T Day Stands for Long Weekend-Boats and Good Eats

   Tuesday came quick this week with Monday being Memorial Day here in the States. We share our beverage in our post and gather for T over at Bluebeard and Elizabeths-find link in side bar.

   Friday and Saturday here was cold and very stormy. I am thinking those opening up their lake homes for the summer were not too happy, or those coming up for the long weekend. This was a very unusual cold Memorial Day weekend for this area of the country.

   Sunday mid day the sun finally came out, still in the mid 60's F though, but Wow did the boats all come out-as we knew from last year they would. All sizes, race boats, pontoons, fishing boats, huge ocean boats and cabin cruisers of all sizes, the personal water crafts-it was all on the lake all day Sunday and quite a few braved the cold late afternoon Saturday. Today Monday most had to go back home if they were working so the lake was more normal-the weather warmer, perfect for sitting on the deck enjoying the views with less boat noise. Safer too for swimming and fishing off the dock.

  I invited just a few people that had helped Larry with the dock project over for foods today (Monday Memorial Day) and fishing or swimming if they chose to, and they brought their families.

  I roasted a 10 pound Boston Butt pork roast on Saturday-and then when cool shred it all-that was allot of work-much more so than a beef roast would take-took me over 3 hours. So I was tired for sure.

   This morning I added it all to the crock pot, added beef stock to keep it moist and lots of pepperoncini peppers. I made sloppy joes from scratch just getting spice ideas from a couple different recipes-turned out really delicious. I made a pot of beans of different types, added  little of this and that-let cook slow on the stove for over 6 hours to cook off the liquid-that turned out really good too. This morning I also made gluten free brownies, cleaned house, washed and dried all the throw rugs-by the time our meal at 2 pm I was tired lol.

   The kids brought a change of clothes so they could swim in the water after we ate. One lady brought her fishing pole-she is a really good fisher-woman and came away with a big stringer full of croppies-she fished off the dock while the kids were swimming. Found she was a life guard in her younger days so the kids felt more safe.

   Saturday morning early when it was really cold and windy our friend and his Father (father drove up from Colorado) came up to to see us and go fishing. It was too rough to take the boat out so they fished off the dock. This is our friend's catch along with his father's catch--Good Eats It was really really cold and windy Larry only stayed out with them for about an hour.

We saw the pirate ship go by today, and this is something new-an ice cream boat

  This morning's bake-Gluten Free brownies cooling

The peppers and shredded pork just going into the crock pot early this morning

The beans cooking slow-these ended up nice and thick-and delicious

Sloppy Joes simmering early this morning-this got really thick too

I was pleased that the foods were all a big hit. I grilled the mini (for sliders) buns, and had slices of provolone cheese to add to the sandwiches. I even found really nice gluten free buns for me from Udi foods-they make good gluten free breads.

The pirate ship going by-

Girls swimming

One young girl was leery of jumping off the diving board, so she jumped off the dock-here father taking photos  Her friend did have fun jumping off the diving board.

One can enlarge the videos to full screen-then press esc on your keyboard to return

 A video of one of the smaller ocean boats we watched go by us this weekend

I took a couple videos-sorry not the best of videos but you can see some of the boats-these were taken just before it got really busy on Sunday 

This video shows a wave boat-which I had never heard of before last year. It makes waves so someone behind the boat can surf-or learn how to surf.  I does make allot of waves too.

I totally forgot to take photos, but after we ate, I made us adults fresh mango margaritas-sooo- good and perfect to end the day and weekend.

  I did grab a photo of this beverage that I finished drinking on the deck Thursday-I picked it up at the grocery store while shopping for foods for this weekend. This was a new to me beverage-the flavoring was up on top-after taking the cap off-you push down in the middle which releases all the flavors into the sparkling water-was pretty good

and I spotted this guy on our brick walkway in front of the house

Happy T and new week everyone

Cast Iron Saturday-Memorial Day Weekend

   I can hardly believe that Memorial Day weekend is coming up-is May almost over already?? This month has really flown by.   This Saturday also brings us to another Cast Iron Saturday recipe share. I am posting early this week.

   We don't usually do allot for Memorial Day-party wise-since this is the weekend to remember our fallen. It is more about them then opening up summer with big parties.  However, this year especially since we have been more isolated than we usually are, and the dock is getting closer to the finish-at least the two docks are welded together now so will be able to handle the rough water coming in from this very busy "at the lake" weekend--Larry wants picnic foods with a handful of people-mostly for our helpers with the dock project.

   I decided to buy a large pork Boston butt  and roast it in a large cast iron dutch oven in my oven on Sunday early-and then once roasted and cooled down will shred it all for pulled pork mini sandwiches. I will bbq half of it and the other half will add mild spicy peppers, onions etc. I picked up swiss cheese and provolone cheese slices to go with these mini sandwiches-or sliders some call them.

  Not sure what else I will make-probably devil eggs as the guys always love those, and probably spiced up baked beans.

   And speaking of baked beans I found this recipe for Quick Cast Iron Beans from Country living  I have a couple different sizes of cast iron deep pans like a sauce pan that are perfect for grilling up beans too

Recipe for Dutch Oven Pulled Pork

Recipe for Roasted Corn on the Cob in Dutch Oven with cilantro lime butter.

         This was a neat way to roast your corn

For another side option I thought this recipe sounded really good 

      Bacon Brussel Sprouts

For dessert-Red White and Blue Cast Iron Cobbler  from Kingsford

   These types of cobblers in cast iron are really popular with the guys especially

  Wishing you a Happy Weekend, if in the States-a Memorial Day Weekend

Any plans for your weekend??

Dropping in With Weaving Update & Sewer Install

   Everything is working smoothly now-still can't get over that totally messed up tension on warp-do to papers.

   I have used papers in the past and never had a problem, this finer yarn just did not care for it-and wow what a difference too.

   I just finished the second towel and used a left over cotton with a bit of texture that I used in the bath hand towels. It is a bit larger thread too so the pattern really shows up.  Going forward I am weaving a wider border-changing up colors-and also changing up the pattern weave to sometimes using a plain weave in the border areas.

   I started on the third towel and the border I am doing now is the finer yarn and the brown-same as warp threads. Will weave the body of this next towel a darker blue.

I am doing a wider borders on the ends then I started out with on the first towel, and will fold over a couple turns and either hand hem stitch or machine sew.

While I am weaving that top part now which will be the border for next towel-I can not see the pattern while I am weaving it-so far I see no pattern mistakes. I actually have the pattern in my head now so far haven't made a mistake since my first towel

and Wow is it ever noisy here-the sewer crew is here digging through soil and lots of rock.

  I took a photo from the window behind my loom which has a screen on it

You can just barely see the second machine behind that tree on the left

 When they went for lunch I took these photos from the deck

With all the rain we have had this month, the ground is really soft- we were nice and let these construction guys use our property to get down to this area to work-otherwise they would have had to do all this hard work by hand and use a boat for product--they are to fix this mess afterwards and gravel our little path from up on top of the steps down to the lake as a thank you. That will be nice to get that rock.

     Larry used to work for the same union back in his younger days in Chicago, so he has enjoyed chatting with them

Happy Wednesday-the Memorial Day vacationers are arriving as I type-the lake will be very busy from now on 

  Update:  Ok I am loving this blue so much better than the lighter blue with this brown  They are both pretty but I think this blue really pops and shows off the pattern more

T Stands for Reflections on the Lake-Photo Overload

  Good morning, and Happy T

      Any one is welcome to join in, just share a drink related photo on your post and link up over at our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth-link in side panel. a nice way to share a post amongst friends with a beverage.

     We have had soooo much rain most of this month so far, and much more to come if the forecasters are correct. However over the weekend once the rain cleared away mid morning Saturday, the boaters were on the water-and in force. Memorial weekend will be totally bonkers if last year was any indication.

   The dock project has been slow going do to cold, rain, and then no shows. Today-Monday the plan is get the two old docks welded together-and then I won't be cringing when the high waves come rushing in from all the boaters-I am someone that is a worrier and stresses out too much. 

  I grabbed the camera over the weekend. Took several videos just kept one that was so so on Sunday, a few photos on Saturday and also Sunday when friends stopped by and fished for a bit off the dock, and this morning-calm, birds singing, pretty reflections. 

This was such a good idea of my husbands a few years ago-in our much older years to move out of the woods and on to a lake-it's been a blessing during lockdowns for sure as we could see people on the lake fishing and boating.  We have always been early risers-and Larry is always up very early, by 5 am at the latest he is enjoying a cup of coffee and enjoying lake views and especially all of the numerous birds. I have been joining him these last few days with a cup of (decaf) coffee as well.  This morning a piliated woodpecker flew in, ducks and babies swam by, red bellied woodpecker-a regular now-sipping on some hummingbird nectar, fish jumping, and we are really enjoying all the swallows and purple martins-we now have a repaired bird house, and we added a new one.

I took a photo of my coffee and cream before heading out to the deck

Larry and his helper added in this extra support arm-built that concrete support "box" 

I love this reflection-neighbor to our left's dock

I loved this reflection of the homes in the lake

The sun this morning just  coming up above that hill of trees

I couldn't resist this new find at the local grocery store

and sharing one of the videos I took on Sunday-this one doesn't show any of the very loud-fast-beautiful cigarette boats that were in abundance-I think they were out practicing this weekend for a race coming up It does show some of the activity out there on the lake.

Happy T  and enjoy your  new week ahead

Saving My Weaving Project

   A few days ago I was just about 2 inches from finishing the first towel-I had unwound what I had woven to re measure the towel. Winding it back up to finish weaving-wow I got this.

    Look at that totally uneven edge. In all of my off and on weaving in the past 40 years this has never happened to me before. I took a bunch out-cause it just happened and then I noticed the tension was way off-mostly to the right-well you can't weave with this occurring

   I had recently joined a weaving group for 4 shaft looms which is what I have and asked-what is happening here??   It came back tension problems, I replied that I have always wound the warp on with sticks but for some reason decided to use papers-many use papers but I found out they need to be totally smooth-no wrinkles what so ever. 

   Sooo that meant cutting off the towel, and re tying on to the front--since the tension was so off-I rewound all the warp to the front-got rid of all the papers-and Wow I saw all of the wrinkles and kinks in the threads. So I wound back and forth back to the front twice to help get the wrinkles out.  

   Re wound with lots of sticks, I ran out of the sticks last night so early this morning I went up to our local hardware-lumber yard to buy more-they cut them to size for me for free-that was nice.

   The warp looks much better now, and even feels better I can get the warp tight across.

I just zig zagged the towel edges, after taking out the border threads on the one side, cut the threads short and just washed and dried this towel. Quite allot of shrinkage but I have my first kitchen towel, and I am ready to weave the rest of this off. Hopefully with no more issues.

I added lots of sticks-four per turn around the beam

Crisis diverted-fingers crossed 😀

Cast Iron Saturdays Featuring One Dish Meals

   Welcome to another weekly post-sharing recipes baked or cooked in cast iron pieces. and you are most welcome to share a post or recipe and share the link in comments.

   Last weekend I decided to make up a cast iron pan full of stuffed sweet peppers-I always make too much filling so I just spread some all over on the bottom of the pan and on top over the filled peppers. These were really good-I browned up sausage, a little ground pork and also hamburger, spiced it up and used a Classico pasta  sauce. (when we retired I no longer grew a huge garden for canning, freezing, and drying- I used put up about 500 jars a year-this brand is my favorite sauce since I no longer can my own)   Cooked up a little rice to mix in-we don't eat much in carbs any more but for the rice I use a brown rice that has been sprouted and then dried, so it is higher in nutrition that way. I had bought a creamy spicy cheese from the Amish market so I grated about 1/2 cup and blended that in the mixture as well.

  Last winter when the lake totally froze over, we were asked to really conserve electric as much as possible for a couple of weeks. Lake in the Ozarks was created to control floods and produce electricity  One thing they suggested was to Not use appliances like crock pots, slow cookers etc because they use more electricity than an electric oven does. That was news to me, so since then I have been using my cast iron more and using the electric oven instead of my slow cooker.

Checking for recipe ideas on the internet for One Dish Meals in Cast Iron, I found a few that looked pretty good.

Double Crust Chicken Pot Pie

   This recipe has a store bought crust-I would change that to your own homemade pie crusts. Or eliminate the two crusts-bake the filling and in a seperate cast iron skillet bake up some cornbread to go with this

Skillet Vegetarian Lasagna

   I thought this recipe sounded really delicious. Even when I was a vegetarian for many years in the 70's and 80's I never ate vegetarian substitutions that tasted like meat-so for this recipe I would not use that but use a real protein or leave it out.  This does have allot of cheeses and for gluten free just choose gluten free pasta

  (I am always changing up recipes to my own liking-do you like to do that too?

Skillet Mac and Cheese

and to close, we need a dessert-they bake up so well and delicious in cast iron

Chocolate Skillet brownies

  Happy Cast Iron Saturdays

   (I decided to post this one a little early as I will be going to town in the morning for a few errands, and then making up foods for us and our workers-still trying to get the dock mostly finished before Memorial Day)

and a look out the window about an hour ago

Larry has watched this woodpecker in the mornings-he enjoys sitting on the deck eating his breakfast and enjoying the views. So far he is drinking the nectar and not destroying the feeders.  (they would do that at the woods house-poke holes in the sides and watch all the nectar run out lol)

T Stands for Tuesday-a Little Catch Up, Weaving & a Journal Page for AJJ

   Hi everyone,

      Thought I would pop back in and connect with the T group this week.

    I had really needed a break for a bit from my social media sites. On Facebook I do not post much there any more, but I do enjoy the groups. I have been posting a bit on my blog here a couple times a week and visiting.

   I am getting back to my weaving again which I am very excited about. If interested I finished and mailed off the handwoven shawl. I was hoping she would share a photo that I could then share here but she has not. My friend is recovering from a severe stroke she had a couple years ago and has had to re learn many things. She did write to me that she loved her shawl.  I made this shawl large, long and cozy.

   My loom is now set up to weave 6 kitchen towels in a twill from the Viking era around the 900's. This is a much finer weave sett than I am used to weaving recently. I have woven around 12 inches so far. Each towel will be 28 inches in length.  I will be changing up the yarn-weft-that I will be weaving with to make the towels a bit different. I just found some white yarn in my stash that I will do a burn test to determine if it is cotton or not. I posted several videos on how I set up my 4 harness loom for this towel project-you can find links at the bottom of my blog page in labels.  For my next weaving project I really want to make some sort of clothing for myself-will post more on that once I decide what I want to make as I have several ideas in the works.

   For any of you that would like to try out a bit of weaving for fun-I just ran into something on Pinterest that looks amazing-pin weaving-you weave 4 or larger inch squares and sew them together-They are called pin looms or zoom looms. some patterns use a little crochet to sew the squares together.

      I have seen this before but this article shows lovely clothing pieces-amazing!  Find here  there are several photos of tops which I love every one and a video   here is one photo     This is the style of clothing I have been interested in weaving on my loom but this is interesting with no large investment. 

Searching-- these little looms come in different sizes and shapes and if you are handy can make your own

and here is a pinterest link full of ideas

Over the weekend I created a journal page with the theme Language at AJJ  This theme intrigued me. At first I was thinking language of weaving-and was looking to see if I had a magazine cut out of a spider web-I do have a couple stamps, but then I ran into this photo and thought perfect.

 I decided on Language of birds 

      I first glued down some packing paper that I love using for a little texture. Deb had sent me a wine label that I really wanted to add to this, but I needed to keep cutting it down and use just the tree. The tree was too large too so what I cut off I just added back in to the left bottom of tree. I also added a scrap I had of an eco printed paper that I had cut down when making cards.

  This turned out to be a fun page to create, especially since I have not made anything in my mixed media journals for awhile. This journal book is now down to around 3 more entries.

    I started back up a weekly event which I usually post on Fridays--Cast Iron Saturdays--where I will share information about cast iron and mostly recipe links for cooking or baking with cast iron-in/on your stoves or outdoors with coals.               I know several of you have mentioned that you no longer can handle the heaviness of cast iron-but many of the recipes will also adapt to other cookware if you enjoy trying out new recipes.

  For my beverage share I took a photo of the last piece of lemon meringue pie with my decaf coffee and whipped cream for breakfast over the weekend. We love pie for breakfast. (smiles)

    One early day last week when the light was just beginning to come in Larry took this photo  His little camera does a better job with evening or early morning photos then mine does. This came out so beautiful and these views only last a very few minutes so have to grab the camera quick

  Happy T Everyone

    and as Ellen always says be Kind out there.