Knitting Today: Completed Mother Hen Kit by Susan B. Anderson

 We have a wonderful granddaughter who loved chickens when she was a child.  A couple of months ago I saw a pattern kit for Mini Mother Hen pattern by Susan B. Anderson at BarrettWoolCo.  It was so cute that I thought of our granddaughter.  I texted to see if she still liked chickens.  She gave me a resounding YES!  So what could I do but order the kit.  It took weeks before I could start but now this bird is completed.

The kit I wanted was sold out.  Several times!  Finally I had communication with Susan.  She told me they could send me a kit that was not quite the regular one. It would have different colors.  I said to go for it!  (As I am writing, it is sold out again!!)

Here is Hennie, the Left-Footed Soccer Chicken, in living color!  Every time I look at her, she makes me smile.  If you want to hear all about her, go to my Ravelry page.  There on Ravelry you will find out how she got her name!

Fun project which makes me want to knit animals.  At least a few animals!

Garden 2022: Asian Sweet Potato Problem

 A good while ago I noted that there were still five Asian sweet potatoes in the sweet potato bin. For some reason I had not eaten them and they were a bit soft.  Since I did not want to eat them, and I do love Asian sweet potatoes, I decided to pull up the weeds in the potato bed and plant them.  Just in case!  I had not idea that they would grow but was hopeful.

Well!  They DID grow!  I was so pleased.  Four of the five potatoes came up and began looking really good. 

THEN... I went out to look at them and what did I see? (Not popcorn popping on the apricot tree--which is a song the children in our church love to sing in the spring...)

The photographer who produces shots for this blog is very very not good, but even so, I think you can see what made me very UNhappy!  Well, since they are in the garden I am going to just leave them instead of yanking them up by the necks which was my first inclination.

Who could have eaten them down like this?  Not the alligators for sure.

So, we will see if any good news turns up...

Munchie Monday: Quick and Easy Smoothie

 Tonight I was edgy to slice some onions and zucchini and make a treat for myself.  I asked Dear One if he wanted some.  As you might expect, his answer was, "How about a smoothie?"  Since I have made a few lately I decided to go ahead and do it.

This is the one I made:

The color does not come through very well but it was a nice purple color.

In the blender I put:

1 cup soy milk
1 ripe banana
1 cup frozen mango (I am trying to empty the freezer...)
1/2 cup frozen blueberries

After blending one minute, I used the canning jar filler to pour the smoothie into the container.  Because it was a smoothie it did not pour well which I could immediately see and decided to use that jar filler rather than cover the counter with lovely purple smoothie.  That worked perfectly.

It tasted good to me and to Dear One who used his new stainless steel straw to suck it up. I went back downstairs to finish cooking the onions and zucchini.  I ate it all. I also ate it all without salt.  Patting myself on the shoulder about that!

Food Friday: Vitamix Broccoli Cheese Soup

 Recently I have been watching a lot of YouTube videos on Vitamix recipes.  The main reason for this is that lately I have not been using this expensive fabulous piece of kitchen equipment and thought that needed to change.  ALSO we have been eating more processed and store bought food recently and found weight creeping up.  For both of us. SO a change was needed.

Today I made the first Vitamix whole food meal in a while.

Vitamix Broccoli Cheese Soup

As usual I made a few changes in the recipe.  This is what I did:

2 1/4 cup soy milk with one somewhat heaping teaspoon of Better Than Bouillon Roasted Vegetable seasoning
4 1/2 cups frozen chopped broccoli (in this case a 16 ounce package)
1/8 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cup chunked up extra sharp cheddar cheese

These items were placed in the Vitamix container in the order given.  ALWAYS put the wet/softest ingredients into the container first and graduate up to the hardest or frozen ingredients last.

The recipe called for starting the blender going on the lowest speed and gradually but quickly moving the dial up to the fasted speed.  WELL!! I did this BUT immediately the machine flipped the breaker switch which shut off the electricity to the kitchen so I had to go out into the garage to flip it back on.  Of course, with the truck and the car both in the garage I could not get to the panel so I had to go back into the house to get my keys so I could move the car out of the way.  

That done, I turned the switch left then all the way right  fully engaging it and went back into the house.  I followed the same procedure (starting at the lowest speed and moving rapidly up to the fastest speed) and had the SAME RESULT!  So I went back out to the garage and flipped the switch left then right again and went back into the kitchen.

This time I set the blender at the HIGHEST SPEED FIRST then turned on the machine.  Success this time.  The recipe calls for letting the soup blend for 5 minutes and 45 seconds.  I let it go until 6 minutes had passed.  When I took off the lid, there was that beautiful steaming hot cooked soup ready to eat.

The recipe says this will feed 3 servings so I used our larger soup (Corelle ware) bowls and poured out two servings.  Dear One and I both ate this rather delicious soup.  

Dear One's comment was, "This is not like ordinary broccoli cheese soup."  He was right.  The normal soup has chunks of broccoli and other vegetables, almost always which have not been chopped finely enough for him to not know he is eating broccoli.  This soup was silky and creamy and  maybe somewhat frothy.

It tasted great but was very filling. I managed to eat my whole bowl but he did not. Of course, he had been snacking before lunch which always makes him not as hungry as he needs to be before I set a meal on the table.  This is a habit I cannot break him of.  I have started asking what he has eaten and then deciding whether I am going to make a meal or not.  If all necessary calories for the day have been consumed, there is no point going to the effort of making a meal that will just be extra calories.  In my view...

Here is a bowl of the soup:

This bowl of soup was sprinkled with Tajin seasoning, because I like it, and because I thought the picture might be more interesting to look at...

Here is a jar with the leftovers! This is a quart jar.  You know what we will be eating tomorrow!

This was good enough soup.  We will have it again but I will reduce the amount of cheese.  And maybe put in some onions.  Possibly some garlic, too.