Baby Quilt Score

You don't see many baby quilts at the thrift stores. I picked this one up during their 50% day so only paid $20.00.  

I know the tread is neutral and non gender colors but I like the bright fun colors of this one. I was surprised that my daughter wanted it as her favorite colors are black and white. 

I picked it up thinking of sending it to her cousin but they're one of those trendy type, with a gray and beige color scheme for their kids. Now the debate is who do I send it to? 

Peaceful Carmel

My morning view today

It was a last minute decision to come down to the Carmel house. There is a one week break from my dog sitting gig and the house was also open. On top of that I was able to get an appointment with my dentist for a cleaning while I'm here. Yes, the stars lined up nicely for me!!!

It rained hard here yesterday but today it's bright and sunny. I enjoy the rain when I'm here because I like sitting by the fireplace while I work, so either way it's a win!

I'm finally getting around to gathering up all the recipes I've picked out from all the cookbooks I have. The goal is to get everything into  binder so when the boys come out for the holidays we can meal plan a little bit better. Of course that also means I have to practice making the recipes to make sure they will work down here at the Carmel house. It's a very old and tiny kitchen so planning ahead is helpful.     

Too Cute Cow Mugs

Do I really need another mug or bowl? No, I don't but these were too cute to pass up! They reminded me of my mom and made me smile. Her lucky charm was a brown spotted cow. These aren't quite brown but close enough. :)

On my way down to Carmel I planned to stop at a few thrift stores. Normally I would have gone straight to the house but this time I didn't pack any food that need to be refrigerated. I think this is a first for me! One of my stops was going to be Costco for gas, so I knew I could just pick up whatever I needed there.  

Last Chance Mercantile is on the outer rim of Monterey so I stopped by to check out the puzzles - $2.00. Everything else there is way over priced. It's so far away from Carmel, it's not worth making the driving back to it. 

Found these mugs at The Helping Hand thrift store in the barnyard center. Just way to cute for me not to bring home ($4 each) before I sell them off. 

That's a little cow bell on the bottom of the mugs. 

Honey Dust

I've been watching the show "Spring Baking Championship" and someone used honey dust. Of course I've never heard of it before so I looked it up. 

Since my dehydrator lives at Buzz's house I decided to give it a try. 

It was a total failure as I can only guess the tray shelves aren't level. I did level the outside of the dehydrator but that wasn't enough. The honey slipped over to one side and dripped down creating a hot mess. Not 100% sure it's worth the time (takes two days to dry) to try it again. 

Seasoning My Donabe

Seasoning the pot

While I'm at Buzz's house I'm working on a lot of little projects. One of them is to "season" my new to me donabe pot. Yes, this too needs to be seasoned which is more like sealing the inside from absorbing odors.  Seasoning means boiling cooked rice until it turns into a paste. My pot was used at some point but not a lot.  To be sure I went ahead and sealed it again. It much easier to get these things done working in a big kitchen. 

Rice Paste

Knife sharpening and Goodwill run

I know I should learn to sharpen my own knives. Someday I will but for now I've been searching for someone who I trust enough to handle my very $$$$ knives. 

Today I gave someone who posted on Nextdoor a try. For the first run I had him sharpen my everyday kitchen knife. I have to say it's very sharp but the edge doesn't look even and the tip looks like it's over sharpen. I don't think I  can trust him to sharpen my Miyabi Kaizen Damascus Chef knife.The search continues.  

While I was waiting for my knife and garden tools to be worked on, I popped on over to the  Campbell Goodwill store. It not a very good one but is was close by and I had time to kill.

Picked up: 

Sur La Table stacking bowls set - $8.69 

Nesting hen (which I should have left behind) $6.19 

Pyrex loaf pan with a lid (never knew those came with a lid) $2.59

Vintage egg dish which I think I'll use as a paint palette if I can't flip it. $3.89

Unusual Egg Plate Design  

Yarn Yarn Everywhere!

A HUGE donation of yarn and specialty fibers was donated to the Happy Dragon this week. 

I've spend over 8 hours to process (bag and price) only half of the donation.

What was interesting as I was pricing the yarn, this jacket came in from a different donor.  I've never seen anything other than a scarf made from this fancy skinny yarn. I can't even imagine how long it took to knit or how many skeins of yarn it took!  Just thought it was interesting both came in at the same time. 

Almond Tree 2024

The almond tree in my front yard is blooming!  It does produce almond but the squirrels get all of them before I even know there are any.  At least I get to enjoy the blooms while I work out in the garden. 

Molcajete

I picked up this molcajete a few years back. At the time I had no idea what it really was, I was just looking for a mortar and pestle for my son. It's hard to find all the parts to things at the thrift stores so finding it with it's pestle I picked it up. It also weighs a ton so not the easiest thing to move around. 

This week I finally got around to testing if I got a real molcajete (lava stone) or one made out of concrete made for the tourist market. The good news is it's not concrete which can't be used for food use at all but I don't thinks it's lava stone either. What I have is granite, which is in the middle of the two.  It can be use for food prep but not for serving so the experts say.

I've read up that it needs to be "seasoned" so yesterday I started  grinding rice into it. Let's just say it took all day as it was very hard on my wrists. I could only grind the hard uncooked rice for 15 minutes at a time. After that I grounded up pink sea salt chucks which only took a few minutes. I'm going to try and make salsa the old fashion way when the tomatoes come into season and guacamole. Yum!

Gluten Free Lasagna

This has been on the back burner for several months. I picked up some gluten free lasagna noodles before the boys came out for the holidays. It's a favorite dish of the boys and Henkie could eat of whole pan be himself! 

I never got around to making it while they were here because I didn't have time to do a test run. The last time I made lasagna was about 4 years ago and it didn't turn out well. 

I was thinking that I would make a mini one for my test run but down sizing all those ingredients just didn't make sense.  I went for it and made on 9X13 pan size one.  It turned out pretty good and very tasty!

The only downside to using gluten free pasta is it doesn't hold up well once it cools down so that will be the really test. 

Yes, I'll be eating lasagna for the rest of the week so it's a good thing I like leftovers!

Donabe Clay Pot

The best part of when my family comes to visit is all the activity around the family meals. 

One of the reasons I'm not a fan of the air fryers is you don't get the great smells of a home cooked meal. 

While I was down in Carmel I picked up this cookbook. I studied up on the technique as this wasn't something my family did growing up. Since then I've been in search of a clay pot, which are very expensive. Yesterday I did a quick stop at my local Goodwill store and I found this beauty. I had to really think about if I should wait until Tuesday when there's a 20% off senior discount or pay the $12. I mean how many people even know what this clay pot is used for? The struggle was real, but I went for it. 

It's a family size so too big just for me but this type of cooking method is meant to the shared. Now I have to practice this method so when the kids come to visit for the holidays I know what I'm doing!

Ebelskivers

Once I figure out what these pans were for, I've been on the hunt for them. They do show up at Happy Dragon (thrift store) but another volunteer always gets to them first. She's gathering them up for family members since it's a family tradition. 

They make Ebelskivers, a Swiss/Dutch puffy type pancakes. Trader Joe's has something like this and it's a favorite of my grandsons. 

I check out Maxsold auctions all the time for things to resell and I'd  hoped I would find these pans. I got two of them for only $6.  I did have to drive across town to get them but I think it was worth the drive.  Wish me luck as I try and make these suckers!

My winterish spinach salad

When I go to the grocery store, (including Costco) I allow myself one impulse buy. Today at Costco it was a toss up between a pork tenderloin pack or big bag of spinach. With all the stormy weather we've been having, I've been making rather heavy meals - think meat and potatoes type of dishes. I thought I would change it up and make a fresh spinach salad with bacon, feta, honey walnuts, cranberries and mandarin oranges. I topped it with a light avocado oil and vinegar dressing. It was delicious!  

New addition to my art collection

This ink and water color painting was one of the things I picked up at the Last Chance Mercantile in Monterey.  It's a very nice snap shot of what Monterey must have been like back in the day. Alma Cantrell was a very prolific local artist.  Dozens of her paintings and collages were donated to the thrift store. All I know about her is that she lived in Monterey because some of the paintings had her address on the back. 

All of her artwork was covered with a lot of dirt and grime so I can only guess everything was stored away for years. I really inspected it carefully to make sure I would be able to clean the glass and the artwork wasn't damaged. It just has a few small age spots so overall a great buy for $5. 

Domestic Diva Day

I'm very much a "make a list" type of person. Not because I'm getting older but it has always helped me keep track of what I have to get done in a day.  

Sundays are my domestic diva day when I'm actually at home. Mainly because Monday is trash day so you know you have to empty all the trash cans and take the recycling out. It's also a day I wash all my bedding and iron. Yes, I still iron my clothes. My washer and dryer pretty much run all day. 

While today is my DDD I still plan to hit the thrift stores. I'm in search of Paw Patrol toys which are now a favorite of my grandsons. I picked up a bundle of toys off of Facebook market place yesterday. It was a major drive to the other side of town but it was worth it as these guys are hard to find.  

Who knew Paw Patrol was so hot!

Trending -Trader Joe's Mini Bag

Yesterday (2/29/24)  I went to Trader Joe's in the morning to pick up a few things for breakfast. I got there at 7:58 am (the time is important) and there were several young women waiting to get in. Now at this time in the morning you usually see older folks like me and rarely see young people. When the doors opened, they all rushed to get these mini shopping bags that are the size of a lunch box.  I asked what the hype was all about and the clerk told me people are reselling them for $15 - $20 online and $40 overseas. They only released them on 2/28/24 and my store sold out on the first day in an hour. I took a picture to show my daughter who was still here and she said I had to go back and get some.  

I did check on eBay sold  to see if they were really selling and yes they are. I don't plan to resell them but keep them for Christmas and use them instead of Christmas stockings.  

I find it a crack up these are so popular people are buying 40 at a time! I think TJ will start putting a limit on how many customers can buy which only makes sense.