We Eat hosted by Lorie at Honey I Shrank Myself and Slow Cooking Thursday hosted by Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. Doing them all make great additions to help keeping me on track and finding so new recipes!

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Front Doors & Decorations

Barbara over at Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers
is taking a poll about decorating and also wants to know
if you would share pictures of your front entrance?

This old house has a pretty interesting front entrance and story to go with it. We have a single set of stairs, but 2, count them, 2 front doors. The house which was originally built in 1892 with a single front door was purchased by a single woman during WWII. She proceeded to add a second front door and turned the upstairs into a separate apartment which she rented out until 1983 when she was forced to sell the home due to her failing health. In the spring I decorate with flowers baskets and wreaths.

We personally are not crazy about the colors of the house, but have had more pressing matters to deal with since purchasing it. We would like to change it to the colors in the photo above which is close enough to our house to give you a good idea of how it will look except that the hopefully by then large single front door will be all brick red and not multi colored.

Barbara also did a recent post about red front doors. I personally find a red door striking! It really shows off the house. While we are not going fire engine red we are thinking about the brick red in the above picture.

This was during our 1st snow last October. If you look close you will see my fall pumpkins on the railing. The picture below was the day we started the Christmas decorating.

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Anatomy of a Linen Closet

This is house is so old (1892) that linen closets per se sis not yet exist which was driving me nuts! I was forced to use bedroom drawers and cubby holes to store towels and sheets. We used the oak cabinets from Home Depot and stained them ourselves which brought the cost to a minimum. We had just enough space in the upstairs hallway to create a linen closet.
First we had to literally pry off the old base board, the only one in the house that was actually attached well.

We used the 36″ wide cabinets and created a different look by starting with a 12 ” tall on the bottom followed by a 30″ tall and topped with another 12″. Hubby then built me a matching finished top.

We stained them in a golden oak. We also had to build new baseboard pieces, but they will eventually get painted the same color as the walls.

The pictures are a little sideways, but the cabinet is level and flush! Here we are all finished, stained, loaded and now have lots of empty drawers in the bedrooms ~ YAY!

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Aloha Friday

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day they take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would participate and take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link at An Island Life. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

Today’s question is:
What summer home improvement projects do you have in progress?



Friday Fill-ins

You can find the Friday Fill-Ins here!

1. I believe whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, at least that’s what grandma always said.

2. If you’re good at something, do it forever.

3. Why so sad?

4. Something is out there, it’s lurking behind the storm clouds.

5. If my life were a sitcom, it would be titled 48 Hour Days.

6. Sitting on my back porch [if you don’t have one, use your imagination] I see storm clouds and tree limbs in the light of the full moon.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to a movie and popcorn, tomorrow my plans include breakfast with hubby and taking Whiskey to the groomers and Sunday, I‘ll be going to church and brunch and then quilting!

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Oven Poached Eggs for Sunday Brunch

OVEN POACHED EGGS

2 Jumbo eggs per person
1 tablespoon butter per person
2 slices bacon per person
grated cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Cook bacon until crisp.
  • Melt butter and coat entire inside of ramekin or muffin tin.
  • Break 1 egg (try not to break the yolk) in each ramekin or muffin slot.
  • salt and pepper.
  • Bake 8-10 minutes or until just set.
  • Top each egg with a slice of crumbled bacon and then grated cheddar cheese.
  • Bake another 3 minutes.
  • Serve with chilled juice and toast.

I use oven safe ramekins at home, but when we’re camping I use a cupcake tin.
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NEED to KNEAD

We all have some favorite family bread recipes tucked away.
I know that at certain times I have the NEED TO KNEAD, primarily during the holidays or from October through April.
The rest of the time my Bread Machine Rules.
I thought we could all come together to give us a day of daily bread recipes.
And I mean all breads! White, wheat, banana, braided, etc…
whatever you’re in the mood to share.
Ironically National bread month is November at the beginning of our holiday baking crunch
so why don’t we share the recipes on October 15th to help us get ready?


Just post your recipes anytime until Oct 15, 2008, come back here on October 15th to link to it so that we may all visit you. You can even link to recipes you have previously posted. Add this button to your participating posts and link to this blog. Your blog can be in any language, but a translator on your site will help any who don’t speak the same language.

Bread History According to National Bread Month:

..”It was only after the Pilgrims came to America that baking bread in private homes became the norm. Our ancient forbearers baked bread in communal ovens. These ovens were built on the out skirts of villages, near water due to the extreme fire hazards of the early brick ovens. Later in Europe, after the Romans taught the indigenous peoples about bread making, bread was still baked in large ovens. Except these ovens were not communal ovens they were owned, as was the mill, by the local lord. This made families dependant on the lord for their daily bread. By the Middle Ages baking guilds controlled who and how bread were baked and sold. These organizations limited the number of bakers and bakeries in each village and that meant even impoverished peasants had to purchase bread.

When the first colonists came to North America they demanded the right to be in control of their daily bread. Households at last could bake bread at home. Even commoners were in control of their daily bread….”

Resource LinkCelebrate National Bread Month with crusty water rolls: recipe

Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods, dating back to the Neolithic era. The first breads produced were probably cooked versions of a grain-paste, made from ground cereal grains and water, and may have been developed by accidental cooking or deliberate experimentation with water and grain flour. Descendants of these early breads are still commonly made from various grains worldwide, including the Mexican tortilla, Indian chapatis, rotis and naans, Scottish oatcake, North American johnnycake, Middle Eastern Pita bread (Kmaj in Arabic and Pitot in Hebrew) and Ethiopian injera. The basic flat breads of this type also formed a staple in the diet of many early civilizations with the Sumerians eating a type of barley flat cake, and the 12th century BC Egyptians being able to purchase a flat bread called ta from stalls in the village streets. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread