foil dinner recipe

So I forgot to actually give you the recipe; here it is:

Pasta foil dinner (for 4 foil dinners but will probably feed 4 boys but 5-6 women.)

1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes; put in 4 cup container and fill with water to 4 cup mark I would use my immersible blender and cut up the tomatoes a bit
1 (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 onion diced
garlic (we smooshed it but forgot to put it in)
1 lb. hamburger meat
8 oz. noodles divided into 2 oz @
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
4 tablespoon ricotta cheese
Parmesan cheese

Each child spiced his meat the way he liked it with Tony's Cajun seasoning, salt and pepper and garlic. I took a large piece of foil and formed it in a small bowl where the 1/4+ cup of onion was put, then the meat was formed on top of it and tapped down (in an effort to keep the wet ingredient above the meat), then 2 oz. pasta, 1 cup of the diced tomatoes, 2 Tablespoons of tomato sauce and 1/4 teaspoon of Italian seasoning. Fold the foil over and put on coals for 30 minutes.
I used a small flat noodle but I think a think a noodle like macaroni would have worked also.

Open put a tablespoon of ricotta cheese on top
sprinkle with Parmesan
close and wait a few minutes to heat up the cheese

ENJOY

foil dinners

My husband is the Scout Master of the 12-14 year olds in our ward. This weekend is a camp-out which led to talking about foil dinner possibilities. Which led to trying out foil dinner possibilities. I have never made a pasta dish in a foil dinner and Jeffrey wondered if we could make lasagna in the foil. So we started with a 'skillet lasagna' recipe that had already worked out the water to noodle ration. Divided it by 4 and made 4 dinners. One went in the freezer for Saturday lunch and the rest onto the grill. Directly onto the coals. For 30 minutes. As you can tell they don't look like lasagna, and they taste like goulash but they are eating it so it was a success. The plan was to put ricotta cheese on top after cooking but they didn't remember it and it's fine with out it.




We also did 4 different kinds of appls for dessert. Gala, Granny Smith, and Pink Lady. I treated them all with lemon juice and then put 1 1/2 T. brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon on them. Baked them for 20 minutes on the grill.
taste test results:

• 3 votes for the Granny Smith even though it was a bit overcooked and looked like applesauce.
• 1 vote for Yellow Delicious
• 1 tester declined to taste any of them (Ralphy is 6)

Next time we would distribute the sugar and cinnamon more evenly; maybe toss the apple in a bowl with the sugar and cinnamon.

where was I?

Where was I when it became okay to show your bra straps in public? Where was I when it became okay to wear you pajamas to the airport? I know, I know you wish I'd post pictures of the offenders but I won't. I still think it's crass to do either.
Honestly while at Universal Studios Amusement park I saw hundreds of bra straps. It must be a fashion I missed. One lady did have straps that coordinated with her top; burgundy straps along the hot pink of her spaghetti strap top made me think she'd thought about her straps as a fashion accessory.
I have noticed the addition of wide belts to tops at church among the hip this young people. I noticed one of those at the park... I started sweating just looking at that skin tight 4 inch wide black shiny plastic strip around her midriff, otherwise she would have been cool in her white shorts and white peasant style blouse (I'm sure the belt was necessary since she had on black flipflops and the belt tied the 2 colors together.)
I also saw a couple ladies wearing HIGH HEELS! ARe they nuts? Walking all day. in the heat. on concrete. in Heels? So what if they match your shorts. Did they not get the memo that low heels are more comfortable? Are there people out there that actually are comfortable in High heels? There must be.
Finally I've seen sloppy pajama pants many times in public but I actually saw what looked like a lady woman in her baby doll pajamas at the airport. I think she thought it was a dress but that short and that sheer made it look like pajamas to me. She was going to need a blanket to keep from freezing on the airplane.

what I missed

Most of you know that I was in California for 3 WEEKS! a long time to be gone and I couldn't have stayed so long if my boys hadn't come for the last 2 weeks of the time. My job was mainly relief for the weary mom ... and dad and being chief cook. So here are some of the things I missed:

This is a new gizmo to me. While in Denver I used one that my Dad had bought (My 80 something dad went shopping for and found this at a Bed, Bath and Beyond. I would have said my dad had never been in a Bed, Bath and Beyond in his life I know my husband hadn't until Saturday night.) I loved it so went and bought one as soon as I got home. My Dad likes it well enough to clean it, by hand, every day. I love it because it comes clean in the dishwasher and....

...it chops the onion up so small and even. I've also used it for red peppers; I don't think tomatoes would work in it. But I chop an onion almost every night so it's worth the almost $20.00 I spent. It is almost like I can chop an onion, some garlic, even red peppers and THEN decide what I'm cooking for dinner. Maybe I'm in a rut...

This is called a 'garlic twist.' I LOVE love love garlic but hate hate hate cleaning garlic presses. I've had this for a few years and it works like a dream...although at times I need to use some no slip carpet pad squares to keep my hands from slipping on the plastic. The garlic smooshes great and it gets clean in the dishwasher!


Notice my 3 heat tolerant rubber spatula's! I missed having so many nice spatulas. Melissa had one (that I'd gotten her) but the way I cook I need MORE.

Not a very long list and I loved loved being there the weather was great the family was great.

lemon sauce

While in California I made chicken shis-ka-bob's with a yummy lemon sauce. Here's the recipe;

Lemon Sauce
3 Tablespoons butter
4 cloves of garlic, minced or mushed to smithereens
simmer a few minutes to cook the garlic
Add;
2 Tablespoons flour
Cook a few minutes and then Add;
1 can (14 oz) chicken broth
juice of one lemon
a dash of tobasco or chili pepper
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon @ pepper, salt, and poultry seasoning
simmer until thickened
serve on rice, chicken, fish..
I make the shis-ka-bob's with mushrooms, onion, chicken, cherry tomatoes, and peppers served on rice with lots of this sauce on top... Well, actually served separately so each can decide how much of this stuff you want.

It's yummy on the finger too.

(I had leftover chicken so did a couple of shis-ka-bob's with just chicken..guess who grabbed those? We had to insist that the younger kids eat some with some vegetables.)

calendar quilt

I got the kids on the roof early yesterday to show Jeffrey's quilt and grabbed this one too. (Actually I was trying to find my Patriotic one to grab; that will have to found and posted about later.) I was surprised that they didn't complain more that they did. It gets hot early...actually it's hot all the time here but the roof hadn't had the sun shining on it for very long, so was not 'burning feet ' hot yet.

One year our guild had a secret sister exchange and I had NO money to spend so each month I appliquéd a 6 inch block for her. She hired someone to make it into quilt for her and it was so sweet I decided to do this but make the blocks larger. It's not as cute as the 6 inch version but it will have to do.

I designed most of these blocks and taught an appliqué class at a small quilt shop; The Rocking Chair in Baytown may years ago. If you look at the slate on September I wrote 112 meaning months 1- 12 and 94, the year I made the blocks; the 5 and 01 is the date I finished it. I also machine quilted my wedding date in the wedding cake that is in June's spot although my wedding was in August. I finished it when I realized I had several seasonal quilts to display but nothing to cover the months not covered by hearts, flags, or holly. Really since then I realize that January is the only month this gets out and I'm usually so worn out from Christmas that I don't bother.

nerf shooter

This is what has kept my boys interested for hours. Saturday they pulled out our old marshmallow guns and played with them for awhile. before long they started taking them apart and combining parts until.... drum roll please, they got the ultimate nerf shooter. to compare look at their statistics;

• It shot a nerf dart 124 feet and 2 inches.
  
• The normal (purchased) gun shot the dart 26 feet.
• A marshmallow only goes 58 feet

It hits the wall with a satisfying thud. Unfortunately it hit the ceiling fan chain with an intriguing zingy zapand the chain is wrapped around the light fixture!

I'm through doing anything downstairs since the air conditioning is not working here. We have a fried circuit board but it should be fixed by tonight. I'll spend the day upstairs trying to clean up and getting started on a project. The only problem is which one?

jeffrey's quilt

This is the last posting that goes with the curtains that are now washed, folded and put away until I figure out what to do with them. I made this quilt; one of a pair...(Andrew's coordinating one is cut but not sewn) in 2001. It is a very nice quilt and unless you look at the back it doesn't really look like a juvenile quilt. Without planning it the plain blue squares just fit his name. That is why Andrew's is not made yet. I am a bit nervous about the plain square being exactly enough to quilt Andrew Benjamin Stone in. I've rearranged and planned it but did I do it right?

I realized that ALL the animals are upside down on the back..oh, yes that's so the child in the bed can see them right side up, right?

andrew's quilt

This is the quilt I was NOT going to make. About 12 years ago I learned I was pregnant with our 6th child. One of the things I decided I could give up was making him a quilt. Reasons were many:

• I was too busy
• we were remodeling our house,
• money was tight;
• I had 3 teenagers
• One was headed to college as soon as the baby was born
• I had made about 5 baby quilts for the 5th baby
• This baby did not need a quilt

Well, I had made a few friends in the quilt guild and they gave me a surprise baby shower with a gift card to the fabric store to buy fabric to make a baby quilt. What could I do? I HAD to make him a quilt. I used some left overs from making Jeffrey's sheets, blanket and curtains and bought the rest.

Notice Noah with his head cut off. This was supposed to be a quick strip pieced quilt (due to all the above reasons.) But when that fabric was cut almost EVERY square had a head cut off to the extent that the animals were unrecognizable. I ended up picking out the offending squares and fussy cutting dozens of squares to replace them. (I have no idea how this one got through ..I guess I figured that if there were some with heads you could figure out who this body was supposed to be.)

The offending green stain is being treated as I type.

(Andrew had no idea this was HIS quilt!)

shelves

These are the shelves built for our baby's room in Virginia. Luckily the curtains and shelves fit in our 'new' home when we moved here 11 years ago. I warned the boys I was posting about their shelves. The 13 year old cleaned his shelf, but the 11 year couldn't see the dust. He checked and thought his shelf looked good.... guess he needs an education about clean.

So I think these shelves will still work if I add a section of black and cream checks to the new curtains. So far they want fabric with eagles on it... or denim. I think denim would be a little heavy so maybe I can talk them into chambry.

curtains

.
12 years ago I made some lovely curtains for Jeffrey's room. They were cute. They were Noah's ark. They are no longer hanging. They would rather have no curtains than those cute ones. I was going to get a new curtain rod since the old one broke..(I wonder how THAT happened?) but my car is broke too.
The doves (there ARE 2) were the tie-backs for their curtain. So cute, rarely used; usually hidden by their curtain. I think the next curtains will more easily open and be solid colored and ageless. I'm thinking blue since I don't want to repaint their shelves...oh you haven't seen their shelves?

The were cut out by their Dad and painted cute by me. (Nothing like tooting your own horn.) I'll have to post them but maybe you'll understand that they are in a boy's room. They are not usually seen. The boy's may WANT to straighten them up before the camera arrives. That may take a couple of HOURS.

Then I have a baby quilt and a twin quilt that coordinates with the curtains....

I feel another post coming....

zipper bags

This is the 'bag' I wanted to make with the doll zipper. I cut a 7" zipper to 4" and made this for my grandson's 'pocket.' He's 4 and this is to help him keep track of some of his things. Blue is his favorite color and his initials are T.S. actually so are his brothers so he can hand it down if his needs outgrow the 4X4 size. Actually I'm thinking a portable pocket might help my 11 year old. If things are put in this then pens won't end up in the washer.
The long thin bag I made for my make-up before my trip to Denver this year. Since I'd never made this before I had no idea a square would end up so long and thin. It looks like I should put a bottle of wine in there. It is lined with a pair of checkered pants I bought from the thrift store cause they were 100% cotton gingham. (They also gave me a short white zipper that I get to figure out how to use... any one need a bag?)

So, I'm down to 67 zippers since the blue one wasn't counted in the 68.
I found 2 more zippers while cleaning the sewing room...so it's 69.

Hey, Jeffrey is cleaning the whole living room carpet, unasked!

thrift store

My car overheated. On my way home from the gym. I got punished for going to the gym... not really but after filling the radiator with water I stopped on my way to the car shop at a local thrift store and these are the things I got;

• this is the second Noah's Ark I've gotten from this thrift store; I paid double for this one..$6.00. Andrew is holding the bird by a thread...his idea. So which of my grandsons gets this?
  
• The pretty basket was $.50 I think I NEED a collection of these pretty woven clay things.
  
• 12 wooden spools of thread for $.10@.
  

Not bad for a ten minute stop.

When I got back the boys spilled the first purple grape juice I have bought in years. On. our. white. carpet.

62 zippers

Today I hunted for a small doll zipper I bought, probably 20 years ago. It was so cute I knew I'd use it someday. Today was the day; actually tomorrow would have been the day. I hunted but found 'only' 62 other zippers...none of them the tiny doll one I wanted. How did I get so many zippers?

• Some I bought for an aborted project.
• Some I inherited them from my Grandmother.
• Some I inherited them from friends' grandmother...'cause they knew I sewed and they didn't want them... and surely I could use them.
• Sometimes a friend cleaned out her sewing stuff and gave me the zippers she knew she would NEVER use. Guess what? I haven't used them either.
• Some I may have bought a few on speculation...meaning they were insanely cheap ($.10 @) and I would probably make a purple dress that needs a 16 inch zipper someday.
• Some I've bought at thrift stores; as I rip up dresses, pants, and skirts the wool (that I also have no REAL use for) I pick out the zipper and save it with it's 50 or so odd cousins I have in my FULL zipper box.

Now, I need to come up with ways to use up this embarrassment of zippers. Mary Englebret's magazine a month or 2 ago had a couple really ugly things made with zippers; sewn edge to edge to make a throw and upholstered a stool... Not what I'm looking for.

Any ideas out there?

Lynn, jewelry made of the zippers is out..I may be crazy but not that crazy.

Wait! I bought 6 more while in California; to use when I slip cover my new couch. That's 68 zippers!

sausage crepe

Sunday dinner was Sausage filled Crepes
I made the filling early and Melissa made the crepes.
I think I have a recipe for something similar but this is what I came up with;

• 1 onion (Melissa's onions were getting a bit old.. so I probably used 3/4 of a large onion) diced and start frying.
• sliced brown mushrooms that I put in after the onion was almost done
• garlic (I wish I'd put in 2 garlic cloves but I was too lazy and used some powder)
• 1 pound of sausage (I did use the lower fat version) When the meat was cooked I added
• 2 Tablespoons flour; cook a few minutes
• 1 cup milk; cook until thickened
• slices of Monterey jack cheese...about 1/2 cup
• 1 brick of reduced fat cream cheese; melt the cheeses and the fill crepes.

We filled the crepes with cold sauce and then warmed them up in her toaster oven...oh 350 for about 20 minutes.

Served with asparagus and broccoli and a green salad. Well, next time we'll do the green salad.

bacon wrapped thingys

Since we were on VACATION (or yes, we're home now) I cut loose (yeah for bacon -out of our diet for about ..forever and sausage!) in the kitchen. I made the bacon-wrapped jalopeno thingy's of Ree's. Oh, wow these are so good. I changed her recipe only slightly;
instead of looking for small peppers we looked for

• the biggest
  
• with a more rounded shaped tip

since we were looking for the mildest peppers we could find. I donned rubber gloves and very carefully took ALL the seeds and ribs out. They were yummy. They were mild, I couldn't tell they were jalopeno's at all. The adults all LOVED them; I ate 3 I could have eaten 10. I could have handled a little heat there even. Andrew even liked it...Jeffrey didn't eat one..the pansy!

I noticed on Ree's post today on how to cut a pineapple that she added a sliver of pineapple to these...Melissa will have to try it with the half pound of bacon I left in CA.

fashion district

Here I am in the fashion district buying enough minky for 2 baby girls blankets...at 6.99 @ yard. I bought some white linen for a skirt and some outdoor fabric to make a cushion for my outside chair. I don't know where my brain was cause I found quilting fabric.. the good stuff.. for $5.00 @ yard instead of 8-9 that it is in the local quilt shops and I didn't buy ANY. I could not think of a single quilt that I needed fabric for. Now I've remembered 2. Liz's wedding quilt-I'll need white on whites; and a Christmas quilt I'm ready to put together; I could have gotten the back for it.

Next time I visit my daughter...I'll plan better AND I'll go by myself.

Everyone said it was a rough part of town and I should take someone with me. I've already looked up the bus to get there. I'd only have to walk 1 mile each way.

still in california

We will be going home on Tuesday. I've been gone 3 weeks! The weather here is amazing; we'll be going back to hot, hot, hot.

I'm trying to get the last burp rag crocheted around; I've given up on the knitting getting done before I leave. His blanket will have to be mailed to him.

Jeffrey loves to hold Austin. Andrew doesn't quite know what to do with him, so he just watches mostly.

eric's home

Eric got home from China. He had a great time and we looked at all 2,000 of his photos! I know Melissa is happier now and I got to sleep all night!
Friday we went to Universal Studios. I kept marveling at the weather. It was cool and comfortable in the shade. But why whould we pay lots of money to stand in long, long lines (45 min) to get on a ride that takes 5 minutes? I sat out the roller coaster and fell asleep! My legs hurt today but not bad enough to not go shopping this morning in the fashion district! I got some white linen for 5.99 a yard! Now I'll have to get busy to get my skirt made before the summer is over.
Roger and the boys are on a 10 mile hike. Melissa and I took naps.

san diego pictures

I worked quite a while on the pictures of San Diego and they keep comming up with a code error... so since I can't figure it out I get to start over. Melissa and Austin did not go with us but I think everyone expects a picture of the baby.

san diego

We haven't had time to download any photos from Sand Diego yet. Here I am to report though.
We spent the first day at the Wild Animal Park; ironically the boy's favorite exhibit was a show aabout millions of bubbles. They even had exploding bubbles.
Then we went to a friend's house. Thank you Nancy. The boy's took Eric's wave board and was able to show their friend how to ride it. It's so cool you need to see it in action here.
The second day we went to 'Old Town' and saw a Mormon Battelion exhibit (very small but on a hilltop with a great view and quiet and pretty.) We went to a beach and a light house then stopped at the San Diego temple grounds before heading back to L.A.

bean dip

We leave for San Diego in the morning and I wanted Melissa to have enough to eat without cooking; so I fixed my bean dip that would feed the cavalry. I noticed that I have posted 39 quilt posts and 37 recipe posts.... you can tell I don't know if this is a quilting blog or a food blog. Here's another recipe:
Bean Dip
in a dutch oven fry an onion, diced
add about 1-1 1/2 lbs ground turkey (or beef if you're not watching your cholesterol)
add some garlic after the meat is almost done since garlic doesn't need long to cook (or add powdered garlic)
add a can of diced or crushed tomatoes
2-3 cans of refried beans
add seasoning; chili powder, tobasco, cumin or a package of taco seasoning.
1 can of green chilis, drained
heat through
add whatever cheese you like or have on hand-tonight it was Monterrey jack and cheddar- not a lot to stir in, save some to put on top. melt.
add sour cream (I'm so exact here....) but don't boil it now
put it in your serving dish, sprinkle cheese on top.
serve with chips.

All my kids like this as long as I don't add mushrooms which I love in it. I have made this for years and of course I don't always have all the ingredients. So I substituted plain yogurt for the sour cream, even blended cottage cheese; used black beans that I mashed myself, used salsa instead of tomatoes.

I prefer eating this with my chips crumbled on plate, the bean dip on top and a big salad on top of it all and eat it with a fork. The kids prefer eating it like ....... well like bean dip.

Boys went on a hike to the beach where a ship has washed ashore, Melissa called it the shipwreck hike.
I held a baby, when I got tired of that I burped and changed the baby. I cooked and sewed 4 pages of Austins book together. I am so glad I came., It's cool to see the boy's reaction to a baby. Jeffrey looks for him as soon as he gets back and holds him and plays with him. Andrew is more hesitate to hold him but is definitely paying attention and has said how cool his tiny fingernails are

avocado

I was at a friend's for the 4th of July and watched her cut up an avocado. I hesitate to say she did it 'wrong' because it did work; they got to eat it. There is a neater, faster way to do it. Melissa and I decided to do a tutorial but her avocados are not ripe yet, so I decided to look and see if someone else has already done a tutorial and there are many. This is the first one I looked at; the best of the 3 I took the time to look at.

So if anyone out there, among the 5 that read my blog, were wondering how to cut an avocado click on the link! Enquiring minds want to know.

baby book

They said they were going surfing....

They really did go surfing while Melissa,baby and I walked to Target...it took us 2.5hours. Yes we did do some shopping and resting so I can't count the whole time as exercise but it was an urban hike.

Here's Mom and new baby; 15 days old.

These are the scraps I bought for 'our' book project.

The first page I did; yellow was inspired by one in an shop. The orange also.

The green has scraps from a quilt Melissa made. The cupcake page was inspred by 'the cupcake prokect I read about on a blog. So I've made good progress but still have purple, red, black, brown and white to do.

babysitting

Today Melissa and Roger and Jeffrey went grocery shopping. I got to babysit for 2 hours. We are now the part owners of a surf board. This will give us a reason to return to California!

After dinner they went to the beach for a few minutes I had to call them since Austin was very unhappy.

Then we watched an old movie; Back to the Future on a BIG screen; 102? inches! (I got a head ache from it...just a bit too big and too close for me.)

Our book project is coming along...maybe I'll get pictures tomorrow. I'm getting pretty good at typing with one hand since I'm holding Austin. I'm trying too give Melissa another half hour sleep.