PIZZA FRITTA

 The English translation of Pizza Fritta is Fried Dough. This a a treat you usually can get at a street carnival, an outdoor faire,  art show or something of that nature. It is deceptively simple to make. In an Italian household, it's a treat, something you whip up in a flash when people get the "hungries".  It would be of the same nature as popcorn. Something you whip up for a snack while watching football or a movie or to nosh on out on the patio while the kiddies are on the swing set.

The only ingredients you'll need are a tube of PILLSBURY CRUSTY FRENCH LOAF from the dairy section of your supermarket, a bit of oil for frying, and granulated sugar for sprinkling.

Put about 1/2 cup of granulated sugar into a brown lunch size paper bag and set aside. I let the bread dough come to room temperature before cracking open the tube. I lay the dough out on a flour sprinkled counter. Heat 3-4 tbs. of bland oil (canola or vegetable) on medium heat. Cut off a small portion (1" to 1.5") of the bread dough with the kitchen shears. I roll out that piece with the rolling pin, then I stretch it with my hands until it is stretched as much as possible without tearing. Immediately fry it on both sides, in the oil. You want to see a golden brown color and the dough bubble up.  Drain on paper towel for a couple minutes. Then shake it in the brown paper, sugar filled lunch bag. Remove and set on a serving dish until all the dough is used up in the fashion.

Optional: a bit of cinnamon can be added to the sugar.

I got one dozen pizza fritta from one tube of French Loaf.

It's messy and addictive, therefore, very wise to eat outdoors. I guarantee your children and grandchildren will have special memories of this treat and often request it when they come for a visit.........

Note: If the oil in your fry pan begins to have burnt flour sediment,  change pans and use fresh oil. Always being careful not to burn.  

Christmas Traditions

One of the Christmas traditions that I share with almost everyone on the planet is the Christmas Tree. This year, mine was a bit unorthodox. I am in a position of getting familiar with a "new normal". I just was not excited about pulling out all sorts of decorations from their hiding places (for just me to enjoy) then having to put them all away again in a few weeks. But I still was up for Christmas. I wanted to get carried away with all the other traditions I was used to - like seeing the gingerbread houses made by locals at the Eastman House Museum, going to the craft sales, sacred presentations of the Christmas story, watching the old movies, etc., etc.

So you might say, my home was very sedately "Christmassy". My fireplace mantle has a snow people panorama. Many snow people standing on vintage lace "snow" in a tiny forest of evergreens under a big rusty star. Most of these snow people were hand made by me. I love this scene so much, I'm temped to leave it up all year.

For my unorthodox tree, I made cupcake papers trees that I saw on Craft Gossip. I did put my tiny presents under them. Fortunately, I did receive tiny presents (gift cards and earrings).

Another lovely tradition  is the Secret Santa that we have on the Christian Artist team on etsy (CAST). Those who want to participate fill out a questionaire about themselves, their wishes and dreams. A "director" pairs up the participants. I gifted a sister from the midwest and I received from a sister in the state right next door to my own state. But some sent and received gifts from the UK, from Australia, Canada and other hinder parts of the planet. And some from right next door. Amazingly, the gifts were perfect and such a blessing to both sender and receiver.

My gift arrived from a sister who's had some health problems recently and was also greatly affected by hurricane Sandy, therefore, unable to shop outside the home. I'm sure she has no idea how much her gift blessed me and how precious it is to me. She purchased from another CAST sister a pair of pearl earrings. I'm sure she didn't know my name means "pearl".

The formation of this gem involves a great amount of irritation and pressure happening inside that little mollusk before a beautiful pearl is formed. I love to think about heaven's gates being formed by this jewel and how our Savior always changes for good whatever He touches.

Here are the beautiful earrings I received from my Secret Santa (you know santa means holy).

One final tradition for the Christmas season in my neck of the woods is a White Christmas. Everyone was longing for it. We had spring like weather until just a couple weeks ago..............then, voila!!!

A Christmas Card sort of Christmas

Thanksgiving Holiday

I traveled to South Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with my son, daughter in law, granddaughter, grandson and his wife. I paid my first visit to their new, one story house, met my new little granddog (a Cavalier King Charles terrier) and thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the southland.

One of the highlights of my time in the south was a visit to the Biltmore Estate in Ashville, NC. Built by George Vanderbilt and officially opened on Christmas Eve 1895. In 1898, he brought his bride, Edith, to the Biltmore. In 1900, their only child, Cornelia, was born there.

Today, the estate remains in the family. A grandson, William A.V. Cecil owns the home and his son, A.V. Cecil, Jr. serves as the CEO. The enterprise employs 1800 people.

The house was lavishly decorated for Christmas, with lots of huge, trimmed Christmas trees, luxurious, trailing pine mantle piece garlands. Sadly, no cameras were permitted in the mansion. Therefore, all my pictures will be of the outside of the home.

During the depression, in response to requests to increase tourism in the area and raise funds to preserve the estate, the Cecils opened the house to the public in 1930.

During the time the first generations lived in the home, the estate was completely self sustaining. Farming, viticulture, hunting, and fishing were all part of daily life at the Biltmore. The house, itself, was run by 30-35 servants. In the servants domain, you'd find vegetable pantries, walk-in refrigerators, pastry, rotisserie, and main kitchens, kitchen pantry, laundry and drying rooms.

For the pleasure of the guests and the home's residents, there was 70,000 gallon heated, tiled pool, a bowling alley, gymnasium, dressing rooms. There were 43 bathrooms when (in 1895) most homes did not have one indoor bathroom.

George Vanderbilt kept his valet busy laying out clothing for his various activities. Different attire was required for each activity and may have necessitated 4-6 changes of clothes a day. (Sounds like my granddaughters). A specific outfit was required for horseback riding, another for tea, and yet another for formal dinner.

The outdoor areas - gardens, bowling green, parks, trails, ponds, etc. were designed by famous garden architect, Frederick Law Olmsted who also designed Central Park in NYC, the U.S, capitol grounds and Highland Park in Rochester, NY. He was a personal friend of George Vanderbilt and spend much time at Biltmore. John Singer Sargent visited Biltmore to paint portraits of the Vanderbilt mentors, among them Frederick Law Olmsted. His portrait hangs in the salon at the Biltmore.

Automobiling was an outdoor activity that the Vanderbilt's and their guests were fond of. It required it's own attire including a linen motoring duster, touring cap, gloves, and goggles. Most of the Biltmore guests probably traveled to NC on the railroads that an earlier Vanderbilt built (Cornelius).

There is so much more to see on a visit to the Biltmore. If you have an opportunity to visit NC, this is a "must see".

I ♥ Handmade Marketplace - Part 2

Still reeling from the I ♥ Handmade Marketplace. I have been to many, many craft shows and have never seen one like this one. It was just a 6 hour show, from 8am until 2 pm on a Saturday in November. By the time we were ready to wrap up, 900 people had visited the show. This is thanks to Angel's amazing ingenuity in planning this show. It was totally bathed in prayer from beginning to end, including all the vendors gathering in a prayer circle minutes before the show began.

Angel plastered the entire Chambersburg area with flyers, had lawn signs (like the election signs) all over town, had several  radio spots the day before the show, had alerted the press, had professional pictures done, had a facebook I ♥ Handmade Marketplace event page with daily buzz about the show, including pictures of what shoppers would see there and the many door prizes that would be awarded.  One of her friends even made a YouTube video for the event.

She distributed beautiful shopping totes to the first 100 shoppers. There was continuous coffee for both shoppers and vendors.

This is my stall. You can see the shelf unit and the clothes tree that I rescued at estate sales.

I am probably forgetting some details. To see more pictures, visit the castteam chat thread. Angel has posted the link on page 264.

One of my personal highlights was meeting several castteam "sisters", and having a nice leisurely dinner with them.

Left to right:  Becky, Angel, Sheila and me in the room called "the library" at Chambersburg's Orchard Restaurant.

Looking forward to I ♥ Handmade Marketplace II

I ♥ Handmade Marketplace - Part 1

In just a matter of hours, I'll be heading south to participate in BamCrafty Momma's (Angel's) first ever craft show. She is such a "natural" at strategy, publicizing, arranging, spinning so many plates, that I think she should add this to her repertoire.

Since I'll be participating, I've been doing a little planning myself. First thing I thought about was designing my booth. It needs to look like a little store or shop. It has to be attractive in order to be charming to shoppers.

I prayed and asked the Lord for a couple showcase pieces that I would like. I asked for a shelf unit and a "hat rack" sort of affair. I wanted both these items to be collapsible since I am traveling several hundred miles by car - with a friend - our personal luggage - tons of product and Bianca (my mannequin), etc. I needed these items to fit snuggly into the trunk of my little car.

So, off I went "estate saling". At house #1, after snooping all throughout the first and second floor of the house, I descended to the basement. The first thing I saw when I hit the floor was a strange looking stick on a tripod - about 5' tall. At the top it had two swinging sticks coming out of each side. Silvery in color and covered in cobwebs. I knew it was the Lord's answer to my prayer, though I had never seen anything like it.

I went over to it. The two sticks on top snapped into place on either side of the shaft. They were for holding clothes hangers. The tripod did, indeed, fold up. The shaft telescoped together so that it came apart and could be used in a shorter version. It had no price tag on it. I brought it upstairs and asked the price. $1.00. Sorry I don't have a picture of it but you'll see it in next week's post.

Onto house #2. Again, scoped out the entire house before my final discovery of a screened porch behind the garage. From that vantage point, I saw a three shelf, metal item holding a potted plant. I went out into the yard to look at it. Sure enough, each shelf folded up, the sides folded in and the whole thing now looked like a fire screen. It had a $15 price tag on it but today was day 2 of the sale and everything was half price !!

I spray painted both of these treasures with back spray paint. They are now happily ensconced in my car trunk.

Still waiting to be packed are the tons of product plus smaller showcase items.

Finally, my friend and I plus our personal luggage, handbags, snacks and drinks will be off to join Angel and other precious castteam sisters for this adventure.

Part 2 coming next week......................

Chicken Tortellini Alfredo

I attended a party recently where this was on the buffet. I loved it and asked for the recipe. It is so simple, I'm sure it will be on your favorites list too. It can be served to lots of people, as at this party. Or you can make it for just one or two people, which is what I normally do.

You'll need:

Jarred Classico Roasted Poblano Alfredo Sauce
Frozen or fresh cheese tortellini
1/2 of a cooked chicken breast, shredded
grated Romano cheese

Measurements: You know how it is with pasta and sauce - a little of this and a little of that. When I make it for myself, I boil 4 oz. of tortellini in one pan. In another pan, on very low heat, I heat up about 6 oz. of the sauce.

When I am ready to assemble, I add the shredded chicken to the sauce to heat up for a minute. Then I add the drained, cooked tortellini to the sauce mixture. Pour it into a bowl and drizzle with the grated Romano cheese.

Add a small side salad and there you have dinner.

God Stories

I normally post on my blog on Tuesdays but today I had acute inspiration collapse so I asked the Lord to download a bit of creativity. When I checked my email, there was a letter from Dave and Michelle !!!!! It was a news update from them. They attend my church but are currently serving as missionaries in Kigoma, Tanzania, Africa.


A little background: Dave and Michelle are young marrieds. Dave is a music teacher and worship leader. Michelle is a nurse.

I thought - this is such good news - I want everybody to know about it. Here is the Kigoma Update:

Hi guys! How are you? We are grateful for all of you and hope you are
> doing well. We are in Mwanza for a few days with Tim and Gerald,
> because of PEFA meetings, but also for a chance to buy things we dont
> have in Kigoma (so far jello, maple syrup and balloons). There are
> really big storky- cranes here, about 4 ft tall. They are called
> "Grandpa Health" because they eat up all the garbage on the streets.
> God has been doing miracles often lately. My shoulder was out-
> you know vertigo-iy. At women's Bible study, we prayed and it was
> made whole. Praise God.
> We invited a couple teen guys from the Kellys kids program to
> join us in our village program since there was no school on Friday.
> One of those guys (Alex) preached, and 106 kids came to Christ. Some
> of these kids are from Muslim families. We do ask for wisdom about
> the program though. Many kids cary a baby on their back. That's fine
> and dandy until he starts crying- and with 200 kids, one or two are
> bound to be crying always. There is such an echo in the church that a
> baby's cry is the only thing that can be heard. We have asked for
> talkers and cryers to calm down outside, maybe I need to ask them to
> be 20 or 30 feet from the church so we can hear well.
> There is a sweet lady at the church whom I have been impressed
> with. Her name is Helena. She gets it. At most churches, if there
> are dirty kids outside of the church on the steps, the leasders shoo
> them away. However Helena invited them in. This is counter cultural,
> but maybe the culture of Simbo village is changing.
> Helena came to me with some serious health troubles that had
> plagued her for about 6 years (it appeared to be partial kidney
> failure). We prayed but no change. Dave and I prayed and decided
> that I should take her to the hospital and trust God to pay the costs
> for treating a chronic condition. At the hospital, the outpatient Dr.
> recognized me as missionary who is trying to get permission to work
> there. Therefore, he re-opened the closed down department, he saw her
> and treated her ffor free of charge!!! He said that we are servants
> of God, so we should help each other out! Helena and I were so happy
> that we jumped up and down thanking God and the Dr. for free and good
> medical care!
> While I am waiting for permission to nurse, I am teaching 7th
> grade English. This is such a need because from 8th grade on, all
> teaching is in English. Many students fail the exams because they do
> not understand the language of the test. We are starting with the
> basics, and it is fun!
>
> David is teaching a choir. some songs are translated from English to
> Swahili (including "Dancing Generation"). Others he composed in
> Swahili in the African style.
> Thank you for your love, support, and prayers. How can we pray for
> you? Michelle and Dave

To play a part in this ministry: Designate for - Dave and Michelle Heed - contributions@elimfellowship.org