WEEK 35 WITH LOTS OF FOOD

 

Hey there.  Glad you came by today.  This past week was one of those whirlwind weeks.  I did manage to get a FO though.

Tarragon the Dragon got completed.  Sewing him together was the hardest part.  Making sure his limbs and wings were even was not easy for me.  He will be mailed to his new owner this week.  I still need to make a frog for her too but.....................I started on the frog this past week and do not like the way it looks.  So..................the frog got frogged.  I am looking for a knitted frog pattern instead of a crocheted one.  I did find one but now need to convince myself it is worth the price the designer is asking for it.  I know I will only make it once and it is almost the price of an entire book of patterns!  I don't mind paying for a pattern and have done so many times.  But the price of this one is almost 3 times what most patterns have cost me.  (sigh) 

As you know, hubby and I took a short (3 day) trip to Las Vegas to see his 93 year old mother.  I took some knitting with me to work on.  There is nothing to show for my trip as I only did one row on my knitting while gone.  

So, what did I do for three days?  Sunday, I drove the entire trip to Las Vegas which is 4.5 hours of drive time.  Not a really long drive, yet it still wears a person out.  Once we got there, we checked into our hotel and realized we had not eaten since early that morning.  We went in search of our favorite restaurant only to find out it was closed due to the seating restrictions.  It was a very small place to begin with and only being allowed 25% of seating made it almost impossible to have more than about 10 customers at a time in there.  We finally decided to go to the 24 hour café.  After we ate, we wandered about the casino for a while, played a few games and then went to bed.

Monday, after a lazy morning, we went to visit my MIL.  It is so hard to visit.  She can not hear us and we can not hear her.  Thankfully, one of the assistants there stays with her and does all the 'translating' back and forth.  We are only allowed 15 minutes at a time to visit too.  After we left my MIL, we went to our dear friends home for an afternoon/evening of relaxation, conversation, fun and food.  It was so nice to see our friends again.  By the time we left there and got back to the hotel, it was time for bed.

Tuesday we got up early as we had an early appointment to visit my MIL.  Each time we go to visit her, we also go to the veteran's cemetery to visit hubby's father.  The two places are only about 1/2 mile apart, which makes it quite convenient.  After our visit, we filled the car with gas and headed back to the hotel for some lunch.  After lunch we went back to our room for a little nap.  Once that had been accomplished we decided it would be fun to play some 

We played 2 sessions of bingo and did not win.  That is ok though.  We had a lot of fun playing and it was nice not to hear the noise of the slot machines going all the time.

Wednesday morning we left for home.  Once again I drove the entire trip.  Don't get me wrong, I love to drive.  Driving the new hybrid car was a dream too.  We were able to make it all the way home without needing to stop for gas.  In fact, we still have not needed to fill the car.  Love the mileage we get from this car!  It also is a very comfortable ride.  Much more comfy than the Prius was.

Thursday I did 2 loads of laundry, made the menus and grocery list.  Why is it, when all the laundry is completed before a trip, it magically fills up as soon as you get home.  We only had 3 days of clothes but still!  Anyway.............I also made a new to me dessert.

This is made in my Pampered Chef brownie pan.  You take a can of cinnamon rolls.  Press them into the little squares, making sure some of the roll comes up on the side of the square.  Add apple pie filling on top of the roll.  (I am sure you could use other pie filling)  Bake at 400 Degrees for 15-20 minutes and you are done.

Mine bubbled over a bit.  Next time I will not add as much pie filling.  I also will not cook them longer than 15 minutes as the roll part got a little hard.

Once completed, I took the cinnamon roll frosting and poured it over them.  Notice the 'fine china' I put them on for their photo shoot LOL.  We add a scoop of ice cream with these and they are delicious.  Next time, I want to try cherry pie filling or blueberry pie filling.

Friday I ran to the grocery store to get our fruits and veggies for the week.  After lunch, I took my BFF to her physical therapy appointment.  She had shoulder surgery and will be in PT for another month.  Since I could not go into the building with her, I sat in my car, in the shade with the windows down enjoying the lovely breeze and fresh air.  I love this time of year in the Arizona Desert.

Saturday I did another load of laundry.  (It is never ending, right?)  Then the plants got watered, the clock got wound and dinner went into the crockpot.  There was Mass in the late afternoon and then we were home for the rest of the night.  I mixed up my sourdough so I could bake a loaf of bread today.  There was quite a bit of time spent on Pinterest finding sourdough recipes, other than bread.  Here are a couple I found,

These looked so good.  I know I have eaten blondies before but can not remember exactly what they tasted like.  That means I need to make some to bring back that memory, right?

These cookies are going to be made today.  Hubby has had a hankerin' for cookies since we returned from our trip.  My Grandma used to make molasses cookies as did my mom.  One of my fond memories is biting into one of these cookies warm from the oven.  YUM!

There were other recipes I found on Pinterest using sourdough.  I figured, if I am going to maintain a starter, I need to start using it more often, including the discard from it.

The bread is out of the oven now.

This is made in my pullman loaf pan.  It took me quite a while to find a recipe for sourdough made in that pan.  I had a horrible time getting this to rise this morning after the overnight rise.  After over an hour, I finally just stuck it in the oven and let it rise and bake at the same time.  It worked pretty well.  It is a little shorter than normal but will taste just fine.

Funny story!!!!!  After grocery shopping, Friday, hubby put the groceries away for me.  I heard him take a deep breath and kind of made a funny noise while exhaling.  I looked and he was holding a loaf of French bread I had bought.  He looked at me and said "What is this?".  I thought he must be loosing it to ask that question.  I said "It's a loaf of French bread."  He looked all around the kitchen and then said "Why did you buy this?".  Then it dawned on me.  I have not bought a loaf of bread for 18 months!  But, because of our trip, and other obligations, I had not had time to make a loaf since we had gotten home.  I started to laugh and told him I knew we would need bread to go with our shrimp dinner that evening so bought this.  We had the bread that evening and it was the most tasteless bread I had ever eaten. (And it was fresh from their bakery!) Cardboard would have had more flavor.  Yup, we are spoiled now.  Lessoned learned.  After vacation, plan on making bread immediately!

Until Next Time.................................Happy Crafting & Stay Well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS:  Hubby and I get Covid dose #2 on Tuesday night.  We are getting the Pfizer vaccine.  Will let you know how we do with it.