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How I spent Saturday afternoon.

It's been a few years since I've made a bread that required more than mixing the dough, letting it rise and bake. I enjoyed the process. I've become used to making anything simple, meaning taking little time or thought. Not to say this is all that difficult, but it does take time. Waiting time. And braiding four strips of dough together.

I may make another bread, another one I need to knead. My nerves are raw from worry over the future of us all, including the rest of the world. It is not hyperbole to say this election is a worldwide threat. Pushing dough around, punching and massaging it into smoothness is one way to release tension. For awhile.

 

The first fire of the season.

I spent a pleasant afternoon and evening enjoying a warm fire and an audiobook, the audiobook in the afternoon. Mark and the cats in the evening. The snow has melted, the air is crisp and the sun is shining. Lori mentioned buying challah from a baker, making me think about making a couple of loaves. It's been years since I've done this. Maybe today, maybe chandelier cleaning. One or the other. Baking sounds more appealing right now.

I mentioned to Mark last evening that I am finally feeling as if I'm regaining some control and order in my life. Slowly but surely I am putting my life, which means my home, to rights. I told him to plan on us both doing a big dust and cobweb removal in the barn, hopefully next week. I have not taken care of the horses or the barn for four years and it shows. Mark has done a good job caring for the beasties and their stalls, but he only has time for so much. The barn looks like a haunted building.

Good Saturday to all.

What I did yesterday that did not require a ladder.

Neighbor Bill gave me a large box filled with Haralson apples a few days ago. I had phyllo left from the last galette so I decided to cut up most of the apples to freeze and made this with the rest. They make a good pie. The chandelier will be done. Really.

Let it Snow

I tried to get a decent photo of Crabby Tabby but he would not stop moving his head. So we have a Blurry Crabby Tabby. It's getting cold enough at night for him to spend some time inside the house. Of course he chooses to spend his time with CatManDo.

We are having snow, large and fluffy flakes coming down and sticking to the ground. Four inches is predicted. It won't last, but I like seeing it. Today will be soup and I think the first fire of the season. I made chicken stock a couple of days ago from the rotisserie chicken Mark had picked up. Let it snow!

I made a vegetable lasagna for last evenings dinner. It takes an afternoon to prepare lasagna. It is well worth the time. This was onion, garlic, spinach and broccoli. And cheese. Did I mention cheese? Ricotta, fresh mozzarella, gruyere, parmesan. Mark thinks anyone very thin is either vegetarian or vegan. I pointed out to him this is vegetarian and won't make you thin. I don't think it gets through to him. 🙄 

Today will be inside jobs. Anyone want to volunteer to clean my antique chandelier? It needs it and I feel, maybe, up to being on a short ladder. I bought it in 1979 in a small shop in Minneapolis. I liked it because it's beautiful, in my opinion, but understated. My father wired it for me. The chandelier has moved with me from house-to-house over the years. I'd probably hang it in a studio apartment. I have an attachment to the thing. It's never been grubby before, but it is now. I know you all needed to know this.

The news of the day. So far.

The past two days I have actually been productive outside. I got everything at the top of my list accomplished, making me a happy camper. I will see if I am able to pull on my big girl pants to face today's chill and mulch leaves. I have become such a delicate flower. It's sort of embarrassing.

Of course, it wouldn't be this & that without a food photo, specifically a photo of a bowl of pasta. All I had in me last evening was the energy for quartering tomatoes, cutting asparagus and garlic, tossing it into a pan with olive oil and butter. Pappardelle, asiago cheese and it's dinner. Pasta is so often my salvation.

                   

That's the news. Enjoy Wednesday one and all.

Cats Abound

This girl rarely gets the spotlight treatment. The reason being, she has nothing but disdain for me, therefore leaving her out of my presence. Unless Mark is in the room. He is the Holy Grail for cats, and most certainly this cat. She is part of the litter born to a stray mama in the barn, spring 2015. One of four, two boys, two girls. They are all still with us. Three of the four were in and out of the house cats, she being one of them. She also would disappear for weeks. The last time, in 2017,  she was gone for three months. We thought she was dead, but one November day she came hobbling into the yard, dragging the left front leg and very thin. Her leg from the shoulder down had no feeling or movement. I wrapped it so it wouldn't be scrapped when she walked. I figured it would need to be removed but she needed to recover weight and vitality before that would happen. In the meantime the leg contracted up under her chest and I decided to leave it be. Surgical removal of a limb can be traumatic and it no longer seemed necessary.

She is our tripod kitty, or Mark's tripod kitty. She has no trouble getting around, she can jump and run and she is not allowed out of the house. She has no interest in going outside, she seemed to know she is vulnerable. I named her Jiggs because as a kitten her coat pattern looked like a jigsaw puzzle. I'm creative like that.

Now you have met Jiggy. Onto more exciting news. It's sunny and will be moderate today. I have big plans for outside. Plans don't always materialize into action. I will try. Enjoy the day.

A Little This. A little That.

 

It's 30 F / -1 C this crisp morning. Brrrrrr. Soon we will be seeing this. I hope. We didn't get much snow last year and that's not good.

Tomorrow will be warm enough to get back to the painting outside I need to finish. Yesterday was another puttering about the house kind of day. I have three days, starting tomorrow, that will be warm enough for what I need to finish. Time is slipping away from me. 

I did succeed in making sandwich rolls and they turned out well. If I do say so myself. I'd made Italian sausage and potato soup a few days ago which the rolls will go very well with. It's definitely a soup kind of day. Tonight I'm braising country style beef ribs and I think tomorrow will be eggplant lasagna. I have several eggplant to use before they go over. I gave my son two when he visited last Sunday. This is how well he knows his mother; he asked if I grew them and seemed a bit surprised. Yes, like forever. 

Gatto is tearing through the house like he's on something. This cat is nuts. I did read that the curly tailed cats have a feral gene. I believe it. Speaking of feral.....a few days ago I was on the phone with a friend and we were speaking about the turn a certain political party wants to make on the rights of so many. We were speaking specifically about women. I said I could not be in a male dominated relationship/marriage. She said I would be a feral housewife. I got a big laugh out of that one! Don't tell anyone, but it's true.

I think I've babbled on long enough. Good day to all.

Hello Thursday

Wednesday was a mild, sunny day. Perfect for working outside. I did not work outside. Instead, I puttered around in the house, accomplishing small things needing doing but things which could wait. Minnesota has a long winter. I have months to putter. Today. Today I will go out. I will. Truly.

One of the things I did was make an apple galette, with phyllo dough instead of pastry dough. The phyllo dough has been in the freezer for too long and the apples were beginning to attract fruit flies. I'll need to come up with something for the remainder of the phyllo. I think I can do that. I do like to bake but rarely do. I'm going to try making lavender and lemon cordial with erythritol. I like cordial in sparkling water but the sugar content is really high and I need to watch my glucose level. I found several recipes using erythritol to make sugar syrup. I wasn't sure that would work but I guess it does. I'll find out.

That's life on the farm. Horses are behaving, cats are cats, hay is being delivered and Mark and I are chugging along. And....we have desert.