...8.30...Well...that was a disaster...

...my trusty laptop has died...R.I.P. ...beloved laptop...

...I have removed the hard disk...and I'm in the process of getting all my photos and files off of the old and onto the new...not sure how long it's going to take...but definitely longer than I expected...haha...

...the poor deceased laptop was never ill...she never gave the slightest indication that she was sick...but Saturday morning I opened her screen and found an odd black screen full of dashes...I could not boot to bios even or try to perform any sort of recovery for her...poor thing...she just died right there in my arms...

...oh well...I'm getting used to using my shiny new laptop...it even has a touch screen...and hopefully I'll be back to posting regularly very soon...

~Have a lovely day!

...8.25...Friday Favorites...

...I had to read The Burden as an ebook...(hate that)...but I snapped this screenshot of a couple of paragraphs from that book...because...EXACTLY...HA!...

...people often comment on the way I read books...I always read the end first...and...no...it doesn't stop me from reading the book at all...I'm totally sure that I enjoy the book more because I already know the ending...

...and as with all of the Mary Westmacott books...I really enjoyed The Burden...

Other books I've read in the last couple of weeks:
...I finished Dead Man's Folly 1956
...and a collection of short stories - Three Blind Mice and Other Stories 1950
The Burden 1956 As Mary Westmacott
4.50 from Paddington 1957
Ordeal by Innocence 1958
Cat Among the Pigeons 1959
The Pale Horse 1961

...what have you been reading lately?

...Now I'll post some comments to blog friends here...

...to my sweet sissie Karen who blogs from her boat at McCraw Sails...Hey K...so happy you and huby are back together AND at the boat...hope all is well back home...Love, T...

...to karen from Pumpkin Sunrise...Hi Karen...I definitely agree with you about fall being the most wonderful time of the year...it's still really hot here...but you can sense that the change is coming...the trees are starting to get that sort of dull green before they start to turn to orange red and yellow...and I'm so looking forward to fall...

...to Éphée from L'éphémère quotidienneté des repas et autres trucs de magie...Hi Éphée...everything you've been making in your kitchen looks so delicious...the tofu soup...and the zucchini lasagna...I have to try those...

...to Penny from Snap That Penny...Hi Penny...I'm so glad you're feeling some better...your tree lined streets are so pretty and your market looks like so much fun...

~Have a lovely day!

...8.24...What I ate in a Day...as a Vegan...

...breakfast was a vegan biscuit covered in applesauce...like gravy...haha...

...for lunch I put some tofu in to bake...because I hadn't meal preppped any over the weekend...

...and while that was baking I made my favorite microwave fat free potato chips...

...and then I had a delicious tofu sammie with chips...

...I love sammiches so much...do you?

...our Church organist gave us a 'mess' of okra...do you say a mess of something...my Nanny did...

...then I made Anja's BEST CREAMY VEGETABLE SOUP RECIPE EVER - YOU WON'T BELIEVE IT'S VEGAN AND MADE IN JUST 5 MINUTES!

...and I had a big bowl of that with some Griddler-fried okra...

...for snacks I had toasted whole wheat bread topped with vegan mozzarella...I put that under the broiler but apparently didn't take a photo of that...

...and before dinner...I made some delicious guacamole...

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

~Have a lovely day!

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

...I finished the little striped sweater...pattern here...

...it fits her pretty well...

...then I made her little shoes...pattern here...

...they are crocheted instead of knit...and she has a snap idea for attching them...

...but this version with the strap doesn't come off easily...and I think they will be easier for little fingers like thhis...

...so one complete outfit...

...and I've started her grey trousers...wide leg pants pattern here...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...8.22...Tuesdays with Julia...

...we made Vegan Gratin d'Endives with the endive that we got over the weekend...

...I'm not a huge fan of Endive but it was good like this...wrapped in vegan ham in a cream sauce...just about anything would be good like that...haha...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...8.21...Over the Weekend...

...I did the weekly shopping...

...and got a bunch of stuff...corn was 4 for $1...

...of note...these two plant based soups...new to us...we thought we'd give them a try...

...and an endive for a Julia Child recipe...$5.99 per pound...so pretty expensive...

...and then on the Food Prep front...

...I made a pot of pinto beans...

...baked a BUNCH of vegan cornbread...and got that into the freezer...I just love having it ready and on hand...

...and then I found a jar of black soybeans in the cupboard...so I thought I'd make some soymilk with them...Y'all have seen it before here...and sorry I didn't take a photo before I 'peeled' them...but after they've soaked the skins rub off quite easily...and it's supposed to remove some of the beany taste of soymilk...

...but here's a photo of the rubbed off skins...haha...

...and then you just steam them for a few minutes...and give them a whizz in the Vitamix...

...this is the recipe that I use...

...also hiding in the cupboard was this bag of rice grits...so we cooked those up...just like rice...

...I washed the sheets and hung them out to dry...and it's so hot and dry that I think they were dry in about 20 minutes...

...and this happened...

...right after the faucet last weekend...about Wednesday...we started to hear a funny sound coming from the refrigerator...so we searched the interwebs for "loud purring sound from refrigerator"..."fluttering sound from refrigerator"...etc...

...we found several videos that had you dismantle the fridge from the inside...to get to the fan motor...but we pulled out the fridge and took the back cover off...and found that the fan was pretty much encased in dust...eeeeuuuuuwww...I know...I clean my fridge regularly on the inside and underneath...but this is the first time in the ten years we've been living here that we've taken the back off and cleaned it out...so...needless to say that will go on my spring cleaning list from now on...haha...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!

...8.19...Dinner and a Movie...

...we got these two servings of delicious vegan eggplant parmesan out of the freezer...

...it made a super delicious and easy Friday night meal...and we could definitely have only used one container as neither of us finished our stack of eggplant...

...and the movie was actually a movie this week...the Man chose An American in Paris...it's free on Amazon...and we'd neither one seen it...and I can't say we were very impressed with it...kind of disappointed as I thought it was going to be wonderful...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...8.18...Friday Favorites...

...I actually got this last Friday...but I'd already done my post for that day...so I saved it for this week...haha...

...my sweet sissie sent me a NEW BREAD MACHINE!!!

...after she had to endure the screeching of my old one while she was visiting us last time...it's BEAUTIFUL!...

...and of course we had to try it out...this is my favorite Vegan Buttermilk Whole Wheat Bread...from my old bread maker's cookbook...

....it was so quiet...and the bread looks so nice...

...a perfect loaf...

...thanks so much Sissie!...

~Have a lovely day!

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

...started the day with a bowlful of overnight oats and blackberries...

...then mid-morning I had a slice of whole wheat toast and a cup of creamy sweet tea...

...and then I really just snacked throughout the middle part of the day...this is a sort of deconstructed tomato sammie...the tomato was the last of the garden fresh ones we were gifted...and there's a generous slathering of Hellman's Vegan Mayo on the bread...

...then for 'lunch'...or midday snack...I had some leftover vegan pizza...

...and mid-afternoon...I cooked this entire bag of fideo noodles...I'd picked them up on sale at the grocery store for 50 cents...

...and I do love noodles with Earth Balance...salt and pepper...so comforting...

...but we did have a proper dinner...a big salad with homemade dressing...Griddler-fried okra...and the Man said it'd been a long time since we'd had 'beanie-weanies'...so he made those with Veggie dogs...and it was all delicious...his version of beanie-weanies is a little bit too spicy for me...but that's no surprise...

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

~Have a lovely day!