It's tax-preparation time, and while DH is working on the taxes, I've been cooking food. I made our favorite enchilada casserole, which we had with beans and Spanish Rice. My rice recipe makes a lot, so I planned to make TV dinners out of the leftovers. I just got out an extra can of refried beans to fill in the third compartment in the tray when the first one was gone.
For all my TV dinners I cook in the oven at 300ºF for about 50 minutes.
Also going into the freezer was another batch of bran muffins.
We often have French-style lentil soup, and it seemed like a good time, so after using all the leftover enchiladas to make TV dinners, I cooked some lentils and vegetables in the pressure cooker.
I received a gift of an immersion blender for Christmas. (Maybe it was for my birthday. Having a birthday the day after Christmas and a childhood of presents that said, "Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday" may have had their impact.) I would have put this soup into the blender, but instead, I just blended it with my immersion blender, and voilà! It's certainly easier, and with less cleanup.
When the kids were here, we bought a big bag of potatoes and still have most of them left. Then DH came home from Trader Joe's with another bag of potatoes. I made a Tuna Potato Bake by modifying a recipe I found at The Spruce Eats. It turned out great! I basically just reorganized the order of the ingredients and substituted olive oil for the butter. I used soy milk and soy creamer left over from Christmas visitors.
Tuna Potato Bake
Ingredients
• 5 medium yellow potatoes, cooked and sliced (I cooked potatoes in water to cover and saved the water to use when making bread.)
• 1 can tuna, drained
• 1 C chopped onion
• 3 T olive oil
• 1 1/2 T prepared mustard
• 1/4 C flour
• 1 t salt
• 1/8 t pepper
• 2 C milk
• 1 can tuna, drained
• 1 C chopped onion
• 3 T olive oil
• 1 1/2 T prepared mustard
• 1/4 C flour
• 1 t salt
• 1/8 t pepper
• 2 C milk
Directions
Heat oil in saucepan. Add mustard and dry ingredients. Gradually whisk in milk. Cook over low heat until thickened.
Arrange potatoes, tuna and onion in casserole. Spread milk/flour mixture over all and bake at 350° F for 1 hr. (We're at 3500', medium-high elevation, in Bend, so yours may cook faster if you're at sea level or more slowly if you're living in the clouds.)
Heat oil in saucepan. Add mustard and dry ingredients. Gradually whisk in milk. Cook over low heat until thickened.
Arrange potatoes, tuna and onion in casserole. Spread milk/flour mixture over all and bake at 350° F for 1 hr. (We're at 3500', medium-high elevation, in Bend, so yours may cook faster if you're at sea level or more slowly if you're living in the clouds.)
I cooked some green beans to have with it, cut up some home-baked bread and made a salad. (I think I could easily have added a layer of vegetables to the casserole. Might try that next time.
I wish I could show you the progress on my Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL project, but I don't want to spoil the surprise for people working on it. I'm a little behind. Clue #3 came out on Wednesday, and I didn't get to it until Friday. Here's a hint, though.
Here's a photo someone took of their doll, posted on Facebook. I'm hoping to order him in February. I have plans for him. Stay tuned.
Saturday, we had a memorial service for Liz, a lady who used to sing with the choir. She had not sung with us for a while even before the pandemic and finally passed away on Christmas Day, surrounded by family members. She was 88. Eight members of the choir sang at the service, and after that, a couple of bagpipers from Bend Fire Pipes and Drums played Amazing Grace out in the courtyard. Liz owned a set of bagpipes that had belonged to her grandfather, which she donated to this group. After their performance with modern bagpipes, they demonstrated with Liz's grandfather's pipes. They spent some time with tuning, because it was cold, and the antique bagpipes were not built to perform in the cold the way the modern ones are. They couldn't play indoors, because they would have needed special equipment to mask the instruments.
My second iPad is nearly nine years old and can no longer be updated, so some of the apps are starting to malfunction. Safari has been running slowly, too, and often malfunctions. After some research, I came to the conclusion that it needs to be replaced. That will give me an opportunity to get a better camera, although it remains to be seen how difficult it will be to take photos with the iPad rather than my phone. This is the one I've decided on, the 11" iPad Pro 128g.
Everyone locally is temporarily sold out of this model, but I was able to order one from Apple and still get it in about 10 days. I could have picked it up at Best Buy in a little over a week. It's a fairly long drive, and then I would have had to go into the store with lots of people ignoring the mask mandate. No delivery is available from them. I could have ordered it from Amazon, but it would be March before I could get it. That's too long, as I've become very dependent on it. I could have bought a different model, but that would have cost more. They would only give me $55 for my old iPad as a trade-in, so I'm keeping it for use by the dolls for a fireplace and TV. It fits into the frame that hangs on the wall, and I'm not sure the new one will. I can still use it for my Recipe App, too. I'm afraid the app is no longer available for the iPad, although they have it for the iPhone.
That's what I've been up to. DH is still in his study, cooking the books.
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. No progress this week.
What's on my sewing machine: Still waiting for the T-shirt quilt. The iPad issue took up a lot of time this week, while I decided what to do.
What's in my hoop: No progress this week on the whole-cloth quilt.
What's in The Doll's Storybook: In "A Bigger Footprint?" Jolena worries that she might have to quit the ski team because carpooling to practice and flying to competitions might be adding to her carbon footprint. An explanation of greenhouse gases for children.
What's in The Doll's Storybook: In "A Bigger Footprint?" Jolena worries that she might have to quit the ski team because carpooling to practice and flying to competitions might be adding to her carbon footprint. An explanation of greenhouse gases for children.
What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Unthinkable by Jamie Raskin on the Audible app.
What's in my wine glass: Crystal Range Barbera 2019, one of our favorites.
What's my tip of the week: I discovered that my air fryer really doesn't need cooking spray to come clean after using.
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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