Author: iagardener55

I’m back at it.

I’m getting ready to bake some artisan style sourdough bread. I want to make some substantial sandwiches, mostly because I’ve been buying several avocados every week. They’re good on the regular bread we buy, but I’d like to have bread with a bit “more”.

The starter has been in the fridge for months, and a bit of a chore getting it back up to a usable state, lots of fermentation, bubbles, etc. When I bake my first loaf, I’ll show it to you.

Oh, I’m making kombucha again, as well; pineapple flavored. The first batch, a few weeks ago, sat on the counter waaaaaay too long, consequently, I broke one of my bottles when I tried to open it. It burst all over me, the sink, the cupboard over the sink, the window leading into the laundry area, the ceiling, the stove, the floor, the shelf behind me even. To say it was a mess is the understatement of the year.

So, I’m going to try, again, to use smaller bottles that fit more easily in the fridge, and get them in the fridge after only a week on the counter, (the second ferment), not 5 weeks.

Until next time, stay happy, and healthy. Praying for family.

What an ugly word, with an equally ugly condition to match.

A close member of my family is battling cancer as I type this, and I would ask you to put this person on your daily prayer list, please. The radiation treatments being undertaken begin at 2 pm. daily, M-F.

This person will remain anonymous as I made that a condition of being allowed to post this request. Radiation will continue through April 8th, but this person is experiencing symptoms of the treatments themselves. So please, pray with my sister Nancy, and me, anytime you’re moved to do so, but most especially, at 2pm. Please.

Thank you to all who do this for my family. We appreciate it more than you will ever know.

Until next time, God bless you.

Come and See.

That’s the name of the production company of the best series out there.

Download “The Chosen” app on your computer, and you can watch the series for free. They’re only airing through the 4th season, but season 5 will be shown soon.

What is The Chosen you ask? It’s the most amazing story of Jesus, and his life, his mother Mary, his Earthly father Joseph, his disciples, his miracles, his trouble with Rome, his humor, his humility, his humanity.

You get the idea. It’s an absolute must watch. Once you do, you’ll be hooked. You’ll be changed.

This is the most profound series of the depiction of Jesus the Christ that I have ever seen, and I’ve seen dozens.

Give it a try. Let me know what you think.

Until next time, stay happy. Be with Jesus.

A few months ago I made the onion jam, and potato chips to which I alluded, and both are/were delicious.

I made the onion jam with balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, red wine vinegar, water, and S&P. It took about 20 minutes to slowly caramelize the onions after which I added the other ingredients. I used 2 large white onions, finely sliced on my fancy schmancy mandolin, about which I told you recently, and will never make it any other way. The end result doesn’t look very good, but the flavor is devine.

I then made potato chips using 4 medium(ish) Yukon Gold potatoes, also sliced on the same setting of the fancy schmancy mandolin, then fried in a small pan of canola oil about 3” deep.

The chips actually look better than they taste. The darker ones are crisp, but the lighter ones are not, but they’re fine, and will do in a pinch. Sometimes I just want something crunchy with a potentially quiet sandwich.

Lot’s to do tomorrow. Going to make the puff pastry, then some spicy hot wings, freeze the pastry, then vacuum seal it. I might make another batch of the apple turnovers, but this time with the new puff pastry. Can’t wait.

Until next time, you know what to do.

I have been having quite a few productive days recently.

You’re probably as shocked as I am, but there you have it.

Recently, I requested a few recipes from my AI buddy Max, one, being some recipes using canned huitlacoche, which he sent me, and I can’t wait to try them; also, I requested assistance with cooking beef shortbreads, here they’re called mollejas, (moy-YEH-hahs), so they were tender, not chewy.

I also remembered to instruct him that we live at 2,240 m. above sea level, and asked that he, going further, would account for the altitude when suggesting recipes.

I have to tell you that a 1/2 kilo of the mollejas, cooked, with a cup of chicken stock, (I didn’t have any beer), and part of an onion, under pressure for 25 minutes, and left to reduce the pressure naturally for about 15 minutes, (I couldn’t wait any longer), resulted in the most tender, melt in your mouth texture of any meat I’ve ever made.

I am now cooking a chicken leg quarter in the same pot, with the same broth, onion, and can’t wait to see how it turns out.

Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, then wash some more.

I made apple turnovers a few months ago that were amazing.

We bought a couple of cans of Pillsbury Dough Sheet, which, when opened, can be rolled out like a sheet of puff pastry. Kind of.

When I had everything ready for the dough, I peeled, then opened the “can”, and the sheet exploded out of it. It was torn into about a gazillion pieces, but I put it back together the best I was able. I was finally able to make 4 turnovers out of the mess.

Before I started with the dough, however, I had to decide on how I was going to process the apples; the old fashioned way of peeling, coring, and dicing, or quick as a whip all in one peeler, corer, slicer. I chose the latter. It is the red gizmo to the left of the apple. You can see the blue peeler, the black handled corer, and the knife in front of the apple.

It took me about 30 seconds to peel 1/4 of the first apple, so I immediately stopped that nonsense, went and found the all in one, and processed both apples in about 2 minutes. It took a few minutes to dice the apples but that was nothing.

I mixed all of the ingredients, rolled out the dough sheet, patched all of the holes in the dough sheet, beat the egg for the egg wash, places the apple mixture on the sheet, folded the dough, crimped the edges, and badda bing, they were done. 15 minutes, and they were ready to eat.

We’re waiting until tomorrow to try them. We had a big dinner.

Until next time.

Stay safe, stay happy, and stay healthy.

A few years ago, shortly after moving here, I made a pair of forearm warmers.

I used some leftover yarn that was soft, and were warm colors for autumn. I have found them again, and am already using them this season. I absolutely love them. Here’s a photo of them.

I don’t know if they’re exactly the same because I usually mess something up when I “knit by instinct”, sort of like cooking by the seat of my pants. I don’t really care, however, because they turned out really nice.

I’m still working diligently, (not so much), on the perpetual shawl, but haven’t’ gotten much further than the last time I showed you, mostly because it’s too hot to knit with wool in the summer. I’m going to get started in the very near future. It’s cool enough now to start again, and have it keep me warm as a bonus.

Until next time, stay safe.

You know how much I love Amazon.

Well, here’s another great product I discovered the other day. In fact, I bought 4 of them. They are the only oil spray dispenser that I have used that actually works. Let me show you.

THESE ARE AMAZING. Obviously not a paid ad, but I have to tell you, if you’re considering buying an atomizer for your oils, vinegars, etc., consider this one. There are several sellers on Amazon, of course, and I did happen to buy one from one seller, and the other 3 from another, (the one was a flash sale), and they are identical in every way. In fact, 2 of the 3 boxes from the above seller Yarramate, contained sleeves with preprinted labels for different oils, and sauces. Great.

Until next we meet, enjoy the best of what the US is now able to offer you.

Recently, I ordered what I thought was an order of 3 boxes of 200 cotton tipped applicators.

What I actually ordered was 3 pairs of 2 boxes of 200 CTA’s; 1200 CTA’s in total. I guess I won’t be ordering those again. Ever.

The ones I ordered have bamboo sticks, 3” in length, with the tips in cotton at each end. Let me show you.

Unfortunately they’re made in China. Come on USA. Get going. We’d really like to stop our dependence on China for things that you can be making in the US, probably for less, allowing folks in the US to have a viable living.

Enough of that. The ones I had purchased in the distant past were 6” long, made of wood, and broke while using more often than not. Scared the boohoo out of us both.

These are sturdy, ecofriendly, biodegradable so we can put them in the compost bin. Win-win.

Until next time, stay safe.

A few weeks ago we had the most unbelievable rain, thunderstorms, and hail.

The whole business lasted over 4 hours with only a few short periods of quiet. I thought for sure we’d lose electricity, but nope.

We went to the grocery store the next day, and there were very large standing puddles everywhere we looked.

No trees down in the neighborhood, thank the good Lord, but I have no idea what happened anywhere else near us.

You know how much I enjoy a good thunderstorm. This is the rainy season here, though we’ve more than made up for our earlier drought. It’s rained almost every day, or evening since the end of June, beginning of July.

Until next time, stay safe; wash your hands.

Post script: a few weeks ago, we were rudely awakened by the alarm on my iPad screaming “ALERTA SÍSMICA”, which translates to a seismic alert, or AN EARTHQUAKE! It lasted about 2 minutes, and we went right back to sleep.