...Friday Favorites...

...Y'all have seen me make these vegan potato chips before...

...but this time I was going for that Ranch Potato Chip feel...instead of chips and dip...

...but I started the same way with some mandoline sliced potatoes that I baked in the oven until they were kind of brown and crispy...

...then I mixed up the coating...it's just my Vegan Ranch Dressing Mix...and a little bit of almond milk...

..I just dipped the baked chips into the the coating mix...turned them over and dipped them again...

...and then put them on the dehydrator to dry the ranch coating...

...which worked perfectly...

...without overbaking the chips...

...they turned out to be really good...and crisp...with the texture of kettle chips...

~Have a lovely day!

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

...breakfast was a bowl of cereal topped with fruit...

...I got some frozen blueberries out and chopped up an apple...and had vanilla almond milk over it all...

...for lunch I had some leftovers I wanted to use up...squash casserole, peas and mashed potatoes...but didn't have any vegan protein handy...so I just rehydrated some TVP burger...it was all good...I kindof like leftovers...do you?...

...in the afternoon I had a banana with some peanut butter...but apparently didn't take a photo...

...my British friends are always raving about "Brown Sauce"...we don't have this kind of sauce over here...so we ordered some from Amazon...do you see the price stamped on the front...not $...£...

...and what better to try it on than grilled tofu...right?...served with peas and spinach, a baked potato and a salad...

...I liked it ok...but I prefer both A1 and Heinz 57 to HP sauce...probably just what I'm used to...I thought the HP sauce was spicy in a different way from Heinz 57 but mustard-y like 57 and a little bit clove-y...

...have you ever tried brown sauce?...what did you eat yesterday?...

~Have a lovely day!

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

...y'all may remember my Sawtelle Sweater and it's homemade buttons...apparently finished in 2012...as that's when it's recorded on the blog...

...and you may also remember that it was my outer layer during the morning of our work weekend at Mom's a week ago...

...well...I somehow managed to break one of the homemade buttons...and it being unlikely that I'd be able to reproduce an exact match...

...I decided to fix it...

...I got out my trusty E-6000...

...and glued it back together...

...and then I added an extra layer of glue on the backside hopefully to keep it from breaking again...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...Over the Weekend...

...I don't really have a lot to report for the weekend...

...although I did go to the library and checked out a couple of vegan cookbooks...it was fun browsing through them for some new holiday recipes...

...Scout and the Man both suffered through that stomach bug that's going around...I have mercifully been spared...so far...

...our doorbell broke...and because the Man was indisposed...I took it upon myself to fix it...

...I picked one up at the hardware store while I was out shopping...they are amazingly inexpensive...not sure what I thought they cost...but I was surprised to find that this model was under $10...

...and you know my fear (read terror) of electricity...but the Man was coaching me from the recliner...and he assured me that I could not get electricuted from a doorbell...as they use very low voltage...

...whatever...I was still pretty nervous fiddling with the wires...

...but success!...I dinged it several times...upsetting Jack...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!

...Dinner and a Movie...

...I made some General Tso's Tofu...

...and had that over some white rice...it was yummy...

...and I was so happy to find the third season of The Durrells on Corfu...that the Man let me watch two episodes...and he mostly sat and read a book...

...what have you watched lately?...

~Have a lovely day!

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

...for breakfast I had grits...'cause I'm all southern like that..with Earth Balance and some Himalayan Pink Salt...I like my grits salty not sweet like the Man...and I also had an apple...a couple of dates...and some pecans...it was all yummy and filling...

...for lunch we had leftover pinto bean soup, some corn off the cob, and tomato and cucumber...and some leftover squash casserole...

...all of the veggies were store bought at the regular grocery store and were not stellar...oh well...'tis the season...

...up in the afternoon...I made the delicious cookiesjust on a whim...no recipe...and very few ingredients...

...one of my frozen muffin tin cups of applesauce...about 1/3 cup...
...a 1/4 cup scoop of whole wheat flour...
...three good-sized handfuls of old fashioned oats...
...and a good dash of cinnamon...probably 1/4 teaspoon...

...and that's it...they turned out so good...that I'm definitely going to do it again...and again...

...for dinner the Man made risotto...

...he does such a good job with risotto...it was creamy and delicious...

...and of course I had tofu with it...and some fresh spinach (one of the few grocery veggies worth it's salt...)...another tomato...and some french bread...and a big salad...

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

~Have a lovely day!

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

...after all the baby things were finished...

...I got back to my Circular Yoke Summer Shirt...and finished the next 2 inches...and cast off and back on again for the little sleeves...

...that chain cast on is tedious...and I've never done that cast on in all my years of knitting...

...anywhooo...a little more progress...it's really slow going now that the sleeves are on...over 400 stitches per row...but still a pretty mindless knit...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...Tuesdays with Julia...

...it's been a while since I've cooked with Julia...and there are still plenty of sauces to execute...

...so this week we did a Vegan Version of the Sauce aux Anchois...which is just the ...this is just the VEGAN SAUCE BÉCHAMEL/SAUCE VELOUTÉ with the addition of anchovy paste...

...it was good...fishy and salty...just served with plain baked tofu...

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

~Have a lovely day!

PS...don't forget to VOTE!

...Over the Weekend...

...my siblings and I along with my sweet sister-in-law...my niece and her husband gathered at Mom's to rebuild her pool deck for her birthday...

....it was a chilly 35° F (1.66667° C) morning...

...my sweet brothers and sister and brother-in-law had already demolished the old deck and set the posts for the new one before this 'work' weekend...

...I bundled up in three layers...and started screwing 3 boards together to make the beams...

...and my sweet sissie took these photos of me...I chastised her for all the goofy faces...but apparently that's the only face I have...

...then...still gloved and sweater-clad...I climbed in between the joists to toe-nail them into the beams...

...and sissie said look up...so of course she got another goofy face from me...haha...but...the sun was in my eyes...that's my excuse...

...the first deck board in place...

...and then by lunch time...the deck was halfway done...

...we snapped chalk lines and sissie and I screwed all of the deck boards in place...

...after lunch it was nice (still cool) but I didn't need a sweater anymore...so a fairly non-goofy photo of me using the drill to screw down the decking...

...a non-rainy view from Mom's front porch...the last photo I posted of this view looked like there were snowy mountains in the background...but it was really just clouds...

...we repeated the morning's work on the other side in the afternoon...and by dinnertime...we were completely finished with the deck...my brothers are going to add a railing in a couple of weeks...no one will be using the deck 'til next summer anyway...

...deer in the field beside Nanny's old house...

...everyone gathered at my baby brother's house for a delicious dinner...

...vegan baked beans...stuffed mushrooms...coleslaw...and a tofurkey sausage...it was so delicious...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!

...Travel Day...

...we got up early and drove up the mountains in the rain...which I kinda prefer to driving in bright sunlight...

...stopped and met my sweet M.I.L. for lunch at a local Mexican restaurant...I got veggie fajitas...they were delicious...

...then we drove over to Mom's...this is coming down her driveway...I was really amazed at how much fall colour there still is...

...and a rainy view from the front porch...

...we spent the afternoon visiting with a dear friend from Canada...Old friends are the best...not old as in she's old...but old as in we've been friends for a long time...haha...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your weekend!...

...Halloween 2018...

...the kiddos dressed up as skeletons to hand out candy at our house...

...I thought their makeup was fantastic...it reminded me of a much younger Scout/Skeleton...

...we had 36 Trick-or-Treaters...

~Have a lovely day!