...8.13...Dinner and a Movie...

...believe it or not...we're still trying to use up all the pandemic food we purchased...over a year ago...and this weekend I went through the pantry and FIFO'ed everything...(first-in-first-out)...

...and I found another packet of that Tuno (that we didn't like all that well)...a can of pineapple about to go out of date...and a can of water chestnuts...a little past it's use by date...but I'm going to use it anyway...and I thought I could make a meal out of all of that and use it up...

...so I just put the pineapple, water chestnuts and Tuno in the pan...

...and added some pepper, onion, and celery...and some Trader Joe's Sweet and Spicy Asian sauce...and a little bit of soy sauce....and cooked it all together for a bit...

...made a pot of Jasmine rice...also nearing it's expirey date...

... and it made a satisfying meal...

...and for the movie...the Man only wanted to watch all of the news about the current state of our democracy...so that's what we did...

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

~Have a lovely weekend!

...8.12...Friday Update/Frugal Friday

...my birthday flowers are still hanging in there...I downsized the vase and I keep pulling out the wilted ones and throwing them away...but they are still making me smile every day...

...I got a sweet little letter from my sweet little niece...you've seen her here on the blog before...and I loved that she taped a pretty blue and black feather to the front of the envelope...kids are the BEST!...

...so I immediately wrote back to her...and on the back of my letter I included a drawing of a Blue Jay...the bird her feather came from...I didn't have a live model handy...so I just sketched it from the drawing in my Bird Journal...dated 4/23/95...well before she was born...I know she will love getting a letter in the mail...doesn't everyone?...

...I'm almost finished reading the 4th book in the Dune series...probably my least favorite so far...not that any of them top my favorites list...but his titanic worminess is pretty gross throughout the book...but there is so much political commentary that is very à propos today...I've probably got less than an hour of reading left on this one...I've read a lot over the past couple of weeks...it's something you can do while your sick...haha...

...and speaking of that...I need to add one more symptom to my list of Covid symptoms...I woke up Sunday morning with a pretty serious case of vertigo...the - you-have-to-crawl-to-the-bathroom - kind of vertigo...the interwebs tell me that it's a pretty common Covid sypmtom or side effect sometimes occurring many weeks afterwards...anywhooo...it only lasted a couple of days...and I did no reading...or anything at all really...because all I could manage was laying flat on my back...

...now...on to the frugal part...

...everyone knows that gardening is a frugal enterprise...and we reap the benefits of a few of our parishoner's gardening...we got our first bag of okra...this green bunch...

...and then we got another bag of white okra from another gardener...

...so I mixed them together...and doused them with cornmeal...

...and "griddler-ed" them...

...and then I went ahead and cut up a big bowl full of the remaining okra...

...and bagged that up for the freezer...I would say to enjoy in the wintertime when you can't get okra here...but I'm pretty sure it won't last that long...

...and then frugal idea #2...I'm 're-using' the pickle juice left in the jar of bread and butter pickles to make a nice small batch of refrigerator pickles...using up some of the cucumbers we've been given...

...I just sliced up a cucumber and popped it into the jar of juice...I'll leave it in the fridge for a couple of hours...

...and then I saw frugal idea #3 somewhere on the interwebs...maybe FB...or YT...not sure...but someone said to be sure and save the outer leaves of your iceberg lettuce...and then re-wrap your head of lettuce in them before storing...

...and I've been buying organic iceberg lettuce recently...because it's $2.19 a head...whereas my favorite organic romaine is $5.89...whaaaaa?...

...so after making our salads...I plunked the leftover head of lettuce back into the middle of the saved outer leaves...

...and then tied it back up in it's bag...hopefully it will keep the head of lettuce nice and fresh...

~Have a lovely day!

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

...breakfast was just an everything bagel...vegan cream cheese, tea (of course) and a banana...

...lunch was ramen noodles with some frozen peas tossed in...and a couple of pieces of baked tofu...and tea...

...still counting this deconstructed salad as lunch even though it was actually eaten a couple of hours later...

...dinner was some bean soup from the freezer...a slice of homemade bread...a BIG salad...and tea...

...a couple of snacks...the Man often makes a 'milkshake' in the afternoon...and we often share it...this one is peanut butter and banana...my favorite...

...and then after supper...but not really dessert...I got one of my 'hockey pucks' out of the freezer...this one is just some cooked bulghur wheat frozen in a muffin cup...I sprinkled on some cinnamon and brown sugar...

...and heated it in the micro...it made a satisfying snack...it's good for breakfast too...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...8.10...W.I.P. Wednesday...do you remember Charlotte?...

...when I was in the 4th grade...my girlfriends and I all read all of the Little House books...and we would often sit on the busride home and talk about the books and what was happening...this was a few years before the TV show...

...but I always remembered the description of Laura's doll Charlotte...

"But Laura was happiest of all. Laura had a rag doll. She was a beautiful doll. She had a face of white cloth with black button eyes. A black pencil had made her eyebrows, and her cheeks and her mouth were red with the ink made from pokeberries. Her hair was black yarn that had been knit and raveled, so that it was curly. She had little red flannel stockings and little black cloth gaiters for shoes, and her dress was pretty pink and blue calico.

She was so beautiful that Laura could not say a word. She just held her tight and forgot everything else. . . . She loved her red mittens and she loved her candy, but she loved her doll best of all. She named her Charlotte. [LHBW 74-76]"

...so...now that it's time to start knitting dollie #2...I thought it might be fun to have just such "curly" hair for her...

...so...just like Laura's Ma...all those years ago...I knit some flaxen coloured yarn...just so it would set into 'curls'...and I could unravel it to make the dollie's hair...

...I know from previous froggings that knit yarn holds a crimp pretty well...but I thought I'd give these locks a further "set" by heating the knit yarn to boiling and then letting it cool and dry in that shape...so I put it into a pot...

...and brought it to the boil...it's acrylic yarn...so no worries about felting...

...I was...however oddly surprised at how much colour came out of the yarn...I wasn't expecting it to bleed at all...

...and here it is after it's dried...I unraveled a bit...and it's quite kinky hair...

...it'll make some nice fluffy curly hair for dollie #2...

...but now back to dollie #1...

...her little white undies are all finished...

...the pattern was a "bikini" pattern...so I altered it a little bit...as I wanted this to be a bra and panties...so I knit it in white...of course...and instead of the string ties of the bikini...I attached the shoulder straps to the back strap...you know...more like a bra...

...and I just bent a piece of wire from the stash into the shape of a hook...I don't need the "eye"...because I'm just hooking it into a loop on the end of the strap...

...so here is dollie #1...wearing her new unders...

...and the little bra fastened in the back...I'm sure she's happy to not be nekkid anymore...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...8.9...Tuesdays with Julia...

...we made the delicious Vegan Poulet Sauté Chasseur...

...it's vegan chick'n- we used baked tofu...in a rich tomato and mushroom sauce...

...it's really delicious...I'll definitely make this again...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...8.8...Over the Weekend...

...I picked up the InstaCart order...

...we got another big box of tomatoes...

...and more than one tomato sandwich was consumed...

...and we got some perfectly ripe and sweet cantaloupe...we'd gotten one at the grocery store a while ago...and it was so disappointing...so these are cherished...

...some corn ready for the freezer...

...another big box of squash, zucchini and cucumbers...

...the beans got washed and snapped...

...and cooked...

...and we blanched a bunch of corn...

...and got that ready for the freezer too...

...I took everything out from under the sink and gave that messy space a good scrubbin'...

...and I'd gotten this brand new navy blue kitchen towel...taking a cue from my sweet sissie to have a few "non-white" ones on hand...but look what happened to it on it's very first trip through the laundry...

...so disappointing...even Jack-Jack looks disgusted with it...doesn't he?...

...so I took it straight downstairs to the sewing machine...and stitched it up with a nice wide zig-zag...

...I ran stitches up one side and down the other...trying to capture all of those undone threads...

...and then...just for good measure...I pre-emptively stitched up the other side too...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!