Cat Patches 2012 NewFO challenge

Today is the official end to the first month of Cat Patches 2012 NewFO challenge...and Guess what I got a few things done in the month that would qualify. It not that hard you just have to start a few new sewing projects and not finish them...I am great at starting things and not finishing so taking part was easy.

My official NewFO for January was my table runner. This was the progress I had made last week 

And this is where I am now. Not much further, but a little further than I was before. But it counts since it is a new project and I am not finished it!!

I also started this little mug rug. On Saturday I was at this point as your may recall

And now I have this done. I took Annie's suggestion to add more brown so the heart looks like it is floating. Now is just need to decide how to quilt it! Any suggestions?

.

I also have my Amish Diamond and Framed Pinwheel from my Wee Be Learning Bee. Since I haven't received all the blocks to make the quilt top yet I am calling this a newFO too. This is what the ones I have so far look like all together.

SO there ya go those are a few of the new projects that I started this month and have not finished...yet!! I officially now have NewFO’s in my house!

Now go on over to Barbara’s blog Cat Patches and see what everyone has been starting and haven't been finishing!

Take care

Where did January Go!

Holy Cow where in the heck did this month go! It seems like it should still be October and here we are at the end of the first month of 2012.

I didn’t set any New Year’s resolutions this year since usually by this time of the month I have already broken them and then beat myself up for doing so. I did however have a few wants. I wanted to do more sewing/quilting and so far I think I have stuck to that pretty well. I have used my sewing machine more this month than I have since I bought it. I think the fact that I joined a few bee’s and swaps has helped to keep me motivated. Also the fact that I am not actually screwing up the blocks as bad as I thought I would has been a pleasant surprise and allows me to enjoy my new craft even more.

I also wanted to get my garden planed out before May and that has happened too. I have decided on what I want to plant and now I just have to buy the seeds. One of the seed catalogues that I get has a store in the city so when the time comes closer to when I need to plant I will stop by and pick up what I need. I would like to buy everything now, but chances are I would be cleaning and put them somewhere that I think would be a good spot and then never find them again..Lol

And now for something completely different....I have a question for you all. Lately when I have been making potatoes baked, or mashed they are turning black on me. I know that if you leave your peeled potatoes out too ling they will begin to oxidize which it what appears to be happening to them, but it only happened after cooking. For example yesterday I made baked potatoes Mr. Pickles doesn’t like the peel on so I peel his before I bake them. 2 of the 3 potatoes were fine and when we opened up the 3rd one it looked like this. it is not burnt just brown and that was after about 10mins of cooking

I also have been having that problem when making mash. When I peel and cook the potatoes they look fine no discolouring. When they are ready to be mashed they still look fine and so does the mash. Then I put the lid back on the pot and in the magical 20seconds it takes me to walk from the counter to the table the potatoes turn black.

Now this doesn't happen with all the potatoes just some. Which is why i don't want to toss them all out!

In addition to this the potatoes have a really strong metal taste in my mouth and it feels like a chemical burn (not that I have drank bleach but something to that affect) Sometimes they make my whole mouth feel like it is on fire and there is a very chemically after taste. However, with all that said I am the only one that has that taste/feeling. When I make potatoes for anyone else they taste fine, but not to me.

So if anyone has experience that or know what it is I would love to know I am not alone...lol

Take Care

Sewing Saturday

I didn’t get a lot of sewing done to show for today’s post, but I did manage to get a few things done.

I finally sewed together the pieces for the friendship star in the Sew Happy Quilt QAL. I think it turned out pretty good. I couldn’t decide on which colour combinations to use, but I think I am happy with the end result. This is my very first star and I it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. The next block in week 2 is a pinwheel. It is looks a little more complicated so I hope I don’t end up having to do too much ripping! If I can get the pinwheel done this week-end then I will only be 3 weeks behind come Tuesday. However, it is now just one block a week so it should be easier for me to manage.

for some reason it looks puckered in this picture, but it is not in real life!

This morning I also made a little bit more progress on my mug rug. I had an idea of what I wanted to do for some time now, but sometimes getting your project from an idea to the cutting board is the hardest part. This is what I came up with.

Sorry brown on brown doesn't photograph well :( The heart is pink and white...

I am still undecided if I should do a cream or pink boarder around the whole thing and then quilt. Or if I should just quilt as is and then do a pink or cream binding? (Either way the top points of the heart are going to get covered in case you were thinking.ummm that isn’t going to look complete.lol)

I still need to figure out what I want to do for my Valentines mini quilt. I would like to have it done before the 14^th so I can hang it up on my table topper thingy. Since Mr. Pickles is working on the Jeep over at the farm I should be able to get something cut out at least if I come up with an idea.

I also need to start working on my block for the International Stashers Bee, but that one should be pretty easy!

***Also I am thinking of organizing a swap/blog hop in April or May. It would involve a quilt no bigger than 12x12. Or possible anything handmade that will fit into what I am thinking..lol If you are interested e-mail me.....more details to follow if there is enough interest.***

I hope everyone else is having a great Saturday

Take Care,

Thursdays Kitchen Cupboard

It was a busy week in my kitchen since we were actually home most of the week. I would much rather eat at home then be in the city for doctors appointments and eating out.

I am pleased to report that I actually stayed pretty close to my menu plan that I shared last week.. The only change was I replace the manicotti with a stir fry since we were out of ground beef! It’s been almost two years since we last butchered a beef and our supply is getting dangerously low. I am going to have to put the bug in the in laws ears that they need to butcher another one and soon.

I am not pleased to report that I didn’t take one picture of any of our meals over the week. I would always think about it after the fact.lol I guess that means that the food was so good that there wasn’t time to take a picture before we ate! At least that is what I am going to go with!

The only item that was not very good was the kohlrabi, pepper, mushroom medley I made to accompany our schnitzel on Tuesday. The kohlrabi was from the garden and even though I cooked it and then fried it the taste wasn’t something I loved. It was okay, but I didn’t work the way I wanted it too. I better find a better way to use it since I have A LOT more bags of it in the freezer.

Last week menu plan was inspired by recipes from my Betty Crocker cook book that I tweaked here and there. This week’s I am going to get inspiration from Gordon Ramsay’s World Kitchen Cook book

Thursday Chicken and chorizo Paella

Friday pork stir fry with veggies and noodles

Saturday Chicken wings and fries

Sunday BBQ Ribs (weather permitting) Otherwise Greek ribs in the oven, baked potato, cauliflower

Monday red braised pork flank

Tuesday chicken pot pie

Wednesday Steak with beer and onion gravy

This week I shall try and remember to take pictures!!

Make sure you head over to our hostesses blog The Gardener of Eden and check out what is going on in her kitchen as well as other kitchens around the world!

take care

WIP Wednesday

                                                  

Today I decided to link up with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced. Make sure you go on over and check out what everyone else around the world is working on.

I have a few projects on the go I have posted about a few of them before, but they are WIP and it is Wednesday so I figured why not..lol

This is block number 2 from the Sew Happy Quilt QAL. It is called the woven block and I am quite smitten with it. I just love how it is so simple yet looks so funky. I think I would like to make a whole woven block quilt, but for now it is just the one block.

This is block number 3 from the QAL I haven’t finished stitching it together yet, but I think it looks very pretty so far. If things work out this evening I hope to start block number 4, but she shall see.

I am also still working on my Table runner. It is my NewFO for the month so there is no rush to finish it, but I would like to get it done pretty soon. Right now the instructions on how to construct it are confusing me. In the diagram it shows to add this one piece to one of my blocks....but it didn’t ask me to make a piece like that and I am not suppose to cut anything up...so I am going to throw set it aside for a day or two and move onto something else.

I am in a Valentine’s Day swap and need to get something made ASAP. I think I am going to make a little mug rug with these fabrics. So right now that project is just in the planning stages.

I am also still planning on making a 12X14 mini quilt even though the blog hop is a no go. I want to make something valentiney and using these fabrics or the ones I showed up above. However, I really would like to do some appliqué hearts on it and I have never appliquéd before. So I am going to have to YouTube that.

And finally something that is a WIP even if it isn’t me working on the blocks here are my Amish diamonds and framed pinwheel blocks from my We Bee Learnin Bee. These are the beauties that have arrived and are now officially MINE!!! YAHOO sooooooo pretty! Great work ladies. There are more on the way and I will post them once I get them...Just in case some of the lovely ladies from the bee are wondering why theirs are not in this mosaic

Row One is Group One Amish Diamond   Rita, Me, Teresa, Lisa, Brandy, Phuong

Row Two is Group 2  Me, Tara, Jody, Nita, Dee, Jody, Barbara

Take Care

Garden Fever

With all the sewing I have been doing I feel like I have been ignoring my garden. Granted it is under a good 3 feet of snow and with the last fall frost of 2012 predicated as being May 21^st I am not behind by any means. Well at least I don’t think that I am! Also it looks like most of my seeds only need to be started in April, so I think I am all good. However, with all my gardening buddies posting about their garden plans and seed lists I feel like I need to be doing something garden related. So when my seed catalogues came in the mail yesterday I though okay let’s get r done...LOL

I have posted what I would like to plant before, however this time I am getting more specific and posting exactly which varieties I will be buying as well as the listed days till maturity. The ones that I plan to start indoors are going to have an “I” beside them, Items I wish to do succession planting with have an “S” and any Heirloom varieties will have an “H”. Anything new the garden this year is going to get an “N”. This year I have omitted Corn, green and purple beans from the garden. Strawberries and Raspberries are already in the garden and will hopefully come back this spring. I will also be adding a built-in herb garden, but more on that later.

I am going to be doing up a spreadsheet with all of this too, but I think this will be easier to share...maybe

Asparagus- Mary Washington (I have some in the front flower bed, but I never remember to use it and it just becomes a bush)

Artichoke- Green Globe 115 I N

Broad Beans- Fava- Broad Windsor 65 days N

Edamame- Besweet 292 85 days N

Beet- Detroit Dark Red 60 days

Beet Touchstone Gold 55 days N

Broccoli- Goliath Hybrid 76 days I S

Brussels Sprouts- Catskill Improved 85 days I N

Cabbage- Mulitkeeper Hybrid 86 days I N

Cabbage- Stonhead Hybrid 67 days I

Pak Choi Hybrid- 45 days N

Cantaloupes- Earlisweet Hybrid 68 days I N

Carrots Danvers Half Long 65 days H

Carrots Rainbow hybrid 70 days I N S

Cauliflower- Snow crown Hybrid 48 days S

Cucumbers- National Pickling 54 days

Eggplant- Epic Hybrid 61 days N

Garlic- White

Kohlrabi- Early White Vienna 55 days S

Leeks- Large Mussleburge 90 days I

Lettuce- Bon Vivant mix 30 days S

Onions (sets) Ailsa Craig Exhibition 70 days

Onions (sets) Red 70 days

Onions- Crystal Wax pickling 70 days N

Onions- Perennial Bunching 70 days N

Pea- Little Marvel 65 days S

Peppers- Hungarian Yellow Sweet 75 days I N

Potato- Yukon Gold 80+ days

Potato- Russian Blue 90+days N

Potato- Pontiac 90+days

Radish- Easter Egg Blend 25 days

Radish – Round Black Spanish 55 days H N

Radish- Gourmet Mix 30 days N

Rutabaga- Laurentian 90 days H I N

Spinach Tyee Hybrid 42days I S

Squash- Butternut 82 days N

Squash- Acorn 80 days N

Squash Spaghetti 70 days N

Squash- Zucchini- Black Beauty- 60 days

Sunflowers- Raw Edible 95 days S

Tomato – Roma- Mamma Mia Hybrid 60 days

Tomato- Big Beef Hybrid 70days N

Tomato- Early Girl Hybrid 55 N

Tomato- Brandywine 80 days N (not sure on this one...since I think it may just be like the big beef)

Tomato- Sweet 100 Hybrid 60days

I am not sure if I am going to grow my own tomatoes from seed or just buy plants from the store. Roma is my go to tomato for everything. I use it in all my sauces, salsa, salads and just fresh cut. If any one has any other suggestions for a tomato that is good to can let me know.

The only veggies I cannot seem to find this year are Sweet Potatoes and Fingerling Potatoes.

If anyone has any suggestions on something I should grow that I don’t have listed just let me know.

Now I just have to actually make a garden plan. Normally this would be easy as each item listed above would get its own row. However, this year I am going to plant North-South instead of East-West so it is going to take a bit more planning. I also need to get some trellis ideas going so that my father can start making them.

I just thought I would end with a picture of the little seed starter I picked up last week. I don't  know how well it is going to work, but I thought it was worth a try.

That is all for now

Well it is Monday yet again it seems like just a few days ago I was complaining that the week-ends always go too fast....lol

My week-end was pretty good. On Saturday night we joined my parents for a night at the symphony. It was their POP series and joining the symphony was The Classical Mystery Tour- A tribute to The Beatles! It was quite the treat to listen to the band along with the symphony. The played about 30 of the Beatles songs in full character and they were all spot on.  It was like a rock concert with people singing along and even dancing by the end. I must say it was one of the best symphony performances I have been to.

Sunday was okay this silly pinched nerve in my shoulder was acting up again which leaves me dizzy, stuffy, in pain and to top it all off a lovely migraine. Before things got too bad I was able to get my snowball for the Sew happy quilt QAL finished as well as three of my blocks for my table runner. They aren’t perfect, but I am happy with them. My shoulder however did not like them and decided to spend the rest of the evening up by my ear and my face was stuck in semi permanent spasm that made me look like a monster..But at least I got some sewing done..

Today is not much better. The migraine and shoulder/face pain is still pretty intense, but I will try and manage the best that I can. Maybe if I go online to The Fat Quarter Shop some fabric therapy will ease my pain...LOL

Take Care,

Sewing Saturday

Friday Night Sew In

As I mentioned yesterday last night was my first time participating in Friday night sew in and true to form things didn’t exactly go as planned.

I got a late start at 7pm which turned into 8pm because Mr. Pickles and I couldn’t get the Accuquilt Go! to work properly. I had bought my mother the 5”square die for Christmas and then stole it and the machine so I could cut some 5” blocks for my table runner. However, no matter how careful we were or how many layers we used the blocks would always come out to 5 x 4.78. That was okay for my table runner project since it called for the 5” squared to be trimmed down to 4.78, however it was maddening that we couldn’t get it to do what we wanted it to do. So that took an hour out of my sewing time.

So first I worked on my table runner. It called for 26 coloured 5” squared and 18 cream 5” squares. I had bought a charm pack from connecting threads for the project so I had that ready and after we gave up with the wonky GO! I had the right number of cream coloured squares too. The tedious part was then cutting all those 5” square into 4.78.

After that I had to sew my blocks together in pairs to get a whole bunch of Half Square triangles.

After cutting them all up I pressed them and then had to sew them into pairs.  And long story short this is everything sewed together just waiting to be assembled into a table runner.

Not all of my points match, but I am okay with that...LOL

I also worked on the Sew Happy QAL blocks. However, I shouldn’t have done it when I was tired since I ended up using the wrong fabric and I don’t think my blocks were measured right. Last night I was pretty proud of it and this morning I ripped it in half since the seams were horrible off...lol So it is still incomplete in the this picture, but I didn’t feel up to sewing this morning so it is still not done!

All in all I don’t think that I did too bad sewing wise last night. I got quite a bit done in only 2.5hrs of sewing. I didn’t get done everything that I wanted to, but at least I got something done.

Make sure you check out CraftyVegas Mom’s blog and see what else everyone got up to during their FNSI

Happy Friday

Happy Friday everyone. It seems like it takes forever to get to this day of the week and then the week-end fly's by too fast. Funny how that happens every week and I am still not use to it..LOL

Yesterday a lovely little surprise showed up in my mailbox. Back in December I had won the Accuquilt Christmas Blog hop prize over at Lily Pad Quilting. And this is what I won

Not only am I the proud new owner of this uber cool hot pad she also sent along the pieces for me to make my own! How exciting!!! I just might get something made for Christmas, before Christmas!

Thank you Snoodles!! I love it!

On Wednesday I had my final appointment at the dentist!! I celebrated by buying fabric. However, my celebration was short lived due to the fact that I couldn’t find anything that I wanted. I finally decided that for the Sew Happy QAL I am going to go with yellow, black, white, grey and a pattern with all 3 colours. I already had the patterned fabric and I bought some (expensiveL) black fabric in town so I set off to Fabricland to buy my yellows and grey. But guess what.....they don’t carry grey fabric?? They didn’t have much for yellows either. I originally found a bright yellow and black print, but I after carrying it around for 30mins I put it back and just went with a yellow with tiny white dots. I figured the pattern might be too much. It’s hard when you have an idea in your head of what you want the fabric to look like and then you cannot find it. After 30mins I had 8 bolts of fabric that I was taking just because it was close to what I wanted but not really. I put them all back and started again. I ended up with the yellow, a patterned white, (since I don’t have any at home) some red since it was on sale and I liked the pattern, and finally some four-leaf clover fabric that I didn’t need, but thought was really cute. So now I am kicking myself for buying stuff that I really didn’t want. However, I want to start my QAL blocks tonight and if I order online it is going to take at least 3 weeks to get here, which means I would be a 6 weeks behind on the QAL and would likely not do it and then the fabric would be a waste...LOL Talk about over thinking everything!! I also ended up buying some cheap grey fabric at Wal-Mart since it was exactly what I wanted. The fabric is crap, but since the quilt is just for me I am okay with it J

Tonight I am going to start my QAL blocks and be part of the Friday Night Sew In. I had read about the FNSI on a few of the blogs I follow over the past 6 months and never really paid attention to it. However, I clicked on the link by accident and now I am thinking why the heck I didn’t join up sooner. It’s really easy to take part. You lock yourself in your sewing room (not required..lol) and sew up a storm on the designated Friday and then post about what you made and link up to the FNSI. Now considering I usually do my sewing on Friday night and post about it on Saturday it seemed like a no brainer to join up. So come back tomorrow to see how much seam ripping sewing I did or didn’t do!

If you haven’t check out the blog Quilt Addicts Anonymous joined up for their block a day challenge you should....Especially since my arrow blocks made the week 3 round up J Thank you Stephanie seeing my blocks on your blog made my whole week better!

Take care,

Thursdays Kitchen Cupboard

There was a lot going on in my kitchen this week the fridge and freezer were well stalked and we were home just about every day so at least one meal was made every day. I also bagged all the beans which you and read about over here. 

I am also pretty proud that I made a stew on Tuesday where almost all the ingredients were from our garden or the in laws farm. Beef was from the farm. Onion, tomatoes, potatoes, and carrots were from my garden. Only the Worcestershire and mushroom were store bought!

I also used some of my cauliflower for Monday’s lunch that I blanched back in the fall and was expecting it to be mush once I steamed it again. However to my surprise it tasted like we had just bought it from the grocery store. In fact Mr. Pickles asked when we bought fresh cauliflower since he couldn’t remember seeing it in the fridge. I am so very happy that it still tastes so great!

2011 cauliflower from the garden.... still tastes good in 2012!

This week I am going to do something a little bit different for my kitchen cupboard post I am going to share my menu plan for the week and see if I can stick to it. First of all you should know we usually only have one big meal a day. We have fresh fruit smoothies (that Mr. Pickles makes) and cereal in the morning, lunch is our big meal of the day which we eat when Mr. Pickles get home around 2pm and then usually just a snack of leftovers for supper.

So here we go

Thursday- Sweet and Sour Pork loin with Rice. Mixed Salad to start

Friday – Chicken Tetrazzini. Salad and garlic toast

Saturday – Ham Steak, fries, and corn on the cob

Sunday –  Beef Roast with Yorkshire pudding. Garlic Mashed potatoes, Broccoli

Monday -  Manicotti, Salad

Tuesday -  Schnitzel and Spaetzle with veggies

Wednesday – Eating in the City due to doctor’s appointment (a big scary one!!!)

Now I have to remember to write this all down so I actually follow it!

Make sure you head over to our hostesses blog The Gardener of Eden and check out what is going on in her kitchen as well as other kitchens around the world!

Take Care,

Chilly beans

Wow where has this month gone! It seems like just yesterday it was Christmas and now here we are in the middle of January! Last night we hit -54C with the wind-chill according to our phones which meant that Zada got to stay inside to sleep for the 3^rd night in a row. What a lucky dog. The cats on the other hand still had to sleep outside in the garage. They have an insulated house and there are 4 of them so I am sure it wasn’t too bad, but still chilly. They are outside cats so it wasn’t an option to bring them inside the house. Plus a 50lbs dog and 4 cats in the small porch would have been interesting to say the least! It’s not that they don’t like each other they all do, but the cats like the dog too much. So they want to play with her and cuddle with her until she gets pissed off and nips at them...lol

Right now we are currently in a weather warning for extreme wind-chill. It is -33C, but with the wind-chill it feels like -46Celcius. For those of you that deal in Fahrenheit it is -50.8F. Booo to cold weather! It’s not bad when you just have to stay in the house all day, but Mr. Pickles has to do chores at the farm so he is out in the cold weather for the whole morning. We then have to go to the city, because I have a dentist appointment. I am not looking forward to getting fillings, but this should be my last appointment so that makes things a bit better.

Today I was hoping to show off my table runner for WIP Wednesday, however, Mr. Pickles decided that he was going to tidy up some of the kitchen  cupboards and storage room. This means that I have to stand there and answer questions until I just end up doing it all myself...LOL So now sewing got done yesterday. I did however get around to bagging my beans. It took me a whole hour to get it done, but I think we will actually use them now that I have sorted them into ready to use bags.

This is all that I ended up with all of this

Chickpea and pinto bean mix for Vegetable Minestrone soup

Split peas for split pea soup (I actually found pork hocks in town yesterday)

Kidney, pinto and yellow pea for Mixed Bean Soup and Pasta Fagioli

Kidney beans for Chilli

Chickpeas and yellow peas for Tuscan bean soup

Whole yellow peas for pea soup

Chickpeas for Hummus

I divided everything up into two bags one for my parents and one for us so now we just have to use them and this will be time well spent. We didn’t have to pay anything for the beans, so they should help to make some inexpensive meals.

I hope everyone is staying warm today!

So many things to do :)

As I had mentioned in a previous post I joined up for a few bees, swaps and QAL and was feeling a bit overwhelmed. I am still feeling overwhelmed, but I am getting things done so that is making me feel a bit better.

On the finished list

We Bee Learning Group One Amish Diamond for Me

We Been Learning Group Two Framed Pinwheel for Me

Bee Creative 2012 Paper Pieced Union Jack for Laura

Happy Scrap Quilt Block Swap Arrow block(s) plus one for me and one for our hostess

Each arrow equals one block for the swap

Not sure which one to keep a blue block or a brown block

Still on the List of things to get done

Sew Happy Geek’s QAL. I am now three weeks behind. I do want to take part, but I don’t know what colour choices to go with. I try to only buy fabric for projects that I plan on making. (even if I haven’t actually made them yet) so I don’t really have anything that goes together for this quilt. I would like to make it in Browns and blues for our bedroom, but then I don’t know if I want a sampler quilt for the bedroom.  Then I think..hmmm I do have some black and yellow fabric that I could use...but do I want to use it.....So part is the problem is I don’t know what I want, I am a fabric hoarder that just keeps fabric in boxes instead of using it and the other part is that I suck at picking fabric that goes together...which Is why I have been buying FQ bundles lately..since if it is all in a collection then it must go together right...LOL I do have some (MORE) fabric that I ordered online coming in the mail hopefully today so I can just shut up and use that.....but I do pass the LQS on the way to the post office so...hmmmm...LOL

Wonky Bee 2012 I have not started yet since I am waiting for my package and instructions on what to do to come in the mail. We are suppose to have it mail back before the end of the month so I hope it comes soon.

Name Game Swap- The deadline to enter has passed so I am expecting to get my partners name any day now. I hope I can make what she wants. I have till March to get it in the mail, but I would like to start planning it now.

Sew We Craft swap- I received my partners name, however she doesn’t have much on her site about what she may like. For this swap it just has to be handmade and something to do with Valentine’s Day. I have one project finished, but it is small and I would like to make something else...

Craftsy BOM- Now this one I am not sure if I am going to do or not. I signed up for it, but it is just going to result in yet another sampler quilt. This would make 6 sampler quilts if I do the QAL and make extra blocks for the other bee’s I am.....However, It would teach me how to make different blocks so I will likely do it.

In addition to this I was supposed to be in a blog hop that featured showcasing your mini quilt on a 12X14 tabletop frame. I bought the frame and now I don`t think the blog hop is a go. I am a bit disappointed, but it wasn`t too expensive and I am going to make something anyhow. I am going to try and make a heart block from some pictures I saw online. There isn`t a tutorial so it should be interesting on how it turns out.

I am also going to start my NewFO for the Catpatches NewFO challenge. I want to make a table runner. I have a pattern and half the blocks cut out. Now I just need to master my mother accuquilt Go! and I should be able to get the rest done in no time.

And I think that should be in for January!

What is everyone else up to this month!

Take Care,

p.s it is currently -33C and it is going down to -48C tonight...OUCH!!!!

Beans and Peas

On the week-end my mother gave me a few bags of yellow peas, kidney beans and yellow split peas. I think she got them from the same lady that had the tomatoes that fell off a truck, but I am not totally sure about that...LOL

I took them home since I also have a bag of chick peas and a bag of pinto beans and we figured I could find some good recipes online and then make individual vacuumed sealed bags for each of us. So say a recipe calls for 1c peas, 1c chickpeas, 1c kidney beans I will measure it all out, put it in a bag and seal it. That way when we make soup you can just pour the whole bag into the pot and you’re done.

The problem is I cannot find a nice variety of recipes it’s just a lot of split pea soup and chilli. Also I am not sure if I can substitute yellow peas for lentils. I don’t see why not, but since I have never used dried legumes before I am not sure. I am going to have to do a lot more research than I though...silly peas and beans!

Who would have thought that using dried beans and peas would require so much work...maybe it’s just me...LOL  If anyone has any tips or suggestions I would love to hear them!

Take Care,

Thankful

Last night we went into the city for supper and a few card games at my parents. The meal was very yummy and although I didn’t win at golf yet again I did win one other game so the night wasn’t too bad either..LOL

During the games I noticed snow blowing off the roof, I didn’t think anything of it since I could hear that it was windy and just assumed there was still some snow on the roof. However, a couple of hours later when Mr. Pickles went out to start the truck we were all surprised with a little snow storm going on outside and at least an inch of snow on the ground. (2inches on the truck)

Since this isn’t the first time we have seen snow we figured it wouldn’t be that bad on the streets, however we were wrong! A lot had come down in a short amount of time and the city road crews hadn’t been out yet. This left you guessing as to where the curbs were and left only one lane open on the road. This was the first time that we have driven the new (to us) truck in snow and right away Mr. Pickles couldn’t see since the wiper wasn’t clearing the snow in front of him.  We drove slowly until we hit the closest mall where we stopped and cleaned the wiper. After that was done we pulled out and stopped at the red light. When it turned green Mr. Pickles looked right to make sure no one was going to run the red and then when we looked left some doorknob ran the red....the light had been red for at least 1min and the bugger ran it...and fast so if we hadn’t have stopped I don’t think I would be typing this today! So that kind of set the tone for the rest of the trip though the city. It took us another 20mins to get though the city and we had to drive like people were trying to kill us...because that is what it felt like. Everyone was  driving like it was summer when in reality we had to push snow with our vehicles just to get where we were going.

When we finally hit the city limits things got worse. It went from reduced visibility to a total white out. We wouldn’t have been able to see any oncoming traffic if we were to try and go back into the city so we just had to keep going and praying that we stayed on the road and that the vehicles in front of us didn’t drive like idiots. We had to use the rumble strips to gauge where we were on the road and it is quite discomforting to know there are vehicles in front of you, but you can’t see their taillights. So we proceeded down the highway doing 60kph and trying our best not to totally freak out. At one point where we have to go over a slippery bridge some $%^& decided to pass everyone in the left lane, which was full of snow drifts. This makes the whiteout even worse. The guy in front of us kept hitting the breaks so as soon as there was a turn off for a grid road we took it. It added about 30mins onto our trip home, but we didn’t have anyone in front or behind us so it was less stressful in the end.  After an hour and a half we made it home in on piece. The normal trip home is 30mins.

So today I am thankful for a truck that has 4x4 since we need new tires on it and without 4x4 there is no way we would have made it out of the city! I am thankful for a husband who is a great driver and got us home safely. I am also thankful to God for answering my prayer not to let anyone kill us on the way home!!

Here are just a few pictures of the snow in the front yard...nothing much by Saskatchewan standards, but about twice as much as we had yesterday. We are also heading in to a deep freeze with night time lows of -35 WITHOUT the wind-chill!!!