Munchie Monday: Fruit Water for Valentine's Day

 It is so important to drink a lot of water.  Sometimes one needs to try something different.  One of the easiest and tastiest things to do is  to make fruit water.

Being Valentine's Day, with pink and red themes, I decided to make some strawberry-lemon fruit water.

How I did it:

In the bottom of a two-quart glass pitcher I sliced up half a dozen strawberries that I bought fresh from the store. Since it is not strawberry season I was unsure of how this would go, but did it anyway.  Next I sliced in half a lemon in fairly thin slices. After filling the pitcher full of water I placed it in the refrigerator.  When I made this early this week, there was only three hours in the refrigerator before it was time to serve,  It tasted pretty good even then.

Next on the docket was to make more so I got out a 2-quart canning jar and repeated with the other half  of the lemon, sliced thin, and another half dozen strawberries.  After filling the jar to the brim with water, I put a cover on and put it in the refrigerator.

This picture shows all the lemon slices and strawberries since we drank all the water in the pitcher and refilled it.  Two days later we had consumed it again and I poured the fruit water from the canning jar into the pitcher and the strawberries and lemon slices slid into the pitcher along with the water.  

We have now consumed both containers refilled twice.  The water gets fruit-y-er the longer you let it sit in the refrigerator until after about four or five days it begins to lose flavor which is when you pitch it out and start again.

Nice stuff, fruit water. Worth the effort.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Food Friday: Quick and Easy Microwave English Muffin

 As I was dragging myself out of lethargy this afternoon, I happened onto a recipe on Facebook. It was a microwave English muffin.  Very few ingredients. It was supper time so I thought I might give it a try.

Here is the completed muffin with raspberry jam on top. I gave the first one to Dear One who was hoping for some sort of sustenance tonight since I had not provided any so far in the day due to Relief Society business.

Since I cannot find it on Facebook anymore this is what I did:

In the 8-ounce bowl for the Vitamix I put

 1/3 cup old-fashioned oatmeal (dry), 

1 Tablespoon ground flax seed meal, 

and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder. 

I blended this into a fine flour-possibly 30 seconds.  

Put that mixture into a cereal bowl and added 

2 Tablespoons unsweetened applesauce,

 1 Tablespoon plant milk (soy was what I had in the refrigerator today), 

and a dash of salt.  

Mixed it well then placed in a ramekin, smoothed the top, and microwaved for 2 minutes. After pulling out of the microwave I let it cool for 5 minutes, then slice, covered with jam, and served Dear One.  Then repeated the process for myself. I thought they were pretty darn tasty and next to no work,  Of course, now I need to go to the thrift store to find another ramekin so I can make two at a time...

This is the one ramekin we have in the house...

Just now I asked Dear One his opinion.  He said, "Soggy." I told him that was the wrong answer!!  Next time I will toast them in the air fryer.  Having said this, I do think this is a pretty tasty way to get our oatmeal inside our bodies...

First Slipper Sock on Mid-Gauge Knitting Machine

 Yesterday morning I woke up early and had a fair amount of energy having only awakened once during the night!  So nice!  So I went to town on quite a few projects, including clearing off the work table. Again!  When the table jobs were done I went to the KX-350 knitting machine and attempted Anna Haferman's Slipper Sock.

This is what it looked like when it was done.  If you follow the pattern precisely and have no problems, it will not look like this.  You will notice that the toe is rather wonky and very short.  It should not have been. Also you can see the red marker where the dropped stitch is collected...

The problem with knitting the toe was that as I started it (short-row toe) I failed to put weights on the middle part.  All of a sudden, out of nowhere, those middle stitches leaped off the needles.  Now, this is NOT what you want to have happen!  Being resourceful, and somewhat confident, I started picking up the stitches and returning them to the needles.  I was somewhat successful, but only somewhat!  They looked pretty good BUT #1--I had dropped a stitch and did not notice, and #2--I could not remember where I had been in the short-rowing sequence.  

Well, since I was now somewhat stressed, I decided to go ahead as if I had finished the toe. I finished knitting the top of the sock (this sock is started at the back of the ankle with 16 rows of mock ribbing in a tighter gauge than the sock itself, worked past the ankle to the short-row heel, then the foot stitches, short-row toe, then the top of the foot and ankle stitches and concluding with another mock rib then the sides are mattress-stitched together) and realized I did not know how to knit the mock ribbing from the bottom up. I had to stop and watch Anna's video again. It seemed straightforward so I gave it a try.  Seeming to be done, I sewed the sock off the machine and sat down to mattress stitch the sides.  By this time I was REALLY stressed because it was getting close to the time I needed to leave for another ministering route visiting trip. I had been working for seven hours on the various projects and I just wanted this one done, so I called it good, even though it was not even mildly good.

Well, you can see the mess I made of it BUT may I say I did learn a lot!  Also, this slipper sock will not fit my big toe!  Sad. I will re-work the numbers and try again.  If it turns out I don't have enough yarn, there is sock I can rip out to re-use that yarn!  It may be a few days before I get to the knitting machine again.  With all good luck, next week some time.

Food Friday: Success Again, This Time With Tempeh!

 Not long ago I watched Jane, Brian, and Ann Esselstyn on YouTube make plant Reuben sandwiches.  I was so pleased to see this.  I had gotten some tempeh some time ago for some other purpose and never used it.  Now was the time.

This block of tempeh, which is fermented soybeans, was about 3 inches by 6 inches and about one-half inch thick.  I laid it one its side and carefully cut it into two slabs that were 1/4 inch by 3 by 6.  Next I cut it into four 3 by 3 by 1/4 inch pieces.

At this point I put some low salt soy sauce in a flat glass dish and placed the four pieces of tempeh in it.  After letting it sit about fifteen minutes, I flipped them over, put the cover on the dish and put it into the refrigerator to marinate for a while.

When I came back to the tempeh some little time later (maybe two hours because I was distracted by some other project), I pulled it out of the dish and put it into our cast iron skillet that I had barely misted with olive oil from a sprayer I made. Well, used from another food spray, but it worked.

The skillet had been heating for a few minutes on medium heat enough so the tempeh hissed at me when I placed it it the pan.  After covering the pan and letting it sizzle for about 5 minutes, maybe less, I flipped the tempeh pieces and let them cook again with the cover on for 2-3 minutes.  They were lightly browned on both sides.

Now came the best part!  I had toasted some Ezekiel 4:9 bread which I doused with mustard and inserted two pieces of the cooked marinated tempeh.  With bated breath I placed a sandwich on each of two plates and brought them to the table calling Dear One to eat.  

He came to eat, asked what it was, to which I replied, "A sandwich." And he ate it,  When he was done he asked if there was more!  What?!!!  More tempeh sandwiches?!!   You really could have knocked me over with a feather.  I figured he would kick up a fuss at such a "strange thing".  BUT HE DID NOT!

Since then he has asked me if I knew where I got the tempeh so we could have it again.  Actually, I do know and have purchased and prepared more only this time I cut the tempeh smaller so he could have two sandwiches and I could have one.  Success is always sweet!

It is a bit tough to see maybe.  My sandwich had the braised tempeh as well as mustard and sauerkraut.  So yummy.

Finish It February: Knitting UFOs

 Some among the knitting universe consider February a great month.  It is Finish It February.  Some even go further and have Finish It Friday every week of the year.  I am into the Finish It February this year.

Yesterday morning I took the time to work on Finishing UFOs.  It turned out that I went to my closet rod where I have many UFOs hung up in fabulous clear zipper bags with handles that my sister gave to me months ago.  I thought at that time that maybe organizing them would get me working on them.  Not so.  But now...I am into it.

So I took down the first project.

Here is the first Finish It February project.  Because I had not included a pattern in the bag, I did not know what this was supposed to be. It was a rather lush shiny acrylic yarn of some sort...a very old project. I decided I did not love it enough to keep it going so I pulled it out and re-wound the yarn into a ball.  That is one of the ways acceptable in the Finish It February mindset.

Here is another of the same ilk as above: no pattern, pretty acrylic yarn.  Pulled this one out, too.  Yarn ready to use for another project.

This unfinished object was a chemo hat I had started long ago after knitting a chemo hat and a comfort shawl for a dear friend who needed them both.  This hat was stopped partway in.  I did have the chart but not all the instructions and yesterday there were so many other things crowding my mind that I did not feel I could take the time and effort to find where I was in the chart. This was pulled out also!  The plus about this UFO was that I had the ball band for the yarn. It was Cot-Soy yarn.  Some day I will start again and make a chemo hat with this yarn, but you may be sure that I will include the pattern in the holding bag!!

Well, no time for more today but I pulled out more projects and actually finished a pair of baby boottees.  

These only needed the buttons sewn on. I did it then put them in my box of "Items Ready To Gift When The Time Is Right" items. They really are not wonky as they seem in the picture because I did not stuff them with tissue paper so they displayed well...

Peacocks on the Roof!

 Today S and I went out on a long trip around the area visiting multiple sisters to drop off updated ministering routes.  We had a wonderful time together and a delightful time visiting so many dear sisters. 

After our final visit of the day we returned to the car and saw an amazing sight!

Big surprise!  When we called out that the peacocks were perched on the car's roof, out came their "mom" who worried that they had left some acidic droppings on the roof.  They were very polite and did not do that. When they dropped down to the ground we were treated to a fabulous show!

It turns out that Winston Churchill, this peacock, decided to display his miraculous tail.  Here it is:

Never before have I seen a peacock in the flesh displaying his magnificence.  This is really so glorious.  I cannot say how wonderful this was to see.

Green Grass in January. Painted?

 Last week Dear One and I were returning from an appointment. At the real estate office at the beginning of the complex there was a crew of men with hazmat masks and a variety of equipment.  What were they doing?  Painting the grass green.  At least that is what it looks like!

The neighbor may not be as happy about the difference in the grass...

If you know what really happened to that grass, let me know.  One of the workmen had a blower and it looked like he was blowing the grass into an upright position.

Whatever it is, it seems a little funny to me. We are not going to do that to our lawn!