Monday, July 14, 2008

Fried Okra, Mayonnaise Biscuits, Blog Surfing and More

Tonight for dinner I made fried okra and I can't say that it was the first time because I made this last week and it was totally nasty. Tony had brought home some that someone had gotten from their garden and I couldn't wait to try it. I've never made fresh fried okra I've bought plenty of already breaded okra from the freezer section at the local grocery store. I was taking it out of the bag and asked does this look too big and his reply was maybe a little. I asked do I need to do anything to this like par boil it? No, just do it like you do green tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers. Okay I washed them, took the ends off and starting cutting them into slices. Now let me tell you it was a task cutting through these babies. After making them and taste testing one I quickly spit it out and took one to Tony and said this taste nothing like what I buy in the grocery store. Are you sure I wasn't suppose to par boil them or peel them or something? The next day I called his mom a true southern and asked her what I was doing wrong. She first asked how big were they? I don't know but bigger than what I thought an okra should look like I said. How did it cut? Well, if I would have had a chain saw it would have been easier. She said if they are big they are not good if you can't slide a knife through them pitch them in the trash. Tony went to the produce stand today and brought home some okra and these looked and felt much better. I had no problem slicing them and when they were finally done they were wonderful.

Fried Okra

flour
cornmeal
salt & pepper
egg

Wash and cut off ends of okra and slice up. Beat egg and dip okra in and then put them into the flour, cornmeal, and salt & pepper mixture. Then transfer over into a frying pan with a bit of oil and fry until golden brown.

My mom had given me a recipe for Mayonnaise Biscuits that she had gotten from a co worker. She warned these are different and you need to use a muffin tin and they don't get brown. So I also gave these a try tonight and I liked them.

Mayonnaise Biscuits

1 CUP SELF- RISING FLOUR
1 HEAPING TABLESPOON MAYONNAISE
1/2 CUP MILK
1 TEASPOON SUGAR

Mix together and spoon into greased muffin tins. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 MINS.

Makes 7

Now if you notice from the picture I used liners and I'm not sure if they would have been a bit browner if I hadn't used them. What about it Mom do they look too white? But I did like the taste of them better than other biscuits and Colin and Tony also liked them. Of course in this house we have to have one or two that doesn't like something I make and the teens didn't like these. Don't feel bad Mom they didn't like the fried okra either.

I didn't have self rising flour... I had all purpose, unbleached, and bread but no self rising. So I called mom can you use all purpose yes you have to add baking powder. So I got online to see what I could find out and found this site on Self Rise Flour. And of course you can all purpose flour, baking powder and salt.

Dinner... BBQ chicken, rice with gravy, sliced tomatoes, fried okra, and mayonnaise biscuits.


The last few days I've been doing some blog surfing here and there. I've came across some wonderful blogs and would like to share a few of them with you.

Keep It Cheap is full of great information and articles. I found this site a couple weeks ago and finally went through it the other day. I found her posting of
Collect and Save Seeds From Your Garden very useful. You see I grew up in the country and I did help my grandparents out on the farm a bit but not often. Now that I'm older and had a taste of the city life I'm back in the country and need to learn many things. Isn't that what life is about learning no matter what age you are? Anyway I'm finding her blog a true learning experience! She also has an posting on Aloe Vera plants which lead me to
Tipnut and hence another wonderful blog. I didn't know Aloe Vera plants were so useful! I had one many many years ago and now after reading all the different kinds of things they can help with I want one again. I did look for one yesterday at Walmart but they didn't have any. Did you know that they could help with all these things...

How To Treat A Wound With Aloe
Burns & Sunburns
Home Remedy For Digestive Problems
Sap Extraction For Bowel Regulation
Scalp & Hair Treatments
Poison Ivy, Poison Oak & Allergies
Pregnancy Stretch Marks
Insect Bites, Jellyfish Stings, Etc.
Arthritis Treatments
Age Skin Spots
Acne Treatments
Asthma

If you would like to find out more and how you have to read this
How To Heal With Aloe Vera Plants Tip Guide.

I also visited Rocks In My Dryer I hadn't been there in a long time. And I wish I would have had the paint tip a few months ago when I was painting. But I don't have to worry because I know I will have to do a touch up sooner or later more like sooner and I will then use this tip about putting some of the paint into a small glass jar for easy access to get to without having to open up the can of paint. Now some of these other blogs I got to by going to Rocks In My Dryer but I couldn't tell you which ones they were now.


Ramblings of a Crazy Woman has made this awesome cushion...
No Sew Pool or Sport Cushion you have to check it out. No sew oh yeah that's right up my alley! And these would be great to have a couple in the car for when we are sitting on bleachers watching one of the children in one of their sporting activities.


Over on Queen Of The Click you will find a mouth watering dessert made with bananas, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, pudding, cool whip...okay I'm drooling and need to clean off my keyboard. Take a look at this mouth watering
easy, no bake dessert.

Somehow I found my way to Third Infinity Erotic Emporium and was reading all the different things when I came across something that my dearest Internet friend had mentioned a few weeks ago. So Susan if your reading this here is a pattern to make your own grocery bags...
Living Green Make Your Own Grocery Bag.

Over on Good Eats Sweet Treats she has posted a recipe that I think the kids will like. All my kids love to eat smores so I know they will love smores on a stick. Okay Okay I know I will love them!

Oh and over on Crochet *d* Lane I found these oh so cute leg warmers that would look so cute on Kaylee. That sent me on a search for a pattern and here is what I came up with...


http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/70440AD.html
http://naidascrochet.tripod.com/patterns/legwarmers.html
http://www.crochettoday.com/pdfs/legwarmers.pdf
http://bythehook.blogdrive.com/archive/206.html
http://www.knitting-crochet.com/crochet/legwar.html
http://hooked-on-crochet.blogspot.com/2008/01/livie-legs-free-original-pattern.html

As soon as I have time I am going to make some of these. Hmmm...that will probably be next year. lol

And finally for the last of my blog surfing I found Malted Milk Bars and Pickled Watermelon over on Fresh From The Farm. Malted Milk Bars sounds like something that I want to make and hide for myself. Pickled Watermelon sounds like something totally different and I would like to try it.

Now on to some pictures that I just downloaded from my camera...


For the 4th we had went to the KOA to watch the fireworks they were putting on. Here is Colin having a blast on the jumping pillow and then the camel. Dale also had to ride the camel. lol I love these blackmail pictures I get of him. lol

Colin will not sleep in his room if Dale is gone so he gets out the sleeping bag, pillow, and blankets and sleeps on the living room floor. The Little Witch... aka Josey... will not sleep in the bedroom either if Dale is not at home and here she is trying to hog the pillow.

Last Wednesday morning at the park had several puddles from the rain we had the night before. Colin was wanting to take pictures and I thought he would take pictures of....well I didn't expect him to go around the whole park taking pictures of puddles. lol But then again he is a boy. I did finally get him to take a couple of the flowers after he managed to get every puddle at the park.
BEAUTIFUL!!

And finally I will close with this picture of Blue playing with the magnets on the fridge. These will twirl and he was taking his paw making them go around and then he would take both paws and drag them to the floor.


Okay this only took a good two hours to put together. lol Loving it the teens are having computer withdrawals!

Take Care :)

8 comments:

Mel said...

Good morning, wowser Vick, you have been busy! I love okra too, my family doesn't eat it though. I need to come visit you for a week, we could mke a trade, I'll bring a few of my many Aloe Vera plants and you make me okra. I never realized Aloe did so much, knew of it being good for burns, however, digestive ailments, stretch marks, age spots (not that I have any, noooo) moving right along. You have put together a lot of valuable info, you know what that means, I'll be on my computer all day checking into some of these sites. Thank you for sharing and for taking the time to post all this info.
Come check out my blog, I have a few pictures (the only ones not in picasa) of the shed and fence.
Talk soon, Hugs to ya, Mel

Marlene McGarrity said...

Vickie,

I love your blog. It's full of so many great recipes, links, pictures and ideas. The okra sounds good - I've never made okra.

I love the pattern widget that you have on the side of your blog.

It's so cute that Colin will not sleep in his room if Dale isn't there. When my brother went to basketball camp each year, I missed him so much and did the same exact thing. We fought all of the time because we are very close in age, so I guess my mother appreciated the quiet.

Marlene McGarrity said...

I hope to get to canning sometime this summer. A lot of my friends tease me because it's not popular in NY to do canning.

Since you said your kids don't realize there is zucchini in the bread, I thought of the Oprah show in which Jessica Seinfeld was on and she pureed a lot of veggies into the food (like broccoli into brownies). Oprah and all of the kids they tried it on loved the recipes. Seinfeld has a book, but a lot of the recipes are already online at http://www.oprah.com/foodhome/food/jseinfeld/recipes/jseinfeld_recipes_main.jhtml

Her book is called Deceptively Delicious.

Marlene McGarrity said...

Deceptively Delicious Recipes

The Southern Mom said...

I love fried okra! All the food looked good. One day, I hope I have more time to blog surf, right now it's all I can do to read and comment on the ones I visit regularly! And yours is great!

Vickie said...

Thanks for stopping by everyone. Mel... you know you don't have enough to do so I have to keep you busy somehow. lol

Queen of the click...Thanks for the link I'm going to check it out.
Anyway I can find to get more veggies into my kids I'll try.

Southern Mom...thanks for your sweet comments and I love checking your blog out also. That's okay I'll do the surfing when I have time and then you can check out anything that interest you.

Take Care :)

Eve said...

My okra was hard even when it was small this year. Not all of them but a lot of them were. I love fried okra and these recipes look great. Thanks for putting them on.

My DH makes gumbo and uses okra in that. He made some the other day and the okra tasted fine in the gumbo. Now if he could learn how to fill the dishwasher. LOL

Mel said...

Knock, knock, where are you cousin Vicky? Have you been kidnapped by Toni and taken to a secluded beach in the Bahamas, or are you at the Y with the kids, maybe your in the kitchen slaving over a hot stove, wherever you may be, just stopped in to see what's for dinner. Since Chuck does not like Okra, I'll just have to keep searching blogs... Love ya, Mel