Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Ramblings

There are four mailboxes in a row across the road from our driveway.  The first two got relocated by the snow plow after our hefty snow this past weekend.  Ours is was the second in line.  Right now those first two boxes are securely (?) planted (dug in) in the top of the snow bank which is holding them up.  As Papa Pea said, "Well, we were due for a new mailbox anyway."

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A good friend of my daughter's received a pair of my quilted potholders a couple of years ago, and has politely asked if I might make her a new pair.  She requested I use gray fabric.  Hmmm, wouldn't be my first choice, and I don't have a lot of grays from which to choose, so I asked her to stop by to look at what I had and pick what appealed to her.  Thankfully, she picked a dark, medium and light out of my limited stash so I had nice values with which to work.  I got the top for the first one done today, and you know what?  Although I would never have chosen grays myself, it looks pretty good!  Yet another lesson on why it's important to work outside the box every now and then.  I'll post a picture of the pair when I get them done.

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Papa Pea went into town today to get gas in the Samurai.  It's his banging around in the woods vehicle and, boy howdy, riding in it gives one a real banging around.  (Have I given away the fact that it's not my favorite vehicle to drive or ride in?  Or to get in and out of for that matter.  The short leg syndrome strikes again.)  I did hitch a ride into town with him, though, for a quick run through the Co-op to pick up a couple of needed ingredients (a big kitchen cooking day planned for me tomorrow), and a stop at the library to pick up a book I had ordered.  We killed two birds with one stone.  Or perhaps it was 2-1/2 birds.  I'm not sure which.

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I'm down to my last pre-made pie crust in the freezer (the ball of crust, that is) so making another batch of crusts was on my list today.  But today, like most days, the hours zoomed by way too fast and I didn't make it that far down my list.  Hopefully, tomorrow when I'm simmering a big pot of Beef Vegetable Soup, I'll have time to do the pie crusts.  If any of you are interested, I did a post on how I make my crusts.  Click here and it should pop up for you.  The only change I've since made in the instructions is that instead of using the pastry cutter to incorporate the butter and lard into the dry ingredients, I found I can do that step faster and much easier (much!) using my KitchenAid mixer with the flat beater attachment.

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Time to sign off for the night.  I have a big beautification event planned.  Shower, shampoo, shave, pedicure . . . TMI?  Hey, we all have to do it every month or so.  ;o)

19 comments:

Michelle said...

Love this post; it has inspired me to do something similar! Now let's see if I make the time....

Goatldi said...

I have a similar but not exactly the same crust that I also freeze.

Sounds like a perfectly lovely trip to town. We too are fortunate to have a natural food store in Mariposa.
https://www.highcountryhealthfoods.com/
I must admit I miss not having a co-op to belong to.

You are one busy lady this week. What time is the soup on tomorrow?


Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

I made split pea ham bone soup last night. Perfect for winter. I too, also made a library run. And, get this, we have one bag of pie crust crumbles left in the freezer. I too was thinking it's time to restock. I just ran out of time yesterday. Sadly, there is no co-op for miles around here. I rely on the grocery store and health stores (also a drive, but closer). I am making gray hot pads (crocheted) for an order. I found the last skeins of cotton year at a box store thankfully. First time for me to make a gray set as well.

Mama Pea said...

Michelle - Thanks for saying you liked this post. Writing these every day things always makes me wonder if I'm boring all who read to death. Very nice to hear they contain a small bit of interest anyway!

Goatldi - If I had to start by making the crust from scratch every time I baked a pie . . . well, not many pies would appear in my kitchen. So, so easy when I just have to remember to pull the frozen crusts out of the freezer in time. Vegetable soup will be ready for din-din tonight. You bring some homemade biscuits and I'll pop open a bottle of wine! ;o)

Kristina - It's a real pie crust emergency for us all! Gosh, is gray the new color for 2020? (Blech.)

Cockeyed Jo said...

My pie crust balls went into the deep freeze last week. Beef, Vegetable, and Barley soup is simmering away on top of the wood stove. I used greys as a neutral (black, white, cream) to offset brighter colors and make them pop.

Mama Pea said...

Cockeyed Jo - I'm kinda surprised at the number of people who do make ahead and keep pie crust balls in the freezer. (Gosh, we're all so smart!) It just makes so much sense to me.

In my quilting endeavors, I've always used a lot of creams, whites and neutrals but have neglected grays. What you say makes sense in that I can definitely see how grays would make other colors pop. Thanks for the tip!

wisps of words said...

I use just butter, in my pie crusts. Because I don't seem to be able to get lard. -sigh- This city is probably too "fanci-fied" to offer lard in their stores. :-((((((((( And I certainly don't make it, myself. -sigh-

But they like my butter crusts.

Oh ho ho! You mix, with a machine!!!! NO FAIR!!!!! -grin- No Fair! The mixing is the hard part!!!!!! LOL

How delightful, to make a bunch of them, and have them in the freezer.

For "a 100 years," I made my crusts with Crisco or whatever that horribly unhealthy stuff is. When I finally got-the-health-message, I switched to butter.

But they are very different items, to deal with!!!!! A butter crust, has to be at just the right temp, to allow it to be dealt with!!!!!!! Which I found out, the first time I switched!!!

Perhaps butter and lard, are more forgiving. The just butter ones, can get tooooooooooo warm, very fast.

Hope you enjoyed your Spa Treatment!!!!!

¨*•.¸💛¸.•*¨

Vera said...

I am ashamed to say that I buy pastry from the French supermarket, as I found it to be consistently perfect, unless I ruined it by overcooking it. My own pastry was sometimes good sometimes not, so, to be honest with you, I gave up!

Mama Pea said...

wisps of words - I have a friend who uses only butter in her pie crusts, too. And know how very careful you have to be with temperature in working with same. But, oh, such a lovely, flaky crust. Yum!

My mother always cooked with Crisco and although we now know it wasn't good for us, she was a good cook and made the lightest, tastiest dinner rolls ever. And try as I might, I've never been able to recreate the fantastic flavor of her Banana Bread (made with Crisco, of course) using what I now feel are acceptable shortenings.

Vera - When we were first married and I didn't know how to make pie crusts, there was a product on the market that came in sticks like margarine or butter. It was pre-made pie crust that you let soften and then rolled out. I used these for making pies for about six months until my husband said to me (as kindly as he could), "Hon, until you have time to figure out how to make homemade pie crusts, why don't we just skip the pies." Glad you have a good crust you can buy in your French supermarket. Leave it to the French, eh?

Lynne said...

Really enjoyed your post. I can picture you doing all those things. My dad use to have one of those car for riding in the woods! It was a model T Ford, boy was that was a bumpy ride. I remember hitting my head on the ceiling a number of times!!ooch! That vegetable beef soup sounds so good. Take care ! xo

Mama Pea said...

Lynne - Thank you! We had a bowl of the veggie soup, einkorn biscuits and a little dish of vanilla pudding for dinner tonight. Now I have about five gallons (a slight exaggeration) of the soup to let cool and put in the freezer later tonight. No complaints as frozen soups are my "convenience" foods when I don't have time to cook or an idea of what to cook.

coffeeontheporchwithme said...

Mmmmm I love beef vegetable and barley soup. I grew up "out in the country" and my father made a dual mailbox for us and the neighbours across the road. It was attached to a long horizontal metal pole. The pole could swing from the post it was attached to and had a slack chain from the bottom of the mailbox, down to a cement block in the ditch. That way if the snowplow hit it, it would swing, but not break off. Word has it that snowplow drivers play a bit of a game seeing how close they can get to mailboxes. Sometimes they misjudge. -Jenn

Mama Pea said...

Jenn - There are some mailboxes around here that are mounted exactly as you described and I've thought of suggesting that idea to my husband after this last oopsie. Don't know if I could convince him to do a complete remounting set-up now or not but it's no fun having to redo the wooden 4 x 4 it was mounted on either. Oh, the perils of living "in the country" in the winter, eh?

Retired Knitter said...

I love quilted items. Never learned however. And now that I am so over committed to knitting - because of my enormous supply of yarns there would be no room to store any quilting supplies.

I look forward to seeing you're creations.

NanaDiana said...

Love this post. I am looking forward to seeing the potholders. We do have to think outside the box sometimes,don't we?!
We had an old beater of a truck that bounced all over the place, too. Nothing worked on it but it was perfect for hauling brush and junk. lol

Thanks for leaving the comment on my blog about the 60s/70s. It was fun while it lasted. lol xo Diana

Mama Pea said...

Retired Knitter - I still knit quite a bit also. It was my first love, learned from a college roommate and I didn't quilt until about 25 years ago (holy cow, how could it have been that long ago?) when I took a beginning quilting class on a whim. Then my knitting needles got a little dusty for a while, but I couldn't help but pull them out a while later. I do love quilting, but knitting, I have to admit, is much more relaxing for me.

Have you read any of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's books? She also has a blog "The Yarn Harlot" and is a well-known teacher and knitter. I LOVE her and the way she inspires me to knit, knit, knit!

NanaDiana - Thank you! I'm currently feeling very guilty about my slowness in getting this set of potholders done. I haven't made it into my quilt room for two days now! LIFE keeps getting in the way . . . sigh.

Sam I Am...... said...

My mailbox has no door and is sideways because of the mail truck cutting it too close. He had no excuse as we have no snow!
When I do all those personal tasks...I call it my Spa Day! LOL!

Cockeyed Jo said...

Beautiful craftsmanship. WTG Mama.

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