... they don't really look like muffins or taste like muffins. I guess the recipe inventor called them muffins because you bake them in muffin tins. Did I tell you about the meat pie muffin things I made last week? It was a "recipe of the day" from Taste of Home and I got all excited about making them when I realized that we had 2 loaves of (pretty darned old) frozen bread dough in the freezer. So I called Durwood to ask him to put the dough in the fridge to start thawing so I could "whip them up" after supper. (keep the phrase "whip them up" in mind as the tale unfolds) As soon as I got home I dashed downstairs to the bigger freezer for a pound of ground beef and one of ground turkey. (the recipe called for all beef but we only had one pound and turkey's good too) I got a package of sauteed mushrooms out too so it could thaw as we ate whatever it was that we ate that night, probably leftovers. (we seem to eat leftovers more often than we have new food--how can that be?) Anyway, after supper I got started--browned the meats with some Italian herbs, garlic powder, and the mushrooms--then you drain it and stir in a whack of shredded Cheddar. Then you divide each loaf of dough into 10 portions, roll them out, top them with 1/4 cup of the meat stuff, and pinch the dough around the meat, then pop them into greased muffin pan cups. I gotta tell you, old-ish frozen bread dough has a kind of dried out crust on it but by the time I discovered that I was committed (or should have been) (and it smelled and felt fine) so I cut off the dried out part and rolled it out. I only got 16 meat pies due to the attrition of the dried dough but they baked up nicely browned and we took them with us last weekend along with a jar of sauce to warm and then dip them into. They're not bad, quite labor-intensive and we want to tweak them (add minced onion and more herbs and use fresh dough), but I think I'll make them again. They'd be fun for a football game party or something where you put out a buffet.
Yesterday I got home just in time to nab a photo of the sunset over the neighbor's house. I keep forgetting that I can get a better angle on the sunset from my bedroom window and then am disappointed when I'm on the front porch but last night I was smart--also shirtless so the porch wasn't an option.I'm still working on my idea for the Design-a-thon so I don't really have knitting to share but when I was perusing the patterns on the Seamen's Church Institute Christmas at Sea page I found a pattern for the cloth bags they gift the knitted items to the mariners in. I can make those! I have a crapton of fabric that would be good for making bags (they specify the size and shape) and they recommend using shoelaces as the drawstrings which I think is genius for a guy without direct access to a store if a shoelace breaks.
March 3--Storm Coming. The light was more vivid, brighter because of the dark blue-gray clouds crowding the sky behind Papa's barn. Carla looked down from her window under the eaves in the house by the road toward the home place. That's what everyone called the house where Papa and Grandma lived. It was a small, single story house with just three rooms. Carla loved running down the lane to help Grandma feed the chickens and gather eggs. Mom kept peels and leaves in a pail out on the screen porch for the chickens and it was Carla's job to carry it down when it got half full. The chickens recognized her as the food girl and they clustered around her as she got close to the coop, jostling to be first. She always hoped there were a few grapes or blueberries in the pail. The chickens loved them.
I almost typed "already" after the date up there but then decided that just made me sound old. But--already???? I'm amazed. Even though it's felt darn cold the last couple days the snow in back is melting. See? It amazes me how much having that fence and wall facing south magnifies the strength of the sun this time of year. Gotta run. I spent time slicing strawberries and an orange to make a fruit salad (I'm addicted to fresh fruit) so I'm running late. Toodle-oo.--Barbara
No comments:
Post a Comment