The Recipe of Rosalie's Salad

Do you have pet names for different recipes?  Or not even really really know the name of a recipe and just give it a name?  This recipes has a dear name to me, after a lady with a wonderful and giving heart.  

Years ago when I was in the 8th grade, yes the world was perking along even back then.   Any who,  the  8th grade class use to have a graduation, the walking across the stage and the who nine yards.   There was a dance afterwards at the Gaines County Golf Course party house.   I use to think that building was giant in size but it is not.    I wasn't going to go because all the girls had the pretty "formals" and then layers and layers of tulle in the skirts like bellowing clouds.  So pretty and fluffy looking.   Well this angel  Rosalie  found out via her daughter that I didn't have a dress.   Lo and behold she fitted one of her daughters beautiful dresses for me and I got to go to the party.  It was light blue and I will never forget it and was strapless.  Yikes I had never worn a strapless dress before much less a formal.   Her beautiful daughters were in Rainbows part of the Eastern Star organization so they did were dresses like that several times. 

Now I tell you this story of how this yummy salad got it's name.   Not because of the salad but because of Rosalie Jones.   I think later in life we crossed paths again either when I china painted so some such girlie function as that and she gave me the recipe.  

I use to take it family functions and meanie me didn't' give the recipe, I needed one secret weapon recipe.  Right?  A recipe that they would say yea Aunt Nette is coming and bringing the salad we love.   

 Well I compiled a family recipe book and shared Rosalie's salad in there.   I had thought about doing a recipe book but then just compiled a bunch of recipes from Eldon's family.   I haven't tested them all but what I have tested are pretty darn good.   One of our daughters wanted a book of just mine but I wanted to share with Eldon's family and try to include everyone in it.    Now it has been overhauled, the book, and thinking about redoing it for grandson and granddaughter.  

Enough suspense here is the salad recipe.    I did make it for this Thanksgiving, I asked Hubby which salad he would like and he said the pudding salad and I knew exactly which one it was.   I never knew when I use to cook for our family what salads or dishes they liked so tried changing all the time to see if anyone would ever ask for a certain dish.  Nope, but Hubby has asked.

                                                             Rosalie's Salad

1 small box of instant vanilla pudding
1 large can of pineapple chunks
1 can of apricots
1 can of mandarin oranges
3 sliced bananas
1/2 cup nuts (pecans)

Dissolve instant pudding with juices of fruits.  Mix all fruits together with pudding and add nuts.   You may use strawberries when in season.   Refrigerate and serve.  

I made the whole thing this year and wondering is I can half it being as we are only two.  Will try that and should work.


Here you go the picture of the salad.    After in the refrigerator the pudding thickens up.   Sooooooooooo good and eazy peazy.

There you go the recipe and story. 

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world today.


                                                       XOXOXO
                                                       Annette

Cheesy Chicken Soup and CPFs

My CPF's are on the rampage again.   AKA Creative Pieces of Fabric.   Scraps if you will.  Sometimes I wonder how small does the scrap of fabric need to be before it is trash?  Trash?  Oh I say that softly too.    

Now Hubby always puts anything I might use for the sake of art on the cabinet by the trash drawer in the house.   I love it, he knows I reuse-repurpose-recycle or make do is they word I use to use.  It is not an in word so recycle is the word today.    I even found a nut in a little box I had.   It was hexagon shape and red.  I said what is this?  It is a nut to the International tractor we owned years and years ago.   Yes we had the "GREEN" ones also but the color of International tractors was red.  So I put it on a shelf and remembered I had taken a quick photo of Hubby and his Dad by the tractor and I thought I can put them together in a  treasure box.  I am so glad I keep little things like that.   When I get it put together I will share it with you, probably it was in like 1962 is era.  

 

Here are 6 of the CPF bookmarks.   One of them chose to be a little smaller than the others but they are hand made.     I didn't use any of my faeries with these little treasures.   I had then in the ciggie drawer and just had to let them shine. 

 

 

Close up of my eyeglass case and of course had to use one of my faeries.   She was so cheerful and had to use the butterfly.  The crochet flower is from Little Snippts (Geraldine) and the pretty button from Flights of Fancy.  Love those buttons.

 

 

Here is the eyeglass case just hot off the press, I may even keep her she is so happy looking.   Maybe.   Funny how we don't keep very much of our own work.   I say this because I use to China Paint and bet I don't have 10 pieces of it.   My sister in law?  She has tons of it that I painted and she enjoys it.   So that makes it all worth it to share. 

 

Now it is getting colder weather and I love love to cook when it does.  Hubby and I hate cold weather!!!!!!!  That being said we love the soups that I make when it is cold and the fireplace burning and just being  RELAXED RETIRED.    He came up with that phrase from somewhere and I love it so that is what we are doing. 

 

 

I make this soup and it makes a lot !!!! So we eat on it for a couple of meals and freeze the rest and days when I am relaxed retired more than usual the freezer comes to the rescue.     I can't remember where I got this recipe but have changed it up ( of course ) and we love it. 

 

  

Cheesy Chicken Soup

 

1/2 cup celery

1 cup chopped carrots

1 head of broccoli, chopped

4 potatoes ( peel or not) 

 

Add in a large pot and add 5 T. margarine or butter

1 box of chicken broth

 

Cook til tender.

 

Mix 1/2 cup flour with  some of the broth in the pan so it doesn't lump and 2 t. salt. 

 

Now add 4 cups milk and 3 cans Swanson Chicken (drained).    ( some days I do this and some days I cook my real chicken and chop it up into chunks, just depends if the weather is ugly outside and I have real chicken on hand)

 

Let all of this simmer a bit til nice and hot then add the CHEESE .     Now lets discuss that a second, you may add 1 1/2 pound of grated American Cheese or we love Velveta so that is the cheese we add.  

 

After you have added the cheese watch it like a  hawk.  It will stick to the bottom and burn like crazy and ruin your soup.   Trust me, I had first had experience with that.  Just stir often and don't put on high heat.  Just til the cheese melts.  Serve and enjoy !!!!! 



 

 

 

There you go this is what is happening in my world right now.  Well more but I don't want to bore you to death. 

 

Thanks for stopping by

 

XOOXOX

Annette

A Beer Roast Recipe

I don't know about y'all but in the Fall/Winter time of the year I get the "cooks".  Wanting to bake, cook and anything that pertains to cooking and creating in the kitchen.   I know I am older and as one person once told my daughter---is she STILL trying new recipes?    Yep I surely am.  As long as I can read and move.   You never know what is around the corner waiting to be tried and maybe even replace a favorite you have had. 

Now years ago I use to use onions in everything like every other cook in the world I suppose.  Onion rings and whatever else you use them in.   When Hubby was in his 30's he became deathly ill, like the flu and then his breathing  IS affected from them.  So  long onions and hello spices.    At first I tried onion powder, nope not that and then dried onions nope not that.  So the onions are gone !!!!!!!  Oh if they are maybe the last ingredient in the line up of ingredients, kind of like a line up of criminals,  he might can eat it with no effects but we usually don't take a chance on it anymore.  

I am fixin to post a recipe with onions but trust me I don't use them.  

Hubby's favorite in the world is Roast with brown gravy ( ham is a tie for first).   He is a meat and potato man and when I say meat I mean BEEF and HAM not pork but just HAM.   Now I figured out it doesn't matter what kind of roast you use if you cook it right it will be tender.  So I don't worry about it much anymore.  Now when I was first starting my cooking adventure when first married at 16 I worried big time but not anymore.  This old grey mare has other things to worry about.   You know like what color is my new faerie I am painting hair will be or some big problem like that. 

Usually I follow a recipe to the teeeee the first time and then watch out recipe if you make the second goings around you will never be the same.   Sometimes I do forget what I change and then just play some more.   Now in earlier years when I tried new recipes and no one would eat them our fur baby Smokey was fed with what I cooked.  Family says that is what killed him but he was like 14 or around there so I like to think it was not my cooking.  

I get recipes wherever they are presented.   This one was on TV and I don't think I will use the original cooks name, he may come and take away my pans and cooking utensils.


Soooooooooo I call it Beer Roast

Serves 6-8                                                                                     325degrees-300 degrees

5 cups Guinness Stout Beer  ( 4 bottles)   guess you can drink the rest while cooking and not to worry if you don't drink.  The Alcohol cooks out and you have the flavor. We had one person say they were afraid of it, don't know if they ever cooked it or not. The wife did buy the ingredients.

1 cup dried cherries

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar ( I use a raspberry balsamic vinegar and sometimes don't use the dried cherries

2 T. vegetable oil or EVOO

1- 5 1/2 lb arm roast  ( the original called for pork but it is not beef)

salt

1/2  t. pepper

 4 Garlic cloves, peeled and minced

1 T. tomato paste

5 whole allspice, crushed ( I use the powdered when I don't have whole)

 2 Bay leaves

1/2 cup molasses

4 T. packed brown sugar

2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and rough chopped

Now I did adjust the sweet in this recipe to what it is today, that stout beer is STOUT.

1.  bring stout, Cherries and vinegar to a simmer.  Transfer to a bow and cover tightly with plastic wrap and let sit for 1 hour or refrigerate overnight.

2. Use the center rack of the oven

3. Warm the oil in cast iron pot or Dutch oven over high heat.   Season the roast with salt and pepper.  Sear on all sides until golden brown 12--15 minutes total time.    Transfer roast to platter and remove all but 2 T. of fat in pot.

4. Add onion ( I don't ) pepper to pot and add garlic and cook about 3 minutes.  Remember if you over cook garlic it tastes nasty or bitter.    Stir in tomato paste and cook 2 or 3 minutes longer.  Add roast, then the cherry liquid, allspice, bay leaves, molasses, brown sugar, 1 t. salt and 2 cup water.  Bring mixture to a simmer.

5.  Cover pot and transfer to oven.  Braise for 1-2 hours turning once during cooking ( but it basically covers the roast so I don't turn over ).  Now I cook longer than it says and start with 325 degrees then about 2 hours or more into it I turn down to 300 degrees.  Add the sweet potatoes and cook for 2 more hours. or until the potatoes and roast is done.  If the potatoes get done first just take them out of the pot and save on a platter.   This stuff will be tender and soooooo good.   After done remove roast and potatoes add corn starch to the sauce.  It just thickens it some and then more like a gravy.    Be sure and taste for maybe more sugar.   

6. Slice and serve with sauce over the top .   

A friend just recently tried with a different beer and in the crock pot and said it turned out delicious.

There you go an Annette altered recipe.  

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world today.  

                                                                      XOOXOX
                                                                    ANNETTE 

Essence Faeries

Sometimes you just hunt and hunt for a word and then think well maybe this will work. 

                                                   Essence Faeries. 

 To me that means something that kinda sorta looks like someone.  That has the air of the person but not smack dab  them.   So this is why I have named this series of Faeries -------Essence Faeries.  

I started with a photo of each girl and didn't want it exactly like them but has the air of their personality, their look, their essence if you will.     I wanted it to be arty and not a portrait, that is what photographs are for.   I want to be taking an artist's license with them.  Being as I did photography for over 24 years, I wanted to stray from photos and go back to what I did before photography.   Art in the style of messy hands, paint all over your clothing.  You know the messy kind.  If you forget and wipe your hair out of your eyes and then have paint or pastels all over you or even some glitter on your face.  

Maybe just going back to kindergarten and finger painting and just express yourself with color and design.  Of course when you were that young we just did what we felt natural and didn't worry about the rules or anything else.  We just did it. 

 Now I know I do some life like portraits but then how many of you have really and truly seen a real life Faerie?   I only have in my mind or my muse working overtime and in books.   In some enchanted forest or even in our yard with flowers and toad stools maybe, but so tiny we can't see them. 

So here ya go my Essence Faeries.    I do measure and measure and want some facial features that make them - them , something that says who they are pop out.  

Please excuse the watermarks, seems like we have some image bandits out there in the cyber world.  Now if you are like me, I just don't care for someone else to sell my work and get the dollars .   I am narrow minded that way.  

Now this little sweetie just wanted to be older than she is---so I let her be what she wanted to be.   She is a twin and I figure she is very strong willed and just wanted to show her here. 

 

 

 

Oh it was hard to do this Faerie, I have known her since she was maybe four years old and watched her grow up to be a fine young woman. 

 

 

 

Same young lady but totally different feel and pose and just air about her.  She is very talented and somehow I just wanted to show that maybe with her headpiece and the little bird bringing love to her.  

 

 

 

The softness and gentleness of this faerie, I feel like I captured her totally.   She has always been a kind and sweet little girl.  

 

 

There you go my Essence Faeries.   They will go to their new homes soon, become Note cards and ciggies alsowill be printed.   I have four more for this series coming.   Just starting on them this week, well the first one anyway.  Photos coming of the new faeries. 

 

I am thinking very very serious to doing Essence Faeries for other Mothers wanting these of their daughters.   Of course a fee would be charged.

 

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world today.

 

XOOXOX

Annette 

November is Here My Friends

It is here-----NOVEMBER------.  The year is getting close to ending,  really !!!! I am not pulling your leg or anything.   We have one more month the enjoy the Fall colors or oranges, yellows and golds.  Oh and how could I forget RED?  I mean that is one powerful color isn't it?   

Now I am not saying that RED is my favorite, but our automobile is red and we have had a Red one for years.   One time we had traded cars and only person who realized it was our Granddaughter.  We had a bench back seat and then the new one had captains chairs.  There she was maybe 9 and she is the only one who knew our steel stallion was new. 

I could say we have a LOT of Red in our house and would not be stretching it at all.  Several large rugs, some walls and assorted things.   So maybe Red is my favorite color, but really how can you choose one color?  They all have their charm and are just  everyone so pretty.   I know that is a strange thing to get to chatting about but it just popped in here and said I want to be talked about.  

Kathy Shaw gives wonderful tutorials,  here  is where you can find them.  She does beautiful needlework besides tutorials.    Now I was blog prowling and found one on her site for trees.  I thought TA DAAAAA, what better for Fall on my block of the month than a tree?    A Fall tree with beautiful orange  leaves gently falling to the ground and giving a special look.    I also get to use the Fall colors that I love to see.

 

Here you go my Fall block.   The leaves were some plastic ones I had but they just didn't show up well.  Sooooooo I put gesso on the backside of them and of course so faerie glitter on the front.  After all one of my faeries is the center of attention on this block.   The silk ribbon work, buttons and lots of beads and sequins.  Right up a Texan's alley ----bling.   It is hard for me to stop on these sometimes but it is just so much fun.  To combine my paintings, printed on fabric and the new needlework I have learned last year.  

 

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world.

 

XOXOOX

Annette