Instant Cooking

Posted on February 19, 2020 by TJ

We’ve had a few cold, windy, snowy days that made my face and fingers ache. Today is mostly sunny. When the sun comes out from behind a cloud, it makes my eyes squint from its brilliance. My northern eyes aren’t used to sunshine. LOL. I read an article that said Michigan may have an early Spring this year, which would be quite nice–especially since last year Spring took forever to get here.

Last weekend I saw a bird sitting in the top branches of a tree on the hill. I’m used to crows sitting there, but this bird looked larger than a crow. I urged EJ to come look. I was going to get the binoculars to try to get a closer look, but before I could, the bird took off. It flew into the air and then went into a very fast sharp dive. Both EJ or I were thrilled–we’ve never actually seen such a dive before. Of course, the bird was some sort of predator but we couldn’t tell what kind–only that it wasn’t an eagle. The eagle we saw a week or two ago stayed around for three days to eat from the deer carcass.

Adorable Bunny is available at Terics Treasures

I’ve been busy working on a crochet project for a customer/friend. I’m made an Adorable Bunny for her and I’m working on two pairs of slippers. I ran out of yarn for the slippers so I’m on a break until we can get to the store on Friday. We are also getting our taxes done on Friday. Yuck Yuck, and Double Yuck. It’s much more fun buying yarn than getting the taxes done.

My friend paid me via money order, and when I opened the envelope last Saturday, I saw that she had very generously sent more than the price I had quoted. I felt very blessed. It was like a hug from heaven. ❤

My dear friend, whom I’ve “adopted” as my sister, and her husband bought us an Instant Pot for Christmas. It’s an awesome gift that has been a real life-changer for us. It’s so easy to make even complicated recipes. The meat turns out so incredibly tender and yummy. I’m having a wonderful time experimenting with different types of food that I never dreamed of making–like cheesecake and yogurt. In the last week or so, I’ve been making Asian recipes–such as Korean Bulgogi and General Tso’s Chicken–that are as good as any we had at Chinese restaurants if I do say so myself. EJ and I are constantly exclaiming, “Oh, yum! Yum!” Furthermore, cleanup is incredibly easy. There are few dirty dishes and no baked-on sauces to scrub off. We use our Instant Pot pretty much every day.

Hannah Joy has been her loveable, irrepressible self. I think she gets separation anxiety because she gets into mischief when I’m outside for too long. “Too long” seems to be about ten minutes. She has chewed up several washcloths, a hand towel, and a dishtowel in the last month or two. I put them in a drawer in the nightstand to keep them from her, but then she began to eat the towels. The other day I discovered that while I was out caring for the chickens, she had gotten a towel off the shelf, carried it onto our bed, and eaten a hole in the center. When I say “hole,” I don’t mean a tiny little hole. It was large enough that I could easily put it over her head and she could wear the towel as a poncho. EJ says he will cut the towel up and use the pieces for shop rags. If Hannah keeps this up, I won’t have a washcloth or towel in the house. I only hope she doesn’t go after the blankets.