Christmas Gone Again

I have not written in such a looong time. Life gets so busy and writing a blog post gets tucked lower and lower on the the to-do list and then over four months have gone by.

This Christmas we had a lovely time with my two adult children, mother, brother and his family, husband, and dogs getting together on Christmas Eve for a lasagne dinner. We started out with a spinach salad complete with bacon, egg, and homemade vinaigrette....I converted my brother to a spinach eater! We ended with lemon cake and eggnog ice cream. (The empty plate is where my 5-yr-old niece was sitting, and I was not going to pressure her into salad ..... yet.)

The day before I made Scotch eggs (for my English hubby) to take to work. I "spice" them up a little as the regular recipe is a little bland for me. I also make the sausage layer thinner than traditional Scotch eggs.

We have been busy at the farmhouse with home makeover projects as well. More to come on that later.

With the New Year soon to be here, I have made three resolutions. One is to eat healthier and try to slim down a bit. I don't do starvation diets, but I do like the idea of making better choices. The second one is to write more posts as it provides a way for me to chronicle our lives here at Amelie's, and I do not want to forget any of it. The third is to improve my Etsy shop and figure out how to take better pics of my vintage wares. Here's hoping I can keep at least one of them!

Cheers!

Visit http://chateaudefleurs.blogspot.com and check out the 1930s canisters on the left side....from my little shop at www.ameliesfarmhouse.etsy.com.

Independence Day

What a great day we had today for this fine Fourth of July. My husband, being English, says the British call it Thanksgiving. I told him that he is not funny.

Anyway, we went to our neighbors' for a barbeque and other festivities. Our neighbor is over 1.5 miles away, but they are the next house on the right from us. Every year they invite friends and family for an antique tractor parade, games, and rides. Dinner this year was squeezed in at 1 pm. We didn't stay for the after dinner parade as we were having company ourselves and needed to get home. There were a little over 100 people there this year even though it was lightly raining (but the temps were in the high 60s/low 70s.....last year it was 96). Below are a few pics. Hope everyone had a great day!

Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers

Last night was "pepper time" in my 1920s / 1960s / 2010s mishmash of a kitchen. In addition to the, chili, and jalapeno peppers, I also planted three each of sweet banana and salsa (hot!!) plants. They are doing unbelievably well this year. I put them right in the middle of all of the tomatoes in the "second" garden that has a very, very, small slope.

I have been able to pick a few bell peppers already this summer and have been watching the others grow like crazy. (I did put a little Miracle Gro-laced water on them when I planted them, but that is the only "chemical" help they have had). I decided yesterday that I better start picking before something else gets them.

Since I only have three tomatoes that are even close to be ripe, I can't make salsa or chili sauce. So I decided to chop and freeze the salsa peppers for a later use. (NOTE: WEAR GLOVES when you process hot peppers!)

I washed and removed the stems, seeds and white parts of the ribs and cut them into two inch pieces. I pulsed my little baby chopper until the pepper pieces were small enough to use in salsa or other recipes (a little goes a long way with these). I do not have a large food processor (although I would love one), so I chopped theses in three or four batches. Peppers do not need to be blanched before freezing. You can even freeze the little chili peppers whole if you like. I then spooned this into quart-size freezer bags, making sure to remove the air by rolling the bag before I sealed it. I like to flatten my bag out, evenly distributing the peppers. Some people like to freeze the chopped peppers in a single layer on a cookie sheet in the freezer before bagging. I so not bother, because it is easy "break" off small chunks of the chopped goodness when needed.

Next were my sweet banana peppers. I washed, stemmed, and seeded these babies fairly quickly. (I didn't cough constantly like it did with the salsa peppers. No hot pepper spray in the air!) I then sliced them all into rings and set them aside. I gathered my canning supplies and put the canner full of water on to boil.

I tripled this recipe. It is my first time making these, but it has good reviews. It is simple enough, and I have high hopes for yummy pickled sweet peppers on my sandwiches this winter.

Fried Zucchini

Many vegetable gardens in my part of Ohio was started a little later than usual due to the cold weather, at least later than last year when it was unseasonably warm. We have been eating spinach and lettuce for several weeks now and a few peppers, but nothing else.

Today, I was able to harvest three zucchinis and I decided to fry them up as a pre-dinner, hold-me-over snack. I know, I know. Why grow a garden for healthy eating if you just turn around and fry the veggies? Because fried zucchini is sooooo good! And it has to be better than anything you would get in a restaurant.

I use small zucchinis that have not started to develop their seeds yet. I slice them about 1/4 to 1/3 of an inch thick (you choose however you prefer them). I dip them in a beaten egg and plunge them into a flour mixture. My mixture is a little different every time I make them. Tonight it was flour, Cajun seasoning, salt, garlic powder, and lemon pepper seasoning. I like mine a little spicy so I put more Cajun seasoning than anything else. I then pan-fried them on the stove making sure not to crowd them in the pan. I used tongs to turn them when the first side was golden brown and put them on a paper towel-lined plate. I had some buttermilk ranch dressing in the fridge and used that as a dip; hubs opted for ketchup.

Sometimes I double dip my slices using milk and bread crumbs for the final coating. There is no right or wrong way to do this. I usually dip them once, so you can still taste the zucchini.

I have summer yellow squash that looks like it might be ready tomorrow night and a few bell peppers to make my almost famous "Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta."

Auctions and a New Sofa

What a week! I went to two auctions, hubs and I had a grill-out with a friend at our place, we had a mid-week dinner out, I had an all-day family visit, and I am slowly (but surely) scraping glue off wood floors in the "den."

The last month or so has been the greatest for me and the auction scene. I don't know what it was.....I was just not in the "mood" or there were just bad "pickings" all around the area. But that changed this week.

Although the mid-week auction only produced two groupings of china, one was superior being a set of six fish plates and matching platter from Bavaria.

Yesterday's auction yielded a high-quality sofa from Smith Brothers of Berne, Indiana that is in excellent condition looking extremely close to new. And is it HEAVY! thankfully, a nice young man helped me get it into the truck I had parked at the loading dock area. I also scooped up a makeup table to "French up" for my daughter and several partial sets of china.

Below are a few pics of the sofa. Although not exactly what I would pick out for the den, I couldn't pass up the deal.

Strawberry Sherbet and Strawberry Yogurt Cake

Last year I planted 50 (yes, 50) "hardy" northern European strawberry plants. Well, they weren't that hardy, because about twenty of them died over the winter, even with being "strawed." And the ones that did survive, did not produce that many strawberries. If I'm lucky and beat the critters to the ripe ones, I may get three a day.

But have no fear, my farmer friend is here. I have had three large batches of strawberries from her place. The first batch became my snack for a couple of days. The second batch became strawberry buttermilk sherbet, and the third batch became strawberry yogurt cake.

I used a modified recipe last year for berry sherbet, but I could not remember how I made it. I know I wrote it down, but I don't know where I put it. I did a quick search and found this which tastes just like it. I changed out the half-and-half with heavy cream, because that is what I had in the fridge. It is quite refreshing, and the buttermilk adds a little tang to it. I use my electric Cuisinart ice cream maker, but a friend of mine uses lidded containers in the freezer. She stirs it every 15-20 minutes until firmly frozen.

My favorite recipe is the strawberry yogurt cake that my friend Sandy had pinned on her Pinterest page. I made it last year and loved it. I made it again this year and changed one thing. Since the Greek yogurt I could find at my country market came in 6 oz. containers (I needed 8 oz.), I added 1/4 cup of heavy cream and used just one of these 6-oz. containers of Greek yogurt. The recipe is http://www.aspicyperspective.com/2010/05/farmstand-fresh.html. It is delicious!

Sorry for the lack of pics, but by the time I realized I should take them we had already made the dishes  unpretty.