Small annoying stuff fixed and cake

I tried a new experimental cake based on the one Dolly's character in Steel Magnolias made. It seems to be going around, in honor of Dolly.

It's one cup self raising flour, one cup sugar, one can fruit cocktail. I had to adapt to what I have. So mine was whole-wheat plus baking powder and salt, sugar, 

dried cranberries, fresh apple dice, yogurt, milk, walnuts and lemon zest. I don't have a pie pan of the kind they want, so I used my all-purpose loaf pan.

Despite all this, it came out quite well. It went well with a cup of coffee for breakfast.

The lemon zest was a big part of why I like it. It's certainly sturdy, not having the texture you'd get with eggs and butter, but fine. 

I froze some for the next time Handsome Son comes over, and see what he thinks. He liked a similar apple cake I made a while ago. Here's to you, Dolly, anyway the part you played.

Speaking of experiments, in the interest of full disclosure, I have to describe a total boneheaded fail.

It's the apple cider vinegar. Weeks of saving and fermenting apple cores, stirring daily until they started to smell vinegary. Finally the day came to drain and preserve the liquid for more fermenting while discarding the apple debris.

So, completely absentmindedly I drained the jar into a sieve. And let the liquid drain away while the apple debris stayed safely in the sieve. Arghghgh. A moment's distraction was all it took. I may try it again when I get over my mad.

And other things I was annoyed about. First I hadn't got on with the embroidered jeans. So I finished it with outlines of the front pockets, whipped through the over stitching.

Done but not overdone.

Then I finished a second section of the weaving. This yarn does not like weaving. It's cotton,  braided rather than plied, so it has more tensile movement, springs off the loom, doesn't pack down. 

I'd forgotten this, but now realize it's why I couldn't keep the even tension when I tried the long warp. There was plenty of tension in the weaver, though. 

It's a great yarn for knitting or crochet, and it made a nice triangle scarf, which I'm pleased with.

I'll make a third woven panel then join them to make the kitchen mat, and move on. 

Meanwhile there was another annoying tiny thing, the fact that I most often need a kitchen cloth when I'm on the other side of the kitchen from the only spot I can stack cloths out of the way.

Solution: use the trial friendship bracelet samples, create loops, stitch them onto the corners of the cloths which can now hang in a cabinet handle near the action.

Then when I ran out of bracelet bits, a side bonus, used them up, I crocheted loops for more cloths.

Totally first world annoyances sorted while I listened to an Andy Carpenter audiobook involving dogs and murder and mystery.

As to the successful friendship bracelets, they're all on their way to some Navajo kids who wanted them in time for Halloween and after.

Another item that's left is the bookcase that used to be at the foot of the stairs and now there's no room. I couldn't find any other place for it, Handsome Son didn't want it, so I put it on Freecycle.

It was gone in less than an hour from posting. It served me well for years and now has a happy new owner.

The honesty harvest this year has now taken over from the little bouquet scenes.

And here's one reason I love my neighborhood 

A bunch of nice kids playing with a model airplane which made great loops.

Happy day everyone, what do you like about where you live? I hope there's something. And I'm not asking about boneheaded own goals you've scored. That can remain classified.

Eye doctor and cake and bracelets

The eye doctor pronounced my eye health as excellent, no need for new glasses, and Handsome Son and I went home to chocolate cake and tea and he did a couple of tasks which were beyond my power though simple.

One was to unfangle the hooks on the door curtain, I couldn't get that high, and the others was to unscrew the bathtub stopper which I couldn't unscrew though I knew how, to fix a clog. Done.

After a great afternoon of chat he departed to a shore concert, taking away half the remaining cake, birthday privilege. He left me a piece or two. 

That was a successful day, and I completed another bracelet for my collection.

That may be enough for now.  Maybe.

All Creatures continues to be good and I'm now a bit concerned that I'll soon be caught up. Blogistas, do you have any recommendations for future viewing on the PBS Passport?

Happy day everyone, hoping for good medical news all round.

Tofu ahoy and video joy

I'm having such a good time with the daily short YouTube videos, a good reason to get up each day. Bare bones simple production, minimal editing, it's not the contrast, framing, cutting etc, it's the content. There's an idea or vision or feeling behind every tiny short. Anyway that's the plan.

I'm so bored by wannabe producers on YouTube who get all excitable and technical when they're not conveying any interesting content.  I've blocked a lot of copycat channels, too. You can't copy your way to the pleasure that comes from creating from your own vision, even with less techie skill.

Meanwhile today I remembered one more cooking task I'd forgotten -- red lentil tofu. I'd washed the lentils and soaked them, then, this morning, realized I still need to make the tofu.  Here it is cooling in the fridge in s glass pan

And here's the process after you blend lentils and water, and I added in Better than Bouillon to season it.  This is half a cup of lentils, one cup of water. Stay tuned till it shows up on my plate. 

Meanwhile here's the cubes, ready to become tofu katsu.

One big reason to soak lentils is to make them more digestible, particularly green and brown lentils. The red is more tender but it's still a good idea to soak it overnight. And definitely wash it well first, like rice, a ton of dust and debris washes off.

Yesterday despite a dewpoint in the 60s, uncomfortable, I did get a walk, and tossed a couple of golf balls back onto the course. 

Under the beech trees there's a variety of fungi, evidently a symbiosis going on, shoe in pictures for scale 

And at home, despite the heat and humidity, this is really a beautiful August.

I had a hummingbird sighting a couple of days ago, rare in this neighborhood, so that was exciting. There are hummingbird clearwing moths, butterflies and bees all over the flowers and shrubs. 

I finished the current bracelet, still need to do the fastening. As you see, this is a two sided pattern.

At this rate I'll have an armful. 

They're so light in weight you hardly feel them. I'm not pushing to make anything significant just now, it being August after all.

Happy day everyone, those of us who push ourselves need to try not to, at least for now. I need your solidarity on this.

Leisure Interrupted

 Yesterday after cooking and bed making and laundry  I finally sat down to do nothing much.

But first I made a huge six meal Thelastofthe quiche. This involved the last of the dandelion greens, chard, mushrooms and onions from the freezer, with the usual eggs and a lot of cheese.

Dandelion greens are peppery and a great addition, and this worked out well.

Then I got on with the latest braiding and I improved my sliding knot ability for the fastener.

Here it is in blurry action.

Then I found myself considering a PBS Passport in support of WHYY public broadcasting. Why not, access at least for now, to good drama and documentaries, while sending a modest amount to a good fairly local -- Philly -- cause.  So I did, and eventually got it to work, thinking my evening entertainment for the foreseeable future is set up. 

So I thought I'd start with a couple of episodes of the newer All Creatures Great and Small. I'm so glad I found it. 

Such an improvement in the casting over the earlier one. The Scot Herriot portrayed as a Scot, the farmer Helen as a lovely Yorkshire woman, not an escapee from a finishing school. Anyway I'm very happy with it. And Diana Rigg as Mrs Pumphrey, perfect. 

However, here's what happened in the middle of watching. A bang at the door, Gary suddenly in my midst ready to, are you sitting down, collect the splitleaf. He was in a mood, I think severe back pain though he doesn't mention it.

And after the most commotion possible, here's the uninvited guest, the plant, that is,  leaving. 

Gary may come back for the tall palm today and I hope I can shove off, I mean return, the pony palm, too. It's like having noisy people finally go home, in the way, no matter where they are. I was happy to take care of them and now they need to leave.

It took a while for me to recover from the sudden drama, I'm out of the habit.

Then today the mail brought a great tiny thing.

A while back I think I made a comment on the Modern Daily Knitting site about watercolor painting and the minis I made in July. I think that's what triggered this lovely gift. 

Anyway they got in touch for a street address and here we are. Hannah is a terrific artist, as you see, and an MDK star. Nice people, with a great website and newsletter.

I also created a couple of cards, using the protective card stock Hannah had used to mail her art, waste nothing, to attach to the back of two goldwork pieces I gave to a friend recently. She had noted they were unsigned and asked for an identifier for the back of the frame. 

So here we are 

So that's us Chez Boud! I made a little video while I was out walking early, before the heat got going, now my daily YouTube upload.

But, back to still pictures, here's the local fungi getting underway. 

Just the start. After all our rain, it should be a good fungus year.

Happy day everyone, make art if you want, or delegate it, it's all good.

Wrong, right, wrong, arghghgh

This morning started with a 6:30 am call from the dentist's office asking if I could possibly move my time from 8 to 9. I concluded that either they had an emergency or someone hadn't made it out of bed. Anyway I agreed and texted Handsome Son to ask if he was willing. He was.

Then, neither mother nor son being fully awake yet, there was a who's on first text exchange.

 And so it came to pass, and as I expected, he prescribed a crown. No infection, no decay, no need for root canal, so he "shaped" meaning drilled and drilled and checked and drilled, made an impression, then fixed a temporary crown as they do, emptied my wallet, come back in three weeks for the permanent.

The only part that hurt was the payment. $1200, after a significant geezer, I mean senior, discount. 

So I've had yet another coronation. Porcelain with noble metal. Even my tooth has been ennobled. Bow please!  Sounds like the Mikado, bow, bow, to his daughter-in-law elect 

Moving on, it's ages since I made that trip and it was very nice, changes, interesting. Some people go to Croatia for a lovely change of scene. Some go to the dentist. 

Now the numbness is gone, my jaw hurts, dangit. It didn't before, but after being drilled and pressed and stuck open and generally dealt with, it's complaining a bit. 

I'm not, because he's a terrific dentist, very skilled, very calm, and I've sent him several friends who feared the dentist until they went to him and did much better. 

He also doesn't do more than he needs to, always a good thing when you're dealing with someone who knows a lot more than you do and it's all expensive.

Home again and I harvested the last of the honesty, this time strewing the seeds about to do what they want. That worked well last year. I'm sharing seeds tomorrow with the knitting group.

And I observed an interesting little insect strolling about on a daylily. It looked a bit truncated and at first I thought it was this 

This firefly doesn't light up, though its infant form does, so I thought maybe that's why its tail looks blunt, no light bulb.

Then I was kindly schooled by a Spoutible friend who said, no, no, it's this 

Ellen's a Senior Master Gardener so I didn't argue, and I think she's right. It's a grape leaf skeletonizer, but likes Virginia creeper too. There's no grapes for miles around but plenty of Virginia creeper, which is a pest, so he's welcome to eat as much as he can.

I also firmly stated that the lacy stuff looking like a spiderweb in my own daylily photo was a ring fungus mesothelium. Which it isn't, it's a dollar spot fungus epithelium. 

That reminds me of the Ahasuerus joke, in A Murder is Announced, so niche nobody even cares! Ed note: I can't get anything right today. I was mixing up two biblical names. Ahasuerus  was the vicarage cat. Artaxerxes was the joke. A the Third, to be exact.

On firmer ground I finished the bracelet with a sliding knot fastening. You slide it open to put the bracelet on then it only takes one hand to tighten to fit.

Happy day, it's okay if your passionate observations have an audience of one. At least it's better than the Dead Sea Scrolls that they're still unwrapping. 

Sez Ted and Big Ursy and Pony and Ursula.