How I do Fried Green Beans

I have had a few friends on FaceBook ask how do I make my fried green beans. So tonight as I got everything ready.  I thought I would take photos to do a blog post to share with you on how mine are done. I hope it will help you give them a try. And let me know how they came out. We love them so much that they are on our dinner table 2 or 3 times a week.

Here are the ingredients and I cook  them in a skillet.
 Green beans, bacon grease, salt, pepper, Mrs Dash and butter.

I really can't tell you what amounts I use. I have never measured or, a pinch or dash is how I do it . I know how much we like of each ingredient we like so that is how I cook.

These are the ingredients I use.

I use 2 pints of green beans I canned with bacon in them,
Drain them as well as you can.

I sometimes will use a bit of diced onion and add it to the dab of bacon grease.

And sometimes a small pinch of granulated garlic.

cook on medium heat

these have been cooking 10 minutes

Add butter and let set until melted

All ready to serving once the butter is mixed in.

                                                             
This is a good way to get some extra good taste to store bought green beans also if you don't can your own.                                                     
                                                                 

Christmas 2011

I am having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. It seem like the stores were already getting out stuff for Christmas right after Halloween here. And then a few days before Thanksgiving I was already seeing Christmas tree stands going up with trees for sale and that just didn't fill right to me. So I am last getting my tree up, I usually put ours up 2 weeks before Christmas and but was having a hard time decorating it this year. Finely got it done after I kind fell into the it a couple times, I spent a couple days decorating it. I did a more simple tree this year with no lights and lots of little red bows.

Love the Christmas cards we got this year, They make it Christmas and for me each is a gift in its self. I so look fore ward to the cards they remind me of my childhood. The one thing I so enjoyed doing with my mom. We would spend a day doing ours cards up to mail out. And she let me open each 1 we got back and put it on our wall of cards. And I so love all the cards we get this time of year. I am one of those people who keeps my cards from year to year. They are all very special to me, I have a couple boxes of past cards put up.  The card below was a very special card I got, it teared me up big time and the Lady got some big hugs from me.

Karen, bless your sweet heart

And now on to some of the gifts I will be giving this year to go with the quarts of green beans that I canned from this years garden. I find gifts of food like these mean a lot to our family, because they come from the heart.

Friendship cakes

The first starting of fudge and I still have a couple more batches to make.

Man does it take a lots of stirring and a long time to reach temp.

And then on to cooling down time in the fridge before cutting.

1 down and a couple more to make.

I remember my mom only made this Hershey's cocoa fudge at Christmas time and my little sister & I am trying to keep that tradition going. And if we wanted walnuts in it my granddad would find and bring us nuts to shell out for it. I remember busting my fingers with the hammer more then the walnuts.  I think we were given the nuts more to keep us out from under foot while she made the fudge.  She made another candy from egg whites, sugar and vanilla she called sea-foam but I never got that recipe from her because she lost it in 1 of their moves. I so loved that candy and have not been able to find that recipe yet. I loved how it seem to melt in your mouth.   

         Wishing you all many Blessing in your celebrate of the season, from us to you

        Merry Christmas &  Happy New Year.

Part 2 of I hate to waste anything.

The turkey stock turn out good. When I got done I had about 6 quarts of stock. I using a little more then 1/2 of it and the left over turkey I had to make a big pot of turkey noodle soup. And then put the other 1/2 of the turkey and stock into the freezer for another pot of soup later. I love that 1 turkey will give the 2 of us at less a dozen meals.  Here are a few photos of the stock and our soup I made.

This is the stock once it was done.

After it had cooled down over night and before I removed the fat on the top.

After fat was removed.

What I has left to go into the freezer for another pot of soup.

Get ready to make the soup.

Soup is done and and it taste great.

 I can hardly wait to get a couple slices of bread covered in butter to go with it.                                                               

I hate wasting any thing

I want to use up every bit of my turkey from Thanksgiving day, so after it cooled down to were I could get all the meat off.  The carcass went into a pot and then 8 quarts of water, a onion, a little salt, pepper, a sprig of fresh Rosemary and a good shake of Mrs. Dash seasoning. and then brought up to a boil, cut down to a slow simmer. And will be cooked that way for up to 4 hours. Then strained and put into in fridge over night. Then tomorrow evening I will remove the fat that has come to the top. Then it will ether be ether put into the freezer or I will can it.  It will be good to use in many rice dishes & soups threw the winter here.  I love making my own stocks. Here is a couple photos of my stock cooking.

   I will post again after I have got it all done, and hope you will try making your own stock.  It taste way better then that stuff we get in the stores.    I thought I would, Join Rhonda from Down To Earth with her regular Friday On My Mind Feature.

                                  

Grandma's fish cakes

This recipe is one I learned a long time ago & don't get to fix very often, the man of the house has been asking me to fix it for a while.  So when my aunt gave me some cans of pink salmon a few weeks ago. So I thought I try it with a can of that. Any can fish you like will work. 

It takes 1 can of fish of your choice.

A large egg.
And about 1to 1 1/2 cups cornmeal.
salt & pepper
Cooking oil & a large skillet
In a large bowl put fish & egg  then mix well and start adding corn meal a little salt & pepper. And then start with 3/4 a cup, and then  1/4 cup after that until moist but not wet. You want it to form into a ball & stay.
Then add a little cornmeal to a plate for coating the outside of the patty and start forming the fish mixture into patties and coat with cornmeal before cooking on medium heat in oil until they are golden brown.
 I remember eating these as a kid and loving them.
Here are a few photos of them. 

What was left after supper of 14  fish cakes

                       I hope will will give them a try & let me know what you think.
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A little to add that I almost forgot, do not drain the liquid from the can of fish it adds lots flavor to the fish cakes. Also here is a photo of the noodles & tomatoes.

A good side dish hot or cold.

                                                              

Been a fun & great few days.

Got to meet a new friend from Germany while she was here visiting her friend & mine, Penny from www.backtobasicliving.com/. We all had a great visit & I am so happy I got to meet & Elinor and her husband Ule. They are very sweet & nice people.

She gifted me with this lovely sun catcher

And this little chicken family

Sunday was my clean the house day so not much happen. Today has been a very busy day. Our friends were back to do the very last tree. I worked on cleaning a fence off of all the honeysuckle, so I can put a few new post in & then some new fencing. I forgot to get photos of it. But will post some of that soon.

The last tree to get done

All done !!

And another friend showed up with a case of radishes. So we tried something new with supper tonight, baked radishes. And it was a nice surprise and found we liked them. Also had deer pieces with mushrooms in brown gravy, that went over white rice.  Then I got all the radishes cleaned & in the fridge.

A case of fresh radishes

getting ready to be roasted

These roasted radishes were good.

Deer pieces with mushrooms & brown gravy.

We are so lucky to have good friends who help us out. And I would like to say Bless them  all for thinking of us, for their kindness and for being our friends.