Garlic

A while back a lady in our church left a box of garlic plants at my doorstep. She has all kinds of stuff in her garden, and knows I love garlic, so shared some with me. At first I had no idea what they were, or who left them. Over time, I figured it out. My husband and I planted them and then waited...

Now, it looks as if it is time to harvest our garlic, but we have no idea about how to go about it. So, I headed to the internet and youtube and did some thorough investigation. I'm still clueless, but this is what I learned:





First off, I really needed to pop the buds off before they bloomed for bigger garlic bulbs, but I just thought they were so cool, I couldn't do it. I read that if you kept the flowers, you could dry them and they make fun arrangements. For awhile, they looked like pods, but this past week, they have started to pop open and there are a zillion teeny tiny flowers inside. They start out white, and I just noticed today, they are turning purple. I guess I better go out there and pick them.

I also read where you could take the pods and cook them, and they are suppose to be pretty good. I might try that next time. I just like the flowers too much.

When you harvest garlic, you are suppose to let them dry, but not in the sun, because they can burn, and you don't want that. Once they dry, then you can braid the garlic, and hang in your kitchen. I just might try to do that.

I learned on youtube, that they are usually ready to harvest around the 4th of July. Only thing is, the guy lived in the northeast part of the country, and so it is much cooler up there than down here for a longer time. I'm thinking, it is time to harvest now, down here in Louisiana. So, we might just see what they look like this weekend when we are playing around in our yard.

Sports

Being a mother of three boys and a girl, I have spent many hours watching their various activities. All three of our boys love soccer, and until we moved to Louisiana, we were very much involved with the sport. Sadly, soccer is not very popular here in Louisiana, and so they have not been able to be involved much.

In addition to our boys playing soccer, our oldest son, Miles wrestled in high school. Miles also did some karate for several years. Our middle son, Scott played some football, cross country, tennis, and A LOT of baseball. Since he had a very bad knee injury a couple of years ago, he has not been able to play. Boy, do I miss those nice warm spring and summer days watching him play.

Our daughter danced, and still does. She is now about to finish her last term at BYU and will have her degree in dance. Being a dancer myself, I really got into her sport a lot. I call myself a dancer still now, even though I haven't been able to do much for several years. You may ask, "What on earth does one do with a dance degree?!" Well, actually there is quite a bit one can do. I had planned to go into therapy with my degree...but instead I got married and helped my husband get done with school, then had some amazing kids. Ashley had thought about going into therapy, but I think for now, she will try to just teach, choreograph and perform. She is getting married in June, and then her and Jeremy will probably be headed to Baton Rouge, LA to LSU. Jeremy will be majoring in Kinesiology, and Ashley hopes to be able to dance with a company and teach at several studios. She would also like to have some choreography opportunities. But anyway, enough of that...back to the boys...

Benjamin, our youngest has not only played soccer and football and done a little karate, but now has started being involved in track. He has just started competing in pole vault. Boy, does that look like a fun sport! Yesterday, the school sponsored a track meet, and so I went up there to take some pictures. For just starting out, Benjamin is actually pretty good! I really enjoyed watching them fly through the air. Benjamin is just a sophomore, so if keeps up the hard work, maybe by the time he is a senior, we will be headed to state.

Keep up the hard work, Benjamin!!!

Young Women's Cooking Activity

For our Young Women's activity last night, we cooked a dinner for our missionaries. We met at one of the girl's homes and we went to cooking.

First we made the main dish, which was Spaghetti Casserole. I got this recipe from a book my mom used when I was young. My mom passed the book down to me, as it is now out of print...for obvious reasons. The book is called, "How I Feed My Family On $16 A Week (And Have Meet, Fish or Poultry on the Table Every Night)" by Jo Ann York.

3 oz spaghetti
1/4 pound ground beef
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion chopped
1/2 green pepper chopped
1/4 cup mushrooms, sliced
dash of pepper
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
dash of leaf oregano
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
1 8 oz tomato sauce
3 oz Velveeta cheese cubed

Heat oven to 325
Cook spaghetti according to pkg directions, drain and set aside. Brown beef drain and set aside.
Heat oil in a 1 1/2 qt oven casserole. Saute, covered the onion, garlic, green pepper and mushrooms, til soft.
Add pepper sugar, Worcestershire, oregano, parsley flakes, tomato sauce and cheese. Cook, stirring over a low flame til cheese melts.
Add cooked spaghetti and browned beef and mix well.
Bake, covered for 30 mins.
4 servings

After it was made, we divided into two containers (since we have two sets of missionaries). I just bought a bagged Caesar salad kit to go with the spaghetti.






The next task was dessert. I have a recipe that my grandmother use to make all the time. I now make it A LOT! The ingredients can always be on hand, and it is really quite simple, and EVERYONE loves, LOVEs this!

Butterskotheroos

Heat 1 cup kayro syrup and 1 cup sugar til sugar is dissolved. Remove from burner and add 1 cup peanut butter and mix well. Add 6 cups krispie rice cereal. Press into cake pan. In microwave, heat about a cup of chocolate chips and about 1 cup butterscotch chips in the microwave in 30 second intervals until melted. Spread onto the top of the cereal mix.




We all had a really fun time with this activity. The girls have been wanting to do more service activities, and this was a fun service for them to do, plus they were able to learn some cooking skills and obtain some new recipes.

Table Redo

After the garage sale a few weeks ago, one of my walking buddies had some left over stuff that she was going to take to Goodwill. She called me to see if maybe there was anything I would like to have. I went over to her place, and she loaded me up with a few things, one being this end table. I took it home and started to work on it.

I did a little investigating, as this table was a high laminate. There was no way I was going to be able to sand anything. After my research, I found a primer that says no sanding is needed. I decided to give it a try.


After priming, I painted it white all over. After it dried, I put a couple of very light blue coats on the top. All I need to to is spray some polyurethane on it. I actually like the way it turned out. I am curious to see how it will hold up once I give it a few coats of the polyurethane and let it dry.

Announcement

William and Terry Carter would like to announce the engagement of their daughter, Ashley Jeanette to Jeremy Luke McCullough, son of John and Jere McCullough of Muncie, IN.

Ashley is scheduled to graduate in June from Brigham Young University in Provo Utah with a Bachelor’s Degree in Dance. Jeremy will be continuing his education at the University of Louisiana, Monroe and majoring in Kinesiology.

The couple will marry Wednesday, 29 June at the LDS Washington DC Temple. Two receptions will follow, one in Muncie, IN and the other in Monroe, LA.

Photography by Terry Jeanette Carter of Jeanette’s Photography

Old chairs = New Chairs

A couple of weeks ago, I went to our neighborhood garage sale. I was lucky enough to find many nice things, including four dining room chairs. I love the looks of them, and they are real comfortable. The only thing is, the seats are kinda yucky, but no problem, I can put new coverings on them. These chairs are for my daughter and her fiance that are getting married this summer, and so I asked her what color she would like. I know they are going with blues and yellows in the kitchen, and she said she thought a green type fabric would be nice on the seats of these chairs. There are so many shades of greens, and she said she likes the green that is on our living room couches. So, it was off to the fabric store I went.


There aren't very many fabric stores in our area, but we do have a really nice drapery and upholstery fabric place. I wasn't sure if they would be too out of our price range, but know a lot of the times, these places have really good mark downs and scrap bins. I thought maybe I could find four different pieces that complimented each other if I couldn't find enough of one fabric for all four chairs.

I was right, they did have some nice mark down fabric, and I went digging around, I came across this beautiful piece of material. It matches our couches perfectly, and has little yellow, blue, pink and white flowers on it. I fell in love, and knew Ashley would like it too. So, I brought it home.


Here is the finished product. Now, don't look too close, as in the middle of stapling the fabric onto the chair, I ran out of stables, so one side is not tucked in very well. I can't wait to stock up on more staples and finishing these four chairs. They look as good as new, and I spent less that $35 for ALL four chairs.

Fun Shower Gift Ideas

Last week, my husband went to Tennessee to visit with his family, and turkey hunt. He was able to visit not only with his mom and dad, but with our oldest son who lives near my in laws. Whenever he is gone, I get zero sleep. It has always been that way, I just cannot sleep while he is gone.

I kept very busy while he was gone. There is so much going on right now. In addition to all that is going on in the family, I know quite a few either getting married or having babies. I always like to bring unique gifts to showers. Most of the time, I crochet baby blankets (for those having babies), but with my thumb acting up, there was no way that my hands were going to cooperate for that length of time. So, I had to come up with something else. Off to youtube! I saw some really cool things I wanted to try. For a bridal shower that I will be attending soon, I decided to make a towel cake. One can never have enough towels, but I sometimes think they are kinda a boring gift. Not if you give it this way...and it was quite simple, and inexpensive.

It takes two big towels, two hand towels and two washcloths. Just roll them up, add ribbons, flowers, or other embellishments, and you are good to go. For this gift, I added one of my handmade Fleur de les necklaces.














I have another shower to go to...a baby shower. While I was looking up creative shower gifts, I found how to make flowers out of baby socks and baby washcloths. They really made it look simple, but I will have to be honest with you...it was not. I might be doing the towel cake again, but not the baby items bouquet of flowers.

The problem I was having was, the floral tape did not want to stick to itself. I'm not sure why, as I bought it new (I've worked with floral tape before and never had this problem), I'm sure it was probably the nut behind the wheel (me).

I am pretty satisfied on how it turned out. I really had planned on doing more flowers, but I won't be. Instead, I will just give her the rest of the socks and washcloths.








Well, my husband got back from his trip late last night, so I should be getting better sleep, anyway, I sure hope I do, as I am very, very tired. zzzzzzzzz