Short and Sweet

Heh, heh!  I love the title of this one!  Last night Dan attended the monthly men's dinner at church and when he came home, he handed me a small plate.  One of the wives had made their dessert (the men usually do their own cooking), and I said, "Terry made apple pie!" as I took a bite.  So good!

And then Dan said, "No, it's zucchini!"  What?!?  I kept eating and saying that it tasted just like apple pie, and when I was done, I immediately texted Terry and asked for the recipe.  She texted back and told me to google zucchini cobbler and Taste of Home.  And people, to help you out, click here for the link,  You're welcome!  You won't regret it.  

See, short and sweet.  Get it?

Out to Lunch!

Lunch out is always a treat, whether it's as simple as McDonald's or Arby's with a grandson, or something a little more refined with husband or a friend.  At this stage of my life, any meal I don't have to fix is a win!  But a middle of the day sojourn is just fun, no matter where.

My daughter-in-law's mom recently invited me to lunch as a belated birthday celebration and specified a spot about twenty-five or so miles from here. After some consulting and shuffling of schedules, we finally arrived at a date that would work for both of us and last Friday was the day.  She picked me up a little after eleven and we were off!

Off to where?  The tiny little town of Deary, Idaho, home to a very unique bakery/restaurant/cheese factory called the Pie Safe.  An old building (80+ years), it was an automotive dealership before becoming an empty hulk.  But no more!  Huge baskets of flowers hang the outside the door to greet you and the inside has been renovated and sparkles. 

And then there's the food.  It's not called a bakery/cheese factory for nothing.  Paninis on homemade bread with their cheese and other fillings are delicious.  I can only eat half, which is a happy thing because then I get to eat the other half for dinner or lunch the next day.  Makes my tummy smile twice!  And for dessert?  Choice of at least five different kinds of pie, cheesecake, cream puffs, cookies, homemade ice cream, or any number of other baked goods.  Mmmm. Indulge! 

My friend and I had a wonderful time visiting, eating, and wandering around looking at the beautiful handmade things that are on display--and for sale!  This was our second visit and each time we've spent at least two hours there.  

Here's a link to their website so you can see what a delightful destination the Pie Safe is.  (This is not a paid ad!  LOL, just wanted to share a great place to eat.)

Beans for Breakfast? Yup, Beans for Breakfast!

We love beans,  My parents loved beans.  Any kind, any way: bean soup, baked beans, pork and beans, refried beans, and now, breakfast beans.

Somewhere along the way, I discovered Foodie with Family's blog, written by Rebecca Lindamood.  She's quite the cook, a skilled writer, and even better, hilarious.  Oh yes, and the mother of five boys.  So, I peruse her blog from time to time and have followed her on Facebook.  One day on Facebook, she mentioned an older blog post about breakfast beans.  I hopped right on over and after reading, proceeded to print out the recipe.  I had all the ingredients so sometime in the next few days, I stirred up a batch.  They cook in the crockpot for eight hours (smelling amazingly good), so after cooling them down, I refrigerated them until morning.  

The next morning was the moment of truth.  I had a huge pot of beans, so I was hoping they were worth the time and effort.  I heated up a bowl of the beans, and following Rebecca's recommendation, we toasted bread and began to heap on the beans.  We picked up our forks and tasted.  And smiled!  And ate until our plates were empty.  Boy were we glad there was a pile of beans left for more mornings!

I'm not certain how many batches I've made now since discovering the recipe some months ago, but probably at least four.  Each batch is good for about six breakfasts for the two of us, maybe seven.  They freeze beautifully so you don't have to eat beans every day for a week.  The amazing thing is that even if you eat them three days in a row, they still taste wonderful.  We still marvel at how satisfying they are and how they keep us going all morning long.  My only regret is that I didn't discover them while Dad was still alive.  He'd have been all over them.  

You can find the recipe here.  I use the half recipe and cook 2 1/2 cups of dry navy beans, nine cups of water, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and one tablespoon of oil in my InstantPot for 28 minutes with a natural pressure release before adding. As she says in the recipe, you can also use cans of beans.  Oh, and ham is great instead of Canadian bacon. (I have lots of seal-a-meal bags in the freezer leftover from Easter.  We don't know how to buy a small ham.)

Another Baby Quilt Finish

A year ago in August, while we were visiting Bruder Bear, I made my annual trip to a nearby quilt shop.  It's one I love to browse because they carry many fabrics that are to my liking (I'm a traditional quilter and fabric lover).  They also have a huge wall of marked-down fabrics in their classroom.  Since I make baby quilts to give away at the pregnancy center, I'm always thrilled to find good fabrics for a good price.  And finding boy fabric is an even greater plus!

As I wandered along the wall, a set of fabrics jumped out at me--boy fabrics!  I grabbed a shopping cart, loaded in three bolts and went straight to the checkout counter.  I think I bought the whole bolt of each one, which is quite daring for me. I brought the fabric home, stashed it in my closet and . . . well, nothing.  Until a few weeks ago.

My biggest problem was that one of the fabrics had big motifs on it and if I cut it into small pieces, even medium-sized pieces, the pattern would be lost.  Another fabric was a stripe, which can be tricky in a quilt, especially if one is like me and slightly OCD about straight lines.  I pondered multiple patterns and books and came to no decision.  Then, suddenly I had an idea.  Why not make a large center of the big motif fabric, frame it with the striped fabric, and add a final border.  Wait, did I have a fabric for a final border??  Why yes, I did--found in my closet was a perfect match in solid yellow.  And so I began.  

It turned into one of the cutest quilts I've made!  The stripe is the perfect accent and is repeated in the binding.  The third fabric I purchased has much smaller motifs and is perfect for the backing.  

Such a happy quilt and so much fun!!

Peachy Keen

Last Tuesday I joined two friends and we headed out to pick up some boxes of peaches.  We had the choice of 10-pound flats or thirty-five pound boxes.  I opted for the box. 

Back home, I began to question my choice almost immediately.  Dan had gotten a complete knee replacement for his right knee barely two weeks before and I'd been busy helping him.  His recovery was going amazingly well, but still it was taking a toll on both of us.  And now I'd added those peaches!!

First up, I decided to make a peach pie.  I do believe that peach pie is my absolute favorite pie.  And this one did not disappoint!  Yum!!  Now what to do?  I decided to take the most bruised ones and slice them into a simple syrup and freeze.  I got seven pints.  They will be yummy for breakfast this winter, or perhaps for peach shortcake.  

Next up was another pie, the first was just not enough!!  Then I decided on jam.  This entailed a trip to a store for pectin.  I dropped Dan off for physical therapy and made a last minute decision to stop at Tri-State (known in its ads as "Idaho's Most Interesting Store".  They have a great kitchen department and I knew they stocked many canning items.  As I perused the aisles, I found not the usual MCP pectin in a box, but a jar by Ball.  Intrigued, I checked closely and discovered that it was to be used by the tablespoon and could make as few as two 8-ounce jars or as many as ten in a batch.  And it had recipes for using the usual amount of sugar or a reduced amount.  Sold!!

Back home (after picking up Dan, of course) I began on the jam.  I decided to go full bore and make ten jars and use the less sugar recipe.  The difference was one cup of sugar versus one and two-thirds cups per two-jar recipe (multiplied by five for my ten jars).  Oh, my goodness!! Such wonderful jam!  Stirred into my homemade yogurt, just a teaspoon into half cup of the yogurt, it rivals, no surpasses, any purchased flavored yogurt.  

The yogurt, and pie number two!

The Ball brand pectin and finished product.

The last of the peaches were used to make another peach pie which is safely stowed in the freezer for another day.  

I highly recommend the Ball pectin.  I used less than half the jar, and the ability to make small batches of jam when the mood and fruit strike is a huge plus.  

Reliving My Childhood

It's a very lazy Sunday here at the Resort.  We skipped church due to my sleeping in (daylight savings time, I hate you!), and so enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of eggs Benedict. That was followed by a relaxing time on the sofa with a good book, followed by, amazingly, a nap!  I told you it's a very lazy Sunday.

Meanwhile, in my last post I said I'd be back in a day or so and here I am.  I'm trying to do better with this poor blog. And so, what do I have to share?  Dolls.  Dolls? Yes, dolls.  I love dolls. Always have. As a girl, I got a new doll every Christmas, with one notable year where I ended up with three. I loved them one and all.  My best friend, Kathy, and I spent many hours of our growing up years playing with dolls.  

Most of my childhood dolls are long gone, but about twenty years ago, I discovered that there were some amazing dolls being made.  The Tonner doll company was making a 14" Betsy McCall doll that was adorable. I still had my original 8" Betsy and some of her clothes, so I felt an immediate need for the new one.  Kind of a big sister, so to speak, for my little one.  And the American Girl dolls!  I needed one of those, too!  I put them on Christmas lists and my sweetheart bought both for me. Over the next few years, several more dolls found their way to our house.  I even bought a stash to share with future granddaughters, but as we have four grandsons, they were eventually shared with a friend.

Over my teaching years my doll collection was sadly ignored, but recently I've been inspired by my longtime dolly buddy Kathy, and I'm again playing.  

I think I'm done adding any dolls to my group (I don't want to have too many to love, like the matchbox car story), but I'm interested in doing some sewing for them.  Not too many outfits, just enough for seasons, special occasions, and fun times as the mood strikes.  

When we bought this house almost eighteen years ago, there were two sets of shelves in the basement family room, complete with glass doors.  My dolls live in one and Dan's collection of Nutcrackers live in the other.   

Here are my girls starting with the top shelf:

They are, left to right, back row,  American Girl Samantha, now being reinvented as me in the fifties, a porcelain doll I bought in Levenworth, Washington, Tonner's 14" Betsy McCall, and Rose, a Magic Attic doll. Front row:  Mary Englebreit's Ann Estelle and her friend Sophie, and my tiny Betsy McCall.

This shelf features dolls I have created to match characters from a book series and a movie.  On the left is a Just Pretend doll I remade into Amelia Peabody, famed egyptologist from the turn of the last century, from the book series by Elizabeth Peters.  On the right is Eve Tozer (another Just Pretend doll), from the Tom Selleck movie, High Road to China.  The wonderful accessories were obtained when the internet doll store, iDolls, went out of business.  

And last, here is the bottom shelf.  The little doll in the desk was purchased in Boise at a toy store. She has a sweet face and one eye that doesn't work quite right.  I just couldn't leave her behind, never to be loved.  The center doll is a Heidi Ott doll I've named Amalia after my Norwegian grandfather's mother.  I had fun making this outfit for her.  The doll on the right is another porcelain one my son and daughter-in-law brought back from Germany.  

So there you have it.  I still play dolls.  Actually, what I really do is dress dolls, with plans to make more clothes to dress them in.  It's fun and it keeps me out of trouble. (However, my love of shoes has carried over to the dolls, and there are many adorable ones just waiting to be purchased!!!)

A Little More Stitchin'

Last May, after my dad got out of the hospital for the third time in a month, my brother and I were finally able to talk him and mom into moving from their home of almost sixty years to an apartment in a retirement center.  Clearly they were no longer going to be able to take care of a house and yard. The center is a lovely place and they were able to get a very nice apartment overlooking the creek my dad had often fished in as a child.  In fact, it was just about two blocks away from the house he was born in.  

One of the first things I wanted to do was to bring down a banner to hang in the main hallway outside their front door.  When I was teaching the embroidery class at the local quilt shop, I developed a pattern for a 9" x 27" banner with a large embroidery design featured at the top.  I had an extra patriotic one which worked for the summer, and then I took down a fall one.  I made a new one for Christmas just before Dad died, and then lost my mojo.  

I decided this week that I must, must, must get that Christmas one down and pondered what to make. Here I must admit that spring is not my season so I don't have many ideas, but I looked through my designs and then perused my fabrics.  I think it was divine intervention, but I found fabrics, four in all, that blended well, including one with tulips.  I had looked at a tulip design earlier, and voila, it all came together!  I think Mom is going to love it!

Here's some closeups of the design.  I was able to match the colors to the tulips in the outer strips of fabric.

Every time I look at this little project, it makes me smile. Those pink tulips are just so springy!  And spring is something that has been very elusive so far this year. In fact, we had seven new inches of snow just last week. It's all gone now, but the days are just dark and, well, gloomy. The one exception was yesterday when we actually saw the sun.  I felt energized!! Today, not so much.

Well, I did have something else I was going to share, but I think this is long enough, so stay tuned for another post in a day or so!