Thankful, but I'm making some changes for next year.......

 

Come on, Bluebird of happiness.....

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We had a good time and stuffed ourselves with turkey and stuffing ~ despite the fact our turkey was a bit dry (because when I unwrapped it, it was still fairly frozen and I over cooked it).  This was the first time I made stuffing from scratch, because when I bake sourdough, we cube what ever is left of the bread from the week before and freeze it, so I had quite a bit to work with.  Why do I always make 3x amount of stuffing than we need???  Truth: I don't like previously frozen stuffing.  Romeo might eat it though.  But I'm not doing turkey and stuffing next year.  Perhaps homemade lasagna.  Or make pizza on the grill.  I think I'm done with turkey for a couple of years.

Unfortunately I have been having some issues with my left hip.  At first I thought I had pulled a muscle in my back, but I think it's the hip.  I'll have to discuss physical therapy treatment with my Doc, hoping I can strengthen it on my own.  I always take a lot of vitamin D, and I also know I have osteopenia ~ the dreaded precursor to osteoporosis.  

We spoke to the boys, and everyone is doing well.  My youngest had a negative Covid test (another thing to be thankful for!  His boss had been exposed, but prior to that knowledge he just wasn't feeling great.  It was probably just allergies, but we are all paranoid these days.  Mom is doing well, and my niece is in her final week ~ or days! ~ of her pregnancy.  It will be her first, and we are all very excited!  My sister made the tough decision not to go right now, she didn't want to put anyone at risk, but she is sad and disappointed.  For now she is planning on April, but will wait and see how things go.  

Well, I need to do a bit of black Friday shopping for my Grandkids.  I already bought a yard game for the family ~ yatzee.  It looks like a lot of fun.  When I visit in March, I hope we take in a game or two 😃

Love, 365

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

I have lots to do ~ but mostly just preparation today.  Tomorrow the house will smell wonderful.  Even though I was initially unhappy that Romeo bought such a big bird (16 lbs), I have embraced the dinosaur turkey he brought home.  Apparently smaller turkeys were much more popular this year due to fewer family and friends around the table this year.  Here in our house, it will be the same turkey day we've had for the past 4 years since our youngest son moved back to Texas.  Romeo and I and the ever faithful dog, sharing and laughing, and calling all of the family to stay in touch.

Given the surge in Covid cases, you would think everyone would get the message, but no.  They had a video of our airport, and it was both a surprise, and not a surprise .....  right?  Ms Loud has admitted that the virus is more contagious, but she still thinks masks are a waste of time, and if you do get the virus, you'll be over it in a coupla days, no problemo!  This is partly due to her daughter becoming infected (she is an EMT, has high exposure rates) but not really becoming very sick from it.  One of the reasons she is now more convinced than ever that masks are useless is due to the fact that her daughter always wears a mask.  She and her uncle are going to her sister's house for Thanksgiving, where there will no doubt be at least 10 people.  I will be keeping my distance from her next week. 

Luckily my pie is already done, and it won't be quite as good as it would be if I baked it tomorrow, it's one more thing I don't have to do today!

Stay safe y'all!  Be thankful for all the blessings ~ isn't that what this holiday is all about?  

Love, 365

Live & learn.....

 

This isn't my bread, but it is very similar.  I was so disappointed that I spent nearly the entire day doing all the steps and it didn't come out the way I wanted.  However, it was edible and delicious, so my friend says it's not a "fail".  Very nice to say, but no....I wanted all my efforts to produce the bread texture I wanted.  I am spoiled and not very patient with myself 😏

This past week has been very difficult.  I think that Romeo is feeling the stress of all the Covid crap and is not sleeping well.  He is worrying too much, and I told him that worry never solves anything.  Easy to say, not so easy to do. And for some reason I have felt very fatigued this week.  I was supposed to do something on Saturday that I sent a last minute email letting them know I just couldn't.  Which I don't normally ever do.  So maybe I'm letting stress and worry get to me too. 

Friday my chef friend and I got together ~ something we do every 2 weeks ~ and we made this:

Blueberry filling (made from scratch), then lemon curd (made from scratch), then swiss meringue .......

The most fun is browning the meringue with my torch.  Guys aren't the only ones who like playing with fire 😁  We also made sweet potato vegan scones which were surprisingly delicious, because for the most part I don't seem to like vegan stuff.  But For the next 30 days I'm on a vegan diet, so.....well, except for Thanksgiving.  We have turkey, and the pie, biscuits, gravy, cranberry, salad...plenty.  We have much to be thankful for.  

I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving, even though we are likely not getting together with large groups (or any groups at all).  Be safe, wash your hands, wear your mask, and for pete's sake, don't touch your face.

Love, 365

The pursuit of perfection......

 

It sure looks pretty, doesn't it?  And it is, and it was delicious and wonderful.  Sourdough baking has become the thing to do during the isolation of Covid.  In April there was one or two sourdough facebook groups....I don't know how many there are now, but it's certainly more than 2!  The people (yep, men too) in those groups are always working to improve the bread ~ it could be the scoring....

Or the different flavor combinations.....

Sage and gruyere

carrot

 

Yep, and even chocolate.  My goal is this:  

Don't get me wrong, there isn't anything wrong will my previous loaves.  But no matter what I do, I haven't been able to achieve this open crumb.  Oh, there's an open area here and there, but it's not been as consistent as the loaf above.  But, wow, is it time consuming.  I started this morning at about 8:30.  It's now 12:30, and I think I'm about halfway through the process.  IF I achieve this type of crumb, I'll only do it on my 4 day weekends, because that first day of making the bread will require me to be home and not too involved in some other project.  

Unfortunately our governor has locked us down for two weeks.  So, bars and restaurants will be closed through the end of November.  Grocery stores, department stores, churches are reduced (again) to 25% of capacity.   I may have expected this to happen, when the outside is cooler and in our case windy, but I wish it wasn't happening.  I won't know how it will affect my hours at work until I go into the office on Tuesday.  It may not affect us at all ~ our staff has been texting all these different opinions, but generally we follow the NM Dental Association guidelines.  

I certainly hope that all of you are wearing your masks, staying home, and washing your hands.  I don't have so many friends that I can afford to lose any of them.  And hey!  I hope to be here too.....

Love, 365

And now for an update in our dental practice......

 

As all of you that have been reading my blog should know, I work in the dental field.  I'm not an assistant or a hygienist, just to be clear.  I'm the one who bills your insurance, makes your appointments, and tells you how much your next visit will cost you.  Oh, and answers your questions about which insurance to pick during open enrollment, gives you advice on whether or not that bothersome tooth requires an appointment.  And calls your insurance for you for details that you could get on your own.  Lol.

The hygienists were off for three months, but the rest of us ~ dentists, assistants and front desk staff were still working, although on an abbreviated schedule (8 hours per week instead of 34).   When we re-opened to full time, it was a little scary.  But as the weeks went by, the routine became.........well, routine.  We took temperatures, asked screening questions, that sort of thing.  But in the last 3 weeks, we have been getting reports from patients ~ my husband was exposed at work, so we all need to reschedule our appointments, etc.  I had one patient exclaim he contracted covid from our office, and when I pointed out to him that he was at our office ONE day before his positive test, he changed his tune a bit.  He never even called us to report his positive test.  The hygienist spent an hour cleaning his teeth.  And the very same hygienist saw a patient that had a positive test this week.  So, she had to go and get a rapid test on Monday so that she could be cleared for Tuesday ~ which cost the office $500.  Can you believe the cost of that?  Gouging much?

Her test was negative.  

The point of all of this is ~ we are doing everything we can to make our office safe for you.  If you have doubts, ask your dental office what they are doing to keep it safe for you. Everyday we "fog" the office with a salt based acid spray to disinfect the areas we can't reach (the tops of cabinets for example).  Every week we have professionals come in and do it for us.  We wipe down the door handles, the thermometers, the counter tops all day long.  We all wear masks all day long (unless someone can't hear me on the phone, but I put it back on after the call is over).  We screen each other every day.  We ask patients to cancel if they aren't feeling well.  Yesterday I had to catch a patient as she was getting ready to come in and explain that her friend called us to let us know that one of the ladies she had lunch with on Sunday had been exposed, so we need to reschedule her.  We added a questions to our screening to include "do you have a pending covid test?" because we discovered one day that a patient had just that, and hadn't received the results yet.  

We believe we have seen patients that aren't symptomatic and luckily, due to the measures we have in place, none of us have become sick.  Of course, we all hope this continues to work, but our bosses warn us every week to resist the urge of complacency.  One misstep and we could be shut down for two weeks.

Be safe out there, be reasonable.  Wear your mask and wash those hands often.  

Love, 365

"F" that......

 

Ah, the "f" word.  Y'all know which one I mean.  Even kids do.  Lots of people use this word a lot.  Although I used to use it ~ although not a lot ~ I've worked hard to erase it from my vocab.  It's hard to change old ingrained habits, sort of like quitting smoking 😉

At first I had limited success.  You don't realize how it becomes your go-to word for those moments until you're trying to stop.  It has taken me nearly a year, and I still slip up although rarely.  I think it's a horribly ugly word that has tragically become an every day expression for a great many people.  

I recently added three comedy channels to my Sirius radio, which I found when I was traveling to and fro from Texas.  Do you ever listen to adult comedy?  I guess comedians think it's not really funny unless they use that particular word ~ although they use lots of others that are as bad.  Jim Gaffigan is one of the few really funny comedians that doesn't ever use it...there are others, but the majority put "f" this and that in all of their routines.  It really disappoints me.  With thousands of words at our disposal, I guess people feel the need to be shocking and foul.  =sigh=

Well, there it is.  My little rant for today.  Am I too sensitive?  Or maybe I've become an old grandma.

Love, 365

He doesn't like being an angel.......

 

Look closely at my angel grandson here........yep, there are tears.  I asked his Mom how long she was able to keep them on him, and she said 2 or 3 minutes and he cried the whole time.  Dang, but he is so super cute........

Apparently he is going through not wanted to get dressed or have his diaper changed.  When I was on the phone with my son I could hear him in the background 😀 complaining.  

I remember a kid ~ Jonathan ~ who lived in the duplex where we lived too,  always running around the neighborhood in his underwear and a towel for a cape.  Jonathan was famous for coming up to our screen door and yelling "You know what???" even if he couldn't see anyone.  We still talk about Jonathan, who is probably 38 years old now.  Ugh, that makes me feel old.  Oh, wait!  I am technically considered old.  Ba humbug.

Love, 365