Patchwork Girl's Rambling Warpstest

Friday Fill-Ins #74

Those of you with multiple blogs or private blogs...if you could add your link to the Fill-Ins, that would be GREAT!

Questions courtesy of MindFul Mimi who had some thought- provoking ones this week; thank you, Mimi!

I'd love to feature your questions, if you'd like to leave some for future use please feel free!

1. For me _____ is the opposite of creativity.
2. _____ was the last excellent book I read.
3. I like fill-ins because _____.
4. In nature I like looking at _____.
5. _____ should win the US elections.
6. The last time I laughed with all my belly was _____.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _____, tomorrow my plans include _____ and Sunday, I want to _____!

These are from Sandra, who got them from Anet, who got them from Molly. (Keep the chain going!)

I started this back in August and left some things unfilled in... will make a note if it's something I added today!

What is outside my front door: our front porch which may or may not have a bicycle on it... followed by the fence & gate, followed by my car, followed by a rural state road...

What is on my mind: working on a knitted bookmark & why doctors over-medicate patients with mental illness issues.

9/24: Things I am thankful for right now: I'm thankful for my family, our puppy, Pixel who makes us laugh & is turning into a good friend.. our dog Goldie, our cats for being cuddly and funny.

What I am reading: I was reading T is for Trespassing by Sue Grafton but need to get back to it... (update 9/24, still haven't gotten back to it, but am reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyer.. I'm enjoying it, lots and WILL eventually get back to T is for Trespassing!)

Goings on inside the house: puppies are playing, 10 yr old & one 13 yr old is awake (are awake??) 9/24 almost 11 yr old is ding something with paper, Pixel & Goldie are sitting quietly, looks like Pixel's going into nap mode.

What I am listening to: sounds inside my head

What I want: an interesting life, peace...

Things I'm creating: bookmarks & knitted toast for Summer Olympic Yarn Smackdown
9/24 going into the finishing stage of a scarf I'm making for my aunt as a late birthday present or Rosh Hashanah present

9/24: Things from the kitchen: potholder, cast iron pan, cast iron dutch oven, large stainless steel cookpot, cupboards filled with various canned goods, pasta, rice, etc..

9/24: What I have planned for today: go into town to pick up some mailing supplies as I've run out of large envelopes & bubble wrap... knit on the scarf, knit on the swatch for MS4 stole to see if I should continue working with a #5 needle or drop down to #4... walk for at least 30 minutes if my calf allows it, ride

What I have planned for this week: swimming, walk-feed-play with puppies, every other month meat pick up, we'll see what else!
9/24: Spiral Scouts meeting SHOULD be tomorrow night, work at the animal shelter on Saturday afternoon, walk, practice the race walking technique... clean kitchen cupboards out

9/24: Some current favorites: I still don't have a main favorite color, blue-green or rainbow... I love variegated yarns... knitting... watching TV shows on DVD (tho would prefer to watch them on TV but we don't have the antenna up, it blew down & we need to replace it...and we don't have cable/satellite... but I'm wondering if we should cancel Netflix & go with Dish network), checking mail & blogs & http://plurk.com/redeemByURL?from_uid=40033&check=1968392133&s=1

This post was started on August 10th, 2008 and finished on September 24th, 2008... thanks to blog issues!

Stuff about the kids about 10 years ago on another blog:

http://weavingrainbow.com/HSblog/archives/2006_05.html#000134

3/29/2004 recipe: http://weavingrainbow.com/blog/archives/2004_03.shtml#000005

Variation on Scotcher Shortbread bars

We ran out of eggs today, and also out of the bars I like to send the boys to school with...SO this evening I made scotcher shortbread bars based on the recipe in "The NYT Natural Foods Cookbook"...

Here's what I did:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix the following ingredients with your hands or a wooden spoon until everything is well blended:

4 cups oats (can be regular or quick cooking)
3/4 c sugar (brown, white, natural, whatever's on hand, I bet Splenda would work nicely!)
1/3 cup flour (unbleached white or blend of whole wheat & unbleached white)
2 sticks butter or margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt (optional)

Once the above ingredients are well mixed, add in up to 1 cup of one or more of the following;

raisins or other dried fruit (apricot, etc. should be cut into smallish pieces)
chopped walnuts
chocolate chips
carob chips
peanuts
whatever other things you think might go well...

Grease a 9 by 13" pan (I used a pyrex glass pan, which allows me to see how well it's browning)

Press mixture evenly into pan and bake for about 30 minutes or until lightly browned on top

Wait a few minutes (at least 10) before cutting into squares
I usually have about 16 or 20 squares, depending on how I'm cutting this up...

BBQ Sauce recipe:

smokin' on the 5th of July

We didn't get a chance to do our 4th of July cooking ON the 4th, so we did it yesterday instead...

Yesterday we smoked a brisket, it was gooood...we've got a lot leftover (well, a lot in our family is all relative... probably good for a few days of sandwiches)... Gary used some of the wood scraps, mostly oak, I think... he may have used some mesquite as well.

Gary also put some pinto beans into the water bowl of the smoker..they come out SOOOOOO good that way...

We also put some apples in the smoker, none of us were really impressed with it... the smoke flavoring didn't hurt or help either way... I prefer it with black cherry soda, my parents used to make it that way (my dad would often get out the apple corer and put the stuff in a pan and make them), so I'll have to see if there are any diet black cherry sodas sweetened with Splenda, though I supposed any diet soda will do for this dish, but I think I prefer Splenda sweetened... I think Diet Rite has a strawberry soda that is splenda sweetened, but I don't know how good it would be with baked apples.

Calling what my folks made "baked" is a misnomer: they cooked them on top of the stove...in a covered pan....used cooking apples, I think rome apples were what they used.

I also made the barbecue sauce from a recipe calling for tomato paste... it was in the NY Times Heritage cookbook... I altered the recipe a bit because we didn't have anything... when Gary said "we don't have bbq sauce, someone is going to have to go to town" I said "we can MAKE it" and he said "but we don't have enough ketchup"... I said "no, but we have tomato paste"... if I had not found this recipe, I would have looked up a recipe for ketchup that calls for tomato paste...

Anyway, here's what I did:

1 six ounce can tomato paste
1/2 cup vinegar (I used regular cuz we were out of our cider vinegar)
1/2 cup apple juice (instead of wine since we were out of that also)
1 onion chopped
4 cloves garlic crushed & chopped
1 bay leaf
1-1/2 tsp sale
freshly ground black paper
2 TBSP worcestershire sauce
Tabasco to taste
1/2 cup canola oil (we were out of olive oil)
2 TBSP sugar
6 whole cloves (which I got out of an Indian spice mix I made)
1 or 2 TBSP prepared mustard (we were out of the dry powdered)
1 tsp mustard seeds crushed
a couple pinches of basil
1/2 tsp ginger

put all of the ingredients in a large saucepan or kettle & mix & bring to a boil, lower, cover & simmer for about an hour until the sauce is thick enough.

This makes 2 cups & I questioned the need for a large saucepan because there weren't even 3 cups of ingredients in the mess, but it wasn't a bad idea to use the large saucepan...

I made some mashed potatoes using smart beat margarine (butter is better!) and milk... we didn't have sour cream or yogurt so I used half a lime and that gave the potatoes a nice tang!

Sushi Unrolled

Got Sushi?

Like sushi rolls but not the rolling process or the expense of going to a Japanese restaurant to buy some? OR you started out making sushi rice and the rice wasn't sticky enough to form good rolls? Running short on time but have a craving for sushi? Try this:

You can do this with or without raw fish, your choice!

Sushi Unrolled

Serves 6 adults (or 4 extremely hungry people)... in our case it served 2 adults, 2 nine year old eating machines and a 7 & 3 year old and we had some left over...

Sushi Rice ingredients (you can substitute with the recipe for sushi rice on the package of Nori if you prefer):

2 to 2-1/2 cups white rice (brown can be used, cook it until it's soft and sticky)

4-1/2 to 5-1/2 cups water

4 to 6 tablespoons vinegar (rice vinegar is best, apple cider or wine or even white vinegar will do in a pinch)

2 to 4 tablespoons sugar

1 pack of nori seaweed with 10 sheets of nori

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

1 or 2 teaspoons salt

Fillings:

1 cucumber cubed

Choose at least 2 of the following; 4 or 5 is better!

1 lb imitation crab chopped into small pieces and mixed with
1/4 to 1/2 cup mayonnaise (homemade is nice: email me if you want my mayo recipe) amd
1/4 cup finely chopped onions or 3 or 4 finely chopped scallions

2 to 4 ounces nova lox cut into small pieces

A few pieces of chopped pickled herring

1/3 to 1/2 lb tiny salad shrimp (be sure to cook this if it isn't already cooked)

1 can kipper snacks chopped into smaller pieces, try not to get too much of the oil in!

If you like raw fish & can get sashimi grade, you can put in 1/4 lb chopped into small pieces.. we sometimes can get sashimi grade tuna.

Diced avocado pieces: put this on the side for each person: if you mix this into the rice, it'll turn into a weird guacamole!

Whatever else you can think of that you like with your sushi rolls!

Soy sauce & wasabi

HOW TO MAKE IT:

This recipe can be halved easily, just do the math...

First make your sushi rice...

A couple of hours in advance, steam rice and water & bring water to a simmer; cover pot & simmer until water is boiled out

(we haven't tried brown rice, but if you can get the rice to come out soft/sticky, that's even better)

Let the rice cool

Add the sugar (enough to just barely sweeten the rice), the vinegar, salt and sesame seeds and mix until it's all evenly mixed.

Gently toast the nori over a flame... be careful not to let it burn.

Tear nori into pieces: large or small pieces, your choice!

Add whatever other ingredients you want to add to the rice and mix well.

Serve on plates... if you're having avocado, either put a bit on each plate or put in a small serving dish.

Eat and enjoy!

Some kids will turn their noses up at this or say "ewww"... my kids love it, especially the oldest 2. Micah has been telling people at school that sushi is his favorite food.

THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2008

Friday Fill-Ins #74

Variation on Scotcher Shortbread bars

smokin' on the 5th of July

Got Sushi?