Itching to Stitch

Good morning, my friends. It was a day of relaxation here at the Traveling Three Cats Ranch as we fortified ourselves for the next two long days of driving. Sometime Saturday afternoon, we'll be home. I know a certain cat who is so ready to be there. Yesterday he spent some time cleaning himself up so he'd look his best when he faced off with the mice and squirrels.

My slow-stitching took a backseat to sight-seeing this trip. It's generally only on days when we do nothing else that I have time for a good session of stitching. My block was only about 2/3 finished at the beginning of the day, but I spent most of the day working on it. When I had it this far, I decided to move my hoop.

I tried to get the last of it within the bounds of my hoop, but finally settled for cutting off the tip of the tail.

But that sort of drove the OCD part of my brain crazy. Then, I started looking at it more closely. As I mentioned in a previous post, these blocks are worked almost exclusively in stem stich and cross stitch. Where I'm doing stem stitch, I like to follow complete lines, and I like to work them so that any curves are worked on the inside of the curve, rather than the outside. The "concave" part of the curve, if you will. It has meant spending some time strategizing about where to start and what lines to stitch first.

So as I looked at this, I realized that the tail was a complete line from where I'd left off on the kitten's back. It made sense to switch to a smaller hoop and then stitch the whole of the tail before moving to the lower portion.

And you can see how that allowed me to stitch that whole line without interruption.

When it was all finished, I moved my hoop to encompass the last of it.

And then it didn't take long before I had the whole thing finished. Please forgive the wrinkles.

Finishing this block was my goal for October's

and so I'll link up there when the party starts at the end of the month.

These are the three blocks I have for this quilt so far.

I'll be starting on the fourth block for this. When that is finished, I'll put it in the regular rotation with the rest of my embroidery projects, and work on it as its turn comes up on my embroidery dance card.

For dinner last night, I made something really yummy. Of the recipes I've tried on this trip, this one was our favorite. These are Sweet-and-Sour Chicken Bowls. 

It was a good follow-on to the Gilgeori Toast I made a few nights ago. Between the two recipes, I used a whole bag of coleslaw mix. Also, I had some leftover radishes, and so it was good to get all of that out of our small refrigerator. I made the recipe pretty much as written, but I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs. The recipe states to remove the bone from the chicken thighs after they've been cooked, but I figured, why not start with boneless? That seems like a no-brainer. 

Also, the recipe calls for "microwaveable rice." Well, that was kind of a new one on me. Of course, I know about "Minute Rice." I'm not fond of it, however. At home, I have a rice cooker, and I use that to make rice. When we travel in our fifth wheel, I take it along. In this smaller truck camper, however, it takes up more space than I want to give up, and so I left it at home this trip. It seemed like a good time to see what this "microwaveable rice" was all about. And if, like me, you're wondering where to find it in the grocery store, it was on the shelf with the other rice products.

So, here's what I learned. First, it's shelf stable, and so it won't take up room in the refrigerator. Also, it wasn't half bad, and since I'm usually putting something over the top, it scarcely matters. (Mike's dad would have called a dish like this "gunk over rice.") I used this brand: 

It's a good choice when we're traveling in the truck camper, and I'll remember this for future travels. It was good enough that I might forego taking the rice cooker along when we travel in the fifth wheel too. With space at a premium, anything that uses less of it is a valuable commodity.

So I give this new recipe my whole-hearted endorsement. It was delicious, and easy to make. I made all the component parts at the same time, and then refrigerated the "slaw" and the chopped green onions until we were ready to eat it. It's a great camping recipe. I'll definitely be making this again, camping or not.

So we'll be moving on again today. I've discovered a new state park near John Day, Oregon. We usually stay at the fairgrounds in John Day, but it's first come first served, and so it's always luck of the draw if we can get a space there. Recently, I learned about the existence of Clyde Holliday State Recreation Area just down the road from our usual camping spot. We could make a reservation, and I expect it will be a nicer spot. That's where our truck will take us today. If I'm able to get online, I'll post from there. And, if not, expect to hear from me again after we get home. Safe travels, one and all.