Addiction precaution! One bite of these, even for those of us that prefer salty, dead animal protein type foods, is one bite too many. They are worse than Lays potato chips. You cannot eat just one. Trust me.
Ivan bought these, “just to try them”. Right! Fortunately, for me anyway, they are up on a shelf, in the kitchen, that, for me, requires a step stool to reach. I try not to go near that cupboard, and definitely not to that shelf.
When they are sitting out on the counter, however, that is an entirely different matter altogether. I am compelled to put about a dozen in a small custard dish, eat one, then go about my business, coming back every so often to grab another one.
When the bowl is empty, I have had my fix.
Until the next time. 😉
Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.
I have a lot planned for today; how much I can accomplish is yet to be seen.
Cleaning out, and, rearranging the freezer, is to be the beginning of the foray. Next, I will try to make some lovely salsa roja, then freeze it, in pint sized portions; provided there is the requisite space in said freezer. After that, it is anyone’s guess. I was going to peel, slice, and freeze the papaya we bought; we had almost a full half of it for breakfast. Job well done.
There are a couple of different salsas I wish to make; some to freeze, and, one to leave fresh. I also need to peel, cut, seal, and freeze part of a medium sized jicama we bought. I am just hoping that it will freeze well.
After that, there is the ubiquitous laundry to be done. (There is that word again. What does it mean?) It seems to be a never ending chore in this apartment; clothes needing to be taken care of. Where is the maid?
Only one more thing on my LOTTDT*- cut up, seal, and freeze the chunk of ham we bought. Costco has been making me crazy(er) these past few months. I just get used to buying a lovely chunk of ham, approximately two to two and a half kilos, once a month, and boom, they do not have it for two months. I decided that they had to make room for all of the Christmas stuff.
Oh. Before that, however, was the Kerrygold™ (Irish) butter!! They had it, for months, then- gone. What? So this time, when we went, they had both the ham, and, the butter; we bought both. Now, I have to preserve the beauties. Who knows if there will be any more before the holidays!?!
In the meantime, please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.
I had forgotten to show you some of the things we undertook, before the head colds hit us.
I finally found the correct name for this beauty; its common name is Piggyback plant, and the botanical name is something quite different. I will be right back. I have to look it up; again. Tolmiea Menziesii. That was not easy to remember. I have moved it all around the living room, however, now, it resides on the top shelf, where it can begin cascading out of its container. Lovely.
Chiles en escabeche, or chiles in vinegar. The yellow chiles are called Cubanos, and are closely related to the Habanero. If one removes all of the black seeds from the chile, it is quite edible in this form. If one does not, it is only edible by those that enjoy scalding heat. Not interested. Which reminds me that I have to go make more. This jar, though quite attractive, is, also, quite empty at present.
This is one of the results of my latest batch of pineapple flavored Kombucha. It tastes delicious. This, the Flor de Jamaica, mango, and blueberry are the ones I will continue to make for the next little while. The second fermentation goes so well with those fruits.
Lastly, we hung up the iron bars we bought, and I filled them with my heavy cookware. It freed up quite a bit of cupboard space, and in this small kitchen/pantry, every inch needs to be purposeful.
That is if for follow ups today. I will look through my photos as I continue to recover, and see what else I need to share. Thanks for stopping by.
Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.
Who would have thought that watching a young Polish man on YouTube, could be so addictive?
This kid takes hidden beauties, old rugs, and carpets, that have been used God-only-knows-where, cleans them up, and makes them look as if they were just purchased. Really!!! Look at these.
Those are minimal. Look at these.
Look at the fringe. Crikey
Lastly, because you need to go watch him for yourself, here is a filthy carpet that he, unfortunately, only shows a few squares of when it was finished. A shame, really. I would love to have seen the whole carpet, in all of its glory.
Before, obviously.And, after.
He has hundreds of hours of video, and his channel is called Lubuskie Centrum Czystości. Just look up Polish rug cleaning, and you will find him. The background music is spa-like, the slow motion sludge is really neat, and he has almost a half million subscribers watching this stuff. It is hypnotizing. I put it on when I want to relax, or knit, or go to sleep. Let me know what you think.
Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones. Please.
Ok. One more carpet; in case you were not convinced.
This time I got to do some rearranging; unlike YKW, who rearranges something daily.
I swear, the more he rearranges, and replaces these things into that tote, the more things go missing. Do not tell him that though; he is finding it out for himself. The hard way. However, I must say, he is making this mess into a more organized chaos. It is becoming quite livable here. Thank you honey.
We spend hours, every week, looking for something that was in this tote last week, but now, when we all of a sudden need it, it is nowhere to be found.
Luis came by, the other day, with the glass we ordered for our living room shelves. As I told him, it probably does not make a bit of difference to anyone else, but it does to us. That is all that matters.
Before the glass covers. The black thing on the left, on the table, is a battery for my Shark vacuum cleaner, recharging.
I hope you can see the glass on the two smaller shelves. We think it adds so much to the few items we have displayed. There are so many things we have picked up on our adventures together, but cannot show here; they are all amazing, believe me. We have been many places, and have seen some truly wonderful things in our fifty years together. Hopefully, we will be able to continue that journey for many years to come.
Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.
Sorry to be out of touch this long. I am, that is to say, we are fine.
We have both had a bit of a head cold these past two weeks; it has left me, in particular, low. We are both on the mend, and will probably go to the grocery store sometime tomorrow, or Monday. We were short on supplies last week, but I could not muster enough oomph to get in the car, much less walk around Costco.
Liz, and, I walked to the market to pick up some staples; not office staples, but pantry staples, silly you. Things like lettuce, chiles, onion, and, garlic; all of the things with which one needs to cook a decent tasting meal. Oh, yes, and, a two and a half liter bottle of Coke, for you know who. As he is still at the “beginning” of the head cold, without much appetite, I made allowances. He will need the calories.
Really, I just want to go back to bed. I know I need to be up, and doing, but I just do not have the energy. Maybe later.
All of you, however, need to stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.
I am anxious to get knitting again. It has been far too long since I knit for any length of time.
Yesterday, I wanted to use my yarn ball winder, so I could make a yarn “cake” instead of winding a ball of the yarn by hand. I found the winder, and could not for the life of me, remember how to use it correctly. The way I had it set up, it kept trying to wind the lead yarn onto itself. Confusing, I know. YouTube, help me!
This is what a cake of yarn looks like when you use a yarn winder. On the left is a yarn “swift”, and the right, is the same yarn ball winder that I use. My swift is a cheap Chinese plastic, but it works.
Once I found the video, it all came rushing back to me; just what I needed to do to get the inedible cake I wanted. It takes about five minutes to cake a couple of skeins of yarn; not much time at all. That, versus twenty minutes, balling it by hand! Yuck.
For those of you that do not knit, skeins are the way most yarn, found in hobby stores, in the hobby section of a store, and, even, online, sell their yarn. The yarn is wound by the manufacturer shaped like a peanut within its shell. Most people that knit, and/or crochet, like to pull the yarn strand, to use in their project, from the middle, or inside of the yarn skein. To say that it is, most often, difficult to find that illusive little devil, is an understatement, as I believe most will agree.
A skein of natural wool and alpaca yarn.
To take that skein, and wind it into a cake, makes it sooo much easier to use. It still takes however long to find that beginning strand from inside the skein, but what you end up with, is a nice, tidy, much smaller yarn ball, with which to work.
The yarn swift, is to use, usually, in conjunction with the ball winder. The yarn starts out in, what is called, a “hank”. A hank of yarn, is, very often, not always however, yarn that is made from natural fibers; wool, cashmere, silk, cotton, hemp, and the like.
These are hanks of yarn, and can be used as is, which is ridiculous imho, but, to each their own.
The hank, released from its ties, opens into a loop of all of the strands of yarn, and is placed onto the swift, passed through the winder, and a cake is made. It sounds more difficult than it is. Plus, whatever “inconvenience” might be associated with this adventure, it is very much worth every minute.
I am getting more involved, again, with my knitting, and, these are the two things on which I am currently working. The first is a baby blanket for Lizbeth’s baby, due in March, and the second, is my lifelong project, my shawl.
I plan to intersperse a couple of pairs of socks, a scarf, and some fingerless gloves whilst I am at it, just to keep myself from an episode of ennui. I loathe ennui. (But I adore the word).
I am going to go take a nap as I have been two days with a head full of mocos (mucus, ok, snot). I slept fairly well last night, after a Benadryl, and some Tylenol. No fever, just body aches, and stuffed up sinuses. Should be gone in another day, or so. Natural immunity. Gotta love it.
All of you, however, need to stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones. See you tomorrow, or the next day.
The fair has returned to celebrate the harvest season.
We missed the one at the beginning of the growing season and we did not go to this one. Gabi went with Liz’s parents. Better them than us. Not that we do not enjoy a country fair, we do. It is just too darned cold once the sun goes down.
And this is only the beginning of October!
Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.
It started early, today did. It usually does, however. The older we get the shorter the night, the earlier the morning.
Today, however, I have “put up” a dozen bottles of Kombucha, fermenting for a second time, with pineapple; a vat/cauldron, (you can decide), of boiling black beans, almost done; laundry folded, awaiting being put away. (It can wait, as far as I am concerned.)
Watered some of the plants that needed watering, and gazed, again, at all of the new little succulents appearing before my very eyes.
Patience. That is all that is needed when growing succulents; something I do not really have, in abundance, or in spades. Let me show you what I am saying.
The new Aeonium “kiwi” sprouting from the tip of the leaf. This will, some day, be another Topsy Turvy. The large green leaves are from the Topsy Turvy, while the three small ones in the middle, are from the Pachyphytum Compactum.This will be another Donkey Tail; there are a half dozen more of these, all starting to sprout, finally, after two months, or so. A dozen possible Aeonium, and Donkey Tails.
These are just a few of the newest additions, having begun to sprout, not long after having drowned the parent plants. What can I say?
I will keep you apprised of their continued growth. Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.
Not all of it, of course; only the extra duvets, comforters, sheet sets, pillows, and blankets, that we (I) bought, in preparation for our forever-move to another country.
All of this, prior to being vacuum sealed, took up two and a half large totes.
We both like the Space saver bags that we buy on Amazon. We bought, most recently, the large, and medium sizes, but should have also bought the extra large ones.
If you need extra space, these are the bags we have used for years.
Our king sized comforters have to go in a large bag, each by itself. If I had bought the extra large, we could, possibly, have gotten two in one bag. Who knows, as we do not have the extra large size.
All of my yarn fit into five medium bags, in which, for the most part, they resided prior to our move. Sheets, duvets, etc., for the guest room, all fit into three medium bags, while the “rest” of the bedding went into a few large bags. We only have a few more things to vacuum up, but will save that for another day.
It was fun, looking at all of the yarn, and, thinking about all of the things I want to make with them. Lots of sock yarns, yarn for dish clothes, face clothes, blankets, both for babies, and adults. Plus, all of the wool yarn to finish my beautiful shawl; the one that I started a couple of years ago.
Speaking of knitting, I am going to go do some now, while the mood is on me. Plus, I have a free book from Audible I can listen to whilst I knit.
Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.
While you are at it, WILL SOMEONE PLEASE SHUT THAT DOG UP? PEANUT BUTTER. PLEASE. The dog has been doing that whiney kind of barking for about two hours, with a bit of added howl. It’s owner is probably not home, plus, it is going to rain again.
Post script: human must be home now; dog is quiet.
