Saturday thoughts

Hm, I'm not sure thoughts is actually true. This is one of those days where the brain seems to have been left behind. sigh

Howard bought a large stockpot for me not too long ago, after I complained that the crockpot just isn't large enough. I made some wonderful venison chili earlier in the week. There are some people that love to go hunting, but don't like to eat the venison. We are the lucky recipients of their bounty. We're almost out, we need to ask for more. I'd actually started it in the crockpot, and realized that with 2 pounds of ground venison, there was going to be more meat than anything else in the pot. So, I transferred it all to the stockpot, added more ingredients and tried it out. Success! The back burner on the stove can substitute for the crockpot! Yay!

So, yesterday I made chicken and barley soup in the crockpot. Added aleppo chili from Penzeys to give it more flavor.

It sometimes feels very difficult to cook without herbs, onions and garlic, but I must because of my food allergies. So, I tend to use a lot of chilis, because they add different flavors, even if some of them add heat, which we don't mind. Aleppo is a smoky flavor with more heat than Ancho. The chili had dried jalapenos, arbol peppers, cascabel peppers, guajillo peppers, aleppo and ancho peppers all from Penzeys. The chicken and barley soup "only" had the aleppos, but it added a great smoky flavor without adding much heat.

We have an extra coffee grinder, which has become my default chili grinder. Pop dried chilis in there, and turn it on. Somehow, I don't think Howard will want coffee ground in this! LOL After all, he HAS a coffee grinder of his own.

On the knitting front, the Mermaid is past 3/4 of the way through for the body. Whee! I'm on the downhill slope for knitting it! Still wondering about the sleeves. The design has the sleeves knit in the same color as the first band/collar. What would it be like if I knit the sleeves in one of the contrast colors?

I've been wondering about the second Mermaid for me. I'd thought about doing it in a single color, but I'm wondering if the lack of color changes would take away the delight in knitting it. There wouldn't be something new happening almost every other row, instead it would be 18 rows before something else happens. I can see that as a problem. Decisions. Since I know I want to use Brown Sheep Naturespun, I wonder how it would look in tones of teal? Tornado teal, Mallard and Meadow Green? What do you think about Butterfly Blue, Sapphire and either Platte River Blue or Catblue? I wish I could wear purples, don't you think Plum Line, Alpine Violet and Purple Splendor would be gorgeous together? How about Saddle Tan, Bev's Bear and Roasted Coffee -- as those are more my colors? I have Burnt Sienna and Roasted Coffee, that is what I've been making this with, using the camel/silk. I suppose I could use one of those as the main color, Bev's Bear for the third? Any input?

There is a possibility that we will be going to the Brown Sheep Outlet Store in the next few weeks. Wouldn't THAT be fun. Hm, how am I going to reward Howard for that?

We plan to visit my parents and Serena next week. I'm delighted with the prospect. It has been a while since we've seen them. While we are gone, hopefully the laundry room and kitchen will be changed from carpeting to vinyl, and the laundry room will be painted. This will hopefully take care of a lot of the problems with mold in the house. Every time the furnace runs, it grabs mold from the carpeting in the laundry room and spreads it throughout the house. I'd like to be able to get off the prednisone and BREATHE!