#TeamLeahBean 2019 5K...Completed.

Every September I look forward to a Facebook invitation to participate in the #TeamLeahBean 5K Run for Rett Syndrome.  I usually just barely make it to sign up for the "event" and buy the tee shirt before the deadline closes...but I think I have done it every year.  I might have missed the first one.

Well, October ends today.  This year I decided to try early in the month to see what I was up against here in the hot humidity.  That first time just about killed me.  My feet took several days to recover.  The actual mileage that day was 3.4 miles since I did not know mileage here in the complex.

To do the "real" walk (I never run.  Besides actually killing me, it would be so scary for the people who saw me try to run...!) I knew I had to do a little training.  Many days this month I have gone out and have walked from half a mile up to a little over 2 miles.  (Dear One has a 4.5 bike ride he does every day.)  I started keeping track of the mileage for the various routes I would walk so I would be sure to walk enough on the given day.

Today I did my real 5K walk...3.2 miles.  It has been over an hour since I got back and I feel really good.  Also virtuous!  I am so grateful to make this tiny sacrifice to help find a cure for this syndrome.  Leah is an amazing girl.  It would be wonderful if science could find a solution. 

This is me, moments after completing the walk.  You can tell that I was pretty hot and tired.  You will be surprised to know that the shirt fits much better this year...not so much the sausage look as in years past. I will hope for even better next year.  Or even a smaller shirt!

More Gelli Printing, Shared This Time!

This Gelli printing is really getting addicting and in such a great way.  I have only been using red, yellow, blue, and occasionally white.  Maybe I will get some other colors soon.

When my sister was here we had a great time, even though short, doing Gelli printing.  We used inexpensive cold press watercolor paper as well as 65-pound and 110-pound card stock.  They all worked well.



This is a print that my sister did not like and left with me. I love it.  It is really so interesting how paper, a little acrylic paint, and a rubber brayer can make a print you can just love. 

This particular print was made on watercolor paper.

Deck Garden Progress

The summer has been good and bad for the deck container garden.  Right now things are looking pretty good, except for the tomatoes.  The zucchini bit the dust a couple weeks ago.  The tomato does not seem like it will produce fruit.

Am not sure if this video will work but...here is the current garden situation.

We have had lots of basil for pesto plus spearmint to put in lemonade.  Really so delicious that way.

So the question is: why are the plants so happy now?  We have just had a week with LOTS of rain, and still warm temperatures.  I think this proves that I was not watering them enough...

Interesting Project!

My sister and I had a wonderful time together. We filled every possible moment while she and her husband were visiting.  She had come with some projects on her mind to do.  One of them involved the sewing machine.

One of her grandsons turned one year old this week.  He had been sitting in a car seat with a pink cover.  She wanted him to have a more boyish cover.  So...we made that new cover!  It turned out!!

We worked together planning, measuring, measuring and planning again, then at least one more time.  Finally we cut.  There were so many things to think about...but look at that cover!  It was constructed in two pieces.  Notice that the anchors are all pointing in the same direction.  

This project was somewhat taxing for the sewing machine but we did it!  Just like Dora the Explorer...we DID it!!  So exciting, and when she got home she found that it worked perfectly.

Probably the smartest thing about this was the jersey fabric she got to cover the seat.  Woven fabric would have been a serious nightmare.

We are both really happy with how this turned out.  Having said that, we are NOT going into business to make these.  This was a once-in-a-lifetime project.  Thank you very much.

Munchie Monday: Instant Pot Pumpkin Cheesecake

My sister sent me a link to a "Keto Pumpkin Cheesecake" which, if you used real sugar, sounded like it was worth a try.  So, early morning on the day she and her husband were to arrive for a visit I leaped out of bed (more or less!) and made the cheesecake.

Since I have misplaced the address I will just tell you what I did.  It actually worked.  What is more, it calls for only a very little pumpkin which I thought was ridiculous, or at least, I thought one would need much more pumpkin for a pumpkin flavored cheesecake.  I was wrong!  It was perfect.

Instant Pot Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust
1/2 cup coconut flour (the original recipe called for almond flour but we did not have any on hand)
2 Tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
pinch salt
1 1/2 Tablespoons butter, melted

Cheesecake
12 ounces room temperature cream cheese
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
6 Tablespoons canned pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (I made my own with cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg at room temperature

In a small bowl whisk together the crust ingredients except the melted butter.  When nicely mixed, stir in the butter and press into the bottom of a 7" springform pan. I used Fat Daddio's Round Cheesecake pans.  No, I don't get a commission but this is what I used.  Set crust aside.

In a stand or other mixer bowl put all the filling ingredients except the egg and beat until completely combined.  Add egg and mix until smooth.  Pour on top of the crust in the cheesecake pan and spread all the way to the edges.

Now comes the most important part:  Take a large sheet of aluminum foil, place the pan of cheesecake-to-be on top and snugly bring the foil up the pan.  Take a double sheet of kitchen paper towel and fold over the top of the pan.  Don't let the towel touch the cheesecake batter.  Fold the foil over the top then take ANOTHER sheet of foil and place it over the top of the pan and fold down firmly over the sides.  The idea is to have the pan completely covered so it is protected from water and steam.

Place the rack that came with your Instant Pot in the bottom of the inner liner bowl, put in the correct amount of water for your Instant Pot (1 -1 1/2 cups water) then carefully place your foil-wrapped pan on the rack.  Set the pot to cook on HIGH for 35 minutes.  When done LET RELEASE  COMPLETELY by natural release.  Carefully lift out the cheesecake pan, unwrap it, admire it, then let it sit on your counter until room temperature.  At this point it needs to be refrigerated for 4-6 hours or overnight.

Pumpkin Cheesecake still in Fat Daddio's cheesecake pan, but ready to eat!

When you dig in, you will enjoy it.

You can pour caramel sauce over the top if you either had some in your cupboard OR you successfully made some of your own.  You could also make whipped cream with cinnamon and pipe onto the top.  We did neither of these.  We just ate it naked.  It was fine.

NOTE:  I used our 8-quart Instant Pot.  Instead of using the trivet in the bottom of the pan I put the steamer basket in the Pot liner bowl and placed the cheesecake pan inside that.  In my IP, it worked.  It would not have worked in a 6-quart Instant Pot to do it that way.  It will be a little tricky to get the pan out...

Food Friday: Quick and Easy (?) Caramel Sauce

My sister and her husband are coming to visit this weekend.  I am so excited!  I made an Instant Pot Pumpkin Cheesecake early this morning. It is chilling in the refrigerator and it looks like it might be good.

Yesterday I saw a "quick and easy caramel sauce" that used the microwave and sweetened condensed milk so, as I had two cans of different brands of sweetened condensed milk to try for something or other, I decided to use one of them.

The video online said to put the sweetened condensed milk in a jar and cook for five minutes in the microwave. I thought I would avoid having it boil up and spew out over the top so I only had the jar half full.  This is the results:

The jar is virtually, empty with milk around the outside and with the turntable completely covered, as was under the turntable.  So I washed out the microwave.  My sister is coming, after all, and I do want the place to look nice.  The microwave was already in pretty good shape since Dear One keeps up with it.  Now it has been thoroughly cleaned.

It was a mystery to me why this happened so I looked at the can.  It was actually Condensed Milk Creamer, not Condensed Milk.  It was made with skim milk, sugar, palm oil, and other ingredients.  No wonder it was a disaster. It was not even a real thing!

So I tried again with the second can.  Which really was Sweetened Condensed Milk with only milk and sugar in it.  I had high hopes.  I also put this batch in a quart jar, just in case.

When it had been cooking for a little over four minutes I heard a snapping, crackling sound and rushed over to see what was up.

This is what was up:

Oh, no!  And no wonder the first batch flew up over the top of the pint jar it was in if this batch got up to the top of a quart jar.

Just in case it was not really spoiled/burned to a crisp, I scraped it out of the jar into a bowl.  It is a nasty mess, but it does not taste burned.  (Once I went to a potluck lunch when I was working at Dartmouth College.  Someone had brought a flan with the caramelized sugar really burned.  It was so sad because the flan was delicious until you took that first spoonful and tasted the burned sugar.)

So, I have learned a few things. Maybe.

1.  READ THE LABELS!!!  REALLY READ THE LABELS.  Success is much more likely if you start with the ingredients you are expecting.

2.  Don't trust what you see on the internet.  Especially if it is a short (30-second!) video with only a little text giving you the crux of the matter.  That crux is not really all you need to know.

3.  Don't imagine because one person's microwave takes five minutes to turn Sweetened Condensed Milk into creamy caramel sauce that your microwave will take the same amount of time.  If I had had a little more time I would have purchased yet a third can of the Eagle Brand this time and tried again. 

Instead of caramel sauce, I guess we will have whipped cream on the pumpkin cheesecake.  Unless I have some actually caramel sauce hidden in the cupboard...

Successful (Inside) Garden

Not too long ago I was watching a free video (all of them are free, actually) on Nutritionfacts.org.  In this video Dr. Greger was talking about broccoli.  He shared the science about how valuable broccoli is to our health.  He went on to show that though broccoli is important, broccoli sprouts are many many times more protective.

I am somewhat a sucker for the science. The possibility that something that is pretty easy to do and not terribly costly and is very health-promoting makes me want to take steps to enjoy that produce.

So, I found online the sprouting screens for wide-mouth canning jars.  We ordered a pound of organic broccoli seeds.  We started growing broccoli sprouts.  We are now using them in salads every day.  I think Dr. Greger just eats straight broccoli sprouts as his salad but we mix them into a green salad.  Probably with vinegar of some nature on them...!

This is what our indoor garden looks like today.

What we do:

 I "plant" 1 1/2 Tablespoons broccoli seeds in a wide-mouth quart canning jar every Thursday night and every Sunday night.  I add a couple of inches of water to the jars at night so the seeds will soak well then next morning I let the water all drain out of the jar through the screen in the cover.  I set the jars up so they can keep draining.  I rinse the seeds twice a day.

 The jar on the left has been harvested twice...i.e. I have pulled out sprouts for two different salads.

Tastes fine.  The possibility that this will help our arthritic joints and other chronic problems brought on by inflammation makes it an easy gardening project to do.  Also the most successful!

More House Tour

When we were looking at houses the first house we actually went into was a beautiful house whose occupants were away for a while.  The house was JAMMED FULL of beautiful things.  It was actually impossible to see the walls.  In the kitchen was a fabulous cast iron baker's rack with many small appliances on it.  There was no other place in that huge kitchen for these appliances to live.  The counters were completely full. I do not know how the lady of the house actually did any cooking as there were virtually no empty spaces on which to work.  They even had one of those large carnival popcorn popping machines taking up much of one counter!

When we chose our house I immediately began looking for baker's racks.  In order to have room to operate in the kitchen the small appliances needed to be put away.  One of the glitches that resulted from our son building our beautiful kitchen cabinets in Vermont is that I became accustomed to nice large cupboards where I could stack cans of say, diced tomatoes, on top of cans of perhaps black beans.  In our cupboards here the shelves are too short for two cans to be stacked unless it is a can of tomato paste on top of a can of beans.  We also do not have a big walk in pantry here...just a quite-small closet with shelves but it works pretty well.  Some kitchen things live in the garage on the rolling racks out there which we brought from our cellar.  Whoever thought of bringing those was brilliant.  It was not me. I would have purchased some new ones here.  Except that "someone" did not think that was a good idea, plus they don't make them like they used to!

Anyway, we finally found an acceptable baker's rack and waited a good long time for it to be delivered.  After it was delivered, I filled it right up!  When I need an appliance I carry it into the kitchen and put it on whatever counter I want to operate from.  There are lots of electrical outlets so I have freedom of choice.

The dehydrator on the bottom shelf is nearly invisible due to poor photography.  The air fryer lives permanently on the baker's rack because it is used every day for our potatoes.  The other appliances get carried into the kitchen.  When I get old and decrepit I will need to get a rolling cart to put them on to get them into the kitchen.  Some of these appliances are a bit heavy.

Looking at the picture as I am writing this post I realize it would have been a great idea to tidy things up, but...well, I get excited about things and just go with them whether they put me in a good light or not!  Those who know me, already know....

Knitting...The Gnomes Again

Last year I began knitting a batch of gnomes. In the middle of knitting them, I shifted gears and still did not get them completed.

Tonight I finished them as part of my Choice and Accountability project.  I am so happy they are done.  I love the look of them.  Even with no faces.  I do not really like any of the gnome faces I have seen.  Or rather, I have no confidence that I can create a believable gnome face,  so I pulled the hats down over their eyes.  Anyone looking at them can create in their mind a gnome face....

They seem rather cute to me and I am glad I started them, and how have finished them.

Now on to the next unfinished project...

Munchie Monday: Quick and Easy Pumpkin Waffles

Being on food email lists can be a bit of a problem.  Websites continually send me emails with suggestions for new food to make.  I like to make new food.  I keep thinking that I will make a recipe just the way it is written, but somehow, I usually don't.  This time it was a good thing.

Being fall there are tons of pumpkin recipes coming in right now.  One that came last week was for pumpkin waffles.  Waffles!!!  I never thought of making pumpkin waffles.  We have a waffle iron that is mostly on its last legs but still works so I decided to give pumpkin waffles a try.  I won't send a link to a different recipe since I made so many changes to it.   The main things that were the same is that there were dry ingredients and wet ingredients and I mixed them together.

This is the recipe I made:

Quick and Easy Pumpkin Waffles

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3 eggs
1 1/3 cups almond milk
3 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 of a 15-ounce can puréed pumpkin--about 1 cup or less

Start your waffle iron heating.

In a large mixing bowl mix together all the dry ingredients.  When they are TOTALLY mixed together,  make a well in the middle of the mixture and add all the wet ingredients.  Stir well with a spatula or wooden spoon.  When completely combined set aside for a minute.

Spray the pre-heated waffle iron with cooking spray of some nature.  Using a 1/2 cup scoop, put one scoop batter in each of the four wells and close the cover over the batter.  Set the timer to AT LEAST four minutes but better yet six minutes.  All this is assuming you have a deep Belgian waffle maker.  We have a Krups we got at Deseret Industries two years ago.  If you have a different waffle iron you will probably need to adjust the amount of batter per well.  I hate over-flowing batter.  These did not.

After four minutes the waffles are cooked but if you like crispy waffles, let them cook longer.  We will probably make these again later in the week and will cook them about eight minutes.

They were really very good.  Dear One was not impressed with the idea of pumpkin waffles but he ate his two then had another.  Then had part of yet another...I guess they were not so bad.

If you want to make them,  you can change the seasoning any way you like.  You can also go to the work of separating the eggs and whipping the heck out of the whites before folding them into the batter...but these were quick and easy!

Food Friday: Banana Zucchini Muffins

Yesterday I saw some muffins that Sherry M made and for which she posted a picture on Facebook.  They looked excellent.  I asked if it was a secret recipe and she immediately posted it.  I wanted to make those muffins right away.

Today I went to the Food Lion on my way home and picked up several beautiful zucchinis that were in the front of the store, right behind the hot table that sits there tempting me with Southern Fried Chicken and other delicious-looking fried foods that I almost always manage to avoid...but it is a sore temptation.  Food Lion is cruel to place that hot table at the very front of the store.  In my opinion...

The zucchinis were nice and fresh so I got enough to make the muffins plus some zoodles which we will have tomorrow for supper.

Here is Sherry's recipe:

Zucchini Banana Muffins by Sherry W

½ cup butter, melted
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 medium banana, mashed
1 ½ cups grated zucchini
1 ½ cups AP flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Add sugars, egg, and vanilla to melted butter.

Stir in mashed banana and grated zucchini.

Stir in flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Divide batter into muffin cups, and bake for about 20 minutes.

The only things I did differently were that I added the last of our freezer walnuts, chopped, then in the second silicon pan of muffins I added chocolate chips.  Dear One feels chocolate chips only belong in Chocolate Chip Cookies...so tomorrow when he goes out to serve with the missionary elders I will bag up those chocolate chip banana zucchini muffins for the Elders.  If there are any still there when morning comes.  

As you can see, I put them into silicon pans.  The idea I am working from recently is that the less added fat we eat, the better for our health.  There is no need to grease silicon.  The only glitch in that system is that you/I need to remember that the food needs to sit in the pan for fifteen minutes AT LEAST after removing from the oven to cool down.  If you do not wait, then only part of the baked treat will come out of the muffin cup.  This is most annoying...and not because of the pans but because I forget to let them sit.

You will notice that I cooked the muffins in the silicon pan but put the pans on a cookie sheet to slide into the oven.  ALWAYS use a pan under silicon unless you love messes to clean up when you try to put the floppy pan in the oven by itself!  That is my experience, anyway.

These muffins are quick, easy, and so moist and delicious. (And who doesn't have a banana that is too ripe to enjoy eating by itself and just is calling out to be in a recipe like this?!) I only ate one and had to remove myself from the kitchen immediately or fall prey to temptation again...

My Effort At Bringing Color Into Our Lives

This year many people are posting gorgeous photographs they have taken in Vermont and New Hampshire with the autumn leaves.  The leaves seem particularly spectacular this year for some reason.  I am so grateful for the gorgeous pictures on Facebook.  You photographers really know your stuff, AND you know where to go to find your subjects.  Thanks so much.

We don't seem to have any leaves like that here in South Carolina, at least where we are. I wanted to try my hand at making Gelli prints that were planned rather than just taking what I got. I hoped to make at least the impression of fall colors.  This is the first time I have tried this.  The first one seemed to work!

This is how it looks sitting on the computer keyboard.  I used red, yellow, and a tiny bit of blue to make the green splotches.  I am pretty happy with it.

Garden Failure...

This is what we found this morning in our garden on the deck:

This is a very sad picture.  The beautiful blossoms all disappeared and the whole plant has bitten the dust.  We have no idea what caused this.  Dear One says that is one plant we don't need to try again....

There were many beautiful squash blossoms though they were all male blossoms so there was no chance of produce but we did have high hopes for a few weeks. At least I did because I love zucchini.  I love zucchini noodles and I REALLY love zucchini sautéed with onion, even just water sautéed.  So yummy.    Well, either the Farmer's Market or Piggly Wiggly will be our friends in this matter.

Women Heart Attacks

Recently my knitting hero, Cheryl Brunette, sent me an email.  Not just me but all her people.

Cheryl has just had a surprise heart attack and needed major surgery to stay alive and wanted to share a video about women and heart attacks with everyone she cares about.  Since women often  do not present with the same heart attack symptoms that men do, I want to share it with everyone so we can be aware.

I think it is called A Typical Heart.  Please watch it and be warned.  Heart attacks can come very early for women.  I just started attending a class at the YMCA and the woman who is teaching the class had three heart attacks when she was 38 years old!  Thirty-eight!  She has lost more than one hundred pounds since then and has changed her life. 

After learning of my dear friend's cancer and now this heart potentiality, I am now working on a new body much more significantly than I have in the past.  I hope any of you who are lazing around, eating, drinking, and being merry with the standard American fast-food-grease-filled-animal-product-filled diet, stressing out and not taking time to smell the roses will consider eating more vegetables and fruits in their original package and avoid the problems that come from processed foods.  There is not one person who I know that I would like to see cross the veil early.

Thanks for listening.

Munchie Monday: Dr. Praeger Veggie Burger and Oatmeal Pancake Bun

Well, doesn't this sound interesting!  In the interests of getting away from bread which has a bad effect on our scales, and probably our inwards as well, I thought of using #Life is NOYOKE's oatmeal pancakes for buns for a Dr. Praeger veggie burger.

This is what we had for lunch this weekend!  It was not bad.  Dear One did say that if he had a choice, he likes hamburger buns...but then, he is not a very adventuresome eater!

He did manage to choke down two of them, though!  I thought that was pretty good.

You can find the recipe for the oatmeal pancakes here.

The only things I did differently were:

1. I left out the dried dates because I did not want this to be sweet, and

2. Our aquafaba had been in the refrigerator a little too long so I mixed 1 Tablespoon of ground flax seed with 4 Tablespoons of water and let it sit while I put the other ingredients into the blender jar. That is more water than you usually use to make a "flax egg" but I wanted the batter to be a little wetter than Lenny's recipe turns out.

This worked great.

Food Friday: Swedish Apple Pie Again

Three years ago I blogged about a wonderful recipe:  Swedish Apple Pie.  This recipe is a treat to me, in part because two dear friends separately gave me the recipe.  Each time I make it, I think lovingly of them and am so grateful for their friendship even though one of them has crossed the veil.

This time I made it slightly differently.  Because I was concerned about how well glass would travel from Vermont to South Carolina, I left most of our glass kitchen things in Vermont.  For the most part this has not been a problem!  However, when it came to making a pie for company, I was at a loss: no pie dish.  SO...what to do?  I went to the freezer section and purchased a frozen pie crust in one of those cheap-y aluminum pie tins for this pie.  (AFTERTHOUGHT: now is the time to replace the glass pie dish!!)

To make the Swedish Apple Pie you do not normally use a pie crust.  The recipe itself makes the crust somehow.

The method is to peel and slice apples and fill the pie dish 2/3 full of apples.  Some apples are supposedly better than other apples for pies, but I just use what I have.  This time it was McIntosh apples.  Some recipes call for hard apples, or rather, apples that remain pretty hard/firm when they are cooked.  Those are not my favorite. I don't mind if the apples disintegrate into tasty apple-y mush, which is more or less what Macs do.

After the pie dish is full of apples you sprinkle on top 1/4 chopped walnuts then 1 teaspoon cinnamon followed by 1 Tablespoon of sugar which does not seem like much but is perfect. Set aside while you mix the other ingredients.

In a small bowl place 1 cup flour, 1 cup granulated sugar, 3/4 cup melted BUTTER, one egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla if you like vanilla.  Mix well then spread over the top of the apples/walnuts/cinnamon/sugar.  It is a bit tricky (sometimes) to spread the topping evenly.  It will still taste good if it is not perfectly evenly spread.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 35 minutes or more. I am pretty sure I cooked this one for quite a bit longer.  I just kept checking.  It wants to be nicely browned and not at all jiggly in the center.

Having the crust in the bottom of the pie pan was okay but it did make the top crust around the edges of the pan a little bit thick.  I only had one piece and thought it was fine but each piece Dear One eats, he leaves a semi-circle of that thick-ish crust on his plate or puts it down the sink.  Thus, I gather it is better to just make this pie as it is written, without a crust already in the pan...

Preparations for Month's End!

Today we went to the temple.   Besides the glorious spiritual lift we get from serving in the temple, we also were close to Costco.  I know, I know, from the sublime to the ridiculous, but that is what we did.

This is especially ridiculous because Dear One is so concerned that we are ready for Halloween. In Vermont we rarely had any children visit with their bags except our grandchildren.  Here, we are told, we should expect a mountain of children since we live in the sticks of Sumter, even though we are in a housing development.  Consequently, families who live further out drive to the development and drop off there children for candy.

We are ready! 

Dear One wants to sit out on our front "porch"--a little space in front of our door, maybe 3 feet wide--just enough to put our wicker couch on and have our feet mostly hang over the edge--and by sitting there we can greet the trick-or-treaters who come rather than having to keep opening the door.  I am hoping that the cobwebs above are gone and that there will be no mosquitos that night...!

Recycling at its Best!

It turns out that Dear One was not actually enamored of the giant blue Bartlettyarns afghan I made to celebrate the addition on our home in Vermont and the wonderful new great room with queen-sized-hide-a-bed sofa so long ago.  This turned out to be in one of the boxes we brought to South Carolina.  It seemed like a perfect project for recycling.  There is so much yarn in the afghan I should be able to make a sweater even for myself...

Because this was made back in the days when my hands still agreed with me and crocheting, to recycle this yarn I just had to find the end.  There were only four corners to try and, as luck would have it, I found the end at the first try.

As I started unwinding, I also began winding onto the back of one of our dining room chairs.  I did this over a period of about a month, until I didn't think I could take another moment, plus we had company coming for lunch and I wanted the job done by then.

You can see why I wanted to complete this part of the project before company came to lunch...!

After stopping the unwinding process I place ties around the huge skein of yarn in four places then dropped the work into the sink which I had filled with lukewarm water. I let the yarn soak for fifteen minutes or so then let the water out and squeezed the yarn a bit.

Out in the garage I found a walking stick and a piece of 2 by 6 I had pilfered from a trash bin at one of the building sites here...same thing we have under the "planters" on the deck!

After hanging on the deck for a week the yarn was mostly dry so I brought it into the house to get ready for the next part of the process: winding the yarn into a cake.  Well, it will be several cakes because there is so much yarn.

One note, there was still enough of the yarn in afghan form to have a lovely lap blanket so it is folded up and placed on the love-seat in the living room.  Assuming some day it might be cool enough for a bit of covering...

Somewhat Quick and Easy Sewing Project

We have been using paper towels as napkins since we got here.  The time had come to change that.  The cloth napkins I saw in the store were not what I wanted so...I visited Heirloom Child Quilt Shop!  That store has been staring me down every time I drove by since the first time we were in Sumter back in June.  Finally I stopped in.

The ladies in there,  both the proprietress and the customers, were so very nice.  I was directed to their sale credenza where I found some perfectly acceptable fabric.  I got four one-yard cuts and while she was cutting I saw MUCH MORE fabric I wanted to buy.  You can imagine how hard it was to let it go, but I did it...walking out with only that purchase.

Once home I washed and dried the fabric then ironed it flat. Because not all things are currently in a state of perfect organization, I had to use my paper cutting shears for the first few cuts.  Soon I made a more concerted search for the Ginghers then made much cleaner nicer cuts for the remaining pieces.

First cut was across the folded and pressed horizontal line.

Next I cut off one selvedge on each piece.

Third I folded up one corner to the opposite corner making a square, which I cut out.  Now I had a template and cut the other 15 squares which were approximately 18 inches by 18 inches.

At this point I changed my mind:  I had planned to have the two sides of each napkin to be different but decided instead to have them both the same, so I laid out 8 napkins with right sides together then stitched around all four edges leaving a 2-3-inch section unstitched for turning right side out.

After the stitching I turned the napkins right side out, pulled out the corners to some extent, and pressed the edges as flat as possible.

Now came the tedious, eye-opening part: closing up the openings! I say eye-opening because this did not used to be a difficult job.  Now I fought with the needle opening and had to move up to a larger-eyed needle which was not ideal but necessary.  The thread was some European thread which had no body so it was not the easiest to get through even the large eye, but did finally work.  It turns out my close-work is nowhere nearly as attractive as it once was, and it was never great, at that!  Well, I did get them all closed.

Napkins ready for close-work/handwork closures

At that point Dear One asked if he could turn off the electricity to the workroom to install a fan light for me.  Heck Yeah!!!!  So we prepared to use the napkins with no top-stitching.

The fan light project was completed VERY FAST (less than one afternoon!!) and now I have a heavenly fan to run in the room.  Even though the easy chair is in Dear One's room so we can sit companionably together in the evening and watch various tv programs, I still like the workroom better for sitting when it is just myself.  So glorious to have a constant breeze available.

Anyway, the next day I did actually top-stitch around the edges and now feel like the napkins are complete.  I am edgy to go back and get some more fabric but I think I will wait for a bit on that!!  Even in the sale shelving, the fabric was not cheap. (Well, that was the point of shopping there in the first place: I hate cheap fabric.) However, the napkins should last for years as opposed to other places in town where I could buy fabric and make napkins that would probably last for a year or two.

Munchie Monday: Homemade Hoagie Rolls

After we invited the senior missionaries to have lunch with us, I asked Dear One what he thought we should have to eat.  He was thoughtful for a bit then said, "Hoagies."  He really does enjoy them.  We have not been to Subway in ages so I can understand why that would come to his mind!  So...immediately I began looking for recipes for hoagie buns.

This is the recipe that I used.

Homemade Hoagie Buns

1 cup warm water
1 Tablespoon active dry yeast
1 1/2 Tablespoon sugar
3/4 cup warm milk
1 large egg, room temperature
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup Vital Wheat gluten
4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt

Place a mixing bowl on a kitchen scale and set to zero. Add 1/2 cup vital wheat to this mixing bowl then add flour until you get to 23 ounces on the scale.  Remove bowl from scale and add sugar, salt and yeast to the flour and vital wheat gluten.  Whisk well until completely mixed together.

In a large measuring cup add the milk, water, olive oil, and egg and gently whisk to combine.

Put the wet mixture in your Bosch or other stand mixer if you are that fortunate, then start the mixer and add the flour mixture.  Mix, using the dough hook, until the dough comes together in a "ball" and cleans the sides of the bowl.  At this point let knead for 8 minutes or so.

If you do not have a stand mixer, place the flour mixture in the bottom of a large bowl then pour in the wet ingredients and stir until all the ingredients and completely combined using a long-handled wooden spoon.  When combined, put onto an oiled counter and knead for 10 minutes, until smooth and very elastic.

In both cases, once kneading is completed, cover bowl and set aside at room temperature for 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in bulk.  Remove from bowl and divide into 10 rolls of about 4 ounces each.  Roll up tightly into 6" long rolls and place on a Silpat or parchment lined pan and let rise for an hour or until doubled again.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Just before  placing pan or pans in oven, beat one egg with 1 tablespoon water and brush on tops of buns.  Finally, with a very sharp knife, make a 1/4 inch slash in each roll.

Place prepared rolls in oven.  Turn heat down to 375 degrees F.  Bake at 15-18 minutes .  The interior heat should be 195 degrees F. This is a great time to use that instant-read thermometer you have hanging out in the back of your kitchen tools drawer and which causes guilt for the money you spent on it.  Actually, taking the temperature of the rolls is a very good idea because if they are not quite cooked, they sort of glob together when you break them open with your fingers to eat one of them right out of the oven.

Let cool completely then slice before adding your favorite vegetables and condiment and meat/cheese if you must...!

Food Friday: Quick and Easy Instant Pot Macaroni and Cheese

Yes, yes!  You are right! What am I doing making macaroni and cheese if I am trying to be vegan?  Well,  I guess I am a flexible vegan...mostly vegan but sometimes things come up that call for an animal food.  This time it was a nice thing to do for Dear One plus we are having lunch guests and this is not "weird food" which Dear One kindly begged me not to make...

In your instant pot place:
1 quart chicken or vegetable broth
1 pound dry elbow macaroni
3 Tablespoons of butter, more or less

Put on the cover and set for 6 minutes on HIGH pressure.

Stay in the kitchen while the 6 minutes are cooking because it goes really fast.  While coming to temperature and cooking:

Shred 4 cups cheddar cheese of your choice
Shred 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Get out 1/2 cup sour cream
1-2 Tablespoons mustard of choice

The "of choice" mention is because I used extra sharp cheddar, something we have eaten for 46 years together.  I also used Dijon mustard, which is not something we have used a lot of but we had some I wanted to use up.

As soon as the 6 minutes are up, reduce heat INSTANTLY, remove cover and stir in the cheeses, sour cream and mustard and stir well.  Unplug the Instant Pot then put the cover back on to let it sit for 5 minutes.  Stir again and serve.

This is really tasty. I had a half cup and could easily have eaten a whole lot more.  Dear One found it "too spicy"...so be cautious!


It literally was about 30 minutes from the time I plugged in the Instant Pot until I served our plates.

Snake!!!

This morning I girded up my loins and went out for a walk. I told Dear One I was hoping it would be a long one since it was only 69 degrees F and I thought I could handle it.  I moved the car out of the garage, put the key to the car in my pocket, got my stroller with seat out of the garage, rolled down the garage door, and headed out.  It was about 8:30.

My plan was to walk out to the highway on Masters Drive then go out to the highway again via Talisker Drive, veer all the way past the SAFE Credit Union to Lewis Road then come back into the complex and walk each one of the streets until I got back home...hoping that I would have done a 5K's worth of walking to get me ready to do it again by the end of the month in honor of raising money for #TeamLeahBean and the fight for Rett Syndrome cure.

Not to bore you, but I did get around to most of the streets, twice being able to see our house from afar but not really having the option of completing the walk that way because of the heavy equipment working at the ends of both those roads getting ground ready for many more houses.  This property used to be a large golf course but now is a maze of houses, most of which are nice enough.

I had just gotten to the end of Nicholaus Street and was beginning to wear down, well, honestly, I had been done half an hour before but decided to keep walking.  The alternative was to bag it and call Dear One to come rescue me. I did not want to do that.

Anyway, at almost the very end of Nicholaus, there in the road was a very unpleasant sight:  a small (fortunately!) probably dead snake.  I was not sure if it was alive or dead but it was not very chipper.  I got past it and went around the other side of it then stopped to take picture. I wanted to know if it was a poisonous snake living very near us.  I hoped it was not a coral snake.  When I got home I took a moment to Google snakes in South Carolina.

My guess is that it was a scarlet king snake.  I did not look at the snakes page on Google long enough to see if it was poisonous because it REALLY creeped me out to see so many snake pictures.  Anyway,  I did walk a little faster for a bit, though how I managed that I don't know. I was just about dead myself! 

When I got back to the other end of Nicholaus and went one more street I found that I was in familiar territory again. I had passed the 3-mile mark (on MapMyWalk app who reports how far and how long which is what kept me moving forward) so when I saw Trevino Drive ahead I would like to say that I flew.  I didn't.  I could barely move.  I did keep at it, though.  The end was definitely in sight.

When I got back home I opened the car door so I could use the car remote to open the garage door, closed the car door and locked it, then went into the garage to park the stroller who really earned its pay this morning.  And was finally home.  In time to make breakfast before going off to have a mammo.  Fun stuff.

You may wonder why we keep the garage door closed, well, at the Emergency Preparedness Fair Dear One went to listen to the Sumter County Sheriff's Department representative who told us we need to keep all our doors shut and locked.  We had already been locking everything else, have done for years, but now the garage is always closed, too.

With good fortune there will be no more snakes...

House Tour: The Mantle

Several people have asked to see our home.  I have showed the guest room (twice!! face red, but just shows that I do not always check to see what I have previously written plus also that I forget who I tell what to!) so today I will show you part of the living room.  This room is also making progress.  There are still some paintings to hang but we are mostly done.

Only the mantle is in the picture so far since the pile of still-wrapped smaller paintings on the coffee table is not that attractive and does not need to be recorded for posterity...

The Savior print is so wonderful.  The bust of the Savior makes me so happy. It was a gift from some of our favorite people in the whole world.

The black-eyed Susan teapot and salt and pepper shakers are from my mother.  I am so happy they survived storage and then the trip to take their place on the mantle.  Next is a little yellow ramekin/pot that my mother collected from Quaker Oats boxes back in the very old days of my extreme youth. I remember her pulling them out of the box.  We were always happy with them.  This is the last surviving one, to my knowledge.  Maybe my sister has one....

Finally there are two glass candlesticks that my McIntosh grandparents gave us as a wedding gift.  They had received them as a wedding gift 55 years and 1 week before we received them!

The white on the right end is some sort of electronic thing...maybe it connects to Alexa.

So, this is the mantle on top of the gas fireplace, which you will be surprised to know that SOMEONE in our house has tried out.  Twice.  Our realtor has one of them and has for all the years he has lived in his house but he has never turned it on.  Well, we know ours works.  I do not foresee a day when we will need to turn it on in reality...

Another Visitor to our "Farm"!

Last week I was out watering our plants on the deck.  I jumped back when I saw a very colorful worm on the parsley plant which plant had begun to look pretty good.

I did not want to squish it myself, too icky, but went inside and thought of asking Dear One to take care of it.  Since it was so distinctive to look at, I figured I might be able to identify it on Google and I decided to investigate.  I did this last week so I am not sure, but I am pretty sure it is the worm that turns into a Monarch butterfly.  That made all the difference in how I felt about it.

This morning I went out again to water the plants.  This is what I saw there!

As you can see, that butterfly-to-be has really gone to town on the parsley.  I don't really mind because I have not needed the parsley but I wonder if maybe the worm will go for the oregano next.  I am pretty unlikely to use that, too. 

We have rosemary on the deck also which I could possibly use in roasted vegetables,  I just have not done it yet.  The basil has been very useful though it is not looking remarkably healthy at the moment.  I think I will renovate the deck garden somewhat because Dear One and I have more or less come to an agreement about gardens, which do not include Back to Eden or any other garden further afield than the deck.  He makes many very good points.

And now that we have a calling in the ward there will be less time to fool around in the backyard.  Plus no nasty fingernails all the time...a big plus!