I have not sewn a stitch in

Fourteen days. Not a cross stitch, not a needlepoint, not a good ol' Bernina straight stitch.

I am reaching the verge of a melt down. I have not been taking time to spend creating things to easy the pressures of work and soon I will implode.

Beware of the fall out, it's not unlike toxic rain.

Baked Acorn Squash Tutorial

I've been planning on posting this for a while now. It's not hard to make, there are many different versions out there but this is mine. We have baked acorn squash fairly often with all kinds of main dishes.

There are 2 of us so I make 2 acorn squashes - usually gives us something for our lunches the next day too. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Slice them in half and clean out the seeds. Slice in the middle between the stem and the top cross wise. You can also do a parallel cut to remove the stem and the top making them "sit" flat on the plate later.




Line a cookie sheet (I use one with walls) with aluminum foil. I then put 2 Tablespoons of coconut oil onto the foil lined cookie sheet. Usually, it is solidified so I put into the oven to melt before I put the squash in.


When I put the squash in, I make sure to rub the squash around in the oil so the cut edges get nice and oiled up.


Bake for about 30 minutes - note you should start checking for them to be fork tender after about 20 minutes. Depending on the age of the squash or size, the cooking time can vary.



The coconut oil will have caramelized a little given a nice nutty flavor to the squash.

Serve with your favorite main dish like the pauper meal and enjoy.

Holiday Book Reading

I started reading "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen on our little weekend trip to San Francisco last week. I had seen where several of my friends had read it on Goodreads and heard that the movie was really good.

I can tell you, I love to read but don't take the time to just sit and read, I'm usually sewing, gardening, cooking or stitching something. But on flights and early mornings during vacation, I love to read to spend up quite time to relax.

This book is very well written and the imagery is outstanding. I would recommend it to just about anyone (not kids) but anyone wanting to escape for a little while into another world of life in the circus.

Ferry Building

We've had gourmet cheese, smoke salmon jerky, copacola meat and bumped elbows with hundreds of tourist. Now we are a line that's not moving to get a table at Hogs Island Oyster Co.. We really should nit have had breakfast at the hotel even though it was wonderful. I was sad to hear the cavier place is closed down as I really wanted to do a sampling with champagne.

We will make our way back to Union Square for shopping and synch in a few hours.

Haight Ashbury

Toured around there today after a huge breakfast at Sears Cafe. I found my inner hippie.

Wine at pier 39

Must find oysters soon and not look like such a tourist!

It's a whole new month already!

It's now June. Where has the year gone? It's been busy and wonderful and sad and all kinds of things so far. I've sewed, I've cooked, I've traveled, and I've gardened. All things I said I wanted to do more of this year. My only other goal has been to get my but back in shape. You may not know it, but I used to be a little bit athletic. I'd workout, I'd bike, I'd run and swim. I did all those things because I love to be active. Then I started a high stress job and let it take over and put on a few too many pounds stress eating. Go figure, I should have been stress working out instead!

Anyway, my gift now to myself to honor being 40 is to get in shape. I am only accountable for myself on this. I want it for me. I want to feel healthy and strong. I want it. Let me tell you, I can take the easy way out. I have all the medical insurance and coverage for medical weight loss. Oh I could do that, but I have never been one to give in so easy. Because I know I can do it the physical way rather than the surgical. I know what to eat, how to eat, when to eat, what and how much exercise to do it. I don't need a trainer, I know what to do.

Now I just need to do it, and see if I can drag that hubs along with me.