I woke up at 6:00 a.m., feeling strangely wide awake (after going to sleep after 3:00 a.m.), but I went back to sleep and slept for several more hours! I called neighbor T to check on her and we had several more phone calls, back and forth, throughout the rest of the morning and early afternoon. In between, I wrote my Friday Recap blog post and chatted with my daughter, who went grocery shopping at the dollar store and baked a pumpkin-pecan bread:
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| Pumpkin-Pecan Bread |
Not fair! I wanted to bake a cake this evening, but it is simply too hot to even think of turning on the oven! Daughter said it was in the 60s, up there! I told her she needs to make me some pumpkin bread when she comes down, next - that will be at Thanksgiving, and it should be cool enough to turn on the oven, by then. I've two cans of pumpkin puree in the pantry that need to be used up!
Instead of baking a cake or pumpkin bread, I cooked the chicken breast I had bought on Thursday. It was one whole chicken breast that they had removed the breast bone and skinned. I cut it into two halves.
I pan sauteed one half, with onions and a chopped tomato, with only salt, pepper, and garlic powder to season it:
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| Sauteed Chicken Breast |
I made a curry with the other half, with onions, another tomato, curry leaves, curry powder, chili powder, and spices such as whole cloves and whole cardamoms:
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| Chicken Curry |
I don't need to cook all of next week, if I choose not to! LOL! But, most probably what I'll do is freeze some of the curry.
Today being the first day of fall, my daughter said she's making a Fall "bucket list", and it made me realize that it's been a year since I last did a Joy List. I did my very first Joy List back in Fall 2016, which was followed by various other seasonal joy lists, including another Fall Joy List in 2017. Then, I took a break from doing joy lists, deciding to incorporate them into my balanced life goals, instead. I've spent some time, today, trying to decide if I wanted to make another Fall Joy list, this year. But, a lot of the things I came up with, like eating chocolates with marzipan filling, are bad for me and other things, like going places and doing things, seemed more like work than fun! Oh, dear! Here's the list I settled on:
Fall Joy List 2018:
1. Celebrate my official retirement (in October) - not quite sure how, though!
2. Spend more time sewing
3. Bake a cake
4. Bake a pie
5. Decorate for fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving
6. Celebrate my birthday (might wait until daughter comes home for Thanksgiving)
7. Bake pumpkin bread with daughter when she comes home
8. Host the October prayer gathering
9. Celebrate Thanksgiving
10. Do some gardening
11. Knit
12. Make holiday gifts
Today, I am thankful for:
- Being able to help neighbor T
- Chatting with my daughter throughout the day
- A sunny, warm day
- A fridge full of food
- A relaxed day
How was your first day of fall? Anyone else making fall bucket lists or joy lists?
Following a busy couple of weeks, I'm having a bit of a catch up with my blog reading. Your Fall joy list is a wonderful idea, I hope you manage to achieve everything. I need to set my mind to some Autumn decorating in the house soon. It's much cooler here now, with the central heating coming on most mornings. We enjoyed a walk through the woods yesterday and the leaves are beginning to fall. X
ReplyDeleteSounds like it is already Fall over there, Jules. I am waiting until October to decorate, because it still feels like summer! Hope the coming week will be less busy for you.
DeleteI've missed posting on a number of your posts so I'm playing catch up today! I'm so pleased to hear about the excellent results of all your medical tests - you must be so relieved.
ReplyDeleteI've added your curried cauliflower recipe to my list of new ideas (new to me) for next months meals. I have done a cauliflower curry with lots of sauce before but this will be the first time for a 'dry' one. I often do a sauteed chicken meal similar to the one you've pictured above. I'm liking your recipe ideas so please keep posting them.
I hope your neighbour's problem with the roofing company is sorted on Wednesday. Just don't let her sign anything at all. These 'hard sell' phone calls are a nightmare and I tend to just put the phone down on them rather than listen to what they have to say.
I've just caught up with your blog, Eileen, as I missed reading the last few posts. Thank you, yes, I'm very happy about the results of my medical tests. :)
DeleteI'm glad you like my recipe ideas and they are somewhat useful to you. Hope you enjoy the cauliflower cooked that way.
Yes, I, too, simply say, "No, thank you" or, "Sorry, not interested" and hang up on them!
Hope the week ahead is a good one for you. Just take things one day at a time. Don't get too stressed with the delays.
Sounds like there's a lot of celebrating and baking to look forward to! I'm not sure they even sell pumpkin puree in the UK!
ReplyDeleteYes, there will be! :) There's canned pumpkin (puree) and canned pumpkin pie filling, both. Makes it very easy to make pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie.
DeleteTheHub and I had noticed we were operating on 2 different planes so we sat down and drew up list of things we wanted to do together during the fall. We are having kind of a busy fall since Son2 is getting married and we are filled with wedding
ReplyDeleteactivities, but we decided we need to spend time by ourselves as a couple also.
We started by going out Friday night to hear a humorist/speaker and plan to do something outside the home weekly through the end of the year. Some of the things require nothing but time, some have a slight cost and a few are a little pricier but they are all things we want to do/see together. Fingers crossed!
Sounds like a good plan, Anne. Between taking care of your Mom and all the wedding plans, you need to take some time for yourself as an individual and for your husband and you as a couple. Hope you are able to achieve the goal of weekly outings.
DeleteYour chicken dishes look amazing, and isn't it wonderful to have all that food already cooked and ready to reheat throughout the week? That is the best part of cooking ahead. I am not tempted at all to grab something to eat while I am out, knowing that I have lots of yummies in the fridge at home.
ReplyDeleteSo the cooler temperatures have caused your daughter to bake, while I on the other hand, am drawn outdoors to do some more yard work. Of course, it never ends. I pruned more shrubs and took down some branches from my lilac trees today. I do like your Fall Joy list. Most of my Fall Lists involve chores that need to be done. When I had people at home, I always decorated and I loved to bake. My situation has changed, so I will probably only decorate for Halloween for the kids that come to the door. And if I bake, it will be to supplement my diet with Keto foods that I will need to freeze because I cannot eat it all, nor should I at one sitting. I want to drive to Elliot Lake again for one week after Thanksgiving. That will be the joy part of my list of to-dos. Otherwise, I will be preparing for Christmas. Hope your weekend is grand.
Thank you, Susan. Yes, it's good to have plenty of cooked food on hand for those days when I don't feel like cooking. :)
DeleteI'm glad the cooler weather is enabling you to get more yard work done. It will be in the 90s, here, next week, too, so I will need to water the garden, at least a couple of times. But I won't be planting anything for another couple of weeks!
I'm glad you have at least one joyful item on your Fall list, Susan. I don't even want to think of the Fall chore list! :D
Love your Joy list! What a great idea. The pumpkin-pecan bread definitely sounds autumnal - and yummy!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sharon. I got the idea for the joy lists from a couple of other bloggers. :)
DeleteI hope it cools down before Thanksgiving so you can do some baking if you want to. I don't think I could wait that long for pumpkin bread.
ReplyDeleteAccording to today's weather forecast, we'll be in the 90s, next week, with a high of 97F on Thursday, before we "cool down" to the 80s over the weekend. :D Yes, hopefully, it will be cool enough to turn on the oven, in October - I'd like to bake the cake and pie for the October prayer gathering (although, I do have an alternative dessert in mind, too, if it is too hot to bake).
DeleteHave you tried any of the “mug cake” recipes online? You mix it up right in a mug and microwave it. Single serving and tasty when you want a little something sweet but don’t want to make an entire cake or use the regular oven. I’ve tried several of the chocolate recipes and they were wonderful.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter makes those mug cakes, every so often, Carolyn. I haven't tried making any, myself. Might be something to try! :)
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