A Sure Sign of Summer - Fried Green Tomatoes!

I cooked these for lunch yesterday.  It's a very popular dish here and I've eaten them every summer as long as I can remember!  

 

If you've never had Fried Green Tomatoes you really need to give them a try.

 

We don't make them often, but as soon as the tomatoes in our little garden are ready we have to fry up a batch.

 

They are so good - I think I could have eaten the whole plate full all by myself! I'm glad Mom and Judy were here to help us so I didn't have to do that!

Fried Green Tomatoes

1 egg

2 T. milk

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

½ cup flour

¾ cup yellow cornmeal

vegetable oil for frying

3 firm green tomatoes, sliced

In a medium bowl, combine the egg, milk, and the ½ tsp salt and the ¼ tsp pepper and beat until well blended.  In another medium bowl, combine the flour and cornmeal.  In a heavy, deep skillet over medium-high heat, pour the oil to a depth of ½ inche and heat to 350 degees.   Dip the tomato slices in the egg mixture to coat evenly.  Then dip in the cornmeal mixture, shaking off any excess and wiping your hands to avoid build-up.  Fry the tomatoes in batches, turning once, until the coating is crisp and light golden brown on both sides, a total of 3-5 minutes per batch.  Working quickly with a slotted spatula, transfer the tomatoes to a baking sheet lined with paper towels to drain.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve warm. 

I don't usually do a lot of measuring with this and I probably cooked about 6 tomatoes so pretty much doubled everything.

"A world without tomatoes is like a

string quartet without violins."

Laurie Colwin, ‘Home Cooking’

 

Where Did Our Summer Go??

I've been ignoring my little blog lately so I'm going to try to play catch up here. We had a very busy summer with a few birthday celebrations and trips to Sea Rim State Park, the Texas Hill Country, and Kansas City.  Then, in August my mother-in-law passed away at age 96. She will be greatly missed by us but she did live a long and good life!    

Sea Rim State Park

Before being totally destroyed by Hurricane Ike it was a nice place to go spend the day or several days in the camping area.  There was a huge welcome center with showers and a wildlife display area that was completely demolished.


Sea Rim State Park (what's left of it)

Our Birthday Celebrations

Jennifer, Mark, and I celebrated birthdays this summer.  I got a start to my collection of Fiestaware that I've always wanted.  :)

 

 



 Lake Buchanan in the Texas Hill Country

We went fishing on beautiful Lake Buchanan and had a great time even if we didn't have much luck with catching fish.  The lake was formed by the construction of Buchanan Dam by the Lower Colorado River Authority .  Lake Buchanan is the first of the Texas Highland Lakes to be formed, and it is also the largest.  The other reservoirs on the Colorado River are Inks Lake, Lake LBJ, Lake Marble Falls, Lake Travis, Lake Austin, and Lady Bird Lake.

Jamesport, Missouri

In July we went to Kansas City to see Jill and Jason and decided to make a side trip to see an Amish community in Jamesport.  It was very interesting and had some fun places to shop.  We visited a dairy farm owned by an Amish family and bought some of the best cheese I've ever eaten!

It's hard to believe that October is already here isn't it! October is one of my very favorite months of the year! I can't wait to go for my first Pumpkin Latte and now that we've had our first cool front I think I'll be doing that soon!

We had gone to bed in summer and we awoke in autumn; for summer passes into autumn in some imaginable point of time, like the turning of a leaf. (Henry David Thoreau)

Happy October to you all!

Dog Days of Summer!

With temperatures near 100 almost every day lately we have been staying inside a lot! It is just unbearable outside until about 7:30 in the evening. Then, like a bunch of bats, our neighborhood once again comes to life. We love sitting outside in the evenings to enjoy what little breeze might be coming through and visiting with neighbors. Just a little before dark we start our walk around the block with Sadie leading the way.

Our Kansas City Grandpuppies - Being Lazy!

In the summer when the days are hot,

I like to find a shady spot,

And hardly move a single bit

And sit, and sit, and sit, and sit.

Busy Summer Days and Rain At Last!!

Do you ever look around and realize that you have so much to do that you just don't know where to start???

I seem to be having one of those days today.  Makes me feel like I'm losing my head!

I really don't know what happened in this picture.  I think he had put his head under his wing.  This photo is not edited.  (weird huh!!)

Don't worry!  I'll get myself back together soon and be ready to fly far away!

Whether the weather be fine,

Or whether the weather be not,

Whether the weather be cold,

Or whether the weather be hot,

We'll weather the weather

Whatever the weather,

Whether we like it or not!

Author unknown

This week we've had about 3 days of rain and enjoyed every single drop of it!  Now they say we are going back into the hot/dry cycle again.  It is so amazing to see the extremes in weather across the country lately!  It's too bad the states that are having so much rain can't just send part of it to the states that are suffering from drought and wildfires.

Hope you have a good weekend and that you will weather the weather whatever the weather!

Summer Camping

Last year we camped in June and it was so hot I thought I would never camp in the summer months again, but here we are. 

Thunderstorms skirted all around us and kept us somewhat cooler this trip. 

Johnny and Jeffrey just couldn’t get enough fishing. 

This was my catch – too small – had to go back :(



Mom and Judy joined us and we took our turn in the little boat.  We fished and fished and fished but nothing - but we sure had fun trying! 


Sadie enjoyed some fun in the sun too but she sure enjoyed going into the trailer to cool off every now and then.

NOT FUN!

This is how "not to have summertime fun!"


1.  Start a major renovation project in May hoping to beat the hot Texas summer.
2.  Wait a month for contractor to get his act together.
3.  Now that it's the middle of June start painting the exterior of the house. 
4.  To make the project even more lovely, have city come in to renovate their sewer lines and dig two large 8' holes in the yard.  Keep covered with plywood for a few days before covering.  Oh - and be sure to cut the phone line while digging!

Now that it's July and we've survived the difficulties of our project I'll have to post pictures of the completion soon!

Summertime Treat

We made Chocolate Ice Cream on Saturday for the first time this summer and it was quite a treat since the temperature was about 95 outside. I remember how exciting it was to make ice cream in our old fashioned ice cream freezer as kids. We would place a bunch of news papers on top of the freezer and one of us would sit on top to keep it steady and the others would take turns turning the crank til frozen. With the electric freezers we now have it's so much easier - just fill the inside container with yummy ingredients, surround with ice and rock salt and plug it in!

Chocolate Ice Cream

2 cans condensed milk

2 cans evaporated milk

1 large instant chocolate pudding

milk (2%)

Just blend first three ingredients and pour into freezer container and then add milk up to fill line.

-------------------------------------------

I found this low-cal recipe that I'd like to try next time.

Chocolate Ice Cream - Light

1 4 oz package sugar free fat free instant chocolate pudding mix

1/4 cup splenda

1 12 oz can fat free evaporated skim milk

1 cup fat free milk

In a medium bowl, stir together the instant pudding and splenda.

Add the evaporated milk and fat free milk and stir until blended. Pour

into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manf. directions.

Source:

"The Everything Low-fat High flavor cookbook"

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 193 Calories; 1g Fat (18.9%

calories from fat); 2g Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; 0g Dietary Fiber; 1mg Cholesterol; 32mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Non-Fat Milk.

Serving Size: 4