...8.31...Over the Weekend...

...starting off the weekend with some vegan waffles...

...I made an extra one with the last of the batter...it'll make a nice snack later this week...

...another Red White and Blue Popz for a treat...I guess I thought the RWB was a seasonal thing for the 4th...but maybe they always have it...

...let's see...they had both of our soy milks...and Violife cheese was on sale for $2.99 so I stocked up...

...and I also stocked up on frozen veg...it wasn't on sale...we just needed some...

...so we soaked all of the non-organic veg in baking soda water...

...sliced some tofu with the handy-dandy slicer/cuber thing-y...and baked it to have it on hand for the week...

...harvested a little bit of lettuce from the back porch...still too hot for lettuce in the garden...

...made a pot of green beans...

...and a pot of barley tea...I had a milky sweet cup hot...

...and then put the rest in the fridge to have as a refreshing cold drink...

...and on my bike ride I saved a turtle...

...I say I saved him...but he may have made it across just fine without me...(but maybe not)...

...anywhoo...I left him the grass before I rode on...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!

...8.29...Dinner and a Movie...

...Spaghetti night...YAY!...

...the Man's delicious spaghetti...with a salad and garlic bread...

...and the movie was the new season of Ted Lasso...I didn't even realize that there was a new season until it popped up in my recommended queue...y'all know that I loved the first series...and now Ted is going back to England to coach a women's soccer team...I enjoyed this little surprise and will happily watch all of the new series...

...are y'all Ted Lasso fans?...

...In books this week...of course I finished The Wasp Factory...no surprises there for me as I'd already read the last chapter...next up on the 100 best books of all time list is Camus' The Stranger...I'd read L'Etranger in French in college and written a paper or two on it...so there were absolutely no surprises in this translated version...I got the version translated by Matthew Ward in 1989 from my library...it's been "praised for its exactitude, clarity, and closer adherence to the stylistic nuances of the original French text"...it's an American translation...I liked it...it was a very short read that I finished in two days...there's a newer translation from 2012 based in part on a 1954 audio recording of Camus reading the novel aloud on French radio...which would probably be good too...

...next up is The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold...I don't know anything about this book...but I'll pick it up from the library and get started...

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

~Have a lovely weekend!

...8.28...Friday Garden Update...

...we transplanted the onions and radishes that we were babying on the back porch...

...the onions are actually just the cut off pieces from store bought green onions that I stuck into some dirt in a pot...and they regrew very nicely...

...I took the shade covers off of the row of squash...and the baby squash, cucumber, and Hubbards are still thriving in the heat...

...and finally this crazy ever blooming rose is blooming again...

...what's growing this late in the season where you are?...

~Have a lovely day!

...8.27...Thrifty Thursday...

...there were actually two quick trips to the thrift store this week...I didn't get what I went for (some craft eyes for a stuffy)...but in the freebies were these boxers with a bleach stain...and the elastic waisted trousers...

...and I say trousers...but I think that these started out as one of those jumpsuits with a shirred top with straps...

...and someone hacked off the top of the shirred section including the straps...which is ok with me because I probably wouldn't have worn it like that...all I did was straighten the jagged edge as the fabric won't fray...and I've got a comfy pair of elastic waisted summer trousers...

...so that prompted a second trip...because the only navy top I had (that isn't striped is the Air Force Mom one that I made for the graduation trip to Texas)...so I picked up a plain navy tee...and I spied these two melamine trays for $1 each and thought they'd be fun for TV lunches/dinners as they're kind of a tray and a plate in one...

...gave those a good scrub and a trip through the dishwasher...and used it for a leftovers lunch...on the tray are some leftover alfredo noodz, leftover fries, the last of the chocolate hummus, a bowl of leftover cream of cauliflower soup...and some not leftover edamame...

...what have you thrifted lately?...

~Have a lovely day!

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

...Big Sissie had asked Grandmommy for a 'real' cooking set...not a toy one...

...so over the last couple of months...I've been gathering proper cooking tools for her kit...y'all have already seen the pink tote...

...but it was filled with...

...Cookie cutters, one with animals, and one with kind of classic shapes…
...A full-size rolling pin…not a toy...
...A pastry brush, measuring spoons and cups (rainbow coloured of course), a whisk, a scoop, a silicone slotted spoon, a pizza cutter, a spatula for mixing and a spatula for cookies and things…
...and y'all have already seen the pink Pottery Barn mixing bowls...

...and then to finish out the kit...I included a cute apron...

...it was an adult sized one from the thrift store...so I found an online pattern for a child-sized apron...and cut it down to size...

...I think it would probably have been easier to just make a child-sized apron as it was a lot of trouble to unpick the seams and reattach the ties...but this one still turned out super cute...

...I’m also gonna send a separate box with a bunch of baking mixes, brownies, cookies, pancakes, pizza, sprinkles, all of those things that you would need for baking, but I’ll send those separate from the tool kit...

...oh...and a cookbook...more on that one in a bit...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...8.24...Over the Weekend...

...I found some veggie bacon in the freezer...and I cooked it in the air fryer...which made it perfectly crispy...and I put it on top of a plain bagel...

...then I added some air fried tofu and a sprinkle of kala namak and it was so delicious...

...then we did the shopping...

...and they had the Man's Silk...YAY!...they only thing of note is that they did not have the Abuelita tablets (they're accidentally vegan)...

...so I got a different kind...from Ibarra...

...it lists just four ingredients...Sugar, chocolate, soy lecithin and cinnamon...

...I hope it's as good...I'll let you know...I remember what a treat it was when we were kids and Daddy brought the Abuelita tablets back from a Mexico trip...we often had hot chocolate when we were little...Mom usually made it with Hershey's cocoa on the stove...and it was so good...but the Abuelita chocolate was very...you know...exotic for us country kids...we loved it too...

...and this week's Poppz...what the orange cream one...I shared it with the Man as he used to love Dream-cicles when he was younger and that's what it kindof tastes like...

...we stopped at the dollar store for some sheet protectors...(for Big Sissie's cookbook...I'll show it to you in a bit)...and they had one (only one) of these blue rimmed plates that I thought would go well with our blue and white ones...and I guess as the last one...they had it marked down to 75¢...

...we can of course use it as is...but it also sort of functions as a charger...

...in the garden...the August sun is just too brutal for the new little plants...so I tacked up some shade cloth over them...I ran out at the end of the row...so I just used some old cotton sheet for that bit...they do (of course) need sunshine so this is only for a few days until they get acclimated to life in the dessert...haha...

...we have had some rain...just passing thunderstorms though...

...we got another beautiful cucumber...and then just a few green beans...

...so I got out the bag of beans...

...and cooked a pot of rattlesnake beans in the porch kitchen...

...we sliced the cucumber fresh from the garden...

...and sliced one of our last two tomatoes for delicious tomato sammies for lunch...pretty sad about that...and I drank the last of my blended watermelon from the freezer...

...and finally...I got a bag of roasted barley from Amazon...and made a refreshing tea...I love it cold with nothing in it...and hot with soymilk...it's really good...have you ever had barley tea?...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!

...8.22...Dinner and a Movie...

...the Man made a hot dog cooking sauce...not exactly sure what all is in it...but some tomato, onion, vegan beef bouillon, and vinegar...and I imagine some spices...

...I have never had a New York hot dog so I don't really have anything to compare it to...then he wrapped them in foil and put them in the oven...I generally have a nice toasty bun...but this soft version was nice too...

...and he added slaw...of course...

...and served it with air fried French Fries...it was really delicious...I enjoyed it a lot...

...and the movie was the 1973 version of The Three Musketeers...and it was pretty good...

...I was a little bit worried by the 1970's special effects as seen here...haha...but thanksfully, they only did that during the credits...

...I'd never seen it...and was sort of surprised by it...it's pretty close to the original...not literal...but close...and it was funny...which was a little bit unexpected...the cast was pretty well-known too...

Michael York as D'Artagnan
Raquel Welch as Constance Bonacieux
Oliver Reed as Athos
Frank Finlay as Pothos
Richard Chamberlain as Aramis
Faye Dunaway as Milady de Winter
Charlton Heston as Cardinal Richelieu
Christopher Lee as the Count De Rochefort

...I enjoyed the movie too...

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

...in books this week...I finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I was entertained...it was a fun little book...so then I just chose another book from the 100 Best books list...and it was not a 'best' book...The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks...I don't really know what to say about this one...it's pretty horrific...and of course I read the last chapter first...so I know something I'm not supposed to know yet...it's a book about a teenaged serial killer and his family...he has a brother who tortures and kills dogs...very difficult to read...and I've got no idea how it got onto the 100 best books of all time list...I can't imagine anyone saying they 'enjoyed' this one...but then...Lolita was on there as well...and it was about as cringe-y and it could be...

...what have you been reading lately?...

~Have a lovely weekend!