Food Thursday: Double-Stuffed Baked Potato

Husband made this a few weeks back and it’s incredible and not as hard as you would think!

Ingredients:

Russet Potatoes (one per person)

Bacon

Butter

Philadelphia Cooking Cream (your favourite flavour)

Cheddar Cheese

 

 

Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 350. Wash and poke Russet potatoes. We use Russet because they’re the best for recipes like this. Place potatoes on oven rack and cook for one hour.

Cook up bacon. Shred cheese.

Remove potatoes after an hour (careful they’re hot!) and let cool for a few minutes. Cut a medium-size wedge from the top of each potato. Scoop out the pulp and place in a large bowl.

Mix the potato pulp with cheese, flavoured sour cream and bacon. Husband used Savoury Garlic for this recipe. Scoop the mixture carefully back into the potato shells and top with more cheese and bacon.

Here’s the best part about the recipe. You can do all this hours before dinner. When you’re almost ready to sit down to eat, place the potatoes on a baking sheet and pop back into the oven for 15-20 minutes at 350.

Russet potatoes are also large so you should plan the rest of your dinner accordingly.

OMG! It’s Alive!

Cleaning out underneath the table in the laundry room has always been an interesting experience, but imagine my surprise when I found my Amaryllis bulb sprouted! I wish I’d taken a picture of where I found it. It was so dark and secluded, nothing would have grown but this. It’s been two years since it flowered last and to be honest, I forgot all about it, so I stuck it in a North-East facing window and here it is. I can’t remember what colour the flower was either.

Plus, as you can see, my Christmas Cactus sprouted new growth this week too, and I put away my Poinsettia some place dark. I might try to make it flower again for the holidays. I’m starting to get that gardening itch.

Yeah, and the cat wouldn’t move so…

Knitting Project: Wrist Warmers.

I worked on this like crazy before the holidays, but a few days around Christmas I put it down and forgot about it until the other day. I have one knitted up, I just needed to sew the seam, and I’m hoping to start on the mate this weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just LOVE the colour and as you can see it’s more than just a wrist warmer, it’s a whole arm warmer. Not that I mind; arms get cold too. This pattern is perfect for those cooler nights when you want to wear a short sleeve. Very, very simple pattern to follow. I might make another pair but include a cable on the top. Now I think that would look nice.

If you’re interested in making your own pair, here’s the link.

http://www.berroco.com/patterns/annlina

 

Holiday Treat: Rich and Creamy Hot Chocolate

Nothing rings in the holidays like a nice cup of hot chocolate. I’ll take it over coffee or tea any day. There’s just something about the smooth, rich taste that makes you feel all snuggle warm. I don’t mind instant hot chocolate, but I’ve been experimenting with ingredients and I’ve come up with something special and I wanted to share it. You can use your favourite hot chocolate mix. As a matter of fact, I recommend it.

Ingredients

¾ cup milk

¾ cup chocolate milk

Instant hot chocolate

Pure mint/peppermint extract

Cinnamon (optional)

Marshmallows/Whipped Cream (optional)

 

Instructions:

Measure and pour milk into small saucepan. Preferably one with a spout for easy pouring. Heat for ten minutes on medium heat. Keep an eye on the milk. Heat only until you see steam from the pot. Scoop two tablespoons of instant hot chocolate into your cup. Add 1/8 teaspoon of mint extract. Carefully pour heated milk into cup. Use a whisk to mix instant mix and milk. Whisk until mixed well.

Add cinnamon to taste.

Add marshmallows/whipped cream.

Above recipe severs 1.

NOTE: Easy on the mint extract. It’s very strong.

The garden season is over; bring on the knitting season!

Oh yeah. Nothing like sitting next to a roaring fire, knitting up something while a raging snowstorm dumps a pile of white stuff outside. When I think of winter, that’s one of the images that comes to my mind, and this season I have my project all figured out.

Wrist warmers. Yup. Gonna knit me up some wrist warmers. Now, before you think that sounds easy, check out this link.

http://tipnut.com/fingerless-gloves/

I ask you; do any of those look easy? Can you hear me swearing yet? Anyway, this is the pattern I choose.

http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/annlina/annlina.html

No knitting on three/four needles; no knitting in the round. Just straight needle knitting. Just the way I like it.

I will keep you posted.

Oh, I thought I’d show you this picture of the only plant that’s still alive in my house. It’s a Christmas Cactus. Hasn’t started to bloom yet. I’m hoping I can make it bloom for the holiday season.

With winter coming, what are you planning to do to ward off cabin fever?

The End of my 2012 Garden

This summer was brutal. I can’t remember when we had such a long period of hot weather. I got curious and looked it up online. They’re calling this year’s drought the worst in a decade. I can believe that.

I was really excited about the garden this year. I was doing well too; kept it weeded, watered every morning, but the heat was too much. I couldn’t keep up with the water demands. We don’t have a hose, so I had to lug two, two-litre watering cans across the year. It quickly turned into a burden. Husband said next year we’ll get a hose. Great, but our hookup in on the opposite side of the house that the garden is on.

The garden didn’t yield much either. Both cucumber plants died off mid-July, and the tomatoes were taking forever to ripe. We got a few string beans, enough to have for one dinner. No peas, broccoli or cauliflower because of the heat. Watermelon vine just up and quit, and the ‘early’ squash wasn’t early at all. It ripened around the same time as the regular. We got three good size squash off of two plants. Considering the amount of blooms, I’m upset.

Green peppers weren’t as big as last year. By the time we realized this, they were turning orange. They’ were still good, but I just wasn’t in the mood for red peppers. Not many tomatoes grew on the vine and the ones we did ripen were either eaten by critters or they got that black rot on the bottom. I think we got 3?  Ah well, maybe next year.

So, how did you fare this growing season?

Lammas Veggie Garden Video

Yesterday was Lughnasadh (or Lammas), the first of the three harvests. It’s traditional to look over the crops you’ve planted and see how they’re doing. I ran out of usable batteries for my camera. We have re-useable, but Sithboy confiscated them for his game controller, so the only thing I had to use was my crappy video recorder. Yes, this is my voice. I have no idea what the clicking noise is, so my apologies on that.

Veggie Garden-1, Chipmunk-0

It’s been a couple weeks since I posted pictures of the veggie garden. I’m surprised, the little critters have managed to keep out of it. I think it had something to do with my scent when I weeded. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.

So, the veggies are doing really good. Even the ones we planted late.

The green pepper plant has started to flower,

And we have tomatoes on the vine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The broccoli has floweretts already, which is surprising as it was one of the secondary veggies we planted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the vines (l-r) cucumber, butternut squash, cucumber. No flowers yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the veggies we planted to replace the corn (top left) watermelon, (bottom left) early squash, (centre) corn, (bottom right) lettuce.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then a whole pile of cauliflower. We have six plants total. I don’t know if I can eat that much cauliflower, though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are peas, green beans and yellow beans. Don’t ask me which are which. Husband planted them so I have no idea.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, and beans/peas in a barrel. They started hooking on to each other and I had to break a few runners to pull them apart, but so far, so good.

I don’t know which surprises me more; the fact these are growing so well, or that I’m keeping up with the maintenance. We didn’t do a garden last year and the year before I was excited but that quickly changed. I don’t know why I changed this year. Maybe it’s all those reports I keep hearing about how we need to get back into eating real food.

 YES! I SEE YOU!

Veggie Garden Update [pictures]

Got some exciting news! So far, our veggie garden is still intact! We went out last weekend and bought some more veggies to put in where the corn used to be (the critters left us two), and so far, so good!

Other than needing a good weeding, things are looking good in the veggie garden. We planted some broccoli (right down in front), squash and watermelon with the corn and some lettuce as well.   I need to go out and build up the soil around the tomato plant. They dug all around the base of the plant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love petunia’s, so when I found these black ones, I just HAD to have some. Too bad they’r only an annual.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And beans in a barrel. Well, beans and peas. Husbands experiment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How are your gardens coming along? Anything new you’re trying to grow this year?

Free Flying Thursday! With Pictures!

Nothing special about this post. Just thought I’d show you some recent pictures from around the house.

Remember my rose bush?

Well, now it looks like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I heard a lot of swalking outside, and when I went to look I found this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I blew up the pic, but he’s still pretty hard to see. I couldn’t get too close, he started chirping and I was afraid he would fall off and hurt himself.

Anyway, that’s all the garden pictures for now.