Mrs. C Does Stuff

I love potatoes cooked this way!  They are so flavorful.  You can make them as spicy or mild as you wish.  This recipe is for the mild version and it does not contain cayenne pepper.  For a spicier version, sprinkle about an eighth of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper when seasoning the potatoes.  First, quarter B size potatoes.  Those are the little small round white potatoes with red skin. Sprinkle some paprika, salt, black pepper, thyme and oregano over the potatoes.  I do not usually measure, I just kind of eyeball the seasoning for this recipe. Put about an inch of water in the bottom of the pot.  Stir the potatoes to incorporate the seasonings throughout. Cover the pot, with the lid tilted a bit to let the steam escape.  Cook the potatoes on a medium high fire until soft, stirring often to ensure they do not stick to the bottom of the pot.  This will take about 10 - 15 minutes.  When the water is almost completely evaporated from the bottom and the potatoes are sof

Considering my Early Girl tomatoes were doing so well at the beginning of the season , they have now died.  Well, I think they would have still been thriving had we not gone on vacation.  We went out of town for about six days earlier this summer.  It seems when we returned, they were goners.  I tried to think of what could have gone wrong.  Here are a few ideas that could have been factors: It was at least 100 degrees everyday while we were out of town.  The plant most likely needed additional watering to accommodate for the dryness of the soil. I never got around to purchasing a cage, which might have helped support the vines as they grew.  I am not sure if this was truly a factor in my failure to keep the plant alive as the plant never got really tall.  I also, never put any additional plant food after the initial soil.  I should have provided more nutrients for the plant.  I'm pretty sure this was a big contributing factor in the demise of the tomatoes. Look at my sa

This tutorial is the final part in the Pocket Invitations Series.  Part I on creating the pockets can be found here .  Part II on printing and cutting the materials can be found here . The first step in this phase is to adhere the invite panel to the pocket backing.  Paste the panel on the backing, meaning the pocket should be on the opposite side from the invite.  I used rubber cement to do this because it is easy to clean up if some glue gets outside of the pasted area.  If that happens, all you have to do is simply rub it off. The invisible ink pen is pictured below was used to number the invitations. It has been so long since I bought it, I actually do not remember exactly where i purchased it. However, if you do a search online for "invisible pen with UV light", several online vendors will appear selling them. Also, I am pretty sure you might be able to find them at a store like Michael's or Hobby Lobby, maybe even Target or Wal-Mart. I assigned a numb

As mentioned in yesterday's post, these invitations are best handled in stages.  This tutorial includes links to templates for all the printables used for these invitations.  I have made up generic names, locations and cities for the templates provided in this tutorial.  Obviously, when you add your own personal information to these templates, the dimensions may change slightly, dependent upon the length of information added.  If this happens, I suggest printing them on plain copy paper first and testing the cuts before using the specialty paper. The specialty paper I used for the inserts and the invite panel was an ivory linen textured paper.  You can find several vendors that sells this.  As you did with envelopes, I suggest getting samples first from the paper vendor to make sure it is the color and texture you desire.  When I refer to invite panel, I am talking about the part of the invite which includes all the information such as the bride and groom's name, date of the

This week, I am featuring another wedding idea, DIY invitations.  This was one of my personal favorite projects for the wedding.  Although, I can honestly say there was not anything I did not enjoy doing for the wedding.  At first, we wanted to order pocketfold invitations, then we considered making them ourselves.  One day while looking through a wedding invitation catalog, I saw one invitation that had just a pocket on the back and liked it better.  Instead of ordering them, we decided to make them ourselves and started early on the project.  This became a family and friends project and I loved the idea that each invitation was handmade.  We had several nights and weekends around the pub style dining room table making pockets, gluing things together, cutting paper and stuffing.  Then we still had the normal work of addressing the invites and stuffing all the invitations.  Although it was a true labor of love for our family and friends, so many of our guests expressed their appre

I was set to make baked fish for dinner the other night.  While cooking, I decided I wanted to spice up the fish a bit, so I decided to try out a shrimp topping for it.  I threw together some ingredients I had on hand.  I seasoned the catfish the same way I did in the Stuffed Catfish recipe.  I did not include the stuffing for this recipe, although it would probably interesting to do the fish with the stuffing and the shrimp topping. Ingredients: 1 tsp. minced garlic 3 tbsp. butter 1 lb. shrimp 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper 1/4 tsp. black pepper 1/4 tsp. salt 1/2 dry sherry 1/4 cup of milk (if you have heavy cream on hand, use that, I didn't this time) 1 tsp. cornstarch (if you use heavy cream, you may not need to use this thickening agent) Saute the garlic and butter in a pan.  Then, add in the shrimp.  Season with cayenne and black peppers and salt.  Continue to let cook until shrimp starts turning pink. Add in the sherry, milk and cornstarch (if needed) and let coo

My mother-in-law wanted me to make a "gooey cake", a cake she had tried recently and loved.  I had never heard of this kind of cake, and the way it was described being gooey in the middle did not sound too good.  However, she swore by this cake, saying it was so great.  So, for her birthday I gave it a try.  It turned out to be a hit, although the next time I make it, I plan to make one minor modification to the recipe. I used this Paula Deen recipe for the Gooey Butter Cake . Ingredients The ingredients for this cake are divided into two parts, those needed for the crust and those for the filling. Crust: 1 18 1/4-ounce package yellow cake mix 1 egg 8 tablespoons butter, melted Filling: 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 8 tablespoons butter, melted 1 lb powdered sugar (half a bag, if using a 2 lb bag) First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix together the cake mix, 1 egg, and the butter.  The mixture will