Late January ramble

Can you believe there are only 9 days left in this month?? Time is going by too fast for me.

I haven't felt like posting much lately. Just feeling blah, probably because of all the dreary weather we've had. I just get lethargic when I don't see sunshine for a few days.

Hubs and I are re-watching the first season of Downton Abbey on Netflix (me - "re", him - first time). I had forgotten a lot about the story and it's been fun seeing it again. I've already watched the first 2 episodes of Season 2 on PBS's website and the third one plays tonight on my PBS station. But I'll wait to watch that one online with Hubs once we catch up on all the other episodes.

I also watched a couple episodes of Sherlock. The first one was amazing and had me captivated. The second one was good, but not as good as the first one, in my humble opinion. I haven't seen the others. Did you see those yet? I really wasn't sure I'd like this series because it is very modern, as in it is assumed that Sherlock is g@y by many of the characters in the show and he never denies it. And lots of technology is used (masterfully, I must say).

I think the show has a great cast, and the interchanges between Holmes and Watson are very entertaining. Btw, the guy playing Watson is also going to be Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit; and the guy playing Sherlock will do the voices of Smaug and the Necromancer.

I've been making soup more than usual lately. First this one and then this one. I froze the extras for future lunches. On the vegan soup, I didn't go vegan. I added chicken, oil and a bit of cream at the end. It was delicious, but next time I will chop the red cabbage up smaller. It looked pretty gross after half the color drained out of it during the cooking process. I thought it would shrink up and it didn't. It just faded. Bleh. Mauve-colored strands of cabbage swimming around in my bowl was not appetite-inducing!

I'm almost finished with my latest embroidery project. Been working on it whilst watching Downton Abbey. ;)

I've tested a couple of gluten-free cake recipes for my 3rd grandson's upcoming birthday celebration. I made this one and a store-bought box cake (Betty Crocker). The boxed cake was better. My homemade one was a bit gritty as my flour consisted mainly of the ground brown rice flour I whipped up in my VitaMix. I'm not sure how to get the grittiness out, but I also don't know if I can stomach paying $8/lb. for some super-expensive flour just to avoid it. *sigh* Maybe it would be cheaper in the long run? The boxed cake was around $6. Yeah. Then you still have to add eggs and butter.

The frosting recipe under the homemade cake I linked to proved to be a good jumping-off place for me to come up with a really yummy and easy-to-make whipped chocolate frosting. The original recipe tasted too cream-heavy and not sweet enough, so I doubled the confectioner's sugar. It was better, but still wasn't right. So I doubled it again and also doubled the cocoa powder. Then it seemed just right.

Here's my version:

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Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting My Way

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon vanilla

In a stand mixer or large bowl, add heavy cream, confectioner's sugar and cocoa powder. Blend on low to mix and then on high, scraping sides of bowl until very thick. Blend in vanilla. Spread on cake.

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My Amazon stuff is selling pretty well. I've sold almost $350 worth of stuff! And I have a lot more to sell. This will certainly help our van fund. At the beginning of February I'll get a Pro Merchant account and will be able to create my own listings on Amazon. Then I plan to put up a bunch of my stamp sets. Until then, Hubs is selling some of them on eBay for me. All of that will, of course, go toward the van.

Also, I've been getting Hubs to pick up only what we need at the stores. IOW, I'm staying out of the stores as much as possible! So far, this has put us under budget for groceries. Whatever is left at the end of the month will go into our van fund. Every little bit helps!

Tonight's supper is hamburger patties and mashed cauliflower and probably some other veggie.

Can't think of anything else to ramble on about so I'll stop there. Take care!