Weekly Chat Thread Oct. 24th - 30th

[staytuned]

Oct 26, 2022 18:42:00 GMT Shirley U Geste said:

Happy National Pumpkin Day!

  

Talk about strategic planning!

[Shirley U Geste]

Even the hippos got to celebrate pumpkin day.

[jandsknight]

Denise, so glad you got a good report from the brain scan.

[kritter]

Diego giving a shout out for National Black Cat Day!

[staytuned]

Oohh, he's a cutie! Doesn't Terrell want to pose for "his" day? He's adorable with that clipped ear.

Every Halloween I can't help but wonder if Stacy's trying to stuff poor Barney into that hot dog costume again.

[kritter]

Terrell is busy kitten sitting.

[Shirley U Geste]

 
   

[Shirley U Geste]

  

[labbypaws]

I did a faceplant today. I was going to take a break from walking because I was up half the night with pain/jumpy legs. At 10 AM, a woman on my walking route posted that her dog got loose and to keep an eye out. Well, I grabbed a leash and my dog friendly Lab and went out looking. Had on my Hoka Bondi's which have thick bottoms and wide toe boxes.

Caught my toe on a curb and went for a flight. I started stumbling but couldn't stop the inertia. Face-planted on the ground with my hands across my upper chest. My nose is killing me. Hit my sternum pretty hard. None the worse for wear thus far. Luckily I landed in the mud and not on the sidewalk.

[val2525]

((((labby))))) If your nose still hurts tommorrow, you might want to get it xrayed for a break.

[labbypaws]

Oct 27, 2022 23:19:29 GMT val2525 said:

((((labby))))) If your nose still hurts tommorrow, you might want to get it xrayed for a break.

It has been broken a few times.  I don’t feel anything broken.  Some swelling below the bridge.

[staytuned]

labbypaws, I'm sorry you fell, but glad it wasn't worse. Sounded bad enough.

[frakinfashion]

(((labby))) Oh my.

[chapeaunoir]

(((Labby))) Oof!  I'm glad you didn't go down on hard pavement!  I tried running in Hoka One Ones and found them kind of hard to manage on what sidewalks we have, which are broken and crumbling, though they were comfortable for certain. But bless you for going out to help to find the lost dog!

[denise15601]

(((Labby)))

[Emerald_Door]

(((Labby))) I'm glad you didn't break anything.

[labbypaws]

None the worse for wear today. Scary though.

[labbypaws]

And now some pain is starting. Nothing major. Rib pain under left arm, arm and wrist pain both sides, a bit achy. Both my breasts are black and blue. That surprised me.

[sunsetpainter]

(((labbypaws))) Hope you're feeling better soon!

[chapeaunoir]

labbypaws - the bruising and odd stuff seems to always come up after a day or two.  I once crashed down a hillside mountainbiking, my bike fell on top of me and I felt all beat up.  Yet that evening - all was good - no marks! Two days later I had the strangest piebald markings on me lol - weird bruises and scuffs from falling down, and I don't bruise easily.  I had bruises on places I didn't know I had places. 

I hope you your nose is OK and you feel better! 

The DH and I are 'training' for our trip to England where we do a lot of hiking and rambling.  He doesn't walk very much so had to get his legs going.  I run but have been down with Covid and Covid knock-on for over a month so didn't have enough breath to run. 

"Let's go to the pub in XYZ!"  He says.  "I know a back way." 

It's 7 miles round trip and I asked him if he was OK with that as usually that's longer than he wants to walk.  Yep, he has to get his legs in shape. 

Off we go - it's pitch black here, no street lights, and we're chugging along these narrow dark roads on 'the back way' to the next town. We live in a very hilly area so it's up and down, up and down - we go the wrong way, we have to retrace steps, it's so dark we can't even see street signs.  After about 4 miles we get to the pub. Have a nice dinner and a couple of pints. I can't taste anything so of course I get bored with eating after about half my dinner, but I can kind of taste the beer.  It goes right to my head due to lack of food.  I pack up the leftovers and off we go. 

We take another way back and end up wandering along the night-ridden roads - stuff happens - two cop cars are talking to some guy with about 20 plastic bags hanging around himself who is describing how he was buying a woman some shoes (?), we can't see where we're going because it's so dark so keep falling into holes and the like, taverns pop up in the trees, filled with people drinking and hooting.  Finally we wobble home after another 3 1/2 or 4 miles. It's so dark it's a wonder we can find our house - apparently the town turns off ALL the two street lights we seem to have within miles. 

All in all an interesting evening and we're going to do it again next week. 

[kritter]

Last day of our weekend bake sale for our rescue. Lots of fun meeting and catching up with neighbors but need to get back in my routine. The cats have definitely been up to no good since I have been gone more that I have been home in the last two days.

Val is defintely the best baker of this bake sale. Got an email (Val wins the best lemon bars EVER trophy.) from a friend who bought a tray of her lemon bars.  She donated $500 for Val's lemon bars.


Another customer left with his purchase of two other items that Val made, got in his truck, got out of his truck and came back in the store.  He wanted to know if the baker who made those items could make more that he could pick up after church on Sunday.

Thank you, Val, for supporting us with your amazing baking talents.

[frakinfashion]

val2525 Val, I'm seeing a fun and profitable, post-retirement business for you. You could bake and sell your wares to subscribing customers and even cafes. Small batches of delight!

[chapeaunoir]

Wow - a good lemon bar is a surpassing delight!

[val2525]

Oct 30, 2022 15:11:18 GMT frakinfashion said:

val2525 Val, I'm seeing a fun and profitable, post-retirement business for you. You could bake and sell your wares to subscribing customers and even cafes. Small batches of delight!

*groan* Nice thought but no.  I baked Thursday, Friday, yesterday and this morning. After I dropped off the goodies this morning, I got a haircut, when the grocery store, and crashed on the sofa for the rest of the afternoon. I shall be returning to the sofa shortly to crash for the rest of the evening. You wouldn't think baking was a lot of work, but dang it fools you! I think it's because our kitchen counter tops are not at an ergonomic height and it kills your shoulder and back.   I've decided if I ever get a house, I'm adding an ergomonic height kitchen island, even if it's a roll in-roll out version with no electric.

Here's the lemon bar recipe:

sallysbakingaddiction.com/lemon-bars-recipe/

The only thing I do differently is I use half the salt the recipe calls for. So far no one has even noticed.

It's also really good if you add one 2-oz bag of freeze dried blueberries to the lemon mix before pouring it all over the shortbread. Do not crush the berries - add whole. They'll plump up and rehydrate as the bars bake. I used the Good & Gather brand from Target. Talk about good. OMG.  I'm thinking about trying a  batch with freeze dried strawberries, to see if it comes out like strawberry lemonade   I'll report back.

The other recipe that was a big hit was one of desperation after an earlier batch of something else was an epic fail (that recipe has been removed from my bookmarks, LOL!). I made two variations of this one:

lilluna.com/white-chocolate-brownies/

Version 1: add one 1.25-oz bag of freeze dried raspberries, crushed, to the eggs/sugar/butter mix, before adding the flour, and omit the salt completely.

Version 2: use 1 cup of unsalted ghee instead of butter; reduce the salt to 1/4 teaspoon, add 3/4 cup pecans to the mix and sprinkle 1/4 cup pecans over the top.

Taste tip:  anytime a recipe calls for melted butter, you can subsitute ghee on a 1:1 basis and it will give the baked goods a nutty, semi-browned butter taste.

I made some blondies this morning that were another epic fail, but I don't think it was me, it was the recipe. I'm going to try it again next weekend with a couple of changes and if it comes out good I'll post here for any bakers we have. I think the original recipe used a too small plan and too high heat.

Kritter doesn't see the fails (and believe me, there are always several - I've discovered the hard way that just because a recipe is on the internet does not mean it's a good recipe, LOL!). I found what I thought was my original rum cake recipe but while similar, something is still missing. I'll experiment until I figure out what it is. I use spiced rum instead of regular rum. I don't remember if I used to add some actual spices to the glaze or not. I wish I could find the cookbook it was in, with my notes. My mom gave me my first ever cookbook. It was put out by the ladies group at the church we went to and was chock full of stuff your grandmother used to make. Awesome recipes. I haven't been able to find it since I moved here, but I know I would not have donated it, if for no other reason than sentimental value. I still have a few boxes unpacked in the storage unit and I'm hoping it's in one of those boxes.

[chapeaunoir]

Baking is hard enough work that several of the top heavyweight boxers in 18th century and Regency era England were bakers by trade - they worked up a lot of that strength with kneading dough, mixing ingredients and hoofing around all over the place actually baking it.  One was called "Master of the Rolls" lol. 

The DH seems to be trapped in the laundry room on his like 4th load of laundry - he has a huge pile going in the master closet and keeps lugging parts of it downstairs.  He has a large wardrobe.  I have a crappy small wardrobe with a few good pieces mixed in. Makes it easy to pack - all I do is take anything I'll be seen wearing in public and put it in the suitcase, voila, I am packed. 

[kritter]

It was a very successful weekend bake sale thanks to our wonderful and generous bakers but I am glad it is done. I rotated 4 of my fosters in and out of the cage we set up to see how they do in a stressful situation for them. The cage was right by the door to the store with people, dogs, and noise all right in their face. All of them did fine even my lil feral, Chance. He has come a long way since he has been in foster and today was really a test for him.

Fun weekend but glad it is over.

[val2525]

Chance is totally adorable! But my current faves are still Terrell and Mia. Although Diego is a cute little stinker.

[kritter]

Terrell stays on my last nerve. Mia is one of my favorites too.