Never Enough Garlic OR Time to Sew

Last week, Leon attended a "strings" event at the local library.  It was an introduction to stringed instruments and he decided that he likes the violin and the cello.

I'll have to pull out one of my old violins for him to try out. 

In the afternoon, the library also had a pixels craft project.  Cool!  Leon loved it so much that he came home and dug into the pixels that his great-aunt gave him a few weeks ago.  Wow, he loves them!  As soon as he can figure out my iron, there is no stopping him.  At this point, I have at least one of his projects that needs to be ironed together before someone else knocks it off the counter and the pixels go flying.

He did it over breakfast.

Anyway, the weekend... what did I do? hmmm

Friday night I scrambled and made a navy top that is identical to my black flowy top.  I needed something to go with my crazy pants that Meri didn't want.  I'll find a copy of a pic that someone took of me at the sewing meeting and chop my head off the photo.  I'll tell you why in a minute.

Saturday morning, I stopped by Meri's work and showed off my outfit.  Reject MY handmade clothes, will you??!  She admitted that she liked how the outfit turned out.  Well, she can't have it.

After picking up a pop and some fence screws to go, I headed to my ASG sewing meeting.

I've been there all of once since I think November.  It was great to see so many new faces and other friendly ones.  I had a few friends ask me what I've been up to and what I've been sewing.  

"Um... I'll get into that at share time."  that seemed to appease them.

So I stood up in front of everyone when it came my time to share.  I'd brought my cell phone and two patterns that I've made over and over and love.  I started out saying, "Ok, you all know I'm weird.  Look at these pants!"  Then explained why I hadn't been there for such a long time.  "Well, in January we found out that my mom was dying."  and that's where I lost it.

Shoot.  I'd practiced the whole way there with what I was going to say and didn't calculate in tears.

Well, they came anyway.  darn.  I finished my story with as much control over my quivering chin as I could and tears streaming down my face.  Don't fight it.  Explaining my sewing projects of two coffins and tons of tops and leggings to keep my mind busy.

I had given out my cell phone with pics of the coffins and it made the rounds around 5 tables of women and I got lots of hugs afterwards.  Those women are great.   One of my closer friends of the group lost her husband a week or so before Dad died.  Another one said that one year, she lost 5 members of her extended family.  "please God let's slow this down a bit more!"

It's going to take time and even then, you don't know what is going to trigger grief.  The other day I was working on my puzzle...  sigh.  I did get one of Dad's puzzles about the attack on Pearl Harbor so maybe I was thinking about starting that after this one.  don't remember.  But it hit hard.

Anyway, Father's Day was another hard one.  I kept busy though.  After church, we drove a ways and had a great lunch at a restaurant when Ryan's Jen works weekends.  We hadn't been there before and they have a Ms Pacman and Galaga game in the corner...  Next time we'll bring more quarters!

Maddy called us on a DUO call on the way home!

We've GOT to plan a trip out to see them soon!

Came home and worked on prepping for Father's Day dinner that night.  Had to debone a bunch of chicken I made a couple days ago and froze some in bags for future use.  Then made bone broth in the Instant pot with the remnants and several cups of water.  I also cut up an onion and some celery and tossed it in too.  I set it for 60 minutes.  While that was cooking, I pulled up a bunch of rhubarb and made a rhubarb crisp and then packaged up the rest in 3 cups baggies for the freezer for later.  I need to do that again.  The patch is getting big.

Then while those things were cooking, I left Robb and Leon in charge of pulling out the rhubarb crisp when the timer goes off and I went to look at houses with Meri and a realtor.  She's looking to buy a house!  It's NOT going to interfere with her dream of moving to California as she plans to rent it out while she's gone.  We visited a couple, then stopped in to see Ada and her hubs for a few minutes before the last one.  

Whew!  The last one was full of animals and smelled SO strongly of cat urine.  Yikes...  It made my eyes hurt.  They're going to need to bleach that house a few times before they catch a buyer.

It won't be Meri.

Then I got home and the bone broth was done.  Pulled that out and then put in frozen chicken tenderloins and set it for 10 minutes.  While that cooked, I got lots of desserts done.  I made several cups of chocolate and white chocolate mousse (meese?) (mice?) from a box mix and got them stuck in the garage fridge.  Then chopped up an onion and after cleaning the instant pot again, I put in a little oil and set it on saute.  Fried up the onion along with about a 1/4 cup of minced garlic.  I don't know if that is equivalent to 2 cloves of garlic (or to the 2 bulbs of garlic that I accidentally made this with the first time, 30 years ago) but it turned out good.

Here's my recipe.  It started out as a Better Homes and Garden cookbook recipe on page 301 30 years ago, but it has been tweaked since.

Chicken Cacciatore

Cooked chicken (however many you think you need) (I used the rest of my tenderloin packet of probably 8 or so.)  (Probably 3-5 chicken breasts would be good)  Once cooked, cut up into chunks and set aside.  It can be fried.

Saute a chopped onion and however much garlic you can handle. (see above..  According to Robb, I could have put in more.)

Stir a lot.  Once that is translucent and smelling up the house REAL good, turn off the saute button.

BTW: This was my first time using the Instant Pot for this.  Usually I do it in the crock pot or on the stove or oven.  depending on my mood and how much time I've got.

Add a 15 oz (approx) can of chopped tomatoes in sauce.  

Add a large can (probably around 24-30 oz) of crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce.

When you wonder if this is enough to feed the crowd with, add another can of chopped tomatoes.

Then add a teaspoon of salt, basil and oregano.

Add a few shakes of pepper and one or two bay leaves.  If you don't fish them both out at the end, then whoever finds one in their dish wins a prize.  We had to explain to Leon that there isn't really a prize.... It's just the honor of finding it.

Chopped up a green pepper and tossed it in too.

Then tossed in the chicken chunks.

Set the Instant Pot to 15 minutes or whatever you think.  It still takes 10 minutes or so to bring it to pressure, so that gave me almost 30-40 minutes to finish up everything else.

You're supposed to add 1/4 cup of white wine when the cacciatore is done and then cook it for a few more minutes, but I didn't have any and usually make it without.

Did a quick release on the Pot when it got done.

I made rice in a big pot on the stove.  If I'd had a second Instant Pot, I'd have made it in there.  Oh well.  1.5 red solo cup of rice to 3.5 - 4 red solo cups of the above mentioned bone broth with a little water.  Brought it to a boil, then set it to low with a tight lid for 20 minutes.  Not opening it until the 20 minutes was up.

The chicken mixture was served on top of the rice.

I also boiled up some baby carrots to serve along side.  

If I'd had a third Instant Pot, I'd have made use of it.

With the kids help, we set the table with china and served.  Everyone was stuffed.  Good.

Robb got an air fryer from Meri and they're plotting out when they'll play with their next toy.  

Ryan got a Best Buy card from Leon and plotted out what he was going to buy with it.

Leon gave Ryan and Jen some of his pixel creations and they loved them.

I was so exhausted I left ALL the dishes until this morning.  And when I came downstairs this morning, I found Ryan and Leon doing them!  Not all of them...  there were a lot.  But a good chunk filled up the dishwasher and I did the rest by hand.  The kitchen has been reclaimed!

So that's my weekend.  I hope to get some sewing done this week.  I'm working on a maxi skirt out of the L.A. fabric and wondering what to make to match it for a top.  It has the potential to be cruise clothes...

What'd you do this weekend?