Supper: Plan C

Yesterday, we were going to make enchilada soup for supper....

...until we realized that we didn't have the ingredients.

So we decided to make tostadas....

...until I burnt the beans.

So, we went with plan C, corm patties, oranges, and tostadas from the beans we could salvage. Joel called the salvaged beans "smoked beans". It was pretty accurate :/. 

To make Corn patties: Dump a bunch of corn in a bowl. If it's frozen, run it under hot water to thaw it first. If it's canned, drain it first.

Then add enough eggs so that it looks about like this when it's all mixed up:

Then add enough flour to make it look like this once it's mixed up. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Then fry on a hot griddle. I put a little butter on, so that the corn patties didn't stick.

Once solid enough to flip, do so. They will be slightly browned. Allow to brown on other side before removing. Serve hot, or cold as leftovers. We normally eat them all up hot, topped with sour cream and salsa.

To make tostadas, we first fried corn tortillas in hot oil until they looked about like this, and sprinkle them with salt:

While the tortillas were cooking, I melted butter in a pan to make the refried beans. 

I like to use a potato masher to mash my beans.

To make tostadas: Spread refried beans on fried tortillla. Top with desired toppings.

One of our favorite toppings is guacamole

To make this, I mash the avocado well, and add minced garlic, and a little bit of lemon juice and salt. 

Best eaten with a still-warm, deep-fried tortilla, sprinkled with salt

While Mama and I were working on all of the above, Georgie was put to work peeling oranges.

I'm not sure how well you can see his shirt, but it says "Georgie (aka Caleb)". I was asked to share how he got the nickname of Georgie, but I honestly don't know. I do know however that I was the one that started it. I'm still usually the only one that calls him that, but some of the others will occasionally too.

And the final product: 

for dessert, we had some fried tortillas that were sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, instead of salt, for

a special treat.

Last but not least: A picture a Esther during supper, in the middle of a conversation with Mama. I'm sorry, but don't remember what was so amusing.:)

Also, did you notice the photo editing? I finally figured it out, and I'm so glad!

Chimichangas and a Foot Massage

A few days ago, I made chimichangas for supper. I used leftover roast and vegetables that I had cut up and stuck in the freezer awhile back.

I had the roast and vegetables in two containers, one clear, and one an old ice cream container. When I went to get them out of the freezer, I just grabbed the ice cream container that was on top of the other container. Big mistake. What you see here, is two ice cream containers, neither of which had ice cream in them. We often freeze food in old ice cream containers. They're big and sturdy. 

The problem was, I just assumed that the ice cream container on top of the roast and vegetables also contained roast and vegetables. But it didn't. It had ham bone and drippings in it. Of course, I found this after it was mostly thawed.

So I found the correct ice cream container, and stuck the other one back in the freezer.

The problem was then, we don't have a working microwave. So I filled one side of the sink with really hot water, and plopped it in. Thankfully, it was most of the way thawed by the time I needed it.

While all the above was going on, I was also making homemade tortillas. If you just buy them, it cuts down on your preparation time considerably. But we have yet to find gluten free tortillas that taste good, hold together, and don't cost an arm and a leg. And we prefer to keep our limbs if at all possible.

Okay, now to the actually assembling of the chimichangas: Place your tortilla on a flat work space, and fill with your filling. I've never used anything except leftover roast and vegetables, but I'm sure it can be done.  

Pull your two ends together

Then pull your two sides together, and secure with a toothpick, preferably unused.  

You can cook these in a deep fryer, but I did them in an electric skillet, because I wasn't sure how the gluten free tortillas would do without something to support them. You'll want to make sure your oil is hot before you put your first batch in.

After about ten minutes, I flipped them and let them cook another ten minutes. You can certainly do them longer if you want them crispier, but I don't recommend doing them less than ten minutes on each side. 

Once they're done,.use a slotted something to pull them out of the oil, and let them cool on paper towels.

Traditionally, they would be served on a bed of lettuce, topped with sour cream and guacamole, but we like to top them with cheese and salsa as well (we just happened to be out of avocados and salsa).

After spending several hours in the kitchen making supper, I decided to cash in one of the free foot massage coupons Sarah had given me for my birthday.

While I was waiting for Sarah, Esther decided to come rub my feet for me.

Sarah was so sweet and rubbed my feet for an extra several minutes.

Esther soon was soon tired of rubbing however, and went to play doll house with Leah.

That is, until Mama remembered the coupons that Leah gave her for Christmas.....

Dear Georgie,
What I was talking to Mama about last night was writing little notes to you in my posts.
Here's the first one :). By the way, the cookie dough is in the kitchen freezer.


To those who don't know who Georgie is:
He's my brother, and the only immediate family member who regularly reads my blog. Not that there's regularly much to read....
Last night I started telling Mama about my idea to write notes to him, but stopped when  he walked in the room, 'cause I wanted to surprise him. He overheard that I was talking about him though, and pestered me to tell him what about. I refused.
The cookie dough part? He said something to me about seeing something about making cookies in my last post, and I faked innocence.

Garlic Tea and Garden Planning

So we've had this little bug going around at our house for a couple weeks. Every time we think we're over it, and venture out in public, someone ends of feeling sick again. So we decided to make a big batch of garlic tea yesterday, and make everyone drink some, in hopes that it would wipe out our nasty little bug once and for all.

So I cut up some garlic. A lot of garlic. Nearly two whole bulbs, actually.

 I put it in a cheese cloth over a large pan, and pour hot, but not boiling, water over it.

Then I covered it, and let it steep for about 15 minutes.

I wouldn't normally let it steep that long, but I had this pile of dishes to do before I wanted to move on to the next step. This is one meal worth of dishes, y'all. One small meal worth of dishes. We're one big family.

And our dishwasher isn't working right now.

I took the cover off the tea, and it looked like this:

The I added some honey and apple cider vinegar.

Honey

Apple cider vinegar

Then I poured it in cups, and we all had a lovely cuppa tea.

In case you're wondering, we're still not all better. But we're hopefully getting there.


This is what I did this afternoon:

Seed inventory folks. We're planning our garden!

It turns out that we have quite a few more seeds than I realized.

Well, Goodnight y'all, I off to make some cookie dough and wait for the littles to go to sleep.

Old Clothes into New Clothes

From time to time, we're given bags of clothes from people that no longer want or use them. This past week, we were given a bag with a few things we could use, and were thrilled. The styles that we like and wear however, are a bit on the old fashioned side, so it's rare to have much that we keep, especially for us girls.
This time, instead of passing on the rest of the clothes that weren't styles/sizes we would wear, I decided to turn a couple of the items into things we would wear.

This shirt, I took and cut the top off just under the sleeves, turned it under, added elastic, and turned it into...

....this little skirt

Someone was just a bit excited about it ;).

I took this shirt, and did the same thing.

 These shirts were not sizes that we needed right now, nor styles that we wear. 

Princess Hannah (The second shirt was a bit bigger than the first)

My last project, was this very sweet dress, that was just a bit short/wide for my sisters to be able to wear modestly. I took it, cut it off just under the arms, sewed it under, and added elastic, just like with the shirts.

Personally, I think it turned out cuter than the original dress.

And there you have it, new skirts, out of other clothing items, for three out of four little sisters.

Esther looking at books

 Hannah, being her cute, goofy self

Leah wanted a picture taken too, even though she was the one without a new skirt

   Sarah's new skirt, so precious