Red Fried Tomatoes

Summer is in full swing and gardens are producing tomatoes like crazy! It’s always at this time of year that I start craving fresh tomato sandwiches and fried tomatoes. My mom always makes fried red tomatoes…one of my favorite summer dishes! It’s so simple to make!

You will need:

1 cup flour

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

3 eggs

Several medium tomatoes

Oil

Whisk the eggs

Mix the Parmesan cheese, flour, salt, pepper, garlic and onion powders together in a bowl big enough for dredging

Slice up your tomatoes

Dip the tomatoes in egg mixture

Dredge through flour mixture, coating both sides. Preheat about 1/2 inch oil in a pan on medium heat.

Place tomatoes in preheated oil

Fry for a few seconds on both sides until golden brown

These make a great side dish or lunch!

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Zucchini Corn Muffins

Zucchini season is here! I love zucchini…it’s so healthy and versatile! If you’re tired of eating it prepared the same way every time here is recipe that is a little different.

You will need:

Prepared corn bread batter (you can make your own or use store bought)

1 medium zucchini, grated, (my zucchini was a little on the large side…I used a little more than half. It looked like about 2 cups)

1 onion, chopped

4 ounces of cheddar cheese shreds

onion powder

Place zucchini and onion in corn bread batter.

Sprinkle lightly with onion powder.

Add in cheese.

Mix well and fill muffin cups with batter. Bake for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

These tasty muffins are great with BBQ chicken. Super simple! 🙂

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Inexpensive Easy Greenery

A few months ago we built a dog run for our very large, sweet, furry family member to play in. The part of the yard that we decided on had a couple of plants that I wanted to rescue. One of the plants  was an Autumn Joy sedum plant. Not only are they green year round…in the Autumn they bloom a beautiful burgundy color. They are so easy to start, too.  Here is an idea for a little indoor, easy maintenance greenery:

First pick a cutting that has several layers of leaves.

Pull off  a couple of layers of the leaves to expose  the nodes.

Place a single layer of smooth stones in a wide vase or jar. Stand the plant up in the middle and carefully layers rocks around to hold it up straight. Add water.

After a few weeks your sedum will develop a root system. This is my plant after a few months. It is healthy and has very little maintenance. It doesn’t need a lot of light either. Mine is in a room on a table with the blinds closed most of the time. Just make sure it has water. Also, it’s a good idea to clean the rocks and change the water once a month.
If you want to plant these outside just bury the plant’s nodes in potting soil and water as needed. They are drought resistant and thrive in full sun.

Here are some of my outdoor sedum plants. They are getting ready to bloom! I planted these only two months ago! The cool thing is that you can keep taking starts and fill a garden or line a walkway for free.

It’s so easy a child can do it which comes in handy when you are teaching your children about plants and root systems! :o)

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Tropical Bird House

I found an old wooden bird house in the basement a few days ago. Just a plain craft one from the Michael’s store that  had been sitting on my craft shelf forever. I decided to dress it up a bit and use it on my porch. In case you haven’t noticed by now, my husband and I prefer Asian and tropical style decor. So I thought maybe a tropical looking birdhouse would go nicely.

First I primed it. It had a few splotches of red on it from one of my kids. He was going to paint it, but then lost interest.

Then some chocolate brown spray paint.

Next I thatched the roof with some bamboo pieces that I saved after having the blinds in my kitchen cut down to size.  Then I wrapped it in twine. Sorry I didn’t get any photos of this…It was too hard to glue and snap pictures at the same time, especially with my sticky fingers. :o)

I painted the posts red and added a couple of yellow flowers for color.

A little taste of the tropics. :o)

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle


P.S. Don’t forget to check out my GIVEAWAY

Linking to these fun parties!