It is pretty early on Thursday morning.  Not even 7am yet.  The house is quiet as hubby is still asleep and the dogs have already eaten breakfast and are now taking their morning nap.  I wanted to post yesterday, but the day got away from me.  It must have been because of how nice my house feels now LOL.

I had told you on Tuesday, I would let you know how the cheesecake turned out this time.  OH MY GOODNESS!  It was fabulous!

Here is the slice I had before I devoured it.  It did taste like cheesecake.  Hubby was very happy with it also.  The only substitute I made was changing out the sour cream and using fat free greek yogurt instead.  Otherwise, I followed this recipe exactly.  If you have an instant pot of any kind, this is the dessert for you to try in it.

For dinner last night, I made carnitas in the Ninja Foodi.  It started on the pressure cooker setting then went to the sear setting and finally to the broil setting.  Total time for dinner to cook, 1 hours total from the time I dropped the meat into the machine until I plated it.

I added sour cream and homemade salsa on top of mine.  I have tried so many recipes for carnitas and have always been greatly disappointed.  This recipe was in the cookbook that came with the machine.  It was spot on!  Hubby was happy with this too.  The left overs will be reheated in a skillet and I will add eggs to it and make breakfast burritos for us.  

Today my goal is to clip my dog's toenails.  It is a struggle but needs to be done.  Their nails grow faster than mine.  I also want to boil up some eggs.  All of our stores have had them on sale lately so I have about 3 dozen in the fridge now.  There will also be a load laundry done today.

Speaking of laundry..............on Tuesday, after our A/C tech left, hubby was putting a few things away that had been borrowed by the tech. (extension cords)  While doing that, he knocked over a full gallon bottle of lemon scented Pine-Sol.  The lid popped off and spilled all over the floor in our Arizona room.  Luckily, that is the room where I keep our pool towels.  I handed him towels as he mopped up the floor.  Three towels later, he got it all mopped up.  He was angry with himself for being so clumsy.  I told him it was not a big deal and that the smell of lemons was much more pleasant than the smell of 'regular' Pine-Sol.  I threw the towels into the washer (without any detergent added) and washed them.  My washer smelled like lemons afterwards.  I left the washer door open, after they were washed, to try and air it out a bit.  The towels do not smell like lemons anymore, and as of this morning, the washing machine does not have the lemon smell either. The Arizona room still has that lemon fresh scent to it though.  LOL

Hubby just woke up so I can start getting my 'chores' done now.  

Until next time.................happy crafting & stay well.

Finally

 

All the pieces are finally in place.  Our A/C is finally working as it is supposed too.  For only being 3 years old, this has been a very frustrating time for us.  Our technician came out around noon today and he just left.  (it is 5pm)  While he was replacing the part that was giving us issues, he also found some settings that were completely wrong for our unit.  He adjusted everything and replaced anything that was needed and told us we should not have any more issues with the unit.  I can tell you this...............the humidity level in our house has already dropped from 48% to 37% in just an hours time.  The other thing I have already noticed......it is running MUCH quieter.  Just like it did when it was first installed.  I am a very happy camper now.

While all this was going on, hubby and I packaged up 15 pounds of green chili we purchased last year.  It was delivered frozen and we had not needed it until now.  Well, we are not able to use 15 pounds of green chili quickly.  So, hubby grabbed a good knife and just started slicing off 1/2 cup pieces of it and we packaged it and threw it back in the freezer.  Oh, we did take one package and made salsa with it.  This house is never without homemade salsa!  

The other thing I did today was make a cheesecake in my Ninja Foodi on the pressure cooking setting.

 

I know this looks really yellow, but it is not really that yellow.  Must have been the indoor lighting.  There had been another cheesecake made last week but it was so nasty, it got thrown away.  This one actually smells like a cheesecake.  It is now in the fridge where it needs to stay overnight.  We will give it a taste test tomorrow and I will let you know.

While all this was going on, I found something I had been looking for.  

This may be a bit hard to see.  It is my Pampered Chef dry leveler.  It fits perfectly on the Pampered Chef measuring cups to level off flour and sugar and other dry ingredients.  I have been looking for this for over a month.  My thought was it got thrown away somehow since it is clear.  Nope, it was underneath my napkin holder!  I know that thing has been moved to be cleaned under.  So, how did it manage to hide there for over a month?  I swear there are gremlins in my house sometimes LOL.

We have leftovers for dinner tonight.  I am glad as with all the mess with the A/C, I have no desire to cook.  I will make us a nice dinner tomorrow night though.  

Until next time...................happy crafting & stay well!

PS:  because our covid numbers have dropped so drastically, our county is going to go into phase 4 of opening up businesses!

WEEK 8

 

Hello!  It is that time of week again to show y'all what happened in my crafting life this past week.

Hubby's HES socks got quite a bit of love this week.  They are finally at the same point.  You can see the progress keepers on each of them.  That is where they were last Sunday.  I need to knit another 3 inches before I start the heel.  Hubs likes his socks loooong.

The cross stitch did not get any love this week.  

So, what do you work on when it is 115 outside and your A/C is not pulling the humidity out of your house?   You work on a worsted weight blanket, of course.

I added about 3.5 inches to the Havana blanket, this past week.  I have started my 6th color of yarn.

The white spot is where I was last Sunday.  It is now about 17 inches long.

I am pleased with the color layout I chose.  The colors will repeat throughout the remainder of the blanket.  My goal for this week is to complete the rest of the orange color and then add the last color and make a bit of progress on that one too.

As for our A/C....................the part needed to make it work properly (pulling the humidity out of the air) has arrived and will be installed on Tuesday!  I can not tell you how excited I am for this repair.  Our humidity level in the house is running at 50% and above.  If I wanted to live in that kind of humidity I would move to Florida or New Orleans!  I live in Arizona because I enjoy the dry weather we have.  UGH!  The past few weeks have not been much fun.  My little fan by my chair is running 90% of the time just to keep me 'dry'.

This little guy is my best friend LOL.  It is very quiet when it runs and puts out quite a nice breeze, even on the lowest speed.  I should probably give it a name.  Any suggestions?

The rest of the day I will be working on menus, grocery list for produce, making a loaf of bread and of course working on crafting.  Since we got up at 5 this morning (for church) there might be a little snooze also happening.

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

Let the Weekend Begin

 

It is Friday evening.  We have just finished our dinner of leftovers and are settling in to watch a little baseball and then the Stargate SG1 series we are still binge watching.  Stargate is almost completed and then we will watch the 2 movies that explains what happened to all the characters after all the series ended. After that..............who knows.  

Today, hubby cleaned the last half of the house.  I stayed out of his way after I moved all the items out of his way so he could just barrel through.  While he was cleaning I watched an Amazon Prime Movie called "Sweet Home Carolina".  It was very predictable and the acting was not the best but............it filled 90 minutes while he cleaned.  I also worked on his socks while watching the movie.  

Once the cleaning was done, it was time for lunch.  As soon as that was over I took Luna to meet her new Vet.  She is scheduled for a dental and mass removal on September 3rd.  Poor old girl.  Hopefully everything will go smoothly.  The Vet is pretty sure the mass is just a fatty tumor (lipoma).  I really liked the new Doctor too.  She was very informative and explained things in great detail.

I dropped Luna off at home and went to fill our water cooler bottles and on to the grocery store for a few veggies we ran out of.  While at the grocery store I found some pans I can use in my Ninja Foodi.

  

These were all at my grocery store and on sale!  The reason I got them.............the springform pan I used for the cheesecake was waaaay too big even though it fit in my Ninja, it was a very tight fit.  This way, all of these will fit without issues.  I plan on making good use of all of them.

Speaking of cheesecake.....................it was horrible.  There was NO flavor at all other than the crust.  I am now searching Pinterest for recipes using ingredients I have used before in cheesecakes I have made in the past.  

The bread I had to finish off in my Smart Oven yesterday turned out just fine.  Now I know if I want, I can just make the dough in the bread maker and then cook the bread in the smart oven.  Just another idea for me to put in my little pea brain.

Want some good news?  We only made it to 100 today!  There was a little issue with the humidity and dew point though.  When we lived in Pennsylvania we would call this type of weather 'close'.  In Kansas they called it 'thick'.  Needless to say, this was not a day you wanted to go running or hiking.

The other good news is.................the part for our A/C has arrived.  It will be installed on Tuesday and the tech installing it is the one that found out the issue.  I am so happy.  I really liked him and Luna LOVED him.  Enrique was not allowed to meet him as E can be a bit of an itch with men.

So, that is about the extent of my exciting day.  Tomorrow will be laundry day (only 2 loads) and working on my WIP's.  I will be back to blogging land on Sunday.

Until next time............................happy crafting & stay safe.

SMH

When my children grew up and left home, there were things I knew I would never miss.  One of those things is being awakened by someone being sick.  Then, we (I) decided it would be fun to have dogs.

At 11:30 last night, Luna started coughing/gagging and panting very hard.  She would get on the bed, off the bed, on the bed, off the bed etc.  She finally went to sleep about 1:30 and so did I only to have her wake me up again at 3:30 with the same antics.  I decided to get out of bed so hubby could continue to sleep.  By 5:30 she seemed to have gotten rid of what ever it was causing her issues.  I found pine needles in our bed.  (We do not own a pine tree and none of our neighbors so either!)  Hubby found a spot where she got sick and said it was pretty good sized and very yucky. We call her a goat as she eats anything.  I assume she found something outside and added it to her daily feeding regimen.  She has a scheduled vet appointment tomorrow.  I will be sure to mention this to the vet.  She is not a young dog anymore and I know with age, issues do arise.  She seems to be acting normal now.  This was her today at lunch time.

Even though we do not feed her people food, her hope springs eternal that hubby will drop something by accident.  As soon as he was done with lunch, she went and ate her breakfast food.

Functioning on 2 hours of sleep is interesting.  I have tried to stay busy up until now.  I had an appointment for my car this morning at 8.  I had to leave the house about 7:15 as the dealership is quite a ways from our home.  Being at the dealership was interesting.  They had signs up stating "If you can not maintain a 6 ft distance, you then must wear a mask".  Really?  How am I supposed to sign paperwork if I have to keep my distance from y'all.

 
I always come prepared with a mask.  I even keep about 4 or 5 in my car.  Hubby and I have been caught without masks a couple of times and have learned our lesson.  Although, I probably did not need to wear the mask while waiting.

Not a lot of people at the dealership this morning.  But I left the mask on anyways.  While I waited I read a book.

Reading has not been happening for some time now.  No reading mojo, but, when I saw this book on ThriftBooks, I knew I had to get it.  It was published this year!  I love her work and think I have read 80% of her books.  If you watched the series 'Cedar Cove' on TV, that was based on one of her series of books.  My favorite series she wrote was the Blossom Street series.  Why?  Because it was about a group of ladies drawn together by yarn and needles.  

My car has fresh oil in it and even got a bath.  By the time I got out of there, hubby had almost finished cleaning the first half of the house.  On the way home, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some fresh produce.  Once I got home, I got busy in the kitchen.

First up...............make a loaf of bread.  I found out that the beer I use in my bread needs to be FLAT before adding it to the bread machine.  Well heck!  No wonder I have had issues with some of my loaves rising properly.  Also, I was told to weigh my flour as it is a more accurate measurement than using a measuring cup.  I got everything in the bread machine and got it going. I set a timer so I could pull the paddle out before the baking cycle started.  I do not like the huge hold the paddle leaves in the bottom of the bread if it stays in.  When the timer went off, I went in to pull the paddle and accidentally hit the start/stop button.  Well crap!  I quickly grabbed one of my bread pans, greased it up and put the bread dough in it.  I then put it in my Smart Oven to rise and then baked it in there.  I will let you know tomorrow how it turned out.  It looks ok on the outside.

I had been given a recipe to make a cheesecake in the pressure cooker.  While the bread was going in the bread machine, I got busy making the cheesecake.  It only takes 35 minutes of pressure and then you quick release the pressure and put the cheesecake in the fridge for 4 hours.  I will once again let you know tomorrow how it turned out.  It looks good.  Thank goodness, I inherited my mom's spring form pans.  The only thing I changed was...........the recipe said to spray Pam on the spring form pan.  I refuse to use the stuff as it never washes off completely and ends up ruining expensive cook/bake ware.  Instead, I coated the pan with Crisco Shortening.  

Tonight, I am being lazy and making Manwich. We will put it over my homemade bread that will be toasted.  We put a bit of shredded cheese on top and eat it with a fork and knife.  Neither of us are a fan of trying to eat it in a bun.  It is way too sloppy.  Last nights Chicken Waldorf Salad was excellent!  Hubby told me to put it on the LOVE IT list.  We used cut up romaine lettuce for the base of the salad.  Very refreshing for a hot day.

I think I will kick back with my book.  There just might be a nap involved while doing that.

Until next time...................happy crafting & stay well!

 

Here we are in the middle of the week.  It is the only day this week I did not have something on my calendar.  So what do you do when you don't have any appointments scheduled for the day? 

You get into your kitchen and start going through all your cabinets and drawers and purging....again.  I do this about 2-3 times a year.  It is amazing how many things I keep holding onto thinking I will use it in the near future.  This time, I was quite critical and got rid of several cooking utensils as well as a couple of quart canning jars, a crockpot, old bread maker, rice cooker and electric skillet.  Hubby took all of it to GoodWill for me while he ran another errand.  Then I spent time straighten and rearranging drawers and cabinets to make things more user friendly.  I am sure when I clean out the kitchen at the end of the year, I will find even more things to purge.  

After the purge was done, I threw a chicken breast into the Ninja Foodi and cooked it for tonight's dinner of Chicken Waldorf salad.  That only took 8 minutes to complete.  It has been cut up and is in the fridge cooling so I can mix it all together.  When that was done I got the sink scrubbed up real good and then I threw in a load of towels into the washing machine.  They are now in the dryer.   That completes my 'to do' list for the day.

It is now time to kick back and start working on one of my WIPs.  

This has been has seen the most attention lately.  Hubby's socks.  It is still too darn hot to work on anything that needs to lay on my lap.  Hopefully, once our A/C is fixed and the house humidity level goes down, I will be able to work on my Havana blanket again.  

Last night I made Pozole for the first time ever.  It was made on the pressure cooking feature of the Ninja.  It was fantastic!  We had just enough left over for lunch today too.  That meal will be placed on our 'love it' list.  I made ours with pork.  Some people use chicken.  It only took about an hour from start to finish to make it.  That includes sauteing the onions and garlic and braising the pork a little.  That was all done in the Ninja too.  Only one pot to clean up is my idea of a perfect meal!  

Is anyone else having the urge to cast on something or even LOTS of somethings?  I am wanting to cast on another shawl.  I know, I have plenty of WIP's as it is.  It is just an urge I am trying very hard to resist.  There is cotton yarn wanting me to cast on another dishcloth too.  The temptation is strong.  I will resist..................................for now.

Did I tell you we got some rain the other night?  Yes sirree Bob!  Monday evening we got lots of wind, lightening, thunder and rain.  It was not a lot of rain but it was enough to make drop our temps a little bit for the evening.  That was the first rain of this years monsoon.  Hopefully it will not be the last.  

That is all the news from this lady.  I am off to fold towels and then will knit on the socks for a little bit.

Until next time...................happy crafting & stay well.