Stitching Then and Now

While dinner was cooking, I sat down for some stitching time. I got about a half an inch done before having to jump up for pasta and then a load of dishes. I've had quite a few other things to do so quality time with me and my hoop hasn't happened since last week. This project is still coming along nicely and, since it's a Christmas present, getting it done this early is sweet. I still have to finish the hanging part of the Christmas banner, but I'm going to finish this project and get it off to be framed before returning to the banner.

In looking through my old photos for this month's theme, I stumbled upon this one. This is from 1984. I do not remember if that is a stamped or a counted cross-stitch piece. I made it for my late English pen pal, Anne. On it, I put the location of all the places she had lived, up to that point, from when I met her. We met via a pen pal exchange program through high school and were friends for over 30 years before she passed away from liver cancer.

I remember spending a good 3 months on this piece. I usually shipped my Christmas gifts to Anne and her family via "the boat" instead of airmail as it was about a third of the cost. And when you're sending something heavy like a framed piece, that cost can be substantial.

I was exceptionally proud of this. I had to start it in the summer so it could be done and framed to be shipped by Halloween or right after. I remember plopping down in the sofa on a Sunday afternoon and stitching for 3-4 hours. Some things never change. I still do that only I don't have the TV on as background noise. I find I have to remove my glasses to adequately see the chart so whatever's on the TV is a blur. Now music, music I will have on or I sit and stitch in silence. That silence can be very comforting because then I hear Pilchard's purr because she's in my lap.

I don't remember when I started cross-stitching. It seems it's been a part of me since I was a girl. I remember that hairstyle. I have straight hair but went through the desire to have curly hair phase. I don't remember the glasses. Gigantic by my standards now. I remember the blouse and the sweater. The blouse is long gone but, you know, I still wear that sweater. 

Beverage:  English Breakfast tea

Deb

The Theme for May

Ever since doing the alphabet title theme last year, I've been trying to come up with another month-long theme that I could stick to. I had this great idea I'd eat through the alphabet, trying new recipes. That lasted through "d", I think, where I crafted a deep-dish pizza. When I cook, it's really on a whim or whimsy so, some days, I come home and cereal it is. I don't want to put hamburger to sizzle or chicken to bake. Just let me sit in the recliner with a box of cereal and I'll be okay. But, I like the idea of a theme, something, beyond my usual observations, that binds a month together. I hadn't really thought of anything until this past weekend.

I took a bunch of photos of a failed new recipe which I have not posted, yet. I tend to do that. I'll take a bunch of photos and think, "This would make a great blog post". A day later, I look at them and the enthusiasm or what I was going to say has waned. They sit in my Flickr account, waiting for the chance to be on the blog. As I'm approaching my 3rd year of blogging, I have accumulated over 3500 photos in Flickr and many were taken and never used. It's time to haul those out and blog about them. Plus, you will be seeing some old family photos. The theme will be "Old Photos". I'll still blog about things I find interesting, cooking fiascoes and other timely topics, but you're going to see a variety of photos that never saw blogging daylight, until this month, and some photos from the past.

My first old photo. I don't think I've used this anywhere else. When you have over 1,200 blog posts, it can be kind of hard to remember or find the photo. This is my home computer set up. When I got the new chair assembled back in October of 2009, it raised me up higher than the old chair I had. That meant I was looking down and not across at the computer. Because I wear bifocals, the depth of field to play the game suddenly changed. I was constantly having to tilt my head to see correctly. I found my shoulders and neck would ache after a raiding session.

I don't have that problem in the office. I would like a taller chair, but that would mean a taller desk. Right, not gonna get that through the budget. At home, I would like a different computer desk. This one is nearly 10 years old and doesn't really work for me. I'd like something more compact. But buying a new desk means getting rid of the old one and that is not a simple "haul it out to the curb" process. The current desk would need to be disassembled to be removed from the room. You laugh but it is too wide to go through the doorways of my 1953-era house. So how to remedy the problem at hand? Raise the computer to a manageable height.

I searched my house for the proper item. I finally found it in Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare. I'm quite surprised you can still get it from Amazon but for a hefty $72. I got mine in the sale bin at a Barnes and Noble for $15. It a wonderful critique of Shakespeare for those interested in such things. Plus, it's about 3 inches thick and that's just the right height to move the screen to my eye level. If I am curious about Asimov's take on Macbeth, I can just move the computer.

I like to think the Bard is with me at all times, resting comfortably, guiding my words when I sit at home staring at an image on the screen and wondering just what the heck I was going to say about this photo.

Beverage:  Huckleberry tea

Deb

Enchiladas

The next entry in "Deb Eats Through the Alphabet" are enchiladas. I eat tacos and rice and refried beans and nachos. That pretty much sums up my cooking anything resembling Mexican. I do have Oaxacan Chicken Mole that I've made and "Mexican" hot cocoa is good. I'm given to understand the "Mexican" party of hot cocoa is to put cinnamon in it but I'm sure that's probably an "American-ized" version of liquid chocolate.

Today's recipe comes from a well-worn cookbook, published in 1985. I think, because it's hard cover and missing the dust jacket, that I've had this since it was published. The sub-title of the book is "Living the High Carbohydrate Way". It's an interesting read and yes, I do read cookbooks. Not only does this one have recipes, it has a discussion on nutrition. Some 20+ years later, the information is quaint and probably not what you'd want to use as a menu for eating, but there are good recipes in the book. The enchilada recipe I used took 45 minutes to prepare.

First, I cooked chicken breasts. That doesn't factor into my total time to prepare the meal. If you did, you need to add another 30-45 minutes to cook the chicken. You could make this with thighs if you prefer dark meat. I froze a cup of the chicken broth made from cooking the chicken. I'll use that for something later.

Mix a 1/2 pound of shredded chicken with 1/2 cup of shredded Monterey Jack cheese. This is mixed with a 1/2 cup of diced onion. I'm not fond of onion so I added a garlic spice mix that Carole got me for pasta. The garlic spice mix added a nice zing to the final product.

Shredding the chicken and cheese brought Mija into the kitchen. I gave her a small piece of chicken. She licked it 'dry' but did not eat it. She did, however, eat the small piece of cheese I gave her, but she did not want another piece. Pilchard has no interest in human food. She sniffed the chicken and then left the kitchen.

After I shredded the chicken and cheese, I heated a can of enchilada sauce to boiling. Flour tortillas were laid in the sauce until they went limp. Then they were filled with an overflowing 1/4 cup of chicken mix, rolled and placed into a baking pan. Once, all the chicken mix was rolled into tortillas, the remaining sauce was poured over the enchiladas and the whole thing topped with more shredded cheese. I like cheese so I grated a whole cup of Monterey Jack as topping. This was placed, covered, in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. The top was removed and it was baked an additional 8 minutes.

I bought strawberries on Friday so I sliced one package and sprinkled them with a tablespoon of sugar. This was supper last night.

The enchilada was huge but it was so tasty. I had two for supper so I have 2 saved for another meal and 1 with me for lunch. I have the rest of the berries and some yogurt and, well, that's a pretty good lunch for a Tuesday and a great way to start out March.

Beverage:  Scottish Blend tea

Deb

Apple Banana Cake

This is so good warm with Oberweise vanilla ice cream.

Shredded apples and mashed bananas create a very dense, moist cake with a wonderful flavor. I found the recipe online. 

This starts another theme, just so you know. 

Beverage:  Scottish Blend tea

Deb