good evening y'all. better late than never, right. we took a quick trip to see my Momma this morning, so I'm just now getting to my blog for the day. I didn't know if we would into snow or not and fortunately, we didn't. It did sprizzle on us a little going up and coming home, but nothing bad. praise the Lord. the temps were still warm enough that the roads wouldn't have gotten bad for quite a while. I was just looking at weather bug a little while ago and it's all rain now, so that's good. and it's even sprizzling here again, even as I type. that's ok. we're in for the night and I'll be fixing supper here in a little bit.
oh, I almost forgot the main reason for going to see Momma today. I cooked a batch of blackeyed peas this morning when I got up. I wanted to get them cooked and have them ready. so we took her some. and I'll have plenty for us and also able to share with our neighbor. yes, that's a tradition. you gotta have blackeyed peas. so I've made that my "thing" to do for her for a few years. she always looks forward to them.
I think our neighbor looks forward to them too. he had never had blackeyed peas. his sweet wife passed away on Dec.14, 2019. his son and his wife was living with him for a short time trying to help him sort things out and I just started fixing extra of what I fixed for us and would have my husband call him to meet us at the fence. so I had fixed a big huge batch of blackeyed peas for New Years of 2020. we took them a huge bowl and a big bunch of cornbread and he said they ate like they were starving to death. hahahaha he also said that it was the first time that either of the three had ever had blackeyed peas. and they never heard of the tradition of eating blackeyed peas of january 1st. well, he eats blackeyed peas on january 1st now. hahahaha whether he wants to or not, he eats them. hahaha
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yay y'all!!!! my goal for yesterday was to get to get my cornbread swirls made, and I did!!!!! yes I did and I'm so proud of myself. these are so good too. I make what I call a "corn chowder" with different meats. maybe chicken, maybe turkey, maybe turkey bacon, or maybe turkey sausage which happens to be our favorite. but this batch was turkey bacon because I have a ton of turkey bacon in the freezer and it's just so easy to use, so why not, right. but these cornbread swirls go wonderfully with the "corn chowder". so I try to keep some in the fridge at all times.
so what I'll do, while I have our "corn chowder" in the microwave heating up, I'll put a couple of these conrbread swirls in the counter top oven to warm up and put a little more color on them. when I'm baking these for the first time, I just want to get them done thru and thru. then when I heat them for our meal, I'll put more color on them. when I take them from the oven, I'll put just a smidge of real butter on each one and it melt into the swirl and it's just delicious!!!
notice the four smaller ones in the upper right hand corner. well those are the end pieces cut from each end of the dough where I roll it out and try to get it as square as I can. they just don't get really square on the ends, so they end up smaller.
well, for supper last night, I had some chicken that I put in the air fryer and I had 4 small hushpuppies in the freezer and I put those in the air fryer too. I turned around and seen this pan of cornbread swirls on the stove top and then my eyes went to the small ones. so intsead of making a trek to the garage to bring in another bag of hushpuppies, I just picked up those 4 small swirls and put them in the air fryer. oh my stinking goodness!!!!!!!! they were over the top GOOOOOOD!!!! they got really crunchy crispy and just so good. so, I may be reheating my swirls in the air fryer, especially when I'm using the air fryer anyway.
as I work on perfecting my recipe and technique, I am finding that when I roll a strip, if I leave slack in them and don't roll them real tight, they come out so much better. for a long time, I was rolling them so tight that they didn't have room to rise. when they did rise, they would rise upward and be real tall. they was good, but I wanted them to be flat like what you see here.
anyway, I'm sure that's more info than you ever wanted to know about my cornbread swirls. hahaha
when I get the recipe perfected, I'll share it. I may have already shared it, and if I have, that recipe will work really well, but I've tweeked it since then. anyway, be on the lookout for it sometime, probably in the upcoming year.
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I have a little bit of something on my mind so I'm sharing with me as much as anything, just trying to make sense of something that's impossible for me to do so at the moment.
we have neighbors directly across the street. as far as who has been in the neighborhood the longest, we have been there the longest of just about anyone in the whole area. there are only 2 other residents that have been here as long as we have. one of them lives 2 houses up on the same side of the road as us and the other one lives 2 houses down on the oopposite side of the road. we have been 23 years as dec 22nd this year. that was the first night we spent in our new house upon moving. everyone of the other neighbors up and down the street have come and gone 2 or three times over, during the time we've been here.
so, back to the neighbors across the street. they won't look up, if they happen to see us, they'll turn their backs to us really quickly. they are just not sociable at all. that's ok, I don't want neighbors running in and out of my house all the time. but I do want to be able to wave and at least get an acknowledgement. I've told all the neighbors we've ever had in the past, that if they ever need anything, don't hesitate to holler at us. one or both of us is always home and we'll always do what we can to help in any way possible. most of our neighbors have always been the same way we are. we'll be neighborly and help in any way and we'll always be friendly. that's the way it's always been.
this family moved in and I tried to start waving and a lot of time, the way I've made communication with new neighbors is to see them at the mailbox, or holler and wave when I'm going to mine. but these people have been here several years and we still don't even know their names. they don't want to have anything to do with anyone. I'm ok with that. I'll still wave and I'll keep on waving.
well, they have a fully trimmed out basement under the house. a great living place. the brother of the man that lives there, he and his wife moved into the basement about a year and a half ago. they have a truck and car. well, I thought the ones that lived in the upper house were hard to have anything to do with. those living in the basement are something else. they have Jesus signs all over their 2 vehicles. we wave at them everytime we see them outside, everytime we meet them on the road, everytime one of us goes to the mailbox. well, they make no bones about it, they turn their backs on us every time. if we had done anything to them, I might be able to understand it just a little bit. but we haven't done anything to any of them.
I told my husband here back and then earlier today when we got home from going to see my Momma, that if I didn't already have a relationship with Jesus Christ, there is nothing about those people that would even make me want to explore who Jesus Christ is. they are everything that Jesus Christ isn't. it's really sad. I know they put on airs out away from home. so they wear Jesus on their vehicles, but they are about as opposite of what Jesus Christ is in reality.
I say all this just to remind myself, that if I claim Christ, I need to try to make sure that my life looks like it. yes, everyone has tempers, everyone says things that we shouldn't say, everyone sins. we just do. we're not perfect in this life and will never be. but, if we openly and outwardly shun others and make no bones about it, then it makes me wonder if they even know the Jesus that we have plastered all over our vehicles.
we just have to be careful at all times to make sure that we do represent Jesus in a good way. my prayer is always that when others see me, they Jesus in me and not me. when I see these people, I see anything but Jesus and that's really sad. I can actually say that I see the devil in them.
and I do believe it's the Jesus in us that irritates the devil in them. I don't know what they say or think about us and I really don't care. we'll keep on waving and acknowledging them whether they ever acknowledge us or not. I did tell my husband today that if I ever get the chance to say anything to them that I'm going to tell them that I'm happy I already have a relationship with Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. because if I didn't, I see nothing in them that would lead me to wanting to learn more about who Jesus is.
I may sound judgemental and if I am, I know that God will correct me. we just have to be careful about how represent Jesus. they're not doing a very good job representing Jesus as far we can see.
my desire and prayer is that when others see me, they see Jesus!!!! I pray that the Lord will always keep me humble and I pray that He will always show me where I fail Him and I pray that He will help me to own it and do better when He shows me how I have failed Him.
like I said earlier, we all sin, we just do. and I just pray for God to convict me of the sin in my life that may keep someone else from wanting to have a realtionship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
well, I hope when I come back to this at some point in time that it helps me to make sense of what's going on with the neighbors. we've tried to be good neighbors and are good neighbors, but these people are beyond me. so I hope and pray that the Lord will show me how I can break the ice or maybe He will show me to just leave them alone. either way, He's got to show me and I believe He will.
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that's all I have today. I hope you get some blackeyed peas cooked for New Years, it will be here before we know it. blessings of love, peace and joy be yours. hugs, patty
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