Eh?...Mrs Mac??

bon appetit
here are the four of them!...ha!

here he is...

and for those of you who don't know... here's the new man... this was our first date at the zoo!

Special Delivery

wait oh wait...

it's in transit!!

I wonder...

who will get the apron next? will it be you?

Quick PC Fix

Thank you son in law for fixing my computer! I just needed to get a $15 part from Sprawlmart. Thank you Jesus I don't have to spend hundreds of dollars just yet on a new PC.

A day in the life...

Yesterday we went to Block's, my favorite Farmer's market.

I got eggplant for Baba Ganouj...

Lots of broccoli to prepare for the freezer, fruits and veggies for the week.

While my new boyfriend (YES!!) was fixing the door handles on my car I made us all (Phyllis, him, and I) a good lunch, not necesarily good for you, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and Phyllis put together an apple crisp.

It was nice to just settle in the day.

Hopefully my pictures will be cooperative and post. I'll try again later.

And today... it's one of my busiest days... Church, errands, and making dinner for the Alive staff. Today it's just meatballs in the crockpot with rice on the side, and cake for Adam, our Youth Pastors birthday!

I'm so afraid to schlep on the apron!!

Dear Sisters

Please go to my friend JEANETTE 'S blog and listen to a miracle song. It will touch your heart.
Posted by Amrita

A NOTE FROM MRS. MAC (via me)

Mrs. Mac would like all the Scarf Sisters to know that she's still here, but her computer is broken.

She will be reading but not able to post until all systems are go again, and we all hope that won't be long!

Meanwhile...back to Margie and all the other wonderful sisters!!!

who we are...

It's been a crazy week this week!

Who am I kidding? They are all crazy!

Sometimes I just think I am the world's worst mother, you know I know I'm not, but I am no Donna Reed, that's for sure. We don't eat dinner at home much, I'm tired and to be quite honest, I'd love to be a stay at home mom, but I guess that's just not my lot in life, and really, that's ok. We ate out Wednesday, at a small coney island, and we laughed and relaxed and it was such a great time, I just couldn't help but think 'it's ok to be like this'. And tonight, we'll probably eat out and go to a movie.

I will hopefully get to the farm market Saturday and prepare us for the week coming and Sunday I will cook dinner.

Thinking so much that I must get back into crock potting now that winter is coming. I like to have something easy... and fall and winter seem like a great time to do that. And I loved having leftovers this week for lunch :)

Its funny when you grow up without a mom, and you worry that you're never going to do it 'right' and sometimes each day is a new learning adventure that I struggle through, and somedays it seems to come so naturally.

I've learned that as women, we need to celebrate the differences in each other and to never get caught up in the "she should do it that way" or "shouldn't she ______". We are all different. Some of us wild and crazy, some of us would never leave our homes, some homemade everything, some of us eat out way too much. But in all things, we belong to God, He works in each of us differently, our ministry isn't always 'called out' in a church handbook, its in our every day lives, the way God uses us in our homes, in our jobs, in where we shop, in what we blog, in each step that we take.

I'm so thankful to celebrate and hold up each one of you... the sisters I never thought I'd have!

INVITATION

As most of you know, I have decided for a time, to make my blog open by invitation only. If you have not heard from me yet or would like for me to e-mail you an invitation, please e-mail me at:
edelweisstexas1@aol.com
and I will make sure you are included in my readers!
Thanks, Connie

Thank You So Much!!!!

my dear sisters...usually i am so long winded but i am so touched by this honour, that all i can manage to say is thank you, thank you, thank you!
i love you all sooooo much...love terry

Where Is Scarf?

... anyone out there seen scarf?

For Terry and Her Beautiful Family

Dearest Terry and the Golden and Wells family,
You 've been in the hearts and prayers of all of us.
I want to dedicate this video to you and the memory of Aunt Marion.

Posted by Amrita

Day 1...

So, how exciting! I got some Saffron Thread with my package! I have never used it before, but I'm totally excited to try, I'll hit allrecipes.com which is one of my favorites and search for something!

A lot of times I don't cook during the week, just too busy, or I throw some chicken on the grill, and whip up a quick side... I know... terrible mother... but tonight it's Chicken N Dumplings, I'll post the recipe later.

I had one of my favorite breakfasts this morning... toast with butter AND cream cheese. I shlepped cream cheese on my bible this morning since it was close at hand. I like the saying... "if your life is falling apart, your bible probably isn't..." Mine is a mess, got stuff hanging out of it, scribbled all over it. What can I say, it's used :)

IT HAS ARRIVED!!!!!

WOO HOO!! Now off to cook!!

Photo Slideshows

Several of you mentioned wanting to learn to make photo slideshows. I don't really know how, either; I cheat and let Photobucket do it. Photobucket is a free web hosting service. (There is a premium version that is not free, but most people who just need photo storage for blogging or whatever probably don't need the premium version.)

Set up your free account, upload some photos and then click "slideshow" and it will walk you through adding photos and setting up a slideshow. From there, you just copy and paste the code into a blog post. (Make sure you're using the "Edit HTML" tab of the "new post" page, not the "compose" tab.)

The Apron Is On the Move!

Round and round the planet she goes, and where she stops... nobody knows! Watch your mail boxes, sisters!

Cookbook Blog

Attention all Scarf Sisters: After you read Maria's coffee roasting post below, check out the new 'revamped' cooking blog available for you to post your heritage/family favorite recipes. I'll included links for those recipes already posted here. Feel free to add your recipes to the cookbook even if it's not your turn to host. Be sure to include a label for the post (i.e. salad, main dish, etc.). You should have gotten an invite to have administrator privileges. The link is over in the right sidebar.

Mrs. Mac

Home roasted coffee beans

One more post from me before the apron moves on to the next stop on its journey. I began roasting my own coffee a couple of years ago to save money, and as it turns out, the coffee is indescribably better this way anyway.

I buy my green coffee beans from Invalsa.com, a company which specializes in fair trade and organic coffees, mostly from tiny farms in Bolivia. I care more about the fair trade aspect of it than the organic, though the organic is nice too. Unroasted coffee beans don't look very impressive. They're tiny, greyish-greenish things that don't smell anything like coffee. When you roast them, they swell up and burst their dull skins to reveal the beautiful glossy fat beans inside. I do mine on the stove in a cast iron frying pan. A good exhaust fan is essential, as roasting coffee beans put off tons of smoke. Really amazing amounts of smoke that doesn't smell like coffee at all and will set off all your smoke alarms and make your family a tiny bit resentful.

When the beans are roasted to your preference (I like them extremely dark roasted), cool them down quickly. One way is to pass them back and forth between two collanders. I try to do this outdoors because all those skins that split off are still in the pan, and they need to be removed to keep the coffee from tasting bitter and going stale quickly. If you can do the collander-passing in a nice breeze, that takes care of the chaff. Barring that, blow them with a hair dryer to get rid of the chaff.

One more tip: Fresh roasted coffee beans can't be TOO fresh or they make very acidic-tasting coffee, which is not what you're after. They need at least 8 hours to rest after roasting. Leave them out to air for those 8 hours, then put them in a tight-closing jar for storage.

The amount I roasted here will last us about a week.

Blessings from the garden

Look what ripened just in time for my Apron Week!

I love eggplants. This is the first time we have tried to grow them. We bought two plants and got 3 lovely purple beauties. It would have been cheaper to just buy eggplants at the grocery store, but the plants are pretty anyway. (Note eye candy for Deb who loves vintage Pyrex Colors.)

I work full time from home, and while it gets hairy trying to concentrate on my work when there is so much else to do around here, one nice thing I can do while working is bake homemade bread. In fact it's great therapy. I type all day long and sometimes those neck muscles just need to be worked out by smacking some dough around. Today (because of the eggplants), I made homemade pita bread. That's the dough in the yellow bowl.



And to prove that I actually did wear The Apron, here I am slicing cukes.


My youngest had to be in at least one picture.


Mostly because the dining table was covered with a couple days' worth of mail and everybody's school work, we decided to eat on the back porch table with the windows open. I love my back porch.


In the blue bowl is what I did with the eggplants: Baba ganouj. It's a wonderful dip made from roasted eggplants, garlic, tahini, lemon juice and toasted pine nuts. We filled pita bread with the baba ganouj, plain yoghurt, and chopped tomato and sliced cucumber from the garden. We eat like this quite a bit in the summer because it's cool and light.

Edited to add: A better recipe for the baba ganouj. I took a closer look at the one I posted and realized it's not really how I make it.

BABA GANOUJ

Ingredients:
• 3 medium sized eggplants
• olive oil
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp minced fresh garlic
• 3 tbsp sesame tahini
• 1/4 c chopped parsley
• 1/2 c toasted pine nuts

Instructions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut eggplants in half lengthwise. Cut criss-cross grooves in cut edges of eggplants. Brush cut edges with olive oil, allowing it to drizzle down in your criss-cross cuts. Place eggplants cut side up on a baking sheet and bake until tender (about 45 minutes). Remove from oven and scoop out the flesh. Feed the peelings to the chickens. Blend the flesh in a food processor with the lemon juice until smooth. Mash the salt and garlic together and combine with the eggplant, along with the tahini. Cool and stir in the parsley and pine nuts.

Yield: About 3 cups baba ganouj dip.

And the apron passes to... a very boring cook. :o)

Hello everyone. The Apron was in my mailbox Saturday morning. I hope I don't mess this up.

I confess, I'm a boring cook. I used to be better at this. As the kids got bigger and life got busier, I've gotten to be a worse and worse cook, while my husband, Barry, has gotten better and better! I told him HE should wear the apron for the week but he won't do it.

I'm also not a very good photographer, so you will have to imagine that the meal above actually tasted pretty good. I work full time while my husband is a full-time college student, studying nursing. We have a son in high school and a daughter in 4th grade, plus another daughter who is away at college, so it's pretty wild around here. I barely cook all week. I try to make up for it on the weekends by serving a meal that's actually more than one item. :o) The meal above was what we had for Saturday night supper and then again for Sunday dinner after church: Roast chicken with wild rice dressing and sweet potato casserole. With chicken gravy.

I'll post the sweet potato casserole recipe for you because it's really yummy. More like candy than a vegetable! I originally got it from a lady named Dixie Lewis. Dixie, if you're out there somewhere, we are still loving your sweet potato casserole.

Okay, here it is:

Sweet Potato Casserole
Dixie Lewis

Combine:
6 sweet potatoes or yams, peeled, boiled, drained and mashed
3/4 stick of butter
1 egg
3/4 c. evaporated milk
3/4 c. sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix together and pour into a baking dish or 4-quart crock pot.

Then combine:
1 c. shredded coconut
1 c. chopped pecans
1 tablespoon flour
1 stick of butter, melted
1/2 c. brown sugar

Sprinkle this crumb mixture over the sweet potatoes. Cover the casserole or crock pot. If cooking in the oven, bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour, till all is bubbly and the topping has browned. If you cook it in the crock pot, just leave it on all day long on the low setting. This is great for Thanksgiving dinner when the oven is otherwise occupied. I actually like it better in the crock pot because the crust cooks down through so much of the potatoes.

Serves 6 to 8 as a side dish.

Good News!

I just had to share this news on here with you all. Apparently, Olivia's doctor has decided to wait to do surgery (he was thinking about doing it in the near future, something I had great concerns with). In the meantime, they are going to send Olivia home while she waits for the surgery!

My baby is FINALLY coming home and we will finally all be under one roof! This will make things so much easier for all of us.

Praise God!

The Apron Has Been Sent

Into the great big world ... where will it land??? Keep your eyes opened and look in your mail boxes as it should be arriving in one soon.

Moonlight Serenade

Who made the great lights—
His love endures forever.

The sun to govern the day,
His love endures forever.

The moon and stars to govern the night;
His love endures forever.

Psalm 136:7-9 NIV

The past few nights have been graced with moonlight. With estimated income taxes & Ann's college tuition due this month, we are pinching pennies. But we had a 'rich' date night that included a buy one get one free coupon for a local sandwich shop; drinks and chips included. So we packed up the good eats in a picnic basket, threw a few beach chairs in the back of our open top (1976) vintage Jeep, and headed five minutes down the road to the lake. We found a place to pull off and set up our dinner camp just a few feet from the water's edge. The night sky was lit up, not quite one of Felisol's 'blond' Norwegian nights, but pretty close with the rising of the moon and its shimmering light reaching across the lake in front of us.

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place
Psalm 8:3

Intoxicating is a word that I don't usually use. But the cool breeze, good food, and the enchantment of the moonlight deserves such a description.

Arriving home I made a impromptu dessert of cappuccino with Dutch windmill cookies. Mr. Mac provided the 'music' ... and not the usual kind of music from 'guys around a campfire';) Only he couldn't think of the tune, 'Moonlight Serenade', by Glenn Miller, so I had to settle for Stardust.(Pic: parting shot of apron @ campfire dessert). Until next time ..... fare-thee-well.

Thank You God For This Food ...

(Pic: Mrs. Mac serving up some comfort food to Nathan)
in Jesus name we pray, Amen! This is the simple prayer we say with Nathan at meal time. He is a man of few words (less is more). His limited vocabulary doesn't mean he can't process thoughts ... it's just the spitting out of words that trips him up. He does know how to ask dear old mom how to make his favorite comfort foods, mainly fried potatoes and pasta (no, not cooked or eaten together). I can be almost assured of a great hug, kiss and thank you for making him some food.(Pic: Nathan with pasta in homemade tomato sauce)

I have one more post .. a romantic picnic with Mr. Mac .. complete with impromptu 'music' .. then Miss Apron will be ironed, pressed and sent on her way to another sister's home. I have my job cut out figuring when you gals will be home and not on vacation.

Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant."
"Very well," they answered, "do as you say."

Genesis 18:5

Hello Sisters

Hello Scarf Sisters,

(I dare not shorten the name to SS) LOL
Thank you for for inviting me
to share on this precious
fellowship blog.

Please Pass The ...

Smashed potatoes. When we have a heavy meal such as Mustard Chops, I try to limit our side dishes to just two. One starch .. and one veggie. Being that I have a bounty-full garden sitting just outside my dining room door, a garden inspired by my step-father's mother (another Grandma Elizabeth .. Libby for short). I was able to dig up some red spuds just twenty minutes before it was time to cook them. Now if you've never tasted freshly dug taters, you are really missing a treat. For a rustic and less fuss approach to typical mashed potatoes, try leaving some of the red skin on when you boil the potatoes. After draining, add some milk or 1/2 & 1/2 with sea salt and a little butter. Smash by hand with a masher .. leaving a few lumps to desired consistency. These potatoes make the perfect 'holder' for gravy.

To eat fresh veggies was a treat usually reserved for our yearly trek to visit Grandma Libby on one of our family reunion vacations. We'd visit relatives in the state of Illinois; a few lived on farms. Fresh sweet corn, watermelon, wild blackberries, green beans, and yellow tomatoes were all rare treats. And farm fresh treats such as these just couldn't compare with plain old canned or frozen veggies back home. At no other time in my life has the taste of fresh veggies been as memorable than on our reunion trips. Grandma Libby set the standard in my life for aspiring to grow a garden and learn how to can food for the winter. It's only been recently that both of these life goals have been attained. So to honor the life skills observed in my youth, I try to be as frugal and thrifty as Grandma Libby was by serving whatever is ready for 'pickin' from the garden that day.

Fresh Veggie Medley 'Stew'

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 Cups zucchini (or yellow crooked neck squash)
1 Cup fresh chopped tomato
sprinkle your favorite herbs (fresh or dried)

Heat a large skillet and add olive oil. Saute the onion for one minute. Add the zucchini and saute for another minute. Add the fresh tomato .. mix well. Add a few tablespoons of water. Salt and pepper and herbs to taste. Cover and cook until veggies are tender and the tomatoes have made a nice juicy sauce. Serves 4(Photo: Grandma Libby .. front right .. at a family reunion)

How Sweet It Is

(Photo: My favorite 'go to' cookbook)

One of the most 'American' desserts you can find on the planet is good old apple pie. There are only a few desserts I can recall from childhood .. and apple pie is tops. Grandma Donna would buy nice tart Pippens apples .. a predecessor to today's Granny Smith apple. Pippens are hard to find these days .. when you do see them in the market, they are not there for too long. Grandma taught me how to peel the apples with a little knife. We would see how long we could keep the peel in one piece before breaking. Her hands were riddled with arthritis; it didn't stop her from baking a pie. She 'made' her crust from a box of Betty Crocker or Pillsbury pie crust mix. I do the same little 'cheat' when baking a pie using Krusteaz pie crust mix, otherwise my pie crusts are a flop. Now if you are thinking I'm going to bake an apple pie with my heritage dinner, you are wrong. I refuse to bake a pie with apples that have been warehoused from last season. Being it's not quite apple harvest time, I am going to pull a huckleberry-peach pie filling from my freezer that I made this summer (sorry .. but making an apple pie from last year's apples is just not going to happen;)
(Photo: huckleberries calling out from the hills;)
The humble huckleberry is found growing wild in the higher elevations of North Idaho. It is a bit similar to a blueberry .. but smaller, solid purple throughout, and a much more intense berry taste. Once you try a huckleberry, you might not want another blueberry. Living so close to Washington State, we have access to wonderful apples, peaches, tomatoes, etc. Each summer I buy a large box of peaches and make freezer pies (without the crust) to pull out in the dead of winter to enjoy a little taste of summer during the snowy cold weather.

To freeze a peach pie filling is easy if you have room in a deep freeze available.

Huckleberry Peach Pie From The Freezer to Table

5 Cups of peeled and pitted peaches
2/3 Cup of sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
handful of berries (you can use blueberries, raspberries, etc.)
1 Tablespoon cold butter

Gently mix the first three ingredients. Take a pie pan (8-9 inch round) and line it with plastic wrap. Pour in the fruit filling. Sprinkle over the top some of the berries and dot with little pieces of butter. Wrap the ends of the plastic over the top of the filling and place pan on a level surface in the freezer. The next day take the pan out and remove frozen filling carefully (I sometimes turn the pie pan over and run a little warm water to help loosen it from the pan). Re-wrap with additional plastic wrap and place in a gallon size freezer bag or seal it airtight in a Food Saver bag. Be sure to label the bag.(photo: frozen pie filling in freezer bag)

When it's time to bake the pie, simple make your crust to fit the same pie pan you used as a mold to freeze the pie. Plop the frozen pie in the pie dish and top with a crust. Pinch seal the edges and sprinkle the top with a little sugar and cinnamon. Make a few steam slits on top. (I only use a top crust to save calories)
(photo: pie ready to bake)
Bake in a preheated 450 F oven for 10 minutes. Turn down the heat to 375 and bake an additional 50-60 minutes.

If you skip the freezer part, bake fresh fruit pie at 400 F for ten minutes, reduce heat to 300F and bake for 50 additional minutes.
(Photos: pie cooling in my outside pie safe)

A 'Stirring' Memory

OK .. so maybe I put out too much 'food' to digest yesterday ;) .. A problem with having a 'type A' personality (lol). This morning was a simple cup of coffee, a bowl of cereal .. and some melon.

Coffee gets me going in the morning. I'll leave you with this little story I wrote years ago as it relates to coffee and my grandparents.


Sounds, tastes, scents and sights can evoke long ago memories. My morning cup up coffee transported me back in time to my grandmother's kitchen. Just from the little clink, clink sound I made when stirring my coffee. A sound I don't hear often as I usually put the creamer in first, then pour in coffee, thus eliminating the use of a spoon. Ahhh, but that sound ... brought back a flood of wonderful thoughts. For a moment I could see Grandma Donna sitting in her little kitchen nook wearing her turquoise bathrobe with pink and white flowers ... pink house slippers and a little white hanky sticking out of her sleeve. Grandpa's standing at the over sized stove frying bacon in a black skillet talking about his plans for the day. He just "perked" some great coffee in the clear glass Pyrex percolator. She's waiting for him to pour the coffee. For some reason, they both made the same little clink, clink sound (probably from stirring in sugar). I spent so much time at their home when I was a little gal that they seemed more like second parents to me. So as I sip the last few drops from my cup this morning, I'll have fond memories to get me through the day. You can bet my next cup of coffee will include the use of a spoon.

Photo: Grandma Donna with 'tootsie' the dog.

I promise ... the apron was not worn while browning the pork chops last night .. nor while smearing mustard ;) The Mr. was so pleased to have a Sunday type of dinner on a Tuesday night.

International Flair

Just call me a mutt ;) My ancestors' lineage comes from a mix of 'pound puppies'! Such is much of the American 'experience' .. a vast melting pot of peoples. Nations from all four corners of the globe. From what I have been able to research, my heritage is as follows: English, German/Bohemian, Irish, Danish, & a fraction of Native American. I have traced my European ancestors directly by three of my great grandfathers that came over during the 1880's. I'm not so sure about when my grandmothers' families arrived to the new world. One great grandmother's family may have greeted the white settlers .. she being part Native American (Cherokee Indian I believe). Boy, would I love to go back in time for a few days to meet these relatives. I am fortunate to have many old photos to 'imagine' what they were like. And studying the reasons so many immigrants came to both Canada and the United States ... to find a 'easier' life .. that turned out to be just as hard in most cases. Much of Europe was depressed economically. The call from across the ocean to start a new life was quite a draw.

In planning for my heritage meal, I chose to focus on a few dishes that would represent several of my ancestors' nationalities. We Americans are always rethinking the 'wheel' and have a definite culture of our own. A culture that is sheer fusion. A living, changing culture. One that is greatly influenced by the different regions of our vast land. So if you make fried chicken in the deep south, you can bet if you travel north it will be a completely different bird. Our ancestors tended to settle in pockets. Little German Town, Little Italy, China Town, etc. etc. The Irish were treated shabbily for many years until they gained respect by their hard work. It seems no matter what nation we came from, some one group was the target of ridicule. I guess that's human nature at its worst.
(Photo: my grandmother Donna)
My grandmother, Katherine Donna by birth, changed her name to Donna Kay ... was quite a trend setter; a beauty of a woman. She attended school until the age of 14 .. eighth grade in American schools (very typical for her generation). After which she was self taught and quite well read. The main course of dinner tonight is one that was passed down from her mother. Remember the picture from the previous post. Well the lady in the middle of the back row was her mother, Elizabeth. She was Irish and married a man of German-Irish mix. So a German influence can be found in tonight's main course. For lack of a better name, I call the dish "Mustard Chops." German's like their mustard for sure. The Dutch oven I have is the same one great grandma Elizabeth used to cook the same dish. Grandma Donna told me her mom purchased an entire set of 'Super Maid Cookware' from a traveling salesman. I ended up inheriting one of the pans. (Photo: my great grandparents, Oscar & Elizabeth Melcher on their wedding day.)

To make 'Mustard Chops', you need only to coat seven or eight nice (bone in) pork chops with prepared yellow mustard. Dip in flour. Brown on both sides a few at a time in a large, well oiled Dutch oven. Remove chops as they are browned to finish browning remaining chops. Return all to the pan. Add two cans of cream of chicken soup and 3 to 4 cans of water .. enough to make liquid barely cover the chops. Cook covered on low for about 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Pork will be very tender and the gravy will be thickened. Serve with mashed potatoes and your favorite vegetable. See what I said about not needing a recipe? When this dish is cooking, it smells great. And the gravy is delish.

Tonight I set a typical American table. Not fancy .. but not with paper plates. We do not have a formal dining room in our home. Having such a room in the past was a waste of space for our 'not so formal' family. Our dining area is just off the kitchen in a nice sunny room. The table was purchased new when Mr. Mac and I got married (in 1980). We have many little worn spots and tiny scratch marks on the wood to remind us of the numerous meals we served to our growing family. The utensils were my Grandma Donna's everyday 'silver plate' ... as a very young girl it was my job to polish her silverware twice a year. The ruby red tumblers were my grandma Esther's. As you can see, we like to use a real cloth napkin. The kind that can get tossed in the wash and folded straight out of the dryer .. not fussy. Candles are lit when we have company or a special meal. My colors are warm, deep, rich autumn hues with a splash of white and blue. Grandma Donna's dining room light fixture now hangs above our table. The amber prisms were a treat to clean when I was a child. I'll leave you with this final picture of our meal ... and report back on the side dishes and dessert later.