Doing a Bit of Cooking

Thursday Feb. 3, 2022... Cold, cold, cold.  There is now 5 1/2 inches of snow on the ground with ice crunching underneath the feet as we try to take the dogs out.  It's a pretty useless effort since neither one of our little poodles likes the cold at all. So we are sitting in our chairs for the most part watching the fireplace and being totally glad to  have it. 

Yesterday I made a large "soup".. I'm not sure exactly what to call it.. lol  Hamburger stew and to this one I added Ranch Style Beans... Lovely!  Tastes a bit like taco soup, but much more subtle.  Yum .. 

Jerry decided he wanted a pumpkin pie so I found a recipe for a butter pie crust.. my first.  Not my first pie crust... first butter crust.  It is truly wonderful. Can't seem to find the recipe I used ..but..sigh... this one is almost just like it.   Perfect Pie Crust ... give it a try!

Feb. 4, 2022... Several years ago I found a "tip" on the internet about how to sharpen knives if you don't have a sharpener.  The original idea was to run the edge of your knife around the top of a stoneware crock while turning it over and over.  I've seen my grandmother do this many times over the years.  Since I don't have a crock sitting on my counter, I turned over one of my coffee mugs... worked perfectly.  I do this often now. 

Well, the snow is still with us. The sun is out today but the temp is barely supposed to reach freezing.. it's 11 degrees right now.  Probably not much melting happening today, but maybe a little.  Hoping for enough to allow the doggies a place to go do their business! 

Have a great day today.  Drink lots of hot whatever you drink... I would say hug all your family and friends, but with Covid everywhere that's maybe not such a good idea.. but virtual hugs are ok... 

Freecycle Dolls and Potato Soup Recipe

Got an email from my Freecycle account the other day.  It showed some pictures of the cutest little ceramic dolls and I just had to have them.  It took a couple of days to find the person who had posted them because her posts were showing up in the the emails but not on the group site.. wonder what's up with that?   Anyway, I finally reached her and I did get the dolls.  Love them.. ♥

 I keep thinking this might be a Bye Lo Baby, but then I think not. She is a full body ceramic, anatomically correct baby girl.  There is a broken piece on the neck and the cording that holds her together is loose so I'm not sure I am educated enough in the "Doll Hospital" techniques to fix her by myself.  Guess we'll see how good my searches on the net will be as I try to find information..

I have seen these two faces before but can't remember what they are called.  These two have ceramic face and hands with full cloth bodies.  I expected them to be much dirtier than they are and they should not be too difficult to clean.

The dressing of these babies is what I am looking forward to (and yes... I do realize that I left that sentence ending in a preposition..lol )   I'm hoping I can find a baby doll clothing pattern with multi sizes since I really don't want to spend huge amounts of money on several patterns..  hmmm

My sweet DH asked me about Potato Soup last night.  He says that I used to make a potato soup that he could eat with his diabetes.  Since my mind deserted me about 5 years ago I have no idea what he is talking about, but I will definitely try to find something if he wants it.   Sooo, I got on my trusty internet steed and galloped off into the sunset on a search for the perfect potato soup.  When I found this recipe that I think will be perfect and in the bargain found myself laughing... well.. I just had to share it.

Take a look ..   The Pioneer Woman Cooks   Her writing reminds me so much of  Dear Oldest Son's writing that I was chuckling all the way thru... While you're there, click at the top of her page and see more of her delicious recipes.  Love this site... (By the way, I am only a fan of this page and not affiliated in any way. )

Messed up the Big Blue Quilt yesterday.  I guess I was just too tired to be working on it and now I have to rip out a big part of it.  But that's ok..

Fog has us blanketed in today and it looks like we're going to have cloudy and rain thru Thursday and a sunny weekend... Now is that not a change from the usual??.. lol 

Hope you have a good today..

Soup's On!

It's been raining all day. We had planned a trip to my aunt and uncle's for tomorrow...but... the car is still in the shop and the rain looks like it will be thunderstorming all week... I will give it a few more hours before I call and change our plans... When it rains and gets cold, I always put on a big pot of soup. Yummmm... I love that smell. It will be long before supper, but I never mind smelling it slow cook through the afternoon.

I finished the blue cotton runner. I had thought that I would make placemats that would fit our trays that we eat on, but I kinda like the long runner.

The Japanese Irises are blooming and they are really lovely this year...

The irises in the meadow have begun to really bloom out. It's hard to see in the background to the left, but the purple ones are out too. What a pretty view from back porch....

A Pot of Veggie Beef Stew

It's cold outside. This is our first really cold snap of the year. This picture was taken at almost noon and it hasn't even reached 30 degrees yet!

This started yesterday with the north wind biting through our clothes. Coming home from coffee we noticed small drops of rain on the windshield and by the time we reached the area near our house, the car began to slide a bit as we crossed the overpass. Traffic had slowed to about 30 mph.

This morning the schools are closed. It will not reach above 32 degrees all day.... according to the local weather channel. This seemed the perfect day for good old-fashioned vegetable beef soup and a big pot of cornbread.

It's a little down day... son-in-law and his mom left yesterday with the first load of furniture for the new home in Arizona. (A little jealousy here...warm, warm, warm down there...lol )