Monday 15 June 2015

Pantry Challenge – day 6

So, I fully meant to write a post yesterday. The day just got away from me, though, &, before I knew it, I was just so tired that I knew that any post I’d write would possibly not make any sense. Not wanting that, I decided that it was just better to not write a post than to do so.

On Saturday I was quite sick. So I didn’t really eat much at all. Because of feeling ill, I decided there was nothing to say for that day. So I left it alone. Then yesterday, although I did eat, like I said, time just got away from me & I left it alone.

Today I’m sick again, but I wanted to write a post so that I didn’t keep putting it off so that, before I knew it, a lot of time had gone by before I got out of writing. I don’t want that. I’ve been in that place far too many times before. So here I write about my challenge despite not eating much at all today.

Yesterday after church, we had our monthly post-service meal. It’s a good chance for people to visit & to bond over meals. Food, fun & fellowship is a phrase I grew up hearing, & it applies here. The food’s always good, & my hope is that, eventually, I’ll be able to help provide food for it.

Yesterday’s was a BBQ feast! Hamburgers & hot dogs, & there were good. There were lots of salads, too, although I just took a bit of the broccoli salad. I know, I know. I should’ve taken more of that & taken home the remains of my hamburger if I couldn’t finish it all, but I’m so accustomed to the cultural norm or larger portions of meat, although I’m getting a lot better at this.

I grabbed two things for dessert – a chocolate chip cookie & a piece of platz. Oh, platz!! It’s one of my favourite desserts & so very easy to make. It’s a good ol’ Mennonite treat & I grew up with it. As you can see by the recipe below, it doesn’t take many ingredients to make a platz, & you can use any fruit you want, although some definitely work better than others. I love a good blueberry or rhubarb or strawberry or strawberry-rhubarb platz, but other fruits work really well, too. Thinking about it, I don’t have any idea whether bananas would work for this, but it never hurts to try if someone wants to. I just think of it as being topped more by things like the fruits I mentioned or other similar fruits. You could do anything with it, really, I guess. The crumble on top is super scrummy, too! Like the name of the recipe calls it, it’s a coffee cake with fruit & crumbs. Yum!

Here’s one recipe for it from Mennonite Girls Can Cook ~ http://www.mennonitegirlscancook.ca/2008/06/platz.html

I was encouraged to take some food home following the lunch, so I brought home several hamburger patties & hamburger buns, & they all went into the freezer. They can be used later on.

So aside from that lunch, which was super filling, I had 2 eggs for breakfast.

I was bummed out!! I’d gone to make those eggs, & that was fine. However, including those 2 eggs, I had 8 eggs altogether. When I went to get 2 eggs out of the carton, though, one of the eggs was tough to get out. It turned out that 4 of the eggs had frozen & their shelves were broken by my effort to remove them! So I decided to not use those 4 eggs. So now I have 2 eggs from that carton left that I can use.

You may ask why I didn’t use those 4 eggs for baking. I would have, but when eggs thaw, you have to be very careful of bacteria on the shell. I can’t remember the name of it offhand, but it’s a kind that makes people very sick. So I’ll just toss those eggs on garbage day, which is Wednesday. For now, I’m keeping them in my fridge so that they don’t start stinking up the place in the heat we have right now. The other two are fine.

I was talking to my friend Sonja on Saturday, & she mentioned that she & her hubby had a lot of duck eggs in cartons of 18. So they brought me a carton yesterday, along with a bag of walnuts. Cool! So now I have a small bag of walnuts in the freezer, & they can be used for so many things. I have the eggs in a place in my fridge so that they don’t freeze.

My fridge does that sometimes, freezes things even if I have the temperature on a good setting. It doesn’t matter if my fridge is empty or full or somewhere in between. I don’t care if some things are frozen – like juice or the like – but some things are just not good when they’re frozen. Ugh!

One other thing that I brought home yesterday was a plant. I can’t remember the name, but it has beautiful flowers & I put it in a hanging basket. I love flowers – they cheer things up so beautifully. I’m glad that I can have it outside so that I don’t have to be concerned about Dublin possibly eating it. I have no idea if this plant is toxic to cats, & Dub’s not a huge plant eater unless it’s cat grass or the like, but I’d rather not take the risk. Better safe than sorry.

Here’s a picture of them. I believe they’re petunias, although I can’t find out for sure from the web, although I’ve spent a great deal of time trying to find out. If anyone knows for sure, please let me know in the comments below. Thanks to anyone who does. Enjoy!!

My Hanging Basket 14 June 2015

I have the chat app called Viber, which I really love using. Two of my good friends – Nadia & Rose – are down in New Zealand, & we have a great, ongoing chat that’s been going on for a long, long time. It’s so cool to have such a long lasting friendship, even if we’ve never met in person. I love that friendship doesn’t have to be just one thing that fits all.

Anyway, the reason that I mention them is because they dry clothes outside on the line because neither of them have dryers. It’s not nearly as common down in New Zealand to have dryers as it is here in Canada, apparently.

It’s so hot & sunny outside today that I was inspired to dry my laundry outside today. I remembered that I had an old wooden drying rack in the laundry room. Since it was covered in cobwebs & other dusty bits, I hosed it off outside on the lawn. Then it dried quickly in the sun. Once that was done, I covered it with my things.

One good thing the lilac bushes at the end of my patio do is provide a good place to dry things. So I put my towels on there. The things that I’d washed this morning are now done. I did one load a little while ago, & that’s now drying outside.

Things dry a lot more stiffly when they dry outside like that, but I don’t care. They smell good & I didn’t have to use the dryer. I don’t mind using the dryer & I’m very, very happy about having one, especially on rainy days & in the winter, but it’s great to have the option to dry things outside like today as well.

Tomorrow I’m going to be doing a bit of puppy sitting. The family who lives upstairs from me has a 9 week old English Springer Spaniel puppy named Zed, & she is way too cute for words!! Everyone upstairs will be out tomorrow, & Karmelli (the lady who lives upstairs) asked me if I’d check in on her & let her out to take care of business and the like. I eagerly agreed. Even though I’m a crazy cat lady, I do love dogs as well, & Zed’s a little darling.

So this is today’s post! I hope that you enjoyed reading it. Take care & blessings to you!! Smile

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