Jesse Pinkman Green Beans

Tonight as a side I made my farm fresh green beans that I picked up from the farm stand yesterday.

I call these 'Jesse Pinkman Green Beans'.  If you're a hard core Breaking Bad fan then you will understand why I named them the way I did.  :)

Breaking bad- Jesse Pinkman green beans! In season 5, Jesse eats dinner with Walter White and his wife, Skylar. Jesse thinks that Skylar made the beans like his mom because of the sliced almonds. She says they are from the deli at Albertson's. I made then tonight and they are awesome. 

green beans (end cut off, cut in half and washed)

olive oil

Italian dressing

minced garlic

onion (chopped)

red pepper flakes

pepper

salt

sliced almonds

bacon bits (optional)

I heated my skillet with a tiny bit of olive oil, minced garlic and then added chopped onion.  I added some Italian dressing, bacon bits, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and bacon bits.  After that I added the green beans and almonds and cooked up for a few minutes.  I served with shake n' bake chicken and some leftover Chinese white rice.  It was so good.  The almonds give it an extra crunch.

Garden Update: Week 32 (LATE)

Nothing really happened this past week.  My eggplants are still growing and that's really about it.

Remember the tomato I picked at the end of August?  I had put in my kitchen window so that it would ripe.  And I'm happy to say it's finally ripened.  :)

Pretty red little tomato.

Produce Stand 9/28

Yesterday, I went to the farm stand in Stafford to get some produce for the week.  When I pulled into the parking lot I was super excited to see PUMPKINS!!!!!!!!!!!!

There was orange pumpkins, blue pumpkins, white pumpkins, and green pumpkins.  Some were gigantic, some were warty and some were tiny.  I walked around and took some pictures.

There was a couple there buying a TON of pumpkins.  I overheard the woman say she was having a party and that's why she was buying so many.  I kinda wished I knew when and where this party was.

There were tons of colorful gourds.

Tiny little pumpkins.  I saw the sign "3 for $2" and began picking 3 out.

Why are pumpkins so gosh darn cute?  Am I the only that feels this way?  They make me smile.

How do I choose just 3?  LOL  :)

I grabbed 3 pumpkins and then began walking around to grab what else I had on my list and took some more pictures of some of the produce.

Peppers

Eggplant

Lots of Mums.  So pretty.

I got everything on my list and spent $21.25.  :)

I got:

3 baby pumpkins

green beans

3 potatoes

2 honey crisp apples

3 bell peppers

3 cucumbers

4 large zucchini

4 small zucchini

tomato

onion

Here's another picture of my bounty.

I put the 3 pumpkins in my kitchen window with my little carnival squash that I grew in my garden.

I still need to go to the pumpkin patch and pick out a pumpkin or two for the front porch.  I'll probably do that one day before work this week.  :)

Back to School- Piano Recital

On Saturday, I helped my sister and her husband with a back to school piano recital.  My brother-in-law teaches piano and has several students.  He wanted to put on a recital for his students so they could show their family and friends what they have learned.  

My sister requested 4 dozen of my homemade chocolate chip cookies.  I also brought a few party display items.  My rectangular bowl and my 3 tiered plate stand.  I figured she could use them for displaying some foods.

I met at my BFF's house and then we drove together to my sisters.  We helped get my niece ready and watched her while my sister gathered everything she needed to bring.  

Here's Ellie sitting down with a book being adorable.  She was a little shy at first but she warmed up real quick.

She wanted to go outside and liked looking out the front door.

We got to the church and began setting up.

We checked out the sanctuary right away.  It was a beautiful church.  Here's little Ellie running up and down the aisle in the church.  :)

Here's a cute sign that says:  Piano Recital

Ellie had fun running all around while we set things up.

Here's the food table.  Lots of goodies!!  Fruits, veggies, tortilla roll-ups, crackers, cheese, candy and cookies.  Everything was yummy and we had just the right amount for the crowd.

Here's the drink table.

The recital had 18 students.  Each one played a piece on the grand piano in the church sanctuary.  Everyone did a wonderful good job.  It's so amazing to see children with such great talent show it off.  I think everyone did very well.  I had to sneak out towards the end to go make the punch.

It's an easy punch.....Ginger Ale, Sherbert, and orange slices.  I overheard one kid say "This is the best punch ever".  And really.....it is!!  It's easy and so yummy.

Here's some Hershey kisses with music note paper on bottom to stick with theme.

I made 4 dozen chocolate chip cookies.

Every single cookie was eaten.  Some people went back for seconds and one I know went for a third.

My niece, even had her first Bonnie cookie.  :)

And she LOVED it!  :)  How cute is she?  I love her so much.  :)

Each child received a origami gold star, a certificate and a favor bag with two music note 'Nana cookies'.  A Nana cookie is a Brown Family recipe.  It's sort of like a shortbread cookie.  Very good.

Thanks for coming sign.

While we cleaned up, Grandma Fayth (my brother-in-laws mom) took Ellie out to the Church playground so she'd be out of the way.

We went back to my sisters, put Ellie down for a nap and helped bring everything inside from the car.  Then my sister, BFF and I all went to Zoe's Kitchen for late lunch/early dinner.

When we got back from eating we sat around and chatted.  My niece finally woke up and all she wanted was her daddy.  She held on for dear life.  She loves her daddy very much.

I see you peeking at me Ellie.  :)

Ellie went over and started hitting piano keys.  She was told no and she went to her hiding place.

Under the piano.  LOL  How precious?

Then it was time to for Ellie to eat some dinner.  She had her own little smorgasbord.  She is wondering why I always take pictures of her eating.  LOL

It was a fun day!  The recital was great.  There will be another one in December for the kids to play a holiday themed piece.

State Fair Cookie Competion

I baked up a batch of my homemade chocolate chip cookies so I could enter them into the State Fair of Virginia.  I placed 3rd at my local town fair but I wanted to compete at State.

Here's the cookies cooling.

Chocolate Chip Cookie

I picked the best 6 cookies in the batch.  I put them on a plate in a ziploc bag and dropped them off the next morning at the fair.

I had a friend check for me over the weekend and she didn't see my cookies.  :(  It was a little disappointing finding out that I didn't place or win a ribbon. 

 But..........When I got home from running errands my husband told me that I had something delivered and he handed me a frame with an award.  How sweet right?

This is a much better award than what I would have gotten at the fair.  :)

Garden Update: Week 31 (LATE)

My garden doesn't have much going on.  I only have eggplant, basil, rose bush and lavender left growing.  I have 4 eggplants growing on the plant.  They are hard to see in the picture.

Here's one with the prettiest purple color and also a new eggplant flower.  

Since it's getting cooler out then my husband and I will be able to tackle my big project.  Build my greenhouse.  I can't wait to have that up and ready to use.  One day.

Zucchini Ziti

I wanted ziti but without the ziti noodles so I came up with my own take of using zucchini as the ziti.  It worked out perfectly.  I know how good zucchini tastes in pasta dishes so I knew ziti would be good to try too.

Zucchini Ziti

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

I used:

2 zucchini, washed and chopped

1 pound lean ground turkey (cooked with pepper, Italian seasoning and some W sauce)

onion (chopped)

Reduced fat mozzarella cheese

spaghetti sauce

pepper

salt

Italian seasoning

Cook your meat, once done drain it and then mix everything together except for the cheese.  Once it's mixed well, add to a baking dish.  Sprinkle cheese on top.  Then add some pepper and parsley on top.  Then bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes on 350 degrees.

To go with the ziti......I got some breadsticks from the Target bakery.  They were on Target Cartwheel.  It was the Archer Farms Take and Bake.  They look like Olive Garden breadsticks.  I baked them in the oven for about 8 minutes.  Then I brushed on some melted unsalted butter and sprinkled on some garlic salt and parsley flakes.  They were really good!  :)

Farmers Market- 9/20

I had a bunch of errands to run on Saturday morning.

One place on the TO DO list was the Farmers Market.  

Here's my tote full of goodies.  I spent a total of $13.65.

I got....

2 tomatoes

3 green bell peppers

5 red potatoes

4 white potatoes

4 zucchini

3 cucumbers

fresh bag of spinach

I stopped off at Wegmans and got groceries for the week.  I saw this display of pumpkins and had to take a picture.  I love pumpkins!!  They make me smile.  :)

My friend at work also hooked me up with a bag of farm fresh squash/zucchini.