All Things Indian Today

Today was a wonderful day for so many reasons!  First, it was a ladies day out to the city with three wonderful friends.  Second, we happened to be on an adventure with our friend from India.  She was taking us to the Indian store to purchase Lentils.  Lentils as I learned today are also called Dal in India.  We also purchased several spices so we can start learning to cook Indian food.  And last but not least we were able to eat at a new Indian restaurant after our shopping trip.  The meal was absolutely delicious and savory.  I am one of four in our house that enjoys Indian cuisine.  My youngest is warming up to the idea thankfully.   I was raised with many cultural influences and foods so eating many different  foods were normal to me.  I was taught to make many different foods, however I have never had the opportunity to learn how to cook Indian food and now begins the adventure.  I have started my spice box that I purchased today to hold my spices most commonly used in Indian cuisine.

On my mind....delicious Indian foods!

This is my humble beginnings at the moment I have only three dry seasonings to put in my spice box.  Turmeric, Coriander, and Cumin.  In time as I learn to cook more things I will begin to add to my box and possibly need a second box.  For now I am learning to cook with these and a few other ingredients until I am comfortable.  I use a lot of cumin in my American cooking so it is interesting to me to see the cross over into other foods.  I am very excited to be learning something new and about something I am so passionate about!  Delicious foods :)  As I write this I have a wonderful smelling lentil dish simmering away almost ready to eat.

On another positive note.  Our delightful cat Nigel is back home and doing quite well.  We were able to bring him home today from the vet and he is resting comfortably.  The vet said that he had a build up of Ash in his bladder and it was attributed to his food.  He was not sure why it happens if it is his system that converts  something to ash or not.  At any rate he is now on a special food that will prevent this from happening again and most importantly he is with us and healthy and we are all very happy he is home.

For the Love of our Pets

The health and welfare of our pets are so important.  We go to great strides to care for them and today we have one that is quite ill.  He was acting a bit "off" for him the past couple days.  Normally keeping to the other side of the bed from me but instead wanting to be close to me and laying with me as much as possible.  I thought maybe it was the cold.  While watching the television with my husband he was laying on my lap.  I enjoyed the companionship.  Then he started sort of a howling type of meow which was odd.  I kept watching him as he walked and noticed his gait wasn't quite right.  I wasn't so sure that he hadn't possible hurt his hind foot from jumping down from some object (which he knows isn't allowed) like the kitchen island?  His is an ornery boy you know.  Then we noticed he kept trying to clean himself and was howling then.  He seemed to be pained.  I checked his foot and did not notice anything out of the ordinary but knew he was going to see the vet in the morning.  Something was off.  I kept observing him and could not see what the problem was.  He was definitely trying to tell us something.

 

Sure enough, in the morning when I checked on him he was trying to use the restroom and it was then that I realized he had a urinary blockage!  I quickly called my mother because this all seemed vaguely familiar to me and she confirmed that this had happened to our other fur family.  The cause was determined to be related to his food.  I contacted the vet and rushed him in.  The vet confirmed that he had a blockage and said he would have to stay until Monday and be given a sedative and a catheter and  iv fluids to flush him out.  His first question was what kind of food did he eat.  My daughter and I were very brave but also very sad to leave him there.  He is a special boy as all of our animals are.  As shown above he likes to find a nice cozy drawer that the children have hurriedly left open while dressing in the morning before school and make himself a bed.  He likes to go where the children are  because he knows he is one of them and watches out the window when they leave for school in the morning, and again in the afternoon for them to return.  The house seems so empty this morning as I check his already full food bowl that is untouched and I have no furry orange pumpkin (as I refer to him) to great me as I walk to the kitchen.  He is a healthy boy!  At times like these I wish he could speak, yet he was trying to tell me I just wasn't getting all the clues.  I feel sad for not putting the puzzle together sooner but very hopeful for a full recovery.  I will know more tomorrow.  Until then I hope he is resting comfortably and he is greatly missed.  It is amazing how quickly our pets touch our lives.  They blend so seamlessly into our daily lives and effect so much more than they realize. 

The Trial and Errors of Bread Baking

Well, one recipe down and many more to follow.  I should say I have a delicious tested recipe from a friend that I have made a few times but it is for a different type of loaf than what I am trying to achieve.  That being said I am still pressing on for an everyday recipe.  I have decided there are many variables to making bread that I hadn't thought of before.  Yeast being one, and the flavor and texture of my wheat flour being the biggest variable.

I spent a considerable amount of time grinding wheat berries for the bread.  We discovered that when we use the grinding stones on the wheat berries which are small stone like granules compressed to make one stone, that  the little stone granules were falling off into our ground wheat flour.  I will contact the manufacturer and ask them what they suggest.  I bought our grain mill second hand and do not know if this has to do with the age of the stone or not.  I will know more later.  I switched to using the steel blades for grinding the wheat berries but found that they are not nearly as fine and leave almost a half a berry of the wheat after it has gone through the mill.

 

After nearly a half an hour or a bit more of milling the wheat berries I finally have enough to begin making my bread dough.  I ground about 3 1/2 cups not including what I had to dispose of due to the granules of stone in the wheat at the beginning.

After a bit of trial and error or I should say testing with the yeast which I believe is not in it's peak the result was a beautiful bread dough, which rose perfectly.  I am testing two types of bread pans to decide which I prefer bread from.  The first a stoneware pan and the second a glassware pan.  I did not draw a conclusion yet from them.

 

And here we are... not the most gorgeous loaves I have ever seen but they made for a perfect test run.  However, again the wheat berries not being ground fine enough does interfere with the taste of the bread overall because it seems too coarse when eating the bread.  They are nearly gone though so they aren't too awfully bad or they would be still sitting on the counter top nearly intact.  I have already picked out my next recipe to try tomorrow.  In the mean time until I can speak with a representative from the grain mill company I purchased ground whole wheat flour.  I am excited to bake two more loaves.

And finally dinner tonight..... a tried and true recipe for delicious spinach and chicken quiche topped with Colby Jack cheese.  Very good!

From Where I Sit

 

This is the view out the window in the study yesterday morning.  A snow had started falling in the early morning hours.   A bit more than a dusting but I was feeling optimistic that we would get more....

 

This morning this is what I woke up to find.  The storm had finished and a delightful blanket of snow was covering everything.  I do not in any way enjoy the cold but if it must be cold.... I would appreciate the beauty of snow covering everything instead of the sleeping trees and dry dead grasses.  There is something so magical and wonderful about snow.  It transforms the landscape in a moment.  It changes the mood in an instant.  The world seems quieter, calmer, and more peaceful with snow.  Everyone is slower moving and takes their time going about their tasks to avoid slipping and sliding around.  Yet they move briskly at the same time to get from one warm home or building to another.  Hot Chocolate, Tea and Coffee are in high demand.  Coats, mittens and scarves are in constant rotation between those that are dry and those still wet and hanging on the drying rack over the heat vent.  Puddles of melted snow are at the doorways.  Competing in snowball fights are unavoidable for both children and adults alike at our home.  Bringing the sled out and discussing the best sledding spots  becomes a topic of friendly debate.  The snow is the highpoint of winter, when otherwise the days would be the same, cold, drab and dull outside.  I am enjoying everything about a winters first snow.

"Egg"spired!

I am so excited!  Trust me it's the little things that excite me, and that is what truly matters.  While visiting friends I was delighted when they offered two dozen farm eggs.  Our previous farm egg source is temporarily unavailable because the hens are not laying as well right now in the winter cold.  I was dreading purchasing eggs from the supermarket, but elated when our friend offered eggs out of the blue!  As exciting as this is, that is not there is to tell.  Those that have followed my blog know that I am in the midst of transforming our house to our home and transforming our walls from off white to color's that inspire me.  Here is a glimpse of a wall in our kitchen transformed from off white to this beautiful deep red.  I love coming  into the kitchen every morning and seeing this wall as I walk through the doorway.

 So...yes, you guessed it...  When I opened the carton of eggs I saw the most beautiful eggs I have ever seen.  I was "egg"spired!!!  I immediately knew that I had found the perfect color to paint the dinning room.
 

 

The egg closest in the picture is my inspiration for the wall color!  The picture doesn't do the rich deep earthen color justice.  In reality it's more like a deep terracotta color.  I will blow the egg out and take it in to have it color matched.  I hope you are also "egg"spired by the little things around you as you go about your daily life.

The Warmth of a Candle

A friend recently told me that they burn candles at their house when they are in the same room and it helps to warm the room a bit.  To be honest I hadn't really put much thought into it.  I burn jar candles for fragrance here.  It did get me to thinking.  I am one that  purchases candles for the holders to match my decor.  I don't usually burn those unless they are on the dinning room table for a special occasions.  It is winter here and cold.  There is always a chill in the air due to our old drafty windows.  Even with plastic on the windows to stop the drafts it's still chilly.  So I tried lighting the candles in the family room.  I lit these candles as well as the two that were in the sconces on the wall and the room was instantly transformed into a cozy warm retreat.  The glow was magnificent and we all curled up under lap blankets and I read several chapters from our nightly book in the soft glow of the candles.  It was absolutely wonderful and I plan on repeating it again tonight and as many nights as I can.  I cannot honestly tell if the candles warmed up the temperature in the room but the warmth in my heart more than made up for any chill I had previously been feeling.

Potatoes and Bread

As promised yesterday... the potato bag.  I first learned of these wonderful bags from some of my quilting friends.  I had planned on going home and whipping one of these up but for one reason or another did not.  Until last week that is.  I found several patterns and decided on one that looked simple and would get results quick enough to bake a potato for dinner!

A word to the wise.  If you want to bake four potato's in a row as I did you must be careful.  One small area of the bag began to scorch I believe from the thread.  I read many places to use only 100% cotton for thread, batting, and fabric.  I thought this was true of my thread as well but apparently not.  Anyway it was a success and we enjoyed a very simple delicious dinner!

Another goal I have now that the potato bag is finished... is the art of bread making.  

For years I envisioned myself as someone who bakes their own breads.  I never dreamed it would take this long for me to roll up my sleeves and knead up a loaf!  I am able to bake all sorts of breads.  Quick breads such as banana, or zucchini and the many other delicious breads.  I have made several loaves of yeast bread as well but none that has really struck me as a replacement for our current sandwich bread.   My goal is to find a yeast bread to replace what I purchase from the supermarket.  Now I am not trying to replicate taste or anything like that but I like the soft nature of the bread we purchase.  It doesn't tear when you try to spread peanut butter on it or seem dry.  That is where the skill comes in and the most important aspect... experience!  So, I have several loaves of bread now in the bread basket and I am hoping to find a recipe that I can start working with before the bread is used up.  That gives me a week or so which is plenty of time to try several recipe's.  I am looking to raise my skill level and really enjoy the art of baking bread for my family.  Working it in to my daily routine.  My mother baked breads all the time and I really enjoyed coming home to the smell of fresh baked bread.  I can still taste it!    I am excited to embark on this adventure as it is a goal I have had for a very long time.  I  have all the tools I need to bake, a wheat grinder, pans, oven, and ingredients.  Everything is waiting for me. 

All Settled In

 

For several weeks I have been working on transforming our home into more than just a living space.  We have lived here over five years and like many older homes it has needed it's fair share of repairs.  Slowly we are turning this house into our home.   This has happened following a change of heart which greatly helps the way you view your home!   I intentionally had chosen to not call this house my true home because I had no intentions of living here for very long from the moment it was purchased.  It was not purchased as a permanent home and I was becoming more and more steamed up about it the longer we lived here.  There is nothing wrong with the house, it's just that it is in town and I wanted to live the dream... in the country.  Instead of wishing away perfectly good time waiting for the dream I decided to live here and be happy and live the dream either in town or in the country.  Either way I was going to live.  So naturally along with that decision came changes and the first of which is color!  I am a visual person and have to have color in my life and the absence of color on the walls while we were working on the house needed to change immediately if I was going to call this house my home.  So it happened.  We did a room shuffle and painted and now I have a very functional and wonderful sewing room with plenty of room to teach my daughters how to sew, and host my cherished friends that come to sew as well each week.  There is even room for a dollhouse nestled away into the corner for my daughter.  There are plenty of shelving to hold books, and scrapbook supplies as well.

On this side of the room I have more shelving which holds fabric, notions, and project kits along the top shelf.  A small table for laying things out has machine covers and batting tucked away underneath.  And a large sturdy ironing board along the wall.  We usually have the machines set up on the table and do our cutting on the cutting mat moved to the kitchen island.  This frees up even more space in the sewing room.  Here I have the machines scooted around a bit to make a  few quick cuts.  Everything in this room is well organized and easy to access.  It is a pure joy to work in here.  And last but not least color on the walls!  Deep rich color in sort of a cranberry that provides stimulation and a cozy backdrop to the room I spend so much time in.  I have sewn more lately than I have for a long time.  I attribute this to my change of heart and the stimulation of color. One of the projects that I worked on last week was a baked potato bag which I will talk about tomorrow.  If you are not feeling at home in your house... think about what it is that is stopping you.  Mostly likely as in my case it is not all about the house...it might also have a bit to do with attitude.  For me a change of heart has changed my life, that and a bit of color!