Mary’s Basket II

This is the second basket of the five commissioned. The stitching on the lower sides of the basket is the Wheat Stitch. On the upper part is the Fern Stitch. The lid also contains the Wheat and the Fern Stitch as well.  The base of the basket is made from Cherry wood.

I found this recipe in Well Being Magazine. I’ve made it 3 times, and it gets better and better each time. However, I have modified it to suit my taste. After carefully looking at the photo, I saw corn, but there is no corn in the ingredients below. So I added the corn and also some black beans as well. Instead of using the green stuff on top, I added sour cream. This recipe tastes even better the day after.

Southwestern Lasagna

Ingredients

1 pound 95% lean ground sirloin (ground turkey is better)

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 (16-ounce) jar salsa (I only added 1/3 since the salsa was medium hot)

1 1/4 cups enchilada sauce

Salt and pepper to taste (optional) (the enchilada sauce was salty enough)

1 cup fat-free cottage cheese

1 large egg white, beaten

6 (6-inch) flour tortillas, cut into thirds

1 cup shredded reduced-fat Monterey Jack cheese

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 2. In large nonstick skillet coated with nonstick cooking spray, brown beef and garlic over medium heat about 8 minutes or until meat is done. Drain excess fat. Add salsa, enchilada sauce, and salt and pepper (if using). Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. 3. In small bowl, combine the cottage cheese and egg white. Coat a13x9x2-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. 4. Spread thin layer of meat sauce in the dish. Layer with half the tortillas, all of the cottage cheese mixture, half the remaining meat mixture, and half the cheese. Repeat layers, omitting the cottage cheese layer and ending with the meat sauce. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and bake for 25–30 minutes or until bubbly. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting.

Ruth’s Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cook the ground turkey and garlic till done. Add salsa and enchilada sauce.
Bring to a boil. Cook 5 minutes.

Combine cottage cheese and egg white in a bowl.

In a glass baking dish, spread some of the meat sauce on the bottom. Put some of the cut flour tortillas down next. Then spread some of the cottage cheese on top. More tortillas, more meat sauce, more cottage cheese. On the final layer spread the rest of the meat sauce. Cover with cheese.

Bake 25-30 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting.

At Long Last

It’s been eight years since I moved back to Mississippi and during that time, Bill and I renovated the entire house, all except for the kitchen. Finally, this past August, he and I agreed to take on the kitchen. We finally finished it right before Thanksgiving. Well, we still need to install a hood over the stove, put in some mood lighting, and thresholds, but it is mostly complete and I have breathed a sigh of relief. My house has now returned from chaos.

Renovating a 125-year-old house certainly had its challenges. One of the side effects we discovered is that when you make major changes to an old house, you wake up the ghost who made his appearance at different times during the renovations. The kitchen was the worst. Lloyd (the ghost), kept turning on the TV during the days I was working in the kitchen. The first time he did it, it made me jump out of my skin because the volume was on high. After that though, the more he turned on the TV, the less response he got from me. I just got used to it. Some ghosts aren’t scarey. In fact, Lloyd has been known to have a sense of humor. I figure we can co-exist.

There was a drop ceiling in the kitchen that we wanted to remove. To our surprise, there were 3 layers of ceiling under the tiles. And although you can only see Bill in the photos, I worked right along side him the whole way. Somebody had to take the photos.

My favorite part of the kitchen is the upper shelving we extended all around the room that holds my bird collection.  There is a section for chickens, ducks, song birds, raptors, shore birds, and pelicans. A life time collection is now on display. Hooray!

Ugly Christmas Sweater Day (2nd Friday each December)

I first heard Bill Geist on the program "Sunday Morning", talking about ugly Christmas sweaters, and over the years, it has morphed into a major holiday. Many people are having ugly Christmas sweater parties and it's so much better than having a regular get together. If you haven't gotten a sweater yet, I suggest you head on down to your favorite thrift store and find you one!

                                                        This guy won't even show his face!

                                       Don't know what to say about this one, but it certainly is poor taste.

Even though this is not a sweater photo, I couldn't pass this one up. I might just have to try it myself!

The Bathroom Under the Stairs

These are photos of the small bathroom that is located in the center of the house, and where one goes when there is a tornado on the way. Two weeks after I arrived in Raymond, a summer storm came up with 90 mile an hour winds. Bill called me and told me to take refuge there. Welcome back to Mississippi Ruth!

Sometimes the Light is Just Right

This is a photo of our bathroom on a good day.

Mary's Basket

I've been commissioned to make 5 baskets for a gentleman in Alabama. One of my earlier baskets is now used in his church for Communion. This is the first of the five.