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.

The day after, chop wood, carry water

I woke up to a little post rally tristesse, so I thought a bit of earlyish  music would be good. Bach and Handel aren't exactly early, but they work on recorders so I'm not arguing.

Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, Handel, Lucie Horsch giving a brilliant performance

notice the player at the right? The instrument that reaches down a step. That step enables everyone to sit while playing. Very handy for the lowest recorder voices.

These are both on YouTube,  worth a look.

And here's nature's  gray scale shadow art on the kitchen wall yesterday.

This works in more than one orientation, but this is how the sun did it.

Meanwhile the knitting is a work in progress, so much to do, will the yarn make it, cue ominous music.  

Last night was a study in not knitting while tired. I finished the cuff and checked what stitch pattern to continue in, blessedly the original knitter had chosen plain stocking stitch. 

Looked back at the pattern which explained how to work the heel, so I started on that and had completed several rows, interesting learning, before I dimly realized I was ahead of myself.  Then I noticed the small print explaining I needed to knit seven inches of stocking stitch before embarking on the heel. Duh.

It's the knitting equivalent of turning over two pages in the recipe book. So I unraveled back to the cuff, arghghg, and knitted several correct rows so as to avoid doing that again today.  That's certainly a first for me. 

In more successful areas,  I'm very happy with the lentil tofu. Today's dipping sauce was adapted from that garlic yogurt sauce I made for the fritters. As is, it doubles as a green salad dressing. Then with added ketchup and vinegar, it made an interesting new dipping sauce.   

I like sauces and for my next trick, I'm going to make Wil Yeung's pasta with white sauce using cashews, which I've added to my misfits order. It's ages since I used cashews, the Swiss Army knife of ingredients. And penne is a good pasta for working with sauce.

Happy day, everyone! Keep on resisting -- you see how many we are. Next to take back at least the House, and aim for the Senate, too. 

Try not to turn two pages at once 

Cold, oh well, there's lentils

 Up very early today, before dawn 

The bedroom is the warmest room, nearest the furnace, so after breakfast I went back there to read, and fell asleep again. 

Once it got up to "feels like 10°f"  I needed to get out of the house, so I did the recycling and garbage and collected the mail, most of which landed in the recycle, and picked my way home watching for ice. 

Home again I made red lentil tofu, since the Misfits box I planned for today isn't here yet, weather moving my delivery to Friday.

I'll probably make crunchy cubes with a dipping sauce for dinner.    

I did, seen here with dipping sauce and peppermint sprig.

Gary, looking much better, came dashing over to return containers from various baked goods I'd given him and a handy glass jar. I recycle a lot of things he presents me with, but the jar is a good size to make mayo.

Happy day everyone. I'm resting a bit today, to get less frazzled.  Then back to resisting tomorrow. Thanks for understanding my current state, which a lot of us are feeling just now.