Projects

I spent much of this past weekend cooking. On Saturday I picked up five pounds of ground beef and som Bob's Red Mill Potato Flakes to make this recipe for gluten free meatballs, from America's Test Kitchen "How Can it be Gluten Free Cookbook." It is a favorite of ours, and we don't miss breadcrumbs at all. I multiplied the recipe by five, cooked the meatballs in the oven, and divided the batch into seven freezer bags, six of which were frozen for future enjoyment. On Sunday I baked a loaf of French bread and made a pot of homemade marinara sauce to go with the meatballs, then whipped up some fresh pasta with my Atlas pasta machine in the form of spaghetti. Oh my, it was good, and quite worth the effort.

Monday morning saw us heading over to the home of son, Tim, and his wife, Bernie, to help with projects. Bob and Tim worked on closing off a back door, since their tiny kitchen had two.

Here it is, ready for plywood and siding.

Bernie and I, meanwhile, began a re-upholstery job on their sofa. While neither of us had ever done this kind of thing before, we bravely jumped in without fear.

Work was halted when I stopped to give Bernie a lesson on how to use her sewing machine, but she's a fast learner and we hope to finish the project tomorrow.

Speaking of projects, Bob recently made me a stand for my iPhone after I realized I could clear my bedside stand of extra stuff if I used my iPhone for a clock and white noise machine. With the app called "White Noise," my phone displays a clock face all night and blocks outside sounds as well.  Keep it plugged in and it charges at the same time. Handy!

Bob designed this simple, yet effective holder out of wood scraps. It's perfect.

Tomorrow we go back to Tim and Bernie's to finish what we started today. It's shaping up to be a busy week.