A New Recipe

 I have come up with a solution to Sour Dough Bread* that is to dry for sandwiches. No it’s not French toast, I did not have any eggs in the house. They could be used for very large soup croutons.  Even better than that, turned into crackers. Yes, that’s right, crackers with a wonderfully tangy flavor. A texture that is perfect and not crumbly, they won’t get smashed when you take them out of the cracker jar.  Even better than that is that they are a one ingredient recipe.  

Sour Dough Crackers 

1 loaf of stale sour dough bread

1 bread knife

1 toaster  with a low setting or an oven that can be set to 250f degrees or 121c

1 Cracker jar

The Process 

With your bread knife cut the bread into 1/4 inch or 6.35 mm slices. Smaller pieces are better.  I cut the loaf into half and made smaller crackers.

  Place several slices in your toaster on the second to lowest setting. (Turn the toaster on for one cycle. When the cycle is done let the bread cool down in the toaster until the toaster is cold) *repeat for at least 3 cycles turning over once.  Repeat with you remaining bread slices.  When the crackers are the way you like your crackers, put them in a cracker jar. Leave uncovered for the first night and the cover the crackers. I used an Oxo storage container, you can use whatever you have around the house.  

I had 2 crackers with my cuppa tonight and they were a wonderful combination with my chocolate chai.  

*Please note that this recipe will work with other breads and toasting times will be different.  

A Hectic Life

 My life has been very hectic lately.  I feel like I am running in so many directions with many different goals competing for my time. 

 I am in the final planning stages for combining my sewing and knitting rooms together. Which means that I am getting busy doing all the mending. Finishing projects that have been started.  Going through everything in the sewing room to see what is leaving and what needs to be temporarily stored in the garage. Thank goodness I have spent months on the knitting room. The knitting room is ready to be packed up once I get our new designer updated with some minor changes.

We will then have to pack up the room. Remove the bookcases to be rehoused.  Move the metal rack into the garage. The plastic boxes will not be rehoused until after the new room is completed.  We need to do some electrical work. Remove Eric’s old lift. Then paint the room.  Hopefully that will coincide with the delivery and set up with the new room.  

Right now I am in the process of deciding what long term projects that I am giving up entirely, including but not limited to dog pillows. The dog pillow project started as a way to keep my yarn scraps out of the land fill. Then other people heard about the project and started giving me their scraps of yarn, fiber and batting.  Over the years it has morphed out of control.  Then I stopped the project cold during Covid. Friends started giving me their scraps again.  With in a few months I filled two 32 quart containers with scarps.  I made an entire dog pillow today.  It was just too much physical exertion for me.  So considering that as long as my husband and I have been together we have never owned anything but goldfish with our daughter.  I am humbly requesting that someone take over this project.  The pillows are very easy to put together.  It just takes time and energy that I no longer have.  I can even write a blog post with the directions.  I have to put myself and my health first.  

It is now time to call it a day.  TTFN. 

Travel Nightmares

 On a recent trip to visit our daughter not only did we get some fantastic family time. I also got to experience some travel nightmares.  

My first nightmare involved checking my bag into the airport check in in Tucson going to San Francisco International Airport. Then discovering the next morning that 25% of my lingerie was missing.  I usually pack each outfit down to the lingerie in one separate bundle.  This means whom ever decided to take the lingerie had to go through my suitcase and unwrap the bundle to get to the lingerie.  They even walked off with a brand new pair of compression socks which are quite expensive for the one made without polyester.  I mean who deliberately takes used lingerie from someone else’s suitcase.  I am pretty sure it has no resale value.  

A few days later after lunch in an upscale area of Silicon Valley my wallet was taken from my purse while we were walking around. This involved unzipping my purse and grabbing my wallet. Just maybe it might be time to put DPN’s back into my purse as a deterrent.  Yes, I will have to go back to Grandmas Spinning Wheel in Tucson to buy a new wallet.  This one event generated a lot of work that is not finished.  All the credit cards have been cancelled. We still need to file multiple police reports.  Put a fraud alert on my credit report. We are hoping beyond hope that they just took the money and threw away the rest of the wallet. 

Getting through the airport was a nightmare.  I kept repeating “ What part of my entire wallet was stolen don’t you understand?” After an hour of waiting, giving permission for TSA to go through all my emails, including a full pages of emails having to deal with a lost drivers license and credit cards. Filling out an on line form. Paying $45.00 for the privilege of having my wallet stolen. We were finally allowed to go into the terminal. I need a cuppa of Chai, they had the good recipe from India not the American junk.  That brought some calm to me that I had not had since my wallet was stolen.  

Well it’s time to call it. I have tons of paperwork to do tomorrow.  

My Friends Are Really Great

 I have a really great group of friends.  Some I have been friends with since my kids were in elementary school.  Some have recently joined our group.  But the thing is that they all get me.  I am so blessed to have such a great group of friends.  

One of my newer friends gave me this knitting bag this week.  I really think that this will be my new go to knitting bag.  The bag is called “Sheep” and was designed by Emma Ball.  If you like Emma’s work please follow this link,.  Emma Ball and other artists have some great artwork on all kinds of medium.  I really like the selection of animal greeting cards.  Below is a picture of the knitting bag that I received.  This is so me.  

Busier Than a Bee

 I anticipate a very busy week ahead.  I have already canceled one dinner with friends so that I can have some breathing room.  

Just how many naps will this week take.  It’s hard to tell right now.  

On the weather front, over a 24 hour period we actually got 1 inch of rain. The storm acted like a winter storm    We have not had that much rain in 24 hours for years. The cactus just loved all that water. Can this be a sign that our 30 year drought is on the way out? I can only hope for the 1000 year drought to be over. 

 Arizona is running very low on water and people keep moving here.  They also want to keep building water intensive farming and business. Just say no to Alfalfa that goes to the Middle East, where the government says there says that there is not enough water to grow it in country.  This does not make any sense to me. Why come to a drought plagued region to grow your alfalfa? 

Much Easier Typing

 Part of getting any new electronic devices is the organization process.  I just spent one hour organizing my apps into the proper categories.  I still have a couple more hours to go.  Too bad that they can’t be transferred into the same boxes. 

By the way my husband was able to get me this year’s iPad for less than the cost to replace the old battery.  Because I tend to keep all my electronics with the exception of my watch in public use military grade protective unit’s, we did pretty good on the trade in.  The Apple salesman  could not believe that my old iPad looked as good as the new one on the outside.  No chips, dents or scratches that are common on most trade ins. The best part is that the Apple Store took the old unit in trade so we did not have to deal with the e- waste. Yes, I have already misplaced my pencil as it is not in the case.  My best bet would be for the pencil to be in the bag it came home in. 

Don’t Believe Everything You Read

 To file under don’t believe everything you read.  

I am sitting on the couch with an ice pack on my shoulder. Then rotate the ice pack to my neck which apparently got messed up too. I will sleep here when the ice pack comes off. As the new sheets are currently in the washing machine, with over an hour left on the washing cycle. 

Tonight is not the best night for sleeping. first my beds  fitted sheet tore. Then I wrenched my sore shoulder and neck trying to free my big toe from the hole in the fitted sheet. I am quite sure that I made the whole much larger.  

I try to keep a spare set of sheets for an emergency. Tonight’s incident qualified for that occasion. So I got the complete set of sheets out. As I was unpacking the sheets, I noticed for the first time in my entire life that the complete set of sheets lacked a pillow case. 

So I checked the package and sure enough, the package was supposed to include a pillow case. No worries, I have extra pillows cases. My current solution will be to change the sheets and leave the pillow case on my pillow. I have extra pillow cases because they don’t wear out as fast as the sheets.  So I will wash extra pillow cases this weekend. 

I am not sure how the Brand Moss & Willow forgot to add a pillow case to the set  of sheets.  My set came without the pillow case. So if they don’t intend to enclose a pillow case in the set, they should not have said that the set was only a top and bottom sheet   Not a complete set. 

My rant is now over and it is time to take the ice pack off my shoulder. Then place it on my neck.