This past weekend was pretty nice. The weather was a bit cloudy, and that tends to make me a bit grumpy. I do well in sunshine, not so well in cloudy, dreary light. Makes me cloudy and dreary as well. But this was a productive weekend, so it's all good.
Yesterday we attended the gym for the first time. It was rough, but I took it easy - I am not going to push myself. I used to push myself, but now, when I do, I just give up way too easy. So I rode the bike, did a weight machine, and called it done when I felt a little dizzy............
We spent some time driving to the city, and I asked good hubby to drive a back road so I could get a couple of photos of a shed/barn that I had seen before. With him driving, I can get the shot from the car. He's funny tho - he doesn't just pull over, he wants to slow down and wait for someone to come along so he can move out. If he'd just pull over, we could stay there and traffic coming behind us could go 'round. Ah, men. Love them....
So, here are my photos. I'm still working with this new camera....so I took the first one and realized it was on "close up/flower" mode. It still came out.....
Not bad for the wrong setting, in a car that was running and vibrating, and a gloomy day to boot. I know the experts tend to say the photos come out truer on cloudy days, but I just don't get it. I like sunny days, where everything is lit up by the sun.
Then we did a U-turn, went up the road a piece, and turned around again, to go by again (we were going in the opposite direction of home). I got 2 more photos before a car drove up behind us. Here is that photo:
I love the above photo because of the bright green tree and grass. It is certainly spring here, and everything is so bright and new looking - even tho it's a gloomy day! :-)
So these photos were my Saturday Shots. I'm trying very hard to continue to practice my photography every day, and if I don't, then at least a few times a week! There is only one way to get better........keep shooting! My new attraction is barns so I'll be stopping along the way to shoot barns and old out-buildings. There are lots of them around here.
Sunday, we went into town (city is 45 mins away, town is 20 mins away). We got a few things at different stores, nothing perishable that couldn't sit in the car for a bit, then went to the gym. After the gym, I knew I had to get a few things done around here. I tend to be lazy.....
The list included giving Gabbi the Maltese her much needed bath and a hair cut. She hates going to the groomer - last time I took her, she shook for an hour after I picked her up. Poor baby. She doesn't behave very well, and good hubby helped by holding her for me. She looks very pretty now. No photo - maybe I'll snap one of her and put it up later. I'm getting better at making her look good and not like a lawn mower got hold of her!
Then I wanted to do some baking. One of the things we bought at the store were Pillsbury dough sheets. They come in small rectangular sheets. Of course, I didn't take pics of the beginning of the process - I was cooking the filling, baking cookies (those come later - for desert!) and trying to get this dough ready. So I'll just have to talk you thru the first steps - which aren't hard.
Open the container and pull out the dough. I put it on parchment paper. I have very limited counter space and I didn't have anywhere I could throw a little flour down, so parchment paper to the rescue! I gently unrolled the dough, and sort of patted it out flat, so the long side was on the top and bottom, the narrower side on the left and right. I used a sharp knife and sliced down the center from top to bottom. I then sliced those two halves into half. I now have 4 rectangles. I then sliced from left to right, splitting the dough into 3rds in that direction, so I had 12 pieces.
Meanwhile, I had taken a 12 cup cupcake pan, flipped it upside down, and sprayed the pan with non-stick buttery spray. Not a lot, just enough so these things wouldn't stick! When I got the cutting done, I gently stretched each square of dough, and placed it over the cupcake tin bottom. You don't want any holes, and you want the sides to stretch a little so they are almost the same size as the corners which are longer.
I stuck them in a 375 degree oven, and baked them. I believe I only baked them for about 12 mins but I was keeping a very close eye on them. I'm notorious for burning stuff! When they were nicely golden, I took them out. Those things looked SO yummy!
So now you have little cups to place food in.
I decided I wanted to brown up some ground chicken, adding Worcestershire sauce, a little salt and pepper and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. I didn't have any onion in the house or I'd have added some. I then dumped in some leftover frozen veggies I had in baggies in the freezer. There were peas and carrots, and a little bit of mixed veggies with some corn and beans, peas and carrots. After the meat was brown, I added the veggies, covered and let cook for about 10 minutes. The steam from covering helps the veggies cook thru.
When that was done, I added some sharp cheddar cheese and some mozzarella cheese on top, covered for a few mins till that melted. Yummy!
It's kinda like having pizza, only no tomatoes or sauce. But if you wanted to, you could certainly add that!
Once the shells were all flipped over, I told good hubby dinner was done!
Yes, that's a Dixie plate. I eat off paper and good hubby eats everything out of a bowl. We're weird. We eat off dinner plates when company is here, so it's ok. :-)
Two of these were very filling and I hadn't eaten lunch. There were enough of these little pastry cups that I'm taking them to my friend's house today. She's making chicken salad and I told her I'd bring bread!
I have seen this idea of the cups baked on upside down cupcake tins somewhere - a magazine or blog or something. I can't remember where, so I can't give credit. I also don't take credit - except for remembering it's something I wanted to do! ha!
As I said above, I was also baking cookies at the same time. My kitchen is really lacking in counter space so it was tricky doing all this at once.....
But here are the cookies, some of which are also going to my friends house when I go for lunch today!
These are made with all whole wheat flour. And chocolate chunks instead of chips. OMG they are good. I was a bit afraid - the dough was REAL dry with all that whole wheat flour.....but they came out very good!
I also managed to finish my towels! YAY! Well, they aren't "finished" finished - but they are off the loom and I'm going to wash and dry the fabric today, with some other fabric I'd done for making a piece of clothing. When I'm done with the washing and drying, we'll see how it all comes out. I think I didn't do a tight enough sett on the towels and they seem a bit flimsy to me, but it's cotton and I'll wash it in hot water and see what happens. It should full out and thicken up some. I'll have pics when those are really FINISHED - hems and all. I'll work on those this week.
Speaking of this week, I'm missing out on a dog camp that I really wanted to go to but simply could NOT see spending the money on. $675 just for the camp training and another $500+ for the lodging. Eeks. There is a shorter camp I can travel to in October and it's going to cost $325 so I'll do that one and then possibly I'll save up for the next spring camp in 2013. It's a year away and God only knows what can happen in a year! But it's something to work toward - work on not spending on stuff I don't need and on trying to be thriftier.
On another note, I've not sold anything on my website
www.cottage-artists.com and I'm rather discouraged. I am not losing hope, but the other two artists haven't sold anything either. I'll be working on finishing one of my lap quilts this week, and I'll also start another quilt. They are so easy - the hardest part is placing the squares where I think they look best. ha ha. I'll put the quilts up on the site also, and see how that goes.....
I have a hankering to make a dog harness for little Gabbi, and a leash to match, so that's another project I want to tackle.....my mind just never stops!
I have hospital volunteering with Evan tomorrow afternoon, so I'll have to bathe him and groom him up pretty. It's the only day I signed up for this month as I have so many things I really want to do, and new dog classes will be starting soon. We're going back to basics and doing Obedience 1 and I can learn better how to handle him. I get frustrated when he won't stay in a sit or down position when I tell him to. We need to go back to basics, and meanwhile we'll still do the fun stuff like nose fun and tricks.
Wow, I've rambled. Sorry about that. I tend to go in spurts here...........so there ya go - photos, lots of words, and the story of my life as it is today!
Always,
Martha
