t is for Tuesday

 

Welcome to T is for Tuesday... or chooseday as I say... where we talk about our lives, cooking, drinking and art! 

The above pic is my coloring of Joanna Basford's weekly calendar (little by little it gets colored in thru the week, I'll show the whole scene on Friday!

as to my featured "drink" this week, it's buttermilk that was used to make lovely whole wheat pancakes and a wonderful chocolate cream cheese buttermilk pie!

listening to Kitchen Front while working this morning

whole wheat, cinnamon sugar buttermilk pancakes

I've been sewing and painting, and grooming the poodle this week as my creative work.

Mama did you call me to come have my pancake?

 I found the recipe online for whole wheat pancakes using buttermilk. Do you look at what supplies you have then google what to make with them? I do... and I usually combine several recipes, like the pancakes, I drop in some brown sugar/melted butter/cinnamon crumbles that caramelize in the pan. 

yum

so have a good week, and enjoy this lovely song

 spring.... enjoy this lovely song from the show South Pacific

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T stands for Tuesday... like a "drink' post
 

a delish cake and T is for Tuesday

 

It's Tuesday so I am joining my friends at T is for Tuesday where we share our week, our drinks, and work from our hands. The pic above is from our 27" snowfall last week, yesterday we had another 4" or so and more today predicted. Did I mention it's Spring? 

On  Sunday we made two desserts for the week, using fruit going bad on the counter. 

We started cooking at lunch by making chicken souvlaki's with leftovers for lunch on Monday. 

 

First up was pear tart with oatmeal crumble on top. Only two pears were usable so we cut the recipe in third... we've made this before and it's so good, with vanilla ice cream. recipe

Then we used our bananas and my old recipe for banana cake from Regis (Loooooong ago) 

banana cake with chocolate icing

 It calls for chocolate chips but our chips are made without soy (lecithin) and taste less than great, so we left those out and topped the finished cake with chocolate icing from a different recipe! 

Banana Chocolate chip without the choc. chips cake       350 deg oven   9X13" buttered pan

2 Cups all purpose Flour                                   1/3 cup butter softened

1 teasp baking powder                                       2-3 large mashed bananas

1/2 teasp. baking soda                                        1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teasp. salt                                                      2 eggs (egg whites for me)

                                                                            1 tsp vanilla

                                                                            1/2 cup sour cream or yogurt

sift/stir together flour, BP, soda, and salt,  set to side

in the mixer's bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in bananas then eggs and vanilla.

Mix in flour mixture, then stir in sour cream. 

Pour into prepared pan, level, and bake 45-50 minutes

in the past I've substituted buttermilk for sour cream, and applesauce for 1/2 of the butter, but not this time!

When done, let cake cool and make the icing

 

in stove top sauce pan, melt 6 TBSP butter with 1/4 Cup of cocoa stirring til disolved. After smooth, remove from med heat and let cool in a clean mixing bowl for a bit. Add 1 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar alternating with 2-3 TBSP of cream til smooth and irresistible! when cake is cooled frost and try to wait til after dinner to taste!

next up,  what I've been making. 

and listening to books on audio, taking lessons from Karen Abend's teacher line up on Sketchbook Revival, and looking out at snow. 

Drinking a mix of cinnamon/green teas cold, and these

Milo has become super defensive when he hears a cork pop... oy vey

Milo: whaaaaa  I'm just over here playing with my birthday ring toy Mama.... and tea doesn't make any noise just sayin'

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T stands for Tuesday... like a "drink' post

t is for tuesday

 Welcome to Tuesday, T is for Tuesday, T is for chooseday...

morning coffee

the mug on the left belongs to dh and that is mine on the right... do you see who we are?   

The baby has an ear affliction this week we are trying to handle on our own. He's napping more...

Milo takes a winter nap

My word for this year is recover but I have step by step continued worrying over my country and worrying for our health. That worry is well placed but not allowing me to recover. I won't likely stop worrying ...because I think... therefore I think of what is dangerous. But there must be balance

To balance that awareness I searched youtube today for mindful drawing and found this person

this is lesson two but lesson one taught me to not just drag a pen across paper, but to purposefully know where my lines start and finish. She taught me to hold my fineliner pens upright to draw unlike cursive writing holds. The tiny nibs are square and you can damage them by pressing them at an angle, as well as get less ink flow. 

She taught me another lesson sideways. Her intro was long and self marketing. I get it, these lessons are free and she wrote books...yet when I finally make it to being open to learning, it would be better for me to hear the sales push at the end. 

That said, I liked what she said in the middle of the lesson (above)... when drawing straight lines, be aware of not only your starts and stops, but intersections. Stop at an existing line, and restart if you want on the other side. She said this makes one more aware in life of boundaries between people. 

doodled word

 Respect of boundaries. That made me think of all the people who push their desires onto others as if we all think the same way. Especially on social media where you don't have face to face communication, there are people who feel the right to say any hurtful thing they think with no regard for others (or truth)

so, I will consider her words on drawing, and being mindful instead of rushing through life today. Even in the mundane practice of survival, being aware of boundaries is a good thing. 

My friend Diann shared a lemon blueberry recipe (dessertfortwo). She made 4 muffins but it's my opinion that if you don't have left overs (planned overs?) you've wasted your time so I multiplied it by three to make 12 delicious dessert muffins for the week.

recipe is Here

 

I also loved finding this woman's videos... gentle respectful way of living that is like a piece of art of itself. I've now seen about 15 of her videos and it is calming.
 

 FairyCottage videos... soft, gentle, full of art making, and tea... here's one to start you off

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb6xitXKQDs

and this week, I liked Meditations in motion, a blog of life and movement, beautifully written

I loved the modern parable here: https://meditationsinmotion.wordpress.com/

so if you need me, I'll be here trying to live in the moment, drawing and sewing, walking and trying to find peace 

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T stands for Tuesday... like a "drink' post

t is for Tuesday, M is for muffins

 

Joining my friends at T is for Tuesday today... 

It's snowing today, a fine snow that falls... not blowing sideways as usual. It's a portrait of winter to me.

Today I have to make another batch of iced tea.... I steep 6 bags (half decaf green) to make two quarts for us to have with the week's lunch.

I have to finish my third challenge quilt for the week

it's going to be a table runner made from the pink scrap bin. I plan to do curvy edges, and appliqued flowers and a heart. It is the kind of quilt that symbolizes the importance of each one of us to the whole... each 2" finished square is small but brings different color to the whole, each one is strengthened by the others, each one is integral to the whole piece, and together they make something of beauty. Just like citizens of the world... each one of us is important to the group, and each one of us can bring beauty to the world, or if they fray and pull away the whole life quilt is affected. 

 I just finished a wonderful audio book and glory be! There is another one in series to reserve at the library! Can't wait to continue the story!

finished!

ordered!

 

the story is that a woman who is sensitive to objects and their owners from the past traveled back in time to solve a mystery case.

On TV, There has been a BBC remake of All Creatures Great and Small... I loved the older series and am enjoying the current one, with the one drawback of casting for Tristan... they cast the guy who played the gun happy younger brother in the Durells in Corfu... miscast in my opinion as he is distracting to the story. Still.. worth watching. (and reading the real life books written by the actual vet)

I've been baking and want to share these

https://www.centercutcook.com/pumpkin-banana-muffins/ 

I had bananas. I had pumpkin. I had a desire for a good breakfast muffin and these are the best ever muffins I've ever made!

Of course I changed the recipe a bit. I used 1 cup of whole wheat flour instead of all white flour. 

 I used half brown and half white sugar

I added in some fresh (frozen) orange peel

I adjusted the heat/time for high altitude cooking. 

I'm turning into a cook... 

 Finally, I've enjoyed watching this man play music for his whole ranch of critters

I have watched a lot of videos of this rancher playing his guitar and singing for his donkey Hazel but this video made me really smile... some people are critter whisperers

 If T is for Chooseday... please choose to wear a mask and stay back from others. Reports are showing that having the virus causes 1/8 to have permanent neurological problems after recovery. Things like mental illnesses, strokes, dementia, as well as lung scaring. It's no joke. 

Those of you in America who don't want to wear a mask and believed this was a hoax, it's not. You're endangering me with your denial of it's danger. To the wonderful people reading this who are doing all you can to stop the spread... Thank you...

Happy Tuesday y'all

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T stands for Tuesday... like a "drink' post

To-Do Tuesday 

T is for Tuesday... and toasting the new year

 

toasting to a fresh start. Today is T is for Tuesday.... the glasses hold almond champagne sipped as we went to a zoom party with good friends from Maryland. 

We always spent holidays with Hal and Jacquie and their crowd, playing board games, eating good food, laughing and celebrating. Zoom allowed us to kind of do that this year although it's less simple to break up into groups of two to chat. I loved seeing old friends again, and making new ones. 

After midnight EST the party broke up and we looked at each other with two more hours til midnight here. 

"time is relative" we agreed and went to bed. 

My word of the year, (  read it here ) at least the first 6 months, is "recover" Not a simple process, and it has already become a goal several times already. When I wake up I now think of some one thing that's good, before leaving the soft comfort of warm bedding. When  I decide to drink water which is hard for me, I think of healing physically. When I choose to watch a baby elephant video instead of news I think of emotional recovery. Not denial of facts, just diversion so that my spirit can repair itself. 

(collards... clean leaves, fold in half and pull the stem free, layer leaves roll and chiffonade, then steam in water, salt and pepper and a bit of butter til tender)
We had the Southern Traditional foods collard greens and black eyed peas (for money and luck) as well as homemade cranberry sauce, and ambrosia.

(Sectioned red grapefruit, sectioned navel oranges, banana slices, Maraschino cherries and some juice, coconut, and if you can find it, fresh pineapple chunks)

before peeling the oranges we zested them and froze the zest for recipes... it's so much better than dried zest. So is fresh grated ginger better than dried.

I found a no knead recipe for cinnamon buns online, and tried it making the frosting with orange zest and almond extract instead of coffee. So good!

 changed it up a bit...but this is the recipe:

https://www.savingdessert.com/wprm_print/24972

 There are two of us, and we are sugar freaks so I chose to make 1/2 of this recipe which is already one half of the pioneer woman's recipe. It made 23 rolls at that. 

Before baking I poured a bit of cream on each bun because someone once said that makes them gooey like mall sweet buns and it worked a charm!

Changes made to frosting: 

again, used half this recipe which was for half of pioneer woman's and I used powdered sugar made with tapioca not corn starch (allergic to corn) and used a bit less than called for.

yum... the addition of zest and almond was inspired Mama

I sketched another lady while listening to a podcast

if I had curly pink hair this would be a selfie

to finish....

 donkeys like iced tea too...

I leave you with this quote, an affirmation by Gabriel Halpern (https://gabrielhalpern.com/affirmations-r-thru-z/)

"I desire truth in my inward most heart."

linking to

https://alteredbooklover.blogspot.com/ 

 

t is for tuesday

 

So I've known Christmas was coming for a long time, right? But life, being what it is, just 

SO DAILY

Last night, when DH said he has two more weeks of work then he's off for the year, I suddenly thought when am I making all these cookies and buying presents and making stockings for the mantle and making another quilt for the stairway??? 

Last weekend I made chocolate chewy oatmeal and banana cookies or as we like to call them, Breakfast
 

Today I join my friends at T is for Tuesday to talk about our week, share what we're drinking (hint it's not enough water)

rose wine mixed with grape juice

(the little coaster is hand pieced hexies and I've used it all year after making it last year)

and what we're making

Christmas fabric masks

origami stars made of fabric

 

yum, I like helping mama prewash the dishes

 

I'm taking a 5 day drawing class online with Joanna Basford, whom I just just adore! It's free, just join her newsletter to get it. 

I am also enjoying the Jacquie Lawson advent calendar full of beautiful graphics, games, design fun. A new video opens each day, I can design Christmas trees, cookies, play new games, find the gnome... listen to lovely music. It's $5 for a month's worth of fun to look forward to. 

Now I really must get dressed. It is warm here this week, in the 60's, and we have lots of snow left on rooftops and ground still from the last storm. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I LOVE this song sung by two favorites, John Legend and Carrie Underwood. Beautifully filmed and heart healing words

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KiFSKLTj0U
 

 Some people don't seem to care that animals have feelings... or is it they don't want to be reminded to love one another?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppM9VznR6Pw
 

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T stands for Tuesday... like a "drink' post

T is for Tuesday

 

T is for chooseday.... what will we do with this day? Milo is thinking.... he will probably think about what to put on his Christmas wish list for SantaPaws

Thanksgiving has come and gone, unlike the snow we got a week ago which is still here. There is more predicted for the entire day so it's gray and foreboding. Then bitter cold temps to come. 

I  got out the Christmas dishes to use all December. How I love them! 

I also have a set of cutlery with little Santas on it to use!

This morning it's strong coffee with milk in our snowman cups in honor of the snow today

The little coaster was made by cutting up a quilt I didn't like, but I like the individual coasters that came from it! 

no pic of the pecan pie debacle of Thanksgiving 2020. I've made this for the past 30 years and this year, in the high altitude of Colorado it blew up. Yep began to rise, like a volcano, like the raft in the closet on Dick Van Dyke show. I punctured it with  a knife and it dropped. The crust was broken, we basically served it with an ice cream scoop and it was still delish!

We had our traditional Thanksgiving food except no turkey this year, and enjoyed this almond champagne all weekend... sadly it's gone now. I think we need to make another curb side pick up at total wine, don't you?

We began decorating the house, and here's one of my older quilts that I put on the sofa

I'm not done but I am enjoying the outside porch tree and 1940's wooden cutout from my computer perch each day!

this was a lovely pre-lit tree til the lights failed. I picked the strands off last year, and replaced them with two normal strands that twinkle. It's as good as new except for the green wire, but who cares when it's the hap hap happiest season of all! Whee! I love vintage things, and we found this cut out on the trash back in MD. DH was less excited than I about dragging it home but I love it. 

 It's time for Santa to come back from his Hawaiian vacay and get busy... we all need some holiday cheer about now!

and just for silly fun.... something very different in the way of a Christmas song from the past sung by Dinah Shore... a polka!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmKlGcAK8DE

LINKING with 

https://alteredbooklover.blogspot.com/

Tis for Tuesday

 

We woke to a blinding white sugar coated world after yesterday's gloomy off and on snow day.

the fountain looks dipped in sugar!

 I was blessed enough to fall back to sleep after my husband and poodle got off the bed and went downstairs. I feel like  I haven't slept well for years. 

Breakfast this morning is blueberry cake, made from an online strawberry cake recipe, plus dark roast coffee with milk. We mix it half decaf. 

worth getting out of bed for

The sun came out and is busy this morning melting yesterday's snow off sidewalks. While it's occupied I decided to check in with the T is for Tuesday folk, who talk about their worlds and what they're drinking. 

Last week I was drinking this spiced red wine in the evenings...

something about fall spices in wine...

I was happy that I changed out the closet from summer to winter a couple weeks ago now, as I needed to put on my cuddle duds long 'wears yesterday and today. They are so thin and cozy that I generally layer over them with no problems. 

However today they are fighting with the cashmere mended old sweater and the fleece pants. REally their only job is to work together to make me warm, but here they are pulling against each other, causing me stress, in general making things harder than they need to be.... hmmmm.....

hand sewing

I'm torn about activities today, artwise. Oh I know I have real chores to do, but when it comes down to a choice between sewing/painting and mopping, I'm ashamed to admit art usually wins. 

on the design wall

I finished two quilts last week, story on Friday for both yellow leaf quilts... but the design wall is pretty when I walk into the studio. Inspiration each month partially comes from my online group at SoScrappy where we are encouraged to work with a certain color each month. This time it's neutrals. 

ack. 

Neutrals are used in just about every design as bit players to the saturated color I want to see. But being a team player, I got out my boxes of beige, white, gray and cut out some blocks to make today with low contrast. I do like seeing a quilt of blocks with some low contrast in there, so my eyes get to continue the lines where they seem to disappear. 

 I'm tired y'all, so I need to be gentle with myself, to allow for rest, mental and spiritual. I need to pet my dog, look at pretty colors, watch tv and read good books. I need to feel soft clothes all around my limbs hugging me. I need fresh food and good drinks. Then I can continue on. 

Speaking of gentleness... this video was good for me... I enjoy taking time to make intricate pretty things, and had no idea of the work involved in making paper umbrellas. I have often wanted one here in summers in sunny Colorado...

want to lower your blood pressure, hear gorgeous gentle music and learn how a delicate paper umbrella is made? this is the video for you... it was for me...

Link in case my video doesn't work 

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T stands for Tuesday... like a "drink' post