Running around...........

 It's not much but my little lettuce patch  has fed me all summer just when I need some lettuce for a BLT or to put some on an egg salad sandwich.   I'm going to try and grow some on my sun porch this Winter.

.

 Remember when I planted the end of my celery from the store?  Here it is!  No huge stalks but plenty for my potato salad or soup or whatever. 

 All the flowers seem to be doing well this year..........

 Here's my onions from the grocery store that I planted.  They were in water and rooted like crazy....I'll show you in a week or so when they start really growing.  I like this pot because I can bring it in for my Winter/Indoor garden.

  I divided and transplanted some lilies into the vegetable garden that was.  It's one of a few perennials you can transplant in the middle of the Summer.  They seem to have taken well.  There's also another plant that was in a pot that I stuck in there too.  It's purple and smells like lavender but it isn't.  Hmmm....can't remember the name of it now.  The greenery growing on the front left is a weed!

 Yesterday I took Nitty to the vet for her allergy shot and I forgot to get Frontline when I was there.  So, today I had to go to Walmart and I went to the vet too.........I'm tuckered now!

I've had my pizza, a glass of red wine and now I'm going to curl up with the girls, the t.v., and these!

I hope you have a great Friday evening and have wonderful plans for your weekend! 

A few setbacks! LOL!

I was making pizza last night and went out to get basil and it had bugs on my one plant but thank goodness the other one was okay.  Then I went to get some parsley and..........

 See the worms or caterpillars or whatever?   At first I thought they were the horn worms I had last year that destroyed my tomatoes but they were solid green and these don't have horns and they are gorgeous with their green and yellow and black coloring.  But as you can see they have voracious appetites!
So much for my parsley!

Arkansas is Nature heaven for nature but not for gardeners.... this is a blurry photo but it was a baby deer in my back yard.........
Bambi, I'm sure!

 

 And then there's my little hummers that I feed.........hard to get a shot of them.......

They're right outside my kitchen window....

 I didn't let any of it deter me though and went on to make my pizza.........

 It looked great going into the oven.............

 And even better coming out....

 Until I looked at my nice clean oven......that I had JUST cleaned that morning.....AHHHHHHH!

Oh well, I guess I'll get to clean it again but meanwhile I did enjoy that pizza!  Hope you had a great day and that YOUR oven stays clean longer than mine! LOL!

Blackberry Cobbler Recipe....YUM!

I promised I'd post the recipe for the blackberrry cobbler I made the other day.
I'm sure there are other recipes and I'm not saying this is the best but it sure was EASY!  Except for cleaning the oven the next day.  DO NOT put it in a pie dish like they recommend.  Instead, use a deep dish casserole as it will bubble up and you don't want to have to clean your oven afterwards like I did.

 Below was the "accident waiting to happen".......

 and this is what it looked like after the "spill over"....

 But it had no effect on the taste which was all I really cared about by then! LOL!

I'm no food stylist but if you're after a tasty dessert this one fits the bill!

Blackberry Cobbler with Bisquick
1 1/2 cup blackberries (I think you could use other berries and fruits but don't quote me!)
1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbs cornstarch

Topping
1 cup Bisquick (store bought or homemade)
2 tsp sugar
2 tbs melted butter
1/4 cup milk

Instructions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F
2.  For Topping: Mix Bisquick, sugar, butter and milk.
3.  For Filling: Combine blackberries, water, sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch.
     Bring to a boil.  Cook for 2 minutes. Put into deep dish casserole and cover with topping.  I would actually double the topping as there wasn't enough to cover the top really.  Also, you might want to add a little more milk if it seems really stiff like mine did. 
4.  Bake until golden brown about 25-30 minutes.  Serve warm over ice cream!  If you like it warm after you've refrigerated it you can heat it up in the microwave and then put your ice cream on top of it.  Where there's a will there's a way!  I prefer it warm as it seems more flavorful to me.

This recipe is from www.kitchennostaglia.com which also has a conversion chart for my cooks from across the pond and everyone other than the U.S. which I think is the only country in the world that doesn't use the metric system.  I even used metrics when I worked in a medical lab years ago but not in my kitchen! LOL!  Once you're on their website just scroll down and it is on the left hand side!  Bon A Petite!

Blackberry Cobbler with Bisquick

Home | Jun 14, 2013 | Category: Desserts Taggs: berry, bisquick, blackberry, cobbler, crust, easy, fresh, homemade, how to make a, pie, simple, with bisquick

An easy Blackberry Cobbler recipe using store-bought or homemade Bisquick mix.



Print

Blackberry Cobbler with Bisquick

 

Ingredients

• 1½ cups blackberries
• 1 cup water
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp. cornstarch
• TOPPING:
• 1 cup homemade Bisquick
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 2 tbsp. butter, melted
• ¼ cup milk

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. For TOPPING: Mix Bisquick, sugar, butter and milk.
3. For FILLING: Combine blackberries, water, sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch. Bring to a boil. Cook for 2 minutes. Pour into pie dish and cover with topping.
4. Bake until golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

For more Bisquick recipes click here.

- See more at: http://www.kitchennostalgia.com/desserts/blackberry-cobbler-with-bisquick.html#sthash.dXdTqybb.dpuf

Blackberry Cobbler with Bisquick

 

Ingredients

• 1½ cups blackberries
• 1 cup water
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp. cornstarch
• TOPPING:
• 1 cup homemade Bisquick
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 2 tbsp. butter, melted
• ¼ cup milk

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. For TOPPING: Mix Bisquick, sugar, butter and milk.
3. For FILLING: Combine blackberries, water, sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch. Bring to a boil. Cook for 2 minutes. Pour into pie dish and cover with topping.
4. Bake until golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

- See more at: http://www.kitchennostalgia.com/desserts/blackberry-cobbler-with-bisquick.html#sthash.dXdTqybb.dpuf

Blackberry Cobbler with Bisquick

Home | Jun 14, 2013 | Category: Desserts Taggs: berry, bisquick, blackberry, cobbler, crust, easy, fresh, homemade, how to make a, pie, simple, with bisquick

An easy Blackberry Cobbler recipe using store-bought or homemade Bisquick mix.



Print

Blackberry Cobbler with Bisquick

 

Ingredients

• 1½ cups blackberries
• 1 cup water
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp. cornstarch
• TOPPING:
• 1 cup homemade Bisquick
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 2 tbsp. butter, melted
• ¼ cup milk

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. For TOPPING: Mix Bisquick, sugar, butter and milk.
3. For FILLING: Combine blackberries, water, sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch. Bring to a boil. Cook for 2 minutes. Pour into pie dish and cover with topping.
4. Bake until golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

For more Bisquick recipes click here.

- See more at: http://www.kitchennostalgia.com/desserts/blackberry-cobbler-with-bisquick.html#sthash.dXdTqybb.dpuf

Have I got some great tips for you!

I am SO excited to share these with you!   I found these 2 wonderful tips and tried them out and they WORK!!!!  I've been copying things from blogs, Facebook and Pinterest to use when I need to do that particular task.  Well, last week Karen from GraphicsFairy  
had a post about cleaning her "dingy" vinyl floors.  My ears perked up as I have old, "dingy", used to be white floors.  She used  Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner on her floors and it was miraculous!
I haven't done my entire floor yet but I happened to have a can of Scrubbing Bubbles and I couldn't wait to try it.........

 Will you look at that?  I clean my floor and that "dingy" look never comes off no matter how hard I scrub but I sprayed the Scrubbing Bubbles, left it for a few minutes as Karen suggested and came back and just swiped it with a rag and that rag was black with dirt!  I am so excited!  Karen said she used 3-4 cans to do her whole floor but it's not something you need to do every time you wash your floor.  I would say probably twice a year maybe.  Isn't that just the coolest?  I love it when something actually works! 
I had some blackberries I needed to use up so I decided to make a cobbler.  I followed a new recipe that used Bisquick and it said to put it in a pie dish........

                                                                         NOT!!!!!!!

 Now, my oven needed to be cleaned but now I HAD to clean it before using it again or it would just bake on.   But like Scarlett O'Hara....I would deal with that tomorrow.  Meanwhile, I had some cobbler to enjoy!  BTW it was great cobbler and I will share the recipe later but I will use a deep dish casserole next time!

Tomorrow arrived for Scarlett and me and so today was all about cleaning that oven!
 I had seen some articles about not using strong oven chemicals and decided to try the baking soda and water paste method....the application is a bit messy but certainly easy.  Let it sit for awhile...I think I left it for an hour.

 I wiped it out but there were still some spots that needed work.  I had also heard that hydrogen peroxide worked well with it so I mixed up a spray bottle of it and sprayed the remaining spots and left it sit again for about 30 minutes.

                                                                     Ta Dah!!!                                  

 There's a little haze that I could have kept rinsing and washing off but it was time for supper so I figured it will burn off when I use the oven next.  I have to say that this worked better and without scrubbing than any store bought oven cleaner I've ever used!  I have rheumatoid arthritis so my "elbow grease" is minimal anymore.  This worked great considering my oven is over 40 years old and I am too! LOL!
I hope you can use these tips and pass them on.  Anything that can safe time and drudgery is a win-win in my book!  TTYL!

Out of commission but not out of the game!

There's an old Abbot and Costello (?) line that goes..."I've got a weak back" and the other guy says "When did you get that?"......."Oh, about a week back".   That's ME!  I did something to my back last week and I don't have a clue what it was but I was in pain and could barely walk and if I did I was bent over staring at the floor!  I have a strong back and back muscles.  The last time I ever had a back issue was about 30 years ago after I delivered one of my children.  But I am slowly recovering and every day gets better and better.  That is the reason I haven't blogged or done much of anything for that matter.  I couldn't even knit for awhile as everything I did seemed to aggravate it.  I was beginning to think I broke it but I guess I'm just getting old and things don't heal very fast.
Last week,  before I hurt my back, I had dug through my active projects and organized them
and this is what I am currently working on....
There's this chair pad which I'm sewing together and underneath is that Ball Band Washcloth with all the ends to sew in.  I know it's hard to see but I've actually worked on them both a bit but they are both so tedious that I will probably never do either again. LOL!

 I forgot I had my DPN sample socks to finish and I thought I was on the 2nd sock but I was only on the first (boy, have I been living in a dream world!) anyway I discovered that the most critical time in my knitting is when I first pick it up and start in like I know what I'm doing.....you guessed it...the sock below got frogged but never fear, I'm almost back to that exact point again.  You see now why it never looks like I get anywhere?  Because I DON'T!  10 steps forward and 20 steps back....the story of my life....sad but true.  But look what I  found on some needles that only needs to be bound off, I think. A checkerboard pattern scarf in some gorgeous Noro yarn that was one of my first projects!  Yes, there is a higher power!  I think the pattern is in my copy of Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair wherever that is.  It's a great book by the way too!  Funnier than heck and includes patterns.

 Here's 2 more pillowcases to make for the grandboys but no crocheted edging on these.

 And yes, still working on my wool applique quilt....I've traced the last block and now need to find the wool to use for the applique.  This is block #12 of 12 but there is a border to applique after that which goes all the way around the quilt.

I can't forget my Rubber Ducky washcloth which I am finally doing correctly but WHAT IS THIS?????
See the gaping stitches?  I counted the stitches for all those rows and they are correct....no dropped stitches so what the heck are the droopy stitches from?  I swear I am going to give up knitting for Lent!  This is a washcloth....how hard can it be and I was doing great UNTIL.  I think there must be knitting gremlins that do this to me.  I may try and continue and see if some kind of miracle happens and it mends itself somehow.  I don't mind making mistakes but not when I don't have a clue what I did wrong...there's no learning in those types of mistakes unless I keep making it and maybe I'm just thick headed and don't "get it" until the 3rd or 4th time.  That could very well be! LOL!  And to think it was just starting to look like a real duck too!

 I dug out my Blackberry Salad blanket again and discovered a half done potholder too.  I need to start back working on this.

And there's Maggie rabbit that needs to be paid some attention although I did do some hand sewing on her this week.

 

And then there's my cross stitch which is my back up when I'm too frustrated to work on those other projects! LOL!

 I hope your week was better than mine and that you got to work successfully on your projects.  I'm still organizing mine for the year!  I'll be around later to check on everyone but I'm so far behind in everything here that it may take me all week! LOL!  Have a great week and I am so thankful to be back on my feet again!
P.S.  I also have to finish up the grandboy's quilt as I think he's coming to visit over Labor Day!  Now there's some great news!