Well. FIRST, Hubby hands me THREE dozen roses. I almost fell over. We don't normally do flowers. They're right here next to me, a medley of pink, red, and white. Two vases. Yeah, I could've stuck them in one vase, but I wanted to give them room. As you can see, I arrange flowers for crap. But even so, these were and are gorgeous! A few don't look like they're going to open fully, but I don't care.
I miss my roses. I once had a thriving rose garden in my front yard, many of the bushes planted in memory of people I care/cared about. But we have large maples in our front and back yard. I noticed my roses looking pretty nasty: spindly, no blooms to speak of, yellow leaves... So I consulted a biologist friend of mine who said, "You need to get rid of all your roses." I thought I would cry. Apparently, there's a fungus (I can't remember the name of the nasty little bugger), and it's in the roots of maples, and gets into the dirt. I doused my soil with neem oil (on his suggestion) and ripped all the roses out.
Well, now as you may remember, it's a wildflower garden and it's thriving. But I miss my fragrant, home-grown roses.
So. We had a nice weekend. We went to dinner on the Saturday before our anniversary since the Sunday was going to be busy. We exchanged cards on Sunday. The roses showed up Saturday, by the way... And as I was knitting (see below), he hands me a large-ish box. It was this little beauty. It's an InstaPot Duo Mini. It's just the right size for the 2 of us, and gives us 4 portions of whatever we're cooking. So tonight, we had a brown rice & chicken thing - I found a recipe and I also did a bit of "winging it."
With broth AND pineapple juice (I'm telling you --- my new best friend when pressure cooking chicken), we used organic brown basmati, about 8 spring onions, 4 large cloves of garlic, a total of 1.5 cups of broth/juice. I also used 3 carrots, chunked, and about a cup of peas. The chicken breasts were FROZEN. I'm talking two bricks-of-chicken. I also used Penzey's Sunny Paris blend, salt and pepper. It took one hour, start to finish. So when people say, "Hey, my InstaPot cooks stuff in 15 minutes," it's only partially true. It takes some time when using the pressure cooker part, to get up to pressure, then to release the pressure. So don't count on dinner on the table in 20 minutes. There's also prep time. This thing sautees, so I initially sauteed the veggies, then added a little broth to deglaze, then rinsed the rice, put that in with the broth/juice, and spices. Stirred it up and then laid the chicken breasts on the top. Locked it down, set the time & pressure and walked away. Hubby really likes the "vent the pressure" thing. It must be a guy thing. Anyway, I also nuked the peas and put them in afterwards. I shredded the chicken, too.
Notes: I'd add more onions & garlic, and add more salt & pepper. It was a touch bland. But you could taste a bit of the pineapple juice. It's a keeper, worth tweaking.
Knitting Knews...
Sorry. It's been awhile since I did a poorly-executed pun-ish kind of thing. I won't do it again, I promise.
I started a "Two Hour Shawl." Well. It's not 2 hours. But then, I have a caveat. I know I knit slowly. I've been working on this for a couple of days. I mean, I do have a couple of other jobs to do. It's from Wolfberry Knits, and it's called, "The (literally) Two Hour Shawl." I'm doing it in a crazy acrylic purple + sparkles, and yes, using fringe.
It's going to a special person, and I have to hold that close to the vest for now. I am using "trees" to knit... Mind you, I've been doing a lot of sock knitting and the Close to You Shawl - I've been knitting with much, MUCH smaller needles.
These are size 15 and I'm holding the yarn double. I've also been playing a little yarn chicken. You see, I bought 2 balls, and I cut the fringe (all 100 pieces....I'm dyin' here...) from one ball, thinking I'd use two-ish balls for the shawl. Then I got the brilliant idea, since they called for 100 meters/ball, to DOUBLE the yarn. I have to get to 90 stitches across.
The yarn the pattern called for needs to be blocked. Obviously, I'm not blocking acrylic. I won't have to. But I might pin it out anyway, just so I can get the fringe on there correctly. There are 50 fringes per side. I normally don't fringe anything, but this will really work with the pattern.
It's a pretty yarn, and soft. But it's truly like knitting with tree trunks after all the sock yarn. I've set the Close to You Shawl aside till I get some headways on this one. I mean, really - two hours, bulky yarn, huge needles... But honestly, I really don't like knitting this large - at least not often. For some things, it's totally the way to do that. For an 8-hour baby blanket (which takes me about 3 weeks), that's perfect. But putting it in perspective, these are the shawls-in-the-works side by side. Church Yard Sale Bargains...
I really tried to avoid any buying at the yard sale. Heck, I donated THREE boxes of stuff. (And there's more in the basement, which we're planning on sending over for the Fall Sale) But I did find a few gems that I couldn't pass up. One of them, I got for free - because I found them after the sale was over and before the Salvation Army got them!I got a lovely large blue spatterware platter, which we can use for our large family gatherings. Hubby liked that one a lot. For a buck. I also got a Fiestaware pitcher - I've never had any kind of Fiestaware, and this is a nice one for my fridge. For TWO bucks.
When I posted that on Facebook, I got some side-eye because it was only $2. Hey, not my fault. I was promoting the Rummage Sale. Your fault if you don't come and see what's there.
I also got a small bud vase; I'm usually scrambling for one of those. For 50 cents, it was worth it.
It was nice to see my stuff leaving the building... And as I said, I'm anxious to get rid of more of it in the Fall.
These beauties are for Kid #2. He's into vinyl. Apparently, that's the "in" thing. So some of these are truly trash, but some may be nice things to have. They're "old school" vinyl. My one friend grabbed one of them out of the box, and while she was getting ready to go home, it slipped out of her hand, and the edge hit the table. A huge chunk cracked off... She was only going to frame it, so she can glue it up nicely and it'll be ok for that. This box has lots of chipped ones, but maybe he can find a few that are unique.
We had several boxes of LPs and someone came and asked one of our volunteers to thumb through each and every one. He bought a few of them for upwards of $30 -- and we were selling them for $1 each! I suggested that someone get a valuer in for the Fall sale, especially if we had stuff like records and depression glass, etc. No sense selling it for a dollar or two if we can get a little more for it. We did have someone bargaining for a set of silver tea spoons. I'm not talking "teaspoons." I'm talking about Polish silver tea spoons, like demitasse spoons, with a maker's mark and all. He wanted them for $5 for a set of 6. Our warden wasn't budging. At $10, that set was enough of a bargain. As usual, there were far too many purses, tatty Christmas decorations and baby items, but we did well, and have hopes for a better Fall sale.
Hey, maybe there'll be more Fiestaware!
Random Picture...
So I'm going to Colorado to see Kid #1 with my "wingman," Kid #2. And I'm meeting the new girlfriend. So we've been texting back and forth, and exchanging pictures. I tried to get one of Quinn to show her. And of course, Quinn responds well to bribery. A little too well here!! Funny story: My sister came over so I could help her with a resume. She's seen my dogs - at least the Elkhounds. Tippi visited with her right when I first got her. And later, Quinn - who was supposed to be my sister's dog in the first place - raced around the yard with her dog Kali. They had a blast.
She hadn't met Raisa yet, and of course fell in love with the red-headed Siberian Husk-clown...
Anyway, Quinn seems to have forgotten her manners. She took one look at my sister and went to hide in the bathroom... She eventually came out, we were working on my sister's stuff. I petted both dogs. Tippi was glued to her side, wanting pets - and being the quiet, well-trained therapy dog she is -- was, well... QUIET. Tippi doesn't paw at you for attention (like some Husky I know...) and she doesn't intrude on you. She sits and waits.
Quinn was on the couch. Eventually, both dogs up and walked to the back of the house. My sister didn't even hear them go. She was shocked that they went "poof" like little grey fog clouds... "How can such big dogs move so quietly???" she asked. She did eventually pet Quinn, and I think they're friends.
Maybe.
So what's on your needles? What's on with garden plans? What are you reading? Fill me in!
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