Same as Amy....I don't deny myself anything if I want it and have the money. I do give consideration to whether or not I really need it, and sometimes I talk myself out of things....like another horse. I like going to thrift shops, auctions, yard sales, etc. My waterlilies and contemplating new ones that I want, and crosses that I want to make. Antique rose cuttings and planning for new ones and getting together with the Rose Rustlers to share cuttings. I eat what I want, when I want it. I don't diet or worry about gaining weight. I like sleeping with three or four of my cats. Walking with three of my dogs...the ones that mind the best and will stay right with me or immediately come back when I call them. I have wanted to walk in the Nati'l. Forest, and now that hunting season is over, I plan to do that...just hope I don't get lost like I did a couple of weeks ago, when I thought I was taking a short cut home, and ended up deep in the forest and stuck in the mud...at 9:30 at night with a dying phone and no flashlight. I enjoy my old horses and seeing them thrive, because almost all of them came from situations of severe neglect. I love when nothing is planned, no one is coming around, and I can spend the whole day by myself and just drift around the place, looking at the waterlilies, roses, fish, going to the old barn and seeing the bats in the hay loft. Fixing nice meals for my wild possums. Listening to my radio guy, who comes on twice a day.

I almost bought a blue hydrangea in Wal-mart today. I didn't, though, because I never have had good luck with them. I planted purple potatoes too this year and they are all sprouting nicely. They're Purple Viking and Purple Majesty. Most growing in grow bags and a few in other raised beds. This is the first year I've gotten small asparagus from roots I planted a long time ago. I never thought I'd get any. Planted some 3 year old purple asparagus roots this year and have already harvested a few smallish ones. Some are too small to pick this time around. They came up just a few days after planting! I also bought some Vego-type beds, only mine are Birdies. I still have to put one together. I just transplanted some Kale, spinach and cabbage seedlings into the bigger one this afternoon. The round one I first had them in, soil had sunk quite a bit after a lot of rain so will fill it back up to the top and plant some sweet potato slips in it. Not sure how the cabbage will do, have only tried to grow them once or twice many years ago without success. Last year, though, I had a volunteer come up from kitchen scraps I tossed under some straw in the garden. Best tasting cabbage I've eaten in a long time. Made me hopeful I could grow more. Fun2BeHere, I love snapdragons, one of my favorite flowers but I never seem to have any luck with them and I don't know why. I can grow almost any other flower but that one.

While I've been baking bread and challah (brioche type dough) all my life, the only yeast pastries I've made often are hamentashen in a sweet version of my mother's challah recipe. Last week, I had this sudden thought, "Pumpkin babka!" This has been a great year for pumpkins. So instead of figuring it out myself, I searched for recipes on the 'net, and found a chocolate with pumpkin dough, and one more like what I'd had in mind, which was pumpkin-pecan filling in a rich, soft dough. I usually have great results with blog recipes, and I was sleep deprived, so even though I reviewed the ingredients before saving the recipe, I didn't actually read them through for quality. BIG mistake! I don't know if it's meant to be a sabotage (the comments were useless, only discussing the pretty pictures in the post). It sort of reads, to my bread self like it was partially scalled with oopsies. I've done that scaling a recipe for myself in my head, without writing it down when I was tired. I don't know, for sure, but looking back, it also doesn't match the instructions in the demonstration. It's, um, whack! There were plenty of places where I had warning signs and should have stopped and read it over and quit, but I didn't. I was tired beyond thought. When I started the first step, and it said 2 1/2 TBSP yeast to 3 -4 cups flour, I should have stopped. I just figured she meant teaspoons, and adjusted accordingly. Then I read the gigantic amound of sugar and salt. I always adjust those to taste anyway, so I kept going. When it said 8 eggs and half a pound of butter, I just figured she knew something I needed to learn. Um. No. The result, as you who bake know, was a glutinous cake batter. I added about a cup of flour and ran it with the dough hook and let it "rise" (not that any rising was happening). Good thing I've learned so much about high hydration baking. I poured it out onto the baking mat. There was enough gluten development at this point that it didn't spill away, just made a stable lake. Much as I would have liked to use my big steel bench scraper, one can't on silicone, but a big bunch of cast flour on it, scrape up some goop with the small plastic bench scraper and push it over, led to a more stable mound. Still too soft for even a stretch and fold, but holding its shape as a mound. I covered and let it rise. And it did! And when I heavily dusted with more flour, it was manageable and rolled. It was too soft to twist nicely, but enough so that the middle has a nice distribution. You can't see the layers, though. The dough was still too soft and smushed together. And it was so soft that the outside was almost burning before the inside was done, and the corners were dry because of that. The filing was good. That's a keeper. So is the butteriness of the dough. The end result was fine eating, though not exquisite. I think if I added a little extra butter to the hamentashen dough it would be more like what one needs, and I think more filling proportionate to the dough. I had been surprised that it didn't call for toasting the pecans, but they came out great from raw. Because of the restriction I put on the excess sugar, it's really good with cranberry sauce! While chatting, i mentioned it to the Thanksgiving cousin, and that I'd put the second loaf in the freezer. She asked me to bring it, but I don't know if anyone ate any. At least I don't have to find someone to feed it to! Which is why one tests recipes ahead. I also tried to make the handkerchielf rolls. I don't think there's any saving that one. I mean, they're rolls but they have a kind of gummy mouth feel, and that's after I overbaked them a little! Nasty. The recipe was designed to sell the baking dish. I'm thinking I could rescue them with custard. Pumpkin bread pudding is in the offing. Maybe with a cranberry hard sauce. The worst breads make the best bread puddings!

I’m shunning KSWL, Allyde, and Lynn.😉 I have an armoire in my bedroom with shelves that serves as a second dresser. On the top shelf are three large baskets— one for bras, one for underwear and one for socks. If it sounds cureated, you’ve been deceived. It’s a hot mess. Socks are in balls but that’s it. Orphan socks are tucked between the baskets until the mate shows up.