Monday, April 30, 2018

...Over the weekend...

...I made some easy vegan ricotta...
...just homemade soy milk...lemon juice and salt...what could be easier?...
...and then using the rest of the soymilk...I made some vegan probiotic yogurt...
...and drained that to the consistency that we like best...somewhere between greek yogurt and regular yogurt...
..and of course I keep the leftover whey for making biscuits and cornbread...
...I peeled a big butternut squash...
...and roasted him in my favorite clay roaster with some rosemary and olive oil...
...along with some eggplant...for hummus...of course...and a lone sweet potato...
..and the seeds from the squash...also...of course...
...the squash smells so delicious...
...oh...and I learned/figured out...a new way to slice a pepper...y'all probably were doing it 'right' all along...but I was not...I was cutting the stem out and then kind of reaching in and pulling all the innards out...and then slicing it...but I figured that you can put it on it's bottom and hold it by the stem and just peel away all of the green part from the white part and seeds...it's very neat...and unless I need rings or a whole pepper for stuffing this is how I'm going to do it...
...and while the oven was on...I baked a couple of potatoes...
...and they were HUGE!...
...and made vanilla wafers for another banana pudding...I'm obsessed with banana pudding...I think...
...sautéed a packet of pre-sliced mushrooms...
...just to have on hand...they're delicious on top of grilled tofu...
...I think that's it on the food prep front...but here are a couple of photos of progress on the Parish Hall...I'm amazed at how quickly it's moving along...the new windows are in...
...and the new ramp to the back door and bathroom area is complete...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!

Saturday, April 28, 2018

...Dinner and a Movie...

...it was just the Man and me for dinner...
...so I made a couple of flatbreads for us to share...
...half of each...

...with a salad of course...

...and the movie...was and episode of Vera...our new favorite British crime series...they're over an hour and a half long...so definitely 'like' watching a movie...I was worried that the Man wouldn't like to watch another series...but he does...I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that it's not really like a series...each episode appears to be self contained with a proper ending which is important to him...he hates anything that is 'to be continued'...we may alternate with the older series of Maigret for a while...we really liked the one with Rowan Atkinson as Maigret...but this one with Michael Gambon is good too...

...what have you been watching?...

~Have a lovely day!

Friday, April 27, 2018

...Frugal Friday...or Friday Favorites...it's both...

...this is our garbage can...we keep it under the sink...and after composting and recycling...there's really not a lot of 'garbage'...and we re-use those plastic grocery bags as garbage bags...
...they fit perfectly over the rim...but they are not as deep as the can...so if something heavy goes in...the bag gets pulled down and sometimes (often) makes a mess in the bottom of the can that has to be cleaned up...

...so I thought...if I just had something to hook those loop handles on...the bag couldn't slip down...
...so I thought of these little sticky back hooks that you can put on the wall and then later pull them off without damaging the wall...not that I'm worried about marring the trashcan...
...so I just peeled and stuck those in the appropriate place on the side of the can...and looped the bag handles over them...
...and popped it back into place under the sink...

...so far so good...no more bags have slipped...and I'm really happy with this little $1 fix...
...oh...and another thing...

...while we were doing some spring cleaning......I always have to clean up a greasy spot from this lazy susan where we keep our assorted cooking oils...so I thought it would be nice to have a tray underneath...but I didn't want to buy one...haha...so I got out this plastic 9x13 container that I use for taking things to covered dish suppers...usually banana pudding...but it will also hold over a dozen cupcakes or brownies too...

...so I just loaded all of our oils into the tray and put it on the clean roundabout...and another little problem was solved...

...and I can still just set everything out of the tray if I need to take a banana pudding somewhere...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your weekend..

Thursday, April 26, 2018

...W.I.A.Y. ...

...breakfast was yogurt...blueberries with flax and chia seeds...and I had an orange...which either I didn't photograph or the photograph just looked like another orange I had eaten and I deleted it...
...lunch was a delicious bowl...filled with black beans...spinach...salsa and rice...and a nice ripe avocado...
...we've been grilling out a lot in the evenings...the weather is so pleasant now...grilled BBQ tofu...veg baked beans...and I used some of my leftover homemade vegan mayonnaise to make a potato salad...
...snacks were an apple and some chips and salsa...which I totally forgot to photograph...

...what did you eat yesterday?

~Have a lovely day!

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

...W.I.P. Wednesday ...

...one of our parishoners (actually 2 of them..haha)...is expecting their first baby...and they did a 'reveal' and we now know the gender...and since it will be a little boy...I started a hexagon sweater...in boy-ish colours...

...I've seen sweaters and KALs (or CALs as the case may be) for these types of sweaters before...they're based on Elizabeth Zimmermans Surprise Baby Sweater...because they don't look anything like a sweater when you're finished knitting/crocheting...and then you fold them a certain way...and voila...a surprise sweater...
...so you just take the hexagon and fold it in half...and you have half a sweater...there will be a seam up the back...and a little collar...how sweet is that?...

~Have a lovely day!

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

...Tuesdays with Julia...

...this week in the Kitchen with Julia...we made a two titled mayonnaise...Vegan Sauce Riviera/Beurre Montpellier...
...and then used it to make the perfect vegan tuna salad...

...and all of the particulars are over at The Vegan Version...

~Have a lovely day!

Monday, April 23, 2018

...Over the Weekend...

...two of our dearest friends from West Virginia visited with us over the weekend...
...we spent hours talking and catching up...and just generally had the best of times...
...of course it included a couple of meals...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!

Friday, April 20, 2018

...Friday Favorites...

...we got Our Girl this book...Miss Manner's Guide to a Surprisingly Dignified Wedding...it looks like a fun read...and you can see her pretty ring...

~Have a lovely day!

Thursday, April 19, 2018

...W.I.A.Y. ...

...for breakfast...I had a bowl of cereal...bran flakes with some of my sweet sissies dried fruit on top...
...for a mid morning snack I had one of the Minneolas...a tart and tangy tangelo...
...Lunch was a bowl...rice with salsa...avocado and tofu...and a jar of lemon water...
...then I set out these afternoon snacks...some roasted veg...a plate of figs...goji berries...cacao nibs...and golden berries...some salsa mixed with nooch (for some healthy B vitamins) and a few chips...
...and for dinner I found this bag in the freezer...not sure when it was purchased...maybe Scout bought it...
...and just cooked it up for a quick and easy meal...

...what did you eat yesterday?...

~Have a lovely day!

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...work has begun on the Parish Hall renovation project at the Church...

...y'all have seen pictures of the Parish Hall before...it was having some structural and mechanical issues and was needing a lot of repairs anyway...so it just made a lot of sense to combine all of those repairs with a much needed facelift...I don't think anything had been done to the building since it was built about 50 years ago...
...they are expecting the project to be completed in 8 weeks...I'll keep you posted and show you some before and after photos too...

~Have a lovely day!

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

...Vegan BBQ Pulled Pork using simple ingredients....

...I had seen Lauren Toyota's version of Pulled Pork over at Vegan It...and wanted to try it out...I've made vegan BBQ out of a lot of different things...cabbage...jack fruit...tofu...and seitan...
...but Ms. Toyota uses a combination of shredded mushrooms and artichokes...
...the stms are easily shredded...
...just mashing them makes some pretty convincing shreds...
...but for the tops...I got my box grater out to do the shredding...
...and I found that they were easier to shred turned on the flat side instead of end on...
...and I had quite a pile of shredded mushrooms...
...and then I got out a can of artichokes...
...and just gave them arough chop...
...and added all the mushrooms and the artichokes to a pan...and let it cook for a bit...
...then added some BBQ sauce...Lauren makes her own...but I just went with a vegan bottled sauce...
...let it cook for a bit...
...and then gave it a stir...
...and repeated that a few times...
...until it had the right meaty texture...
...with some crispy bits...and some caramelized bits...
...then I toasted some buns...
...and put on a generous amount of BBQ...
...and added some vegan coleslaw...
...for a perfect BBQ sandwich...
...added a side of crinkle fries and some carrot sticks...
...for a pretty much perfect lunch...
...and it was delicious...

~Have a lovely day!