Thursday, April 02, 2009

Yorkshire Pudding


My favorite Yorkshire Pudding recipe, adapted from the recipe in "Tea and Sympathy" by Anita Naughton.

Yorkshire Pudding
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
4 eggs
2 cups milk
roast beef pan drippings

*** Things to remember - You may need to reposition your oven rack to accomodate the rising of the popovers. Do not open the oven during while baking - this may cause the popovers to fall.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Whisk in the eggs and milk until the batter has the consistency of pancake batter. Cover and let rest for 1 hour.

Put about 1 tsp of roast beef drippings in each well of a large non-stick popover pan. Place pan in the oven until you can hear the drippings make popping and crackling sounds.
Remove from oven and fill each well with batter about 3/4 full.

Bake about 30 minutes or until well risen.

Serve hot.

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Easy Apricot Barbecue Chicken


Chicken leg quarters are usually a bargain at Midwestern Meats so I pick some up nearly every week. They're so versatile. This week I made Apricot Barbecue Chicken.

Easy Apricot Barbecue Chicken
4-6 chicken leg quarters
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Mrs. Dash Onion and Herb
3/4 cup apricot preserves
1/2 cup prepared barbecue sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Brush chicken with olive oil and sprinkle with Mrs. Dash Onion and Herb Seasoning. Bake in a shallow baking dish at 350 for 40 minutes.

Heat apricot preserves in the microwave for a few seconds and blend with the barbecue sauce. If the mixture doesn't blend easily you can microwave for a few more seconds to thin the preserves.

Spread about half the sauce mixture on the chicken and return to the oven for 10 minutes, remove and coat chicken with the remaining sauce and return to the oven for 10 more minutes.

Serve over rice.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Photo op while plant shopping. . .


Went to A & P Nurseries to get some tomato and Italian parsley plants for the garden. We ran into this big guy sleeping the ornamental grass. He looked very comfortable.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Ms. Thomas' Lovely Tea House


Last weekend while shopping for a new bed we stumbled upon Ms. Thomas' Lovely Tea House on the NW corner of Mc Kellips and Power in Mesa. Dolores at Mattress Firm had nothing but praise for the establishment and I couldn't wait to check it out. I stopped in late last week to check out their gift shop (fabulous!) and I vowed to go for tea as soon as possible.

As HuzBen is not fond of tea and it took me a few days to find a dining partner. Thankfully my step mom Susan was as excited as I was to go there.

We stopped in today for tea and some shopping. Dolores was spot on, the place is wonderful. The decor is Victorian inspired, tastefully done but not cluttered. It reminded me of tea in my Aunt's parlor many years ago. The tea settings are beautiful and they include a honey pot at the table as well as sugar cubes. The tea was kept hot by a delicate looking silver teapot warmer (see blurry cell phone photo above) that I would have purchased in a second if they sold them in the gift shop.

We had the Miss Marianne Tea, which consists of a fruit cup, quiche, scones, tea sandwiches and sorbet. Other options omitted the quiche or added soup so you could customize your afternoon tea to your level of hunger. There are also some a la carte items and breakfast offerings. The food was fresh and tasty. I do wish they offered more varieties of tea.

A big plus over another popular tearoom in Mesa is that Ms. Thomas keeps her gift shop separate from the dining area. It was nice to enjoy a quiet lunch without someone kicking your while chair trying reach the price tag on a bottle of hand lotion.

When we finished I checked out the gift shop which offers lovely gifts as well as hard to find tea related items like honey spoons, sugar cube tongs and drip catchers for your teapot. I bought a butterfly drip catcher on my visit last week and it works very well, even on my little 2 cup teapot. (see picture below)

Ms. Thomas' Lovely Tea House is located at 6620 E, McKellips, Suite 102, Mesa, AZ. Phone 480-807-5133. Hours of operation are Mon-Sat 8:30am-2:30pm. Reservations strongly suggested.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

A sad day. . .


I wanted to keep this blog as a fun and hopefully uplifting account of our lives. Sometimes you've just got to accept some bad with the good and yesterday was very bad. A sudden infection claimed the life of our little Chopper. Our wonderful vet, Dr. Funk, did what he could but bunnies are fragile creatures and go downhill quickly.

Since we have no children our animals are our babies and Chopper was no exception. He was pampered and spoiled and we loved him like crazy. Like all our other pets Chopper was a throw away that no one else wanted. He lived with us for a year and a half and he always brought smiles to everyone he met. Posh and Danica are meowing and looking all over for him. It's breaking my heart. I hope he felt the love we had for him during his much too brief time with us.

Friday, March 06, 2009

March Garden Update

The garden is doing quite well thanks to a very rainy winter. Of course that also means that the weeds are doing well too and I could cut the back grass every day if I had the time. Ripping the crab grass out of the raised bed is a daily chore around here.

During the few frosty days of winter we tented the garden with heavy weight row covers from Gardens Alive and clear plastic painter's drop cloths from Ace Hardware. The combination of the two made a very effective greenhouse and we only lost two tomato plants to the cold. We are already harvesting a few cherry tomatoes and the Better Boy and Early Girl's have some small green tomatoes and tons of blossoms.

The second round of lettuce was planted about 2 weeks ago and it's thriving. I put shade barriers up if it's going to be over 80 degrees so the plants don't get burned. For whatever reason the spinach never really took off this year and the leaves are still very tiny. I pluck off the roots and toss them in the salad anyway but they're barely noticable.

The radishes are huge and going to seed. I picked a plant today (in the photo) that was 4 feet tall with a radish that was a bit smaller than a tennis ball. We've used up about half of the radish bed to feed Chopper so I'll reseed that part of the garden this weekend. Raising radish greens for him has saved us a lot of money on fresh food for him. He was eating about 5 heads of romaine a week. Rabbits are cute but not cheap to feed, that's for sure.