Building Houses

Good morning, my friends. The atmospheric river we were expecting has arrived. It's been raining hard since yesterday afternoon. 

Mike has been busy the past couple of days getting us wired up for Starlink internet. We've been thinking about it for some time. Out here on the prairie, we don't have good choices for high speed internet. Starlink will allow us to have internet at home, and also while we're on the road. We'll also be able to stream television programming. When it's all hooked up we'll be able to discontinue our current internet service provider and our cable television service provider, something Mike has been itching to do for years. And I only bring this up because he finished the outdoor portion of this job in a nick of time before the heavy rain started. It always feels like a victory when one can defeat a rain forecast.

So while he was out drilling, hammering, nailing, and wiring, I was inside baking and sewing. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I wanted to try a new recipe for Pumpkin Pie Custard. I had a half can of pumpkin and a half can of evaporated milk I wanted to use. I made mine a "for two" recipe. It's actually a "for two" times two. When it came out of the oven, it looked like this:

They deflated a little as they cooled. That was okay because it left plenty of room for some whipped cream on the top and a little sprinkle of cinnamon sugar. That was last night's dessert, and there's a second one for tonight. And these were yummy. They taste like pumpkin pie without that pesky crust.

I've linked to the recipe back there. My mixture was cut it in half to make this a "for two" recipe. I used four 8-oz ramekins. The only other thing I did differently was to bake them in a water bath. Any custard I've ever made suggested putting the ramekins in a pan and then filling the pan with boiling water until it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins. It helps to keep the custard from drying out and cracking. 

Incidentally, I made this to rid myself of the leftover half cans of pumpkin and evaporated milk. Like scrap quilting, you can't get rid of leftovers without generating more leftovers. Am I right about that? These custards did a good job getting rid of the pumpkin and the evaporated milk, but they also generated four leftover egg yolks. So, I inquired of my friend The Google "what can I do with leftover egg yolks?" And The Google told me I could freeze them! Who knew? 

Aye, but there's a rub to this. Apparently, frozen egg yolks will gel, making them unusable. To avoid that, they must first be mixed with either salt or sugar. In my case, I mixed the four egg yolks with 1/8 teaspoon of salt and then poured them into a labeled zip-lock bag. As it turns out, I need exactly four egg yolks to make Hollandaise sauce when I make Mike's favorite Eggs Benedict. Now, I'm kind of excited to make Eggs Benedict again to see if the frozen egg yolks will work. Yes, I'm old. Stuff like this gets me all excited. Probably, I'll need a nap after that.

It was time to let the kitties out when I finished with the custard. The rain hadn't started yet, and so I took the opportunity to take a couple of pictures of our trees. I've done no editing on these. They really are as bright as you see them here. This one is around back by our hot tub.

This one is at the front corner of the house, where the squirrels hang out. Smitty likes to sit on the corner of the deck there in the summer time. 

And speaking of Smitty, he was miffed we didn't get to the sewing right away. He wanted his serving of catnip if I wouldn't mind. Sheesh. How long should a cat have to wait for service in a place like this?

Yesterday's project was to make another vertical row of houses for the Painted Ladies quilt. These are the newest four. The one on the left is not sewn together. It will be a partial at the top and bottom of the row.

When I had them sewn together and sewn to the quilt, it looked like this. I really like how this is turning out. It's a great scrap buster. I'll need four more rows to finish it off.

And that brings me to the last project on my list of WIPs. I'll be making the next two blocks for the Whimsical Garden quilt. The next two are shown below.

These are fun to make. I love working with all that color. They take a little time to fuse all the applique pieces, and then they need top-stitching. There's nothing else on the day's agenda. I doubt I'll finish them, but one never knows.

When those are finished, I'll start on my newest art quilt. I spent some time this morning perusing old pictures for a suitable one to fit the prompt: Patterns in Nature. I have lots of ideas about this, and I believe I'm already settled on something. Of course, you'll only get peeks along the way. The reveal will be on February 1st.

So, with that, I'll get back to my slow-stitching. It's going to be a wet day, and a wet day always makes for a good day of sewing.