Book Finished! ~ Just the Bits

 First, I was in a book funk, where I have not been wanting to read at all.  I used to LOVE to read.  I'd fit it in anywhere I could.  

One of my cousins recommended reading "Atomic Habits" as one of two books she mentioned.  I bought both. 

My goal was to read 2 pages daily.  Small habit to start, but showing up to read made it a good habit. 

I was pretty impressed with this book.  There are some powerful quotes, so it's just not that same ol' self help type book.   If you want to get back to good habits, or ditch bad habits, this book is for you.

I haven't started the other book yet, but when I do, I will update on that one too.  Atomic Habits was highly recommended, and is a great book to take a review of your daily life.  We all need a review every once in a while.

It's day 11 of no rain.  It's great to dry laundry on the line, but I'm running that electric bill back up with the water pump, by watering what we did plant.

I'm glad we didn't buy annual flowers (yet).  I'd be watering those daily right now.

I've come to accept we just won't get everything planted in the garden.  I'll be going to some Farmer's Markets.  I have a bad feeling the voles got my 100 spring planted garlic cloves.  I dug into one grow bag and found one clove.  I plan to dig up the rest to concur that is a fact or not.

I finally finished painting kilz on the upstairs larger room.  I'll be moving on into the smaller room next.

I finally got someone to drive out here, and help get one AC unit in.  At least part of the house feels much better.  I am patiently waiting to get the upstairs one installed. 

We are on day 9 of my husband's double shift hours.  Every day he says it's the last, and then there is another.   There is hope that it will get back to normal soon.

The heat here is no joke.  My chickens have been panting.  I had to chip ice for them, and today will take frozen water bottles out to put inside their watering units.  

My husband had me order two solar motion activated rodent repellers.  They send off a sound to repel rodents such as rabbits, skunks, raccoons, squirrels etc.  He's feeling badly something got my bell peppers and hot peppers, and he can't help me get the fence up yet.  The units have been delivered, have been charged, and I will update on if we have anymore activity in the garden.

I had another "wing it" Wednesday dinner.  I loaded this up with lots of vegetables (onion, bell pepper, asparagus, zucchini), herbs from the herb garden, a bit of kale and spinach (because I didn't have enough kale), home canned tomato sauce, quinoa pasta, and a small bit of Monterrey jack cheese.  So good!  Oh, and I used ground turkey for the meat in this.  I really like this pasta too.  I does not get mushy like most chickpea pastas do.  Unfortunately, it's is also not sold in stores around here.  It's sort of a "treat" for us here lately.  It's on the re-order list for now.

Sheet Pan Dinner Fail ~ Well Sort of

 

I've made this twice now, and the second time remembered why the vegetables don't cook.  I even cooked the veggies for 20 minutes before adding the chicken.  The recipe is online, but seriously it has it's flaws.  I was in a hurry, so I just looked it up to check bake time on it.  

It's a balsamic/honey recipe, but it doesn't work, as the recipe states to coat the veggies with the mixture.  They will not cook with the vinegar (my duh moment).  Even if you cook the veggies 45 minutes.

So, to remember what not to do, I'm posting to remember on what to do.

Cook the chicken on a separate pan.  The mixture of the vinegar and honey makes the chicken so tender and delicious.  Cook the veggies on a different pan do do not coat in the vinegar sauce.

I personally, like rosemary on roasted potatoes, and a bit of parmesan or other herbs on the carrots.  

Sauce recipe states 1 cup balsamic vinegar with 1/3 cup honey, bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and reduce by half.  I will cut the recipe in 1/2, maybe in 1/4 amount for just the chicken and season everything as I wish.  Bake time was 20 minutes for veggies at 400°, then add chicken, but next time the chicken will be on a different pan, but bake for 20-25 minutes or until you have checked internal temperature on the chicken.

We loved the chicken, just didn't like the almost raw carrots, and the potatoes were semi-soft.  Sometimes getting recipes online is great, and other times not so.  I think the seasoning for the chicken was garlic powder, basil, and thyme.  I'd have to double check, but that sounds about right.  You can season however you like.

The same goes for crochet patterns.  Sometimes it's great to get patterns free online, but sometimes not.  I will share on that later.