Sharing

 A few years ago, I was with a group of women sharing the day working on projects.  I love these get togethers.  As we were stitching, the conversation turned to a moving experience one of the woman had recently had.  As she shared her "moving experience" or nightmare from Elm Street moving version, all enjoyed side splitting laughter as she detailed her moving nightmare experience. There was a great deal of laughter as she detailed how her underwear fell out of the drawer and landed on the feet of one of the movers.

After the moving experience had been shared and everyone had regained their composure from the belly laughter, one woman spoke up and said:  "You should have called us.  We are much cheaper and you would not have had the bad experience and we would have baked a casserole and had lunch when the moving was completed."  Beautiful projects (quilts, hooked rugs, and needlework), good conversation, people who motivate and inspire me, and good food, all reasons to get together.  Have you noticed when women get together there is always delicious food to be shared?  Not only do they share delicious food but they also share recipes (and fibers and wool and fabric).  Here is a shared recipe from my dear friend Judy.

Judy's Orange Salad

Large can of crushed pineapple
1/4 cup water
2 packages orange jello with sugar
2 cups of buttermilk
carton on Cool Whip

Heat pineapple with water
Add jello and stir to dissolve
Add buttermilk and Cool Whip
Refrigerate

A very easy, simple, delicious salad.  Thank you Judy for sharing the recipe and the laughter.

First Saturday of the Month

The first Saturday of the month is an important day for AppleJack and me.  The first Saturday of the month is when Goodwill has everything in the store for half price.  Goodwll is where I find wools for backing projects, quilts and rug hooking.  For example here are some of my finds at Goodwill.  See these corduroy pants.

 They became quilt pieces.

The quilt pieces became a quilt for nephew, David.  David lives in Iowa (where they have real winters).  Callie Mae was giving the quilt a test drive before shipping to David.  Thank goodness David loves cats--he shares his home with Stella and Maxine

Another great find at Goodwill is wool pants.  I never look at sizes when I shop at Goodwill, I look for labels (100% wool) then colors.

  The pants get disassembled, washed and cut into strips for hooking. 

These Goodwill finds became this hooked wool rug.

 The rug is from Maggie Bonanomi's book called With These Hands.

 At the fabric shops, 100% wool is $26.00/yard and up.  Wool on the first Saturday of the month at Goodwill is $2.00 (and some enjoyable work).  Am always on the lookout for a good bargain.

Remember I am planning to hook Midnight Watch--Goodwill here I come ready or not

Sunshine and Blue Skies

Another quilt from Lynn Roddy Brown's Simple Strategies for Scrap Quilts was a blue and yellow quilt she called Texas Two Step:  Down the Line.  I had a lot of blue and yellow fabric in my stash and one of my goals for 2011 was to reduce my fabric inventory.  The name Texas Two Step did not work for me so I re named my quilt Sunshine and Blue Skies.  This quilt will be given to a dear friend who is a survivor.  The past few years have been a growing and learning experience for her and Sunshine and Blue Skies seemed appropriate to show her there are better days ahead for her.

What to do with all those small pieces of fabric

Quilters believe "when life gives you scraps, make quilts."  One of my goals for 2011 was to reduce my fabric stash.  
I found this book at Hobby Lobby.  The instructions are easy to follow and there were many different designs to choose.

A Little Bit of Everything quilt seemed like a good way to use up many smaller pieces of fabric.

Here is my version of "A Little Bit of Everything."  Will make a great crib quilt, sofa throw, or dorm room quilt.  

Never Fail Chocolate Pie

Mother bakes excellent pies!  Milk, eggs and butter were always plentiful on the farm.  Growing up during the depression years Mother grew up with the "waste not, want not" principle.  There must be hundreds of recipes for chocolate pie.  Mother calls her recipe for chocolate pie--Never Fail.

3 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 cup sugar
2 cups sweet milk
2 eggs
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix flour, salt, cocoa and sugar

Place 1 and 1/2 cup milk on medium heat in heavy pan or double boiler (I use my trusty, faithful iron skillet)

Add the other 1/2 cup of milk to the sifted dry ingredients

Cook until mixture begins to thicken

This next step is very important!  Add approx 1/4 cup of the thicken milk/sugar mixture to the egg yolks.  Very important to add hot mixture to the yolks to temper the egg yolks, else you will end up with yucky scrambled eggs and failed pie. 

Add the tempered egg yolks to milk/sugar mixture and cook until thicken (about two to three minutes).  Add butter and vanilla and mix well.

While this mixture is cooling, I make the meringue.

Bake at 350 degrees until meringue is golden brown.

Oh AppleJack, I'm ready for the taste tester guinea pig

"Let them eat pie"

Is there anything better than a good piece of pie?  AppleJack would say yes, "pie, with a good cup of coffee."   I have a friend who is on the quest to find the perfect piece of pie.  My Mother is a wonderful pie maker.  Anytime my extended family has a get together Mother is always asked to bake the pies.  Chocolate, lemon, coconut, chess, butterscotch, pumpkin, pecan or any other type pie, Mother excels.  Growing up on a farm, Mother always had fresh milk, eggs, and butter at her disposal.  These three ingredients seem to be universal in most pie recipes.   One of the secrets to a good pie is the crust.  As I have added "making a good pie" to my bucket list of things I want to accomplish, I have begun to bake more pies.  My pies are not as good as Mother's, but AppleJack says I am improving and making progress and he is always willing to be the taste tester guinea pig.

In 1989, Marcia Adams released a cookbook called Cooking from Quilt Country.  Marcia spent more than a year living, cooking and baking with Amish and Mennonites families.  PBS had a thirteen part cooking series featuring Marcia, the Amish and Mennonites and their recipes.  Below is one of the recipes from Cooking from Quilt Country--Hot Water Pie Crust.  Take it away Marcia.

When you mention a hot water pie crust, people look askance, for traditional pie crust recipes always emphasize cold ingredients and ice cold water,  And we are talking about boiling water here,  But this makes a tender, flaky crust.  At one stage, it looks like unappetizing putty, but don't worry about that,  I make huge amounts, cut it into wedges, and freeze it for nearly instant pies.  This is an old, old recipe.

Makes pastry for two 8-inch pies with top crusts or two 9 or 10 inch pies without top crusts

1 cup lard, very soft
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup boiling water
3 cups all-purpose flour

Place the lard and salt in a large bowl and beat a bit with a tablespoon until he lard is completely softened.  You can also do this with an electric hand beater.

Pour boiling water over the lard and blend again.  Let this mixture cool to room temperature, but stir often so water and lard won't separate.

Stir in the flour, and form the mixture into a ball.  If you use your hands do it quickly.

Chill for several hours or overnight, then let the cold dough sit out at room temperature for about thirty minutes before rolling out.

If you are preparing a shell to fill later or if your recipe requires a pre baked crust, pre heat the over to 425 degrees F.  Roll out a portion of the dough to 1/8 thickness.  Transfer the crust to a pie pan and pat it in snugly.  Form a decorative edging along the rim and trim off the edges.  Prick the surface of the pastry all over with a fork.  Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.

Stay tuned folks. . . tomorrow we will bake a Never Fail Chocolate pie.

Beating the Winter Blahs

Winter.  Winter offers a mixed bag of feelings for people.  Some people like winter, others do not.  I am growing to like winter.  I do enjoy the cold day and the snow is beautiful.  Grandmother Bessie did not like winter--she often referred to the short days as "gray days."  Grandmother Bessie liked sunshine.  Winter allows the garden to rest, allows time for me to work on inside projects, and smell soups and stews simmering on the stove.

Several years ago, the local community center offered a series of classes called "Beat the Winter Blahs."  There were dozens of different classes offered and I felt taking a class or two was a good way for me to learn something new and spend my winter time productively.  I signed up for two classes stenciling and basket making.  I had visited historical homes with stenciling and thought it was "the poor woman's answer to wallpaper."  Women have been making baskets for centuries and I took the attitude "if they can weave a basket, so can I."  Both classes were awesome!

Here are some baskets from Beating the Winter Blahs.

Here is some stenciling at Thistle Manor

This year I have decided to beat the winter blahs and the summer heat, by taking quilt classes at one of the local quilt shops.  Starting January 21st, I will have my first Jo Morton Little Women quilt class.  I am so excited!  Beautiful fabrics, opportunity to learn new techniques, meet and make some new friends, most likely some good food and a "little quilt(s)" to take home to AppleJack and Thistle Manor.

So, whether you are a winter liker or disliker, find your own way to "beat the winter blahs."