Good Things: October 2006 Archives

I have a new favorite apple. I like it better than the apples in my orchard. It is a Virginia Stayman. The stayman is the perfect all purpose apple I have ever cooked with. Virginia Stayman The photo just cannot show you the detail in the color. This apple is not one grown commercially for grocery stores and the like. The skin it not perfect and has a bit of texture. The skin is also prone to splitting. Gorgeous yellowish white flesh The flesh is beautiful. I picked these up yesterday from a grower down in Nelson County. These are so very juicey. I can't begin to even relate the beauty of the yellowish white flesh. Nor can I even begin to describe the perfect tartness when you bite into it. I have never been much of an apple lover. I like apples and do cook with them but I am not much of a pick an apple to eat kind of person. These have made me change my ways. They are an awesome vintage apple developed from an 1866 winesap from Kansas (I think). Simply delicious. I am thinking about making a batch of applesauce for the baby and maybe some applebutter to have at Christmas. Yummy! Last night I cooked pork chops for supper. As a side dish I sauteed a few apples in butter and sprinkled with cinnamon. It was a perfect addition to the meal. Time to mash the pumpkin I went yesterday and purchased two more cushaw pumpkins like Steve asked. The guy was so very nice and gave me a third one at no charge. I baked one last night and one this morning. Mini bread loaves and a quart of soup I made a batch of pumpkin bread and pumpkin soup. I took him down a quart of soup and a few loaves as a thank you. The cushaw pumpkin soup recipe is very similar to thePumpkin and Potato Soup I made last fall. The cushaw pumpkin bread recipe is also posted over on the recipe journal. Now you know what has taken me so long to get this post published this morning ... errr.. afternoon. Look! A sweet baby pumpkin. Well, that and trying to type with a baby banging on my keyboard. Or pulling my mouse cord. Or wanting to nurse. Or learning how to open the cabinet doors and pulling out a gazzion things. I do mean sweet. But he was so darn cute while doing it I couldn't resist smothering him with kisses and making him giggle. I have to go get ready for the trick or treating tonight. I'll have plenty of photos tomorrow. Happy Hallowe'en to you all.

Yesterday was a busy day. Gracie saw the doctor and did some pulmonary testing. At this point in time she does not have asthma. The tests show her lungs and lung capacity to be well above normal. She is extremely healthy. Should she have another episode like she had last month in Georgia when we ended up in the hospital the doctor will begin testing her for allergies. Steven had his well baby check-up, too. He is 28 3/4 inches tall. He weighs 21 lbs 9 oz. The doctor was very impressed with his growth and developement. She says, "I what can I tell you? He is a perfect baby. He can't get much better than he already is." This we already knew. :-) I took Gracie to school, filled out all of the forms and left an emergency inhaler with school nurse. Just in case. Since it was a cool rainy morning it felt like a perfect day for chicken and dumplings. I add a few peas and carrots for color. After making the dumplings I baked it in a pie just like my kids love. The flakey crust on top is the best part. Brush with a little beaten egg for a beautiful crust. Colby had to leave for school and I served her up a helping with extra crust before I remembered to take a photo of the dumpling pie when it came out of the oven. Mmmmm ... delicious buttery crust. Then I baked pumpkin pie. Steve had requested it. Served with whipped cream and a touch of grated nutmeg. Because I like to please everyone I also baked a carrot cake. Yummy cream cheese frosting! They were all good! Tonight - leftovers. **Update The recipe for the chicken and dumplings can be found on my recipe journal.

When Steven was born we were blessed with so many gifts. At the age of 6 months we were still recieving gifts. People were very kind to us. Hi, Auntie Hope! So many of the clothes were just the cutest things. So many of the clothes were purchased out of season I feared we would not get use them. I love my schoolbus sleeper! Stevens growth is right on track. At 8+ months age he is wearing 9 months sized clothing. Which is most excellent because fall has come with blustery temperatures of winter. Frost has been on the pumpkins two mornings in a row. Living in a 98 year old farm house you can see how long sleeved, footed, one piece pajamas are very important with a baby who kicks off the covers all night long. How cute am I? The sleeper in these photos is one Hope sent when Steven was born. I kept it folded in the drawer by my bed hoping that he wouldn't outgrow it before he even got to wear it. This is one of my favorites because of the school bus motif and the plush little red car that came with it. The End Thank you again, Hope. We love this sleeper. It is soft and comfy and keeps a baby with sweaty toes the perfect temperature to sleep well. BTW, notice anything wrong with these photos? Steven hates playing inside the play yard. He wants to be outside of it. What a major waste of $65. The only reason we bought it was to be able to keep him away from the fireplace. Which we have had no problems doing. I am beginning to think we are looking at the most expensive Christmas tree barrier to keep small hands away from delicate ornaments. Other than corralling his toys I can think of no other use for it. :-/

There was a time when I loathed the taste of coffee. Seriously. I did. I loved the smell of brewing coffee but I hated the bitter heavy taste and hated that aftertaste even more. But now I love coffee and drink at least a pot every day. The End. No. Not the end. I learned to drink coffee over a period of about 6 months. And I do mean that I literally LEARNED to drink coffee. It was back those dark days of D-I-V-O-R-C-E (say it like Tammy Wynette) when you try to find yourself, reinvent yourself or just plain want (need) to change yourself. Having tried many diets in my day to drop the weight I listened to people (women) (skinny women) tell me how they once where big fatties and when they started drinking coffee they began to be less hungry and therefore ate less during the day and then one day the magic skinny fairy came along and sprinkled them with skinny powder and voile! they were no longer big fatties but coffee drinking skinnies. Short version of this story - It did not happen for me. Sure I drank more coffee, ate less, but did not drop any weight. So much for the coffee diet. Since that time in my life I have developed an appreciation for coffee. A good hot cup of coffee first thing in the morning is a neccesity. And also a treat! Having a cup of coffee during the day is like having dessert for me. And it is not the caffiene. I can sleep after drinking an entire pot of high test as easily as having the decaf. I have this ideal of what coffee is or should be. It is the days when this country was being settled. The coffee pot was brewed full and strong. Women brewed up a pot of coffee for their hard working men every morning and night. Hot coffee and sandwiches served in times of crisis. Hot coffee at every meal. We southerners like our sweet (and unsweetened) iced tea but we like our coffee as well. I can't even put into words this feeling or picture I have in my mind of what coffee represents. Cowboys drink it by the evening fire on the open range. Rescue workers drink it by the gallons to get through greuling hours of labor. Every factory worker, farmer, fisherman, miner, truck driver, waitress, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, pretty much starts, gets through and ends their day with a simple cup of black coffee. When it comes to coffee I can be a bit of a pureist. When I want coffee I want coffee and not one of those strangely named creations from places like $t@rBucks and whatnot. Coffee from those places makes my mouth turn over giving me a full body shiver. The taste is not to my pleasure. I prefer a columbian coffee with a good roast. I don't care for french roast. I don't care for beans from other parts of the world. Columbian is my coffee of choice. Nothing is more perfect that a steaming cup of black with a splash of cream. Steven drinks his just black. No cream splash. Colby drinks her's black with 1 packet of equal (sometimes splenda). See? We are the non-fussy just give it to me kind of coffee drinkers. When I recieved an email asking me if I would participate in sampling Folger's new Gourmet Selections coffee I was a bit hesitant because I don't really do coffee flavors but I do like Folger's. (I just bought one of those handy dandy new containers from folgers that keeps your coffee fresher longer. It does work. There is indeed a longer period of freshness. Before one of you coffee fanatics gets after me, yes, I do know that fresh ground is a more perfect way to make every pot of coffee but I am too lazy to grind the beans everytime. I am also too cheap to buy one of those grind/makers that magically grinds and brews and delivers steaming milk on the side. BUT if someone out there wants to send me one of those machines to try and review I would not turn you down. Nope. I sure wouldn't. A coffee center in my kitchen would be bitch'n.) When I said I would try the new Folger's I didn't know if I would get one tiny package of each flavor that makes one pot of coffee to try or if I would be given a chance to taste and then taste again and really have an informed taste bud opinion of the Folger's product. I was told I would recieve the coffee samples in 6-8 weeks and would I please inform the sender of the posting of my review. Imagine my surprise when 1 week later I recieved a box with the gourmet selections coffee from Folger's. I recieved the Vanilla Biscotti, Morning Cafe and Lively Columbian. Had I known the Chocolate Truffle was available I would have begged for it. I mean seriously, everyone knows that if there is a chocolate anything available it should go out the door first. First I tried the Vanilla Biscotti. I love vanilla. I love biscotti. The coffee is a wonderful flavor combination. If you just so happen to have chocolate dipped biscotti on hand to have with the coffee you will want to make sure everyone is at work and/or school and the baby is down for the long afternoon nap so you can indulge alone savoring the coffee and the biscotti. I liked this coffee. I can see myself serving it to guests as well as having an occassional pot alone for myself. It is not a coffee that I could wake up too every morning. The flavor is just too full on to start the day with. I probably would not drink everyday. The flavor is such that it is for me an occassional thing. Next I moved on to the Morning Cafe. O'kay. People. I could start every morning of the year with this blend. This is a smooth, wake me gently flavor. It smells wonderful while brewing. The first cup is like the first fingers of sunlight that break the eastern sky. Delicious. Then I had the Lively Columbian. Columbian. My favorite. Just perfect. Thank you very much. This is a fine coffee. Just fine. This one I brewed in the afternoon. Because lively is what I need to be after Steven has had his nap. Now I have tried other flavor blend coffee (you know that one that will also send you a free coffee maker or stainless stell thermal carafe and starts with a 'G'?)and I didn't like it at all. Folger's has produced a superior product that suits my tastes. And I think it might suit yours as well. Give it try. There is only one thing I would change if I were making the Folger's Gourmey Selections coffee. Amaretto flavor. I love Amaretto coffee after a nice dinner. It would be a wonderful flavor to have during the holidays, too. Folger's? What do you think? Amaretto maybe in the future? Please?