Category Archive: food
I promised this little blocks quilt last night, that today was its finishing day I kept my promise and it is finished including the hanging sleeve on the back. I think it will get to hang either in the living room until I make something else I want to hang there.
DH and I have been reading and watching videos that were recommended to us for his symptoms. We decided to try the juice fasting program for 21 days first to see if we would get any results (we are both doing it). This was our third day and so far, other than less thinking about what to fix, I haven’t noticed any difference. But that really isn’t very long, so we will keep at it. But the carrots in the garden are going at a fast rate. I may have to buy some for the last week and I had a LOT of carrots in the garden. I used a quarter of the pumpkin in the morning drink as well. Who would have thought to eat raw pumpkin other than the sheep. I will keep you informed if this makes us feel any different.“Hang on tightly for a wild ride”week
This week was one to “hang on tightly for a wild ride” and try to enjoy the ride as the disasters happened.
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A shattered cell phone
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A broken cooktop
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A computer not working
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2 now defunct microwaves
I’m hoping we are at the end of this ride. The phone has been replaced for a very small fee, courtesy of Apple. A new cooktop sits here in the entry way awaiting the installer. The first microwave died after many good years of use. We went to use it and it was too tired to move. So we brought in the other one which was given to us several years ago and had seen little use. It worked for 2 days. After an on-line search yesterday, I found one to purchase at Amazon – yes it did cost $13.00 more than if I went out and picked one up. However, it was snowing in the morning and they delivered it in about 6 hours to the front door. We were willing to pay for that convenience. And so far it works wonderfully.
The computer was quite another story. I spent Saturday night and most of yesterday, until midnight, working with the Geeksquad on-line to get it back up and running. We don’t know why it misbehaved, but after all that time, and 3 different “geeks” on their end, it is up and working again sans my email list of addresses. Their advice is to get a different email program before it happens again as it has been happened to others as well.
God has blessed us that we are not usually big spenders, grow much of our own food, and only buy necessary clothes, so we had the savings to handle these issues.
Look at this blessing that opened out of season. There is only one stem, but unexpected and we are enjoying it
Today, we went to exercise, bought grain for the sheep, and took a nap. Maybe tomorrow, we can get back on track. It’s time again to clean surfaces that attract “stuff”
More canning and knitting
More canning today – the beans – pinto, great northern, and garbanzos – for now are finished. And while waiting on the pressure canner,
I did more knitting on these socks. I am now ready to start the heel flap. But if tomorrow is a nice day, I’ll be outside.
Just look at the beautiful sunset the Lord prepared for us to enjoy as we were preparing the sheep for the night. There are massive benefits to caring for animals.
Rain – canning – internet buying
All this rain has given me time to work in the kitchen. Between last night (cooked beans) and today, I have cooked and canned 4 dozen pints of beans. It is wonderful to be able to just open a can of beans and heat them or not to add to a meal. I still want to can another 3 dozen pints of beans and energy permitting, some potatoes. Potato soup is so tasty when it’s cold outside. I could do more if I had another pressure cooker, but then I’d have more to store. It takes about half an hour to heat up, 75 minutes to process and another half hour to remove the pressure, so there is a lot of time in each kettle full. And most of the time, we are very close by so that we can keep the temperature and pressure where it should be.
Today, I also rescued from the refrigerator a number of red and orange peppers which I cut up and froze. And yes, I pushed the date just a bit on both items. It is nearly the 12th month! And I like to know when I processed them so I can use the older items first.
I also had a bit of time, so I removed all the stitches from the quilt that I felt needed to be removed. I’m very happy that is not a huge quilt. Now to start again on the quilting.
This package arrived – wonder how that happened. There are now 27 wash clothes waiting to be made. Or maybe these will turn into something else. This is the problem with internet. It is too easy to spend money. No, it wasn’t necessary, but the price was right and I can use it for small, easy projects. I did manage to ignore most of the weekend ads. However, I ran out of empty pint jars and went to buy some, when what to my wondering eyes, one of my enabling friends posted that Target was having a sale on Ball jars. I did order what I needed and will pick them up at the store tomorrow. I also need some ink for my printer, but that is not on sale this weekend. Therefore, I have not purchased that, yet. So really I have done very good at ignoring all those temptations that have been flowing into my email box. The ads will be coming in for awhile yet, so I still have to be careful. How about you? What tempted you that you yielded to?
Autumn quilt finish + welcoming kitchen
The Autumn quilt is finished (except I for the hanging sleeve). Actually, I’m not sure if I’ll put the sleeve on, so maybe it is finished. It’s wonderful to have a finish as it has been awhile.
I wanted to share my daughter’s kitchen with you so you can see how much room she has after her remodel last summer. Isn’t all that space wonderful when one has guests? And it is so inviting, all the guests hang out here.
I hope each of you had a fulfilling Thanksgiving, a wonderful Black Friday and will have a most needed Sabbath this weekend.
Gray skies and errands
Gray skies and our errands started here. This is a marvelous store in Puyallup, WA. They have everything to make your dreams come true and I have to be very, VERY careful when I step inside.
Somehow (probably from a few escapes it made over the years, my bobbin holder was out of round and I had to acquire a new one at the cost of $75.00. These things are not inexpensive!
From there we found our way to the post office and the library. Then back home to a very late lunch. DH wanted something raw. So I found these Brussels sprouts and red pepper in the refrigerator, thinly sliced both and put a bit of vinegar over them for a colorful salad. And now to remove a few threads from yesterday’s mishap.
Garden started to bed
We started putting the garden to bed for the winter. We don’t put all of it to bed as there is still food to eat throughout the winter. But as we clean a bed, we put ground cloth down to save ourselves some spring time work. First we picked this large bowl of peppers (with more ripening) and a few salad greens.
We found not only greens, but surprisingly one small head of cauliflower, some onions and carrots.
This single bed is now waiting for spring time. It looks so clean and nice. Since we don’t have heat in here, it will wait until March to get some new growth. The raspberries were also cut back and will be replanted this spring.
Seed inventory – ready for January catalogues
Today I spent some time doing my seed inventory. Some I have left over, some were from an end of the year sale and some I saved from my own plantings. It seems January 1, the seed catalogs start finding their way into my physical mailbox as well as my computer mailbox. And their offerings are so pretty that I tend to forget that I have any seeds at all and then ….you know the rest of the story. So this year, I’ll be ready. I don’t need many seeds – only perhaps some paste tomatoes and some foods I haven’t grown before. I still need to decide how much of each to plant as this year we will be planting for two families. I need to find out what they want to plant – this is new for them. The other thing for which I want to be ready this year is to replant the spring crops in the late summer again – things like broccoli and cauliflower. It seems we use a lot of them so it would be nice to have extra in the freezer.
This was the largest pumpkin we harvested this year and was too large for the oven without cutting it into several pieces. It baked for 4 hours and tomorrow the plan is I will put it in the food processor, freeze some and make some pies. However, when I have to spend 1.5 hours walking to get my steps done, and go to the gym to maintain the ability to do what I want to do, and then a birthday lunch, I’m not going to guarantee anything else except a rest will get done. These dark, rainy days – which I know we need – do not increase my energy level.
Mock Croc socks, pumpkin soup and new puppy
These are the Mock Crock socks started October 9. Am I really that slow? I have about 4″ of the foot done, so I’m hoping that another week will see these finished. For those of you doing several pairs of socks each month, what are you doing? How do you knit so fast? The detail on this pair of socks is Cascade Farms Heritage Paints and these are hand painted. The pattern is a Knit Picks (free) pattern. I like how the yarn works up in this easy pattern.
Isn’t this one of the cutest puppies going? She is also a sweetheart who thinks everyone should pick her up and love her back. At 8 weeks of age, she is the newest member of the neighborhood and no, she’s not ours. She belongs to the neighbors next door.
Yes, I did get a menu done for a week and a half, which will help me get food on the table without too much thinking. Today we had pumpkin soup, based on a recipe on the Territorial Seed Company.
Pumpkin soup recipe:
I started with a 3.5# sweet pie pumpkin, cleaned out the seeds and strings, then salted the inside. I then blended 3/4 cup of cashews with a quart of water and 3 cloves of garlic plus a teaspoon of ground sage. I put this in the pumpkin. All went into the oven in a casserole dish for 1.5 hours on 375 degrees. The dish was in case the pumpkin didn’t hold up. It was collapsing as I removed it. So I skinned the pumpkin, put the milk and pumpkin in the blender until smooth and served. It was a good thick soup and was enough for the two of us for 3 meals. I served it with a salad. It was so easy and so good, it will be served again and again this winter. The plan was to have the pumpkin be a fancy serving bowl, but it didn’t hold up. Maybe if I had cooked it a bit less or if I had had a larger pumpkin, it might have held up better. – I don’t know. I am sure one could use other milks with this.
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Organization and getting done what is important
Organization is usually very easy for me as I like to organize and can think better when things are organized. One issue comes when other people in my life get involved. If I have to leave something unfinished or someone moves things, does not put them away, etc. it is easy for me to just give up on organizing.
Another issue comes when I have overloaded myself which is common. Right now the sewing table and the ironing board as well as other surfaces are covered as I try to decide which pieces I want to cut out for this quilt. When the cutting is finished, I can put much of this fabric back and clear surfaces.
That being said, the following blog, by Sherri, on time organization came to my attention today. http://www.aquiltinglife.com/2016/11/time-management-for-quilters.html It is very much worth taking a moment to read. If I actually did #2 and limited myself to high priority each week, I would feel less scattered.
Then there is #3, meal planning for 2 weeks. I fallen so far down on that. Today, I went to the pantry,
which is well stocked this time of year and couldn’t find a thing I wanted to fix for lunch which is shameful in view of how full it is. We ended up having roasted potatoes, roasted squash and kale. It was taking time to think that was throwing me – (and some don’t even have that privilege). Had I taken the time to create a menu, it would have been easier.
#6 Being realistic in how long something will take me, is something with which I will always struggle, especially when I don’t count interruptions into the plan.
#8 is absolutely true. If I do that, then I don’t waste those little moments. This week my knitting has been sitting out, so that if I have 5 minutes, it is easy to pick up and knit a row.