How hard is it to copy a cross stitching chart? I guess it depends on who's copying it! A while back I was making a PDF for a chart and I copied the pages out of order and it took me hours to get that straightened out. It would have been so much easier to simply make a new PDF but nope . . why do that when I can spend half the day instead of half an hour trying to do it.

I was stitching 4th of July Rules Saturday. I was close to finishing the top section. The only things I had left to stitch were several small motifs and I figured I would go back to them next time I used that color floss.

Then I stitched "Go to the", which was next on my PDF. Then I looked at the model picture and . . wait . . there's supposed to be a big white house. I don't have a big white house. It's supposed to say "Fly Old Glory". Nope . . don't have that. There are six "segments". I stitched the first one, then started on the fourth one. Two and three - completely not on my PDF. 

Vince was watching football and if I stand at the printer to make a PDF, I'm in front of the TV . . not a good place to be during football. So, what should I do?

If you said "Start a new project!" you would be right. There was room on that same piece of linen so . . why not?

That's what I got stitched Saturday evening, after picking out what shouldn't have been stitched on the other one. I did think about keeping on, and stitching the segments out of order. It really wouldn't have made any difference but I didn't. I'll stitch it like the chart shows . . but I think I'll stick with All American, also by Primrose Cottage.

Canning Pears

There's an orchard not far from us - maybe 45 minutes away. We've already been a couple of times this season. We bought apples, pears and pecans but the Asian pears are ready now so we're going back this week to get those.

I still had pears in the fridge that I hadn't canned so today was the day.

I canned 30 pints of pears TODAY! Yes, I'm tired. But, I also did other things. Vince went out and cut the okra so I rinsed it, cut it up and filled two trays for the freeze dryer. I filled one tray with sliced pears and filled one tray with pear peelings. The peelings will get crispy and are a bit tart but they're really good for snacking. I also like to put them in the blender, make a powder and add it to overnight oats. It gives them a pear flavor and thickens the oats a bit more.

At some point in the middle of all this, Vince said "Are we eating lunch today?" Hmmm . . I had broccoli, chicken and barley in the freezer so I grabbed a block of that out of the freezer, defrosted it, baked it and cooked some of the okra I had already sliced. Lunch . . DONE in about 15 minutes.

Then I made (still not baked) a loaf of the Sourdough Wonder Bread Copy Cat Bread. I made the stiff starter last night so I should have started the bread early this morning but it was after 3 before I got back to the bread so it may be a bit slow rising. It's 8 p.m. . . I'll try to get it in the oven by 9 or 10 tonight. Just not enough hours in my day.

Chad, Nicole and Roxie (the youngest Corgi) camped last night on a river south of here. Addie spent the night with a friend. They all met up today and the two families went down the river . . kayaks, canoes . . I think some were in kayaks, some in canoes . . not even sure but Chad, Nicole, Addie and Roxie came by here for a while. They had stopped and bought hamburgers and sat out on our deck to eat them. Vince was watching football so I sat out and visited with them. I never get to spend enough time with them.

Hoping to get a little cross stitching done tonight . . both dogs are asleep on my lap. I should be able to stitch a few hours! Hope I don't forget about the bread!  :)

Organizing the Frames

 Why did y'all let me start so many projects? Friends shouldn't let friends do that!  :)

I started out with a Rubbermaid type BIG tub in a corner in the downstairs family room. I would stand all the frames up in that, I had the names of the charts on the ends of the frames so I could easily find the one I wanted. Then I got lazy about putting the names on the frames. Then I had more frames than would fit in the tub so I started standing the other frames up next to the tub. Then Oscar and Cooper figured out they could almost play tug-o-war with the frames. Last night I had to move the frames not in the tub to a more secure location. That meant some of the frames were here; some were there . . not a good setup.

This morning I got up and had a great plan. I was going to get some 3/4" or 1" dowels, use big "S-Hooks" and hang those from the metal shelves I had in the sewing room. They'd be away from the dogs, have way less light on them and I could easily grab one frame and not have to move 10 frames to get to the one I wanted.

These were the hooks I wanted to use to hook the dowels onto the metal shelving units but neither Home Depot or Walmart had them. We ended up buying some other kind of clips but they don't work well. 

I had wanted the magnetic clip ties to hook the frames to the dowels but no one had those either. We ended up getting some Velcro "straps". They work for the Rolaframes but they aren't long enough for most of my other frames.

Then I realized I could use fabric strips and tie the frames onto the dowel. Not the best idea - trying to hold the frame and tie the fabric. My guess is that when I remove a frame, if I don't re-tie the fabric onto the dowel, the fabric strip will be lost.

I also figured out I could just tie the frames onto the metal shelf without even using a dowel. Yes, that's the longarm in the picture. Hasn't been set up in five years . . needs to be sold!

I ordered some 9" magnetic clip ties and they should be here Sunday or Monday. I think they will be long enough and I can use those instead of the fabric ties. They should be easier since they just snap together and I don't have to tie them - remove the frame, snap them back together and they stay where they're supposed to be.

I will number (with a Sharpie) each of these frames and try to keep them in numerical order on the shelves. We have a whiteboard and I'm going to put the numbers on there and write down which piece is on which frame so hopefully they will be easy to find without having to do serious digging.

This may not be a permanent solution. The best case is that I finish some of these and don't have so many starts. I've shown two sections of frames but I've put on the shelving units but there are actually five shelves set up like that. In my defense, maybe 15 of them have linen on them but I never started the project so it isn't as bad as it seems. That's my story!

Remember The Little Girl?

Who remembers this picture and it seems like yesterday?

That was when she cut roses to take to her kindergarten teacher. It wasn't THAT long ago!

Here she was a year or so later. She had been at our house in Texas for five weeks during the summer of the pandemic. Her mom was working; day care was closed so she stayed with us. She discovered the plum trees and, even though she told me she didn't like plums, as soon as she tasted one, I couldn't keep her out of the orchard. She would wake up in the morning, put on her boots, go out there, put the ladder where she wanted it and start picking and eating plums - right off the tree. 

This picture has so much that I loved . . the girl, fruit trees, chickens, greenhouse. If only we could have moved our Texas house, land and the improvements we had made to Missouri. I do not want to go back; I'm glad we moved and are closer to Chad, Nicole and Addie but, seeing the pictures, there is a small twinge of wishing we had the solitude we had there, the larger greenhouse, the wells, the chickens, all the fruit trees, the big garden. 

OK .. those days are over. Now we have bigger and better things to enjoy.

Now, she's playing on the volleyball team and she's way too grown up. We are able to go to her games and they're so fun! 

Time surely passes too quickly!

Floss Color Inconsistencies

 A few months back, a friend was stitching a chart that was part of a kit. I know the floss was included - not sure about the linen but the chart called for one skein of floss; one skein of floss was provided. She ended up needing two skeins and in the couple of years between the time this project was kitted and she got to the point of knowing she needed a second skein, the colors on that particular skein had totally changed - not even really close to being the same.

In one of my projects, I realized I'm going to need a second skein of floss. I kitted this one up myself in late 2020. Last night I went through my floss stash to see if I had an extra skein and I had several, the exact same brand and the exact same color, yet every skein was somewhat different!

The skein on the right is the one I've been using. Not a single one of the other skeins is a 100% match. The skein, second from right is close but not as variegated as the one I'm using. The middle skein is more solid than the one I've been using. The skein that's second from left is darker but has a bit of variegation. The skein on the far left is way too dark. I think I'm going to use the middle skein for a bit of the green stitching, the second from right on some and the one I've been using on some and hope it isn't too obvious what I'm doing. 

I'm not knocking the hand dyed floss people. I've heard a lot has changed with the dye the dyers are getting. What I am saying is that we need to pay attention to what we're stitching and, before we start stitching, if there's a chance we MAY need more than one skein, get both before you start stitching and make sure they both match before you take the first stitch!

Another Patriotic Stitch

Yesterday was the day Debbie and I get together and stitch AND talk. We had missed our last two Wednesdays of getting together so we had lots of catching up to do. We laughed because the first two hours we were together, we were talking, sharing videos, things we had found on the internet.  

We each have a project we're finishing on a paper mache box so we painted the tops of our boxes.

I stitched on 4th of July Rules by Primrose Cottage. I'm using the called for floss (DMC) and a  36 count linen but I'm not sure about the linen - a mystery piece from the stash.

I probably won't stitch on this one again til next week when Debbie and I are together again. I did get my 400 stitches in today. I think when Debbie and I left to go home, I had about 320 stitches made so I worked on it a bit more after I got home and ended up with 414 total for the day.

 

Freeze Dryer

 Our freeze dryer rarely sits idle longer than 24 hours. Almost all the time, I let it defrost on it's own and don't use the automatic defrost so most any time a load finishes, unless it's early in the morning, I let the machine sit and defrost and re-load it in the morning. I always add 24 extra hours of drying time and, for most items in there, I'll stop it about 10 p.m. so long as it's had an extra 10 to 12 hours drying time. After unloading it, that gives it all night to defrost and be ready to go again in the morning.

Last night I took out three trays of sliced okra and one tray of the small Sweet 100 tomatoes. These are so sweet and so prolific and Cooper LOVES them.

This morning I loaded two trays of okra, 1 tray of tomatoes and one tray of mixed greens.

When I make egg bites, I add dried tomatoes, greens and peppers so eventually, some of the tomatoes, the greens and freeze dried peppers will get mixed together, then sealed in jars and I can grab a few tablespoons or however much I need to go into our egg bites.

G. Leger Progress

 Yesterday (Monday) I resumed working on G. Leger. I started the day at 4.28% and finished at 5.32%. My goal per day is 400 stitches and I got 435 done. Considering that we were gone from about 8 a.m. until 2 p.m., then went to Addie's game last night, I think I did good.

I would love to have this piece finished by about November 10 . . I'll explain more of that later maybe, but I would have to stitch 2% every day between now and then. I don't think I can do that so I'm not even going to try it. I know after about 8 - 10 days on this project, I will get bored and need to switch. Also, Wednesdays I'll always be stitching on something else since Debbie and I are stitching patriotic on Wednesdays.

Today I'm supposed to go to PT but we may be having severe storms off and on and if we are, I'm not leaving the house. I've already told them I won't come in scary weather and they said "Don't worry . . you aren't the only one!" I've been going twice a week for 8 or 9 weeks and haven't missed an appointment yet. This is my last week of PT for my knee, which is doing very good, and next week I'll start PT for my back. I think I've hit the magic age where everything starts to fall apart at the same time.  :(

Clarification on the Linen "Thickness"

To try to make it more clear about the difference in hand dyed vs. Zwiegart dyed linen, I've tried to take some pictures but this is in the basement with not so great basement lighting.

First, I'm going to insert part of a blurb that comes up when I Google "Why does hand dyed linen seem thicker than Zwiegart linen?"

I want to reiterate that there is nothing wrong with Zwiegart linen. Most hand dyers start with a Zwiegart base and, that is my favorite. I will rarely buy linen that isn't Zwiegart base.

The linen on the left is Zwiegart Cafe au Lait and the one on the right is Fox & Rabbit White Clay. Both are 40 count. There's a green post it note type paper slipped underneath the first layer of both linens. Do you see how much more the one on the left shows through?

Below is the same photo with a bit of lighting manipulation.

I'm not even sure if you can see it but in the photo below, the linen on the left is the same Zwiegart Cafe au Lait 40 count and the one on the right is a Picture This Plus 40 count. The holes in the PTP linen are MUCH smaller. To me, the PTP 40 count all feels more like 46 count because either the threads absorbed something and puffed up or the whole piece shrank in the dying process. If it mattered to me (so far it has not), I could count the threads, measure and find out. I just know that I much prefer stitching and the look on 36 count PTP where other linens, it's 40 count for me.

Again, I love them all. The Zwiegart Cafe au Lait and Vintage Country Mocha are two of my favorite linens but I have LOTS of favorite. 

I love the mottling on Picture This Plus linens. One of my most favorite pieces is the one I stitched as a memorial to my dad and his family. It's one thing to stitch on linens I love but when I'm stitching something I hope becomes a family heirloom, I use my real favorites!

There are so, so many great linens. I can't think of anything right now that I've not liked at all. There may have been some and I choose not to remember (that statement is for those of you who are laughing, thinking "I remember when you complained forever about THAT ONE piece of linen!". I truly don't remember.)

My advice, for what it's worth - not much I know - is to order a 9" x 36" piece of 40 count Zwiegart linen ($5.36 at 123 Stitch) and a piece of 40 count something else - Seraphim, Picture This Plus, Fiber on a Whim, Fox & Rabbit (one, not all). Try them and see what you like best. Further advice - don't order a lot of anything until you know what you like. 

Time to Put Seeking Refuge Aside

 Yesterday was the last day I'll be working on Seeking Refuge for a while. I'm not even sure when I'll pick it up again but today I'll get back on G. Leger.

Look at that! Yesterday I stitched 826 stitches. That's twice my daily goal. Those green squares were quick to stitch.

I got enough of the green squares stitched that I was able to start on the house.

According to Markup, I've now stitched 10.13%.

This is a project I could stitch on until it's finished but there are other projects to stitch too!

The Great Soup Almost Disaster

 Yesterday for dinner I opened another jar of the Chipotle Beef Soup that I canned a month or so ago. I put way too many chipotle peppers in that soup and it's not easy to fix. I opened a quart jar, poured it in a pot, heated it and tasted it because some of the jars had more peppers than others. This one must have had the most! I grabbed a pint of black beans I had canned and a pint of cannellini beans I had canned, dumped those in there. I had leftover broccoli. Added that. There was about 1-1/2 cups of leftover roasted butternut squash in the fridge. I dumped that in there. Because the two pints of beans both had liquid in them, the soup was still a good ratio of meat/veggies and liquid.

I let it all simmer for 10 or 15 minutes, grated some cheese, got out a package of saltine crackers and it was perfect! 

When I went to put away the leftovers, there were 2 quarts of soup. I laughed . . I started with one quart of soup, we both ate and I had two quarts left; several leftovers from the fridge used up and two more empty pint jars.

I'm loving doing this. Today we have several appointments in town. I told Vince I'm going to heat up the soup again, make a salad and grilled cheese sandwiches and that will be our meal. He said he was happy with that plan! Can't beat that!

Differences in Linens

 In one of yesterday's posts, I said "since this is a Zwiegart linen and not a hand dyed linen, it's a bit thinner". A friend, who is fairly new to stitching asked about that. Most dyers start with Zwiegart linen and that's what they dye so it does stand to reason that all 40 count linens should be the same; all 36 count linen should be the same . . but it isn't.  I Googled "Why does hand dyed linen seem thicker than Zwiegart?" If you want to know way more than what I'm going to say here, that's a great place to start.

Another thing I want to emphasize - Zwiegart linen is great. I never mind using it. Even though I said it seems thinner, it definitely doesn't seem flimsy. I might not carry black thread across the back of white linen . . no matter what linen it is but I know for sure I wouldn't on Zwiegart.

Another thing is that even during the pandemic when it was almost impossible to get linen, Zwiegart was easier to get.

One more thing . . Zwiegart is usually less expensive. I checked prices at Colorado Cross Stitcher and a fat quarter of Zwiegart linen is $25 where as some of the hand dyed linens are $38. A whole yard of Zwiegart is $96 vs. a yard of hand dyed being $150. Don't get me wrong, I fully understand why hand dyed linens are more expensive and I appreciate the opportunity to use hand dyed linens.

One thing I did know, and found while searching -  The dyeing is integrated into the manufacturing process, before the fabric is loomed, for better control over the final product. 

There are several reasons hand dyed linens feel thicker but one is that the fibers absorb the dyes and plump up. Sometimes a bit of heat is used in the process, which can cause the linen to shrink a bit. Except for Picture This Plus linen, I've never found the hand dyed linens to be so much different that I have to make changes. With Picture This Plus, which I love, instead of 40 count linen, I use 36 count linen.

Do I think a piece stitched on 40 count Zwiegart vs. 40 count hand dyed will be different in size? No, but IF there is a difference, it's so tiny, it would never be noticeable. Both are going to have 40 threads per inch. IF the threads swell up, there are still 40 threads and the wholes between them are going to be smaller. If I use 36 count Picture This Plus where I would normally use 40 count linen, the 36 count piece will be a tiny bit larger.

What really matters to me is this:  If I stitch a piece on Zwiegart Cream (which is what I'm using for Seeking Refuge), and I compare it to the same design stitched on Zwiegart linen, I likely will not notice any difference except the color. Once it's up on my wall, I won't even notice which ones were stitched on hand dyed or which ones were stitched on Zwiegart.

The bottom line for me is this: Buy what you want to use! I started stitching when all linen was hard to find and I bought what I could get. I will use most anything. I'm not picky. 

When it comes to linen, I have a decent stash and it's very mixed - mostly 40 count; some 36 count, very little 32 count. There's some Zwiegart and some hand dyed. There's nothing I won't use. 

There is a little shop about 40, maybe a few more, miles from here. I either have to go there, mail order and hope it's the color I think it will be, or have a stash here so I can find the perfect linen and start a project at any time.

When I do start a new project, I will first pull all the called for floss. If I don't have the called for floss, I will use my DMC book. It's a bit expensive but it's something I use ALL the time! Most every chart will have a DMC conversion. Once I find the called for DMC color, I match it to something close. The called for may be Weeks Dyeworks, but once I find the DMC match, I'll take it to my floss closet and dig through all the flosses I have and find a close match and that's what I will sub for the color I don't have.

Once I get all the floss pulled, I'll take it to the linen bins and choose several colors that look like they may work. Then I'll spread all the floss over one color of linen, then another until I find what seems to me to be the best match. Sometimes, as with my Seeking Refuge project, it's easier to change one color of floss than to keep changing the linen.

In the end, all that matters is that each stitcher is happy with their choice of linen and floss.

Color Change on Seeking Refuge

 In a comment, Liz asked if I had changed one of the colors in Seeking Refuge. Sorry, Liz, I accidentally deleted your comment. The check mark for approving is right below delete, didn't have my glasses on and accidentally hit the wrong button and it said "deleted forever". I'll be more careful (and not type without my glasses).

, 
At the very bottom is black, then light green, then white at the top of the light green. At the very top, which you probably can't see, is a zig zag border stitched in the same white. I tried six different shades of white and nothing was showing up so I switched to the goldish tan, which is Classic Colorworks Hazelnut.

I've decided that I'm not stitching if the color doesn't show up. The linen used in the model is a bit more tan than the linen I'm using. I knew that white probably was not going to show up and I'm fine with changing colors when needed.

Progress on Seeking Refuge

 I'm going to work today (Sunday) on Seeking Refuge, then switch back to G. Leger. I'm going to again post the cover of this chart.

When you see the weird way I'm stitching this chart, you'll know where I'm headed. I love working on big houses. My plan for today is to work that green border til I reach the house and then start on it. Each of those green squares on point, has 41 stitches and there are 16 more to stitch before I get to the edge of the house. That's 656 stitches so I doubt I get them all finished so I probably won't get to start the house for a while.

Also, since this is a Zwiegart linen and not a hand dyed linen, it's a bit thinner and I had to stop and tie off at the end of each word. I didn't want to risk having black show through, even when there was only one space between the words.

Since I'll just be working on the green band beneath the house today, I'll probably not show another photo and the next thing you see from me will hopefully be some good progress on G. Leger.

A Changed World

 Liz mentioned in a comment that I had stitched a piece . . don't even know what the word is here . . not as a reminder of the pandemic but kinda therapeutic for what we were all going though at that time. I think Denise stitched it along with me - A Changed World by The Scarlett House). I believe we started it August 1, 2021 and here's mine finished.

I hate to admit this but it still isn't framed. I ordered a frame right after I finished it and still haven't framed it. I need to get that done. Maybe I'll get it framed and hang it side by side with Seeking Refuge.

Seeing that A Changed World has "Worked by my hand in the year 2023, maybe I should leave that on Seeking Refuge too. I'm glad Liz reminded me of this one.

Seeking Refuge Started

On September 15, I started Seeking Refuge by The Scarlett House. I think there were a number of stitchers who started this in the last week or so. I already had it kitted so I went with the floss (all called for) and the linen (40 count cream by Zwiegart) that was in the bag.

I'm going to love stitching all of this - nothing that's confetti like or frustrating for me. The black on the bottom and the green above it will get a bit boring so I started this at the bottom, instead of at the top right where I normally start.

My plans are:

1. Outline the black area, stitch the leaves and some flowers that are in the black area, then I can go back and fill it in without having to count.
2. Do the same with the green that's above the black.
3. Stitch the verse/letters.
4. Stitch the green design below the house.
5. Outline the house, roof and windows. Then I can go back and fill in without having to do much counting.
6. Stitch the trees.

There will be some things I leave off. As much as I would love to have Oscar and Cooper on there, I don't think I'll stitch the dogs. I'm not sure I'll stitch the birds at the top of the two trees.

Not at all sure but at this point, I think I'll leave off initials, year, flowers, birds . . we'll see when I get there.

I have a goal to have this finished by the end of this year . . you know how those goals go!

Subscribing by Email

 THANK YOU, JULIE!! 

I have struggled with getting a way for readers to subscribe to my posts here. Many of you have asked. I tried. Back when I used Blogger years ago, there were all kinds of RSS services that took care of this with little to no knowledge/effort on my part. Most of those no longer exist or charge a monthly fee for it. At this point, I prefer to have no ads/no expenses. 

Last night a reader, who is a friend I've actually met in real life, asked about a subscription. I told her I've tried several things and still don't feel like it's working.

She found a video that linked to a service I had not found and the lady showed how to do it step by step. Thanks again, Julie!!

There's a little "follow it" logo at the top right of the right side bar. That should work. I hope it works. If someone uses it and actually gets an email notice in a day or so, please let me know it's working.

Thank you all for your patience with me trying to do something that's probably over my head!

The Coffee Frappe

This afternoon we had to take Oscar to the vet. I've told this story before on the old blog but when we had Speck, he HATED going to the vet. When we were still in Kentucky, I took him in one day for his annual. He was screaming and squealing and making the most awful commotion. I kept trying to calm him down and he was not getting any calmer. The vet tech called another lady to go back with her dog and the lady very nicely said to me "Why don't you go ahead of me. My dog isn't injured!" I was rather embarrassed to tell her my dog wasn't injured either . . he was just rather vocal about being there.

Taking Oscar to the vet is way worse than taking Speck ever was. We give Oscar a tranquilizer on an empty stomach 2-1/2 to 3 hours before vet visits. Today when we got in the car, I told Vince . . this is NOT going to be a good vet trip. He is not calm at all. We walked into the vet and Oscar was screaming like he was hurt. Vince checked in and one of the front desk ladies came over and said "Is he here for his appointment for a skin problem?" I said yes. She said "I wanted to make sure he hadn't been injured!" Oh, my goodness . . memories of Speck at the vet.

Oscar was squealing in such a sharp, ear piercing sound, one of the ladies a few chairs down from us put her hands over her ears. People were looking at me like "some people shouldn't have pets if that's how you control them!" Ughh! There are three vets where we go. One is a man who has Dachshunds so he can handle Oscar (with a muzzle on). One is a lady who is obviously afraid of dogs that act like Oscar (I would be too) and one lady (who is from Louisiana) does ok with him. She isn't afraid of him and Oscar seems to calm down the most with her. She looked at the spot on his chest, checked his ears, gave us some cream and we were on our way..

On the way out, one of the ladies who had been waiting when we were was also leaving. She looked at Oscar, calm as could be now that it was all over, and said "That can't be the same dog!"

We got in the car. Vince said "I wish there was a place near here to get a GOOD hamburger." I said "I wish there was a place to get a glass of wine at the drive through!"

We got home and I decided the coffee frappe would be just as good as a glass of wine. I didn't exactly follow the recipe (because I didn't have it upstairs). I used probably used 1 cup of milk where the recipe calls for 1/4 cup. It calls for 1/2 cup of cold coffee and I probably used a bit more than 1/4 cup and that was plenty of coffee for me. I did use the ice and vanilla. I added a bit of cinnamon. I didn't have whipped cream so I used a bit of heavy cream (not whipped). I also used the brown sugar - didn't measure - maybe just a bit more than called for but not much more. I'll definitely be making this again.

This is the recipe I loosely followed.

Beef - It's What's for Dinner

 Let me start out by saying that I know very little about raising beef cows. I'm sure (100% sure) that many of you know more about it than I do. 

This morning I was watching YouTube while stitching and saw this video by Dr. Berg, who I think is a chiropractor and not an MD (so no one has to point this out to me). 

This is also a good time to share that there are many people I know, many people I watch on YouTube, many people who are my friends . . who I trust but sometimes don't agree with 100%. I have learned a lot from Dr. Berg and I love his videos. I understand he can be a bit controversial. This video isn't about who's right; who's wrong - it's about thinking a little deeper about our food (about all things really) than I've apparently been thinking about.

In the linked video, Dr. Berg talks about dent corn not being edible. I think he means most of us would not sit down at the table for an ear of fresh corn and choose dent corn BUT it is edible. It's what I use for our cornmeal, grind to make a very fine "flour" for corn tortillas and for making hominy. It is very edible but not very tasty if eaten as we think of eating sweet corn. 

Because I have to have a degree of confidence in someone (which I rarely have THAT much confidence) before I share their opinions, I try to always do my own research before I share info. That's exactly what I did this morning.

There is so much contradictory info online. I literally spent two hours researching, not because I felt it was that important that I write this blog post but because I wanted to know the truth.

If you choose to learn more about this, do your own research. This, from Texas A &M, is the article I found easiest to believe, even though it may have a bit different info from Dr. Berg's video.

I continued to search for answers and came across this site discussing feeding cows spent grain from brewing. It is from 2017. I found two statements interesting.

1. Where he talks about where some breweries will give away the spent grain to save having to pay for disposal.
2. Giving one group of cows the spent grain and comparing it to a group not given the spent grain . . on the surface, they "didn't see on the surface any major differences in terms of quality or grade".

Again, I have no idea what's best for cows or what's best for humans eating those cows. On some level, it bothers me that, based on what I'm seeing, we, as citizens of the U.S. cannot go into the grocery store, see a package that says "grass fed" beef, pay more for it and not always get what we think we're getting.

I've felt for a very long time that buying a whole cow or a half or a quarter from a local farmer/rancher is much better than buying beef from a grocery store. We do the same with a pig and I have a lady down the road that may raise chickens for butchering for us next year.

I'm not expecting anyone to do what we do; nor do I think it's wrong for anyone to do what they think best for their families. I just want us all to be informed about what we're feeding our families.

Coffee Frappe

 A year or maybe two years ago, we decided we were going to make espresso and frappe type drinks at home. We ended up buying not one, not two but three different machines.

The third one is way behind some boxes and I can barely see part of the box. No idea what that one is but this is the one on the left. I think this is the one on the right. The one I can't get to may be an espresso maker. 

Vince has a coffee maker in the house and he makes coffee most every morning. I love how it smells but I do not like coffee. And, don't ask me why we have three coffee makers still in the box after a year or two.

A couple of weeks ago, Vince and I were on a little road trip and we stopped at a coffee shop/bakery . . a nice little independent shop. It was breakfast time so we got breakfast sandwiches and a slice of honey bun cake (Yum!). We were ordering and Vince ordered some kind of coffee; I ordered Dr. Pepper. Nope . . don't have Dr. Pepper. They have coffee, tea, coffee type drinks and water. I asked for a sweet coffee type drink that didn't taste like coffee. The lady knew exactly what I needed and it was delicious. I don't even know what it was called but this afternoon I began searching for a recipe that might be similar to what I had there. I came across this recipe. I think I will try it in the morning - probably use less coffee, maybe a little more milk and a little more brown sugar. Remember - I don't really like coffee (I think it's the sugar I liked about that drink I had) so if you're a diehard coffee lover, this may not be a good recipe for you. It seems pretty basic so if you want more coffee flavor, you could just add more coffee I guess.

I asked Vince to make a little extra coffee in the morning and put the extra in the fridge if I'm not in the kitchen when he makes it.

As far as breaking out one of the new coffee makers, that's up to Vince. Where his coffee pot sits, there's only room for one maker. He's the coffee guy so he makes the call which pot he wants to use.

I'm anxious to try this drink. 

A Late Night Finish

 You all know (maybe you don't know but I've said it a lot) that Teresa Kogut is one of my very favorite designers. I've stitched a lot of her designs and I love her work but I did NOT like stitching this one. This must have been one of her early designs (don't know where the paper chart is at the moment) but it had a LOT of quarter stitches and I did not like stitching those. Probably the main reason I didn't enjoy stitching it is because when I made the PDF (on my printer), I did page 2, then page 1. I'm not going to say it's a big hassle but it's kind of a hassle to re-arrange pages on a PDF because I don't have an app that does it and finding a website that will do it for free isn't easy either.  There are some that want you to sign up for a trial and I wasn't going to do that either. Honestly, Judy . . why didn't you just get up and make another two page PDF and get the pages in the right order? I didn't think it would be such a hassle but it was. The right side of page 2 is what butted up to the left side of page 1. There are mistakes in my stitching because I didn't get that part right. My fault.

Anyway, I knew with the struggles I was having, if I put it down, I might never pick it up again so I told myself I had to finish it before I could work on anything else. That was almost a week ago and at that time, I could have finished it in one evening if I put a little effort into it. Nope. I played on the computer, talked to friends on the phone, played games on my tablet . . thinks your average 6 year old would do!

It's finished and I'm very happy with the result - just not so happy with my laziness and procrastination!

Even better news - I have a frame here that I paid $1.50 for at Goodwill and it fits! I had planned to rub some gold on the black but I think I'm not. I think I like it just as it is.

There was supposed to be just a straight stitched border around it but those make it so hard to frame. Any little area where the piece is laced too tightly or too loosely shows and makes the piece look crooked so I left that border off.

I may think about framing it today . . but maybe not. We'll see.

Leftovers Questions

 So often when I post about leftovers, I will get comments or emails about folks not eating leftovers. Usually it's the husband but not always. This morning as I was stirring together the chicken, broccoli, barley casserole that we're having for our meal today, I started thinking about this.

First, I'm not trying to convince anyone to start having leftovers or try to force leftovers on someone who doesn't want them but, because of the convenience and cost savings (using everything), I'm just wondering about things.

Second, there are some things I don't like as leftovers. If we grill hamburgers or steak, Vince loves having those as leftovers. I do not. In fact, I won't even eat either as leftovers. As much as I loved roasted chicken, I won't eat it heated up unless it's in something else - not just a piece of leftover chicken, no matter how much BBQ sauce or other sauce I put on it.

I guess I probably don't like any meat heated up unless something else is done to it.

Take pulled pork. I don't like just reheating pulled pork but if I make twice baked potatoes and add sour cream, butter, chives, and chopped up pulled pork, I love that. Also, if I make a pot of dry beans - Lima, pinto, cannellini and once the beans are cooked, add the chunks of pulled pork, I love that. I don't like the pork boiled but just added the chopped (in small to medium chunks - bite size) pork to the hot pot of beans is enough to heat it up.

Probably because I've always cooked more chicken than other meats combined, I love chicken leftovers. As soon as it cools, I'll pull all the meat off the bones. If there's enough to freeze, I'll vacuum seal it in bags in the amount I need for whatever recipe I plan to make. Here are some of the things I will make with leftover chicken:

• Chicken Gumbo of course but that's something we usually only eat in the fall and winter. Come early cold weather. I'm so hungry for gumbo! I sometimes will smoke the chicken for gumbo.
• Chicken & Spaghetti casserole (the kind without the red sauce).
• King Ranch Casserole.
• Broccoli, Chicken and Rice (we use barley instead of rice). I don't use a recipe. When we have roasted chicken, we have steamed broccoli so I have both of those left over that don't need cooking before adding to the casserole. We use barley and since that takes a while to cook, I cook it ahead too and make enough to have several dishes. We sometimes use barley instead of oatmeal for breakfast and with red beans and sausage so tomorrow, we're having red beans and sausage from a jar over barley. To the leftover chicken, broccoli and 
• Chicken & Dumplings - I remembered that this recipe is on the old blog so I went back and copied it. Because it was copied, some of the formatting is weird but the recipe is there. This is another dish I LOVE during fall and winter.
• White Chicken Chili - Another one I love in fall and winter.
• Chicken Salad Crescents - A summer recipe. This is so good on a hot summer day with a salad and grapes on the side.
• Chinese Chicken Salad - We love this. It's on the menu for next week.
• Smoked Sausage Cajun Alfredo - Love this one. Finding good Cajun sausage here is a bit of a problem. I need to remind Chad that he needs to make some.

One more thing . . if I'm roasting a chicken, it takes no more time or electricity/gas to roast two at a time. Pretty much the same amount of prep and cleanup time.

In a couple of weeks I'll smoke two chickens and make a gumbo. We'll have smoked chicken for dinner and the leftovers from that one chicken and the whole other chicken will go into a pot of gumbo. I will freeze hopefully enough that we can have gumbo several times without having to make it again.

You see why I buy chickens by the case at Sam's Club! At least every other week we have a roasted chicken, then have leftovers for a few days.

Chicken & Dumplings

 This is the recipe my grandma and my mom made. Dumplings can either be fat like little pillows or thin . . however you like them. I love this recipe. I copied it from the old blog so if it has formatting issues, some day I'll go back and fix it. Hopefully it's fine. 

One note: The recipe mom gave me calls for Bisquick. I doubt my grandmother used Bisquick so, I've added what I use instead of Bisquick.

To make chicken and dumplings, start with a chicken!    One of my quilter friends whose family hunts and “lives of the land” to some degree, several years ago she posted that her daughter’s first or second grade class was asked to write their version of how to cook a turkey. This particular little girl went into detail about cutting his head off, cleaning the feathers and so on.  Her mom wondered how many others in the class started off with a turkey from the grocery store!  So . . our chicken was actually a rooster and that’s probably as much as most of you want to know!

Boil the chicken. I add salt, pepper, celery, onion and bay leaves to the water. As far as how much fat to keep, I cannot tell you because we skin our roosters and they’re usually fairly young and don’t have much fat. You do need some fat but probably not as much as you’re going to get from a storebought chicken with the skin on it.  I would boil the chicken, let the broth cool, put it in the fridge overnight, then skim off most of the fat and add it back as it seems necessary to get the “texture” of the broth that you want.

Also, I don’t like a ton of chicken in my dumplings so I probably use about half the chicken meat and save the rest for other dishes (chicken salad or add to gumbo).

For the dumplings, you will need:

2 cups Bisquick
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper (I use more)
1 egg
1-1/2 cups milk

If you do not want to use Bisquick (I never have it here), do this:

3-3/4 cup AP flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper (I use more)
1 egg
1-1/2 cups milk

Start by mixing 1 cup milk with all the above ingredients.  Add more milk as necessary. The dough will be a bit sticky but it should be not so sticky that you can’t roll it out on a floured surface.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface! Roll it thin, thin, thin!  It will puff a little. I try to get mine about as thin as a potato chip.

Allow the dumplings to sit out for about an hour. Dust the top with more flour if needed.  Flip them over and dust this side with flour. Let them sit out another hour. The sitting out makes them dry out a little and makes them a little more “chewy” rather than so “doughy”.

If you haven’t already, strain out the onions, celery and bay leaves from the broth. Bring the broth to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Shake the dumplings gently to remove the excess flour, though you don’t want to remove it all. The flour will thicken the broth. Drop the dumplings one by one into the hot broth. Do not stir!  With a wide spoon or spatula, push them downward into the broth and try to keep them from all sticking together.

Once all the dumplings are added, continue to push them under the broth but do not stir!  Simmer, uncovered for about 10 minutes. Add the shredded chicken on top of the dumplings, continuing to push them down but not stirring, for another 10 minutes.

I think they're actually better the next day.

Anticipating A Finish Today!

 Every day for at least a week, I've said "Today I'm going to finish Let Love Reign".  The next day Vince will say "What are you going to work on today?" and I'll say "Let Love Reign" and he'll say "I thought you finished that yesterday. Nope . . did not.

Today I'm going to finish it (I hope).

You know I'm working on two Let Freedom Ring pieces. This one is by Teresa Kogut.

For this to be a small project, there is a lot of stitching! All I have left to do is finish filling in the dress, add another angel wing, her hand holding the star, add a second sheep near the bottom, fill in their faces and fill in one white area on the bottom bunting on the left side. I think that's it.

I may even have a frame that will work for it but I'll finish stitching it before I think much about a frame.

The Fall Garden

 The Fall garden is going to be very scaled down - not because I'm getting smarter but because my beds are all full and I have very little free space for planting.

So, here's a little garden tour and pictures of what I got started today.

Last year I left the arugula as long as I could so I could get seeds for this year. By the time I gathered seed pods, the plants had dropped a lot of seeds on the ground so by mid-August, we had a lot of arugula. We've been eating it almost every day. I didn't plant more today but I will get more planted this week.

These are the seeds I planted:

And . . 

I want to plant komatsuna, which is kind of a spinach/mustard combination that is frost hardy. Not sure if I want to plant those in the mineral tubs or in one of the raised beds, which are all full at the moment. I'll probably plant komatsuna in two tubs and then plant more in the bed where the basil is. Never enough garden space!

Obviously we love greens. I was able to put a thick covering of straw over these, then cover them with a moving blanket for the first few frosts we had and it wasn't until late January that the freeze killed most of the greens. As soon as I got the mess cleared out, I spread more seeds, covered it all with straw and by very early spring, we had fresh greens again. I'm hoping these will sprout and produce some decent greens before we have a hard freeze.

There's hardly a place in the garden that doesn't have a volunteer tomato growing.

This is a bed where I had cucumbers growing but two tomatoes have popped up. They're big enough that, depending on what variety they are, they could produce a tomato or two before frost so I left them. I planted Tatsoi in this bed. I love it so much that I also planted it in two of the mineral tubs. I could easily have a grilled chicken breast or a hamburger patty and a big bowl of Tatsoi and just eat it raw. It supposedly is a good source of Vitamins A, C and K, calcium and Iron. It's actually my very favorite green. Almost all winter and up until it bolted in the late spring, I would pick it and eat it every time I walked by it.

Everything else I planted yesterday was planted in the mineral tubs.

That's five tubs and there are five more behind where I was standing. 

We still have two 4 x 8 beds with okra in them.  You can see where I cut off some leaves today. There's a fig tree just to the right of this bed and it was getting hard to walk through there without getting smacked in the face by those big okra leaves. We're now getting enough okra to eat almost every day and still have enough to freeze dry a full load about twice a week.

I don't want to say this too loud but I'm kinda ready for the basil to stop growing. There are four plants in this bed and nine more in buckets. I don't think I'll need to grow much basil for the next couple of years (but I know I will!).

And there's a tomato growing in the basil bed.

There's a 4 x 8 bed that I'm going to plant kohlrabi in that bed.

Probably the first or second week of October, I'll start growing lettuce, broccoli and radish sprouts in the basement. I can also grow a decent amount of leaf lettuce under the grow lights so we'll have that for when a hard freeze takes out our other greens.

Waiting for seeds to germinate and plants to start growing is so exciting!