The To-Do List

I have a problem of late - the problem is that, no matter how much time I spend working around the house, I never seem to get any closer to the end of my to-do list!

In the last week I've been getting up and working on cleaning and other tasks around the house for an hour or two before going to work, and then I spend three or four hours after work, also working on the same to-do list.

You'd think I'd be able to get more accomplished, wouldn't you?

Actually, last night and this morning I did pretty good. I had shampooed our bucking horse rug that I bought in Pendleton, and Scott and I put it back down in our tv area last night. It sure looks better, and feels better to know it's fresh and clean and aired out. It spent the day yesterday hanging over the porch railing in the sunshine.

Then I vacuumed the wood floors again. Seems like I spend a lot of time chasing furballs... or maybe I just need to vacuum more frequently!

I've also been watering the lawn in the last few days, which takes some time, but it's done for this week. That's the first I've watered it this summer, and I feel fortunate that I got away with waiting until the end of June. The last couple days have been very hot and dry, so I'm glad it got some water or it would have burned up.

Last night I also shredded a pork roast that I'd had cooking all day and made the sauce for pulled pork sandwiches for Saturday's picnic on our driving trip in the Buzzard Ranch/Seminoe Reservoir area.

I also made a double batch of Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookies, which I'm going to decorate after the fashion of the latest Martha Stewart magazine cover - you've seen it if you've been in the supermarket checkout lane lately.

This morning I cleaned the upstairs bathroom and washed the floor, put away my sprinklers and hoses, picked up sticks from the yard after yesterday's windstorm, watered flower containers as needed, washed the kitchen floor and prepped the apricots for the Toasted Coconut Apricot Pie that I'll make tonight to take to Lander tomorrow.

I don't think I've every purchased fresh apricots before. I was pleased with how well the pits came out. I've been having trouble with peach pits lately.

Aren't they so pretty and summery?

Yesterday I also found some rhubarb at Albertson's for Rhubarb Strawberry Lattice Pie, which will also be for Saturday's picnic. I have an idea on that pie, that's different than making it in a conventional pie plate. It's essentially making individual star-shaped pie pockets with the pie filling inside, but we'll see how much time I feel like spending on it tonight, and whether or not I have a star cookie cutter... that would be a necessity, I guess.

Of course, whatever I do around the house, I always have two dedicated helpers. Last night Lucy slept outside our bedroom window on the concrete patio with her head on the windowsill all night long. Such a dedicated puppy.

As far as projects in the yard and garden, they're not going very far very fast. :-) Those zinnias at the top of the post are intended to go in this front flower bed, once I get it weeded and add the new topsoil. Scott made the border last weekend, and I really like how it turned out. My Carl Forster grass is doing ok.... the animals still like to eat it for a snack, so it is struggling somewhat.

The violas on the steps are doing well, though. By putting them on the left side they receive some shade from the railing during the harshest time of the day, and they seem to like it there. I'm trying not to kill them with overwatering, like I did to the few I had last summer.

I planted these perennials on the north side of the steps, since they're a part-shade plant. I forget what they're called at the moment. :-) They're just now starting to open up, and they're supposed to fill out to about 15-20 inches across. If they live through the winter, I think they'll be a nice thing to have in this long, narrow bed.

And another project for last night was the American flag we mounted from the front porch. I like how cheery it looks, and just in time for the 4th of July!

So that's just a little bit of what we've been up to - I thought I better put up a quick post to update my loyal readers who have been neglected lately. :-)

The chalk paint and the crib are still waiting patiently, as is the dresser that needs to be sanded and refinished for my changing table in the baby room. Those two things are at the top of my list, as soon as the other everyday cleaning/cooking/maintenance projects are caught up.

Chocolate + Raspberries = A Summer Pie

Because I hosted company for dinner twice last week, that meant I got to bake two pies. :-) The second that I chose from the Martha Stewart summer pie series in the June issue of the magazine was Chocolate Raspberry Pie, after baking the Peach Custard Pie earlier in the week.

Again, I baked my tried-and-true Flaky Pastry pie crust, instead of the chocolate mixture they had... the chocolate would have been more adventurous, but it was already getting late in the evening, and it wanted to be chilled for an hour, so I decided to stick with the basic recipe.

Here it is, ready and waiting for the next step. There's something very promising about an empty pie crust - like a blank canvas waiting to be filled in with any number of possibilities. :-)

I first filled mine with a melted chocolate mixture. The recipe called for bittersweet chocolate, and I used unsweetened baking chocolate, which ended up probably more bitter than it should have, but, when combined with the raspberries and ice cream, it actually was a nice combination to not have sweet chocolate.

It was at this point that I put it in the refrigerator to chill and went to bed, to be continued the next morning.

This random sweet puppy face showed up on my camera in the midst of the pie photos... It must have been the doing of Scott the next morning, before I came upstairs.

So the morning's first task was to make the raspberry syrup, by crushing a few of the raspberries and combining with some sugar, cornstarch and water.

This is how it looked after simmering a few minutes.

Then I tossed the rest of the fresh raspberries with the syrup.

And added them to the pie crust atop the chocolate filling. We enjoyed it with vanilla ice cream that evening with Emily and Morgan, after a trip out to see the mares and foals, and it was very tasty and the recipe was approved by all.

Peach Custard Pie and a Girls' Party

Sunday evening I spent preparing food for Monday evening's Roundup girls' dinner, which I hosted as a get-to-know-you, welcome-to-the-team event for Tressa, our editorial intern this summer, and Saige, our assistant editor.

Along with Ranch Potato Salad, Marinated Tomatoes and Dijon-Rosemary Steak and Lemon-Garlic Shrimp marinade for build-your-own kabobs, I also put together a Peach Custard Pie.

Although many pie recipes that I come across come along with their own pie crust recipe, I always stick to my mom's Flaky Pastry recipe. I'm not sure where it came from, as I just have it written on a recipe card, but it most always turns out good for me, and most times I can make it flaky.

This was one of those recipes, since it was for custard, that required the pie crust to be baked before the filling was put in.

To easily peel the peaches, you place them in boiling water for a minute or two, then remove them to an ice bath before peeling and pitting them. I remember doing this in large quantities in Georgia, where my family had access to a peach orchard - all the peaches we wanted, there for the picking. We canned quite a few in those days.

The custard filling was very simple, but if I were to make it again, I might double the amount, as my deep pie dish kind of made the custard filling look a little skimpy. As it was, I had extra peach slices so I added them to fill the pie a little more.

And here it was, crust all baked, custard and peaches arranged, and ready to go in the oven for the final baking process. Quite cheery to pair with a summer's evening dinner and grilled kabobs.

The recipe came from the June 2011 edition of Martha Stewart Living, which included a whole series of summer pies - most of them fruit. I might have to keep working my way through the recipes, as I had a hard time choosing which one to make for this event. We're having company again Friday evening - friends Emily and Morgan on their way back from Idaho - so perhaps I will choose another recipe for them.

Other than that, I spent much time last weekend working on my gardens and yard, and it was really nice to have enough time that I could take my time deciding how to plant and where to put things. The zinnias I started from seed are doing the best so far, and they took the heat of the last few days in stride. We're supposed to have cooler weather now, so hopefully that will help the spinach, herbs and other flowers adapt better to being outside. Next time I start seeds, I will start them earlier, as many of my plants are still a little too delicate to transplant. It's all an experiment!

Spring Strawberries

Last night, in return for borrowing the tiller for our flowerbed project the previous evening, I made a new recipe for Strawberry Shortcake Cookies to take across the street to our neighbors Bill and Lorie.

The first step was to dice the strawberries, and then mix them with a little lemon juice and sugar. That mixture along was delicious. :-)

These cubes of butter are what put the short in shortcake.

My pastry blender is frequently used in my kitchen. I always get impatient, though, and don't get the butter mixed into the flour quite as much as I should, and that results in some cookies running at the edges when they hit the oven.

After the butter is cut in, add the cream. I ended up using a full two cups instead of the 1 1/3 cup the recipe called for, because the batter still seemed dry. Fold in the strawberries as the next step.

And drop the cookies on a greased baking sheet. The recipe called for parchment-lined, but I've had bad luck with parchment in the past, so I just grease the pans.

And the final product cooled on the counter before the prettiest ones were packaged to give away. After the first pan came out of the oven, I learned that the cookies spread quite a bit, so to give them plenty of space on the pans. Also, they might not have spread quite as much if they didn't have so many strawberries. But nonetheless, they did taste good!

Meatballs with Peppers and Pineapple

Earlier this week I made PW's Meatballs with Peppers and Pineapple. At this point I can't really tell you what day it was that I made this, as the week's been full of another trip to Cheyenne, a visit to the baby doctor, getting our editorial intern off to a good start on the paper, beginning to make calls on Horse Edition... you get the idea.

But I made it, and it was very good!!

The above picture is all those wonderful peppers getting happy in the skillet.

Again, any recipe that starts out with ground beef is right up my alley. The meatballs are composed of the traditional egg, bread crumbs, onions, etc. Because I sometimes have trouble with my meatballs falling apart in the skillet, I was glad for PW's directions to form them, then freeze for about 15 minutes. Not one fell apart as I fried them!

She also said to roll them in flour. Maybe I rolled mine too much in the flour, but I didn't care for the treatment. They were a little too flour-y for me, even after frying in the oil.

Powdered sugar-covered bon bons!

Frying away.

The completed stack. I ended up with plenty, as my packages of ground beef contain more than 1 1/4 pounds, and I just cooked up the whole thing instead of saving some small amount for a random later use. That, and I'm supposed to eat plenty of iron these days, anyway. Something about needing more blood for the baby...

As the meatballs were finishing up I started in on chopping the peppers and pineapple. The fresh pineapple is really good, and it is worth the effort, but to make this a more pantry-friendly recipe, in the future I might just use canned chunk pineapple that I can keep on hand.

After I got the peppers going in the skillet I added the pineapple. This is one of those treatments where you want the burner on high heat, so that everything gets a nice charred finish on the outside, while not getting mushy on the inside.

Then you add a beef broth/corn starch/sugar mix. Yes, sugar. It's what gives the dish it's nice sweet and sour taste, along with the pineapple sweetness.

Then just leave it alone and let it bubble for a while, so the corn starch has a chance to take effect.

And add the meatballs after a little while, so they can start to pick up the flavors of the sauce.

Don't forget to get some rice started cooking at the beginning of the dish, so that it's done about the same time as the meatballs and sauce! This time I used a mix of brown and white rice - I had a little bit of white rice left over from the rice pudding I made some time ago. Usually we use brown around our house.

When the rice is done and the sauce is slightly thickened and everything tastes wonderful, serve it up with plenty of juice over the rice, and enjoy! This has also made great leftovers this week. Last night I cooked up some fresh rice to use with the rest of the meatball mixture.

Make it! It's good. :-)

Chicken and Dumplings: Part 2

So the above photo is where I picked up last night from where I'd left off the evening before, on Tuesday. I had pulled the chicken broth out of the refrigerator, put it back in my stock pot and began to reheat it, getting it ready to add vegetables and the dumplings.

While the broth was heating, I mixed up the dough for the dumplings. I'm not sure what happened, but I think in visiting with Scott I lost count of my cups of flour, and so ended up with a lot of dumplings, and had to add more milk to make the consistency right for rolling out and cutting.

After preparing the dumplings I chopped the vegetables: garlic, carrots and onions. Again: most good things start with large piles of chopped vegetables.

I added the vegetables to the simmering broth, and brought it to a boil again.

I rolled out the dumplings, and cut them in about one-inch by one-inch squares, as directed by the recipe.

Then I added the dumplings to the pot, as many as could fit, put the lid on, and let it go.

Meanwhile, the rest of the dumplings I baked like biscuits, in a buttered baking dish. They turned out pretty good, but were salty.

When the dumplings were finished cooking, I stirred the shredded chicken into the mix, and *ta da* we had chicken and dumplings.

When I served it up into bowls and decorated it all pretty, Scott came in for his and said, what's that stuff on top? It's parsley, Scott, it won't hurt you. :-)

So now I'm sitting in a water law conference in Cheyenne until tomorrow, and Scott is at home enjoying the leftovers this evening. :-)

Otherwise, I didn't get too much done on my before-7 p.m. goal, because I worked late at the office and didn't get back to the house until after 6. But again, the weekend is upon us, and I had Scott pick up some wood stain this week, so hopefully this weekend I can finish my two staining projects.

Oh, I intended to share the exact recipe with you from my Texas cookbook, but really it was a little bit odd, so just run a quick online search for 'Chicken and Dumplings' and get to work! :-)