Vanilla

We made a Costco run yesterday and as long as we were there, we decided to throw anything we thought we might need in the near future into the cart.  I am a baker and vanilla goes into almost everything I make.  It made sense to grab another bottle, and as I did, I marveled over the price.  Marveled may not be the right word.  My reaction was along the lines of, "Whoa!"  Dan came up as I was putting the bottle in the cart and said, "Why don't you get two."  And I answered that spending fifty dollars on two bottles of vanilla seemed a little much. His eyebrows shot up! 

Last night as we finished putting things away, the subject of vanilla came up again so I decided to google why the price was so high.  It was interesting reading!  This article by Business Insider is two years old but it covers a number of the reasons as well as explaining the growth process of the vanilla bean. 

Who knew vanilla, at least at that time and probably still, was worth more by weight than silver?  

I feel fortunate that I can afford the real thing.  I know my mom was not a fan of imitation vanilla, and so far I've been able to avoid having to use it.  Maybe I need to branch out in my choice of extracts, though.  I do have almond, lemon, orange, butter, and peppermint in my cupboard.  Oh, and maple!  ♥ 

Little Things

Ever notice how sometimes it's the little things that give the biggest pleasure? Take my pantry for example. When we bought this house, two of the most important things I was looking for were a shower in the master bath (our previous house had only a half bath en suite) and a pantry in or near the kitchen.  

We scored!  Our master bath is small, but it does have its own shower and I have loved it for almost twenty-one years.  And we have a pantry, a good sized one, right in the kitchen. I don't think the space was built to be a pantry, however. I think it was meant to be a utility type closet for vacuum cleaners, brooms, a waste basket, etc.  The biggest clue besides its size?  It has a ceiling light in it.  The shelves are deep, almost too deep, and it had a bi-fold door on it.  The hinged side was on the right and when the door was open, it blocked at least six inches of the shelves, and that coupled with another five inches or so behind the adjacent front wall made for much difficulty accessing things stored on that side.    

I queried Dan some time ago about redoing that bi-fold door by removing the center hinge and attaching the resulting two doors with hinges on their outside edges so that they would open from the center and fold back giving me better access to the right side, not to mention making it easier to get around the pantry without the door sticking out into the hallway.  At first he didn't think it would work because of suspected structure issues relating to studs, sheetrock, and blah, blah (issues I didn't understand).  But then last Saturday he decided to give it a try.  And it worked!!!

Here's picture of it in process, doors split and left side up.  

We still need to buy another knob and do some painting, but here's how it looks now when open.  

Such a little thing, but it makes me so happy!  ♥

It's Zucchini Season!

Every summer since we've owned our own home, we've planted some type of garden.  In the early days, it really was for "survival" in that we certainly didn't have much money and a garden provided much needed food for us and our little ones.  And every garden included zucchini and yellow squash (which we called crookneck) even though as years went by, and locations changed,  it was more for the fun of it rather than cheap food.  

It seems that we always wait in great anticipation for the plants to finally produce something big enough to eat. Then, all of a sudden, there's too much!  And there's always a few zucchini that hide (how do they do that?) and turn into torpedos.  Ah, but they are perfect for zucchini bread and zucchini relish.  Until your freezer is full and so are your cupboards. This year Dan has tried to beat the system by picking the squash when it's very small, and for the most part, it's worked.  Mostly.

We've had Summer Squash Skillet; bread; steamed, blackened, and topped with cheese; PW's Simple Sesame noodles with chicken and squash added; and so on.  Last summer I discovered a spice cake that was extremely well received when we had company over a weekend.  I think one will be in the works later today.  

We've also grown green beans over the years, usually very successfully until this house.  The soil isn't very good, apparently, and Dan's often so busy with his consulting that the garden usually gets short shrift.  This year we were determined to get beans enough to can. Here's a photo of our crop.

Yes, that's it.  Seven jars.  The bunnies ate the rest. Sigh. Such is life here on the edge of town.  ♥

Only Four Months 'til Christmas Eve!!!

Yes people, I keep track of such things as how long until Christmas.  As I get, um, more mature, yes, that's it, more mature, time passes more quickly and those four months will be gone in a flash.  I need to start contemplating, especially as shipping seems to be taking longer and longer these days.  

Case in point:  On August 7th, I placed an order with the King Arthur Baking Company (formerly the King Arthur Flour Company) for six items.  It took a day or so for the order to go "live" and I then received notice that things were beginning to be shipped out.  According to shipping notifications, four items were being shipped together and the other two were being shipped singly.  Okay.  I got free shipping, so I was prepared to wait.  The first four items arrived in about ten days, and as I checked the other two items I noticed a strange happening with one.  

Let's see if I can follow this:  It left Virginia and went to Maryland, then to West Virginia, and Ohio.  From there it made it further west to Indiana, and then what??  It went to Pennsylvania, then back to Indiana and then to New York!  What, what, what??  Then to New Jersey where it stayed for four days.  At this point I called King Arthur.  Was I ever going to see my silicone rolling mat?  

I was impressed with KA when I got a real person to talk to immediately.  He was able to pull up the tracking record and was as amazed as I was.  He pondered a bit and then said he'd get another one off to me second-day air and if the first one ever showed up I could gift it to some helpful organization.  Two thumbs up to King Arthur Baking Company!!

Anyway, this digression is to point out that it's none too soon to be planning and if necessary, ordering, Christmas gifts so we don't have to print out tracking records to show that the present is on it's way--hopefully!!

Puttering Along

This week started out with a fun evening on Monday.  It was my belated birthday party!  Dan and Ann finally found a time when all the local family could get together so we celebrated with pizza and cake.  We had such a good time! If I don't make our pizza (and who does for their own birthday party?), we get Papa Murphy's.  Our gang of boys love the 5-meat stuffed pizza so we had one of those and then our usual "chick" pizza with the addition of sausage to keep those boys happy.  Dan bought me a beautiful cake and we ended with it and ice cream.  Mmmm...

At this stage of our lives Dan and I rarely buy one another a birthday present because there's not much we don't already have.  He won my heart by buying me a box of Hostess Orange Cupcakes which are my guilty pleasure.  

Ann got me a bag of goodies from the stationery department--flower post-it notes, and another package of colorful ones,  a beautiful journal and a pack of gorgeous felt-tip pens.  So much fun!!

I love, love, love colorful pens!  I've started on the journal and used two colors so far.  The journal cover says "grand plans", and as I wrote, I don't really have any besides knitting, stitching and spending time with my family.  Enough and more!

Meanwhile, the week was a scorcher!  After moderate weather most of the summer, true August arrived this week.  

Not quite as hot as the day I was born which Mom said was 109°. And in an unairconditioned hospital.  I've disliked hot weather ever since.  ♥

It's a Knitting Kind of Day--In August!!

Yes, people, it's barely sixty degrees and cloudy out there.  Brrr! I'm thinking of picking up my knitting needles and getting back to a pair of socks I started earlier this year.  It's just that kind of day.  

Dan and I have been saying for the past few years (maybe even ten), that fall seems to arrive in August anymore.  When we were kids the famous words were "hot August nights", but we've burrowed under the covers all month.  And daytime temperatures have been mostly in the eighties.  We're not complaining! Dan grew up in Spokane and remembers many hot, hot days and nights and the little town I grew up in was in a canyon and never cooled off at night after day temperatures in the nineties and hundreds.  I remember laying on top of the covers and having the windows and curtains wide open hoping for cooler air.  No one had air conditioning in those days.  

(And let me drift off, for a moment, and remember shopping for school clothes on 90 plus degree days in unairconditioned stores, trying on wool sweaters and skirts.  And of course, we did this in the nearest "big" town, so my mom, coming from the Seattle area, insisted we had to dress up to go to town and that included wearing nylons.  Yikes!  Of course our car had no air conditioning either, and it was a 45-minute or longer drive to get there.  There was, of course, the ol' "four-sixty air conditioner" -- sixty miles an hour with all four windows rolled down, but that created havoc with our hair. . .)*

Suffice it to say that I'm not the least bit sorry to have a cool day today.  Here's a picture of my finished quilt top on my design wall.  I think I've come up with my quilting plan so hopefully I'll get to that in a few days.

I've been in a baking mood since finishing the top and tried Joanna Gaines recipe for blueberry rolls to great success.  If you have her second cookbook, I can totally recommend her recipe.  Our zucchini have come on and I made a double batch of zucchini bread two days ago. An old standby, but still so delicious!  Just had a mid morning snack (or as the British call it, elevenses) of a piece with my coffee.  

And last, here's a picture of the butte and sky to our south taken a few evenings ago.  Love the light.

And that's the news for now!  ♥

* I realize I've used "of course" three times in a row in this paragraph, but on reflection, they needed to stay. They define the situation.  Of course! 

Continuing On!

It's been my birthday today and it's a number I thought wouldn't arrive for at least a hundred years when I was younger.  (Just try to figure that math out!!)  But, when I woke up and was finally coherent (I'm so not a morning person), I was thankful to arrive at this age. And as I told my brother when he called, I certainly didn't think Dad was old when he was this age, so I must not be, either!  

At any rate, we've had a lovely quiet day here at the resort.  The latest Rhys Bowen "Georgie" book was released today and it was delivered by the UPS man this morning. They're always great fun--the series is called Her Royal Spyness.  

I'm still working away on that Christmas quilt and just have to stitch around the words and join the last two sections to have the top finished.  How to quilt it?  That will definitely take some pondering.  

We had Daniel overnight Sunday night and all day yesterday.  It's become a tradition to have him stay over the night before Ann has to start back to work as a teacher.  It's so much fun to have him.  I gave him choices for breakfast and he picked coffee cake. I was astounded to watch him wolf down three pieces in short order.  Makes a Grammy happy!

He loves boxes and often turns them into all kinds of creations.  We had one for him in the garage and he slipped his legs inside to turn it into an instant desk as he played a game on his tablet.

So blessed to have such a wonderful family! And to have had another wonderful year to spend with them all!