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Welp, I am pleasently surprised. Other than my legs hurting like mad, it really wasn't that difficult to make.

Unfortunately, the past two months my taste has been extremely erratic, so I can't say how this tastes, other than very beany (but I do know it should taste just fine. I've made gorditas with this same sweet bean paste for at least two years now. Tested with the wife, though, and the cinnamon I added is what is the strongest flavor).

As for the mayocoba beans, they were the best for making sweet paste that I could reliably find around our little city.

As for the recipe. Meh, there's nothing really to write down. I have never been a heavy sugar eater, and these health issues have made eating lots of sugar a bloody pain in the arse. So I added just enough sugar...(maybe, as I really can't taste the sugar right now. So I guessed, HAH!). A wee bit of cinnamon, and a pinch of salt.

Now, as for the mochi, I did follow a recipe I found on youtube. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzfKNUL78pY)

12 oz. Water \ 8 oz. Sweet rice flour \ 4 oz. Sugar

mixed the mochi in a skillet, let it soak for a bit and rolled the sweet bean paste into balls, fried on medium heat, then low heat, then placed onto a pile of cornstarch, and went from there.

It really didn't stay as hot as I was afraid it was going to be. The bean paste could have used a light freeze/chill, or drying as most of it was too sticky to form the mochi. Plus, I should have made a slightly larger batch, as I tried to thin the mochi up which tore on several of them. Meh, live and learn.

I wish I could taste them to their fullest, but meh, it's my fault for trusting a doctor, HAH!

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Just adding this an hour later to show how bloody erratic my taste is. Now the bean flavor is extremely faint and the sugar is very very strong. Now it's almost sickly sweet, 🙄, and I know I didn't add that much sugar to the bean paste.

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I keep forgetting about the Lemmy groups, and my health sucks, so this post is just trying to make my addled brain remember these groups, heh.

Anyhoo, this project is for my elder son (if anyone remembers the Vault Boy one I made for my younger son a few months back), and I'm attempting a few new tricks.

1. I stapled this monks cloth to a painting frame. It does look like I'll need to do some tightening once I'm done, though. So I hope I can figure that out.
2. I painted the outside, eyes, and mouth, and I do like how the mouth and eyes make the fabric pop.
3. I found a larger needle that came with a kit on one heck of a sale at Hobby Lobby, and that is what I'm using. However, it is a tad too large for the yarn I got. So quite a bit of it looks rather frazzled, :thinking:.
4. And I'm attempting (all-be-it a poor one) flow. (I have no idea what the proper term would be, heh, but it's where the thread leans in one direction, or flows along a line so each row...erm...flows with every other row. (Oof! Well hopefully you can understand that gibberish, HAH).

Meh, regardless of the issues (and boy can I not draw worth snot) it still looks pretty darn good. Now for the body...:grimacing:...The proportions are just a tad off, but it'll have to do.

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woops! Guess I didn't post about the Vault Sweet Vault here...Well, here's that one.

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I've been using one of the Pandora services, but I've been getting a little annoyed with the stations (which I presume I would get the same annoyance from other services, too). So I'd like to be able to create a station and add songs that I own and that wouldn't normally be in that station. (And I know you can add artists to the stations, but some artists only have a few songs I like, and I surely don't want the station inundated with similar artists of the music I don't like. Shudder the thought, 😬 ).

First time doing an odd shaped fabric thingy, so the edges aren't too great. Plus, didn't figure out a better method of punching around the outlines til close to the end...Meh, still makes us all giggle like school children, heh.

Oh, if anyone knows of a video tutorial on folding over, shaping, and gluing monks cloth with odd shapes (i don't have this issue with softer fabrics)...I'd be so thankful, heh. I just could not get it to work, so I just gave up and rubbed marker over the edges.

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Forgot to mention what I used.

Lavor needle with the largest needle in the package. \ The black yarn is sport weight "I Love This Yarn" (the maximum this needle could handle). \ The white is an unknown we had in our stash, and a faint thinner than the black. \ Artiste Monks cloth, 1yd x 62in. (unknown thread count, purchased from Hobby Lobby).

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And here is the frame I made.

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This is the second frame I made, and since I used my table saw to cut the dowel, it left a large gap, to which I used the jute as a means to grasp onto the cloth. However, it was partially intentional as I wanted to put more into the dowels holding onto the sides of the fabric over the center parts.

The only real problem I had with it was the dowels. It's not easty gripping and twisting to tighten the fabric down. I much prefer the square ones I made on my first model. They offered a much better grip for tightening. Once I feel up to it, I'll make a couple for this one, but they'll have to be thinner than the first model. Which might not be possible. Hmm! Still haven't decided on what I'll do yet.

He put lemon in the coconut (milk) \ He fried the shrimp up \ He put lemon in the coconut (milk) \ He fried the shrimp up \ He said, "Honey, I have but one little wish". \ He said, "honey, for you to try this little dish". \ He said, "Honey, taste this tiny shellfish." \ He said, "Honey, C'mon try this little dish".

Aaaaaand, that is pretty much the only reason I wanted to post this, 😂. I think I pulled something laughing so hard when it came to me. 🤣

Anyway, it is really good. Like really really good.

10 small shrimp, deveined. \ 1/4 c. The thick coconut cream on coconut milk. \ 1 tsp. Lemon juice. \ 1 clove crushed garlic \ pinch of ground ginger \ a large handful of Rao's Fusilli noodles.

cook noodles then cool and set aside. Keep 1/4 cup of the noodle water.

fry shrimp in a tablespoon of coconut oil til well cooked. Add in coconut cream, ginger, and garlic. Cook for about a minute or two. Add in noodle water. Cook for about two minutes. Toss in noodles, add salt and pepper and continue cooking for two to five minutes, til thickened.

Why did I mention coconut cream? Well, because of this milk

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It had a large chunk of cream on the top, and I didn't think about checking for it, heh. However, it was awesome, and worked beautifully. So why not add that bit of info? 😏

And just in case the link doesn't work again, 🙄 , https://forum.lettucecraft.com/t/rosemary-lamb-pie/28337

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Oof! Quite pained from making this, but meh, I'm in pain all the time anyway, 🤣 🤣 🤣 .

Anyway, this is quite good, and I do think I should have added a wee bit more liquid to it before baking, but meh, not a problem, heh.

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Huh! This is actually good.

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Oat pancakes

Blend dry ingredients together.

1/2 c. Flour \ 1/2 c. Oat flour \ 1/4 c. Buttermilk powder \ 1 tsp. Baking powder \ 1/2 tsp. Baking soda \ Pinch of salt

Date water

in a small sauce pan, boil 5 medjool dates with one cup water til the skins fall off. Take out all but two dates, and blend the dates and water til smooth. (note: you only really need two dates...Uh, I wanted to eat them after boiling, so I wasn't even planning on making the rest, heh. That just happened as I really wanted to use the water in something).

(Substitute the date water with 1 Tbls. sugar and 1 c. water if you don't want to use dates)

mix well date water, two tablespoons melted butter, and one egg into the dry ingredients.

cover and let sit for 15 to 30 minutes.

make pancake.

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Spiced Cherry Sauce

(unfortunattly, no real recipe, but I bet the measurements will be close enough).

in a sauce pan, mix and heat

1 c. Cherries \ 2 Tbls. Water (add half a teaspoon at a time if you need more water) \ 2 Tbls. Sugar (add 1/4 cup or more if you want it sweeter). \ Pinch of salt \ 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon \ Pinch of ground clove

Cook over medium low heat til the cherries fall apart and the sauce thickens.

For the cherries, I used Great Value frozen cherry medley.

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i did the dumb thing of trying to separate the skins from the pulp...Tlagwv osdi vsgi yigesvna (Cherokee: That was not that great). It took about three times as long to Thicken. Pshew! Also, was completely unnecessary as the mash tastes just as good as the sauce, Meh, was curious, and that curiosity was...erm...sort of satisfied. Heh!

Just finished the video, which is crap, buuuut is good enough, heh.

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(my wife made this on her phone, and I just love it, heh).

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Cast on 4 stitches.

1. kfb S2 wyif move yarn to back, slip last slipped stitch to left needle. Knit in the front of the last stitch on the left needle, slip stich, knit in the back.
2. kfb ( K1 S1 wyif )2 kfb
3. kfb K1 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K1 kfb
4. kfb K2 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K2 kfb
5. kfb K3 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K3 kfb
6. kfb K4 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K4 kfb
7. kfb K5 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K5 kfb
8. K7 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K7
9. K3tog K4 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K4 K3tog
10. K2tog K3 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K3 K2tog
11. K2tog K2 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K2 K2tog
12. K2tog K1 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K1 K2tog
13. K2tog ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K2tog
14. Reorder stitches (From left to right) as follows, 5,3,6,4,2,1

(Realized a little late that 5 & 3 could be knitted together before moving the stitches to the right needle, and would move the yarn to the left side for starting the I-cord knitting, but yeah, you can do that. If you don't do that, then just change the K1 in row 15 to K2tog).

15. K2tog K2tog K1
16. K3
17. K2tog K1
18. K2 Repeat 18 to the length of tail you want.

Pull tail through remaining two stitches. Sew in ends.

Notes:

> Reorder stitches (From left to right) as follows, 5,3,6,4,2,1 >> WIthout using the tail, slip the first two stitches, slip the next stitch onto the front of the right needle, slip stitch, slip the last stitch from the left needle. Slip the first stitch from the right needle onto the left needle. Turn the left needle and knit those two stitches together through the back. (The video will help with this).

> Added times to jump to different parts in the video description.

Ok! Hopefully that's all good...enough...

(and to make sure Lemmy or Connect doesn't remove my link, here it is in text form https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zzwqjmdkNd4...And Lemmy/Connect kept this link after posting...So I guess I don't need this...But I'll leave it down at the bottom anyway).

Just made/created this for my wife. It still gets below freezing, so I'll pop this into her truck tonight after she goes to bed tonight. Will be a nice surprise when she leaves for work tomorrow morning, 😊

One slight little hiccup, it seems like it's a bit too soft, but it just may need to rest in the fridge for much longer. I just wanted to get it ready before she got home. Meh, she'll still like it any way.

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Jesus! Thought the recipe was linked...welp, here it is again.

Caramel Swirl Fudge

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I made a syrup from ground black walnut and sunflower seeds, but boy is it overly sweet. I do know I could use some form of flour (qinoa, amaranth, millet, all purpose, corn meal, corn starch, etc), but I'm curious if anyone might know of something I haven't thought of yet.

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Hmm??? Still a bit leary on the fins. (Here's the first iteration using a plastic bag for the fins).

Logically, the furriness shouldn't be an issue and only minutely add to their hairball formation...but, it still makes me feel a bit uneasy.

Eh, I don't have any old clothes, nor any ribbon large enough on hand...so just used what I could find that'd be different for the time being. Pppppp!

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Meh, once I figure out something for the fins that I feel comfortable with then I can finalize the patterns (anomalocaris, goldfish, ammonite, and a squid).

Ok! I give up trying to find this stuff on my own, heh.

Anyway, I built my wife a large outdoor miniature diarama for Christmas and I'm wanting to do a winter theme for her opening (the door), and I'm rather stumped on these.

So far, the best solution I found was snow powder/flakes and spray on adhesive, but I'm definitely open to something else (that's not overly costly, 🤷‍♂️. I spent a looooot on this so far).

It will have a dirt base, so the snow needs to adhere to that as best as possible.

1/2 c. buckwheat \ 1 c. unbleached flour \ 6 Tbls. buttermilk powder (It’s what I have, 🤷‍♂️ ). \ 1/2 tsp. Salt \ 1 Tbls. Sugar (To make this sweeter, add another tablespoon of sugar) \ 1/4 c. & 2 Tbls. Ground pumpkin seeds.

Soften 1 +1/4 tsp. yeast in 3/4 cup warm water. Mix all ingredients with 1 Tbls. melted butter. Will be fairly moist, but after sitting for one hour, it will stiffen up and then can be formed into a ball and covered with oil. Let sit for another hour. (If you're patient enough, let sit in the fridge overnight, 😆 ).

Divide and create 8 or 6 balls from the dough. (Depending on how big you want the flatbread to be). Fry on each side over low medium heat for about a minute on each side.

I bet this would be good with custards or fruit based desserts, as well as sweet savory foods. (And that's my next task...What to try with these? 🤔. I tried with honey, meh, and butter, good).

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I bet ground sunflower seeds, peanuts, cashews, or filberts would taste good in this as well.

Grinding up 1/4 c. of pumpkin seeds in a mortar at the moment, and I thought it'd be kind of interesting to get a little input, :wink:

Flours I have on hand.

Unbleached \ Rye \ Amaranth \ Almond \ Rice \ Buckwheat

Liquids

Roasted pumpkin \ Almond milk \ Heavy cream \ Eggs \ Butter Milk

Other

Yeast \ Molasses \ Sugar \ Baking powder

I'm aiming for a skillet fried flatbread. Preferably not a pancake.

So let the thinking commence. :grin:

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I keep forgetting about this group. Anyway, just finished this today. I still have a few more changes to make, but I definitely have a good design down.

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One thing I hope I can pull off, will be making the lobes bigger on the bag. I may be able to get away with slipping the purl stitches every other row. That might keep the creases from expanding with the lobes...Welp, won't know til I actually try it, heh!

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@AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world @Whitehorse@feddit.uk

[Another attempt at tagging].

Ok! Ok! Ok! Made the pie by baking the filling inside the shell rather than pre-cooking. (https://forum.lettucecraft.com/t/zucchini-rhubarb-and-blueberry-pie/24450 Where I posted my recipe and a few tidbits of info).

My thoughts, it does work, to an extent. The zucchini has the perfect texture, sort of apple pie like. However, I'd wager, about 5% of the zucchini still retains the squash flavor. As I noted in the update at the link, I think when I try this again, I'll partially cook the filling before hand, and chill it. That may speed up the infusion of the berries and rhubarb into the zucchini.

I'm still a little leery about that. Maybe only partially cooking the zucchini with a little vanilla to dilute the squash flavor would be enough.

It does work. Or it would work. It tastes just fine, rather good. Even the zucchini flavor isn't that bad, but it just needs that extra zing. I think I'll add some ground ginger, too. I know ginger works beautifully with rhubarb (at least it does in my rhubarb sweet bean paste in sweet gorditas). Wait...Hold a sec...Maybe partially boiling the zucchini with ginger instead of vanilla. That'd do it. That's it. That's what I'll do for the next time. I have my changes for Test 2...That I'll attempt sometime next week, I hope.

Update: 7-30-23

Added images to an album at imgur with proof showing the bill has the correct website written three times on the bill. Also, showing the address to both locations (As each other claim the other does not exist), and google maps showing Centura locations.

Update: 7-31-23

Like the energizer bunny, the stupid at this company keeps going and going and going and going.

Difficult getting a real human, so try to setup an automated payment via the automated system. Well, not my first time with this company, so don't trust them at all. Call back to verify, go through hoops and hurdles to get a real person. Nope, I only made a payment, ok, let me setup a payment plan. Ok, do you want to remove the payment you setup as that will not be added to your payment plan? What? Instead of paying x, you'll be paying x+y...Yeah, let's cancel that. Ok, set up the payment plan. Can I make the payment still? That wouldn't work because of how the payment plan is set up.

Seriously? Is that really that difficult for the programmers to write for your systems?

I tell you, dealing with this company does make me feel a little better. For, even how addled I have gotten, I feel like if they can run a major business, so can I, 🤣

End Update

I don't know a good spot to put this, but maybe this would be a good spot to just vent...It adds to the mental strain that's just absolutely bonkers...Plus, might be something for people to think about if they happen to go to the same hospital business a city over. Just 45 minutes away. Shown as an affiliate of the same business on their own website. 😶

Anyway, I saw a doctor a year ago, got x-rays and had an EKG. Fine. Will get a bill...Fine.

Got a bill in January, 6 months after from Centura...In Ohio...Not Colorado...What?

The statement says to send a payment or log in to their website. I log into their website, enter the account number...Nada...I do it again...Nada...Again, and again, and again...Nothing. So I call the number on the website (as I trust that over some odd bill from an address that I've never seen from this company before). The representative had no knowledge of it. The account didn't exist.

I even checked mycentura account, and I owe nothing...What? What? What?

Well, just yesterday I got a call from this questionable Centura company...finally...And guess what? They don't understand what I'm talking about...It's never been that way...I would never pay to Centura in Denver. Their billing offices are in Cincinnati. How the heck can there be two completely separate entities of the same bloody business?

Holy fuck!

Sorry for the cursing, but unfortunately, this warrants it. It's just so idiotic.

End rant.

[2nd attempt to post this. Removed some curse words and the h word as maybe the filters are a bit wonky or purposefully overly sensitive].

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I had made a spread/mock jam, with rhubarb, blueberries, and zucchini, and it was damn good. So I've been trying to think of a decent method to utilize larger sizes and portions of zucchini to give a pie an apple pie like texture.

I'm guessing I wouldn't want to cook the fruit & zucchini in the pie, and therefore would be best to cook the filling before hand. However, I've never made a pie that way, and am unsure if the zucchini would overcook (translation: become mushy) if I cooked it for a second time.

Note: I know I could look it up. Heck, I could just go to the store and read a can of blueberry filling to get an idea...I just feel it'd be more fun to ask here, 😉

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I've been wanting to try this for a while now, and me thinks this is the last time I try it, heh. That was a heck of a lot more work than I thought it was going to be (Tried to use a mixer to help out my broken joints...Nope, that don't work too well, 🤣 ).

Anyway, I was just too sore to think about how I was going to cook all this up, so kind of out of order, missing a few things I wanted to add, and a little overdone in places...Meh! Still tasty.

Things I added to it...

Gnocchi ( Mastering GNOCCHI | How to Make Perfect Potato Gnocchi Pasta, what I used to make the gnocchi).

Zucchini sliced in quarters, and chopped up to about 1/4th inch thick. Onion, garlic, salt, pepper, fresh basil, parsley Rhubarb in place of the lemon, white wine, butter, and grated romano cheese.

My next task will be making an aloo paratha with the left over potatoes made as my herbed potatoes, but that'll have to wait. Pain no likey cleaning right away. So have to wait til the pain subsides. Can't wait, 😆

I'm in a pretty stressful marriage (23 years), and I'm also in a lot of pain, and to top that off. I was allowed to keep some of the money we got because of covid to see a doctor for my pains, that the pills she prescribed me screwed up my digestive system to which I'm battling dizziness, some new pains, and sometimes difficulty breathing. So my mind is pretty ripped in soooo many ways.

Anyway...anyway...a heck of a lot more stress was added after a family member moved in...so more stress. Ppppppp!

Anyway, anyway, I have been toying with the idea of running a lemmy or kbin server for people in my situation. I think it would be exceptionally helpful. For venting without restrictions, possible to be completely anonymous, job searching for chronic/mental illnesses. Just an extension, you might say, of all the other helpful sites out there. (which if I can feel up to it, I know of quite a few and can post links for them...which maybe could be added to the side bar...like wearecapable, which is a site to help chronic illness people to find jobs.

Hell, just now thinking about it, in this kind of fediverse type groupings, I bet there'd be a wider range of career help for people in bad situations.

Meh, it's a nice dream, heh. But anyway, I'm just venting right now. My mind is shredded.