Another food entry...

Sausage-stuffed Portobellos with Spinach!  Oh my goodness talk about YUM!  This is a recipe gotten from (here)  I must admit, her photo turned out much better.  I'm still working on learning how to photograph food...  Anyhow, a few of you have mentioned that I should include the recipes as well.  I'm going to be lazy and just have the link to the blog I got it from I'm sure Pam won't mind...(right Pam?)  This recipe is from "Cuisine at Home's Weeknight Grilling"- Dinners from grill to table in 30 minutes, I may have to try to find this book for my own collection.  Like Pam, as I was eating this I was thinking of when I could make it again!  The mushrooms had that great meaty texture to it and the sausage gave it a bit of a tasty "zing"! (I used whole seasoned bulk sausage)   The onions and peppers gave it a little soft textured crunch and the cheese was gooey. (I used Pams's suggestion of dotting the cheese on top instead of adding it to the meat mixture) The tomatoes gave it freshness and the topping was crunchy and topped it off to wonderful perfection!  I served it with couscous that had arugula and spinach added to it and the whole meal was fabulously delicious!  AND  it really wasn't a messy meal.  I used one pan to cook the stuffing components in and one bowl for the topping.  I grilled the mushrooms on the grill outside and there you have it!  

Oh, and here is the plate at the end of the meal!  

This is a meal worth serving to family and friends!  Thank you Pam for bringing this recipe to my attention it is much appreciated!

       

Yesterday my in-laws came to visit.  They will be with us over the weekend and today we will be going to an Antique shop I discovered a while back.  I love going to Antique shops so I am really looking forward to getting going!  

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend and please do try this recipe!  And DO enjoy the rest of "Sidewalk shoes' "  blog.  

Cuisine India...

Well, here it is and I must say... it tastes better than it photographs.  Obviously I need to work on my photography skills because, seriously, it looks a bit of a mess.  But... it sure went down easy.  And my honey said that it actually tasted just like something he had when we last ate at the Indian restaurant!  The Naan needs a little more work but it tasted good.  Just a bit thick.  Probably needed to stretch it out a bit more.  I love using my mortar and pestle to grind up the spices it is so neat to smell the different spices as they are being ground.  And then when the spices hit the oil.... it's an aroma heaven moment!  I made the Naan basically by hand except the kneading part which I used the Kitchenaide for.  It is so much easier on the wrist that way and the dough comes out silky smooth.  And I probably 

won't bake it for as long.  (it only took 4 minutes!)  And I'm playing with the idea of maybe grilling it on the gas grill instead of using the oven.  My oven sucks!  I didn't choose this stove it came with the house and I hope that the other house has a better stove! (I can't remember)  Anyhow...  The recipes came from a cookbook that I found on the sales rack in Borders for $4.99!  (I just love that!)  The book title is "India's 500 best recipes".  The chicken recipe is Chicken Dopiaza and the literal translation for Dopiaza is "two onions".  You cook two different types of onions at different stages of the cooking.  Although the recipe doesn't state what types of onions to use other than "small and large", I decided to use pearl onions and then yellow onions.  It tasted yummy!  The Naan recipe was super easy and it didn't call for any kind of "special" flour.  It uses bread flour and there are other spices and such that you can add to it to change it up.  Next time I'm going to make the Garlic &Coriander Naan.  I decided to go with the plain Naan because I had Chime Choir practice that night and I didn't want to overwhelm everyone with the garlic!  (see, I can be nice sometimes... ;} .......)

So, tonight, I have no idea what I'll make yet.  I'm feeling a little Rachel Ray like.  You know, "30 minute meals".   I've got tons of things that need to get done today and when my day is like that I tend to put off thinking about what I'm going to cook until the last possible minute.  Hence the "Rachel Ray" description.

I hope you all are having a great week!  And thank you for stopping by... ;-)

Daffodils, tomatoes and roses, oh my!

Hi all!  Today is a lovely day!  All sunshiny and fresh smelling.  We've had a few days earlier in the month when it got up into the high 60's!  And although it's not near that warm today... the sun is shining and the air feels fresh!  So much so that I've pulled out my flower catalogs and my seed catalogs AND my pictures of magazine cut outs featuring gardens!  I'm thumbing through them saying, "oooh!  I want that!  And that!  And OH, that one too!"  I'm looking at photo's of gardens I admire.  And gardens that look basically similar to what my new yard will look like.  (Don't get excited, nothing is a done deal yet.)  I pulled out my garden notebook and I'm patting myself on the back for having finally followed through with a good idea.  And that is to keep track of the plants that I've planted and the plants that I've moved around over the last two years!  I even marked what days I planted seeds and plants and how long things took to germinate and thrive.  Man, when I'm good, I am just that good!  ;-

Okay, maybe I'm patting myself on the back a bit too enthusiastically!  I've always wanted to keep a garden diary.  I've thought about doing just this type of thing for years and years.  All those years of messing around in the tiny yards in our government quarter homes.  Trying to find out exactly what "dappled light" really was.  And trying hard to think about other people and what the next family would be willing to do in the yard or even what they wouldn't do in the yard.  The thought that all my hard work would fall to a family that didn't have time or wasn't interested in "gardening" was really hard for me.  So I would try to do plantings that didn't take a lot of maintenance.  And hope for the best.  But now....  for the past two years I've been able to really get my hands dirty and experiment and purchase plants that I've always wanted!  Lavender, Roses, Tulips, Daffodils, Ferns, Hostas, Day Lilly's and so on.  I've drawn pictures in my garden diary to keep track of where I planted things and where I've moved one plant to another place.  And that's just my flowers.  I've got records of my vegetable gardens too!  Even stuff like when our last frost was, when we planted our first tomato plants.  AND I've kept track of some of the bird migrations!  I mean, come on!  I NEVER thought I'd be that detailed!  Heck sometimes I amaze myself... gosh I'm boastful today!

So for now I'll just sit here and look at these photo's and thinking "can I make our next house look wonderfully, interesting?  Can I make it special to be in?  Can I make it so my yard invites everyone who sees it?"  I sure hope so.  At least, I will record and track all that I do in the hopes that someday it will be as I see it in my minds eye.  ;)

Peace and joy to you all.  And enjoy your daydreams....

Warm neck...

Happy holiday everyone!  Okay, for those of you who didn't get this day off.... bummer.  On a good note ya'll maybe didn't have the normal traffic to deal with since a lot of people got to stay at home.  ;-)  

So, this is the scarflet that I finished.  It turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.  And I luckily got to wear it before the winter was over!  Hurray!  It took me FOREVER to get it done even though it was a really simple garter stitch.  The loop had me working hard trying to figure out how to do it.  One of the things that I find very difficult is the different pattern directions.  There seems to be more ways to write a pattern than there are for Crochet patterns.  Maybe I'm wrong.  It has been a while since I picked up a crochet hook...  Anyhow, I finally, with the help of others, figured out how it needed to be done.  And voila!

Now I am working on a no-sleeve cardigan and I think I may have made a huge mistake trying to make this.  It took me nearly two months to make the scarflet.  The cardigan may not be completed until this time next year!  I've done about 6 hours of knitting and it's only about 5 inches long.  BLAH!  But I like the yarn  I got and the colors on it.

I've gotten responses on my little bag.  I think all of you who expressed interest in the felting and needle felting should all just bite the bullet and go for it!  It is the most fun I've had in ages!  Seriously, no drawing talent is needed.  I have none!  You don't need color theory in your back ground!  You don't need to know mathematics!  Although, for those of you who may be slightly accident prone.... I say, proceed with caution.  Those needles are really scary looking and I wouldn't want one of those to go through my finger!  :-0  There were times when I got so excited punching the fibers through that I got a little carried away and started going really fast!  I even broke a few needles!  So, extreme caution is advised!  But man, I'm tellin' ya!  It is tons of fun!

I hope you all have a really nice day.  And try something crafty!  ;-)  

Ta-daaaaaa

Here it is...the final product!  It was sooooo much fun!  The knitting part was good, fun in it's own way and then the felting part was cool.  But the needle felting was awsome!  I LOVED doing that part.  Part of it was the excitement of trying NOT to stab yourself with the wicked looking needles and the other part was the whole putting the fibers into something and making a design out of it.  Hmmm, that doesn't really make any sense.  It's hard to describe just how cool it is to pick up the wool roving and lay it down on the felted field and then make a design appear right before your very eyes.  Gosh, I feel giddy all over again just thinking about it! 

 As you can see I did the front AND the back.  Mainly because I just didn't want to stop doing the needle felting.  And because most of the time when you buy things from a store, things already made, they usually don't think about putting a little something in the the back.  Or maybe it's because it costs more money...  anyhow... I did manage to stop myself before I went too far.  

So my baby girl said she liked it and I am soooo glad she likes it because, as I mentioned, I loved making it!  Now I'm thinking about making something else in the felted wool and needle felting craft.  =-)  Ya'll really need to try this!  Too fun!

I've finished three items since I started knitting this winter.  I'm slow but that's okay, the little scarflet I made, I ended up ripping out stitches so many times I could have made three more things if I hadn't made so many mistakes.  But, it turned out really cute.  I'll put that up soon.  Hopefully I'll do that in a day or so.  

Okay, the other thing I wanted to mention is that the inspection on both of the houses has gone off without a hitch.  Everything is wonderful and now we are just waiting to have the appraisals done!  We're almost there.....  I'm beginning to get excited!!!!!!!  More later!  ;-)

Have a great day!  And thanks for checking in!