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.

Garden Failure...

This is what we found this morning in our garden on the deck:

This is a very sad picture.  The beautiful blossoms all disappeared and the whole plant has bitten the dust.  We have no idea what caused this.  Dear One says that is one plant we don't need to try again....

There were many beautiful squash blossoms though they were all male blossoms so there was no chance of produce but we did have high hopes for a few weeks. At least I did because I love zucchini.  I love zucchini noodles and I REALLY love zucchini sautéed with onion, even just water sautéed.  So yummy.    Well, either the Farmer's Market or Piggly Wiggly will be our friends in this matter.

Food Friday: Homemade Oat Milk

Because all the smart plant foods people are adamant about how dangerous dairy products are for our longterm health, they suggest using plant milks when we want a white liquid for a recipe or to drink. 

Recently I saw a YouTube video, well, quite a few, actually, but one that seemed to make sense, on how to make Oat Milk, just like Oatly...which is not something I have tried.  And, after this fiasco, don't think I will try it.

To make this oat milk, put 1 cup old-fashioned oatmeal and 3 cups water in your blender.  I think there was also a quarter cup of raw cashews to help with separation. Blend on HIGH SPEED for 20 seconds.  No more, or it will turn slimy according to all reports.

Well, I did just as this YouTuber directed: blended, filtered, drank.  I had found some "flour sack" dish towels at Walmart which seemed like they would be sturdier for the filtering process than cheesecloth or a nut bag.  I used a clean flour sack and filtered/strained the solids out of the oat milk.

The next thing I did was make some "chocolate oat milk" which was supposedly "fabulous".  The YouTuber called for 2 cups milk, 1/4 teaspoon Hershey's cocoa, and one pitted medjool date.  I ask you...!!!

Well, 1/4 teaspoon of cocoa was NOT going to make chocolate milk "just like Nestle's Quik" which this woman said it would...so I put in a heaping teaspoon.  I did put in just one date for the sweetening.  And blended the tar out of it hoping that I could blend the date to bits and not have to strain again.

So the results:  I gave Dear One a glass of chocolate oat milk.  One swallow and he put the cup down.  He thought it was a mean bait and switch.  It looked just like chocolate milk but it just was not.  AND if you look at the jar of plain oat milk, you see that the milk itself is rather slimy looking...not just the leftover oat bits.

You can see that the milk separated some.  The lighting makes the milk look rather brown. It isn't.  It really is white and looks like milk, if it is shaken up.

My assessment:  do not spend one moment thinking about making this stuff.  Too bad since it seemed like a good idea.

Munchie Monday: Cheesecake Brownies with Problems!

Sometimes things seem like they are going really well then, all of a sudden, whammo! things go the other way.  That was the case early this morning when I decided to make the cheesecake brownies that I was going to make from a mix I purchased from my friends at The Prepared Pantry in Rigby, Idaho.  

This is the story.

Yesterday I purchased the cream cheese needed for the cheesecake part of the brownies.  This morning I got up early to make the brownies in time to take them to the office for a final festive food day before returning home to Vermont.  Because I have been engrossed in packing over the last few weeks, and much more so this week, the kitchen has gone to the dogs. In fact, it was a real hellhole when I was ready to go to work this morning.  There was one counter that was somewhat empty but clean, so that is where I chose to work. 

The oven was set pre-heating to 350 degrees F.

The brownie mix went into a large bowl.

The eggs, butter, water, and oil went into another bowl and were beaten with a fork then mixed into the brownie mix and set aside.

The cream cheese and vanilla were put into a separate bowl and beaten until light.  The sugar and egg yolks were added and I started beating them into the cream cheese when ALL OF A SUDDEN, WHAM!!  The side of the bowl blew out!  That is one problem with using cheap chintzy dollar store items.  There was one bonus with this because, as I mentioned before, the counter on which I was working started out clean!

After pulling out the two pieces of broken bowl and tossing them into the trash bin, I scooped up the quarter cup of cheesecake mixture, added it back into the bowl, and finished the combining but with a spoon this time, not the little hand mixer.  As it happens, this was the first time I had used the mixer...

Note the big hole in the bowl!  Betty Crocker rigid bowl from Dollar Tree.  BUY AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

With the cheesecake mixture ready, I spread half the brownie mix into a greased and foiled 9 by 13 pan then put on half the cheesecake mix in five big dollops, then more brownie mix which I more or less smoothed out then the last of the cheesecake dollops.  At this point I sort of spread, sort of swirled everything together and put it in the oven.

Giving one last look at the brownie mix envelope before trashing it, I noticed I was supposed to be baking at 325 degrees F.  Whoops!  So I canceled the oven then turned it back on to the correct temperature.

The brownies baked for 35 minutes but I did not think they were done so I gave them another 10 minutes.  At that point I was still unsure so I shut of the heat and set the timer for an additional 10 minutes, finally removing them from the oven when the timer sounded.  I was ready to go back to bed for a nap!!

After almost two hours cooling, I brought them to the office, lifted the foil out of the pan, cut the brownies, returned them to the pan, and put the pan in the refrigerator.  I think they will be tasty when cold.

During the two hour hiatus I took about a fifteen minute nap break then leaped back up because I couldn't stand the kitchen mess on my mind one moment more.  I can stand a whole lot of mess, but today I discovered my limit!  So now as I sit here typing, I can say the kitchen is back up to a higher mess level. It is not clean and tidy, but so much better that when we get home tonight it won't take long to get things together, then I can do the final packing (and shipping) then have the last few days to do some actual apartment cleaning for the new missionary couple who will arrive on the 15th.

Gnome Project Update

Tonight Dear One went into the office to do something with his computer.  When he came back out he asked how the "Gnome Project" went.  Well,  not well, I am sorry to say.  There were multiple other projects that got in the way and that also were not finished. I hate disappointing people.  And I hate not completing perfectly good projects in a timely fashion.

The plan was to make a gnome and vest for each of the grandchildren, all gnomes being different but with the same cute gray vests.  That turned out not to happen.

The next plan was that there would be a gnome for each family.  That turned out not to happen either.

What did happen was that the same gnome you saw before is still complete.  There are four more ziplock bags with completed gnome parts in them.  Still not put together and stuffed.

And just for the record,  this guy is not as wonky-looking in the flesh as he is in my photograph...another project is to learn to take good pictures...but when it will happen is the anybody's guess.  In the meantime,  well, wonky-looking creatures and people with backs of heads showing, or the tops of heads out of the picture, etc.

So, in answer to Dear One's question: It looks like the gnome project is a bust for 2018.  Maybe 2019...?

Watercolor Failure!

It turns out that I really like the look of spatter paint as a background in watercolor.  I have enjoyed making little panels then turning them into a card with something on top of the spatter.  It occurred to me that if I got a small sieve I could make better spatters.  Wrong!!  At least the first effort turned out to be a bust.

This little sieve I found at Dollar Tree.  The brush is a 3/4-inch oval wash Majesty by Royal and Langnickel.  The paper is Artist's Loft watercolor.

This is what I did--so others will know what not to do.

First I wet the brush in good shape then put lots of water into the red paint cake in the palette.  I picked up a good bit of water and brushed it across the sieve. INSTANT BLOBS of red.   Since that was not what I was going for but thought I could perhaps use them as flowers I let them be then tried tapping the handle of the brush against the metal ring on the sieve.  That DID give me the desired spatters.  Worked great.

So I tried with the blue.  I meant to just do the splatter but I had too much watery paint on the brush and it just dropped right through the sieve onto the paper.  More blobs, blue this time.  Still, I did a little spatter.

OK, I wanted to try the yellow since I am all about the primaries.  I washed the brush again, dropped water into the yellow cake then picked it up. ONCE AGAIN instant blobs, but they came out green since they mostly fell on the blue blobs.  R-r-r-r!  Not what I was looking for.  I did the tapping again and did get more spatter but this was also almost green.  Must be the brush was not completely cleaned from the blue.  Oh well.

Now I had seven large blobs of paint.  I thought perhaps if I took a wadded up paper towel I could pick up some of the blob.  Well, yes, I could, BUT rather than improving things,  the central red, blue, and yellow blobs flowed together instead of up into the towel.  Not really that pleasing a look...unless you like granulating colors.  Well, on second look now that the paint is much more dry, it is a little more interesting.  I will probably use it.

There is much to learn, isn't there?!  In every field of endeavor.

Craft Failure: Flower Drying in the Microwave

Lots of buzz out there about drying flowers in the microwave by putting them in a book then closing with elastic bands.  I thought I would try it.  After all, greeting cards with dried flowers on them are very very cool.

Well, this was a real failure.  The white petunia melded with the paper.  The colored petunias  were barely better but impossible to remove from the paper.  The black-eyed Susan was just a mess.

So, I will not be doing that again.  Seriously, once was enough on this project.  There are too many other projects out there....

Fortunately no one objected to me taking a few flowers from the backs of plants where they were unnoticeable.

Sauerkraut: Failure!

What a bust!  I started some sauerkraut "going" thirteen days ago intending to let it "work" for two weeks.  Thirty days is often recommended in recipes...but I didn't think I could wait that long.

Today I decided that it did not look very good and opened it up.  Yep.  Fail!  There was a nasty white bunch of glop on top.  Even with these supposedly foolproof covers, the vegetables spoiled.  Well, I did use a head of cabbage that had been in the refrigerator a LONG time, so I am not giving up.  I really really like sauerkraut.  In fact in the last week I have had Reuben sandwiches twice.  Yummy!

These are pictures of the sad facts in the matter:

Nasty looking business on top of one jar.  The other jar did not look bad...

...until I opened the second jar.  This is what I found on top of both of them, so out they went.  I pulled out the glass marbles I had used to hold down the cabbage and carrots, and rinsed them off.  (I put them in a can that had had sweetened condensed milk in it when I made some key lime pie that I will talk about soon!!!)

After removing the marbles I poured off the scum then started shaking the jar to move the cabbage into the garbage disposal since there are no ways to do composting around here as far as I have been able to ascertain.  About halfway through the jar I started pulling the sauerkraut out with my hand.  Huh!!!  It was not slimy.  It was firm and crisp.  Is it possible I was dumping some perfectly good sauerkraut?  I don't know. I was not brave enough (or maybe stupid enough) to try it.  

Now the jars have been scalded and are ready to try again with so fresh (though it is March) cabbage.  Maybe I will wait until harvest time then try again.  I will not give up the ship on this...

Munchie Monday: Food Failure

Just to add to the list of food failures...I thought I would make a smooth that someone on Facebook posted and said it was great.  News Flash:  It was not.  I can eat almost anything, but this was definitely not pleasing.  A little too gritty.  Having said that, Dear One ate his whole serving!

This is what was in it:

1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1/2 cup frozen cherries
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 Tablespoon ground flax seeds
1 teaspoon chia seeds
3 ounces firm tofu, chopped
1 cup almond or other plant milk

Put everything except the almond milk in your sturdy blender (if the frozen strawberries were very large, chop them somewhat).

Healthy smoothie, if you can take it...

Pour the milk on top and blend well.  It makes a nice thick smoothie.

WELL....it was not the best. It was certainly good for you, BUT the taste was not the best.  For one thing, I did not have blueberries which were actually called for in the recipe. 

For the main problem:  we are accustomed to orange juice-based smoothies.  Having an almond milk-based smoothie did not work for our tastes.  You may love it.