Welp, I am pleasently surprised. Other than my legs hurting like mad, it really wasn't that difficult to make.

Unfortunately, the past two months my taste has been extremely erratic, so I can't say how this tastes, other than very beany (but I do know it should taste just fine. I've made gorditas with this same sweet bean paste for at least two years now. Tested with the wife, though, and the cinnamon I added is what is the strongest flavor).

As for the mayocoba beans, they were the best for making sweet paste that I could reliably find around our little city.

As for the recipe. Meh, there's nothing really to write down. I have never been a heavy sugar eater, and these health issues have made eating lots of sugar a bloody pain in the arse. So I added just enough sugar...(maybe, as I really can't taste the sugar right now. So I guessed, HAH!). A wee bit of cinnamon, and a pinch of salt.

Now, as for the mochi, I did follow a recipe I found on youtube. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzfKNUL78pY)

12 oz. Water
8 oz. Sweet rice flour
4 oz. Sugar

mixed the mochi in a skillet, let it soak for a bit and rolled the sweet bean paste into balls, fried on medium heat, then low heat, then placed onto a pile of cornstarch, and went from there.

It really didn't stay as hot as I was afraid it was going to be. The bean paste could have used a light freeze/chill, or drying as most of it was too sticky to form the mochi. Plus, I should have made a slightly larger batch, as I tried to thin the mochi up which tore on several of them. Meh, live and learn.

I wish I could taste them to their fullest, but meh, it's my fault for trusting a doctor, HAH!

Just adding this an hour later to show how bloody erratic my taste is. Now the bean flavor is extremely faint and the sugar is very very strong. Now it's almost sickly sweet, 🙄, and I know I didn't add that much sugar to the bean paste.

I keep forgetting about the Lemmy groups, and my health sucks, so this post is just trying to make my addled brain remember these groups, heh.

Anyhoo, this project is for my elder son (if anyone remembers the Vault Boy one I made for my younger son a few months back), and I'm attempting a few new tricks.

1. I stapled this monks cloth to a painting frame. It does look like I'll need to do some tightening once I'm done, though. So I hope I can figure that out.
2. I painted the outside, eyes, and mouth, and I do like how the mouth and eyes make the fabric pop.
3. I found a larger needle that came with a kit on one heck of a sale at Hobby Lobby, and that is what I'm using. However, it is a tad too large for the yarn I got. So quite a bit of it looks rather frazzled, :thinking:.
4. And I'm attempting (all-be-it a poor one) flow. (I have no idea what the proper term would be, heh, but it's where the thread leans in one direction, or flows along a line so each row...erm...flows with every other row. (Oof! Well hopefully you can understand that gibberish, HAH).

Meh, regardless of the issues (and boy can I not draw worth snot) it still looks pretty darn good. Now for the body...:grimacing:...The proportions are just a tad off, but it'll have to do.

woops! Guess I didn't post about the Vault Sweet Vault here...Well, here's that one.

I've been using one of the Pandora services, but I've been getting a little annoyed with the stations (which I presume I would get the same annoyance from other services, too). So I'd like to be able to create a station and add songs that I own and that wouldn't normally be in that station. (And I know you can add artists to the stations, but some artists only have a few songs I like, and I surely don't want the station inundated with similar artists of the music I don't like. Shudder the thought, 😬 ).

First time doing an odd shaped fabric thingy, so the edges aren't too great. Plus, didn't figure out a better method of punching around the outlines til close to the end...Meh, still makes us all giggle like school children, heh.

Oh, if anyone knows of a video tutorial on folding over, shaping, and gluing monks cloth with odd shapes (i don't have this issue with softer fabrics)...I'd be so thankful, heh. I just could not get it to work, so I just gave up and rubbed marker over the edges.

Forgot to mention what I used.

Lavor needle with the largest needle in the package.
The black yarn is sport weight "I Love This Yarn" (the maximum this needle could handle).
The white is an unknown we had in our stash, and a faint thinner than the black.
Artiste Monks cloth, 1yd x 62in. (unknown thread count, purchased from Hobby Lobby).

And here is the frame I made.

This is the second frame I made, and since I used my table saw to cut the dowel, it left a large gap, to which I used the jute as a means to grasp onto the cloth. However, it was partially intentional as I wanted to put more into the dowels holding onto the sides of the fabric over the center parts.

The only real problem I had with it was the dowels. It's not easty gripping and twisting to tighten the fabric down. I much prefer the square ones I made on my first model. They offered a much better grip for tightening. Once I feel up to it, I'll make a couple for this one, but they'll have to be thinner than the first model. Which might not be possible. Hmm! Still haven't decided on what I'll do yet.

He put lemon in the coconut (milk)
He fried the shrimp up
He put lemon in the coconut (milk)
He fried the shrimp up
He said, "Honey, I have but one little wish".
He said, "honey, for you to try this little dish".
He said, "Honey, taste this tiny shellfish."
He said, "Honey, C'mon try this little dish".

Aaaaaand, that is pretty much the only reason I wanted to post this, 😂. I think I pulled something laughing so hard when it came to me. 🤣

Anyway, it is really good. Like really really good.

10 small shrimp, deveined.
1/4 c. The thick coconut cream on coconut milk.
1 tsp. Lemon juice.
1 clove crushed garlic
pinch of ground ginger
a large handful of Rao's Fusilli noodles.

cook noodles then cool and set aside. Keep 1/4 cup of the noodle water.

fry shrimp in a tablespoon of coconut oil til well cooked. Add in coconut cream, ginger, and garlic. Cook for about a minute or two. Add in noodle water. Cook for about two minutes. Toss in noodles, add salt and pepper and continue cooking for two to five minutes, til thickened.

Why did I mention coconut cream? Well, because of this milk

It had a large chunk of cream on the top, and I didn't think about checking for it, heh. However, it was awesome, and worked beautifully. So why not add that bit of info? 😏

And just in case the link doesn't work again, 🙄 , https://forum.lettucecraft.com/t/rosemary-lamb-pie/28337

Oof! Quite pained from making this, but meh, I'm in pain all the time anyway, 🤣 🤣 🤣 .

Anyway, this is quite good, and I do think I should have added a wee bit more liquid to it before baking, but meh, not a problem, heh.

Huh! This is actually good.

Oat pancakes

Blend dry ingredients together.

1/2 c. Flour
1/2 c. Oat flour
1/4 c. Buttermilk powder
1 tsp. Baking powder
1/2 tsp. Baking soda
Pinch of salt

Date water

in a small sauce pan, boil 5 medjool dates with one cup water til the skins fall off. Take out all but two dates, and blend the dates and water til smooth. (note: you only really need two dates...Uh, I wanted to eat them after boiling, so I wasn't even planning on making the rest, heh. That just happened as I really wanted to use the water in something).

(Substitute the date water with 1 Tbls. sugar and 1 c. water if you don't want to use dates)

mix well date water, two tablespoons melted butter, and one egg into the dry ingredients.

cover and let sit for 15 to 30 minutes.

make pancake.

Spiced Cherry Sauce

(unfortunattly, no real recipe, but I bet the measurements will be close enough).

in a sauce pan, mix and heat

1 c. Cherries
2 Tbls. Water (add half a teaspoon at a time if you need more water)
2 Tbls. Sugar (add 1/4 cup or more if you want it sweeter).
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
Pinch of ground clove

Cook over medium low heat til the cherries fall apart and the sauce thickens.

For the cherries, I used Great Value frozen cherry medley.

i did the dumb thing of trying to separate the skins from the pulp...Tlagwv osdi vsgi yigesvna (Cherokee: That was not that great). It took about three times as long to Thicken. Pshew! Also, was completely unnecessary as the mash tastes just as good as the sauce, Meh, was curious, and that curiosity was...erm...sort of satisfied. Heh!

Just made/created this for my wife. It still gets below freezing, so I'll pop this into her truck tonight after she goes to bed tonight. Will be a nice surprise when she leaves for work tomorrow morning, 😊

One slight little hiccup, it seems like it's a bit too soft, but it just may need to rest in the fridge for much longer. I just wanted to get it ready before she got home. Meh, she'll still like it any way.

Jesus! Thought the recipe was linked...welp, here it is again.

Caramel Swirl Fudge

I made a syrup from ground black walnut and sunflower seeds, but boy is it overly sweet. I do know I could use some form of flour (qinoa, amaranth, millet, all purpose, corn meal, corn starch, etc), but I'm curious if anyone might know of something I haven't thought of yet.

Ok! I give up trying to find this stuff on my own, heh.

Anyway, I built my wife a large outdoor miniature diarama for Christmas and I'm wanting to do a winter theme for her opening (the door), and I'm rather stumped on these.

So far, the best solution I found was snow powder/flakes and spray on adhesive, but I'm definitely open to something else (that's not overly costly, 🤷‍♂️. I spent a looooot on this so far).

It will have a dirt base, so the snow needs to adhere to that as best as possible.

1/2 c. buckwheat
1 c. unbleached flour
6 Tbls. buttermilk powder (It’s what I have, 🤷‍♂️ ).
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 Tbls. Sugar (To make this sweeter, add another tablespoon of sugar)
1/4 c. & 2 Tbls. Ground pumpkin seeds.

Soften 1 +1/4 tsp. yeast in 3/4 cup warm water. Mix all ingredients with 1 Tbls. melted butter. Will be fairly moist, but after sitting for one hour, it will stiffen up and then can be formed into a ball and covered with oil. Let sit for another hour. (If you're patient enough, let sit in the fridge overnight, 😆 ).

Divide and create 8 or 6 balls from the dough. (Depending on how big you want the flatbread to be). Fry on each side over low medium heat for about a minute on each side.

I bet this would be good with custards or fruit based desserts, as well as sweet savory foods. (And that's my next task...What to try with these? 🤔. I tried with honey, meh, and butter, good).

I bet ground sunflower seeds, peanuts, cashews, or filberts would taste good in this as well.

Grinding up 1/4 c. of pumpkin seeds in a mortar at the moment, and I thought it'd be kind of interesting to get a little input, :wink:

Flours I have on hand.

Unbleached
Rye
Amaranth
Almond
Rice
Buckwheat

Liquids

Roasted pumpkin
Almond milk
Heavy cream
Eggs
Butter Milk

Other

Yeast
Molasses
Sugar
Baking powder

I'm aiming for a skillet fried flatbread. Preferably not a pancake.

So let the thinking commence. :grin: