When It Rains....

well you know the rest of the saying!

It Pours!

Number 1: Woke up this morning and sent my husband and J off to work and Kindergarten. I noticed that my kitty Dirt Cat (he earned this name by sleeping in flower pots when he was little) was nowhere to be seen. He's usually doing figure 8 loops around my chins with his tail up my gowntail as I try to wave goodbye to 2 of the men of the house. Went out back to hang out some towels and heard a weak "meow". He was under the back deck. I called him out and he could barely walk, stumbling and falling, all the while trying to love on my legs. Poor guy. I called the vet and they said bring him in and plan on leaving him, sounds like he's gotten into something poisonous. I left him there this morning and still haven't heard anything.

Number 2: They guys putting in our heat and air had to crawl under our house, way in the back part to install duct work and apparently the ice maker on the fridge has been leaking for years. They joists in the floor are rotted. Well now that just made my day! Can you hear the sarcasm dripping from that one!? The insulation is all wet and 5 joists are rotted...one of them completely through. We live in a log home with hardwood floors so this should be a whole lot of fun to have repaired...still hearing that sarcasm? We had this house inspected 2 years ago before we bought it and this was not mentioned......I think someone failed to do their job!

Number 3: My husband called and said there is a confirmed case of swine flu in the business building next to his. He's a nurse practitioner so if there are cases going around, he will be exposed to them sooner or later.

Send some prayers and hugs my way today! I definitely need them and thanks for letting me vent. It's been one of those days already!

p.s. I am still making my apple pie tonight and I'm having it with a big scoop of ice cream!

Pie Crust

I am posting the pie crust that I use for all of my pies. I also use this one to make those fried apple pies I mentioned a few posts back. I will be posting my Apple Pie recipe later with pics because I have promised my boys I would make them one and when it comes to food, they never let me back down on a promise.

This is really easy to make, plus it tastes much better than those thin store bought ones!

Pie Crust

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

1 T. sugar

6 T. butter

6 T. shortening

6 to 8 T ice water

Set butter out on counter to get nice and soft. I usually set it on top of my stove while the oven is preheating just long enough to make it soft but not melted. Mix 2 cups all-purpose flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Cut in 6 tablespoons of butter, 6 tablespoons of shortening and 6 to 8 tablespoons of water with a dough blender. Form a ball with your dough and wrap in plastic wrap. Place in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to chill. Cut ball of dough in half and roll out crusts.

Not a Wildflower

but hopefully this will do!

I still need to "weed" (ha! ha!) through pics and find the good ones so I'm sharing my butterfly on zinnia photo that I took in my garden yesterday when we got back from our ride!

And just one more. I have cosmos taller than my head this year!

I hope you enjoy them!

A Morning of Wildflowers

My mom called this morning to see if Luke and I were going to make our daily trip to visit Papaw. Work was trying to get a hold of him to drive the delivery truck which he does when needed. Guess who she calls when she can't reach him?? Yep, me! But that's okay. We like to take the 4-wheeler and cut through the fields and the woods to Papaw's house. I just happened to leave my camera there this past weekend so I grabbed it as we headed back home. The wildflowers were yelling at me at every turn, "Take my picture!" "Over here!"...you know how it is so I started snapping. Luke was a great tour guide, he was pointing out the flowers for me.

I am researching each of these wildflowers to find out their names. This is a Pink Wild Bean also known as a Pink Fuzzy Bean. The blooms remind me of my purple ones on my Hyacinth Bean plants.

This is a Field Thistle (my Dad always called them bull thistles). Sticky little boogers! My mom had to pick a few of these stickers out of my hands, feet and other various body parts while growing up!
I believe this is a Long Bristled Smart Weed. If I'm wrong please let me know!

and this guy, I took a pic of from across the field with my zoom lens. I've been seeing it lately but we have none of it growing on our property. I stole a pic from Curious George's land.
It is called Tall Ironweed.

I have more! Check in tomorrow for the 2nd Installment of Kentucky Wildflowers!

Southern Fried Apples

My boys have found a new favorite dish. Our apple tree is loaded this year so we've been canning and dehydrating. I decided to make some fried apples like my grandmother used to make and they were a huge hit around here. They are usually served as a side dish. We had them for supper the other night and then the boys wanted them for breakfast. They had leftovers with their toast Sunday morning.

8-10 apples
1/2 stick Butter (I prefer the taste of Country Crock instead of butter but both are good!)
1/4 c. Sugar
1/4 c. Brown sugar
1 tsp. Cinnamon

I didn't measure any of this just threw it all in so these are approximate. You can adjust it to your tastes.
Peel, core and slice your apples into about 1/2-inch slices. Place apples and 2 cups water in saucepan. Bring to boil, cover and cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until apples begin to get tender. Drain off water.
Put 1/2 stick butter (or margarine) in skillet. Add apples, sugar and brown sugar. You can use 1/2 cup of either of the sugars but I like to mix them.
If apples are very dry add 1/4 cup water). Turn down to simmer and let cook, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking/burning. Cook until apples are very tender but not falling apart. Remove from heat, sprinkle with cinnamon, stir just enough to blend cinnamon into apples and serve. I like to add an extra dollop of margarine to mine after they are cooked....I know I'm bad!

You can also roll out some dough (or store bought biscuits) fill with cooked apples, fold over and press edges with the tines of a fork to seal. Fry in skillet with a little hot oil or butter and you have awesome fried apple pies.