I finally have the flower gardens ready for Dagmar’s graduation party.

The flowers look to be in such fine shape this year – don’t you agree?

Okay. I’m just kidding.

My sisters can stop laughing now.

I found the above picture on-line.  No such beautiful flower garden exists on my property – yet.

Actually – no flower garden exists here period. Only in my dreams.

This – dear friends – is my reality.

A hodge podge of containers from thrift stores, garage sales and junk piles filled with an assortment of flowers that I can only hope will stay alive for a few more days.

The entire arrangement is surrounded by a fence to keep the free-ranging chickens out.They love to climb in flower pots and scratch around – rearranging things for a better “seat”.

I’ve lost many a bedding plant to a chicken’s feathered backside.

The plan is to remove the fence Sunday afternoon just before the guests arrive.

We forgot that last step at Matt’s graduation party a year ago. I wonder what people thought?

On the plus side – it took me just minutes to plant them – and there was no weeding involved!

And it is – of course – one more thing of my list! Well – at least for this week…

Top picture courtesy of  SiefkinDR

]]> http://www.bluejeansandcottontees.com/flower-garden/feed/ 2 http://www.bluejeansandcottontees.com/flower-garden/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BlueJeansAndCottonTees/~3/0ix12GA-8y4/ http://www.bluejeansandcottontees.com/sandwich-buns/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 18:14:02 +0000 Country Gal http://www.bluejeansandcottontees.com/?p=6488 With graduation now less than one week away, my to-do lists are getting more and more crazy!

On today’s list – get a final count of all the buns in the freezer and decide if I have enough.

But I probably don’t. I may never.  How many buns are enough? Maybe just a few more than I already have.

At least the recipe is simple and one that I’ve made dozens and dozens of times. They’ve gone with me to many, many reunions, potlucks, and family meals where they are lovingly referred to as “Melinda Buns”.

They’re versatile too – we use them as dinner rolls, or sandwich buns and sometimes I divide the dough into 4 loaves and bake them as bread. I’ve even substituted up to half of the white flour for whole wheat.

Although a stand mixer with a dough hook (like my Bosch Kitchen Machine) is extremely helpful to make these – it still works to mix it together with a spoon and knead it by hand. Our grandma’s did it for it for years!

Melinda Buns

1/2 cup warm water
4 tablespoons yeast
4 cup lukewarm water
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
12 cup white flour
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup oil

Dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup water. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together 4 cup of water, oil, salt, sugar, and egg.

Add yeast mixture and flour. Mix together.

Knead for 10 minutes.

Put in a greased pan and cover with plastic wrap. Set in a warm place and let rise until doubled. Punch down and let rise again.

Form into 60 buns.

Let rise about 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or the tops are brown and the bottoms set.

Enjoy!

The kids are teasing about my pile of lists – even adding nonsense things to them to confuse me! (Would you believe somebody actually wrote “chip concrete from my toes” on one list?!)

But the truth is – we’re making good progress.

Dagmar’s photo collage is done, we’ve dug out all the awards and ribbons, the invitations are sent and her senior picture is framed.

The dining room chairs are recovered.

The freezer is full of buns and cookies. (Just how many cookies and buns do you need for an Open House? I don’t know about you – but I always feel like it’s a little bit more than I already have!)

Remember my week-long quilting frenzy in March? The one in which I spent an entire week cutting and sewing 3 inch blocks together and ended up with 2 twin size quilt tops?

Would you believe that I actually finished hand quilting one quilt!!! It is now laying on Dagmar’s bed.  I hope to be done with Angel Girl’s quilt this weekend.

We have sanded, stained, and varnished the window and door trim from the sun room and the 2 basement doors (some of the downstairs trim that didn’t get finished before Matt’s graduation last year.)

Then there was the school room. Remember my mess?

The desk and unused computers were replaced with a futon thus transforming the room into a guest room/library. (Look Uncle Tim – You now have a bed to sleep on when you come!)

And the piles of stuff on the floor waiting to be sorted? Well – just between you and me – I repackaged what was left and hid it somewhere else. You won’t tell will you?

I still need to make a last minute grocery list.

Wash windows.

Hang the finished trim.

Oh – and  we should probably clean house!

I think I need a new list.

We’ve had a workout today.

Things started really, really early.

Jan and I were in Kansas City and back (a 4.5 hour round trip) before 9:00 AM to get Matt to the airport for a 7:30 flight. I think the alarm clock said something like 4:00 when I woke up.

But that was just the beginning.

As soon as I got home, I popped a turkey in the oven that had been in brine overnight, started a batch of rolls for graduation, and gave 2 spelling tests and a English lesson.

By lunch time I had a mock-smoked turkey to de-bone, yeast rolls in the oven, a second batch rising and cookies in the mixer.

By 4:00 I had the turkey in the freezer for graduation weekend, 120 rolls ready to freeze, a batch of  graduation cookies done, supper in the crock pot, and 12 cups of dry bread cubes for another meal next weekend.

Oh – and a batch of decoy cookies  so the kids will stop eating the ones we’re making for graduation!

Whew. I’m tired.

Where was all my help? Matt was in a plane somewhere between Kansas City and Texas. Dagmar was in an ambulance on the way to Des Moines (as the attendant – not the patient!) and Buddy was helping Pedro fix fence.

That left Angel Girl, who bravely manned the kitchen with me all day.

She’s tired, too.

Boy am I glad supper is in the crock pot!

Anybody want to do some dishes?

I had just gotten home from a trip to town and was putting away bags of groceries…

And several garage sale treasures…

And 4 dozen rolls of toilet paper…

And purple plates and napkins for graduation…

When Angel Girl reminded me that the older kids had a Youth Group Hot Dog roast that night.

And they needed to bring something to share.

In my weariness I sheepishly offered, “A bag of chips?”

I guess not.

I closed my eyes and frantically searched my tired brain cells for any sign of inspiration.

It was a blank slate.

No wait – wait – I think I have it – there it is – yes – it came to me – mac and cheese in the crock pot.

So what if we had never made it before.  I found the recipe in my Taste of Home Slow Cooker Cook Book, handed it to Angel Girl and went to the couch with a large glass of ice water.

Sometimes it’s nice to have a teen in the house.

She made it.

She brought it.

The kids devoured it.

Success.

Slow Cooked Mac and Cheese

1 – 16 ounce package elbow macaroni
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 – 12 ounce can evaporated milk
1 – can condensed cheddar cheese soup – 10-3/4 ounce  (we substituted cream of mushroom)
1 cup milk
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/8 teaspoon paprika

Cook macaroni according the package directions and drain. Place in a large bowl and toss with the melted butter.

In a bowl combine the eggs, evaporated milk, soup, milk, and three cups of cheese. Pour over the mixture and stir to coat.

Pour everything into a 5 quart slow cooker and cook on low for 4 hours. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and cook 15 minutes longer.

Sprinkle with paprika. (We forget this step – the kids never noticed.)

Although the cheddar cheese would have added even more cheesy goodness – the mushroom soup was tasty and the teenagers didn’t seem to mind.

Enjoy!

Yep. That mess.

I really liked that little pan. So we started researching how to remove the melted plastic and restore that sweet little gem to its former glory.

We checked on line but came up short – so we checked with Jan’s buddy Donny. (Donny’s the kind of guy who knows everything – and he’s usually right.)

Well – Donny told us to throw the pan in the fire the next time we had a hot dog roast. Throw some ashes in it and let it get good and hot. The plastic would just melt off.

Remember those brush piles Jan and the boys burned off?

We did just what Donny said and threw the skillet in one of them, covered it with ashes and let it cook for awhile.

The plastic did melt right off – and so did the seasoning – leaving a rather dejected looking pan.

But Donny told us what to do about that as well!
I scrubbed it off, covered it with a thin layer of shortening and put it in a 350 degree oven for about an hour and a half.

I repeated this process until I had a nice, well-seasoned pan!

Thanks Donny.

And now you know the rest of the story!

One area that we have been putting off was bringing in the recycling.

Since we live out in the country – there are no plastic recycling buckets to set out for the garbage truck every week .  We wait till we have a bunch and then take them into town ourselves.

But now, due to budget restraints, several of our closest small towns no longer have the large community recycling bins.

Except for one. Although it’s only about 20 minutes away, we have no reason to go there, except to recycle.

So the pile of cans and jars kept growing until Jan decided that with a little detour from our regular route – we could go right through that small town on our way home from church, thus eliminating a separate trip.

It seemed like a good idea at the time – and actually worked pretty well during the winter months.

But then spring arrived. One beautifully bright Sunday morning Jan and the boys loaded the recycles in the car and we left for church. I didn’t notice anything peculiar on the way there – just some really quiet kids.

But as soon as we got in the car after church and shut the door, an almost overpowering stench hit me.

It smelled like something dead was in the van with us. Like maybe a mouse had crawled into one of the cans and died. Then – as the car sat in the heat of the sun for the 3 hours we were in church – it ripened.

I quickly rolled my window down and hung my head out – feeling sorry for the poor kids in the back seat of the van whose eyes were watering and didn’t have a window.

The 2o minute drive to the recycling bins took forever as I rode with my head out the window like a dog – just lapping in the fresh air.

I really wonder what people thought as they passed us?

Jan kept looking at me with a sheepish grin and saying, “I guess I’m in the dog house this time.”

Yep.

Let’s just say that they are sometimes you can take thrifty just a little too far!

We seem to be in a rhubarb eating frenzy! I think we’ve made at least six rhubarb crisps in the last month alone.

I kid you not!

But when the rhubarb is abundant and this crisp is so easy to make my 11 year old can do it – why not?!

I took this particular version to church one Sunday night and brought home an empty pan. The blackberries added sweetness and such a pretty color!

If you don’t have blackberries – you can always substitute raspberries, strawberries, or just add more rhubarb.

By the way – I was totally serious when I said my 11 year old can make this. Buddy made the one in the picture!

Rhubarb Blackberry Crisp

3 1/2 cups diced rhubarb
4 cups blackberries, fresh or frozen
6 tablespoons flour
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
2 cups oatmeal
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter, melted

Toss the rhubarb, blackberries, 6 tablespoons of flour and 1 cup of white sugar together in a bowl.

Place in a greased 9 x 13 pan.

Combine the oatmeal, brown sugar, butter and remaining 2 cups of flour together in a bowl.

Spread evenly over the fruit and bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. The top should be slightly browned and the fruit bubbly.

Serve with a scoop of ice cream or a large dollop of whipped cream!

Enjoy!

I’ve linked this post with Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

First the good news – look what we found growing in the orchard!

Tiny little baby peaches growing on the peach trees! Aren’t they cute! These were new trees we planted just last year to replace the ones we lost to blight.

They were covered with blossoms this spring – then we had some cold weather. We were a little worried that it may hurt them- but so far it looks good!

There’s also teeny little baby cherries, baby apples, millions of blossoms on the blackberries and raspberries, and lots of rhubarb and asparagus.

Meanwhile – in the basement – we have flats of tomatoes that are growing fast and begging to be transplanted. It’s on my to-do list for the weekend. I just need some more potting soil from the Amish store.

Now for the bad news.

Do you see those pathetic plants in the flat in front of the tomatoes? Those are my broccoli plants. They look sickly. So do the cauliflower. The cabbage never even sprouted.

I think I will add replacement plants to my list for the Amish store.

Remember the super-hot ghost peppers I planted? Only 2 of them sprouted – and they’re not growing very quickly.

And then there’s my garden spot. Oh. my. We may need to mow it before we can till it!

We planted turnips last fall as a cover crop that we could till under this spring. The only problem – they didn’t sprout last fall. They sprouted this spring.  And we didn’t get them tilled in – yet.

They also didn’t form turnips under the ground – just went to tops.

Hmm… wonder if the cows like them? What if we ran the cows through the garden for a day? They could eat the turnips and fertilize things at the same time!

Or- maybe not.

I’ve linked this post up with The Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage.

Take my brother-in-law…

He modified his IH 240 tractor with two Swisher off-set mowers. When you factor in the 60 inch belly mower already mounted on the tractor – he can now cut a swath 15 feet across – with one pass.
He named this invention “The Mozilla” and can now cut the lawn in two rounds – although if the garden was up – he would have mowed down half of it.

He’s not sure how many acres an hour it will cut, or how much gas it takes – but it sure causes the neighbors to slow down and gawk when he’s out mowing!