"Cooked" Dinner

My stove and pots and pans getting a workout....

Yesterday I made a 'cooked dinner' as I call it.  Back at the start of our friendship, in the days when a couple are getting to know each other, hubby found my use of certain phrases amusing and this was one.  Aren't all our dinners cooked, I remember him saying with a big smile.  He is used to it now and knows this means a meal with some kind of meat, usually beef, and lots of cooked vegetables and gravy to go with it.  I took advantage of Easter sales and bought a roast of beef at a good markdown.  It worked out well as was quite tender and made a good tasting gravy.

Another thing I have my own name for is this...a biscuit I make with meat which I call a 'crust'.  It is a plain biscuit that can be placed on top of the almost cooked meat for about the last 20 minutes the meat is in the oven.  My own recipe is as follows:
Meat Crust
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
almost 1/2 cup butter or shortening
1/4 cup milk or enough to hold the mixture together. 

You just mix all dry ingredients, cut in the butter and then add the milk.  Work this dough enough so it holds together, add more flour if you need to, and then gently place on top of the meat.  You can also put it in a separate plate to bake if you want to take your meat out to rest.  I usually up the oven temperature to 400 degrees for the crust to bake. 
As you can see from my photo, mine rose and fell down the sides of the roast but that's okay, it still tasted fine.  Hubby really likes this, I think because he loves anything the word biscuit can be applied to. 

No, nothing gourmet here but it tasted good and the best part was I made enough for left-overs the next night.  Yes, a good meal, a small pleasure enjoyed together. 

Another Thing for My Idle Hands

This is a hopeful photo...I smile when I look at it because I have spent many happy hours there playing in dirt and watching tiny seeds sprout and grow.  Another way to keep my idle hands busy which means I keep my mind concentrated on happy thoughts. 
It shows my little greenhouse last fall when I did the final tidying. It has a wall of leaning windows and is attached to the side of the big barn.  As small greenhouses go, this one is fitted out nicely.  It has electricity so I can turn on lights, plug in a fan or the radio.  One wall is all shelving so there is lots of storage for all the gardening gear. It also has a laundry sink and running water which is very convenient.  

                                            Last summer... Barn with greenhouse on the right.

I have planted nothing so far.  I just put in an order for seeds which should be arriving any day.  There is still snow and ice blocking the doorway and the temperatures are only now high enough to risk plantings.  Of course with the wall of windows, the heat does gather in there so from here on in, it should be a go.  Checked my journal, and sure enough, I had started my first seeds in March month last year, so I am behind.  Perhaps Mother Nature will make amends by extending the warm weather into next fall.
April showers...after a lovely sunny day yesterday, today the whole area has a rain watch in effect with numerous flood warnings.
Hope it is high and dry where ever you are! 

Throw Your Windows Wide

It is a 'throw your windows wide' kind of day.  Bright sun and finally reaching a balmy 12 decrees C for us.  I do have one window cracked and it is letting a little of the outdoorsy scent indoors...here to mingle with the doggy aromas and leftover fire smells.  Not exactly a floral bouquet.
This is day one in the garden.  The snow has retreated enough to enable a good raking of the flower beds and I enjoyed the little bit of exercise it gave me.  I couldn't believe what I saw when I scraped away the old leaves and bits of snow; these perennials had already sent up some shoots, which had to have happened underneath a cover of snow.

Sprouts everywhere in each of the beds...I can only stare at this and marvel.
That small creek I was walking with the dogs not that long ago has broken out completely and is now racing with great force across our land.  No danger of flooding here but there are flood warnings for many parts of the region. So much of the terrain is traversed by numerous rivers and creeks all of them now widened by the melted snow and added rainfall from last Friday.  I guess each season brings with it challenges weather-wise.
The Canada geese have landed (surely this means spring is really here) and are paddling in whatever water they find; there are huge numbers of them all over as always. Yesterday I watched a skunk make its way along the ditch.  It looked thin and bedraggled; I think it must have had to stay in its den in hiding longer than usual what with the winter lingering on the way it did.  I heard on the radio that our spring is 3 to 4 weeks later than usual.  That would have had a detrimental effect on many of the woodland creatures, for sure.      

Things I Won't Think About Again

"Drag your thoughts away from your troubles...by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it."

                                                                                                         Mark Twain


The fifties are the youth of old age they say.  I guess that is why I didn't feel old at all then, in fact, I enjoyed how I felt about myself throughout that decade.   But now I'm in my sixties and I admit I feel a little different about the aging thing as I've talked about before.
As well though, I do recognize a freeing aspect to getting older...there are things I will never have to think about again...here are a few.

1. Spaghetti strap dresses. (Self-evident.)

2. High heels (same as #1)

3. Which shade blonde I am.  I used to always have highlights put in my hair. This became an issue for me during the summer months.  The sun always lightened my hair and I hated to get too light, never wanting to be a platinum blonde (not that there is anything wrong with that).

4. How wide my hips are.  I used to think my classic 'child-bearing' hips were almost too wide to get through narrow doorways.  I now think what a ridiculous notion that was and these days other than fitting them into clothes, I don't give them too much thought. 

 5. Polynomials, the table of elements and those i.q. questions about Train A leaving platform 2 at 3 p.m. and Train B leaving platform 4 at ....you know the ones I mean. I never want to think about those things again ever. 

6. Which political party is in power.  I've now seen them both over and over and the sameness about the issues that arise is disappointing.... I used to care a lot about that but no more.

7. Keeping all my clothes perfectly pressed and folded neatly in drawers.  I used to spend serious time ironing and carefully organizing everything just as if the Ironing Police or Drawer Inspectors or someone was going to come in and check out how I was doing.  Don't give that a thought anymore. 

 

Appreciating Beautiful Dresden Plate

This is one of my embroidered Dresden plate blocks I worked for what was going to be a wall hanging five or six years ago.  The pattern is called Susan's Dresden Plates from Crabapple Hill Studio.  It is really a very charming design and I loved working mine in dark pinks and light blues.  I did not use it for a hanging but sewed the blocks into two table runners which worked out well.  The orginal at the Crabapple Hill Studio site is worked in blues and the appliqued blocks are blues and yellows.  I think it is beautiful and really you could use the blocks for any number of projects. 
I am fond of this particular patchwork block...Dresden plate.  Both grandmothers and my mother have used it in their quilting projects.  It is a versatile design and there are several variations of it that can be used to suit whatever fabric you have available.  It looks good pieced in one solid colour or as a true patchwork, in many prints and colours.  Of course, it is a great way to use up leftover fabric scraps as well. 
What a wonderful idea to incorporate embroidery with the Dresden design.  At a local quilt show several years ago, I saw this very design used in a full double quilt.  It was presented to a young couple as their wedding gift from an aunt and was just spectacular.  It was the most oohhed and ahhed over quilt at the show and for several reasons.  The embroiderer had used creams, pale pinks and yellows, a very pleasing palette and it had been professionally quilted with the most amazing ferns and flower designs in the border.  I spent a long time looking at this quilt, taking in just how wonderful all the stitching was and generally totally in awe of its beauty.  I also had a real appreciation of all the work that had gone into it; that's something I think only other stitchers can really understand. 

Sneaky Household Habits

"The best time to plan my next book is while I'm doing the dishes."

                                                                                                    Agatha Christie


When I was young, the best compliment my mother could get in life was that her floors were so clean you could eat off them. Cleanliness was literally considered next to Godliness so I think most women of my mother's generation took their housework seriously. They even had their chores mapped out and aligned to which day of the week each had to be done.  And as my grandmother would say, it grieved them if they couldn't get it done then for whatever reason.  
I don't hold quite the same view about it all.  In fact, I always try to do my housework in a sly, sneaky way.  I don't really want to spend much time at it because I hold the view that I have better things to do with my time.  That may or may not be true, especially these days.
During my long weekly phone calls home, I usually dust the whole house.  Once I tried mopping the floor but it winded me too much and my mother thought something was wrong with me.  While I wait for coffee to brew or a kettle to boil, I ajax the kitchen sink or tidy the spice bottles.  If I am dressed and ready to leave (there's my punctuality thing kicking in) and hubby is not, I will give the kitchen backsplash an extra spritz and wipe or sweep the garage mat or tidy the recyclables.  I will only reorganize my cupboards if there is a good program on the radio that I can listen to while I go about it.
The really (and only) great thing about the lengthy commercial breaks on t.v. these days is how much can be accomplished during that time.  I can do my repetitions with my weights, goldfish can be fed, bookshelf tidied, windows shined, mats shaken out the front door, a load of laundry folded, or the linen closet sorted.  Then maybe the show is back on.
There are the occasional times when I will get a momentum going and do a complete clean through the whole house room by room; however this is more to do with company coming than strictly for cleanliness reasons these days.
On Pinterest I've read those lists telling you how to organize household chores efficiently; I was especially interested in the ones that showed how to keep your house clean in just 15 minutes a day.  I realized I was more or less already doing it just like they suggested.
And by the way, I certainly don't think doing housework is beneath me or any such thing.  In fact, hubby had a regular cleaning lady when I first moved in and it was my decision to let her go.  I figure as long as I am able to keep the house clean, I should do it.  It is yet another way to keep the body moving, albeit sneakily.   
   

Growing Shawl and Spring...Better Late Than Never

This day dawned wet and windy.  It has been alternating between a drizzle and a downpour with everything looking dark and bleak; one of those days when you need all the lights turned on to cheer yourself a bit. The wetter weather began yesterday and I can see that the snow has taken quite a cutting.  My little creek is not walkable today just like that; scores of Canada geese have been flying overhead and my count of new birds at the feeders continues to climb.  The red-winged blackbirds have been visiting for several days and have been joined by a small flock of American goldfinches.  I now count about seven robins stalking the bits of exposed grass I guess eager for a worm or two.  Lots of mourning doves around too. Yes, definite signs of spring....better late than never!
I wanted to update you about the latest shawl I am still knitting.  The photo doesn't show quite how long it is but it is getting there.  I bought one more ball of the wool using my 50% off coupon at Michael's and I am thinking that might be enough.  While knitting last night I watched House of Cards and Call the Midwife, two albeit very different shows but ones we enjoy very much.   I always have a tear or two watching Call the Midwife, some of the story lines are very touching.  And House of Cards is interesting on so many levels; I find the husband/wife relationship particularly fascinating.  American politics is never boring that's for sure, both in fiction and reality.