From The Heart....

Each February I organize our Ladies' Dept. Valentines get together. We usually serve food and make some sort of gift for the ladies to bring home to the ones they love. This year I wanted to do something a little different, so I decided to do a sort of live blog thing. Several of the ladies in our church have blogs and most of them have oodles of talent. I titled the party "From The Heart" and picked a couple of ladies to demonstrate something that they do to show their love to their families. I underestimated the time it would take to adequately cover each of the topics, so we didn't get to the topics of : Favorite Homemaking Books, The Art of Coupon Clipping, & How to Create a Quick & Easy Party Table. 

We will get to them at some point though. Sorry gals.

 Below are pics of some of the ladies that participated.

 Sis. M demonstrated how to make homemade laundry soap which is more economical than the varieties available in stores, Not to mention better for the environment and your family.

Sis. K showed the ladies how to make "yo yo's" from scraps of fabric. Then she showed us some ideas on how to use them to embellish pillows, picture frames, and headbands.

 Above & Below are pics of "Plain Old Kristi" discussing how to pack adorable healthy lunches for your children. If you would like to see some of her "Bentos" you'll have to hop on over to her blog.

These Japanese inspired lunches are so cute.

 I was inspired to try my hand at making the laundry soap. 

I did it. It works. It's cheap. I love it.

I also decided to try some other recipes 

and I even made a discovery.

(If you already knew about this, 

don't spoil my fun.)

I decided to make a paste out of baking soda and a few drops of Dr.Bronner's Peppermint Castille Soap. I applied it, with a damp washcloth, to my tea kettle and my pitiful toaster oven.

After lightly rubbing for a few seconds, I rinsed and dried the two. 

The part of my oven door that you see gleaming over the box of soda 

used to be caked on/baked on black & brown . . .

and just look at my kettle!
I usually have to use chemicals and a lot of elbow grease to get it that shiny.

 One of the door prizes happened to be a cookbook that I own. I purposed in my heart to come home and try some more recipes from it. The above chunks of pure delight are a result of my determination.

These are called French Breakfast Puffs and the recipe is from, 

"The Pioneer Woman Cooks"

By: Ree Drummond

The recipe may even be on her fabulous web site.

Last, but not least...

From our hearts to your arteries... 

 homemade shortbread going into the oven for Eloise's Sunday School class. 

We decided that these are tastier than Valentines cards.

If you would like to see what the finished product looks like, simply click on the, "In My Kitchen" tab at the top  and then scroll down a little ways and you will see a spatula lifting a golden morsel out of a pan.

That's what it looks like.

Love & Prayers,

~Me~

"2011" Year End Review...

Eloise is loving all the hands on experiments in her K12 Physical Science curriculum.

In this experiment she was testing and producing gases.

When she placed the stick with a burnt tip in the jar with a yeast and peroxide mixture, the stick would ignite because of the gas produced.

I'm not quick enough with my camera to catch the flame.

The above is a picture of a Christmas arrangement that I made for a friends fire place mantle. I took the picture in my mother's new living room. They finally finished their house located across the street from me. I will have to post more about that later.

Here are some of our little bitty's singing at our Christmas Concert.

A couple of sweet ladies came over to bake cookies for our Ladies' dept. cookie swap.

Eloise working on the backdrop for our Gingerbread themed pictures.

The above pic was my favorite.

Above and below are a couple of families who attended the banquet.

At the banquet we had a gingerbread making contest.

The participants worked feverishly.

The frosting was flowing.....

....sprinkles were flying....

...in the end there was a new housing development in town.

There were so many cute designs,

 but originality reigns at the "Ho Ho Cabana" by Plain Old Kristi and her girls.

(I loved the gingerbread girl in the yellow bikini)

We also had a Best Santa's Beard contest.

When the time was up the ladies were allowed to view their work.

Sister Anna had too much fun.

From the looks of it, I think she wasn't the only one.

On a more serious note....

The above is a pic of the daughter work that Bro.Mike and Sis.Ginger have started.

It is about an hour and a half drive from our home church.

We drive out there in between our Sunday morning and evening services.

It is so exciting to see what God is doing.

For the past two weeks I have been bringing Sunday School in a Box.

The children are precious....

courteous....

....and eager to learn.

Please pray for them and us as we seek further God's kingdom.

I pray that you have had beautiful Christmas, full of all the things that matter the most.

Be sure to check back for my post about our New Year's

"Watch Night Service"

Love Ya,

~Me~

Ooooh La La....

 There is a local sweet shop that specializes in these lovely little pastries. They are common in France, but are a rare find on this side of the "Pond".  Locally they are only sold at a store called "Sucre" in New Orleans. Sucre caught the attention of a few celebrities and has been featured in magazines such as "O". These little morsels are as pleasing to the eye as they are to the taste buds, but not so appealing to the pocketbook. Being the curious chef that I am I tried to imagine what ingredients and methods would yield a treat so delicate, yet crisp to the tooth. I couldn't figure it out, so I pushed the thought of them out of my head.

 A couple of days ago I was browsing around T.J.Max, when all of a sudden this beautiful cook book screamed my name. So of course you know what's next.....

 You have probably noticed that what the French call a "Macarone" is not the same as the gooey coconut mounds that you will often find at Chinese Buffets.

 The pastries themselves usually only vary in color and are made of ground almonds and powdered sugar that has been sifted to remove any lumps and a meringue made of egg whites & super fine (caster) sugar.

 After stiff peaks had formed, we added a touch of blue coloring. Next we folded in the almond/sugar mix. Then we piped  1 1/4 inch circles onto parchment lined pans. The macaroons had to rest for 30 mins before baking. After we removed them from the oven we had to let them cool completely. There are dozens of ways to fill them, but we decided that the blue would work for the "Blueberry Cream Cheese" filling.

Genius I know!

 Here is Eloise with the finished product.

It must be all that French blood in her.

 I wish you could taste them.

~Someone needs to talk to Bill Gates or those guys over at Apple and tell them to get busy working on the "See-Smell-Taste" computers. ~

Bonus Pics:

Above are a few of our young ladies who attended our Valentines "Making a Treat for Someone Sweet" fellowship party.

 Above/Below: samples of our creations.

We had a fun evening of creativity & fellowship.

THERE....ARE YOU HAPPY BEPPI?....I FINALLY POSTED.

Love & Prayers,
~Me~



Shh!!! My Taste Buds Don't Know....

 In case you haven't noticed, I love to cook. I read recipe books like most people read novels. Being a Chinese/Redneck who is often mistaken for a Mexican, who was transplanted from California to New Orleans, I can truly say that my taste buds are eclectic. I thrive on variety. Fortunately, I am learning a few tricks about being a frugal gourmet chef. One of my latest finds is the clearance rack at Wal-Marts bakery. I scooped up on this loaf of sourdough bread. It looked so pitiful with it's big clearance tag, but I looked beyond the $1.50 price tag. I didn't tell my taste buds what I was planning, but I will let you in on my secret.

 Grilled Sourdough burgers topped with Gouda. We also had fresh figs(picked from our tree)

 The above is a picture of a skillet breakfast I made recently. I fried onions, bell peppers, bacon, and potatoes. When the potatoes were tender, I made 5 wells and cracked a whole egg into each well. I covered them till the eggs were set. I sprinkled cheese over the top and served. My family enjoyed it, but we all agreed that next time I should try smoked sausage instead of crumbled bacon. The greatest part about this dish is the fact that the clean-up is so easy, because it's all cooked in the same skillet.

 I baked this Large cake with fresh strawberries in between the layers for less than $10.

A smaller version of a similar cake is sold at a local bakery for $35.

At this rate, my taste buds will never find out that I'm on a budget!

This(above) is another cheap quick meal. Whenever I have a small amount of pork roast left over from a previous meal, I can shred it and add a little BBQ sauce. Then all I have to do is scrub and pierce the potatoes all over. After I place the potatoes on a plate, I sprinkle with Kosher salt and microwave for about 7 min. or till tender. When the potatoes are finished, they are ready to stuff with pork and whatever else the family likes.

I hope this post has inspired all of you to get creative and thrifty.

Don't forget to check out our Homeschooling blog. The link is on my side bar.

Love & Prayers,
~Me~