Biblical proportions, pita and Henrietta

 I was reading online while watching Northern Exposure, and just as I read the phrase "biblical proportions", one of the Northern Exposure characters said it. As if he was reading over my shoulder. Cue eerie music..

This is not cooking, it's the prep for making a gallon of laundry soap, castile soap for grating, borax, washing soda, to be dissolved together then diluted with hot water. Done.

This is cooking. Prep for Turkish pita bread from the Bread and Salt blog.

Here's the dough, risen and ready to be formed. I tried a way of rising it which worked fine. On top of the toaster oven set at low, about an hour, great rising, at least double its size.

 

I made it into a log, used the bench scraper to cut into pieces, rolled each out, about ten minutes in a hot oven

And here's the whole lot, most now in the freezer

Except this one, stuffed with spinach and crumbled parmesan, great supper

 

I'm really pleased with this addition to the bread repertoire. 

And here's what I'm reading for an online book club, very readable, and I keep being outraged over the treatment of minorities even though I knew some of this. Well worth reading, I feel it's a moral imperative for an old white lady to read and digest this.

 

My neighbor's husband is home from India, and A.  brought back the container from the Valentine cookies, refilled with Indian treats. 

She never returns a container empty, very classy.  So I lived another lovely day.

Buddha in blue jeans, laundry soap, cold cases and and stitching

I planned to do laundry yesterday, found I was out of detergent, thought, no problem I'll just make a new batch. Then I checked the recipe and found, not so fast, it has to sit for 24 hours. New plan, yesterday I made a gallon of laundry stuff, today I'll do laundry. Upcycled handy container.

I've blogged about this before. Much cheaper than buying detergent, and it has the added advantage that you know what's in it, because you put it there. Grated castile soap, washing soda, borax, water. It works just as well as the fancy stuff. To get the proportions, you'll find several prairie ladies on YouTube, looking a lot more glamorous than you'd expect, with their recipes. 

The other good part about making this recipe is that it leaves the pots and grater cleaner than they were before you used them.

Back in the studio, well, the sofa,  really, I did some stitching,

while listening to another Martin Walker about the Perigord police chief who's a great cook, horse rider and tennis player, interested in the history and culture of his region.  This one involves prehistoric research techniques and a cold case.

I find that unless I'm working on something, my attention wanders from listening and I miss a lot of the action. Or I imagine I can listen and check email, same result. 

This morning I remembered a little ebook I have on my Kindle, and thought if you don't know about it, you might like to.

And here's a sample page

It's very brief, kind and I find it useful. Just a thought.

And here's a salute to the Canadian black bear

I watched the video, politest bear, he just strolls around checking the shelves, no pulling stuff out, until he selects one pack of gummy bears and leaves. 

It seems so appropriate, and I wonder if he'd promised the kids, like a human Dad bringing jelly babies home. 

Happy day everyone, knitting group later today, so I'll take along the current sock.

Everything everywhere all at once, wheee!

Yesterday was a perfect sitting outside and reading day. Warm enough, but no mosquitoes yet. 

I was reading Lucy Worsley's Agatha Christie bio, and noting changes of the dove guard, and sleeping until the sound of happy kids climbing trees woke me.

I'd made a gallon of lemon scented laundry detergent earlier

The original recipe was for five gallons, so one gallon was very cheap to make. I'll report back on how effective it is.

And knitting, spinning and weaving are plunging on

And, in case you think I've forgotten how to sew, here I am this morning, feeling good and rockin' my handsewn jacket I made from fabric woven by Joanne. 

Outside, the potatoes are coming through, white and red, and I forget which is which.

And Mrs Dove is still at work. 

If my math is right, we should see hatching by later this week. 

Meanwhile, do you fancy a Haggard Hawks puzzle?

Happy day everyone I'm making All The Things, so you don't have to.