July and August 2021

July was hot but nice for about 2 weeks. Then the smoke arrived from all the forest fires from the western states. The western slope of Colorado also contributed. Combine that to another infestation of grasshoppers and I just stayed inside. 

I put a new zipper in a pair of leather pants for a friend. That was an interesting job. I was able to use my treadle sewing machine to sew one side of the zipper but the other side I had to stitch by hand since it couldn't go through to the outside of the pants. My biker customer was very happy with the result.

August is also hot and smokey so I have been, again, staying inside. Other that an occasional trip outside to the garden to pick vegies, I only go to the grocery store. And I go fully masked. Because.

My DIL had two older chairs that were really rough but had good bones. She bought all the supplies and I recovered them for her. It was interesting because the seat cushion and the back cushion were essentially feather pillows. These chairs are really comfortable. I don't know if I'll recover anything else, though. What a process!

 

I've started cleaning out years of accumulation. Here's one thing:

This is a formal muumuu that my daddy gave to me in the 1960s. The front has princess seams and inside are ties at the waist to tie at the lower back. That cinches up the waistline and the back of the muumuu forms a slight train. I love the fabric and I think that is why I've kept this for so long. I went back into the closet.

This time of year brings out the cook in me. So far this week I've made krautburgers/Runzas/cabbageburgers (they are know by different names), cinnamon rolls and a wilted cucumber salad.

No picture of the cinnamon rolls as they disappeared!

Bread

It is 18 degrees F and snowing hard. What a good day to try out a new bread recipe. I hope you enjoy YOUR day!

Beans, beans

Beans (legumes) visible in the photo:
pinto, black, white, yellow, kidney, black eyed pea, split pea & lentil
The bean jar is an ever-changing landscape of beans.

Walking into the studio the other day, I overheard a conversation about beans. Two of the guys from the metal shop were discussing baked beans using canned beans. You know the kind: loaded with salt and expensive when compared to a bag of dried beans. One guy mentioned that he was looking to change his recipe a bit, but all he could find about beans was to soak the dried beans overnight. That was too long and troublesome.

Really?

There is an easier and quicker way to soak dried beans. Do you know it? They obviously didn't and so I spoke up. Here's how you do it:
• Wash the beans, however many you need, whatever kind you want
• Put them in a pot with water to cover them plus a inch deeper
• Bring to a boil and boil for 2-3 minutes
• Remove the pot from the heat source, cover it and let it sit for an hour
• Drain, rinse and add to your recipe.

Easy peasy, lemony squeezy. Cheap, easy and healthy.

You're welcome.

Good Soup

Veggistrone

Image from Eating Well Blog

Oh my, this is good! Serve it up with a focaccia bread and enjoy. Yum!

I made it last night and yes, I made the full recipe! I froze over half of it in individual servings. Aside from the taste, the best part is this:

Per serving: 169 calories; 5 g fat ( 1 g sat , 3 g mono ); 4 mg cholesterol; 25 g carbohydrates; 0 g added sugars; 7 g protein; 8 g fiber; 641 mg sodium; 718 mg potassium.

Domesticity

Thursday night the house smelled so good. That always happens when something good is baked. I had these mini cupcake pans and liners and needed to make something for a pot luck. Out came the cake mix, cupcake pans and liners and the computer. I had no idea how long to bake mini cupcakes. Turns out, it is 9-10 minutes. Did you ever think that your computer would be an essential tool to baking? Neither did I.

Batter is done.

Cupcakes are cooling.

Dollop of icing and they are packaged up.

The Dehydrator

Have you ever used a dehydrator? I have one that I've used for 30 years. It's just a counter top model made by Mr. Coffee and doesn't have an adjustable thermostat, but over the years I've made fruit leathers, jerky and recently I've been using it to dry excess fruit.

The last of the washed green grapes were starting to turn in the fridge so I hauled out the dehydrator. After cutting the grapes in half and waiting patiently for 8 hours, I had this bowl of golden raisens.

Oh what a lovely additon this will make to the morning oatmeal.

Blueberry Fail and Recovery

It started innocently enough.

I was going to make a blueberry cobbler to take to a 4th of July celebration. I put the ingredients together in the pan and placed the pan in the pre-heated oven. Half way through the baking time I smelled smoke. When I opened the oven door, I realized the cobbler had bubbled over and over and over. There was a blackened mess on the bottom of the oven. Uh-oh. If I continued to bake, the smoke detector would go off, so I turned the oven off and removed the cobbler to the refrigerator. I wish I could say the oven is clean, but because there is a problem with the interior light I dare not use the self clean feature and have resorted to spray oven cleaner. Twice.

On my way to the cook out, I stopped at the store and purchased an apple pie and a carton of ice cream. I took the only dessert, can you believe it? It was a hit and I didn't bring any home. In fact, I didn't even get a piece of pie.

There is a silver lining: the oven is now clean enough to call a repairman to fix the light. Yeah!

Catching Up

Ever since Auntie's passing, I have been busy catching up on the things left undone around here. The garage sale is over and all leftovers delivered to Habitat ReStore.

Weeding and yarden work has commenced. The vegetable garden got hailed on twice at the beginning of summer and then totally neglected. As I was pulling the knee-high weeds and grass out I found about 6 lonely little basil plants.They are now drying on the top of the fridge. I spread a thick layer of newspaper on the garden. This has a two-fold advantage: it keeps the neighborhood cats out and will break down over the winter and help build the soil.

Today was spent in the kitchen. I was so totally together and organized there today! What did I do? Well, I thawed a turkey breast in the sink. While that was thawing, I made green chili in the crock pot and set it on the deck to cook just to tease the neighborhood. Well, really, I like to use the crock pot outside because it doesn't heat the kitchen and I could use the counter space today. Then I baked up three loaves of zucchini bread. As the bread was baking I made the filling for krautburgers and then refrigerated it. Once the bread was done, I turned off the oven and added a pie pan of water to the lower oven shelf. In went the bread dough to raise. The end result was 14 krautburgers wrapped in foil and popped into the fridge. Then it was on to supper: burritos covered in green chili.

I promise to have some kind of sewing related content soon. Right now it is off to sit and knit on a sock while I watch Ice Road Truckers.

Eating well

Photo from Eatingwell.com

Cooking-wise, I've been in a rut. Same old, same old. There also seems to be the perennial quest to shed a few pounds. So when I combined the two want/needs I came up with EatingWell.com.

This recipe is Black Bean Quesadillas and is excellent!  Excellent, I say! The fresh whole wheat flour tortillas from Tortilleria La Autentica on the corner were the right touch. All the other ingredients were in the pantry. The quesadillas were easy to prepare and cook and just right for a hot summer's evening.

Check out the web site. It includes meal plans, calorie counts, serving suggestions and lots, lots more. I am having fun exploring it.

Tonight's menu? Turkey Burgers with Mango Chutney. And yes, I am serving them with grilled baby potatoes and a frosty glass of cold beer. Dinner for two at seven.

Failure in the Kitchen

This doesn't happen very often, but there was a dismal failure in the kitchen recently. In an attempt for a healthier lifestyle I have eschewed pork and beef. To this end, new recipes have found their way into my kitchen. This recipe looked good and I wanted to try it. I defrosted the pound (or so) of ground turkey, added the coarsely ground black beans, along with garlic powder, diced onions and parsley. O, and one egg. Patties were made and then Georged (as in George Foreman Grill).

When the lid was lifted at the end of the cooking time four out of six burgers split in half . Oops! What to do? Not wanting to throw it out, that would be wasteful, I wrapped the two whole patties in plastic wrap and further crumbled the rest. I 'flash' froze it and put it into a freezer bag and to be used like crumbled ground beef.

It tastes good but did not hold up as a patty. I do not have a food processor so I used my blender to 'chop' the black beans. I think my blender is starting to go to appliance heaven because it starts out at one speed and goes to high speed all by itself. My 'coarsely ground' black beans were more of a puree. Do you supposed it was too wet to hold up to Georging?

How Very Odd

Recently, I found myself in-between projects. This doesn't happen very often to me.

The basket of leftover sock yarn was empty after knitting up 38 barn-raising squares. Of those 38 squares, one square used two different yarns and another used three different yarns. If you are keeping track, that is 41 different pairs of socks Wowza!

The kit for Quilt Retreat has been cut and packaged in the container just waiting to be sewn.

Yes, there are quilt tops to be sandwiched and then quilted, but not right now. What to do? I felt no obligation or rush to do anything fiber related. I did not feel at loose ends, though, just relaxed. How very odd.

As another load of laundry went into the wash, I realized that there was mending to do. Mending is not my favorite things, but frankly, I was tired of wearing ill-fitting clothes. I had a mission! A pair of sweat pants ended up with a new waistband and was shortened from waist to crotch, two pairs of corduroy pants were taken in at the waist, a bathrobe zip was mended and seams deepened, another bathrobe had crocheted belt loops added, a fleece jacket's collar was restitched onto the jacket body, and a flannel sheet made to fit a 14" pillow top mattress was remade to fit a 9" mattress.

But wait, that's not all! Blocks were prepped for two different block of the month quilts: Noah's Ark by Lynette Anderson and A Christmas Wish by Gail Pan. All the blocks for Noah's Ark have been offered and three of nine blocks on A Christmas Wish are available.

Homemaker stuff was completed. You know, things like laundry, dusting and vacuuming. Croutons and bread crumbs were made from one of those loaves of sourdough party bread. And a peach cobbler was baked and partially consumed.

The in-between projects did not last very long but a lot of other things were accomplished.

Asking a quilter to mend, is like asking
Picasso to paint your garage.

And I cast on for another pair of socks.

The Way To A Man's Heart

Several years ago the oven light started to stay on a lot. Replacing the bulb all the time was not a good option and the repairman said that the door was warped and would not close properly. The oven temperature could no longer be trusted so a stand alone oven thermometer was purchased. To cook anything in the oven, the cooking temperature was adjusted higher by 25 degrees.

A cookie monster lives in my house and it's name is CarGuy. Every week I bake up a batch cookies. The last several batches have been a struggle to get right. I thought that maybe the door had warped further but CarGuy did not believe it was the door but he gave no further thought (or help) on what the problem could rightly be.

Then came the tuna casserole. The oven temp was set 25 degrees higher to compensate for the warped door and the casserole baked for 30 minutes. Supper was served. With the first bite, I knew. I looked at CarGuy and asked "Is your's cold?". He nodded and I started to whinge about the oven as I popped the casserole into the microwave. Still no response from him.

I bought a new oven thermometer and installed it in place of the old one. The oven now had a 50 degree difference in temperature. Ackkk! The next batch of cookies were made the standard way except I leaned against the door to keep it closed. BTW, a good book comes in handy for this type of cooking. Sunday, another batch of cookies was made but I decided that I was not going to stand at the oven while they baked. The resulting cookies had underdone centers and overdone edges. CarGuy was not happy that his cookies changed.

I gave him an ultimatum: either fix the oven (new door hinge and oven element) or buy a new stove. One or the other. There will be no baking until something happens. He immediately googled parts for the range.

I'll keep you posted.