Grandma's Bread & Butter Pickles

So lately, it seems that all we've been talking about is food, so here's another heirloom recipe 

- my Grandma Rhodes' recipe for Bread & Butter Pickles.  

My brother brought over a bumper crop of cucumbers and Mom made the pickles using Grandma's recipe.  They are delicious! Sweet and crisp and just the right thing on a hot summers day.  

Grandma Rhodes' Bread & Butter Pickles

1 gal. cucumbers

8 small white onions

2 green peppers

½ cup salt

1 quart ice cubes

5 cups sugar

1 ½ tsp turmeric

½ tsp ground cloves

1 tsp celery seed

2 Tbsp. mustard seed

5 cups white vinegar

Wash and slice into paper thin slices - onions, cucumbers, & pepper.  Mix salt in them & bury in ice.  Cover with weighted lid & let stand 3 hours.  Drain thoroughly.  Make syrup of sugar, turmeric, cloves, celery seed, mustard seed, & vinegar.  Pour over cucumber mix.  Place over low heat.  Heat to scalding-stirring occasionally.  Do not boil.  Seal in hot sterilized jars.

Lucky for me - I'm the only one at the house that likes Bread & Butter Pickles!!!  

Thanks Mom and Grandma!

Oven Roasted Garlic

First of all, let me tell you that I love garlic! Now, there's this place called Treehouse Restaurant and Pub in Atlanta that is fabulous and they used to make this balsamic-glazed roasted garlic that was served with toasted brioche. I loved it. And recently I saw a tutorial on roasting garlic on AllRecipes.com which reminded me of that garlic that I had so long ago. So, long story short, we decided to try it out.

We bought elephant garlic. Then chopped the top off of it. Put it in a ceramic, oven safe dish. Drizzled it with olive oil and a touch of balsamic vinegar (next time more vinegar!). Then we baked it for about an hour at 375. Now, if we had used regular garlic, it probably would have only taken 45 minutes. Then we took the garlic out and spread it onto toasted Italian bread. It spread like butta!

We had some leftover the next day and thought about adding cheese to it...mmm. Good idea, we thought. So, we bought the mix of parmesan, romano, and asiago cheeses and sprinkled it on top of the toasted bread after we spread the garlic on. Then we put it in the oven and broiled for 10 minutes to melt the cheese. Wow, we had a great idea. It was fabulous and super easy. A definite improvement on garlic bread for spaghetti night. Or any other night!

We hope that you love it as much as we did!

My Kitchen

On our trip to Kirklands this weekend, I found a great little wire rack marked down to $3.97.  I've been looking for something to put on the pantry door and thought maybe I could use it there.

Got it home and decided it would be perfect to display some old recipe cards that I have. I hung it up with 3 clear Command adhesive hooks and strategically placed the cards to cover them.

There are cards from Tim's Great Grandma, Aunt & Mom, my Grandma & Mom and one from my wedding shower (almost 31 years ago!) that my friend Rhonda gave to me.  I added a little green wooden angel to the top of it and think it is perfect there.  Even my husband said it looked great!

I never realized until the past few years, how special these cards are.  Most are written in their own hand and one from Tim's Grandma was also from our wedding shower. She wrote "May you and Tim live a long and happy life Jeanette, Love, Grandma Bennie" on the back of it.   

I had forgotten about these until I pulled them out of the recipe box.  Very special treasured memories of the loving women in my family.

Here are few more random shots of our kitchen - notice how there's only one showing the counter tops?  That's because the kitchen is a mess!!!  Well, it is Thursday after all - who has a clean kitchen on Thursday night? 

Not this girl!

This is a bible verse that I had printed on vinyl especially for the kitchen - 

A man hath no better thing under the sun than to eat, drink and be merry.....Ecclesiastes 8:15

I've surrounded the baker's rack with some vintage plates and metal trays with the State of Texas on them.  I bought one of the trays when we lived in Georgia and my Mom's cousin brought

 me the other one from North Carolina.

Can you tell I like sayings and words??? Yet another picture with birds and words on it.....

Oh,well, at least it isn't cows again!!!

Someday soon I'll post pictures of the breakfast bar and counters.  When I get around to cleaning it up!!

Try me again in a month or two and maybe I'll have some!

Easy Restaurant Style Baked Potatoes

Ok, if you don't know by now, I'm an extremely talented, creative, boring and LAZY cook.  Recipes to me shouldn't have more than about 5 ingredients and they should all currently reside in my pantry or fridge.

I can't remember where I saw this idea, but we've been baking potatoes like this forever.

Easy Restaurant Style Baked Potatoes

     Ingredients:   Baking Potatoes     Olive Oil      Sea Salt

 (Regular salt is fine too - I only have Sea Salt because my Mom gave it to me!)

Wash potatoes, prick lightly 2 or 3 times and cook them in the microwave for about 1/2 the time you normally would.  I cooked 3 fairly large ones for 10 minutes in the microwave.  You want to be able to feel a little give in the potato but not so much you can break the skin.

Remove from the microwave - CAUTION - They will be HOT!  Then brush them will Olive Oil and sprinkle with salt.  Bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes - not necessary to wrap them in tin foil - although I usually cook them on a piece of foil for easy clean up.  That's it!

They come out light and fluffy and the best part about potatoes baked this way is the skin - YUMMY!

We Love Kirkland's

Saturday we trekked out to the Baybrook Mall  area and visited Kirkland's.  Leigh and I both love that store and the one at Baybrook is a lot larger and better laid out than the one at Deerbrook.

Here are a few things we fell in love with -

Although you can't tell from this picture, the clock is probably 2 1/2 feet tall by 18" or so and the picture was  maybe 3' x 3'.  I'm trying to figure out where I could put something in my house, but alas, all my walls are full!  Of course that problem can be easily remedied.

This little blue and gold bird was Leigh's favorite.

I couldn't pass up this Keep Calm sign for $4.97.  Leigh said I could make it but by the time I bought a frame it would have cost me more than this.  It will hang in the craft room.

Fell in love with these sunflowers that were made out of newspaper.  I'm going to see if I can make some for fall.  Wouldn't they be great in a fallscape or large crock?

Of course, you know I love owls.  Loved this adorable picture.

Ok, so we like birds - can you tell?  I just realized that almost everything we liked had birds of some sort.

This little owl made it home with us and only cost $5.  He was too cute.

Have you visited Kirkland's lately?  Let us know what your favorite thing was.

Pinterest Picks - Clever Stuff

Ok, we admit it - we are addicted to it!

I thought I would share some pins from my Clever Stuff board

My pin of The Pinterest Project's Baseball Wreath got an amazing 1015 repins!  

Totally cute for any little league king, softball queen or baseball fanatic.

Here are some really cute Penguin Rocks.  Unfortunately, I repinned this from Craftgawker and can't find the blog.  Maybe someone out there can help me with that.  There is a blog name on the picture, but I can't seem to find it.  Well, thanks to whoever came up with these Cuties!

This is a great Father's Day gift idea from Funky Polkadot Giraffe 

It isn't too late to run out to the dollar store and grab some candy to make this one.

July 4th is right around the corner and these Patriotic Baseballs from a 

BH&G book would look great on the coffee table! Took this picture with the Iphone!

Amy at New Nostalgia shared 13 Tips & Tricks to Simply Life and these dry erase food labels are my favorite!  So great for a party or bridal shower.  The labels originated from Madigan Made

Craft-O-Maniac shared how to Make Your Own Washi Tape

So what's your favorite Pin?  Share it with us 'cause we just can't get enough of PINTEREST!!

Seriously, need an intervention - well, my husband (Leigh's Dad) thinks so anyway!

Check out my pins here and Leigh's pins here.   PIN ALL THE THINGS!!

Grilled Cheese Meatloaf Sandwiches

So now that Leigh is home, we are cooking a lot more.  We had meatloaf on Saturday and I made sure to make plenty so that we could make Tim's favorite - Grilled Cheese Meatloaf Sandwiches.

Just your basic grilled cheese with a thin slice of meatloaf sandwiched between 2 slices of  cheddar cheese.  Sometimes I add sliced jalapenos too - any way you make them, they are delicious!

(Of course, I wouldn't want to know what the calorie count is!!)

So, next time you make meatloaf, be sure to make extra for our favorite sandwich.

Best Corn on the Cobb

So....as per usual I was trolling Pinterest and found an interesting post from Cait Hates Cake. It was about cooking corn on the cobb. You take whole corn, husk and all, and throw it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Then let them cool off for about 10 minutes and peel the husk off. I love corn on the cobb, so I was naturally intrigued. I tried this one night when I made barbeque chicken in the oven and it totally rocked!  The husk was so easy to peel; it came off like butta. We had it tonight with meatloaf and summer squash and Mom cannot stop talking about it, which meant it was blog-worthy. You seriously must try it. It's the best corn on the cobb ever!

We've Been Featured

Wow!!  Woohoo! What an honor!  Our Mod Podge Mania post was featured on Tales of a Trophy Wife

Thanks Tara!  We really love your blog and want to be just like you when we grow up!!!

You are our First Feature! (I know, I'm gushing, but WOOHOO!)