My first try at baby shoes

 This was fun! I have been working a couple of days on learning how to make these little Mary Jane style baby shoes. I had to learn a new stitch called a “foundation double crochet”. It took a little bit of watching the tutorial and practicing. I have two daughters expecting babies this year so this is a fun thing for me to learn. Here you see the ones I have made in white with a pink crocheted button. I also will make them in black, pink and red. Those are the traditional colors of the Mary Jane style shoe.

The crocheted button was my idea to the shoe. The one in the tutorial has a regular button and it is very cute. But I worry about choking, babies do put their shoes in their mouths, lol.

So I have taken a slip stitch through the shoe with the pink yarn chained two and made 12 single crochet in the second chain from the needle and made the round, finished it off and woven the ends through the button. I used a lighter weight yarn and a size E needle for the button. You can see here that the button is joined on one side, just slip the strap loop over the button and lay the button down.

It’s kind of like a little flap. It seems to hold nicely. Remember I am still learning, so any suggestions for me and my followers are always welcome. I viewed I viewed the tutorial on You Tube “Crochet Mary Jane Baby Slipper” by tjw1963.

 

Dough Enhancer?

After I posted “David’s Bread” , I was asked the question, what is dough enhancer.  This is a product I just happened upon one day as I was shopping at Wal-mart.  Since I am always trying to improve on my baking skills I thought I would give it a try.  It costs less than 4 dollars, so why not.

you see the picture here so when you go to find it  you will know what you are looking for.

This is some of what the label says on it.  Augason Farms Dough Enhancer increases dough strength, improves natural flavor and creates a fluffier baked goods.  Works well in cakes, pizza dough, scones etc.

ingredients: wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, ascorbic acid, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, PBR-200 DF (yeast enzymes, soybean oil), PBR-FD (wheat flour, ascorbic acid, wheat gluten, enzymes), lecithin powder

I have liked the improvement of my baked items since using this product.

 

Ok Allison this one is for you:)

 

My daughter Allison who is married with one baby and one on the way lives in Texas. She enjoys cooking. We used to make fun of her because she liked making what we called “concoctions”. The things this girl would put together and eat, very weird. But as the years went on and she spent time with me in the kitchen being my official enchilada roller or just helping me, she did become more able to follow a recipe and produce foods the family would enjoy eating. Such as the cinnamon rolls she learned to make in her young women’s class at church. It would take her over half the day and the kitchen was a disaster when she was finished but the cinnamon rolls were delicious and she had to clean the kitchen, not me.

When I began my blog Allison has been asking for me to post certain recipes. She asked for this on early this week so I will make it today. Ham and Beans, I have made ham and beans since I was at least 12 years old. Of course my mom taught me the process. And I made them the same way for the next 8 or 10 years. But it was my mother in law who made great ham and beans. So I asked her what she did differently than I did. I used, pinto beans, salt pepper, garlic onions, ham bone and water, and it cooked all day. Well she gave me this recipe for her beans and I have not changed it at all.

Grandma Heger’s Ham and Beans

• • Two pounds of beans pinto beans, sorted and picked through and washed to remove any rocks and dirt this recipe actually works with all kinds of beans delicious
• • Two ham hocks
• • One onion chopped
• • Two celery stalks chopped
• • One bell pepper chopped
• • 4 cloves of garlic minced
• • One carrot shredded or chopped
• • Black pepper
• • Garlic powder
• • Salt (go lightly because the ham hocks will be salty)
• • Two bay leaves

Prepare the beans as directed, chop all vegetables, put beans and veggies and ham hocks in a large stew pot.

Fill pot with water with in about three inches from the top. Add all the spices and turn up the flame to high. When the soup begins to boil turn the heat to medium top with a lid and let it cook until the beans are soft and the veggies have all about cooked away and you have nice thick bean gravy forming. You will need to keep adding water in the first hours of cooking as the beans expand and soak up water. I can’t give an exact cooking time for the beans, here in Arizona, they can be done in about 3 hours, but I let them go longer for the thicker soup to develop. In other parts of the country I have lived they can take up to all day. So just watch them and taste them you will know when they are finished. These beans are not watery and soupy like my old recipe. These are rich in flavor and hearty and very comforting. Probably why Allison wants the recipe, they make her feel like she is home. I usually serve these beans the day I make them with corn bread or tortillas or homemade white rolls. My family calls them “mom’s big fluffy rolls”.

When my step daughter was younger and would be mad at me and I knew she was on strike to not have anything to do with me that day, I would make these rolls, because I knew she could not resist them, she would crack every time and have to eat the rolls I made, lol, still makes me giggle to think about it, maybe we should call them the peace maker rolls, hahaha.

After I have served the beans for the meal that night I remove the ham hock bones and I puree the rest of the beans, now they are refried beans that my step sons can use for burritos. They used to live on these bean burritos when they were younger. Since the beans were already prepared it was easy for them to grab a tortilla salsa and cheese stick it in the microwave and have a quick homemade burrito.

Every time Grandma Heger would make a ham for a family dinner, with in the next week or two we would all go back over to thier  house and this time ham and beans was the dinner. But interestingly enough, after she gave me this recipe, after the family Ham dinners she would wrap  up the left over ham and ham bone and send it home with me.  I was now the official ham and bean cooker for the family dinners.

I am going down stairs now to make a batch of these beans. I will post some pictures to go with this blog, but I am going to post it now without the pictures because Allison is impatient and wants this recipe, lol.  Enjoy Allison, I love you

 

David’s Bread

This bread recipe I made is a delicious hearty bread.  the chew from the flax seeds and the whole grains and quinoa give it a lovely nutty flavor especially when it is toasted.  It also makes a really good whole grain sandwich.  I hope  you will give it a try.  It has great health benefits.

David’s Bread

Place all of these first ingredients into your bowl and place it on your mixer.  Blend them together for a minute or two. Then let them stand for about 5 minutes.

• 2 ½ cups warm water
• ½ cup softened butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. salt
• 3 tbsp. Dough enhancer
• ¼ cup raw sugar
• 1 tbsp. Dry yeast

Next add these ingredients into the bowl.

• 1/2 cup whole flax-seed
• 2 cups Nine Grain Cereal
• 1 cup cooked and cooled quinoa
• 6  cups whole wheat flour

After adding these ingredients to the mixer bowl turn the mixer on to low-speed to get the dough to begin coming together.  Let it mix just a few minutes until everything is combined.

You will discover the dough is a very stiff but sticky.  After everything has come together, empty the dough on to a floured surface and you will need, to knead the dough.  I found it is too heavy for the mixer.  And it is fun to hand knead anyway.  I was actually 20 years old before I had a mixer in the house.   My mom had us do everything by hand.  Anyway, knead the dough for a good 10 to 15 minutes adding flour as needed to get the dough to an elastic and smoother finish.  The dough will be sticky at first, be patient and do not add too much flour during the kneading time, only small dusting at a time.  the bread is already dense so we want to keep it as moist and light as possible.

Now that you have sufficiently kneaded the bread, place it in an oiled bowl and cover it with plastic wrap and place it in a warm draft free place.  I use my oven that I have slightly warmed and turned off.

Let the dough rise until double in size, this will take about an hour.  After the dough is ready and twice its size gently turn it out of the bowl and divide it into two portions.  Do not handle it too much just divide it and gently shape into two loaves and place in oiled bread pans.

Cover the loaves and place back into the warm draft free space you used the last time, until the dough is double in size again about 45 minutes this time.

While the dough is raising turn on your oven to 350 degrees.  When the dough is ready bake the loaves for 35 to 40 minutes.

When the bread is done, turn it out onto a wire rack to cool.

At this point I always take a sharp serrated knife and slice off two nice hot slices and spread butter on them and my husband and I enjoy them right then.  we just cant wait!  it’s like Christmas.

A couple of months ago my husband and I went on a cleanse.  We decided to do the Lemonade cleanse, no food just water, tea, and the lemonade mixture for 7 days.  It was basically effective I suppose, but it didn’t really have the desired effect.  But as we continued through the process and came to the days that we were to slowly begin adding foods back into our diet, the instructions on the cleanse noted that we were not to use any processed wheat items, only whole wheat.

I decided that we would just have no processed foods at all as we were coming down off the cleanse.  So I went to the store and purchased the ingredients to make our bread and pastas.

Now the town I live in, there must be something in the water here, because the women here make absolutely the best breads I have ever had.  When I moved here and the women of the church began bringing us bread as welcoming gifts and we went to church socials and I had the bread these women make, I told my husband to never sign me up to provide bread.  I mean I know how and my family enjoys when I make bread, but I don’t think I am anywhere near able to do what these ladies do, lol.

But…I do make bread.  My mother made sure I knew how to make bread.  And I am pretty good at making these specialized breads like the one I am going to share with you today.

Interestingly enough that after I made this bread the first time and I served it to my husband, he began to have the exact desired effects he wanted from our cleanse, and now I make two loaves about every ten days.   If I keep on top of it he has it for breakfast every day. It keeps him very regular and happy.

I can’t guarantee that this bread will make you happier and healthier, but it does seem to help my husband.

Women of the church, take this recipe and tweak it and tell me how I can improve upon it. I am always ready to learn a better way.

 

A Tiger For My Son

 

I have a son and he is currently stationed in Germany with the United States Army.  His birthday was yesterday, he is now 19.  When he was a little boy he was always so fascinated with wanting to go to China and he always loved tigers.

So, for his birthday I made him this little tiger to send to him.  He has never been away from home before on his birthday, I hope he had a lovely day.  He really likes things from home.  Last Christmas all he really wanted for me to send him was the big old wooden salad fork, with a broken prong he used all the time when he made his Ramen Noodles, too funny.  I packed it up and sent it to him.

When hewas sick with the flu this past winter, he called me and asked me to e-mail him my recipe and directions for making  my cozy beef stew.  That was nice, he wanted moom’s food when he wanted to feel better.

This little tiger is one I found on-line, his name on the pattern is “Tommy Tiger”.  I posted the link to the right on my resources.  When you see the pattern picture on-line you will see I took some liberties, my tiger  looks quite a bit different.  I wanted my tiger to look like a mature tiger so it is a darker orange.  As you see I have also added the white mane and whiskers older tigers have and I also embroidered black stripes on my tiger.  For the white mane I just looped white yarn through the tigers head and slip stitched it in to place then I just picked out the fibers of the yarn, I did this in the ears as well.

I appreciate all the people who are coming to my blog and finding things that they enjoy.  continue to give me advice and comment on what you like.  my next endeavor is to make some baby Mary Jane shoes.  and maybe some crochet jewlery….so keep checking back to see how I do.

One of my daughters has also asked for my ham and beans recipe so that will be coming on friday I think.  It is a great recipe I learned from my children’s grandmother.

I hope you can take some inspiration from my tiger and know that you can feel free to embellish any pattern and personalize them to your taste.

 

 

I accomplished my goal with the square dish cloth! :)

Here it is ladies! This little wash cloth that I started with a chain of 30 and I did a constant hdc stitch throughout, working first the front loop of the first stitch then the back loop of the next stitch in each row, for I think 24 rows.  Then I made a small border of slip stitches all the way around then one more row all the way around of the hdc then I finished off.  This may be an actual pattern somewhere, I don’t know. Let me know if you know. I just worked it from my head so I could concentrate on the rows and not reading a pattern.  I like the effect I got.

I am proud to say I did not have to take out any rows and begin again.  I did however figure out what my issue was, that was  getting me a trapezoid instead of a square before.  It was in my turning.  I was not consistent in which stitch I went back into when I turned.  When I paid attention to that detail on this cloth, I was successful.  I know all of you great crocheters out there may be laughing at me but there you have it.

I just wanted to share my success and to all the novice crocheters like me out there.  Don’t give up and pay attention to little things like stitch placement.

 

I Paint Too:)

I will deviate a little today from my norm, of cooking and crochet and post a little of my enjoyment for painting.

The painting you see here is a portrait I made of my mother’s Auntie Lily, on the Laguna Indian Reservation, the village of Seama, in New Mexico.

I worked this painting from a photograph I have that was taken when I was about 14.  Our family went on vacation to visit my mother’s relatives and this particular trip, my mother’s aunt was prepared to teach us how to cook the bread in the outdoor ovens called a horno.

I always love the bread made in those ovens the smell and the taste was like none you could find anywhere else.  When I make a trip to New Mexico I always try to stop and buy from anyone who is selling this wonderful bread. I will buy it and freeze it and use it very sparingly and I can be very particular who gets some, lol. The only thing that is sad to me, is that in today’s need to be safe and careful with the preparation of or food, the Laguna Horno Bread has lost some of its authenticity and taste.  When I was younger we used to have to pick the small pieces of straw from off the bottom of the bread before we ate it.  The straw would be tossed on to the floor of the oven to test for the ovens temperature and sometimes it would not all get swept out before the loaves were put in the oven.  But the fact that the bread was placed right on the adobe oven floor is part of where the flavor came from. Now most ladies place the loaves in foil pans to bake, especially if they are going to be sold to tourists.  But I will still always prefer to have to pick the straw out of my loaf, and I always look for it before I buy.

To slice this bread and smear on some butter and some fresh made New Mexico red chili sauce with a sprinkling of sea salt is an event to be savored.  Good grief! I may need to make a trip east and get some!

The memories of the trips to the village have inspired me to do many paintings of my mother’s village and the family there.  Although this is the only one I currently own, because I gave the others to my family members.

I haven’t painted in a few years taking time out to raise 20 kiddos.  But I have recently taken brush to hand and started smaller artwork that I can do and still concentrate on the kiddos.  I enjoy painting these eggs with the Native American motif.  I made several and sent them to my family in Missouri for Christmas, they were very well received.  But then again…it could be just because they are my family, you know? Ha-ha but none the less I enjoy making them.

So, for my blog followers from Ukraine I will post this picture of my painted eggs.  If you study the art from around the world you will find the beautiful craft that comes from the Ukraine, beautifully painted eggs with vibrant colors and complicated geometrical shapes.  You can get lost in the intricate patterns of the painted eggs.  I can in no way measure up to the fantastic technique and detail of the artist that paint them.  But that is part of the art, the Ukraine painted eggs are from that culture and my painted eggs are from my culture and they can both co-exists in the world of art and in the world we live in.

 

Melt in your mouth fried croissants !!! Oh, my goodness!

 These are undoubtedly the most melt in your mouth pastry.  Fried and glazed Croissants. You have to try this recipe for your next brunch.

I was at the Sam’s food warehouse one day and I was purchasing a box of frozen croissants. I believe there are 240 frozen cocktail size croissants in the box. The cost was I believe $34.

I was having a large family gathering and was going to use these croissants over the next few days to feed everyone.  When the man, Bob was his name, brought out the box, he told me how to prepare these fried croissants.  We LOVE Bob! I now buy a box of these frozen Croissants every year and use them for various recipes but this one most of all.  The women at my church love them and I am placing this recipe on my blog today at the request of one of them .

Fried Croissants

• frozen croissants ( you decide how many you should eat )
• quart of vegetable oil for frying

First step it to prepare your croissants.  Turn on the oven, you want it to be barely warm, not hot so don’t leave it on too long. While your oven is warming, place your frozen croissants on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.  Turn off your oven! Don’t let it get hot. 

Take a very damp but not soggy paper towel and place it on top of the croissants they are now ready to go into the oven to thaw and to proof (or slightly raise). Make sure the oven in off and not hot, place the baking sheet of croissants in the oven.  The thawing and proofing time takes about an hour.

During this time you want to do the prep work for the frying and decorating of these lovely little morsels, you will be so happy you did this.  If you work well, making a dozen will take you about 2 hours start to finish including thaw time all the way through clean up.

Prep work. Begin heating the oil.  Place one quart of vegetable oil in a large pot to do the frying in. Make sure the pot is tall enough that the oil will not overflow the pot when the frying process begins. Place a thermometer on the pot and heat the oil to 350 degrees. While the oil heats and the croissants are proofing…

Make the glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• ¼ cup milk
• 2 tablespoons softened butter
• ½ teaspoon vanilla

Place all ingredients into the bowl and whisk together.  The mixture should be thick and creamy.  It should fall from the whisk easily, but not be liquidy. Cover and set aside until you are ready to glaze the croissants.

Make the chocolate drizzle

Place ½ cup of good chocolate chips in a zip top bag and place in the microwave for a few seconds until the chips are all melted.  Knead the bag ensuring all chips are liquefied. Snip a small corner off the bag.  You now have a decorator bag to drizzle chocolate from when it is time.  Set this aside until time to use.

Prepare your drain and glaze station.  On the counter next to your fry pan, place a baking sheet and put paper towel in the bottom, then place a wire rack on top the paper towel.  This is your drain and glaze rack.  Next to your rack, line up your glaze, chocolate drizzle and your toppings.

Now your oil should be hot and your donuts proofed.  Begin frying, but only two or three at a time and make sure that your oil stays to temperature.  Too hot and the donuts will burn on the outside and be raw inside, not hot enough and they will just soak up grease, yuck.

Immediately after frying use a slotted spoon to remove the pastry from the oil and apply the glaze.  Now is when you decide what other topping you wish to use. If you want to use the chocolate drizzle, just hold the bag in your hand and let the chocolate drizzle from the bag in a little stream over the donuts. As seen in the picture.

Work in these small batches of two or three and they will all come out just fine.  Finish frying the rest of your croissants then plate them.

Everyone will be anxious to try these lovely buttery melt in your mouth pastry.

If you find you don’t think you can use a box of 240 frozen cocktail croissants, share this recipe with friends and share a box. I have also used these donuts in bake sales, they are only about 15 cents to make and we sold them for $0.75 each, pretty good profit margin.

I hope you will enjoy this recipe and if you have any questions or suggestions please let me know.

 

” Endeavor to persevere”

It’s Sunday morning, I’m ready for church. My daughter is sick, so I am staying with her until I need to leave to teach my class.

Endeavor to persevere is a quote from an old western movie I saw several years back…can’t remember which one. But it pertains to this situation.

I began another “square” dish cloth yesterday.  Very frustrating, as I worked and had to take out stitches and begin again, of course beause my mother is still in the back of my head, saying, “take it out and do it again.”  But the I am also recalling the year I was 15, I was at a church track meet. About 100 teens out having a good time competing, with our families sitting in the stands.

I had signed up to run the mile race.  I wanted to participate, but I knew I wasn’t fast, so, I signed up for a race that I just had to pace myself and I thought I would be able to finish.

as the race began I was feeling pretty good. We continued into the second lap more kids  were passing me. I thought to myself “that’s ok as long as I’m not last I will feel pretty good.” So I continued. Coming into the third lap I wasn’t doing so well, I was tired, my legs hurt, I was quickly slipping into last place. I dug down inside and tried to, push myself harder.  Coming into the last curve a sharp pain in my side occurred. Itwas hard to breath and this pain got worse. I got to the other end of the curve and I felt I couldn’t finish.  I veered off the track and collapsed on the field holding my side.  My father was soon at my side, to see if I was ok.  Then in his “fatherly” way when he saw I was physically fine. He scolded me and told me I could finish this race and I would always feel bad if I didn’t.  I looked at him,  I was a little hurt and angry, but I generally did what my father said for me to do.

I got up walked back to the track and ran as hard as I could the last stretch of the race. Yes, of course I was last. I was embarrassed to be the last one on the track with everyone watching me.

But when I did finish and my father was there and hugged me.  That set a pattern in my life to always work and try as hard as I could in life. I may not always come in first and some times I would fail miserably, but, I can always take pride in my efforts that I did my best.  I have thought back, on that event many times in my life.  I guess it’s why I keep working at the hard thing.

So I am back at the square dish cloth, I think I counted 7 times taking out rows and starting again…and I did succeed . One day maybe I will get it without having to take rows of stitches out.

I think I will send this one to him.

Thanks dad….

 

Is three a collection?

 

First I have to say my daughter that is helping me with my blog is going to roll her eyes at me because just yesterday she said, “Mom, it is better if you blog once or twice each day and not just a lot on one day and then nothing for a few days.”  And here I am with like 3 blogs just this morning. I just don’t listen, I’m reverting back to childhood, lol.

But I better hurry because she is coming over soon to take me to get ice cream with them because my grand-daughter is being so grown up at her first eye appointment.

So here is another dish cloth, a round one, yes it was very easy for me and only took a short 2 1/2 hours.  This one is from the Best Free Crochet site posted to the left, hit the links ladies.  this pattern is number 60 named Colorful Journey and the pattern is made by Wendi Cusins, at BFC.

Now I have made three dish clothes…is three a collection…I’m feeling very collectorish…..

What do you think?  I hope you are finding informative helpful things here on my blog. It is a fun thing to do.  I like it much better than house work. of course, with only 4 children left at home there is less housework to do so I have more time .  I am finding that my family and children are enjoying it too.

I better get ready for ice cream time.  It’s great! when you’re a grandma you get ice cream before lunch!