Cooking

I have to admit something.  I absolutely _LOVE_ to cook.  And I’m not too bad at it, either.  Before Big E moved back in with us, I did about 85% of the cooking, with E doing the remaining 15%.  That boy LOVES to cook, though it takes him forEVER to put a meal together and get it on the table!  Anyway, I also like using my slow cooker for cooking, because, well, it doesn’t use propane or a lot of electricity, it doesn’t generally heat up the house, and we have dinner at a reasonable hour when I manage to get the food into it at the proper time.  

I also like the IDEA of slow cooker freezer meals.  The problem I have with most of the most of the ones I find?  They’re written to serve 2-4 people.  That’s IT!  Not only would a meal that small burn up in my slow cooker, but that wouldn’t feed my family!  Not even half!  There are currently 7 of us, with number 8 due in the latter half of October (yay fall birthdays!!!  And yay more grandbabies!), and 2-4 servings just will NOT cut it!  

So I’ve decided I need to search out a bunch of slow cooker recipes to feed 8+ people, then figure out how to freeze them for later use.  That way, I can test them out one by one, and link them all together in one place, so that if anyone else needs something like this, they’ll have a whole list of recipes to choose from.  And just because I can, here’s a picture of my Sweet Little Flower.  🙂

Ooh, I love those sweet cheeks to PIECES!  ❤️🥰

I know no one reads this.  I don’t really write for anyone else.  I do it to keep track of what I do, because sometimes my brain doesn’t let me remember things properly.  But just recently, I got a crafty bug going on, and I started making stuff again.  This time, it’s embroidery projects.  I made one for my sister, and a couple for some friends.  So I thought I would share them so I don’t forget about them.

This is the one I made for my sister.  It’s a bit wonky, and completely uneven, but I like it.  It’s my first foray into larger embroidery projects in quite a while.

I backed it very simply, just a circle of purple felt, and now I need I mail it to her.  

This is one I made for a very dear friend of mine, who is going through quite a lot in her life, and I thought she would appreciate it.

Again, it’s backed with just a simple circle of felt, this time in white.

And this one...  this one I made for a friend in another state, but now I’m thinking I might send it elsewhere.  It just doesn’t feel right sending it there anymore.  Does that even make sense?  lol  But here it is anyway, and I do have to admit, it’s one of my favourites so far. 

And as with the others, this one is backed with felt, this time black felt.  It wasn’t backed yet when I took this picture, though.  And as I said, this one is a bit of a favourite.  I might have to make another one like it for myself.  🙂

I have another one in my head to make, for the same friend I mentioned above, but it’s going to take quite a bit more work, so I’m not posting anything about it just yet. 

Food

We love tacos and burritos in this family.  I mean, LOVE them.  Even though I know everyone loves “Taco Tuesday,” we generally only have them on Fridays or Saturdays, since they contain beans.  But we’ll go through 2.5 pounds of meat/ protein easily in one meal, and still wish we had more.  

I found a recipe for a very basic shredded chicken cooked in the Instant Pot (found here) and have adapted it to work for taco/ burrito/ whatever nights, but we also like ground beef, carnitas, and even chopped up cremini mushrooms when we’re wanting to lighten things up.  And, provided I don’t mix up the measurements for cayenne and paprika in the taco seasoning mix (I’ve only done it once, but they’ll NEVER let me live it down!  lol), they always turn out amazing.  But not tofu.  I just can’t bring myself to eat it.  It’s a textural thing.

However, the past 3-4 times we’ve had burrito night, Miss V has fallen asleep before it’s ready, and slept right through it.  Which is SUPER frustrating, since she LOVES making herself burritos.  I honestly just can’t understand HOW she does it!  She’ll be wide awake and messaging me one minute, then BAM!  Fast asleep the next.  

Then she’ll complain about having missed it until we have them again, which typically isn’t that often, though thanks to Lent and “meatless Fridays,” we’ve had them fairly frequently in recent days.  But it’s such a simple meal to put together, especially when you only have to cook the mushrooms and heat the beans, sometimes cook rice, and then you’re done, that I think maybe we should have them more often.

She used to be like this with “circle steaks,“ which was something my mom taught me to make ages ago.  It’s just ground beef, garlic, salt, and pepper, then you form it into little circular patties, smaller than the palm of your hand, that you cook in a little butter in a pan.  We always had them with mashed potatoes and veggies, but like clockwork, she would pass out early on nights we were having them.  It was the weirdest thing!

So what about you?  Are there any meals you make that people in your family skip like that?  Or maybe you’re the one who falls asleep while eating?  Tell me about it!

Water Woes

I may have mentioned it before, but we live on 40 acres in the middle of nowhere.  We have a well for water, and most of the time that isn’t a problem.  When the house was first build, my dad had a whole house filtration system installed, and it does a fairly good job of making the water taste really good.  However, back when we had cows, and they broke through the fencing all the time, we had a TON of water troubles.  

It seemed I was always fixing this or that line because the cows had busted it open AGAIN.  Well, this past Friday night/ early Saturday morning, somewhere about in the 2am range, I went to take a shower and BAM!  No water.  So I went outside, and discovered water EVERYWHERE.  It busted AT the well.  So I killed the water at the breaker, which is the only sure way to stop it running, and discovered the source of the leak.  I *thought* it would be an easy fix, just glue two pieces that had somehow slipped apart back together.  So I did that, and went to bed.  The next morning, around 9am, when I went out to turn the water back on, I discovered an even bigger problem. 

That part isn’t a 2-piece fitting.  It split the piece itself in two.  So, being as how at that point I had only gotten about 4 hours sleep, I did what any sensible exhausted person would do.  I went back to bed for a few hours.  lol  And then I got up, got dressed, and went to the nearest home improvement store and got the parts I needed to fix it.  The one thing I lacked, however, was a pair of channellocks/ vice grips, so I called a wonderful neighbour of mine to borrow the necessary tool, and instead, he came over and helped me fix it.  Yay good neighbours!

So then, of course, we had to wait the requisite 2 hours for the glue to set and cure, but in the end, we had working water again.  You don’t really appreciate having water until you don’t have it for an extended period of time.  Oh, and because we run on well water, when the well isn’t working, the toilets don’t work either.  Because there’s no flow to move the water in/ out of them.  So we _ REALLY_ appreciate it when we have water!

So...

Next week, my son and DIL (daughter-in-law, for those who don’t know) have their first official meeting with her midwife.  My DIL and I went last week to check a birthing centre out, and she made the decision that she wanted to go the midwife/ birthing centre route with this pregnancy instead of using an OB/GYN and a hospital.  She didn’t really like how the hospital and nurses made her feel with her first pregnancy, and feels the birthing centre is a much better option.  We met with the midwife, who seemed super sweet, and discussed different options available to her.  So if they want me to go, we’ll be going with them, and I’ll watch Little Flower so they can talk with the midwife. I know they’re excited this time around, and Oldest Son is impressed that they encourage dads to be involved as they do.  But the best part about this birthing centre?  The front garden!

They had so many flowers!  They even had violets, from what I could tell!  She DID say that she didn’t have any mums, though, and I think I understand why.  They’re mainly annuals, and her garden looked to be mainly perennials.  lol

After the midwife, we took Miss V to the dermatologist to have a wary dealt with.  She was hoping they would burn it off right then and there, but instead they tried freezing it, and she’ll have to wait several weeks to know if it worked or not.  But oh well, such is life!

I really do t know why she took this picture, but since it was there, I added it.  lol  Hey, you can’t see my soda-stained roof in it!  But that’s a story for another time.  lol

Then, after the dermatologist, we decided to satisfy our sweet tooth and went to a frozen yogurt place.  It was good, and the baby enjoyed it.  But we all agreed that it was not likely to receive a second visit.  It was SUPER expensive for the little we got, and none of us really felt it was worth the price.  🤷🏻‍♀️

Of course, I took pictures of my sweet Little Flower eating her noms while we were there, because I just can’t resist a chance to capture her precious little face on camera.  I love her so much!

And, of course, no trip to Tallahassee would be complete without a stop at Trader Joe’s!  We got some apples, some cookies, and a whole lot of good stuff.  I got a bag of “autumn glory” apples, and they are SOOO good!  I could have eaten the entire bag by myself, they were so good!  I was good, though, and didn’t buy a bunch of stuff I didn’t need, so I’m sorta proud of myself for that.  🙂

Well, that’s it from up here in rural north Florida.  Not really all that much going on, but we still manage to get by.  🙂