July 20, 2016

Fake beef - it's what's for dinner! (pic heavy)

Making homemade 'beef' seitan for dinner. The photos show the process, and the end result - a teriyaki stir-fry with orzo.


Some vital wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, assorted spices and water. Knead it for a while and you get this.


Cutting it into decent sized chunks. It expands quite a bit.


Placing the chunks into the boiling broth. The broth is water, molasses, and Bragg's Liquid Aminos (similar to soy sauce).


This is about 30 minutes into the process (I cook it in the broth for an hour). You can see how the chunks have expanded.


What it looks like after an hour.


I like dehydrating them. It gives them a great texture and color.


Tonight's dinner is teriyaki stir-fry with orzo. The seitan looks and tastes great.

July 9, 2016

This year might break me

I've always been relatively tough. I was in foster homes from the time I was 16 months through 9 years. I wasn't an especially calm or nice child, I suppose, since my stays only lasted for more than 3 months on two occasions. After that, I spent most of my teen years hitchhiking around the country, followed by 18 years of service; following that, some decades of dealing with my mental and social issues.

The year started out strangely with all of the celebrity (and others, which wouldn't really be considered celebrities, but were significant to me as they guided me through their lives of science, literature, and more) deaths, which just kept happening as the year progressed.

I've been under a lot of stress lately as I attempt to figure out how I am going to take care of my family and keep them from being thrown on the street if we lose the house.

In addition, there has been a lot of drama with friends here in the Corpus Christi area - and of course the horrible events of the last week and dealing with locals that can't see the issues involved.

Now, two hours ago, our neighbor's 20 year old son took his own life with a handgun in his back yard. I'm afraid I'm going to lose it. My social phobia prevents me from discussing this with anyone except my wife, who is also overburdened with all of this. To top it all off, I'm feeling horrible about myself because of the fact that every single post in the Facebook group for our HOA is talking about praying for the family and it's driving me crazy, though I'll never say anything to them about it.

Anyway, I just needed a place to vent, sorry.

July 2, 2016

Everything is 33% off through July

Save 33% on everything through the month of July.
Use coupon code FLASH33 at http://witsendstore.com

I'm trying to increase the exposure of my online store, in preparation for moving some of the more in-your-face items out of the Etsy shop. In an effort to increase sales and recognition of the online store, I'm offering 33% off on everything throughout the month of July. It will, of course, bring in less per sale (when every penny really counts); however, with any luck, that will be countered by an increased number of sales.

I'm also using this to try to bring in some money. The GoFundMe campaign is pretty much stagnant (the one in my signature). I'm still needing to bring in a lot to get things under control - I've caught up on a lot, but I am still one month behind on the mortgage, which also makes the other budget items very tight.

Stop on by The Wits' End and see if anything catches your eye. Also, I'd really appreciate it if you could share this sale to your networks if people on them might be interested in the items that I make.

Thanks!