Checking In

Hidey Ho peeps!

Ive been lazy.  Thoughts of creating posts, then by the end of the night I just don’t want to, so I havent.

Tonight Im a bit jumpy thanks to being on the wrong side of ick and taking some real sudafed to help keep my head unclogged.  Sudafed has side-affect for me that makes my heart race and nerves jumpy.  All that keeps me really awake for a good hr then I get to fight the crash.

So as Im on the jumpy side of that noise I have energy to burn so to speak and I have some new finishes to show and other updates to share along with sharing my WIPocalypse and IHSW posts.

Finishes

Hat

The yarn from this is from a scoody (scarf-hood) I made a couple years ago that I just havent worn so I thought to rip that out and create something that I would/might wear or gift to someone who will

I have a scarf that will go with the hat that I will show when its completed.  It has front & back post stitches along with shells and looks pretty and I think complements the hat well.

Sheep

Wisdom is complete!

Im taking a break before starting the next sheep.  All sheep-ed out at the moment.

LHN Neighborhood

I have been working on LHN Neighborhood – total blast from the past.  Looking back though updates, last time I may have touched this is in 2010 so its in dire need of some needle time. 2010

I do have a bit more done than the above pic and have decided to frog the lady currently stitched and just leave them out.  The people have always bothered me and Im just choosing not to stitch them.  Not sure if they will be replaced with other items or just leave the voids.

Ive also have Ladies’ Night by Cricket Collection mostly fully kitted.

I have a 28ct fabric (CS Gothic) that I picked out years ago – for this project, that I have been thinking about going to a 32ct but as of today Im sticking with what Ive got.  1) finding another fabric to go with the ladies is hard. 2) Ive already got it – paid for it, and its in my stash now.  That said, when I finally get around to stitching this, my mind may have been changed again but that’s for then.  Thread is as charted but I may not use Kreinik for the braid, still thinking that over.

Well, that’s all Ive got for now.  Im off to get a few other things completed while the energy is buzzing.

Busy Day

Boys had a day off and I decided to join them today.  Some time was spent playing with dehydrator recipes, more time spent as a taxi and finally some time spent on stitching.

Food

Yesterday I spent time dehydrating pears we got at Costco Sat.  Good thing I didn’t wait as they were ripe and perfect for slicing.  They don’t have much of a taste dried though.  Not like a Granny Smith or Braeburn apple.  I also dried Pink Lady apples Sat.  They are ok but I prefer the other two apples.  I want to try a Honey Crisp – I hope they are yummy dried.

Today I made kale chips using the dorito popcorn topping I found last year.  I may have cooked them a bit too long but they are nice and crunchy and very tasty.  Much rather spend under $4 for kale and have enough for 3-4 store bought bags than spend the $$ on the store bought.

Its been fun dehydrating foods.  Im waiting to see what my electric bill is at the end of the month to see just how much is being spent running the dehydrator.

Stitching

I still have a floating sheep head.

oh and most of the boarder completed on Wisdom.

On DL’s blanket there needs to be more adjustment to the stripes.  I think instead of having double reds mixed in, all red stripes need to be single.

 

See if the purple will come out and play more that way.  It’s a good time to pause as I can keep what has been hooked so far and work it into the pattern.

Updates

Its been a nice weekend.  Had stitching with friends, shopping with D and general weekend projects (housework for minions, laundry etc)

IHSW

Yet again my stitch weekend with friends landed on the January IHSW.  I surprised myself by sticking to one project for both days

LHN – Little Sheep Virtues, Wisdom

Before

After

Fiber Frenzy

The first meeting went pretty well.  A couple were working (arguing?) with crochet, one knitter and I was having an argument with the tree in the chart above.  I found my issue hiding in the letters but of course that was after chopped my tree in half finding the worm of my brain ache.

Kitchen Toys

New toy, Vitamix, and we (ok mainly D) has been making smoothies for lunch (I call them juice, he calls them smoothies cause they are so thick).  We’ve also used it to make our own almond milk, although buying it is still cheaper but ours has less chemicals and is organic), and making salad dressing (apple, lemon, oil – yum!).  Cant wait to make tahini, humus, nut butters and soup.

Dehydrator – I have plans tomorrow to get kiwi drying in the dehydrator.   Have some apples that may join the kiwi’s if there is room.

Five!

More on the title in a bit.

I had great fun today.  I showed off one of my scarf finishes at work the other day and hooked two people in to learning how I did it!

So I sent them off with a shopping list (complete with pictures and links) and today in the lunchroom we had a small class.  Lots of fun.  And even better, other co-workers were stopping by to take a look at what we were up to and one even showed off her treasures, knitted hat and gloves made with yarn she spun and pictures of towels she wove in her loom.  Others asked if this was going to be a regular occurrence and I said if the want is there, I will make it a regular meeting.

So starting next year I will try and have at least a weekly gathering of those who want to join in for any fiber crafting during lunch time.  Im excited!

Now on to the dancing!

Stitching

I have another finish for 2013!

Faith by LHN

Number 5 of the Sheep Virtues

Im proud I was able to finish almost half of what has been released of these so far this year.  I have 8-10 and need to get 6, 7 & 11 and waiting for 12.

Now Im off to bed.  Had a late night then a very early morning and a long day.  My eye balls are flickering and doing their best to get closed.

Quiet Weekends

Another nice longish weekend.  Fridays are all mine for the rest of the year and Im relishing in the quiet.
This past Friday had me stitching, doing housework, getting most the weekend shopping done and making chili & cornbread (yum!).  Wonderful relaxing day it was. 

Food
Not much excitement in the food department but while at a friends house this weekend I had Chicken Parmesan.  I do stray from time to time especially if I am having dinner with friends and there is nothing else available.  Hunger wins
This was made with a pre-packaged panko and parmesan mix that you just tossed the chicken in then baked as normal.
My thinking is I could possibly do this with seitan but maybe without the tossing and bake it.  The parmesan would be switched out with a Daiya like cheese Trader Joes has that is more like parmesan than mozzarella but still melts really good.

Stitching
November IHSW fell on a wonderful weekend.  Gathering at a friends for weekend stitching usually lands on this wonderful monthly event so Im actually able to participate instead of jus hoping I will get some time aside for stitching.

Sheep
I started sheep #5 on Wed and have come quite a ways this weekend.  This one seems to be a much faster stitch as there arent a lot of color changes and I can complete whole colors without too much troubles.

Frog!
Found this on a cross stitch FB page and just had to share it – lord it made me laugh so hard!

Number 2!

Second finish for November!  Im not expecting any more this month unless I find another project that is ‘oh so close’ to being done.


LHN Courage – using Sullivan threads.

After finishing this gem I got out P’s C2C blanket and got a whole row done.  Sure doesn’t sound like much but it will cover a full size bed and at least a 6’ tall teenager.  Loki couldn’t wait for me to stop fidgeting with it all so he could get snuggled in while I worked.

Possible yums

Oh a find on Pinterest, Vegan Sesame Orange Seitan!

I showed this to P and Im not sure he is as enthused as I am.

Costco had a good buy on sweet potatoes so I got a bag, just for me.  Casserole was on the menu for tonight so for the main dish I steamed the regular yukon gold potatoes for the top and baked the casserole and steamed a sweet potato for my self to add.  Yummy!

Pain!  Don’t wear new socks with hiking shoes on a long walk.  I did that today and now each little toe has its own new friend!  Blisters

Stitching

Latest update on Courage

This is on tap for my next finish but then I need to get back to P’s blanket and see if I can get that finished for Christmas.  It’s the perfect time of year for a big, thick, warm blanket.

Boo!

Hey there!  Ive been around, had ideas to share but the whole opening up the live writer app and applying fingers to keys was just a bit much for me to do apparently. 

Spent a wonderful weekend at Silver Falls over Mother’s Day.  Perfect weather, wonderful camp spot.  It’s a wonderful camp ground for short weekend stays.  No full hookups (other than for camp hosts).  Highly recommended.

Stitching

A finish!  LHN’s Peace

The border gave me fits as well as the whole needing to count but I didn’t ground it! (bonus for me)  Im a bit behind as Faith has been released or will be very soon.

Ink Circles RYO 2013

Anyone else fallen off the deep-end and into this fun SAL?  There is a Lonely Family of just three colors that Ive pulled for pinks and another one for purple and a splash of yellow.  I have grand aspirations of having these done by Oct so I can have them made into pillows for christmas presents.  Time will tell…

Food

Oh yes I have several recipes to share but this one was just made tonight.  Another meal that can be made ahead of time, cooked and eaten later in the week.  Although most of the items Ive “saved” didn’t make it to dinner the next day.

Black Bean Quinoa Burger

This one is from Vegetarian Times and I found it while looking for burger recipes I can make ahead of time for camping trips, lunches dinners when I am gonna be late and really don’t want to put anything together or just eat salad.

For this recipe – I didn’t have black beans but did have white so used what I had.

Ingredients

½ cup quinoa

1 small onion, finely chopped (1 cup)

6 oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and finely chopped (¼ cup)

1½ cups cooked black beans, or 1 15-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained, divided

2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tsp.)

2 tsp. dried steak seasoning

8 whole-grain hamburger buns

1. Stir together quinoa and 1½ cups water in small saucepan, and season with salt, if desired. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 20 minutes, or until all liquid is absorbed. (You should have 1½ cups cooked quinoa.)

2. Meanwhile, place onion and sun-dried tomatoes in medium nonstick skillet, and cook over medium heat. (The oil left on the tomatoes should be enough to sauté the onion.) Cook 3 to 4 minutes, or until onion has softened. Stir in ¾ cup black beans, garlic, steak seasoning, and 1½ cups water. Simmer 9 to 11 minutes, or until most of liquid has evaporated.

3. Transfer bean-onion mixture to food processor, add ¾ cup cooked quinoa, and process until smooth. Transfer to bowl, and stir in remaining ¾ cup quinoa and remaining ¾ cup black beans. Season with salt and pepper, if desired, and cool.

4. Preheat oven to 350°F, and generously coat baking sheet with cooking spray. Shape bean mixture into 8 patties (½ cup each), and place on prepared baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes, or until patties are crisp on top. Flip patties with spatula, and bake 10 minutes more, or until both sides are crisp and brown. Serve on buns.

Reducing – this took a bit longer than 11 min and I moved the heat up a bit over med

The recipe says this will make 8 patties at 1/2 c each.  I used a 1/2 cup to scoop and got 4 and a half.  Next time I will use 1/4 c and see if I get 8.  The 1/2c makes a big burger.  The half was perfect for me.

A pic of how P put his burger together.  Hummus may be adding more beans to the mix but its something he is loving and will use more than peanut butter on sandwiches.

Dave’s Killer bread, garlic hummus, spinach, burger.  Mine was similar – just added some cucumber slices for added crunch

Sun

I am loving the sun we are getting these days.  Im hoping it stays around but not stay so hot!  High 70’s for now is just fine.

Gardening

Thanks to the wonderful sun, I have been spending time in the yard getting some foodstuffs planted

Peas, Chard, Marigolds, kale – planted next to the garage where they can get some sun but stay out of the rays during the hot times of the PacNW.

A whole barrel of basil!  Well just planted seeds.  Here’s hoping the squirrels stay out now.  This was a favorite area of theirs for burring whatever this winter.

Strawberry update – over to the far lower left you might just be able to see the first red strawberry!  Lots of new growth, flowers and itty-bitty strawberries peaking out everywhere.

And finally a big NOPE!  This bugger is the larvae of a Lesser Underwing moth.  While sure the moths may look nice the caterpillar stage of these nopes like to take plants down at dirt level.  We have been finding them in the soil next to the garage and Im sure they are everywhere in the dirt.  So Im on a mission and they are not something I will be saving, unlike all the worms Ive been finding.  Not quite sure what Im going to do with the them, for now they will be dumped into a planter that is current filled with water.

Im working on another area to get some summer and fall squash planted and finding a spot for sweet potatoes.

Stitching

I havent been adding much to any projects.  I found an addition issue with LHN’s Peace that had to be taken care of.  The border was off and I couldn’t see just what/where until I started on the inside.  Then the it was so glaring and not fixable that all the border had to go.  Lots of negative stitching this week.

But Im happy to say that finally as of tonight it is out – a nice easy project to do while making pancakes for this week’s breakfasts.  I have grand plans to get the border finished on Peace so I can get started on Courage.

Grainy

Stitching update – my IHSW project from this past weekend.

LHN Peace

I think this one is going slower because of all the fiddly-bits (leaves, flowers, fish)

Have you seen the next one?

Courage

Love the purple!

More Food!

Whole-Grain Pancakes

 

1 ½ cups plant-based milk
2/3 cup quick-cooking oats
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoon canola oil

1. In a medium bowl, combine milk and oats. Let stand 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, baking powder, and salt. Stir oil into oat mixture and add oat mixture to dry ingredients. Stir just until flour mixture is moistened (batter will be lumpy)

3. Spray nonstick 12-inch skillet with nonstick cooking spray; heat over medium heat until hot. Making 4 pancakes at a time, pour batter by scant ¼ cups into skillet, spreading batter into 3 ½-inch circles. With a wide spatula, turn pancakes and cook until undersides are golden brown. Transfer pancakes to platter. Cover to keep warm.

4. Repeat as needed with remaining batter.

Recipe from Simple Vegan by Good Housekeeping

Now for my changes

Exchanged the oil for applesauce.  It made the pancakes a bit dense but as it’s a pancake it didn’t make them too bouncy.

I used vanilla Almond milk (mmm)

Big approval from the minions

Im planning on using this recipe on camping trips.  With us moving from meat/dairy, and this not using eggs, its one less item I need to refrigerate.  I had hoped to mix up all the dry and just add the liquids as needed but then I read all the words and found the phrase “let stand”  Bah!  No matter.  Its an easy one to mix up, “let stand” part and all.

Long Week

Its been one of those weeks that never seem to want to end.  Mornings taking forever and afternoons going quickly and evenings dripping by.

Stitching

Sadly I havent been able/wanting to stitch much, or when I think about getting needle and thread together its close enough to bed time that I just don’t get anything out.

But tonight I got the two together and added x’s to LHN Peace

My sheep now has legs, a bit of grass to stand on and the beginnings of a tree trunk to rub against

Garden

The sun this past weekend allowed me to update my “where does the sun shine” pictures for where to plant.  Thanks to the construction at the neighbors (they took out all shrubbery and trees) and P’s destruction of the evil blackberries, I have tons of more light in places I didn’t have last year – so new pictures were a must.

My goal this year is to get pictures taken monthly during the growing season (April – Nov) and see where the sun hits so I can get the most out of my plantings.  Why go through Nov?  Im hoping to be able to plant a winter garden and keep the fresh and cheaper foods (cause I grew them) growing.  Maybe with a small covering – greenhouse style, I can make that happen.

Food/Health

Whole foods are still the main for eats these days.  D and I are having fun tossing foods in a pan with whatever spices and oils and liquids come to mind.  So far so good as in we havent made anything that was too horrible to eat.  In fact, the boys have been scarfing up everything.  D makes a mean onion & mushroom’s.  P has been taking those in his lunches.  I tossed white beans (don’t remember exactly what I had, just white) with long grain rice/quinoa mix with evoo, vinegar (balsamic & acv), various spices and turmeric.  Its also been a fave and I need to make more tomorrow.

I mixed up another pesto.  This one was a mix of spinach and cilantro with pumpkin and sunflower seeds and almond slivers and more quac.  No cheese – I know!  I was shocked myself cause parmesan is so yummy but it really didn’t need it with all the seeds and almonds.  Its soo bright green, I took a pic to show.

I used it in a spaghetti/white bean dish for the ‘sauce’ that was scarfed up by the minions.

An April Finish

Thanks to stitch group Wed, I was able to spend time and finish LHN Love.

I also got started on the next Virtue, Peace.

Tuesday Update

Not a lot of stitching being done but I have been working working on LHN’s Love.  I need to get this one done as Peace came out and its starting to make noise.  I tried to make sure when I picked Peace up that I have all the colors it needs.

LHN Love

 

Ive worked a bit on BBD’s Violet’s Blue but not even close to where I was when I found the plague of frogs.

MMM Food

Another new dish was tested on the minions this week, Vegetarian Chickpea Sandwich Filling.  I found this gem searching for raw foods and found this on AllRecipes.

Vegetarian Chickpea Sandwich Filling

INGREDIENTS:
1 (19 ounce) can garbanzo beans,
drained and rinsed
1 stalk celery, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Drain and rinse chickpeas. Pour chickpeas into a medium size mixing bowl and mash with a fork. Mix in celery, onion, mayonnaise (to taste), lemon juice, dill, salt and pepper to taste.

My Changes

The beans I used were dry – not canned, 16 oz.  Same process as the black beans.  Soak over night, cook for 1 – 1 1/2 hrs.  I used my scale to get the 19 oz for this recipe but next time I will just mix the extras with all the beans I make.

I also used a potato masher on the beans at first.  It was a lot of beans and my hand would have been really not happy at the end of mashing all those beans with a puny fork.  I did use a fork towards the end but also left a number of beans whole (un mushed

Ok, I hate mayo.  Homemade, store bought, olive oil, you name it – all smells like eggs to me and not in a good way.  Plus I didn’t have any. So I added bits of the following:

couple dollops of guacamole
couple dollops of cilantro pesto
a dollop of sour cream
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 celery stalks, chopped
a few dashes of Braggs Seasoning
a few dashes of dried parsley
1/4 cup (or so) of shredded cheese

Best way to eat (personal opinion) – cover a slice of bread with mixture and nuke for no more than 15-20 seconds.  Cheese will melt a bit and its yummy!

I would have a pic of this but alas its all gone and I need to make more

Bumbles!

Its official – Ive seen my first bumble bee of the year, Spring has sprung!

Well, that was at least a week or so ago and I wasn’t able to get a pic of the fuzzy beast but it was a wonderful sight.

I did get a wonderful picture of my annual daffodils, before they went bye-bye or someone cut and took them

I think they have split themselves or I have a couple other groups of some sort of flowers coming up on either side of them.  See what happens when clippers are taken to ugly bushes.

Another bloom – My Thanksgiving cactus is still tossing out blooms here and there, totally ignoring the season we are currently in.  Will be fun to see if it continues this until next November.

Something New

I couldn’t take the pressure anymore.  The screaming from Violet’s Blue was too much and I had to start it.

So here is how it looked before I found the MASSIVE frog plague and had to rip everything (except for the one lonely heart) out. 

Counting people – it’s a tough thing some times.

I do have to say Im loving the colors I picked for this project.  Now I cant wait to fix the issue and get more colors added to get an even better effect.

WIPocalypse Update

Combining this post with my monthly WIP update.  March was a slow month for me and x’s.  I only worked on a couple.

Frank N Boo

This is almost done, backstitching, french knots and buttons left.  So why cant I just get it across the darn finish line?!?  Must be afraid of the spiders

LHN Love

This little one has been a plague of its own.  Missing three colors, no fault but me not being able to read the darn chart.  This one has the same issue that Holly and Berries with the light color and 30ct WDW fabric.  I just do not like how the two mix.  But Im trying to plow through it and get it finished.

Whew – That’s all the updating I have for now.  Hopefully I wont be so long next time.

Fun Weekend

its been a good weekend.  Some of us are still recuperating while others are getting started.  D and I from whatever we had the last couple of weeks – P got on the evil sicky bandwagon, x’s added to projects, a finish, and a new dish to try.

IHSW

I kept my focus on LHN Hope this weekend and got it finished.  Such a fun stitch and a wonderful break from backstitching!

Before

After

And I was able to re-start another project

LHN Holly & Berries

Before

After

I originally started this way back in 2010 and it promptly got lost.  Going through all my WIPs, it was found again and I put it on the schedule to be next after Hope.  Looking at where I started it I was appalled at how little room I left for any finishing!  Thankfully not much had been added so out it all came.  Next I trimmed the piece of fabric down – it was just a bit too big for what I needed.  The piece left should make a good bookmark some day.

New Dish

I tried making my own applesauce in one of my slow cookers today.  This recipe is from Skinnytaste.com 

I had Braeburns that needed to be eaten soon and picked up a menagerie of others.

The recipe is very easy.

Directions

Core apples (you can peel before coring if you don’t want to deal with the skin)

Place the apples in the slow cooker.  Add the lemon peel, lemon juice, cinnamon sticks and sugar.

Cook on low for 6 hours.  Stir the apples occasionally, apples will become a yummy applesauce.

After 6 hrs, remove the cinnamon sticks and use an immersion blender to blend everything until smooth or when you feel its done.

Let it cool then place in containers for the refrigerator or freezer.  It will keep for about a week in the fridge.

**My Changes**

I didn’t use cinnamon, D doesn’t like it and I will be using it in baking recipes.

I also used agave instead of the sugar.  I may use less next time and eventually not use any sugar.

The apples in this mix – Granny Smith, Braeburn, Fuji, Jonagold, and Honey Crisp.  Pretty much fill up the slow cooker up with apples.

I also left the skins on.  Less work to do and they blended up very easily.

Verdict – Both kids love it.  Very tasty.  Now I have a much cheaper way to have applesauce.  Beats paying $4+ for 23oz of organic applesauce.  And I know everything that went in!

After blending

I didn’t measure it out before putting it away but I have enough for at least 3-4 cups.  It all depends on how big your slow cooker is and the number of apples used.

Opportunities

Minion 1 is not feeling well and I spied him crashed in the living room.  Loki is never one to leave a warm lap to fend for itself

Not sure if Loki was being a pest that caused the arm to fall and pin him.  Both look very comfy.  (no bodies were woken during the taking of pictures)

Blazing x’s

Another pat on the back with another finish for 2013

Merry and Bright

I finished Merry and Bright at stitch group tonight – Yea!

Going down the side of this project was getting boring fast.  To many blocks of same colors just wasn’t doing it for me.  But its done!

Hope

I started LHN’s Hope tonight – a new start for 2013.  No pics yet but Im about half way through the snowflake.  Will see how much I can get completed this weekend’s IHSW ‘gathering’.

Super Sunday

No Im not one to watch the game.  D and I will most likely turn it on when there is 10 or so min to go so he can see where he landed in the pool and check the end score.

Thanks to YouTube, I don’t even have to wait until game day to catch the good commercials – which is the main reason I used to watch.

LNS Finds

My Super Sunday was due to my LNS being open for a bit today.  They normally are for the first Sunday of the month.  Just so happened it was Super Bowl as well.  They teamed up with a drawing for discounts.  My hot little hand picked out a 40%-off chip!  Woot!

I picked up Violets Blue by BBD

I will be stitching on Vintage Pecan Butter by Lakeside Linen (32ct) and changed up the threads.  Only original Im keeping is WDW Saltwater Taffy

Not sure when I will get this started but it’s kitted up and ready to go.

and

LHN Hope

I also switched out the DMC for the Sullivans equivalent – no changes in colors.  Im also sticking with the called for fabric for this first go around.  I will get started on this little one as soon as Dragon of Water is complete.  See if I can get it done before the next one is released next month.

Dragon of Water

 

Back in the black for x’s.  Of course it’s the last one that seems to be causing the most grief.  I had to get out the scissors for the head earlier and almost had to do it again for another section.  Thankfully it was just a bit of back tracking that was easily done.

Dinner

Tonight’s dinner is Slow Cooker Chicken Teriyaki.

Ingredients

Chicken thighs (I tossed in about 9-10)

1/2 bottle of Soy-Teriyaki sauce.  Bottle was 19oz, I used 9.

20oz can of diced or crushed pineapple, drained

Rice (your choice here, I used Basmati)

Package of veggies to steam

1 T Cornstarch

1 T cold water

Directions

Add chicken to the slow cooker, then pour sauce over the chicken, last pour drained pineapple over everything.  Let it think on low 4-6 hrs ( or high for 2-3).

When there is about an hr remaining for chicken to cook, get started on the rice.  I used Basmati rice and it has to think for 40 min.  Add 5-10 for the water to get boiling and a 5 min think time after fluffing and you see why I suggest start the rice an hr before the slow cooker is done.

I picked up a package of broccoli slaw to steam.

When the chicken is done, remove as much chicken as you can from the pot.  Pour the juices into a sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Let it boil 5 min.  Mix the cornstarch and water together in a small dish and add it to the juices.  Stir and boil for 1 min, then remove from heat.

When everything is complete, plate/bowl rice, add the chicken, sauce and top with some steamed veggies.

Any sesame seeds for sprinkling could be added if wanted.

**Verdict**

Thumbs up from the troops.  Barely enough leftovers for D to take for lunch.

Bitten?

Is it because I took a year off from starting any cross stitch projects that Im now finding charts I want to stitch everywhere?

Little House Needleworks has a new series coming out Hometown Holiday 

Sounds like they will be too big for ornaments, unless you want to stich over one.  Will be interesting to see what she comes out with on future charts.

Farm House

So far its coming along quite good.  Im back in the black as far as x’s go. 

I had help yesterday.  Apparently a blanket goes along way into making a lap comfy as Lilith hung out with me for quite a while and watching very closely to the thread I was stitching with