House Blend Granola Recipe

I love granola. I would happily eat it every day - twice a day. I especially love the granola I make with this recipe.

5 cups old-fashioned oats

1 cup coconut. You can leave this out if you don't like coconut - I love the toasty flavor it gets. Maybe try some wheat germ instead?

1 cup chopped nuts. Any kind except sunflower seeds. They taste good, but they always float to the top of the milk and make the final bowl look less pretty.

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 cup sweetener. I like to mix two kinds - I think that gives it a deeper flavor. Try a scant 1/2 cup of brown sugar with a few tablespoons of honey or maple syrup.

1/2 cup oil.

Mix it all together. Spread on an oiled baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Stir once halfway through cooking.

Eat one bowl hot out of the oven, topped with some dried fruit and cold milk or warm apple cider. Let the rest cool completely and store in a sealed container. Serve with milk, cider, or yogurt.

I love mixing and matching different nut/fruit/sweetener combinations to get different flavors. Some of my favorites are dried apricots with almonds and honey (mmmm. . .) and dried cherries with cashews and maple syrup (fancy!). My everyday basic is raisins with almonds and honey. So good. And I just happen to have a pan in the oven right now.

Read more...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! We don't do a traditional dinner - instead we do a few favorites for everyone in the house - and who cares if together they make up a balanced meal. On the menu this year (in case you can't read our fancy-schmancy chalkboard or want links to recipes). . .
Peach Crisp
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ice Cream Cones
Curried Butternut Squash Soup
Cheese Pizza
Ritz crackers with Boursin cheese and gruyere
Homemade Bread
Cornbread Dressing with Chestnuts and Sausage

I'll leave you to guess who requested what. :-)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Read more...

Soup, Glorious Soup

It's been kind of cold and dreary here lately - the perfect weather for making soup. I love tomato soup. Jo does not. I recently read this post over at Soule Mama and decided I needed to try her tomato soup with carrots.

There were yummy tomatoes from the farmer's market to peel. . .

. . . and carrots (also from the farmer's market) to be chopped.

Jo chops. I peel and quarter.

The tomatoes are roasted (yum!) and you don't have to seed them. I don't mind peeling them - but recipes that call for seeding them bug me because I feel like I'm feeding half the tomatoes to the chickens.

Saute the carrots, celery and onions, toss in the roasted tomatoes, add some stock, whirl it all together, add some cream - and yum! So yummy that I dove in without taking a picture. But you know what tomato soup looks like, right?

Read more...

Caramel Apple Sticky Buns

Alan was at a conference this weekend and Jo and I opted for Caramel Apple Sticky Buns for Sunday breakfast instead of our usual pancakes. Oh. Wow. Basically - this is a bit of dough  rolled around huge quantities of butter and sugar and then topped with even more butter and sugar and a few tiny bits of apple. Every time Jo took a bite she moaned, "Mommy - this is the best thing ever!" What else is there to say? Except, of course, that you can find the recipe here.

Read more...

Recipe - Curried Butternut Squash Soup

I was fighting off a cold this weekend and nothing I had in the fridge sounded very good. It was rainy and cool and I wanted soup. Spicy soup that I'd be able to taste in spite of a stuffy nose. I had a couple of butternut squash that I had picked up at the farmer's market, and a jar of Thai red curry paste that's sat unopened in my pantry for years. Put them together and I had a very tasty soup - perfect for a chilly day and a stuffy head. And I even took notes on how I made it!

3-4 lbs. butternut squash
2-3 T olive oil
1 T butter
1 onion - chopped
1 carrot - chopped
1 apple - peeled, cored and chopped
2 heaping teaspoons Thai red curry paste
1 qt. vegetable broth
2 bay leaves
heavy cream
chopped fresh chives

Roast the butternut squash however you like. I like to peel it, scoop out the seeds and chop it all up, toss the cubes in olive oil and a bit of salt and roast at 400 degrees until it's tender. I know some people like to cut the whole squash in half, scoop out the seeds, brush it with olive oil and roast cut-side down until it's tender. As long as the squash comes out soft (and slightly caramelized in places) you're good.

Heat 1 T olive oil and the butter in your soup pot. Saute the onion, carrot and apple with some salt until soft - about 5 minutes. Add the curry paste and stir it all together - maybe another couple of minutes on the heat. Add the broth, the squash, and the bay leaves. Reduce heat and let it simmer for about an hour. Remove the bay leaves and then puree the soup. I use an immersion blender. Please don't forget to remove the bay leaves first - when you puree them in the soup you get some really unpleasant hard leafy bits and then you have to spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to pick them out of the soup - not that I did that or anything. :-)

When you're ready to serve finish it off with a little heavy cream and top with chopped chives. I add the cream in the bowl instead of in the pot so I can save the leftovers without cream - I like it added fresh right at the very end.

I ate this with some of this English Muffin Toasting Bread. Yummy!

Pottery footnote. . .
That bowl? It's poorly photographed, but it's my very favorite bowl. Michael Kline made it and it's the perfect size and shape for holding in my hand while I eat. He calls this shape breakfast cups and they're just right for a bowl of granola - but I use them most often for soup. Mmmmm. . . soup. Nothing beats homemade soup eaten from a handmade bowl. . .

Read more...

Summer's Bounty

I bought a ton of great stuff at the farmer's market this week - including a bunch of squash. I know everyone else in the northern hemisphere is sick to death of it by now, but I can't get enough and I know the end is near. I bought yellow squash, zucchini squash and pattypan squash. I bought butternut squash too - but I'll save those for a soup on some chilly, drizzly day.

My favorite way to fix squash is to saute it in a lot of butter and olive oil with some salt. A lot of butter and olive oil - I serve it over rice or couscous or some other grain and the extra butter/oil is a good sauce to flavor that up. If I have some almonds on hand I toss in a handful at the end. And I top it with some fresh herbs - usually parsley but nobody had parsley this week so I used chives. The trick is not to mess with the squash too much - just let it sit in the pan and get a nice crust on it and then flip it to brown the other side.

And for dessert? More peaches. My old peach crisp recipe wasn't perfect so I tried a new one - this one by Ina Garten. There are raspberries in it too - another happy farmer's market find - but I think I could substitute any berry that was in season - or leave them out altogether.

The filling was perfect - her recipe includes a nice trick where she has you let the fruit macerate for 5 minutes and then add more flour if it's really juicy. Mine was really, really juicy so I added even more extra flour than she called for and it was just right.

Some people in the comments on foodnetwork.com complained that there wasn't enough flavor in the recipe - they added cinnamon, allspice - even cloves! Ina adds no extra spices - just some orange zest that I thought brightened the whole thing up. The result was that it tasted like peaches - summer in a bowl - and I wouldn't add a single thing. The flavor of her topping was good - but the texture was a bit on the powdery side. I like mine to be almost cookie-like on top so I think next time I'll use less flour. There are just enough peaches left for one more batch. . .

By the way - both the plate and the bowl were made by Naomi Dalglish and Michael Hunt. Aren't they pretty?

Read more...

Peach Jam. . . nom. . . nom. . .nom

On the way back from Dragon*Con we stopped in South Carolina for some local peaches and - holy cow they are good! That basket is a lot for eating fresh, though, so we're canning some of them. Yesterday we (mostly Jo) made some jam.

I'm always slightly horrified at how much sugar goes into jam.

Jo loved ladling it into the jars.

We actually used a little too much fruit so this is a pretty soft set. I think we'll call this batch ice cream sauce and make another batch of more proper jam.

So pretty! And it will be so tasty poured over vanilla ice cream and sprinkled with chopped almonds. nom. . . nom. . . nom. . .

Read more...

Red Velvet Cake - Recipe and Math Lesson

I love doing math lessons with Jo while we cook. One of my favorites is to give her a recipe and two small measuring tools (like 1/4 cup and 1/2 teaspoon) and tell her to make the recipe using only those measurers.

Tip: If you do this at home, measure large quantities into a separate bowl so if you lose count of all those 1/4 or 1/3 cups you can start over. We figured that out after a bad batch of cookies. We got to chatting while Jo measured out three cups of flour with a 1/4 cup measure and lost count.

It's a fun way to learn fractions, conversions, and also estimating. Sometimes I like to really throw Jo a curve ball - like make her use a 1/3 cup measure in a recipe that calls for 1/2 cup of something.

We made this red velvet cake for Valentine's Day and I thought I'd share the recipe. It's absolutely fabulous! Nom nom nom nom nom. . .

Grandma June's Red Velvet Cake
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 oz. red food coloring
1 teaspoon vanilla2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cocoa

Beat together the sugar and the oil. Add eggs and beat well. Add the rest of the wet ingredients and beat well. Sift the dry ingredients together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and beat well. Pour into greased cake pans. Bake 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.

My Mom always uses three pans but I only have two that match in size so mine is a two-layer cake. It works well both ways.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 stick butter
1 8-oz. package cream cheese
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Cream together the butter and cream cheese. Add the vanilla. Add the sugar and beat well. Stir in the nuts if you're using them. I love walnuts or pecans in the frosting, but Jo doesn't like them so we left them out this time.

Enjoy!

Read more...

Recipe - Creamy Corn Chowder

It's soup season - yay! I love soup! And I love this new recipe for corn chowder I tossed together the other day - definitely a new favorite. It cooks in one pot, uses stuff I usually have on hand, and the leftovers are terrific. Who could ask for more?

Warm up 2T butter and 2T olive oil in a soup pot. Toss in 3 large leeks (chopped), 4 large carrots (chopped) and a sprinkle of salt and let them cook over lowish heat for about 5 minutes. You don't want them to brown, just soften. Shallots would probably work if you don't have leeks on hand, but I think regular onions might be too oniony. In a pinch I'd try it, but maybe reduce the amount?

Add 6 medium red potatoes (cut into 1/2 inch chunks). Don't bother peeling them - really. This isn't that kind of soup. Add 2 t dried thyme, 1 T dried basil, and 2 cans of good vegetable stock. If you have fresh herbs, use 'em of course! Just use twice as much. Add a little salt here too, unless your stock is really salty.

Bring it all to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer, cover, and cook until the potatoes are soft. It will probably take about 10 minutes.

Stir in 2 cups half and half. Yes - I said half and half. Don't even try to substitute milk. It will not be good and you know it.

Stir in 4 cups frozen corn. If it's the middle of summer and you feel like cutting fresh corn off the cob and using that - you're a better woman than I am. Me? I'd make the soup with frozen corn and serve corn on the cob on the side. And some corn muffins with lots of butter. I do love corn. But I digress. . .

Warm it up until it almost boils, then let it simmer for a few minutes to really blend the flavors together. Taste it and add a bit more salt if it needs it. Eat it in huge bowls. Yum!

Read more...

Recipe: Chili with Sweet Potatoes - Yum!

It's been raining all day - and all that rain gave me a hankering for some chili. I thought about chili all morning - and then I remembered that I have a basket of sweet potatoes sitting on the counter. I like sweet potatoes with lots of spice and I wondered if they'd be good in chili. I didn't want to ruin my chili, so I sent out a tweet asking if I was crazy or would sweet potatoes be REALLY good in chili. The answer was an overwhelming yes and, let me tell you, they were all right! That was the BEST chili I've ever made. So now I want to share. Here's what I did. . .

Saute one large onion and some salt in olive oil until it's translucent. I like mine cut in biggish chunks. Add 3 cloves of garlic (minced), 2 small sweet potatoes (peeled and cut in smallish pieces) and 3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (minced). Saute it all together for a few minutes and enjoy the awesome smell. I think I may have added a bit more salt here.

Add one pint jar of diced tomatoes (or a can) with juice. Add two cans of kidney beans (rinsed) and one can of vegetable broth. I think it would have been better with one can of kidney beans and one can of black beans, but I was all out of black beans. Stir in 2 teaspoons chili powder and 1 teaspoon cumin. Throw a lid on it and let it simmer for a while. I think I let mine go for about an hour - maybe a bit longer. It's not really critical - you just want it to be kind of thick and all the veggies to be soft.

Make up a batch of cornbread and throw some frozen corn into your chili - maybe 2-3 cups? I like corn a lot, so that may be overkill for some people. Let the chili warm back up while your cornbread cooks. Eat with a cold beer and lots of butter on the cornbread. Yum!

I am SO GLAD there are leftovers.

Read more...

Colorful Menu

I painted this door near the kitchen with chalkboard paint and then I bought these awesome chalks in amazing colors. Now we have a place to write our menu for the week! Jo helps pick the meals - can you guess which choices are hers? The rules are that I get to pick two meals and she gets to pick two. (I know that's only four but I'm big on leftovers.) One meal every week has to be a new recipe we've never tried. I made the tomato veggie casserole last night - recipe from Everyday Italian - and it was delicious. Jo liked the grilled cheese - not the veggies. Breakfast this morning was granola - my own recipe that I'll have to get around to posting up here someday.

Please notice that the book link is now to IndieBound. If you click on it you'll get a window asking for your zip code. That will connect you to your local independent bookseller. Yay! Support indies! Thanks IndieBound for upgrading to allow links to specific titles! I'll be switching over all the links here as I have time.

Read more...

Recipe: Best French Toast Ever

OK - I make really good French toast. Jo an I have been taking turns choosing the dinner menu every night and last night she picked French toast and fruit. So I thought I'd share my recipe.

Best French Toast Ever

3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
zest of one orange
two dashes of cinnamon
1 teaspoon brown sugar
4 slices bread (I use whole wheat)

Mix up everything except the bread. Soak the bread until it's totally soggy with the egg mixture. Fry the slices up in some butter. Top with more butter and syrup and enjoy! We ate ours with orange sections (from the zested orange) and some kiwi on the side.

The orange zest is what makes it really awesome.

I have a studio day today so I'll be refinishing the desk that will hold my sewing machine (yay! sewing again!), getting caught up on email (ooh - awful backlog), and - hopefully - make some stuff.

Read more...

Jo Makes Cupcakes

Here's Jo's first post. . .

I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting. I used my spatule from granma and granpa. the butt is very funy.

Read more...

I'm Back!

It's been an extended blog break but I've had an excellent excuse - I was working two jobs and trying to get my first big batch of work in for my book. Now I no longer work for Random House (which means I'm no longer on the road every other week) and I get to go to Penland every day - and get paid for it! All the instructions for my book are written and, though I still need to tackle the big scary Basics chapter and introduction, I decided to take the weekend off and PLAY.

Alan has been off at a conference so it was just Jo and I this weekend. We hit the farmer's market first thing in the morning and brought lots of great stuff back.

This became Roasted Ratatouille - one of my favorite things. It's all the vegetables normally stewed up in ratatouille but roasted instead. Yum! There was no zucchini at the market this week so I added extra eggplant.

BTW - how about that snazzy purple colander? It's my new favorite thing in my kitchen. I got it at Taste - a great shop in Decatur - when we were there for the Decatur Book Festival and Dragon*Con.

This became The Best Tomato Sauce Ever Yep. The recipe is from Finny Knits and it really is the best tomato sauce ever. The first time I tried it I decided to add an onion to the mix - thinking, "What kind of tomato sauce doesn't have onion?" and it ended up really intensely oniony. Alan totally mocked me for messing with a recipe claiming to be perfect before even trying it - so this time I followed it to the letter and it was perfect. I made two batches - one with plum tomatoes and one with regular tomatoes - and both were delicious. I think I liked the regular tomatoes best but I'll have Alan test them out on his pizzas and let him choose. Then next year I'll plant a bajillion of whatever the winner is.

I also made (but didn't photograph) . . .

• one batch of my favorite granola
• one pot of split pea soup
• one pan of brownies
• two batches of waffles
• two batches of pesto

Whew! That was a lot of cooking (and a lot of cleanup) but now the freezer and refrigerator are full and that always makes me happy.

As if that wasn't enough, we also went to the Bakersville Creek Walk Arts Festival. Very nice, but we didn't buy anything there. On the way back we hit the Crimson Laurel Gallery where I picked up this nice little dish by Courtney Murphy.

I'm loving the hand-drawn decoration on this. Look at how the art on the outside of the red blob is different from the art on the inside. Nice detail. I hope she does some bowls in this series the right size for cereal and soup - something with just the right curve to fit in my hand.

I've really been drawn to this kind of hand-drawn line art lately. Look at these lovely wildflower cutouts from Heather Moore at Skinny laMinx. I was trying to capture the same kind of charm with this embroidery on one of Jo's dresses.


I have to say - I've never done much embroidery before. But I loved the embroidery Aimee Ray did for a dress in my book and it's made me want to pull out the basket of threads and see what happens. I'm not done yet, but here's what's happened so far. This was SO MUCH FUN - so now I have to acquire Aimee's book - Doodle Stitching. I remembered reading a post on Heather Bailey's blog where she described embroidery as "coloring in slow motion" and I decided to try to make it doodling in slow motion - so I didn't sketch anything out in advance - I just sat down with needle and thread and an idea. I want to add a couple more flowers tonight and Jo has asked for some bees and maybe a butterfly.

And here's the other thing I made so far this weekend - a scarf made like my quilts. Right now I'm thinking - eh.

I wish I had chosen darker blues and I think I need to choose a heavier fabric for my lining. I used a light-weight silk for the back of this and it feels nice but didn't end up as drapey as I'd like. I'll need to play around with this some more.

That's all for now. I'll be posting more frequently now that I'm back in sane-world. I've got lots of fun crafting on my plate. . .

Read more...

Swiss Chard, Shiitakes and Blueberries - Oh My!

Jo and I got up early yesterday for the Farmer's Market. This is a new weekly necessity due to the pathetic nature of my local grocery store's "produce section." I've been struggling to get Jo to eat vegetables. On our last visit to the Farmer's Market we picked up some summer squash and zucchini. I sauteed them in some butter and olive oil with salt and pepper - nothing fancy and nothing I haven't done a million times before. But this time Jo ate them. And then she told me I should stop getting yucky squash at the grocery store and only get the good kind at the Farmer's Market. Well. I can't argue with that.

So here was the haul this week. Strawberry and cherry jam. Jo didn't like the cherry - good - more for me. I sauteed the Swiss chard last night with some onion and veggie broth. I thought it was great - Jo did not. I sauteed the mushrooms in butter and olive oil, then added a splash of sherry. They were tasting (and smelling) great, but then I decided to add a bit of cream. How decadent! Oops- it's coming out in chunks. Gross. I decided to pretend I had added sour cream (which, actually, it was) and go ahead and eat them anyway. Sadly, I had seen the chunks and couldn't get past that. Jo, however, declared them delicious - in some surprise.

The rhubarb will go into a crisp. My Dad will be horrified to see that I bought rhubarb. As soon as he got his driver's license he regularly ran over his mother's patch so that he wouldn't have to eat it. I love the stuff.

Oh. And there were blueberries. We bought a pint at the market, but then on the way back from Lowe's (our weekly visit) we passed a pick-your-own berry patch and decided to check it out.

The berries were beautiful! Jo kept everyone amused by constantly calling out things like, "I found the prefect berry!" and "Oh my gosh that berry I just ate was soooooo good!"

It was hot and we were unprepared (I was still wearing corduroys from the chilly morning and we had no sunscreen) so we only got a gallon. That's a lot of blueberries!

I don't like blueberry pie or cobbler - I prefer my desserts studded with berries rather than all berry - so a gallon will go a long way. But we eat pancakes every weekend and I also make a lot of blueberry waffles, so we'll go back one day this week - maybe with a few of Jo's friends - and get a couple more gallons to put up in the freezer. Yum!

Read more...

This is not produce!

I'm finding it harder and harder to resists the urge to tell the manager of my local grocery store that FUN POPS ARE NOT PRODUCE!

Read more...

An Angel Gone Bad - But Redeemed

So Friday was the big, fun fundraising auction for Jo's school. I offered to make a an angel food cake with lemon curd for the dessert table. Should be easy - right? I've made angel food cake before, I think I know which recipe I use, and they always turn out fine.

This one did not turn out fine.

Angel food cake is supposed to be tall and fluffy. Mine was short and. . . dense. More like a pound cake. What happened? I thought I found the recipe I had used before - Emeril's recipe for angel food cake with lemon curd. I remember liking it because the curd uses almost all the yolks left over from the cake. But as I was making the batter things just didn't seem right. I separated the eggs. Whipped the whites with some salt and cream of tartar. Added sugar and whipped until stiff peaks formed. So far so good. Then the recipe said to add the flour and beat for another two minutes. Hmm, I thought. That doesn't seem right. It seems like that will deflate all the air I just beat in. It seems like I should be gently folding the flour into the egg whites. Did I follow my cake-making instincts? No - I gamely followed the recipe and beat that batter for one minute and watched it get less airy by the second. So I stopped beating, poured it into the pan and hoped for the best.

The best did not happen. I anxiously watched it bake, hoping a miracle would occur and the cake would climb right up the sides of the pan. Nope. I took it out, let it cool, and ran to the grocery store to buy an angel food cake, which I layered with the lemon curd. The lemon curd came out great, by the way.

But what do to with the flat cake? The pennypincher in me did not want to throw it away - there were ten eggs in that cake! Jo suggested we taste it. It tasted ok - sweet, but it was really dense. I thought that denseness would keep the cake from disintegrating if it were soaked in berry juice, so I decided to make a trifle sort of thing. I cut it in cubes, layered it with macerated strawberries, added some extra strawberry juice (actually strawberry daiquiri mix left in the freezer from our pink lemonade experiments), and drizzled some extra lemon curd on the top.Delicious! And I hope I never make it again. :-)

Read more...

Sweet Taste of Summer

It's been a while since I posted but I have a whole week at home and lots of things to get caught up on. Instead of starting with the backlog, I'm starting with today. It's not summer yet, but it sure felt like it this afternoon. Almost 80 degrees! I've been trying to figure out a recipe for strawberry lemonade and today I finally got it right. Perfect timing!

For each glass of lemonade you need. . .

juice from 1 lemon
1 cup cold water
6 teaspoons sugar (yes - you read that right)
1 heaping teaspoon frozen strawberry daiquiri mix (the secret ingredient)

Stir it all up and enjoy.

Jo was a very helpful model for me this afternoon so I made them fancy-schmancy as a treat for her, dipping the rims of the glasses in pink sugar and garnishing with a strawberry and a straw. She especially liked the sugared rim.

I needed to develop the recipe to include it on the back of the hang tags for my frilly Madeline aprons. I'm finishing up a big batch of aprons this weekend to go out on Monday - that's what Jo was modeling for me. She was in a great silly mood and I got some fun shots.


I'm not sure where she learned how, but she's really started striking a pose when I take her picture - hands on hips and a genuine smile.

And here she is in all her true goofiness.

Read more...

Fabulous Food

I didn't go overboard with the cooking this holiday season, but I wanted to share a few of my favorites - and all of them are easy so they're good everyday food. Sorry - I forgot to take any food pictures.

Salty, crispy pretzels, creamy caramel, sweet chocolate, nutty pecans - the perfect combination. Jo and I made these fabulous (and super-easy) candy creations from the post here from Angry Chicken. We made them early in the season for gifts and then we made them again because we gave away all of our first batches. These are so good and so easy - they may become a year-round treat.

Fresh Brussels sprouts braised in heavy cream. I love fresh Brussels sprouts and when I saw them in the grocery store last week I bought three pounds - just for me because no one else will eat them. I braised the first pound in heavy cream with the recipe from The New Best Recipe from the folks at Cook's Illustrated magazine. Heavenly! Even Jo liked them and she usually turns her nose up at all vegetables except corn.

And I saved the best for last. Raffy's Turkey Sausage and Chestnut Stuffing - as seen on Everyday Italian, my favorite Food Network show. This is chock full of everything I love. Sweet apples, tart apples, caramelized onions, a splash of white wine to deglaze the pan. Off to a delicious start! Add dried cranberries and yummy roasted chestnuts, cornbread, and sweet Italian sausage. I love the smell of the fennel seed when the sausage hits the hot pan. Toss in a couple of pinches of red pepper flakes for warmth, and a handful of Parmesan (because everything is better with Parmesan) and you have one very tasty dish. I want to make this one all winter, but I know my grocery store will stop selling chestnuts soon. Maybe I could try pecans instead? I'll have to experiment. . .

Read more...

Jammie Day with Jo

Jo and I were flying solo this weekend while Alan visited a bunch of schools, libraries, and conferences. We could have unpacked some more boxes, but instead we decided to sew, paint, cook, and listen to the birds.
My main task with Jo's pants used to be adding length to the legs. She's a skinny-minnie and it's been really hard to find pants that fit in the waist AND are the right length. Lately, though, she's been wearing through the knees in no time at all. Luckily, spring is here and I can turn them all into shorts. Jo doesn't like loose threads, so plain cutoffs are out. But why do a simple hem when I can add a cool little border instead? I thought about doing ruffles but after the six-tiered rainbow skirt I'm a little ruffled out, so it's just a straight border. I couldn't get a modeled shot because we were having a jammie day today and Jo was quick to point out that it wouldn't be a real jammie day if she took off her jammies. Can't argue with that logic!
Jo did her share of sewing too. She had to put her quilt on hold for a long time while we had the house on the market, but she wanted to get back to it today. Look how big it's getting! Her first sewing project and she picked a twin-sized quilt. We have a long way to go, but she was pretty proud to show off her progress today.







I made some progress on my ten quilts too. All the strips are sewn and most of the blocks are cut. I can't wait to start assembling the quilts.
And for cooking. . .I made the best egg salad sandwich ever. I really, really, really hate mayonnaise and this recipe from 101 Cookbooks uses just one tablespoon for 6 eggs - just enough to bind it together. Yum!
And the birds? We saw two hawks battling in the air and we heard the pileated woodpecker that lives around here but we didn't see him today. It's the first birdcall Jo's learned to recognized and she gets pretty excited every time she hears it.
What a nice weekend!

Read more...