Valentine's Day Eve

This is really funny. I can remember my mom complaining because mom said that my grandma always talked about how busy she was and she didn't seem to do anything. Mom was a teacher, had the two of us kids and we were probably in middle or high school at the time so we probably did keep mom hopping. Now, I get ready to write this post and I'm probably about the age my grandma was at that time - and I'm thinking about how busy I was today. I felt like we didn't stop but then when I go to write what we did . . we weren't THAT busy.  :)

But, here's my "diary" entry for today.

Vince had told me earlier in the week that he wanted to take me out for Valentine's Day but he didn't want to go to Joplin on a Saturday. He said we could go anywhere I wanted to go. So, I said I wanted to go to Louisiana and eat crawfish. Nope, that was a bit too far.  :)  There aren't that many places in town that I like that he likes so I suggested Magic Noodle. I guess you would call it a Thai type place but I'm not even sure. There's a Mexican restaurant in town, very authentic, very nice people, that I went to with Jeremy and Angie before Vince moved here (2020) and I love it. Sometimes when Vince is gone, I'll go there and eat. Vince and I did go there once and I thought he said he didn't like it. But today he tells me that's not true. We were passing there on our way home and he said "We never go there". I said "I love that place but thought you didn't like it." Nope, he loves it too. OK . . Haven't been in 5 years but maybe we'll go there sometime.

I'm kinda getting out of order here . . Vince wanted to go to Michael's and get something and he had a 40% off coupon. It was on the app so I had it too but I only bought stuff that was already on sale. They had quite a bit of Christmas stuff for 70 or 75% off! I got some ribbon, a velvety feeling reindeer and a shaggy red 8 or 10" Christmas tree. I got a little fake green Christmas tree - about 8".  Mostly it was things I could put with my Christmas cross stitched small pillows.

Then Vince wanted new coffee cups so he went to T. J. Maxx, didn't find them there; went to Target and found a couple there. I didn't get anything at either place. In fact, I stayed in the car at Target.

Then we went to eat. Magic Noodle used to be my favorite place but the last few times, it wasn't so great and I doubt we go back. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't great.

From there, we went to Walmart. Vince needed something. I stayed in the car again. My knee is fairly ok but definitely not perfect. I try to stay off it as much as I can so I don't ever mind staying in the car while he goes in and shops. From Walmart, we went home. Said we weren't leaving again probably til Tuesday. Yay!

A while back, on the old blog no doubt, I had mentioned that I was folding linen and wrapping it around comic book board and securing the linen with alligator clips. I use the 2.2" clear ones with teeth. Then I stand the linen up, kinda on its side standing up so when I open the bins, I'm looking down at the folded edge and I can see exactly which linen is what color. These are the bins I've been using. They're Hefty 40 quart Hi-Rise. When we bought the first ones, we got them from Lowe's but Walmart has them marked down now so, for six, it was about $30 less from Walmart.

Before using these, I had my linen stacked in Rubbermaid totes and it took a lot of digging to get to the linen in the bottom of the tote. I love the Hi-Rise totes. It's so easy to find the color of linen I need. I still have several totes that have linen so I'm going to get it all in these Hi-Rise bins.

So . . back to what we did today . . the totes are heavy when loaded. I can pick them up but I had stacked them three high so if I needed the bottom one, I had to move two, then lift the bottom one up onto a table to get to a bottom tote.

A couple of days ago, I asked Vince about ordering another wire shelf unit. In my current sewing room, the lighting is not good. The corner in the back is way dark. Vince has said he'll have lights added but we aren't staying here. I don't know when we'll actually do it but I don't want to spend the money having more lights added. The room/lighting is fine for what most people would want. I could get a floor lamp of some kind and be fine. There was nothing in that corner and I had planned to move the sewing room recliner into that corner, put a magnifying light there and I could sit in there and cross stitch if Vince wanted to watch something on TV that I didn't want to watch. Then I realized almost every wall in that room has shelving units against them and the bottom shelves would be so much fun for the dogs to grab things to destroy. I would never to have the dogs in there and they would not be quiet if I stayed in there and they were not with me. That got me to thinking . . what could I do with that corner to maximize storage.

I had measured and knew I could fit a 60" long, 48" deep shelf unit in the corner. Vince had two he had ordered and had not used so he said I could have one of those. 

When we got back from eating lunch out, we started putting the shelf together. We had the bottom shelf on and Nicole called. She had been to town today and went by Crumbl Cookie to get cookies for Addie for Valentine's Day. They had a Dubai Chocolate Strawberry Brownie today but when Nicole got here, they were sold out. When Nicole told Addie that they had been out of the Dubai Chocolate Brownie, Addie looked online and they had them listed again so Nicole wanted me to run to Crumble, get the brownies and she will come here tomorrow to get them. We stopped putting the shelves together, went back to Joplin, got them, came home and finished putting the shelf together. 

There's a start! I will be able to get 6 of the linen tubs on each of the third, fourth and fifth shelves. I won't need that many tubs for linen. I probably will need three or four more tubs for the linen but I can store other things in those Hi-Rise tubs. They stack so nicely and six per shelf is a perfect fit. That will give me the second shelf and the top shelf for things. Now I have sewing machines stacked on the top shelf and still have four more to get up there but I was running out of steam. 

Lots of work left before I get that sewing room organized but I'm making progress!

Finish #3 for 2026

 I had been working on a WIP but when Debbie and I stitch together, we're working on patriotic pieces. It's hard for me to see 40 count linen without a magnifier so I've been working on small pieces on 36 count linen. After stitching on this piece with her this week, I only had a bit more to get done so I finished it last night.

And why go to bed even though it was 2 a.m. when I could learn play with Chat GPT, I stayed up a bit later and came up with this:

I didn't want the white mat but I just said "straighten photo and add a frame" and that's what I got.

I tried again and said "straighten photo and add a blue frame and this is what I got.

Next, I asked it to straighten and enhance photo, no mat, add a 2" brown border with 1" between the edge of the stitching and the border. I think the space between the stitching and the border is more on top and bottom than on the sides but for the first time I've used this, I think I did good.

It was fun. Something else to play with instead of doing other things I should be doing!

Sourdough Sunday

 It's Superbowl Sunday for some but it was Sourdough Sunday here. Maybe every Sunday will be Sourdough Sunday! Anyone want to do that with me? We could try a new recipe on Sunday or Saturday or whatever day you want.

I have a friend who is just getting into sourdough and she was having some issues with her starter and wondered if her kitchen was too cool. Maybe . . I think my starter must have acclimated itself to our freezing cold house in the winter. Having an electric heat pump in an area that gets as cold as it gets here and having one unit for a house with a basement . . not good!

About 1 a.m. this morning I went upstairs and fed the starter. It was in a quart jar and with the feeding, it was almost to the halfway point in the jars. I thought about putting it in a half gallon jar and figured that was overkill so I didn't do it. Almost always I put the jar in a bowl with a bit of water in it so if it overflows, it won't be such a mess to clean up but I didn't do that either.

While I was upstairs, I fed a second jar of sourdough and got another jar of buttermilk started and just forgot to put on the bowl under the quart jar.

You can see that it didn't seem bothered by the cold. The starter on the right, in the 1-1/2 pint jar, is for the Same-Day Sourdough Wonder Bread Copycat Recipe that has been my favorite sourdough sandwich bread for quite a while. I do substitute fresh milled flour (hard white) and add a bit more water but otherwise, it's the same exact recipe.

Even with the overflow, I had enough starter in the quart jar to make two batches of crackers.

There's the sandwich dough rising. In the two pint jars are crackers that have lemon balm added. The 1-1/2 pint jar on the right has rosemary added. I'm working on using up the herbs I dried last year since it won't be long til I'll have more herbs to save.

In the background, the jar on the left is the starter that was left after the two batches of crackers. It's fed and I'll have to feed it again tomorrow to get enough to make English muffins Tuesday.  The glass container in the middle was about 3/4 full of discard so I put most of it in the blue canister and left just a bit in the glass container. That starter has been in the fridge without having been fed for probably 6 months so I'm going to feed it and get it happy and active again and start using it for the crackers, which we're eating instead of chips and store bought crackers so we use a lot of them. I'll probably transfer the starter from the blue canister to a half gallon glass jar - just because of how I feel about plastic.

The pint jar is sitting there to show how much the bread rose. You may can see a couple of green specks on the bread. Just as I was shaping it into a loaf, Vince asked if I could add rosemary to that so I did but I mostly just patted the dough out, sprinkled rosemary on top, then rolled it and shaped it so it probably isn't going to be real pretty inside . . we'll see when I slice it tomorrow.

I did make cookies yesterday. These were the ones that were supposed to be tea cakes but tasted more like store bought slice and bake cookies. Definitely not my idea of tea cakes but I suppose I could have screwed up the recipe.

I had seen these bottles of finishing sugar and thought they might be fun and different. I have used lavender before and Vince never liked it so I put strawberry on most of them. Vince tried the lavender and loved it. Men!  :) I'll try another tea cake recipe soon and use the sugar on them too.

I don't remember if I mentioned on here that I made marshmallows last week.

They were fun to make and they were very good but . . who sits and eats marshmallows? We did but that's not something we normally do. This is the recipe I used and they are made by soaking dried marshmallow root, then straining the liquid and using that. They were sweetened with honey and the color came from butterfly pea flowers so, as far as junk food goes, they were halfway healthy.

Yes, I've been stitching too. And, at some point this week I'm going to plant broccoli seeds and get some artichoke, pepper and tomato seeds started in cups that I can keep indoors til time to set them outside. Gardening season will be here before I know it.

Vince, The Greatest Bargain Finder

 I get so frustrated with Vince and his shopping. He LOVES to shop. He loves to shop alone and I love for him to shop alone! He likes to go down the aisles and look at EVERYTHING. In Walmart, there are several aisles that have all the markdowns concentrated in one area. I have zero interest in walking down those aisles and looking at everything. I go to the store with a list. If it isn't on my list, I don't even notice. Last week, or week before maybe, we did go to Walmart and I asked Vince to meet me in the grocery area in 20 minutes. It didn't take me 20 minutes to get what I needed so I was kinda browsing and I did pick up some things not on my list.

This is probably going to sound crazy to everyone but me but when I get a new phone, I keep my old phone and even though it's no longer activated to be used as a phone for making calls, I will keep it upstairs and use it for taking pictures when I'm cooking. I can email the pictures to me via WiFi and then prepare the blog posts or Facebook entries from my computer downstairs.

A few months ago, we switched to T-Mobile and got new phones. My old phone is not holding a charge. I have to keep it on the charger, take it off, take a picture and put it back on the charger. I don't want to have to do that. I forget to put it back on the charger and then I need it and it's dead. 

While Vince was checking out the bargain aisle at Walmart, he found U. S. Cellular phones phones that were marked down to 75 cents each!! He bought two, and gave one to me to keep upstairs for my photos in the kitchen (or anywhere I want to use them upstairs). Can you believe 75 cents for a phone? And, they came with a wall plug and a cord and there's room for an memory card (or whatever you call it to insert to have more memory). I can't believe it got those but I'm happy he did. 

Every time I take my real phone upstairs, I leave it and have to go back up and get it when I realize it's up there. Now I can not even bother to take my real phone upstairs!

I wouldn't do this because the screen is too small on a phone but I could put Markup (the stitching app) on one of those phones!

Vanilla Extract Experiments

 In the 1980's, we had neighbors who were from Laredo, Texas. They gave me a container - maybe 1/2 gallon of Mexican vanilla from Mexico. I know there's some questions about whether there are "things" in the vanilla that aren't necessarily healthy but it's all I used until I started making my own extract. Those neighbors from Laredo ended up bringing me bottles and bottles of the vanilla from Mexico and I didn't run out until maybe 2010 and then I had to order the vanilla with a rooster on the bottle. When we lived in Texas, there was a Mexican restaurant that sold those big bottles so I guess I was on the road to becoming a vanilla snob and then . . I found where I could order beans and make my own extract.

It was probably late 2021 when I came across a Facebook group that orders vanilla beans. It's a pre-order and it sometimes takes weeks to get the beans. I've ordered probably 8 - 10 different batches of a variety of beans. I think the last order I placed was in mid-2024 so all of the beans I've had "brewing" are ready to use and I've tried all of them. 

By far . . by miles and miles . . the Indonesian beans that were brewed in bourbon are my favorite. Favorite as in I would give away all the other extracts if I could get pounds and pounds of the Indonesian beans. Every time I walk by that jar of extract in the kitchen, I open it and smell it. It's so good . . have I said that enough?  :)

The beans from Indonesia don't seem to become available often. I had kinda stopped reading the posts from the vanilla group because . . how much vanilla extract does a girl need and I wanted to try every bean they offered.

Y'all! I have Youtube on and a commercial just came on "Do you want to make your own vanilla extract?" and it linked to another vanilla bean seller. How weird???

OK . . back to the post . . 

Today I checked the site to see what kind of beans they have and beans from Ecuador. I did a little research to compare these to Indonesian beans and found this. My take is that the Ecuadorian vanilla would be good in my homemade vanilla pudding, ice cream, icing, shakes, etc. - dishes that aren't cooked. The Indonesian vanilla is probably better suited for cakes, pies, cookies, creme brulee - things that are cooked or baked. Of course, I'll try baking with the Ecuadorian vanilla and see what I think.

To make a long story a bit shorter . . I ordered some of the Ecuadorian beans. I'm guessing I won't have them before May or June. I'm going to continue to watch for more Indonesian beans. Those are so, so amazing.

A New Instant Pot

 A quick check on Amazon tells me I ordered my first Instant Pot in 2014 and then another one in 2015 so the fact that they've both recently stopped working is not disappointing. I've used those things so, so much and I'm very pleased with how long they lasted. A couple of months ago, one of them wouldn't do anything. I had already loaded the cooking container with food, stuck it in the pot, plugged it in . . nothing! I switched to another outlet in case it was that. Nothing. No problem, there's a second one. I transferred the food to it and it worked fine. Last week I "boiled" some eggs in it. Very fresh eggs are hard to peel but for some reason, pressure cooking them for about 5 minutes, then dropping the egg in ice water makes the peeling come off easily without tearing up the egg. I did the eggs like I always do, took them out and they were about 1/3 cooked. Tossed those, put more in and they cooked fine so I figured I had some setting wrong. 

Last week I was going to cook a whole meal in there and could not get it to work. It would achieve pressure, cook for 2 minutes no matter how long I had it set to cook and then, just go off - screen went black. This morning I wanted to cook quesabirria taco meat for tomorrow. I told Vince . . we may have to run to Walmart for a new Instant Pot if this one doesn't work. Oh . . he was on that! He was more than happy to go to Walmart. I said  . . just wait. I want to see if this one works. It did . . perfectly! We're having leftover gumbo for dinner so I wanted to make more potato salad. I put two eggs in it . . didn't work. What in the world is wrong with it? 

I have a Ninja Foodi 14 in 1 that's 6.5 quart but I don't keep any of those "extra" pots on the counter and that thing, according to Amazon, weighs 24 pounds and that's a bit much for me to lift off a shelf, carry into the kitchen and return when I'm done. I will still use it for some of the specialty things it does but not for my main pressure cooker.

Vince said "I think it's time to replace the Instant Pot so we started looking online. I ended up ordering the Instant Pot Rio (6 quart). It was on sale for $89 and it does all the things I would ever want it to do - pressure cooking, slow cooking, rice, yogurt, steam, warm. In the older models, the insert with the food would spin when you were trying to stir. There was a "clip" you could buy and I never did . . always planned to do it. I see that the new models, the insert doesn't spin when you're stirring. That's something I will appreciate.

The Gumbo "Recipe"

 Several folks asked about my gumbo recipe. I don't really have a recipe and it's so easy, you don't need a recipe. I made a pot of gumbo today and I tried to document how I did it all. 

There are a million - probably more - ways to make gumbo. This is the way I do it. I had always made my own roux. My sister told me recently that she now buys her roux already made in a jar. I mentioned it on Facebook and every one of my friends in Louisiana who responded said they now use store bought roux. I tried it for the gumbo I made today and I will NEVER make roux again!  :)  This is the roux I ordered. Prompt shipping and very expertly packaged with foam peanuts and bubble wrap.

Let me also say that there are several brands of roux in a jar and there's the one where the flour is cooked in oil and there's a "dry" roux where the flour is toasted in the oven. I used the one in the jars with the oil.

I use a Lodge #8 cast iron Dutch oven. I would guess that it makes enough gumbo for at least 8 hungry adults. According to Google, it holds 5 quarts. Of course, you don't have to make 5 quarts. I probably made 4 quarts. We both had it for lunch and I had a 1/2 gallon jar and a quart jar left over (3 quarts left over) and between us, we probably ate about a quart for lunch before I filled up the jars for leftovers.

I do as much as I can the day before. I'm sure some people make their gumbo the same day but I'm not real sure how. I do think it's better the day after it's made but did all the prep work yesterday, got it all put together and simmering by about 6 this morning and we ate about 2 p.m. so that gave it a good bit of time for the flavors to blend.

What you will need for my method of gumbo. There are many ways to make gumbo but in my world, tomatoes do NOT go in gumbo!

• A chicken - don't get the tiniest one you can find. Don't get the biggest one you can find. You need some fat in the broth to make it good! If you're using a pot bigger than I used, you can whatever size chicken will fit into your pot (along with all the other ingredients).
• Seasonings (I use a good Cajun seasoning - Cajun Redhead; salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper, bay leaves - whatever you want. Those are the ones I use).
• Two onions, 1 large bell pepper, 3 stalks of celery, several cloves of garlic, sliced green onions, chopped parsley. I usually use one jalapeno pepper too.
• Roux
• Sausage

NOTE - sausage: To me, the sausage makes the gumbo. Here, I cannot get sausage anywhere near what I like to use. When I go to Louisiana or when Chad goes, we bring back lots of sausage. It doesn't matter how many times or how big the print is, even if it says CAJUN, I haven't found any in this area to be good, flavorful cajun type sausage. Hopefully those of you in larger areas can find good sausage.

Yesterday's activities:

• Boiled a chicken in a pot of water with salt, 3 quartered onions, 5 garlic cloves, 6 stalks of celery and a couple of bay leaves.
• Removed the chicken from the pot and let it cool.
• Strained and poured the broth into one half gallon jar and one 1-1/2 pint jar.
• Picked the meat off the bones. Put that in a quart jar.
• Chopped two onions, 4 cloves of garlic, 2 large stalks of celery and 1-1/2 bell peppers. Those filled one 1-1/2 pint jar. I sauteed it all but pulled half of the veggies out to freeze for another batch of gumbo in a couple of weeks.
• Sliced and browned the sausage.

As it cooled, it all went into the fridge.

Today's Activities:

1. Slice the sausage and brown it in the Dutch oven. Once browned, remove the sausage, leaving the grease in the pot unless there's a massive amount and then you can remove whatever isn't needed for the gumbo.

2. Add a bit of bacon grease, butter - oil of your preference - to the skillet/Dutch oven if there isn't enough left from the sausage and add the onions, celery, garlic and peppers. Saute til they're all tender.

3. Add warm/hot broth (water if you don't have broth but it's so much better with a good, rich broth) and add a couple of bay leaves.  

4. Add roux. I used about one-third of the jar. I started with about 1/4 cup and then added, letting it all simmer for a few minutes and adding more as needed. What's "needed"? Gumbo isn't supposed to be thin or watering and it isn't supposed to be thick like gravy. You will learn how thick or thin you like yours.

5. Gently stir until all of the roux has "melted" into the water. Add more roux if needed to get the gumbo to the right consistency.

6. Add the chicken to the gumbo and let simmer at least a few hours.

7. It will be great to eat the same day (over rice with a bit file' added to each bowl) but it will be better the next day.

Here's the quick version of the recipe:

Boil a chicken. Save the broth.
Cook sliced sausage in Dutch oven, remove and set aside.
Saute chopped onions, peppers and celery in same Dutch oven.
Add hot broth or water (homemade broth is much better).
Add roux until the gumbo is the desired thickness.
Add shredded chicken. Add sausage if desired.
Taste and add seasonings to taste.
Before serving, add chopped green onions and parsley.

Please ask if something doesn't look right.