Thursday, June 13, 2013

Sistine Chapel update and Recipes

I am so happy to be on summer break!  I have been going to the pool, reading trashy novels and stitching.  I have such a hard life!!!  Sistine Chapel has been my stitching focus since I got out on break.  I am happy to show off two completed pages!  Bert has this fascination with needles!  He sees them and tries to grab them with his paw or his mouth.   My needle is below his paw.  He thinks he is being a sneaky kitty.


So one of my goals this summer was try several recipes I had pinned on my Pinterest boards.  The first one I tried was a pork loin, and homemade applesauce in the crock pot.  So the pork loin was supposed to have pan drippings...mine didn't turn out!  It was BAD BAD BAD....not sure what I did wrong but the pork was AWESOME!!!  DH wants me to make it again.

Pork Loin Recipe found HERE

 Here is the applesauce I made.  I like my applesauce tart so I cut the water amount in 1/2 and added 1/2 apple cider vinegar.  It made the house smell heavenly.  I forgot that my husband doesn't like tart and after he tasted it, he proceeded to add 1 cup of brown sugar (I was flabbergasted) to my sauce!  He loved it then, to me it was too sweet.  However, I would make it again and not add the apple cider vinegar and just use water.
Crockpot AppleSauce found HERE

My husband will NOT eat any veggies from a can...just flat out refuses.  But I was wanting greenbeans and all I had was canned so....I cooked up some bacon, chopped it up and tossed the canned green beans into the pan with the bacon and bacon grease.  They were yummy.  I set half the beans aside for him and for me, I tossed in some goat cheese!  YUMMY!!!!


Earlier this year, DH ordered 2 gallons of homemade Vermont maple syrup.  What the heck and I supposed to do with 2 gallons of maple syrup??  Make pancakes!  We now have pancake and bacon night every Thursday night.   I found a recipe on pinterest for PANCAKE SQUARES   I don't have a picture of my pancake squares because DH cut into them before I could take the picture.  They were yummy too, however, he told me he preferred his pancakes round and in stacks.  So...I won't be using this one again since it calls for the pancakes to be baked like a cake.  I prefer these...so much easier than having to put them on the griddle and flipping them.

DH favorite Chinese dish is Sweet and Sour Chicken with fried rice.  I pinned this recipe thinking it might turn out.  It was very easy, but messy to make.  DH loved it and wants this on the cook again list.  However, he did tell me NOT to attempt the rice again.  I did something wrong and it tasted funky.  I thought I followed the recipe right but alas, something happened.  It looks pretty though!!!  

                                    
Sweet and Sour Recipe found HERE



10 comments:

Berly said...

Great progress on Sistine Chapel! Your recipes all look yummy!! Fried rice - I make it once a week for Mariah. There is a sesoning envelope at the store that you can get. It's super easy and really quick. I don't remember the name of the brand, but it's the black envelope, not the yellow one. Good luck!

cucki said...

I love fried rice too...lovely progress on your project..
Big hugs x

Faith... said...

The Sistine Chapel looks great Vickie! Glad you are enjoying your summer break. I think I may agree with your DH on the pancakes buy your pork lion looks good.

Patty said...

Great update! You've made a lot of progress on your Sistine chapel. If you're in to cooking (and it looks like you are) I belong to a great FB group called Amy's Down Home Cooking - which of course leads you to more fabulous cooking sites. They have this one recipe that I'm dying to try - it's chicken tenders wrapped in bacon and rolled in brown sugar then baked (drooling already lol)

Shari said...

sistine chapel is looking great, even with the paw on it!!! Too cute!
The recipes look great & I will be checking out a few of them. I am always trying new recipes!

SoCal Debbie said...

Your Sistine Chapel looks wonderful! How nice to have a willing partner to try out your recipes. The rice in the last photo looks perfect, sorry it tasted funny.

Linda said...

You've made such great progress Vickie. The food looks yummy.

Linda

Anonymous said...

Sistine Chapel is looking great!!!! Some of those recipes I am going to have to look for & try for myself.
Thanks for sharing.
Betty in AZ (ILCS)

Deb said...

Love your "helper"! Your work is beautiful, great progress. Your recipe's look wonderful. Rice , well, I just may start licking the computer screen!

Meari said...

Good for you trying new recipes! On the fried rice, my guess as to why it tasted funky is because of the sesame oil. I would substitute it with olive oil or margarine. Seasame oil is strong stuff and I only use it in dishes for flavoring not to saute with. I've never used sesame oil in my fried rice. Just soy sauce and garlic powder to taste. I also don't put the seasonings in until I mix the cooked veggies, eggs, and rice together.

You're making great progress on SC!