Taste of Fall

It has been hot, hot, hot, and dry, dry, dry around here.  At least something is happy in all this summer weather:

Our bougainvillea is blooming away--a happy spot of color.  The crepes are starting to bloom as well.  Now, if we can just get some rain to green things up a bit, it would be quite pretty in our back yard.  

In my last post I mentioned my "pumpkin pie" that is one of my two snacks.  It is an easy recipe and very tasty so wanted to share it with everyone.

No-crust Pumpkin Pie

1 29 oz. can of pumpkin puree (not the pie filling)
6 eggs
1 cup maple syrup
1 14 oz. can coconut milk (full fat)
2 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Break eggs into a large mixing bowl and beat well.  Add remaining ingredients, mixing well (a whisk works well for this).  Pour batter into two 9 x 7 baking dishes.  Bake at 325 degrees for about 1 hour and 10 minutes (set for 1 hour and then test to see if it is done).  Let cool. 


I divide each dish into six servings and place each serving in a small container.  This recipe also freezes well, making it a very convenient snack.

Better and Better

There have been moments in this past year when I wondered if I would ever reach this point, but I finally seem to have eliminated all the major problem foods from my diet.  While I am not 100% reaction free, I am only dealing with very mild reactions, which is about as good as things can get for now.  Here is the list of foods I can eat:

Beef
Chicken
Eggs

Butternut squash
Acorn squash
Sweet potatoes
Potatoes
Pumpkin

Broccoli

Asparagus

Green beans

Spinach
Kale
Chard
Bibb lettuce
Romaine

Carrots
Onion
Bell pepper

Apples
Pears
Peaches
Nectarines
Plums
Cherries
Watermelon

Raisins
Prunes
Dried apricots
Dried apple

Canola oil
Non-iodized salt
Herbs, spices, and blends that are only herbs and spices

Maple syrup
Honey
Unsweetened baker's chocolate
Cocoa powder
Coconut milk

Apple cider vinegar
Balsamic vinegar
White wine
Mustard (Eden's Food)
Arrowroot starch

While it is not a huge variety, there are enough options to keep my meals from being totally monotonous.  Everything is pretty plain and simple, but still tasty.   I have my "pumpkin pie" and chocolate pudding for afternoon snacks.  I am generally not hungry between meals.  My energy is good most days, and overall I feel well.  I am very thankful.

My current challenge is supplements, but so far that is going pretty well, too.  Tests from my annual appointment showed that I was deficient in vitamin D, and I was able to find some drops that didn't have a lot of extra ingredients.  My bone scan results were not good, but that really didn't surprise me since my calcium resources are so few.  Not wanting to go back on the bisphosphonate drugs, I have spent the last couple of week looking for other options.  After a couple of more trials, I have a calcium supplement that so far seems to be working for me, and I decided to do a strontium supplement to help with the bone loss.  Add in the probiotics, and I feel like I have these various concoctions I have to take during the day.  Ah, well.  Better that they are just supplements at this point and not a myriad of medications.  I am thankful once again for the internet.  What a tough journey this would have been without it.

Intoducing.....

I begged.  I pleaded.  I gave gifts.  I sought professional help several times, but to no avail.  Bernie just refused to free motion quilt except for one particular brand of thread that I didn't particularly want to use.  J.Jr. will do in a pinch, but not something I wanted to free motion on for the long term.  There was only one thing left to do.

Introducing Mr. J!

Mr. J

Mr. J's full name is the Juki TL-98Q.  He is a light industrial level machine that only does straight stitch.  The throat area is extra large both in length and height, allowing for lots of room to maneuver a bulky quilt.  He is also faster than a domestic machine, so there has been a little bit of a learning curve with the foot pedal. Nevertheless we are getting along famously.  Things are humming right along with the baby quilt.

Bernie is still around for piecing and general sewing.  In order to have both machines set up, I had to rearrange my studio.

Though the feel of the room is less open with this set-up, functionally it is great.  Having the two tables together gives me a large space for the quilt while I am working on it and the cutting area also works well for laying out the quilt for marking.  I move my chair around to wherever I need to work.

I look forward to showing the results on Dot to Dot.

First Harvest

Well, we didn't get a lot out of my potato plantings, but it was still a fun experiment.  I definitely plan to try again next year, and hopefully will figure out better what to do.

First potato crop

The garden is winding down.  The bell peppers were pretty much a bust.  We had a nice harvest of zucchini and yellow squash this year, but unfortunately I had to add them to the "can not eat" list. (more on that in another post)  The green beans are still going and the onions will be harvested later in the summer.  We are getting a few tomatoes now, so my hubby will be able to enjoy those on his salad for a few more weeks.  I love that the garden is mostly finished by this time of year, before things get beastly hot.  Early garden is the best garden for me. :-)

In the next post I will share some exciting news on the quilting front.  Until then...

Making It to the Top and Back

This past weekend our little grandson was born, so I really need to get hopping on Dot to Dot.  Here is the progress so far:

The corner stars and sashing

The blocks and sashing

Putting them together

With the inner and outer borders

Leftovers for the back

I am more than half way through on the quilting designs, so hopefully by next week I will be starting on the quilting.  Fun! 

A Banner Day

Our younger son and daughter-in-law recently hosted a baby shower for his older brother and wife.  This will be our first grandbaby, and we are very excited.  I was commissioned to make a flag banner out of fabric as part of the decorations.  Here is a photo of the finished project:

Most of the fabrics are leftovers from Starry-eyed Grandma.  To make the flags I purchased some Stitch Witchery to fuse two pieces of each fabric together.  Stitch Witchery comes with a paper backing on one side and is applied with a hot iron.  Laying it on wrong side of the fabric with the paper side up, I pressed the hot iron over the paper to fuse it to the fabric.  Being the orderly person I am, I went through this process with all the different fabrics.  Going back to remove the paper, I realized that it needed to be hot for the paper to come off.  So I pressed the paper again on the first flag, but the paper tore when I was removing it, leaving a sliver of paper on one edge.  Well, silly me, I ran my iron over it again to remove the sliver, which resulted in a layer of Stitch Witchery stuck to the bottom of my iron.  Sigh....  I couldn't do anything about it until the iron was cool, so I went ahead and finished fusing all the flags

Once the iron cooled, my first thought was to try some orange solvent on it.  That didn't do much, so once again I was grateful for the internet.  Surely there was something about removing Stitch Witchery from the bottom of an iron.  I learned that Rowenta makes an iron cleaner that evidently works well, but one woman--not wanting to spend the money--told of how she learned to use dryer sheets.  You know what?  It works!

It took three dryer sheets in all, but the process was simply to take an old towel, lay the dryer sheet on the towel, heat up the iron, run the iron over the dryer sheet, and then over the towel.  Repeat this process until the iron is clean.  On the one hand, I gained a new respect for dryer sheets, and on the other hand, I wondered what in the world do the put in those things.  So, if you ever gunk up your iron, now you know what to do. :-)

Down the Garden Path

It was a beautiful spring day with plans to spend time with one of our sons and his wife--the perfect opportunity to stroll through one of our lovely public gardens. 

And a lovely time it was, too!