Fried on Friday 2.0

It has been a busy week, and I was feeling it in my bones (literally) yesterday. There was something to do away from home every day this week. Since I'm something of a homebody, it wears on me after a few days of that. Sue and I walked yesterday morning, but my rear-end was dragging by the time I got home, and there was still plenty to do. But first, here is every blooming thing we saw along the way.

These daisies were interesting. Can you see they are a pale shade of blue? I've never seen wild daisies this color in the wild. These look as if they've been dyed for inclusion in a floral arrangement. Kind of makes me wonder what they're growing in...whether there exists some kind of chemical soup in this area because this is not a color usually found in nature.

Moving on...

These were wild roses.

Ordinarily, Sue and I alternate walking the Fanno Creek Trail with walking the country roads out by my house. We specifically walked the Fanno Creek Trail two weeks in a row because we thought we might find the lupine blooming this time around. We were sorely disappointed. It was hard to say what was going on with these. They appear half bloomed and half not, and they were like that everywhere we saw them.

This was a rose growing in someone's yard, but this section was spilling over the top of a fence into the public space.

The ladies were more jumpy than usual. I thought there might be a couple of newbies in the pen with them.

They acted as if they wished we'd just move along.

This one clearly doesn't want her picture posted online. She was very pretty, and I wished she'd stand up and move around a little.

We saw at least three families of ducks and one family of geese.

Also, this beaver dam, barely visible through the trees.

I zoomed in so you could see how industrious the beavers have been building their fortress. For as often as we see the beaver dams, you'd think we'd see a beaver occasionally. We never do...only evidence of beavers.

Back home, another poppy bloomed. Unless I miss my guess, another will bloom today.

So there was no sewing, but plenty of cooking after I got home. The guys are heading off for a road rally this weekend, and I have the house to myself for two blissful days. Even though I told myself I wasn't going to get carried away making food for them, I did anyway. My mouth seemed to move all on its own as I said, "I'll make some lasagna, and some sandwich filling, and some breakfast burritos." If I hadn't felt my lips moving, I'd have looked behind me to see who was talking. Anyway...that was how I spent the rest of the day. I didn't take any pictures, but here are the recipes I used. 

First, I made an Overnight Lasagna. This is a recipe I've adapted from a Betty Crocker recipe. It's so easy to put together, it's the only lasagna I made any more. Here's a picture I "borrowed" from the Betty Crocker website:

(image source)

And here's my adaptation of Betty's recipe. As written here, it should be baked in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Generally, I make half the recipe and bake it in an 8 x 8 baking dish. 

Overnight Lasagna

adapted from Betty Crocker

serves 12

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef

1 medium onion (about 1/2 cup), chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 jars Commercial spaghetti sauce

12 oven-ready lasagna noodles 

1 container creamed cottage cheese (12 oz.)

2 cups Mozzarella cheese (8 oz.), shredded

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Directions:

Cook and stir ground beef, onion and garlic in Dutch oven until beef is brown; drain.  Stir in spaghetti sauce.  Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally; reduce heat. 

Spread 2 cups of the sauce mixture in ungreased rectangular baking dish, 13x9x2 inches.  Top with 4 noodles.  Spread half of the cottage cheese over noodles; spread with 2 cups of the sauce mixture.  Sprinkle with 1 cup of the Mozzarella cheese.  Repeat with 4 noodles, the remaining cottage cheese, 2 cups of the sauce mixture and the remaining Mozzarella cheese.  Top with the remaining noodles and sauce mixture; sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.  Cover and refrigerate up to 12 hours.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake covered 30 minutes.  Uncover and bake until hot and bubbly, 30 to 40 minutes longer.  Let stand 15 minutes before cutting.

* * * * *

Okay, and then I made the filling for one of Giada de Laurentiis' recipes. Her Curried Chicken and Apple Wraps are delicious. Here's another image borrowed from the Food Network:

(image source)

I made up the filling, and the guys can make wraps when they're ready. I like to use the spinach tortillas for these. Also available are sun-dried tomato tortillas, and those are good too. Also, I make so many different flavors of chutney that I just use whatever I have open in the refrigerator. You needn't feel you need to use mango chutney if you have something else on hand.

Finally, I made Frozen Breakfast Burritos. I found these on a blog called Mom's Crazy Cooking some time ago. It looks as if she's abandoned her blog, but these burritos are a winner. As RVers, these make an easy breakfast for days when we're on the move. Although her recipe calls for "pineapple salsa," I just use regular tomato salsa.

So that was a lot of cooking, and it took up the whole day. It's a rare day when there's no sewing...not even slow-stitching. By the time I had all that done, I was ready for a nap, and so I collapsed on the couch and didn't move again until Mike came home with a pizza for dinner.

And just now, he said good-bye and he was on his way to meet up with the boys, er, men. I don't think I'll ever stop thinking of my two sons as "boys." Anyway...I have the house to myself for two blissful days. Think of the trouble I can get into. I'll be back with a report tomorrow.

Edited to say I almost forgot...It's June 1st, which means two things. First, it's our house anniversary. The Three Cats Ranch was established on June 1, 2002, and so we've been living here for 17 years, as of today.

And second, it's time to choose a goal for

My personal goal each month is to quilt and bind one quilt, and to sew one set of completed blocks into a flimsy. It occurs to me that each month, I'll choose the oldest from the list of WIPs for my goal. In June, I'll be sewing the Chicken Buffet quilt into a finished flimsy. This quilt was started February 27, 2015, and so more than four years on, it will be good to get it to the next level. Here are the finished blocks:

Okay, home alone mischief awaits.