Your New Food Blog

I asked for your recipes and you sent them. I collected them all (I hope) and added a few of mine.
They are all on a new blogsite: http://fabufood.blogspot.com/
I tried all sorts of names for the site and url and my first 37 were already in use. I am not kidding. So I resorted to my short hand for Fabulous and went with Fabu Food.
I have not tested these recipes for flavor, accuracy or audience appeal. I am trusting that they are all tested by you the reader. One or two of them are mine and I will continue to add to the list whatever you send me. So DO SEND MORE RECIPES.
Of course they are much better if you include good pictures, which I want to add. If you make one of these recipes and have photos to share, please send them to me and I will include them in the recipe.
There are 43 recipes so far, and some are nearly the same but the differences are worth posting. For example two for Key Lime Pie, and pasta salads. All sounded superb. I didn't categorize them either, like dessert, main dish, salads, finger foods. I am sure you can figure it out. Also, I tried to include the sender's name. I hope I got those right too.
The site link will always be in my sidebar now. I hope you have some time to review the collection and send me your favorite dish for parties or just a good meal at home. I love having these recipes to keep and share.

Wow! Wow! Wow! Fantastic Foods!

You people are the best! I got about 60 recipes and they seem to keep coming. I guess we have a cookbook in the making here, or at least a website with all of them available...coming soon. Don't stop sending them and I promise to compile them all and make them available as a link on my sidebar. These are all too good not to share.
Here's what I finally decided to make today for tomorrow's party (recipes will be on the new site I'll make).
Chicken Red Grape Pecan Salad (with Bacon) on Mini-Buns
Homemade Chorizo Empañadas
Cream Cheese and Salsa Roll-ups
Tuscan Salami and Cucumber slices on Parmesan-Pecan Shortbread
Tomato Bacon* Cups
Tabouleh (gotta have veggies!)
Garlic breadsticks (unless Dave eats them all first)
Seedless Watermelon Chunks
Chocolate Black Cherry Jello Poke Cake

Phew! Must get cookin'!
Love y'all

* My sister is coming. Must have bacon.

I want your recipes

Today I am doing something different, and asking for your recipes. I specifically want your do-ahead and bring out at the party, ready to eat ideas. This weekend house party fare needs to be cooked or compiled on Friday since I am picking up my guest at noon Satrurday and the party will start about three hours later. No time to fool around in the kitchen and still have fun with my peeps. So come to my rescue and send me your fave finger foods, main course stuff, and/or salads. I have dessert, but need the dinner stuff!
Here's a great one for a fast easy dessert that Ann from Michigan sent me.

Hi Melody,

This is an all time favorite around here. A great do-ahead recipe. People love it and it is easy. What else could it offer--oh, it's delicious!
Buttermilk Velvet (stop~--even if you hate buttermilk--keep reading)
1 3 oz. pkg of Instant Jello Pudding (we like to use cheesecake or French Vanilla if adding fruit)
1 cup liquid buttermilk
1 regular size container of Cool Whip, thawed
Dump the Cool Whip into a medium size bowl. Pour the buttermilk over it. Sprinkle the dry pudding mix over everything. Using a spatula, (FOLD--do not whip, beat, or otherwise abuse this concoction) in the dry powder. You are not trying to make all the dry powder disappear and mix perfectly with the Cool Whip and buttermilk--just mix it up a bit. If you use a clear glass bowl, you can see if you have any big clumps of dry stuff which need your attention. Then, let it stand a minute or two. It will begin to set up--trust me.
Now, if you are wanting to be fancy, put it in a graham cracker crust. Or, put it in a 9 x 13 baking dish and put blueberries and/or stawberries on top. Or, if your frig. is cramped for space, put it in a 9 x 5 x 4 bread pan. You can mix blueberries right in (I use frozen if I don't have fresh.)

Then, just let it set up. You can make this a half hour before serving or the previous day. It is one fantastic recipe.
Now--think chocolate, coconut cream, banana cream, the variations are endless. You can use sugar free or "full sugar" pudding.
We just polished off the last of the Cheesecake/with frozen blueberries, today. I'm getting hungry--gotta go.

Ann Sandberg

Chassell, MI

Resurrection

 The rebuilding of our quilt shop Sew Be It has really taken off. It has been a little over a month since the tornadoes hit northeastern Georgia. It is amazing to me that this has progressed so far. Thanks to Martha Steele for providing the photo montage.

I'm off to knitting today,
Love,

Season Finale

I made it: all the planting is done. At the end I usually have unopened seed packets and yesterday I distributed seeds in likely-to-grow spaces and left it at that. Last year I tossed in a packet of wildflower seeds and I have some unrecognizable flowers in bloom in my back garden. Not ready for prime time flowers which will be unceremoniously ripped out soon. Each year the planting is finished sooner than the last and one wonders where in the world I will find room to put anything else next year...and yet I do manage.
We had a fabulous close the windows at 3am rain last night which means I have been exempted from watering duty and can return to the laundry and getting ready for my next houseguest. My cousin Celeste, who has the same birthday as me but is two years younger is coming for a quick visit this Saturday and is leaving the next day. We have not seen each other since we were children, because as you may recall, we are a very close family, NOT. But I am so looking forward to seeing her at the tiny Chattanooga airport and getting to know all of her story. She is also a gardener, so we will peruse the various plots and examine their progress.
My sister also wants to meet Celeste so there will be a big family dinner Saturday...6 people, which means I GET TO COOK!!! Yay!!!
And we all will eat on the new deck. Double Yay!!
I have been on a kick to make these jello poke cakes and have the ingredients for carrot cake with orange jello and for the pudding-cool whip frosting I have butterscotch pudding. But I also have milk chocolate cake, with black cherry jello, real dried cherries to mix in, and then for the frosting dark chocolate pudding.  Hmmm. Difficult choice.

Anyway, I have a great reason to spruce up the place and have a party, which as you know I love.

And now a word about Season Finales on TV. My friend Rose and I have been discussing the degrading value of the House series, one we never wanted to miss, but now has gone stale. I learned that Lisa Edelstein won't be returning as Cuddy, so as far as I am concerned I won't be returning either.

Tonight is the penultimate American Idol competition, which Dave and I have been watching together, and betting real money on each round of eliminations, with both of us trading the same $20 bill. Silly but fun. At this point it doesn't matter who wins as they will both be able to make a career out of the experience. And for once both can really, really sing.



 

Lauren Alaina and Scotty McCreery



Dancing with the Stars has been fun this season too, and I am hoping for Hines Ward to win, but am so happy to see Kirstie Alley last this long.

The Good Wife was my favorite show of the year and last week it ended with a bang, you'll pardon the expression.
The final episode is viewable here, so get your popcorn and close the doors and get ready for a goodie.

After this weekend,my summer begins and I can turn my steel trap of a mind to other things. I'll be doing a lot of reading in the shade, knitting on the deck and walking the pup. Probably something creative will happen in the studio but we'll see what inspires me after all this time. Geesh, the last quilt I made was on April 18th.
Everything has its season, doncha think?

The Irresistible Morning

My blogging is getting later everyday because I am spending more morning time in the garden, watching things grow and change, and flower. I got so excited when I spied this self seeded geranium. I couldn't believe last year's plants had dropped seeds behind my back, and yet here is the proof. Tinier than the clover, but still visible. It's only May, so I expect to see this flower before the hard frosts come in December. I'll keep you updated.

And then...I found another one this morning! This is more obvious, with its zonal coloring, but it is still way tiny. Let's hope the Dawg doesn't step on it with his big clodhopper feet. It is in amongst a zillion self-seeded phlox, which don't excite me much. I am pulling them out of the mulch all over the yard.

I have succumbed to two new hydrangeas. Endless Summer brand, and this one is Twist and Shout.

The outer flowers are lavender pink and the center buds open to a blue-purple. Even the leaves have color, both green and reds. Amazing. I haven't planted them yet, as the guys are working just where they need to go, so I must wait.

Here's the opening blooms in the center. I expect these to hold their heads up high, since the blooms aren't ever going to weigh much. Lace cap, I think they call these.
And then we have Blushing Bride  white with a hint of purple in the petals and centers. It already has heavy mophead flowers.
I have a no name reddish purple variety, an Annabelle mophead which will bloom for the first time this year, a wild native lace cap, a pink and two blue specimens.
These ought to satisfy me... until I can find another spot to plant more next

season.

The front gardens are filling out nicely. In the winter not much but the rose stems and hardy geraniums remain and one thinks that it is a barren wasteland. Then comes Spring and vaVOOM.
Here's what it looks like in March.

The hosta below start out all dark green and lighten as the season progress, as well as grow larger and larger leaves. I must divide them next Spring for sure. The peony in the center of those hosta bloomed for the first time this year.
I was delighted to find it was a single. When I bought all my peonies, they were labeled and I forgot to save them, so each opening bud is a surprise.

The other side of the front bed, full of huge hosta and now astilbe. I keep removing the hidden hosta varieties under the bigger leaves of the remaining ones. I never thought they would get so overwhelmingly big.













The Astilbe is becoming my new fave, as they are troupers in this spot. I have pink, white and reds.

I have finally learned to read the labels and put them in the shade.
Duh.

PS These photos were all taken with my little Canon Powershot SX210 IS

Cleaning up

Our intrepid Dawg goes into the swampy end of the pond to retrieve a plastic bottle, thus taking the lead on the big clean-up at the Mexican Chalet.
I have been so "distracted" by all the construction, gardening and outdoorsiness around here, not to mention shopping, that I have let the house go to the dogs um, get messy. Mountains of laundry, dirty dishes, doggie toys everywhere, and piles of wrappers, mail, and beer bottles are cluttering up the path to the bathroom.
Something has to be done about it and my working men are not up to the task, so it falls to me to tackle it.
 I kept thinking I would be working on something in the studio and actually did drag out the fabric one day and spent nearly all afternoon figuring out what I might make, but alas, it has gone stale on me and I fear I will abandon it.
If only it would rain again, I might not feel that I am missing out on something by cleaning up inside.

My Next Project

I sent Dave and Mike to Lowe's and the Randall Walker Nursery Thursday morning. At the nursery I asked them to find a Coral Bark Japanese Maple. I decided not to settle for anything else, and I am so glad I didn't buy the ones I saw at Lowe's on Wednesday, as this one was so much nicer. It's the tree in the middle of the flower pots. And the white lattice panels I had them buy were for my next project.

 Here are some shots of the Japanese Maple. The coral colored bark and lacy leaves make this a beautiful specimen for the front of our entrance. The flower pots have to go.

In the back of our house is the other deck which gets ignored because the railroad ties heat up in the hot sun and the creosote preservative is kinda stinky. So I thought we could cover them with these heavy duty plastic lattice and spruce up the spot, as well as lessen the sun's impact on the retaining wall timbers. We moved all the potted plants here to make a pretty arrangement and brought out the bench, table and chairs to tuck into the shade next to the house. It gets hot here in the mid afternoon, but is just the perfect spot to cool off after a soak in the hot tub in the early morning or at dusk. Or to have a cocktail at sunset. Yum.


This facelift was relatively inexpensive, since we already had the plants and furniture. The panels were only $28 each, and so easy to screw into the retaining wall wood.
 It was cool at dinner time so we had some quiche that I had made earlier and whiskey sours, all the food groups.


The water lilies are blooming away and so pretty for so early in the season. We can see them from the back deck.


Now the new tree is planted and so is the big flat rock which will hold something significant whenever we figure out what that may be. When all the leaves fall later this autumn we will have the adjacent magnolia bush moved from the current spot. It is too close to the planter box and we need a space to walk along the side there, just where it is planted.
The landscaping continues tomorrow with more mulch and the planting of my newly purchased plants. The goal is to be finished by Memorial Day. Not that we have a REAL deadline. But one wants to feel like it is time to make use of the features we have created.

Early Morning Walkies

I must really love that Dawg to get out of a warm cozy bed before the sun to walk him....And I do. It has been chilly lately but we are due to reach the 70's today, and hopefully we'll see the sun.

He must smell everything. There was a hint of skunk in the air yesterday but no sign of them today. Chum has reached the 27.5 pounder stage. More running, less eating is the prescribed treatment. His bulk is really noticed when he jumps on my chest, Ooof!


Um...there was a plant sale at Lowe's again, and I just happened to be there at just the right time. 75% off.

Impossible to pass up all of these pots, which only needed a bit of deadheading and water. Ivy leafed geranium in a hanging basket, gazania, reiger begonias which I would never had bought at full price but could not resist. (notice the yellow flower pot?...not on sale, oops).

I got three big pots of pink Wave petunias which had the thickest heaviest branching leaves. I hope I can get them in the ground today.

I limited myself to three pots of Japanese red grasses, which are annuals here on the mountain but grow fast and have nice bushy seed heads, so were 'worth' the $1.50.

And I took only three red pots of Red Velvet geraniums. They are in nursery pots so the red outer pots were a bonus. Same with the begonias which have nice lime green pots. I also finally found my Burpless Bush cucumbers and a Black Beauty zucchini. Today I will try and get my beet seeds in the veggie garden, which due to the cool weather, I was in no hurry. The tomatoes and peppers are just waiting for the heat, but the green beans are all up and about to set their second leaves. I am not complaining about the coolness, since I know hot days are coming.

I was all done buying plants but then I had to stop at Walmart and found these quarts of Kassandra Heuchera for $3.33 each.Of course I got six. And I have just the spot for them, along the new brick walk.