Fried Green Tomatoes with Homemade Buttermilk Dressing

A few years ago for our 9th wedding anniversary Jeremy and I spent the week without kids in Savannah, Georgia.  One of the highlights of our trip was on the last night when we attended Chef Joe Randall's cooking school.  The food was to die for and Chef Joe sent us home with all of the recipes.  Our favorite is fried green tomatoes with homemade buttermilk dressing.  I have simplified and adapted the recipe to our taste and it has become a family favorite.  It also gets rave reviews by everyone I make it for.  Please know that this is not Chef Joe’s recipe but his inspired mine.

To start with you need

Green Tomatoes

Slice the tomatoes about a 1/4 in. thick

Next and this is VERY important

lay the slices out flat and sprinkle with salt.

Leave them flat for 20 minutes to an hour.

After that blot all the excess water that the salt pulls out with paper towels.

Flip and start over.

You will use lots of paper towels and if you are cheap like me this

WILL

make you crazy.

That is until you taste the first tomato, at that point you will throw the whole roll of paper towels in the trash and never think about them again.

Mix an egg with 1/2 cup of buttermilk.  Dip the tomatoes into this mixture.

Mix 1/2 cup of cornmeal

1/2 cup flour

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon red pepper

(note- this is spicy)

Dip the tomatoes into it.

Then fry in very hot peanut oil, a couple of minutes on each side.

Drain well and place on a plate covered in a paper towel.

(Yes, that is fried squash in the background….DON’T JUDGE)

Up Next,

Buttermilk Dressing

1 cup Duke's Mayo

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 cloves of garlic

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

2 teaspoons fresh parsley

2 teaspoons fresh basil

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cracked black pepper

put all of this in a Mason jar and shake well.

Drizzle the tomatoes with the homemade buttermilk dressing

and

Enjoy

Cha Cha

Friendship

The other day I commented on this picture by my friend Sibi

My comment was:

How is it you make the most simple things stunning.  Glad I am your friend and I can feel stunning when near you.

If you don’t know I am NOT the type of person who leaves comments,  I do NOT often feel I have anything of value to add to what is already there.  This picture was different, it captured my attention and held it.  I looked at it searching, searching out every detail.  The longer I stared at it the more my heart was captivated.  These are simple things, alone they would not be impressive but together they are stunning.

TOGETHER THEY ARE STUNNING!

Sibi has a gift for making everything around her beautiful.  I have been a guest in her home, I have attended an event she has put together, and I have spent countless hours on the phone with her and after each I feel more beautiful.

Do you have friends who make you feel more beautiful?  

- Friends who will fuss and fluff until you are more beautiful

- Friends who you know WILL pray when you ask

- Friends who are praying when you don’t have the strength to ask

- Friends who will not allow you to be complacent

- Friends who see more in you and for you than you dare dream.

- Friends who see God in you and are thankful for it

- Friends who push you to press into God harder

- Friends who God has used to change you

I prayed for these types of friendships for years and today I am blessed and thankful to have them.  With them in my life…….my life has become more beautiful…...STUNNING.  With them in my life I am no longer one simple girl----we are a stunning arrangement. One that God can and does use for His glory.

Thank you Sibi for once again using your gifts to add beauty to my life.  You are a blessing.

Thank you to all my friends for being a gift given from God.  For each of you I am thankful.

Cha Cha

Depression

Now that is a word that will bring an uncomfortable pause into a conversation.  It is a word I think most of us would like not to talk about but I have a feeling most of us have felt it on some level at least once in our lives.  Our Sunday School teacher (Hi Jason) taught a lesson on this subject a few weeks ago and since then my head has been spinning with realizations about depression.  One of the biggest being the realization that I have fought depression most of my life, not the need medical help extreme…..but still depression.  I am quick to isolate myself and guard my heart to keep from dealing with life. 

Elijah was afraid^[a] and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, ⁴ while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” ⁵ Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.   1 kings 19:3-5

source

Have you ever felt like Elijah?  I know I have.

- I have been afraid

- I have ran from my problems

- I have hid from everything and everyone

- I have cried out for it to all be over

I have wallowed in these, tried to cover the pain with the next trill and believed the entire cycle was sin and then started over with even more guilt added to the mix.  This has proven to be a self-destructive recipe for disaster in my life.

What I am slowly starting to understand is that the depression has not been a sin in my life but how I have handled it has been.  Running from my problems and the people around me does not solve anything.  Spending money, starting a project or over eating, although momentarily providing an “excitement high”, does not solve anything.  Those three are my defense mechanism, they are how my sinful self tries to fill the gaping hole in my heart.  Unfortunately they propel the cycle further in the end.  Last but not least crying out for it to end does not solve anything. 

If the ways I have been mishandling things have been a sin but not the depression then that tells me I have to change the way I am handling the depression.

- First I am going to cry out to my Abba Father for help not to end it.

He knows how big my mountain is and exactly how each piece should be moved.

- Stop hiding – for me this means letting down my guard and letting people see the real me showing my junk as well as my pretty.

- Do not isolate myself – surround myself with godly people and trust them with my heart.

- Stop running from my problems.  Face them head on, one step at a time with my eyes on the will of God and not the problem.  I am going to do the next thing God leads me to do!
1 Kings 19:7-8 The angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.” So he arose and ate and drank, 

Hebrews 10:35-36

³⁵ So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

³⁶ You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

- Do not live in fear.

Joshua 1:9

⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

This verse is one I have been meditating on often in the last few weeks and the Lord is using it to transform my life.

I have been living out each of these steps and it is amazing how old “habits” are changing and through perseverance my overwhelming mountain has turned into just taking the next step.

I am not sure why I have felt the need to write this out (I do NOT want to hit the publish button) maybe just for myself so I will remember but maybe God has a plan for it beyond me and it will touch one of you.  I am praying now that this will be for His glory.

 

Charity

Schoolroom Now

I have been MIA around here lately.  But don’t think I haven’t been busy, because I HAVE!  I have made new pillows for my recovered sofa.

I am loving the way it looks in front of the art wall and with the covered lampshades.

I also recovered this chair and made new drapes.

Not to mention updated the mantel.

Last, I hung some antique silver trays under the school desk to use as memo boards.

Next week the girls and I are going to make decorative magnets for the boards.

I hope to be back soon with more.

Cha Cha

Home Stories a to z
Tip Junkie

The Shabby Creek Cottage

Hangin’ With My PEEPS & Peter Chocolate Tail

Good morning!

I thought I would pop in for just a second and show you this TOO cute peep wreath the girls made last week.

It was super easy.  I cut a circle out of cardboard and painted it peep yellow (I think that should an official color).  Then the girls hot glued peeps onto it.

And if you happen to need another simple idea, check this out.

I just hot glued a chocolate bunny onto a glass plate stand and scattered some grass and eggs, cover with a cloche and that was the end.

Easy Peasy!

Hope you have a great day.

Cha Cha

If My Husband Were a Hunter

Well,

If my husband were a hunter I imagine I would have chic antlers displayed on my walls but my husband is not a hunter, he is a restorer.  A restorer of vintage autos and because of this hobby you can find the carcass of a couple of dead trucks on our land.  A few months ago I asked Hubby to build me a gallery wall behind our newly recovered sofa.  He agreed and we got busy.  I knew I wanted the wall to display the girls art work and a United States map but I was looking for something funky to add to it and that is when the idea hit me.  I wanted the1966 Chevy truck grill.  It took a few day to get the nerve up to ask Hubby but once I did he was all for it.  We were careful not to damage it and built a structure behind it for support.  In the vintage truck world it is worth a good chunk of money and I have already had someone ask about buying it.  I do not want to sell it but there is a dollar figure that WILL get it off the wall and into someone else’s care, ha.  I love the way it looks and think it is the perfect funky thing I was looking for but the best part is the sweet and sentimental fact that my husband’s passion is now represented in our home.  My girl’s art mixed with their daddy’s art, glorious.

I love, love, love this.

My baby girl’s sunflower painting under my favorite Bible verse.

The Lord’s prayer print from France was a gift from a dear friend who spent the summer there.

We still have to make a frame for the map (it is #42 of the list of 927 things we still need to do around the house).

This room is quickly becoming my favorite in the whole house, the recovered sofa, the lampshade makeover and now the art wall, they all make my heart sing.

The tangerine tango flower is what inspired this entire wall.  My oldest girlie created it 3 or 4 years ago and from the moment I laid eyes on it …..I knew I wanted a gallery wall to display it.  Hope you think my funky wall is as cool as I do.

Cha Cha

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Happy 9th Birthday Baby Girl

Our baby turned 9 this week, I can not believe how fast the time has gone.

Baby Girl you are so precious to our family.  You bring silliness and fun to everyday.

You are an excellent little sister

and daughter.  You desire everything to be right in our family, and work hard for restoration when there is strife. You love our home more than any place you have ever been and are always ready to return to it.

You are a loving friend and care deeply for each of the friends God has blessed you with. You have the strongest will I have ever met and can not wait to see how God uses it in your future.  Your passion for things your love is know by all around you.  No dream is too big for you, you have God sized dreams and know that mountains can be moved.  You love all of God’s creatures and desire to help them all.  The horse is still by far your favorite.  “This phase” your dad and I were sure you would grow out of has only grown.  Your room is currently covered in pictures of horses and plastic toy horses.

Even though this was not a horse party, you still found a way to incorporate them.

Your friends know you well and gave you lots of horse gifts.

The poor horses tail caught on fire as we sang to you.

Lucky for us, it went out as quickly as it caught on fire.

You loved your party, playing with friends, and each of your gifts but what you haven’t stopped talking about is this saddle.

It is a beautiful western saddle that daddy is going to make into a stool for you room.

I know you wish it came with a horse,

but that will have to wait for now.

See you can not even take your eyes off of the saddle to have your picture taken.

We love you baby girl and are so proud of the lady you are becoming.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy