465 more or less

Iconic

I'll bet this hasn't been used in twenty years.  It's in really good condition too.  No cracks in the interior and just a little chipping of the classic green exterior paint.  Under each of the side handles is a bottle opener.  That made me smile.

So August's Challenge ended yesterday for me.  I thought about continuing today but the gross stuff left in the garage requires plastic gloves which I did not have.  Thirty days is good enough and that's where the 465 comes from, adding each day of the month.  Some of the "things" were just weighed and a lot of what I just tossed into the black can was not counted at all.  Hunks of wood here and there and the last minute dashes to the curb before the big truck came to pick up.

There's still plenty of work to do in the garage.  There are some built-in shelves I would like to remove and lots of misc. wood pieces that can still get tossed but one must have room in the black can to do so.  Perhaps I can borrow my neighbor's black can this week and fill it.

It's been a rewarding and humbling experience and for pete's sake, why do we keep all that stuff!

(I cut the grass last night!)

Why I Love This Car

Yesterday, I flipped up the back seats and loaded in 8 pieces of fairly heavy MDF.  I also had two screen doors to donate and because of their length I had to slide them in on their side edges and between the front seats.  It did limit my vision out the passenger side window and what with all the new people in town, many unfamiliar with red lights and also which lane to turn from, I decided it would be wise to wait until Tuesday for the drop off. Tuesday, the new people should be sitting in classes.  So I put the doors back in the garage.

Woke very early this morning fretting about this and that and it came to me that if I flattened out the front passenger seat perhaps I could slide the doors in flat.

Yes, indeed!

It makes me want to go on a little camping trip with Min to test out the sleeping arrangements.  Maybe we could just try it in the driveway one night.

QOTD

Let what

you do today

be

enough.

Pat and I saw this on a 2x2 decorative piece of "fence" that you might hang on your wall.  We were wandering around separately in Archibald's/the furniture shop, waiting to be paged for lunch and both mentioned to the other that we had found the quote of the day.  Ha! The same one!

 Three chairs part of yesterday's 27 items but taken to DI today. Must have enough room to load in more treasures for Day 28.

Sigh

If I can get rid of the excess paper around here, I will call this month's challenge a success.  A screaming success.

I pulled these folders out of the filing cabinet.  The filing cabinet has only two drawers and my goal is to get everything into one drawer and use the extra drawer for shoes.  I'm kind of kidding about that but the filing cabinet is in my closet after all.

I couldn't bring myself to just put these in the recycle bin.  You can see the dates, 1979, 1982 and 1988, so they sat on the kitchen table for a couple of weeks.  Yesterday I opened them.

The entire magazines were not in the folders, just the pages relating to the crafting instructions of 100 items under $100.  Talk about a walk back in time!  One of the issues had something I had actually made.  The advertisements were funny and startling too, all those cigarette ads aimed at women.

I did slip out a couple of pages to consider at a later date but 99% was tossed.  The funniest thing about this is that the address labels belong to someone else here in Utah.  I wasn't in the state yet!

Day 22 of the August Challenge

1987 Honda Elite C80

Picked up today and donated to KUER, our local National Public Radio station.  The scooter weighs 225 pounds which happens to be evenly divisible by 9 and there are now nine days left in the challenge.

It works for me!

Happy Birthday Dad

A picture that I came across recently was of Dad on a horse.  It was while we were on a camping trip to Kentucky Lake and I wanted to go horseback riding so badly.  I am pretty sure I had saved up babysitting money for my ride but Dad decided he would come along.  I don't remember if it was his first time on a horse too but I expect it was.  It was a great thing for him to come along with me, especially since I doubt it was a big dream of his.

The other picture that I love of Dad and that always brings a laugh is from an early family picnic.  It was a relay race, "running" while holding a carrot between your knees.  And those plaid shorts he wore.  Good times!

Today would have been his 90th birthday.  Yikes.

Day 19

Have not decorated for Easter for years.  Years.  Time to share the entire collection, including the box.  Certainly the more giant sized plastic boxes a person has, the more stuff one can keep.  Trying to change that.

Day 19 details

8 bunnies

1 lamb

1 spool of ribbon

4 wooden carrots

2 large decorated eggs

1 large group of plastic fill-able eggs

1 group of three large cut and painted 3D wooden eggs

1 large plastic storage box to hold it all (plus a few bonus items)

To date, I have freed myself of 190 things.  Of course that's not an exact item count as some of it I weighed before I tossed it.

Feeling some progress here!!

Mom's Spice Cookies

You never know what you might find in a box in the garage.

Playing with Numbers

Day 13 of the challenge.  I had planned to sort though another box in the garage.  It's a small box and I am pretty sure most everything in it can be tossed but "pretty sure" means there might be decisions and those take more time than they probably should.

I had two things on the calendar so time spent purging was going to be short.  I fell back to plan B which is just walk into the storeroom and look from side to side.  No need to even turn my head, just move my eyes.

Sure enough, there it was, a big bag of worn out jeans and jeans pieces, collected with the idea of making a jeans quilt.  Having seen many finished jeans quilts while working at the fabric store, I know that most of them are heavy enough to crush the air right out of you. No longer interested.

The bag weighs 32 lbs.  Very heavy!  But how to tie that into Day 13.  32, of course, is not evenly divisible by 13.  32/13 = 2.47  Oh, there it is!  2 + 4 + 7 = 13.  I'm counting it!!! That bag is outta here.

I love math. (Not logarithms though,)

Raspberry Jam?

Nope.  Beet Tahini.  We might call it beet hummus but I really think hummus must have chickpeas in it.  I might add some chickpeas the next time I make it but it is very good as is. 

Beet Tahini - Adapted  from The Inventive Vegetarian

1 ½ lbs. beets

Juice of 2 lemons

2 cloves of garlic

½ cup tahini

Salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 400F

 Wash and trim, but don’t peel, the beets, then wrap each one in tin foil and toss it in the oven for 45-60 minutes, until a knife can easily pierce each beet.  Once the beets have cooled enough to handle, rub them with your thumbs and the skins should come off easily.

Roughly chop the beets and the garlic and put both in a food processor.  Give a quick pulse to start breaking them down.  Add the tahini and lemon juice and puree until smooth.  Taste and adjust salt as desired. 

Makes 2 cups.  Serve cold or room temperature with crackers or raw vegetables.

Not Always Green!

We've been getting a lot of beets from the farm so I looked up some recipes for a change from just boiled.  Not that those aren't very good but still a little diversity is a good thing.

I just knew someone out there would come up with a beet smoothie.  The original is from Virtually Vegan Mama and you can find it here.  This is how I made mine: 

The Beetalicious Smoothie  Adapted from Virtually Vegan Mama

Serves 2

5 oz unsweetened almond milk

1 tablespoon orange juice concentrate
1/2 cup water

1/2 cup peeled and shredded raw beets
1/2 cup frozen mango chunks

1/2 cup frozen raspberries

1/2 cup fresh pineapple chunks

1/2 cup fresh sliced strawberries

1/2  of a medium banana

1/2 an avocado

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Puree until smooth and serve.

Note: if you have orange juice you can use half a cup rather than the concentrate and the water

YUM!!

QOTD

"You're only as young as your neck."

From an advertisement of course.

Days 6, 7, and 9

And 4 frames counted towards Day 10.  I need another box for the rest of Day 10.  All of these frames are empty and some are still shrink wrapped.  These are just from the storeroom. I am sure there are more in the house. 

I do need a 20x20x1-inch frame.  That I don't have.

A Finish

A pastel baby quilt made from 2 1/2 inch pre-cut strips.  It is pretty fabric and the light at noon doesn't do it justice.  Not my style but a sweet cottage look that looks very delicate and girly.

This picture shows the quilting.  I just followed the edges of each strip and used the wiggle stitch on my machine.  it's basically a large zig-zag with an extra stitch across the point that makes it look rounded.

Another 18x18x16" Box

Yay!  Another box from the garage emptied!  The recycling can is full and it's only Monday.  No running to the curb on Wednesday morning to make sure it was full like I did two weeks ago.  Of course my neighbor and I share and he did put stuff in this time but most of the box from the garage was just paper.  Just as before, there is a small stack of shredding and an even smaller stack of usable items.  What I am extra happy about is finding these:

The Ginghers have been MIA forever and I was really hoping they were just in a box somewhere and that's the one I opened today!

And total amount of cash in this box?  Three cents.

A Farmers Market Surprise

flor de calabazas

Squash blossoms!  The ones in the picture have closed up but at the market they were open and so beautiful I had to buy them.  Well, I bought them after the farmer explained to me what to do with them. He said quesadillas with cheese, ham and the squash blossoms.  That did not sound appealing to me but I was intrigued.  Here is the recipe I worked from:

Squash Blossom Quesadillas – from Simply Recipes

Traditionally a small sprig of epazote (a Mexican herb) is placed in each quesadilla with the squash blossoms. You can also lay a strip or two of roasted poblano chile in the quesadilla.

    2 Tbsp olive oil

    1 cup chopped onion

    5 cloves of garlic, minced

    30 summer squash blossoms

    1 teaspoon butter

    12 white corn tortillas

    8 ounces Oaxaca cheese (a Mexican string cheese) or Monterey jack cheese, sliced

    Chopped fresh cilantro for garnish

1 Prepare the squash blossoms. Check the insides of the blossoms for bugs, rinse out if you find any or if the blossoms are dusty. Otherwise there should be no need to wash. Cut away the stems. Roughly chop the blossoms, stamens and all.

2 Heat the oil in a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Add the chopped onion and sauté  for 5 to 6 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté a minute more. Add the squash blossoms and toss to coat with the garlic and onions. Cook for a minute or two more, until the blossoms are just wilted. Remove from heat.

3 Heat a large cast iron pan or a large relatively stick-free skillet on medium heat. Rub a little butter in the pan (just enough to give the tortillas a little flavor). Place a corn tortilla in the pan and heat on both sides for half a minute or so, until bubbles begin to form in the tortilla. Place a slice or two of the cheese on one side of the tortilla. Top with a tablespoon or two of the squash blossom mixture. Use a spatula to fold the other side of the tortilla over the side with the cheese and squash blossoms. Press down with a spatula. Cook until the cheese has melted and the tortilla lightly browned.  While the quesadilla is cooking, if your pan is large enough, you can start heating another tortilla in the pan.

4 When the cheese has melted, remove the quesadilla from the pan and continue to make the remaining quesadillas in the same manner. To serve, cut each quesadilla into triangles and serve with salsa, chopped fresh cilantro, avocado, black beans, Mexican queso crema (or diluted sour cream)

Serves 4-6

. . . . . . .
I had Swiss cheese, Cheddar, and Feta on hand so I went with the Feta.  I also had no poblano which she suggests at the top but I did have a fabulous green pepper and I chopped up a piece of that and cooked it with the onion.

I was careful to watch the cooking times and ended up with a nice taco with a little crunch to it.  The Feta worked and so does adding just a touch of butter to the pan when you add the tortillas. I added a little pico de gallo to the tacos when they were done but there was no need for much.  Next time I make these I will plan to have queso fresco on hand.  A slice of jack cheese seems too heavy to me.

So delicious!!  I hope they have squash blossoms next week!!

EDIT 08/11/14:  They did have squash blossoms again this last Saturday and it turns out that I like the feta better than the queso fresco. I still think the jack would be too heavy and the farmer reminded me he said pepper jack.