I had the most extraordinary experience yesterday--I hardly know how to begin to share it.


The day began with an audition (always a bit of an ordeal emotionally) for "Wit", a play I would really really love to do. audition went fine. I felt that I read well ( made them laugh a couple of times) but got no clues from the director --as per usual--so.... just waiting to hear on that.

THEN, I didn't want to go home yet, as I was still petty wired from the audition, so went looking for a coffee shop or something near by. I invited Seymour to join me, but he had an appointment so would try to meet me, but later rather than sooner, so I was on my own.

I ended up at the Denver art museum complex, only a couple of blocks away from the theatre, and chose to treat myself to lunch in the rather upscale, very pretty restaurant in the museum.

As I was ordering, the hostess seated another solitary woman nearby.

I have always wanted to be the sort of person who would invite a stranger to share my table, but I've never had the guts to do it, (always second guessing and concerned about looking foolish or WHATEVER!) but this time--maybe the audition made me brave--I just did it.

The woman, rather delightedly I thought, accepted my invitation--actually, she asked me to join HER as her table had a more picturesque position--and we were off.

I met the most fabulous woman! I don't think I've ever met someone with whom I had more in common. She is from Sante Fe, and was only in town for the weekend. She teaches art for the Waldorf schools, recently got into sculpting, has 5 children ( would have had more but started late) has a very metaphysical philosophy of life--and a delightful personality. we are , of course, planning to keep in touch!

Like Reni mentioned in her blog--it is so wonderful to find a new friend! and what a dramatic way to find one!

Seymour showed up at the end and met her , her name is Chris, and of all things, had his camera along so we have PICTURES! what a riot!

This one was taken just outside the museum

This one was just after we realized we had nearly identical sunglasses--and hairdos!!

So, a day I was rather dreading--I'm not having much fun with auditions lately--turned into one of the best days ever.

Pretty cool.

Grands

I've got Bailey and Lennon this morning-- Patience has a business meeting. Here are a couple of pics of the cuties in Granny's playroom. I love that I have to buy toys for the Grand's . I get to buy all the stuff I coveted as a kid! heeheehee.



notice that Bailey has a doll baby and Lennon has an incredible Hulk hand on. All girl and all boy. LOL

THIS AND THAT

Well, the bedroom is finished--except for the new drapes I ordered on-line ( found the PERFECT thing at TARGET!!!! ) As soon as they arrive I'll post the after picture. oh it looks so good!

I've got my plans for travel this fall all made and booked. NOv 1-23 with Reni for the new baby. then home for thanksgiving. THEN the day AFTER Thanksgiving, Seymour and I are flying to Eugene OR to spend several days with Seymour's sister Marilyn and family. We always have a great time with them ( hi Marilyn!) and I'm looking forward to that a bunch.

Still trying to decide if and/or when to go out to California--I've spent several Christmases with Caleb and Julie and Max and Emily and that is always pretty much a blast so I may do that. Seymour and I do our holiday family thing at Channukah, so he doesn't care if I'm away for Christmas. Actually, I just about talked myself into it! gotta go check flights.

I had to take a break from working on the bedroom for a minute this morning (painting is done--trim next) to make a batch of raspberry jam. I bought a flat of berries at Costco so they needed to get done before they spoiled. Our own berries produced plenty this year and I could've easily gotten enough for a batch of jam in three days--but we just kept EATING THEM! They were soooo good.

I was amazed, however, at how quickly the jam went together. Start to finish it took less than an hour. And the clean-up was done while the jars were processing. (It helps a lot that I already have all the jars and lids and paraphernalia.)
It is really so easy to do--and I didn't use my canner even--just a medium soup pot.
I've made lots of jam before but don't remember it going so fast. Practice makes perfect I guess!

I make my own because, of course, I don't use sugar. This batch was sweetened with a combination of xylitol and splenda. (FYI anybody who's interested--xylitol works with pectin very much like sugar does so you get a nice gel, unlike the non nutritive sweeteners alone i.e. splenda, aspartame, saccharine.) I used about 3/4 cup xylitol and 30 drops of the liquid sucralose mentioned before--equivalent to about 2 cups of sugar--for 6 cups of jam.

I feel very accomplished.

"YOUR NEXT MISSION...

...should you choose to accept it."

If anyone else has built their own home as Seymour and I have ( Reni Take note) you understand when I say it is NEVER "done". Currently we have about 15 projects ongoing! With the big outside projects being finished and the weather changing to autumnal, I have moved inside. Today is finish the bedroom day.

This room has been in this partially finished state for going on two years now! (I was waiting to finish painting until we got the glass doors in--but that happened last summer--LOL)

here is the before pic:

all the pink will be painted the same green as the other walls and woodwork will be painted and installed. I'll post an after picture when its all done. maybe in two days? Ihopeihope

The sunroom you see through the glass doors has been in progress for about 4 years ( at least!) Thats the next thing that's getting finished!

CRAZY DAY

so...yesterday was the craziest day.

It all started at 7:30 with a a call from Patience--she was stalled, out of gas, on the highway with a car full of kids needing rescuing--so I took her some gas and waved to the kiddos who were being very well behaved considering they'd been sitting in the car with nothing to do for a half an hour--sometimes it would be better if we lived a bit closer!

second in the middle of the day Stacey ( my sister, who lives with us) needed a ride to a bus stop about 15 min awau. she started a new second job and didn't have the bus schedule wored out so...

THEN...Katie ( my niece, age 16 Stacey's daughter who also lives with us) stated having really severe pain in the rib cage area--so bad she was white and shaking and throwing up--so I ended up taking her to the emergency room--Mom Stacey was more than a half hour away so I was glad I was home. She had been sick with a weird virus for a couple of weeks so they checked her for pneumonia--she was clear of that, but they did treat her for a sinus infection and for the pain--which was caused, we think, by all the coughing from her virus causing inflammation of the rib cartilage.

So it was Granny Deb's rescue and taxi sevice yesterday!
There are days when I'm really glad I don't have a day job 'cause what would my family do...LOL

SUGAR-FREE CREAM CHEESE PIE

We had friends over for dinner last night, and I made a great dessert. This sugar-free, low carb recipe is one of the best I've developed and I'm pretty proud of it. The guests each had two pieces and they aren't low carbers. That tells you how good it tastes. it also has several variations. last night I made the lemon cream cheese with blueberry topping. The Key lime is also excellent!

Lemon Cream Cheese Pie with berry topping
*notes on the weird ingredients at the end of the post!

1 1/2 cup heavy cream
4 egg yolks
8 oz cream cheese
1/3 cup lemon juice
18 drops sweetzfree liquid splenda ( or 18 packets)
1/4 cup xylitol
1 1/2 teasp unflavored gelatin ( do not use a full envelope--always measure. The envelopes are notoriously inconsistent in amount. You don't want a " bouncy" pie LOL)

First, sprinkle the gelatin over 1/4 cup of water in a small bowl and let soften for about 5 min while you cook the cream. Separate the egg yolks into a bowl, whisk well and set aside. Put cream cheese into a bowl and allow to soften ( I usually use the micro to soften it) set aside.

Into a heavy saucepan, measure the cream and the sweeteners and heat to just under boiling. slowly add about half the cream to the eggs yolks, whisking carefully and then add yolks back to saucepan and return to heat , stirring constantly, till mixture thickens (this usually takes about 30 seconds! you'll see steam just starting to rise from the mixture and you know you're done--you don't want this to boil--you just want to heat the yolks to kill any bad bugs)

Remove cream/yolk mixture from heat and add the softened gelatin and stir til well combined--a minute or so.

add this mixture to the cream cheese --a little at a time-- then stir in the lemon juice. chill for awhile stirring occasioanlly until themixture is cool and starts to thicken before pouring into the crust. Chill pie for several hours. cover with blueberry topping and serve!

Blueberry topping
2 cups blueberries
1/4 cup water
sweetener to taste ( I use 1/4 cup xylitol and 6 drops Sweetzfree)
2 tablespoons Thicknthin Not Sugar* or 1 tsp gelatin softened as above in 2 T of cold water.
boil the berries water and sweetener for a couple of minutes till the berries are popped. Off the heat , stir in the thickener well then chill till ready to serve the pie.

Key Lime variation:
Use 1/2 cup lime juice ( I never have real key limes, though go for it it you can find them)and the zest of two limes ( maybe a tablespoon?) in place of the lemon juice. Top with whipped cream. that's it Amaze your friends!

Fabulous "crumb" pie crust:

1 1/2 cup almond flour
5 T butter, melted
2 T oat flour
1/4 cup polydextrose(optional but really helps the texture.)
2 T xylitol
5 drops Sweetzfree zero carb liquid sucrolose sweetener added to the butter ( or 5 packets splenda)

I put everything into a food processor and pulse it a couple times, but a fork works too! press mixture evenly into and up the sides of a 9" pie pan.

bake10 min at 350, then brush with a bit of slightly beaten egg white. put back in oven for 5 min or so to dry egg white glaze. ( this helps prevent the filling from soaking into the crust--can be an issue with nut crusts.)

*where to get the ingredients
I get my almond flour and xylitol at my local health food store but you can get them and everything else here (except the liquid sweetener) from netrition.com a wonderful on line store --with a flat shopping rate of $4.95 no matter how much you order.

the Sweetener I get here: http://www.sweetzfree.com/ I know it seems really spendy but 4 ounces lasts me 6 months and I use it in everything. 1/4 tsp equals 1 cup of sugar, it has zero carbs and IMHO zero aftertaste.
I highly recommend it.

GROWING FOOD

In addition to all the landscaping I did, I also had a large vegetable garden. I feel that growing food is just an obligation when you have as much land as we do! Here is the entrance to my "farm" ( with cat :D)
The area with the bridge is directly to the left (and that vine you see in the lower left corner of the picture is pun'kins!) and you are facing west.

This year I had 5 finished 4x8 raised beds.
I grew 5 kinds of tomatoes, cabbage and red cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, swiss chard, beets, onions, zucchini and yellow crookneck squash, cucumbers and radishes. I also have two 10x2 foot rows of raspberries, ( which were fabulous this year), a new strawberry bed ( 5 strawberries so far LOL) a peach tree, a pear tree and one brand new cherry tree ( the second one I planted died)

recently, getting ready for next season, I finished 5 more beds ( I'm standing on some of them) plus 2 other large growing areas near the picket fence, so my space for next year is more than triple. I'm putting in an asparagus bed
and will be adding a lot of veggies to the list, as well as growing just MORE of everything. I didn't grow enough to put up tomatoes or pickles this year-- though I did do several quarts of sauerkraut--and I want to add lots of winter squash and melons too. The straw mulch is really helpful--keeping down the weeds and sort of composting from bottom
This view is looking south--the entrance from the previous picture is to the left and center of the space.

One of the things I'm really proud of is finally getting compost heaps working. I have a total of 4 bins--two kinda behind the ones you can see here. and will probably need to add a couple more soon. With all the weeds and garden refuse and leaves--I'm going to have lots of lovely compost to add to the growing beds come spring. and yes it is a lot of work--but what else is an old lady gonna do?

Patience observed recently that growing and producing food really is ( or maybe ought to be ) the job for the grandmothers. When you are in the thick of childbearing/raising, there just isn't enough time--at least not the way we live in our western culture. I think she mentioned this after being up til the wee hours of the morning making peach jam--it was the only time she had to do it! I know I never managed do grow more than a few tomatoes when my kids were small.

Anyway, I'm glad I have the time and resources to do it now. I really love it.

WHAT I BUILT ON MY SUMMER VACATION

Most of you are aware that Seymour and I have a large yard! Almost an acre. And that most of it is (was) basically untamed--with a redneck, ozark-y weedpatch and rusty vehicle ambience. This year I decided the time had come to start getting it beautified and I picked out the front leftish quandrant as my focus for the year.

I wish that I had taken before pictures so I could really show the difference but....

the project began small--lay down weed block cloth and mulch and plant shrubs along a 12 foot by 20 foot swath next to the driveway. then I decided I had always wanted an oriental bridge and after seeing what one would cost (!!!!!!) I built one myself for a fraction of the cost! feeling very accomplished and cool, I went on to dig and build a 40 foot stream for UNDER the bridge.

here is a picture after that phase--with some plants in as well and the paths laid out:

And another view of the steam:
Then I decided we really needed a gazebo or pergola or something--a destination over the bridge......so I built one!


This is the finished area with the groundcover grown up and all. ( we are experimenting with dutch white clover instead of grass. I don't have time to mow this much property every week!)

we really love the space!


it is rather magical to sit out here with the stream burbling and the birds chirping. I have added a statue and a fairy or two as well. LOL. (The tree just to the right of the picture is a pear tree--more fruit trees will be going into the area next spring.)

so there you have it--what I did with MY summer ...uh...vacation?

SWISS CHARD QUICHE

Ingredients

1 T olive oil
1/2 of an onion, chopped ( about 1/4 cup or so)
1/2 cup cooked chopped swiss chard ( including stems)

2 1/2 cups shredded cheese

4 eggs

1/2 cup cream+1/2 cup water

salt

pepper

Directions

preheat oven to 375. grate cheese--(use a nice variety. I like a mixture of cheddar and jack and some of the mexican 4 cheese blend from costco ) Saute onion til translucent, then add chard and stir til warm. meanwhile whisk eggs then add cream and cheese then chard mixture. pour into pie plate that has been sprayed with cooking spray. cook 34-40 min til browned and set.

YUMMY

I served this with a mess of home grown tomatoes dressed with basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. one of the best meals EVER.

GARDEN STUFF

So..this summer has been All About the garden- landscaping and planting etc etc. (more to come on all that) but wanted to show a bit of the fruits of my labor. This was the harvest yesterday. That is a BIG pile of Swiss Chard. Luckily it is one of my favorites...just steamed up and served with lots of butter and a dash of vinegar--like ambrosia to me! its also fabulous in a quiche. which is what I'm making for dinner today!




Patience came over with Bailey and Lennon and brought me another bucket of peaches from her tree--so that had to be dealt with immediately as they were dead ripe.



That's seven jars of peaches and some peach/plum jam--all sweetened with splenda instead of sugar of course. In total now I have 14 quarts of peaches from Pace's tree and 6 pints from my tree, plus the jam. That should be enough to last the winter I think!

BEGIN AT THE BEGINNNING

So I guess the best way to start is just to start! I so enjoy Kylee's and Gusti's blogs that I'm going to be an example to MY kids by doing one myself. It is such a fabulous way to stay up to date. and easy,compared to other methods,--at least given the number of folks in our immediate family.! Ashley will REALLY appreciate any that get posted as well

I'm going to try and get lots of pictures on here, of the garden and the Dome and also of my Art Dolls as I get them done.
Since I do so much cooking and low carb baking I'll probably share some of my recipes and probably my thoughts on health and eating as well--so brace yourselves guys! it's MY blog!