Tea Box

Hello Friends! Whoops, yesterday totally got away from me. How has everybody’s week been? Mine has gotten of to a great start. I have been eating well and worked out everyday! That is such an accomplishment for me after not doing much at all and stuffing anything in my mouth that caught my eye.

I have done some cleaning in a couple of the closets, I haven’t finished the closet in the spare room but I took some things out that didn’t need to be in there, which will give me room for other things.

Jules, We love cookies here! We used to make some every weekend but then we kind of got away from it. I am happy to spread the cookie love around. I am glad you are want to try the recipes. I look forward to hearing what you think of them. I am not sure I could say which one I like better. They are so different from each other. I have everything to make pizza at home too but I was feeling last weekend. The dough I got at the store is very good, made fresh everyday. I have a waffle maker as well, just a cheap one from Aldi’s. It works well for the few times we make waffles. Maybe I will get some waffle inspiration from you 😉

I haven’t been reading Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest but as I mentioned a couple posts ago I went to the library to return books that Little Man had checked out and the library’s powers took over my mind and made me check out two books. Ok, maybe I just can’t stop myself from looking at the books on the shelf.  So here is what spoke to me this time.

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel is a collection of short stories. I have only been reading short stories since last year and this is my third book of short stories. I have read a few of them and they are different than other short stories I have read. A couple of them I really enjoyed and a couple of others I didn’t quite get. I am still looking forward to the other stories.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley is the second book.  I got this book because in the new book section there was the seventh book in this series, As Chimney Sweepers come to Dust, and it sounded really good but I always have to start a series from the beginning. It’s about a young girl named Flavia de Luce, who is an aspiring chemist, and comes across the body of a man and is intrigued and investigates. I hope it is as good as it sounds, especially since I want to read the seventh book.

In sewing news, I did finish my box that I was making with these squares

Here it is filled up with tea 🙂

Here is closed and some of the sides and bottom

It came out a lot better than I thought it was going to. I am really happy with it. It’s the perfect addition to my other tea boxes.

I am off to enjoy a little dessert and tea before bedtime. Enjoy your day/night my friends!

Soup and Fabric

Hello my Friends! How is everyone today. I hope you are all doing good. Today Little Man had a half day so after i picked him  we made lunch together, then drew some pictures. I worked out…it’s my second day and my muscles are yelling at me. Then Little Man and i looked for a game on the computer that we can both play and meet in, so a virtual world. We decided on Wizard 101. It’s actually a lot of fun. You make a character and right at the start you have your first battle, before you can even register for wizard school! Something mysterious and evil is happening in wizard city and you have to get to the bottom of what is going on. There are a lot of different missions and characters for you to help. I must admit i have gotten hooked. Of course Little Man loves it.

Yesterday i told you i started a new sewing project. It’s a small one and I haven’t gotten far but i will show you the fabric i am using.

My grandma sent me this fabric scrap last year sometime. I found it when i was looking for fabric to throw together to make a quilt with. Anyway, i just had the sudden urge to do something with it.

I grabbed this fabric scrap for my back.

And i cut some squares out of both of those and some batting.

My original plan was some coasters. Not because i need any but i thought they would make cute ones. But once i had sewn them, they were too small for my liking to be coasters. Sorry in advance this pics were taken at night.

So i decided i am going to sew them together to make a box like these, that my grandma made me a long time ago and that i put my tea in.

I did not bind mine like she did, i did not have the right fabric to make my own bias tape or any in a color that would suit and well that was too much work for me. I have three squares sewn together, after sewing on the fourth i realized it was upside down in relation to the others, so i had to rip it off. Then i set it down and haven’t picked it back up. Not because i don’t want to but i have come to realize that a big part of my hand issues is the pinching action i am doing when handing sewing or holding knitting needles. So i thought it best to take a break and then things to just busy. I hope to work on it some more but i am not going to push myself. It will only make things worse. I think it will be really cute and can’t wait to finish it!

Now on to the Cream of Broccoli Soup I made yesterday. It is from my book The Drop 10 Diet Cookbook. I got it last year when i was starting to get tired of the same old healthy meals and needed some new ideas. It has some pretty good recipes in it and i am finally getting around to testing some of them. This is my second one this week. The other one was Peanut Chicken Finger and those were pretty good as well but because you aren’t frying them like most chicken tenders are, so the breading made it a bit dry, you needed something to dip your chicken in. Anyway on to the soup.

I am going to tell you up front i made a huge mistake right at the beginning with the edamame, i didn’t take them out of their shells. I don’t know why, i just got it stuck in my head that i didn’t need to. And this is my first time using them. So right before pureeing i was digging in my soup to get all the beans out of their pods. I missed a couple but it could have been much worse.

I gathered up all my ingredients. Did my chopping and dicing.

Put the olive oil, broccoli, onions and curry powder in the pot.

Oh my the smell of the curry powder was wonderful!! Then i added the potatoes, edamame(with shell, silly me) and broth.

Let it simmer, with a lid on, until the potatoes were done. Added the broccoli and Half and Half.

Let that simmer for about 10 minutes or until the broccoli is done. I would let it cool a bit before pureeing if you are using an immersion blender and then if you are me, you dig furiously around with a spoon and your fingers to find all the edamame and the shells that happened to come apart while cooking so you can save your soup. Then puree and pour into a bowl.

And Enjoy. I was quite worried about how this soup was going to taste. I hate cream of broccoli soup in a can or soup mix or bag, basically store-bought in any form.  It’s just too thick for me and i don’t care for the taste. This soup was delicious, i think the curry spice really added something special to the taste and i could have eaten the whole pot.

So, friends grab yourself a bowl of soup, curl up with a good book and take a moment for yourself.  Especially tomorrow, or possibly today when you read this, because its National Readathon Day. Little Man and I will be grabbing some couch time for sure and doing some reading. Together and on our own. Hopefully i can make some more of a dent in my Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest. I am about 1/3 of the way through. I went to the library today and i always say i am not checking anything out, i have plenty at home to read and…I ALWAYS WALK OUT WITH A BOOK!! Even if it’s just a cooking or craft book or something for Little Man, i can not walk out of there with nothing. I think they have some sort of mind control going on in those places 😉 I got two today, yep they get me every time.

Little Man and I are making cookies tomorrow so I will share those with you next time along with the books i checked out.

Friends, have a wonderful day, do some reading and eat some soup!