I admit this...I forgot to post and when I was falling asleep on Wednesday night, I thought of it. Sorry for the delay.
It is the last day of March and so I give you an overgrown pond to look at.
I just don't have the time right now to do trimming. 5 weeks to go to the end of the semester and when life will start to get better.
I swear that I will get some of the garden worked on, after that date.
For now, enjoy the water.
The girl I went across the Country with, called me up about my Thesis (which I had posted on Facebook).
After the call, I realized I had 3/4 of a container of Buttermilk, still to use before April 2nd.
I knew I had addressed this very problem before, on the blog, so I looked for it.
It ended up being this POST from when I was in Oswego.
I had the exact same situation and used it for pancakes and then biscuits.
I was not in the mood to make 2 things at once, on a Sunday afternoon, so I doubled the recipe.
As soon as my Husband saw what I was doing, he asked if we had any bacon. Why, yes, I said. In the freezer.
You want pancakes for dinner? Yes, please, he said.
So that is what you are seeing in the photo, me making pancakes and not being able to text back to my girlfriend, when she followed up with a question, from our conversation.
I had my Husband do it and sent her this photo.
She said it looked yummy.
It happens so rarely that I can't resist posting about it.
Rain came on Monday morning, just after I got the newspaper. Yay, I did not have to put on shoes.
It has been such a non-rainy season this year, so any excuse to turn off the sprinklers is a day to celebrate.
We have thunder showers in the forecast Monday evening and a potential tornado watch for just south of us.
I told my Husband, let's plan to be off the computer early, in case of electrical storm.
My Water Post For Today.
This is the LA River, just south of Downtown Los Angeles.
The train we took last year, almost immediately passes over the river, but it is an industrial part of town.
The birds don't care, though.
They keep working on making the LA River better. This area could definitely use some work.
Oh, we will be seeing it again, in May, when we travel on the Southwest Chief, once again.
All flags are new again.
As I mentioned before, we had the American Flag, so all we needed to purchase is the Army Flag.
It does seem to be thicker than the old one, so I hope that means it will last a bit longer.
Hubby is happy, I am happy and the flag is happy.
It also seems to not get stuck as much, on the garage roof. Let's hope that continues.
It is getting to the point that most people are going to stores, gyms, and events, maskless.
I am glad they no longer care about their health and feel free to do this, but it brings me serious worry for most of the people in this Country.
I and my Husband do wear masks to the stores and the gym, so we have not changed at all.
Hopefully, it will be enough for us.
Just a week ago, our cat, Makenna, went in for her well cat exam.
She got her yearly shots and we asked if we could cut back on her medication that made her calmer.
We were given permission and we did so.
3 days later, she started throwing up again.
We immediately went right back to an every day dose, but by then, she was not eating her wet food, where the medicine was.
A long story short, we had to bring her in on Wednesday, because things were coming out both ways and cleaning up was a problem (at least for me).
3 1/2 hours later, she was given an IV to replace the fluids she was losing, she got her calming medicine, so we did not have to get her to eat the wet food.
Of all things, she was placed on ham baby food for her wet feedings. Ham?
Sure, great for a half Jewish cat. :-)
We are doing a bit better right now, though she may have an ultrasound in her future.
The Thesis part of the applied project of my Masters Degree, is getting close to finished.
I am doing things like composing the questions I intend to have on a Survey Monkey survey, that people will see on the website.
I am giving the paper another look for any problems with the APA citations, that can be found throughout the thesis.
Next, it goes to the remainder of my thesis team and then to the Institutional Review Board (known as the IRB) for final approval of the research.
It is not going to make it by May 13th, but my Thesis Advisor says not to worry and so I am not.
8 Days Later, we have our garden sprouting.
The corn is the entire box on the far left. Can't wait to see how it comes out. Note, I have 3 rows this year.
Bok Choy, Radishes and Cucumbers are all coming up in box number 2.
Box #1 has nothing yet and that was not unexpected.
The jalapeño's took almost a month to sprout last year. I figure next week for the eggplant and tomatoes.
We will see who is right.
Amtrak has a new locomotive that will be the face of the rail corporation.
The ALC-42 Siemens Chargers can reach a top speed of 125 miles per hour while burning less diesel. Note that they can only go as fast as the track is rated, so 90 mph is what we would get.
They were allowed to make the final run on the Empire Builder. After the split that takes place in Spokane, Washington (part of the train travels to Portland, OR). This train set climbed the cascade mountains and arrived in Seattle, Washington, unassisted.
We who were watching at Skykomish on Monday morning, were thrilled to see them in the lead, without any other engine on the train.
We hope this starts to address the critical engine shortage that the rest of the long distance trains are currently experiencing.
Aren't they pretty?
My Water Post For Today.
Beautiful Toronto, Canada is where my mind brought me.
We had dinner up at the top of the CN Tower and one of the best parts is that, not only do you see Lake Ontario, you see the CN tracks directly below.
Toronto is a very modern city on the calm side of the lake (as a general rule, no lake effect snow for them).
We enjoyed our time there and would love to visit it again, sometime.
Several months ago we bought some dark bread from King Arthur Flour.
That put us on the catalog list and so we get one every month or so.
For spring they had a gorgeous wreath that you can make for Easter. You can see it HERE.
You know me, I make one every year and so it is definitely on my to-do list.
I am giving you an early lead on it, because if you want it to be authentic, there are some not quite "sitting in your pantry" ingredients.
Now when the heck is Easter this year? :-)
Woke up at 6:30AM on Friday and wanted to sleep another hour.
So I went for the papers and there was this gorgeous full moon.
I couldn't resist and so here is a photo I took.
It is the Worm moon and if you live in areas that have lots of snow, the worms come out when the snow melts.
It smells terrible and I don't miss it at all, here on the west coast.
But it indicates that Spring is coming soon. Yay!
I was eating my lunch and checking out trains.
Over on the right was a cool recipe for Appalachian Irish Soda Bread.
It had no sugar, but is made with a bit of butter. Almost like buttermilk biscuits.
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbs butter, broken up or softened a bit.
1 cup of raisins
1 slightly beaten egg (I used the entire egg, not egg white as shown)
3/4 cup buttermilk (room temperature)
Directions:
Mix the dry ingredients together, add the raisins and then add the egg with buttermilk. Mix it together and kneed for a few seconds.
Shape into a round on a baking pan.
Bake at 375 for about a half hour.
I am not Irish, but yesterday my house was filled with the smells of what American's consider traditional Irish cooking.
I have the Corned Beef cooked.
I made Cole Slaw with the cabbage. (I know, I know, what a cheat I am.) and Irish Soda Bread from scratch.
The recipe I have, came from an Irish friend I used to work with.
It's truly easy to make and delicious. I have been making on and off, for the past 30 or so, years.
Enjoy.
Irish Soda Bread
================
3 Cups of Flour
1 Cup of Sugar
3 Teaspoons of Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon of salt
3/4 Cup of Buttermilk at room temp
1 egg
2 to 3 Teaspoons of Caraway Seeds (Optional)
1 or 2 Cups of Raisins (Optional)
Blend all the dry ingredients, then add the buttermilk with the egg mixed in it, to the dry mixture. Add the caraway seeds and raisins at this point, if desired. Mixture will be pretty dry. If it is too dry, add some more buttermilk.
Then place in a greased and floured round 8 inch pan and and sprinkle an additional teaspoon of sugar on the top of the loaf.
Bake at 350 degrees for an hour or so.
Bread is done, when a knife or toothpick inserted in the center, is no longer moist.
I am on Spring Break this week and so I actually had a few free moments to go outside and plant the seeds for this year's garden.
I decided that I was not going to plant them in peat pots this year, it was a bit too much for me. The pots began to disintegrate and they got moldy. It was not pretty at all.
I planted them on February 1st last year and decided to wait til the mid March this year.
Hopefully, all will grow just fine.
This year's crop is: New seeds - larger Corn this year, new Cucumbers, new Radishes, new (for me) Baby Bok Choy and Poppies from Gina in Belgium.
Coming back for year 2 are: Eggplants, Jalapeños, Cherry Tomatoes and Carrots.
My Son alerted us to this You Tube channel.
Live Las Vegas Airport Camera.
It shows planes, mostly landing, at Harry Reid (formally McCarran) Airport.
The owner of the website says that a computer does the work of following the planes, so a person is not doing the tracking. It would definitely burn someone out quickly.
Once in a while the computer detects a take off and that is a different experience.
Late at night, something similar to "Otto" takes over and pans around the airport.
It's pretty cool.
My Water Post For Today.
I can't resist going back to Mackinaw City. I miss it so.
This photo was taken when we arrived and so the weather was beautiful. Blue skies, etc.
It got cloudy and eventually rainy, later on.
A beautiful area of the State of Michigan.
I hope you enjoy.
I found out while doing some research, that paper bonds that you can buy at a bank, no longer exist.
It is all done via email.
That didn't sound so great to me.
Then I found out about something called "I Bonds". They are paper, but the catch is that you have to have money coming to you on your tax return, to buy them.
You can buy them for yourself, or buy them for others. Though only 2 other people, are allowed.
This is what one of them basically looked like: Helen Keller.
Nice to know that is an option, moving forward.
First off, Happy Birthday Sister Of Mine! Welcome to another year. I love you.
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Tonight's the night...
Yes, once again, we move the clock one hour. This time we move the clocks ahead, so that we lose 1 hour of sleep tonight.
For me, it was always so much worse. That is because I had international feeds coming in from all over the world.
Does the country change their time, or just us. NHK feeds from Japan only move because we move. They do not change their time.
England and France change, but they are 2 weeks later than we are. It was always such a royal pain to deal with.
I put this memory from Facebook up and boy, what conversations have been going on. Glad I am not the only one who hated it (or in the case of my current Traffic friends, still hate it).
Glad I am DONE.
Here I am...dreaming of Ventura.
This has been a particularly difficult week for me.
I had my normal reading and write up due on Wednesday. Got it done and responded to on Tuesday.
Had the third Ethics in the News on DACA, to hand in and got it in a day early on Thursday.
Have a Case Study #1 due on Saturday and it got a bit more done on Thursday and I sent it to my partner for this project. She will add her stuff to it and we will hopefully make it by deadline.
Then there is my Thesis...
Did some work on it on Wednesday and will do more on Friday.
Then, with luck, I will do the end of the week extra credit test on Saturday afternoon.
Next week is Spring Break! Sigh...
My flags are dying.
It has not been too long, since we put them up, December of 2020 to be exact.
The constant wind makes them hit the garage roof and it seems to create holes in them.
Good thing we had another new American Flag.
Today it went up and when we get a new Army flag, we will be set for another year or so.
I mentioned that more daffodils would be coming and here they are!
12 of them and a bunch of freesias in two colors.
With the bird of paradise, it is a lovely corner area by the windmill.
Next up, the roses should be coming along soon.
Before you know it, summer will arive. lol
I swear, it was just close to freezing a week or so ago.
Flair is a local cleaner here in Santa Clarita. I did use them once when we had a piece of clothing that had to be dry cleaned the same day. They do such things and that must be where they got my email address.
They don't bother me too much, not like Wayfair, Walmart, Staples, Coolibar, etc...which I get in my inbox daily (if not more often.)
They sent their monthly March email again, this year and informed their clients that they will collect food for the poor the entire 31 days of March.
I always have some food floating around my den, so I am in.
I figured I would stop off at Flair and bring some food, as I run errands in the area. I am there several times during the month, since we go to gym on Tuesday and Thursday.
No extra gas (and at the price of gas right now, it is important to avoid any extra errands) and I will have a dry cleaning coupon I don't need...but what the heck. It felt good to do it.
My Water Post For Today.
I woke up Thursday morning to this lovely screen.
They did not tell anyone what bridge it was, but "I" knew.
It's the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and it crosses the narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island.
It was the first bridge built that I knew about, being it opened when I was 9 years old, in 1964.
I do remember that it needed to deal with the curvature of the Earth, due to its long length.
From Flat Earth debunking website:
"Accounting for the curvature of the Earth is not usually needed for narrow high-rise building projects. Designers only need to ensure the foundation is flat, and the curvature of the Earth becomes non-factor.
For projects that extend over a long distance, like roads, railroads, canals, etc., they are built along the curvature of the Earth, and specifically accounting for the curvature is usually not needed.
But when the project extends on a long distance, as well as extending upwards, then we have no choice but to take the curvature of the Earth into account. One of such projects is the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, New York, United States.
The towers of the bridge are 1⅝ inches (41.275 mm) farther between the tops than at the base. The curvature of the Earth needs to be taken into account because the project extends on a relatively long distance as well as upwards. The height of the towers is 693 ft (211 m), and they are 4,260 ft (1,298 m) apart.
If the curvature of the Earth is not taken into account, then the two poles would not be straight towards to the center of Earth’s gravity, and the bridge will not be able to support itself properly. The cables would have to support some of the weight of the towers, as well as the load from the passing vehicles."
It's a beautiful bridge that threw snow on the roof of my rental car, the last time I traveled on it. :-)
I hope you enjoy.
I mentioned in my post about Mardi Gras bread, that when I turned on my 35 year old bread machine, its core had frozen up.
My Husband took it apart and found that the washer had disintegrated and it was not able to be put together again. My mixing tool in the bottom was also dying. It was time for a new machine.
We went over to Bed, Bath and Beyond with a 25% off everything coupon and picked up an Oster machine for under $100 with tax.
It makes a 2 lb loaf of bread, which is double what my old machine made.
We did bake a loaf and ate some with dinner, (before the photo I took). It came out good.
Though very dense.
This year we were back to standing on a line for the take out fish dinner.
It was $16 and I totally understood why they had to raise the price.
Food costs more.
It was nice to almost feel things were back to normal.
Maybe next year.
Both of my nephews have new children.
Nephew number 2 brought his family and his mom down to meet the newest one.
They managed to get the three children together for a family photo.
It reminded me of when we got the cousins together, (at a similar age) at my Mom's house.
My Friend, Kevin, put up a photo of his three male cats sitting by a window in the sun.
He labeled it, The Sunshine Boys.
I saw Makenna sitting in a band of sunlight and decided to post it over on Facebook.
I called it, The Sunshine Girl.
She is really into sitting into the sun.
Sitting at home on another endless day, I see this meme and remember.
Was there was a time when we went out and didn't worry we would catch something terrible?
Yes, we do go out a bit, but the minute I see someone maskless, I panic...slightly.
Onward and upward we all go. Hope the pandemic got the memo that we are going to stop worrying about it.
Happy Ash Wednesday, to those who are into giving up something for lent. :-)
My Husband and I went out to get a king cake from Vallarta Market on Saturday.
No such luck, they only make a king cake for January 6th.
We brooded on that for a bit and so on Sunday morning I went looking for a recipe.
This is from Betty Crocker.
Very easy, but it broke my bread machine. :-)
My Husband said one of the gaskets inside the core that turns the dough fell apart.
The machine is at least 35 years old, so I give it kudos for lasting this long.
We will see how my king cake is, tonight.
Quick Mardi Gras King Cake Recipe
Ingredients
3 1/2 cups Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) Rapid Rise yeast
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, cut into 12 pieces
Cinnamon Filling
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Decoration
Dark green, purple, and yellow or gold sugars, if desired
Miniature plastic baby, if desired
Steps
1
Mix 2 1/2 cups flour and yeast in mixing bowl of stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, on low for about 30 seconds.
2
Heat milk, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat until sugar is dissolved and milk is between 120°F to 130°F.
3
With mixer on low, pour in liquids and mix until incorporated. Add eggs one at a time. Continue mixing until a shaggy dough forms. Clean off paddle and switch to dough hook. Mix in the remaining 1 cup flour a little at a time, adding more or less flour as needed to make a soft dough. Add the softened butter, a piece at a time, kneading until each piece of butter is absorbed.
4
Knead for eight minutes on low. The dough should completely clear the sides of the bowl. If it is too sticky, add additional flour 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing in thoroughly before determining if more flour is needed. If the dough seems too dry, spritz with water from a spray bottle a couple of times, mixing in thoroughly before determining if more water is needed. Every 2 minutes, stop the machine, scrape the dough off the hook, and then continue kneading.
5
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times by hand to be sure it’s smooth and elastic. Form the dough into a ball. Place dough into a greased bowl. Turn once so greased surface is on top. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
6
While the dough is chilling, make cinnamon filling. In small bowl, combine the brown sugar and ground cinnamon. Combine butter with cinnamon mixture and mix well.
7
Roll the chilled dough into a 10 x 20 inch rectangle. Spread the filling on half of the long side of the dough. Fold the dough in half covering the filling. Pat dough down firmly so the dough will stick together. Cut dough into three long strips. Press the tops of the strips together and braid the strips. Press the ends together at the bottom. Gently stretch the braid so that it measures 20 inches again. Shape it into a circle/oval and press the edges together.
8
Transfer the ring to a parchment lined or greased baking sheet. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled, about 1 hour. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350°. Bake the cake until it is golden brown, 20 – 35 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes on baking sheet and then place it on a cooling rack to cool completely before icing. To hide the baby in the cake, if desired, make a small slit in the bottom of the cake and put the miniature plastic baby in after the cake has cooled.
9
Icing: In a small bowl, mix powdered sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth (add additional milk if mixture is too thick or powdered sugar if too thin).
10
Spoon icing over top of the cake. Immediately sprinkle on colored sugar, alternating between the three colors.
