I still can't show you my progress on the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL, but it's coming along. I can only give you this peek. It has been a busy week, but I've made some progress and am well into Clue #4.
My new iPad hasn't shipped yet, but it should be soon. I'm making do with my old one and my laptop. I've figured out which apps will work and which ones won't. However, I wanted to print another copy of Veronika's Birthday, the little book I printed before I ever started writing the story blog for children.
The copies I had Apple print through the Photo App were just for family and friends. I ended up giving away my last copy, so this week I decided I needed to have another one printed. Since Apple no longer provides this service, I downloaded the Mimeo App and used it to send my PDF to them to be printed. I should have it soon, and we'll see if it looks as good as the original ones.
Last week I said that the Recipe Box app was no longer available for iPad, but I found out I was mistaken. I was trying to find it in the Apple App Store from my computer. When one of the developers told me it was still available, I looked for it using my iPad, and there it was.
They also have a The Recipe Box To Go for the phone, which I added to my phone. Now I have to figure out how to open my recipes in the phone app. I use the app all the time. During the week I made the No-Boil Lasagne and my favorite Easy Corn Salad, which you may remember from a previous post.
I often make this recipe to have with enchiladas, tamales or burritos:
Easy Rice-cooker Spanish Rice
Servings: 5 cups cooked rice
Ingredients
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 T olive oil
• 2 cups brown rice (3 rice-cooker cups)
• 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes, with juice
• 1 4-ounce can chopped green chilis
• 4½ cups water
• 2 boullion cubes or 3 tsp. Better than Boullion
• 2 T. chili powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cumin or smoked cumin
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. cilantro
• Cilantro for garnish
Directions
Sauté onion in the oil.
Place the rice in the bottom of the rice cooker and then add the diced tomatoes, chopped chilis and water. Add the onions and remaining ingredients and stir to dissolve the spices in the water. Cook according to manufacturer's instructions.
It takes about an hour once I start the cooker.
Adapted from Bless This Mess
I sometimes like to make Dutch Oven Bread, but our Dutch oven is family size, so we ordered a smaller one. I think this will work for half the recipe, one that takes 1 1/2 cups of flour. I'm going to try it out today. (The spoon is for scale.)
We had sort of an adventure with our taxes this week, but not last year's. We received a letter saying that IRS did not have our 2020 tax return, and to please submit it to the address on the letter. They also had a phone number. We both immediately were certain it was a scam, but what if it wasn't? Charlie had the copy of the cancelled check IRS had cashed. He didn't want to call the number on the letter, in case it was a scam, and when he researched the address, he found the entity listed as occupying the location was an office of the IRS. He tried to reach the IRS through their main number, but couldn't get through to a person to talk to, and none of the automated options provided a category that was related to the issue. After some time waiting on the line and giving up, he did some digging. He found this article and this. Apparently, because of staffing shortages during the pandemic (which are continuing), the IRS developed a backlog of 2020 returns that had not been looked at. This triggered the automatic dispatch of letters to the taxpayers whose returns had not yet been looked at, as if they had never been received. Not a scam, but also not a legitimate demand for our return from 2020. In the article, the recommendation from IRS was: "...taxpayers who received a notice now regarding a 2020 return would not have to send a copy of the return if they already filed a 2020 return and know that their payment went through." They have stopped the letters, but not before a lot of consternation on the part of taxpayers. So there was that.
We have had some cold weather, but have managed to walk a few times. Saturday was really nice, so we decided to walk to the dog park, so Dusty could socialize a bit. It was no problem to take the stroller, so Rocky could ride until we got there. He walked around in the park, and Dusty played with other dogs or chased the ball. Then, when we were walking home, Rocky decided he wanted to walk, so we let him out of the stroller, and he walked most of the way home. (The .73 miles was one-way. We stopped the Walk for a Dog app when we got to the park.
The choir isn't meeting in person, as we've had a lot of Omicron cases in our area. I think they're tapering off. We feel fairly safe, in spite of the fact that many people ignore the mask mandate in stores. First of all, our case numbers seem to be dropping, and secondly, we found this report on vaccinated vs. unvaccinated patients ending up in the hospital.
Of course, we passed 64 some time ago. The choir is meeting via Zoom again for now, but we're hoping to get back to in-person practice and performing soon. People who are vaccinated and masked are still allowed to attend services. Singing together is more risky than sitting in church.
We had a nice Zoom call on Sunday with family.
If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of our first book, Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, it would help if you left an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.
Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.
What's on my needles: The Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL shawl.
What's on my loom: Still the trailer rugs.
What's on my sewing machine: The T-shirt rugs.
What's in my hoop: Still the whole-cloth quilt. No progress this week.
What's in The Doll's Storybook: In A Bigger Footprint? Part Two, Mandy explains to Jolena what she is already doing and what we all can do to reduce our carbon footprint.
What's in The Doll's Storybook: In A Bigger Footprint? Part Two, Mandy explains to Jolena what she is already doing and what we all can do to reduce our carbon footprint.
What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Unthinkable by Jamie Raskin on the Audible app. Fascinating. I wish I had the time to just listen and knit!
What's in my wine glass: Clausthaler Original non-alcoholic beer.
What's my tip of the week: If you have a chance to get a basil plant and you like basil, do. It will be happy for some time on a sunny windowsill if you keep it in a dish of water that keeps the roots wet and protect it from the cold.
Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is now available for preorder from booksellers world wide. The link for Book Baby is here. The three stories are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.
Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is also available. The three stories in the first book are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.
If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less.
Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.
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