Tickled Pink

This week we received our first order from Green Bean Delivery. What is Green Bean Delivery you ask? From their website:

Green BEAN Delivery connects Midwest food producers with Midwest communities through its year-round home delivery service. Our direct line to organic vegetable producers and local artisans guarantees our members the freshest organic produce and groceries on the market.

They deliver fresh produce and other items to your door! This is the box they delivered in and it kept the produce inside nice and cool until we could put it away.




This is what the ordered consisted of:

1 Each	Apple, Fuji
1 Each	Avocados
1 6 oz.	Blackberries Local
1 Pint	Blueberries
1 1 lb.	Carrots, Baby
1 1 lb.	Green Beans, Local
1 Each	Limes
4 Each	Peaches, Yellow
1 10 oz.	Peas, Snap -
4 Each	Plums, Red,
1 24 oz.	Potatoes, Red Local
1 8 oz.	Spinach, Baby
1 1 lb.	Strawberries

This is a green smoothie that consisted of blackberries, carrots, strawberries and spinach. Yummy!



I love sandwiches but I don't like all the calories that go along with bread. I have found another use for my kale growing in our garden. Kale wraps. This one is ham, cheese, hummus and kale. Yummy!



I finished my first BFF sock. I am tickled pink how cute this sock is.



Poo is getting older and sometimes he just doesn't get his body completely into the liter-box to do his business. A neighbor gave me an idea to use washable rugs under the liter-box. I had recently found a way to use cut up old t-shirt to make knit rugs. I solicited my Facebook friends for stained up t-shirts they wanted to get rid off to make a few rugs. I picked up this monster, size 19 and 47", needle to knit it with. YOZA that is a big needle you have there.



I started cutting up the t-shirts. Here are a couple of the "yarn" balls ready for knitting.

Tip, Watermelon and heart melt.

Do you have a pet? If so, do you notice how they have this way of doing the cutest things? Over the weekend we were out on the patio and Poo piled up for a nap on my foot. Our cats have this uncanny ability to make our hearts melt on a daily basis and I wouldn't trade them for anything. :-)



I subscribe to Rawmazing, which is a whole raw food blog. The other day Rawmazing posted a recipe for Strawberry Watermelon Lemonade. For some reason I had to make it ASAP and make it I did. Let me tell you it was so amazing I have made it a second time. I cut the recipe in half both times since it was just me and my hubby. The first time I used the Agave as directed but the second time I used Truvia because I wanted to cut down on calories. Delicious! If you are interested click on the link above and get blending. I highly recommend.



So as a knitter I am required to repair my hand-knits occasionally. Last year, I think, I created a little box for a small amount of yarn for each of my completed projects. When I finish a project I toss a bit of the yarn in the box so that when I need to repair something I have an exact match.






I do believe I have I identified that I am a sentimentalist. Every time I open this repair box I am fondly reminded of all the various projects each little bundle of yarn is tied too. That makes me very happy.

Sweet Potato Chili Chips

Yesterday I broke out my Mandolin Slicer and dehydrator to make some Sweet Potato Chili Chips. These are the slices pre-dehydration.

I put them in the dehydrator yesterday morning at about 115 degrees and took them out this morning.



You can really see how much they shrink down when the water is removed.




I had a hard time keeping a certain person out of the dehydrator. I have to admit I tasted them this morning and YUM! These should be a good addition to our stir-fry dinner tonight. Email me at clbrmba at gmail dot com if you would like the recipe.

Thia Red Curry Stir-fry

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Originally uploaded by bean counting knitter

Over the weekend I made a yummy stir-fry and thought I would share it with you.

Ingredients

package of extra firm tofu
olive oil
onion, large slices (cut to your preference)
asparagus - broken into bite sized or preferred pieces
crushed garlic
Trader Joe's Thia Red Curry Sauce

Directions

Heat flat pan with olive oil
Slice brick of tofu long-wise down center of brick
Fry until golden on both sides
Remove and cut into bite sized cubes

Heat wok with Olive Oil
Toss in garlic, onion and asparagus - cook until desired texture and done-ness is reached. Stir often. It is stir-fry after all.
Toss in tofu and stir-fry a bit more.
Add desired amount of sauce and stir-fry for a few seconds to heat up/distribute sauce.

Enjoy!

Where to start?

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Originally uploaded by bean counting knitter

So much to share.... I will jump right in.

This morning, before work, I finished the second front by using a three needle bind off on my Nermal Thermal. Tonight I plan to start the sleeves two at a time using the Magic Loop method. Woot!

Yesterday was Valentines day. There seemed to be two sides of the road with this day. Either you really enjoy it or you really despise it. I was a lover of it even though my husband was out of town. We got all lovey dovey over the weekend so it was all good yesterday. Then a box arrived from my husband at the office. OMG

The box:



I didn't open at the office it for fear he might have sent me something totally inappropriate for the office. ;-) Anyone that knows my husband understands my fear!

At home I discovered this:



You might be scratching your head. It is a kick ass juicer. Last summer he bought me a Vita-mix and I explored making green smoothies. They were OK but I just couldn't commit for the long haul. I fing myself using the Vita-mix for my morning protein & fruit smoothie and the greens just not happening. That makes me sad.



I realized my problem is pulp. I hate pulp. Pulp in orange juice creeps me out most of the time. I just don't like it. And that is OK!

This juicer will take a twig and extract any liquid within out. Last night's juice was from 2 stalks of celery, 1 green apple, 1/2 lemon, 6 strawberries and 2 carrots. It ended up being about 12 oz and was my dinner.



All I can say is AMAZING!

As if that wasn't enough excitement for one day! I received a package from an Etsy purchase late last week from Kala AKA Vegancraftastic. I love the items. I will be giving away two of the pins and I bet the recipient will love them too.



This project bag is screaming for a sock project:

Italian Semolina Bread

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Originally uploaded by bean counting knitter

Want to make bread in about 5 minutes (prep work) a day?

Get this book:

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking

Super easy bread and amazing! I made the dough for this bread last Thursday evening in about 5 minutes. The batch made enough for 4 loaves the size of these two.

We had a couple friends over for dinner Saturday night. So Saturday morning I took out enough for two loaves, let them rise and baked them. The instructions are easy and step by step. The bread was a hit.

Very easy peasy !!

This morning on the plant ~ tonight in the jar!

This morning's harvest from my garden.


Salsa!


Canned Salsa....


YUM!

Turkeys and catch'n up! (no knitting this time)

Here is the first loaf of bread from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I made the basic recipe to start with. I can't wait to get into the others though.

Of course I didn't think to click a picture until the pretty loaf was already cut. It was perfect. It took me about 15 minutes to get the batch prepared early yesterday morning. I think that was just my learning curve. I can see where it will be 5 minutes to put everything together. I love that the dough will keep in the fridge for 14 days. Warm bread after work anyone? OH my!


I planted some of the seedlings yesterday. The tomatoes didn't like me so I think I will be replanting some of those perhaps next weekend. Just a little to soon for them yet.



Here is a picture of the new dining room floor. The picture isn't the greatest. I will try again on a better light day.


Saturday afternoon I went with Jimmy so he could practice bowl. He is starting a new summer league this week. Here is an action shot. He recently went down a pound in bowling ball and is shooting strikes like crazy and had two games well into the 200's.

And I kept seeing these turkeys flashing on the scoreboard. :-)

Really? 5 minutes a day?

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Originally uploaded by bean counting knitter

So I place the "blame" on Lime & Violet for purchasing this cookbook. They talked about it in a recent episode of their podcast. I also "blame" Ria for inspiring me to make an attempt at this over the weekend. She is going to make Scones for her hubby this weekend. I am going to start with the basic "starter" recipe and see how it goes. Ria I will attempt to take some pictures of the process and post them. :-)