About Those Goals

November 29, 2013

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Actually, I'm not doing too badly. According to my original post, I wanted to

• Finish Marilee's Birthday Blocks
• Finish Peggy's Birthday Blocks - check
• Finish my guild BOM blocks - check
• Finish Sekrit Projict #1 for my Secret Santa gift-ee - check
• Finish Sekrit Projict #2 for a birthday girl

This is block one of the two I'm doing for Marilee. From a 'Saturday Sampler' (BOM) at the Paisley Duck. I ended up drawing each component on paper and foundation piecing it to get the bee-yoo-tiful points. Oh, and stopping by the shop to get and extra piece of background because for some reason I decided to cut one triangle actual size rather than the size that will provide seam allowances. Dork.

The second block is from a different Saturday Sampler, but I'm having a little bit of trouble with it. One of the fabrics that was provided was cut to actual size (I didn't do it this time, it arrived that way!) so I had to do some improvisation. I've got that part 'fixed' now so it's only a matter of finishing up the block. I'll get that done tomorrow, for sure, and share the picture. If I don't do a huge high-resolution picture, you might not even be able to tell what I did to fix the block!

Peggy's birthday blocks. The dark one is 1/4 of an Amish Star block, if I recall correctly. Each month guild members can grab a packet of pre-cut pieces and the pattern of the month to make a block or a few. The next month the blocks get turned in, and by the following month the guild "sweat shop" has turned the blocks into at least a quilt top, if not a complete quilt, to go into the stack of available quilts for events, charity or disaster comfort.

The light block is also a guild project, called "Color Box". Each year the committee fills 2 or 3 boxes (kinda like really large shoeboxes) with various fabrics. Throughout the year members get to take a box home and make one 12½" block from the contents (and ONLY the contents). This year all of the boxes contain reproduction fabrics and a nice natural muslin background. We get to choose whatever pattern we make, but we can't sit on the box for long because others want to get their chance. At our summer potluck, the names of everyone who has made a block goes into a hat and one, two or three names are chosen, depending on how many blocks were completed. The winner(s) get the blocks. Last year I think there was enough in the boxes to provide blocks to make 3 quilts.




All of the blocks are finished (phew!). I've begun to cut sashing; fortunately the random amount of yardage I bought before I knew what I was doing for the sashing will be enough for what I need.
Sekrit Projict #1 for my Secret Santa gift-ee. It's a tiny picture that will be huge when you click on it, but this is still in the Sekrit stage... I won't be mailing until Monday and I am almost 100% sure that my gift-ee doesn't read my blog (but she can get to it if she so chooses) but if you really want to see it (and you're sure I am not your Secret Santa) go ahead and click. Oh, and sorry it's so big - I forgot to resize it from the camera.

Now, the brilliant story behind this gift: While straightening up the area where people wait in line to check out (remember, I work at Jo-Ann Fabrics), I came across a lone Patrick Lose Quilting Celebrations magazine, published by Fons & Porter. Almost every stinking project in the magazine said, "Make ME! Make ME!", even the recipes. After I got off work, I promptly bought the magazine. I almost never buy magazines. This one was that compelling to me.

After planning and sketching and starting and stopping multiple projects for my gift-ee, I finally decided to take another look through this magazine that insisted it be recreated in its entirety. Why was I trying to invent something myself when there were so many stunning or adorable projects begging to be made?

The "batting" in this little (12") project is Insul-Brite. Amazing definition to the quilting! I guess the recipient could use this for a hot pad on her holiday table, though I won't be surprised if it is just on display somewhere.

Oh - and the brilliant thing I did? I took it to work to show off before I sent it to its new home. Everyone loved it. Then when I got in the car to come home, I managed to spill cold coffee on it. :sheesh: I rinsed it as soon as I got home and the stain-treated it and tossed it in the washer. *I* know that it still shows some signs of caffeination but hopefully its new owner won't be able to tell (though she's read the story).

And then there's Sekrit Projict #2.

My lovely friend from work had a birthday this month and I wanted to make something to give to her at her birthday party. I chose a sweet little lacy something to knit up for her in some yummy fluffy angora lace yarn. It took me almost two weeks of fussing with the project and re-reading and re-training and re-knitting until I re-evaluated my plan. I really like my friend, but this project was screaming that it was NOT meant to be. (And un-knitting and re-knitting angora lace yarn is NOT for the weak of heart, mind, soul or flesh)

I chose another "quick" little project to do with the yarn and made some headway on it - but remember I'd wasted 2 weeks before I cut bait - and it got to be just plain NOT fun. My friend doesn't know that I was planning to do anything for her and there weren't other presents at the party, so it wasn't a problem showing up empty-handed. I haven't tossed out the second project and maybe I'll get it made for Christmas. But for now, this Projict is off the list!

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So there you have it. All but one of my goals has been met (or hit with the reality stick) and I have every confidence that within 24 hours or so I'll be sharing a picture of that last bit.

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But wait!! I hear you say. Yesterday was Thanksgiving! What about the blow-by-blow food prep pictures and the obligatory turkey portrait? (It has just occurred to me that I may now have enough turkey portraits to make a calendar. Wouldn't that be a hoot? Tracy's Turkeys, A Year of Drool-Inducing Pictures. Sometimes I just crack me up!)

Yes, Virginia, there was wonderful and amazing food to be had this week. We/I cooked the bird on Tuesday and shared the progress pictures with the folks over on Google Plus (easier to do on the run and from my iPod). This year's feast seemed to come together particularly smoothly; everything turned out very good and the timing was PERFECT!!

Isn't Mr. W. a great turkey.... carver?

He even took over after the meal (because I had to go to work!) and boiled the carcass and 'jarred' it up. That there is some good-looking turkey goop!!

Labels: holiday, quilting

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Catching Up, A Bit

December 17, 2011

Abandoned book "The Spellman Files" by Lisa Lutz ◊◊◊◊◊

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Well, I posted around Thanksgiving time and then just left you hanging - did my pies turn out okay? (Yes) Did I forget to put the fruit salad on the table? (No)

Did the turkey turn out well this year? (Hell yes!)

But I do have a question for you all... do you tie the turkey's "ankles" together for its stay in the oven?

And another one: The wing tips are always just icky. Is it written anywhere that "Thou shalt not cut off the wingtips before baking" ?







My new favorite apron does double duty as a toy for MoonPie...



The earwarmer pattern I tested for Becky, in action. I've actually worn it out in the real world and it's done its job marvelously. It hasn't stretched out much (yay and not so yay), so it's quite snug on my big ol' head.

I'm not sure why I haven't just sat down and whipped out another* - it's just an evening's worth of work and I could be more comfortable wearing one that fits better.


*Oh, yeah. That would require actually sitting down. And not falling asleep right away.

For the friends and family who bore The Drastic Haircut of 2010, my hair is finally growing out.

(The above-the-chin-length haircut was cute and easy to style, but it required too much maintenance. I function much better when I have the option of tieing my hair up in a pony tail when in a hurry.)

And, a new mattress topper for the guest bed. Mom's been a trooper on the "firm" mattress in there, but after Thanksgiving she finally spoke up. We just put the (softer) topper on the existing mattress and boxspring. If she doesn't get a nosebleed up that high, maybe she'll feel like she's in The Princess and the Pea...

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This year I made only one Christmas present. I carried it back and forth to the shop (the place I am during daylight hours!) to get a decent picture for you. Um. I didn't. Maybe I'll have to make another one for me - just so I can take a picture for you all, it's not like I want one for myself... :snerk:

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And we shall not speak of the chicken.

Labels: babble, holiday, knitting

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Thanksgiving 2011

November 23, 2011

High Lord Ben Holliday, King of Landover, began the new day rather earlier than expected.  "Magic Kingdom for Sale - Sold!" by Terry Brooks ♦♦♦♦◊

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It's here! It's here!

Okay, so! I got to sleep in a bit, then check my RSS feeds and emails and forum postings and Google+ stream, and Mr. W. made breakfast for the three of us (Mom's here!).


After a quick hop in the shower, I'm starting the feast-ivities by making pumpkin pies, though I've got a lot of the other stuff I need out already.



I'm taking a couple of minutes here and there to keep you up on the exciting goings on here at Casa del Babble during the preparations.

First off, I've decided to soak my pie spices in the half & half. Last time I made pumpkin pies, I must've just thrown it together super fast, because the spices were a little gritty. I have no idea if it will make a difference, but I figure, dried spices+rehydration=no gritty.


Random thought #2: Be sure to get a brand-spanking-new-clean dish rag before starting all this stuff. And put on an apron.

This one is from my friend Gloria in North Dakota. It's my favorite right now, mostly because it's from Gloria and partly because I have quite a few shirts that match those different pinks and pinky reds in the drinks.



Random thought: It's very helpful to be ambidextrous while whisking the hell out of eggs.

Oh. And after the soaking, I put the spices (with half the milk & half the pumpkin through a sieve. Because all the cool kids are doing it, you know. (Now that I went and got that link, I found that the cool kid in question did a lot more than use a sieve, but I'll take baby steps.)



This is what was left after the whole sieving thing (I did only put half the pumpkin puree in - the rest just got mixed into the bowl sans sieving).

I'm wondering if I should have used more spice. It looks like a lot of 'em are not going into the pie, doesn't it? Hmmm.

Oh. Well. The pies are in the oven now. In about an hour, I'll start wrestling with the turkey.



About that pie spice? You'll notice that I didn't bother putting "Pumpkin" on the label. In my house, pretty much any pie will be pumpkin.

Mix together
1 tsp. ground allspice
2 tsp. ground cloves
8 tsp (2Tb +2tsp) ground cinnamon
Store in an airtight container. Use a heaping tablespoon in a 2-pie recipe.

Labels: holiday

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Kitten's First Christmas

December 25, 2010

What had changed was me.  "Bloodfever" by Karen Marie Moning ♦♦♦♦◊

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First off, welcome to friends & family who just found out via Christmas card that we have a new addition to our household. As Mr. W. said, you can read the whole story of how MoonPie came to us by clicking here.

Secondly to my regular readers, let me assure you: This isn't turning into a Cat Blog. Remember that everything kitteny is new to us right now and we tend to think that MoonPie is the cutest critter on the planet and exceptionally clever. We'll continue to think that for her entire life but I'll hopefully only inflict evidence upon you occasionally rather than constantly.

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We have a small tree that sits upon an end table. I don't know if it was intentional, but Mr. W. put the ornaments in the perfect spot for MoonPie to play with without undue effort.



And he was also smart enough to leave the crystal ornaments in the box & use sparkly paper-based ones.



Ahhh, the wonder of Christmas through a cat's eyes...


Hey! What's this? Something else that sparkles and shines?







Man, being a Christmas Ornament/Garland/Light/Present Inspector just wears me OUT!

Labels: babble, holiday

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It's Finally Christmastime

December 15, 2010

Abandoned book "Muletrain to Maggody" by Joan Hess ♦◊◊◊◊

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Mom & I have this "thing": it's not really the Christmas season until one of us hears Feliz Navidad by José Feliciano on the radio. Okay. Maybe it's just my "thing" but Mom humors me.

Using that indicator, on Sunday the 12th it officially became Christmas for me/us. The good (and fairly surprising) news is that I've got most of my shopping done. Last week we mailed the gifts that needed to be mailed.* I even have most of the 'stay at home' gifts wrapped (I LIKE wrapping presents).

I don't think I'll be wrenching anything out of joint patting myself on the back just yet, though. Just this morning when I was marking things off of my list of things to get I came up with a couple of perfect additions to gifts that are already purchased. In more than one case, these 'perfect' additions involve me actually MAKING something.

The gifts are okay as they are, so if I choose to NOT try to overachieve in the next week they'll still "do". They'd just "do" much better with the additions. We'll see.

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But look! A picture of Gingerbread Toss in the same month it was made! What a concept!

This is another of the (Accuquilt) die-cut quilts. It looks like I'll be making one of these about every 2 months. We started with Leaf Toss in October, Gingerbread Toss is now in December. In February we'll do something like Valentine Toss, and there are plans for the rest of next year, too.

The quilt top only takes me about 2½ hours to put together after it's cut. I'm just wondering when I'll have or take the time to finish these quilt tops!

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*Today's the day I'm mailing the final gift to my Secret Quilting Sister, so I can't truthfully say I'm completely finished with the mailing quite yet.

Oh, and there are no decorations (or tree) out yet. We're waiting for Mom to arrive to do that. At least, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it

Labels: holiday, quilting

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A Littles Merry Christmas Wish

November 12, 2009

But he was gone.  "Plum Spooky" by Janet Evanovich ♦♦♦♦◊

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A while back I showed you the Christmas Littles stitcheries I did that were generously provided *free* by Cheryl at Willowberry Designs.

It's currently no less wrinkly, by the way.

I have also finished this little cutie, another free pattern - this time from designer extraordinaire Gail Pan (designer of yet another free Christmas project that's on my list of things to stitch).

Finishing at a little larger than 4x8", I used the same colors as in the Littles stitcheries.

Because I have A Plan.

Take one large-ish stitchery, add eight little stitcheries and five* fat quarters and hopefully you'll end up with a cute little(ish) wallhanging for the holiday season.

*Uh, yeah. Did you notice that there is no blue in the fat quarter bundle? Someone didn't think this all the way through. I see a bit o'piping or a flange in my future, I think.


So, there it is. My Littles Merry Christmas wish - to have this put together in time to actually display it at Christmastime.

Or send it to the family member who tells me that they want to hang it on THEIR wall at Christmastime (if any of my family still reads my blog!!).

Labels: holiday, stitchery

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For a Few More Minutes...

July 23, 2009

Abandoned book "Hide and Seek" by James Patterson ♦◊◊◊◊

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...It's my birthday! Okay, to be fair the picture includes some sympathy cards for the loss of Mr. W's grandma and some thank you cards, but still... It's my birthday!!

I woke up to a wonderful multitude of flashy-bouncy-colorful-happyhappyjoyjoy posts celebrating my special day from my friends in forum-land. (Thank you again!)

Swag report: From mom, an Ott Light Floor Lamp to replace the one of mine whose ballast went kaput. From Mr. W., a ROKU box so I can watch Netflix and Amazon rental movies directly from computer to TV - no DVD's required! J2 gave me a skein of Noro Kureyon Sock in a yummy blue/black/gray colorway. My mother-in-law sent me a check, so I'll be able to get a little more of the yarn that I hinted about in a previous post. The Girl has mentioned something that she'd like to get for me (and I'm perfectly fine with it!). Oh, and I got a special Birthday Rubber Duckie when I stopped in at my favorite LQS!

And then there's what I got for myself.

A sale-priced storage thingy to hang in the closet in my sewing room, a Boye Needlemaster set (is that redundant?), and a 3x18" rotary cutting ruler to replace one that I left at someone's house when I gave a class there. I had 40% off coupons at Joann Fabrics and Michael's, so I didn't pay full price for anything. In fact, I might even have enough left in my 'birthday account' to pick up another skein or two of the yarn I hinted about. :snerk:


There are about 80 pictures to be uploaded from the weekend with my family (I won't post them all, I promise!) and there is news on both the knitting and quilting fronts. But I'll save that for another post.

When it's not my birthday.

Labels: babble, holiday

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Some Assembly Required

December 26, 2008

The world wasn't a perfect place and never would be, but just now, watching dawn come over her godforsaken city, it seemed like a damned good deal.  "Origin in Death" by Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb ♦♦♦♦♦

You know, my oldest offspring was born 28 years ago last week (yikes!). Additional offspring and a few grandchildren have followed during those 28 years. In all these years, I don't recall ever having to assemble a Christmas present either the night before or the morning of Christmas.

Until now.

A gift from J2 for Puppy-butt, who has a hard time jumping on and off the furniture in her golden years.



She waited patiently while Mr. W. did the assembling...


Checking it out, amidst bribery attempts and great urging...



We tried to help by putting her on the steps... here she is, right before she jumps to the floor!

So, not so much. At least not yet. It will just take her some time to get used to it.

But it's pretty darned clever and a very thoughtful gift. Thank you!

Labels: babble, holiday

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Red Faced

December 08, 2008

"Like it?"  "The Coroner's Lunch" by Colin Cotterill ♦♦♦♦◊

First off, my face is red and I am just mortified that I haven't yet shared with you all that Julie gave me an award before Thanksgiving. Yes, I was sick (yay! Today I finally got full taste facilities back!), but I have managed to write a couple of blog posts since then and I just flat forgot to thank her publicly!

Thank you, Julie, for your kind words about my blog and for thinking of me for the award. Obviously sometimes I don't deserve so much consideration. ;-)

My mother really did raise me better than that.

I've been working on Christmas gifts - and switching between yarny goodness and fabric and thread. This translates to "I've been doing a little bit on a lot of projects so I don't have very much to show for it YET."

I did finish my granddaughter's hat this evening. Once I got the embellishment done and stuck it on StyroQueen for pictures, I realized how freakin' cute this thing is.



There is only ONE hat, but I did a collage thing because I couldn't choose just one picture to post! And StyroQueen's face is quite red for this post, too - nighttime lighting wreaks havoc with 'real' colors, so to get the aqua close to what it actually looks like I had to do some tweaking.

The yarn is Red Heart Kids aqua and TLC Amore purple. Started with 72 stitches on US 10 knitting needles. There will be a coordinating scarf eventually, too.

The granddaughter's request was for a hat "like Chowder's" - Chowder is a cartoon character. I told The Girl that Chowder's hat looks like a pair of bloomers - so I was going for something in that neighborhood. I supposed I could have gotten it more bloomer-y, but you know what? This silly thing just makes me grin whenever I look at it!

Labels: holiday, knitting

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Thanksgivings

November 28, 2008

He smiled and closed his eyes.  "Winter Prey" by John Sandford ♦♦♦♦◊

Julie's comment on my Thanksgiving Adventures, Part One post reminded me that we, too had a leaky turkey. I'd stuck it on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator to thaw last week (Friday? Sunday? They've all run together) and then gone about my merry way.

On Tuesday I opened one of the vegetable drawers and found some moisture in there. Upon closer inspection the moisture was pink and the sad realization was upon me. Since the timing of my discovery coincided with the last minute mini-rush that comes when dinner is almost finished and everything's coming together at once, I pulled the drawer out and set it on the counter out of the way so that I could deal with it when the heat was off (so to speak).

Of course, Mr. W. (who thinks that if the wind changes you're going to get salmonella from tap water) wigged about the raw poultry juice and immediately started pulling stuff out and washing and disinfecting. While I'm trying to get dinner on the table.

I'm thankful that I didn't have to clean up the turkey juice mess.
I'm thankful that we were even able to have a turkey to make the mess, in these times when so many must go without.
I'm thankful that Mr. W. did not lecture, complain or berate me for my lack of foresight (and I think there was only one heavy sigh).

I have the remnants of whatever cold/flu I mentioned earlier. The fever's gone and the waterworks seem to have ceased. Today (Friday) I have more oomph and energy than I have had in days. That's not saying that I'm ready to go shopping or even vaccuum my carpets, but I'm actually A. Dressed and B. Not sitting in front of the TV with a box of Kleenex and a cup of tea.

eta: I had to laugh when I published this post. I am NOT sitting in front of the TV with a box of Kleenex and a cup of tea. I AM sitting in front of the computer with a box of Kleenex and a cup of coffee...

I'm thankful that I didn't feel pressured to make everything perfect for this holiday week.
I'm thankful that I didn't make myself feel guilty for not making everything perfect this week.

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That cool new turkey lifter was a boon when it came to lifting the turkey from the roaster, but I was right when I worried that it sat too low in the pan - the bottom of the turkey was a little damp. I still had to pull out the big forks to transfer the turkey from the lifter to the cutting surface, because the handles of the lifter didn't fold down out of the way for carving. So, end result? I'm glad I didn't pay an arm and a leg for it; it ended up being an extra step and an extra thing to wash and in the end the cool factor did not outweigh the design flaws.

But, damn. Purty, ain't it?

My (step) dad made it his mission in life to cook a turkey that looked like a picture (and still tasted good, I assume). I remember when he and my mom would pull the turkey out partway through cooking and turn it and he/they would do other things to get the golden-brown bird.

Yesterday, my mom said that he'd be proud of my turkey.

So, mom made the fruit salad (Dole Tropical Fruit from those cool plastic jars, sliced banana and Cool Whip), the crunchy plate of raw vegetables and the rolls. J2 brought Onion Pie in a brown rice crust, a dish of sliced yams, apples and mandarin oranges cooked with butter and a tiny bit of brown sugar, and Key Lime Bars.

I'd made the pies the day before (and there was actually one left) and then made the turkey, the stuffing and the gravy.

We three she's sat down to a veritable feast.



And I couldn’t smell or taste a thing.

I confess I pretty much destroyed the part of the turkey that I tried to carve. That’s Mr. W.’s thing, so I’m woefully out of practice. Plus there was the learning curve with the turkey lifter thing.

There’s a fourth place setting there for Mr. W., but he wasn’t able to join us because he was sleeping. Carving duties aside, this made me very sad. Because he works nights, for almost the last year his days and nights have been opposite from the rest of the world (including me). Eating dinner at 3:30 in the afternoon would be like eating dinner at 3:30 in the morning for him. I’m pretty bitter about the fact that he has to work at all, but just sad that it’s changed his life so that he’s missing out on so much. He missed seeing the kids and grandkids when they visited this summer. He misses going to church. He hasn’t seen any of our friends except maybe in passing (and in a fog) and now, for the first time in 17 years, I haven’t sat down to Thanksgiving dinner with the love of my life.

I’m thankful that we have a roof over our heads and land under our feet.
I’m thankful that Mr. W. is willing to work in Hell so that we can live and eat.
And I’m most thankful that he still comes home to me at the end of his shift.

Oh, yeah, and in Hell you apparently literally work your arse off. So I'm also thankful for this (note the huge sleeve not filled with arm, the back pockets forward of the side of his body and, well, the big gap in front is pretty self-explanatory):

Labels: babble, holiday

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Holiday Adventures, Part One

November 27, 2008

I had no idea who I was. "Firestorm" by Rachel Caine ♦♦♦♦◊

I don't have a "Holiday Adventures, Part Two" (yet), but I want to leave my options open, you know?

The turkey's in the oven as I type. This year J2 and my mom are both with us, so we have a 25 pound turkey (we would anyway, but it sounds better to say it's that big because we have "company"). Sir Turkey has a new roasting pan and a new fancy-dancy rack. The rack is fancy because it has lift out handles - but I'm not sure about the rack part, it seems awfully close to the bottom of the pan. Good thing the turkey doesn't spew liquid, so it won't be boiling in it's own juice.

A couple of years ago I posted "my" convection turkey cooking instructions on my blog here. That's mainly because I always had a hard time finding the info (and there's a definite lack of decent convection cooking cookbooks out there). The one thing I forgot to put in the instructions post was to take out the extra racks before preheating the oven. I am consistent, at least, in that I don't remember to take out the extra racks (to make room for the turkey) until they're a whopping 400 degrees.

Yesterday I made the pumpkin pies. I used a different brand of pumpkin (yes, I use canned) and the pies are a bit different. Nothing major and let's get real - it's hard to go wrong with one of my pumpkin pies (I'm not so forgiving of store-bought pies).

So, for Holiday Adventure, Part One I give you:

The Not-So-Great Pie Disaster of 2008.

Is it wrong that I was glad I wasn't wearing one of my cute aprons so it didn't get all mucked up? Kinda defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

Silly me tried to use foil pie plates (no, I don't know why either, it just seemed the thing to do at the time) and as I said, the pumpkin mash is different (not as dense), so I had slingy-sugary pumpkin goop all over.

Just what I wanted to do, is stop and clean the oven and mop the floor before putting the pies in the oven. I finally put the foil pans into my glass pans (seriously - don't ask me why I had to have foil, I couldn't tell you) and it worked out.

Last night's dinner was Reuben Casserole (I wanted to introduce the recipe to my mom) and teeny-tiny asparagus spears. Yum! No leftovers!

I have a cold or the flu or something that makes my head want to explode when I bend over. Do you have any idea how much bending over is involved in cooking a Thanksgiving Dinner? I apparently have a fever, too, because I'm cooking in short sleeves and I'm barefoot (all of the other necessary clothing is present, as well) - and I still keep stepping outside into the 36 degree temps.

Labels: holiday

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It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

November 05, 2008

"Well then, Billy—let's get on with it!" "Maisie Dobbs" by Jaqueline Winspear ♦♦♦♦◊

...Thanksgiving!

Last Tuesday before Halloween I cooked my first turkey of the holiday season - a full month before (U.S.) Thanksgiving. Uh... YUM!

Mr. W. was truly Wonderful - he not only brought the turkey home to surprise me, but after I'd cooked it, he did the dishes AND cleaned and cooked the carcass - filling at least 6 quart jars with juice and bits of meat. The ultimate fast food in our house.

I also made stuffing/dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy. I tried a new-to-me recipe for potato rolls. It was a LOT of work (the rolls) and they ended up tough, though tasty. I thought at first it was because I cooked them in my dark muffin tins, but the tops were tough, too. I must've either over-kneaded them or done something else wrong. No big. I was just one seriously happy camper (aka, "Happy as a Pig in Slop") right up until the leftovers ran out on Monday.

I wore my summer apron all day while in the kitchen. And I was barefoot. But that's as far as THAT goes.

Speaking of aprons, Kathleen was kind enough to send me a couple of pictures of the apron I made for her as a birthday present.

Does this look familiar? I've made one like it before. This is from the Susan Branch free pattern (online here - scroll down).

I am soooo impressed with how well it fits her. (Looks like crap on me!)



This cracks me up. It's an action shot. (The glass of wine is not just a prop!)

Her husband tells me (unprompted, even) that she wears the apron frequently. Really, I couldn't ask for more.

I hope she wears that thing down to the threads, and enjoys every minute of it.

Labels: aprons, holiday

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Turkey Photo Shoot

December 31, 2007

I know it's always such a thrill to see yet another turkey, but golly gee, it's my blog and I do like my turkeys! They're almost always so purrrr-ty, and they're always evah-so-tasty.

So there. Feel free to click on the pic to biggify the glossy, moist, yummy goodness (heh).

And if you've managed to avoid it thus far, click here to learn how you, too, can make such a bee-yoo-ti-ful bird in your convection oven at home!

Oh! I just realized! This turkey got it's full cooking time at 400 degrees. And it was even moister than the Thanksgiving turkey. Maybe I'm onto something? Maybe it was a fluke. Though I think the dark meat was a bit drier. Hmmmm... I think I'd better cook another one just to find out.

Labels: holiday

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