Tea and T's!

Can anyone guess what I'm up to now? Here's a hint:

DH has about 10 boxes of T-shirts, mostly from Hash runs while we lived in Indonesia. T-shirts were given out to participants to commemorate a special event, like a member's 100th run or some special holiday in a participant's home country (usually Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, France or the US). The shirts are loaded with advertising for the companies they worked for or brewers of beer (the organization's beverage of choice). He wants a T-shirt quilt made out of them. When we have 20 fronts and backs cut away from the sleeves and neck binding, we will have to figure out which one is the largest and cut the others that size. I have iron-on stabilizer to use to keep the blocks from stretching. I've never done this before. This will be my first attempt.

Getting ready to CO for doll sweaters for the Oregon grandsons' dolls, Parker and Jackson. (I'm certain they will be getting new names. Stay tuned.) Here's the pattern I'm planning on using: Bright Lights by Sharisse Dunn. Remember this yarn?

It turned out to be too thick for Pippa's Chilly Days of Fall, so I switched to another yarn. I don't know if I have enough of the grey yarn, and I would have to hold it double. I will probably have to go stash-diving.

A few more picks on the trailer rugs and another section of the quilt got done, but sending out books cut into my play time.

I made a big batch of "Six-Weeks Muffins," a La Leche League recipe I've used for years. It came from their book "Mother's In The Kitchen." I have adapted it somewhat.

Here's my version of the recipe:

Six-Weeks Bran Muffins

Servings: 6 dozen
Prep time: 23:26

Ingredients

• 6 C wheat bran, divided
• 2 C Boiling water

• 1 C Olive oil or melted butter
• 1 1/2 C honey (I spray the measuring cup with cooking spray before measuring.)
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 quart cultured buttermilk

• 5 C whole wheat pastry flour
• 5 teaspoons baking soda (I used 3 at 7200' elevation and 4 at 3600')
• 2 teaspoons sea salt or lite salt


Directions

Add the boiling water to 2 C of the bran in a large bowl while you assemble the other ingredients.

Mix the wet ingredients.

Sift the flour, salt and baking soda together into a bowl. Add the remaining 4 C bran and mix well. 

Add the buttermilk mixture and the flour/bran mixture to the soaked bran.

Store in refrigerator for up to six weeks. (I make a note on my calendar, so I know what day they need to be used up.)

To bake, spray enough muffin/cupcake papers for the number of muffins you want to bake and place in muffin pan. Put about 1/4 to 1/3 C batter into each paper cup. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes.

Raisins, dates, other small pieces of dried fruit or fresh apple may be added to the batter in the paper cups. Don't overfill.

Notes
I just rediscovered this great recipe of mine that was inspired by the recipe by the same need in "Mother's in the Kitchen," a cookbook put out by the La Leche League. My copy was published in 1971. I don't use shortening or regular sugar, so I've made some changes, but it still works.
What I like about this recipe is you can mix it up once, leave it in the fridge and bake only what you need. However, if you bake the muffins all at once (!) it makes six dozen.

Here's some tea to go with it.

The Oregon grandsons got their Covid vaccine on Saturday. No side effects so far. The other two young grandkids have already had Covid, so they're waiting until Daphne is finished with her ballet performance this coming weekend.

50ºF and breezy is a bit chilly for a walk, even with the sun shining, but we managed to get nearly a mile in during a walk to the Rec Center and back on Saturday. As usual, Rocky rode in the stroller for a while and then wanted to get out and walk.

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: Getting ready to CO for doll sweaters.

What's on my loom: Still the trailer rugs.

What's on my sewing machine: Its cover, but I'll soon be piecing the T-shirt quilt.

What's in my hoop: Still the whole-cloth quilt. A little more progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Help comes from a surprising source in The Rescue, this week's story in The Doll's Storybook.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Wildwood by Colin Melloy on the Audible app. 

What's in my wine glass: Apothic Dark 2018, one of my favorites.

What's my tip of the week: If you use dried lentils or split peas in soups and stews, the first direction usually says to rinse them first. It's a good idea to pick through them to see if there are any small stones before you rinse, but the rinsing can be simplified after that. Rinsing them in a colander leaves you with a sticky clump of lentils or peas that are hard to get out of the colander after the liquid has drained. It's much easier to rinse them in the pot they will be cooked in, unless you're using that pot to also sauté onions, etc. Just put them into the pot, pour water in until they're covered, swish around in the pot and then drain off the dust over a small strainer or your colander. The clump of washed lentils/peas will then be clean and will just dissolve into the cooked dish.

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. Book Baby already has stock. The link 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, please 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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