Daily Notes- November 21

The snow continues to fall.  Overnight we got another inch or two.  G and Riley are back from their walk and G is now starting up the snow blower and clearing the driveway.

Me?  I took a shower, ate breakfast (toast and coffee), read the newspaper, read emails and answered a few, watched a video of two women making pie crust, made Riley's lunch, and after I walk away from the computer--I'll be making Cranberry Orange Bread-from a vegan website but I will be using vegetable oil and regular flour.  I purchased a bag of cranberries and one orange (zest) for the recipe yesterday on our 4pm (in the dark) shopping trip.  I may add nuts. I'm not sure which nut--pecans or walnuts.  And I may make pumpkin pie today rather than tomorrow.  But I don't know if I will or won't.  I do have a package of commercial pie crust dough in the fridge. And any extra cranberries can be made into cranberry sauce with a topper of French Brandy.

I will be sewing the little Advent pockets to the felt square today but need to decide what color thread to use and I cannot find my bag of this weight of embroidery thread in the Magic Attic so my choices are few and not what I want to use.  I had the project on the ottoman where I watch television and caught myself looking at it many times last evening.  It looks nice.  I didn't really have a "vision" of the end product as I cut and sewed.  So, the fact that it looks okay is a pleasant surprise.  Serendipity.

Sewing and Baking.  That's my Wednesday.  Warm and Cozy.  Wishing all of you the same!!!

Daily Notes- November Twenty

More wet heavy snow today--from early morning until darkness.  The trees, with limbs piled with wet snow, look so beautiful.  It won't last, but in that few moments, more than enough to hold and remember.

We now have all we need to feed us until the weekend--perhaps even longer.  I decided to make the carrot soup on Sunday and didn't have any cream--but did have raw cashews.  So made cashew cream in the VitaMix and then added soup.  Whizz.  Whizz.  Deluxe cream of carrot with white beans.  I often forget what a lovely thing the VitaMix is.  So fast, so smooth, so easy to clean.

Many years ago-- my daughter made me a set of 25 little felt envelopes for Advent.  Today I measured (oh, my!) and cut a square of gold felt and bordered it with 2 inches of red felt.  Managed a running stitch in gold all around on the red.  Now I'm going to sit and stitch the 25 little envelopes to the square and have an Advent Calendar.  During a Hallmark movie I saw one hung on the wall with a little candy cane moved and tucked into a new pocket each day.  I'm deciding how I will manage the little felt envelopes.  Candy?  A Santa moving along as the days go by?  Or--will I write a "wish" and tuck it into each envelope as the days pass.  Or write of something that made me happy as the days go past?  I have another week to consider.

I am going to try my hand at making shortbread cookie "baton".  I may even dip one end into melted chocolate. I made something like it once.  I recipe from Gourmet magazine (in the olden days) for a very large batch of cookie dough--and a range of 8 types of cookies to use the dough.  I made four kinds and carried the bakery box onto a plane.  You know that could never happen now.  I never knew how they tasted as all the cookies were eaten minutes after we arrived at the Florida House of friends.  I was told they were "glorious".  Those men knew how to enjoy food.

Daily Notes- November 19

This morning was like this.  The plows and shovels cleaned the sidewalks and streets. In Town, where there are more people, cars and buildings--it's warmer--with less snow.  My Coffee Date Friend came by to get me in her car and we did her errands together.  Then stopped for a coffee.  We'd never done that before--and it was nice.

Riley was eager to get outside.  Eager to roll in the snow.  Dig for hidden things--even when there is nothing to find.  I shoveled the walks and edges of the driveway.  G used the snowblower--faster but never as neat as hand shoveling the edges.

I took apart the Goodwill skirt. The first item I have ever seen or touched from apostrophe.  Made in India of 100% cotton--printed there as well.   It was the print--especially the back side--which made me want it--at first sight.  It was one of those moments in Time.  I need to notice them more.  I was walking and out of the corner of my eye I saw the printed fabric--out of place--not where fabric is, or a skirt.  I just saw it, touched it and put it into my cart.  Seconds.  I can't wait for the pieces of it that I have already washed --to be dry.

It is full dark here in Maine at 4 pm.  In Germany these were the Dark Days.  The days when we felt cut off from the World.  No internet.  Our families didn't write letters.  No library of English language books.  No Amazon.  Television was iffy.  And it was produced by the American Military stationed in Germany.  We learned how to be safe driving a tank under power lines.

G is reading.  Riley is snoring.  My eyes are tired from cutting stitches on so many seams.

Daily Notes- November 18

A new book just released.  In the blurb it mentions being raised by a grandmother who lived to the Great Depression.  Like me.  My Grandmother suffered thru the Depression and my own father's hoarding of glass jars etc was part of that.  My grandmother had a garden but no glass jars to can the food for winter.  So they had nothing, very much, to eat that Winter.  It formed them. Informed the way they saw Life.  As dangerous, threatening, mean.

I grew up spending lots of Time with my father's mother.  She never threw anything away  but it wasn't hoarding.  Old clothing was re-made into something else.  String was saved.  Paper bags folded and stored.  Food was always canned and stored in the coldest part of the dirt floored basement. Every thing saved was used.

And there you have the DNA of me and the Magic Attic.  Which I love.  Keeps her close after all these years.

I already have the "little green balls" recipe from Food 52 which uses all the stems and top leaves which normally go into the compost bucket.  Not the garbage, please.  But whizzed in the processor and made into tiny balls that can be fried or baked.  Delicious.  Go find the recipe, please.  The hunt is good for you!

I am eating yogurt, Bran buds, grapefruit these days (layered and then left to rest as the buds soak up the grapefruit juices) and shredded green and red cabbage and carrots mixed with a knock off of the Oriental Salad dressing from Applebees--with canned chow mein noodles and sliced almonds.  Cold Food. I will be making a soup for myself one of these days. Hot Food.  But cannot decide what I feel like eating.  Perhaps onion soup.  I was quite old when I first tasted onion soup.  And it was love at first spoonful.  Or the recipe for carrot, leek and white bean soup.  Or the black bean bisque.  Both shared by favorite chef's in favorite restaurants.

I slept well.  Am test driving coffee made from a jar of dry "crystals".  I got it too strong this morning.  But it has promise.  And is easy enough to make with the hot water pot.  I crave easy this week.  I crave comfort.  I crave being warm enough.  I crave drifting and not having to "try very hard".  Or think too much.

Daily Notes- November 17

The Moon.  The Snow.  The Leafless Trees.  The Shadows of Night.  From Art Propelled.

Winter came early.  We shoveled the walks and the steps.  Emptied the last pots of the outdoor annuals into the compost pile.  Cut back some of the perennials that we hadn't gotten to before the freeze and the rain and then the snow.  Found room in the garage for the snowblower.

G finished up the last of the chicken soup tonight.  I have to shop so I can make more.  I watched two excellent new Hallmark movies and one repeat from last year.  Riley asked to go outside--so he could roll in the snow.  Again and again.

It's quiet here.  I seem to feel tired almost as soon as I get out of bed in the morning. I think the stress of the company visits, the neighbor's broken arm, the elections, the re-counts, the California fires.......it's all taken energy.  Emotional energy.

I don't know what I need.  But I will start with sleep.