Painted Furniture

I like to paint.  

I'm not very good, but I enjoy myself.

I particularly enjoy painting furniture.

Wish I had photos of the many I have given away.

Oh well.

Hope you like the ones here. 

  

 

 

Yorkshire Pudding and Popover Chicken Recipes

I posted a comment on Susan's post at Between Naps on the Back Porch when she wrote about her experience with Yorkshire Pudding at Christmas and never noticed back on Dec 31 that she asked for the recipe. Then today I recieved a comment from "Anonymous" wishing I had posted the recipe for Popovers and Popover Chicken.  I thought I had posted the recipe at some point, but alas, I am afraid that is not so.


So, here is my recipe for Yorkshire Pudding, followed by the recipe for Popover Chicken.
I don't remember when my mom first started making Yorkshire Pudding.  It is so ingrained in my memories.  She always tried to be a gourmet-ish cook and I continue to cling to my faves.  


Roast "Beast", Yorkshire Pudding, au jus and a few other items are traditional Christmas fare around here. We've whittled out anything that is not a fave so we can enjoy the best in decadent delight. We make double and triple batches of Yorkshire Pudding because some doesn't even make it to the table.

No need to buy a "popover" pan. I use my Nana's old tin muffin pans. They are stained and ugly but work just fine.

Yorkshire Pudding         
         Yield 1+ dozen

1 Cup flour

½ tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

Mix until well blended and smooth.  Chill minimum 1 hour. 

Preheat oven 375° F.   

Place dab of solid shortening in  each muffin cup, heat in oven. When melted, pour batter ½ full. Bake 30 minutes until nicely browned and nicely puffed up.

Serve w/ au jus  
(I use Campbell's Double Strength Beef Broth, diluted)

Popover Chicken
One cut up chicken or 6-8 chicken pieces
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup 
½  "can" milk
1 recipe Yorkshire Pudding/Popover batter (above)


I use a cut up chicken.  You can use your favorite pieces or even boneless skinless breasts, but I find  the boneless skinless ends up dry and not as yummy.


Prepare one recipe of Yorkshire Pudding and chill in fridge while browning chicken.
.
Brown the chicken pieces in one of two ways:  

1. Lay chicken skin-side down in a single layer in a 9X13" glass baking dish. Brown in oven At 375° for 1/2 hour, then turn and brown another 15 minutes. Drain fat and continue.  
2. Brown both sides of chicken in skillet in a small amount of oil or spray pan with non-stick spray. When nicely browned, transfer chicken in a single layer to a 9X13" glass baking dish that has been sprayed with  non-stick spray and place in 375° oven about 3 minutes until dish heats up and then  continue.

While 9X13" pan is still hot from the oven, pour Yorkshire Pudding/Popover batter over chicken.

Bake for 30+ minutes.

Meanwhile, make a gravy/sauce by mixing the Cream of Chicken Soup using ½  can of milk and heating. 

Chicken Popover is done when the batter is puffed up and nicely browned.  Check to make sure the middle is done.  

Serve a piece of chicken by spooning out the chicken and popover together. Top with "sauce".  Serve with rice or potatoes, green salad and veggie of choice.

 Enjoy!

Nap Movies

Do you have favorite movies that you pull out 

when you need a nice nap on the couch? 
This doesn't mean that they are boring movies.  
On the contrary, they calm and soothe.

I have several.

The first I remember, and which still works great, is

"While You Were Sleeping."

Perfect title for a nap, eh?

Here are some others in no particular order:

"You've Got Mail":

"Sleepless in Seattle":

"Tortilla Soup":

"Return to Me":

"Anne of Green Gables":

 The entire gabillion hours PBS/Canadian series w/Megan Follows

"Twilight":

"Mr & Mrs Smith":

"10 Things I Hate About You":

"50 First Dates":

"The Matrix":

The first one, this is mostly Tif and LJ's

"Ocean's Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, etc.":

Anything with Clooney and Pitt

...of course the original Rat Pack version is the best:

There is no more "cool" like those cats. 

"Pretty Woman":

"Pirates of the Caribbean":

Any of the 3:

So at any time I may add more as I think of it! 

Agree?  Disagree?

Do you have any more to add?

Y-A-W-N!!!

I think I'm gonna go take a nap!

Champagne Saucers...

...because that's what the champagne glasses for our wedding are called, saucers...or coupes.  

 The May Company, Mission Valley, San Diego, May Department Stores, now Macy's

I fell in love with this design while working at the May Company (above) and never bought any more pieces than just those for the wedding.  I wonder why? Maybe I should buy more?  I dunno.  But we brought out various crystal pieces for Christmas Eve Brunch (Eggs Benedict) for the sparkling cider. It just makes it more special. 


So while we were enjoying the cider, we discussed the types of glasses we were using.  Jay and Sweet Hubby were using Princess House Pilsners.

Princess House Pilsners

I had an unknown cut wine glass and Christy and LJ were using the above mentioned champagne glasses. We couldn't remember the "name" of the shape of the stemware. I knew they were champagne glasses, but flutes have become more en vogue of late and I couldn't name the style of my stemware.  

Rogaska Gallia

So after watching Julie & Julia, I decided to investigate.  Not only are the wedding goblets Rogaska Gallia (I remembered the Gallia), but they are known as Coupes or Saucers!!  On Ebay they call them sherbets... uh, no. 


But most fun was the little trivia I found on Wikipedia: 
"The champagne coupe or champagne saucer is the saucer-shaped stem glass once used for serving champagne, but now more commonly used for certain cocktails such as daiquiris. Legend has it the shape of the glass was modeled on the breast of Marie Antoinette, Josephine de Beauharnais, Madame de Pompadour  or one of several other French aristocrats, although this is almost certainly false. (But it was a good story, huh?) The glass was designed especially for champagne in England in 1663, preceding those aristocrats by almost a century.
The coupe has fallen out of fashion except for traditional occasions such as weddings.Modern aficionados consider it inappropriate for the current style of very dry champagnes, versus the sweeter champagnes popularized when the coupe came into fashion in the 1930s. Its broad surface area means that the champagne quickly loses its carbonation."

www.martinellis.com

Well, it works just fine for sparkling cider!!!  Mystery solved!

Nana McGreal's Pumpkin Bread

We just returned from Boston for Thanksgiving. 

Imagine our delight when my Nana's Pumpkin Bread recipe was served by Aunt Elena.  I had no idea Nana had a pumpkin bread recipe.  My son Jay loooooovvves just about anything pumpkin. Well, so do most all of us.

And then we went to dinner at lifetime friends' Annette & Phil's house.  Annette not only made Pumpkin Bread too but it was the same recipe!!!!! NANA'S!! (Annette grew up next door to my Nana.)

So here for your pleasure, is my Nana's Pumpkin Bread recipe, brought to you by Aunt Elena and my friend Annette.  Thank you for preserving this family treat ladies!

Nana McGreal's Pumpkin Bread

3c sugar

4 eggs

1c salad oil

2/3 H20

1 can pumpkin pie mix

3 1/2 c sifted flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

• Beat first 5 ingredients. 

• Add dry & mix together.

• Bake @350 degrees 1 hour

(raisins? nuts?)

Operation Christmas Child

It's allover the blogs, allover facebook.  

I've never seen so much discussion as this year.  I'm talking about the Christmastime outreach project by Samaritan's Purse,  Operation Christmas Child.  

Samaritan's Purse was begun by Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son. First time I heard about Samaritan's Purse was from our friend Dennis Agajanian who became involved early on in the ministry, way back before Operation Christmas Child even got started. I know he has been performing for Billy Graham Ministries and Crusades for years:

 (had Dennis' kids in Sunday School and later Youth Group back in the day).

Operation Christmas Child has been hand delivering gift boxes to children around the world since 1993 in over 100 countries.  

Not only providing gifts, but sharing the love and hope of Jesus Christ with these children.  

Won't you join in & fill a box or two or twelve with your children and your family for other children around the world?  It's a great way to start the Holidays, a great Holiday tradition. 

I've been filling boxes for the last 5 years.  My FCCLA kids started me on it... they'd done so since before I arrived at our school. 

Gift ideas include:

• Cars
  
• Trucks
  
• Small ball
  
• Teddy bear
  
• Finger puppet
  
• Jigsaw
  
• Yo-yo
  
• Balloons
  
• Small musical instrument
  
• Felt pens
  
• Pens
  
• Pencils

• Puzzle book
  
• Pencil case
  
• Stickers
  
• Toothbrush
  
• Toothpaste
  
• Gloves
  
• Scarf
  
• Sunglasses,
  
• Cap Rubber
  
• Colouring book
  
• Notepad
• Pencil sharpener

But don't delay, in order to get the boxes to the children in time for Christmas, we have to do our part way early.  Go to the Operation Christmas Child link at the top of the page to find the drop off location nearest you.  Drop off begins November 16 and ends November 23.

There is a small donation you'll need to include in the box to defray shipping costs.  See the website for information.