My Friday Supper

Thursday morning my mother in law brought over some purple hull peas fresh from the garden. Of course I had Emmy all day Thursday and she was awake and needing my attention most of the day, so I didn't get around to shelling my peas until Friday afternoon. A longtime friend and neighbor also blesses us with fresh garden vegetables several times a week and his latest contribution was garden ripe tomatoes, okra, yellow summer squash and cucumbers. We had fried okra for supper on Thursday night, along with au gratin potatoes and baked chicken breasts.

The garden produce that our family and friends share with us really helps stretch our food budget in the summer time. Tonight for instance, we had some of those purple hull peas, fresh ripe tomatoes, fried potatoes and cornbread.

Today as I prepared to shell my peas, I thought I'd take pictures as I went along for the blog. Then I thought, why not take pictures as I cooked supper and just give you all a thrill. I know you can barely contain your excitement, but do try. ;o)

Fresh purple hull peas, ready to shell.

Shelled peas, rinsing off before I cook them.Frying potatoes, browned and tasty. Almost done...
The peas, cooked and ready to eat. See the steam?MY BUTTERMILK SOUTHERN CORNBREAD,
baked in my Grandma's cast iron skillet.
Click on the bold link for the recipe.
Love that crispy browned crust!Sliced into wedges, hot and ready to eat with
butter or those fresh peas. Mmmmmm....
(Sorry it's so blurry.)Sliced garden ripe 'maters can't be beat.
They're the best!

I had a 5 quart Dutch oven almost full of peas when I got them all shelled. After we ate what we wanted for supper I still have enough for several meals. I'll either save them for my Sunday Dinner or freeze them in several quart freezer bags for later meals. Those garden fresh peas and other produce sure do taste good in the winter time when fresh veggies are scarce.

Speaking of Sunday Dinner, I'm not sure yet what will be on the menu. I still have that ham we didn't have this past Sunday so that's a possibility, and there's always the chance we'll be eating out somewhere. I'll try to narrow down the possibilities and post the verdict sometime Saturday evening.

I didn't have Emmy today and I won't have her again until Monday morning. Jessica and Jason are going to Lake Norfork for the weekend and Jason's Mom is keeping Emmy this weekend. As much as I love watching Emmy I'm grateful for the little break. This babysitting takes a toll on Grandma's body. It's a lot different at 43 with Emmy than it was at 23 with Jessica.

I'll be happy to see Jessica and Emmy bright and early Monday morning, though. Seeing those bright eyes and that happy, smiling face makes all the fatigue, aches and pains worthwhile. And then there's Emmy, too! Ha! ;o)

I hooked up my old HP printer and fired it up. The bad news is that it's not printing very well. I don't know if it's because the cartridges have partially dried up or what's going on. I don't think I want to spend over $40 on new cartridges to find out if that's the problem. If the cartridges aren't the problem I'll have spent $40 and still not be any better off.

As much as I hate to do it, I think I'm just going to buy a new all in one printer, but you can bet I'm going to try to avoid buying another Lexmark. I don't have any problems with the new Lexmark all in one except that it won't print on the good quality glossy photo paper. It does every other function as advertised, so I suppose I'll store it in the closet as a last resort just in case the new printer develops problems later.

I bought the Lexmark online because it was unavailable in stores and it seemed to be a good bargain. But since it was strictly available only online I couldn't return it to the local store. I would've had to mail it back to them and the postage would have been outrageous, plus there's no guarantee it would be fixed when I got it back. I think I'm better off just cutting my losses now before I put any more money in this lemon.

I'll definitely buy my new printer at a store and not online. I want a warm body to complain to and a receipt to wave in their face if the new printer ends up throwing a rod or develops an allergy to glossy photo paper. Can you tell I'm pert near't disgusted with technology right about now?A dear blogging friend sent me some worship and praise CD's in the mail and I received them today. I'm listening to one of them right now, "Glory Revealed", and I love it! My blogging friend prefers to remain anonymous but I want to acknowledge the lovely and very much appreciated gift and express my thanks, not only for the CD's but also for their friendship and their generous, giving spirit towards me.

I can't wait to hear the rest of the songs on these 3 CD's! Thank you, dear friend. You know who you are. :-)

Mountain Mama has tagged me for a meme and I'll try to get that done in the next few days, possibly on Saturday when I do my Sunday Dinner post.

In the meantime, y'all have a great and blessed weekend.