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 :)

Finally

This was from last Sunday when we went to Maw Maw's. I finally got these onto the computer to share.

I love seeing these two together it's not often they get to spend a lot of time with each other.

Colin just loves it when the girls are around to play with.

Dale said it's too cold today I think it was in the mid 80's. lol And Jene` hurt her toe and didn't want to get in. She was running and fell up the stairs and scrapped the skin off it. Okay, she is old enough to know better!

Home Sweet Home

We made it home around 5:30 and the first thing that had to be done was give both dogs a bath. Clean out the turtle tank and the cat's litter pan. All our luggage has been brought in but that is as far as it as gotten by the time we were finished with the animals it was getting late.

We certainly did pick the hottest week out of the year to go to the beach. Everyone said you are lucky you are there because you have the breeze from the ocean. NO, it was hot and humid. No breeze! A few nights we did hear a lot of thunder but never seen rain until last night and we endeed up getting hit with two storms. This morning there were tree limbs all over the place.

Tomorrow we will start getting everything unpacked and getting back to normal. Dale has already asked to go to the driving range with a friend and Jene` has asked to go to her friend's for a sleepover. Yep, getting back to normal.

Not a turtle...

not a catfish...

not a squirrel...

Those are what we normally see everyday around the pond but today we saw a crane.

OH NO!

I can't believe we have been here over a week and it's time to go home. The kids just got back in from their nightly swim. We have had a wonderful week and enjoyed every minute of it. I can't wait until we can come back!

Lazy Days

Watching the catfish and turtles out in the pond. This turtle is the only one to come out while we were standing there after throwing bread out along the bank. By the time we got back into the condo and onto the back porch and looked down we counted 15 of them. Some are huge and some are tiny. It looked as if the catfish was trying to get up on land also the way they was trying to get to the bread.

Arrived At The Beach

We decided to leave for the beach a day early so we could spend a day shopping and take advantage of the no sales tax for school supplies. We arrived about 8 this evening...called and ordered a pizza and then the 3 older ones headed out for the pool.

Park Day

Fun Fun Fun

This evening I had to take Jene` to meet with friends for a sleepover so I took the boys to KOA to play on the air pillow. They had a blast!

So much energy! When it was time to come home a bath was in order.

Hot Day In The Sun

This afternoon, or should I say yesterday since it's well after midnight, we went to Cherry Park to watch our niece play softball. What I saw of the game the girls looked great! I ended up taking Colin to the park so he could play. It was so hot and after a few minutes the sweat was pouring off him. But that didn't bother him at all he was having fun. We hadn't been to this park before but I do know we will be going back every once in awhile for a change it's really nice. They had different areas of play and it was spread out what I call kid friendly. It also has lots of trees and large rocks so it's pleasant with all the nature around you. You wouldn't know you was in the middle of town.

July 4, 2007

Today was a quiet day we really didn't do anything special for the day. The kids hung out around the house because most of their friends are gone on vacation. We got some beef back ribs and grilled them made potato salad, broiled zucchini and yellow squash, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers and had Italian bread. After dinner we watched the movie Norbit with Eddie Murphy that was pretty good but I have to admit I did fall asleep during parts of it. I was just so full.

Finally around 9:00 we went down to KOA where they were having fireworks and watched those and then watched those from Knights Stadium. They were good ! The kids got to play on the air jumper (not sure what it's called) at KOA. Colin had to come home and get right into the tub he was so sweaty and sand stuck all over him. It's not often they allow anyone other than those camping to play there and he was so excited he loves playing on that. A little girl kept chasing him and trying to hold his hand it was so cute to watch. But Colin didn't find it amusing at all. lol

The boys are sound asleep but the girl child keeps coming out to see if I'm off the computer yet...nope mom is still on it. lol In the morning I have to remember to find my camera I don't know where I left it. Not a good thing! :(

Summer Time

The kids have been enjoying the freedom of summer and all there is to do. The older ones have been taking advantage of sleeping the morning away and the younger one has been having fun at day camps. Each child has a different personality and each different things they want to do. But those moments they seem to all connect together and enjoy doing things together is the best. Yesterday was one of those days it was so hot out and they decided to have a water gun fight by the time they finished they were all soaked. There was no bickering, fighting or yelling they were having fun with each other. We have many more days to fill and I hope to see more of the laughter than the bickering.