CAN'T WAIT TO PLAY

Hello lovely dovelies and welcome to another post. I'm Ivy reporting live from the kitchen table. Where outside the sliding glass doors, it's snowing and cold as balls. 

I really don't know how cold balls are. I guess that just depends.

In other news, I hit HomeGoods/HomeSense for photography napkins. I LOVE these green napkins. Can't wait to play. Think, light and airy photoshoot.

Also snagged this bigger-than-my-head, made in Italy stoneware plate. Love it, love it, love it. My instant reaction to holding this plate is, I can't wait to put food on it. 

Thanks to Beginner Bootcamp (at The Bite Shot), and School of Chocolate (on Netflix), I now own black plates. Made in Portugal, eleven bucks for both. Think, dark and moody food photography. 

Cannot wait to play. 

And that's me, reporting live from the kitchen which by the by, I woke to a cleaned-off and mess-free kitchen table two days in a row now. That's right. I'm hot stuff and I know it. 

Catch you Boogerbutts on the flip side. 

Huggs and bugs, Me. 

It's about time to put some homemade blueberry oat and spelt waffles on these plates. Yum!

Swiss Cheese Brain (+ new banner day)

Burrrrr and Hello Spring or Autumn. It's spring here, well, sorta kinda, maybe. Heat on high and very cold and that's okay too. Today's tasks include a lot of cleaning and if time, paint a wall and readjust kitchen pegboards. Though likely not do the wall today but hey, never say never. Who knows, after I get warm I might Wonder Woman right through this place. 

It could happen. 

Maybe. 

In other news, the mini electric pressure cooker just went off. In a few minutes I'll have elbow noodles, salsa and non-dairy cheese in a bowl, with a spoon, swinging my feet at the table. 

I LOVE my pressure cookers. All three of them. Also, I love that the noodles cook in the salsa and the non-dairy cheese gets melty. 

Get in my belly.

In other, other news, I've got a bit of a Swiss cheese brain when it comes to some of the manual camera settings so last Christmas I joined a Beginner Bootcamp (online), to help backfill my education. There are words that I don't understand. Today I'm ready to fill in the cheese holes. And since I have soooo much cleaning to do today, I'll grab the Bluetooth headphones, listen to classes and plow through the mess. Then another day, listen through with notepad and camera in hand. 

Get those cheese holes filled but good. 

Lastly, I LOVE working on my book. Really fun. I love, love, love that I'm pointed at something. It's the best. I mean I write all the time anyway, but being pointed directly at a book, that I'll then share, well, that's just better than a baked potato. 

And I love potatoes. 

Well Boogerbutts, that's all that's fit to print. Happy new season, wherever you are. 

THE GRUMPY SPATULA

Saturday I was The Grumpy Spatula. I woke with neck, head, shoulder, arm, hand pain and very, very, very tired. Thankfully the grumpies left that same day. Though the next two days the pain didn't. Today the pain is manageable and I'm back to work and enjoying the mad scientist baker life.

Lemme tell ya'. It's soooooo nice not having the video camera gear stuck in the corner and hanging over the work bench. Just walking over to the kitchen work bench feels freeing. 

Good, good stuff. 

Today's bake is a chocolate chocolate chip. Instead of beans and/or sweet potatoes/yams, I used more homemade non-dairy yoghurt. The last few bakes, I've included homemade yoghurt. Today is the first time writing a chocolate powder and yoghurt bake. 

It. Works. So. Good. 

The bake turned out light, airy and also fudgy. Which is a funny combo because fudgy doesn't always mean light and airy. At least not to me. 

I'm tellin' ya. This homemade yoghurt phase I'm in, I just love it. Goes well for dips, spreads, bakes, flour tortillas. Non-dairy yoghurt at the market is over-priced (to me), with fillers not needed (again, to me). Making it at home ...

Game changer. 

Alrighty, Boogerbutts. Be back later. I'm off to snap a shot or two, maybe make yoghurt flour tortillas and then close the kitchen for the day and dig this, no big mess. Who I am? I dunno but it's WONDERFUL to have dish done and dusted. Up next, repaint the one wall. Not today. Another time. 

Catch you on the flip side. Huggs and bugs, Me. 

ZOMBIE CRAWL (now with more yarn)

So guess what? Yesterday after writing, I took a yarn break and then I yanked all the camera/video gear out of the kitchen. I didn't like it in there. Actually, that's a lie. I HATED it in there. 

Hated it. 

Now, I love my kitchen again. I still have stuff to move back into place and then fix one of the walls and that's okay. Gonna be a cold overcast weekend. Perfect for indoor projects. Unless I score some new yarn then all bets are off. 

In other news, the book writing is going well. It's wonderful to be pointed at something. Each morning before the sun comes up, I zombie crawl myself from coffin to writing desk and I'm over the moon that I've not talked myself out of this project. 

 

And in other, other news, I'm meeting up with a girlfriend for lunch and then stop at the yarn store to take a little spin. Ya' know just a little spin. Just to see. 

Just in case there's new yarn arrivals. Because well, you know, I gotzta.

And that my Boogerbutts is all that's fit to print. Bring on the weekend. I'm ready! 

IT. FEELS. SO. GOOD.

The good news is all last week I worked on the bake book as in, sat at the writing desk and actually wrote for publication instead of mad scientist notes in the kitchen. I have a lot of notes so ya' know what I did? I didn't look at any of those. 

Nopers.

To start, I grabbed the laptop and typed up what I made the night before, including method and tools used. I haven't done photos yet to go with each and that's okay. That'll come. 

The bad news is, I'm not on Blogger as much, some chores have also sorta not gotten done and making video is on the back burner. That's okay too. Those'll come.

Is those'll a word? I really don't know? But I did make myself giggle as I write this. 

What's really nice is the change inside of me. Instead of thinking, who will buy this? Why do this when there's so many non-dairy, no-egg bake books out there? Then circling back to who will buy this? Why write this? Forget that nonsense. I don't care. Right now I'm back to waking before the sun, ass in chair and doing the writing. 

I had no idea I had so much to say about food. My gosh I do. 

It feels like I'm on the other side. The why and who, told to sit quietly in the corner, because I'm busy in the other corner, writing. 

It. Feels. So. Good. 

In other news, I'm yarning in the evenings and yesterday I ran out of yellow yarn. Thankfully I got it on sale last week at Hobby Lobby. They have yarn 30 percent off every other week. All yarn. Not just certain yarns or weird deals like Michaels and the soon-to-be-gone, JoAnn Fabrics. I'm sad for the workers of JF but I hated their yarn sales or that most of the time, my yarn rung up wrong at checkout. At Hobby Lobby, it's 30 percent off. No fuss, no muss.

I love that. 

In other, other news, I also went back to reading in bed. There's this whole Kindle mess that happened last month which lead me to find Project Gutenberg which I never heard of, and now I'm reading Agatha Christie for the first time, up next Sherlock. For free, on ANY digital device I fancy. 

How fun is that?

Alrighty Boogerbutts. I'm headed to the kitchen to check on the bagel dough. Making plain and pretzel bagels. So stinkin' good. I'll be around a bit later to catch up on blogs. Just need to get some baking done, declutter the bowl category and if time, the pens/markers/pencil category as well. Then tomorrow before the sun comes up, it's back at the writing desk to write up the bagel recipe and method. 

Hot dog. Look at me. I'm really doing this. 

It. Feels. So. Good. 

Catch you guys again soon. 

Huggs & Bugs, Me. 

PS: More on the MASS declutter coming to a blog post soon. 

MASS DECLUTTER (part 1) (+ Tim's Cooties)

For Valentine's Day Tim gave me his cooties. That was NOT fun.  On the bright side, he's been back to work and for me, it's my second day fully dressed. 

Feels good.  

In other news, I'm about to dive into a MASS DECLUTTER. Which means I touch everything that I own and for me, that means by category. I never declutter by room and I never take it slow once I jump in. And, since I've done this kind of job before (about ten years ago when I said goodbye to 95 percent of my stuff), I know what to expect this go. Should be quick and easy. 

Famous last words? 

Let's find out. 

In the meanwhile, happy to be dressed, happy it's the weekend! Bring it on! 

HELLO NEW WEEK (and new banner)

I wanna tell you that the three day Valentine weekend was wonderful however only the first day rocked. For the rest of it, Smoochie Face got sick and that's not fun. Glad he was home to rest. About to make him something to eat. Before I go, here's the new banner. Just a quick post for now. Catch up again soon. 

Huggs and bugs, Me. 

SMOOCH, SMOOCH, SMOOCH AND SMOOCH!

TABLE SWAP TIME

Three days with the new air fryer oven lid. There are pros and cons to an air fryer lid and I had a few issues with the latch. Thought I'd have to return it and then last night and my brain came up with a solution. So far, it's working. I love this new oven toy. Even turns the correct size skillet into a mini oven. 

Pretty freakin' cool.

In other news, the office and kitchen are in moving-mode. To film in the kitchen, a longer table might help so it's table swap time. Smaller table goes in the work room, longer workbench goes in the kitchen. 

As I get back into making videos I'm also thinking about what kind of book I want to put the time into and how videos tie into the book. Right now I'm leaning into a mix of bakes and non-bakes. I've also started and stopped this project many times over the years. Talking myself out of it, then back in and back out again. This time I don't want to talk myself out of writing a proper book with my food photography. I can see and feel the book in my hands. 

No talking myself out of it.

In other, other news I made a kick-butt good lunch with the lid. See the cartoon of me below. Food was killer good. Ate a giant bowl of it. Delightful. Up next I'm tossing popovers in the oven for Smoochie Faee and then right back to the table swap. If just the tables get moved today, that's a great start for tomorrow. 

And that my Boogerbutts is all that's fit to print. Chat again soon.

Huggs and Bugs, Me.

I'M READY TO DO THE WORK

Really, really good start to the week. And, dig this, the air fryer oven lid arrived and I made a few videos with it. Haven't looked at the footage yet. Mornings are the best time for my brain to edit and I like going to bed knowing where I left off the day before. Next session, edits! Mainly though, I had fun. I never thought I'd go back to video. 

Happy to be wrong.

Although I haven't actually published anything yet or written out a proper recipe for others to read. For myself, I have piles and piles and I mean PILES of bake formulas that I've written over the years. Time to turn those bad boys into something good. I'm ready to do the work. 

Pretty cool. 

That's about all. I told myself that I wouldn't work more than 12 hours today and that also means no more screen time (even for fun). Plus, Smoochie Face has game with the Goobers tonight and I'm headed offline for a cheesy chickflick. I don't know much about it, just that the main guy from Twisters is in it. 

Be around tomorrow to catch up on your blogs. Right now it's time for me to unplug, get in my jammies and slooooooooow down.

Chat soon. 

Huggs and bugs, Me.

UN-ICK-A-FIED (plus new Valentine banner)

Hello Saturday. Lovely to see you again. Today we had organic sprouted brown spelt, oat and buckwheat waffles with a little strong flour, homemade vegan yoghurt and dried strawberries tossed in. The strawberries were meh, I would not use them crushed again. Maybe if I make a strawberry powder, that could work.

All that's needed now is a new camera card (good fast one), because this time going back to video, I get to correct the things that went sideways last time. Which includes housing raw video. So ... headed to a store with a door to snag me a new card. External storage for another day. What's gonna be nice is one card will house ALL new videos and the second card will house all related photos for the video and bake book.

I always wanted to write my own bake book. I've talked about it many times and haven't done anything to get there. Now, I've got a fresh start. So by Monday, when the new non-instapot brand air fryer oven lid arrives, I'll be rockin' in the ktichen. 

In other, other news I am stinky. It's time to get un-ick-a-fied. Because boy do I need a shower. Or two. The last day or so I've had a battle with an earache. Today is the first morning that it's gone, gone, gone. 

Gone.

In other news, this is my new banner. Shug and Mad Snapper decorated their blog with hearts and I thought heck, that's fun. I wanna play too. 

And that my Boogerbutts is about it. Smoochie Face ran to the post and the market for a few goodies. Mostly gonna be a work/play day. And come Monday, I press the record button. 

Let's see what happens. 

Huggs and Bugs, Me.