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.

Race Away Rett: #TeamLeahBean Rides Again!

 May I say right up front that I am so very grateful to Heavenly Father for His tender mercies to me? I will tell you about that in a little bit.

A year has gone by since the last time I walked a 5K to help support research on Rett Syndrome.  It gives me pleasure to make this walk.  It does just about finish me off but at least if I fall short, I am close to home.  I have just learned how to use Walkie-Talkie on my watch so theoretically I could call home for reinforcements if necessary.

A few weeks ago I took several walks around the streets of the complex and kept track of the mileage so I would be sure to get the full 5K in.  My tee shirt came on Wednesday so, since Saturday was looking like a nice day, I planned to go then.

Dear One was kind enough to take a Before picture of me: (this was just in case of incident, he could prove to anyone who asked that I went out happy doing something I really wanted to do...)

You can even see Dear One in this picture!  At least his shadow...! You will notice we were careful not have the picture shooting into the garage...that was on purpose! Sometime it will be more orderly.  At least I hope to get the last of "my" buckets emptied and put into place.

So, off I went. As is.  I was about one-quarter mile away from our house and facing into the sun when I realized I was not wearing my hat. Rats!  I did not go back to get it. (I was afraid I might not start out again...so I kept going.)  Not a really good idea but there you have it.

After walking almost two miles I had a little episode of chest discomfort. This made me nervous because I was determined to finish the 5K.  This is where the tender mercies come in.  A little thought crossed my mind and I followed the prompting.  Within another quarter mile there was no more discomfort or worry!  

What did I do, you ask?  Well, over the last two days I had switched from watching/listening to whole plant food YouTube videos to Breathing videos.  In several of these we are told that nose breathing is the way to breathe, not mouth breathing.  Because of the effort I was taking to do the walk, I had turned to mouth breathing...SO I stopped and began nose breathing, and really concentrating on it.  It really worked. I began getting more oxygen into my lungs and more something into my heart(maybe red blood cells...?). Anyway, the pain went away and I finished the 5K.

Of course, by the time I was done my pace had dropped 2 minutes a mile.  The whole thing took me an hour and a half. But I finished.

You can see that I was a dead dog, I was no longer on my feet, and my face was sunburned.  But I finished.  Such a good feeling. I realized that I can do hard things.

One of the YouTube Breathing videos I watched is here.  Another one I started but stopped before it was done is  below.  

https://youtu.be/FdXQ6K0zIj4

Attachments area

Preview YouTube video How Breathing Through Your Nose Will Change Your Life with Patrick McKeown | FBLM Podcast

How Breathing Through Your Nose Will Change Your Life with Patrick McKeown | FBLM Podcast

I am thinking there is something to this.  At least it helped me in a moment of need.  The tender mercies were that 1.) I was prompted to listen to these videos in the first place while I was spinning yarn on the front porch and 2.) I remembered what I had heard when I needed to know.  Thanks, Heavenly Father.

Munchie Monday: Southern Buttermilk Biscuits. Sort Of!

 The other night Dear One and I were watching "The Chef Show".  This is a bad idea.  We think about food way too much after watching the show.  The chef was making Southern Buttermilk Biscuits.  Dear One asked me to make some biscuits since we had everything in the house for them.  SO...this morning I made them.

It turned out that one major ingredient we did NOT have: self-rising flour!  Well, that was easy enough to replicate.  May I say at this point that there is more self-rising flour on the grocery store shelves than there is regular all-purpose flour? And most other flours that are so common in the Upper Valley are not there at all.

So this is what I did.

In a large bowl I place 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 TABLESPOON baking powder, 1 teaspoon sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. I whisked them together well then got out a stick of frozen butter from the freezer.  As quickly as I could, I grated 3/4 of the stick on a box grater on the larger holes. 

When grating the butter I placed the grater on a piece of Cling Wrap.  The Chef grated his onto a piece of parchment paper.  Good idea.  Grating on a piece of Cling Wrap: bad idea.  The butter "clung'!!!  So annoying that I did not think of that beforehand.

See the little balls of frozen grated butter?  So annoying it did not just fall off the Cling Wrap.  Next time: parchment paper.

Working as quickly as I could I scraped the butter into the flour and mixed with a fork until the butter was all coated with flour.  At that point I dumped in 3/4 cup of buttermilk and stirred around a few times.  I needed to add another bit of buttermilk to bring it all together.

At that point I dumped the whole thing onto the counter which had a little flour on it. I pushed and pulled the dough together just a little then flattened it and cut out biscuits with a 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter.

Slapped the pan into a preheated 450 degree F. oven and let them cook 10 minutes.  Not done so I put them back for another 2 minutes plus 2 more minutes.  Took them out at 14 minutes but they really could have used even another minute or to.  The top and bottom were a little bit crispy. I never had crispy biscuits before but they were so good I want them to be even crispier!  Yes.  I did eat more than one.  BUT I did not put butter on them. I left the butter for Dear One who loves butter. I used apricot jam...

These really were nice and high and fluffy.  I asked Dear One why he liked high biscuits.  He said that was what he had when he lived at home with his parents.  I should have realized that because one time we were at their home and I commented on the nice biscuits.  His dad said he always put a lot of extra baking powder in them to make them him!  So...there you have it!

Another Test Knit!

 Day before yesterday I was at Yarnpond, a website where designers and willing knitters and crocheters meet.  Designers put up new patterns almost every day.  (There are many designers). 

It is fun to help these designers with their patterns.  Every designer is hoping for different things from the test knitters.  Of course, they all want you to be successful with knitting their pattern. They also want  to have you tell them of any problems you find in the pattern. Sometimes they just want a ton of people knitting their project in different yarns so they can have the pictures for their advertising.

The pattern I am testing this time is a blanket pattern knit it blocks with beautiful borders and strips, sort of like putting a quilt together.  This is probably not the best time (with Christmas knitting just begun also...!) to be starting a project of this type since there are 81 stitches cast on for each block (there are nine blocks, only two different ones, though).  The good thing about it is that I have hit the "use it up" (I would NEVER "throw it out"!) stage of life.  I had some beautiful Hilda Yates yarn that I had planned to use for a cable cardigan and another color which I tore an afghan apart...which I blogged about some time ago BUT in South Carolina, I do not need a heavy sweater.  Well, I already have one. I don't need another one. With timing, this may be more than I can chew but she does not need it to be completed until 24 December.  I hope to complete it by then.  I may not have quite enough yarn to finish it as started so I will just use what I have.  It might look wonky, but...well, I don't mind. We are the ones who will use it.  I can see Dear One sitting on the deck with the blanket wrapped around him on "cold" 60 degree days...!

It is a mosaic pattern.  This was my beginning:

It is just a mess.  It looked like nothing.  I went back and re-read the directions and saw something different on the chart so I sent a note to the designer who kindly and quickly emailed me back. She  pointed out in the pattern where she had already answered my question. Duh.

So I tore out everything except the cast on row and started again.  This is what it looks like now:

VERY different.  I like it.  I hope I will read the pattern correctly from now on...

Christmas Knitting 2020

 This is just a spoiler message!  The Christmas knitting project this year just plain tickles me pink!  I am so thrilled with how it is working.  This is one of the few times I have actually purchased a pattern to knit.  There are so many fabulous free patterns on Ravelry.com that I almost never need to buy one.  This was a different story.

Because this is secret work, I will just point you in a direction.  Go to Ravelry.com and look for Sarah Schira.  She is a lovely designer and makes many different items.  I am knitting one of them.  It is probably not mittens this year.  Too late in the season to start that.

That is it!  You can guess but I won't be telling you nor showing you pictures until the project is done and the packages are mailed...it will be a while.

Knitting Deconstruction!

 Several days ago I was working at organizing/removing things from the workroom closet.  I found a pair of socks that I had knit some years ago following someone's rather unusual pattern.  I did not like how the first sock came out so I knitted a second one with two strands of the yarn held together.  That one was WAY worse.

What do you do when that happens?  You pull the socks apart.  It took a while to deconstruct the first sock, but was readily do-able.  The second sock...well, that was a different story but eventually I did get it pulled out.  

You can see the yarn being wound off the sock and onto the notebook on the right side of the photo. You can also see why I was dissatisfied with the sock.  I think when I knit it up again it will be a plain vanilla sock pattern, i.e. just stockinette stitch the whole sock except the top ribbing. (I just found a Twisted Sisters Sock Book online which has some really good sock-knitting info.  I look forward to getting onto the socks THOUGH I have started Christmas knitting so it will be a while before I get to socks.  Oh, and I agreed to do another test knit, this one a blanket to use up my Hilda Yates yarn.  The gauge is not right so perhaps the designer will cancel me out.  That won't be a problem...!)

To make the second sock frogging work I used a three-ring binder and had both yarns being wound on it at the same time.  (You see, I DID learn something that last time I pulled out a project and left one strand of the grippy yarn in a big pile in the sink!  That was a NIGHTMARE to untangle and turn into a smooth skein.). It worked pretty well. I think Dear One went through at least two Netflix shows before I got it finished.

The three yarn hanks have soaked overnight in the sink and now are hanging in the bathtub with the makeshift yarn dryer/stretcher.  I think it will be ready to wind up into cakes in another two or three days!

NOTE:  Here is the apparatus I mentioned above.  I probably posted it before but...here it is again.  It works. And was free!

Munchie Monday: Quick and Easy Waffle Fries,, Waffle Iron, that is!

 Recently Dear One asked for waffles.  Waffles are addictive to me so I was not that thrilled to make them BUT...I made him some waffles then I made some waffle potatoes for myself!  Well, he was really into the waffle potatoes, too!  Bonus!

We have used white sweet potatoes (Asian sweet potatoes), red potatoes, and yellow potatoes.  The potatoes that work the best are the yellow potatoes.

Quick and Easy Waffle Potatoes

Cook up a bunch of small to medium yellow potatoes IN THE SKINS in a pot of water on the stove or in your Instant Pot.  They need to be easily pierced with a fork.

Drain the potatoes and put them in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day heat the waffle iron.  While the waffle iron is heating, place potatoes on a tea towel and cover with the other end of the tea towel and, using the palm of your hand, smush down the potatoes so they are pretty flat...and probably 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. 

Place them in the waffle iron and put the lid down.  I smush it down slightly.  Let cook for at least 10 minutes.  Usually they will need longer.  I guess it depends on on crispy you like them.

If you make more than you can eat in one sitting, put them in the refrigerator and the next day, heat them up in the air fryer.  They are VERY good after the air frying, unless you let them go too long!

These are very good. They have the added bonus that there is NO OIL AT ALL involved...! (You can see we are off added fats which is helping our bodies.)

Family Friday Tales

 This tale is not so much a tale as it is a picture!

This is Mother's pink slipper chair.  You may wonder what a slipper chair is.  This one lacks one of the traditional characteristics of a slipper chair because it has arms.  Most slipper chairs have no arms.  They were originally meant for ladies with giant skirts and petticoats to sit on low to the ground so they could get their shoes or slippers on.  This is a low chair and quite comfortable.

Our mother had two slipper chairs.  One had blue fabric covering the cushions and the other had "pink" fabric.  I have the pink one.  You will notice that there is a 3" piece of foam under the cushion.  This is because more padding is needed to make this comfortable.

One thing I might add to my "To Do" list is to make new cushions for this chair...though in honesty, I rarely sit in it at the present time.  Usually it is where I stack the clean clothes before taking care of them.  Well, more accurately, that is where Dear One stacks my clean clothes when he takes them out of the dryer!

This chair is a treasure from my childhood.  In fact, it is almost the only treasure from my childhood that came with us to South Carolina.  Well, there are at least two more. Maybe I will share those some day soon...

Breakfast Cookies!

 Do we all know that oatmeal is very very good for us?  Apparently, among other things, oatmeal eaten daily, will improve cholesterol.  Since mine could use improvement, I have been making oatmeal more often for us to eat.  

These are breakfast cookies...oatmeal, applesauce, date paste, cinnamon.  Plus mini chocolate chips!  Oh, and a little flax seed meal. They are cooked at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes or so.  They are not really very good but you can feel virtuous eating them.  Also you can feel no guilt at eating cookies for breakfast! Plus really, they are not so very hard to eat.  Some "healthy" things are so unpleasant that it does not matter that they are healthy, you just cannot eat them.  These are not that bad.

The Scott family created the recipe and posted it on their website.

Spinning, Again!

For almost four years the beautiful Ashford Traveller single treadle spinning wheel my dear, and now departed, friend Elsie gave me has been sitting quietly in the corner begging me to come back and make some yarn.  We have a fair amount of roving in both white and luscious brown in the workroom closet, as well as some unprocessed fiber. This past week I got going again!

 

You can see that the bobbin with the brown yarn is nearly full.  This is the second bobbin of brown almost ready for plying.  On Friday evening I went to the closet and pulled out a bag of white roving with the plan to spin three bobbins of white yarn to ply with the three bobbins of brown yarn, and then repeat until all the roving is used up.  I think it will make a lovely yarn.

Lately I have been thinking that the time has come to get some projects actually completed rather than holding them in readiness for "some day".  Friday night, probably an hour after bringing the white roving downstairs, I had a very unpleasant episode. 

Sometimes, afterwards, you wish someone had been there with a video camera when something untoward happens so you can observe and figure out how to not have it happen again...or to have something to laugh out loud about in wonder that such a foolish thing happened, and you survived it!

So, I had come downstairs barefooted. After a day of hot feet, I had taken off my shoes and left them by the love seat. Before going back upstairs to watch a little more TV with Dear One I went to the Ladies'.  Coming out of the bathroom I stubbed my toe on the sit-on stool for when you come in the front door and want to take off your shoes (do you see a pattern here?!).  Pain shot up my leg, lifting it off the floor.  I am not good standing on one leg and I flipped around, totally lost my balance, and, once again, fell down flat.  This time I fell flat on my back and cracked my head on the wall and floor, raising a rather impressive goose egg on my skull.

Falling down is such a jarring thing. I do not recommend it.  To anyone, no matter your age and physical condition!  It took me a fair while to get myself together, get into a sitting position, and then butt-walk myself down the hall and into the kitchen where I was able to get onto my better leg and pull myself up by holding onto the island.  What a dumb bunny.  It was actually nauseating, but there was only a little skin skun off one knee and really, no harm done, BUT it really makes me want to work harder and faster on "finishing up" the many projects I have started!  If I am going to take such poor care of my body, one day there will be an accident that does not have these happy-ish consequences...

2020 Garden: Ginger

This is not a very exciting "episode" but...a month or more ago we had some ginger that began sprouting.  I wondered if it would grow here is South Carolina. It has been so hot and humid for so long, I thought I would give it a try.

This is what it looks like now: 

 These are growing in the other end of the tub where the largest basil plant is still growing.  That is shortly to be pulled up.  I will then move some chives in to befriend the ginger.  I like chives and ginger in peanut sauce so I imagine they will be very good friends!

Munchie Monday: Food Processor Peanut Butter

 When you get your mind set on something, it is hard to let it go sometimes!  I ordered a 48-ounce container for our VitaMix when they were on a big sale a little over a week ago. I was thrilled when it arrived three days later.  I was NOT thrilled that it was the wrong container for our VitaMix.  So, while trying to figure out how to return this one and receive the correct one, I decided to make peanut butter in the food processor.  Not willing to wait patiently for the new container before making peanut butter...

It was pretty easy.  When we had our Zoom Meeting Relief Society today we discussed Elder Jaggy's talk on patience at the most recent General Conference of the Church.  I should have brought up that sometimes our food projects take a fair amount of patience!

To make this peanut butter (which is very yummy, by the way!), place 2 cups of peanuts in the bowl of your food processor with the S-blade.  Pulse 4 or 5 times then pull out a small quantity of them so you can have chunky peanut butter.

Here are the chopped peanuts waiting to added into the peanut butter.

To go on with the "recipe", turn the food processor on again and process for 1 minute.  Open it up and scrape down the sides and process again for another minute and repeat the scraping.  Repeat one more time.  You will need to process AT LEAST three minutes, scraping down each minute.  My patience ran thin so I stopped there!

In the end you will have a nice tasty creamy peanut butter ready to accept the chopped peanuts. I saved the chopped peanuts Dear One can enjoy his favorite peanut butter which is chunky.

Food Friday: Green Pea Pesto!

The other day Krocks in the Kitchen made a recipe that sounded good to me.  It was Green Pea Pesto.  We had everything in the cupboards/kitchen so I made it.  It entailed harvesting a lot of basil from the porch.  Getting close to the end of the season on that one...!

Green Pea Pesto

1 cup frozen peas, thawed

1/2-3/4 cup fresh basil

good handful of pecans (they used 1 Tablespoon of toasted pine nuts.  Not in our budget...but we did have pecans so I used a handful of them.)

2 large cloves garlic (though i pulled up the 1-clove garlic plants from the porch and used them all, after washing them very well...!)

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 Tablespoon Braggs Liquid Aminos

1/4 cup unflavored soy milk

Place in a blender and blend until very smooth.  Serve any way you like.  We used it for a dipping sauce for oven french fries.  Maybe I will put it on hot pasta soon.

It was pretty good.  Pretty, too!

Thursday Thoughts

 We had a power outage on Wednesday evening.  The power was not expected to be restored until after midnight.  We are often in bed by nine o'clock.  A CPAP needs power to run. I cannot sleep without the CPAP.  Consequently, I had a lot of time for thinking.

Life is pretty good here.  And has been for many years.  Oh, there have been a few ups and downs but the downs have been bearable and temporary.  When the lights went out and it was time for bed I began thinking of people who need oxygen not only to sleep but to live. And then thought that there are probably many other people who have other needs that cannot be met when things change, like the power going out.  How to they manage?  My heart mourns for them.  For me, it is only a matter of lost sleep (though I do have two medical appointments early in the morning so that is going to be a bit of a problem for me, but not life threatening.)

There are so many people who have so many problems to deal with that I never think about.  Tonight I have.  I realize that about the only thing I can do is to pray for them, and when I see someone I can personally assist, I will do it.

When there is a change like this, it brings more compassion to my mind and heart.  And I want to be a better person.

PS. The power came on just before midnight.  I am very grateful to the workmen and women who restored power to our town.

PPS. This probably makes not a lot of sense.  I am pretty muddled.

Inside Garden, Fall 2020

 Several times recently I have watched videos on sprouting.  They all have promised that broccoli sprouts are really good for you.  We grew some broccoli sprouts months ago but they were not successful.  I decided it was time to try again.

The process was very simple: in a quart mason jar I placed 2 tablespoons of broccoli seeds that were meant for sprouting.  I filled the jar about half full with tap water then let them sit overnight.  In the morning I drained and rinsed them then put on the sprouting lid I had purchased sometime before.  

This lid happens to be plastic.  I looked around for stainless steel sprouting lids but they all apparently rust, so I continued on with the plastic.  At least the sprouts are not in contact with the plastic for very long.

Every day for about seven days I rinsed and drained the sprouts then leaned the jar up in a bowl so any other water could drain out which keeps the sprouts from rotting.  On the eighth day  we had sprouts on our salad!  I was so thrilled.  We ate about half a jar of sprouts this first go-round.  Dear One was not a great fan but he did eat all that he served himself.  We will have sprouts on salad again tomorrow!

You can see the little broccoli sprouts/plants on the spring mix salad greens.  We topped with sweet onions and maple balsamic vinegar.  SO VERY GOOD!!  At least to me.  Dear One had no onions, only greens and sprouts but with raspberry balsamic vinegar for dressing.  He lapped it up pretty fast, too!

Then I will start another batch!  I love feeling like my inwards are getting healthier, even though I cannot really see it from the outside.

Next time I will use the filtered water from the refrigerator dispenser.  When I watched the videos (after I had already started the sprouting process) I noticed that they all used filtered water.  We semi-filter our tap water by putting it in an open vessel on the counter and let it sit overnight because we are under the impression that this helps the chlorine and other water additives evaporate out of the water.  This could be wrong, but we do it...

Quick Baked Banana Bites

 Last week I was watching an interview on Chef AJ's channel on YouTube.  She often has another chef on the interview show.   This recipe came from Vicki Brett-Gagh. Vicki gave us three different recipes which were virtually the same.

Monkey Bites from Chef AJ’s interview with VICKI BRETT-GACH

3 ripe bananas

1/3 cup almond butter ( We had almonds so I made the butter in our food processor.  It took FOREVER but turned out really good.)

1/4 cup pitted dates

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup rolled oats

2 teaspoons baking powder

Set oven preheating at 350 degrees F.  Get out a silicon mini cupcake cups pan.

Mix all ingredients well in food processor, scraping down the sides a couple of times, then portion into mini silicon cupcake cups. This works best with a portion scoop but a spoon will work.

 Bake 14 minutes at 350 degrees F.  Let cool ten minutes on a cooling rack then remove bites from pan by pushing up from the bottom.

There were 24 when I pulled them out of the oven.  This occurred just before Dear One returned from giving blood.  He has given many gallons of blood by this time, and continues every two months to give another pint.

Before I left to go swimming, I ate two of these bites.  You will notice that I put a chocolate wafer on top (when they were hot, thinking they would melt.  They did not.  A purist would not have put those wafers on top...), thinking Dear One would be more drawn to them with chocolate.  Well, you see there were only sixteen left when I came home from swimming, so I guess they must have been okay! 

These really are bites,  just pop them into the mouth.  They are pretty good.

Munchie Monday: Moist Rich Brownies

 A dear friend gave us a recipe for some rich moist brownies.  The secret ingredient blew me away.  I did not believe it would work, but IT DID!  Try these for sure.  Please. You will be glad you did.  The great thing about them is that they are gluten free.

Frances R. Brownies

1 15-ounce can black beans drained and rinsed

3 large eggs

3 Tablespoons flavorless oil like canola

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2/3 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Purée beans in a food processor then add the eggs, oil, and vanilla and process again until smooth. In a separate bowl combine the cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix a little then stir in the chocolate chips. Do this in a large bowl.

Use a 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 baking pan with some grease and line with parchment paper or use a silicon pan and pour the batter in. Smooth the batter out. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until the edges are visibly cooked and the center doesn’t jiggle when you shake the pan. A toothpick may come out a little bit gooey but that’s fine.

Let brownies cool before cutting.

For really thick brownies double the recipe and add 15 to 20 minutes to the cooking time. This recipe makes 16 brownies with about 117 cal per brownie -carbohydrates 16 g per brownie.

For this batch I used the silicon pan.  I did not oil it at all.  I forgot that you are supposed to let them cool for 5-10 minutes before removing from pan, but still, they did work pretty well.

Next time, and there will certainly be a next time because Dear One loved them, too, I will use flax eggs. If that works:  The next time after that I will use date paste.  If both the flax eggs and the date paste work, then I will try replacing the oil with applesauce or mashed bananas.  I will let you know!  Right now I am perhaps kidding myself that these are more or less healthy.  At least they don't have regular flour in them which kills me on the scales...plus I always want more, more, more when I eat flour based things.  Like bread!

Family Friday Tales

 One of the most delightful events of my childhood was attending the Tunbridge World's Fair each September.  We went every year.  There was so much to see and do.  We rarely took in the rides (with five children and a farmer's income, it was hard to find pocket change) but sometimes we did.  Also we rarely ate "fair food" until we were teenagers and had a few cents of our own.

Well, one year, when we were all pretty young, we were going into Floral Hall to see all the exhibits and see if anyone we knew had won a prize on their pickles or pies or handwork. (These would have been my mother's friends since we were so young...). This was the year of the cotton candy.

Near the Floral Hall there was a cotton candy booth.  All we kids begged and begged my father to buy us some.  It was so pretty.  So fluffy.  Such great colors.  He finally relented and bought each one of us a cone.  That turned out to be a really bad idea.  We each had one bite and handed the cones back to him.  It was so very sweet!  So icky sweet that none of us could eat it.

He found a shovel somewhere, which at this moment seems like a crazy providential thing to find. AND he dug a hole in the ground right there by Floral Hall and buried that cotton candy.  We never ever begged for any again.  

PS. Maybe the burial took place in front of the cattle shed.  I will have to ask my sister if she remembers...

Knitting and Paper Crafting in One!

 The other day our dear neighbor called to tell us it was her birthday.  She was inviting us over for a big party she was having. She also hoped it would be okay if other guests parked on our lawn.  Dear One and I had already talked about it.  We also thought it would be easier for people to park in our driveway.  They could get four cars in there.  And they did.

Because Dear One is not as comfortable in situations where he knows virtually no one, we begged off.  Instead I spent half the afternoon knitting up a cloth for her and made the coolest box!!

This was a regular Grandmother's Cloth plus a new pattern I found for knitted scrubbies!  I love them.  

It is always nice to figure out some kind of container for a gift.  This time I made another hinged box.  The thing that tickles me the most about it is that I remembered to put in a thumb hole so it was easy to open.  These are not glorious but I did actually love the box.  It was a beige and cream paper with a lace pattern across it.  So nice.  Sadly, I did not get a good picture of it.  You can see a little of it on the keyboard.

With the imperfections, it was still fun to make and fun to give.

AND when I walked over and dropped off the gift, after a sweet hug, she reiterated her invitation but I told her we would not come over...partially because of the vegetarian issues.  She asked if she could give us some collards.  Well, yes she could!  I love collards.  Her collards were fantastic.  I could have eaten the whole plate at once but restrained myself and put most of it in the refrigerator.  The next day I ate the rest.  

You are right, Dear One is not a collards fan.  No problem.  More for me.  But one day I will figure a way to make some he will like.  Maybe on my death bed he will eat a bite or two just to please me...!