Thursday, Friday, joy abounds

Thursday evening brought a lovely holiday surprise  

My great favorite and thank you so much, dear giver. 

On Friday, after many reminders, to make sure I would be present, at home, in person, with all the documents, fobs, everything, car emptied, all diamond rings removed from under the seats, Buyer David showed up bang on time. 

At first I saw him driving right past the house.  This routinely happens the first time anyone visits, because instead of the street being numbered odd one side, even the other, the quirky builders numbered the housed sequentially. 

Sooo people think they are looking at the side they want and suddenly they aren't. Number 65 is next door to 66 etc.   It's baffling to newcomers.

Anyway I talked him in, and it went very smoothly. All the paperwork was fine, and when it came to title signing, where any mistake voids the title, he filled out everything except my signature. Many, many papers to sign, I've sold a house with less paperwork. 

The offer was considerably higher than their estimate, and much higher than the other offers. This was clearly a good time to sell a good car. In the middle of it I even got a text from a neighbor who'd seen the company car, to make me an offer. Too late! I wouldn't sell to a friend anyway, it's a business transaction I'd rather not mix with friendship.

So now it's out front, plateless, the plates now in the house, the car not my property. I'm carfree and carefree. Check deposited, and now there's funds for ride services. One hour start to finish.

Then there was clerical work, to cancel the auto insurance and set up a refund, cancel AAA, find they won't refund because I should have canceled before November 1, arghgh, inform the HOA of the situation so nobody reports it as an abandoned car, and they were fine. 

No more worrying about tire pressure, nonstarting battery, weird alerts, moving in snow to let the plow in, it's lovely. 

Happy day everyone, I hope you can give up a burden of any kind, it's great.

Tofu Masala ftw

Today I finally got around to making that Yeung Man Cooking recipe, and it's the kind where you need to be in the zone of process. Also have plenty of spices.

As you see, two counters in play, one for the spices, one for the two boards of veggies and tofu for chopping, mincing, dicing.  

I had to do  a couple of substitutions, crushed for sliced tomatoes, no shallots, used extra red onions, and I added in a handful of chard. I thought it would work okay and it did. I like my green leafy vegetables every day.

Since my adventure a while back when I got hot pepper somehow into my eye, hours after I'd handled it, I  now use kitchen gloves to handle hot peppers, also I chop them when they're frozen, so the oils aren't in action. Likewise I chop onions frozen, same reason.

Will Yeung never does these workarounds, he must be ironclad.

It's a lot of sequences, each needing a couple of minutes sauteeing, until the last stage of cooking covered for ten minutes.

That's when I put away all the spices and cleaned up the counters, and took a rest. But that sequential cooking is why it's so good. You literally experience layers of flavor when you eat, every forkful a bit different from the others.

This one is spicy, so if you're not spice friendly you'd need to dial it back. The coconut milk at the end is vital to take the raw edge off the spices leaving a lovely heat. 

I suppose other equivalents would work if you don't like coconut milk or cream. Other milks, maybe. Or dairy cream if you're not vegan. I'm not vegan, I just like how interesting and light to digest Will's dishes are.

And here's the last stage, before the tofu and red onions are reintroduced to the spicy sauce, then lunch 

This is really an Indian dish, though presented by a Chinese Canadian chef. 

I got three meals from this recipe. For Will it's one!

And I did some urgent winnowing too dull for pictures. It's that deep cabinet in the corner under the counter where stuff falls about and mounts up and gets a person really annoyed when she can't find things and they fall down the back out of reach.

Mostly its reusable containers from yogurt and cheeses, useful but I don't need that many. Also glass jars, lidless, lids, jarless, you know.

A large bag went into the recycling and now I have the number of containers I need, all with lids, so smug.

A late note about birds. As you know if you keep them, birds are social and ready to join in any conversation that's going. That includes when you're trying to do serious business on the telephone if you work from home as I did for many years.

One client stopped me in mid negotiation to ask "Is that a tape running or are you calling from a jungle paradise?"  I explained and he sounded so envious. 

And as I was about to finish this post, and make a pot of tea, this happened 

A present from dear Mary! As you see, perfectly timed to appear on the teatable with English Breakfast tea and sharp cheddar, Yorkshire style.  

Thank you for all of it! So good. And the fruitcake is definitely staying here, despite being 40proof! Perfect afternoon tea doings. I love it.  And you.

Happy day everyone, let's do like Jimmy did in his long life! And I note that the country's flags will be at half staff throughout January and beyond. That includes the inauguration..

Tuesday Knitting Group, Textiles and Tea

The knitting group was fun, new member came, learner from Sunday, and we saw good things.

Coming up is a little library display of our finished works, I'll be delivering mine Friday, didn't get it together today.

Here's what I plan to display 

Clockwise from nine o'clock, crocheted cotton scarf, Shetland catspaw lace scarf, notebook with granny square covers, neck gaiter, Tunisian crochet with Dorset buttons, Tunisian lace cowl. 

Here's the blanket from which I got the remains of yarn to make my comfort dolls. Many small balls in bright colors, great for dolls. D, holding her  blanket, gave me her leftovers. She's including it in her display.

and this cowl 

Here's double sided knitting. Remember when I did that ages ago and thought my brain would never recover? This isn't mine.

Now for works in progress 

Beginner crocheters working on granny squares.

Chat included indigenous people, Braiding Sweetgrass, baking bread, reading groups, Recording for the Blind, craft displays, Thanksgiving leftovers and more.

Then home to a pot of tea and Textiles and Tea with Patrice George, pioneer in the introduction of the computer interface in weaving. 

She was an early adopter, taught many designers and professional weavers this new world, and since retiring from teaching at FIT, still makes opportunities for people of all ages to learn weaving, with and without computer interface.

During her career she designed coursework using computer interface for the School of Visual Arts and Parsons, and worked with the UN to set up textile cottage industries  in Jamaica, to create employment.   She started weaving as a teenager, went off alone to Sweden to learn. Intrepid always.

Top right is the first try she ever made with the computer interface, an ikat style trial, after which she never looked back.

Here she is in Sweden, age 17.

And here's the cutting edge moment in 1986 when she, and the cat,  got national attention demonstrating computer assisted weaving at the Museum of American Folk Art, after which invitations to teach and demonstrate began to pour in.

Her commercial fabric designs

Here's a Jamaican sewist and clothing designer who, assisted by Patrice, learned to weave her own cloth, in order to pass on the learning through the UN Jamaica program. She's seen wearing a robe she designed, wove and made.

And here, Patrice in retirement, teaching children the skills and fun of weaving. And samples she created on a small loom, still experimenting.

She sees the next challenge in weaving to employ earth-friendly yarns and dyes, along with technology, in the weaving world.

And, as if that wasn't enough riches in one day, here's what arrived after supper, great timing.

The best fruitcake in the world! Thank you so much, dear friend, for this lovely start to the holidays. 

You know how Mary shouts OMG OMG OMG and runs about in joy? My version, slightly lower key, is to murmur, oh how lovely, isn't she kind, how thoughtful, I love this cake. 

And there's fruit, so it's breakfast. Also dessert. And afternoon tea. Late night snack. All purpose!

Happy day everyone, my Tuesday certainly was.

Katheryn Howard, Izzies and cake!

 Yesterday brought a gift from a lovely lady, so welcome. Fruitcake! I love fruitcake, and anyone who doesn't perhaps hasn't had  good fruitcake.

At its best eaten Yorkshire-style, with good cheese, here cheddar. And since it's full of nutritious fruit and nuts, it's also breakfast food. Around here, anyway. Thank you!

It's keeping up my strength to knit Izzies, see the first finished of this group, with more to come.

One of the things I like about this is that after you stuff the doll,  you sculpt the shape with needle and thread, and transform it into a little person, hands in pockets. The intended recipients, Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation, have seen this picture and are happy with the proposed dolls.

When I'm not knitting along to Click and Clack, I'm reading another Weir, another doomed Queen

I like the settings Weir describes, how they got around, on horseback or in a litter, so slow, what they wore, the food, and  the whole period ambience, especially the fear, of the King's power and illness against which they had few protections. And they were all so young, marrying in their early teens, grandparents by their thirties  sometimes. It's a gripping world to enter.

Happy day,  everyone, misfits arrives later today with ordinary food, no fruitcake, but I'm already supplied.