Easter 2021

It's been a lovely day here, but I have been floundering in an especially anxious sort of malaise the past few days that has marred my holiday.  Ideally, I could have either properly sorted out some of the things I've been struggling with or at least turned off the troublesome part of my brain for the weekend, but. . .no.  It was a gorgeous sunny day here, though, warm and with a perfect breeze, and both the dinner and table came together pretty much as I'd envisioned, which is always satisfying. 

Tomorrow is another chance to get it right, though, as they say, and if spring and Easter offer nothing else, it is hope for brighter days ahead.  

I am still feeling cranky enough, though, to point out that Blogger has already eaten this post once and that despite my choosing a specific font and size for that font each time I've posted since Blogger's change last summer, I have had to wrestle with each post's html and font/size/spacing options every time I've written which is taking a great bit of the fun out of sharing here.  It took me so long after Stuffed died last June before I even really felt like writing again, and then when I finally returned to it--and every time I have returned to it--it's been a complete hassle and aggravation.  Losing a longer version of this post a few minutes ago hasn't helped my mood any, I will say.  Bah!  Carrot cake and buttercream await, and they can go into the Positives column, and I'm hoping to join them there soon.  

Happy Easter to you all.  ♥

To Better Days

I received the first of two doses of the Covid vaccine last week and wish I could bottle for everyone still waiting their turns the hope and peace it has brought me.  When I can visit family post-second-dose next month without worrying that I am unknowingly bringing the virus home to them. . . .Well, it will do my heart good.   I am already gathering Valentine's Day baking supplies and recipes to try out on them.  :)  Here's to love, faith, science, and buttercream!  May a brighter year be ahead for us all.  ♥

Spring 2020

Well, how are we all doing, I emerge to ask.  ♥  'Not even four full months into it, but this has been such a trying year in my own little world, every month a new heartache and stressor, and now all this. . .in the larger world for us all.  Ay yi yi!  We focus on the positive as much as we can, though, don't we, and we plod on as always.  2001 still holds the record as the worst year of my life--24 was a humdinger--and I never think of it without remembering that a couple weeks before it finally (Thank God) ended, I was stunned to find myself getting excited about painting pink snowflakes onto my Christmas cards' envelopes before I mailed them:  If I could still get blissfully lost in creativity, even in a project as simple as painting snowflakes onto my outgoing mail, then obviously, this sometimes-devastatingly awful world hadn't beaten me.  My heart may have been broken many-times-over that year, I realized, but it was still there and still a good one, and I would be okay.  These silly bunny-shaped dinner rolls this Sunday were the 2020 version of 2001's hand-painted snowflakes.

"Next time, I'll knead the dough a little longer," I told Mike as we sampled a couple Easter afternoon.  (Why?  I think they're good, he responds.)  "Maybe I'll scratch on some whiskers with a cake-tester or toothpick next time so they look more like bunnies."  (He nods while he eats.)  "And I think I'll pinch little puffs of dough out of the backs for tails."  (More nodding and eating.)  "Anyway, they have potential, but they could be cuter."  If I'm already looking forward to the next batch of bunny rolls and to future Easters that will find us sharing our meals with our families again, hope is still alive and well here, despite furloughs, family layoffs, face masks, and the seemingly-constant BREAKING! NEWS! that mark all these spring days.  I keep you all in my heart and wish you your own dinner roll revelations, whatever it is you need to keep yourself going. 

(Always love.) 

♥

Daffodil Cookies and Disciplined Days

Our simple Easter dinner was lovely, if I may say so.  I somehow got the grocery store's last pot of miniature Daffodils for it, my Daffodil sugar cookies--and even their trumpets--kept their shape as they baked, the blackberry dessert I'd concocted for myself turned out better than expected, and the Lilac tablecloth I'd treated myself to for the occasion, since I love Lilacs and never see them on anything, looked as pretty on the table as I'd hoped it would.  The actual meal was good too, yes,  :) but the fun part of dinners for me is playing with the desserts and the table. 

My own Easter dessert was a dish of Greek yogurt mixed with crushed and whole blackberries, cream cheese, and edible flowers.  This was my favorite thing I ate yesterday. 

Saturday marked ten months on the job for me, and I can say now that it ended up taking me all of the first nine months on the job to get into new routines and have life feel manageable again.  That's a long time to feel discombobulated on a near-daily basis, especially for someone so appreciative of order and organization.  I get up every day at 7 am now, despite working until midnight some nights.  The extra hours in the morning are the hours that were missing before that now allow me to get things done, and although I would have guessed that this change in routine would make me more tired every day, I feel better than I have in ages and am only sleepy when I finally go to bed, as opposed to the day-in and day-out fatigued-right-to-my-bones that I felt every night (and day, for that matter) even through January.  I eliminated caffeine and sugar from my diet back in February and have been falling asleep quickly, for the very first time in my life, and sleeping like a rock.  Despite still not liking it, I drink about a gallon of water a day now.  Likely because of eating better and sleeping better, I've lost seventeen pounds so far this year, as well.  I used to be hit-or-miss with all the vitamins and supplements I take each day, but the so-obvious-I-didn't-think-of-it solution of a daily pill-organizer/container has made it easier for me to remember to take every pill every day, and there's something satisfying to me each morning about seeing that day's pills become a blank compartment after I've taken them with my glass of almond milk.  This is such a slight change in routine, but it's one that makes me feel better and more on-top-of-things every single day--and minutes after starting each day--so it's worth noting.  I still walk to and from work as often as I can--the nights I work until midnight, I catch the bus--but I also still need to work my longer walks and some writing-time into my mornings.  And I will.  Those will be two of this spring's changes-for-the-better, after having spent the winter focusing on other ones.   

Home itself has been getting sorted out too.  I cook ahead more often now, to make the nights I work until 6, 7, or 8 pm easier.  I'm in the process of creating a go-to grocery/shopping list of all the things I ever buy so I can just make copies of it and circle what I need on each copy for each trip.  (A friend's dad used to do this back when she and I were in the sixth grade, and now at almost 41, I see the brilliance of the idea that struck me as over-the-top at 11.)  :)  I have been wearing a uniform of sorts to work instead of real outfits, since I have that option at my workplace, and not having to choose clothes, shoes, and jewelry has freed up a lot of my pre-work time.  I've begun the past few months with not only my usual daily to-do lists, but also weekly and monthly ones.  I still need to come up with a better laundry system--it may likely end up being something as simple as "Tuesday is always Laundry Day, no matter my work schedule."  We'll see.  I  began April yesterday knowing I had met every goal on my March list, which felt incredible.  

My latest project has been to create--finally, after years of planning it--a writing corner for myself in the apartment.  In February, I bought a used table on craigslist to transform into a corner-desk.  A few weeks ago, I finished re-papering--really "re-fabric-ing"--one of that corner's walls and found a lamp for what will be my desk.  Saturday evening, I finished sawing the table into the wedge-shape I need.  Next is to put the table/desk back together, attach some type of shelf to its top as a sort of hutch, to paint it all, and to redo the chair I'll be using with it.  Finishing the entire corner is one of this month's projects, and I can already tell it's going to be my favorite spot in the apartment.  

Here's to new routines and better days.  Happy spring to you all.  ♥

You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day - unless you're too busy; then you should sit for an hour. ~ Sukhraj S. Dhillon

Well, today has been a relaxing day off.  Really relaxing.  Really off.  I slept in.  The first two Christmas cards came in today's mail, Mom's and Aunt Heidi's.  Mike had the day off too but went out to breakfast alone and then ran a few errands downtown, so I had most of six hours to myself.  I added the miniature pink gingham wreath to my little cottage planter, per somewhat new tradition.  I thought of one last little gift for my older brother and his family and ordered it with just enough time left for it to arrive by next weekend's early Christmas.  While watching The Shawshank Redemption, I touched up a few Christmas tree ornaments with some fresh paint, glue, and faux snow before rehanging them.  I made this year's batch of salt-dough ornaments while watching About a Boy, another of my favorite movies (and books).  (And let us pause here to admire the colorful holiday table-scene here:

Ah!  Love!  Every time I watch this--and it's become another Christmastime tradition for me--I remember that I want to look for a simple candelabra like that one, and then forget until the following Christmas.  Maybe 2018 will be Candelabra Year.)  I had made my last big bunch of salt-dough ornaments in 2011--

--but decorated the tree this year in just pink and white so wanted some pink candy canes and hearts instead of all these rainbow-hued ones.  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand just now taken out of the oven and cooling a bit before I add them to the tree, then, is this afternoon's batch, along with a couple hearts formed from the last little scraps of dough.  (Salt-dough:  1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup water, 1 cup flour-plus-more-mixed-in-as-needed. . .baked at 250°-ish for about four hours.  Katy Elliot's recipe--and are the snowflake ornaments in her post not the loveliest!--is the one I started with in 2011.  I usually need more flour than her recipe calls for, and I bake mine at a higher temp, but my recipe is otherwise her recipe--and a good one it is.)  Quite soon, then, the new candy canes and hearts will get hooked onto tree boughs and I'll loop some green thread or fishing line through the hearts to hang them and will declare the tree done. 

I'm off tomorrow too and am trying to talk Mike into a game of Trivial Pursuit.  No takers yet, but I got a "We'll see" upon last mention, at least.  'Am at some point re-hanging the gingham apron "curtain" that has a home over the air conditioner now that winter's here. 

I still have my cards to get ready to mail, despite Wednesday night's best intentions, but returning to my book sounds better than cards and envelopes.  Sometime this weekend, I'll take some Christmas tree pictures.  Ahhh, well, one picture for now, because I just added the salt-dough pieces and this is all making me very happy.

Sweet little tree.  ♥  After all the stress and chaos this week, this Christmas tree is actually my favorite one ever.  Go figure.  Thank you all for your kind words on the ol' balancing act.  Maybe everything just had to get worse here before I could figure out how to make it better. 

Yellow Squash Roses & Ice Cube Misadventures: Easter 2017

It stormed here both while I was cooking and while we were eating dinner, so all the more reason to enjoy a colorful and sunny Easter table today.  I forgot to make the mashed cauliflower, my Daffodils from the grocery store barely opened before dying, the Dandelions wilted, the edible-flower-filled ice cubes melted almost instantly and became a loose-flower mess inside our water glasses, and in the last-minute rush to finish, I forgot both to season the quinoa and to add the leftover edible flowers to the salads, but--!--the meal came together, everything tasted good--even the quinoa once I'd seasoned it after our first couple bites--and the table was pretty enough to make me happy even if not quite as flower-filled as I'd intended. 

I was originally going to make tomato roses as garnish but then saw online on various sites that stripes of squash work too, and since the yellow of squash seemed more springy than the red of tomatoes, I went with the squash.  One yellow squash made four of these roses.  I just sliced the squash into thin strips of various lengths, microwaved the strips for about a minute to soften them enough to make them pliable, then patted them dry and rolled them up into the wells of a muffin pan, the shortest strip in the center of each soon-to-be-rose, and the other strips around it until the well was filled with the rolled-up strips.  I wanted to be sure to keep a nice golden color on each squash-rose so mixed some turmeric into a beaten egg and drizzled that mixture over each one too.  For the last few minutes of maybe a thirty-minute-total bake-time, I sprinkled some cheddar shreds between the squash strip-petals.  They kept their shape even after being transferred to the plates, which delighted me.  (It's the little things.  :)   )  I shaped spinach patties into leaves, although I see now that raw spinach leaves likely would have given me more of the look I was envisioning for these.  I have to think this would work with carrot-strips and any other vegetable or fruit that would soften enough to be rolled.  For a first attempt, I'm quite pleased.  ♥

I also made the balsamic carrots that I first posted here last year, ultimately-seasoned quinoa, a mushroom stuffing dish that seems to grace all our holiday tables and deserves its own post one of these days, although it's not remotely photogenic, green beans sauteed in garlic and olive oil, side salads, and our usual Easter dessert of robin's-egg-blue-colored peanut M&M candy "eggs" inside peanut butter/marshmallow/pretzel "nests." I dye my hard-boiled eggs inside too but left one uncolored to slice for our salads and added the blue and pink ones to our plates.  After years of eating my deviled eggs at Easter, Mike finally told me he prefers hard-boiled ones, and I don't have a preference, so I skipped the filling this time around and just left them plain.  Since I color the egg-white part regardless, they add a pop of color either way. 

I found the two red potatoes closest to being egg-shaped and fried slices of them to add to our salads, along with yellow, orange, and red grape tomatoes.  

The edible flowers that were supposed to dot the tops of the salads were forgotten and remain in the fridge to be used elsewhere this week.  Alas.  The last few minutes of holiday meal-preparations are always so chaotic, even with all the planning and list-making. 

The edible-flower-filled ice cubes looked gorgeous in the trays but melted almost as soon as water hit them.  'Not impressive.  Maybe if the water had been ice water kept in the fridge, the cubes would have lasted a bit longer, but I doubt they'd have lasted long enough even then to make me want to try this again.  With mint leaves or lemon bits frozen into the cubes intended for iced tea, sure.  With flowers specifically chosen to complement the flavor of the drink they'll be going into, yes.  Flower-filled ice cubes for bowls just to chill bottled drinks, of course.  But not like this again.  

I added oats to the recipe--such as it is--to the nests this year to make them more like healthy no-bakes than candy.  Two microwaved marshmallows, a few broken pretzels sticks, about two tablespoons of peanut butter, and maybe a fourth-cup of rolled oats were enough to make these three nests come together.  The bags of pastel-colored/Easter peanut-filled M&Ms always include a few gorgeous aqua ones that already look like little  eggs, so they're my go-to for this dessert. 

'A sweet end to a sweet weekend, and a colorful Easter after a rather dreary and depression-filled start to this year.  Here's to flowers and faith and life's many other lovely blessings.  

♥