Fried Pepper Poppers

Hello, everybody! Here's a really fun recipe to use up all the left over peppers in your garden. (what? No leftover peppers?? Well, sometimes my husband eats ours, too, but for some reason... this year I had extra!)

Oooo, pretty peppers!

Mild banana peppers and a little hotter chile de arbol peppers.

In summer, this is what my counter looks like. Complete with little grabby hands.

Grabby and grubby.

OK, so, split the peppers down the center and get out all the seeds. I hear that's where the hot part is. I'm not sure if that's true but I don't want to test it.

So, wash them well and pat dry.

Mix 6 oz of cream cheese 1 tsp minced garlic, 1/2 tsp pepper and a little salt. (The cream cheese is salty, so you don't need much.)

I found this at my local grocery store! Oooh, feeling Southern!!

A friend who lives in Louisiana says she always rolls her batter in cornmeal before frying. I'm gonna try it.

Stuff the peppers with the cream cheese mix.

Mix the batter according to the directions and carefully coat the peppers, making sure the cream cheese doesn't fall out.

Then carefully roll in the corn meal...

Here's an action shot of the peppers getting their battar coating.

Ta-Dah! After frying about four minutes on each side, the batter should be crispy, the pepper slightly cooked (not super soft or slimey, just soft) and the cream cheese soft and melted.

Fresh cukes with cherry tomatoes! A sprig of lemon basil adds a lot of flavor. Over the cukes I usuall squeeze a lime and sprinkle some salt.

Happy summer food! The only part I didn't like was frying over the hot stove, so next time I'll use the fry daddy. Maybe I'll even plug it in outside so it doesn't make the house smell greasy, but even so, this was worth it!!

Bisquick Sausage Balls

Hi everybody!!   I needed to make some finger food for a party recently. Someone else had already snagged the veggies and dip, so what was a girl to do???

  

 I thought about an antipasto plate, but the last time I tried that, it was really expensive and no one ate any of it. I got to munch through two pounds of mozzarella balls marinated in olive oil and herbs. Yay, me!

 

So, I decided to make some yummy sausage balls I remember my college roommate making wayyyyy back in the good days. I mean, those days when I could eat twenty of these and not get heartburn or gain five pounds. The good days are gone. Don't ask me how I know this to be true.

 

Now, my roommate was from.... Can you guess?? :D  I'd been to the South before I met Gail, but I hadn't actually known any Southern people. We all know you can't have the South without Southerners. Those accents! The history! That food!

Awesomely delicious sausage cheese balls. (I don't think that's the real name, but we'll go with it.)

2 lbs good breakfast sausage.
4 cups Bisquick mix
2 pounds good sharp cheddar

MIX.

We have a local organic cruelty free meat provider. (I wondered about that cruelty party, because... the pig is dead. And we're gonna eat it. But apparently it has to do with the before-the-killing part.)

 

I had to go buy some of this. Who knew you could make so much with Bisquick??

                 Grated sharp cheese. YUMMY. I could just eat this whole plate.

Mold into two-inch balls and cook at 350F for about 10-15 minutes. Ours cooked really quickly, so check them after ten by cutting one open to make sure the pork sausage is no longer pink.

They look a little weird and lumpy but they are amazingly SOFT and full of flavor! I think you can dip them in some of those fancy mustards, but I prefer the standard plain ol' hotdog mustard.
    So, quick and easy and cruelty-free (no Bisquick was harmed in the making of this finger food).

In other news, I got an old dresser and was determined to bring it back to life.

Here it is, alligatored with age. Solid oak, super cheap yard sale item. Can it be saved???

I got one drawer stripped and added gloss. I like the way this is going....

But then, tragedy! Something had stained the bigger drawers, only two of them and only halfway. So when they were stripped, they looked... awful. Not clean. Not the tiger oak I was expecting. *SOB*

Miss Hilton Steele gave me good advice (as always) and told me to troll Pinterest. And two tone furniture kept popping up. Would it work??

So, taking a leap of faith (Wheeeeee!) I started. Cream colored, easy to distress, chalk added paint.

I really loved that tiger oak on the side and was so glad to be able to preserve a little of it!

And then I searched for a two days on all the knob sites. Who knew there were so many beautiful creations?? Glass, pottery, brass, wood, antiqued iron birdies... My head was whirling...
Then I remember I had a whole bucket of knobs I picked up at a garage sale. There might be something.... And there was! Big brass knobs, perfect for little hands!

 

I have another writing project happening so I'll see you writer types at the 1k1hr group! (Like that tumbler picture? Yeah, that's me on the left, with the fireworks...)

Until next time, my friends!

 

 



Easy Baked Feta

Helloooooo, everybody! Mary Jane here. We've had the wettest, rainiest spring in nearly 20 years. Great for farms. Not so great for flooding. We live a few hundred feet from the Walla Walla River and it's getting high... but so far, hasn't crested the bank. So I'm in a SPRING DREAMING MOOD!
I'm reposting my baked feta recipe in hopes all the spring pictures will come true!
 Spring has sprung here in Oregon. And do you know how Richard Armitage (bless his gorgeous self) is related to spring??

 

Well, I'll get to that in a minute. But first a peek at my backyard...

Everything is in bloom. The bees are out (must buy sandals, note to self!), the frogs are croaking, and the tulips, iris, and lilacs are bursting with flowers!

Little boys with butterfly nets are scouring the garden (in snow boots) for prey.

The turtles cavorted in the tall grass as we cleaned their tank. Don't blink. You might miss them. They can actually get quite far away when you're watching for butterflies.

We tried to hem them in with bodies, but the little guys kept moving away and creating a gap for escaping into the far reaches of the lawn.
                                         
Here's a little guy very pleased with his flower, carefully placed in an antique egg cup. I didn't realize he could reach that shelf. He got the egg cup, filled it with water, and picked his own flower. Cute! And now I'll go move those breakables just a bit higher...

Our yellow climbing roses are blooming. They're in the hedgerow. You have to look hard. (Ooooh, I can hear him now!!)

 

*sigh* Isn't he wonderful? here's the full clip here, if you want to watch it. I'll wait... The relevant moment is 3:44. :)

 Ok, now that we've had our Richard Armitage fix for the day, let's see what there is to cook. I'm not feeling the need for anything super difficult. Hmmmmm. Edna reminds me there's some stinky cheese in the fridge and some large sourdough boules. 

 

An older kid is on hand to help with preparations so I'll man the camera while she works. Cutting the top off the sourdough bread is the first step.

Getting the feta cheese, parsley flakes, tomatoes and garlic out is the second step. I have an odd jar of olive and red pepper tapenade so I think I'll make one with that, too.

Hollow out the bread and place it in a bowl, crumbling slightly. This will help hold all the feta and tomatoes together.

Yummy. Give me a fork.

Add garlic, parsley flakes and mix well. Put it back in the boule... HEY. Someone has taken a bite.

And I found him over near the other one. Shoo, shoo!!

*sigh* It seems everything must be taste-tested for freshness before we cook it.

Wrap the boule in foil and bake at 350F for 20 minutes.

This is the olive tapenade and feta version. The red peppers gave it quite a kick! Mmmm. Even the next day, it was good, heated a little in the microwave. This dish is definitely not a 'date night' dish, unless you don't mind feta breath. 

And to round off the spring-y post, here's an old table I picked up for super cheap. It was a wreck. But something about those lines... Edna whispered the legs were mighty fine, quite shapely. I agreed. 

Some scraping and painting (some by small children, don't flip it over since they got to paint the underside) turns into this. And in that stack is- you guessed it! North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. have I mentioned that she's a hero of mine? She wrote her books at her kitchen table, with five kids, a minister husband who gave lessons to the poor in their living room. And she wrote romances that changed LIVES. Just love her! 

  I think she was also a lovely friend. She and Charlotte Bronte were pals but one time visitors came knocking while Charlotte visiting. Being afflicted with crippling shyness, Charlotte was in tears, until Mrs. Gaskell told her to hide in the curtains. So she did. And Mrs. Gaskell entertained them, never letting on that one of the most famous authors of the day was hiding just a few feet away! What a woman. What a hostess!

 Anyway, go out and enjoy the sunshine! If there's no sun, watch North and South. A little Armitage makes everything better.

 Until next time!