Cooking with Pressure

Growing up, my mother always cooked with a pressure cooker. I realize everyone thinks their mother is the best cook, but my mother really is the best! My family loves her carrots (and they really don't even like carrots!). I think it must be because she cooked them in a pressure cooker. Everything just tastes better. I bought an electric pressure cooker this year and it is my favorite cooking utensil! Everything I have made in it comes out tender and tasty. Here's what it looks like:



Tonight I fixed pork chops and in 20 minutes, we had delicious, fall off the bone, pork chops. I changed one of our favorite recipes for the cooker. Here's the original:

Glazed Pork Chops

2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. sage
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix all ingredients together and spread on pork chops. Bake uncovered at 250 degrees for 30 minutes. Turn chops over, spoon dripping over. Cook for 15 minutes. Increase oven to 350 degrees and cook 15 more minutes.

For the Pressure cooker, I just placed the pork chops in it, sprinkled the mixture over it, added 6 ounces of pineapple juice and cooked on high for 20 minutes. Very good. In fact, once again, I failed to take pictures, we were too busy eating!
Super easy!

Weekend of Painting

Hope B and K don't mind, but I thought I would post a few pictures showing the progress of their house.
Here's a picture of the front:





The Back:




Just look at that pretty roof line.





Here's one of the aliens painters. You can't tell from the picture, but he is really up high on the ladder.




Living in West Texas, you always have to deal with the wind. Here's a picture of the super-heroes, Fantastic Four, trying to master the tyvec and the wind. I'm not sure, but the wind may have been the winner.



Now take a look at their view from the back upstairs window. This may be Kellie's office. If it was mine, I'm not too sure I would get much work done!



It's amazing how much progress is made in just a week's time.

No More Wash Day Blues

Look what I got! If you don't know me, you should know I'm pretty frugal. So, when our washer gave out, we went looking for a new one and decided to get a new dryer to match. Now, my old dryer wasn't broken, so to buy a new one just because I was getting a new washer was really hard on me. That being said, look at what I ended up buying.

Dear, sweet husband did a lot of persuasive talking on this. (He's the big spender in the family.) He kept telling me that it would make my work so much easier. Then when he got to the part about saving money because it doesn't use much water and the dryer time is shorter because of the efficiency, well he nearly had me. After all, we're on a septic system so less water is better for that, too. But, when he reminded me that most of our company enter through the garage entrance which comes right through the laundry room, well, he had me! I have to admit, it's making my laundry chore much easier. I do feel guilty when I think of the money spent. After all, it's just the two of us. It's really fancy smancy! When I put the first load in, I couldn't even turn it on! I kept pushing the start button and nothing! Then Mike said, "Look, it's got a power button, too. Maybe you better push that one first." It has steam for the washer and steam for the dryer! Way too complicated!


Look at all those buttons!!! That first load, we just kept watching the washer. Boy, have we got to get a life!!! Anyway, I am enjoying them and spending a lot less time doing laundry which gives me more time to do the things I like. What a life!

Week in Review

You all know that wonderful feeling you have when you come home and know that supper is fixed because you put it in the crockpot that morning? Well, that's what I did for half of the dinner I was planning on feeding the bunco group. At 3:30 when I walked in the door expecting that great aroma, instead, I was met with that horrible stench of burnt food! I couldn't believe it! I had put the crockpot on high instead of low! I went into high gear and started looking through the pantry trying to find something to fix. I had made a batch of black eye pea gumbo and it was in the refrigerator. Since I hadn't doubled the recipe, it would not be enough for twelve women. I started another pot of potato soup in the pressure cooker. I didn't have enough ingredients for a large pot, so I had to find something else to fix. I had all the makings for a quick chicken tortilla soup, so I made that, too. After getting all these started, I then realized I should have just ordered some pizzas. It would have been much easier! Oh well, everything turned out okay and we had a great Mardi Gras time.

Mike has been sick with the flu all week, but he got me some wonderful chocolate covered strawberries for Valentine's day. Isn't that sweet? I didn't think to take a picture until I was eating the last one! So, I put it on this pretty plate that my son and daughter-in-law gave me for Christmas. Isn't that pretty?

A Few Things I've Been Working On

It's been a busy 2008! I think I'm finally getting caught up at work. Of course, it's the weekend, and when I get to work tomorrow, I'll be behind again! hehehe Oh well, that's life!

Mike's cousin, David and his wife,Mary, came for a visit this past week. They're from Wisconsin and we had met them briefly back in 1988 at a wedding. We tried showing them a real Texan time! Mike and his brother, Pete, took them to Frontier Texas. That is really a great place! Pete took them to a few other places of interest and then we all met at Perini's Steak House for dinner. What a great meal! Texas at it's best!!! I think we even got Mary to say ya'll a few times. The weather was great (I think we broke a record with 85°) and when they got home she said the wind chill was minus 40°! Here we are having dinner at the steak house.

I've been working on a few things for an auction for my granddaughter's school. I doubt if they'll bring much, but I enjoyed doing them. The first picture are some burp cloths and a blanket for a baby girl and the second one are some for a baby boy.

I have bunco at my house this Tuesday, so don't know when I'll get to post again!

Breakfast for Dinner

It's not unusual for us to have breakfast for dinner. I'm not one to eat when I first wake up. In fact, I have a hard time eating a big breakfast in the morning. But, I do like having breakfast in the evening. Here's a good recipe for Buttermilk Syrup. Now, you may have to get past the name. When I tell people about buttermilk syrup, they nearly always turn up their nose. Here's all you'll need:



In a medium saucepan, stir together the sugar, buttermilk, butter, corn syrup, and baking soda.


Bring to a boil and cook for 7 minutes. Now, hopefully, you started out in a good size saucepan. See how it expands???? That's because of the baking soda. It will turn from this white foam :

to a pretty golden amber like this:


Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.



I like to serve this over french toast, waffles, or even homemade fluffy biscuits. It's a good, but very rich tasting syrup. Hope you enjoy it




Buttermilk Syrup

1 1/2 cups withe sugar
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan, stir together the sugar, buttermilk, butter, corn syrup and baking soda. Bring to a boil and cook for 7 minutes. Remove from the heat, and stir in the vanilla.

What's Above Your Cabinets?

I'm discovering all kinds of neat decorating sites in this wonderful world of blogland! One of my favorite sites is Kari & Kijsa's blog. They are two sisters that have so much talent!!!!! Anything they touch or paint is fabulous! They did a fabric transfer of a bunny on a pillow that is just toooo cute! I wish I had just a little bit of their talent!!! I could go on and on about their amazing abilities, but instead just go over and visit their site. Next week their first issue of their newsletter, "Designing for Life" will be published. They are taking all kinds of decorating questions. I asked them for advice on decorating the tops of kitchen cabinets. (Not realizing they had done a full post on this just 10 days earlier. I've been busy lately so I'm behind on reading my blogs.) My ceilings are ten feet tall and I have different heights of cabinets, so there are really a lot of different things I can do. I'm not very creative and I'm just now getting around to trying to do some things to my kitchen.





Here are a couple of pictures to give you an idea of just how much help I need! Like I said, I think I have some great cabinets with a lot of different possibilities. I've thought about a collection of some sort. But, small things are hard to see, so it would have to be something large. Here's where you come in. What do you think I should put on top of my cabinets????

Flowers

Look what I got today! You want to know why???? My dear, sweet hubby sent them to me for our anniversary. Isn't he just the greatest??? 32 years ago today we were married. We've shared a lot in those years. Good times and bad, happy and sad. The birth of two wonderful children. The birth of two beautiful grandchildren. The loss of a father. We've lived in nine different apartments and homes. (I almost didn't count two of those places since we only lived in them a short time while we built our homes). I can't even begin to count how many vehicles we've owned in only 32 years. Anyway, I received these lovely flowers today just for loving a wonderful man. Isn't that great? Wish you could smell them!