Playing with Photos

I have been having fun playing with the Photoshop Elements 11 program the last few days and this is one of the photos I played with.  Isn’t this just fun…the cattle escaping from the photograph.

I started with the photo below and as you can see the cattle were running the other way.  I don’t know if there are any rules that apply here but I just think that people and animals in photos look better walking/running from left to right so just flipped it since it makes no difference to this photo.
I am just beginning to explore the fun things in this program.  The frame and cattle walking out of the photo process was called Out of Bounds in the Guided area of PE 11.  I won’t go into how it is done because I don’t really understand it myself.

I am determined to learn more about Photoshop Elements 11 and to learn more about my Canon DSL Rebel 2Ti camera this year.  I have had the camera for a couple of years and am wanting to learn how to use more of it’s features.  I am reading articles, watching videos and experimenting to learn as much as I can.

Until later,
Lynn

Noodles, Noodles, Noodles!

I made lots of noodles for gifts for Christmas this year.  A much appreciated gift to special friends and family.  My recipe calls for 4 1/2 cups of flour and I used 22 1/2 cups of flour over all…..that is a LOT of noodles.  I only kept 2 cups worth to make Chicken Noodle Soup the night our family arrived.  I have posted the recipe for the noodles below so if you want to make them you can follow my recipe if you wish.  The soup recipe is at the very bottom of this post.
Homemade noodles
4 1/2 cups bread flour  
2-3 tablespoons water
5 whole eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
Mix the ingredients together with a large mixer (I use a Kitchen Aid mixer).  You may have to add more water if the dough just doesn't come together.  I then kneaded half the dough at at time with the dough hook on my mixer for about 5 minutes for each half.  I sometimes put the dough hook on to finish mixing before the kneading process as well.  If you knead by hand you should knead it for 5-6 minutes until it is very smooth and use more flour if it is sticky.  This step develops the gluten in the flour and is an important step.  If you have ever had noodles break apart into short sections when you cooked them this may have been the problem.  You can find more information about gluten on Wikipedia here.

I just don’t have the strength in my wrists and hands to knead by hand the traditional way (or maybe I am lazy) but the mixer does a good job with the dough hook so I can still get a good product.  I place my dough in a plastic bag and let it rest for 10-30 minutes and do this if you are hand kneading too.

At this point you can roll the dough out by hand to the thickness desired and cut into strips but I have a pasta attachment for my mixer and used that for the rolling and cutting.  I got the attachment a few months ago and had not used it before this marathon noodle making session and it worked so great.  It came with 3 pieces that fit into the top of the mixer.  The two that I used are shown below plus there is another cutter to make smaller noodles as well.  The one on the right has several settings to roll the dough thinner and thinner until it is the thickness desired.  The last step is to change attachments and put on the desired cutter and feed it through.  I cut each half of the dough into 3 parts and rolled and cut each part separately as each section gets pretty long by the time it is rolled as thin as I like it.  Each time through the rollers I fold it in half and in it goes again, next adjust the thickness to the next step thinner.  The more it gets rolled through the smoother it gets.  I would fold the dough lengthwise first then fold crosswise next until it is the width of the roller before adjusting the thickness knob to make it thinner.

The three strips from one half of a recipe laid on the counter to dry a bit before cutting.  As the noodles are cut I catch them with a dowel then hang the dowel on the my pasta drying stand that I inherited from my mother in law.   A neighbor made it for her years ago.  I think If I were making one now I would want one a little taller so I could put longer noodles on it and not have them puddle on the counter.

I let the noodles air dry for a day or two then break them into the lengths I want them to be and package in plastic bags.Now because some of you will ask, this is how I make chicken noodle soup.  I start with a large can of chicken breast meat (50 oz) that I purchased at Sams Club.  You could use any kind of chicken you want but my family doesn't think it likes dark meat so I just use the canned chicken breast.  (Personally the dark meat is my favorite!) This is a lot of chicken in the soup so if you prefer use smaller cans or less chicken.  Dump the chicken and the broth it is packed into a large cooking pot.  I find this chicken makes good soup and is very low in fat as well.  I  then add several cans of low sodium, low fat chicken broth.  I am not sure how many small cans I added but enough to give me the amount of liquid I wanted. (I know not a very exact recipe is this?)  I also added 2 medium carrots chopped real fine and one onion chopped fine since I have one grandson that thinks he doesn't like onion but.....what he doesn't see he doesn't know he is eating.  I simmered this for several hours to blend the flavors.  About a half an hour before serving I brought it to a boil and added the noodles.  The amount of noodles is personal preference but I probably added the noodles made from 2 1/2 cups of flour to this large batch of chicken noodle soup.  I turned down the heat on the burner after it comes back to the boil after adding the noodles.  Simmer until the noodles are cooked then serve and enjoy.  After cooking for 15 minutes test a noodle to see if it is done but also taste the broth to see if you need to add pepper or salt.  Mine just needed pepper as it was salty enough.  My family loves this soup and it is so easy to make too.

Until Later,
Lynn

Amaryllis

I have two beautiful red Amaryllis bulbs blooming right now but this is just a photo of one of them.  I purchased them this fall and one was supposed to be white but both are this pretty red color so one was obviously mislabeled.  One seems to have smaller blooms on shorter stems than this one that is much taller.  They were very inexpensive so don’t mind not getting a white one this time.  Will plant them both outside next summer and will see if they are the same next winter and if they are I will gift one to someone else.  I don’t think anything is more cheery during the winter than a bright splash of color from fresh flowers.  These started blooming right before Christmas and the second stem is now in full bloom....pretty, pretty, pretty!

I  have two large pink ones that I will plant in a few weeks so I can have lovely flowers later too.  Don’t want them all to bloom at the same time and have lots of winter with no flowers now do I? I have had the the pink bulbs for a couple of years now and they too were supposed to be different colors but both turned out to be pink.  They have multiplied during the summers outside so am going to share the extra with someone else.

I do fertilize them after they bloom while they are still in the pots then they get fertilized when they are outside too when I fertilize the other outside flowers.  I am guessing that is why they are multiplying and the bulbs are really getting quite large now too. Will be interesting to see how many flower stems they have.

Update - forgot to say I dig the bulbs up before frost and bring them into my garage for several months before I re-pot them.  Our garage is insulated and doesn't freeze but stays cool in the winter so the bulbs are fine there for a while but if you don't have a garage that doesn't freeze find a cool dark place for them to rest before replanting them.

Until Later,
Lynn

Happy New Year

Wishing you a very Happy New Year!  Yesterday it snowed all day and blew a little while it was coming down.  I took these photos through the windows of our home while it was still snowing as it was so cold outside and I didn’t feel like getting all bundled up to go out.  They didn’t turn out too bad considering that some of the windows were a little dirty on the outside and the one storm door window kept steaming up.

Think I figured out the Trojan Virus that my virus protection program kept catching.  I finally got to read what it said and it was coming from the Patsy Thompson link I had on my blog.  I have removed the link for the time being and will contact her in case it is coming from her webpage.   

Until Later,
Lynn