Jane Mulberry

My best (worst?) one was my wedding cake. I don't like traditional wedding cakes, fruitcake with marzipan icing, I wanted three layers of different sized chocolate cake with white chocolate frosting, to be served as desert at the reception. The quote I got to make one was way outside our limited budget, so I decided to DIY. The cakes were fine, so time to make the white chocolate ganache. The photo in the cookbook showed it being used for just what I wanted, a stiff textured frosting on a cake. I followed the recipe exactly, and ended up with a white chocolate pouring sauce. It would not thicken!

Back to the store to buy more white chocolate. Melted and added it. Still wouldn't thicken.

Back to the store for more white chocolate. Still wouldn't thicken.

In the end I used icing sugar to thicken it, and had a huge bowl of the most sickly sweet concoction imaginable. Even after finishing decorating the multi-layered cake with a thick layer of frosting (at midnight on my wedding eve!) I had pounds of the stuff left over.

My guess is that the recipe was really for a pouring sauce, even though that's not what they pictured. I never made a recipe from that cookbook again!

I'm not sure of my backer number, but yes, I think that would be me. Yay!

I backed at the ebook level because postage for the physical book would be $$$. It looks like just the book I need to start my sourdough adventures.

I hope you find what you want, Mariya.

Be open to opportunities, and perhaps also open to some small safe small pushbacks to what you see as your limitations. Maybe this was just me, but my experience has been that it was never the universe or other people who kept me stuck, I kept myself stuck.

Also sometimes, what I perceived as stuck was actually where I was supposed to be, there were good learning opportunities there that prepared me to the next step in the journey, that I might have missed if I'd stayed stuck in the sensation of being stuck and not looked at what was there. I pushed back and tried to unstick myself too forcefully sometimes and made some mistakes, but I learned and grew from them all.

Actually, I'm "stuck" where I don't want to be right now, for another 479 days, unless a miracle happens. I can focus on being stuck, or I can focus on getting ready for when I can move. Learning, gathering physical and emotional tools. making sure I'll be ready when the way opens.

Praying the way opens for you too, and that you're ready for it when it happens!

The poem is beautiful, Mariya, as is all his work. It's one to read again and again and really let it soak in.

Just bear in mind that the only person keeping you stuck at the moment is you. It sounds as if you're placing so many limitations on yourself and on what you'll do and where you'll go. Sometimes, our intuition is a trickster. It can see its role as to keep us safe, but we may have learned a mistaken idea of safety.

It's so hard to step out of our comfort zone. For me, I only found my place when I took risks, travelled alone although I was terrified (I have a travel triggered health issue), went somewhere completely new where I knew no one and didn't even know if it would be a safe place. I cried so hard the first night there and thought I'd made a terrible mistake buying a place on the internet without even seeing it first. Turned out I hadn't, God had led me to exactly the right place for me. It just needed a lot of work to make it what I wanted.

I'm not suggesting you take as big or as risky a step as I did. But talk to the limitations you're putting on yourself, talk to the depression I'm sensing that you're not where you want to be. Journalling on paper could help a lot. Are the limitations really all non-negotiable? Is your intuition leading you wrong in it's attempt to keep you safe?

Also, think about how much effort and work you're prepared to put in to get to where you want to be. It can require a great deal of hard work, even when it's where God wants us to be. In my experience, miracles do happen and huge blessings can just fall into our laps. But they're more likely to do so if we;re already putting ourselves out there and putting in the work.

I wonder also if putting a post in the Permies singles section might help you find a male travelling companion, if that's what you want? Most of the replies to this post are from women, or from happily married guys a lot older than you. We can give advice and prayer for you, but we can't travel with you! You can set the rules and make sure this is someone you feel comfortable with, someone who will respect your wishes before you choose to spend time with them on a road trip.

They aren't good raw, but can be cooked multiple ways. Roasted in a frypan or in the oven, they need pricking or a little X cut in the shell with a knife. Roast till the shells start to burn, peel, add salt! Boiled and then peeled, they can be candied, used to make stuffing which would be good for Thanksgiving or Christmas feasts, or dried and then ground to make flour.

Peeling them and getting the brown skin under the shell off is the tricky part, but the longer they're cooked the easier they are to peel.

Unlike most nuts they are starchy rather than a protein source.

I have a refillable oil spray bottle, glass bottle, plastic spray lid. It gives either a very fine spray, or has a flip up lid for pouring. It's so good for controlling how much oil I use, and it wasn't expensive. I bought a similar bottle for adding just the right amount of vinegar to salads because I used to accidentally drown mine!

Mine was a mish-mash -- baby potatoes, sweet potato, a Quorn fillet, med veg left over from Thursday's homemade pizza, baked in a spiced tomato and onion sauce with blobs of hummus on top (which bakes up beautifully brown and crunchy!).

I hope I got my backing in in time!

Happy Thanksgiving, Jay! Green beans can be great with tomatoes. My Bulgarian neighbour makes delicious gree beans simmered in a tomato and garlic based sauce.

Great work. Unfortunately I'm getting "Content not viewable in your region" for the photos. :(