Don’t you just love this Red Frilly Apron? This lovely apron has a wide eyelet ruffle and an adjustable strap which I love. I really like aprons, not only are they very useful if you cook a lot but you look lovely when you are wearing an apron!
This is the last week to enter the drawing. There are several ways to enter the giveaway. You may register by signing up to receive email updates. You know how I love recipes! So send me a favorite recipe and tell me why the recipe is special to you will be entered into the drawing.
Or If you have already signed up to receive the email updates share my blog with someone else and let me know that you have shared it.
*** If you are the winner I will gladly send it to whoever you wish. (inside the USA)
25 random things about me. Where did this come from? I read a lot. Occasionally, I see these lists and find them fun and interesting. So I decided to make a list of a few random things about me.
Born in Birmingham and raised near Morris, Alabama.
Baptized believer of Jesus Christ.
I love spending time with God’s people, my people!
Teaching people the scriptures brings me joy.
Married to the best husband in the world, happy wife to Lawrence for 40 years!
Mother to 11 children YES! (8 boys and 3 girls).
Grandmother to 5 and potential.
Stay at home mom for over 35 years.
Homeschool teacher for over 35 years.
New Doula – I have birthed at home, birth centers, and the hospital. Looking for a doula call me!
Extrovert – I love people and I can talk to almost anyone.
My favorite color is BLUE.
Learning the old crafts and skills my grandmothers knew makes me feel a connection to generations past.
Read real books! Kindles do provide me with instant gratification though.
Teacups and teapots make me happy. Don’t you just say ahh when you sit down with a nice cup of tea?
PG Tips is my favorite black tea with a little milk and sugar of course.
Diet Coke is the real thing!
My favorite sweet is Dark Chocolate.
Come on over. I love cooking and feeding people.
Growing and use herbs is rewarding.
Learning to grow lavender is hard at least for me but I am not giving up.
Picking and receiving wildflower bouquets is pure joy.
I attended Majestic Elementary School, Mortimer Jordan High School, Alabama Christian College, and Freed-Hardeman College a very long time ago.
I have been to all 50 of the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Malawi, and Canada.
Collector of stories – please tell me yours.
Why am I learning to make a sourdough starter? I have spent years at home rearing children, homeschooling, cooking, laundry, etc. So this time in our history hasn’t been as hard on me maybe as some of you. But it has given me an excellent opportunity to explore possibilities. Extra time at home, what will I do? Using this time to learn some new skills and improve some old ones seems like a good idea.
What have I been learning? In my crazy artistic, ok maybe chaotic (it’s those 11 kids I’m telling you!) way I tackled several things I have been interested in for some time. Today I will tell you about my sourdough project.
Sourdough
The problem is I love bread! If I had to choose one food group it would probably be bread. What smells better than fresh bread baking? With a little direction from my friend Eleni Melirrytou, I decided to learn to make sourdough bread. That entails first making a sourdough starter. Yes, you normally can buy yeast in the grocery store. Maybe not during a pandemic. And maybe not in Africa. I know that you can buy a sourdough starter on Amazon. However, I want to learn the whole process so that wherever I am in the world I can make bread. This is a long process that begins with flour and water mixed and worked with for at least 14 days before you can have a strong enough starter to make your bread rise. You can make some pretty yummy sourdough pancakes with your throwaway starter though.
Work With Refugees
Do you remember the first time you ate sourdough bread? I don’t. I’m sure it must have been in Seattle in the 80s. The best sourdough I have ever tasted was made by my friend Eleni Melirrytou when she and her husband came to Nashville, Tennessee, to share about their work with refugees in Greece. Check out their website here. As with most functions with Christians, there was food! Not just food but amazing Greek food which included Eleni’s sourdough bread! Yum, makes your mouth water bread!
Northwest Sourdough
I need to learn how to do this, I told myself. I asked Eleni for recommendations and she sent me a link to a video by Northwest Sourdough and Teresa L. Greenway. There is a link for a free guide below the video. This video and the following ones got me started making my sourdough starter, pancakes, and eventually bread. Click on the link to learn how to make a sourdough starter using only flour and water.
One interesting side note is that I lived very close to where Teresa L. Greenway filmed these videos and I never knew what I was missing or what great resources were right next door.
Sourdough bread – My first loafSourdough bread 2Sourdough bread
If you follow this link you will find the recipe I used for my sourdough bread. Bake with Jack is a great teacher.
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I just couldn’t write on Mother’s day about my mom. For one thing, I was visiting her from a safe distance on her porch. Add home church and kids and grandkids and it was a full day. I am so blessed as a mom and to have my mom!
How can I possibly write anything appropriately honoring into a post?
But today when this picture
My mom Birthday 2017
popped up on my Facebook feed, I decided to say something. I know I cannot possibly express in words what an amazing woman my mom is, how thankful for her I am, or how much I love her! But I will write a few things.
Thankful for My Mom!
My earliest memories center around church and family. For many years my mom took the three of us to church all by herself. Not just Sunday morning but at least 3 services a week. I am thankful for her faithfulness to the father and her commitment to the body of Christ.
She made all of our clothes and some for the neighbors too. One year she made Easter dresses for us and the neighbor girls including little crocheted shawls.
She and my dad grew a big garden and canned and froze the benefits. They raised hogs and chickens. She and my dad worked hard and taught us to work hard as well. This has been a huge blessing in my life.
She sounds like the typical mom during that time period in so many ways because of all the skills she learned growing up on the farm. But my mom was far from typical in addition to all of these things she worked full time.
During a time when few women worked outside the home, my mom worked as a computer programmer. She worked in a field few women worked. Her work transitioned a lot over the years. She spent her last two years of programming from home. She is resilient and a great learner.
What is she doing today during this pandemic? She has made over 100 masks to protect others. Sharing with her neighbors, friends, and family from a distance she continues to stay busy. Quilting, cross-stitching, reading books, doing puzzles, sharing magazines, sewing machines, and whatever she has to give she continues doing good as she has always done.
She has weathered a lot of storms in her life and come through them with a generous heart and a smile.
Who has ever heard of mayonnaise biscuits? I certainly had never! Read on for I am about to share the recipe. This year a friend of mine had a birthday. As is common his amazing birthday dinner was shared of Facebook complete with pictures. It was a dinner that made me jealous. Just kidding I was happy for Glenn to have an amazing birthday dinner after all he’s a pretty amazing guy. And he must have a pretty wonderful wife to do all that for him.
As I was reading the list of items on the menu something caught my attention. Mayonnaise Biscuits. I had to message Erica right away to find out if I could have the recipe. She was sweet enough to share her special recipe and a little bit of the story behind it.
Glenn’s mom used to make them for him and to make the story a little bit sweeter she got the recipe from her mom. I love to collect recipes and especially if they have stories behind them.
So today I will share this simple recipe for you to try.
Mayonnaise Biscuits
Mayonnaise Biscuits
2 c. Self-rising Flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Preheat oven at 375° and lightly grease a muffin tin.
Mix all three ingredients and scoop by the spoonful into a muffin tin each one about 3/4 the way full.
Makes one dozen.
Bake for 30 mins or until these golden brown.
These turn out to be very light.
I hope you enjoy them!! They are delicious! Thanks, Erica for introducing me to Mayonnaise Biscuits.
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Yesterday, I decided to try an old recipe…Instant Pot Style! Black Bean Soup has been a favorite of mine for a long time. Black beans are healthy, economical, and they taste great!
I don’t cook a lot using recipes, but I like to share them when I do:)
My first few experiences with the Instant Pot made me want to throw it out the door! I persisted because of my dear friend Lee who uses her Instant Pot constantly and is always telling me how it makes fixing dinner so easy. She is such a patient teacher! So here goes another experiment…
Ingredients:
4 cups dried black beans
2 quarts chicken broth
2 cups salsa (homemade or store-bought)
2 -3 teaspoons cumin to taste
4 garlic cloves (my favorite!) or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
4 teaspoons lime juice
Salt (to taste)
Optional seasoning: red pepper added for heat
Optional toppings: cilantro, sour cream, or plain yogurt
Add the dried black beans with the chicken broth and cook in the Instant Pot for 14 minutes (use the manual setting to set the time).
While beans are cooking, saute the onions in a skillet.
After the 14 minutes is up, let the Instant Pot self-release its steam. Stir to make sure the beans are well cooked, and then add the sauteed onions, salsa, lime, and all the seasonings. Turn it on saute for about 5 minutes until it is all hot and mixed well. If you want it to have more liquid you can add some more broth or water at this point, and then it’s done! This soup has a lot of wonderful flavors! You can serve it with rice, tortillas, or tortilla chips.
Original Black Bean Soup and Short Cuts Added
The original recipe is not as large so I always had to double and triple it when the kids were home. You know how much boys can eat!
Here is the recipe:
1 lb. dry beans cooked according to directions (shortcut: use two cans cooked black beans)
1 -2 C chicken broth (substitute: 1 C water and 1 bouillon cube for each cup)
2 cups of homemade salsa (substitute: 16 oz jar store-bought salsa)
4 teaspoons lime juice
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Optional toppings:
chopped fresh cilantro
sour cream or plain yogurt
Coat a large saucepan with cooking spray, cook onion and garlic over med-high for 4-5 min. Add the cooked beans with their liquid, the salsa, lime, cumin, red pepper, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover. Cook, stirring occasionally for 25-30 minutes. Top with yogurt and fresh cilantro.
