Happy Juneteenth - Thinking About Holidays

Happy Juneteenth to all. Juneteenth is a fairly new holiday nationwide, it has actually been celebrated since 1866. Amazing, isn't it? I'm fairly certain that most, if not all, of my readers had never heard of the holiday before it was officially recognized a few years ago. It is a solid and welcome reminder that we built this land on the blood and bodies of those who were considered "inferior". All people of color were considered lower than the "lily" white people who had originally settled in various areas along the East Coast of the nation. Today is a day of acknowledgement of history and a celebration of progress. There's still a lot of progress to come, but we've made some giant strides. We're still open at the store, however, so it's a regular Monday workday for me. 

Happy Juneteenth - Freedom Day - to all of my readers. 
Take some time to reflect on the past and acknowledge 
that we still have a ways to go in actual equality, but 
try - try hard and try often. We have an amazing nation, 
but it was built upon the blood of those who were 
considered "inferior". Don't fall into the traps of the past. 

Yesterday's giant pork shoulder turned out AMAZING. It cooked beautifully, and once again, thank goodness for my digital meat thermometer because it was done more than an hour earlier than I had calculated. The marinade paste was fabulous - DH even said that it smelled really good when he was in the kitchen on Saturday night after I finished making the paste in my new mini food processor. If you are interested in the recipe at all, it's called "Fall-Apart Roasted Pork Shoulder with Rosemary, Mustard and Garlic" and I highly recommend it. 

I purchased one of these from my co-op when I was 
there on Friday. It's an "herb stripper". It's made 
to strip the leaves from fresh herbs. There are a lot 
of times I just have the whole herb in a baked 
dish, but taking the thyme off or the rosemary 
off the stems is a bit of a PITA. This is wonderful, 
and very fast. It's sturdy stainless steel, and washes 
up beautifully. I love it. 

I used two new tools while making this. I had dropped by my health food co-op on Friday, just to see if there was anything I desperately needed. I ended up with a new tool for my kitchen, an "herb stripper" made by RSVP Endurance. It's attractive, and I used it on the fresh rosemary for the pork shoulder just 24 hours later and it worked really well. I'm sure there are many such items, but this was one that caught my eye and that I'm quite pleased with. 

The mini Hamilton Beach food processor has 
an amazing amount of power for such a small 
item. I think it's a three-cup maximum holder, 
so not a lot. It only has the single chopping 
blade, but that's the blade most frequently 
used on any food processor anyway. I have 
Mom's old one if I need to use any of the 
fancy things. This worked really well, and 
was hard to beat for the price. 

The other item that made my life easier was the mini food processor that I purchased from Amazon. I have a food processor - my mother's old one that is probably 40 years old - maybe even older. Although it works pretty well, it always seems like a lot of trouble when all I need are some chopped veggies. But this recipe called for using a food processor to whip the marinade ingredients together into a paste, and I really didn't want to be bothered with that huge tool. So, Amazon had one I thought would work quite well for less than $20, and I could get "same day delivery" at the shop for another $10. Well worth it in my eyes, and it worked a charm! It fits into my tool cabinet in the kitchen, and I have a feeling I'll be using it quite often. 

I own at least 10 different bead looms, some 
very simple, others quite complex. Many of 
them I've built myself over the years. I'm going 
to warp up a small one and try out some 
samples. I learned a long time ago - samples 
are everything when it comes to a successful 
end project. 

Today I'm taking a bit of time in my day and doing some sample beadwork items. I know what I'd like to do, I just need to see if my idea will work. If it does, you may be getting some beading in this year's holiday card. At least, that's the plan. I'll know more after I experiment. After all, it's almost time for Le Tour de France, and so many of my holiday card ideas are tested while watching Le Tour. 

Le Tour de France starts on July 1st, so 
it's coming up fast. As usual, I'll be giving 
you stage-by-stage posts, at least that's the 
plan at this point if all goes smoothly. It's 
also when I usually finalize my plans for 
my Holiday Cards, thus, my beading samples 
mentioned above. LOL

On that note, have a truly fabulous day. Be kind, be generous with your smiles and your compliments, and spread joy. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.