...Requiescat in Pace...Jack Dog...

Jack-Dog, aka Jack-Jack, Po-Po, Pookah (sometimes Pookie), Mookah, Pokey, Bika, Potika, Binky,

Jack passed away...and we miss him terribly...

...8.29...Over the Weekend...

...well...we have some bad news...Jack is still with us...but probably only for a few more days...or maybe even hours...he is 17 years and a few months old...

...he's not in any pain...but he's not eating or drinking...and he sleeps a lot...and we're just coming to grips with that loss...and trying to ease his transition as much as possible...

...8.26...Friday Update...

...there's really not a lot going on around here...so I'll give you a little grandbaby update...

...Big Sissie...her sweet mama gave her a little bit of a haircut...so now she has some bangs...and she's carrying around Rosy the Sleepy Bunny...which she calls "Lambie"...

...hugging her bunny...and her little sissie...

...and sweet Little Sissie...is growing and walking and talking a lot...

...we think they are just about the sweetest things ever...

...on the reading front...I'm a few chapters in to Heretics of Dune...#5 in the series...one more to go after this one...

...we've not gotten any more fresh veg...so...most of the gardens are probably winding down...

...my little squash patch is for sure...I think I've got 11 butternut squash from my 12 plants...which is just fine...as they didn't cost me a cent... and just a few minutes of watering and tending...so anything is a bonus...

...they're mostly medium sized right now...so hopefully they'll get bigger...I'll leave them on the vines until October when it frosts...

~Have a lovely day!

...8.25...What I Ate in a Day...as a Vegan...

...I had made some overnight oats...just almond milk...oats and a bunch of frozen blueberries...it's really good...I don't like it super cold...so when I get up...I set it out on the counter to warm up for a bit...it's like a yummy dessert for breakfast...

...lunch was a really big salad and some fruit...and tea...

...I made a cake-bowl...just a vegan cake mix...mixed with water and microwaved for a minute...and then I sprinkled on some chocolate chips...which melted and made it like a ganache...it was really yummy and sweet and satisfying...

...for dinner...the Man made some delicious sautéed mushrooms that we had over baked tofu...and some sweet potato fries and a super quick squash soup on the side...

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

~Have a lovely day!

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

...I finished Dollie #2's curly hair...and I don't think I could be any happier with it...it's so soft and fluffy...and kinky-curly...

...it takes a long time to get it secured on the inside...

...but I love the way it flows back from her face in gentle waves...

...I think it will be really pretty once she has a body...

...next...I'm going to embroider her face...like before I just think it will be easier for me while I can still get my fingers inside her head...the instructions don't say to do it now though...

...what's in your workbasket this week?...

~Have a lovely day!

...8.23...Tuesdays with Julia...

...we made Vegan Filets de Sole Farcis...just using tofu for the fish...

...but there were THREE supporting recipes for this one...

...and it was just a nice creamy vegan fish dish...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...8.22..Over the Weekend...

...we got a nice bag of mustard greens...the first we've had this season...I usually think of them as a fall garden produce...and I guess we're getting pretty close to September now...

...so those nice crisp fresh greens went straight into the InstaPot...

...I did a small grocery shop...I actually went to Aldi this time...

...and they've expanded their vegan section since I've been in the store...to include a couple of new-to-us vegan cheeses...

...and the Man said...you should make that Blue Cheese dressing your Mom used to make...so I tried to replicate that...

...and I made us some iceberg lettuce wedges...and sprinkled over some apples and walnuts...

...for a classic Vegan Bleu Cheese Wedge...

...that was yummy...

...I also washed the clothes and bedding...and did a little bit more sorting in the Basement...we're trying to get all of Our Airman's boxes transfered into totes...so that it will be easier for them when the come back stateside...(if)...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!

...8.19...Friday Favorites...

...people often ask me about how "hard" it is to be vegan...and it always surprises me that people think it's difficult...because I think it couldn't be easier...vegan substitutions nowadays are about a bajillion times better than they were when I first went vegan all those years ago...vegan cheese was so bad that I would certainly rather do without than eat it...haha...but then came the internet and vegan food blogs...and YOUTTUBE...and lots of people experimenting with plant based diets and things just got so much better and easier...

...y'all have heard me ramble about my old Betty Crocker Cookbook that we got for a wedding present before...and this is a simple veganization of a much loved recipe from that old cookbook...

...it's just a really simple recipe for Scalloped Potatoes...and the only subs are vegan butter (we used Earth Balance) and vegan milk...we used unsweetened almond milk...but any unsweetened plant based milk will work...

...see what I mean...so EASY-Peasie...

...I used to make it a lot when we were first married...but now usually only for company...

OR...

...when I've got a bunch of potatoes that really really need to be used up...

...I used another gadget to make the finely chopped onions...my Pampered Chef chopper...

...and then I used Grandma's Veg-O-Matic to slice perfectly thin and even slices of potatoes...

...I used about 6 potatoes for this recipe...so I need to find something else pretty quick to use up the rest...

...and then just mix everything together in an oven-proof dish...

...and bake until bubbly, thick and golden browned on top...my favorite bits are the crispy brown bits on top...

...so delicious!

~Have a lovely day!

...What I Ate in a Day...as a Vegan...

...breakfast was some more of that delicious canteloupe...and half of an everything bagel and some vegan cream cheese...and tea...of course...

...lunch was some frozen hockey pucks of chili and crackers...and a deconstructed salad with some apple and nuts...and tea...

...then for dinner...I "Griddler-ed" some fried squash...scrambled style like the Man's Mom makes it...and then I took the cornmeal leftover from dusting the squash...and made a sort of cornbread pancake or patty with it...waste not...

...and we had BBQ tofu...potato salad and some more garden fresh green beans...and tea...

...remember a couple of days ago when I made the tuno pineapple thing-y...there were a couple of rings too many of pineapple...so I stuck them in a jar in the fridge...and I got one out and made a microwave-pinepple-upside-down-cake-for-one...for a snack...it was yummy...I'll do it again wtih the last slice too...haha...

...and I also had some ants on a log...reminding me of Scouting days...

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

~Have a lovely day!

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

...I unraveled the knit and boiled 'hair' yarn...into these kinky-curly strands...I just unraveled a row and at time and cut the yarn at the end of each row...it made for some pretty uniform strands of hair...

...and I've knit the coloured part of the top of the dollie's head...using my new birthday bamboo knitting needles which are awesome...

...and switched to the pink yarn and knit her face down to the point where the decreases start...and then like before...I'm going to go ahead and attach her hair as I think it's just easier to do it now with as much room as possible inside her head...

...what's in your workbasket this week?...

~Have a lovely day!

...8.16...Tuesdays wtih Julia...

...we made another delicious vegan chick'n meal...Vegan Poulet Sauté aux Herbes de Provence

...and we had some of the green beans we'd cooked over the weekend...and some braised carrots...and sautéed zucchini...it was really delicious...

...and so were the little baby sautéed zucchini...

...we just sautéed the rounds and then popped them in the oven for a bit...until they were nice and tender...

...topped with some vegan parm...they made the perfect side dish for this meal...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...8.15...Over the Weekend...

...I picked up a small Insta-cart order...

...absolutely nothing of note...except that the Man really likes the Silk Extra Creamy almond milk...so I've been buying that just for him...

...we still have a lot of fresh garden veg...so we didn't need to buy any veg...we cooked another pot full of delicious green beans...

...and the Man parboiled and peeled another box of tomatoes...and we just put those into the freezer instead of canning them...

...and we devoured another of the sweet ribbed canteloupes...

~wishing you a lovely start to your week!