Another Sunny Sunday

Sunny and Warm!

Make that a sunny and warm Sunday!  We went up to 102F this afternoon.  That's when I decided to switch on the stand fan.  Our humidity level was 20%, so the heat didn't feel too bad, plus there was a nice breeze, too.  

I had a fairly quiet, relaxed day, today.  I had a brunch of peanut butter and peach jam on toast because I didn't feel like making a cooked breakfast.  Afterwards, I decided to make a batch of yogurt to use up the rest of the half a gallon of milk I had in the fridge.  I brought the milk to a boil and simmered it for 20 minutes, stirring it constantly (it is my belief that doing this reduces some of the water content from the milk).  Then, let it cool and added the last bit of yogurt left in the container of yogurt that M had given me, last month, as the starter.  Then, I covered the dish and let it sit out on the stove top all afternoon.  By evening, it had set and become yogurt:  

Freshly Made Yogurt

I put it in the fridge after it had set to get cold.  Later, after dinner (rice, chicken curry, cucumber salad, zucchini chutney), I tried some of the yogurt with palm treacle.  It turned out well, with a silky texture.  I told M he'll get to try it on Wednesday when he comes to tend to the garden.  I plan to offer some to neighbor S, tomorrow.

The power went out while I was writing this post!  But, it has come back on, again.  I am glad for that!  But, I had better finish this post and publish it before there is another power outage!

Today, I am grateful for:

- Electricity!
- Homemade yogurt
- Relaxed, warm summer days
- Friends I email and chat with on a daily basis
- Video chats with my daughter

Today's joyful activity was making yogurt!

Meanwhile, my daughter took a trip to San Francisco to meet up with some friends (she wore an N95 mask the whole time) and on her way home, she stopped at a French-Algerian bakery and treated herself to a mini fruit tart:

Mini Fruit Tart

She said there was another slice of strawberry, but, she ate it before she remembered to share a picture with me!  Doesn't that look delicious?  She said she bought a piece of opera cake, as well, but, she didn't share a picture of it, yet.

Plans for tomorrow include:

- Change the bed sheets
- Do a load of laundry
- Dust the living room and dining area
- Clean the fridge
- Meal plan
- Take the trash cans to the curb for pick up on Tuesday
- Water the front garden

How was your Sunday?  What are your plans for Monday?  Is it hot where you are?  Are you managing to stay cool?

July Meal Planning - Week 1

 

Daughter's Meal Prep

The photo is of my daughter's meal prep for this week:

Japanese style mushroom and tuna pasta using spinach spaghetti (with a butter, sake, and kombu tsuyu sauce), yu choy (similar to bok choy) stirfried with garlic and oyster sauce, mixed vegetable shira ae (mashed tofu salad with nanohana, carrot, and mushroom in a sauce of yuzu flavored tofu and ground toasted sesame seeds, and soy sauce, sugar, and salt), boiled corn, bibimbap sauce, salted sauteed mushrooms and carrot.

It's all vegetarian because she said she still had some of the chicken curry, shrimp curry, and salmon I had sent up with her.

I can see that I need to step up my own meal planning and prep!  LOL.

Last week's meals were mostly based on leftovers: Egg salad sandwiches, cereal, salad, coconut roti, milkrice, and cornbread for brunches; pittu with shrimp curry, leftover salmon, ham sandwiches, coconut roti with chicken curry, hamburgers, and baked frozen battered fish fillets with a boxed rice/wild rice mix to which I added broccoli and corn when cooking:

Sunday Night Dinner

On to my meal plan for this week:

Brunches: cornbread, salad, scrambled eggs, waffles/pancakes, cereal, toast/sandwiches, leftovers

Dinners:

Monday/4th of July: Hamburger, baked potato "fries", ice cream, plums (compliments of neighbor S and family; such a blessing!)
Tuesday: Leftover baked fish and rice mixture from Sunday's dinner
Wednesday:  Stir-fried noodles with sausage and vegetables
Thursday: Leftover noodles
Friday: Chicken curry, rice, broccoli, dhal (lentils)
Saturday: Leftover rice and curries
Sunday: Tortillas with leftover chicken curry

4th of July Dinner and Dessert from S

The ice cream is one of my favorites!  But, when S asked me if I'd like some ice cream, with my hamburger, I thought it would be a serving of ice cream in a bowl or a small container, not a whole quart container!  I will have to hide it from myself!  LOL!

Are you doing any meal planning/meal prep this week?

The Last Saturday

 

Breakfast: Waffles with Peach Topping

Today is not only the last Saturday in the month, it is also the last Saturday before my daughter returns to Berkeley and her last full day at home; she flies back tomorrow afternoon (provided her flight is not cancelled or delayed).  I made waffles for breakfast and we enjoyed it with some of the peach topping; she loved the peach topping, by the way.  

My daughter and I ran a couple of errands in the afternoon and I treated her to her favorite iced coffee drink.  After we came home, I did two loads of laundry and she packed her suitcase, leaving some room for the food I will be sending home with her.  Then, we ordered some baby gifts my cousin's daughter had requested for her baby shower, which will be sent directly to her.  Even though I am crocheting her a baby blanket, with our new Covid case numbers going over 6,000 yesterday (weekend numbers aren't posted until Monday), hospitalizations going up, and the test positivity rate being 9.8% (7-day average), I am not sure if I will feel comfortable attending the actual shower, so, wanted to send her a gift just in case I decide not to go to the baby shower in person.

Leftovers/Fried Rice for Lunch

I made fried rice for lunch, using a bunch of leftovers!  Leftover rice, leftover cooked sausage, leftover broccoli, leftover broccoli leaf mallung (which colored the rice yellow because it had turmeric in it), and the last bit of roasted peanuts that were leftover in the jar!  In fact, I think it would be a good candidate for the SPSH No. 14 - Left Overs!  I did add an egg which wasn't a leftover.  There is a little of the fried rice leftover for my lunch, tomorrow!

Neighbor S called in the early evening.  She, her mother, and her aunt made gata (Armenian cookies) and her daughter N made rhubarb-strawberry jam; would we like to have some?  Yes, please!  My daughter loves their homemade gata and who wouldn't like some homemade rhubarb-strawberry jam?  The gata were still warm from the oven when N brought them over!  We were told they should be allowed to get cold before eating, but, well...I can assure you that they taste just as lovely when still warm from the oven!  LOL.

 

Gata and Homemade Rhubarb-Strawberry Jam

N mentioned that the rhubarb-strawberry jam would be good in lemonade!  That sounded delicious!  My daughter quickly picked some lemons, I juiced them, and she made us two glasses of rhubarb-strawberry lemonade and it was lovely!  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture!  But, it was a very pretty pink color and tasted great!

I finally made the coconut flat bread (pol roti) for dinner, tonight, after having it listed on my meal plan for so long!  Daughter enjoyed hers with some leftover salmon; I had mine with some chicken curry. I made extra so I could send some back with her.  After dinner, I did the dishes, chatted with friend R, watered the houseplants, and did the litter box.  

It has been another warm day with a daytime high of 96F (although the car temperature gauge registered 99F when we were driving about, but, it could have been from the heated asphalt on the road).  It has cooled down to 70F as I type this, close to midnight.

Today, I am grateful for:

- Daughter helping with the last few errands and tasks I needed done before she goes back
- Neighbor S and daughter N sharing their gata and jam with us
- Transforming leftovers into a tasty meal
- Safe drives to the places we needed to go to run our errands
- In-person hugs

Today's joyful activity was spending time together with my daughter and enjoying all the good food we have made or have been given.

Plans for tomorrow include taking my daughter to the airport in the early afternoon and video chatting with her in the night.

How was your Saturday?  What are your plans for Sunday?  

The Countdown Begins

The countdown to my daughter's leaving has begun!  This will be her last week at home before she returns to the Bay Area.

Yesterday (Sunday), we went to the store to pick up the carry-on suitcase she ordered, along with a couple of household items I wanted (a roll of duct tape and a package of permanent markers for labeling items).  Pick up was curbside, so we didn't have to go inside the store.

Then, we drove to our favorite Thai food place to pick up the food we had ordered to go - chicken Thai green curry, the seafood special, and beef fried rice (which we requested without tomato).  We also picked up an order of shrimp panang curry (served over steamed rice) to take to friend R; we had invited her to have lunch with us, but, she declined due to Covid precautions, so we took her lunch to her!  She was very happy to come down from her apartment to the car to pick up her lunch and several 3-ring binders I had kept aside to give her.  After we dropped off her lunch, we came home and enjoyed our lunch:

Sunday Lunch: Thai Food

We bought extra, on purpose, to enjoy over the next few days. 

After lunch, we decided to order some "patties" (pastries that are similar to empanadas) and vatalappan (a pudding made with coconut milk, jaggery, and eggs, also spelled watalappan) from one of the Sri Lankan restaurants.  I called them and they said they were closing at 5:00 p.m. since it was Sunday.  It was almost 4:30 p.m. when I called and I wasn't sure if I could get there before they closed.  "No problem," I was told, "if you can get here before 6:00 p.m., we will stay open for pick up".  So, we placed the order and we got there by 5:05 p.m.!  LOL.  We were lucky as it was a Sunday evening and traffic was fairly light.  They had our order almost ready, the last of the patties (I ordered ones with a fish filling) were just being taking out of the deep fryer when we got there!  The place is run by a husband and wife team and we were the only customers in the restaurant at the time.  

Fish Patties

Vatalappan (forgot to take a photo before we ate!)

By the way, this month's eating out budget has been completely blown!  I am blessed that I can do this from time to time.  

Then, since we were just 3 or 4 blocks away from the Sri Lankan store, we decided to make an unscheduled stop, there, too!  Without preordering anything for curbside pickup!  It was the first time since the pandemic started, that I went inside a store (masked, of course) without any prior reason for going in (such as getting vaccinated)!  It was my first in-person grocery shopping trip!  It is a small store.  There was one other customer there when we went in, plus the cashier (and another store clerk in a back room, as I noticed, later), all of us wearing masks.  While we were there, another customer came in, without a mask, disregarding the store's posted masking requirements, but, she was in the store for only a short time.

Daughter and I took our time finding various items we wanted to buy.  We called friend R to ask if she needed anything and she was very reluctant to say what she wanted because she knows I won't let her pay me back, but, eventually, she mentioned a few items and I bought those items, too.  

The unmasked customer went ahead of us to pay for her items and then daughter and I put our overflowing shopping baskets on the counter.  It was then that I noticed the other customer standing a bit to the side (but, without any shopping items with him); I wasn't sure if he was waiting to ask the store clerk a question or what, but, I asked him if he wanted to go ahead of me but, he declined (apparently, his basket of shopping was near the cashier's counter, on the other side).  He looked to be of Sri Lankan descent, but, I spoke to him in English and he replied in English with an Australian accent.  He asked me what I was going to make and I replied, "Love cake" and he told me that he, too, was buying the ingredients to make love cake, for the first time, using his paternal grandmother's recipe.  I wished him luck because you need a bit of luck when you make this particular cake for the first time.  Then, I paid for my groceries and left.

  

Sri Lankan Store Haul

Cookies/biscuits, my favorite tea bags, snacks, bottles of rose essence and almond essence, a 4 lb. bag of red lentils, jaggery, palm sugar, seeni sambol mix, chili sauce, packets of cinnamon sticks, coriander seeds, and cashews, and, not shown, slices of frozen seer fish, packets of frozen green chili parathas, dates, and golden raisins.  This is the one store where I buy what I want without worrying about the prices (although, the red lentils, at $1.49/lb., were cheaper than at the supermarket, where I pay $2.29/lb. and it is not always available).   I spent most of this month's grocery budget on this trip (the total came to $153.58), but, I am not going to worry about it!  A trip to the Sri Lankan store is a treat! LOL.  Some of the items I bought are for my daughter to take back with her and some are for friend R.  

We dropped off friend R's groceries and came home to have patties with our tea, followed by vatalappan!  LOL.

Later, my daughter did a trial packing to try out her new carry-on suitcase, which is a bit smaller than her old carry-on suitcase, which she didn't bring down with her.  Her work files (actual paper files, not computer files), took up over half of the suitcase, leaving her very little room to pack her essential clothing items that she needs to take back with her and almost no room for the Sri Lankan treats, other than a jar of curry powder!  She'll gain just a little more space once she vacuum seals her clothes, but, still, we were both disappointed as she would have to leave behind all the food items I wanted to send up with her.  

After some discussion, it was decided that she would take her big suitcase, after all, and it can go as checked baggage.  That would not be a problem.  How she would manage the big suitcase (as well as her heavy backpack) in the subway and the bus she would have to take to get from the airport to her apartment was another matter.  She thought she would be able to manage it; I wasn't so sure.  Finally, I asked her to text her friend P to ask if P could pick her up from the airport (he lives in another city that is about 26 miles from the airport) and drive her to her apartment (located in yet another city, about 10 miles or so from the airport).  Not only did P agree to pick her up at that end, he asked her if she needed a ride to the airport at this end, saying he could ask his parents to take her if the airport would be too crowded an area for me to drive her!  He really is a kind and considerate friend (they've been friends since 4th grade).  

We debated whether to return the carry-on suitcase, but, decided to keep it for me to use as an emergency case as it will be easy to pull instead of carrying.     

After snacking on leftovers for dinner, I ran the dishwasher.  Aunt C called and we chatted a bit and afterwards, I chatted with friend R.

Today (Monday), I did the usual Monday cleaning - dusted the living room and dining area, cut fresh flowers (more roses) for the vases, put away the washed dishes, cleaned the fridge, etc., and, later, took the trash cans to the curb.  I scheduled a blood test for next week in preparation for my upcoming doctor's appointment, spoke with Aunt C, again and cousin R, video chatted with Aunt S, who is my step-father's younger sister who is 92 (she had sent me a message that their oldest sister passed away just a few days short of her 99th birthday), and, later in the evening, watched the first half of Fiddler on the Roof with my daughter (one of the videos I have in my collection).  We had assorted leftovers for meals, but, I took out some chicken to thaw because my daughter has requested my chicken curry for dinner one day this week, before she leaves.  We also ordered a couple of items, including more kitty litter, to be delivered before she leaves so she can stack the containers within easy reach for me as they are now too heavy for me to carry.  

I am grateful for:

- Daughter's friend P will pick her up from the airport and take her to her apartment
- Being able to treat ourselves to Thai food and Sri Lankan treats
- Having a Sri Lankan store and restaurant within 20 miles of us
- The store being fully stocked
- A safe drive there and back

Joyful activities have included enjoying treats and favorite meals and watching a video with daughter.

Sunday's Decluttering:

6 x 3-ring binders

Monday's Decluttering:

4 plastic cases that video games came in
1 plastic zippered case that bed linen came in

Plans for tomorrow (Tuesday) include tidying up the family room, organizing the kitchen cabinets, and maybe putting gas to the car.

How was your day?  What are your plans for Tuesday?  

Mid February

 

Broccoli

Snow Peas

Here we are, in the middle of February, already!  In fact, already started on the second half of February!

Hope everyone had a lovely St. Valentine's Day, yesterday.  It is not a holiday I grew up celebrating and haven't really observed in recent years, either.  But, any holiday that features chocolate as part of the celebrations has to be a good holiday, I'm sure!  

We had a sunny and warm day (79F), yesterday.  I did a couple of loads of laundry in the morning and considered vacuuming, but, I didn't want to disturb my daughter who was working; at least, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!  LOL.

In the early afternoon, I took a container of pork roast and vegetables (and a chocolate) to friend R and she gave me a packet of dried chickpeas and a ready-made pizza base!  It was a quick curb-side visit, but, it was nice to see her again and wish her for St. Valentine's Day.  On the way back, I picked up some hamburgers and fries as a celebratory lunch for my daughter and myself.  She had already eaten some leftover kuftha, earlier, and was in one of her online meetings when I got home, so, I had my hamburger then and she ate hers, later.

Later in the afternoon, I walked a bit in the driveway and greeted neighbor S who was walking in front of her house.  We had a brief conversation across the street and she asked me if I had liked the cinnamon rolls her daughter had made.  I said yes, they were delicious.  A short time later, she brought me two more cinnamon rolls, along with some madeleine cookies, and chocolates!  How lovely is that?

In the evening, I tried to switch on the TV to watch the news and discovered that the TV box (or whatever the devise that enables me to receive the TV signals is called) had stopped working!  All I could see was a red X on the TV screen!  Well, at least it didn't stop working until I had watched most of the Olympics games and the Super Bowl on Sunday!  LOL.  Daughter spoke with the customer service rep/tech support for the phone company (I have my TV/cable, internet, and phones all bundled together), unplugged and plugged the devise three times as instructed without any results, and it was agreed that they will send us a new devise, free of charge, to replace our current devise, which is at least 10 years old.  We do have to send the old devise back to them, but, they will send us the return label, etc. and then, we'll take it to be shipped back.  While daughter was on the phone with them, they also noted that our computer modem was also an old model and will be sending a new free replacement for that, too.  We do not have to return the old modem to them.  Both packages will be delivered on Wednesday, so, until then, we are without TV service.  Not a hardship, really.  I will miss watching news, but, I can access news on the internet, so, that's not a problem!  I'm just glad that my daughter is here to figure out what to do to uninstall and install these devises because I'm sure I wouldn't have known what to do!

I had kept a tray (family pack, as it is called) of chicken thighs to thaw, yesterday.  In the evening, I took half of the pack (5 chicken thighs) and sauteed them with onions and tomatoes and kept the other 5 chicken thighs (still semi-frozen) in the fridge to be made into a chicken curry, later.  And, although I had listed leftover pork roast for our dinner on Monday night, daughter and I both ate the sauteed chicken, instead!  I also baked some peach muffins, last night, using a packet of peaches I had cut up and frozen, last summer.  

Today (Tuesday), we had a very light shower of rain in the morning.  Any rain is a blessing over here, so very welcome!

Later, I brought in the trash cans from the curb.  (I had taken them out, last night.)  The blue bin with the recyclables hadn't been collected by the City yet when I brought the other trash cans in, but, scavengers had come by and taken every single can and bottle from the bin! I added three more grocery bags full of papers and other recyclables to the cardboard and other papers left at the bottom of the bin and daughter brought that bin in later, when it had been emptied.  Afterwards, I took the kitchen composting bits to the garden, and picked another handful of snow peas.  The broccoli and the peas are growing in the same planting bed; the peas are doing well, but, it looks like the recent warm temperatures caused the broccoli to mature too quickly!  Each broccoli head is about an inch and a half across!  I'm leaving them on the plants to see if they will grow more, but, M said another client of his had said that their broccoli, too, didn't grow more than an inch or so across. That's a little disappointing, but, broccoli leaves are edible, too, so I'll leave the plants in place and harvest the leaves for as long as I can!  

It started to rain, again, in the afternoon, but, it cleared up after a few minutes.  

Later, after she finished her work for the day, my daughter took over a plate of the muffins I baked over to neighbor S and came back with a plate of homemade Armenian cookies (gata) and bite-sized cupcakes!  LOL.  We enjoyed a cookie each (I was good and took only half of one) with our evening tea/coffee.  

Today's mail included this week's grocery ads (prices effective tomorrow/Wednesday).  Apples are on sale for $.99/lb., eggs for $1.79/doz. with a coupon,  Bacon is on sale for $4.97/lb. with a coupon, beef for $4.99/lb. or $5.99/lb. depending on the cut, and pork shoulder roast is $1.99/lb. (which is what I paid for the pork I roasted over the weekend).  A 5 lb. bag of potatoes is selling for $2.99 this week, and the 3 lb. bag of onions is also $2.99.  Meanwhile at the nearby ethnic store, a 10 lb. bag of potatoes is selling for $2.99 this week and their 3 lb. bag of onions is $.99, but, they don't offer curbside pick up and I am not comfortable enough to go grocery shopping in person, yet.  Effective today, our state's indoor mask mandate has been lifted, although, my county has not lifted it, yet.  

Today, I am grateful for:

- Any rain that we receive
- Neighbors such as S who spoil us with lovely treats
- Daughter being here to attend to the TV receiver box and computer modem
- Garden harvests
- Working appliances

Today's joyful activity was picking peapods from the garden.  I think today's harvest of 30 peapods has been the biggest harvest to date!

Plans for tomorrow include having M tend to the garden and hopefully clearing out the rest of the recyclables from the garden shed!

How was your day?  What are your plans for tomorrow?

New Year's Day - 2022

 

New Year's Day Treats

Happy New Year 2022!

My daughter and I stayed up to greet the New Year at midnight, with our glasses of sparkling apple cider (mixed with some cranberry juice).  I boiled the milk till it boiled over for good luck and made milkrice.  

We had a sunny day with pleasant weather for the Rose Parade, which was held this year after being put on hold, last year!  The City of Pasadena's Rose Parade (followed by the Rose Bowl College Football Game) is part of our New Year's traditions, here, in southern California!  I used to get up early on New Year's Day to watch the live broadcast of the Rose Parade on TV; today, however, I watched a rebroadcast of the parade, later in the day!

I spent the morning calling family and friends to wish them for the New Year.  I spent the afternoon relaxing, reading and commenting on blogs, replying to blog comments, etc.  I did walk around the garden and drive way for a bit.  There were a few roses blooming:

January Roses: Yellow

January Roses: Pink

And oranges ripening:

Oranges

I was getting ready to make myself a cup of tea in the evening, when one of my friends (friend S, not to be confused with neighbor S) called me to say that she, her husband, and their daughter were on their way to visit me for the New Year.  She apologized for not visiting me in the morning and I told her not to be silly!  She brought us a tray of Sri Lankan treats, shown above (top photo): milkrice (with some onion sambol to go with it), konde kavum (made with a rice flour and palm treacle batter which is deep fried), mung kavum (a paste made with mung bean flour and palm treacle, rolled out thinly, cut into diamond shapes, dipped in a rice flour batter and deep fried), mung guli (similar to mung kavum, but, the filling is rolled into a ball, then battered and fried), aluwa (the white diamond shaped sweet which looks a bit like a shortbread cookie, made with rice flour and sugar), rulang (semolina) aluwa, kokis (a bit like Swedish rosettes, but, not sweet), aasmi (the fan shaped item which looks like threads woven together - made with a rice flour/coconut milk/cinnamon leaf extract which provides a much needed mucilage - can substitute okra extract - batter, which is then poured into hot oil in thin threads like funnel cakes), milk toffee, as well as marshmallows, and four types of cake, including her version of love cake (love cake recipes vary from one family to the next!).  Such a lavish New Year's Day treat!

We were all wearing masks, so I invited them into the house for a few minutes.  I had their gifts ready and I asked my daughter to pick a bag of lemons and some curry leaves for them and I gave them some of the ripe Serrano chillies I had picked, earlier in the day:

Red, Ripe Chillies

After tea, I scrubbed the stove top (not only did the milk boil over, at midnight, which was intentional, the pot of rice I cooked for the milkrice also boiled over, making a bigger mess on my stove top!) and did the dishes.  

Today, I am grateful for:

- A new year and everything it signifies in terms of new beginnings and opportunities

- Being able to celebrate New Year's Day with my daughter
- Exchanging good wishes with family and friends over the phone
- Caring friends who spoil me with treats!

- Flowers and produce from the garden

Today's joyful activity was having friend S visit.

Today's "decluttering":

Wooden Santa Box/Floral Decoration

Plans for tomorrow include visiting neighbor S and family for the holidays!

How was your New Year's Day?  What are your plans for Sunday?

Christmas Eve

Cheese Burek (Cheese Filled Puff Pastry)

Cheese burek from neighbor S and her mother L!  L's neighbor had made them and given to L; L brought them to S who brought some over to me (while L stood outside their door and waved at me from across the street!)  This time, it was my turn to take a bite out of one before I remembered to take a photo!  LOL.  I love cheese burek and these were very delicious.  S also brought me more mulberry preserves because I really liked it.  Such generous-hearted neighbors!  

It rained all last night and this morning.  However, the rain ceased in the afternoon and we even had some bright sunshine for a few hours.  Fortunately, the rain had ceased when M stopped by to tend to the garden.  He didn't need to put water, of course, so concentrated on tidying up and clearing some areas.  He will be taking next week off; I'll see him again on the first Wednesday in January.  He hasn't opened his gift from us, yet, he said; he was waiting until Christmas Day!

Today was baking day at my house!  I started with a tray of my "world famous" as one or two of you call it, dump cake!  I am now getting a bit adventurous with my dump cakes!  This time, I dumped a can of apple pie filling, two cans of peaches (I drained off most of the light syrup) and some fresh cranberries:

Dump Cake Filling: Apples, Peaches, Cranberries

I stirred it all together and sprinkled some ground cinnamon and nutmeg.  Then, I dumped a box of yellow cake mix (the dry mix) over the fruit and topped it with a stick (1/4 lb.) of butter, cut up.  The first time I made a dump cake, the recipe I followed called for a stick and a half of butter, but, I've been able to reduce the amount without any problems.  Some recipes say to melt the butter and pour it over the cake mix, other recipes say to mix the melted butter and cake mix together first and then spread it over the fruit.  But, I do it this way:

Topped with Yellow Cake Mix and Butter

I baked it in a pre-heated oven at 350F for 30 minutes:

Fresh Out of the Oven

The dump cake will be taken to my cousin's place, tomorrow, for the family Christmas gathering.

Afterwards, I helped daughter make a cashew and semolina cake that is known as Love Cake.  I've described the process in several previous posts as we've been making this cake almost every year around Christmas or New Year's.  Basically, you dry roast a pound of semolina, add half a pound of butter to it.  In the meantime, you beat together 10 whole eggs and two additional egg yolks with 2 1/4 lb. sugar, until light and fluffy.  My original recipe calls for 10 whole eggs and 8 additional egg yolks.  But, daughter said that was too much cholesterol!  So, we reduced the number of eggs.  Today, she accidentally added 11 whole eggs and the yolk of only one additional egg, but, that didn't make much of a difference.  A pound of cashews are also ground up and spices and essences, etc. are added to the ground cashews.  My mother used to keep the cashew mixture overnight to allow the flavors to develop.  My daughter would only agree to keeping it for one hour!  LOL.  After that, the semolina and butter mixture was added to the egg and sugar mixture and the cashew mixture was stirred in.  Then, we baked it in a 10" by 15" baking pan, at 275F (I lowered the oven temperature from what I had baked it at on previous occasions; 300F works well, too, but, the edges of my cake got a bit burned the last time I baked it at that temperature) for 1 hour.  (We checked it at 45 minutes and decided it could do with another 15 minutes). The cake is done when a bamboo skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.  But, this is a very dense and moist cake - it doesn't have a texture like a regular cake made with flour would have.  However, one should be able to cut it into pieces.

After the love cake was made, I rested a bit.  Wrapped a few more gifts and took neighbor T's gift over to her (left it on her doorstep after calling and telling her that I was going to do so).  Had a cup of tea and watched the evening news.

Later, I made a double batch of my cornbread muffins.  Two dozen muffins have been packaged to be taken to the Christmas gathering, tomorrow.  I am currently watching Midnight Mass from the Vatican.  I am not a Christian, but, watching the Midnight Mass from the Vatican has been part of my Christmas Eve traditions for many, many years.

Today's decluttering was a wire whisk which broke (came off the handle!)

On this Christmas Eve, I am grateful for:

- My daughter being home with me for Christmas
- Baking love cake with my daughter 
- S and her mother L sharing some delicious treats with us
- M tending to the garden
- Holiday traditions

Today's joyful activity was baking.

Wish all my readers a peaceful and joyous Christmas.

Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday

Apple Pie

Thanksgiving Day was wonderful because my daughter and I were together to celebrate it!

The day started off with an early morning phone call from my aunt, who called to wish us a happy Thanksgiving.  It really wasn't that early in the morning, except, having gone to bed around 3:30 a.m., I was still sleeping at 9:00 a.m. when she called!   LOL.  

I spent part of the morning finishing up the hot pad I had started sewing the day before:

Hot Pad Front

Hot Pad Back

The caroling lady was supposed to have been a stuffed toy/ornament and has been in my stash for a long time!  I am not quite sure how I came to have it in my stash in the first place!  I couldn't think of anyone who would appreciate a fabric ornament, but, didn't want to dispose of it, either.  Then, the other night, I thought it would do nicely for a hot pad, instead.  I appliqued it onto the plain blue fabric and then, sewed the hot pad.  I'm definitely going to consider this as a decluttered item!

The previous night's wind had knocked over the avocado plant and when my daughter and I went to set it back upright, again, we noticed that some of the purple mustard leaves had been snapped off by the wind!  We picked those and daughter added them to the salad she prepared for our dinner, later in the evening.

I started on the Thanksgiving dinner preparations in the afternoon, making the cranberry sauce, first.  Then, an apple pie, made with Granny Smith apples and my homemade all butter pie crust.  I had an opportunity to use two of my birthday presents from my daughter to make the pie - the mini food processor to blend the butter into the flour for the pie crust (so much faster than using two knives to cut in the butter) and the new silicone pastry sheet to roll out the pie crusts!  I decluttered the old pastry sheet I have had for the past 25 years (bought at a Tupperware party - that one was rather battered with a corner melted when it came too close to a stove burner that was on and cut through in places!)  

Daughter made the rice using a boxed wild rice and rice mix and after the pie finished baking, we increased the oven temperature from 350F to 400F and baked the frozen salmon fillet, which we seasoned with some lemon juice, salt, pepper, paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder.  It turned out nicely.  We had some mixed Japanese mustard greens and mizuna cooked together in a dish called "namul" to go with our salmon and rice:

Thanksgiving Dinner

I didn't take a picture of the salad of mixed greens and cucumber.

Afterwards, we enjoyed a piece of pie, each.  

This Thanksgiving, I was thankful for:

- Having my daughter home and being able to celebrate with her
- The blessing of good health and being alive
- A warm and comfortable home
- Good food and plenty of it
- Family and friends 

My joyful activity was celebrating Thanksgiving with my daughter.

Today, Friday (Black Friday), I am doing laundry and relaxing.  We didn't do any Black Friday shopping (we rarely do, anyway).

Neighbor S sent over a platter of goodies through her daughter N:

Thanksgiving Goodies from Neighbors S and N

N had made the little round pumpkin pastries and apple pie; S had added the madeleine cookies that my daughter loves and some chocolates to round it off!  She also sent over some turkey!  I think there will be some turkey pot pies and/or turkey casserole, this weekend!  LOL.  

No big plans for the weekend.  Just taking it easy and relaxing.  

Hope everything is well with everyone who is reading this blog of mine.  Did anyone do any Black Friday shopping to take advantage of the deals?

Still Celebrating on Saturday!

 

Celebratory Goodies from Neighbor S!

Birthday celebrations are still continuing, with this wonderful plate of goodies that neighbor S brought over, this evening!  Homemade Armenian cake with raspberries and blueberries baked in it, madeleine cookies, chocolates, fresh dates, and, between them, a small container of blueberry syrup to go with the cake.  Yum!  I tried a small piece of the cake after dinner and it was delicious!  

It was another sunny and warm day, today, with the daytime high in the 90s!  I'm just loving this weather!

I had a relaxed morning, mending a pair of sweatpants, replying to blog comments, writing my gardening update blog post, and doing a little crewel embroidery.  I needed some brown yarn for the stems of the fruits and basket, but, I don't have any brown crewel embroidery wool yarn.  My daughter and I checked online to see if either of the two craft and fabrics stores from which we buy our craft supplies had any.  Both had crewel embroidery kits, cotton embroidery floss, and plenty of wool yarn for knitting and crochet, etc., but, not quite what I was looking for!  I didn't want to use cotton embroidery floss because I had stitched the fruits and leaves with wool crewel embroidery yarn.  Daughter had some brown knitting yarn (acrylic; 4 ply); I took a length of it and separated the strands and used two strands to sew the stems.  It was not the best solution (the separated strands are not very strong and break quite easily), but, it worked well enough to fill in the small stem areas.  However, I will have to come up with a different solution to the basket, itself, which is a fairly large area. 

Later, I did two loads of laundry while daughter tidied up the family room, a bit. 

In the late afternoon, I drove over to friend R's to give her one of the scones daughter baked for my birthday, a piece of the watermelon we picked from the garden, a couple of guavas, a container of some pickled vegetables that she had liked, and a small bunch of chrysanthemums from the garden.  A very brief drive-by visit, as I didn't even get out of the car.  In return, she gave me a packet of frozen parathas that she had bought.  I keep saying I must make my own parathas and never do!  It might be something to make with my daughter over the Thanksgiving holidays.  

Later, neighbor S brought over the plate of goodies and wished me again for my birthday.  I gave her a small container of the passionfruit leaves mallung to take home and try.

Today, I am grateful for:

- Another sunny, warm day to enjoy
- S bringing over cake and goodies to celebrate my birthday!
- Visiting with R, even if very briefly
- Working appliances
- Daughter helping to tidy the family room

Today's joyful activities included embroidering and eating cake!  LOL.

Plans for tomorrow include eating more cake, watering the vegetable seedlings (forecast calls for another warm day), vacuuming the family room, and cooking the ground beef I put to thaw.

How was your Saturday?  What are your plans for Sunday?

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Tres Leches Cake

First of all, thank you, everyone, for your birthday wishes!  They truly made my birthday feel extra special!  I'm sure you will all approve of the fact that celebrations continued, today, as well!  LOL.

Since I couldn't sleep in, yesterday, I slept in, this morning, instead!  Then, I had half of a scone for my brunch, along with a serving of the beans I had prepared, earlier!  

It was another sunny, gloriously warm (a high of 96F!) day, today!  Since I love warm weather, it was absolutely perfect!  

In the afternoon, I replied to blog comments, visited a few blogs, and checked on the garden.  M came to tend to the garden in the afternoon and he brought me the tres leches cake, pictured above, to celebrate my birthday!  He brought one for my daughter, too!  So very kind and considerate of him!  I served him one of the birthday scones and he enjoyed that very much.

Today, I asked M to harvest the last watermelon (Baby II) that was growing in the garden; it wasn't quite ripe, but, the leaves had all died and the vine had dried up.

Baby II

The slice of watermelon pot holder next to the plate is something I crocheted after seeing something similar in a magazine!  I didn't have a pattern to follow, so, just crocheted a round and folded it in half; I probably shouldn't have increased the outer rounds quite as much as I did, because, it made a crescent shaped slice of watermelon!  Oops!  

I cut the watermelon we picked today and shared a slice with M - it was sweet, but, could have ripened a bit more!

Baby II

The watermelon was not the only fruit we harvested from the garden, today!  The pineapple guava (feijoa) tree had only a few guavas, this year (nothing like the abundant crop we had a couple of years ago), but, we were able to pick some of the fruit that had fallen:

Pineapple Guava (Feijoa)

I've been noticing a brave squirrel visiting the garden, recently, and now I know why - there was a partially eaten guava on the ground!  I love squirrels and for years, I've mourned the fact that the garden cats have kept the squirrels away!  But, this particular squirrel is very brave (or foolhardy!)  I watched him scampering around the garden, yesterday, stopping for a drink of water from the cats' bowl, watched by three pairs of cat eyes, until, finally, Snowball gave chase and the other two cats joined her!  But, squirrel escaped and ran up the telephone pole at the end of the garden!  Today, I watched him as he returned to the garden and checked the mango plants, etc.  This time, Snowball just watched him, but, when the squirrel saw Snowball, he scampered up the curry leaf tree and ran!  There is at east one more guava left on the tree for him to eat, if he likes.  

Although, I don't know why he's in my garden for guavas when there are lots more guavas on the tree in the house behind neighbor T's house!  Ripe guavas from that tree have been falling into T's garden, but, T apparently doesn't like guavas because she just leaves them to rot on the ground.  Today, when M went over to tidy T's garden, he picked up the guavas that had fallen and brought me the ones that were still good!  I accepted them, gratefully:

More Fresh, Ripe Guavas

There are two types of guavas in this bowl - some are white inside and the others are pink; the pink ones are sweeter.  

When neighbor S's daughter N brought me those passionfruit vine cuttings, the other day, I had kept the vines in a jar of water until I was ready to try rooting them.  When M brought the rooting hormone powder on Wednesday, we planted them in a pot to see if they will root:

Passionfruit Vine Cuttings Kept to Root

You are supposed to strip most of the leaves from the cuttings before dipping the ends of the cuttings in the rooting hormone and potting them up.  I took most of the leaves and kept them in a bowl of water to keep them fresh.  Then, today, I took the leaves out of the water:

Passionfruit Leaf

Cut them up, finely:

Shredded Passionfruit Leaves

Added grated coconut, some finely cut curry leaves, a finely cut piece of onion, a green chili pepper, salt, turmeric, and sauteed everything, finishing it off with some fresh lemon juice:

Passionfruit Leaf Mallung

We call this type of cooked leafy greens a "mallung" (or mallum) which means mixture.  I ate some of it with my dinner, tonight.  Dinner was leftover rice and the seafood dish from the Thai restaurant.  Afterwards, I had the tres leches cake that M brought for dessert.

Today, I am grateful for:

- Birthday wishes from family and friends, including a phone call from a cousin in Australia
- M tending to the garden and bringing me a dessert to help celebrate my birthday
- Watermelons and guavas from the garden
- Daughter making my Covid booster shot appointment for me
- The lovely warm weather

Today's joyful activity was enjoying the fruits from the garden.

How was your day?  What are your plans for the weekend?

Chapter 66

Birthday Scone!

If life is a book, then, today, I started on Chapter 66!  

It began early, with the tree trimmers arriving at the crack of dawn 7:00 a.m., in a big truck with a shredder/mulcher attached and a crew of three:

Tree Trimming In Progress

They had already started trimming the tree by the time I was awake enough to go outside to check on things!  I asked them to reduce the height of the tree as well and they did some, but, not quite as much as I wanted, saying the tree might not continue to grow properly.  They were here until almost 8:30 a.m.

Almost as soon as they left, the gas company technician called to say he was on his way.  When he arrived, I showed him the screen shot and the video my daughter had taken of the furnace shooting out a flame and he agreed with me that it was not normal!  He checked the furnace and adjusted the pilot light flame to increase it a little more.  He had me switch the furnace on and off a few times until he was satisfied that the furnace came on quickly enough.  He was not very happy with the fact that I didn't have a digital thermostat as it didn't show the temperature of the room, but, we have a wall thermometer hanging in the family room which gives a good indication of the general temperature in the house.  We left the furnace on for a little while, afterwards, but, turned it off, mid-morning.  It was a sunny and warm day, with a high of 87F!  Just my kind of weather!

Birthday Lunch

My daughter treated me to Thai food from our favorite Thai food place.  It is not a restaurant as such, although they have a few tables and chairs set out in a patio area.  It was, and remains, a place to order food to go.  A tiny, family owned and operated, hole-in-the-wall type of place, but, they serve the most delicious food and their prices are very reasonable.  We ordered beef fried rice, Thai beef salad, barbecue pork over chow mein, and their spicy seafood combo special (served over steamed rice).   We had some of it for lunch, some for dinner, and there is enough leftover for at least two more meals for the two of us!  

After lunch, I got to open my gifts from my daughter!  They included some of my favorite eau de cologne, lotion, after bath splash, a new pastry sheet, a pastry scraper, and a mini food processor since I didn't have one!

Later, my daughter made me almond scones for my birthday, instead of a birthday cake! 

Birthday Scones!

I feel so blessed to be able to celebrate this birthday with my daughter being here, in person.  In addition, throughout the day, there were phone calls, cards, ecards, and emails from family and friends (both new and old), from here and abroad, to wish me for my birthday; I was very touched and pleased to be remembered.  

All in all, it was a very happy beginning to a new chapter in my life!  Especially since, when I was a child, I always expected my life story to end at Chapter 65!  I don't know why, but, that is what I thought!

Today, I am grateful for:

- Being alive and well enough to celebrate this birthday!

- Having my daughter home with me to help me celebrate!
- Well wishes from family and friends, both near and far
- Birthday presents!
- Special birthday meals!

Today's joyful activity was celebrating my 66th birthday!

Today's decluttering - one birthday candle after I blew it out!  

Mango and Peach Dump Cake

Last night, I decided to make a dessert for us to enjoy after our dinner of chicken and vegetable pot stickers.

I thawed (in the microwave) a bag of frozen peach slices (from the garden) and a bag of mango pieces that I had cut up and frozen myself (each bag probably held about two cups of fruit), dumped it all into a square glass baking pan with a quarter of a cup of sugar (daughter thought that less than a quarter cup would have been fine, too), a couple of heaping tablespoons from a jar of ginger preserves an aunt had given me as a gift, and a sprinkling of powdered cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg and stirred everything to mix well:

Mango and Peach Filling

Topped it with about one third of a box of yellow cake mix (I didn't want to put more as the cake mix is very sweet and I just wanted a thin layer like a pie crust on top), dotted the top of the cake mix with about four tablespoons of butter (I used half a 4 oz. stick of butter), cut up, and baked in the oven at 350F for 30 minutes:

Mango-Peach Dump Cake; Fresh Out of the Oven

Daughter and I had a serving of it while still warm; a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top would have been great, too, but, we are out of ice cream!

Mango-Peach Dump Cake

The ginger preserves gave it a nice, "warm" flavor, along with the cinnamon and nutmeg.  If I didn't have the preserves, I might have added a little freshly grated ginger or, even powdered ginger.  

This afternoon, I took some of the dump cake, along with some of the guavas, to neighbor S.  She gave me the last two napoleon pastries she had left!  Later, in the evening, she gave me some mini muffins (flourless, vegan) her daughter had made (trying out a new recipe, her daughter said) and some rice pudding her sister-in-law had made! 

 

Rice Pudding and Flourless Vegan Muffins

We had a sunny day, today, with a few clouds and a high of 73F.  I have had a relaxed day, so far.

I made some chicken fried rice for brunch, using leftover rice, leftover chicken, the last of the bag of coleslaw, a couple of eggs, a handful of roasted peanuts, some chili powder, and soy sauce.  There's a little of the fried rice leftover, too.  I haven't been doing weekly meal plans in a long time, but, there are bits and pieces of leftovers in the fridge to finish up and I took out a package of pork loin strips to thaw to make a pork curry, as well.

Today's decluttering was a shot glass.  It belonged to my step-father.  I don't drink alcohol and there was no need for the glass, but, I kept it.  Most recently, I used it for sprouting mango seeds, but, found that glass jars worked better for that purpose.  Today, I decluttered the shot glass.  

Today, I am grateful for:

- Another sunny and warm day 
- Good neighbors and friends
- Being able to share
- Everyday blessings we tend to take for granted
- Simply being alive (I had my lumpectomy six years ago, this month)

Today's joyful activity was enjoying all the good things neighbor S shared with me!  

Tomorrow is Halloween!  Although I decorated the inside of the house, a little bit, I don't expect any trick-or-treaters to call and my daughter and I are not planning to do anything for Halloween.  We will probably just relax and take it easy, tomorrow.

How was your day?  What are your plans for tomorrow?  Will you be celebrating Halloween?