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| We have nice blue skies today. |
We have a glorious break in the weather this week with temperatures in the 70°Fs and 80°Fs. Such a welcome break from the feels-like 100-degree heat we were having. But the cold front that brought the nicer weather brought a lot of rain with it. We had 5" at our house in under 2 hours. Unfortunately, that caused water in the basement. But fortunately, the waterproof flooring we had installed a few months ago held up well. An area rug, not so much. Everything has finally dried out, and we're good to go. This was a minor inconvenience compared to the devastation that can come with floods caused by heavy rains. We know we are lucky.
Do you ever have those moments when you learn something that the rest of the world has known forever and wonder how you missed the information? Well, I had a couple of those this week. First up, I was baking a cake, and my baking powder was a couple of years past its best-by date. I didn't want to ruin the whole recipe, so with a little Googling, I learned that you can put baking powder into hot water to test it. Bubbles=good. No bubbles=bad. Fortunately, mine was good.
I don't know if you remember, but after last Christmas, when I was putting my mantle back together, I couldn't find the two framed X-stitch pieces I had displayed there. I usually stand them upright next to a shelf or dresser in an out-of-the-way place while the Christmas decorations are up.
That's all for now. Time to go outside and enjoy the weather.
Until next time...
That's a lot of rain to fall at once! I'm sorry your basement flooded, but, glad it all dried out, including the area rug. I'm also glad that you found the cross stitched hangings. Thank you for sharing the tip about the baking powder! I had no idea! Didn't know about the bristles on the vegetable brush, either, but, then, I don't have a vegetable brush. Maybe I should buy one!
ReplyDeleteI don't bake that much, so my baking powder is often out of date. Now I know how to test it, so I won't buy new unnecessarily. I use a vegetable brush all the time especially on root vegetables like carrots and potatoes.
DeleteThe basement flooding was annoying. Ward was angry because we paid a lot of money for new drainage, so that wouldn't happen. But it was an awful lot of rain in a short amount of time.
So sorry about the wet basement! We didnt have any rain at all this week, so i am back to watering.
ReplyDeleteI laughed out loud about your pictures! I have done the same thing, far too often. How many times have I found a Christmas decoration in July? Too many!
Once I found the pictures, I remember putting them there. I thought they would be safer than propped up against something like I had done the years before. It really bothered me that I couldn't find them and I felt really silly when I did.
DeleteTo be perfectly honest, I just use my baking powder without thinking about whether it's out of date or not!! I am a bit laissez-faire about Best Before dates. I think it comes from my mother. My OH is a bit too fussy and once spent an afternoon going through mum's cupboards - he found some VERY old things that we were not tempted to try!
ReplyDeleteI have never worried about the date on my baking powder before and it's worked out ok. However, I put a lot of effort and ingredients into this cake, so I thought I should look up to see if there was a way to figure out if it was good.
DeleteBest buy dates are just that. If you use a product after that date, it can still be good and I don't pay too much attention to them. However, my sister does.
At one time, the only product in the US that had a real Use By date was baby formula.
Came to your blog via your comment on Afshan's blog post.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, heavy rains can flood the basement. But like you rightly said that's nothing compared to the hardship that floods can cause.
This is the monsoon season in India, especially south India. And we here in Bangalore have been getting quite a bit of rain over the past few days.
It's always good to learn something. You reference to adding hot water to baking soda reminded me of my chemistry class. I guess the bubbles are because of the carbondioxide that is produced by baking soda.
(My latest post: Kerala in monsoon: A road trip)
Thanks for visiting, Pradeep. I have never lived where there is a monsoon season, but I can imagine there is a lot of rain that comes with it. Yes, adding the baking powder to hot water was very much like chemistry class. :)
DeleteGreat blog
ReplyDeleteThat's funny they were already hanging on a wall. Also I thought it was interesting your cold front brought 70 to 80 degree temps. That seems kind of warm to me. But the 5 inches of rain? OMG. Way too much. Where could all that go? We're going to have 3 days of feels like 100 starting tomorrow. Fun times.
ReplyDeleteThe cold front brought temps that were a good 20-30 degrees cooler and very welcome. It's going back up into the 90s next week, but not over 100, so that's better than it has been at times. However, anything over 90 with humidity is just gross, in my opinion.
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