And
another thing . . .
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Gratitudes: The pantry is done! The grocery shopping is done! Steve and I had movie night Saturday night. We rented Changing Lanes with Samuel Jackson and Ben Affleck. I think I might have liked it more than Steve did.
Random and Not-So-Random Acts of Kindness I made two batches of brownies for the American Heart Association Bake Sale tomorrow. I made Chocolate-Banana Pudding (using tofu!) for a work birthday tomorrow. (The man is wheat-sensitive, so brownies are out. I usually make him macaroons.)
Other Art Gallery
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Sunday, March 9, 2003 I am beat right down to my lily-white ankle socks. It's been a very busy, productive weekend. I like the productive part, but I prefer my weekends busy on Saturday and then I can have a Stefani Sunday. I'm too tired to be coherent (like that's stopped me before), so let's just take a photo tour of my weekend, shall we?
Saturday, I had breakfast with Pam. This is actually a picture of us from a previous time we had breakfast, but it will have to do because I didn't take my camera this time. Imagine Pam with hair a bit longer, very bouncin' and behavin' cute. (It's cute here too, oh, you know what I mean!) I wonder if the above was for dinner though, because those look like our work clothes to me. But we always meet at The Duchess. It's our place.
For my birthday, Pam gave me these dishcloths she knitted. I didn't even know she knitted! Quilted and cross-stitched, yes. She knits! She purls! Who knew?
And she gave me this wall art - which is about as Stefani as you can get. Dragonflies. Heart. Rusted metal. It's perfect. I haven't found a home for it yet - but I will very soon.
And she gave me this plant poke, I think they are called. This is a bee circling a flower - on a long stick. I'll put it in the garden this summer, but for now it's perking up the asparagus fern in the living room. I love these things!
The pantry is finished! We put the shelves up Saturday, then added two more vertical supports on Sunday - so it didn't really take that long but it felt like it took two days!
As mentioned previously, our objective was to remove the existing shelves and reinstall them as adjustable shelves on vertical tracks. The way they were installed was not sturdy and in fact, several had come loose in places. They had been installed with plastic anchors, which of course leave huge holes. So this is after I spackled all the holes.
This picture shows the paint I've been calling buttercream that I bought for $1 off the Oops Shelf at Home Depot.
Ta-da! All filled up. Notice the nicely labeled flour containers towards the top. And see? I bought a couple of those cereal storage containers. I was a happy labeler this weekend.
I call this, "Pantry with Pooch." The reason there are two sets of shelves is because the shelves on the right were originally perpendicular to the other shelves. But they were a tad too big for the space they occupied so the previous installer just crammed 'em in anyway, gouging the shit out of the walls. So we did it this way instead.
Now on to the food portion of the entry. I made some killer bread today, from my usual recipe source - the Internet. My intention was to make two different loaves and give Lizz half of each, since she loves bread. But I made a one pound loaf of the Carrot & Thyme Bread - and we ate it all for dinner! We had BLTs on the bread and it was fabulous. Here's the recipe if you're interested. Carrot & Thyme
Bread Recipe 1 1/2 Lb Loaf: -- (1 LB loaf) 2 1/2 Tsp Active Dry Yeast -- (1 1/2 tsp) 2 1/4 C Bread Flour -- (1 1/2 C) 1 C Rye Flour -- (2/3 C) 1/2 C Yellow Cornmeal -- (1/3 C) 1 1/2 Tbsp Sugar -- (1 T) 1 1/2 Tsp Salt -- (1 tsp) 1 1/2 Tbsp Dried Thyme -- (1 T) 2 C Carrots -- freshly grated, or -- finely chopped, -- (1 1/3 C) 1 C Water -- (1/2 C or more if -- needed) This moist multi-grain bread is excellent. It is chock full of vitamins and fiber and tastes good with fruit or vegetable salad or lentil or bean soup. Add all ingredients in the order suggested by your bread machine manual and process on the basic bread cycle according to the manufacturer's directions. Let the loaf cool before slicing.
Here's the "loaf" of Basil Garlic Bread I made. I use the term loaf loosely. You are seeing that correctly. The top is concave by about 3"! It looked way too wet but I let it keep going, thinking maybe it would be okay. I double checked the ingredients - I did everything right so who knows. It's still too warm to cut - God only knows what the inside is like. It smelled damn delicious though.
Steve's daughter Lizz, came over for dinner last night. She's a vegan so I always keep some vegan meals in the week's menu in case she comes over. For this meal, I made Tofu Stir-Fry, from a recipe that Jennifer gave me. It ends up more like spaghetti sauce than what I think of as stir-fry. It was very good and definitely a keeper.
Tofu Stir Fry
Drain tofu on paper towel, cut into ½ inch cubes. Marinate tofu in tamari sauce for 10 minutes. In large skillet or wok, stir fry tofu and veggies in oil. Slightly crumble uncooked noodles; add to skillet along with water. Cook covered for 3-4 minutes until noodles are tender. Stir in sauce; top with cheese. Heat until cheese melts. Serves 6.
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