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Showing posts from December, 2021

On Holiday - 12/27

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 It's Monday. We are in the no mans land of holiday between Christmas and New Years.  Today was Utility room day, not much to do in that room except recycle some bottles and bags, clean up my stuff from culinary and martial arts classes. There's a lot of stuff involved in both. I ended up putting the extra vases in the closet and realized that's where the ironing board was, not that I've needed it lately.   All that's left is to vacuum.  It feels like a chili kind of day. Very slushy and cold outside.  chili !!

On Holiday - 12/26/21

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Osouji, essentially "Big Cleaning", is a Japanese ritual of the  household that is highly believed to cleanse the home and purify the residence in order to welcome “Toshigami,” the kami (Shinto deity) of the New Year. There is more to it than just cleaning, but the idea that I am taking from it is to prepare for the New Year, one that certainly that will be spent at home for the most part as the pandemic lingers on.  I got the idea from my previous dojo where we cleaned the mats at the beginning of the year.  It isnt like me to want to clean, but the idea of having gone through every room, knowing where everything is, organizing, removing things never used, and knowing that at least for the moment it is truly deeply clean, does appeal to me.  It wouldn't help if I had someone else do it, since there are thousands of little decisions to make as I go - what to keep? what to discard? how deep is deep cleaning?  And it's a personal thing to do. To make the home most comfo

On Holiday 12/23/21

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 I've been nose deep in books lately.  In the hopes that I have more time to read books,  I ordered three more in the series I just read.  Here is the first book: Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger.  Looking forward to Curtsies & Conspiracies, Manners & Mutiny, and Waistcoats & Weaponry.  I'm sure some of you have read them already. No Spoilers! I brought my head up long enough to see the cookie supply was getting low, so I grabbed some rice krispies and made one of my favorites from my Mother in Law's recipes - Date Skillet Krispie cookies.  This is one of those recipes that come out hot and you have to roll them or manipulate them while hot or they dont work. So you hear a lot of "ooh! Tsss Hot! Ah!" while making them. Cant exactly surprise someone with them haha.  On the hydroponic gardening front, the lettuce wilted and died, not sure why. Too much fertilizer/nutrients I guess? But the basil has begun to germinate, so I'm hopeful that t

Holiday Blog - 12/21/21

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 Happy Winter Solstice! (sings "here comes the sun...") An update on the sourdough starters - the Royal Oak grape sourdough starter was pitched last night. It started smelling really bad, not like sourdough bad but like moldy cheese and barf bad. Even if that was the way that one is supposed to go, I didnt want to eat that flavor in a bread!! But the San Francisco starter that I bought is turning out nicely. Tomorrow I start discarding, so it's getting close to being active and ready.  I did some reading up on this and I think that for the future I will also dry some of the starter in case things go badly, i dont have to keep buying starter to get going again. I dont have a lot of freezer space or fridge space so that will be my insurance policy.  I've been getting cookie orders so I need to run to the store again to get more ingredients and boxes. I have  a repeat customer from last year! pretty exciting :) I spent the rest of the day making cookies, both for an orde

On Holiday - 12/18/2021

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 Today has been dubbed cookie day.  Because we are doing a gift exchange in my small group for Bible Study, I am making a couple dozen cookies for each person to pass, which means 6 dozen cookies. And eventually more... I had also planned on making sour dough bread from the sourdough starter I got from the store, but since  I got it yesterday, I dont have enough time to make it for my dish to pass tomorrow (  need like 5 days or so to go from a dry starter to an active one). I didnt remember this, so I went to the local bread store and got a couple of loaves - country sourdough and a lemon rosemary sourdough. I'm sure it will be fine.  So I have a San Francisco Starter being activated and a hometown Starter on day 4 of 14. Lot's of bread in my future if it all works.  So I'm concentrating on cookies then.  I have Snickerdoodles in the oven, and Oatmeal Raisin, and finally Chocolate Chip.  Snickerdoodles Chocolate chip and Oatmeal Raisin I kept changing my mind but these are

On Holiday - 12/17/21

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 Yesterday's project was to make a Sweet Potato Pie for a sweet friend who wanted to do something for their adopted couple.  No pictures but I also had to give the dog a bath /wash the towel and bath mat again, since he ran through a mud pit in our  back yard. Ugh. Not the way I wanted to spend my day off. ------------------------------------ Today, rather than bake, Hubby took me to lunch at the local Mexican restaurant - Yummo! And tonight I have plans with my girlfriend for Italian food - Yummo again! So I started an hydroponic mini garden with a 2 ltr bottle.  Getting ready: Nutrients + Water in the jug, Coconut coir in the bowl in water Moistened coir in the 2 liter bottle (cut bottle at the curve and invert)  There is a wick going from the side down into the nutrient water in the base of the bottle Gonna grow basil in this one Why foil jacket? Not because it gets cold, but to prevent algae Masking tape makes the sharp edges less lethal. Seeds are planted and the foil jacket i

On Holiday - 12/15/21

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 Officially on Holiday, I started in on my hobbies.  Well I really started last night, making a couple batches of fortune cookies. Shh dont tell anyone, its a surprise for my sword class. I thought they looked right but I was told by the Hubby and Daughter that they were too thick/soft in the middle and generally too big. Dang.  After work I grabbed a bunch of black grapes, unwashed so as to capture the natural mold on the skin, and crushed them into a cheesecloth over a bunch of flour water. Why do you ask? The bread people will tell you this is how you make your own starter for sourdough. Its a long process, though and wont be ripe for baking until New Year's Eve.  I bought some from San Fran so I can make it sooner though, no patience :) And now we wait 14 days (with some tasks in the middle).