Summer Vacation Day 3

Today's List:

1. Kitchen Celing
2. OASIS form (for work)
3. Get a tattoo
4. Take a nap
5. Fold Laundry
6. Get a beach pass
7. Knit 10 rows (or so) on Thing One's mermaid tail blanket
8. Beer Me!!!
9. Make playdough
10. Do Matt

The kitchen ceiling is going to be the death of me... Maybe I'll tackle a bit on Friday. 

OASIS form, done. Except for a height and weight.  Which, apparently, Medicare is looking at from a quality perspective.

Tattoo is done.  How did this happen?  Well, I asked one of the school moms where and who did hers.  then my dad gave me some cash for my birthday.  I've also toyed with the idea of wearing a death fairy.  Well, now I have one on me permanently.  

I was told long ago not to get anything "inked" on me unless it had meaning.  Wearing an 18th century grave stone angel on me made sense, given that I am a hospice nurse (and enjoy what I do).

Take a nap.  I guess I will sleep when I die.

Fold laundry.  It is a never ending job that has to be penciled in or else it just piles up to an overwhelming pile that I don't want to fold.

Get a beach pass... this shall wait another day.

Thing 1 will have a mermaid tail blanket soon.  Then I can work on Alexandra's.

Beer me today consists of Lawson's Sips of Sunshine.  I've grown to love an IPA.  Honestly, I look forward to something citrusy and hoppy for spring.  I will most likely switch to something less heavy and mealy soon.  For now, though, a heavy-ish beer is ideal. 

This is a nice citrusy blend of flavors that is not overpowered by hops.  I think that is the most impressive thing about this beer.  It feels like it can be consumed in spring, summer, and fall.  My frequent purchasing dive also has a cheese shop connected to it.  I was saddeded to hear that the locally crafted cheese that pairs well with this beer will not be ready until NOVEMBER.  Fudgcicles.  That is a long wait.  Hopefully, no snow by then.  I will have moved on to stouts and porters this late in the year (Or Troeg's Nugget Nectar, pending availability).

I made playdough.  5 minutes on the stove.  Easiest thing I did all week.

I think DO MATT is self-explanatory.  Just sayin.

Summer Vacation Days 1 & 2

I start my days off with a to-do list or else nothing is accomplished.

Day 1: Nothing.  Just relax because two months with two kids might be agony.

Day 2: Start to-do list.

• Kitchen Ceiling (scrape the glue off because this was once wall papered)
• DMV - make sure kids are obnoxious at the CT DMV.  Database is a major CF/'SNAFU.
• Take kids to no slide park
• Day drink a beer few margaritas
• Take a nap
• Fold laundry
• Get a beach pass

The only two items completed were going to the DMV and having a few margaritas.  I needed them after going to the DMV for 3.5 hours to pay registration renewal that the wonderful CT DMV did not send.  The only reason I found out my registration lapsed is that I was not able to get a beach pass because it was expired.  Maybe it is a good thing that I want a beach pass for my car!

Oh, my DMV transaction time was under 5 minutes.  I hardly find that the wait time was worth the frustration of me, my kids, and all the clients who had to deal with the noises my kids made.  Also, the vending machine money was not worth it (even though I forgot their snacks).  

Buffalo Chicken POUTINE

I love poutine.  I also love anything with buffalo sauce.  So why not combine the two... thanks to the googleverse, someone thought of this idea before me.  Thankfully, a recipe that made sense existed and combined all that is buffalo goodness into one gravy mixture.  Two gravies are featured below.  One kid friendly and one for a Buffalo sauce obsessed person.

But with all good things, there are a couple of modifications.

One: More wing sauce.  Did I mention that I am obsessed?
Two: Plain fries.  Honestly, they need the ranch. Don't skip this step.
Three: I mixed my chicken with the gravy.  I prefer a more moist meat. And wing sauce.  The meat needs the wing sauce.
Four: I topped mine with a drizzle of ranch.
Five: I used my own home-made locally-sustained artisinal cheese curds and some store bought blue cheese (not quite that advanced in cheese making yet).

The kids thought the meal was "terrible."

Verdict: It exceeded my expectations.  I was expecting good, not great.  Maybe that is the mojito talking... maybe not.

Until next time.

Chicken from Full Heart Farm.  Full Heart Farm also provided the chicken feet used to make my stock.
Curds made with milk from Terra Firma Farm.

All other items purchased in an adequately-supplied LOCAL grocery store.  I suppose you could purchase some of the dry goods from Amazon.

You're so cheesy

My goals in life are simple: eat food I like and enjoy life.  Most of my enjoyment involves food.  And cheese.  So, I decided to try cheese making and followed a recipe from CheeseMaking.com.  The pictures made it easy to follow the process if you lacked some of the beginner confidence like I did.  My first batch was okay (well, really it was sub par).  It lacked some of the saltiness I crave and crumbled like Feta.  It wasn't bad, but lacked the squeak and was dry.  The other problem is my stove.  The temperature is difficult to regulate being at it is electric and from 1958.

My second batch was a bit less dry and also lacked saltiness.  So I added kosher salt to the batch after the whey was pressed.  Still dry, but not as bad as the first batch.

Now for batch three: went to the farm to get non-homogonized milk (but it was pasteurized).  I'm not 100% sure that this was the reason the curds came out better, but I'll roll with it.  This time, I was quite tired of the temperature deregulation with my stove.  Once I reached a temperature above 96 deg, I turned the stove off.  Yes.  I would turn it on to maintain 96 deg, then off again once I was above the recommended temp for ripening.  I also simmered the curds for the lower end of the recommended time.  Maybe cooking them too much dried the darn things out.  I also added salt to the whey.  I should have added more.  There are a few suggestions for salting cheese through an interwebs search.  Pros about this method: squeaky cheese, melty-ish cheese (seriously, it has the consistency of a good hispanic won't goo when you fry it cheese), and almost salted appropriately.

So, why bother with the whole cheese making thing?  It is because I love Poutine.  Fries. Cheese. Gravy. Toppings.

My next venture will be making a blue cheese.  Because I need Buffalo Chicken Poutine.

(RePurposed) Things around the House

I've entered the world of being a grown-up again, financially speaking.  I now owe the US Government enough money to purchase yet another house - just so I could further my education.  Work is more flexible, but now I've entered a realm of becoming more thrifty (again).  Goodbye shopping for luxury goods for a while.

So... what have I done around the house to make life easier?

I Re-Purposed a common purchase to start composting indoors

A friend of mine gave me a ceramic indoor compost container before she moved from the area currently reside now.  I did not realize how damaged it was from sitting in the garage over the winter!  The darn thing had a crack on one side.  I went to empty it into the garden and ended up with several pieces rather than one bin!  Of course, this was frustrating.  I was about to send a large coffee can off with the weekly recycling then decided I could put a better use to this item AND save a few dollars by NOT purchasing an expensive metal one.  And by expensive, I mean about $20 for a metal bin with a metal lid and some compost sponges.

Here's how to achieve the item pictured above.  This applies to METAL coffee canisters only.

Supplies you will need: A blow torch or other similar item, Scissors, Spray Paint, Chalkboard labels, Chalkboard Pen.

1.  Finish using your product.  This could be considered a waste if you did not enjoy your daily coffee!

2. Use the SCISSORS to cut the plastic label off the can. There will be some remnant where the label was glued.

3. Use the BLOWTORCH to burn off the remaining glue and plastic.

4. Use spray paint. Apply several coats. The product I used was Rust-Oleuim Painter's Touch in Gloss Seaside (I LOVE this product).

5. Apply Chalkboard Label, write on using Chalk Board Marker.

Alternative uses:  Trash can for a car (or other small area).  This is important if you have kids.  They seem to make messes no matter where they go!  Outdoor Luminaries (with LED candles or flame candles, remember, never leave flames unattended!)

Variations on a theme: Use to store knitting needles, pens, pencils, art supplies if you have 16 oz. vegetable cans available.  You may need to coat the inside of your can if the plastic liner is burned; Tin Can Telephones, Outdoor Luminaries.

Total Cost for Supplies: $8.00 + tax for spray paint, $2.99 + tax for 24 chalkboard labels, $6.99 + tax for a chalkboard marker, cost varies for a blow torch or long lighter.  Cost also varies for the product in your tin can.

Cost of a new (metal) compost bin: Starting at $24.99 on Amazon.com.  Cost of a new trash can: Starting at: $6.00 on Amazon.  You may find cheaper at Wal-Mart.  Of course, Ikea can't be beat!!!  But is saving all that $$$ worth the drive???

Happy Crafting!

Learning a new Techniue: Intarsia Knitting

I have a feeling I am going to run out of my main color for a sweater that I cast on (and purchased yarn for) over two years ago.  The pattern I am knitting is a hooded sweater with a cable trim.  I am using Rowan's Creative Linen in Salmon and Natural.  The main color of the sweater will be salmon with natural as the cable/accent.
I thought knitting intarsia would be super complicated until I found a tutorial from the ladies at Tin Can Knits (great designs, even with the free patterns!!!).  The tutorial gave me everything I was looking for: how to cast on, how to knit with two different colors in a non-Fair Isle way.
Now to finish other objects before I go back to another treat for myself.

Cowl-A-Long

This month, I completed one knitting project thanks to a mystery cowl design complements of Colorworks by Debi.  This project consumed many more hours than anticipated thanks to tinking and dropped stitches.  That is what I get for knitting while tired!

The project and more updates on the knitting journey can be found on my Ravelry project page.

Keep calm & knit on!