Sunday morning

After I made my first ever frittata for Larry for breakfast this morning and quickly decided that I need some sort of frittata pan (like this one!) so that his future frittatas don't look like scrambled eggs trying to be omelets, I got ready for church and tended my growing family of flower babies.  I just love spring!  I love growing flowers and this year, I'm so excited about our vegetables and herbs.  I never had much luck at the condo growing things so I have really high hopes of having a bountiful harvest all summer!

The cucumbers are the biggest in the pot!  We haven't had to water a single thing in days.  Lots and lots of rain.  April showers, right??  We should have some beauties come May!!

Here I am pruning my petunias.  :)

They are really growing!  And I'm still loving that pink flower pot!

I took this picture of Larry and Banjo with Tabbie Hoffman totally photobombing at the front door!  Ha!  I love all three of my boys!  And isn't Larry SO handsome??  Oh my!!

I am absolutely bringin' booty back in my tie-dyed skirt but y'all ain't heard that from me.  ;)

We got a new living room rug!  I just love it. 

Larry wrote this message for me when he started pressure washing the house.  It's been raining so much he hasn't been able to finish but if we get a sunny day this coming week, he will and I thought I'd better get a picture of it before it's gone.

Sweetness!

Navy bean and ham soup

I got this idea from my cousin Rebecca's blog.  It looked so good and I couldn't wait to try it!  I did a few things differently, though; I left out the carrots and I threw in the bacon.  :)  It was absolutely delicious!  Larry and I ate the whole pot.

Ingredients

• 1 pound dried navy beans
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 celery rib, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cup diced cooked ham
• 6-8 bacon strips, cooked crispy and crumbled
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Place beans in large Dutch oven and cover with cold water, with water about 2 inches above beans. Bring to a boil and lower heat to a simmer. Cook for five minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 1 hour. Drain and rinse beans, discarding liquid.

Soup

1. In large Dutch oven, melt butter over medium-high heat.
2. Add onions and celery and saute for five minutes.
3. Add garlic and saute for thirty seconds.
4. Add chicken broth, bacon, beans, parsley, rosemary, bay leaves and diced ham.
5. Add a little freshly ground black pepper.
6. Bring to a boil.
7. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 1-1½ hours. You may need to add additional stock.
8. If you want to thicken the soup, remove about 2 cups of beans and puree in a blender then add back to the soup.
9. Taste and season accordingly with salt and pepper.

Sunday Cookies!

Today I tried something I've never tried before.  I attempted to make Larry's Grandma Grace's springerle cookies.  Or "springlies" as she called them and he loved them.

A springerle is a type of German biscuit with embossed designs that you put on with a rolling pin made especially for them.

The rolling pin looks like this and I want one so bad.  They are beautiful!!  I don't want a new one either.  I want one that a little German lady used to make her family Christmas cookies with.  Nothing else will do.

But since I don't have one, I improvised and made Grandma Grace's springlies and we cut the dough out with our Christmas cookie cutters.  

Here's what you need!

4 eggs

4 cups confectioners sugar (1 pound)
4 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons ground anise (all I could find around here was anise seed so I poured the entire jar into my coffee bean grinder and ground them all up)

 

Mix together the cake flour and baking powder and set aside. 
In another bowl, whip eggs and sugar until the mixture is thick and light.
Stir in ground anise.
Add flour, mix well.
Roll into a ball and chill in the refrigerator for an hour.
Lightly dust your rolling space (ours was a sheet of wax paper) with flour, roll out the dough and cut your cookies.
Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. (This wasn't part of the recipe but the first batch stuck to the cookie sheet so I sprayed cooking spray on the cookie sheet for the rest of them.  Worked beautifully!)

They do look a little biscuit-y.  Best part?  Larry said they were just as he remembered! 

We cut a few bunny rabbits and ducks, too, 'cause we're counterculture like that.  :)  Oh!!  VERY important note here.  The recipe instructed to bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.  And my high-tech oven took that very seriously.  The first batch was a little browner than I liked.  The other batches baked for 15 minutes and they were perfect.  I guess you just have to know your oven.  Me and mine are getting there. 

So there you have it.  German Christmas cookies!  I hope I made Grandma Grace proud.

I also made two dozen snickerdoodles using this easy recipe.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Cream together the butter and 1 cup sugar.
Beat in egg and vanilla.
Combine flour and cream of tartar.
Add gradually to creamed mixture.
Combine cinnamon and 2 tablespoons sugar.
Roll into one-inch balls and roll in cinnamon/sugar mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. 

While I baked cookies, Larry worked on some Christmas presents he's making.

 And when all our work was done, we relaxed in the hot tub!  She's a beaut!!

We tried to enjoy ourselves.  You know, tough job and all that.  (I was terrified Larry was gonna drop his iPhone OMGGGG)

Settling in

We are just about done!  Larry's working in the garage today, I'm roasting a chicken and unpacking THE LAST BOX!  I want to get the carpets shampooed today but may not get there.  I've done something to my left shoulder and I'm in a good bit of pain.  I might just take it easy today.  It is Sunday, after all.

We have worked pretty much nonstop unpacking boxes and arranging things.  If we hadn't had to stop and clean every single surface, we'd be done by now.  Everything was covered in 2-3 inches of dust and grime and we got the last of the ceiling fans cleaned last night.  I knew I was going to have to clean to get the house up to where I wanted it but I never expected to find it the way we did.  Oh well, now I know it's clean and as Larry calls it, "Ginger clean".  Ha!  This house is too beautiful not to keep it up and keep it clean and that's what I'm going to do.  Live and learn, I guess.  And don't expect anything, that way you won't be disappointed.  I've had to really pray about this because I've felt way more anger and animosity than I should have.  I just wouldn't do that to someone and would never expect it to be done to me.  But it was and as disappointing as it was, I'm dealing with it.  I finally got the floors mopped and the last of the blinds and light fixtures scrubbed yesterday.  This house is clean now and I guess that's what really matters.  Time to move forward!

I had my coffee out on the deck this morning and I used the opportunity to take a few pictures, in the peaceful quiet of a gorgeous fall Sunday morning.  Tabbie Hoffman joined us for about a minute and then he was ready to go back inside.  He's still not completely comfortable and spends most of his time under our bed. 

Larry hung my mushroom birdhouse from the magnolia.  Perfect spot! 

I've been a little intimidated by my fancy new Kenmore Elite oven so this morning, I made blueberry muffins.  Something easy, something fast and they turned out pretty dang good.

 

We're having Thanksgiving here this year.  We wanted to have our whole family together in our new home to celebrate and give thanks for this amazing year we have had.  I decided I'd better try out the oven before I try to cook that turkey!  So we're having roasted chicken and potatoes, veggies and pumpkin pie for an early supper today and from the smells coming from that kitchen, I'd say I figured it out just fine.  

Sunday Supper - Pork Chop Casserole

I don't know if it's because I'm southern or if it's because I'm lazy but I love a casserole.  Just having the whole meal in one dish makes me so happy.  One of my favorite things to make is poppy seed chicken casserole.  And I make baked chicken thighs with red potatoes, olive oil and rosemary a lot, too.  I call that Rosemary Chicken and it's not really a casserole but it still all goes into a 9x13 glass dish so it's close enough for me!  So when I hear of a casserole I've never had or made, I have to try it.  The other night, one of the guys I work with had pork chop casserole leftovers for supper and I tried it and it was sooooo good.  He gave me the recipe and I made it today.  It was delicious!!

• 4 pork chops (I used boneless pork sirloin cutlets)
• 4 cups sliced potatoes
• 1 can cream of celery soup
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons chopped onion
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper, or to taste
• grated American cheese

Brown pork chops. Place potatoes in greased 2-quart baking dish. Saute onions in pork chop drippings. Mix together soup, milk, onions and drippings, salt and pepper.  Pour over potatoes.  Place pork chops over potatoes; sprinkle with cheese.  Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for about 60 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.  Serves 4.