Kitchen activities...

Have I already showed this one?  Baked beans, Macaroni & Cheese, and sausage.  I wasn't keen on having the oven on long enough to bake the beans that day, but it was worth it, and the mac & cheese joined the beans after they'd been in for awhile.  The sausage just got cooked on the stove top.

Beef Stir Fry.  I had fresh mushrooms in the fridge that needed to be used.  Originally I was going to make an Asian crock pot recipe, but I got a late start, and this quicker meal turned out well.

Chicken Curry.  I had not purchased groceries in awhile, so most of these meals were from pantry and freezer supplies.  This used up the last of the cooked chicken in the freezer, so chicken breasts went on the grocery list.

Salmon patties with buttered new potatoes and corn.  I hadn't used canned salmon in quite awhile, but as I was searching the pantry, trying to put off grocery shop for another day, I decided the salmon was in the pantry for times such as this.  :)

Finally made the grocery run.  I had stayed up into the wee hours making a menu plan and grocery order for curbside pick up.  I stayed up way too late, and then for some crazy reason, I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep.  So after I picked up the groceries, I was already tired.  But figured I'd thank myself later if I  cooked the chicken breasts, so I pounded all eight of them thin, then cooked them in batches in a hot pan to brown, then piled all of them back in the pan and covered and simmered on low for awhile to make sure they were cooked through.

I diced one of the cooked breasts and started a sauce from the pan drippings and added some of the diced chicken back to the pan.  Then I grabbed a spaghetti squash and prepped it for the oven.  In all honesty, I could have done better on this meal, but I was exhausted by this time, and decided good enough would do for that night.

While the spaghetti squash roasted and the chicken and gravy simmered, I prepped the rest of the cooked chicken for the freezer.

This doesn't look like a lot, but going by how many meals the last batch made, I'd say it's probably enough for six or seven meals, and I'm glad to have the head start on that many meals all loaded into the freezer.

While I had the vacuum sealer out, I also bagged and sealed a large tray of raw chicken thighs for a couple of crock pot meals and a batch of Rudy food.  SO happy that all that is done, and it's not all waiting for me in the fridge to do later.

I washed up after we ate.  Carey usually cleans the kitchen when I cook, but he has been working hard in the almost hundred degree heat for several days to get the fall garden ready, so I wanted to let him rest.  After the kitchen was mostly reset for tomorrow, I soaked in a nice hot bath, then I went to bed early (for me) and slept like a baby.

What I'm reading Wednesday...

Did not finish Lady Tremaine.  I didn't have a lot of reading time after I picked it up from the library.  I was enjoying it when my library loan became due, and I couldn't recheck as there was someone else who had reserved it.  I'll have to get back in line.

A Stitch in Time by Kelley Armstrong

Time Travel.  A bit of a bodice ripper...not a ripper exactly, but a tugger.  :)

Wasn't bad, wasn't great.  I give it three and a half stars.  Will I read the next in the series?  Maybe?  Later if I do.

What I'm reading Wednesday...

After finishing the 2026 reading challenge, I felt like I needed something super easy.  I picked a book off of my Kindle that's been there for an age...well...for five years or so anyway.  This is the last book of a series about a quilting group which stumbles into many murder investigations.  

The plots of the series were a bit unbelievable, but easy to pick up and put down, and the characters are likeable.  

Now I'm reading Lady Tremaine which I checked out from the library.  It's not as easy, and I'm slower at making progress.  It's a retelling of the Cinderella story from the point of view of the stepmother.  It makes her more human, as it tells of her struggles trying to keep up appearances, keep food on the table, and keep up the decaying noble house and land that her husband left her upon his death.

Hoping I can get it finished before the borrowing period is up.

What I'm reading Wednesday...

 Fifty-second finish of the year.

This one wraps up the 2026 Reading Challenge for me.  I had left the 'Published in 2026' prompt for the last.  I actually think I've read a couple of other ones that were published this year, but they easily fit in other prompts, so counted them there.  

I liked this one.  I've never read anything by Michael Connelly before, and I've kind of moved out of my detective-story phase, but we are reading this one for bookclub soonish, and I wanted to read it while a friend had it available to share with me.  I liked the characters.  Writing was good.  

Dogs as I See Them by Lucy Dawson

This one was purchased for $2.99 on Kindle a week or so ago.  I couldn't resist all the adorable terriers in its pages.  It was a very short read, as there are very few written words, just short descriptions of the personalities of the dogs modeling for the artist (they aren't all terriers).  I probably will check it out from the library at some point to see the drawings on the paper page instead of the ebook version I have.

Some of the meals of the past week...

The yellow squash in the photo above is an average-sized yellow squash.  And Carey swears that the day before he picked each of these, the zucchini was the same size as the yellow squash.  I think that's what most amazed us most about the garden, is how rapidly things can grow from one day to the next.  And what do you make from a zucchini this large?  My friend recommended either zucchini bread or stuffed zucchini.

This is not the best photo, but the Stuffed Zucchini was fabulous!  I sauteed onions, cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, mushrooms, and bacon...oh, and the squash that I scooped out to make room for the fillings.  Once I piled it all back into the zucchini, I topped it with a slice of Provolone cheese and popped it in the oven.  Carey LOVED it!  He usually isn't a fan of strong flavors, so I really expected that he wouldn't care for the kalamata olives, but that was part of what he liked best.  

Quinoa Salad Bowls.  You can't see it well, but these toppings are on a bed of cabbage slaw mix.  Clockwise (from the top) we added cooked chicken (from those vacuum-sealed packages in the freezer), dried cranberries, sliced red onion, orange segments, garbanzo beans, avocado, and in the middle is quinoa.

After adding a Honey Mustard Dressing (made with orange juice instead of vinegar) we tossed it before eating.  YUM!

Twice-Baked Barbecue Sweet Potatoes are a common repeat at our house, and I'm sorry for showing it yet again.  After the sweet potatoes are baked till tender, I remove most of the flesh of the potato, mash it and add a little butter, sour cream, dry Ranch Dressing mix, Parmesan, and the barbecued brisket.  Mixed and piled it back into the potato skins and topped with a slice of Provolone and put back in the oven to heat through.  After they came out of the oven, I drizzled (a little too heavily) with barbecue sauce.  

We love these, and they are so easy, because while one of us are out running errands, we stop by the barbecue joint and pick up a half pound of sliced brisket to put in them.  Of course, Rudy always begs a few bites of brisket before it makes it into the potatoes.

The rest of the week we ate leftovers, takeout, and one night a friend sent me home with a meatball sandwich for Carey.  She had fed them to us during a gathering at her house where we wrote get-out-the-vote postcards.

What I'm reading Wednesday...

Prompt #13 - Bookface

This prompt really intrigued and challenged me this year.  Here is a sample of the trend of 'bookface':

Bookface samples from www.boredpanda.com/bookface-challenge/

Follow the link above to see more examples, some of them are so imaginative!  As I was contemplating what book to use for this prompt, I realized how complicated it could get.  I decided to look for a book that would match my model.

So without further ado, may I present my version of 'bookface'...

I browsed Amazon for a cover that would work for my intent, and ordered a used copy.  Frankly I can't believe how (relatively) easy it was to get this photo.  Rudy had a vet appointment yesterday, which always wears him out...so many new people...so many new animals all in one place.  He wants to interact with every single one of them.  So when we got home he was exhausted, and I was able to get a few minutes of subdued cooperation from him to snap this photo.  :)

He has to go back to the vet today for an ex-ray.  There was no containing (constraining?) him yesterday, so they sent us home with some 'relaxing' meds to give him last night before bed and this morning before his appointment.  Hoping it does the trick so they can get an ex-ray without having to fully sedate him.  The vet heard a heart murmur during yesterday's exam, so they wanted to get a pic of his innards to look for any problem visually before prescribing him meds, and to have as a baseline for future reference.  He has slowed down a bit since he turned ten earlier this year, but he can still run circles around me...literally!

Now back to what I'm reading Wednesday and the 2026 challenge...

Fifty-first challenge finish of the year.

It's a childrens' chapter book from Tasmanian authors.  A little challenging as the authors use made-up words and put a glossary at the end of every chapter.  (Example:  Bathwater.  One of the worst swear words I know. )  I believe this is one of a series of a dozen or so.

Kind of a cute story.  It definitely gives a good representation of terrier breeds.

Finished my 'project'...

A friend and fellow quilter/crafter nearby became a first-time grandmother two weeks ago.  I decided I wanted to hand make a gift for the baby.  The last time I used this pattern to make a gift was 40+ years ago!  I remember it working up rather quickly and not being too difficult.  The first part (the rosette above) looks more difficult than it was.  I did have some difficulty keeping a good tension for my stitches; my hands are not as dextorous as they used to be!  :)

Four audiobooks later I had the back rosette, the crown, edging, and embroidered flowers across the top done.  Considering I hadn't crocheted in an eon, I'm rather happy with it!  I have to say the embroidery is the most difficult part, since you are working on a limp item without a hoop; and working the embroidery floss into the bonnet's stitches without letting the floss show between the crochet stitches or leave knots on the inside that might be uncomfortable for baby was a little finicky.  

I'm a firm believer in blocking needlework projects to improve finished results.  I washed it in a bowl of cool water with mild soap, then I rinsed it twice.  I used a large bath towel to press as much water out of it as possible.  I didn't want to wring it and distort it, so I folded it in half, and just kept moving it to a dry part of the towel and pressing it flat between a top and bottom layer of towel.

When I had as much water out of it as possible using that method, I used a rather large plastic Christmas ball ornament settled into a smallish food container to stand in for a baby-sized head mannequin.  I made sure that both the ball and the food container were very clean before I let the bonnet come in contact with them.  I gently smoothed the bonnet over the ball, and set it under the best ceiling fan in the house overnight.

The shape tightens up in the drying process, and has a much more stable texture.

The proud nonna (my friend is Italian) texted me the sweetest photo of baby wearing the bonnet.  Such an adorable sweetie pie!