Current Projects in Progress

The nice thing about being able to stay home as a "domestic engineer" is that I get to do things that I like doing, when I'm not doing the things that I don't necessarily like doing.  Like dusting.  I hate dusting.  And you can tell by the fingerprints in my 1/2" layer of dust on my furniture.  Anyhoo, in this post I just wanted to record some of the fun things that I've been keeping busy with, that is, when I'm not doing the unfun things.  (I know, that's a word that probably won't be found in the dictionary, and I'm pretty sure it's not acceptable to use in a legitimate game of Scrabble either.)

Today I finally went to the quilt store and bought a yard of fabric to use for the binding on Steph's quilt.  Here is Kiska posing with it.  I interrupted her nap.

I chose a shade of brown that I thought would be a good contrast with the back panel, and that would also match the browns on the front side.  However, I'm not sure when I'm gonna get to work on it cuz, as you will see, I have other projects going on at the same time.  

Like making my Easter treat boxes.

I always like to make treat boxes with the holidays, but I always tend to go overboard and overwhelm myself.  Whenever I see the seasonal candies in the stores, I can never resist buying all different kinds, and after get them home, I look at my huge stash and wonder "how am I going to box all of these in time?"  I like to mail them out to a few "select" friends and family members that I know will appreciate them, and always underestimate the time it takes to make so many of them.  So I am getting a head start on the Easter boxes this year.  The little treat bag is a new toy that I am playing with.  I just ordered that mini treat bag die from Stampin' Up!, and am having fun with it.  Still not sure if the top of the bag is supposed to be folded towards the front, like I have them here, or if they're supposed to be folded towards the back.  Anyone out there know the proper etiquette on that?  So far I have been using designer paper which works great for the boxes, but a tad stiff to work with as far as these bags go.  So today I bought a roll of gift wrapping paper because it's thinner and more "flexible".  It's worth a try.

Another project that I'm working on is an anniversary card for a couple at church who are going to be celebrating their 50th in May.  Somehow I was "drafted" into making the card, and I have to somehow figure out how to put pages in it for people in the congregation to sign.  This is what I have so far.

I am nervous about being assigned with this job because, whatever I make is going to be a reflection on me personally.  So I really hope that this will be okay.  They suggested that it be 8x5 x 11" in size, but that seemed ridiculously big to me, so I down sized it to 8.5 x 9".  Hopefully, that will be okay.  I still have to guess at how many pages I need to insert into it, and how I'm going to do it so it looks nice.  I have an idea, but so far it only works in theory (in my head).  I'll have to play around with it.  Luckily I have plenty of time to get it done, but I'm glad I started on it right away cuz it'll be nice to have this job behind me.  I was going to have a shade of blue as one of the colors, but decided that neutral colors would be easier on the eyes, and would also somehow keep it more "elegant".  So I went with Brushed Gold, Very Vanilla, and Sahara Sand (for all you Stampin' Up! people who are familiar with their colors). I still have to come up with some words to put on that rectangle block in the bottom right corner.  I hope I didn't make it too busy with all the leaves.  When I have to make something for a large group of people, I get extra critical of myself, and question (and doubt) EVERYTHING.

So between this card and my Easter boxes, I go back and forth.  Since they both have a deadline, the quilt is put on the back burner for now.  But at least I have the fabric at hand, so I'll be able to work on it at the very moment that I decide to.

Oh, by the way, I finally made that macaroni and cheese using the soy milk, and it worked perfectly.

It looks a little weird because it's not your traditional mac & cheese.  The little cubes you see are actually little cubes of butternut squash and it has quinoa noodles in it.  The only cheese that's in it is sharp cheddar, so this turned out "good", but I think it needed more flavor.  But it must not have been "bad" cuz I just made it yesterday and it's all gone already (it made an 8 x 8 pan).  I will probably make it again sometime, but I'd like to spruce up the flavor somehow.

Well, that's all that's happening in my hum-drum life for the time being.

Soy Milk Pudding Test

Ah, yes, the controversial soy milk!  I still haven't decided if soy milk is evil or not, but I had to try it in one of my favorite recipes for rice pudding.  I love rice pudding, but have been depriving myself of it since I learned I have issues with lactose, and possibly casein too.  Soy milk has a lot of protein in it, which is why it SHOULD work for cooking and SHOULD be able to serve as a substitute for milk in most recipes.  So I put it to the test.

And it passed!

It turned out very nice and creamy!!  Maybe even too creamy! (is that possible?)  As I type this I am still indulging in it while it's still warm, which is the way I prefer it, and I'm curious to see how much more creamier it will get after it cools off.  And I hope Hubby will like it.  He loves rice pudding too, but he grew up with the kind that his mom baked in the oven, which has a less creamy texture.  And that stuff is really good too, but this recipe is easier to make and it's made over the stove top.  I found this recipe on "allrecipes.com".  If you want to find it, just look up "Creamy Rice Pudding" on the website.  I have made a few changes from that recipe though.  For one thing the recipe oddly doesn't call for cinnamon.  Whoever heard of rice pudding with no cinnamon?  That's just insane!

So now that I know the stove top recipe works with soy milk, I would like to try it with the oven recipe cuz I think Hubby probably likes it better that way - you know - just because his mom was the best cook ever (he's biased).  Anyhoo, I would also like to eventually try this recipe with other types of milk, like hemp or almond, just because I think I could mentally "relax" if I wasn't using soy.  Don't you hate that when you just don't know what to believe when you're hearing good arguments coming from both sides?  I am usually able to make up my mind pretty quick about things like that, but this one is a doozy.  And even if I do make a decision, I often will change my mind again after learning new facts.  It can be really frustrating at times, not knowing what you should or shouldn't put into your body, and then I question whether or not I'm just being too picky and does it really matter as long I'm not indulging?  When you're young and invincible you don't even think twice about it.  But when you get to be my age, you do start paying attention because your body starts to "talk to you", probably protesting your bad eating habits when you were young and invincible that are catching up to you now.  I often wish that everything was obvious, black and white; that, if it's bad for you, you will know right away what it's doing to you.  But most foods aren't like that; they are silently "killing" you, or making you sick and you don't even know it until it's too late.  I know we're all gonna die some day anyway, as some people argue while their chowing down their 3rd Big Mac and chugging down their super-sized soda, but if I can help it, I don't wanna live out the rest of my years being scolded by my body.  I still wanna be able to climb Mt. Flattop when I'm 85.

I got off track again.  This post was supposed to be about my successful pudding made with soy milk.

Oh YUM.

New Food Ingredients To Play With

For the past several years I have been on an incremental journey to improve my eating habits, not only to reach my potential of good health, but also in hopes of avoiding a preventable disease, and also to stave off future stomach flare-ups. And because I just wanna feel good. The first thing I gave up was soda and anything carbonated.  That was a LONG time ago.  And I only did that because I realized that all it did was make me bloat.  What female wants to be bloated?  It's not sexy or attractive (not that I wanna be sexy). Besides, like I keep telling Hubby when he drinks his Dew, that stuff is "diabetes in a can".  When I reached my upper 40s, I started to notice subtle feelings of just not feeling the same, like less energy.  So I started cutting back on other things that I knew wasn't good for me, especially fast-food.  I no longer eat fast food unless I really have to, and even if I really have to, I am choosy about which fast food I eat.  I refuse to eat at McDonald's, Burger King, and Taco Bell, and other similar burger joints, but will occasionally eat something light at Arby's or Subway - if I'm desperate enough.  Then over time I decided to quit drinking cow's milk, just because I kept reading about how it's not good for you, despite what "they" say.  Then I started developing stomach issues for some unknown reason.  After the 7th flare-up in a 3-1/2 year period, I decided to get my blood tested for sensitivities.  How ironic that cow's milk came back as the biggest culprit.  I had already eliminated cow's milk from my diet anyway and replaced it with almond milk, but apparently that wasn't enough to keep the tummy troubles away.  I haven't eliminated ALL dairy from my diet, but after trying an elimination diet, then testing certain dairy products, I am now "afraid" to consume sour cream and whipped cream.  The rest of the dairy products I am still cautiously "playing" with.  Hard cheeses don't seem to bother me, but I'm not sure if the delayed effects of casein buildup is affecting my joints or not.  Anyhoo, I didn't want this post to be about my health issues, I just said all of that to explain another reason why I am incrementally trying to improve my eating habits and weaning myself from the good and replacing it with good stuff.  So, every two weeks when I make my trip to Anchorage, there are two stores that I try to go into to see what I can find - something new.  One store is the Natural Pantry.  We don't have a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe's up here, so I am very thankful for the Natural Pantry cuz they have just about EVERYTHING weird that a recipe might call for.  The other store I like to go to is the Summit Tea & Spice store - they specialize in, well, teas and spices, of course, but they also have all kinds of exotic things in there that I never even knew existed.  I always buy my cinnamon there because I have become quite particular about my cinnamon - the stuff you buy in a regular grocery store just doesn't cut it for me anymore.

ANYHOO!!!!  (I got myself off track.)  My daughter gave me this cookbook for Christmas that is full of recipes that are supposed to be alkaline.  I never really thought about becoming alkaline, but the recipes look very interesting, and they are all mostly vegan, so it'll be an interesting way for me to learn how to cook "weird" stuff that I know will be healthy for me.  Up till now, I've always just cooked the typical American meals that are high in fat and refined carbs, so I am excited to learn how to cook healthy stuff, even if it's weird.  I picked a couple recipes to start with and found some ingredients at my two said stores, ingredients that I never bought before:

Whole grain spelt flour has some gluten in it, but I guess the protein (or something) in it is different so it's supposed to be easier to digest - my tummy is smiling already.  I plan to try making "Spelt Soda Bread" with it.  Yeah, we'll see how that turns out.  The recipe also called for sheep's butter and goat's yogurt, which I didn't have time to look for, so if I can't find it at "Freddie's", I'll just have to use regular butter and organic soy yogurt, which BTW, is another recent new addition to my diet (I use it in smoothies).

I never even heard of Himalayan pink salt until I saw it in practically all of the recipes in that book.  It's supposed to be full of minerals. Putting a little bit on my tongue, it tastes just like salt, as I expected.

I have had soy milk before, when I order my occasional lattes at Starbucks, but I've never bought it myself.  Supposedly it's the closest thing to cow's milk so it is supposed to be good for baking with.  I plan to try making macaroni and cheese with it (with quinoa macaroni), and also some rice pudding. It's also supposed to be good for "creamed" soups. It's been a long time since I've had creamed soup because they are typically made of milk and/or heavy cream, so I would like to try making some with soy milk.  Soy milk is supposed to be good for regulating hormones, which I'm sure I need, but I'm also aware that it's a controversial product.  For one thing soy is a GMO food, so you have to be careful to buy organic.  Also, I guess some people say it can mess up your thyroid.  I really don't know what to believe, so I am using it fully aware that I might be taking a risk with it.  But, you know what they say about "picking your poisons".  Speaking of which, the alkaline recipe book also uses agave syrup in most of the recipes.   Some say it's a healthy alternative, but after doing some research, I decided it's a "poison" that will shut down my liver in the long run.  So unless I can substitute it with regular sugar, I will probably skip all the recipes that call for agave syrup, which would make the food non-alkaline, of course.  But at this point, becoming alkaline isn't really my goal; I'm just trying to expand my horizons with healthier alternatives in general - incrementally.  And sugar is one of those ingredients that I may never give up, especially since it seems to be the "least evil" of all sweeteners out there, I mean for a non-diabetic.  Not saying that sugar is good for you, it's just that, based on my research, every other "healthy" alternative has something about it that makes it worse than sugar.  That being said, I'm glad I'm not diabetic.  (knock on wood)

The hemp milk isn't too new.  I have been using that in my smoothies.

The ginger syrup is probably not good for me - the main ingredient is "organic cane sugar", which is a fancy name for plain ol' regular sugar.  But I thought it might taste good in tea.  It also claims that it tastes good on pancakes.  We'll see.

The cinnamon chocolate bar - what can I say?  It's 70% cocoa (good for me) and has cinnamon in it (I love cinnamon!).  I couldn't resist buying it.

So now that I have some new ingredients to play with, we'll see if my culinary skills are good enough to make something edible.  I'll let you know...

A Break from Quilting

So here is an update on how my quilting project is going.  I decided to go with a design involving squares and spiral squares.  I don't know if this was a good decision or not.  It's not a difficult design, but since this is actually my first real quilt, maybe I should've went with just straight lines.

I don't fully regret it though, because it has taught me a few things about quilting, particularly free-motion quilting.  It's one thing to read about it and watch other people doing it on uTube videos, but you can't really learn how to do it until you experience it yourself.  And free-motion quilting is one of those things that definitely takes experience and lots of practice.

Anyhoo, one tip that I read on the internet is to fill up a bunch of bobbins before you start.  This may sound like a no-brainer, (duh!) but I'm glad I saw that tip cuz I don't know how long it would've taken me to figure that one out on my own (did I mention I'm new at this?).  So I searched for all the empty bobbins that I had on hand, and in the end managed to gather 11 empty bobbins and filled them all up.

This turned out to be extremely handy cuz I absolutely HATE rethreading my machine more than I have to.  It's not so much the threading part, it's the part that involves threading the needle.  That can be quite frustrating at times.  Thankfully, with this handy-dandy tip, all I had to do was change the bobbin instead of refilling the same one over and over.

Here is something else I learned:

The back panel of the quilt is a mustard yellow color with small brown leaves/flowers, so I thought this multi-colored thread would match it perfectly and add some personality.  This was not a good idea for me, the beginner quilter, because all the darker shades of the thread show up really well, and I made a lot of mistakes in my stitching, which of course are all conspicuous now, practically advertising all my goof-ups.  Plus, the thread got nested in a few places.  Needless to say, this quilting job is not going to turn out perfect.  Thankfully, my daughter, who is going to be the recipient of this quilt, understands this, and is only appreciating the fact that I'm making her a quilt at all.

Since I was doing squares and spiral squares, this was going to require a lot of starting and stopping of my stitches, so I had to learn what to do with the hanging threads.  Most of my quilting resources (books, internet, and videos) say to knot and bury the beginning threads, but then wondered why I should bother if you're instructed to just snip off the end threads.  It didn't make any sense to me to go through the trouble to bury some and then just snip the others, so for awhile I just snipped.  But the whole time I was doing this, I felt like I was taking a shortcut, and "cheapening" the quilt and worried that this method was going to cause the quilt to unravel a lot quicker.  There had to be a "right way" to do this.  More research on the internet led me to a video that showed me how to bring up the bobbin thread so I could bury it together with the top thread.

And yet another video showed me how to bury the threads without having to thread a needle every time, just by using a looped thread.  (too hard to explain on here)  The looped-thread method made this job fast and easy, and "fun", so I didn't mind having to do this every time I started or stopped a stitch.  By the time I became a whiz at that, the squares and spiral squares were all done, and I could now switch to my walking foot because all I had left now was the straight diagonal lines.  I love free-motion quilting, but after doing that for awhile, quilting straight lines with a walker foot really seemed like a breeze!  The problem that I was having with free-motion quilting was trying to maneuver the bulk of the quilt in my short-arm machine.  Not easy; thus the crooked stitches.  I think that maybe I should ask Santa Claus (aka "my hubby") for a long-arm machine for my next Christmas present.

Some setbacks that I had involved my top thread breaking all the time (tension needed readjusting),  bobbin thread running out at the most inconvenient times - but is there really a convenient time for the bobbin thread to run out?  And the cats wanting to enjoy the quilt before I had it done:

Anyhoo, we were planning on going up north to visit my daughter over the weekend, so I was trying to get it all done before we left.  And I did get all of it done except I still have to go around the edge of the border yet.  I'm glad I didn't force myself to get that part done cuz if I rush myself, I only get frustrated and make more mistakes.  Sometimes I have to force myself to put it down and walk away. And that's what I did.

My daughter Stephanie lives on Eielson AFB, a 6-hour drive from here.  Here is a picture of Mt. McKinley that I took on the way up there:

Chuck was marveling that we could still see the shrub grasses sticking out of the snow.  At this time of the year, especially further north, there is normally enough snow that all the shrub grass should be completely buried.  This is definitely not the year for snow.  Fairbanks had some snow on the ground, but not much.  It was definitely colder there, though.  This morning when we left her house, it was only 11 degrees.  When we got home today, it was raining and 47 degrees.  Of course everything is brown - no snow on the ground at all.

Here is a picture of Stephanie and PW with Steph's dog Charlie:

Cute dog but very hyper.  I don't know how Steph does it with Isaac being gone for two months.  He would be too much for me all by myself.  I think I will like him more after he outgrows some of his puppiness.

It was a fun visit, but also good to be back home.  My quilt is still folded up and sitting right where I left it, waiting to be finished.  So I am looking forward to working on it some more.