New video of my Mary Garden with Saint Michael Statue

 Hello Darling, 

I hope you are faring well during long and drawn out pandemic. Although I have had my vaccination shots,  I have had periods where I have felt unwell. So I haven't out in the garden as much. However, today, I want to share these updated videos of my Mary Garden  and my new Saint Michael statue that I just placed in the garden this evening.

This first video is from my camera, which was going out of focus and I will have to reset it  because was going out of focus.

This followup video is from my cell phone.

As stated in another of my post this garden is an ongoing project and had no end.

 I am really like statues of Saint Michael and I have another in the house, along with Saints Gabriel, Uriel, Raphael. However, my indoor Saint Michael had been with more than twenty years. Both of the statues of Saint Michael are beautiful but each have seldom differences as described in my "How My Garden Grows, or Not, Sic", "The Life and Cultivation of My Little Garden" journal.

09/19/2021 - Between 2am and 2:40am this morning, I was out feeding and watering the garden. I could not sleep, so watering the plants at night was a good things. I have decided to do all my watering after 9pm for the rest of the year. It is just too for me to be out in the hot sun during the day.

 

I will continue to maintain the plants and garden ground in the early morning before the sun going to high in the sky.

 

I received my Toscano’s St. Michael the Archangel statue. He is a little different from the saint Michael in the house.

 

The household Saint Michael is holding his role out of way as he is poised to strike Satan with his sword. However, the garden Saint Michael is holding the ‘scale of justice’ while he too is poised to strike Satan down. Regardless of the difference between the two statues, scales or no scale, the meaning is unchanged and clear; “evil will be dealt with and brought to justice”. In this biblical this scene Satan is being cast down into hell for warring against God’s will and harming humanity. Still, the meaning remains unchanged

 

The back of the two statues are different as well. The rear of the household Saint Michael has his robe artfully flowing in the wind and the backside of Satan’s leather-like wings are showing, Now here is where the different comes in, the rear of the garden Saint Michael has Satan’s serpent like body attempting to wrap around the archangel as he (Satan) tries to prevent Saint Michael from striking with the sword

 

While took these picture of Saint Michael in the Mary Garden today. I did not leave him there because he need some weather protective spray. Once he is sprayed to protect him from the Florida sun and rain I will place him back out there. Today, I just wanted to see if the area I chose to place him was a good spot. It is but I want to add a backdrop of artificial plants to hide the ac unit. Up until last week I had live plants there but I worried about the ac unit pulling pollen, dirt and things from the pots into the house. My lungs feel so full and heavy, while my throat is hot and very painful.

 

Anyway, here are the pictures taken today.

09/19/2021-Garden Saint Michael

09/19/2021-Household Saint Michael

09/19/2021-Household Saint Michael Rear

09/19/2021-Garden Saint Michael Rear

 

As the pictures of the outdoor St Michael shows, I had him outside briefly to see how he would look in the area that I chose to place him. I brought him back in and today added my do-it-yourself half circle ivy covered trellis to hide the ac unit. Doing so made this area a little more dramatic.

 

Well, this is all I have to share today so stay well, and until next time, 

         Chow, Darlings.

My Fresh Baked Hoagie/Sub Rolls

Hello, Darlings

Yesterday, I finally received my GE 30" Free-Standing Electric Range in Black from Sears. It took longer than normal to get it, I held on tight to it because back in the first week of June it was on sale for $476.99. Now, if you act fast, you can buy it for $ 485.06; however, keep in mind that on the GE website it is listed as on back order. Therefore, no matter where you buy it, you could be looking at a delivery day between two to six weeks.

Nevertheless, the range arrived in time, and today we are craving Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches made with homemade hoagie rolls. While my bread maker is great for making and baking loaf bread, it will only make the dough for rolls, donuts, French bread and baguettes on the dough setting, so an oven is necessary.

Below is a photo of my fresh baked hoagie/sub rolls for tonight’s dinner. The irregular shape ones are just for eating with any meal. I ate a half of one with an omelet this morning. The recipe is a standard one, but you can use your own.

Until next time,

      Chow, Darlings

 

Bread Maker Raisin Bran Oatmeal Breakfast Bread

Hello, Darlings

I hope this post finds you with raised spirits on this find hot and humid Friday afternoon. As for me, I am avoiding the heat.

Today, I want to share with you an update on my Kellogg's Honey Hazelnut Raisin Bran Muffins that I posted on April 06, 2016. Click the above link to see and download the recipe.

Anyway, I woke at the ungodly hours of 2A.M., and after tossing and turning for awhile, I got up and decided to try and bake my muffin recipe in a different method.

By this I mean without an oven. I have been waiting on my new range for over a month now, but the company that I bought it from has promised that they will deliver it next week. I hope so, because I have had to pull out nearly every gadget that we own to make proper meals. By using them I have learned some new techniques for cooking meals I would normally use a range to do.

To convert my muffin recipe I substituted the Hazelnut meal for fresh Oatmeal flour. I made it from some regular old fashioned oatmeal in my Instant Pot Ace Plus 10-in-1 Smoothie and Soup Blender a week ago. However, for this recipe with the exception of the raisin bran and the extra cup of raisins, I intermittently blended the remaining ingredients on the Smoothie setting, liquids first followed by dry ingredients. I thought of using my stand mixer but chose the blender instead.

After blending the flour batter well, I poured it into a large mixing bowl and stirred in the raisin bran cereal. Once the cereal was well mixed with the flour batter, I let it sit for about 8 minutes to moisten the cereal.

While the mixture was sitting, I lightly sprayed the baking pan of the bread maker (something I do when baking regular bread as well). After the 8-minutes were up I added the cereal batter to the bread maker (remember we’re still waiting on the new range) on the Sweet setting with a medium crust, and waited for the bread maker to sound the beep for me to add the extra raisins. Once I did this, I went and took a nap.

I must confess that I did worry that attempting to bake the muffins into a breakfast bread using my Hamilton bread maker would be a colossus failure. However, after I woke up two hours later, I found that the bread had baked perfectly and was still warm in the bread maker. It gave off a wonderful smell throughout the house.

I have added the adaptive recipe below for those of you game enough to give it a try.

Until next time (hopefully I will have my new range installed),

Chow, Darlings.

Download the PDF file.

It’s Bread Making Day in My House

Hello, Darlings

About a month ago I started baking bread again. I started because finding the types of fresh specialty breads and regular bread that I like was getting dicey. I have run across breads and rolls that were so close to their expiration dates that they molded in less than a week, as oppose to bread bought prior to the pandemic. Moldy bread is unattractive as well as highly unhealthy. Therefore, I pulled out my Hamilton Beach Bread Maker Machine and got to work.

I love my bread machine. I bought it because with my arthritic hands kneading dough was slow and sometime painful, but the machine has allowed me to painlessly prefect my bread making skills, and also yield some very tasty bread products.

I also use the bread machine to create dough for making specialty breads, rolls, pie/pizza crust and donuts in the oven. Today, I made two loaves of breads. The first is my regular weekly loaf of white bread and the second is a loaf of Focaccia bread baked with fresh chopped basil and grated Parmesan cheese. While the Focaccia bread baked in the oven, simultaneously, the white bread baked in the bread maker on the express setting saving a lot of time. Photos below.

Focaccia bread and white bread

 

The top of the Focaccia looks burnt in the photos but it is not. It is just the darkening of the baked cheese and basil. It tastes wonderful.

Both recipes are in the Hamilton Beach Bread Maker Machine recipe book, which can be found online. However, they both call for bread flour, which I find too heavy for most of my breads; so I substitute it with equal measures of unbleached all purpose flour and a teaspoon of vital wheat gluten. I learned that vital wheat gluten helps bread to rise properly.

The breads bake up well with delicate buttery crusts, and are springy with soft tasty centers. I don’t know how long the breads I bake actually last, because after a week I toss out the old loaves and begin again; one regular loaf and one specialty loaf.

Until next time,

Chow, Darlings

Hello, Darlings

Since I was sorting out some files on my computer, I thought I would post this photo of me taken on April 28, 2021. It is one of the photos that sent to my family out of state. 

I really like this outfit. It's classy.

Until next time,

     Chow, Darlings.