Lasagna ftw

 Today I had lasagna on the to-do list. I find that what I enter on the calendar gets done.

This was a first for me, using the oven-ready pasta. Usually I've done the cook first noodles. This was a whole lot easier. And I used the recipe on the box because those things are tested to the limit of failsafe, since they're putting it on their brand, taking no chances.

Canadian blogistas will like this 

I adapted a bit, using diced tomatoes instead of spag sauce, but I did have all the cheeses.

Ready to bake

Baked and smelling very good 

Cook's privilege, first taste, just to be sure. The other seven helpings are wrapped in parchment paper, foil and plastic bag, in the freezer.

It was very good and much simpler than some recipes I've seen. I guess you can be as fancy as you like. 

That's it for cooking ahead. Now there are in the freezer, everything in single servings, two kinds of soup, two crustless spinach quiches, and the lasagna. I think we'll manage. 

I also think I'll take the rest of the day off. A couple of days ago I may have overdone it, as I found when I poured a cup of tea as I sat on the sofa. I drank half and fell asleep holding the cup. Woke up a bit damp.

Happy day everyone, remember sleep first, tea after, works best.

Ted sez.

Rehearsing, repairing and revisiting

 I seem to be in dress rehearsal mode at the moment. Practicing dressing using a dressing stick and a grabber, practicing showering using the slide bench, practicing getting in and out of bed protecting the soon to be repaired hip, Helen Mark Two, practicing using the walker and checking how to navigate the bathroom with it, checking my cup will fit in the walker tray. 

There's also the exercises from my PT. Heel slides, toe taps, side moves, balancing one leg, bridges using resistance, leg extension, hip flexor stretches, sit to stand then overhead holding 5lb dumbbell, windshield wipers, knee side stretches with resistance band.  He and I are determined my strength will help recovery. 

This is all about managing anxiety, as astute blogistas will have noted. 

And I finally got to do a sock darn, before I started my new crochet.

I used my spectacle case as a darning tool, because the shape is right for the heel. A scrap of contrasting yarn, and I was set.

Two socks in waiting, but I thought I'd do one 

Here's the finished outside and 

 

the finished inside, soft and comfortable. It's partly crocheted, picking up live stitches, partly darned, weaving across the hole and the surrounding thin area.

Then I made the starting chain for the summer top I'm making from several leftover cotton threads in various summery colors. I'm starting with a pale green.

The whiskers you see are scraps of thread acting as stitchmarkers, since I don't have any locking markers. I inserted one every ten chains, to save a lot of counting as I chained the base of the piece. They can stay in place as a guide while the piece grows.

I'm doing a half-double stitch here, new to me and I think it's going to make a nice fabric, less transparent than double and less warm than single. A Goldilocks choice. At least that's the plan. It's a bit wobbly, learning as I go, but it will block out fine at the end. That's my story, anyway.

Happy day everyone, rainy and cold here, Helen complaining a bit. I finished the tofu sticks and tomorrow I embark on the veggie lasagna. 

Mme Ramotswe is my reading companion just now, too. 

Textiles and Tea, youth art

Friday is a rich day this week. First I caught up with Textiles and Tea, with Veronica Perez, which I missed on Tuesday, what with one thing and another.

She's a sculptor working in the medium of braided hair, nowadays plant based, from abaca fiber, eco-friendly. She's of the Puerto Rican diaspora, interested in the significance of hair in marginalized communities including her own LatinX (I'm using her term here).

Her pieces are huge, dealing with big ideas of time, oppression, at the same time of comfort and acceptance. 

In her large wall pieces she incorporates audio of the teams helping braid the hair used in the piece. They talk about their own experience of acceptance and rejection based on hair type and styles, and the viewer has to get close to the piece to experience the sound. It's personal and inclusive.

She's been a social worker too and all her experience there folds into how she works with the braiding workshop people and respects their stories. They're compensated for their time, though some decline payment.

Anyway here's a few of these amazing works 

This one is silk tubes stuffed with hair, to make a kind of close-up effect 

Here's a braiding workshop in session 

She loves to use her hands as the main tools 

This is about the hidden past flowing into present and future, emphasis on future.

Here's a large piece, the detail showing the opening to hear the sound 

 

This, sugar arms, is about the historic connection of Puerto Rico and Portland Maine, where she works.  It's ephemeral, the sugar being dissolved in minutes with the incoming tide, leaving only the hair core behind. They're not gone, only transformed.

This is another sugar piece about being trapped, dissolved and gone.

She's fine with months of work lasting so briefly, with only a video to see now.  It's a wonderful piece, saying so much about the sugar trade and what it did, and does, to people.  And how their stories live on when their bodies are gone.

Hair is a big thought, so much emotion and judgment around it, particularly around the dark hair of indigenous and Black and Brown people.

I may write more about this, but today's so full already.

Then, the cleaners being here this morning, great, a clean house to come home to, particularly after Bionic Helen, I am officially in the library where there's this 

There's a section for younger students, too, like these terrific entries, above.

Happy day everyone. Home to crunchy tofu sticks and a roughy for lunch. Coda to the tofu story: I'm home and reheated tofu sticks by toasting them, worked fine, lovely and crunchy. 

Today's sand in the gears: I entered a comment at Homeland Security docket objecting to the proposed Alien Registration regulation, clearly  designed to trap.  

Either the immigrant registers, putting their identity there, high risk to them and family, or they don't, now risking additional charges in support of deportation if they're picked up. 

This is the last day to comment. DHS docket USCIS-2025-0004. Include 1615 NEW in the body of the comment or it won't be valid.

I hope your day's as rich as mine.

Misfits, smoothies, surprise and kind offers

Today is Misfits day, this time Ronald has the honors, and the morning shift.

Neighbor contractor Mike who designed the risers for my sofa saw the pink truck arrive and carried in the box for me.

I got a refund on the eggs because two arrived cracked, very unusual. The other ten are fine but eggs count as a unit so Misfits takes  the loss on the dozen.

Sugar because I use sugar, and this is organic and fair trade, or I suppose as fair as you can get in the sugar trade. Nice pack of hake, affordable white fish which will make fish cakes and whatever else I think of, maybe just battered and fried.  Spinach which will make an appearance below, along with berries and a couple of these apples.

You'll notice other things happening in the background on the stove too. That's because I finally got around to making the crunchy tofu sticks. So easy and I really enjoy them. 

I make a dozen sticks from one container of extra firm tofu. Simple batter, panko, fry in avocado oil, dipping sauce made of ketchup, soy sauce and a dash of oil. Done. Today's lunch was roast chicken chunks with tofu sticks.

I forgot a picture of mine, but they're pretty much like these

This also gives you the reference to find the recipe on YouTube.

And I found a smoothie idea on Shug's blog, thank you, Ivy,  which I tried with the ingredients I have, not much resemblance to the original. I don't like the name smoothie, a bit twee, but I do like the results, and definitely appreciate the reminder.

Gala apples, blueberries, spinach, milk, honey, blended 

Here's two instant breakfasts or something. It's a nice mix, not all smooth, more of a roughy, but good anyway.

Today was not all food. I made it to the mailbox and met a couple of neighbors on the way, who both offered help in the next little while, so nice. 

Then there was actual mail in the box, a beautiful pop-up from C, thank you so much. 

I've been playing with it. Local birds there, too. It's a great lift to my spirits on a grey cold day. 

Good day, and I'm recovering from yesterday's excitement. My shoulders definitely feel the results of lying for long periods on my back, arms stretched above my head.  But there's worse stuff around us,  not much to complain about really. 

Happy day everyone. I may need to wait a day to crochet, to give the shoulders a rest, but that's fine. I'm planning the stitch pattern, simple, the size, small, figuring out the hook and number of chains to start. For once I'm thinking ahead, amazingly.

And in more direct resistance,  I wrote an email to one of those treacherous Dems who voted for the SAVE act, which will disenfranchise millions, Jared Golden, of Maine. 

The others close their contacts to anyone outside their district.  If you're in the districts of Ed Case, Hawaii, Henry Cuellar, Texas, or Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Washington State, please give them your thoughts. Firmly.