happenings around here

The continuing story of the renovation includes our makeshift kitchen:

every important element of my culinary success is accounted for!  Coffee pot, microwave, paper towels,  a few utensils and coffee cups--not so bad!  And the dining room table/counter top/office/receptacle of odds 'n ends is the perfect central command post!  I even managed to make a batch of no-bake bars yesterday to share with people over at the store.  This recipe came from recipe.com via pinterest:

Butterscotch Pretzel Bars

1 ½ cups powdered sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

6 tablespoons butter, melted

2 cups crushed pretzels

1 11 oz. package butterscotch-flavored chips (about 2 cups)

¼ cup whipping cream

½ cup coarsely crushed pretzels

½ cup chopped peanuts

Line a 9x13 pan with foil.  Spray foil with cooking spray.  

Combine the powdered sugar, peanut butter and melted butter in a bowl.  

Add the 2 cups crushed pretzels.  Pour into the cake pan and spread out evenly.

Over low heat, melt the butterscotch chips and cream together.  

Pour mixture over the 1^st layer in the cake pan.  

Sprinkle the ½ cup pretzels and peanuts evenly over the top.  Refrigerate at least 2 hours.  Actually, they were kind of sticky so I put them in the freezer instead.

And I bet you are wondering how my little guys are doing.  Well, let me just say, I wish we could all wear 

Cookie Monster shoes!  Getting a good picture of Ian is a bit of a challenge, and his favorite pose involves sticking out his tongue!  So I thought I would capture it for posterity! 

So precious!  And so fun!  He loves to play all sorts of games, sing songs, run around, cuddle up with a book, and give hugs and kisses.  We are so glad for nice times outdoors again, so we can go for walks and play in the yard.  Looks like a good summer comin' up!

happy scrappy

 Here's a really fun quilt for inspiration--

Made by Joyce, multi-talented quilty buddy, from lots and lots of little bits.  Using 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" rectangles sewn in long columns, she ended up with a good-sized (78x94) quilt from a whole lot of what usually gets thrown away!  This didn't happen overnight, but has been a work in progress for awhile.  I'm not sure if she had a pattern of some sort to start with, or just let it develop along the way.  The black strips are cut 4 1/2" wide, and do the work of stabilizing all of those little pieces.  If you want to make something like this, put out a message to your friends and let them help you with collecting the thousands of little bits that you can use.  It was fun to quilt and note all of the interesting little designs.  This could even be assembled as an "I Spy" quilt for a child.  Use little cutouts of kid-friendly designs, and use it as a story-telling or learning tool.  Help the child learn the alphabet by finding pictures that start with a chosen letter, or learn numbers by counting puppies or flowers, etc.  So many possibilities, so little time!

This quilt also serves as an illustration of really good construction that makes a really good quilt top for me to quilt and ends up as a really good finished quilt.  Some key points:

1. Joyce pressed all the seams of the little rectangles open and FLAT.  The seams between columns were pressed toward the black and FLAT.
2. No long threads were left hanging!  Trim as you go to keep it neat.
3. Make all of the pieced columns from the same number of strips, and when they are all done take an average measurement of the length.  Cut all of the black strips that same length.  Cut them on the lengthwise grain of the fabric if possible to eliminate the need for seams and take advantage of the less stretchy direction (on the warp) of the weave.  Pin and ease the rectangle strips to fit the black strips, and your quilt top will be just as square and flat as Joyce's!

Now I just need to get this back to Joyce so she can put on the binding.  I wonder what that will be?  Lucky girl is on a Stitchin' Trips retreat at Beaver Lake Landing right now, probably collecting more little bits!

Looking for a good idea for a delicious and easy meal for the cooler weather we are having?  We made a crockpot meal of Chicken Taco Chili last Sunday and really liked it.  Well, Bob put it all together while I was at work, and I made the cornbread from the recipe that accompanies it when I got home.  Bob is a fan of the little Jiffy mixes for his cornbread muffins, and he bakes them often.  But this cornbread from scratch really rises above the box mix, and since I now have some buttermilk to use up I think I will be making more.  We chose not to put any jalapeno pepper in the cornbread and liked it just fine.

I have enjoyed listening to another Jodi Picoult novel during my drive-time.  Click on the link to get a little synopsis of this story.  

As usual, she has put together a very thought-provoking storyline.  This one really took me back to situations I experienced when I was a nurse in trauma/neuro ICU.  I suggest you give it a try.  And make sure you are an organ donor and that your family understands your wishes.   I could get on my organ donation soap box for awhile, but I can sum it up with one thought-- if you or any of your family or any of your friends ever want to receive an organ to save a life, then you had better be an organ donor.  I would like to make it a law, but I think that won't be happening!

iris on display

Enjoying a fine day with sunshine so far--yesterday turned out to be a stormy day around here.  We have had an unusually wet spring which is raising the lake and stream levels back to where they should be.  But yesterday when I left the house to go to work, I noticed that I had some iris blossoms showing and I was afraid that when I came home they would be damaged by the wind and rain.  But I was pleasantly surprised to find them looking just fine, so this little spot must have been skipped over by the worst of the weather.  I know there was plenty of thunder, lightning, rain and wind over in White Bear Lake while I was crossing my fingers that the power would not go out and screw up our computers!

So this morning I went out to bring in the best of the blossoms.  I don't have much else for the bouquet right now, I did find a few hosta leaves that have escaped the hungry deer that sneak into the yard.  They really feasted on the early leaves, but we are working to keep the deer repellant spray in good supply and the plants are making a comeback.

I have a new recipe (new to me) to share with you--

Mixed Nut Bars

Surprise, surprise, it's for a dessert!  My weakness!  I don't make desserts as often as I would like because I end up eating most of it myself, Bob is no help at all when it comes to consuming sweets.  This pan of goodness is made from this basic recipe:

Mixed Nut Bars 

1 ½ cups flour

¾ cup brown sugar

½ cup butter

1 can mixed nuts

Syrup:

½ cup white Karo syrup

2 Tbsp butter

1-6 oz. package butterscotch chips

Mix flour, brown sugar and butter.  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes in a 9 x 13 pan.  Cool for 10 minutes.  Pour on can of mixed nuts.  Melt ingredients for syrup over low heat.  Pour over crust and mixed nuts.  Bake another 10 minutes.

This recipe materialized after my quilt club's spring retreat because someone made it to share.  Even though I couldn't attend, I can still appreciate a good gooey treat!  My only variation this time was to use only cashews and peanuts instead of the can of mixed nuts, that way I wouldn't have to deal with all those other rogue nuts that I don't like so much!  It ended up with a great mix of sweet and salty, you might want to give it a try!

I'm getting serious about the hexagon project that I have been working on, and putting up some pictures over on the BP Blog if you want to take a look at what will be a fall class offering there.  

Also getting serious about patterns and fabric for the Quilt MN event coming up in August, not much to show so far but making progress.

Along with working on 3 customer quilts (one at a time!) my day is pretty well booked!  

I wonder what my favorite little guy is doing today?  I got to spend Thursday night with him, and managed to get a smiley picture when he wasn't too wiggly--seems that smiley and wiggly are nearly inseparable!  12 weeks old today!

yummo!

I came upon a new recipe last week, my co-worker Beth brought this to work. I was hooked. I admit it, I am a sucker for the chocolate/caramel combo. She told me the recipe from memory, so something tells me this was not her first batch, if you know what I mean! She did not tell me a name so I decided I would call it:

Chocolate Goodness

1 box (14 oz. or 8 cups) chocolate Chex cereal

6 tablespoons butter/margarine

3/4 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup white chocolate, melted

Put the butter, brown sugar and corn syrup in a microwaveable dish, 2 cup size or larger. Heat in microwave 1-2 minutes until melted and stir together to mix. Add the baking soda and stir well. Pour over the dry cereal in a large microwaveable bowl,stir to coat. Microwave on high for 3 minutes, stopping to stir after each minute. Spread the coated cereal out on a flat surface covered with wax paper or parchment. Let cool. Drizzle the melted white chocolate over all. Try to wait until it is cool to eat it.

A note of caution--that white chocolate really stinks up the kitchen when you burn it. Vanilla almond bark is an acceptable substitute.

I took some of this to my Ham Lake Piecemakers meeting last night, the lovely ladies were demanding the recipe, so here you go!

I also took along this quilt for Carol--

I think it turned out wonderfully, even though she wasn't sure she was up to the challenge of all those angles and diamonds. I was happy that she let me quilt it for her, but I had to bring it back home with me. You see, as soon as she unfolded it, I immediately saw one lone little diamond that was missing its curlicue. So tonight I got that quilt back up on the machine, found the right threads, and in about 5 seconds I finished it up! I will get it dropped off in the next couple days, so it is home with Carol where it rightfully belongs.

Here's the offender--

I usually grow a few herbs each year, mostly basil, cilantro, chives, and sage. This is the first time I can remember that my sage survived outside through the winter, and now it is big and blooming. I never even knew it flowered!

We are fast approaching Midsummer, and this quote seems appropriate:

The summer night is like a perfection of thought. Wallace Stevens

surprise

I really have to share a great new recipe with all of you! Debbie made this for lunch, she is great at scouring through her food magazines to find recipes to try.

Rosemary Chicken Salad Sandwiches from Cooking Light, but also in the files at myrecipes.com so I have included the link for you. This was a very tasty variation on the standard chicken salad, the key element for my taste buds was the smoked almonds. Try it!

Just a couple thoughts about recipe management and the world wide web-- I have used this site several times, and found it is a way to keep recipes that I like, or think I might like, in an accessible location. If you sign up with them (free) you can keep your own little file to refer back to. Saves me printing or copying things that get tossed towards my recipe shoebox and never seen again. Sometimes I don't feel that signing up for an account on a website is helpful if it results in getting unwanted email messages, so I keep it to a minimum. I can safely say that this is not a website that has been sending me any emails, so I feel OK about recommending it to you. Another site that I use for some recipes is Real Simple, but that is one that does send me out messages, some of which I requested, like the daily recipe or daily thought. Before Brita's wedding I was on the wedding tip list, but edited that out as soon as my need passed. But I do keep a recipe file on there, as well, so there is value in it for me to have an "account" (free) on the website.

Do you have any other recipe websites that are your favorites? Let me know!