RECIPES!!! Muffuletta Sandwich, Chocolate Pound Cake, Nancy's Blueberry Apple Cobbler

Muffuletta Sandwich- 

I remembered how much I loved this sandwich so I made it for a couple of busy days dinners. It's from New Orleans, tons of flavor! The recipe is listed but can be modified. Use a baguette or large loaf of crusty French bread. 

For the meats and cheese use 4 slices of Genoa/dry salami and provolone cheese

           Olive salad- 

           1 cup black olives, chopped

           1 cup of green olives with pimentos, chopped

           1 Tbl. tiny capers

           1/3 roasted red bell pepper, diced

           2 tsp. garlic, minced

           1/4 cup diced celery with leaves

           2 Tbl. red wine vinegar

           6 pepperoncini peppers, stems removed, chopped

           2 Tbl. chopped flat leaf parsley

           pepper to taste

           2 Tbl. olive oil

Enough for 4 large sandwiches. This would also be great with fresh, ripe garden tomatoes. 

Begin by making your olive salad first. Chop and mix everything in a bowl, then store in sealed container in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Slice the Italian round loaf horizontally, then remove some of the interior of the bread to make a nice scooped out area (my chickens love the soft bread). Place a generous amount of the olive salad on the base of the bread. Then layer the the slices of salami, then the provolone cheese, then add a layer of olive salad on top, placing the top of the bread on top. Push down slightly, then wrap tightly in foil or plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour. Don't skip this step! When ready, cut into half and serve! Makes about 4 large servings, depending on how hungry you are. I serve with chips and veggies. I have served it to guests and they LOVED it, not heavy, but very bright and filling. Perfect for a hot day! Just make the salad and sandwiches ahead and serve. 

Sorry, I took picture the day after!

Chocolate Pound Cake-
I found this recipes years ago in a magazine and it's a good solution for a simple dessert that keeps well and uses my eggs. It's better the 2nd day!

Ingredients-
8 ozs. softened butter, 2 1/2 cups sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 5 eggs (I used 6), 2 1/2 cups cake flour, 1 tsp. baking power, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 cup and 4 Tbl milk.  
Heat oven to 325 degrees, oil a bundt pan, beat butter, vanilla and sugar until fluffy. Fold in cocoa powder. Add eggs and beat well.  Mix flour, baking powder, salt and gradually add to chocolate mixture, thinning with milk as you go. Mix well. Bake for 1 hour and check for cake doneness. Mine took 1 hour and 15 mins. Cool completely and remove from pan. Sprinkle with powered sugar. Great with stiff whipping cream! Keeps very well. Enjoy!!!

Photo from website below

Nancy's Blueberry Apple Cobbler-
Last week I was wanting to use some of my home-canned organic apple slices for a dessert. I was a bit bored with just apples, so I got online and search. Since I had some frozen blueberries I decided to try this recipe TheCupboard.net. It was fabulous! Simple and had a wonderful flavor. I served it warm with a little vanilla ice cream. Try it, you'll like it!!!

Nancy’s Apple/Blueberry Cobbler
Ingredients
6 – 8 large golden delicious apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 c. fresh blueberries
1 c. sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon
1 c. flour
1/3 c. butter, melted
1 egg
1 t. baking powder
3/4 t. salt
Directions-
Place apple slices in buttered 9 x 12 baking dish; top with blueberries.
Mix 1/2 c. sugar with cinnamon and sprinkle on top of apple/blueberry mixture.
Prepare topping: Mix 1/2 c. sugar, flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl; add egg and melted butter and stir together.  I added a little cinnamon here too. Mixture will be dry (resembling cookie dough). Drop by spoonfuls over apples and blueberries. Bake @ 350 degrees for 1 hour or until crust is golden. Serve with whipping cream or ice cream.

My photo, yummy :)

Re-Webbing a Vintage Lawn Chair, Mini Road Trip, Flystrike A Chicken Killer

Renewed!!!

Re-Webbing a Vintage Lawn Chair-

This was such an inexpensive update! I found this aluminum lawn chair back in the 80's abandoned under my apartment deck. Covered with cobwebs, ripped webbing and filthy I could see the potential! I bought some blue webbing and replaced it and had a great chair. Last year the webbing finally gave out. I stored it and brought it out this month. I found new blue and green replacement webbing online on eBay for $15.00 and Dave decided to re-do it for me. Thanks Hon! Simply remove the old webbing with a screw driver and don't lose the screws! Ours were intact, so we reused them. You carefully measure the webbing for each row (do one direction at a time) and cut the ends straight. Use a very sharp pair of scissors! You then fold the webbing into a V and screw the screw into the webbing and the holes, tighten and move on! Easy peasy. I think we're good for another 30 years! 

Old webbing coming off

Corners of new webbing screwed in.

Mini Road Trip-

We've been behind in planting our veggie garden. Between the baby shower and painting the house it was delayed. We did plant some herbs and kale last weekend though! This weekend was supposed to be for planting everything else, but nature had other plans. Rain. All. Weekend. So we decided with the 3 day weekend next weekend we'd wait. What to do? Road trip for the day to McCall. Who cares if it rains in the gorgeous mountains, with great views, and good food. We had a nice lunch at a local brewery grill, delish! Sadly I didn't find anything at my regular thrift store, oh well. There was some snow on the mountain peaks, but at about 45 degrees, so not too bad.

We stopped at Stacy's Cake's for a dessert before leaving McCall and I LOVE this bathroom

shelf! 

Flystrike- A Chicken Killer-

As a small flock chicken owner it's really frustrating to lose a hen you've raised from a day old chick. I lost one hen to Flystrike a few years back. When I saw this article recently I decided to share it. It may save your birds life! I wish I had spotted it sooner, but I saw what was happening one day before I lost her. Better to know now... Flystrike-A Chicken Killer 

We're Painting Our House! Colors in The Garden, Victory Garden Guide To Feed Five

Back done!

We're Painting Our House!
Finally! After caulking all day Sunday and doing all the trim Monday, we started the wall color yesterday. I took 3 vacation days and go back to "work" tomorrow. We did the 2 biggest areas, the south side and west side. Also the hottest. I took today to do other things while Dave finished the N and E side. There will be some touching up to do, which we expected, but it looks SO much better! We went thru Consumer Reports and chose one of their best buys. A good paint really does cover better and lasts much longer. We also used brushes for better coverage. Looking good! All the neighbors have commented on how much they like the color combo. It was beige before with sage trim. Now it's grey with a denim blue trim.

Dave working on the trim

The pond was the really dangerous area to work in! We survived :)

Backyard painting station

Our new trim for the front, no more shutters

Stuff out of the way

We'll be done this week, since Dave is finishing up the next 2 days that he's off. We'll put everything back together this weekend. We were lucky with the weather in the 70's except today, 82. Now we can catch up on yard work!!!

Herb box ready to be planted

Colors in The Garden-
With the wet Spring we had everything is blooming like crazy! We already have tiny apples, pears and peaches too! Here's just a glimpse...

My poppies survived the winter!

Bachelor buttons

Baby apples

Baby pears

Victory Garden Guide To Feed Five-

This vintage poster has some great ideas! A good way to have succession plantings.