Tarka Dal

Hello everybody.  I still have my sciatic problems but I do know it is getting better.  That's also the bad part.  I start to feel better and then I over do it and have a set back.   So I guess that I feel better every other day? 

Today I was able to sit up long enough to listen in on the  Ourtimetoquilt Live YYoutube stream.  If any of you are interested, come and listen.  While I was doing that, I was making Tarka Dal.  Oh my.  That turned out to be a yummy dish.  It was suggested that it be served over rice or used to dip pieces of Naan in. 

I had leftover mashed potatoes so I just put it over that.  LOL.  If it was that yummy over potatoes, I can imagine how it would be over rice.  I think I'd like to also have it as a dip for Naan or even a Pita, etc.  So what is it?

It is red lentils with spices.  The spices are cumin, salt, turmeric, coriander powder, garam masala, and chili powder.  I actually forgot to put in the chili powder but that's ok.  It's not spicy hot or anything.  You only use 1 tsp of each of the seasonings.  So that list of spices gets cooked in with the red lentils and when that mixture is the consistency you like, you add the Dal.  Dal is a stick of butter with one bulb of crushed garlic.  Yummmy!  You just need to cook the crushed garlic (I used chopped) in the butter until it turns a golden color.  Mix the Dal with the Tarka and that's it.  It's a warm dish, smells great, and one that I will be make again.  It seemed like the thing to make on a lazy Sunday.

Speaking of a lazy Sunday.  Last week I was driving and stopped for the animal life who was crossing the road.  I guess they were taking a leisurely Sunday stroll.

This was the second group.  The first group crossed and just when we thought we could move, this group crossed.  By the time they crossed, and I got up to the stop light, it had turned red.   LOL.

My back and legs are telling me to go lay down so I'll chat more.    Oh wait.  I forgot...I DID manage to finish my test pattern piece for The Quilt Pattern Magazine.  Whew!  I didn't want to not keep my promise to test it.  It turned out nice and I like the colors I used.  You'll have to wait until around October before you can see it (grins).  NOW I can go lay down.

Everybody have a great day!

Happy Father's Day and an update

First of all, Happy Father's Day to everybody.  I hope you have a great day.  My day is going pretty good which is an improvement over the past couple of weeks.  I am so tired, I'll look forward to going back to work and resting up.  LOL.

Today I made a great headway into the test project.  It is due by the 22nd and I should be able to finish it in a day or two.  That will be nice.

I've gotten my pounce pad and meander pattern from Quilt Addicts Anonymous and I want to practice on it.  I'll be using light blue powder.  I have two fat quarters of a cream material so I think I'll put  batting between them and use those for my practice pieces.  I will need lots of practice I think.

In between working on the test pattern, I decided to make Beer Bread.  I found a recipe for 3 ingredient beer bread and it turned out great.  I decided to divide my batter into 4 mini loaf pans.  3 ingredients, 4 mini loafs, and around 25 minutes of baking.  Not bad I think.  Here's the recipe:

3 ingredient Beer bread from wineandglue.com

3 cups self rising flour

1/2 cup sugar

12 oz. beer

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a bread pan with cooking spray (I used 4 small mini loaf pans). Gently mix together the flour, sugar, and beer until it is thoroughly combined. The batter will be thick. Pour the batter into the bread pan and bake for 40 minutes.(in the mini pans it only took around 20 minutes)

 Take out of oven and let sit for five minutes in the pan, remove and let cool completely before slicing.

Let me know if you make it and enjoy it.  I liked it.  I might make some more up and put in the freezer once I have room.  :)

Hugs and have a great day.

Short Update

I will apologize for the shortness of this post right up front.  I had planned on doing a longer post with pretty pictures and much contemplation but then life kicked me in the you know what.  Actually that is almost literal.  For the past week I have been dealing with acute sciatic nerve inflammation.  I have missed some days of work, missed proctoring exams this weekend, and some other days only worked half days.

Not sure how I did it but I think the doctor put down "acute" just to make me feel better.  That was how I spent last Saturday.  All morning at Urgent Care and then off to Walmart with 4 prescriptions.  Yesterday was my first day with only having Ibuprofen for pain and I was doing ok until around 3 a.m.  Then I woke up from the pain.  Of course at 3 a.m. you argue with yourself about why you are awake and try to convince yourself you should ignore it and just go back to sleep.  At 4 a.m. I took more Ibuprofen and put BenGay on my knee.  I finally fell asleep around 5.

Today is a little better but not much.  I'm up to eat lunch, take more Ibuprofen and put on more Ben Gay.  I stitched about 10 stitches and then said, nope...not happening today.  Still, that's 10 stitches more than I did all last week!

That's about it.  Time for me to get back to bed.  While there I will contemplate how I am going to organize my calendars for July 2019 - June 2020 (or December 2020).  I have my journals/calendars which I am trying to cut back on how many I use.  Anybody have any suggestions?

These are the main ones that I use journals for:

work
crafting
bills
personnel

I can combine bills and personnel.  Might be able to put work in that also.  Not sure yet.  I have different sizes of "My Happy Planner"...one large and one small.  Not sure which will be which.

Talk to you all later.  Have a wonderful weekend.