Merry Christmas!

 It is so glorious to take a day away from the world and focus on the birth of our dear Savior who condescended to come to this earth, take on mortality, and show us the way to live so that one day, after we do all the good things we can, we can go back to live with Him and Our Parents in Heaven again.  Because of Him and His magnificent sacrifice for us all on the cross, this is available to all who follow Him.

You have seen the panel we have on our front door.  Dear One, who shuts off every light  in our home as he leaves a room, (and also highly recommends I do the same...!) leaves the porch light on all night.  I know why he does this.  It reminds me of the hymn Let The Lower Lights Be Burning:

1. Brighly beams our Father's mercy
From His lighthouse everymore;
But to us He give the keeping
Of the lights along the shore.

Refrain:

Let the lower lights be burning!
Send a gleam across the wave!
Some poor fainting, struggling seaman
You may rescue, you may save.

2. Dark the night of sin has settled,
Loud the angry billows roar;
Eager eyes are watching, longing,
For the lights along the shore.

Refrain

3. Trim your feeble lamp, my brother!
Some poor seaman, tempest-tosse3d,
Trying now to make the harbor
In the darkness may be lost.

Refrain

Sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford

There was such a poor fainting, struggling seaman in our past.  I am afraid we were not the light along the shore he needed --so now, perhaps someone who needs to see it and be comforted and brought peace may see this panel of the birth of our Savior and be blessed as he or she passes by during the night time hours.

May you all continue in peace and joy as you share the love of Jesus Christ this day and always.

Fraud Alert!

 Be sure to check your financial accounts very often.  In the last six weeks Dear One and I have both had our accounts hacked and persons tried to take large sums from Dear One's account and no money from my account though the fraud customer service person said that crooks enter $0.00 to see if it "goes through" and then puts in for a large sum. I was lucky. Except my card was canceled.

For my account, it took ten days to get a new card.

Dear One's fraud people had him a new card the next day. Which is nice since I use that card, too, much to his chagrin...!

So...this is just a warning to all.  AND the sad thing is that both of us had just made donations to what we thought were reputable companies.   Be vigilant!

This picture has nothing to do with fraud.  It is an Advent Christmas stocking I am knitting...a few rows are emailed every day.  This is the top of the stocking as of 18 December.  I am having fun doing it.  You can see I am not a great knitter but I sure am having fun.  It might look better after blocking but it happens that I won't be blocking it.  I am going to fill it will navel oranges and give it away as soon as I finish the last rows.  Maybe next year I will make one for us.  Maybe.  We do have enough stuff, so this is questionable.

Bags, Bags, Bags!

 In my opinion you cannot have too many bags! You need bags for everything.  Recently I saw a video on making itty bitty boxed bags.  I loved that tutorial.  Maybe some day I will make some of those tiny bags but today I made some bags that are about 8.5” by 11”.

https://youtu.be/N5Akv6LjVaw?si=sUMCHhBuiibyRYox

The red bag was the first one I made. I found the boxing harder than I liked most likely because the fusible fleece I used to stabilize the fabric was too thick.

It is a good thing I finished the project this morning as this afternoon the bug that is going around bit me. So nasty.  Multiple angel people offered to bring soup and other goodies. Such wonderful offers but it might be a while before I want to eat again…

Sewing Failure

 Today was a pretty good day.  Until I started a sewing project.  It was still a good day, but the sewing project failed.  That does not mean that I will throw it away.  Far from it!  I worked hard.  It is actually usable but just not right.

The plan was to make a new knitting tools bag with a zipper and a flat boxed bottom.

To prepare for this, I watched several of Christine's Home Affairs YouTube posts.  She has a very large play list of mostly sewing "affairs", many of which I have watched.  What is that scripture--"Pride goeth before a fall"?  Well, it is not that I am so proud but I did think I had caught on to what needed to be done.

So I went for it.

Actually I tried to combine several of Christine's tutorials into one project.  Not a great idea, if I do say so myself.

Here the straps are being installed while I am on the telephone. Not the best idea to multi-task, I guess...though I did get them on.  Just not nicely.

Here is the bag finished.  You can more or less see the zipper and the "quilting" that I did to hold the Pellon fleece to the fabric.

This is the bottom of the bag which the biggest fail.  It failed because:  1.  I made the bag too big.  Yes, it is possible to make too big of a bag and 2. After boxing it the first time, also WAY TOO BIG, I boxed it the other direction which is just ghastly. The first boxing was the correct direction but should have been perhaps 1.5 inches instead of 4.5 inches,  After changing the direction to see if it would be better, I decided I had had enough of the bag for today.  This one I will leave as is.  Tomorrow I hope to make a few more.  We shall see.  Maybe they will be better, but I am not counting on it.

So, even though the end of the day's work failed, I still feel fairly good about the day over all. 

One of the biggest wins of the day was that I was able to keep my consumption way under control and also, by a fluke, I saw something about how good celery is for our bodies and since I like celery, I am choosing to believe celery is the magic drug.  At least for now!  I am getting sick of the side effects from pharmaceuticals which promise the world and give no satisfaction.  Not even doing what they swear they will do.

Smittens Advent Calendar GarlandP: Completed After Nine Years!

 Here are my notes from Ravelry about this project:

"This project will be knit for each of our married children and their families…96 mittens in all, unless I decide to do one for the old homestead!

"I am using up yarn that I already have, much of it no-name due to ball bands missing.

What are the odds that I will get this project done before I need to start the ‘real’ Christmas knitting.

12-11-2023

You might call this a long-term project, or just a project that I did not get back to for years! It makes me happy to have completed it.

The final five mittens were started on US size 3 needles but then I realized I needed to use US size 5, which I did. In the interest of time, and finishing, I did not start with the I-cord but just cast on the 24 wrist ribbing stitches and started knitting. This mean that I made I-cord loops after the fact. That worked just fine,

12-11-2023

This is a wonderful project but should be started no later than July of the year you want to gift the garland. I did not do that, I started in October and knitted 115 mittens by late November. Then I did not do anything with my hands for three months. It took them that long to recover. One needs to be smart with one’s body…

These are the last five mittens I knitted over the last week-plus.  I planned to knit one per day until they were done, but that did not happen due to other projects, so the last day I knitted three of them.  In the middle of the night. Again.  Some night I will actually stay in bed sleeping all night. I hope

This is the full garland on the fireplace ready to pack into a box and send to its new home.  We have hung it up every year, incomplete, until now.  May I say it makes me happy to complete this and even happier that now each one of our children has this in their homes.  You can see there are little papers on some of the mittens.  Actually now all of the mittens have the papers.  These are notes of scriptures about Christmas for the families to read and ponder and think about the true meaning of Christmas.

Munchie Monday: Cool Whip Cookies!!

 Someone recently gave me a recipe for Cool Whip Cookies. I think it was my sister. Whoever it was, I am grateful.  I did not really believe in Cool Whip Cookies but then I tried them.  Dear One likes soft cookies.  Really, he only wants to eat soft cookies.  Most cookies are not soft.  These are.  They were even soft two days later!

Years ago we had some chocolate crackle cookies which were stunningly delicious. I have looked for a recipe ever since. To no avail.  I will not look any longer because these cookies tick almost all the boxes and that is good enough for me in my old age.  The most important ticked box for me is that Dear One is happy with them...

Cool Whip Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

1 box any flavor cake mix-18 ounce size

1 egg at room temperature

1 8-ounce container Cool Whip, thawed

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together until completely combined.  You might think they would be light and fluffy when combined, but they are not.  They actually seem rather sludgey but that is what you want.

Drop a heaping teaspoonful of the batter into confectioner's sugar then onto a non-stick pan, though I will use parchment paper or silpat next time.  This made 27 cookies for us.

Cook 10-15 minutes...start checking at 10 minutes.  Our cookies took 12 minutes for the first 24 and the last 3 I cooked in the airfryer on Bake and they took 15 minutes.

LET COOL ALMOST COMPLETELY ON THE PAN BEFORE TRYING TO REMOVE THEM!!!!  Really do that.  Use a thin metal spatula to remove them from the pan when they are cooled.

Next time I will make lemon cookies!

Sewn Door Nativity Panel

 Several months ago I found a lovely Nativity door panel and some great star fabric for the backing. It has been sitting on the sewing machine table ever since. Yesterday Dear One suggested that if I waited much longer we would not need it this year…so I got rolling this morning.

Here is the panel installed- which necessitated a trip to Lowe’s for dowels, heavy metal nuts to use for weights, and some hooks to use to hang the wreath that used to hang on the door, as well as the sewing part.

This is the star fabric that is the backing of the panel. Notice the cool little triangular holders for the dowels! I was so thrilled to have learned how to make them on SewVeryEasy, a YouTube podcast. They really were so easy!

This is the view from the street now.  Dear One is pretty happy I actually did the sewing.  Me, too, I guess.  Well, I do like to finish projects.

Homemade Sourdough Ezekiel Bread!!

 When Dear One took the Christmas decorations out of the food closet the other day I remembered that I had wanted to make Ezekiel bread.  I had watched quite a few YouTube videos and was hepped up to do it.  (Ezekiel bread is supposed to be better for blood sugar.  So is sourdough bread.  By putting them together, it should make fabulous bread for blood sugar. ) We even went so far as to order some spelt berries and some kamut berries.  When I looked at the recipe for making the Ezekiel flour, I needed millet. I was certain I had laid in a supply but could not find it.  Then I remembered that it was in the closet where Dear One stored the Christmas decorations so conveniently last year.  Well, that might not have been great for me, but not having to worry about him climbing a ladder to put decorations up in the "attic" was really a big plus. So I looked, and there was the bucket of millet.

Yesterday I added the millet to the other grains in the Ezekiel-grains-for-flour container. Then ground up the flour in our blender and THEN I got out the sourdough starter and did the same as I mentioned in the sourdough post from last week. I used the same measurements as with the all-purpose flour and really did not expect much.

This starter directly out of the refrigerator looked pretty happy to me!  So I added the Ezekiel flour and other ingredients.

After a night on the counter I deemed this as doubled in bulk.

Here is our first loaf of Sourdough Ezekiel bread!!!  I am so happy with it. 

 

Sliced, you can see that there are not a lot of air spaces in the bread so it does not have the ideal sourdough texture but it does seem to have the Ezekiel bread flavor, and then some!  I would call it a success.

To make your own Ezekiel flour you need:

2 cups spelt berries

2 cups kamut berries

2 cups White wheat berries (not hard Red wheat)

1/2 cup millet

1/2 cup barley

2 Tablespoons lentils

1/3 cup dried beans--I used garbanzo beans since they were the closest to hand.  The person on YouTube who I have lost and cannot give direct credit to uses 2 Tablespoons each great northern beans, black beans, and garbanzo beans.

Mix these all together.  Grind up 3 cups of the mixture then weigh to see if it gives you the 1 pound 4 ounces needed for the sourdough Ezekiel bread.  If necessary, grind more.  I mistakenly ground up the whole batch so will be making Sourdough Ezekiel Bread again in the next couple of days.  After grinding the grains they need to be refrigerated or frozen until use since they can become rancid.  That is not something you want to use to make healthy bread...

Knitting Today: Mama Christa's Shell

 Almost a month ago I started on Mama Christa's Shell.  I posted about it when it turned into a disaster knit.  Today I can give a much better report:  we are making a lot of progress. (The reason is middle-of-the-night knitting yet again!)

As you can see, I did switch to flat knitting and I am knitting two at once. I like knitting two at once when at all possible.  This way both parts of the whole are the same length.  In this case it still would have been possible to see where I was quickly because the pattern is so regular.  Other times, like in socks, it can be harder to tell at a glance where you are and if you need to knit another row or three more rows.

In the middle of the past night I worked SEVERAL row repeats, even though my goal the past week has been to knit one row repeat each day.  (Also to knit one Smitten and one day's worth of the Arne and Carlos Advent Christmas Stocking Knit Along.  These have have both dropped off the knitting board until I finish the Shell.)

My plan had been to make this a bit of a cropped shell since I think that will work best for my needs BUT now that I am only five repeats from the pattern instructions, if I have enough yarn, I will probably just go for it.

Cori of Irocknits is having a knitalong and I am hoping to finish this week so I can enter.  She has been so helpful and kind in answering questions with which  I have needed help.

Now off to an appointment to see if we can remove the reason for some of the middle of the night knitting.  It would be so great to just sleep through every night and wake up full of vim and vigor.  I did  do that regularly, though it was some ages ago...!

Sour Dough Bread For Lazy People...

 When we were with my sister a few weeks ago the two of us talked about sourdough bread.  She was interested so I brought her some of our starter when we went to visit over Thanksgiving.  Since then I have watched several more videos and now have made a loaf.

The recipe I followed was from a man named Ben Starr.  It worked very well.  You should watch that video.  It will inspire you.  If you live near me and want some of our sourdough, just ask.  And probably come get it...!

To start the bread this week I took the beautiful tulip jar of sourdough starter out of the refrigerator.  Our daughter had sent me the jar in the mail.  I love mail.  I especially like packages.  If I am not expecting a package and one shows up I am particularly happy.  Such was the case with the tulip jar.  When our children were here to celebrate with us in June our daughter helped me with our sourdough starter and put a batch into the tulip jar.  This is what I used this time.  I had taken some out of the 2-quart canning jar to give to my sister who had been reading about sourdough discard and wondered what it was.  In our house we do not discard any sourdough started.  We just use it for something else...like pancakes, tortillas, biscuits.

Ben Starr has you put 4 ounces of sourdough starter in a large bowl straight out of the refrigerator and mix it with 12 ounces water (preferably filtered but tap water works).  After stirring the starter into the water you add 1 pound 4 ounces flour (all purpose or bread flour or up to 8 ounces whole wheat flour -though I am going to try all whole wheat flour some day to see what happens.  Maybe it just won't go so quick and easy.) then add 0.7 ounce kosher salt.  Do use kosher he says.

Stir with a spoon until too stiff to stir then get your clean hands into the bowl and  bring all the ingredients together into a nice uniform dough, which will take you about 15 seconds.

Oil your bowl or the inside of a gallon-sized ziplock back and put the dough ball inside.  If you are using the bowl, put plastic wrap over the top.

Set the dough at room temperature on your counter and wait until it doubles in bulk....overnight, 24 hours, or more depending on the temperature of you house.

This above dough has set out all night and  had well doubled and ready to shape.

This dough has been shaped and is now in the oiled 3.2 quart cast iron dutch oven (it is 9' across and 4" deep to accommodate the cooking bread) where it will sit for 90 minutes until doubled again.

The bread is now out of the oven.  The dutch oven is cold when you put the bread dough into it and the oven is also cold when you put the covered pot in the oven.  Turn on the oven to 425 degrees F, and let cook for 45 minutes.  After 45 minutes remove the cover and let cook an additional 15 minutes.  If it does not look dark enough for you at that point, let it cook longer.  I was happy with how it looked. (The watch was there so I could remember how long it took.  I had put the bread to rise for 90 minutes at 10:30 then went out on a visit and quick stop at the pharmacy all of which took more than the 90 minutes so the bread was more than doubled.  Won't do that next time, but still, I was happy with the bread.)

This is what the first two slices looked like. I thought it looked great and since Dear One had been busy with something away from the kitchen, the loaf of bread had the opportunity to cool completely before it was sliced.  That may have been the first time in fifty years that this was allowed to happen!  It sliced beautifully, in part because last year or the year before Dear One purchased a very good bread knife for our kitchen drawer.  That good knife, and a cool loaf of bread, meant a superior result.

The only possible problem is that Dear One thought the bread did not have any salt in it. It did have salt but because I did not zero the scales after every additional ingredient (which our daughter did when she made the same bread...!) it is possible my math was off.  Next loaf I will zero the scales each time.

The bread has now been completely sliced and put in the freezer to help people's resolve not to the whole loaf within one day.

It is said, but I am not sure of this, that sourdough bread can help lower blood sugar.  I can tell you for a fact that if you eat 6 slices while the bread is still warm and is slathered with butter, it will NOT lower your blood sugar or any other numbers you might be trying to lower...!

Round Knitted Dishcloths

 Diana Sullivan from Austin, Texas is a fabulous knitting machine tutorial maker.  I have learned so much from her.  Last year or the year before she published a Handknit Round Dishcloth pattern book.  There are eleven different cloths.  Yesterday I knit one and today I knit another one.

Here is one of them:

This cloth is two strands of I Love This Cotton held together to make a cloth for a new missionary.  The cloth might go to Argentina…

It was a joy to make this cloth for a beloved family member.  Every stitch was formed with love and a prayer in my heart for safety and success.

Have You Visited BUC-EE’S?

 Last week as we were driving along I-95 we stopped at BUC-EE’S in both directions. Tuesday morning we noticed there were many people there. It is a crazy store that has EVERYTHING you could want if you want pre-packaged hot foods and all kinds of souvenirs. We stopped just long enough for the facilities and to pick up a soda (Dear One) and a box of graham crackers for both of us.

On Saturday afternoon two days after Thanksgiving there were many multiples of more people there. At the burrito display there were people 6 or 8 deep ordering fresh burritos. For us, we just pulled two burritos off the rack of burritos which had just been made.  When we managed finally to squeeze our way through the crowd and to the checkout, we took our burritos to the car and both had a few bites then we got in line to get out of the parking lot and back on 95 South.

Well!! That was quite an experience. It took us more than thirty minutes to get out of that traffic. Such a surprise.  The burritos were really delicious BUT at least one person in the car did not think they were worth the hassle.  And I did not even manage to get through the chaos to get to the facilities. So we stopped at a rest area a few miles down the road.

What has your experience been at the Beaver’s big store?

Cotton Harvest

 When we were driving north we saw some of the cotton harvest in the field.

It always delights me to see the cotton in the field then the huge bales of cotton ready to hit the road for processing.

Last year I picked up a few scraps of cotton beside the road that had fallen out of the bales.  I thought I would card it and spin it. Did not happen.  Maybe some year.

The Prettiest Pie

 Of all the pies that were taken to the Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point today, this was the prettiest:

My sister made it this morning. She started with a no-bake strawberry pie recipe but turned it into a raspberry pie.  The “batter” in the bowl was delicious!

So happy to serve the men and women who serve the Inited States of American and all of us citizens and so many others around the world. We made and delivered more than 150 pies in the last three days with the help of a couple others.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Visiting At Homes With Canines and Felines…

 We do not have pets in our home anymore. Except, of course, for the knitted and stuffed rabbit with a red jacket.

Dear One is quite a hit with the cats and dog here in North Carolina as you can plainly see! Heidi comes to him immediately and nudges him for back rubs. Luna also races to him as soon as he sits down and climbs onto his lap for her own massaging. He does not mind. At all. Still, not interested in having living pets at our house. 

It may be that I have to knit another animal of some sort…

Just not right away. Still more projects in the queue.

Thrift Srore Basket

 Thrift store shopping  can be very enjoyable. And productive.

This basket is my most recent buy. I love it! It has so many uses. 

Vacation Knitting: Add-A-Bootie Slippers

 It was two days until our vacation when I decided I wanted to work on making a pair of slippers big enough so they would fit my feet.  I had knit them two years ago when I realized that cement slab foundations were very cold in the winter,  BUT the second slipper was too short for my foot.  Something else must have taken priority but now was the time to do a re-make.

The pattern is in Knit One Knit All by Elizabeth Zimmermann.  These are all in garter stitch and so easy.  They are made so you can make a double or even triple sole to make them extra warm and snuggly though I only knit the one sole. Well, a brand new sole so it is the third sole I have knit. After finishing the first slipper’s new sole, I decided to re-do the second one as well.

Here they are: finished!  What I did was to use a larger needle which did the trick.  This photo shows the difference in the nice top knitted with a US 8 and the sole with US 10 needles.  Not so nice looking but they fit so…good enough.

May I say that I absolutely love Schoolhouse Press and their staff.  I had misplaced my Knit One Knit All and Elizabeth’s grandson very kindly helped me out is such a timely fashion.  I will always recommend them for all things knitting.

The yarn was also purchased at Schoolhouse Press:  Québécoise. At least I am pretty sure it is that…or maybe some other Briggs and Little yarn.

Last Day At The Ocean

 It has been a wonderful week here at the ocean.  It has been mostly restful and so great to spend many days with my sister and her husband.

Today was our last full day where I snapped this photo:

This photo touches my heart! For a few reasons, not the least of which is that he is wearing a shirt he chose when he went to a thrift store with my sister and me, an activity always in the plans when we get together!

Knitting Today: A BIG Disappointment!

Last week I cast on for Mama Christa's Shell, partially because I need some sort of warmish topper to wear in the temple, and partially because Iroc Knits is having a Knit A Long.  With prizes!  I thought it would be win win, even though one is not sure of winning a prize.

So, the Shell is supposed to be knitted in two pieces, flat, then sewn together at the side seams. I do not do a good job with sewing seams so I thought I would avoid the whole thing by knitting in the round.  I had heard Cori of Iroc Knits say she was knitting the shell in the round so I sent her a little email. She very kindly responded and even told me how to do the knitting in the round. I started immediately.

Feather and Fan has been a pattern I have loved ever since I saw a blanket knitted by LRO many years ago.  I have never made anything with that pattern but here it is finally, and it is a garment.  You are looking at the bottom hem of the shell.

Today I spent nearly all day knitting and made great progress: at least I was well into the second row pattern repeat, when I decided to measure to check if the size was going to be right.  As I was straightening the knitting out to check I found a terrible problem: the stitches were twisted!  Even though I was absolutely careful to not have that first round twisted. Well, clue one, I was not careful enough!!! Rats, rats, rats!!!

Can you believe it?!!  I was distraught because not only had I wasted many hours, I had also pretty much used up my hands for today.

So I tore it out, or frogged it as some knitters say. And started over.

Since I could not stand it, I bit the bullet, worked through the discomfort, and cast on again, this time two flat pieces which are almost impossible to twist the stitches.  There are seven pattern repeats horizontally and we are supposed to knit 21 row pattern repeats but I think I will not be knitting that many repeats. Once I get up a few repeats I will measure and see how far I want to go.  I will have 1000 yards of yarn on Saturday.  I am hoping this will not be yarn chicken but...having had the twisting problem, I would not be surprised.  Oh well.

Next week there may be more news, but the knitting for today is done.  Probably will just spend the time watching knitting podcasts.  Or maybe a Family History Library tutorial...

When Is The Best Time To Exercise For Weight Loss

 Last week a notification popped up on my phone with the title: When Is The Best Time To Exercise For Weight Loss.  I wanted to watch this Dr Michael Greger Nutrition Facts. org podcast but did not have the time until this morning.  It gave some really interesting facts.

What I got out of the message was:  for weight loss it is best to (using walking as the exercise) walk before eating breakfast, especially if you walk for about 60 minutes. If not before breakfast then after fasting at least six hours and then walking before eating.

If you are diabetic, it is better to walk AFTER eating, for 10 minutes or more. We actually did this when I was at Parkview Hospital's Lifestyle Improvement Program years ago.  It worked then. I don't know why I stopped.

This seems so do-able and makes me want to get my act together and actually do it again.  (I just read the scripture that says "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." James 1:22.  This scripture might have application here!)

So I say to myself:  Just get up and go!  Like these two!  (This picture is meant to show people getting up and heading out for a walk...)

Flowers Again

 How I love the beauties of this world!  Yesterday we saw some very lovely flowers when we went to the  consignment boutique.

These pink flowers are so sweet.

These light purple flowers are also gorgeous.  I don't know what either of these flowers is named.

Qwirkle

 On our mission we had the fun of learning to play Qwirkle for the first time with another Senior Missionary Couple.  We really enjoyed those evenings playing with the J's.  

Tonight we played Qwirkle with my sister and her husband while here at the beach on our vacation.  So fun.

This is a game that is perfect for everyone from 3 year olds to those approaching later years. Very enjoyable. Especially when we can hear the ocean outside our window...

Cotton Ready To Go!

 Yesterday I had the privilege of making a long-ish drive through several counties.  One of the things I saw gave me joy: fields of cotton plants ready to be harvested.  Many fields had already been harvested.

This fluff in the field always catches my attention. I just love to see these cotton bolls ready to harvest. In fact, I would love to harvest some myself then turn them into cotton yarn.  So far I have not found a cotton grower to speak with to get permission to harvest a few plants.  I am not so silly as to think that I would be a great spinner-of-cotton-yarn.  After all, I am not a great spinner of wool yarn which is purported to be much easier than spinning cotton.

In the meantime, I love this photo!

DIY: Table Umbrella Demolition!

 We have been here four years.  In that time we have had an umbrella on the deck so we could enjoy the outside but not have the sun beating down on us.  We are on our THIRD umbrella since they go to heck pretty readily.  This last once broke just as I realized our money tree plant could afford to be staked.  (I bit the bullet and tried pruning leaves and tying up up the stems so it might grow straight up. We shall see...)

Well, perhaps two months ago I tried to break off the "stakes" from this defunct umbrella.  I was only able to break off one of them. I used pliers but found that my hands were just not strong enough anymore to do a job like that.  This was very deflating to me.

Today I was out on the deck and decided to give another look at that umbrella. (Yes, it was still there cluttering up the deck to Dear One's disgust...) I moved the umbrella fabric out of the way and discovered I could unscrew the finial on top of the umbrella.  With that off I could easily remove the fabric. Score!!!  So great!!  I set that aside.  There is lots of fabric so I think I will use it to line some little bags I am thinking of making. I will let you know!

(That round piece of wire held everything together and is what is left of my plier project-where I found my hands were not strong enough...Also, in case you are interested, the green fabric is our microwave potato bag, a tool I made and which we often use. We are planning to take it with us on vacation!)

The next thing I noticed was that there were lots of screws holding the thing together.  I brought the metal piece inside the house, got out our trusty orange screwdriver that has four different heads on it and started unscrewing the various screws.  Pretty soon things started falling apart!!  So great.

Very shortly I had four "stakes" I could use on the money tree.  

Here are the stakes installed, but only partially shored up.  I will not tell you what I am using for soft stretchy connectors from the tree to the stakes.  You would be shocked.  But the one that is already there works ever so well and does not damage the stems!

So as far as I am concerned, that is a day's work satisfyingly complete.  Of course, I was exhausted and wanted to take a nap BUT I was up for a dentist appointment and had only a few minutes before I had to leave.

This just goes to show that sometimes a little brain work is more successful than brawn work.  You can do it, too!

Munchie Monday: Two Ingredient "English Muffins"

 Here is another recipe from YouTube.  I did not really trust it but I had ingredients I wanted to use up so I gave it a try.

This recipe is called Two Ingredient English Muffins.  I spoke with our daughter about it and she said it sounded like biscuits to her.  It did to me, too, but still, I had ingredients to use so I tried them.

In the recipe the lady uses:

2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup Greek yogurt

We did not any Greek yogurt (earlier in the week I had put a container of furry stuff in the bin...) but we DID have an abundance of homemade milk kefir that I was needing to use up.  The lady also used cornmeal on her counter but I did not.

What I did was sift 2 cups self-rising store brand flour into a big glass bowl. I added the kefir that I had in a pint jar which, when I measured it, was just over 1 cup. Score! So I mixed with a sturdy wooden spoon until the dough came together.

It seems to me that I let it sit covered for a few minutes. (I had stayed home from church due to a VERY unpleasant intestinal problem and though it was only yesterday, I have forgotten that "waiting" point.  I don't think it can hurt.)

After flouring the counter well, I poured the dough out and gave it a few turns of kneading then divided into six pieces.  Each piece was rolled into a ball in my hands then patted flat to about 1/2 inch thick circles.

The cast iron skillet was ready to cook the muffins.  Well, actually it was MORE than ready! I had washed the pan before starting the dough then put it on the stove to dry out over medium heat.  You will notice that the YouTube lady said to put the muffins into a pan that was on the very lowest heat.  I turned the burner down to that BUT as you can see from the picture, it was a mite too hot!

When I was making these muffins, I did not go back and check the directions.  I thought I remembered that she put some oil in the frying pan, so I did that.  After putting all six muffins in the pan--it is a 12-inch Lodge cast iron skillet-I put the cover on and set the timer for 20 minutes.  I feel sure she said to cook for 20 minutes ON EACH SIDE.  After about ten minutes I checked.  Yikes!  They were really cooking so I checked to be sure the heat was on the lowest setting and let them cook a little more. 

 About two minutes later I decided I needed to flip them so I did. Three of them were pretty chocolate-y, so to speak.  I let them cook, covered until 20 minutes was up.  They were nice and puffy and looked like English muffins so I pulled them off the heat and out of the pan to cool.  I took the most-burned-looking one, split it in half, buttered it, put on some Smuckers Natural Triple Berry Jam (this is good stuff with NO high fructose corn syrup.  Yes, I buy into the idea that high fructose corn syrup is the devil and do my best  to avoid it...), and ate it.  It did NOT taste burned.  It really did remind me strongly of English muffins.

Dear One had no trouble scarfing down three of them!  That did make me happy.  Of course, it was his first food after fasting twenty-four hours...so almost anything would taste pretty good.

The next day I split the last two and "toasted" them in the air fryer.  They were still pretty good, more English muffin-y than biscuit, but heading in that direction.  I will certainly make them again when the kefir gets ahead of us.  (You can only drink so much kefir smoothie stuff.  At least, there is a limit to what I can drink.  Dear One might be a different matter.  If I make it for him, he is all in. At least for a while.)

Fun Paper Crafting: Envelopes

 Another thing I really like to do with my hands is to make cards and envelopes.  Last year I decided I wanted to make a birthday card and pretty envelope for each of our sisters in the church.  It is now November and I have accomplished that goal. Having said that, I just made the last 40-plus cool envelopes.

These are the completed envelopes.

This year most of the envelopes have been made with an Envelope Punch Board by We R Memory Keepers.  I have purchased five or more of them over the years.  I do use aluminum foil to try to sharpen their blades but eventually they still seem to wear out/become dull.

 

There are several steps to making these envelopes.

1. Cut paper to 8.5 by 8.5 inches

2. Use the punch board to make the cuts and score lines

3. Fold on the score lines

4. Add the double-sided tape

5. Pull off the tape protector on the bottom end of the envelope and fold up

The envelope is then ready to have a card inserted.

  

Such an enjoyable project and it makes me happy to see the pretty envelopes.  Many of the envelopes this year were floral patterns.  This last batch is not floral but still pretty.

Knitting Today: More Potpourri Bags

 It has been such a joy to knit these potpourri bags.  Improving upon someone else's idea is really enjoyable.  I saw the Pressed Flowers Shawl by Amy Christoffers and purchased the pattern.  I had just become interested in mosaic knitting and wanted to give it a try.  I have not yet knitted the shawl but I have been playing with the flowers and making a bag of my own design.  I am almost ready to "publish" the pattern to anyone who would like it.  Most of the issues have been solved.

Here are two of a recent iteration of the bags without their drawstrings.

Knitting Today: Last Square Midwinter Blanket

 The Midwinter Blanket squares have long been done.  At least I am done with them.  The idea was to make 35 of them and sew them together into a blanket. I never planned to do more than one of each type. I finished weeks ago and just now have time to report on that final square.

This one I call "Blowing In The Wind Tree".  You can see that yet again I have a very high tolerance for error.  I could not be bothered to take it out and re-do as I was working on several other projects at the same time that were under the gun to finish...so I left this. I am still leaving it.  

You note that this tree is on a bed of snow with a glorious blue sky overhead.  I ran out of the white yarn.  In actuality I was attempting to organize the workroom which has paper crafting, sewing, knitting, watercolor, bookbinding, and other project types all in disarray.  In one of the bags that I love so much I found a full cake of white Bartlettyarns yarn.  Still, I am going to let that icky square stay as is.  And really get to work on organizing...!

Munchie Monday: Lemon Curd Tarts

 Just a quick note about finding recipes, and presumably anything else, on the Internet:  don't bet your life on those things!

Last week we had Book Group.  We had read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.  I thought a nice little plate of lemon curd tarts would be just the thing for a treat to share.  This is the recipe I found on the Net:

Lemon Curd

3/4 cup fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup white sugar (If I was to write the recipe I think I would have said "granulated sugar".  That was the first clue...)

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3 large eggs

1 Tablespoon lemon zest

The directions said: Combine lemon juice, sugar, eggs, butter, and lemon zest in a 2-quart saucepan.  Cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens and bubbles.

That is it.

This is what I did...I put the ingredients (except the lemon zest since our lemons were just slightly past their prime zest-making spot) in the top of a double-boiler since I know myself to be easily distracted during the stirring part of cooking projects.  I did whisk forever.  Well, I put a time running to be sure. After 5 minutes the the curd was not even remotely thickened so I cooked longer.

After about fifteen minutes I dumped out the boiling water, dried the bottom saucepan then dumped the lemon mixture into the saucepan.  I cooked longer until it was bubbling a tiny bit and semi-thick seeming. I put the curd through a stainless steel strainer in case there were any bits of egg white hiding in the sweetness. It turned out that even though I could not see any egg white, when I strained there was a small amount.

After dipping a spoon into the "sauce" and finding the spoon well-coated with lemon lusciousness, I licked it clean.  It was SO TASTY!  But not very thick. Well, not at all thick as I had expected it to be.

I had made some darling little pie crust cases for the lemon curd tarts.  All right, I did NOT make the pie crust, I got some refrigerated crust from the store but I DID cut it up with a cookie cutter into little rounds that I shoved down into the bottoms of mini muffin tin reservoirs. I baked them at 400 degrees F. for ten minutes then pulled them out of the oven.  They would have been prettier if I had left them in longer to get them nice and brown, but I did not dare.  Burning, or as I like to call it, chocolatizing, baked goods is a real danger at our house.

So what was I going to take to Book Group for treats since these babies were not going to make it?  (I did fill five little shells with the very thin lemon curd.  They were tasty but not right so I could not bring them.  I do have some standards!)

What I did was toast some whole wheat bread, cut off all the crusts, spread some rather dry egg salad which did not have much personality (we had made the egg salad when we had company coming for lunch where I was concerned they might not like the rich robust egg salad I like with lots of onions and spices...), sliced some green queen olives and put on top.  This was rather boring, but edible and something to bring and share with the other ladies.

A funny note:  when I got back from Book Group meeting, I discovered that Dear One had eaten all the little empty tart cases!  You could have knocked me over with a feather.  I asked him if he liked them.  He said, "Sure."  How funny is that?!

A final note on the lemon curd:  I had put the thin lemon curd in a ceramic bowl and put it in the refrigerator...after licking another spoon of the deliciousness.  The next morning the lemon curd was lovely and thick and perfect!!!  That internet recipe never mentioned you needed to chill the heck out of it...

Live and learn.  And maybe don't wait until the afternoon of an event before making treats.  Perhaps make a test batch the day before just to try them out.