Soup, muffins and dumpster finds

 I've been wanting to make carrot cashew soup for a while, and had some misfits carrots already prepped and in the freezer for that purpose.  Then I found that the can of cashews was not as full as I thought, so I added in a handful of yellow split peas, so as to keep the golden color.  

Cooking down the onions here, and a rind of Parmesan cheese, always a terrific flavor addition to soup.  If it doesn't dissolve, you can fish it out, rinse and reuse later.  I keep them in the freezer.  This one ended up dissolving.  And there was a little container of chicken flavored liquid in the freezer, which I added.

 Beautiful color, and here with Thai basil as a garnish, also a flavoring, this is all it takes to flavor soup with it.  And since the split peas thickened the soup a lot, it can be thinned with milk if I feel like doing it. Half a dozen helpings in this pot of soup.

Then, last evening I realized, shock, horror, all the banana bread, and the cornbread, was gone.  The bakery larder was bare!  so I made a batch of misfits blueberry hot biscuits. 

A slight hitch when I realized that until my misfits olive oil, a lovely Greek choice this time, arrives tomorrow, I didn't have enough for the recipe. It takes five tablespoons, the way I do it.  Sooooo, I used the one remaining Tb and used melted butter and a spoonful of plain wholemilk yogurt for the rest of the liquid.  

I needed to bake it a couple of minutes beyond the usual 10 minutes at 425f, and it was really great.  Very light, but holds together enough to pick it up and eat it.  I may do this again. Usually you're careful about subbing in baking, chemistry more delicate than in cooking, but here it worked just fine. They look a little eerie, because of the blue color showing through, but they taste just fiiiiine.

Then, at the dumpster yesterday, a find.  First in ages, since dumpsters around here don't yield much in recent years.  Different population, don't shed things as lightly as previous residents.

And here it is, seen from outside, weighs a ton, some blond wood, very nice looking, pretty new, and I thought it would get a couple of plants up off the floor, always a good thing.  Makes the area look more finished, too.

So that was a Good Dumpster Dive. I know since the winnowing I vowed not to add things in, but in my own defense, I have been moving things out all along, so there's that.

And then, you know how I've been doing that long long arduous project on the spun, plied, knitted, woven vest?  Took months.  And the Robe likewise.  Here's another long arduous project, mainly one about procrastination.  This is one of my favorite thriftie buys, a linen vest, lovely greyish and white stripes, fits a treat.  And that middle button came off several months ago.

This morning, after taking care not to lose the button all this time, it's a special one I can't replace, spending more energy not losing it than dealing with it, I finally got it stitched on.  See, it's the second one down in the picture.

Really, it took literally less than two minutes, including finding needle, thread, and scissors.  So this deserves some sort of Procrastinators' Award.  I repaired two pairs of knitted slippers this week, too, wearing one pair right now. So I guess that was the dress rehearsal for Stitching On The Button.

Hold the applause, please, oh, you are holding it already? Oh well, then.