Month: November 2007

Baby Flick’s Quilt is Finished

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I had promised that I would finish Baby Flick’s quilt before she was born. It was getting down to the wire! She is due to arrive on Tuesday.

I finished the quilt on Thursday night. (I’m so grateful she didn’t arrive early. Of course, her mom wishes she would come a month ago.)

Here are the many pictures of it.

The ‘F’ is for the baby’s last name. (The child’s sex was unknown when I was picking colors and patterns). After finding the dragon panels, I designed the quilt around them.
The F and the Dragon panels were hand quilted. The rest of the quilt was machine quilted using the stitch-in-the-ditch method. The binding was made from the green fabric used to frame the ‘F’. I stitched it to the front and hand-tacked it to the back.
I had a great time making it! I can’t wait to start my next one – an Americana quilt for my nephew.

AWOL for a week and look what happens!

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Dan needed the laptop at work last week. Although, I still have Hal at home with me, he is 10 years old now. He can still make a mean excel spreadsheet, but crashes and burns when the latest Google products are opened. So, I have been unable to check my gmail account and update my blog. I’ve also slipped behind on my blog reading (137 posts behind!).
And I have much to tell you. Apparently, if you take away the computer, I can get a lot done.
Funny how that is.
Here goes – this is the first of 4 posts today.

Chicken Paprika recipe

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Since Dan complemented me several times on this dish, I thought I should share it. He’s a man willing to eat anything put in front of him, but it is rare that he raves about a dish.

Chicken Paprika recipe

4 cups shredded, cooked chicken, preferably leftovers from a whole chicken
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. olive oil, mild
2 tsp. paprika
1 cup sour cream
2 tbsp. white wine or chicken stock or water
salt and pepper to taste

Heat butter and oil in a saute pan. Toss in onion and saute until golden and tender. Add chicken and paprika. Stir occasionally till heated through. Add sour cream and wine (or substitute). Add additional wine if you desire sauce to be thinner. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat. Serve immediately over hot noodles.

Pumpkin Pie recipe

Marie Haigh2 Comments
After my last attempt to make fresh pumpkin from a neck pumpkin, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to muster up the energy to do it again. After staring at the neck pumpkin for approx 3 weeks, I caved. My FIL requested that I bring a dessert to the upcoming mini family reunion. Dan suggested that I make the pumpkin pie again, since it turned out so well last time. It is his favorite pie after all and he only gets it a few times a year. With a host of reasons like that, how could I resist?

Without further ado, here is the recipe for Pumpkin Pie.

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 large eggs
2 cups mashed pumpkin
1.5 cups heavy cream

Mix dry ingredients together and set aside.

Whisk eggs in a large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar mixture. Gradually stir in heavy cream.

Pour into an unbaked pie shell.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for an additional hour or until pie filling is set.

Cool to room temperature and then transfer to refrigerator.

Note: This pie is best if left to chill for 24 hours before eating.

Mohair Stole Blocking

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The mohair stole is downstairs in the basement on top of the ping pong table being blocked. Even though I’ve poked at it and prodded it and glared down at it, it’s still not dry. It’s making me wait. I hate waiting.

To make me feel like I’ve made progress on it, I took pictures. Thanks to the lack of natural sunlight, the pictures are dark and difficult to assess.

Well, I feel better. I won’t bother it for at least an hour.

Finished Knitting the Mohair Stole

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Weeee! I just finished knitting the Mohair Stole and weaving in the rest of the ends!
As you may recall, this is an xmas present for my MIL. I’m 1.5 months early. I’ve never been so prepared and organized. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with myself on Christmas morning. It’s been tradition to get up at 3am to finish whatever project I have still on the needles. Maybe I’ll get up anyway and make waffles, eggs, and bacon.

Here are 2 pics before blocking. (Post blocking pics will have to come much later. I imagine the mohair is going to take a million years to dry).

If you are eyeing the lovely, golf-green rugs, please understand that they came with the house. The house was decorated back in the 1970’s and as far as I can tell – never altered again. Slowly but surely, we are moving the rugs to find gorgeous hardwood floors underneath. In the meantime, we’re going for a kitsch decor. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Happy Halloween

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I was trying to give my pumpkin a Fu Manchu. Despite my failed attempt, he’s still cute.

Despite having gangsters, superheroes, Minny Mouse, pirates, and train engineers stop by last night, I still have half a bowl of candy leftover. Thankfully, I had ignored Dan’s doubts over my candy supply. If it was up to him, I’d have a whole bowl leftover.

What to do with all this leftover candy? I suppose the traditional answer is to eat it, but we’re not big candy eaters. I like my chocolate straight and dark. So instead, I plan to try out a new recipe I found in our Pottstown Mercury newspaper: Peppermint Pattie Brownies. The last time I snuck mint into the brownies, it wasn’t very good. Yet, hopes are high.

PS. I only have 7 more rows to knit on the Mohair Stole before it is done!