January 16 2023

Failing to Win

I started playing Wordle on a Thursday because my friend Ruth was able to explain it so I understood it. I began sharing my results the next day, on Friday 2/18/2022. My husband had previously tried to get me to join in with him and the kids and play daily but it didn’t make sense when he explained it, so I didn’t try.

Let me attempt to explain the game. You have six chances to guess the correct 5-letter word each day. You can only play once a day. If a letter is the right letter in the right spot, it turns green, if it is a right letter in the wrong spot it turns yellow. It just makes sense to use what you learn in each guess to help you choose your next guess. You can play at https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html

When I first learned to play, I didn’t worry about how many guesses it took me to get the word, I just didn’t want to fail. I was excited by the fact that I could get the word right in 6 guesses or less. My immediate family has a group text titled Wordle where we post our results each day. . On the group text we often comment on the cool patterns created by our unique guesses that day. I also share my daily results with Ruth. I try to remember to play daily.

I have discovered many of my friends and acquaintances also play Wordle. We have even had discussions about whether it is better to start with the same word every day or pick from a variety of words with 5 of the most common letters. One of my favorite words to start with is STORM, another is FRUIT,  but I also use LEARN sometimes. Sometimes as I think of which word to start with, a word pops into my brain and anything else I think of using just doesn’t seem as perfect as the one that popped into my head, so I go with it. Sometimes it works out, sometimes not so much, but I have learn to trust the words that push themselves into my brain. I have trouble guessing words with two of the same letter, or with an X or Z, these just seem so unlikely that sometimes it causes me to fail. A few times the word of the day made me say, “Really?!?, with 14,000 plus 5-letter words to pick from they chose THAT?”

Today a comment by my friend Ruth inspired me to write this post. Her inspiring post is shown here. “Wrong guess between two possibilities. RATS. Have to start a new streak.” My response to her was, “It’s not about streaking. It’s about challenging your brain to think every day. It thinks longer on the days you fail than it does on the days you get to the right word in 4 or fewer guesses. So as long as you were thinking and not trying to fail, every fail is actually just you exercising your brain longer, and when muscles get exercised longer, they get stronger. So you win.”

It has been almost a year since I began playing Wordle, and I want to share my stats  here. I will take that 98% win rate and ignore that it also means I have failed a few times.

Sounds almost like a life lesson, I thought. Maybe worth sharing. Could turn it into a blog post. That seems like a good idea. So here I am writing my first blog post in almost three years, and it’s all Ruth’s fault!

The longer we stay away from something, like posting to a blog regularly, the harder it is to come back. I was in the habit of posting once a week every Thursday without fail. I posted March 5, then March 12, 2020. Then on March 17th the company I work for sent almost every employee home to work and only a handful of us, considered essential, continued to show up in person. My creative impulse was stifled. I tried again, on March 26th, after missing just the one weekly post. Then I posted again after skipping three weeks and a day, on Friday April 18, 2020. I wanted to share the cheerful Shaun the Sheep statue photos I had taken in September 2015 on our last trip to London. I took so many photos because they were all so colorful and cheerful. That seemed like something everyone could use after living more that six weeks in a pandemic world. After that, I stopped doing anything creative and haven’t started up again.

All my writing groups and crochet groups had gone dark, not meeting for the foreseeable future. I saw almost nobody I knew or recognized except the handful of people at work. It has taken a long time to make sense of the new normal in life. I didn’t intend to stay away so long, but making a come back is hard. I got yarn from my daughter for Christmas and at first I felt bad that she had spent her money on something I would never use. Then I figured I should give crocheting a try again, and that perhaps the yarn cakes she gave me that were so colorful a pretty should be my inspiration. So on Christmas Day, I found myself searching for crochet patterns that would take just the one cake she had provided and I wouldn’t have a bunch left over. I wanted to use it all up, but not need to buy more to finish the project. That was tougher than I thought it would be. So I am back to crocheting having done almost none since March 2020. I am using the less colorful of the two cakes she got me (Baby Cake Pool Party) to make a baby afghan. No for anyone I know, just because. We shall see how well it turns out before deciding what to do with the slightly larger and much more brightly colored Big Cake Rainbow Jellys.

Since I have jumped back into one of my former creative activities, it only seems logical to give writing a go again too.

I can’t promise I will get back to posting weekly, but now that I have created one post, maybe the next one will be easier. I can tell you that I have made the commitment to keep this domain name for 5 more years and paid for hosting for the next 3 years. So it would seem silly not to use it. Stay tuned…

Category: Blogging, Come Back, Crochet, Writing | Comments Off on Failing to Win
April 18 2020

Shaun the Sheep

These photos were all taken on September 23rd and 25th 2015 while we were on a trip to London. They are just too cute not to share with the world. So very artistic and creative, I took photos of my favorites. I wish I had taken the time to take photos of all of them. May these bring you peace and joy. Please let me know which is your favorite in the comments below.

Shaun In The City

 

March 26 2020

Comfort Food

Note: The world is topsy-turvey right now, so please forgive me if I post off schedule, I’m doing the best I can under the circumstances.

Tonight, I decided we could all use some good old-fashioned comfort food and Hubby and Adult Son agreed. So, I got out all the things I would need to make Dried Beef Gravy. Hubby’s family called it chipped beef gravy and made it slightly different, but basically the same idea.

So this meal requires 2 small or 1 large jar of Armour Brand Dried Beef. First you need to put a full stick of butter with the wax paper wrapper removed (obviously), into a 4 quart saucepan on medium high heat to melt. Then you need to cut the beef into 1/2 inch squares like the pile on the right in the photo below. The second jar, on the left, has not been cut yet. I learned tonight that it is much faster to use a large knife to cut the meat and toast for this meal that the kitchen scissors I have been using for years. Not sure I will ever go back to cutting with shears unless I have young helpers or something.

Once all the meat is cut up, the butter should be melted, but not scorched, so dump in the beef and stir it to coat it with the butter. Next put in a couple of heaping tablespoons of flour to thicken the gravy. If you get enough flour in and stir it well it will have soaked up all the butter and look like the photo below.

Next you add the milk and stir constantly so the flour doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot. If you feel anything sticking to the bottom, just gently scrap it up and stir better from now on. Try to stir so you are testing the bottom for any stuck bits and scraping them up as you stir.

I don’t add all the milk at the beginning because I want to get it to thicken up then slowly add more and let it get thick again so you don’t add too much. I usually add some fresh ground pepper when about half the milk is in. Unfortunately, my Kuhn Rikon Ratchet Pepper Grinder failed me and the guts fell into the pot, so I fished them out and kept stirring. This is how we ended up with whole peppercorn medley in our meal, but it turned out fine, just wouldn’t recommend adding whole peppercorns and grinder parts if you can help it. See how pretty and thick it is in the photo above? In the photo below, you can see the peppercorns.

While all this stirring and thickening is going on pop some bread in the toaster. We usually allow 2 to 4 slices per person depending on how much comfort they need. When the toast is cool enough to touch, cut or tear it into bite-sized pieces, two pieces per bowl, as shown below.

Once you get the gravy thickened and just about to a full boil, still heating on medium-high heat the entire time, you c an turn the burner off and give it a few final stirs. Get a ladle out and spoon the gravy over the toast in each bowl and add more pepper to taste. We don’t usually salt this because the beef is usually plenty salty.

Serve warm and enjoy. This would work equally well over biscuits, but toast is our favorite.

It is nutritious? Well, it covers three of the four basic food groups and it would be a good way to get milk into your kids if they aren’t big milk drinkers, but if your kids are so picky that they don’t already love milk, they are likely too picky to try new foods anyway, so just enjoy this yourself, you deserve some comfort food. This is a relatively inexpensive meal to make and likely was the invention of some poor mom who didn’t have many choices to work with to fill her family’s bellies.

In case you are wondering, we found all the parts and Hubby is trying to put the little green pepper grinder that we absolutely LOVE back together.

So, what is your comfort food of choice? Care to share in the comments below? Feel free to leave a recipe, I have a feeling we are going to be doing a lot of home cooking the next few months.

Category: Money Saving, Recipes | Comments Off on Comfort Food
March 12 2020

Bacon Pie Recipe

Earlier this week, I tried something kind of new for dinner. It was partly to save money, partly to save calories, and partly just to try to simplify a recipe I remember making years ago that I knew my Hubby really enjoyed. So, I googled recipes for crust-less quiche so I could figure out how long and at what temperature I would need to cook this concoction.

In case you are wondering, this is the pie plate I baked mine in. It is about 11 inches wide and 1 7/8 inches deep. Now I probably could have almost doubled the recipe in this pie plate, but knowing me, I would have spilled some of it before I got it settled in the oven.

I used a 4 cup glass pyrex measuring cup. To start, I put in 1 dozen eggs and scrambled them with a whisk. Then I added 1 cup of pre-cooked bacon bits/crumbles. Then I added 2 cups of sharp shredded cheddar cheese. I added a liberal grind of black pepper with my pepper mill. I then remembered that I had a bunch of green onions and cleaned and cut 2 green onions into mix. I whisked it all together and poured it into a large ceramic pie plate that I had sprayed with cooking spray. I then baked it in a 350 degree oven for 35 minutes until the center was firm.I let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes.

I was shocked at how well it came out. Not just taste wise, but it literally slid out of the well sprayed pie plate and onto the plate. It firmed up really well!

This recipe had exactly 5 ingredients, took no time to throw together and was given several compliments by Hubby, who didn’t mind the missing crust. See below for the reason we cut the crust out of the recipe. Not having a crust saved us a whopping 800 calories for the entire pie.

Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crusts, 2 Ct, 14.1 oz Box image 1 out of 10Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crusts, 2 Ct, 14.1 oz Box image 1 out of 10
Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crusts – 1 pie crust = 800 calories
BONUS Recipe: Feel free to give the recipe in this pie plate a try. I got the pie plate as a wedding gift over 33 years ago and have never tested this recipe. Be sure to let us know in the comments how it turned out if you decide to test it.
Category: Confidence, Recipes | Comments Off on Bacon Pie Recipe
March 5 2020

Metro Diner – What have you done?

Friday, 2/28/2020:

Hubby loves fish and several local restaurants have been advertising Friday Fish Fry deals, so he gave me the choice of MCL Cafeteria or Metro Diner for dinner tonight. I chose Metro over MCL because I know they have the best chicken pot pie around and that sounded great to me. I knew what I wanted so, to be fair, I didn’t actually read the menu other than to make sure they still offered chicken pot pie and there was only the one size. When I ordered it, the waitress told me it had been improved by replacing the old crust with puff pastry and that the sauce was much creamier and better tasting than it used to be. I told her I would try it and hoped that they hadn’t messed it up too badly, because it was awesome the way it always had been.

Metro Diner New Menus This is the new menu, in case you are interested. Not to be confused with the Old Menu from December 29, 2019 via The Internet Archive Way Back Machine (I just love that they archive the internet!).

So the new version is shown nice and big below. The puff pastry was alright, but not nearly as good as the crust they used to have.

Tender chicken, roasted carrots, celery and mushrooms, green peas in our velvety cream sauce and topped with a golden, flaky puff pastry. 990 cal.

Now here is the old version from the archived menu:

Chicken Pot Pie

Loaded with fresh baked chicken, lima beans, corn, carrots, peas and French cut green beans. Topped with a homemade biscuit crust. Regular or Jumbo.

I am not a huge fan of lima beans but know they come in mixed vegetables and eat them anyway. But the real deal breaker for the new version which would have been a deal breaker and kept me from ordering if I had bothered to read the menu, were the MUSHROOMS! They kept the carrots but took away their bright cheerful color by roasting them to a sickly brown. There were very few peas in the new version and to make it all fancy, they took out all traces of the corn, green bean and lima beans in favor of MUSHROOMS! Yuk! I wasn’t a fan of the new sauce either. It seemed stripped of all chicken flavor, in my opinion. I will NOT be ordering the chicken pot pie again, that is for sure. I can get tastier versions from the grocer’s frozen food section and likely feed a whole crowd for the $11.99 cost of the new fancy chicken pot pie at Metro Diner. What were they thinking? The waitress said about 50% of customers love the new version but the other 50%, like me, do not care for it.

So, hubby got his Friday fish and chips and it looked like the photo below.

Wild caught North Atlantic cod fillets, beer battered and fried crispy, with tartar sauce, cole slaw and seasoned fries. 1040 cal.

Now here is the old version from the archived menu:

Fish & Chips

Wild caught north Atlantic Cod fillets lightly fried. Served with French fries, cole slaw and tartar sauce.

If you compare the descriptions, it really seems like they were trying to figure out new words to add to their descriptions.

I may go back to Metro Diner and give them another chance, and if I do, I will try another favorite, the chicken salad sandwich.

Now here is the old version from the archived menu:

White Meat Chicken Salad

Chicken, pecans, mayo, celery and grapes on white bread.

This is the location we went to, in case anyone was wondering:

Clearwater Crossing

3954 E. 82nd Street Indianapolis, IN 46240
Hours
Mon – Thu: 7:00am – 3:00pm
Fri & Sat: 7:00am – 10:00pm
Sun: 7:00am – 9:00pm

Metro Night Menu (New)

Have you ever had a favorite dining place change their menu enough to turn you away from going there? When I talked to the manager, and suggested they serve both varieties of chicken pot pie, maybe on different nights or something, he said it was a corporate decision and they had to serve the new version from now on. What a shame. The prices went up. It cost over $30 (with the tip) for hubby and I to get the two meals pictured and then Hubby had a cup of chili as well, but we both drank water which was, of course, free of charge. I just was not impressed. We have been going to Metro for years and really liked it, but I can’t say I am excited about the prospect of going back any time soon.