Rich

No, I'm not talking about money or other things. I refer to a casserole I just made. I first talked about Velveeta in my blog of January 18 that was titled "Oops!" Since I had saved the chunks after trying to shred it, I wanted it gone, never to appear here again. So, I created a casserole. Here is what I did...

First I cooked my 12oz. bag of frozen premium broccoli florets and then drained them. Then I smashed up two rolls of Nabisco garlic butter crackers in a one gallon ziploc bag. I cut the Velveeta into smaller chunks and put it in the pot with the cooked broccoli and set the burner to low. While the cheese was melting with the broccoli, I took one stick of butter and melted it in another pot. After it was ready, I stirred in all of the crumbled crackers. I lined the 1 1/2 qt. Pyrex bowl with Release foil and then dumped 1/2 of the cracker mixture in it. Then I put the broccoli with the melted cheese in on top of the crackers and covered it with the rest of the crackers. That's it! A 350° oven then took about 30 minutes to brown the top and we had lunch. One bowl each. Small bowl. RICH! Very nice and tasty, a bit salty, but RICH!  Maybe I can make the leftovers into a cream soup tomorrow. You know, the kind with milk and onions and pepper.

It is somewhat like crafting. You put things together and are happy if they come out as you imagine. If not you do it another way the next time.

A Good Day!

By a good day, I mean it isn't snowing, the roads are not treacherous by weather conditions for those who chose to travel and our home is warm, we have food, we have comfort and our health seems to be in the "well" section of the dial.  It is an unusual Thanksgiving that we have this year as we did last. We stay home. We don't have family for meals. This year we didn't have turkey. We are content. We agree that it is time to slooooowwwww down!

The main thing is that we are thankful for multiple reasons and celebrate this day our own way. Did you watch the Parade in NYC this morning? It was impressive. Did your meal and your relatives, friends, and others eat well and have very happy visits? We hope so. There are so many people suffering emotionally, physically, financially...many are having an awful week and a bad year. Our hearts go out to them. Be sure to find one little nugget of goodness, something to be thankful for and then you too will have had a happy thanksgiving. We did.

8:00 AM 12°

 The ice is beginning to form on the lake.

 Before baking the ham...

 We shared some good stuff...

 We ate simple...

... and have leftovers to share!

Tonight it will be sandwiches with lemon cake and ice cream dessert. 

Fresh Greens and Gardens

Still cannot type well, but want to tell you that the homemade broccoli soup I made with cheeses was delicious! Going back to produce stand soon for corn that is just being picked and buy a few tomatoes. Daughter in NJ says her Oxheart tomato plants are doing very well so far, reaching heights of over 5 feet and lots of tomatoes growing. Cage working well for blocking out squirrel invasions.

No recipe for soup. I just put in lots of good stuff.

PHOTO Credit LaRue's Farm Market

Red and Green

...are not just Christmas colors. Red is my favorite color and makes me feel happy and is my stimulating color. To me, green is the color of nature, growth and health. I get excited when I have projects that involve using these colors.

Our daughter shared her extra peppers with us so I went to work. I already had the broccoli and now have decided to bake a quiche with it in a month or so. The peppers don't need to be blanched before freezing - just washed and cut up. The broccoli does and it takes a bit more effort to prepare it for freezing, but the time was well spent in my mind.

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"Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. Red is a very emotionally intense color. It enhances human metabolism, increases respiration rate, and raises blood pressure." 

"Green, the color of life, renewal, nature, and energy, is associated with meanings of growth, harmony, freshness, safety, fertility, and environment. Green is also traditionally associated with money, finances, banking, ambition, greed, jealousy, and wall street."

Source: www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html

Out for a Ride, In with Foodstuffs

Today it was decided to not bake nor cook and just relax, maybe go for a ride through the countryside. Wouldn't you know we ended up at our favorite markets. Now this is not just a ride around a park. Out in the area where the orchard is located many interesting scenes exist, filled with animals and farmland. Yes, we stopped at the farm orchard and brought home another four half gallons of cider and ANOTHER peck of Macoun apples! They plan to stay open until just before Christmas because the production of all of the apples, among other crops was extremely good this year and there are plenty of really nice varieties available still to be sold.

Who couldn't pass the produce stand without stopping in? Not us!  It was also a lucky morning because the last of the sweet corn and broccoli were just brought in from the field. Even though the tomatoes still are producing, they are running low. The tomatoes are beautiful to look at, nicely sun ripened and we couldn't resist getting two more although they cannot match our favorite ones, the home-grown Oxhearts, for flavor, low acidity and meatiness. (I have saved seeds for next year.)  We couldn't buy more of anything as the freezer is almost full now.

On the road home we shot over to a little popular and very busy general store and gas station in a nearby village to buy a hoagie for lunch when we arrived back home. It was a nice day. I didn't cook, bake, or even make lunch! Fresh cider was our beverage of choice. How wonderful is that?

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