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Packing season
Jul. 13th, 2018 12:29 amFor the next ten days it will be packing time at our house as we prepare for Pennsic. We've already started, truth be told, as we've begun stocking up on batteries and new bedding items (I think my hubby is crazy to bring just his cot & a mattress topper instead of his bed but it is his back) and wonder of wonders - my baronial coronet, which is made of brass and silver, is almost as shiny as it was on the day it was finished. Our friend Opi was a Boatswain's Mate in the Navy and has magic fingers when it comes to polishing 'brightwork'. He went to town on my coronet after I asked him if he thought I'd have to return it to the artist who made it in order to get what I thought was corrosion off of it. It looked as if the silver cladding was peeling off and there were two distinct fingerprints on the brass. As it turned out, everything is fine. What it needed was a good polishing. It is in a ziplock bag now awaiting a treatment of car polish. Folks on FB said that would be better for keeping it shiny than a coat of polyurethane or varnish (or some sort of sealant) would be.
Bossman got jealous when he saw how pretty my coronet is now so Opi polished his, too. The only downside of this was the three days of sewing I lost while Opi and his equipment took up all the space on the kitchen table. It was well worth it. For once I am actually making new garb for Bossman and I. Luckily it isn't imperative, just some things it'd be nice to have, so if they are not finished by the time we leave I will bring them with me to do during the event.
Today I used my insta-pot to make ham & bean soup. I was nervous about it so cheated and used canned beans. In honesty, I'd bought the cans of beans when we cooked a ham for Eostara and there was a big ham bone to use up. Unfortunately I didn't get around to it in time and ended up tossing the bone and extra meat bits out, so there I was with six cans of northern beans taking up room in in the cupboard. Last week I stocked up on ham steaks and used two with a package of salt back and the beans to make the soup. A leftover half of an onion joined them in the mix. And some pepper. It sure didn't need salt. I set it on "soup", so it cooked for about 45 minutes or so and was done - perfectly. Although if I do it again I won't use thesalt pork. It upped the calories incredibly for very little effect other than chucks of pork fat floating in the soup (ugh).
Bossman got jealous when he saw how pretty my coronet is now so Opi polished his, too. The only downside of this was the three days of sewing I lost while Opi and his equipment took up all the space on the kitchen table. It was well worth it. For once I am actually making new garb for Bossman and I. Luckily it isn't imperative, just some things it'd be nice to have, so if they are not finished by the time we leave I will bring them with me to do during the event.
Today I used my insta-pot to make ham & bean soup. I was nervous about it so cheated and used canned beans. In honesty, I'd bought the cans of beans when we cooked a ham for Eostara and there was a big ham bone to use up. Unfortunately I didn't get around to it in time and ended up tossing the bone and extra meat bits out, so there I was with six cans of northern beans taking up room in in the cupboard. Last week I stocked up on ham steaks and used two with a package of salt back and the beans to make the soup. A leftover half of an onion joined them in the mix. And some pepper. It sure didn't need salt. I set it on "soup", so it cooked for about 45 minutes or so and was done - perfectly. Although if I do it again I won't use thesalt pork. It upped the calories incredibly for very little effect other than chucks of pork fat floating in the soup (ugh).
