What's for Dinner?

 Hey There and Good Morning!

I should be doing my Thursday financial reports that I run EVERY Thursday, but I don't feel like it - later I guess.  Never got around to walking or doing archery yesterday.  I ran out before lunch to get carrots and pick up a library book.  It was cold and raw.  So after lunch I napped.  When I got up it was GORGEOUS outside.  Too late to run to a park to walk and Tyg was outside, so I couldn't do archery.  Oh well.  Maybe today.  I needed the carrots because I was making the chicken pot pie recipe that Bonny posted the other week - it is delicious by the way.

For now I seem to be turning Thursdays into cooking or food days on my blog.  Tonight's dinner is hot & sweet Italian sausage that Fletch will grill.  He will grill plenty extra so there will be some for left overs and also some to freeze for another day when I feel like making spaghetti sauce.  Yum.  I will saute some peppers, onions and mushrooms to go with the sausages and will most likely pick up some crusty bread or rolls to go with it all.  None of this encompasses recipes I will share.  

But, we had two new salads this week that turned out pretty good.  With the warmer weather, I've been in the mood for cool sides or summer food as it were.  A few nights ago Fletch grilled some steaks for us.  The salad I made was this:

Tomato-Avocado-Cucumber-Onion Salad

 

1 Cuke – peeled, seeded and cut into chunks

~ 6 Compari tomatoes chopped

1 avocado chopped

Some onion sliced very, very thin

1 jalapeno minced

Chopped cilantro

Dressing:

1 TBS Canola oil

1 lime juiced

¼ tsp chili powder

Generous pinch of sugar

Salt & Pepper

Pour the dressing over the chopped veggies, toss to mix.  Serve cold or at room temp

It was pretty tasty.  There was some left over, but when I looked at it for lunch the other day it looked pretty runny and I'm guessing the avocado did not do well.  I'll look today and see if any can be salvaged or if it should all be tossed.  We had some home made corn muffins to round out the meal.

Another night I cooked fish (fried blue fish for Fletch - I can't stand blue fish...for myself I baked a piece of cod that I had covered in salsa verde and lemon slices - very good!!).  We had some steamed new potatoes and this salad:

Carrot Salad

1 lb carrots shredded or julienned (I shredded in my mini processor)

3-4 dates chopped

¼ Cup pistachios

Chopped cilantro & mint

Dressing:

2 TBS EVOO

2 TBS Fresh lemon juice

1 TBS Tahini

1 TBS Honey

1 Clove garlic minced

¼ tsp cumin

¼ tsp salt

This was so good!  Very tasty - loved the pistachios and dates in it and some great flavors in the dressing.

For some time now (a few years anyway) I've tried to make a new recipe at least once a week.  Between the pie for Easter and these two salads, this has been a good experiment week!

Not sure what today will be like.  I would love to take a walk, but I need to run the financial reports first.  Also, I did not sleep well - Tyg was on the roof (again) meowing around 1:45 a.m.  I let him in (the back door, downstairs), and did not get back to sleep until after 4 (what's new?).  Then Tyg was meowing in the bedroom at 5 a.m. to go back out.  I let him out and then slept till 6.  I'm guessing I may nap again today, but we shall see.  Sometimes I get a second wind!

Hope you all are doing well!

Unraveled Wednesday 4/7/21

 Good Morning!

How are you doing mid-week?  Yesterday was such a great day for me.  Another day with a little bit of everything.  A little (very little) work, a little stitching, a little knitting, a walk, some archery, cooking.  All good!

On the archery side of things I managed two sessions yesterday - one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  I will admit to not always hitting the target (more often than not I over shoot or go off to one side...and when I'm tired my shots are short.  However, occasionally when I do hit the target I get a really good shot:

Bullseye!!

My walk was nice, but abbreviated.  The wind was pretty brisk and was bothering my ears.  I walked alongside the canal and again, no blue heron sightings.  I did, however, see plenty of sunbathing going on.

Not too many people on the trail either which was nice...a couple of folks walking and a few on bikes.  That was it.

The Beekeeper sock is progressing nicely.  Last night while Fletch read after dinner, I started the heel flap.

I'm not sure why this colorway is called Beekeeper, but I am liking the patterning in the yarn and it's a pleasure to knit with it.

We watched the 2nd episode of Ken Burns' "Hemingway" and enjoyed that.  I only caught the first hour.

No book finishes this week.  I'm back to reading one of the mysteries in a series I'm enjoying.  Certainly not great literature, but entertaining and I'm liking it.  A few more books came in at the library which I have picked up, so perhaps I'll have more to report next week.

I told Fletch I would try to walk this morning before lunch for a change, but the sky is looking rather gray and I think there might be a chance of rain.  I'll check weather.  If not, there is always stitching, knitting and reading to keep me busy.  Hopefully work will remain quiet!

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 Good Morning!

The sun is out and the sky is blue.  I slept a bit later than usual...Tyg was out all night and therefore wasn't meowing to go out at 4 or 5 a.m.  And I slept well!  Halleluiah!!  Did anyone else watch the Ken Burns special on Hemingway that started on PBS last night (on for 3 consecutive nights...2 hours each night)?  We watched and thought it was well done (as all of Ken Burns' productions seem to be).

Before we get into TNT (Tiny Needle Tuesday), what with April being Poetry Month, I wanted to mention that my friend Leslie just had another poem published!  It is here: ohenry magazine and if you scroll down to Poet's Corner, her poem is "Industrial Fabric."  So happy for her and proud of her!

Now on to our standing Tuesday date with my stitching.  It is moving ever closer to the finish!  There is still much to stitch...some more creatures and more letters, a leaf and a mushroom!! (or maybe it is a toadstool).  Here is an overview:

This past week I stitched a moose, a second rabbit, a second fox and a couple of letters (R & W).  Here are close ups of the new critters:

I know I say this every week, but I do love the way this is coming together.  Also, I was so curious about whether or not the motifs at the bottom would match up that one day I basted from the bottom of the motif on the left over to the one at the right corner and YAY - they meet up perfectly!  No need for me to fudge anything.

Still to be determined is the color I will use for my own 3 initials and I will also add 2021 somewhere.  Any suggestions?  I want the letters to not be the same green as the other letters...I could use another color from the sampler or use a completely new color that is not currently in the sampler.  I'm mulling over ideas, but if you have thoughts please let me know.

Such a beautiful looking day - I'm hoping to get out for a walk and maybe do some archery.  I did go to the office yesterday so that is not on today's docket.

Here's hoping your Tuesday is sunny and pleasant - enjoy!!

Weekending

 Good Morning!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and, for those who celebrate, a Happy Easter.  My weekend was what I could call perfect.  A little bit of everything!  Knitting, Stitching, Reading, Archery, Napping, Cooking.  It was all wonderful and the weather was pretty nice too.

As noted, I was able to do a bit of Archery.  I think this was Saturday afternoon if I remember correctly.

Our poor target withstood the winter, but the colors are done and it is in a bit of a bad shape.  But...it works!  The above represents the best of the lot that I shot.

We were going to Colin & Mailing's for dinner on Sunday and I was making desserts.  I did finally find the unsweetened coconut at Kimberton Whole Foods, so I made the Lemon Macaroon Pie to take.

It turned out well and is one I will definitely make again - it was like a cross between lemon meringue and coconut custard pie.  So good!  I also made a batch of brownies to take.

Mailing's sister, Anna, was there with the dog she just adopted 3 weeks ago.  Marcel and Talbot were NOT happy!!  But Otto is so well behaved.  He is 2 years old.

He is some kind of a mix (with a tongue that is always hanging out - lol).  Anna just taught him to "sit" in the last week.

Dinner was delicious.  It was nice enough that we decided to eat outside.

There was a lot of food:  Falafel, Tabouli, Hummus, Baba Ghanoush, Muhammara (a red pepper dip with pomegranate seeds that I had never had - DELICIOUS!!) and pita bread.

After dinner but before dessert we decided to take Otto for a walk and move a bit ourselves.  We walked in Whites Road Park which is just down the street from where Colin & Mailing live.  There were a few others in the park, but it definitely was not crowded.  There is a bit of work being done in the park - lots of trees have been planted and they are building a new playground.  We noticed a number of "shelters" that someone had constructed.

So fun!  When we got back to the house it was beginning to cool down, so we had dessert inside.  All in all, a wonderful, relaxing day with family.

Today I'm debating whether to go to the office or not.  I have a bunch of printing to do and a conference call at 10, so I thought I would go...but...I did not sleep well last night and I'm thinking I may stay home.  Still to be fully decided!  Nice to have the option either way.

Hope your Monday is the start of a great week - enjoy!

What's For Dinner

 Hello to you all on this rainy Thursday!  Kind of gloomy out there but not too chilly which is nice.  I think tomorrow will be cooler though.  Happy that this Thursday is my Friday.  Tomorrow, Good Friday, is a holiday for me.  Though, my company calls it "Spring Observance" so that they are politically correct (which I find so tiresome I will admit...).

Anyway, on to a blog post.  The other day Bonny posted some recipes that are standards in her house and it was fun to get some new ideas (Goop!!) and several of us thought it would be fun to share recipes on our blogs.  So...that's what I'm going to do periodically.  

I do love to cook - especially when I have the time which has been afforded to me this year working from home.  I'm able to often make dishes during the week that in pre-pandemic times were limited to weekends due to cooking time, prep time, etc.  Almost always I cook more than enough for one meal.  I tend to freeze stuff to make some nights easy and also Fletch loves leftovers for lunches.

Tonight's dinner is one that I used to make on weekends.  My Dad loved this dish.  It comes from a Virginia cookbook and is simply called "Chicken Casserole Supreme."  Here's what you do:

Grease a casserole dish

Break up dried beef and place in bottom of casserole

Put chicken on top (I use boneless/skinless chicken breasts, but thighs would work well too)

Cut up a bunch of mushrooms and add them to the casserole.

Sprinkle with pepper (no salt needed due to the dried beef)

Mix a can of cream of mushroom soup with 1 Cup of sour cream and pour over the chicken.

Cover and bake at 275 for about 3 hours.

The original recipe calls for canned button mushrooms, but we prefer to use fresh.  The original recipe also calls for wrapping a slice of bacon around each chicken piece.  Now...I LOVE bacon and use it ALL the time, but we found that it just did not get cooked to our liking in this dish, so we don't use it.

I usually make rice to go with this, but we have some left over couscous from the other night, so I'll just warm that up.  Some steamed veggies (probably broccoli and cauliflower) will round out the meal.  It doesn't take long to put this dish together and you don't need to do anything to it while it's cooking - I like that it cooks for so long at a low temperature - a perfect opportunity for some reading or knitting!

If you make this dish, I hope you enjoy!!

Unraveled Wednesday 3/31/21

 Good Morning and Good Bye to March!

It doesn't seem possible that today is the last day in March and we are a quarter of the way through 2021 already!

Our first vaccination shots went off without a hitch yesterday.  After all my complaining about what a cluster Southeastern PA is/was in reference to scheduling shots, I have to give them an A+ for how things are being run.  We arrived early - like 45 minutes early!  Fletch was all set to wait in the car, but I said I was going up, so he tagged along.  The two police at the entrance told us as long as were scheduled that day, we could go in.  As soon as we walked in there was a guy with an I-pad who took our names and had us verify our birthdates.  Then we got in line which looked like airport security.  There were two lines and they moved right along.  We got our shots, waited the 15 minutes and were on our way home before our scheduled times!  It was great.  So far no reactions for me.  Every once in awhile my arm feels heavy - not sore - just heavy and that's it.  Last night Fletch said his arm was a little sore.  He is still asleep, but I'll find out later how he feels this morning.  Our second dose is set for April 20th.

This Unraveled Wednesday finds me with a new start.  I posted about the finish of my Northern Lights Socks on Monday.  My new start is:

A side note:  My new "Attempted Murder" mug arrived!!  Love it.

The new start is my Beekeeper Socks.  The yarn is from KnitPicks - their Static line and the colorway is Beekeeper.  These will be for Colin since he wants to raise bees.  The pattern is very vanilla-like.  It is just a 2x2 rib for the cuff and then the leg is knit 6, purl 2 around.  This is what I did when I knit Fletcher's Barn Owl socks and he says they are so comfortable and feel great.  Hopefully Colin will feel the same.

On the reading front, I did finish "Clock Dance" by Anne Tyler.  It was ok.  The first half of the book was definitely better than the second half and, like so many of Tyler's books, I find the characters engaged in activities that just don't seem plausible to me.  I also realize that her characters (to me) seem the same from book to book.  I am now reading Gone to Dust which I believe is a mystery Bonny read and recommended.  It is a quick read and I'm enjoying it...will most likely look for another in the series.  Fletch and I are still plowing our way through "Decline and Fall" by Evelyn Waugh which at times is just plain silly.

As usual, I'm linking up with Kat for Unraveled Wednesday.  If you head over there you will find inspiration from others in the making and reading departments.  Have a wonderful day!

Tiny Needle Tuesday March 30, 2021

 Good Morning!

Back to the chilliness this a.m. - 28 degrees which is a bit of a rude awakening after the warmer weather we had last week.

Yesterday ended up being different than I expected.  My boss Bill called shortly after I hit publish for my blog post and it turned out that I ended up going in to the office for a bit.  No big deal...it is only 12 miles away and the drive is a pretty one wandering through Valley Forge Park.  Plus, as I told Fletch, it gives me a chance to check on the hawks.  Sadly I didn't see any hawks, but the sticks are still on top of the light fixture.  No one sitting on them, so no eggs yet.  It was a quick trip in and out - I got to the office at 9 and left before 10:30, so not bad.  I still managed to get the bathrooms cleaned and do some laundry.  Now I need to find new bath rugs for the downstairs bathroom as the toilet bowl cleaner leaked onto the rugs and left a trail bleached out.  LOL

Here we are at another Tiny Needle Tuesday and I'm happy with the progress I made this past week.  I stitched 3 more letters (G, S and H) and...drumroll...stitched the second fir tree!  I love the look of those trees, but geeze, what a PITA to stitch.  LOL

And here is a close up of that fir tree clump:

I think next up will be another creature or two.  Time will tell.  I also need/want to finish the bottom border (fingers still crossed that it will meet up the way it should).

Today is our first vaccination appointment.  Hoping it is not crowded and goes smoothly and quickly.  Fletch has an eye doctor appointment this afternoon, so we will be rushing back home so that he can get to that.  I hope to knit/stitch/read this afternoon...oh, and I guess I will check work email - hahaha.  I am also in search of unsweetened coconut.  All I can find at our grocery stores is the sweetened kind.  I found a new recipe I want to try for Easter:  a Lemon Macaroon Pie!  I may head over to a "natural foods" store later today to see if they have the coconut I need.

Hope your week is going well.  See you tomorrow for Unraveled Wednesday!