Hello, friends. Last week, I cut stained shirts into rags, and saved the buttons. One had a lovely saying from Mary Engelbreit. I pondered doing something with it, but decided to just enjoy a smile whenever I use it. A jar of astragalus root glycerite was started. I realized I'd been making things for J he didn't necessarily need to eat, which cost us more money. So, I made some of the regular pasta for him, which we had in the pantry, and made a smaller amount of GF pasta for me. The next day, I made sweet potato pies, a GF one for me, and non GF for him. While I had the oven going, I added two butternut and a spaghetti squash to bake. The ends of GF bread were placed in a pan to dry in the oven, for future bread crumbs.
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| canning jars emptied and ready for storage |
I saw a post about cleaning the washing machine, which I'll admit, I rarely do. I was able to pull two pieces from the top of the agitator and wash them, wiped down the drum and outside, then ran a hot water wash with vinegar. It definitely looks better. Two books were requested from the library. When they were picked up, I had a little time before meeting my sister, so I checked my list, and picked up two children's books I've been wanting to read, one of them a winner of the Caldecott Medal. I've been regularly starting alfalfa sprouts this year, to supplement our salads. I've mentioned that I'm not a fan of the taste of squash, either summer or winter. But it's good for us, grows well in our garden, and is good when doctored up. I made minor changes to suit our needs and what we had on hand, but we thought all of these were good.
Cinnamon Pecan Roasted Butternut Squash
Creamy Curried Butternut Squash Lentil Soup
Creamy Vegan Tuscan Spaghetti Squash
I made suet for the birds, using dehydrated bits left from canning tomatoes and grapes. For dinner on a cold night, our garlic and veggie broth were used with chard. Mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy, and peas rounded it out. Another small corner of the house was cleaned. Little steps. I cooked way too many sweet potatoes, in anticipation of making the two pies early last week. Another pie was made on Sunday, and a sweet potato casserole for dinner, along with salad and home canned lima beans. I still have a quart of sweet potato puree, which probably just needs to be frozen. My intention was to take the Christmas tree down, but as we're still waiting on vacuum bags, that didn't happen. It's getting really fragrant, and is obviously drying out. That's always been a favorite fragrance of mine. My Mom used to gather up vintage handkerchiefs around the fir needles from her tree, and gift them to me, because I loved the scent so much. When taking them out of the Christmas boxes the next year, it always surprised me how wonderful it still was. Such sweet memories. Wishing you a week with some sweet moments.
11 comments:
Love the header photo of the clothesline!
Sounds like you are still eating well out of last year's garden. Wow, I hope to get there someday.
What a lovely memory about the pine needles. Yes, they smell like the holidays.
Enjoy the week ahead. No telling what it holds! Peace...
Thanks for your kind words on the header! It's larger than I'd like, and the blog name can't be seen well, but I suppose it's an improvement over the last wonky one. Maybe I'll figure out how to make it better. Yes, life is just full of regular surprises any more, isn't it?!
I agree with Daisy - the new photo looks great! As soon as I pulled up your blog I was oohing and ahhing over it. The fir needle sentiment is so sweet! Such a wonderful memory every time you smell that scent.
I don't know if you have a front load washing machine, but I do and have to clean it regularly or it gets gross and stinky. Honestly, although I don't look forward to the cost, I do look forward to the day the machine breaks beyond repair so I can replace it with a top load.
Your meals always sound soooo delicious!
Wishing you a wonderful week!
I don't have a front loader, and from all the comments I've seen about them, am truly thankful I don't. Mine thankfully doesn't get stinky, but it definitely needed a good cleaning.
Thank you for the heads up on the front loaders. We will be replacing our machines when we do our laundry room reno, and I think I will stick with the top loader. I think the front loaders need to be cleaned a certain way every so often and the door left open when not in use to dry the drum out.
Laurie, I have trouble with my header as well, now that I have to use a different website to create it. There is a feature on the blog layout page that says "shrink to fit", you might try using that. These things can be quite puzzling!
Daisy, that was after clicking shrink to fit! Alas, I'm not a techie kinda gal :o)
Daisy - yes, I have to keep the door of the washing machine open all of the time as well as the tray that you put the detergent in. Every effort to get the moisture to dry out!
Laurie - how are you trying to get your header to shrink? Height only? Length and height? If it's height only you'll have to crop it slightly. You can do so on the free version of picmonkey or any other photo editor you may have. If it's both height and width, you'll probably have to manually shrink the photo and then reload. That can also be done on picmonkey for free. I find I have to shrink slightly then load it and then look at it. Shrink it a bit more, load it, then look at it again. It usually takes me 3 tries to get it. I hope this helps!
I roasted a butternut squash with some onion and cabbage today. I adore roast squash (with a little oil and soy sauce) and would eat it every other day....Matt is much less of a fan.
Which Caldecott winner did you recently read, if I may ask?
That is a wonderful story about the hankies and pine needle scent. Ahhhh, so sweet. So charming. Our Christmas tree made it outside, but only to the hedge along the driveway. The birds are enjoying it for now.
Have a lovely day!
Staci, I don't have a clue, lol! I just clicked on "shrink to fit". I messed with my photo editor, but couldn't figure it out. I'll ask J, but he's the one who created that wonky last header, with the odd green and white squares off to the side. At some point, we said that'll have to do! Hopefully, we'll do better with this one :o)
I'm so glad to find new squash recipes I like. I had several already, but then had to make dietary changes, so they no longer worked. I read The Little House. Still in my pile to read is Luli and the Language of Tea. I think both may have been from your list, which I greatly appreciate your sharing :o).
I am looking for new squash recipes also. I love summer squash in a milk, egg, and cheese casserole and butternut squash with butter and cinnamon. This last week I discovered some of my health problems are because I'm lactose intolerant. It has really upset me. There are very few foods I can eat and now the list is even shorter. The upside is that I feel way better.
I will be watching you for suggestions and digging through past posts for ideas.
Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry
I had finally found several recipes that we were happy with, then both our diets changed, so pretty much all of them won't work any more. Back to the drawing board. I'm happy we found the recipes above.
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