So much for the diet due to cooking.

 I am so eternally grateful that through whatever fluke or processing or honesty, whatever, that we are getting that extra $300 for food every month. Rent and bills are all paid on time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chuck roast, chicken thighs, hot dogs, smoked sausage and hamburger. I got pasta and sauces and meats to make so much good food for the next three weeks. We have a full freezer of meat and a huge bag of mixed veggies, the cupboard is stacked with the usual necessary canned goods. We even found the triple chocolate pie at Costco, that was disappointing though unfortunately. It had a surprise fudgy cookie layer on the bottom, not at all what I was expecting and not enough of the chocolate mousse.

The weather has been good, a few days of cloudy and rain but now it is breezy, hazy and warmish. Garden is growing, Jon finally got his inhalers and CVS has transferred his prescriptions to another location because he complained about the one closest to us being less than satisfactory in their treatment of him and his prescription.

Baked 'ziti' that was enough for seconds on the day of baking and half left over for later. Definitely easy to do and a do again for sure. I used penne regate instead of ziti which was difficult to find for some reason, tossed in two and a half hot italian sausage with the hamburger and layered like lasagna with mozzarella, parmesan and ricotta and pasta sauce. As close to lasagna as you can get and it was so good!

The OTC card that we have gets refilled quarterly so that gets more money beginning of April. I have been able to get all my supplements I've been taking but have to do it at CVS so not the jumbo size containers I have gotten at Costco. Will look into other options for larger containers online.

So, the chocolate chip cookie fiasco. Firstly, I thought I was being clever and put the flower, sugar and baking powder into a tupperware container when I realized I didn't have eggs to make them a few weeks ago. I now had eggs and butter (unsalted) and all the other ingredients. Pulled out the dry ingredients and put them in a bowl, stirred it around and then read the directions. I have not made them in a very very long time and smacked my head. 

Sugar, eggs and softened butter needed to be mixed together first. The butter I tried the trick with boiling water in my large measuring cup then dumped the water and turned it upside down to cover the two sticks of butter to soften. I was impatient and put it in the nice warm window as well. Still not long enough but enough to get the butter softer.

I have no electric mixer. I really needed one. I still need one. See all those utensils? I have a hand mixer, a plunger type whisk, a small silicone covered whisk, an larger metal whisk, a large serving fork and a potato masher (used that last one on breaking up the clumps in the brown sugar). I used alllll of those in order to mix the cookie dough at various stages. My hands aren't as strong as they used to be and that hand mixer is not for cookie dough.

Surprisingly, despite all these mistakes and mishaps, the cookies didn't turn out half bad. They were a bit softer than I was used to which could also be attributed to cooking them for ten minutes instead of 11 or 13. I tried all three times and the 13 minute was the crunchiest but not burned.

I will not be attempting cookies again until I have an electric mixer. Same reason why we bought an electric can opener, my hands just don't have the strength they used to along with the aches and pain of the arthritis being an issue.

I do have a brownie recipe though that does not require a mixer. That will be a con do at some point.

My garden is at least successful. I harvested one of the Romain heads a huge bunch of cilantro, two radishes and three potatoes. Still one more potato plant to go and hoping to leave that in as long as possible for maximum size and harvest. The cilantro is a continuing bounty and I have plenty of radishes still growing.

I have various knitting projects to keep my hands busy as well. A sock project that will hopefully fit Logan (formerly named Ava) and will be gifting it either for birthday or Christmas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have plenty of both those colors left over for another pair of socks in the same style. If anyone wants a pair of hand knitted socks sometime in the next year, send an email with your foot dimensions (charts can be found online on where to measure or give me your shoe size).

These are all complete balls of yarn enough to do a short pair of socks. The smaller balls are a discontinued line of yarns so there's no getting any coordinating solid colors. The larger hanks are hand dyed yarns with the red/white/blue having a small bit of sparkle in them, the other white one is 'unicorn' speckled, the brown is a personal choice I picked up a few years back... 'Sheepbacca' (yes as in Chewbacca) from a company called Lasersheep Yarn. All their yarns come with a custom little button pin and they do themed yarns. The green one is a nice sturdy variegated and the balled one at the bottom is unknown but soft and pastel colors.

Do I need another project commission? No but I am feeling generous more than I have time for. 

And on that note I think I've covered all the bases. Yay for Spring and energy for projects!