New Year's Treat to Please Dear One

 We have already talked about Chex Mix...a very favorite treat.  We got a box of Crispix which had a recipe for "People Chow" which I think I also showed you.  The same box had a recipe for Chex Mix but using Crispix and Cheez-its.  Since there were multiple little bags of Cheez-its left over from Halloween, Dear One decided this was the time for it!

Cheez-Its Chex Mix the way I made it...

6 cups Cheez-its
2 cups Cheerios
2 cups dry roasted peanuts
2 cups Wheat Chex
2 cups Rice Chex
2 cups Corn Chex
3 - 4 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce (maybe more since Dear One saw me with the bottle and said to put in lots since that is what gives the flavor...so I did.)
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon granulated onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

In a large roaster pan I placed all the cereal, crackers, and nuts. In a 2-cup Pyrex measure I melted the butter in the microwave. It took about a minute.  After dumping all the flavorings in, I stirred well then drizzled on top of the crunchy stuff that I had previously mixed well.  With a long-handled wooden spoon I stirred and stirred and STIRRED until every morsel was covered with the "sauce".  

Next I placed it in the pre-heated oven...250 degrees F.  Roasted for 30 minutes then brought out and stirred well.  Back into the oven for another 30 minutes.  I will continue this process until the mix is sort of dry then will let cool until ready to eat...which might not be very cool, and not long at all, depending on if Dear One returns to the kitchen any time soon!

Wednesday Wonderings...

 Forty-three years ago (when I was very young!!) I became dissatisfied with my body.  I had just given birth to our third child, and only daughter, and I did not like what I looked like.  Of course, I only had the mirror in the medicine cabinet, so my view may have been somewhat skewed.  Nevertheless I decided to do something about it.

THIS IS WHAT I DID:

1. At every meal I served my family then measured out my food onto my plate. 

2.  I wrote down the foods and the quantities in a little notebook.

3. Next I looked up the calorie content on my plate from a book of calories and nutrients.

4. After that I wrote the calories next to the foods.  If the calories worked with my plan, then...

5. I ate the meal.

6.  Every so often, not every day, I walked down to the medical clinic in our town, a 3-mile walk, and weighed myself then walked 3 miles home.  This was only on good sunny  days, you understand, and often the walking was very early in the morning since someone had to be around to watch over the three children!

After nine months of these practices I had lost 60 pounds.

WELL, I am back to the place where I am dissatisfied with my body again.  I had been doing very well, slowly making progress, when the holidays struck!! So many wonderful people gave us treats. I did not feel like turning my back on them since the givers went to a lot of work to please us. So I ate.  And ate. And ate.  Now I am back to dissatisfied, as I mentioned!  

So, I am wondering if that successful program I did back when I was young and vibrant and healthy can work now that I am....not.  Not planning to wait until the new year, I did start yesterday.  Even in one day there was progress made.  I will be interested to see how long it takes to get back to my pre-holiday weight.

Part of the reason I had been wondering, and deciding to get on the wagon in great shape is that I had an appointment at a particular doctor's office this week and had to get weighed.  Why do they do that?!!  The "scales" were actually a 3 by 3 platform scales in the floor.  Yikes!  I am glad I did not have such a bad reading.  How humiliating it would be to actually NEED those platform scales.  My heart went out to the large people who visit that office and step on those scales because it is the only kind they CAN step on.

So, today I made breakfast, but as I am driving the sister missionaries to a service appointment on my way to yet another (the 4th this week!) doctor appointment, I am bringing breakfast with me. I have weighed, measured, and recorded in MyFitness Pal the food.  I am showing you a picture but will not enumerate what is in the container so you won't lose your own breakfast.  Just know that it all will taste fine to me!

The only glitch in this meal is that it has fresh raw sweet onions, so I will need to wait to eat until I drop I drop off the sisters...

Merry Christmas One and All!

 This is the Christmas card we sent this year to our family and a very few friends.  Each card was an original print but there was a Nativity Star and the same quote on each one.

Dear Loved Ones,

It has been truly a wonderful year.  We woke up every morning.  The sun shone so many days. We had food for our bodies, mostly healthy. The electricity worked almost always. Clean safe drinking water was available every day. Our eyes worked so we could enjoy God's beautiful creations around us. Our legs got us where we needed to go.  Our hands could manage all the was required of them. We had opportunities to serve, both at home and around us. Technology was a blessing as it made it possible to reach out when we wanted to.  Almost always.  We had the funds necessary to care for our basic needs.  Best of all, we had the joy of worshiping our Savior regularly through scriptures, Conferences, home Sacrament meetings, and finally at the meetinghouse and via streaming on Facebook.  Our Father in Heaven has watched over and blessed us and helped us along every single day.  For all these gifts we are truly grateful.  We pray these same blessings, and more, for each of you this Season and in the coming year.

(These two notes had different authors. It is easy to guess which is which....!)

Hi again from South Carolina,

The enclosed photograph was taken on a windy day in November.  The colorful objects in Pattie's lap are gnomes for each of our grandchildren which she knitted.  It was a lot of work!  Just behind her is a wind chime that lights up at night which Megan gave us.  Behind all this is a pond where our resident alligator, "Ripples", lives.  He shows up every so often, but we enjoy the excitement of having him around.

We have worked hard to steer clear of the Corona Virus.  Since February we have had Sacrament in our home. A little later we were able to have one of our fellow Temple Workers join us for the Sacrament. We were not able to attend Church since we were all over 65 years old.  This fall we were able to attend a one-hour Sacrament meeting with social distancing.  We were invited to serve in the Temple at the end of December - the Temple is only open for individual ordinances.

This fall Pattie was called to be the Relief Society President for the Sumter Ward.  It is challenging since we only got to attend the ward for six months due to the Corona Virus and we did not get to know many of the members.

We have had a variety of health challenges for both of us.  Bob struggled with knee pain but has been able to ride his bike for 4.5 miles each morning. Pattie has had trouble with eczema and vertigo recently.

Merry Christmas from Bob and Pattie Crossett

A Wonderful Day Begins!

 A month ago one of the assistants to the Matron at the temple called to ask if we could come serve again. YES, YES, YES!!!!  It has been so long.  What a joy it is to serve in the Lord's house and bless a few of His children.  

In the meantime, our daughter sent us the link to a talk called "Spiritual Thriving".  I thought it was very good so I thought I would share it with you.  I enjoyed it.

Munchie Monday: Last Minute Holiday Treat-Sweet!

 We love the Chex Mix we have for Christmas every year.  Another favorite is "People Chow".  I am told it resembles Puppy Chow. (It is so long ago that we had a puppy that I don't remember...almost 48 years! This puppy, Abinadi, was a wedding gift from my father, but by the end of that summer that dear little dog of my heart was run over.  Never had another.  We moved on to cats...) This recipe is quick and easy to make and tastes okay.

People Chow

6 Cups Crispix dry cereal (or better yet: Cheerios)
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
6 ounces chocolate chips (about 1 cup, but weigh to make sure...)
2 cups confectioner's (powdered) sugar

In a medium-sized saucepan over low heat, melt the butter, peanut butter, and chocolates, stirring constantly, until the chocolate is all melted and smooth. If you absolutely cannot wait as long as it takes to melt the chocolate safely on low heat, turn the heat up to medium but DO NOT leave the stove and stirring.  Be ready to yank the pan off the stove at a moment's notice when you think it might be starting to burn. It is better to have the melted chocolate be a little chunky/unmelted than to let it burn. I know.

In a large bowl place the cereal.  Pour the chocolate mixture over the cereal and stir until all the cereal is well coated.

In a 2 gallon plastic zipper bag, or even a brown grocery bag, pour the confectioner's sugar.  Dump in the coated cereal, close the top, then shake until all the sugar is covering the outside of the chocolate-covered cereal pieces.  Pour into a large pan to let dry.  

Store in a closed container.

This is likely to be a hit at parties.  It certainly is a hit among the small fry.

Food Friday: Instant Pot Grits!

 Remember the story I told the other day about grits and the ants?  Well, today I am telling a story about grits to eat.  And the Instant Pot.  Cooking grits on the stove is a stand-over-the-pot job.  I thought I would see if grits would work in the Instant Pot.  They DO!!!

For this recipe I used the 3-quart IP.  In the liner bowl I put:

1 cup stoneground white grits (gift from a wonderful friend!)
2 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cup plain soy milk
1 1/2 teaspoon Pink Himalayan salt
2 Tablespoons  butter
1/4 cup nutritional yeast

I turned the pot on to the Sauté feature and stirred until the butter had melted.  At that point I set the IP to HIGH pressure for 15 minutes and walked away to do other things.  I finally got back after the pressure had released naturally and was all the way up to 53 minutes on the timer.  There is no need to wait that long!. 

When I opened the pot, I found a few clumps that I stirred in well to break them up then served in bowls.  Dear One wolfed his down.  No, sorry, that was me who wolfed it down!  Dear One ate his and maybe had another spoonful but I had moved on to a ministering interview and was not paying attention.

Later on Dear One asked, "So, grits are just cornmeal?"  I said, "Yes, more or less."

In fact, my mother used to make us cornmeal mush to vary the tedium of cooked oatmeal.  We had it with brown sugar and butter on it.  We did not mind that.  Having said that, I myself MUCH prefer grits with salt and pepper.  And now, nutritional yeast.  I was really impressed with this recipe.

You might like it, too!

Next time I will melt the butter in the liner bowl on the Sauté feature while stirring in the grits. AFTER that is done and the grains all seem to be coated, then add in everything else.

NOTE: I made a second batch and did it right.  So good!  PLUS--some devil asked me if I had ever had fried grits, which I had not.  The person then told me how to make them. THEY SOUND SO GOOD...but I am not going to make them.  Instead,  I took the cooled grits from the bowl, chopped them up and put them on a baking sheet.  Popped them in the oven at 400 degrees F for 45 minutes.  They are truly wonderful.  I hope I don't eat them all before taking them upstairs for Dear One to have a chance at them!

Look What Came In The Mail!

 One of my favorite things is to hear the doorbell ring.  I wish it would ring because people come to visit, but this is not the time for that to happen.  Instead, when the doorbell rings, it is a carrier dropping a parcel of some kind on our front step.  In the past week we have had two unexpected calls to the door.

The plant on the left arrived first.  It is in a beautiful ceramic pot and, while I cannot report its name because I have forgotten, I do remember that Dear One looked it up and said it can grow to seven feet tall!  I like that idea.  The possibility that it will do this makes me smile.  The probability that I will kill it within the year makes me sad. I hope not to do that!

The cheese cutter on the right really makes me smile, too.  There was no note in the box to tell me who sent it, but I suspect my sister.  She is so wonderful in every way.  I think we may have been slicing cheese when we were at her house and I mentioned that I could not find the cheese slicer we had had while we were in Vermont.  For all I know I left it there on purpose since at that time we were off dairy.  Well, SOME of us were off dairy.  No, we were both off dairy at that time, but that has sort of gone by the board for some of us. (I wish we could actually see inside our bodies the results of not eating dairy and then the results of going back on dairy.  It might make it easier to stick to this resolution.)

Anyway, you can probably see that the cheese slicer was put to IMMEDIATE use!!!  And continues to be uses regularly.  If the giver was not my sister, many thanks.  Even if it was my sister, I am so grateful. It works perfectly and makes me smile at your thoughtfulness.  Makes me want to go and do likewise...

My Parents Show Me How To Light The World

 As far as I am concerned, my siblings and I have the best parents in the world.  They were so wonderful to us.  They taught us so many good things...such as never hit your sisters, work hard, be generous and so much more.  All the things they taught us by word and by deed.  They set a wonderful example.  Both of them were readers...constantly reading to us and to themselves.  They were storytellers about their childhood and family before them. How I wish I had written down those stories.  Snippets of them come to me from time to time.

One time they took out the old kitchen table and put in a pool table with a sheet of plywood on top and a large sheet of heavy plastic so we could use it as our dining table.  Then, at a moment's notice, we could  take off the plywood and turn it into a pool tournament.

This is a picture of our parents on a Sunday evening in their home at Riverbow.  I know it was a Sunday night because A. the windows show that it is dark outside and B. the large stainless steel popcorn bowl is on the table in front of my father. I have no idea who took the photograph.  This was WAY before the days of selfies and cell phones.  

Every time I see this picture, it makes me smile.  It also makes me long for the day we will be together again.  I hope we can carry on the popcorn-Sunday-night-supper tradition that is at least four generations long.

#LightTheWorld today (or maybe yesterday) was to  contact our parents.  Since that is not conventionally possible, I am sharing about them.  For all I know, they are smiling down on me as I type. I like to think so anyway.

The Ants are Marching. Again.

 Last week we had ants on the island in our kitchen.  Actually, we have had ants off and on ever since before the exterminator came three months ago.  We had to have a special appointment since not all their exterminators are allowed to go inside houses for some reason.  Well, those prior ants never totally disappeared.

Now last week we had MORE ants.  They were a different brand of ants.  Actually, they were very similar in appearance to the nasty fire ants that got my goat at harvest time.  Not quite, but about the same size and dark two-toned-bodies ants.

When I was swimming on Friday, Ruby told me to use grits to get rid of them.  So I sprinkled a few grits on the counter when I got home from the YMCA pool.  Then next morning one whole section of the counter was empty of the grits and there were only 2 or 3 ants there. I was just plain thrilled!  I was so thrilled that I thought I would put more grits out in case there were a few more ants to kill, which I did Saturday night before going to bed.

Sunday morning I went downstairs and found a HIGHWAY of ants coming and going!  I almost threw up.  The one good thing was that finally I discovered where they were entering the kitchen.  At least, I learned ONE PLACE they were entering the kitchen.  

On Sunday morning, later, after the ant interstate discovery, Dear One and I were to speak in Church.  We were to speak on Gratitude.  He did a wonderful job.  I gave an okay talk.  I had practiced it and timed it and found it took 8 minutes to give. I figured it would be a little longer when I was actually at the podium.  Since Dear One said his talk would be short, I decided to write up a list of things for which I was grateful to use if I had time to share a few of them before the meeting needed to end.  There was time.

The final thing I mentioned being grateful for was grits.  Those same grits that Ruby had told me about.  I mentioned the army of ants that came to pick up the newly scattered grits.  Because we stream our meetings on Facebook, several kind people who watched from home sent me condolences as well as more ant-extermination suggestions. I am so grateful for all of them.  

One Monday morning there were no ants so I figured they were gone.  Not so.  I was passing the island after supper (and I use the term "supper" loosely...we just munched out on the Chex Mix I had just made...) I saw there were a few ants again.  THAT WAS IT!!!  I got in the car and drove to Dollar General in the dark (something I am not fond of doing-driving in the dark in the city) where I purchased the last bottle of ant killer that sweet Sister C. mentioned. She also sent a picture so I would get the right thing.

 It was as if someone knew I was coming for this killing powder because it was right at the front of the shelf apart from all the other bottles of killers.  It was the only one of its kind there.

When I got home I immediately shook up the bottle then sprayed it out at the entrance and exit to the island.

You can see that I might have been a little on the "over-kill" side of the project but I WANT THOSE ANTS GONE!!  For good.

Now I am going to call the exterminator and get him to come and do a complete-house ant-killing application...

This is a very small problem on the spectrum of problems.  We are fortunate to have a house to live in, after all.  But I don't want to share it with ants.  Or any other bugs.  Not a bug fan.  So glad some of our grandchildren love bugs.  It gives them hours of pleasure observing. Not me.

Munchie Monday: Chex Mix Time of Year!

 Chex Mix has been a family-favorite treat at Christmas time every year. Dear One's mother made a big batch each year which we all enjoyed.  Today was the day I decided to make some.  Dear One asked for "a small batch".  What a joker!

The way we did it is not precisely like the original recipe, but Dear One is eating it out of the oven before it is done toasting so I guess it is okay!

The recipe the way I made it:

In a large roasting pan that a sweet friend gave me prior to leaving the area I placed:
3 cups Corn Chex
3 cups Rice Chex
3 cups Wheat Chex
2 cups elderly Spanish peanuts (I don't think they are actually rancid but we purchased them sometime in the summer...)
1 cup mixed nuts

In a small saucepan put

7 Tablespoons softened butter
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons Pink Himalayan salt
1 teaspoon granulated onion
1 teaspoon granulated garlic

 Melt and mix together until the salt is dissolved then pour over the cereal and stir very well.

Put the roasting pan in a 250 degree F. preheated oven (yes, 250!) and let "roast" for one hour, checking every 15 minutes.  After the first 15 minutes when next to nothing seemed to have happened I upped the time to 20 minutes before checking and stirring.  After that one I changed the time again, this time to 25 minutes!  I wanted those morsels to be nicely toasted and ready to eat.  Dear One is at the oven again!!!  He really does like Chex Mix.

Here they are, still in the oven.  Dear One has just had a third handful since I started writing this post.  I guess the altered recipe was not bad.  He does not like pretzels for some reason so we never add those.  He suggested I could have but in Cheerios.  I have done that in the past and find them tasty. I forgot about them when I was shopping...

#LightTheWorld Today! Shop Local.

 Heirloom Child Quilts is a fabric and idea shop!  I love going there.  I always find what I want.  When I don't know what I want, one of the great ladies there helps me figure it out.

Today #LightTheWorld reminded us that Jesus Christ ministered in a relatively small geographic area...more or less in the community.  We follow his example when we patronize local businesses.

This is a blanket I made from the beautiful fabrics at Heirloom Child.  Thank you, Ladies!

Food Friday

 Dear One brought me home two big fat heads of cauliflower last week.  I steamed one and ate it.  The other was getting a little elderly so I took off the bottom leaves, sprinkled it with a little olive oil (I know added oils are not good for us but I wanted the seasoning to stick. I used about a tablespoon and rubbed it all over the head).  After rubbing in the oil I made a mixture of about a teaspoonful of Herbes de Provence, one-half teaspoon granulated garlic and another half teaspoon of granulated onion, then some salt and pepper and sprinkled it on top of the cauliflower and rubbed it in the same way I imagine meat-eaters rub seasonings onto cuts of meat.

At this point I already had the oven heating to 400 degrees F. and had a big piece of aluminum foil sitting in our largest cast-iron frying pan.  I put the cauliflower into the foil, wrapped it up tight, then set the whole thing into the oven to "roast" for 45 minutes.

There it is, ready to eat!  I did eat several florets.  So luscious.  I could eat cauliflower every day.  Usually I eat it steamed because I can just steam it, leave it in the pot then every time I walk by, I pick out a floret and pop it into my mouth.  Very good eating.  Also a VERY good way to lose weight quickly!  There are next to no calories in steamed cauliflower and a lot of nutrition.

Thursday Thoughts! Plus #LightTheWorld for Today

 Today has been another very hectic day filled with so many different types of activities, all of which added up to a real desire to crawl between the sheets as soon as the sun went down.  Sadly, the day was not over when the sun dipped behind the trees.  Dear One went out to see if he could glimpse the International Space Station passing overhead.  We were able to watch it for a few moments several times when we were still in Vermont.  It gave me a sweet feeling of awe to know there were people up there circling the earth.  Of course, I was VERY happy it was not me!  I like my feet firmly on the ground... (And he did not see it this evening...)

So as the days have become more and more busy, I have realized that daily life is a full time job.  And then some.  I was thinking I might mention some of those activities but then thought it might sound like complaining and I hate to hear complaining and I would truly abhor being a complainer myself.  Just let me say that there is no more time in my days for fritzing around or kicking back and letting the world go by.  Those days are gone.  Probably just as well because I was getting pretty comfy in the life we were living...everything mostly predictable and fine.

One thing I will say is that today one of the variety of projects was that I went to see a chiropractor/functional medicine doctor for the first time here in our city.  He is such a nice Christian man and his assistant and his office people are great.  After he did all his tests and sent me on my way for a few days I was thinking that he brought up more concerns than I had gone in with!  I just wanted him to  quickly cure the vertigo and send me on my way.  He was not into that!  He wants to find out why I have the vertigo and then fix that.  He did say that based on several 'findings' that the night when I tripped over the stool and feel crashing down flat on my back and clunked my head, that it probably was a concussion.  Isn't that a funny thing?  Not funny ha-ha, either.  Oh well.  If he says so, I will believe him until something sounds wrong.

Today on #LightTheWorld we are to tell a story about an ancestor (and share it on social media, I think).  So I will do that.

The oldest relative that I personally knew was Julia Emily Burbank McIntosh.  She was my great-grandmother and was married to Lisle Dwight McIntosh.  She was born in 1864.  That always tickled me as a child because she was born during the Civil War.  Very exciting to learn when I was in elementary school and just learning a little bit of history.  She was a tiny lady who sat in a beautiful wingback chair. I think that is where I gained my love of wingback chairs.  Sadly, there are no wingback chairs in our current home.  Oh well. Into every life a little rain must fall.  There is actually no room for one...well, I say that. Of course there is room for one, but we have gotten fairly comfortable with less stuff filling up the spaces.  Empty spaces mean less likelihood of tripping and once again falling. I am REALLy into not falling again.  One time I won't be as lucky as I have been the last few falls.

Anyway, Nannie McIntosh was a prodigious worker.  I think I have already written about her here but it has been a while.  She made literally tons of mincemeat in her summer kitchen and peddled it throughout New England, driving it herself until her very latest years.  She was still making mincemeat well into her 80's.  Her mincemeat recipe was a highly secured secret.  A secret that may have gone with her to the grave because family members who might have had it cannot seem to locate it.  You might not think mincemeat was a treat, but it really was.  I remember those mincemeat pies.  Delicious.  (I was going to say "Heaven", but that would be an exaggeration!)

Here you can see her gravestone.  You can also see that she was very elderly when she died.  I remember talking with one of my cousins about her when I was eight or nine years old.  My cousin and I were both born in 1950.  We had been learning to count by five's.  Nannie was 95 years old at the time so my math above may not be correct...and my cousin insisted that on her next birthday Nannie would bee 100 years old.  Not knowing any better, I went along with that idea.  You never know what is in a kid's head!!!

If you look at the picture of Nannie again, you will see where I got my cowlicks!

The Christmas Knitting Project: 2020. Now Completed and Shipped!

 Late last week I went to the post office with two bags of boxed Christmas knitting.  It made me smile all day to have completed them and put them in the mail. I know at least three recipients have received their boxes.  This makes me happy.

So this is the big reveal!  We had gnomes for Christmas again this year.  These gnomes were very different.  This is the first gnome ornament I made for the grandchildren:

My thought was that it was very cute.  However the arms seemed rather weird to have on a Christmas tree ornament so I removed these arms (took a bit, too, since I had REALLY attached them well!) and did not knit any more arms.  UNTIL...the family gnomes!

May I say I am so sorry to be such a poor photographer?  You don't get a very good view of them.  (As I wrote this last I was thinking about what makes my pictures so poorly set up.  I decided on the instant that it is the fat.  It is hard to squat down or throw myself on the floor for a better angle.  BUT this is changing!  I was able to cut my toenails last week, something that I had hired out for some months.  It really makes me happy to report that eating whole plants and next to no fat is having a very salubrious effect on my body and my spirit!)

This is a rocking chair full of the Christmas gnome ornaments ready to pack up and send.

Each gnome was different and was colored at the request of the grandchild who told me their two favorite colors.

This project is now complete.  On to the next!  (and there is quite a queue of "nexts"!)

Final 2020 Garden Harvest!

 Last week was pretty busy.  I decided it was time to pick the basil from all the plants and put them into the dehydrator.  I waited one day too long!  The next day when I was ready to do the picking  this is what I saw:

As you see, not only was the delicate basil deader than a doornail, so were all the tomato plants.  (The only plant that did not die was the deadly nightshade which you can see over the left shoulder of the deck chair.  You could have knocked me down with a feather the day I saw, and recognized, the deadly nightshade growing up beside the tomato plant.  I guess it is true that tomatoes are part of the nightshade family, though why a deadly nightshade plant came up in a potted tomato I purchased at Simpson's Hardware from the Bonnie Plants people, I do not know!) A week before I had found a bird pecking at the nicely ripening tomatoes so I flapped my own wings at him and sent him on his way, brought in all the tomatoes with any color (four of them!) and thought no more about it.

The day the killing frost came was the day when I harvested the last of the green tomatoes.  There were more hidden in the lush foliage than I had realized.

Here they are sitting on the kitchen counter, hopefully to ripen comfortably.  If those beauties begin to look a little iffy, I will turn them into fried green tomatoes, and eat them all myself!  Dear One would not eat a fried green tomato on a bet. 

 UNLESS I did not turn them into fried green tomatoes but into Green Tomato Mincement!!!  That stuff is so good.  Well, not good FOR you, but rich and luscious and makes a great pie or bread of some kind.  We shall see.  Things are a bit hectic currently so...

#LightTheWorld Today!

 There is a calendar of wonderful events we can all to do to  #LightTheWorld this Christmas season.  Already I have participated this year, which makes me happy.  Maybe you would like to up your own joy in this season.  Doing this can help reduce the stress and strain that often accompanies Christmas.

Also, every year on the first Sunday of December there is a wonderful devotional hour of music and words to usher in the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.  We have watched this as a family each year for decades.  It has blessed our lives.  It might do the same for you.

As we all celebrate the first coming of our Savior, may we reach out to others who may need a little special attention.  It is my experience that as we do this, we are richly blessed ourselves.

Love Knots Blanket Test Knit Progress!

 Another deadline for the Love Knots Blanket test knit has come and gone.  I did not meet the goal, but still have made a lot of progress.

Here is the progress as of that deadline.  The bottom border is now completed.  Also five of the six inner borders as well as three of the nine blocks.  There are two side borders and the top border to go along with the other six blocks.  Do you think I can finish knitting as well as sewing together by 24 December?!  I don't know.  With this new calling I have discovered a bunch of new activities popping up unexpectedly...!

It is all good.

A New Fast Test Knit: Christmas Angel

 As I was furiously knitting along the bottom border of the Love Knots Blanket test knit at my sister's house over Thanksgiving, I glanced at Yarn Pond and found another test knit that looked quick and easy.  It was a Christmas Angel ornament for the Christmas tree.  I applied and was accepted.

The angel was expected to be knit in #10 Crochet cotton on size 0 or size 1 double pointed needles.  I did not have them, and certainly did not have them in North Carolina with me,  so I ordered ChiaoGoo double points that would arrive the day the test knit was supposed to be completed.  Oh well.  At that point I had not yet been accepted into the knitting pool, so this purchase was totally "on spec".

The next day I checked and found that I HAD been accepted.  The only yarn I had with me at my sister's house was the worsted weight wool from Hilda Yates that I was using on the Love Knots Blanket.  I did have a circular needle free so I cast on and started.  The knitting was going a little slow because of the number of stitches being stretched over the needle. The next day after going with my sister to her hair appointment (where my hair was cut, too...think modified Dorothy Hamill haircut...looked great when he got done.  Not so great today, but...oh well.) I realized that I needed some of the right sized double points if I had a prayer of completing this project.

We went to Hobby Lobby where I found exactly the right needles with nice sharp points like the ChiaoGoo needles at one-third the cost!  We also found gray thread that I needed and a Christmas tree that Dear One hoped we would get but was reluctant to pay the price.  We got the tree.  As it turned out they were half-price.  Since it was Black Friday it turned out the trees were half the price of the half-price!!!  Dear One was really happy.  The tree is very skinny which is what we need for our front porch where we want it.  Yes, of course it it a fake tree, but that is fine down here. I don't want to bring any unexpected wildlife into the house down here!

Speaking of wildlife, when we returned from North Carolina on Saturday night we found that "someone" whose name will be excluded to protect the guilty, had left an open sleeve of Ritz crackers on the island.  It was CRAWLING with ants!  Just plain disgusting.  We had a hard time killing them.  I finally ended up spraying them with vinegar water.  I had hopes they would die out.  Not so.  We may have to get the exterminator...

This is the Christmas angel completed.  Instead of crocheting a string hanger for the top I knitted an I-cord ring.  This is natural colored yarn though it does not look like it.  There were a few issues with the knitting but I did manage to get it eventually.  It helps to actually read the pattern...and have the instructions sink into your brain clearly.  I will probably make another one.  If I had been using Number 10 crochet cotton and size 0 needles, I am afraid I would have been a quitter....  Now having been able to take out the thick wool yarn a dozen times (at least!) I think I might try with the itty bitty needles that came today...just not right away.  Still have a bit more Christmas knitting to do, and then the Love Knots Blanket test knit.

Munchie Monday: Quick, Easy, Mostly Tasty Supper

Today we were back home. Well, we got home later on Saturday actually. It was quite a weekend. After a great time with my sister, her husband, and two of her sons celebrating Thanksgiving.  Today I decided on quick and easy for supper.  This is what I did--

Pulled out the large Instant Pot (8-quart).

Pulled out the 3-quart Instant Pot liner bowl.

Placed 2 cups of mixed rice (white and brown together since that is how they were in the bin...) in the 3-quart Instant Pot bowl along with 2 cups of water.

Put the trivet in the 8-quart Instant Pot bowl with 2 cups of water.  Placed the 3-quart bowl with rice and water into the large Instant Pot and set timer for 28 minutes on HIGH.  And set it going.  Went about my business.

Twenty-two minutes after the rice timer went down to zero I remembered I had rice cooking...so I checked it out.  It had not quite returned to base so I expired the steam and pulled the bowl out.  Perfect rice!  Not burned.  Not gummy. Not hard.  Not chewy.  Just right.  For me, anyway!

At this point I pulled out our double boiler steamer pot that came from my mother's "waterless cookware" set she bought, probably in the 1980's. (I cannot remember the brand but it was so good that I still use it!) I love this steamer and use it many days each week for all kinds of vegetables.  

Into the top pot that has all the holes I placed a big charge of frozen peas, frozen white corn, and one diced sweet onion and let it steam for 10 minutes.  I did not think the onions would pass muster with Dear One at that point so I let the steam go for another minute then shut off the gas under the pot and left the cover alone so the onions would cook just a bit more.

When I thought the vegetables were cooked I dumped them into the rice pot and stirred them well.

To serve, I offered Braggs Liquid Aminos, some General Tao sauce from the store (not very good), and the butter dish.  I allowed the eaters to stir whatever they wanted into the rice and vegetables.  It was good.  Dear One was happy and I felt good about quick and easy.

Munchie Monday: Thanksgiving Pies Plus Skin Update

 It is time again for baking pies for the Marines at Cherry Point...the ones who need to be on base for Thanksgiving.  My sister and her husband and one or two others make way over 100 pies for the servicemen and women.  It makes me happy to help.  PLUS... I get to see my sister who I miss tremendously.

Here are the first pies out of the oven and the next batch ready to go in.  It is not too onerous since I bought frozen pie crusts.

These are the first eight pies.  I plan to make two more and call it good.  I only have ten boxes to store them in for the trip to North Carolina...so ten is all we will do.

My toll house pie recipe is as follows:

In a stand mixer bowl place 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, and 3/4 softened butter (only use butter-no other kind of grease unless you like a nasty flavor).  Turn the mixer on and let beat until very very smooth, at least five minutes.  Add two eggs that are at room temperature and beat again until smooth.  Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and mix.

Stir in 1/2 cup all-purpose flour and 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.  When well combined, pour into a 9" deep dish pie shell.  Bake in a preheated 325 degree F. oven for 50-60 minute.  The top should be nicely browned.  If the pie jiggles, I would leave it in the oven another 2-3 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool completely before cutting.

SKIN NEWS

Well, on Friday I went back to the doctor to have the suture removed and to learn the diagnosis.  I had a fun time knitting in the waiting room for an hour then a nurse (at least I suppose she was a nurse) called me back in and told me I have "serious eczema" and after she pulled out the stitch she gave me a prescription and sent me on my way.  Surprising.

Well, it is good to have a name for the discomfort.  It really is getting better. At least the nighttime itching has mostly stopped.  Now it is other things that keep me awake or wake me up, just like so many other people.  Oh well, I do often get a lot of knitting done in the nighttime hours. I have started watching knitting podcasts on the tv while I knit.  I have finished all the Fleece and Harmony episodes and now have started Fruity Knitting starting at Episode 1.  Those are both wonderful podcasts.  I love the knitting, I love the chat, and I love all the other things they post.  Fleece and Harmony Mill is located on Prince Edward Island.  If we still lived in Vermont I would want to go up and visit them!

I am so grateful to Judy Tucker for getting me on to Andrew and Andrea at Fruity Knitting! #givethanks

Thursday Thoughts: Weight Loss Strategies

 Something has come to me very recently.  Dear One sometimes tells me that my middle name must be oblivious.  There is certainly a great deal of truth to that!  How some ever,  I think I have learned something about weight loss.  Finally.

This week has been completely hectic.  Part of it has been church work, part of it has been Christmas knitting, part of it has been test knitting. Part of it has been housework even!  Most days have been so busy I have had little time to sit down to eat.

Thought #1 about losing weight: Keep your hands and body busy all the time.  No time to cast about the kitchen looking for things to eat.

Thought #2 about losing weight: Get up in the morning and the very first thing you do, finish projects you should have finished yesterday or some time earlier in the week.  Such as sorting, folding, and putting away three loads of laundry that have been smiling at you for days.  There is nothing like getting a job done, doing it well, and then seeing empty spaces so you COULD take a nap if you wanted to.

Thought #3:about losing weight Have a plan for meals.  Actually execute that plan.  This way you are not casting about the kitchen (again!) for untoward amounts of time.

Thought #4: about getting healthy! Get rid of the Halloween leftover candy bags immediately.  Like...have someone come take it away.  Of course, being cheapskates, AND having a candy monster in the house, we have not done that.  So it is there tempting, tempting, tempting those who don't want to be tempted.

Thought #5:  This is probably one of the most important thoughts: DO NOT MAKE BREAD TWO DAYS IN A ROW NO MATTER WHO MIGHT NEED IT!  It is impossible to walk away from hot bread and a dish of butter.

For myself, my plan every day is to get up, weigh myself, check, my blood glucose, check my blood pressure, record all these things. (Doctors ALWAYS ask about all these numbers when I go, so...why not indulge them and keep track myself?!) After these things, I spend time reading in the scriptures then writing what I learned and what personal revelations may have come to me.  After that, I can get rolling on the day.  These are all good things.

On days when I follow these things with the activities above, real progress is made on many fronts.  I have recorded these thoughts for myself but also for anyone else who might benefit from them, and would welcome other "thoughts" to help us all gain good health and well-being.

The (Floral) Gift That Keeps On Giving!

 Last year my sister brought us some beautiful chrysanthemums.   I just loved them.  There were three big pots.  Eventually they wore down and seemed to die.  Very late in the season Dear One and I talked about whether or not they might revive in the spring, so I planted them in the ground.  (I did keep the pots because I might want pots for something come the new season...!)

Well!  Such good news.  Two of the plants made it through the winter and had very nice rich green leaves this spring.  A few weeks ago I noticed that not only did they have nice green leaves, they ALSO had a zillion buds!  Could it be that we would have a floral display this fall, too?!

YES!!  WE DO!!  So very nice.

Dear One thought that having two plants was not the thing...that for aesthetics we should have three plants.  He suggested a yellow-blooming chrysanthemum.  SO...I went to Lowes because they always have a ton of flowers there.  Well they DID have a ton of flowers there. I asked one of the ladies near the check-out if they had any chrysanthemums there.  She said, "I don't know what that is..." or something like that.  When I said "mums" she did know.  A worker about 20 feet away had heard my question and said there were "tons of mums" in the garden center so out there I went.

The first person I saw actually working with plants was addressed with the same question, "Do you have any yellow chrysanthemums?"  "What do you mean?"  OH, mums!  No, they have been gone since way before Halloween."  

Oh well, maybe next year!

An Annoying Rash

 Today I am tearing my hair!  And have been for a week.

A little history/build-up: Two weeks ago on a Friday our bishop invited Dear One to meet with him. I thought I knew why he would want to talk with us: I thought he might invite us to serve in the temple again.  As it turned out I was totally wrong.  He talked with us both for a while then invited me to serve as the head of the women's organization at Church.

On that same day I noticed a small red bumpy rash on my face. Since then the rash has spread to my arms and fingers, my neck, my chest, my abdomen, my thighs, and on one knee.  This rash is EXTREMELY itchy...thus the need to pull out my hair!  I called the doctor the following Monday who could see me on Tuesday.  Didn't think I could wait that long.  Well, I did wait.  He looked it over and did not have an immediate diagnosis so he took a biopsy which necessitated a stitch since he opened my skin pretty wide or deep. (I could not watch so I don't know what he actually did, but there is a stitch there.). He prescribed an ointment to help with the itching. When I went to the pharmacy they did not have it in the size that was required so I had to wait another day.

Twice a day I put the goo on my skin and it helps a little for a little while.  BUT the rash is growing.  

The results from the biopsy will not be available until Friday when I get the stitch out.  I have looked at lots of skin rashes online and cannot figure it out myself...of course, with my lack of medical training, it is ridiculous that I thought I might be able to come to know what it was.

Anyway, has anyone any experience with this sort of rash?  It is driving me nuts.  I am going to check with the doctor tomorrow to see if I can up the frequency of dosage of the ointment...

PS:  I am thinking that Heavenly Father has a sense of humor...to allow me to get a rash on my face just before receive a calling in the Church where I need to stand in front of a wonderful group of women on a regular basis!  It makes me think of the Apostle Paul who had a "thorn in his side", which I am now wondering if it was an itchy rash....

Of course, now I can have a little more understanding of the health problems that others have and more compassion.

Munchie Monday: A Favorite Meal

 A quick and easy meal, and one of my favorites, is bean burritos.  When we went to Costco recently we purchased a bag of flour tortillas.  We have plenty of dried refried beans that we obtained quite a while ago from the Church's Home Storage Center.  We store them in 5-gallon pails with Gamma Seal lids, which, by the way, I just found locally at the Tractor Supply Company!  They cost a little more there than they do online, but there is no added shipping fee.

This afternoon Dear One was reading on the back porch.  He asked me if I was serving supper today.  Good question.  I was not particularly hungry so I could have passed on it but I remembered those tortillas and the lightbulb went on.

The recipe is so simple.  To make enough for four burritos I put 1 cup boiling water in a saucepan and added 1/2 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic, 1/2 teaspoon granulated onion, and 1 1/2 cups of the dried refried bean flakes.  After stirring them all together well, and with the water still boiling, I then put the cover on the saucepan, shut off the heat, and removed the pan from the burner.

After ten minutes I removed the cover from the saucepan and stirred well.

Now comes the fun!  While the beans were rehydrating I finely diced half a sweet onion, sliced some iceberg lettuce, got out salsa and shredded cheese from the refrigerator.  After heating the tortillas in the microwave for 35 seconds, they were ready to turn into burritos.

For a change I decided to let each of us make our own.  Which we did. Then we sat down at the table, blessed the meal, and had a nice easy relatively healthy supper.  Dear One added cheese to his burrito.

This is my burrito: tortilla, beans, chopped onions, sliced lettuce.  After folding it up, deliciousness!

Family Friday Tales: Sledding Accident

 Once upon a time, a long time ago...probably about the winter of 1956...there was an accident on our farm.

As children we had the run of the farm.  Our parents were dairy farmers with a growing family.  At that point my older brother and I and our next younger brother were old enough to go sliding by ourselves in the winter.  Our house sat at a nice flat spot after a longish straight road.  The road then curved sharply and went on up the hill to the neighbors' house about three-quarters of a mile above us.

We loved to go up that road a little bit, turn around and throw ourselves onto our sleds and race down the hill and turn down onto the  flat in front of the house.  This worked pretty well for those of us with the long sleds, but the younger brother had a half-sized sled so he was forced to sit up on it and steer the mechanism with his feet, unlike our older brother and I who could yank on the steering mechanism with our hands.  There was nothing like the exhilaration of lying on our bellies on our sleds, steering with all our mights as we careened down that hill with the wind in our faces, and sometimes a little bit of ice crystals that whipped up from the sled in front of us.

This sledding and steering  worked very well.  Until one day!  One day, the day in question, E was sitting on his sled after hauling it up quite a way up the road toward the neighbors' house.  He sat on the sled and came barreling down the road.  He was going too fast to turn the sled enough as he approached the house.  He ran into a grease fitting on the front  of the little green Jeep that was parked in front of the house. He hit just right so he was not blinded but did have a scar ever after on his eyelid.

Older brother and I had already come to a stop and had turned back up the road in time to watch the debacle.  Fortunately there was only blood involved.  The accident did not stop the sledding.

Thursday Thoughts

Years ago I was at Grammie Corwin's house.  We were eating a meal together, though I do not know why. I don't remember that being a regular occurrence.  At one point she said, "You need to chew your food."  I guess I was just smashing the food up enough that I could swallow it.  She even sang me a little song to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat.

"Chew, chew, chew your food gently through the meal.
The more you chew, the less you'll eat, the better you will feel."  

I always thought that was a nifty little song she had made up just for me.  Come to find out, she was ahead of her time!  (Sadly, I did not take her advice until very recently!)

This week, or sometime recently:it is hard to keep track of time anymore, things move so fast-- I was listening to a health webinar.  I may not have the details entirely correct, but the essence is accurate.  The scientist doing the speaking said that there are so many good nutrients in the cells of the food we eat. In this case I think he was speaking of sulforaphane which is an important nutrient found in broccoli.  He said that there are several parts that make up sulforaphane but they are in different cells.  If you chew your food, you will break those cells open and the parts of the sulforaphane will mingle together and give you the important benefits that our bodies need for optimal health.  When you just mush up the food in your mouth and swallow it quickly, because you are in a hurry or maybe you don't like the food, well, you do not get the full benefit of that food.

So...Grammie knew some important things, even if she did not know why.  This webinar makes me more conscious of how to eat.  Often we just gobble our food, leave the table, and get on with other things.  In retrospect, that is a poorly-thought-out practice. I guess with was not thought out at all.  

Another area for immediate reformation...!

 

2020 Garden: Final Sweet Potato Harvest!

 Yesterday I went out to harvest the "big" sweet potato bed.  It was kind of fun.  I yanked up all the vines and moved them to the place where we had the zucchini plants this year.  In the spring I will add dirt to that pile which I hope will have composted away over the winter months.

Here is the five gallon bucket of potatoes as I brought them up to the garage.

This view of potatoes are on the trunk of the car.  You can see how huge they are. I am betting that the one on the far right is five pounds and the one next to it close to five pounds. So amazing at their size. 

I cannot wait for them to cure so we can eat them.

Test Knit Finished: Hearth Hat

 Test knitting is an enjoyable past-time usually.  This is a test knit I wanted to do because I saw the test knit for this pattern in fingerless gloves. I LOVED those gloves, so when the hat pattern was available to assist the designer by test knitting it as a hat, I jumped at the chance.

This is a toddler sized hat knit in Patons Classic Wool worsted on 3.5 mm ChiaoGoo needles.  ChiaoGoo needles have become my favorite needles.

The talented designer is Victoria Marchant Knits.  We should look forward to other designs she creates!

Munchie Monday: Failed Pancakes If You Can Believe It!!

 Dear One loves fat fluffy pancakes.  We went to Costco one day last week.  He saw Kodiak Pancake and Waffle Mix on the shelf, remembered our missionary days, and thought it would be a great idea to get it.  Okay, we got it.

Here you see it was Kodiak Cakes not Kodiak Pancake and Waffle Mix, but I bet you grasped what I was talking about....

This morning I made up the pancakes after he returned from his bike ride.  He had eaten a toasted English muffin before his ride so I was not rushing around to make breakfast.  Instead I was working on Christmas knitting, which is coming right along, by the way!

When I pulled out the Kodiak box I noted it called for 1 cup of mix and 1 cup of milk of any kind.  Or maybe it said water.  Be that as it may,  we had nearly half a gallon of buttermilk in the refrigerator from something I made a couple of weeks ago.  Dear One is the one who purchased a half gallon of buttermilk.  We buy it by the pint in Vermont. It appears that people in the South like their buttermilk!!

So I put 1 cup mix in a bowl with 1 cup buttermilk and stirred it up in great shape.  It was quite thick.  Surprisingly.

Here was the first pancake cooking in our non-stick pan.  It just sat there. Very sludgy looking.  Eventually I flipped it over.  I had a good idea that it was not cooked all the way through.  A little later, after cooking three more like this, I started pulling them apart.  They just slid apart as easy as pie. The center was DEFINITELY not cooked.  

At this point I stopped cooking from the bowl and started pulling apart the raw-in-the-middle pancakes and flipped them raw side down into the pan.  They cooked up pretty well.  At least I thought they were okay.

Now for the final bad idea...I added about a half cup of water to the batter in the bowl, stirred it a little bit and cooked two more pancakes. It looked more or less like "real" pancake batter.

Here it is in the pan and looking a little more like a real pancake.  I thought all would be well.  Since it had enough popped bubbles in the top, I decided to flip it.

Here you see the great flipping job!  The pancake pleated on the pan.  Nice!

As it happened, Dear One was not enamored of these pancakes  for some reason so I had to eat some or throw them out. I hate wasting food so you guessed it, I ate three of the nasty things.

Next time---no buttermilk!  In fact, next time I think I will make muffins instead!

Family Friday Tales: The Tale of the Birthday Party

 Our father was a great story-teller.  We loved his stories.  He saw things around him and turned them into lessons for "us kids" and often made us laugh.  Today's story made us laugh.

This is the story:  there was a man in the neighborhood when our father was a boy.  This man was apparently fairly popular.  When he arrived at a pretty good age, there was a large birthday party planned for him.  If I remember right, the party was held in the church hall so it could accommodate all the people who wanted to attend and congratulate the gentleman at arriving at that age.  I don't remember what it was but it strikes me that he was 70 years old.

Someone made a wonderful huge cake for him, which I believe was cooked in a large dishpan.  By saying that you know this story took place many years ago.  I don't know of anyone in this day and age who has a metal dishpan capable of being used in the oven to bake a cake...the dishpans we use are all plastic.

Anyway, it came time for the presentation of the cake with all its candles.  Someone, or maybe more than one person, put a match to all the candles.  The gentleman inhaled a huge breath then blew with all his might to blow out all those candles with one breath.  At the end of his "blow" his false teeth landed right in the middle of the cake.

This was a story our father told us with much mirth and appreciation for the funny things that can happen to a person.  I think that story is one of the reasons that I try to take pretty good care of my teeth...!

Halloween at Our House

 Dear One is such a good man. He thought we should dress up for Halloween for while we sat on our porch ready to hand out candy to passers-by.

Here he is:

Can you guess his costume?  Yes, you are right!  He is the conductor on The Polar Express.

Yep!  There she is: the witch!  One little child on the sidewalk was heard to say, "Look at the cool witch!"  That made my day!  As you can see by the basket of roving, I was sitting there spinning wool yarn while the kids came and went.  I managed to finish one bobbin which was half full when I started. Since people were still coming when it was getting dark, I put on another bobbin and spun up another bit. It is now ready to roll the next day I go out to spin,  

My plan to spin every day after supper has hit the skids.  I think I was only able to spin two days last week, including Halloween!  Maybe I can do better this week.  Too many things pulling me this way and that, but I REALLY want to spin up all the fiber in the fiber closet.  This is especially desirable since I moved ALL the fiber things, including most of the fabric, into the closet when I was on a cleaning binge last week. I need another week of all-day-cleaning-binges to get that workroom whipped into shape. I am thinking of giving away some of my precious 'stuff'.  We shall see.  If I am not using it and there is way too much anyway, well, someone else could benefit from it...At least I guess they could.

Fall Decorations...

 Years ago our tiny granddaughter, G, was visiting our home near a major holiday.  She said, "Grammie, you should decorate your home."  That had never crossed my mind.  We had a holiday meal.  The house was more or less orderly depending on when you checked. Everyone seemed in good order.  SO...I did not see the need.  Since then I have done some small amount of decorating.

The nice Children's Librarian at our county library has a Saturday "Crafternoon", or she did in happier days.  A few weeks ago she inquired of former attendees if we would like to receive a bag with crafty things in it to work on at home. I was all it.

This is what she sent: ten strips of paper for each size, two brads for each size, a green pipe cleaner and a green leaf for each size.  Also instructions!  We were supposed to get a tea light to put inside.  Being lazy and cheap, instead of a tea light I put in a cereal bowl in the big pumpkin and a dessert dish in the small pumpkin and filled them with candy.  You can see that has been a popular idea!

Munchie Monday: Superfood Green "Juice"

 When we were on our mission in Oregon one of the sisters in the mission office told me of a beverage she used for her breakfast every day.  It was made up of several items.  Two of these items were packets of Amazing Grass Green Superfood and Emergen-C.  Both were available at Costco, so we purchased quite a few. (One of them was scheduled to go off their shelves so we did stock up! 

As it happens, I only used it a few times before we completed our mission and came home.  I sent the packets home in our many (MANY) boxes to catch up with us when we finally settled somewhere.  

Because it was so long since I had made "the real thing" with all the ingredients the sister used, I have forgotten all those other ingredients so I just use one pint of filtered water, 1 green superfood packet and one Emergen-C packet.  I blend in the blender with a few ice cubes.  Every time I decide I needed more ice cubes!  

This stuff does not taste amazing but it really does taste okay.  Especially when cold!  I have learned that it is better to make this in a blender than in a shaker bottle!  Trust me.

Don't ask me what you are seeing in background.  I have no idea...except for the butter dish which should really be washed and put away since butter is not really on our diet at the moment.  Too tempting.  How I love butter!

Family Friday Tales

Halloween is coming up.  It is probably my least favorite "holiday" of the year. However, it does bring up two stories, one from each of us.

We were sitting in the dining room putting together Halloween treat bags.  Dear One had decided that this year we would put candy in ziplock sandwich bags so there would not be so much pawing through the bowls...possibly being more health-conscious.  We have not heard anything from the mayor about canceling Halloween so we are going on the assumption it is "on".  We had at least 150 kids last year.  It was kind of fun seeing them all and watching their various behaviors.  The tiny ones were so cute!

Anyway, the topic of Three Musketeers came up.  Dear One loves those.  He had just opened the last big bag of candy and noticed the size of the candy in that bag.  They were TINY!  Like, thumbnail size!  He said that Three Musketeers in his day were planks!  And they only cost five cents.  I wondered where he got the five cents for the candy so I asked him.  He said he and his friends went to the dump and dug out soda bottles.  Of course, the redemption of the soda bottles in that day was only $.025 per bottle so they had to get at least three bottles to come up with the money for each Three Musketeers they wanted to eat.  That may not be much of a story but I thought it was pretty interesting.  In my family that would not have been even remotely an option...

This is the preparation for trick or treaters.  We are really hoping they do come.  The thought of all this candy left over is too grim for words. I only have so much self control.

Now for a story from my side of the family.  We lived on a dairy farm at the back of beyond.  The only people who ever came to our home, mostly, were the milk tester, the milk truck driver to pick up a ton of milk, and the mailman.  Oh, and the neighbors who lived even further out in the sticks up past us, but they rarely ever stopped.  They just drove on up the hill.

Well, my father was not a big Halloween fan. I am not sure if we ever went trick or treating.  I do think one year we went to the firehouse where there was a party that included doughnuts on a string and bobbing for apples, but that may have been the 4-H club who planned it.  

Well, here is the good part!  One year a car pulled into  our dooryard on Halloween night.  Four kids hopped out, came to our front door, and knocked.  When they said, "Trick or Treat!" in very happy voices, my father held up his index finger to have them wait a moment.  He came back with his hands full of kittens and dropped one kitten into each bag.  Four kittens.  That family never came trick or treating again!  I thought it was pretty funny.

New Accessory for the Kitchen

 Our VitaMix is such a blessing. I use it all the time.  Sometimes I don't want to make as much as fits in the 64-ounce container.  A couple of weeks ago there was a good sale on 48-ounce containers.  I had enough in my account to buy it, so I did.  (I did not pay any attention at all to the point that I would be able to buy anything else for a good long time...). It came it three days.  Sadly, it was the wrong container. Oh!!

After a few days I was finally able to make contact with an actual person at VitaMix who said she would fix the problem.  A week and a half later the correct container arrived.

This was the first thing I made in it: a beverage using all the fruit in the refrigerator that was on its last legs.

Into the container I put:

2 small somewhat dried up navel oranges, peeled
1 large navel orange, peeled
1 smallish apple, cored but skin left on
One-half cup fresh blueberries that were mostly dried blueberries
1 frozen banana
1 cup of water
2 cups ice cubes

After processing for about one minute, I served a glass to Dear One and one to myself. It was pretty good!  I love the new container! Tomorrow I am going to make almond milk in it.  I am thinking of leaving the almond pulp in the almond milk...not sure, but I don't really want to strain it, but I DEFINITELY don't want to throw it out.