The Pond, a recap

2008 - the plan in place

2008, just after we finished building the pond

2009 - 8 months later

2010 - 2 years later

2014 - 6 years later

Family Dinner Traditions

Family dinner is a fantastic thing. Unfortunately (brace yourself, I'm about to let you down) we don't sit at the table and have them very often. Um, actually never. We did for a while, but for whatever reason we haven't found a dining table set up that keeps that role. Instead it's covered in fabric or another project. Right now it's just sitting in a room that doesn't heat very well, so that room stays blocked off through the winter. I know, weird. Whatever.

But the past 2 nights we've made dinner as a family. That, my friends, makes for some spectacular fun while working the kid's brain and forcing C and I to maintain a steady and heaping helping of patience.

Some ground rules: Mabel isn't allowed to get near the stove. She's not allowed to use knives, either. She's a great helper with stirring, kneading dough, and, when all else fails, sweeping the floor. Inviting a toddler in the kitchen makes for messy cooking--none of that clean-as-you-go stuff. The extra bits of time go into engaging her young, active mind.

Sunday we spent the day being lazy and doing whatever we wanted,randomly convening in the kitchen to work on the simmering from-scratch chicken noodle soup. Mabel's job? Take the pasta dough and roll it into little balls, then help roll it out through the pasta roller.

So she's 2 and she's already helped Mama make buttermilk biscuits, egg pasta, and turned masa into tortillas. Now that's a family dinner tradition I think we can keep.

Not too shabby chic

Several weekends ago we trekked to Cabarrus County to pick up some rough cut lumber that was listed on Craigslist. What an adventure it turned out to be--we ended up at a farm of horses, cows and chickens, the hosts were a middle aged farming couple who raise cattle. Mabel, as you can imagine, loved the cows...but from a distance. The couple also had a few horses, all but one were rescues. Mabel and I petted horses and watched chickens while Charlie went through the attic of one of the barns picking lumber: air dried, locally milled walnut. Plank after plank of beautiful wood, thick, unplaned planks full of potential.

Not too shabby, huh?

Pretty Green

The Mr. knows the way to my heart better than any other--for mother's day he gave me a greenhouse, and for our 6th anniversary he gave me shelves for the greenhouse!

The greenhouse is much prettier when surrounded by green trees.

We took a romantic anniversary trip to Ikea for 4 Molger benches. I thought they'd work stacked 2 high and be an absolutely beautiful substitute for the more widely available metal storage shelves. In my mind 4 benches, 2 sets of 2 stacked high, would be ample work space for the greenhouse, but when I saw them in person the benches were smaller than I'd imagined. It would take 8 to fill the space rather than 4. Instead I decided Gorm would be a much better solution and that's what Sugar Daddy bought me.

Ikea had a 30" tall unit on display, but when we got to the aisle to load them up they were sold out of that size. In it's place we bought the 68" tall unit and Charlie cut the legs in half and it actually turned out to be a better working height.

After a few seasons, some design adjustments were made, including the addition of

actual greenhouse poly-tape and poly to wood tape.

The shelves need an oil finish to get them ready to stand up to the humidity of a greenhouse, but I'm ready to do a little bit of rubbing on them.  Mr Sugar Daddy also bought me a metal pail with lid so I can put my dirt in it and keep the greenhouse all matchy matchy pretty and Martha'd out. I'm thinking some baking sheets with low lips will polish up the look even more, but maybe enameled ones so they don't scorch  the tender seedling roots. 

I've got my soil blocker ready, will pick up a few bags of seed starting medium (peat free, please) and will have my act together just in time to start my summer loving plants.

sentimental me

I'm feeling especially sentimental this holiday season, but haven't done much in the way of setting the mood around the house to be very Christmas-y. I have been on the look out for things that would convey the magic of the season to Mabel...and not by way of over-the-top piles of gift wrapped toys. One fine bit of magic comes from the pop-up book Follow the Star. Since M loves to find stars in the sky, I knew the silver stars would grab her attention and the modern graphics and intricate pop-ups would appeal to both C and me.

 
The message is religious (Christmas...duh) but not literally so, it's more a spiritual reflection. And you know what? M does love it! We read it twice yesterday and once this morning before work. It's finally beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Not a lot to say this morning, the weekend was fun and {as always} too short. We need more play time around our house. But after a weekend of renewed interest in the work we do, I have a brief thought to start your week:

Do what you believe, believe what you do, and maintain a natural curiosity all the while. 

Do you take this approach to life? How so?

Just what I want

I was reading Lizzy House this morning and came across this little morsel to chew on:

Are you living the life that you want? Are you taking steps to make what you want so? Is any of this really as complicated as we make it?

I don't think it has to be complicated, except for maybe deciding the path to choose. Since Good Magazine tweeted a similar question* I've been thinking lately about how incredible my life is. I love making things without the pressure of income. Sometimes I wish I had more time to garden (or to garden more, or to learn more about gardening or to learn to be a better gardener...you get the point) or cook. Sometimes I wish our house was organized and spotless, or we had fancy furniture and more refined taste. Sometimes I even wish I had blond hair. Often I wish I had more endurance to run, a better understanding of CSS and the ability to wow people with dazzling conversational skills.

But really, when it boils down to it, I'm surrounded by amazing people. I have a decent job with health benefits, and though it's not the most exciting job in the world it is a good job with good people. I have an amazing family (not just limited to, but certainly including C + M), and I have the time and the means to do my hobbies. I have found many things that I love, things that enhance my life and all of these things--the people, the animals, the activities--keep me on a path of contentedness.

There are amazing times and terrible times, but as long as the majority of the time is somewhere in between, well, my life is just what I want it to be.

*from @good Q: If income didn't matter, what job would you pursue? #GOODasks

A Serious Point

If you haven't heard, Wolfie & the Sneak have partnered up with the Mine Creations for a poster giveaway! Leave a comment on Julia's beautiful blog for a chance to win a Four Seasons poster!

Charlie is finishing up his newest boat, a little canoe. He did a little test yesterday in our friends' pool to make sure it's seaworthy (well, technically Intracoastal Waterway-worthy). There are still some cosmetic pieces to add, but all in all it's pretty sharp lookin', don't you think? I mean, that nose*...that's a serious point!

*For clarification: the boat's nose, not Charlie's. His nose isn't really what I'd call pointy.

While I wouldn't normally suggest trying this at home. . . Try getting mad at your SO today

Oh boy! The cousin is better and the walking pneumonia seems to be a nothing but a memory, life has resumed it's regular programming. Well, as "regular" as we get on this here ol' blog, and no, I'm not going to start talking about fiber.

A couple weeks ago C thought I was mad at him for some reason or another. (For the record I wasn't mad at him.) To clear the air he bought me a gift, a beautiful little something I've been eying on etsy for ages and had given very strong hints about wanting. My very strong hints are emails saying, "If you ever want to buy me something, buy me this" and then I add a link to the exact page.

This is my Vessels and Wares hanging basket and you can't have it.

Of course, these fancy hanging baskets are made to order, so he came home empty-handed and said, "I bought you a present because you're mad at me."

If any guys are reading this take note: saying I bought you something because you're mad seems to emphasize the anger. Anger overshadows gifts. Also, coming home with a surprise in hand and saying, "This made me think of you" doesn't give the recipient 2-3 weeks of anxious I can't wait to see what it is that he bought me to make up for this anger I think of every time I think of the gift that's coming. See, the key is to not bring up fights or anger or any of that. Just a little tip for ya, guys.

However, I wasn't mad at the Mr., I laughed at him and then repeatedly asked him what my surprise was over and over and over until he told me. Then I got to wait the 2-3 weeks for it to arrive. In the meantime I surmised I should probably actually get mad at him more often if I'm so well-rewarded for such behavior, right??

Shot through the heart

Image from the Verla Ivans shop.

A while back I gave C some arrows from Verla Ivans on etsy. He wants a real bow and arrow, and is planning on making the bow. These aren't real arrows, just pretty looking painted dowels, but I thought they'd satisfy his craving for at least a little while.

In typical Hi-C fashion, he took the arrows and ran with them. No, not literally, I mean he got all fancy creative and made a rack for them. If you look closely, the crossbar on the rack imitates the grip of a bow. I sure think it's pretty and I sure love that boy, being so creative and all.

Being cheap never felt so good!

We had an emotionally difficult weekend, mostly due to exactly what caused this rant. And while I left it so vague to drive the point home to anyone who may not have thought about the place for technology in a still-polite society, it was "inspired" by things going on in our home life. I'm sure, you, dear readers, know your manners, though. Please don't take the rant personally. It's all part of purging the toxicity.

All that turmoil aside, as emotion settles into goals for the future, we had an incredible, quiet, cozy, satisfying {. . . you get the point, right?} weekend. No going out to fancy restaurants or expensive movies, just quiet time at home with hobbies and each other.

Funny enough, our hobbies are frugal approaches to luxury goods. Chemical-free, naturopathic medicine from the fancy health food store? Nah. Healthy snacks all wrapped in hermetically sealed bags shipped from California (or who knows where) that line the upper shelves of the grocery store whispering, "Buy me! I'm good for you! I'll make you feel good about snacking!" Yummy! But no, thanks. Just how long have you been trapped in that little plastic bag? Micro-brewed beer at $5 a pint? Hmmm, yeee. . .nope.

Charlie started a bock beer, this time experimenting with adding a little rosemary. {If you grow rosemary you know it's one of those things you can never use up.}

I put the elderberries into watered down Everclear to preserve their beneficial properties, now I just need to shake it up everyday until it's time to strain out the pulp and save the liquid for cold and flu season. At that point I'll divide it into 2 bottles, add honey to one and leave the other unsweetened. We used Honey Gardens Apitherapy's elderberry elixir when our house got the summer cold that was going around; it was amazing! C took it as he started feeling the aches and never got the full-blown cold. I took it the day the cold hit full-force and it was gone the next day. M was too young for honey, though. At $12 a bottle {and you use one 4 oz. bottle a day} we aren't really in the position to keep buying it, so this {I hope!} will be a more frugal fix.


I took the peaches and apples in the fridge that we kept forgetting about, peeled 'em, sliced 'em, and stuck them in the new old food dehydrator. {We found one at an estate sale that has a thermostat and a fan in it! Super fancy! Out goes the old new old one!} No little plastic pouches to toss out, either! In fact, the natural packaging {read: the peels} they came in went straight to the chickens as a sweet treat that will become poop to nourish the fig trees.


When everything is all said and done, the beer is in the bottles and we're chowing down on some sweet dried fruit long after the oppressive summer heat has dissipated into a cool, reinvigorating fall, we'll still have these skills. The metaphorical black cloud will lift and we'll still have each other. We'll toast the life changes that reminded us to focus on the good things all around.

Cheers to being cheap! It never felt so good!

Hello Monday, you sad sop of a beast.

Okay, actually Monday isn't that bad, but why isn't the weekend longer? It's like one of those falling dreams, that always seems to happen just as you're dozing off, and your body reacts and jaunts you awake.

I just want another few minutes of nap, Monday, just wait a few more hours for the work week to begin again.

This past weekend wasn't car free at all, which I missed badly. No long bike rides. I spent Friday night with my sister at the bookstore (and left with Lena Corwin's new book as well as a Sarah Vowell book on the super-clearance table for $3!), then Saturday morning at the Farmer's Market, talking food with anyone who'd lend an ear. I went home with a bag of yellow peaches, Bosky Acres Chevre (that tastes a lot like cream cheese--it's my newest addiction, so so good), fresh eggs, and garlic. Not a whole lot, but all of it is 100% flavor.

A little cooking, including biscuits stuffed with a honey/chevre filling and Sunday morning pancakes smothered in fresh fruit from the wild blueberry patch down the street and peaches from the farmer's market. A little computer time, adding to W&tS one of what will be a series of pinhole images Hi-C took with his growing collection of homemade pinhole cameras. It's amazing to watch the process--so foreign and fascinating to me.

This article, via please sir, is a perfect pairing with my Modish post on Friday. Is it a reaction to modern events such as the war in Iraq and Al Gore's popular movie?

With this ongoing theme of paring down, I have some exhilarating news (for me, at least) to share:
As of tomorrow, my 11 year old credit card* will be paid off, after an extensive battle with a 24.9% finance rate. Yes, folks, you read that right. My interest was actually that high.

I also just noticed one of my flickr contacts now has an etsy shop. She's partnered up with her friend Vicki, and they opened their art photography shop last week. Go check it out--her eye for color and texture is amazing, and I love that they're offering larger sizes, too! You'll love the timelessness of each piece, I promise!

*This was a card I signed up for because the store I was working for had a MasterCard promotion, and the corporate owners pressured the managers to have a certain percentage of customers sign up for the card. Obviously not many people go for that gimmick, so all of us employees signed up for them. At 19, it was my "new clothes fund". I have used it less than 5 times in the past 5 years--if that gives you any inkling of what a battle it has been for me.

In celebration of the financial freedom I will gain tomorrow, there will be giveaways!
Are you ready?

Meandering links and a story of fresh rubber

Some funny and positive images from the Northern Sun catalog. Probably on the verge of grungy hippie, but c'mon! We all need a little positive harrumph in progressive thought, right? And the Shepard Fairey Make Art poster is pretty classic looking, me thinks.

Some other random links I followed this morning:

LOVED the article on succulents on Poppytalk--not because I have a weakness for the easy to care for little buggers, but because it spreads the plant love.
Also because it took me to At Home At Home. She's funny and I can relate to almost all of the posts (with apologies to the one on 90210; one word: Brenda). And she linked to Yvette Roman's Beyond the Lawn. At which point I opened a new tab and excitedly read this article! Well sort of read it because now I have 6 tabs open and I want to read everything all at once. Why is that Newsweek article so exciting? It means I'll get less and less odd looks from neighbors who think the big beds in our back yard are actually in our front yard.

The past couple days I've been working on recipe cards to share, and above you see 3 of the 4. The last one has been giving me a little lip, but hopefully I'll have all 4 as a PDF, free for your personal printing enjoyment!

There is a little deal to be had in the WATS etsy shop. Check out Modish later today and find out what this vague little secret is all about.

On to a little learning lesson at Chateau du Sneak, but first here's a nice little quip from Homegrown Evolution:

As the Bicycle Film Festival wraps up here in Los Angeles I'm reminded of how exciting it is to feel a part of a subculture not yet discovered by the masses. Perhaps $4 a gallon gasoline will bring a few more converts, but I'm not holding my breath. The joy of riding a bike is a far greater incentive than economic necessity. I'd rather crest a steep hill with a sense of accomplishment rather than a winded desperation. The bike film fest is a celebration of an everyday physical virtuosity that will become more important as the crack-like cultural high of fossil fuels proves increasingly expensive and destructive.

If you take out the words "film fest" in the last sentence the whole thing becomes more relevant to the world beyond LA.

You see, around here we have a lot of cyclers who are very. . .ummmm. . .serious about their sport. Lots of spandex and store-bought gear covered in "sponsorship" logos (or are there that many serious cyclers in this town? I'm completely lost with the culture, so any misrepresentation is purely a result of my own subjective observation.) You don't really see that many people on bikes just trying to get somewhere.

This is why my posts have been lacking in bicycle gab for a while.

Hi-C finished the flatsy, so we were fully prepared to traipse around town and pick up bags of cut grass or do our shopping for the week, but my long-neglected tires were looking worse for the wear. That was June 26. We took the bike to the small, independently owned shop up the road to get new tires. Now mind you my bike is a late 80s Schwinn--nothing fancy, just an all around good little 10 speed that cost me $35 once upon a time. The tires, we were told, had to be special tires that needed to be ordered. Said tires would be in in a few days.

A few days pass, some tires come in, we were called, went to pick up the bike and the tires were the wrong size. Took the bike home, were told the tires would be sent back and new ones would arrive in a couple days. Bike sat there, lonely, and wheeless in the company of Bike2 and Flatsy.
A couple days go by, the tires didn't come in, we were told "tomorrow" "tomorrow" "tomorrow" and "tomorrow", you see, tomorrow is a promise with prohibitive nature--a term that made putting the wheels back on the bike seem useless, since "tomorrow" we'd be taking them back off and replacing the tires and inner tubes. A total of 4 sets of tires came in at various points, all of which were the wrong size and tomorrow the right size would be in.

Trusting the bike shop, we'd never thought to try the 26" tires in the garage, bought for the first set of wheels we had for the Flatsy, which ended up not working. So we waited. A couple more "tommorows" came and went and 3 weeks had passed. "Oh yeah," said a more than perturbed Mr. C, "I have those tires in the garage. They're not special tires, they're $10 tires I bought at Target. I wonder if those $10 unspecial tires will fit the $35 unspecial bike wheels." And amazingly, they did! Once again, Bike had fresh rubber, and Bike2, Flatsy, and Bike were ready for a quick jaunt to the grocery store.

What do you think: Was this bicycle run-around because we weren't the customers who would be back to pay several hundred dollars for a pair of shoes specially made for city street training? Or was it because the distributor kept sending the wrong tires? Certainly if they can outfit a several thousand dollar bicycle they could figure out the right kind of tires, no?

barely opening my eyes

I'm oozing mucous down the back of my throat--the allergies are getting me down, I guess. My eyes are barely open and after a short but all too lengthy battle with caffeine, I lost. This morning I'm on my second cup and it's not doing a damn thing.

Since I have my night reading (I think I've had 50 more pages to read for the last 2 weeks, what's up with that?), I've been listening to The Omnivore's Dilemma, and despite sounding like a heretic, I'm 1/6 of the way into it (section 25 out of 150 or something like that) and I'm really getting annoyed with all the corn talk. Pollan's writing is something of a bible for the food trends catching on, so I don't want to skip anything, but at the same time, enough of the corn already. Perhaps it's listening rather than reading, hearing another voice read is a lot like listening to a preacher--it just doesn't sit well with me. Rather, it makes me sleepy. Nappy time in the car is not good.

I spent the greater part of Saturday morning sitting in itchy grass, staining my legs and hands, picking dandelions. I'm sure I evoked suspicion of my sanity from neighbors, since the back yard abuts a fairly buys street, but it was good to get outside and do something. And it was especially good to do something that made me feel so much like a 5 year old playing house. This was all for the sake of a couple handfuls of dandelion buds, to become something of an experiment in foraging: dandelion bud capers. The process is a combination of this recipe and several recipes for nasturtium capers.

There was also a pie from scratch, simply to clear out the cabinets for the upcoming canning season. Not too long ago I finished a table out of a candle holder from West Elm and a wooden cutting board from Crate and Barrel (both on clearance, total price less than $50), took a shoe cubby shelf that was just causing clutter in the studio, added some legs and made more storage for the kitchen, and used up the. last. jar. of tomatoes from last year. Not good considering I still haven't seen the beginning of a blossom on the tomatoes yet. What will I do??? Grocery store tomatoes?? No way.

New distractions: picnik
Cooking, cooking, cooking.
Anything yellow or green, or both together is even better.

Things that I want: To do when I grow up: Run a health food store that incorporates the revitalizing spirit of art and music (but not in that new agey way) , as well as locally sourced goods.
To build for myself: a greenhouse of modest measures.
Somethings of reasonable fortitude: Losing weight, remembering to take my vitamins, and absorbing some natural vitamin D while I absorb the beautiful world around me. That is, if I can ever get my eyes open

Here they are, 3 of my newest pieces: Lessons in Ladylike Behavior. Each wooden spoon is covered in tissue paper wedding dress patterns, and painted with an example of flowers with superior ovaries. Superior Ovaries. Gets me every time, I swear.


Below is a picture Charlie took of me while we sat at a show this weekend. A very slow show. Very. Slow. But it's also a perfect example of my weekend. Lots of examining.


On Friday there was a little juvenile sparrow in our yard, hurt and helpless. A Red Shouldered Hawk has been lurking around, and definitely had it's eye on the little guy. It's pretty amazing to see the little birds all gang up on such a massive bird, I guess it keeps his ego in check. He/She didn't get to it, but the little guy died. By the time we intervened it must've been without food for 5 or 6 hours, we just kept hoping the mom would come by and take care of it, but no luck.
We, in all of our non-religious daily living, actually prayed and cried over the little bird, sending out lots of messages for hope for this helpless little creature to the world.

We'd also added another feeder to the yard only to be promptly chomped down (and then drained of it's food) by a squirrel. Another feeder was moved to the back yard, and in a 15 minute window yesterday there were blue birds, blue jays, chickadees, cardinals, robins, crows and other common birds all hanging around the area, seemingly waiting their turn.

Then the swarm came down and bees were everywhere. The birds were unphased, and in this time of diminishing bee populations, I wanted to watch and capture the moment. This was the second time I've seen that happen, the last time was right at 2 years ago. We have a hive in our house, between a the wall and the brick facade. We don't mind that they're there, so long as they don't mind that we're there, too. But the hive outgrows the space, so they find a suitable second queen, sweep her out of the hive, swarm around her as a living hive, and search for new digs.


I wonder if splitting off will be a biennial event. If it is, it's worthy of celebration, since no one really knows what's happening to the bees. (Mites? Cell phones? GMOs?) We hopped on the Mecklenburg County Beekeeper's website and found a guy to gather them up to keep. My best guess is that they used to divide and have woods to go into, but with the development/growth (and relative diminishing of wooded areas) they have no where to go.

Anyway, all of this happened while I was digging in the veggie beds, glad to have bees happy enough to stick around through the Summer and pollinate my tomatoes.

Here it is, the beds in grid form. Each square is approximately 1 square foot, but the beds are actually 21' long, so I'm counting on inexact measurements, and if I end up with extra space, I'll feel lucky to get to add more veggies!

Click on the image for a larger, legible version.

love, life, and the pursuit of taxes

The sign up for the punk rock modish gardening swap is up and live! Go sign up, 'cause I'm beginning to think 90% of the gardeners out there these days are NC gals.

(Which is also pretty cool, but you know, it'd be nice to see some other states representin'!)


I spent Friday night and Saturday being super lazy (sort of), just kind of haphazardly making stuff that involved lots of decoupage, but Sunday was the "Do your taxes or else!" day, so I (we) opted for the "or else".

The mister mowed the grass, blew the leaves, and thatched the grass a bit. I cut back the weeds already threatening to take over the fig bushes, made a little hideaway for the trashcan/recycling/compost with a metal trellis.


I finished up a couple Urban Explorer kits for upcoming Spring Craft Shows (unfortunately one of those will not be Renegade Brooklyn). These kits have: a 20 page blank book with a pocket in the front and back, 2 pouches for misc. collections, magnifying glass, tags for identification purposes, 2 pencils, a globe pencil sharpener, and some specimens to inspire your exploration! I, of course, recommend drawing your findings, but you can do whatever you want with them. The whole thing comes in a handy dandy vintage map covered box with a handle and tie closures.

During the leaf blowing, Hi-C found a trapdoor spider home. Although I'm not big on spiders, they are pretty cool, if you ask me.

Smarty pants Taylor's Punk Gardening Manifesto.

Good local food source link: FoodRoutes.org.

Little factoid from them fine fellers:
Farmers in 2002 earned their lowest real net cash income since 1940. Meanwhile corporate agribusiness profits have nearly doubled since 1990. –USDA, 2002

I bought tickets to hear Built to Spill play at the Neigh- borhood Theater Monday night (with the Meat- puppets, which is weird, right?). They're one of those that's been on the top of my list of bands to see for, oh say, 10 years.

At 10:30, Charlie remembered the tickets. By that point I was already snug under covers and halfway to dreaming after cooking and completely porking out on vegetarian enchiladas.

I felt too old to get up and go out at that point--when did everything change? I used to start getting ready to go out around 9:30 or 10.
I need some sunshine, birds chirping, and soil to till. That's about as revitalizing as it gets for me these days.

I'm ready to know where my seedlings are going to end up.

(built to spill as seen in the gallery on their website; the flower image is the newest print in the shop, and I'm in love with its, so I had to share; also, illustration friday's theme this week is "garden"--you're aces in my book i.f.!)

Let me tell you about those enchiladas, too.

Roast 1 Carnival Squash (seeds saved to plant, too), 1 onion and 2 cloves garlic--either chop them up into uniformly small bits or throw them in the food processor to dice them up. Add 1 can of rinsed and drained black beans, sauteed fresh spinach (as much as you please). Sautee beans, spinach, and diced, roasted veggies, seasoning as desired (I added salt, pepper and cumin). Stir it all together with 1/2 cup Monterey Jack cheese.
Spritz 4 tortillas with water, cover in a pan and steamed for a few minutes in the oven (I had the convection going at 300, left them in there til everything else was done).
Then the sauce: 3 T flour, 1 teaspon garlic powder, 1T cumin, pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon cocoa, 1 teaspoon ground red pepper, small can tomato paste, water. The actual recipe called for Oregano, but I was too lazy to get any from the front yard, so I added a little bit of dried basil. Mix all the dry ingredients, add 1/2 cup water, mix, add tomato paste. Heat on stove in sauce pan slowly adding water to get the desired consistency

Aside from the roasting, the whole thing took maybe 30 minutes?