Weekend continues...

When one is no longer employed, it can be difficult to determine when the weekend commences or stops.  Appointments can be a "heads up", since most of them occur during the week.  I did get some good news by phone last Thursday: my long term disability has been approved!!  Plaidman went to the mailbox on Friday, and I think he must have missed a day or two because it was stuffed.  He brought in a ton of stuff, most of which went directly to the recycle bin.  But he wasn't sure he'd gotten it all, because a) it was dark when he was there, and b) he didn't use the stepstool we keep in the car for the purpose (the mailbox is up over his head).  So he went back mid-morning on Saturday, and found my first disability check.  And of course that was the only thing in there, since Saturday was Veterans' Day and there was no mail delivery.  I'll take a moment here:
     Thank you for your service, Thomas Paul Devine & may you rest in peace, most excellent father-in-law and infantryman.
You are missed more than I can say.

     Thank you for your service, Cameron Eiseman Cherry; may you continue to be our family's guide & light for many years, Cadet of the Army Air Corps.

Plaidman's younger brother served in Viet Nam, repairing tanks.  His son has seen service as well.  Last I heard, the two of them are not on speaking terms.  I salute them both, and pray they'll reconcile their differences soon -- Viet Nam vets aren't getting any younger.
Okay, that moment stops now before I get weepy.

I have started on the final segment of the Mi Kara "capelet", which is very pretty in it's cabled red tweediness.  However, I really thought the thing would be longer, more of a short poncho than an elongated & elaborately cabled cowl.  So ... the length is disappointing.  I'll finish the ribbed turtleneck, try it on, and see if it's something I might actually use.  I do have a lot of tops with rather open necklines; I guess I could extend the "season" for those tops with the red capelet.
We've hired a sitter for our aged kitty, so when we go out of town we can just contact her & she'll come in to feed him, change the litter box, and give him some loves and attentions while we're out.  I hope this works out well.  Surely it will be better than putting our little old man in a cage at the vet's!  I still can't get over how stressed out the poor little beastie was after being boarded for a week.

We had EJ and her recently acquired hubby come stay with us for a few days.  We'd gone over to American Freight and bought a queen sized mattress set, which fits Disco's bedframe.  Disco had the mini-Keurig set up, with a selection of K-cups and some disposable coffee cups.  So the newlyweds had their own little apartment downstairs.  We took them out to Bicentennial Mall, which they found pretty interesting for the wall of history all around it.  We also cruised through the Farmers Market, where I got a large head of purple cauliflower.  One night we treated them to our favorite local Chinese buffet, they loved it.  The next night we ate at home, with homemade black bean dip, roasted cauliflower & Yukon gold taters, and smoked pork chops.  EJ liked the dip so much she was trying it on everything.  Danny is a little less adventurous with food, he'd never eaten roasted cauliflower before but discovered he liked it a lot.  One of the perks of having only a few folks to feed is trying new things without having to make enough to feed an army.  I was kind of surprised when all the roasted veggies disappeared -- that had been one huge head of cauliflower.  And roasting hard veggies like taters & cauliflower is so easy: Pre-heat the oven to 350°F, prep by washing & remove any "poorly" bits, chop the rest into slightly larger than bite size pieces,  smash a few cloves of garlic & dice, dump all in a large mixing bowl, add some seasoning (I used a garden herb mix, little salt & pepper), drizzle lightly with EVOO, stir to cover all with seasoning & oil.  Spread in one layer on a large rimmed baking sheet, pop into the oven.  It will take about 40 minutes for your veggies to become fork-tender, but pull them out at 20 minutes to stir & turn, then back to the oven for another 20 minutes.  Couldn't be simpler, and they come out fragrant & tasty.  The purple cauliflower did turn quite dark, but retained a lot of the purple and looked nice with the golden taters.  As to the bean dip, it was delicious but somewhat thinner than I liked; this was the first time I'd made it so I will try to remember to drain more of the liquid off the beans before mixing.  Again, a simple recipe, just cooked black beans, cumin, cilantro...and something I can't recall right now.  No cooking required, just use either the blender or (we are so cool this way) a small handheld blender stick in a plastic bowl.  Disco was in charge of the blending, having learned her lesson about not using the stick blender in glass or ceramic (she cracked the ceramic pot on the last crock pot, while it had hot food in it!!).  She also cooked the smoked pork chops, although not quite as "crispy" as usual because guests.
And can you believe neither EJ nor Danny had ever eaten smoked chops before.  Well, folks, you just have to look at other offerings in the meat dept of the grocery store.  Explore a little.  Heck, I've even eaten calamari, something I swore I'd never touch, but it was beautifully cooked: paper-thin and seasoned, like a seafood chip!  We don't want to think too much about what it is, and one may have to already have one's mouth "set" for this dish, rather like with frog's legs.  Tasty, if one doesn't think too much of where they come from.

Look Ma no prompt!

Last night I found a huge sackful of my headbands.  I have been wearing the same three for about two weeks now, and getting pretty tired of seeing them in the mirror.  I managed to fill one entire drawer of my new dresser with socks, both crew type & trouser socks (remember when those were called knee highs?  Wait, did I just date myself?) .  Another, deeper drawer is now full of my camisole and tank tops, which I use all winter like camis to keep from freezing -- my desk is by a wall of windows. The drawer above the camis is for the "unmentionables", but as it's only about two thirds full I might have to put other things there too.  I'm still not going to have enough storage for my sweaters, unless I put them in a clear lidded box in the closet or on the étagère. 
The Plaidman has just finished putting deadbolts on the deck storage closet and the door into the crawlspace.  Disco is glad to have that last one locked up tight; it opens into the crawlspace from her "suite".  And the cats are still very wired about their new environment.  Our Little Man, TomTom Kitty, tries several times each day to get into the lower cabinets in the kitchen and hall bathroom.  I don't know if he's looking for Narnia or just Trouble. 
  

TRY AGAIN SLOW COOKER PANTRY “CONCOCTION” MEAL

Last night I got home & found a meal cooking in the slow cooker.  This wasn’t a surprise, as I’d asked the family to use the cooker since they were going to be out all day.  However, the contents were…less than stellar, shall we say.  The cooks had made a classic “white dinner” of chicken breasts, potatoes, and cauliflower.  It did not taste bad, just sort of “meh”, but it looked pretty sad.  So I’m putting together a basic, grab-it-from-the-cupboard and cook it template for a concocted dinner from the crockpot, just to avoid having another all-white dinner!  This will be posted on the fridge!!  Please note, this template assumes the cook has some experience in prepping food for cooking – I’m not a cooking instructor, just a gal who’d like to have a colorful (healthy!) meal.

Ingredients (as found in pantry/cupboards/fridge) –

1 15 oz can diced tomatoes, low sodium preferred, any seasoning or none, undrained

1 or 2 15 oz can beans, any variety, mix or match (1 can if there’s plenty of meat), drained

Ground meat, any variety, browned:

            --heat 1 TBS oil in stout fry pan, sauté some garlic and/or onion (you know your tolerance, so use what suits as far as amounts of each) for about 5 minutes

                --add ground meat, break up and brown with the garlic/onion, drain grease

If you’d rather have pieces of meat, you can brown them as for the ground meat.  Smaller pieces will cook more quickly, but you can also just cut up a large roast into 3 or more pieces.  Boneless chicken works well, especially thighs, and doesn’t have to be browned first.

Green veg, as available:

Fresh                     prep as for cooking in liquid (aka boiling)

Frozen                  thaw & press out excess water 

Canned                   rinse twice & press out excess water

Seasonings appropriate to the meat, and in line with the ethnicity you’d like to express:

                --if you’re thinking TexMex, chili powder, cilantro, maybe sub some salsa for the diced tomatoes

                --if you’re wanting Italian, use Italian sausage, basil, oregano etc.

When meat is browned, veggies drained or prepped, and additional seasonings selected, throw all in the crockpot & cook for several hours depending on the size of the pieces of meat.

During the last hour (or about 1 hour before you want to serve), you may add rice or noodles, plus enough liquid (stock, V8 juice, white sauce) for your starch. 

Alternatively, you can serve with pita bread or chips, or tortillas or chips, etc.

 

Hello stranger

Good grief; it's been almost a month since I posted. I'm sorry--I know how disappointed I get when my favorite bloggers go silent. There's been knitting, and knitting-related activity over here at Chez Plaid. I worked several more repeats on the EWW, a few more rows on Plaidman's slippers, and even another square on the 3rd Dolly Blankie. I took some vacation time, so wound up with five days in a row of goof-off time. I unraveled a thrift store sweater! I bought it for the wool, which is a terrific purpley-red tweed, and it looks like it's worsted too. I'm thinking "Vest" for this stuff. There are several more thrifted sweaters in the stash, just begging to be unraveled and reused--so I'll stay away from the yarn shops for a while. Not that I have a yarn buying moratorium per se--I'm going to a festival (well..two festivals, actually) next month, and will likely buy some goodies there. Pinching the pennies till then...
Chez Plaid is about to get a mini-makeover. A couple of my vacation days were spent (also some $ was spent!) in the hardware store (Ace on Charlotte Ave in [horrors!] West Nashville), getting the "stuff" we need to start a project. I bought two foundation vents to replace missing ones, two Tyvek-like coveralls, and a large humane trap. Yes, we're going into the crawlspace! So the feral cats have gotta go to the pound. Plaidman says there's lots of spiders under there...if you don't hear from me again before June, send the Orkin man.
We had the requisite corned beef & cabbage out of the crockpot, only I had a new recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking , for her Dijon corned beef. Yummy! Simple! I really need to use the crockpot more.

Hard workin' Mama

I haven't knit a stitch in a week -- I'm about to expire from withdrawal symptoms. Lots of projectts started, none of which has managed to fire up the knitting mojo. Instead, I'm thinking of going to the Middle Tenn Fiber Festival, to take Fleegle's class in supported spindling. Must. Resist. Urge. To. Spin!

My daffydils are blooming. They started budding the middle of last week, and over the weekend they opened up their trumpets. The Lambs' Ears at the porch front look truly ragged, even though the winter has been super mild. Doesn't matter, before the end of June I'll be digging them out of the yard--they kinda want to take over! I'm probably going to dig up what's left of the pussy-willow, which is now an all-u-can-eat for the Japanese beetles. If they'd only learn to eat honeysuckle....I could stand to have less of that!

Disco & I cooperated on a crock-pot lasagna, ala A Year of Slow Cooking (http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com/), and ate like pigs -- it's abfab, I tell ya!

I have nothing to say about the so-called Super Bowl (pffft! as if it could be super without the Steelers!), because even tho it was on the TV and I was in the room, I didn't watch.