A New to Me Cleaner

 I found a new cleaner that I really like. It’s great for small jobs. It cleans and sanitizes. Best of all it scrubs off the grime. I needed some new cleaning wipes and this one had a couple bonuses. First, it was on sale at Safeway. Secondly it had a 50 Cent off coupon from the manufacturer. The savings for me added up to $1.50. Enough of a discount to give something to try.

So far, I have tried the Lysol dual action sanitizing wipes on a number of surfaces. The first surface I tried was the floor. There was a spill that needed to be wiped up.  The wipe not only cleaned up the floor, but left that spot on the floor cleaner then the person who comes in monthly to help us clean has gotten it. I know this means I will now have to get the steam cleaner out, to get the rest of the floor clean.  I certainly wasn’t expecting that from a hand wipe. Now I need to buy more distilled water. 

The second time I used, it was on my sink. I had noticed my sink getting a little dinger over time. With some spots, never getting quite clean. The first time I used the Lysol dual action Sanitizing wipes on the sink even the old hard spots came out without much scrubbing on my part. I find this amazing, because I didn’t have to use a lot of spoons up to clean the sink. The sink looks better than it has in a long time.  The sink came close to looking brand new again.

I would like to personally take the time to thank the chemical engineers and the product development team for coming up with such a great product. It now has a permanent place in my cleaning supplies for the house. 

As I had said before, I bought the Lysol dual action sanitizing wipes on sale at my local Safeway. I will be adding these wipes to my regular shopping list on my phone.  This is my personal experience with the product. I have not been paid for this endorsement. The opinion is my own. If you decide to click on the link in the blog, I will get credit towards payment. I would like to say also that have been writing this blog since 2009 and have not received any payment for writing the blog as of the date of this blog.

Almost Sugar Fee Apple Pie

Almost Sugar Free Apple Pie Recipe 

1 quart thinly sliced Cosmic Crisp Apples. I do not peel my apples.

1/4 cup Spelt flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1 pre made pie crust. I used the Pillsbury pie crust 

Cinnamon Sugar to sprinkle on top for decoration 

Bake at 325f for 45 minutes or until golden brown 

1 Pie pan or 9 inch square cake pan

The first thing that I always do is cut the apples in half. Then I remove the seeds and stems. Slice the apples very thin. You may cut the apples in chunks if you wish. I then place the sliced apples into a quart sized bowl. When the bowl is full I know that I have enough apples for the pie filling. Add the Spelt flour and cinnamon, then fold in the flour and cinnamon. 

Place your pie pan on a cookie sheet lined with foil. This serves 2 purposes.  The first is to keep you cookie sheet clean. The second is to cover and leftover pie once the pie is cut. Please refrigerate any leftover pie. Place the bottom crust in the pie pan. Add the apple filling. If it seems you have too much filling just build a small mountain with the filling. Dampen the pie edge with water. Place the top crust on top. Gently roll the bottom edge over the top.  Pinch and crimp the edges together. We are not going for perfection, we are going for a good seal. Dampen the top with water and sprinkle with your cinnamon sugar. I use a glass pie dish so I bake mine at 325f for about 45 minutes. 

Please note that this pie will be on the dryer side than your typical sugar laden pie. I know the sugar creates a very sweet syrupy filling. Also remember that just 1/4 of a cup of sugar contains 4 tablespoons or 12 teaspoons of sugar which is approximately 120 extra calories. Most pies contain over 1 cup of sugar which adds 480 extra calories per cup per pie.  If you use just one cup of sugar you add 80 non nutritional calories per slice if you cut your pie into 6 slices. For those same 80 calories you can have a plate full of  vegetables or a piece of fruit. 

If you would like to lighten the carbohydrate load just skip the pie crust and bake in a well greased 9 inch square baking pan or small casserole dish. 

This will make 6 to 8 servings.  Top the pie however you like. Just remember that whipped cream, cheese or ice cream will all add extra calories.  

I forgot to take a picture of the whole pie. This is my after dinner dessert  slice which was 1/6 of the pie. 

Drip, drip goes the kitchen faucet

There are somethings that break and the day just goes on as normal.  The vacuum breaks and the floor just not get vacuumed for a week or so.  The washing machine breaks, just go to the laundromat.  The strap breaks on your purse, just swap out purses then head to Goodwill or a clearance sale to replace the purse.  No big deal.  

Then there is other stuff that just blows up the day and then some like the air conditioning unit going out in the middle of summer.  There is the driver who has decided that you should be turning right instead of going straight and  totals your car.  The refrigerator dies for no reason the day after you go shopping for the week. The water line to the house breaks. A roof that leaks.  These are the expensive ones.  We have had a few too many of those this year. 

For us this time, it is the kitchen faucet that starts leaking just out of warranty. The faucet is only 2 years old. The kind of leak where everything needs to be emptied from underneath the sink so that the area can dry out. We don’t want a mold problem.  The faucet has a structural problem that can not be fixed  

SO tomorrow we get to go pick out a new kitchen faucet.  We are definitely not buying the same brand.  I am so not excited about this. I plan to change the knitting project in my purse so that I can knit as we shop. Just a plain garter stitch pattern. 

For me that meant that I don’t get to work on my cooking experiment on a sugar free apple pie with no artificial sweeteners either.  I think I will get up early tomorrow to try to get it into the oven.  I still have the laundry sink that I can do hand washing of the dishes in. 

While I was busy writing this blogpost, my taller half was busy picking out a new faucet. Yes, he picked a different brand.  He is having it delivered.  Later in the week.  Thank goodness.  These things stress me out.  To my taller half it’s just another problem to solve.  To be fair I was thinking how to work around a kitchen with no dishwasher or sink, my solution was the laundry sink.  I still have not figured out cooking or eating out.  On the very bright side, I am prepared for stress eating.  I just filled up the refrigerator with fruit.  I can eat more fruit than sweets with a lower impact on my health.  Although, I will be getting the disposable silverware and possibly paper plates out for meals.  

I hope your day was better.  

Providence and the Recycling Fairies

 It is a special moment in this house when the divine recycling fairies and providence meet up. It has happened a couple of times in the last 24 hours here.  The first time was when I found a skein of yarn that I absolutely love on a pattern that was proving a little difficult for me.  So I tinked the shawl and put the pattern in time out. I find this a perfectly reasonable alternative to throwing away the pattern.  A few hours later I was reading about how a knitwear designer sometimes tries a pattern that she designed and used a different weight yarn to see the difference and possibly come up with a different pattern.  My aha moment sent the yarn on a collision course with my all time favorite pattern that I designed, Grandma’s Summer Shawl.  Of course a summer shawl pattern in Tucson is never ever knit with worsted weight wool yarn for very obvious reasons.  

So with vintage worsted weight yarn from My 8 Kids Farm and U.S. size 10.5 ChiaoGoo Twist with the SWIV360 cables knitting needles the adventure began.  I am so happy with the results so far that I might just find a current worsted weight yarn I like and tweak the pattern for a winter shoulder covering.  Tell me what you think of it. 

The second moment of Devine recycling came this morning.  A couple of months ago, another family member was doing some deep cleaning.  This gray box found its way into my knitting room. It has been taking up floor space ever since. I thought it was my taller half’s, but he said it was not his.  So I opened the box and found that our darling daughter had left it behind in 2008 when she left for grad school.  This very obviously was a little past the 10 year mark when anything left at home was up for grabs.  

I did fail to mention that at the time I was working on a huge paper and book pile and needed some place to put all the patterns. So I cleaned out the box and turned it around because darling daughter’s college course work needed different labels than the patterns.  I felt like I broke my brain by going through the 15 inch pile in about a hour.  I also filled another recycling bag to take out.  I can now see more table.  

I do love how the recycling fairies live by the model reduced, reuse and recycle. I an so glad that they came and helped find such grand solutions.  I am hoping to have the knitting / spinning room fully functional by the end of the year.  I would not mind additional visits from the recycling fairies.  

Cart Before and After

 Today I tackled my rolling cart.  It took about two hours.  Really, there was that much clutter making it unusable.  Don’t worry, I am not stopping at the cart, there is more organizing to do.  I have commissioned 3D printed signs for the yarn shelf’s, to design as he sees fit. My sticky notes just seem to fall off. Apparently sticky notes don’t like the orange oil that I use occasionally on the wood. I trust his judgement on this.  

Now back to the rolling cart.  The before picture.  The cart was not very useful this way. 

The after picture.  As you can see, the rolling cart is much more like I intended for it to look.  Almost all of my yarn bowls fit in one spot. I have found a pile of sticky notes, so I can cross that off my shopping list   I am still not sure if I will move the cones of warp and replace them with my stitch marker collections. I have a larger jar for knitting markers and a smaller jar for crochet markers.  That of course would be on the second shelf. The glass jars would be less likely for fall and break. 

Organization by Project Type

 Today I had the brilliant idea to organize my projects by type.  I have used sticky notes to mark which shelf the projects go to.  Shawls, I have more than one shelf that is full of never started shawls.  Surprisingly only one shelf for clothes like knitted tops.  Way too many advent kits to fit on one shelf, maybe I should divide them up by yarn weight and knit a couple of crayon sweaters. I like the advent kits because they are fun and full of surprises.  Only one shelf of specialty yarns, mohair and silk type yarn.  I really don’t think I will have enough shelf space left for hats, cowls and gloves.  I might just have to pair down those shawl shelves again.  

Did I mention I am also pairing down those yarns and kits that I don’t love anymore.  I have something special planned for those skeins and kits.  It’s a secret, so please don’t ask. 

I started after dinner only planing to do 2 shelves tonight.  Well oops, my bad.  I have only four shelves to finish. I actually have a few extra empty project bags too. For round one.  Round two will take me along the road of do I really want to complete this project.   I worked all the way up to bed time. Then it took me 2 hours to unwind.  

So it’s time to say good night.  

Unintended Cleaning

 I had a remote doctor’s appointment today.  The actual appointment takes about 5 minutes.  The doctor office requires that I call in 30 minutes early.  After my 30 minute wait, I self report my required data.  Tan it’s back to hold for at least 10 to 15 minutes.  Then it’s less than 5 minutes with the offices N.P.  For this they get to bill the insurance company for a 45 minute office visit, because they can prove that I was on line for 45 minutes.  

So the fidgety person I am started cleaning and organizing my knitting room.  I usually take my call in there for privacy.  Also I have a sweet set up for my phone on a stand with a power source, so I can charge my phone.  The stand is also good for hands free calls. 

I filled up one recycling bag and took it out.  Put away 2 bags of yarn.  Found all kinds of samples of yarn, which I am dividing between sock yarn and everything else.  I do know that have more bags of sample yarn in the room.  I just have to find it.  I am in the process of winding every mini skein up.  I have more sock yarn than anything else.  I even took my squirrel cage to the kitchen table so that I could watch the television and wind yarn at the same time. I am thinking tube socks for the sock yarn, only because I hate making heels and scarfs for the rest of the yarn.  Everything will be very colorful.   I might , what a I saying , I will need help in making socks for my favorite charity project. If you would like to make a pair or two let me know.  The sock yarn is in the blue wash tub. There will be a lot of ends to weave in    If you don’t like weaving in the ends , I can do that.  All the other yarn is in the brown bowl.