I have a huge pickle jar that I’ve been keeping rice in that’s just the right size for the bag. I put some plastic wrap over part of the jar as there’s still part of the label on the outside of it and I didn’t want dye or bits of paper sticking to the inside of my bag.

The strap was finished tonight, as I was sitting out on my deck until it was too dark to see. Just four stitches wide, Tunisian simple stitch, 32 inches long. When the bag’s dry, I can add the wooden beads to the drawstring, snip any sticky-outy ends, and call it done.

It was a pleasant day today, of grocery shopping, lending my car to ds3 so he could have a driving lesson, and mid-afternoon deciding that it was hot enough (over 30 degrees) to head to the lake for a couple of swims and some sunbathing on the dock at a little beach access. The boys weren’t interested so I went on my own, and Tai Chi Man joined me when he finished work.

Dinner included freshly dug potatoes from our garden and even a lettuce, though it looked like a deer had chomped half of it. We only occasionally see deer around here, we know they are there, but not usually in our garden. However there have been telltale footprints through our vegetable patch this summer. Thankfully it seems that potatoes and green beans were a good choice, as it looks like they have been left alone.

The boys asked why I wasn’t taking food photos for Facebook tonight! As if I do it a lot!! I did try out a new recipe from one of my cookbooks, Betty Goes Vegan. It was the Denver Omelette which is made with a tofu mixture and filled with a mixture of sauteed veg, faux meat or tempeh, and vegan ‘cheese.’ The omelette part certainly didn’t hold together in the way the recipe implied, but looked quite realistically like scrambled eggs. And instead of filling and folding, I just put the sauteed tempeh and mushroom mixture on top plus some smoked Gouda-style Daiya. It tasted pretty good, but it wasn’t photogenic.

I made a meal plan for seven days plus a shopping list today, which ideally I like to do every week. Sometimes I make it generic, like pizza, pasta, rice etc. Sometimes I’ll look through a few cookbooks to get inspiration. And other times, like today, I pick a few recipes out of one book to challenge myself to try new things.

You never know which ones will become family favourites.

Have an awesome weekend and talk to you again soon when the bag is 100% finished.