Food Friday: Frosting Dog

 Today I was at the Piggly Wiggly Pharmacy and foolishly walked by the deli area. I MUST stop doing that. It is very bad for my health and Dear One's health.  This time I was caught up in a darling "frosting dog"!

People that can decorate cakes can make this in a flash I am sure since it was only $2.99.  I brought it home thinking Dear One would love it since he has a major sweet tooth.

On the way home the dog face smashed into the plastic cover and when I removed the cover I removed one eye and the mouth.  Sad.

Well, I cut off part of the back side to try out.  When I say "frosting dog", that is really the truth!  There is almost no cake involved at all.  I put the cover back on to see if we could avoid calling ants, though I really expect before bedtime the little guy will have been completely consumed. I thought it was two cupcakes covered with frosting.  It was not.

Live and learn. BUT it sure would make a darling table decoration if you could get it safely home, OR if you were smart enough to repair the cover damage.

More Knitting: Pineapple Scrubbie

 A friend asked for help with a pineapple scrubbie she had seen at Hobby Lobby.  It included both knitting and crocheting.  I knew I could help with the knitting end and figured I could also do the crocheting and teach it to her. WELL...the knitting was a simple "berry" stitch...cannot remember the actual name of the stitch but you knit 3 together then KPK in the next stitch or PKP in that next stich.

This is intended to have a cake of soap inserted through the leaves at the top.

The crocheting part had an indecipherable chart.  At least I could not grasp it until I had help and then it was a Duh! moment...so very clear. Oh well.  Now I know.

The pattern I am referencing does not want me to link to it but if you go to Hobby Lobby and look for Pineapple Scrubbie and Scrubology Yarn you will find it.

The crochet part of the pattern is also very simple.  Once you know how to read the pattern.

The crochet pattern was just a chart. I had not done crochet from a chart...so I asked a couple of ladies at church who gave me the word.  I smacked my forehead when the chart reader wrote it out in words. Of COURSE that was what the symbols meant.  Double Duh!!

Because I do not like the way the sewn edge looks, I am trying again and knitting with the Scrubology acrylic yarn again because I like the pineapple part.

  The next one I will use the scrubology cotton for the green leaves since the acrylic (which makes a great scrubbing fabric) makes terrible crocheted leaves.  At least I make terrible leaves with that yarn...

 Also, I could only do one row repeat (Row 1: K1, *K3tog, PKP in next stitch, * to end of row, K1, turn and Row 2: knit back across) at a time since the yarn wreaked a certain amount of havoc with my hands...took a lot of strength.  Well, I don't really know how to describe the situation, but trust me, only one of the 2-row repeats at a time, then a good rest.  Even knitting on the tiny needles for the Crayon Booties was much more comfortable.

Crayon Booties Test Knit Completed

Crayon Booties are done!  Well, with errors.  The biggest error is that I used 2.5 mm needles instead of the 2.25 mm needles called for. I was pretty embarrassed to find I was using the wrong needles.  However, I was almost done knitting when I realized the mistake so I just let them stand.

When things slow down I will re-knit these on the correct sized needles and will take a picture side by side (if I have not given away these booties by then).

To find my notes for these booties, go to my Ravelry.com notebook.  When you go there  you will find that I have not been updating my notebook in ages but am hoping to do that from now on. Not being consistent is a big flaw in my character.  Sadly.

If anyone wants to help designers by test knitting, go to Yarnpond.com.

Munchie Monday: Strawberry Fool

 A quick and easy dessert is always nice.  With the fresh strawberry season going full tilt here locally, we are enjoying berries every day.  A quick, easy, and calorie-laden dessert is Strawberry Fool.  It is so pretty.  Even in Christmas glasses!

Strawberry Fool

2 cups fresh strawberries, capped, washed, and sliced
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice, fresh is probably best but bottled can be used
2 cups heavy whipping cream

Place 1 cup strawberries in a blender along with the sugar and lemon juice and blend until a nice purée.  Put through a sieve to remove larger seeds.  (I did put through a sieve but did not find many seeds remaining in the sieve.)

Whip the heavy cream until beautifully whipped but not dry.

Fold the strawberry purée into the whipped cream.

Layer the remaining sliced strawberries in the bottom of a pretty glass container then the fool.  Make as many layers as you like. We only did one of fresh berries and one of the fool with a few berries on top.

Dear One really liked this!

The Rest of the (Key) Story

 Early this week I told you a long sad story about locking my keys in the car trunk then within a few minutes losing the newly cut expensive key.  Well...this is the rest of the story!

Yesterday I went to the YMCA to swim.  I parked the car, got my stuff out, same as on Monday, and locked the door. Only...the door would not lock but just kept beeping. R-r-r!  Not again.  Well, I really wanted to get that swim in and kept vacillating between going swimming and trying again to find the lost key in the car.  In a minute or so I said to myself...I am here. I need to swim.  So I turned around one more time and using the (found!) fob, clicked the locked button.  There was not locking sound but I hoped for the best and continued on into the facility to swim.

After only three laps I. could not in good conscience keep swimming. I  knew I had to get out of the pool and take the car to Toyota who had told me on Monday (when I called to ask if the girl who brought the new key had seen where I had stashed it--she had not) and they would find it for me since I probably dropped it between the seats and just could not reach it myself.  So, I got out of the pool, dressed quickly without even a shower and shampoo (bad idea because when it dried, my hair was like a frightful straw man...!) and headed down the corridor to the front of the Y.  

All of a sudden I heard: "Miss Patricia!"   I looked behind me and there, sitting on the bench, was my dear swimming friend R and her wonderful DIL, M!  It was so wonderful to see them.  They made room for me to sit down and visit.  It was SO GOOD to visit with them.  After a while we decided I needed to get on the road with the car problem.  M, that fabulous girl, said that she would come look for the key in the car so I would not have to take it to Toyota.  I was reluctant because she would have to lie on the ground to reach into the car to search.  I did not want to make her so that.  She is so kind she refused to be put off, so R and M were going to drive around the Y to meet me at my car, and I walked to the front of the facility.

Almost at the front I ran into B, one of the nicest YMCA staff ever.  We had hit it off when I first came many months ago and she asked how I was doing.  You know me, never just say "Fine" and walk on, I launched into a (somewhat) shortened version of the keys-locked-in-the-trunk debacle.  Her ears perked up and she said, "Lost key?  On Monday? Meet me out front."

When I got to the front desk, there she was holding out a key that looked exactly like the key I had lost!  I went out to try it in the lock.  It WAS THE KEY!!  I had just opened the door when R and M came around and stopped behind the car. M did not have to lie on the nasty ground after all!  I am so glad. I am also so grateful for her kindness and willingness to help me.

So...I must say that I am so grateful to Heavenly Father, and so many others, for watching over me and helping to clean up my messes.

When I got home I showed the key that I had hung on my key lanyard to Dear One.  He reached out his had for it after inquiring where I had found it.  He thought leaving it on my lanyard would mean I now had TWO keys to lock in the trunk, throw in the dumpster, toss into the trash if I went to a fast food place (which I am committed to NOT DO any time in the foreseeable future!), or some other irresponsible thing.  He is such a sweet kind man that I did hand him the key.  

That key now has a new home.  I do not know where that new home is.  I hope Dear One is not subject to key disasters, too! Nor losses of memory cells...

Anyway, that is the rest of the story.  All is well that ends well.  I feel like the problem with locking the car when I arrived at the YMCA was Heavenly Father's way of getting my attention back to the lost key.  He put R and M in exactly the right place for exactly the right amount of time for me to then meet B who would ask just the right question to get me talking about a lost key so I could have it restored to me.  I AM SO GRATEFUL!!

New Knitting Tool: DIY Row Chain Jewelry

 Working on the sleeves of the sweater I knew I had to make regular decreases for the hem and increases for the sleeve.  Increases and decreases are always a bear for me to remember at the right time. I had seen some absolutely gorgeous row chain jewelry online and thought I could make my own,

Since Hobby Lobby has just opened in our town (!!!!) I went  over and purchased three little packages of jewelry findings--small jump rings, pretty good sized split rings, and lobster closures. I already had the jewelry tools sitting on my desk for the past year and a half waiting, waiting, waiting.  Finally I used them.

Very handy tools to use for other things besides jewelry work, I might add.

Here is my plain row chain jewelry in use.  It works great!  The idea of putting the lobster clasp on the end is so I know which end I am working toward.  I could not find the number beads at either Hobby Lobby or Michaels so I left them off and used the lobster. I can always add them if I run into them somewhere else. Those number beads would certainly make these row chains foolproof!  Now I have to count rings each time and check to make sure I am moving the chain in the right direction.

This makes me happy and confident about increases and decreases.

By the way, I first heard of doing this while reading The Philosopher's Wool book on Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified.  In one of the chapters early on Ann mentioned making a chain though she used scrap yarn to make her loops.  It caught my attention then but I did nothing about it.  Now when I was doing an important Fair Isle project that I wanted to be successful I carried out the making of the chain with jewelry findings.

Fun Food

 We had some bananas that I let get VERY brown. I had thought of putting them in the freezer for Nice Cream but since they were on the banana holder in the corner and not smacking me in the face with their degeneration, I did not get to them until they were so brown they were likely slimy inside, which called for instantly making banana bread.  I had just seen a recipe for double chocolate banana bread so I made them into that tasty treat.

The recipe that follows is what I used as a starting place.

Differences I made--

--used only three smallish slimy ripe bananas

--used leftover heavy whipping cream mixed with very old buttermilk mixed together instead of sour cream

--used semi sweet chocolate chips--two big handfuls

--did not use any kind of topping

Also, I used a silicon bread tin that I slightly greased with the butter paper.  This was not a good idea.  Part of the loaf stuck to the pan.  Oh well.

 This is the bread with half sent to a friend and a third of it eaten in house.  It is really pretty good.

Chocolate Banana Bread

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour leveled with a knife
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 stick salted butter at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cup mashed bananas approximately 4 very ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Chocolate Topping

• 1/3 cup milk chocolate chips
• 2 tbsp whole milk
• 3 tbsp powdered sugar
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan with cooking spray, set aside.
• In a medium mixing bowl add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine until there are no lumps remaining from the cocoa powder. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl add the butter, sugar, light brown sugar, and eggs. Using a hand mixer on high, beat mixture for 2 minutes. 
• Add the mashed bananas, sour cream, and vanilla. Continue to beat together for another 1 to 2 minutes or until completely combined and no sour cream lumps remain. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Using the hand mixture on a low speed, beat together until no flour streaks remain. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
• Add the chocolate chips and use the rubber spatula to fold in the chocolate chips until combined.
• Pour the batter into the greased loaf pan and spread evenly with a spatula. 
• Bake for 55 to 60 minutes. Test the center of the bread with a toothpick to see if it comes out clean. If not, continue to bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes.
• Remove the chocolate banana bread from the oven and let cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the bread from the pan.
• Turn out the bread onto a cooling rack and let cool completely before serving.
• While the bread is cooling add the chocolate chips and whole milk to a small mixing bowl. Microwave for 15 seconds. Remove from the microwave and stir until all of the chocolate is melted.
• Add the powdered sugar and whisk together. Let the chocolate topping sit out until the bread is completely cooled.
• Once the bread is completely cooled, drizzle the chocolate topping over the bread and serve.

Nutrition

Calories: 466kcal | Carbohydrates: 67g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 88mg | Sodium: 359mg | Potassium: 253mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 46g | Vitamin A: 581IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 72mg | Iron: 2mg 

Tuesday Troubles on Monday!

 Today I had many things to do.  With great good fortune I made very good progress.  It was time to head to the YMCA for my swimming.  Since I have told the world that I am working on a particularly hard swimming goal, I was all souped up to do today's workout.

Well!  I got to the YMCA, got my stroller out of the trunk, got my swimming backpack out of the trunk, remembered I have forgotten to bring dry socks since I wear socks in my Frogg Toggs shoes in the water to keep my feet from getting banged up, then the final thing I did was toss my purse in the trunk, which I always do to keep it out of sight of anyone who might be light-fingered and easily tempted.

So good.  Ready to hit the road to enter the building. I slammed down the trunk. Yay!  Then I heard the beeping, realized my key fob and YMCA membership card lanyard was NOT around my neck just at the moment the beeping stopped.  I could now NOT get into the car.  I tried all the doors but they were securely locked.  R-r-r-r!

Even with this foolishness, Heavenly Father was watching over me.  For perhaps the third time since last September when I started going to the Y, I had slipped my phone into my swim backpack...so I was not totally without resources.  

After a short call with a nice girl at Toyota who had no idea how to help me--she suggested I get a locksmith then she said if I would bring the car in to the dealership they could help me.  Sure.  Glad to do it.  I might have been slightly hot under the collar/impatient with that and asked if she had a manager who could help.  He sounded about the same age as the girl.  He also told me to bring the car in.  Or at least I needed to bring in the registration and my driver's license. I said I would be glad to if he would open my car.  He said they could not do it without information about the car and ownership.  I was grateful he was looking out for us but was a tad distressed.  Finally he said they could make a key for the actual keyhole in the door...thank goodness they had one of the blanks there!  He checked his system, said they had a blank they could cut, then asked me to hold while he checked if they ACTUALLY had the key.  He came back on the line with the blank in hand. I thought that was pretty darn smart of him and appreciated it greatly.

He told me it would take fifteen or twenty minutes to get the key cut then he would send someone to the rescue along with the invoice.  I was perfectly happy.  Walked one lap around the building then started downloading a Libba Bray book, the third in the Gemma Doyle trilogy, and waited happily.  The girl arrived in very good time.

We got the door unlocked.  I got out the registration which she photographed.  I handed her my driver's license which she photographed.  I got out my credit card which I handed to her to use to pay the bill.  I thanked her and she got on her way.  I got into the car and drove off to my next stop since it was too late to swim by then...my reservation time having been almost totally used up.  

Arriving at the JC Penney parking lot,  I got out of the car to get a couple of towels, shut and locked the door, and as I started walking away I heard beeping.  And more beeping.  I could NOT lock the dratted door!  I realized the new key was nowhere to be found. Somehow it was keeping the door from locking but I could not find it for anything.  I looked totally through my purse and everywhere else I could look.  Could NOT find that key.  

Each time I got out of the car and tried to lock it there was a continual beeping. I REALLY wanted those towels so I drove to a far corner of the parking lot so no one would hear the beeping and realize they could drive off in the car.  Funny thing.  This time when I locked the car it did not beep!  I rushed into the store, bought the $4.00 (as per the sign above the piles) towels for $9.00 each.  I mentioned the discrepancy in signage but the clerk said that I had the $9.00 ones and there was nothing to do about it.  So I thanked her and only bought two of them instead of the four I had chosen.  Oh well.

It was fun coming home and telling Dear One about my less than brilliant performance today.  He was so nice about it.  The key was pretty costly...

Food Friday: Busy Early Morning Things!

 This morning I started early on getting things done since I need to be free later in the morning.  Things turned out successfully, which is always a pleasing start to the day.  To make this morning successful I had to start last night!  

To make almond milk you need to soak one cup of almonds in water overnight.  I remembered to put the almonds soaking before bed, a real plus.  This morning I drained and rinsed the nuts then put them into the blender with 5 cups fresh water.  They blended for 90 seconds then were strained in a very good nut milk bag.  The link is to the nut bags we bought.  They are SO MUCH BETTER than anything I have used before. I can certainly recommend them for people who are sick of straining nut milk through cheese cloth, paint strainer bags, dish towels, and any number of other not-so-hot options.  I love these.

Earlier I had seen a recipe in the email from #LifeIsNoYoke for making orange juice in the blender so, since I found a package of 6 medium navel oranges in the "almost gone by" shelving at Piggly Wiggly, I decided to give this a try.   The recipe called for 1/2 cup water, 4 peeled oranges, 4 pitted dates, and 1 1/2 cups ice cubes.  I blended this for a minute then poured into a quart jar.  It is a little pulpy for me, but does taste okay.  Dear One will probably love it since he is all for pulp, for some unknown reason.

The orange juice ingredients are in the blender ready to go.  I DID remember to pit the dates.  A very good thing all around!

This is the orange juice ready to be bottled up, then consumed at some point in the future. I presume Dear One will have a slug of it when he returns from his bike ride.

When making almond milk there is always leftover almond pulp.  In the past I have dried it in the dehydrator, ground it up, and used it as almond meal in recipes but this time I left the pulp from two times making milk in a sealed container in refrigerator.  Last night I hauled it out and made a recipe calling for almond pulp, oatmeal, maple syrup, flax meal, and cinnamon. Oh!  And chocolate chips.  You cannot go wrong with chocolate chips!   The pan of mixture needed to bake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes.  I put it into a silicon loaf pan and baked it a little longer since the pan made it a little thicker than the recipe called for.  

Instead of leaving these bars out to cool, I put it in the refrigerator overnight to "firm up", but mainly to keep the lovely fragrance hidden from the nasty miserable ants that come a-running any time I leave anything on the counter overnight.  So maddening.  We spend a ton for ant eradication every month but somehow the ants have not gotten the message yet that they are not welcome...

Here is a picture of the orange juice, almond milk, and the chocolate chip almond pulp bars.  They do not look that appealing, and, honestly, they are not great, but they are edible which I can say in all truthfulness as I ate some of the scraps that fell off the bars.

Quick Announcement to Subscribers and a Picture

The above was typed in Word then pasted in here since I typed it multiple times and the message magically self-deleted when I was typing directly into Blogger.  That gets my goat. I hope this is legible to you all.

Here is a small sample of one of the motifs for the sweater on a white background.  It is kind of wonky because I knit it flat which means that every other row is a purl row...not my forte.  I really love knitting in the round!  The stitches, except when doing patterns, are all knit stitches.  Nice.

Have a great day!

Gauge Swatch for Elizabeth Zimmermann EPS Yoked Sweater

 It is no secret that I am trying to use up my yarn.  I still have so much of the Hilda Yates yarn (spun and dyed at Bartlettyarns Mill in Harmony, Maine) that I want to use up.  I decided to make a cardigan sweater for our daughter using up as much as I can.  Based on how little of the yarn actually went into making that Celtic Knot afghan, I believe I will not use that much up for this project.  Sad.  But only because I am promising myself not to acquire ANY MORE YARN until I have used this up.  And there are things I want to make...!

Anyway,  here is a picture of the gauge swatch I just finished for the EPS Yoked Sweater.  Don't be too excited about all the errors and flaws in it. Yes, I am aware of them though I do welcome anyone's input on how to make it better.  There are many things I learned while doing this.

1. Gauge is really important.

2. To get gauge you may need to change needle sizes.

3. You may need to use different size needles in your pattern, for example I found that to get my color work gauge to more closely match the non-color work gauge, I had to go up a couple needle sizes.

4. To have beautiful vibrant peeries you need HIGH contrast yarns, though beauty is in the eye of the beholder actually.

5.  When knitting button bands, it is important to pickup the needles you used for the plain knitting, not the color work knitting!  Those bands will be tighter and tidier.

When all is said and done, I am so happy to have knit this entire small sweater as the gauge swatch. I think it is kind of cute and I was able to "learn", or at least start to learn, how to do many things I had not done before or if I had done them, it was ages ago.

Some of those things are:

making a pocket
color work-I did knit a beautiful if I say so myself Fanoe sweater for a granddaughter when she was a very little girl but that was way different from these patterns
making hems instead of ribbings
weaving as I go which I learned from The Philopher's Wool wonderful people

Thinking back I have read and followed several books besides all the Elizabeth Zimmermann books which have helped me.  One of them was the Sweater Workshop by Jacqueline Fee which was fabulous.  I knit her sample and learned a ton some of which came back to me on this project.  Another one that I totally loved was Sweater 101 by Cheryl Brunette. I am not advocating that you buy these books, but they gave me a ton of confidence.  Now to develop the skills!  Really develop them.

My view is that having made so many mistakes on the gauge swatch, I won't make at least the same errors in the real project!  Perhaps the sweater will work up well...

More on Sprouting Seeds For Food

 It was time to make some more sprouts. I had LOVED the broccoli sprouts I made a few weeks ago.  I used them in pita bread with Jaroudi Family Hummus, chopped bell peppers, slice onions, and sprouts.  So delicious.  Since then I had ordered some organic lentil sprouting seeds.  On this occasion I decided to sprout both the sprouting seeds and some bulk lentils.  

Here are the seeds  after four days of rinsing and draining twice a day.  

Today I put 1 cup of the bulk lentil sprouts in our fresh chopped salad.  No One i.e. Dear One had any problems with it...even though I had forgotten to put in the mandarin orange sections.

Since I have been thinking of making more sprouts at a time, I ordered some new sprouting lids. These are the ones we ordered.  I like how they work.

Munchie Monday: Sunflower Seed Cheese!

 We were going to attend a party for some dear friends who had returned to the area for a too-short visit. I had wanted to make the Sunflower Seed Cheese recipe I had found a while ago.  (I always feel called upon to use my friends as guinea pigs...which thoroughly distresses Dear One but friends will tell you the truth about things.)

This recipe comes from Sam Turnbull at "It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken".  She has some really yummy recipes.

Vegan Sunflower Seed Cheese

Author: Sam Turnbull • It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken

2 cups raw unsalted sunflower seeds, soaked in a container of water overnight, and drained and rinsed before using.

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1/4 cup refined coconut oil...be sure to use refined or your "cheese" will taste like coconut which i did not want

1 1/2 Tablespoon white miso paste

1 teaspoon granulated garlic

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Add all the ingredients to a food processor and process until the mixture is very smooth.  Scrape down the sides several times to make sure every bit of mixture is smooth.

Place plastic wrap into a bowl or mold of your choice.  I used two mini springform pans which worked perfectly for the recipe.  Smooth the top then cover with the remaining plastic wrap.  Place in the refrigerator for at least overnight.

When ready to use, place on a plate with crackers or whatever you want to spread it on.  We used Wasa Crispbread

You will find that this "cheese" softens pretty quickly when you take it out of the refrigerator, so use it up!  It tastes pretty good.

Sadly, I did not take a picture of the two wheels of cheese before serving it.  This is the last of it...

Food Friday: New Experiment

 A couple of days ago I was watching YouTube and found a video called Nutmeg Notebook with Tammy and Tom.  Tammy was making a chopped salad.  I had a chopped salad at Subway once and was not impressed.  When I saw Tammy's salad, I could only think it was a good idea.

So we had chopped salad for supper tonight.

What I put together for this salad:

2 small bags Spring Mix
a handful of baby carrots
2 stalks celery
1 mandarin orange
1/4 of a pink lady apple
a few slices of red cabbage
a few dried cranberries
a handful of pumpkin seeds

1 cup cooked oat groats, cooled (the groats cooked in the Instant Pot--started with 1/2 cup groats and 1 cup water)
some poppyseed dressing

This is the leftover chopped salad. I put it into the refrigerator. I expect tomorrow it will be nothing but mush but we are trying.  Foolishly I had eaten a sandwich about an hour before supper so I could not eat very much salad, though I did eat more than Dear One, in case we were in competition!  Which we are not. 

My mind is pretty much set on going back to salads for two meals a day and oatmeal of some sort for the other meal.  This salad had a commercial salad dressing but in future we will probably used our flavored balsamic vinegars.  We have raspberry and maple on hand.  Honestly, I used the poppy seed dressing because I wanted Dear One to eat the salad and I know he likes that dressing.  Next time though...!

In fact, I am thinking of ordering one of the bowls Tammy was using from Holland Bowl Mill.  I called them yesterday.  The bowls will be back in stock Monday.  I am going to transfer money from my savings account so I will be ready first thing Monday.  The chopper comes with the bowl!  That is really nice.  I had ordered an OXO chopper, a two-bladed affair. It DID NOT WORK!!  So disappointing.  I pulled out the chopper from Dear One's mother that you use to make waffle fries.  That worked okay but I am looking for a high grade one to come with the bowl and will REALLY work.

By a fluke I saw that Chef AJ was Live on Instagram tonight.  She was talking with a very healthy-looking girl who has been eating raw foods exclusively for some time.  She lost 70 pounds and has beautiful skin.  I would not mind my skin looking up.  Plus weight loss is always in the back of my mind.  

Two days ago I joined (late!) a swim challenge at the YMCA.  We are to swim 15 miles in April.  Well, I managed 0.51 mile the first day, yesterday I had a bad belly and could not swim, and today I swam 0.64 mile.  Do you think I will make the goal in the fifteen days left when I can swim?  No, me either, but I am going to give it the old college try!  For the first time I swam in the cold pool...81 degrees. It was really lovely.  The warm pool is always 89-91 degrees....

Today when I had been swimming for 47 minutes my right knee began to call my name.  I decided to keep going for a while to see if it would ease off.  After three more laps my left leg developed a very nasty cramp and I became vertical in the water trying to knead the cramp into oblivion.  I still had almost a whole length to go to get back to the ladder to get out of the pool. (That is the bad thing about this pool--ingress and egress are rather rugged for this very, shall we say, large and awkward, older lady?!  I was not sure I would be able to get out of the pool when I got in.  With both legs giving me fits, it seemed impossible.  HOWEVER, Heavenly Father knew I needed help to get out of the pool so by the time I managed to make my way to the ladder the pain in my knee was only a shadow of its early unpleasantness and the cramping was totally gone.

As a chaser, I went over to the warm pool for about six minutes--until all the people who had made reservations for that pool started arriving.  It really was nice to warm up a bit, even though I was not that chilled.  Not like the pool I used in Vermont which chilled me to the core and took hours to warm me up afterwards.

One other nice thing about this swimming today, besides the exercise and the hopefulness for reaching a goal:  tonight I am almost totally certain I will sleep well!!!

Flowering Plants Everywhere You Look

 One of the wonderful things about spring, probably anywhere you live, is the glorious display of flowering plants.  Every day when I go to swim at the YMCA I walk by this beautiful tree.  I think it is a dogwood.

Today when I came out of the facility, not only did I stop and look at this lovely display, but some little birdie up above me sitting on the roof was singing the most glorious tune. I should have thought to bring out my phone and record him or her song.  Instead, I surprised a young man entering the Y by having a little chat with the bird.  The boy may have thought I was nuts but the bird kept up singing.  I loved it.

Garden 2021: FLOWERS!!!

 Last year a kind friend gave me some irises that had not produced any flowers at her house but seemed like they were nice and healthy.  I told her I thought that irises needed to have their "knees" on top of the ground so they could breathe and that this would help them bloom.

Well!  I took them home and planted them all- buried deep!  What a hypocrite!  Well, not really a hypocrite but I thought they at least needed to be buried deep enough so they would live through the summer and winter. I thought I could excavate them this spring.

Last week I was backing the car out of the garage and stopped suddenly!  Look what I found:

So very exciting!  AND they are deep true purple, not the light purple-y blue I have seen so often.  I really love them.  I am so grateful to D for her generosity.

Strawberries in March!!!

 Last Wednesday we were at the temple.  On the way home we stopped at the Cottle Strawberry Farm because it appeared as if they were open.  THEY WERE!!

We bought a big box of that deliciousness.  When we got home I washed the whole box, capped them, ate some, then put the rest in the refrigerator in a glass half gallon jar so that they would be very visible to everyone who lives in this house. (Sometimes things go in the refrigerator and seem to disappear...according to Dear One!)

You can see that we have had them on our cereal several days and also have handful-ed them several times.  They are so very sweet and delicious this year.  Last year we got some that had very little flavor.  I am inclined to purchase some berries from the farm near us...but I will wait until these are used up.  No point in having too many in the refrigerator.  I am so trying not to make jam...because of the sugar.  So far, so good!

Munchie Monday: Cereal Mixture

 Oatmeal has become a constant in our diet/breakfast.  I have already talked about eating dry oatmeal with chopped grapes mixed in.  The other week we did not have any grapes so I put oatmeal in the bottom of the bowl then dumped in a small amount of the mixed lightly sugared cereals that Dear One favors.  With a little homemade almond milk on top, it was pretty good.

Today I did the same but added some fresh from the field strawberries.  Quick. Easy. Tasty!

This is one of those meals where I could say, "Try it.  You will like it!"  Some things lately I have not been so happy with but this is definitely healthier than many cereals and tastes so good.

Food Friday

Sometimes you fall into a yummy dish without even planning it!  Today was one of those days.

All day there was something going on...I left really early, went to a diabetes class, tried to get a simple no-polish manicure but that salon was filled so I tried a different salon.  It only took a very few minutes at the second salon so there was too much time to hang around in town before swimming so I went home.

When I was home I started tidying the kitchen which was screaming at me to stay home and take care.  Well, at least my inner tidy person was screaming finally, so I really went to town on the surfaces.  There was a big bag of chopped kale I had purchased at the "past expiration date" produce rack at Piggly Wiggly a few days ago and realized that if I did not do something with it, the 99 cents I spent on it would be wasted.

Kale, the whole bag, plus 3 cups of water went into the 8 quart Instant Pot.  It had been previously on a long-term cook at 58 minutes so I said, why not let it go?  Then I went swimming.

When I got home after a good long swim and a haircut, we had time enough left to eat before going to the temple with a couple in our ward. SO...since I had not really made breakfast just announced what was available in the kitchen I decided I should do a little something for a supper for Dear One.  I was going to make him a sandwich but saw we still had one of the Bubba veggie burgers left and a bun, so I put the two of them together in the microwave then put on catsup, mustard, and relish.

When I came back to the island I decided to eat some of the kale.  It was cooked within an inch of its life, just the way I like cooked kale to be if I am not having it perfectly cooked for just 8 minutes.  THAT kale is like candy...you cannot stop eating it!  Anyway, this 58-minutes-under-pressure-then-2-hours-and-23-minutes-on-warming kale was ready to eat...

The mustard and relish were still on the counter so I thought, "What the heck?!  Why not try it?"  I remembered my friend Ruby telling me about cooking collards with relish so...I put a good squirt of dijon mustard and probably a tablespoon of pickle relish on the kale, mixed it up and ate it. IT WAS SO GOOD!  So good that when we got home after 10:00 PM I made another big bowl of it and ate it all.  I never eat after supper on a good day and then only a tiny snack.  The kale was really eating.  So good. 

 Now it really late and my eyes are blearing over.  Time to go to bed.  And man, is my tummy
happy. I hope it is still happy in the morning...

You can't really tell anything from the picture but the condiments are in there plus the thick tough stems that always come in those big bags of chopped kale.  By pressurizing the heck out of the stems they are soft and delicious.  No waste there...!