3/28/20

The Food and Nothing but the Food

Mike and I restarted the Cooking Light Diet this week. We never really went off, but it's much harder to be faithful when we're traveling. This week's shopping trip left me no wiggle room, and so we're sticking to the menus as they come up. This morning, I tried this new dish. This is called Bacon-Powered Sweet Potato Veggie Skillet. I served it up with a fried egg over the top. It was supposed to have some feta cheese sprinkled over, but I forgot all about that...as is my way.


Have you ever noticed how good things from an iron skillet taste? It was a bit of a to-do for the morning, when my eyes aren't yet opened, but it would be good for dinner too. I'm not one for buying precut veggies, but that would have made the job easier. Also, if you want to try this, I'd suggest cutting up the veggies the night before. That would have made it pretty quick to throw together.

Before getting the breakfast skillet going though, I stirred my sourdough starter. The night before I fed it another 5-1/4 tablespoons of whole wheat flour and 3 tablespoons of purified water (meaning, water with no chlorine added). The volume doubled over night. Then I stirred it down this morning. An hour later, it was doubled in volume again.


This will be ready for baking in the next day or two. Now I'm getting geared up for some bread. I've always made the artisan-style round loaves, but I'm going to try doing this next one in a loaf pan and see what I get.

Sewing yesterday was all about food too. I'm working on the first block for the New Mexico Kitchen quilt. It started with making the background. Six of the 12 blocks in this quilt will have a curve-pieced background like this one. I surprised myself by sewing that curved seam so it would actually lay flat. Miracles do happen.


I'm using fabrics from my stash. This is the "Guacamole" block. The first task was to get the letters placed and fused. There is a template provided to help with this.


Then I fused the rest of the ingredients.


I was working on top-stitching and adding in details when it was time to quit for the day.


There is just a little more to do on this to finish it off. I'll have to try my hand at making the hand-made fringe for the bottom of the "tablecloth." If I can get that finished, I'll move on to another new project. I'll say more about that when I get it started.

It rained pretty much all day yesterday, and today's weather promises more of the same. Looks like the yard clean-up is going to wait a little longer. Sad.

11 comments:

works4me said...

That is looking great. Love the tablecloth especially. Yes, your striped fabric stash will serve you well for this fun quilt.

Linda said...

Hah-hah on the yard cleanup. Yes things always taste better to me from an iron skillet. My favorite is Gooey Chocolate Skillet Cake from Willowbird Baking blog, but I mustn't think about that right now. The guacamole and chips look real!

Julierose said...

Oooh what a "Yummy" block--I love guac..hubby doesn't--but that's ok--more for me hahaha. This is a great pattern...

I have been making bread in my bread machine..as kneading dough is so hard on my shoulders...;(((
anyway I have King Arthur yeast awaiting my next loaf..
~ ~ ~ ~ waving madly from afar...Julierose ;)))

Debbiegsp said...

I love your block! I can’t believe you did that so quickly! Thank you for all the flower pictures, we still have snow falling. Love those sweet kitties and keep safe.

LavenderBlue said...

After a week of searching to no avail for active dry yeast online and in our lo9cal grocery stores, I finally found a jar of Fleischmann's in our smallest store. There were 2 jars of regular and 1 jar for bread machines. Was I ever happy! But now there is no flour to be found.

Vroomans' Quilts said...

The skillet meal looks like one I have to try. I have chopped veggies bagged/frozen from last year's crops that need using up. Luckily one of the Monday stitching class gals has fresh eggs - she has been dropping them off on my porch each Monday morning for Mom and me.

Cathy said...

Wow, your block looks fabulous! As a lover of Mexican food (and quilting!), this is going to be a fun one to watch. I wish we liked sourdough because it would be fun to play with a starter. I guess I’ll just stick to my traditional bread baking...

piecefulwendy said...

Oh darn, rain. Guess you'll just have to stay in and sew. :-) I'm going to take a look at that recipe. We've been trying a few new ones, as long as we have the ingredients. Guacamole sounds good right now, but I didn't pick up any avocados on my last grocery run. Not going back, so it'll have to wait. And I'm almost out of coffee beans. Hmm. Will be fun to see this quilt come together - it sure looks colorful and fun! And low calorie!

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

Gosh the colors in that block are so...well...Mexican, lol. I just love colorful pieces. Your dinner looks great. I love to eat that way but Terry is from a Belgium family background and he was raised on German cooking. I often prepare two different meals. Rain and dangerous wind are keeping us in today.

Be well
xx, Carol

Carole @ From My Carolina Home said...

What a fun project! Now I want some guacamole! Your starter is bubbling nicely, soon there will be fresh bread at your house. I used to bake four loaves a week years ago, we ate two and gave away two.

Lyndsey said...

Tasty food and a tasty looking block.