HighFiber

Monday, March 24, 2025

Spring Has Sprung!

Spring has sprung,

The grass is riz.

I wonder were the flowers is.

The vernal equinox arrived right on schedule this past week. We've had grass for a while, however, even with the snow, and we know where the flowers "is." They're still waiting to open. The bulbs will be putting up their leaves and the bushes that produce flowers are already budding. Meanwhile, the grain is well-developed in my Field Cardigan.

Just a few more rows to go and the sheaves of grain will be finished and it will be straight stockinette stitch until it's time to start the ribbing. I've learned that this is not the project for listening to an audiobook or watching a movie.

We had a nice, traditional St. Paddy's Day with faux corned beef (made from regular tofu), cabbage with potatoes, carrots and onions, and Irish soda bread.

Here's the recipe I used for the faux corned beef. The brine was used to cook the vegetables (not shown in this screenshot). I adapted the recipe from Monica Davis' The Hidden Veggies.

One of our friends from the Madroña pop-up parties shared her recipe for Irish soda bread, and I decided to give it a try.

It was easier to make than the recipe I usually use. It has raisins in it.

I had a frozen pie shell in the refrigerator freezer that broke up when it was knocked about, so on Saturday I decided to make a quiche just to use it before it was nothing but crumbs. It was like putting together a 3-D puzzle. My recipe uses silken tofu in place of some of the eggs. This is the first time I've baked a quiche in the new convection oven. I think it may have been too high in the oven, so it browned on top more than usual. I think next time I'll just put it right on the turntable instead of the circular rack. It tasted great, though.

I managed to get out with the dogs every day this week. Most of the time Charlie came along. I tried to get a photo during one of these walks, but the leash that connected my belt to Dusty's collar sort of stole the show. The snow was gone by Sunday.

This is the route we took most of the time.

On Friday we braved the off-and-on drizzle to go to Alpenglow Park, where the trails are paved and thus less muddy. It wasn't a very long walk, but the pups had some well-deserved off-leash time.

I worked on a new story for The Doll's Storybook and reedited one of the old ones (see below).

I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for More Classic Tales Retold or Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart". 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 any of our books, including Emil, Mariah, Classic Tales Retold, Our Favorite Verses or More Classic Tales Retold, please leave 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: Still working on the Field Cardigan.

What's on my iPhone: Finished How We Learn To Be Brave by Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde. Now listening to Jan Karon's These High, Green Hills, which is the third book in her The Mitford Years series.

What's on my sewing machine: Still waiting to do some repairs.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In "Finding Your Purpose," Billy discovers he has a talent for photography, and it's fun.

What's my tip of the week: I have an electric toothbrush, and it's boring to just stand there with the toothbrush doing all the work, so I've been using the time to give my legs some exercise. I do gentle squats while brushing the top teeth and heel lifts while brushing the bottom.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes.

The stories in More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook. Poems included are Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The stories in Mariah 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, because the publisher gets a cut.

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.

<a class="blsdk-follow" href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/highfiber-7365001" target="_blank" data-blsdk-type="button" data-blsdk-counter="false">Follow</a><script>(function(d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s);js.id = id;js.src = "https://www.bloglovin.com/widget/js/loader.js?v=1";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, "script", "bloglovin-sdk"))</script>

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7365001/?claim=kkvctsdtf4n">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Monday, March 17, 2025

Making Change

The Sunday Morning Wrap, which I'm calling my Everyday Evening Wrap, is off the needles and blocked.

Here it was when I finished the knitting but before blocking.

I didn't do a gauge swatch, and I'm a loose knitter. Any surprise that using the suggested needles it came out 16" longer than anticipated? No worries! It goes with what I laughingly call my living room "decor," so it can live there and be handy if I need something to wrap up in. Here you can see I had trouble getting it to fit on the blocking mats on my dining room table. I used almost all the blocking mats I have, and that's two sets!

Fortunately, I didn't run out of yarn! Here's what I had left.

On to the next project. As I said in last week's post, I planned to make the Field Cardigan by Camilla Vad, a Danish designer on Ravelry. I posted a photo last week, but I found one that shows the shafts-of-grain design better. I wanted something that would be a bit of a challenge while still providing some mindless knitting later on, so I can work on it during meetings, watching TV and listening to audiobooks.

I cast on on Thursday and by Sunday afternoon I was here. I made some mistakes in the pattern while I thought I could get by without my reading glasses and good light, silly me, and frogged back to the ribbing. Now I'm back where I was, but without the mistakes.

We had another Madroña Vineyards meeting on Tuesday.

I fixed Pumpkin Curry Soup (in the big pot on the table) to go with the Viognier wine, which was very nice. The soup recipe calls for silken tofu, which I always have on hand, and now I have lots.

The reason I have lots is because Morinaga the company that makes Mori-Nu shelf-stable silken tofu changed the package size from 12 oz. to 10.5 oz., and that meant I needed to adjust all my recipes that call for silken tofu. My immediate thought was shrinkflation, which is unnecessary, because even when I can't get it on sale, it's a bargain. I wrote an email to the company to complain. I told them how much I use the product, what a nuisance it is to have to rewrite my recipes but that I still would buy it, because it's such an economical substitute for eggs and meat. The next day, I got an email explaining that they had to change their equipment to maintain the quality of their product and they were sorry for the inconvenience. They offered to send me a case of the new size if I would tell them which variety I would like (soft, firm, extra firm). I told them I like the firm, and a few days after that, a case of 12 packages of silken tofu arrived. I sent them a thank you note, which they acknowledged nicely by email. So I won't need to buy any for a while, but my recipes (like the pumpkin soup) will still need to be adjusted, especially my quiche recipe.

I made some Dutch Oven bread to go with the soup.

I made more carob brownies, as the previous batches were popular, and more sourdough and whole wheat sandwich bread.

On Thursday, both of the pups had appointment with the vet. Sandy needed his annual physical and boosters for various canine illnesses, and Dusty needed a dental with X-rays, because it had been almost three years since his last one. He gets his teeth brushed every night, so they still looked fine upon examination, but the X-rays revealed one tooth with periodontal disease and another with something called resorption. According to Dogster, "Tooth resorption is usually not visible on the surface. Only X-rays can show if your dog suffers from the condition. This dental problem can also lead to infection, fracture, tooth loss, and other issues that can cause lasting damage to the teeth, gums, and jaw." It could even cause some discomfort while eating. Dusty will be nine years old on May 1st, so we didn't want to risk putting off that extraction until a later date, when he might not handle the anesthesia and treatment as well. He was still groggy for most of the rest of thursday, but has since bounced back to normal. Sandy had a good checkup. Here's Dusty, resting up.

In spite of the rain, wind and off-and-on snow, we managed to walk every day except Sunday. We walked with Sandy on Thursday before Dusty came home, and we've been keeping both dogs on their leashes, because Dusty's mouth has to heal, and they like to play a game called "I'm gonna rip your throat out," maybe not good right now.

While we were visiting the Portland Stuarts, we got to try Teeccino tea/coffee bags. They're caffeine free and without tea or coffee but use substitutes, like chicory, roasted dandelion roots, carob and herbs. Love them!

I've been missing my coffee, which I'm avoiding right now for health reasons. I've been drinking rooibos tea, which I like, but in the morning I really miss my coffee. When we returned home, I tried to find some in the stores with no luck, so I looked up the company online. You can order directly from Teeccino (which I did) and you can also order the products from iHerb. So I did that, too. I should have a nice supply. Besides the tea/coffee-style bags, you can get the products ground, for use in coffee makers. I think this is going to work well. I tried the Caramel Nut in the coffee maker, and it was very nice. It also contains prebiotics, which is a plus.

Remember Johan's participation in the Battle of the Books? The team went to the regional competition on Saturday. They were eliminated during the morning competition, but they had a great time.

Also over the weekend, the Wisconsin grands participated in a dance competition in Minneapolis. Here's Daphne (second from left) with members of her team.

Zachary is also second from left, with his team.

When they go on these trips for competitions, they stay overnight in a hotel with a pool, so there's more fun besides just the competition.

Meanwhile, here in Bend....

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: The Field Cardigan by Camilla Vad.

What's on my iPhone: Just finishing listening to How We Learn To Be Brave by Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde.

What's on my sewing machine: Repairs and fleece jackets for Dusty.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Mandy helps out again in "Meeting the Elephant," a reedited rerun. The girls want to know why we don't all have the same religion. Mandy doesn't have a scientific answer. Instead, she tell a story based on "The Blind Men and the Elephant." They also discuss the difference between beliefs and scientific facts.

What's my tip of the week: I keep my bouillon cubes in the fridge, so they come out of the wrapper cleanly. If they're kept at room temperature, bits of the cube stick to the wrapper. (It could just be the brand I use.)