grilled veggies

The weather has turned cooler, so we decided to grill last night. Grilling had been on the menu for Wednesday, but it didn’t work out for that evening, so I had everything we needed on hand. DH was running late with work, so I decided to stick the pork steaks under the broiler to give them a head start. Then I moved on to preparing the veggie packets. I found this recipe for grilled potatoes and it reminded me of the foil packets we made as I was growing up. My mother would put a hamburger patty and potatoes (and any other veggies we wanted) into a foil packet and we would cook them over a camp fire or at home in the oven.

Ingredients for the veggie packets can be any vegetables you enjoy. Potatoes make a good base. I sliced them about 1/4″ thick. I peeled the ones for DD, but washed and sliced unpeeled potatoes for the other packets. We used:

potatoes
zucchini
yellow squash
onion (for me)
tomatoes
fresh rosemary
olive oil
butter
salt and pepper

If I’d had carrots, I would have added them, too. And garlic would be good in these. Whatever floats your boat.

making foil veggie packets

Put two layers of heavy duty aluminum foil on the table, one on top of the other. Prepare the veggies and lay them on the foil. Tomatoes add a great flavor to this dish, if you like tomatoes. We have plenty from the garden right now so I used them in my packet and DH’s. DH’s packet also had zucchini and yellow squash. Mine had the addition of yellow onion.

After the veggies are done, sprinkle with chopped rosemary (delicious!), a pat of butter, a drizzle of olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste.

grilled veggies

Spread the veggies a bit, then wrap in the foil, one layer at a time. I turned the dull side out on DH’s and the shiny side on mine so I would know which one was which. Throw on the grill for 25 – 30 minutes, or bake in the oven at 375* for 35 minutes.

veggie packets

This is my packet. Doesn’t it look delicious?? And it was!

grilled veggies

A friend brought over fresh sweet corn in the afternoon, so we grilled some of it, too. The ends were already trimmed, so I decided to roll them in foil to grill them. I pulled the husks back enough to remove the silks, replaced them, then wrapped the ears in foil. No need to fold the seam of the foil to seal it. Just roll them up, then fold the ends over. If you want to, you can add butter, olive oil, seasonings, salt, pepper, etc. to the corn before you close them, but I made them plain. Some recipes ask you to soak the corn before grilling, but I didn’t because we were grilling them in foil, not just in the husks.

grilled corn

grilled corn

Grilled beautifully.

grilled corn

The pork steaks cooked wonderfully under the broiler, then we finished them off with Sticky Fingers BBQ sauce on the grill. A delicious meal. DH and I didn’t have room for any dessert, but DD built her own little fire in the driveway and made a S’More.

makin' S'Mores

~~Rhonda

riding lessons

DD *loves* riding lessons.

riding lessons

She thinks it’s the greatest thing she got to do this summer.

riding lessons

We’re keeping them up as long as it will work out.

riding lessons

She has a great teacher. He’s patient and meticulous about teaching and reviewing the things she needs to know.

riding lessons

We thought about doing this last year, but it didn’t work out. I’m so glad it did this year.

riding lessons

She may not look like she’s smiling, but that’s one happy girl! ~~Rhonda 🙂

mexican chopped salad

Last night for supper, we had tacos, tortilla chips with sour cream / salsa, and a Mexican chopped salad. The salad was delicious and we’ll be making it again. It’s especially nice right now when tomatoes and cucumbers are so plentiful from the garden.

Mexican Chopped Salad

You can follow the above link to see the original recipe. I used that as a pattern, but changed a few things.

Instead of Iceberg and Romaine lettuces, I used spinach. My lettuce was a bit wilty, so out it went. The spinach was fresh, so I used that.

Left out the onions. DH is allergic. I know…makes cooking painful sometimes. I *can* add dry onion in small amounts to some recipes, but that’s about it. I didn’t add any to the salad.

I didn’t measure the tomatoes or cucumbers. Just put some in. I cut up four tomatoes a smidge smaller than tennis balls and used a medium sized cuke. Peeled it, discarded the seeds, and diced it.

And I didn’t add the chips. We were having chips on our plates anyway. But they would have been great in the salad, too.

I also added about 2 teaspoons of finely crumbled Feta cheese. A delicious addition!

I don’t like cilantro, so I added some parsley to the dressing. The dressing was great. I halved it and it was plenty for our salad. The dressing was very good. You could use lemon juice instead of lime, if that’s what you have, but the lime is nice.

So you see, I changed a lot, but basically, it’s almost the same. 🙂

~~Rhonda

honey peanut butter cookies

I found this recipe while looking for cookie recipes to try out for our annual Christmas open house. I like something fancier for the party, but DD said we should make them for the open house. If I could incorporate chocolate somehow…. We will certainly make these again. They are delicious. Great honey / peanut butter flavor and perfectly chewy. So good!

Honey Peanut Butter Cookies

I found the recipe here and she found it here (where they are rolled in powdered sugar instead of granulated) and that person found it here (where the picture doesn’t look like the same cookie at all).

Honey Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 cup butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup honey
2 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Granulated sugar for coating cookies before baking. (If you are using this recipe for Peanut Butter Cup Cookies, you won’t need this sugar.)

In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt, and set aside. In a standing mixer, beat the shortening, peanut butter and honey. Then add the eggs and mix well. Add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture and mix well.

Form dough into 1″ balls and roll in sugar. I used a small ice cream scoop to make all the balls the same size, then rolled them in my hands to make them smooth and uniform.

Honey Peanut Butter Cookies

Honey Peanut Butter Cookies

Place on ungreased baking sheets and bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes [8 minutes for mine].

Honey Peanut Butter Cookies

Remove from oven and let cool slightly on cookie sheets. I didn’t let them cool on the cookie sheet for more than 30 seconds or so. I didn’t want them to cook any more than they had. Remove to cooling rack to cool completely. Store tightly covered.

These are right out of the oven. As they cool, they collapse a little.

Honey Peanut Butter Cookies

I tried baking them in the round and also flattened with a glass. I liked the rounds better. Bottom row in the picture below. They were a bit chewier and thicker, too. The top row are the flattened ones.

Honey Peanut Butter Cookies

The recipe made seven dozen cookies. I plan to put a dozen in the freezer to see how well they freeze.

Honey Peanut Butter Cookies

~~Rhonda

PS…the next day and they are just as great today as they were yesterday. They hold their shape perfectly.

menu plan monday ~ august 17, 2009

School starts this week, so the menu has to take that, and several meetings and lessons, into account. DD and I are going to make Honey Peanut Butter Cookies this afternoon. I think the protein laden cookies will be nice for a quick it’s-the-first-day-of-school-and-we-need-to-hurry breakfast snack, along with some fresh strawberries and bananas. Later in the week, I plan to make some breakfast muffins (we’ll call them cupcakes to please the youngest member of the family). I haven’t decided which recipe to try. I’ll share that later in the week. Hopefully, I’ll remember to take some pictures…

Monday
fridge food

Tuesday
enchiladas
refried beans / sour cream / salsa
chips
Mexican Salad

Wednesday
grilled pork steaks
grilled corn on the cob
grilled potatoes
coleslaw with peanuts and craisins

I plan to make the above potato recipe in foil packets instead of in a foil pan. I can individualize the packets for each of us. That means I can add onion to mine! 🙂

Thursday
spaghetti
garlic bread
corn
peas
Italian chopped salad

Friday
turkey in the crock pot
rice
corn
fruit salad
sauteed zucchini and yellow squash

Saturday
fridge food

Sunday
grilled chicken
spinach salad with strawberries
corn
green beans
homemade rolls

homemade vanilla ice cream
Fudgy Coffee Brownies

For more recipes and menu ideas, visit Menu Plan Monday.

Today, I need to make a few lists of things that need to be done before the holiday season…a little painting, a little repair, a little this and that. Time is rushing by and these little jobs need to be done. DH and I discussed some of them last evening. Seems there is always a list of some kind, doesn’t it?? And it’s time to think about trying a few new cookie recipes for our annual Christmas open house. Soon, we’ll be doing this ~

cookies

If you are wondering what some of the cookies are, click on the picture and it will take you to my flickr site. Scroll over the picture there and you’ll see the labels for some of the cookies.

~~Rhonda 🙂

cards are done

I spent a lot of time this week working on our Christmas cards. I ordered the cards from Dayspring. We like to use cards that are not only pretty, but share the news of Christ’s birth, and include a Scripture verse. I chose two designs this year. This one and this one.

addressing Christmas cards

They are signed and addressed. Now I’m working on the Christmas open house invites. I chose a picture of a vintage postcard and added the invitation to the picture. Printed those and added some glitter details. I’m waiting for an order of embossing powder to finish those off. I’ll be putting the invitations on a background mat of red card stock that I have leftover from last year.

The above picture also shows some of the holiday magazines I’m working on (to the left). I pull the pages that have ideas I want to keep, then slip them into page protectors. They will go into the binders (under the invites and the cards).

I like to put our Christmas cards in the mail on the day before Thanksgiving. I include our open house invitations in the Christmas cards and mailing the day before Thanksgiving gives as much notice as possible for our guests to plan to attend the open house on the first Sunday in December. November is extremely busy for us as we decorate and prepare for the big party. When Thanksgiving gets here, I am going to be so thankful I have these cards ready to go!

I understand the reasons people give for no longer sending Christmas cards, and that’s fine for them. But I love giving and receiving them. It’s an important part of the holiday for me. So I plan ahead and work it in! ~~Rhonda 🙂

garden update

After two months of cooler than normal temps, we’re back to hot and humid weather. And when it gets hot and humid, I tend to stay indoors, except to mow the lawn when it needs it. But today, I ventured out to take some pictures, since it has been so long since I’ve done that.

There are large swathes of black eyed Susans in the yard. And they are still producing lots of bloom and color.

black eyed Susans

black eyed Susans

Miscanthus sinensis 'Zebrinus'

There are still quite a few daylilies showing off their final blossoms.

‘Carolicolassal’

 daylily 'Carolicolassal'

‘Lavender Luxury’

daylily 'Lavender Luxury'

This unknown daylily is in full bloom right now. It is taller than I am and is the latest bloomer in our collection of daylilies.

UNK daylily

And one of my favorites…we gave this one the garden name of “Paprika” because we don’t know its real name.

"Paprika" [GN]

The garlic chives are beginning to bloom. A large bunch of these is really pretty, with the stems all bending in the same direction and the buds opening a few at a time until there’s a sea of white.

garlic chives

garlic chives

The ‘Royal Standard’ hostas are blooming. A beautiful bright white, they have a wonderful sweet fragrance. This particular plant lost its sheltering redbud tree last year. We need to move it to a better location. Somewhere it won’t get so much sunburn.

hosta 'Royal Standard

hosta flowers

hosta 'Fringe Benefit'

I don’t remember which hosta these purple flowers were on.

hosta flowers

The crepe myrtle is a great shrub for color this time of year.

crepe myrtle

The garden bench under the mulberry tree is a bit overwhelmed by hostas and elderberries.

hosta bench

Aren’t the elderberries pretty?

elderberry

elderberry

elderberry

We had a little sprinkle of rain this afternoon, but it didn’t amount to more than a few drops on the redbud leaves.

redbud leaves

We can see this hibiscus from the kitchen windows. The flower is about 12″ across and a beautiful rosy pink color. It’s called ‘Sante Fe.’

hibiscus

We don’t have many annuals or container plants, but I do love this large pot of coleus that sits by the back door.

coleus

I hope you enjoyed the garden walk. If you would like to see other gardens with beautiful blooms, click on Bloomin’ Tuesday.

Bloomin' Tuesday

~~Rhonda

menu plan monday ~ august 10, 2009

I’ve been either too busy or too tired to post lately. Been very busy. But I’ll try to get back into the swing of things now. Here’s the menu for the week.

Monday
hamburger / buns
grapes

Tuesday
crock pot chicken
rice
stir fried green and yellow squash
tomatoes

Wednesday
pork chops
mashed potatoes
green beans
corn on the cob

Thursday
tacos

Friday
chicken / noodles
spinach salad
homemade rolls

Saturday
fridge food

Sunday
tortellini and ham with white sauce
green salad
garlic bread
corn
peas

To see other menus and recipe ideas, check out Menu Plan Monday.

~~Rhonda

there’s still a lot of color in the garden

Now that the weeks of daylily blooms are almost over, I think there isn’t much blooming until I get out into the garden. After he got home this evening, DH and I took a spin around the yard. Yup, there is still a lot of color out there.

east front yard

There are surprise lilies all over the yard.

surprise lilies

surprise lilies

surprise lilies

Russian sage

surprise lilies

The grass ‘Morning Light’ is one of my favorites. It always looks great.

Miscanthus sinensis 'Morning Light'

And the zebra grass is another favorite.

zebra grass

The crepe myrtles are beginning to bloom.

crepe myrtle

This miniature crepe myrtle gets only about 12-15″ tall. I don’t remember the name. The blossoms are just beginning to open. Soon it will be covered.

miniature crepe myrtle

Here’s a good place for viewing the front yard.

garden bench

front yard

Yup, still pretty. 🙂

Hop over to Tootsie’s and click the links to see what is blooming in other gardens.

flaunt your flowers FRIDAY

~~Rhonda

menu plan monday ~ july 27, 2009

Can’t resist showing you Buttercup’s new costume, designed by DD. Who’s the coolest cat around? That would be Buttercup, the rapper cat, complete with bling!

one cool cat

I must say, besides being totally cool, Buttercup is totally patient! She takes it all in stride.

Monday
hamburgers / buns
chips / dip
grapes

Tuesday
spaghetti / sauce
garlic bread
green beans
corn on the cob
spinach salad

Wednesday
salmon
baby baked potatoes
peas
corn
tomatoes / cucumbers

Thursday
tacos

Friday
tilapia
steamed red potatoes
green beans
green salad

Saturday
fridge food

Sunday
Crock Pot Chinese Lemon Chicken
rice
asparagus
corn
coleslaw

The crock pot lemon chicken is a recipe I haven’t tried before. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Check out more menus and recipes at Menu Plan Monday. And plan your own week’s menu while you’re at it!

~~Rhonda 🙂