Morel Mushrooms

Here in the Midwest Morel mushrooms can be found in the hedgerows this time of year.  They are only around for a few weeks at most. They are a much sought after commodity and if you wanted to buy some they would cost a fortune.

A neighbour bought some up to us quite a few years ago and I did not have a clue what to do with them.

You have to remember that I was born a city girl, grew up a city girl and only discovered country living 18 years ago and I am in my mid 70's now.  So my first introduction to these mushrooms were 'OMG they look like they came out of the sea.' They are hollow and rubbery to the touch.

I had no idea what to do with them so I just fried them up.  The verdict was 'I don't know what all the fuss is about.'

I thanked my neighbour but told him I was not that impressed.  He asked how I had cooked them and I told him.  He just about fell off his chair with laughing. He told me how they should be cooked but I had to wait another year before I could put his theory into practice. I think he couldn't quite fathom out this quirky lady from England living in the middle of Redneck land lol.

Sadly our neighbour died a few years ago but his son goes out and picks them.  He has a real knack for finding them and if he gets more than he and his family need then he brings some down to us. This year we have been very lucky, he has bought us two bags.

So here is the correct way to cook Morel mushrooms:-

Wash and make sure all the water is out of them.

Cut off the bottoms of the stalks. and throw away. (I said they looked like they came out of the ocean!)

Cut them in half lengthwise unless they are very small in which case leave them whole.

Dip them in beaten egg, then smother them in seasoned flour.

Heat up some cooking oil in a frying pan then fry them until they are brown and crispy on one side then turn and fry the other side.

Today I served these with some fried ham off the bone and eggs but you can serve them with anything really or just eat them as a starter.

It took awhile to get the process right but now I know why they are so sought after and deemed to be a delicacy.

Nicer weather and my first ever Easter card make.

We had our first day working outside today.  We got one of the garden tractors going and my husband spread some fertilizer.  Had to blow up some tyres but all was good.  We sat outside afterwards and enjoyed the morning.  Yesterday we were able to eat lunch on the screen porch.  Cooling off for a couple of days then warming back up again.  Flowers are coming out, trees and bushes are flowering, a real feel of Spring is in the air. Even had the windows open, it is nice to have the breeze blowing through the house.

I made my first ever Easter card today.  I do not usually do cards but one of my new die sets was an Easter set so I tried it out. I printed out the greeting, got to use some glitter card and washi tape. It is already in the mail heading across country.

Inside

Back

I stamped the envelope too.

I did the front too but forgot to take a picture before I addressed it, duh! That is actually a gold color.  I used one of the cheapie ink pads that works well.  I really like that stamp.

The 'new to me' stamps and health update

The stamps I ordered from ebay arrived Thursday.  The seller was very prompt in sending them out.  I didn't get chance to try them until Saturday as Friday was busy with going to the hospital and picking up groceries.  By the time I had put them all away I was done for the day.

They are Stampin' Up brand from the 2001/2 but are in excellent condition.  Even with postage costs they worked out at around a dollar each. I am still determined to conquer stamping.  Sometimes being a stubborn old biddy is a bit of a pain. I wanted to try the rubber stamps on wood blocks to see how they compared to the silicone ones that you use an acrylic block with.  The wooden blocks are much taller and indented for your fingers to grip, a lot easier than the acrylic ones. The images are on par with the silicone ones but I really like the patterns on these wooden ones a lot.

Anyway, I got out one of my good ink pads and tried them all.

The ones I circled were not good prints.  Two of the stamps didn't seem to print fully.  I wondered if perhaps I needed to re-ink my inkpad so I did and tried those two again and got excellent prints.  Another lesson learned, make sure the ink pads have plenty of ink!

As you can see below the ones I did after the inking came out perfectly.

I am not willing to stamp directly onto cards yet as you only get one go at it and if it is wrong you have to discard the card.  I will use them on envelopes though as they will be great for Christmas and other occasions.  Envelopes are not so important so a mistake won't matter as much and I do so like a pretty envelope.

Health wise, things are not so bad.  The scare turned out to be benign thankfully after all the tests, MRI's and CT scans etc. but I do have some issues with my back and a compression fracture that is getting worse.  They are going to try physical therapy and if that doesn't help they want me to consider surgery.  After neck surgery and two knee replacements I can tell you I am not in any hurry to go back under the knife.  Time will tell I guess. Oh, and I am officially diabetic.  Have been pre diabetic for a while but it finally caught up with me and I am now on Metformin.  I can tell you that those pills sure make you 'windy'. Nuff said lol.  

And on that not so pleasant note I bid you a fond farewell to next time........

Be still my beating heart!

Trying this on an old laptop in my sewing room and it appears to be working....yay!

I realise now that I have become a bit obsessive with regard to card making supplies.  I have been going back and forth the past couple of weeks to the doctor's for tests and MRI's etc. as I had a bit of a scare. But thankfully, so far, all is good.  I have been prescribed a lot of different medications though so multiple trips to the Walmart pharmacy.  Anyway, whilst there yesterday I spotted some white glitter cardstock in the clearance section.  I swear my heart beat doubled. $3 for  a 10 sheet packet.  They were originally $7. Two packets quickly jumped into my trolley.  I would have got more but I am starting to feel guilty about buying card making supplies.  I am frugal by nature and we have a fixed income which is already stretched by the current inflation and I had purchased some used wooden stamps from ebay a few days earlier.  An excellent deal, 10 really nice stamps for less than $6 and I negotiated down the postage (as I am apt to do).

But now I am putting myself in 'time out' and am not going to buy any more supplies.

The cheapie cutting dies I ordered weeks ago have started to come in the mail from the orient so I am more than well stocked.  

Some of the new dies and some glitter card have been utilised in my anniversary cards as well as some recycled materials.

The dragonflies are made from recycled wrapping paper and the humming birds are cut out from the covers of a magazine that the State sends out for free every month.  Some of the covers have glorious colours in then and are good quality card.

The glitter card and one of the new dies were used for the 'LOVE'.

I made a couple more dragonflies using the wrapping paper ready for some future card.

The colour options to make these are endless and now I have glitter card too! Oh my, I am so easily pleased lol.

Well, time to go to the mailbox so be safe everyone......

Now for something completely different.... No it's not about cards today!

 Last year, it must have been around April or May we went to a local Swap Meet.  I bought the red gingham curtains there that I recently altered to fit one of our bedrooms.  I also bought something I had always wanted but could never justify the cost of. A food slicer!  It is something I had wanted for years and years.  Well I saw one at this swap meet.  It was priced at $15.  I offered $10, we haggled back and forth and I ended up paying $13 for it.  I didn't fare too well in that deal lol.

Anyway, I bought it home, checked it out, cleaned and sanitised it and put it away.  

As you know Friday was St. Patrick's day and we always have corned beef and cabbage.  Here in the US corned beef is a piece of beef, usually brisket, that has been infused with spices and goodness knows what else which makes it red and salty.  I boil it for many hours, (with the additional spices that come with it) to make it nice and tender.  With about an hour to go I throw in a cabbage that has been quartered, potatoes, onions and carrots.  Totally delicious.  I slice up some of the beef to eat with the dinner then we use the rest to make Reuben sandwiches for a couple of days.

I had forgotten all about the slicer at Christmas for the pork and Friday and Saturday too for the corned beef but got it out Sunday to slice up the meat and cheese for the Reubens.  This shows it just as I was finishing the last batch of cheese. Afterwards I cleaned and sanitised it again and put it back up until next time.  

As you can see it slices very well, I vote it a success! It isn't something I would use for just a cheese sandwich but I might slice up my next block of cheese in one go.  That would be worth all the effort of getting it out and cleaning it all up afterwards. It isn't a really high dollar one either but it is perfectly adequate for anything I might want to use it for and it was very nice  to eventually use one.  

Bet you're glad this post wasn't about cards again eh?  But, be warned, I am working on our anniversary ones and I have new cutting dies!!!

A different style of cards

 I watched a video by Shelly Goodby who has a website  Stamping Smiles and it gave me some ideas.

Here is the link if anyone is interested.

Stamping Smiles

Based loosely on her instructions I made these two cards. She is a demonstrator for Stampin' Up and has a lot of supplies.  Mine are a lot more limited but I think the cards turned out quite well.

 

Something a bit different and a bit of enjoyment on a drizzly, dull day.

Taking a gamble on the Washi tape and finished cards now in the mail

 Well, I used the washi tape again and I hope it sticks as there are two cards now winging their way to England that I have used it in. I like how it looks so am hoping it holds up.

Here is the front of my great grand son's, I have posted my grand daughter's in a previous post.  I like that I can personalise the cards by printing the verses out on my computer and I found some nice fonts to use. The washi tapes adds a nice finishing touch.

Our local (ish) Walmart has some pastel coloured card stock in now and some white so I will tag them onto my next grocery order.  I am leaning away from brown cards and bright colours, I want to try something different.  I will keep the brown blank cards for Christmas.

I got outside for a little while today to trim the huge forsythia bush at the end of our front porch, it blocks the way to the side of the house.  It has been a beautiful day.  Going to cool back down a bit for about 10 days and rain quite a bit so today was the day to do it.

My husband is not too well right now, he has lost a lot of strength over the winter so I don't think he will be able to get outside and do much this year although he is a summer person so when it heats up it might just energise him.

The daffodils survived the late cold weather and are proudly popping up all over the property.  The iris are starting to breakthrough the ground, the bushes are budding and soon the trees will be too.  Spring is definitely in the air!

Not a lot else happening though, which at our time of life is a good thing!

Washi tape might not be all it is cracked up to be!

The pack of washi tape rolls arrived very quickly.  I was a bit taken aback though by the sizes of some of the rolls, 7 are very narrow, 7 are a bit wider and 7 are a usable size.

I am making a card for my eldest grand daughter right now and I want it to be special.  She is the mother of my only great grandson and a treasure.  I love her dearly.  I decorated the front of the card and I am extremely happy so far with it.

I decided to use the thinner washi tape on the inside and put a couple of pinstripes down one side.  It went on easy and looked great.  However, when I went to check how it held up I was very disappointed to see that it had come loose on both stripes at the top.  I pushed it back down and put more pressure on it and left it.  A couple of hours later it had started to peel off again.  I pressed on it again and left it once more. Now I guess I can glue it but it is supposed to be self adhesive and as it is very narrow I don't want to try and glue it and ruin the card so I think I will just peel it off.  I am disheartened as I had great plans for this tape.

Now Sod's law after the third time of trying to get it to stick it appears to have done so.  I will leave it as is for now and see what happens.

It seems every time I venture into something new on the card making I either can't do it well as in the stamping or it doesn't work well as in the washi tape.  The only thing I seem to be able to do quite well is the decoupage so I will be sticking mainly to that.  I will still be stamping envelopes as I really like them decorated.

Since I started into the card making I have found that I can get the dies very cheaply off of Amazon.  They come directly from the orient so take several weeks to get here.  No 3 day shipping lol.

These are what I have bought so far and I bet I haven't spent more than $25 total and they are free shipping.  That is simply amazing.  I am waiting on another 8 or so dies to arrive then I think I will have enough.  Compared to what other companies charge they are an absolute bargain.

With regards to other things here in the hinterlands, the septic/lagoon guy came out on Tuesday while we were away for hospital appointments and cleaned out the lagoon and flushed the lines.  He charged $500 which is money well spent because no way, even in our fittest and healthiest days, could we have done that.  Specialist equipment required which we do not have and the know how.

My husband's hand is improving slowly, we had to go back to see his doctor because it became very sore.  She prescribed antibiotics to ward off any infections.

It is 4.30pm here so as I have had quite a busy week I am going to sit and watch a TV show I recorded.  Dinner is already made and just needs nuking.  Oh and for tomorrow, Go the Toon!  Newcastle United play Manchester United in the Caribou cup final and my son will be there to cheer Newcastle on.

How did I not know about Washi Tape????? and weekend trauma!

The weekend has been a tad traumatic.  We live in the middle of nowhere so our water comes from a deep well and the waste water goes into a lagoon.  If you have followed my blog for a while you know we had to have a new well dug and new pipework put in leading to the pumphouse two years ago to the tune of $12+k.

Now our sewerage pipes are backing up. Ugh! Can't complain the system has worked flawlessly for 18 years.

I had to wait downstairs so I did not miss the guy coming to check out what was wrong so to pass the time I was watching YouTube videos on card making and I came across one in the Sizzix tutorials and the demonstrator was using washi tape as part of her decorating.  Never having heard about it I was intrigued, so of course I googled it.

My goodness, such a selection and very reasonably priced.

Now it seems that it derives from masking tape but it is patterned in bright colors with lovely designs.  It appears to be quite thin and isn't overly sticky.  As it will just be used for decorating cards and not holding anything together it should be OK and apparently it can be removed without damaging the card.

So to cut a long story a little bit shorter I ordered a pack of 21 rolls for only $6.99.  The link to them is below if you are interested.

Washi tape

I could have done with this tape when working on this card as I got a smudge on the inside from the stamping.  It was the first card I made  in January with the stamps I got for Christmas. To hide the smudge I cut out a frame to glue in.  With the washi tape I could just have just ran a strip of it over the smudge. I will be well prepared next time lol.

Can you see the smudge bottom right of text?

      

Well now you can't!

Prettied up with ribbon and a bow

Stamped Envelope 

The Septic Pump guy showed up and the sludge has to be dug out and the lagoon deepened then the pipes blown out. Thankfully it will not cost any where near what the well did. He will be here tomorrow. Thank goodness. It has been quite the adventure dealing with this, suffice to say when I take the dog out to pee it is a group activity lol.  Good job we have no nearby neighbours and have plenty of acreage!  

On that not so pleasant note I will bid you all a good evening!

Four down now on to the next ones!

Finishing touches done to cards and verses put in, did stamping on the envelopes so four down and goodness knows how many to go.  A bit of ribbon and a nicely printed out verse makes all the difference. Mailed 2 off to the UK, the other two were our Valentine's cards.

Now on to the rest of the year. I have one already made and need another two for March,  then three for April and May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December all have family birthdays, then of course Christmas again.

We had a trip to the ER last week, my husband had a spontaneous hematoma come up on the back of his hand, no idea why, he hadn't bumped it or anything. Here it is a week later, waiting on a call from his doctor to see if he needs to go back. Even the palms of his hand is bruised and he says it really hurts.

Time to make dinner so off I go.  Have a great week everyone.

A makeover, a modification and His 'n Her Valentines cards

I did get the curtains made for one room, two windows so 4 curtains made.  They are nothing spectacular but they are clean and fresh.

Last year we made a drastic change upstairs, we moved our king bed into the room that was my sewing room as the air conditioning works much better in that room. We were in the process of replacing two walls in the sunroom where we usually sleep in the summer so we had to sleep in the main part of the house all year.

This meant some of my work tables and craft stuff got moved into the other bedroom but not all of it.  So our bedroom is part bedroom and part craft room and the other room is visa versa.

This year neither of us are up to moving heavy furniture so the rest of the changeover is happening very slowly. Eventually the computer table and computer will go into the other room and the dresser and tallboy will go in it's place.

In the card making department I did a makeover on the card that I said would languish in the made box and now I am happy to use it.

It went from this:-

To this:-

And I modified the unicorn card front from this:-

To this:-

I added some dragon flies to another card I am working on for my daughter.

I am working on our valentine's cards, I have the fronts done, waiting for some printer ink to get here so I can print out our sentiments which we write to each other.  I do not have any Valentine's verses stamps.

I am really happy with these so far.

So that's what I have been up to since my last post and also helping my husband with his project.  He is self publishing some short stories he wrote in the 80's and 90's.  He has also written several novels but they involve a massive amount of work so we will be busy on those for a long time yet.