Cooking with the Bear!

Have you heard about The Bear?  

Although, I’d heard about this, I just ignored it for the longest time.  After all, The Bear is a series on Hulu streaming service, which we didn’t have—definitely a moot point then. 

Later this summer, we subscribed to Hulu —still didn’t think much about it.  Plugged in one day and there it was!! The Bear! Watched the first episode and I was hooked! 

Your mouth can water from seeing delicious foods being

Prepared!  Yum!  Yum!!

And then

The one recipe being talked about on many blogs—spaghetti pomodoro!!  

So simple in preparation and looked so delicious—I decided “it’s what’s for dinner” tonight

And the best thing, I had all supplies on hand! 

On our last visit to Costco, I grabbed a bag of fresh garlic 

My garden still had basil growing

There was a can of San Marzona tomatoes in the pantry

For pasta, I decided on sprialized zucchini

Basil and garlic are steeped in olive oil, in bottom pan

Top pan is onion cut in half simmered in butter

Following the sparse directions, everything is combined in one pot and out comes 

The most delicious sauce ever! 

I watched a number of you tube videos and blogs about

This simple recipe and want to thank the person or persons who conceived this delight as well as all the other foods featured on the series.   

Off to watch another episode of delightful food combined with drama/comedy.  I’m liking The Bear!

 

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 What In The world???  How can it be September 24 already!!??  Yesterday it was July and we jump into September just like that—no way! 

  It dawned on me—those socks for hubby I haven’t finished knitting yet and winter will be knocking on the door soon—-NO—I’m not ready—aargh!  Can I even find those socks that were begun in the spring, when I thought there was plenty of time to knit them?  

The other day I went to renew my state driver’s license—I gathered all the documents that were required—birth certificate, passport, social security card, current license—this was after an appointment was made three months in advance—appointment was the earliest possible as I’ve heard stories of long waits—not for me!  I’m going to take the first time available—8 AM!  Which means, early rise, leave house early to beat traffic—I’ll be there early, early!  Put address in my navigation app and away I went!  patting myself on the back—“you’re so smart to arrive in plenty of time” as there was not a car in the parking lot.  

Okay, waiting 25 minutes and the place is still deserted!  What the heck?  What does everyone know that I don’t. 

I’ll tell you what!! I was at the wrong location!  Duh! No wonder no one was here. Looked up to see I was sitting about three blocks away from location at the New DPS instead of the old one.  I wasn’t too clever after all—found right place, walked in way passed my appointment time, check in at kiosk, got my number (056)—oh great!  56 people in front of me!! Alas, my number was called after my Fanny hit the chair—ahhh,  got a nice young man (almost everyone is younger than me now) who laughed with me when I told him I was waiting at the New location—bet he’ll have good laugh with his fellow workers after I leave!! 

Anyway, that chore is finished for another 8 years or if that young man is right—A-I will take over and we’ll not need to make an appearance there again—don’t get me started on that topic! 

Do I or don’t I?  It’s haunting me—Blockheads #5!  So far the block patterns are interesting—but, do I begin another project when I have four quilts to bind, two more table runners to complete, those dang wool socks for hubby, do I really need another challenge?  And then there are all those gift baskets sitting on my kitchen table waiting to be transported to our great grandson’s benefit October 7!!  Let me sleep on that decision—in the meantime, I’m hoping meantime, I’m printing the patterns each week and stashing them in my file folder for future reference. 

I had my biannual med renewal with our doctor yesterday.  The office was empty!  Say what?? Do I have right day and time?  Yes! I do as the assistant called yesterday to remind me.  Sat for about five minutes and my name was called inside the inner sanctuary—a chat about my bill, which was marked delinquent!! No way!  That was paid months ago!  Of course, there goes my blood pressure!   Consult with accounting—sorry, our mistake.  That was paid but credited to husband’s name—Ho hum!  

That is resolved! As I wait for PA, in she walks with NO mask!  Who is this stranger?  This is first time I’ve seen her face—her complete face—in three years!  What a lovely face!  

Life goes on…..

Mistakes!

 Mistakes!! Everyone makes them one time or another!  It is always how you correct the mistake that counts!

It seems I"m making more mistakes with my quilting--guess I'm not paying enough attention to what I"m doing.

I HAD a great idea the other day------one problem, I can't remember what it was today!  I just know it was a GREAT idea!  searching my brain--will let you know if I remember that idea!  Another mistake--I didn't write it down immediately!!

Mistakes!! Case in point--it seemed so easy.  the pattern was cut and pieces marked for half square triangle--

just take it to the machine and sew!  Easy--right?  Well, I guess not!  In constructing, it went well and then…..

This is how my basket looked--Nope not right!

Jack the ripper came out and we ripped that bottom row

Let's try again

Nope!! still not right!  What's wrong with me??

Jack came out again!

Once more--third time is charm they say--let's hope so because I'm getting tired of bringing Jack out!

Almost right!  Third time was not a charm--it needs Jack again!  Why can't I get this right?

too many mistakes on this one block--it took me longer to get it wrong and correct, then if I'd done it right in the first place!

Think I got this one block right--only took several times to get the pumpkins to look right!

This is the new BOM from Fat Cat Patterns.  Thinking this could be an addition to my table runner gift--if I can do it right in the first place!!

Say It's Fall Please!

 The month of September brings fall activitites, cooler weather and fall leaves!  And my mind turns to making that autumn leaf quilt top--this will be a table runner instead of a whole quilt top--well, let's hope!  And I can almost complete all the season of table runners for the brown headed daughter. 

It took some time to round out my list of scrappy leaf patterns.  For the month of September, you can visit several designers who have created a free fall block--check it out here.

Aby Quilts  has a lofty goal to complete a 6" leaf block through September and October

I'm so anxious for fall to appear  --I even hung our fall wreath on the front door although temps are still in 90's.  I'm sure the wreath will bring those cooler temps!

My friend and I did long arm quilting yesterday.  She didn’t have a quilt top Of her own to quilt so she graciously said she would do one of mine.  I was delighted!  She does great free form quilting. 

This quilt is called "Postcard from Sweden" and came as a kit.  I purchased this many moons ago

and didn't work on it for many months--it looked complicated--all those colors had to go in a certain order!

I had to be organized when I finally decided to work on this--lots of postit notes!

and when I got to the last row, I was ahhhhhhhhhhh--so confused!  just add the row and forget it--

okay, it turned out right.

not easy to see the color of the backing--I dyed using blue and yellow and of course, you get greens--I went soft on the yellow so I got a lime green---just perfect!

This top is "Be My Neighbor"--I started work on it and then quit--I wanted to use all plaids--

then I saw Pat Sloan during this pattern so back I went to the neighborhood and finished!

The backing is dyed with blue--fabric is squished in the dyepot dry, fill with water, then sprinkle dye over, heat and ta da you have an interesting backing.  

Now, that I think it's getting to be "fall" type weather--the binding will go on and I'll relish the time I sit with the quilt on my lap and handstitch the binding down--now, that's agood fall feeling!!

Season of Tablerunners?

The table runner was born in the Middle Ages, mainly because medieval folks were sloppy. The tablecloth was considered an aristocratic innovation, but it needed protection from lively and careless royal revelers who spilled, drooled and made a mess!  No doubt, the wise women responsible for laundering linens came up with the innovative idea for the table runner in an effort to save the tablecloths from unnecessary laundering.  Napkins were also invented because it was no longer considered acceptable to wipe your mouth on the tablecloth.

These ingenious long, narrow pieces of cloth now known as “table runners” were placed over the tablecloths. They were gathered up at the end of the meal for washing and the tablecloths remained intact and clean. The table runner along with tablecloths became fixtures in everyone’s collection of linens by the 15th century.

It MUST be the year of tablerunners!  Why?  Because, I already began several runners for a gift--well, actually, these have been promised to brown headed daughter for years--just never decided that I wanted to construct them.

Now, I'm on a roll, because Fort Worth Fabric STudio gave me the push!  

Spring runner

St. Patrick's Day--I added an extra two clovers to make it longer

Patriotic runner--really liked making this one.

This is one of my ideas since I had turkeys left over, along with pre=printed panels

This one is smaller for my table.

Still need to make a fall and holiday runner and then that gift will be complete!

Luann Kessi has the pattern for this fun runner--I'm thinking hard about making this for a summery touch.

A Quilting Life has many ideas for runners. 

Diary of a Quilter 

Quilter Blogs

Sulky blog  I like this one for Fall!

Pinterest can always have a long list of things that interest you!

Most table runners come in standard widths such as 10, 12, 13, 14 or 15 inches and standard lengths such as 54, 72, 90 and 108 inches. If you have a dining table that is 84 inches long and 42 inches wide (7 feet by 3.5 feet), you would need a table runner with the dimensions of 14 inches by 108 inches.

What are table runners and how to use them

Tips and tricks of table runners

 

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Digging For Treasures!

When we moved Mother into assisted living, we had to vacate her house—that was 6 years ago.  She is 103 now and non verbal, so I can’t ask her any questions about items we removed from her house.  I’m really sorry I didn’t talk to her earlier.  We bundled up many things and carried to our location, six hours from her Assisted Living Facility- I’ve not taken much time to look into what we have until recently

This is a well worn book!  Don’t know that it was used often—mother was never a great cook—only decent.  She did feed us kids and our father.  Can’t complain too much. 

Her meal plan was simple—Saturday nights we had bbq hamburgers that she cooked on stove.  Meat loaf!! Oh my! Lots of meat loaf!  And to this day I will not eat or make meat loaf!  And Spam!  Oh yes, lots of spam and potted meat sandwiches! 

This was written note at the top “my first cookbook given by Richard, July, 1940”. Richard is my father given at their wedding time!  What a gift for a new groom to give his new wife!?? Wonder what she thought when it was gifted??

She had a a marker between these pages—it’s pie section.  Don’t remember her making pies—hm! 

Found this little book slipped between other cookbooks—interesting to read but nothing here to really cook.

Here are her other cookbooks on my top shelf of bookcase and one book of poetry—surprised to find that among her sparse number of books.  She had many of those Reader Digest Condensed books, which we gave to library book resale shop. 

Afraid I took too much time digging through these treasures—nothing like going down a rabbit hole to get out of housework! 

Are you a Blockhead????

 Dictionary says a blockhead is  bonehead, chump, dolt, dummy, dunce, and fool.and included is not smart!  Well, I'm hurt as I'm not a blockhead when it comes to working with the blockheads, which mean something total different in quilters' language--I'M very smart as I'm planning on being a real BH along with many others.

NOPE!  These blockheads are building BLOCKS for a quilt top!

*BH5 is a FREE block-of-the-week quilt-along that features block patterns from fabulous designers and Moda team. *There will be two phases to this year's Blockheads program, giving quilters the option to complete a smaller project first. *There are more designers participating this year than ever before, including several new designers who have not been part of Blockheads before! 

 Join Moda Fabrics Facebook page and sign on to be a blockhead! The project will be in two sessions--first beginning today, September 6. There will be videos along with each pattern released. You can join in any time to receive the FREE patterns from super duper designers.

This is the last Blockhead 4--will give you an idea of what to expect from these remarkable designers.  

I don't recall if I participated in BH4 so I certainly need another quilt top, don't I???

Laboring on Labor Day?

 Hopefully, your Labor Day weekend hasn’t included physical labor but fun laboring!  The last hurrah of the summer leading us into a delightful fall.  It’s time to spend with family having some laboringly good fun!!

I “labored” over this hat—but it was so much fun to knit!! Using my stash tiny yarn bits makes for an interesting combination

Done!  And done!! A hat to add to my pile of charity stash!  Ready to labor over another one?  You bet!

I really am laboring on this!  August dishcloth pattern from Kitchen Sink patterns.  I really don't know why--it's not the yarn as it's my handspun cotton; pattern is easy enough--just can't get into the rhythm of knitting this easy pattern--I will labor on and get it finished because September 1 rolls around, there will be another pattern and I really don't want to be left

I definitely ‘labored’ over this quilt top since I royally screwed up when I worked on it last week

Just take a gander at this border on the right--that was when I quit for awhile--I gave up!  But, from the next photo you can tell I went right back to it and got it right!

All four corners match!  Yay!

I've had these 'turkeys' running around my studio for couple of years now--a friend gave me several 'orphan blocks' and these dresden plate were included.  I tried to use them in another orphan quilt layout--just didn't work!  Then had an idea (novel for me!!) to use the dresdens as back feathers for a turkey body!  Well, it worked.  I"ve already made one table runner 

THese last few blocks didn't have buttonhole stitching around them--another thing, I labor over.

Found this fall border print, on sale(!) and it worked perfectly for this small wall hanging and another tablerunner.

Here's hoping that your 'labors' will be mild and easy this weekend!