When life gives you green tomatoes........................

.............you make Green Tomato Bread! Yep - I know - sounds odd - almost disgusting!  My BFF Marla brought it over a couple weeks ago and I turned my nose up and said - no thanks!  Finally, sweet Marla convinced me to try it and I ended up eating 3 slices. 

Since our poor tomato plants have not seen near enough sunshine this summer (likewise for myself!), we happen to have a LOT of green tomatoes.  Yes, we've had some wonderful red ones too, sweet and juicy - but the greens have won out!

GREEN TOMATO BREAD

 3 c. flour

2 c. sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

2 eggs, beaten

1 c. oil

1 tsp. vanilla

2 c. finely chopped green tomatoes

1 1/2 c. chopped pecans

In a large mixing bowl stir together flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and baking powder and set aside.  In another bowl combine eggs, oil, vanilla, green tomatoes and pecans.  Add egg mixture all at once to dry mixture.  Stir just until moistened.  Batter will be thick, and lumps will remain.  Pour batter into 2 greased 8x4 loaf pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. 

It's fabulous with a caramel macchiato!  

This is one of those recipes that you're better off not knowing the name before you try it.  But, go ahead, you're brave, and besides - have I ever led you astray!!  Thanks Marla - you were right - it's AWESOME!! :-)

We're all crabby!

After a good day of crabbin', the best thing to do is to sit right down with great friends and get crackin'!
 First the men clean up and boil the crab.  Of course my husband has built a handy processing station.................only my husband!! :-)

 After a while of fun, laughter, and flicking crab juice on each other - voila' -a bowl full of crab meat!  Randy then pulls out his vacuum sealer, and we bag it up and freeze it.  Now it's all ready to be pulled out and turned into crab cakes, etc.!  YUM!

Crab season is over, but we have plenty to last a while!

Blueberry Cream Muffins

I'm always looking for a new way to use blueberries and I ran across this recipe and decided to give it a try.  I mean after all, it has cream cheese in it - how could it not be good?!?!

 

BLUEBERRY CREAM MUFFINS

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 2 cups fresh blueberries or frozen blueberries*
• FILLING:
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup sugar
• Dash salt

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat the eggs, milk and butter; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in the blueberries. Spoon about 2 round tablespoonfuls into greased muffin cups.
2. In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, egg, sugar and salt; place about 1 tablespoon in the center of each muffin cup (do not spread). Top with remaining batter. Bake at 375 degrees F for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in muffin comes out clean. cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. 
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5. I can't get rid of these number bullets now, so bear with me!
7. They were wonderful!  I loved them heated up the next day.  They were great to share with friends and I've made them twice now!  Definitely a keeper!

Grilled Cheese, BLT, Burger please

Yes, you read right!    This is the dinner our friends decided that Randy needed for his birthday dinner.

GRILLED CHEESE - BLT - BURGER

You start by making grilled cheese sandwiches - yes, 4 pieces of bread per burger, 2 grilled cheese sandwiches per burger - it's the bun replacement!  You grill the sandwiches and then you press down to squish them a bit.

Then you take bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, and top them off with a fabulous burger that's made of hamburger and sausage.

We had spent the beginning of the evening snacking on chips and pico de gallo fresh from the garden.............................

...............so needless to say I was already feeling a bit full and the sound of that burger just sounded like more than I could handle.  But I had to try it and boy was I glad I did!  FABULOUSITY.......EXTROIDINAIRE...........I didn't finish my whole half, but I enjoyed every bite I took!  The best part - if you got a bite without burger - the "bun" was still awesome!

Dan and Marla were the chefs in charge and they also made their homemade onion rings - OH MY GOODNESS!!!

The evening was spent outside on the back porch.................flowers from farmer Randy's garden!

Kathi made her AWESOME caramel apple pie (Alas no pics), and a good time was had by all!!

By the way - we ate way too late and too much and we were all hurtin' - that's not so fun at our old age anymore!!  :-)

YOU MUST TRY THESE BURGERS - it makes men smile big!!

Happy Birthday Randy

Today is my husbands birthday.  If I had the money, I would take him away on a 2 week cruise to relax and refresh........................

...............since I don't have the money, we will just take our son down to Harborview for a recheck and go out for lunch.  Today they will be looking at Nathan's knee to decide if he needs to have another manipulation surgery.  Manipulation can only be done within 2 months of the surgery and we are at one month, so I will let you know what they decide.

Back to Randy - the hardest working man you've ever met.....handsome (boy howdy!!),honest, analytical, faithful, loyal, generous, kind............these are just a few of the words that describe the man that God blessed me with. 

He likes to laugh.................................
He is not too manly to play "Pretty Pretty Princess" with our little friend Hailey....

He is happiest on his boat, an island, a mountain, fishing.........................

He is so good with children..............and they love him.  This is him with above mentioned Hailey - we love her!
 
Does this man clean up nice or what?!?!

I am so blessed .................Happy Birthday Randy....................I love you! In our year of ups and down, you are the only thing that has remained constant and stable (heaven knows it isn't me!!).

By the way - You're not 46 my dear!!! Try again!

Dinnner from the earth......

One Saturday morning Randy went fishing a couple weeks ago (actually he goes ALL the time - this is his new midlife crisis :-), and came home with some Sockeye Salmon.

So, that evening Dan and Marla came for dinner and we had salmon and goods from the garden....................................

Cream Red Potatoes and Peas (My mom made this when I was growing up - YUM)

I absolutely LOVE beets - Randy doesn't at ALL

A table completed with flowers from the garden

It was a beautiful evening for sitting on the back porch.  We sat and enjoyed the food, the company and the evening.  I even tried 3 new recipes for the evening. We started with a roasted red pepper artichoke dip - it was very good!  Then I had made a cheddar bread cooked in a casserole - definitely a keeper!  For dessert I made a lemon pudding cake - awesome!  All 3 recipes were from one of my favorite blogs - Mennonite Girls Can Cook.  It's listed on my sidebar so check it out!! I love their recipes and haven't had a bad one yet!!  I LOVE trying new recipes, and having friends over to try them out!!

She is a saint!!

Ok - Obviously, if you read my last post you know I was pulling my hair out!!  Honestly - can't blogger just leave well enough alone?!?!

Tanya Silves came to my rescue.  With a couple phone calls and her brain power - she got it fixed!  There are still some frustrating issues - but it is fixed!!

THANK YOU TANYA!!  Now if I could just retain all the lessons you've given me on digital scrapbooking!  I think we need another one on one tutorial - honestly, I can learn!!