Good Stuff!

I I found an awesome blog having everything to do with fabric and original patterns! This woman has 7 kids a husband and even a grandchild! She designs fabric too. Wow! No more whining from me about being too busy! Check her out; she also has some great links to other sites. Plus....she's giving away a cool one-of-a-kind bag. Even better!

Friday's Fave Foods***Buffalo Chicken Wraps

I have been under the gun at work for the last couple of weeks, creating menus for 2 of the restaurants I manage on campus. One menu is fairly easy, the other is a new concept. New concepts are difficult to create. A big gamble, trying to figure out what the customers are going to like.

But now that I have made my final discisions and presented them to the powers that be, I feel better. The new concept is an express menu featuring gourmet cold sandwiches on the go. You know, grab it and go. Harder than it sounds to create...sandwiches are big these days, but most of them are hot.

Here is one that I'm using. This is not the exact recipe, as that would be sharing intellectual property, which would be a big no-no. But....very similar. I have sold a version of this sandwich as a special for years and it has been very successful.

You can make some of the ingredients ahead of time and refrigerate, so you do not have to slave away in a hot kitchen. To me, the key ingredient is the hot sauce. I toss the chicken in it, let it marinate a bit. YUM!



Buffalo Chicken Wraps
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup buttermilk
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup hot pepper sauce
1/4 cup butter, melted
4 spinach tortillas (10 inches)
1 cup shredded lettuce
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
2/3 cup chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup blue cheese salad dressing

Directions: In a shallow bowl, combine the flour, salt and pepper. Place buttermilk in another shallow bowl. Dip chicken in buttermilk, then roll in flour mixture. In a large skillet, cook chicken in oil for 8-10 minutes or until juices run clear. Drain on paper towels; cut into strips. In a bowl, combine the hot pepper sauce and butter. Dip chicken strips into mixture, coating both sides. Place chicken in the center of each tortilla. Layer with lettuce, cheese and tomatoes; drizzle with salad dressing. Bring up sides of tortillas; secure with toothpicks if desired. Yield: 4 servings.

Heavenly Handmade Soap

I have been wanting to put a plug in for my friend Leanne, who makes the most gorgeous handmade soaps you can imagine!

I bought some soap, and also her natural bug spray, to take with me to Haiti last month. I had little problems with mosquitoes there, as it was dryer than anticipated. I have found that I have used the heck out of this stuff since I have been home! I tend to work outside either early in the morning or in the later evening (mama did not raise a dummy) and especially in the evening, mosquitoes galore! It can be miserable! But this bug spray helps alot. I break the rules...she says do not put it on your face around your eyes, etc. We have mean, wily mosquitoes around these parts. I put it on my hands first, and then put it on my face and neck. But she is right. You do not want to get it in your eyes. Oh, and the best thing is, her bug spray and soap does not have that awful commercial insecticide smell to it, you know, the kind that almost puts you in a coma when you smell it. The kind where you can't stand to be around your own self when you put it on! Leanne's actually smells good!

Leanne has lots of other types of soaps too. So check her out. I also have her linked in the margin, under SHOP!

(Please excuse the watermarks on her labels. They arrived perfect, but around here, things get used, so it did not stay perfect for long!)

Friday's Fave Foods***Best Lemonade Ever!

I did not know there was an art to lemonade until I moved South. Certainly I had tried to make it before, but it never turned out the way I thought it should. And we had lemons growing in the yard when I lived in California! (Oh, how I do miss that!)

It never occurred to me there was a method. There is, and it is similar to making sweet tea. You don't know about sweet tea? (Hint: it's not iced tea with a packet of sugar added to it) That will be a post for another day.

This is awesome for any hot summer day!

BEST LEMONADE EVER

1 3/4 cups white sugar
8 cups water
1 1/2 cups lemon juice

DIRECTIONS
In a small saucepan, combine sugar and 1 cup water. Bring to boil and stir to dissolve sugar. Allow to cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until chilled.
Remove seeds from lemon juice, but leave pulp. In pitcher, stir together chilled syrup, lemon juice and remaining 7 cups water.

Friday's Fave Foods---Easy Grilled Chicken and Sweet Onion

In the old days, I would have made these marinades from scratch and fussed 1/2 the day over this food. Those days are over, at least for now!

Grilled Chicken Breast in Zesty Lemon Pepper

chicken breast(s)

KC Masterpiece Zesty Lemon Pepper

Marinate overnight, or at least for a few hours previous to cooking. Grill on low but intense heat till cooked but not dry, turning several time, and basting with marinade if you prefer.

NOTES: That's it! EASY! The marinade is what makes it!

Sweet Grilled Onion

Whole Sweet Onion(s), Vidalia preferred

Butter (I use Smart Balance, it's fine)

Season Salt

Pepper

Cut ends from whole onion, more from top than from the bottom. The bottom, you want to make flat, but you do not want to cut so deeply into it the onion will fall apart later or leak.

Cut top, peel, and core, without making a hole that goes all the way thru the onion. Leave a bottom floor there!

Stuff cored hole with butter or herbed butter. Sprinkle with season salt. Add Tabasco if you are a spicy person!

Lay onion on it's flat bottom on sheet of aluminum foil, and wrap, like you are making a purse. Seam at the top. Wrap tightly.

Place on indirect heat, turning occasionally, but leaving it mostly sitting on it's bottom. Once it starts cooking down, there will be lots of juices in the foil, and no matter how tightly you have sealed it, if you turn it over, you could very well lose those juices.

Cook 45 minutes to an hour, depending on size of onion, remove from heat.

THAT IS IT!

NOTES: Be sure to let it cool a little before unwrapping from foil, as it will be very hot. You could slice if you want to, but onion will be on the verge of falling apart anyway. This is a great accompaniment to grilled meats and vegetables of all kinds!

Hot Summer Days

Seems we're into the long hot summer season now. It's hot, and lately humid. Not enough rain, but we are getting a little here and there, so that is helping. Previously, it has been hot and on the dry side, which is not good either---it's called drought---which is ongoing. Not great for the plants and flowers. They are surviving, but not producing much. Tonight I went on a neighborhood hunt for some tough specimens, starting in my own yard...

That is some kind of native phlox I found growing wild when I moved here 11 years ago. It did so well, I transplanted it to the garden!

My big hydrangeas are not blooming this year, and I'm not sure why. Just these little upstart suckers I took out of the ground early in the spring, that are still living in containers. But I am grateful for them!

I found this directly across the street from me on the edge of the woods. This is NOT a native in these parts. I think I accidentally weeded this out of my upper border a year or two ago, and sometimes I dump my weeds in the ditch across the street, next to the woods, where they just sort of blend in and decompose...and take root!

Miss Frances' house still stands empty, since her passing, but her apple and fig tree are doing very well!

These neighbors always have a rocking flower garden going on, but theirs also appears somewhat dormant. I also wonder if alot of folks are not saving their water allotment for their vegetable gardens. And these people have one of those too.

These neighbors have some of the most beautiful crape myrtles I have ever seen.

We're depending on our really tough shrubbery like this 'Rose of Sharon' that does not need much care or water. Related to 'Hibiscus'.

And of course, the ever perennial day lily, which never fails us!

I realize trumpet vine is considered a weed in these parts (and a pest) but hey! It's blooming! And it's not getting enough water this year to be invasive.

Friday's Fave Foods***Grillin'

Ah yes, what could be more *4th of July*? Last week-end, I finally broke down and went out and bought a grill. And I was determined, I did not want a cheapo grill on sale, I did not want an Aussie Grill that you can fold up and tote around---I wanted a Weber. Granted, looking at the budget, it might have to be a Smokey Joe, which retails at around $30.00.

But when I looked at it, in reality, I did not want to deal with finding a table for it, or with crouching down on the ground, so I went for the upgrade . I am not even going to get into a discussion about gas vs wood/charcoal. That is for the experts and the fanatics.

I had to laugh as I was putting it together, it even has whitewall tires! So how, you ask, can a person possibly live in the South and not have a grill? When I was married, we had one just like this that we bought when we still lived in California, but it was red. After the divorce I was too dang poor to buy food much less get a new grill, but when my former husband upgraded to a fancy gas grill for his deck, I was hoping he would give me the Weber. Alas, his new wife sold it at a garage sale, which just proves to me that I should have had the foresight to take the darn thing in the first place!

Fast forward to the last 5.5 years, when I was engaged to the Grillmaster of the South. He had numerous grills, (including 3 Webers) smokers, and a turkey fryer, and somehow I still came away empty handed! Sheesh, you'd think I'd learn something here! Actually, I did learn a whole lot about grilling. So, this summer, I knew I had to have one. It gets so hot in Georgia in the summer, the last thing you want to be doing is cooking in the kitchen, heating up the house, and battling your AC unit which needs all it's strength for the long hot humid summer.

Look how shiny and new the thing is! I knew this was the last time it was going to look like this, so I had to snap a few pictures. It's dark, because a thunderstorm is looming. In addition to putting the thing together, I built this little party pad for it out of some extra brick and pavers I had. At this point, I was feeling entirely too masculine for a girly-girl like me!

Simple Menu For The Grill

Rib eye Steaks

Grilled Corn-on-the-Cob

Easy Potato Salad (not grilled)

Marinate Rib eyes in covered container in Zesty Italian Dressing, refrigerated 1-4 hours.

Prepare corn for grilling by peeling off majority of husk, leaving final layer attached. Peel back, remove all silk. Brush corn with olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Cover up with husks, and using water-soaked kitchen string, truss husks around corn securely.

If you have started your coals, you will want to put your corn on first, as it will need to cook for about 30 minutes over INDIRECT heat. Once on the grill, brush with olive oil, turning every 5-7 minutes, depending on how hot your grill is. If you finish the corn before your coals have burned down enough to cook the steaks, you can set aside on grill, or wrap in foil and set off the foil. The corn will have some charred marks on it when you are finished, and believe me, this only makes it better!

Lay your steaks out on direct heat when your coals (or wood, if you are using that) have burned down a bit and are in the medium to low stage. Cook according to how you like it, medium rare, medium, medium well. For medium, and coals in the medium low stage, I usually do about 6 minutes each side. But it's all going to depend on your heat and the thickness of the steak.

Potato Salad

You will probably have to do this in the house---unless you are like the Southern G.M. and have a gas cook top in your shop---, and of course can do it ahead of time. Or not. It's fine served warm too!

2 lbs of Yukon Gold potatoes

3/4 cup of light mayo

1 bunch of green onions

1 tsp. prepared horseradish

Salt and Pepper

Boil cut potatoes about 10 minutes, until you can pierce with a fork, but not falling apart. Yukons cook fast---and are creamy and delicious!

Drain, rinse, and blanch with cold or ice water. Drain again. Add salt and pepper directly onto potatoes. Add mayo and horseradish, and mix well but gently. The potatoes are somewhat fragile, and you really don't want to end up with mashers, do you? Add finely chopped green onions, including greens. Salt and pepper to taste.

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There you have it. Easy and delicious! Have fun, and happy Fourth!

Magnolia & Gardenia

I was hoping to get this post together a week or two ago, as that was the height of the season, and seasons change. But then, Haiti happened. Need I say more?


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There are some things in the Deep South that just go together. Like peas and carrots. The Braves and beer. And the real important stuff, like Magnolia and Gardenia.

I swear there are few things on this earth more lovely than walking outside on an early summer morning, already warm and humid, and having your senses completely overtaken by these magnificent magnolia and genteel (but tough!) gardenia. The scent alone is nearly overwhelming. Separately, magnolia is musky-sweet. Gardenia is straight-on-for-you sweet. Blended, they are a perfumers heaven. Or perhaps a little preview of heaven for us mere mortals!

In my sleepy little hamlet, people tend to have alot of the same flowers, trees, and shrubs in their yards. Some common, some are rare and heirloom. The reason for this is because most of the houses are at least 50 years old---many quite a bit older----and the people that have lived here over the years shared their bounty. I have learned the hard way, if it's not in my yard, but doing great in someones down the street, find that species and give it a try. I have had success after success that way.

Gardenia, "August Beauty" is covered up twice during the season. June & August.

Disclaimer: these McMansions are not in my neighborhood. But they are a good example of how to use this shrub in a more formal setting.

When not in bloom, gardenia is green with shiny leaves year round. Great idea for right under your window, I promise!

In addition to 'August Beauty', I have several dwarf types planted in containers. I've had this one for years and years! And it never fails to produce heavily!

Magnolia, on the other hand, is a completely different deal. Some folks actually consider this magnificent tree a nuisance which baffles me. Yes, it does drop alot of it's leathery leaves, and you have to clean that up. Yes, it's roots are strong and "invasive" so if you plant a traditional Southern Magnolia right next to your house, you are going to have problems. But, in addition to the flowers, these trees produce wonderful shade, are evergreen, have interesting buds in the winter, and have strong, interesting, gnarly trunks and limbs. What is not to love?

I always wondered why it was traditional at Christmas to have Magnolia wreaths, but living with these huge trees across the street for many years, I now know. The leaves are bi-color (green and shiny, brown and matte on the underside), sturdy, and preserve well. The buds are big like pine cones, except they are dotted with red seeds. I don't like to take too many off a tree, that will be less flowers for the summer. But they are irresistible, and I will be looking forward to making one this winter!