Wednesday, February 28, 2018

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

...at Church Sunday the N.O.A.H. group announced that they had taken 50 little red hats to the local hospital...and that they had 47 more...making the total for the month of February 97...and they wished they had 3 more...
...so of course I was up for that...and pretty easily finished one hat each night...Sunday...Monday and Tuesday...and I'll take them to Church tonight...
...I'm sure a few other people will make a last minute hat as well...so we'll definitely send over 100 little red hats...

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

~Have a lovely day!

Monday, February 26, 2018

...Freebies...

...I was dropping off a box of 'stuff'...I'm trying to keep it under control as we do some spring cleaning and get rid of it a box at a time...haha...

...and at this Charity Shop they have a box by the door labeled FREE...so I always take a look in there...it's just items that they deem to be un-sale-able...
...this time there was this cute striped top...and I'm such a sucker for stripes...

...it's often the case that the imperfections are not immediately visible...
...and this Coldwater Creek white shell...
...someone had tried to fix this problem with some fusible tape/binding...but had not done a very good job...so the sorters probably just threw it into the free bin for that...

...when I got it home...I pulled the tape off and gave it a wash...and a couple of stitches will probably correct this small tear invisibly...
...and this sleeve of the cute striped top (only this one - the other one is fine) will get shortened a couple of inches...both actually...so they match...
...and although it's no longer anywhere near scarf weather...this soft fuzzy scarf...
...complete with a couple of holes as well...

...I'm going to try embroidering some flowers over the holes...kind of like I did with this spot repair...

...and if I'm unsuccessful with any of these 'fixes'...I'm still not out anything...

...have you ever taken anything from the 'free' bin?

~Have a lovely day!

Saturday, February 24, 2018

...Dinner and a Movie...

...I bet you knew the Instant Pot would be involved in dinner...

...the Man made a delicious Black Bean Soup...although it's not soup weather at all...it's been gorgeous here...highs in the 70's...perfect spring weather...and it's still February...
...and we had cornbread...
...and rice...
...oh...we also had a salad and a baked Asian Sweet Potato...

...and the movie was Caramel...which I chose...I guess...because I thought it might be like Chocolat...and...it was...and it wasn't...

...I'm sure the Man did not enjoy the film very much...it was subtitled for one thing...but that was one of the more interesting things about the film for me...because of French intervention there in the 1800's there was a surprising amount of understandable French in the language...and the name of their beauty shop was Si Belle...

...it was a pretty film...the title comes from the sugar that they boil into a stretchy caramel and use to pull hair out...so that part made it completely unlike Chocolat...and so it was basically about a handful of women who work in this beauty salon...and their love lives...so again...just a film about some people...

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

~Have a lovely day!

Friday, February 23, 2018

...Friday Favorites...Kala Namak...

...Kala Namak or Black Salt...(although it's really pink when it's ground) ...is definitely one of my favorite things...

...pretty much the only thing I use it for is to simulate that sulfur-y taste (and smell) of eggs...I use it on my tofu anytime I want it to stand in for eggs...fried as in this photo...or scrambled...

...have you ever tried Kala Namak?

~Wishing you a lovely start to your weekend!

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

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

...Our Girl's sweet little pink afghan is finished...the chenille chain stitch border is just a series of chain 5 loops...like I did for the Prom Shawl...but done in the round around the blanket...it makes a nice edging too...

...what's in your workbasket...

~Have a lovely day!

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

...More Food Prep...

...in addition to the Instant Pot...we baked some eggplant...and combined that with some of the white beans from the Instant Pot into a creamy and delicious hummus...of which...for some reason...I failed to take a picture...
...while the oven was on...I baked some tofu...I do this every week...I like to have baked tofu on hand...
...and I used the George Foreman grill...which I still thoroughly love...to make big batches of all my favorite veggies for the week...Brussels Sprouts and carrots...
...California Mix...
...and spinach...now the Man does not like the spinach cooked in the grill and prefers his sautéed...but I love it like this...it's drier and has some sort of crispy caramelized bits...

...do you prep a lot of food for the week or just make it as you go?

~Have a lovely day!

Monday, February 19, 2018

...Over the Weekend...Food Prep with the Instant Pot...

...y'all could probably guess that we'd be in the kitchen playing with the new Instant Pot...
...the Man decided to make a Cauliflower and Potato soup...so we cut up some cauliflower...
...and some Yukon Gold potatoes...
...and the Instant Pot has a Saute feature/button and you can saute the onions and garlic before you put the lid on...you don't have to...of course...but it gives that nice caramelized flavor if you do...
...a quart of vegan chick'n broth...
...everything in the pot...and about 10 minutes later the soup is ready...
...the Man blended it up...
...added some cashew cream...
...topped with some shredded Daiya cheddar...and we had a delicious soup for lunch...
...then I immediately washed the pot...because I had soaked some Great Northern Beans overnight...and I wanted to see how the Instant Pot cooked beans...
...all done...so quick...
...and now we have a huge bowl of beans for the week ahead...
...and now to try out some fresh greens...collards this time...
...quick as a wink...
...perfectly tender and delicious...

...so far...I love the Instant Pot...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!

Saturday, February 17, 2018

...Dinner and a Movie...

...we had homemade pizza...I put a ton of olives on mine...

...and the movie was the kiddos pick...whenever they are with us for Movie Night...we let them choose...and they chose The Fellowship of the Ring...

...it's the first of the Lord of the Rings movies...chosen because Our Girl had never seen them...which we thought was funny...because I couldn't count the number of times Scout and his friends in North Dakota watched them...maybe it was a 'boy thing'...

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

~Have a lovely day!

Friday, February 16, 2018

...Instant Pot...

...The Man and I got an Instant Pot for Valentine's Day...
...and unboxed it right away...
...got it set up and read the manual...
...and so the very first thing I made in the new Instant Pot...
...rice...
...just following the instructions in the manual...
...and in just a few minutes...
...we had perfectly cooked rice...

...we're looking forward to making a lot of things in the new Instant Pot...

~Have a lovely day!

Thursday, February 15, 2018

...W.I.A.Y...Ash Wednesday ...

...I started off with some homemade soy yogurt mixed with strawberries...and a side of flax seeds...
...later in the morning I had a small plate of fruit and some goji berries...and you can see my morning quart of water is almost all gone...
...lunch was a bowl of Foreman grilled veggies...and a grilled sweet potato with Taco sauce...
...and a bowl of greens...which I like with a little bit of apple cider vinegar...
...and then because of the Ash Wednesday service at Church...dinner had to be pretty quick...so I got a packet of marinara sauce out of the freezer...and cooked some pasta...and we had a salad with some pears and walnuts...

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

~Have a lovely day!

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

...Happy Lover's Day...

Happy Valentines Day!...
...we celebrated the usual way...cards and flowers...

...but...

...it was also Ash Wednesday...

...which means that yesterday was Shrove Tuesday...and at this Church that means a Fastnact Supper...I've written about the Fastnachts before...
...so I went over to the Church...where the preparations were well underway...the fastnacht dough was bursting out of the bags...
...and all sorts of shapes of fastnachts were formed...
...ready for the hot oil...
...they printed out these informational sheets...
...interesting stuff...
...all about why we celebrate Shrove Tuesday...
...with a Fastnacht Supper...
...
...so I made some Vegan Fastnacht dough...
...and cut it into the traditional diamond shape...
...and pulled the side through to form "Tangled Britches"...
...and let them rise...
...and then cooked them in hot oil...
...until they were golden...
...and sprinkled them with powdered sugar...
...meanwhile over at the Fellowship Hall...they were frying dozens of Fastnachts...
...and putting them into coolers to keep them warm...
...and they even grilled a few for people who couldn't have them cooked in oil...
...and people queued up for supper...
...my delicious plate of Vegan Chili, Red Slaw and Fastnachts...

~Have a lovely day!