Not Enough Sage in the World for This Shit

With gas prices skyrocketing into unheard of amounts, I am having a difficult time in finding deliveries to do. When I do find them, it's a quick math class choice if I'm able to take it or not. Before it was, "Hmm. Do I want to drive 14 miles there and then come back again for that amount of money?" Now, it's more of, "Geez. Can I drive 14 miles for 10 bucks and still make any sort of income or am I just running tread off my tires and gas out of my tank for a non-profit charity for someone who is simply not getting off their butt to get the food themselves?" It's a quandary, but one I don't lose sleep over. 

Since the gas in this area is now at $5.19 at a cheap station, and $5.29 and up elsewhere, the deliveries have slowed down to almost nothing. The orders are not coming in either. I have spent several days sitting in my chair, playing a game on the laptop while I wait. Most of the time, there are absolutely no orders coming in. People have stopped spending money. Why? Nobody can afford anything. The gas and food prices are so high now that it's best to hang onto that hard earned cash rather than spend it on anything such as food that is brought to your door or office. And don't even get me started on the cost of living in a home. 

Anyway, since I'm in down time lately, I have been working on other projects. Uh-oh. Yes, that does get me into trouble most of the time. My poor Terry. He puts up with it all and supports me, bless his heart, but typically it gets us into collecting more crap or other aspects of my ventures that does not make us any money. It's not as if he is not a good provider by any means, but I need something to do. For Dog's sake, I have been holding conversations with my fur babies during the day, and I'm understanding them when they speak back. My mind is like oatmeal. It's beginning to slush around up there. 

The other day I found myself watching the smoke travel down the "waterfall" shaped incense burner and found it all amazing. I'm an educated woman for God's sake. I'm losing it. I find myself drawing cards from my oracle decks time and time again to where the cards stop making sense. Even Spirit is like, "Hey man, I've got nothin'." 

But I went into the kitchen this weekend and found myself something to do. Not sure how beneficial it was, but it was something to do all the same. 

I went to the store and purchased some flax and chia seeds, plus some whole wheat flour. I blended the whole wheat with the King Arthur's 12% flour I have, and it made the lightest, fluffiest bread I've ever baked. Do we need bread as diabetics? Oh, hell no, but it was whole wheat and healthy seeds, right? 

The bread slices were perfect with some butter slathered all over them when they were nice and hot. A beautiful thing. Plus, it kept me from coming up with some other ideas that could have caused trouble. 

Bread fresh from the oven. Is there anything that smells as heavenly?

A great tasting bread. So soft and filled with healthy grains. 

This bread making process wasn't taking up enough time. I was bored again later. I pulled out the bowls and whisks and began again. This time, it was cream puffs. 

Cream puffs that would be rather boring because I do not have the ingredients to make ganache to drizzle on top, and I flat out did not want to drive to the store this late. Boring as they may be, they all turned out well. Pate a choux is a delicate, sometimes difficult to make French pastry dough. I love making it and enjoy the end result. Pate a choux is great for eclairs, cream puffs, and even the French cheese puffs known as Gougères. Wonderful invention!

My cream puffs were filled with a sugar-free pudding and, like I said, without a topping. I didn't even have any powdered sugar substitute for diabetic consumption. Oh, well. The pastry along with the messy pudding took care of the chocolate craving just fine. 

Now, to me, these look more like biscuits. They are actually light, fluffy little puffs or shells just waiting for that lucious filling. Pate a choux bakes and leaves a cavern inside as if it is made for that filling. Open them up and drop in any filling. Pudding, Boston creme, ice cream, or whatever your desire happens to be in the moment. I have made these filled with raspberry creme before and topped them with chocolate ganache. Pate a choux is a wonderful way to feed that dessert craving with a flair. 

The first bite entertains the delicate shell test. With a flakey, light crunch on the outside yet delicate and soft on the inside. Ah, but that lovely chocolate filling. They may be messy in appearance, but they were so delicious going down!

No, I do not have a pastry bag to fill the puffs either. All of my baking equipment was lost during a move, including my $400 Kitchen Aide mixer. Needless to say, I was quite upset. Barely able to let it go, I struggled through a couple of years with that memory and was able to eventually let it go. We should never get attached to material items, but it is difficult at times. 

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Meanwhile, back on the homestead, I was walking our husky, Togo, when I looked up and saw the threat of thunder and lightning. The barbed wire is there because I took this photo over our neighbor's car lot business. He keeps it safer by adding barbed wire on top of the fence he has around the property. Very ugly if you ask me. Unfortunately, it is needed to help protect his valuables. 

Anyway, I checked on the sky and the weather predictions for the evening. While I was walking Togo, I also took a good look at our eight-to-10-foot climbing rose bush that is in full bloom. This year it seems to be very heavy in blooms but stunning in appearance. 

Gorgeous rose bush and it sits next to a honeysuckle bush, creating the most wonderful scents. 

I had a bad experience with this bush this week though. I went out to walk Togo and saw a bag lying underneath the bush. This plant is so large that it droops over a bare space underneath, hiding its branches. There is a big bare space under it, creating a good hiding place or safe area to sleep.

 The garbage bag I spied was placed over one end of the bush, as if someone was either hiding or sleeping under this plant or had left it there in hopes it was hidden well enough to protect the contents. 

Contents? I have no idea what that may entail. I never opened it. It was rather dark when I spotted this bag, so I left it alone for the night. The following morning, I had decided I would walk Togo, turn him loose in the house again, then snag that bag and place it by the large fence in the alleyway. I don't want it on our property. I had already found a knife and someone's very old jacket lying in the grass in the alley this week. Not good. 

As I walked Togo, I glanced in toward the side of the bush where the bag was yesterday. It was gone. Good. I didn't really want to take care of it anyway. Never wanted to touch it or deal with it in any form.  I have suspicions that it was a homeless person wandering through the alleys, hiding crap so they don't have to carry it but with full intention to come back and get it later. 

The coat is still down the alley. I picked up the knife so nobody would pop a car tire, or an animal would not be injured. Anyway, issue fixed. Well, besides the coat. I don't want to pick it up. As far as I'm concerned, it can stay there and rot for the rest of its life. 

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Well, that's it for the week. Like I said, it has been boring. I have a tea party with my dog and cats to attend, so I will end this post here, for now. I do believe they are waiting for dog biscuits to go along with that tea. Maybe some catnip brownies?

Here is wishing you all a very good week! We wish you all the best and thank you for reading the blog. We appreciate you. 

Until next post, goodbye for now. 

Love & light, 

Vicki & Terry Macrae

Two old people getting fat because the wife is bored