Winter Pic and Catch-up

Hey, Y'all,
This has been a laid-back week for us. Believe it or not, I haven't left the confines of our little red brick home since last week, when I got home from the doctor's office. Oh, wow! A whole week inside...how have I stood it? Monday morning, I went out and took a picture of the little cherry tree that I can see from my kitchen window. The ice that had encased its limbs was so beautiful, I just had to have a picture of it.

On Monday, for supper I prepared parmesan chicken wings, baked sweet potatoes, scalloped tomatoes, and yeast rolls. It was a challenge to get it all ready at the same time, because all of those items were baked in the oven. Earlier that day, I buttered several pieces of light bread and toasted it till it was brown. Later in the day, about 2:30, I opened 3 cans of no salt tomatoes, added some oregano and dried parsley, and garlic powder to them. I chopped a small onion. Into a 2 quart baking dish, I crumbled half of the toasted bread, poured half of the tomato mixture on it, sprinkled half of the chopped onions, added a layer of grated american cheese, then repeated the process. I fried 4 slices of bacon till it was crispy, and drained it on a paper towel. I set the dish aside.

At 3 p.m. I began making the yeast rolls and had them set aside to rise by 3:30. That was when I scrubbed the sweet potatoes and greased them with solid shortening and put them into the pan and I put the sweet potatoes in at 4 p.m. and baked them at 450 degrees for an hour, then took turned the heat down to 400, and at 5:00 removed the potatoes and put them on the stove eye that the heat from the oven comes up through and covered them with aluminum foil to keep them hot.

Then I sat down to rest awhile and read. At 4:30, I began the process of preparing the chicken wings for baking. On Sunday, I had cut them apart, saving the wing tips to make chicken soup with at a later date (putting them into the freezer), and put the other parts into a marinade of Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce in a plastic ziploc bag in the refrigerator. I took the wings out of the fridge and prepared the coating mix of bread crumbs, grated parmesan, and sage, dried parsley, and oregano. I took a large baking pan and lined it with aluminum foil, greased it with buttery crisco, and coated the chicken wings with the coating mix, and laid them in the baking pan. Then I sprayed the tops of them with buttery Pam spray. At 5:00, I put the chicken wings and the scalloped tomatoes in to cook. I crumbled the crispy bacon and put it on the scalloped tomatoes when they were finished cooking.

Then at 5:40, I put the rolls in to cook and put them in on the upper rack. So it all came out just fine on time by the time we were ready to sit down to eat. We had a small salad for the green stuff and enjoyed it all. We had brownies for dessert. Yum!

Tuesday and today, things have been very quiet, and I have been doing some more sewing on my grandson, BJ's quilt. I now have only 8 squares to complete, and then the decorative stitching around the edge. Tomorrow is my testing to be done at the local hospital. I get to drink a delicious vanilla barium shake an hour before the ct scan, and nothing to eat for four hours before. I intend to be up by 5 so I can have some toast and egg at that time. The test is at 11. OOPS. I just remembered I have to fill out a paper to take with me. I'll do that later this evening or early in the morning. I will carry off the trash in the morning on my way in. I also intend to go to the Walmart tomorrow and do some shopping.

Tomorrow promises to be a busy day, since Gramps and I have an appointment tomorrow afternoon to have our picture made for the church directory. We are planning on going in on Friday for our movie day with my two sisters-in-law.

I did get some laundry done and put away this week, and more is in the washer waiting to be put into the dryer. I got up this morning and made breakfast (ham-for Gramps-, bacon-for me, eggs, biscuits, and a little bit of gravy). It was good, but I ate mine alone. He was not anxious to get up, and I fixed his for him when he got up around 11:30.

Well, it is getting close to prime time for television and American Idol will be on in an hour. I guess I'll head back into the living room to spend some time with Gramps. A new member has been added to the family. Mark and Allie's oldest daughter, Tanya, and her husband, Brian have welcomed a new son, Isaac Aaron, born yesterday. Isaac has two older brothers, Kevin 4, and Adam 2. We are so glad that Isaac is here, and mother and son are doing fine. Allie is out there in California with them. Congratulations to all of them!

This is Blabbin' Grammy signing off for today. More later. Much love to each of you. Bye for now.