Charging Our Solar Cells

Mike likes to say we run on solar batteries around here. I think there's some truth to that because gray days make me want to take a nap. Smitty, on the other hand, loves his morning sunbath. When I came upstairs this morning to write this post, he was soaking up the sun on his kitty pole.

Yesterday morning, I caught him outside hunting squirrels. There is a family of squirrels that lives under those juniper bushes. He could hear them moving around, and he sat there for the longest time. He didn't catch any yesterday, but we did catch another in our trap inside the greenhouse. That makes ten squirrels, trapped or hunted down, and there are still many more.

We had our grocery shopping finished, home, and put away by 10:30 yesterday morning. It's always good to have that done for another week. Usually, I have to make a quick trip for little things we need to make it through the weekend, but I'm always hopeful that won't be necessary. 

For some reason, that reminds me that Mike had an antibody test for COVID-19 on Monday. You might recall he was sick for about three weeks when we returned home from our winter trip. As it turns out, it was not COVID-19 that made him ill, so who knows? In any case, that means none of us have probably had the illness nor been exposed. We had mixed feelings about it since we were kind of hoping we'd already had it. And who knows if having it means anything or offers any protection. It's frustrating more isn't known about it, but that's the world we live in. We take the test results to mean we're doing what we need to to stay safe, and we'll just carry on...feeling just the tiniest bit less invincible, however.

Once I'd recovered from grocery shopping yesterday, I went to work top-stitching the enchilada block.

After I'd finished all the top-stitching and machine embroidery, I looked again at the instructions. As it turns out there were instructions about what colors of thread to use, but I'd just gone my own way. The onion was the trickiest bit.

After that, I went to work doing hand embroidery of little bits of tomato in the salsa and grated cheese over the top. I like the grated cheese.

Now it's ready to be finished off with a couple of borders and the fringe on the tablecloth.

Last night's dinner was another new recipe from our diet. This turned out to be really good. I didn't take a picture of mine, but here's a picture from the recipe. This is Halibut with Spicy Mint-Cilantro Chutney. 

The recipe has you frying the fish in a frying pan. I seasoned mine with the garam masala and salt combination, and then roasted it in a 375° oven for 20 minutes. Also, garam masala is always used in such tiny amounts, that I make up my own mixture, rather than buying it pre-mixed. You can read how to do it right here. The "chutney" was very good with this. I removed all the seeds from the serrano pepper. It was plenty spicy without them, but if you like a good bit of kick, go ahead and leave half of them in. The picture shows a side dish of rice mixed with peas. I used another recipe for peas I've been making for a long time called Fast Buttery Peas, and that was a good combination. You can leave out the sugar if you like. Peas are sweet enough without it.

The sun has finally come back, and we're expecting very nice weather far into the future. I'm itching to get out and do some weeding. Also, my friend Debbie informed me I should be thinning the apples on The Little Apple Tree that Could. I'm going to peruse some Youtube videos for all the details about how to do it. Debbie, you are no-reply, but thank you for that gardening tip. Also, the birdfeeders need refilling, and it's looking like a spend-the-day-outside kind of day. I'm still hoping to finish up the enchilada block, but outdoor activities are going to have highest priority.