From the Kitchen...

There's been a lot of things happening in the kitchen lately, all good. After we returned from our trip up north I decided to try out a recipe given to me by an extended family member, for a "topper" to enhance Augie's kibble. He's an extremely picky eater, turns his nose up at a LOT of things, and basically eats like a cat; nibbling here and there when he feels like it. We've done all of the recommended behaviors like leaving his food down for a short period of time and then taking it up but he could care less. He's skinny. We certainly don't want him to be heavy, not by any means, but he could use a bit of a boost. The topper contains chicken, oatmeal, carrots, zucchini, canned pumpkin, apple, olive and coconut oils and blueberries. I mixed it all up, portioned it out (I had enough for three weeks, froze two thirds of it) and we gave it a try. Success! He loves it (except the blueberries!). If anyone would like the actual recipe just let me know. The chicken/oatmeal can be substituted out for ground beef/rice as well.

The backsplash was completed last week and now our kitchen is, at last, finished! I love working in here now; it's so light and bright! It's quite a transformation from the dark cherry cabinets and the black granite that we've had for 22+ years. Mr. G has outdone himself!

And, the crowning touch: when a retired engineer designs your drawer space 

you can believe that there's a designated space for every. single. thing!

Life is Good!

All That

Hi, it's me, Augie. I'm growing up fast, I'll be ten months old on Sunday. I'm having good success in Mom Training classes, she thinks that she's the one in charge and that she's training me but we all know who's the boss. She and Dad are still very busy in the kitchen every day. He with getting the cabinetry all fitted and Mom with trying out the new appliances and testing new (to her) recipes; so, I am posting on her behalf today. When she's not cooking, and we're in the sewing room, she's been watching a LOT of the Pioneer Woman on the Food Network, that's where today's recipes come from. She asked if I would share them with you. The first one is called The Everything Sugar Cookie (Dough). She and Dad have been raving about them. 

They have crunched up pretzels and potato chips in them along with the other ingredients. Naturally I have no idea what any of those things taste like but Mom and Dad find these additions comical, as well as delicious, or so they say. They look good, don't they? 

Speaking of looking good: people in our Mom Training classes remark on how 

handsome I am all the time, I thought you might like a profile view. You're welcome.  

Another sweet treat from the kitchen this week: Very Berry Mug Cakes. You can click on the underlined hyperlinks to take you directly to the recipes to try them for yourself. Clever, huh? I believe that these were a hit, too; not that I would know. I did hear Mom tell Dad that the hardest thing about this recipe was finding clear vanilla, she had to go to three stores. For me, in case you're wondering, I eat the same thing every day- Purina ProPlan Puppy, not that I'm complaining, but it sure doesn't have aroma like something piping hot from the oven. 

That's all for today, I'm not long-winded like someone who normally posts here.

I'll be back soon. Growing up here really is great, it's all that... and a bag of chips kibble.

Life is Good!

 

Bye-bye, July!

It's been a fruitful month; lots going on and plenty accomplished on the home front. These peaches from our own trees were as delicious and sweet as they look. The deer thought so too. We managed to harvest a few more than are pictured here but, sadly, not many. Everything was looking great out in the orchard. We checked on the peaches daily and watched them grow and ripen to perfection. I was lulled into thinking that the deer repellent that I was spraying regularly was keeping them at bay. Silly me. Apparently the aroma of these picture-perfect beauties was simply too tempting. Last week we discovered piles of pits on the ground and half eaten fruit tossed all about. It was heart breaking, I had big plans for peach desserts and putting up jars and jars for the winter months; not anymore. Mr. G is already hatching a plan to protect our maturing fruit trees and their bounty for next year. It's too late to try anything now, plus and he's too occupied with the kitchen project at hand. We hope for better luck next year. 

I've begun quilting on the Susan Ache "Gratitude" quilt from last summer's sew-along. I found a wonderful pantograph: Strawberry Fields which seems just right.  I have backed this one with the same fabric as the outer borders and I'm simply in love with the print! 

Here's the selvedge trimmings to give you an idea of why I have a huge crush on it. 

Take a look at that serged edge on the backing; isn't it a thing of beauty? Say "yes"!  I've made a pact with myself to use my serger more; "Why?" you might ask. A few weeks ago I pulled my old Bernette 334D out from the depths of the stash closet where it has resided for years on end. My son needed some camping towels to be trimmed down, "easy enough", I thought. Think again, it was a disaster! I couldn't get it to stitch, or move for that matter, without seizing up and breaking threads. It was in bad shape and I was frustrated to my core. Mr. G looked at it and made some suggestions (oil and a good cleaning were two of them). I'm embarrassed to say that I've had the serger since September of 1990 and have never performed even the simplest of maintenance tasks on it, I know better. Treat your machines well and they'll do the same for you! I ditched all of my 30+ year old serger threads and bought some new, fresh cones. After considerable work, some tuning and some good, old-fashioned TLC we're back in business.  To honor my pact with myself regarding the use of the serger I am leaving it out where I can see it, and use it, on a regular basis. It's a workhorse and it deserves to be used for what it's designed for, certainly not put out to pasture or back into the recesses of a dark closet! 

Our oldest grandson turned 15 last week, we celebrated in the Capital City with both he and our daughter who each had birthdays within days of each other. 

He's a permitted driver now! 

The Learner's Permit rules and regulations are complicated and ever-changing, but from what I can tell he'll have lots of in-car time with parents over the coming year before he's driving with a full license, even that's a graduated process. I sure wasn't prepared to see Mason behind the wheel of the Driver Ed car. Wasn't he just learning to walk last week? 

Sigh. 

From the kitchen: I baked up a batch of pretzel rolls (something completely new to me) last week. The kitchen space is becoming more and more user-friendly every day with the installation of new appliances as well as drawers and shelves returning to hold utensils and cooking/baking supplies. The rolls turned out great, soft inside and chewy on the outside.

We've needed to get new pots and pans for the induction cooktop. Along with those I recently purchased a stovetop griddle and was encouraged to read this guarantee on the box. That about covers it all, we should be in good shape!

Augie's about to turn ten months old in August and has become the best canine companion. 💗

As this month concludes we once again have forty-five nap blankets ready to go, thanks to my Bee Buddies and friends. The Pre-Ks at a local elementary school are well covered! We adopted this particular school back in 2010 and since then have donated close to 600 nap blankets to the cause; we may have missed a few here and there with COVID but that number is close. (The photo above is borrowed from a previous year.)

And so, we bid adieu to the month of July; time marches on. 

I'm not worried, Lucy Ann, it's all good...

Life is Good!

Everything Will Turn Out Fine...

I can't believe how long it's actually been since I've sat down at the machine and stitched anything! (Discounting the two microfiber towels that I dissected and hemmed for our son for his camper. That's vastly different than working on a quilt block! And, if the truth were known, that chore nearly sent me around the bend when I discovered that my 30-year-old serger was on the fritz! Grrrr.....) I'm seriously suffering from piecing withdrawal. Between the ongoing kitchen project, traveling and keeping up with life in general there has been little time. Sigh. Without a stove top or oven I'm proud to say that I've become adept at meal prep using only an electric skillet, crock pot, microwave and/or the outside grill! I was craving some homemade bread the other day, I dusted off our trusty bread machine, pulled out my favorite dough recipe and baked a couple of loaves. The recipe is below. When this recipe's author says you can skip things and it will still turn out fine she means it! In my haste I didn't properly count the cups of flour that I was measuring and, probably ten minutes into the process, looked inside at the resulting goo, grabbed the flour canister and added another cup (all the while hoping for the best!). The results are shown above. If you're craving something home baked and comforting like I was you can't go wrong with this recipe. I'll get back to sewing eventually. We'll get our sink, stove, oven and countertops installed before too long. Everything will turn out fine! And, in the meantime, I've got some pretty yummy bread to snack on! 

Bread Machine Dough Recipe *

Ingredients

Bread Machine Bread Dough Ingredients

• 1 Cup Water Warmed (110 - 115 degrees)
• 1 Tbsp Milk
• 2 Tbsp Oil
• 2 Tbsp Honey If you don't have any, you can skip this, and it will still turn out fine!
• 2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp Salt
• 3 Cups All Purpose Flour You can also substitute with half whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp Instant Active Dry Yeast

Instructions

How to Make Homemade Bread in a Bread Machine

• Heat 1 cup of water to 110 degrees.  (If you don't have a thermometer, just use slightly hot tap water and it will be just fine. (really!) I never use a thermometer and never have any problems with my bread machine dough rising.)
• Put all ingredients in the order above into bread machine (you don’t need to stir it , just dump it in!)  Water, milk, oil, honey, brown sugar, salt, flour, then finally - yeast.
• Set bread machine on dough setting, and let it make the dough for you over the next couple hours.
• Once dough is made (it takes my machine about 1 1/2 hours to make just the dough), remove dough and place in loaf pan.
• Let bread machine dough rise for about 30 minutes to an hour, until it's around double the size.   When I don't have time to let it rise, I just go ahead and bake it a little sooner and it works out fine. This recipe is extremely forgiving!  Towards the end of this time, preheat oven to 350.
• Bake bread dough in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, and enjoy!

Life is Good!

* credit for the above recipe: https://passionatepennypincher.com/

It's difficult to answer a question when the commenter is a "no reply"; so I'll do that here:

Terry: my bread machine is made by Oster. It, too, bakes a non-traditional shaped loaf if it runs through all the cycles. For this bread, though, I make the dough only in the machine and then transfer it to a regular loaf pan after the first rising. Then, I let it rise again in the loaf pan and baked it in my small convection oven for thirty five minutes. It's a GREAT! 

Just Right

As the base cabinets are being set into postion our own little "Goldilocks" is looking for that "just right" place to settle. I believe he thinks each one of these little cubbies are being built  for him; so many choices! Last evening I set his bed in one and he curled right up there! His little heart will be broken when the cabinet doors and drawers are all installed later this week. But for now...

...this is "just right"!

Life is Good!

Making Lemonade

I'm looking on the bright side these days; if I didn't, the whole situation of living in a construction zone would drive me over the edge. I knew that I had to shift the focus to that which I could change for the better. As someone who craves order and tidiness I am faced daily with my biggest enemies: disorder, clutter, chaos and dust; piles and piles of it! My challenge is to deal with all of the above and make constructive use of this current state of our home! When the new drawers were installed, including the one that would house our silverware, Mr. G. had already outfitted that one with custom dividers, I no longer needed the cutlery insert that I'd had before! Hmmm... I thought... would it fit in the top drawer of my cutting island where I keep thread? Would it EVER!! Not only did it fit nicely but the sections were the perfect size for my small spools to be arranged by color. No more rolling around and getting mixed up with each other every time I opened and closed that drawer! SCORE! My next victory is with spices, extracts and baking supplies. Since all of the cabinets that contained those have been removed, I am now intimately acquainted with each and every bottle and tin that we have. Those that were old, dusty and of unknown origin have all been discarded, as have multiples of the same item! Now to separate those remaining into like categories and alphabetize them before they're restocked; this will be a HUGE (much needed) accomplishment! Likewise all of the no longer useful and questionable cleaning supplies that had been stored beneath where the kitchen sink used to be: gone, gone, and gone! Getting that future space under control in a neat and orderly way will be a breeze now!

We've gone from left photo to the right one this week, the backsplash has already been removed and the wall resurfaced; fingers crossed that all of the new cabinetry will be installed this weekend.

While Mr. G is working on the kitchen re-do and I've done as much as I can on that front, I've been escaping to the sewing room and a precious scrappy quilt loaded for clamshell quilting. A friend brought this to me, it has such a wonderful story: her mother had begun piecing this before she was diagnosed with a fast moving illness that ultimately took her life, it was out of the blue and completely unexpected. Following her death the unfinished quilt top sat for a long time until recently, her father picked it up and finished piecing it! It's huge: 96" X 102", entirely made up of three inch squares; yep, that's 1,088 scraps of love! My friend wanted double batting for a weightier, more substantial quilt. Sew it goes, this is destined to become a treasured family heirloom. 

Augie's been hanging out with me while I quilt lately, the sewing room is a peaceful place for him too. We're rising to the current challenges by squeezing lemonade out of the "lemons" that our construction zone has presented and making the best of it. Someone asked me the other day if this wasn't worse than moving; "no, not at all" I answered, emphatically, "I don't ever plan to move again, if I can help it! When this is over, and the dust settles, it will all be wonderful" (and tidy and better organized than it was before!). 

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the laundry room not only for doing up the dishes by hand 

but even for plugging in the crock pot for tonight's dinner. It's all good!

Life is Good! 

Mother's Day and Beyond...

This will give you an idea of how I spent my Mother's Day! There won't be any meals in the dining room for a while. "Why"? You might ask. We're tearing out the old cherry kitchen cabinets and replacing them with hard maple ones, handcrafted by Mr. G in the basement workshop. 

We've gone from what it looked like in the top photo to the bottom view in a weeks' time...

...with a whole lot of this in between! 

The tile backsplash had to be cut out and the wall sections re-sheetrocked and tied back in. 

Augie sought refuge under the sofa table when the big, noisy tools arrived upstairs!

Can you tell that I have an affection for tea sets? 

Here we are today. ↑ Cabinet doors and hardware are being installed as I type! This week is full of more of the same; another week, another wall of cabinets are out of here... and so it goes. I'm excited about the new look, it will be so different: lighter and brighter. 

Our slabs were selected a couple of weeks ago for the future countertops. 

Meanwhile, last week, we were temporarily "trapped" in our neighborhood by a downed pine tree! A damaging storm tore through the last Tuesday evening, leaving us and two of our neighbors with no way out! Thank goodness Mr G. and his trusty chainsaw responded as soon as the sun came up. As you can see, this wasn't any small tree, either! 

The weekend was capped off with a cheer and tumble exhibition by our youngest grandchild. Now 10, Lynnleigh's every bit as cute and spunky as this snapshot indicates! 

Our old cabinets are being donated; those removed last week are being picked up this afternoon. I'm continuing to put things away: with full and easy access before the countertops are installed!😉

Life is Good!