Weekly Round Up 5: A Little Sewing and then other stuff

Since there is some quilting stuff this week I will put it first.

Monday Night I ironed and cut some fabrics to go into my crumb block project while I listened to my local stores Facebook night. Sometimes they have blocks or patterns to share. This week it was just selling different things. I bought something a few months ago - but I hadn't looked at it carefully enough so will need to drive by and exchange it for something else. What a lot of bother in these shut-in times.

Thursday I attended the zoom quilting class where we are working on an on-point bow tie quilt - some hand stitching will be involved (hopefully). The way to make the blocks is fun. I blogged about it here: https://quiltquest.blogspot.com/2021/02/finally-some-quilt-piecing-3-d-bow-tie.html

------ Not Quilting Stuff

We had our first Covid Inoculation on Sunday! From house to house again it was a little more than an hour. Pretty good I think. The people at the Petco UCSD SuperCenter were so organized and nice. There was a little waiting line in the car to enter. Then they took our driver's licenses and looked us up on the computer to verify we had appointments (I guess). Then the car was waved on to the next area where the shots were given. For most people, I think there were 10 or 12 lanes where they were directed to drive and park in groups of 10 - 12 cars. The shots were given, then they waited for around 15 min then if they were okay they were waved on and left. We were at the end so we parked in a spot and they came around - the only difference I think was they asked us to time the 15 minutes ourselves. My actual appointment was 90 minutes after my husband's, but they did me at the same time as his - so that was very nice. As soon as the appointment was over we received emails with a link to set up the next appointment. Sunday February 28th - all set up and confirmed! We had trouble signing up initially, but switching to a different browser and then clicking on the date that was displayed made a schedule link appear, (before clicking the date there was no submit or schedule button - a little confusing) but then our appointments were set up! No after effects from the first shots for either of us.

Sun - Attended my first Milk Street Zoom Class - zoom Milk Street Class about making soft cheeses. Since the process for making even soft cream cheese takes so long, not a good class for this format I think. Trying other classes under my $1 trial account. They also have a really nice selection on self-paced classes.

We have been piling up the delivery boxes, cutting them apart to make more fit in the recycle container. Finally thought to see if we could have a second recycle container, and for $25 one will be delivered in a few weeks. It will be so nice to not have all the extra cardboard sitting around.

M W F - AM walk and chat on phone with Penelope and Zoom exercise with Jil.

Tuesday I attended a zoom expressive writing group - it was very nice. About 12 people. The prompt was a poem about Happiness.

Tuesday I listened to a Brain Talk: Hormones’ Impact on Cognitive Health & Alzheimer’s by Lisa Mosconi, PhD. I found some other videos she has posted: https://www.lisamosconi.com/videos. There is no such thing as a gendered brain, but women’s brains do age differently from men’s, and those differences matter for our health. Nearly two thirds of the 5+ million Americans living with Alzheimer’s are women, the most common cause of dementia. Why?

Dr. Lisa Mosconi will share groundbreaking findings from her research, focused on the intersection of neuroscience and women’s health, to reveal how decreasing hormonal levels affect brain aging–and share a roadmap to support lifelong brain health. She is the founder and Director of the Women’s Brain Initiative and Associate Director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine, where she also serves as Associate Professor of Neuroscience in Neurology and Radiology. She is the author of The New York Times bestselling books THE XX BRAIN and BRAIN FOOD.

A recording of Dr. Lisa Mosconi's presentation Hormones' Impact on Cognitive Health and Alzheimer's is now available to all who registered for The Brain: An Owner's Guide. You can view it anytime with this link. If you would like others to view her talk, please encourage them to register for the series, and we will email the link to them as well.  The link to register is here: https://platform.thebrainhealthproject.org/register?mtm_campaign=Emails-2021FebLectureSeries

BrainHealthy Tip!
Did you know that a great way to exercise your brain is to reflect on key takeaways and make connections that are relevant to your own life? Dr. Mosconi offers these three thought starters:​​​​​​

• Choices we make in our lives influence the health of our bodies. But those same choices also affect our brains, and therefore the way we think, feel and remember.
• Think of your brain more like a muscle. There are things you can do to make it stronger. You can feed it properly, exercise it properly, take care of it properly, and your brain will perform so much better. Treat your brain like your best friend.
• Historically, women's health was confined to reproductive organs. We now know that brain health is critical to women's health and must be part of the conversation to achieve meaningful solutions.

Coming February 9th at 7pm CT (5pm PT/ 8pm ET), David Katz, MD, MPH discusses The Acute Case for Chronic Health: Vital Lessons In Weathering Duress. Don’t miss it!

Thurs- zoom Milk Street Class Knife Skills 201: All About Sharpening I missed most of the presentation as I had a call I had to answer. They send out the video files so I can get caught up.

Wed - I listened to a Salk Institute Lecture: How do our brains adapt to changes in social contact? Acute social isolation produces prosocial behaviors and increases the motivation to seek social contact. In contrast, chronic social isolation produces antisocial behavior, and increases aggression, territorial behavior and avoidance of social contact. Join Professor Kay Tye as she shares how her lab is employing cutting-edge neuroscience approaches to understanding the mechanisms of how our brains respond to social isolation. Embedding the video doesn't work but the URL is: https://youtu.be/rbNa6OSizw4


Wed - I attended zoom Milk Street Class on The Art of the Braise. https://www.177milkstreet.com/  I didn't have the groceries in the house so just watched. Turned out that is what most of the other people did too When I did make the meal on Friday my husband helped - but it still took almost three hours for the preparation and cooking!

No cooking method produces more miraculous results than braising, and few things are more comforting than a dish of tender braised chicken. Join guest instructor Molly Stevens, who literally wrote the book on braising (“All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking”), as she explains the science behind this essential technique. Molly will guide you to successfully prepare one of her favorite stovetop braises, Moroccan Braised Chicken with Green Olives and Preserved Lemons, as a means to illustrate the steps behind any successful braise. By the end, you’ll have a solid grasp of the fundamentals of braising and be ready to create your own dishes. In addition, you’ll learn a quick and versatile method for cooking hearty greens by making Broccoli Rabe with Garlic and Olive Oil from Molly’s newest cookbook, “All About Dinner: Simple Meals, Expert Advice.”

About Molly: Molly Stevens is an award-winning cookbook author, cooking instructor and recipe developer. Her cookbooks include “All About Dinner: Simple Meals, Expert Advice,” “All About Roasting” and “All About Braising.” Her recipes and articles have appeared Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, Fine Cooking, Eating Well, Rachael Ray Every Day and other national publications. She has been named Cooking Teacher of the Year by both the International Association of Culinary Professionals and Bon Appétit. Molly is happiest at her home in Vermont, and she can't remember the last time she skipped dinner. Find out more about her at MollyStevensCooks.com.


Thursday - Food delivered and then a local zoom class on making Italian Meal! 

 Why not spending a nice evening cooking together some delicious dinner with Chef Giacomo?

– Delicious Tuscan Artichokes
– Chicken breast with Prosciutto di Parma (18 months aged), Taleggio DOP cheese & sage.
– Our homemade crostata di Nutella with warm raspberries & Grand Marnier



Other important information about the class:

The class will last 1.5 hrs.
You will receive everything needed for our ‘date night’ for up to 2 people.
Class is held via zoom
Must sign up by February 2nd
Limited tickets available.

My son did the cooking with me. It was really nice to do with him.

The Chef is usually a caterer I think.  I admire him for rethinking his business during these times.

I finally, actually scheduled my mammogram and bone density appointments. Have been putting that off - but now feel a little safer to do (after having the first vaccine).  I had called before, but then had to contact my primary doctor to have her send the orders to the radiology place - then I was on hold for a long time before actually being able to schedule the appts.

I started looking at YouTubes for quilting demos, then moved on to cooking and way off topic ones:

Preppy Kitchen - Chocolate Eclairs - https://preppykitchen.com/chocolate-eclairs/
Catherine's Plates - Coconut Cream Poke Cake - https://catherinesplates.com/coconut-cream-poke-cake/
A Cup of Joe - Matar Paneer - https://cupofjo.com/2020/07/the-ultimate-crowdpleaser-matar-paneer/
Inji's Kitchen - Date Stuffed Cookies - https://injiskitchen.com/2020/07/date-tea-cookies-video/.html 

I made this recipe and blogged here: http://dodgeeats.blogspot.com/2021/02/date-filled-tea-cookies-injis-kitchen.html

https://youtu.be/WnxVOw1uhTw - Weight for it - fun game ideas - would be good in classroom
https://youtu.be/a0fTVnhg7S0 - Soldier's Dance

If you have time click to see the other videos prepared by these folks. If they had a blog I linked to that - the entry there will lead to YouTube.

So this past week I had sort of a lot of online videos and things to work on. My goal was to not take naps during the day. I was doing too much of that. I also though, did not do much decluttering or paperwork. So this coming week I hope to get some of that done too while I am listening perhaps to the lectures!

I have photos that I will link to once I can get blogger to see them.  I updated my lists of exercises and miles walked - See top of screen for links.

: )

What do you have to share?