Makin' Do Tuesday: Snowbound!

Welcome to Makin' Do Tuesday!

Nothing like a blizzard to force you to stay home and make do! Well, at least for some of us. I guess it started snowing about 7 a.m. this morning. Since school was already cancelled last night, I got to sleep in. At the time of this posting, it is 10:00 p.m. and it is still snowing. I think there is about 10 inches out there, maybe a little less. School is cancelled for tomorrow too.

Ed was already at work by the time the snow started, since he had to be there at 4:00 a.m. He called me about 10:30 a.m. to say that they had told the afternoon and evening shifts not to come in, because they were going to close at 3:00 p.m. That meant the morning crew had to stay until 3:00. Then, because they were afraid the morning crew wouldn't be able to get back in to open in the morning, they were put up in a hotel across the road from the restaurant!

So, Ed is stuck at a hotel for the night with nothing but the clothes he wore to work and his Bible, so he is going to have to make do with what he has. The hotel did feed them this evening. Hopefully, by the time he gets off tomorrow at 11:00 a.m., the snow will have stopped, and the road crews will have some of the main roads clear. Out here is another story. We are at the bottom of the list, and the county won't come this far down our road anyway. The home owners on our road, including our landlord, kind of take care of themselves. I saw them working on it this afternoon, and I am thankful for them.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, it was just Katherine and I today. I made my weekly bread and bagles, as well as some flax bread (I"ll share that Friday) and some chicken stock. I spent most of the day cooking, when I wasn't trying to keep a fire going.

Yesterday, I had trouble getting a fire started. I couldn't get the wood that Larry brought us Sunday to catch. I finally just gave up and waited for Ed to come home. Well, he got a fire going, and put two big pieces of that wood in. When I got up this morning, the fire was completely out, and those two pieces of wood were still in there! Ok, well, I'll just take them out and start over. Only I couldn't get them out! They were wedged in tight, and I couldn't get them to budge. I finally decided to try and build a fire on top of them. With prayer and a lot of kindling, cardboard, and newspaper, I finally got a good enough blaze going to put in some smaller logs. I actually used a kitchen timer to remind me to check on it every five minutes, and then every ten until I had a good fire going. I am happy to report this evening that I have a lovely fire, and those to logs finally decided to burn. It's a toasty 74 degrees in my living room!

I told Katherine we could watch a movie together tonight if she wanted. We haven't done that in months! She picked out her "Transformers" movie that she got for Christmas. She was trying to explain everything to me, but she didn't need to. She has two grown brothers. I knew about Optimus Prime before she was born! Still, I enjoyed the time with her. I know it will be too soon gone!

On the subject of "makin' do"; there is often an overlap into repurposing because the purpose of repurposing is often to make do with what you have. Here are a few things that I have repurposed over the years in order to make do.

Silverware drawers make me crazy. I know if must have something to do with my having to see everything, as well as always having more utensils than I have space in those little dividers. Several years ago, I bought some black and white marble contact paper to cover a small table. I liked that look for the kitchen, but couldn't afford to redo my kitchen (and it was a rental property anyway), so I gave myself a little taste of it, while releasing myself from the insanity-causing silverware drawer.

Repurposed juice cans, fruit cans, veggie cans, and chocolate milk mix containers.  I've had these for quite a while and I love them! I can easily see what I need!

I hardly ever throw away a glass jar or large plastic container, because you can always make use of them. I used these to store the dried herbs that I grew last year. I just used a black Sharpie to label the jars.
I've got to the point where I take a good hard look at anything before it goes in the trash. Oh, back on the subject of fire-starting. Toilet paper tubes stuffed with dryer lint make great tinder! I have a bag full of tubes, and a coffee can full of lint! Does that make me crazy?

See ya tomorrow!

Connie

Catch Up Monday: Calm Before the Storm

Welcome to Catch Up Monday!

I pray that you all had a wonderful weekend. Ours was a little different.
Friday night, in the midst of some lovely snow and sleet, we attended the visitation for our friend's brother, which was held at our church. While we were there, we learned that the two church-related activities planned for the next day had been canceled because of the weather. This time, that was ok with me, because it meant Ed could take my car to work the next morning. I have a front wheel drive small car and he has a rear wheel drive pick up.

When he got up the next morning, he originally thought that we had a few inches of snow, which is no big deal here. Only it wasn't snow, it was sleet, which means everything had a nice icy coating. His trip in to work was interesting, but he made it there and home ok. By Saturday afternoon the roads were somewhat clear and Katherine went to spend the night with her friend Chrystal. I cooked black beans and rice for Ed and I, and we had a quiet evening at home. We don't get many of those.

Sunday morning was a normal day. Katherine came to church with Chrystal's family. She (Katherine) sang Mandisa's "Overcomer" for special music. She did a great job! You can here the original here. After church was choir practice and then home. I baked a chicken and made mashed potatoes, giblet gravy (with whole wheat flour of course) and whole wheat biscuits..

In the late afternoon, our friend Larry came by with some fire wood. He wanted to make sure we had enough because more bad weather is coming in.

Ed and Katherine both went to sleep early. I stayed up for my weekly phone call with my dad, who lives in a suburb of Atlanta. We've been talking on Sunday nights for most of my life. Dad is a natural junker and repurposer. If he needs something, he just makes it. I hope to visit him this summer. If I do, I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures to share with you.

You'll notice I have not mentioned the Superbowl...its not my thing.

Today has been normal too, except that the talk has been about the weather. We are under a winter storm warning. The snow is supposed to start after midnight tonight, and stop Wednesday morning. Total accumulation: 7-10 inches. Then its going to get cold. Air temperatures below zero for both Wednesday and Thursday night. Looks like the dogs will be coming back in.

As for me, I could use some hibernating time.  I've started cleannig the office/workroom, and I'm hoping the process will spur some ideas for new projects. I have a few things ready to share with you this week, but I hope to have some more.

Have a great evening!

See ya tomorrow!

Connie

Friday with Food: Brownies!

Last week I had the opportunity to hear an interview with Danell at Weed 'em and Reap. She was talking about how she lost about 30 lbs by simply cutting out processed food. She said that she gave herself permission to eat whatever she wanted as long as she made it herself from healthy, real food. She said she was making cakes and cookies like crazy for awhile, but the desire for them tapered off. She still makes it if she wants it, but she doesn't want it as often. She made her sweets with whole grain flour and real unprocessed sweeteners. Well, that got me thinking about brownies.

 I have this cookbook that belonged to my grandma.

This is her handwriting on the brownie recipe. This is REALLY GOOD! Ok, so how do I make it better? Whole grain flour, real butter, and coconut sugar and stevia! Ok!
So that is what I did.

I used a mixture of cocoa powder and unsweetened chocolate because that is what I had.

coconut sugar and stevia

Added to the eggs.

Sifting the dry ingredients.

Adding it all together.

Into the pan.

Out of the oven.

It smelled wonderful. It looked wonderful!   It was bitter and very dry!

First lesson: When using whole grain flour, you must increase the amount of shortening that you would normally use. I'm not sure by exactly how much at this point. I think double would probably be too much, so I'm thinking half again what the recipe calls for. If the recipe calls for a half cup, I  would use ¾ cup. I'll let you know how that works.

The issue of bitterness, I first attributed to the possibility of too much stevia, but that really didn't make sense. I'm thinking now that there might have been too much vanilla, because the stevia was vanilla flavored, and then I used the whole amount of vanilla called for in the recipe. I'l have to watch out for that.

So what to do with this pan of very dry brownies? I used them in a bread pudding recipe, this time using honey as the sugar replacement. It was better, but still had that bitter taste that increased with time. Still think it might have been too much vanilla.

Ok, so this experiment didn't turn out so great. I'll just have to take what I've learned and try again.

Have a wonderful weekend, and I”ll see ya Monday!