Souper fun

Oh my! We had soup tonight! All kinds of tasty soups from which to sample.

We had 21 soups.....from Chunky Tomato Bisque with Asparagus to Vegetable Crab soup - and everything in between! The best-of-show award went to Carol Folden's Tortilla Cheese soup. I think the fact that she also had crushed chips and grated cheese in little containers near her soup to add put on top of one's soup did it! Congratulations Carol!

I think a special award should have been given to De and Mike for sampling the soups! Mike sampled 20 and Dee managed to sample ALL 21!

They developed a system so they could vote with knowledge.

We had a nice crowd.

JoAnn G. and I did a good share of the planning.

And the all-coveted SILVER LADLE award went to the Fellowshippers class. Here I am presenting the award to their class representatives. They had 2 more total votes then the Pilgrims (my class) even though the Pilgrims brought a few more soups.

I think that Tortilla Cheese Soup put the Fellowshippers over the top!

Next year... next year....

Who will win this award?

Tonight two of our adult Sunday School classes will be having a soup social together at our church. For fun we will be voting on our favorite soups and giving awards in various categories. I printed out certificates to be presented. But... The final BIG award (that Wally so carefully made..) is the "all coveted" Silver Ladel Award! It will be awarded to the class that garners the most overall votes!

Perhaps it will become a "traveling" trophy and we'll do it each year?

You never know!

Bread molds- (not moldy bread)

Here's another fun thing for baking. If at first you don't suceed- try again. I'm glad I followed that motto because the first time I used these molds I did not get a good result. But I decided to try again. Now I think I have a handle on them.
Here's what the molds look like. There is a cap that goes on each edge prior to baking.

I made some bread dough in my bread machine. I divided it into thirds and rolled each third into a log shape and placed each log into the bread mold.

I set them to raise in a warm place. (Usually the oven with the oven light on - it gives off just enough heat to provide a warm - but not too hot - environment for bread to raise. )

The bread dough raised for about 35 - 40 minutes. It has almost filled out the mold.

I placed a cap on both ends and placed them in the oven to bake.

Here they are, finished baking. One of the molds actually pushed the cap off the end during the baking.

Say, doesn't this look fun?

The key here is that the molds were well-greased. I used pam cooking spray.

They will make great little open-faced sandwiches for my homemakers group tomorrow evening.

On some I will spread a mayonnaise-curry spread and top with a slice of roma tomato. On others I will spread with a cream cheese/ranch dressing spread and top with thinly sliced cucumbers.

They are about 9 inches long and about 3 inches wide.

I just think they are so cute!

The Aftermath

First things first. Get out the snowblower.
Clear the driveway; clear the walkway. The blizzard left drifts here and there. It wasn't tons of snows but when it blows, it sure makes for interesting snow removal.

And don't forget the hungry birds!

Sunflower seeds for breakfast.

It's nice to see the sun shine today and to have the wind cease.

Now, if we can only get above zero.....

Kitchen gadgets

Yup, another food blog. Sorry, if you haven't had dinner then you might want to go to another blog.

(Hopefully this will make you hungry.)

I have lots of electric appliances and kitchen gadgets. I have a goal of using them - at least once in a while, right! So, I have recently used my clay cooker (römertopf), my electric quesadilla maker, my electric yogurt maker, my english muffin rings, my muffin top pan.... and I use my bread machine on almost a daily basis.

Today I decided to use my electric wok and my rice cooker to make chicken-broccoli stir fry.

Here are some pictures. Above is the wok, obviously.

Here is the rice cooker. It was just a cheap one from Target but it does the job.

First I cooked the broccoli. I cooked it for 5 minutes in chicken broth, stirring occasionally.


Push the broccoli up the sides and add the raw chicken. The chicken had been in a bowl with soy sauce & vegetable oil. Sprinkle garlic salt on it and stir fry it for about 3 minutes.



This looks more appetizing - the chicken is cooked now.

Push the chicken up the sides and add some mushrooms. Stir fry for a minute.

Push them up and add water chestnuts or bamboo shoots. I had water chestnuts. Stir fry for a minute. After that mix the whole thing together and cook it for another 2 minutes.

Sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on top and set the wok to warm.

Here is the cooked rice..

and the finished meal.

It was good.

A little ham

If it's not food on this blog, it's grandkiddies ... (or birds and branches)..., so here's two recent pictures of grandchild #7..... he's 14 1/2 months old and very independent, just like his Daddy.

A little ham.
He was happy... until he realized that I was going to put him to bed in the pack n play... then there was the heartbreaking sob "daddy, daddy, daddy". Good job, Meghan, teaching him to call for Daddy. I always was happy when that is what the boys said in the middle of the night when they needed a parent.... "daddy!" "daddy!" Brilliant.

Berge Food network?

Okay, Okay, I know I am going to make you hungry again, but I have this interest in baking and taking pictures of the tasty results. Today I made scones and I thought I'd post pictures of it step by step again. Well, I didn't do the first step of mixing the ingredients but here is the picture of the dough rolled out, also it has been brushed with beaten egg whites and sprinkled with sugar before I cut it into the 12 sections.

They are placed on the cookie sheet are are ready to go into the oven.

This is what they look like when they are finished baking!

A close-up. In case you couldn't guess, I love cookbook with pictures- and I HAVE to make mine look exactly like whatever picture they have, too!

Ah, time for tea. I'm having Mrs. Earl Grey again, from Teavana.

If we have to have a blizzard, at least I am ready with some baked goods!

Homemade english muffins. Yum.

Today I decided to try my hand at english muffins. I think I had only made them once before, and I had english muffins rings (though you can do it without them too) ... I made the dough in my trusty bread machine and then you roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thick and cut them in circles (using the rings) and let them raise for a while. Here they are going to rest and raise...

Then, after they have raised you cook them on a lightly oiled fry pan or griddle. 5 minutes each side. Corn meal is sprinkled on them beforehand.

They get a nice toasty brown color, don't they?

Cool them on a rack..

Split them open with a fork to encourage all those nooks and crannies that will hold the melted butter!!

Toast them and apply some butter and let it melt in...

Here's a close up! No preservatives! Just wholesome good ingredients.

It was delicious, I just had it with a cup of tea.

Feathered friends

For those of you who have been to our home, you know we are fortunate to have a great bird sanctuary... with the leaves gone from the trees, we see so much more bird activity. Yesterday during dinner time we noticed Mr. Owl. It was almost too dark to get a good picture, but we were pleased to get a photograph of him - just as he turned his face towards us.

Just the day before we had been discussing that it had been quite some time since we last saw an owl. He must have heard us!

And we have had so many cardinal lately! It is wonderful - we have seen 5 males and 3 females at the same time. They are extending their habitat into our territory and we couldn't be happier about that. Right now, they sit out in the trees during our supper hour and it was really fun on Tuesday evening when Daniel and Meghan and the children were here for supper because we all enjoyed counting cardinals.

This is one of the largest birds we have - it is a pileated woodpecker and is about 15 inches in length. This picture doesn't really show how big he is.
Maybe I should just have a blog about birds?

Truck update...

For those of you following along with the restoring of the old truck, here is the latest picture. The truck will be painted red. So far, just the inside is painted.

I don't suppose it will have heated leather seats?