I'm tired, there has been one long week of working mostly every day between last post and this, and more... it will be good when the paycheck comes but it was exhausting while it was happening. Everything is expensive, and Mark is worried that by the end of the year we'll be short again because I've had to get both vehicles serviced (one is in now, the other one will go in after the first is fixed) I've been trying to get more of a focus on everyday expenses, because groceries and gas just keep going up.. Last year we got cornered into a very bad vehicle repair from another mechanic than the one we usually use - and that set us up badly with the increasing fuel and grocery bills. **still thinking on all of that** But I've done some things in the past few weeks, some might call it just edging myself along.
Bread (the same kind, that Mark and Esme like to eat) was 1.79 in 2021, now it is 3.19 Gasoline has followed the similar trend. Everything else has gone up proportionately.
Drawing : did a lot of drawing here and there - with some new pens and pencils, and to try to draw a plant sale we went to, and a thing that happened on a postal route.
Baking : baked madeleines with the lemon zest in them, and that was very good. Made an egg-heavy crepe like thing today as well with four eggs, half as much flour and a bit more lemon zest in it, and it was good, as well. Made a 'leftovers' soup with fresh carrot and split peas, beans and rice hotdish, chicken boullion, green onions and peppers -it looked like refried beans when it was finished, but it tasted wonderful, and I served it with some noodles and a tortilla.
lemon madeleines
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) softened to nearly melting
beat with 3 eggs, vanilla and 1/2 cup sugar, 3 tbsp brown sugar - 3 minutes
add some lemon zest and a small amount (less than 1 tsp) of lemon juice
1 cup flour, 2 tsp baking powder, salt, beat to combine
less than 1 tablespoon of batter in madeleine shells brushed with butter
375 degrees, 10-12 minutes, do not flip
(I made a cream cheese version two weeks ago, too - and it was very good - 1/4 container cream cheese, and I think it took a little milk and extra flour to make it right)
crepe like thing
4 eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, some vanilla, 1/4 stick (1/8 cup? melted butter, cooled before adding), lemon zest and small amount of lemon juice beat by hand in bowl
add 1/2 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder, some salt, stir up well, should be gloopy but stick to the fork - get a measuring cup for pouring it into the pancake pan
fry on hot buttered pan, flip once
leftover soup
about 1/2 cup of bean, rice and green-chile hotdish ( I make this sometimes for myself and have some leftover usually)
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
1 handful of green split peas, washed
1/2 bouillon cube
1 handful of old fashioned oats
1 handful of green onions
a few jalapeno peppers (from last summer's harvest) (made it quite spicy)
black pepper, olive oil, salt and celery seed
water (of course)
bring to boil, then simmer for about 40-45 minutes stirring as needed
you can use an immersion blender and blend it up if you like
I've crocheted several new bags for the eventual art shop - and am working on a topper rug thing for a footstool I have that never seems to get rid of the cat hair on it - so I wanted something washable. It's the same technique I've used to make the machine-washable bathroom and kitchen rugs that we are getting so much use out of - except this will fit over the square lid of the footstool like a hat.
Esme has had a few 4H wildlife meetings, and I'm reading 'Lessons in Chemistry' by Bonnie Garmus that I got at the library sale while I wait for her to get done with those.
Working on a multitude of different languages when I have the time and energy to do so. Did a lot of Czech today, caught up with some Portuguese, Greek, Japanese, German and Romanian in the past few weeks. I don't usually do German on DL because I took it in school, but I watched a show in German, and on DL I still get the order of the verb wrong, especially. The show is 'Mindblow' which is about sort-of time travel and alternate timelines - hope I can find the second episode when it airs.
Language update :
French - L 25 XP 49620 19620 XP beyond Level 25Welsh - L 24 XP 28243 +1757 XP to next level
Spanish - L 23 XP 24570 +1430 XP to next level
Japanese - L 19 XP 14317 +683 XP to next level
Czech - L 18 XP 13083 +417 XP to next level
Romanian - L 17 XP 10969 +1031 XP to next level
Portuguese - L 16 XP 9632 +868 XP to next level
Italian - L 15 XP 7544 +1456 XP to next level
Greek - L 14 XP 6927 +573 XP to next level
German - L 13 XP 5956 +44 XP to next level
Finnish - L 13 XP 5515 +485 XP to next level
Catalan (es) - L 12 XP 3923 +977 XP to next level
Swedish - L 11 XP 3689 +211 XP to next level
Norwegian - L 11 XP 3082 +818 XP to next level
Spanish (fr) - L 11 XP 3025 +875 XP to next level
Hungarian - L 10 XP 2438 +562 XP to next level
Ukrainian - L 9 XP 2228 +22 XP to next level
Irish - L 9 XP 2174 +76 XP to next level
Turkish - L 9 XP 2020 +230 XP to next level
Polish - L 9 XP 1793 +457 XP to next level
Chinese - L 8 XP 1426 +224 XP to next level
Russian - L 7 XP 1023 +102 XP to next level
Zulu - L 7 XP 759 +366 XP to next level
Guarani (es) - L 6 XP 611 +139 XP to next level
Dutch - L 6 XP 540 +210 XP to next level
our cat Lyffan, a Manx cat, sleeping on my bed
she couldn't be happier
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