56°f/13°C, clear. Chilly! No rain in the forecast yet. The eastern side of West Virginia had frost in some of the mountain valleys last night!
Today's bouquet. The zinnias are so pretty right now.
This has been one of those weeks---appointments every single day. Monday was the VA in Huntington, Tuesday I had my hair and pedicure appointment, today was my "well baby" checkup with my nurse practitioner, tomorrow Larry has a followup with his doctor in Charleston, and Friday is auction pickup!
So we have to make the afternoons and evening count, getting our laundry done, cleaning, and the like. Larry is having mower problems again, so he has been working on that. I came home yesterday and tilled some space in the garden so I will finally get some carrots and onion in this weekend.
Today I had produce to deal with. I know i said I wasn't canning anymore, but there were these nice cucumbers that would go to waste, and I had a quart of pickling brine left from the other day, so I made more bread & butter pickles.
We also had a lot of yellow squash, so I cooked it up and pureed it with the immersion blender, adding salt, pepper, and butter. It makes a delicious substitute for mashed potatoes! I had a couple zucchini which I ground up with the food processor, and then bagged it up and the yellow squash and sealed them up with the vacuum sealer and put in the freezer.
Then there was a half bucket of green beans, which I snapped, washed, blanched and also bagged up and froze. Now I am caught up until the tomatoes we picked last night ripen.
Those three tools--the immersion blender, the food processor, and the vacuum sealer--are pretty indispensable in my kitchen, as is the KitchenAid mixer. I don't like most electrical gadgets, but these are in regular use here.
I wonder, do you have small appliances you consider necessary? Many people swear by their InstaPots, or their rice cooker or Keurig.
I have none of those so I dont miss them, but perhaps if I had them I would be as attached as I am to my things.
We had a nice lunch after my appointment. We went to Shari's, our usual place, and it was filled with friends and people we knew. There was my friend Suzy, our neighbor and local handyman Ernie, retired coal miner Bill, lawn care guy Jim, and retired accountant Glenn. Bill and Glenn are both recent widowers, so Shari's is a good thing for them. Then there was Sally who is head of the local Main Street office, my son's friend and very sweet lady named Mickey, and several others. The chatter was lively!
As for my doctor appointment, all is well. She was very pleased with my "vitals" as she calls them. She said I am doing amazingly well for my age, which was nice to hear. But we all know that anything can change at any moment as we get older, For the moment at least, I can rest easy.
One more flower to wrap up this rambling post, my favorite rose.
I use my food processor a lot more than my immersion blender. I gave my big heavy mixer away and now use just a hand mixer. I confess I use DH's Keurig more than he does.
ReplyDeleteNice that your appointment with your doctor went well and you were declared okay :)