Post Christmas Laziness

I was feeling a bit lazy the day after Christmas.  Too much good eatin’ going on around here.  I’m going to have to get going on a healthier diet in 2011.  But don’t we say that every year?  I mean it this time.  But I think I say that every year too.  Some things are just meant to be repeated year after year.  And good intentions in January can’t be all bad, right?

 

This is the spread of healthy food at my sister’s house on Christmas Eve.  Except for the healthy part.  Snacks, snacks and more snacks.  And not much that could be called healthy.  Unless you count the spinach in the spinach/artichoke dip.  But I do believe that’s stretching it a bit.  Can you say delicious?  We ate our way through Christmas Eve.

And then the day after Christmas we had our first fire in the fireplace.  I love a warm, cozy fire.  And it was necessary because it had turned frigidly cold here in Texas.  That’s 35° for all you northern climate readers who might not understand frigid cold in Texas terms.  You can stop laughing now.

And of course, that meant I could roast some of my homemade marshmallows in the fire.  Boy were they yummy.  And very healthy, right?  Not.

But I’m really writing this post-Christmas blog to show you the really cool Christmas present I got from Dear Hubby.  A gift that will help with blogging!

It’s a lapdesk for my laptop!  Now I can blog away with my feet up on the couch and the laptop stabilized on a neat-o tray.  And room for the mouse at the side so I don’t have to run it over the cushions on the back of the couch any more!  Notice I did not remove the tags that say “not to be removed under penalty of law.”  But I’m going to throw caution to the wind soon and cut those things off.  I think the small print says “except by the consumer” and that would be me, so off they go!

And yes, I was watching the Sound of Music while doing blog stuff tonight.  I love that movie.  I can probably recite all the lines and I certainly can sing along to all the songs (and mostly do), but I still watch it every time I come across it on TV.  It’s just an all-time favorite.  And I couldn’t resist.  Funny how it looks like smoke coming out of Julie Andrews’ head in that picture above.  It’s really the sky, but it sure looks like smoke.  I imagine Julie would be happy to hear that.

The lapdesk will come in handy for other things too.  Like reading magazines.  Especially this really cool one I got from my Sis for Christmas called “Where Women Cook.”  Maybe I’ll find some new recipes to try and to share with all of you on the blog.

This premiere issue had my hero, The Pioneer Woman, on the cover!  And a cool article about her inside with loads of pics from her kitchen.  And lots of other neat kitchens too.  I’ve already looked at all the pics and plan to go back and read it cover to cover too.  And since my nieces and nephew and their respective boy/girlfriends/spouse gave me a subscription, I’ll be sharing more things I learn from it as the year progresses!  Thanks, Kids!  They love it when we call them kids.

It’s a cool writing desk too.  For “blog notes” or good, old-fashioned letters.

And how about polishing fingernails?  Another really serviceable use for the desk.

So if you don’t already have one of these lapdesks, you probably need one.  Perhaps you have a birthday coming up soon?  Might be a good thing to ask for.  I’m sure you want one now that I’ve shown you all these good uses.

And now I’m off to stoke the fire.  I may need one more marshmallow before it goes out.

And one last goodbye to Christmas until next year.  Only 363 shopping days left!  Isn’t my Sis’ tree pretty with all the gifts piled beneath it?  I just thought you needed one last look at Christmas festivities.

Lazy hugs from behind the lapdesk,
Barb

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Merry Christmas from Just Sayin’ Sew!

May your Christmas be filled with family and friends and boundless blessings. 

And toffee bars.  And homemade marshmallows.  And hot chocolate.  And pumpkin pie dump cake.  And anything else that makes your tummy very happy.  Amen.

Oh!  And gifts.

 

Merry Christmas from Just Sayin’ Sew!

 

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A New Quilter in Town

There’s a new quilter in town.  And this one is very meticulous and careful.  Catches on quick too.  Great student.  Math whiz.  Look out Sally.  Your Best of Show status could be in jeopardy.  This one could give you a run for your money.

Are you curious?  Have I peaked your interest?  You’ll never in a million years guess who it is. 

Give up?

It’s my Dear Hubby!  You see, he’s been doing maintenance and repair on sewing machines lately.  But when it comes time to thread the machine and sew a test piece, he has to call another quilter to do the honors.  He’s fabulous with all the mechanical stuff.  And figuring out what the problem is when things aren’t just right.  But sew a quarter inch seam?  Not on your life.  Wind a bobbin?  No way.  So I told him the other day that if he’s going to really get into this machine work, he needs to know how to do regular operation too.  And he fell for it thought it was a really good idea.

 

Here he is hard at work.  And he’s a natural. 

It all started when I bought enough fabric to make two table runners for our gifts at a recent Christmas Party.  And Dear Hubby decided if one of those was going to be from him, he needed to have a hand in its creation.  So we set about on a crash course in Quilting 101 in my sewing room.  And he was a very apt student.  Determined to do the entire table runner himself.

He was very focused.  On a mission.  Resolute.

And can I just tell you how strange it feels to be sitting in the living room doing some hand stitching and hearing the sewing machine whirring away in the sewing room?  Very weird.  It might take awhile to get used to this.

Here’s the finished table runner!  Dear Hubby was quite proud.  And I’m quite proud of him too.  He did great!

You know what else?  You quilters out there will appreciate this.  He even did the hand stitching on the back side of the binding.  Mitered corners and all.  Did I mention what a whiz he is?

And the dear friend who received it at the party was excited too.  “I got an original!” she exclaimed.  I hope she enjoys it.  Because Dear Hubby very nearly couldn’t stand to part with it.  First quilts are hard to let go of.  But he may be totally hooked now.  I wonder what he’ll decide to do for Quilt #2.

Look out Sally.  There’s a new quilter in town.

Merry Christmas Eve, y’all!
Barb

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Homemade Marshmallows – Really!

I hear you out there.  “Why would we want to make homemade marshmallows when we can just go to the store and buy a bag?”  Ahhhh, but if you’re asking that question, you’ve never tasted a homemade marshmallow.  One bite and you’ll understand.

They are yummy and soft and delicious.  You can make them any flavor you want.  And they are yummy.  And delicious.  Did I mention that they are yummy?

Let’s make some!

The ingredients:  sugar, Karo syrup, egg whites, unflavored gelatine, water and flavoring.

I used peppermint in the pink marshmallows you saw in the pic above.  They are fabulous in hot chocolate.  And yummy right out of the bowl.  Yummy.  Almond extract is good too.  Or you can just use plain ol’ vanilla.  But the almond gives them an unexpected zing.

I should mention here that you should not attempt to make these without two essential kitchen tools.  A good candy thermometer and a big stand alone mixer.   I repeat… do not attempt to make without these two things!  You’ll be sorry if you do.

Start by mixing 7-8 packages of unflavored gelatine with 1/2 cup hot water.  I used 7 and it seemed to be just right.

Stir until the gelatine is dissolved.  It will soon turn into a big blobby mess.  Don’t be alarmed.  That’s what it’s supposed to do.

Set the gelatine aside…….

………and in a heavy saucepan, stir together sugar, syrup and water over medium high heat.  Bring to a boil.

Insert the candy thermometer into the mixture and just let it cook.

In the meantime, separate the eggs and put the egg whites into the mixer.

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.

Any idea what to do with these yellow guys?  Just wondered.

By now the gelatine will look like this.  A big blob.

Be sure to keep an eye on that candy thermometer.  Cook the syrup until it reaches 238° whichi is just below where it says “soft ball” on this one.

As soon as the boiling mixture reaches 238° remove it from the heat and dump in the gelatine blob.

It will immediately foam up .  Just stir until the gelatine gets completely dissolved in the super hot mixture.

Add the flavoring.

Now comes the fun part.  And the part that was impossible for me to photograph.  I hoped that Dear Hubby would come home just in time to get a pic of the next step.  But alas, he didn’t arrive in time.  So you’ll just have to picture it in your head.

With the mixer beating the egg whites again, slowly…. and I mean very slowly….. pour the hot mixture into the egg whites.  In a little tiny steady stream.  If you’ve ever made divinity, you understand how to do this.  Just keep the mixer going on medium speed while slowly adding the hot syrup.  If you get in too much of a hurry, you will cook the egg whites and have a big mess.  So just take your time and let that little stream pour into the egg whites with the mixer running.  And do not try to take a picture while you are doing this.  You just might end up with a marshmallow-coated camera.

UPDATE:  Look!  Janna (my niece) and Kaye (her mom-in-law) just sent me a pic of their first attempt at marshmallows with the brand new mixer that they all gave Kaye for Christmas this year.  Kaye was nice and said she wouldn’t charge me to use her picture.  She caught it just right….. the tiny stream of hot liquid being poured into the egg whites while the beaters are running.  Good job, Janna & Kaye!  Thanks!  (Sure is nice to have guest photographers on the blog!)

Nice mixer, Kaye!  I almost could have passed it off as mine, couldn’t I?  I might just have to bring my mixer to your house and we’ll do side-by-side recipes.  And loads of blog pics.  We definitely need more recipes that require a nice big mixer now.  I’ll work on that for the New Year for sure.  And it sounds like you’re having a very Merry Christmas.

This is how mine looked as it was beating just after I added the last of the hot syrup.

Set the timer just as you finish adding the syrup and beat this mixture for 15 full minutes.

Somewhere in the middle of the 15 minutes, I dumped in a little red food coloring to make these peppermint marshmallows pink.  I tried just swirling a bit of red in the finished product one time and it wasn’t terribly successful.  So I just went with total pink marshmallows this time.

Just as the 15 minutes was up, the mixture had increased in volume and nearly filled the bowl.

While the mixture is beating you need to prepare the pan for the gooey mix.  I used a jelly roll pan, but also used an 8 x 8 square pan because it was almost overflowing in the jelly roll pan I used.  It is imperative that you oil these pans very generously.  Oil spray works best.  But you can also just dump some oil in the pans and spread it around.  Very generously.  You’ll be sorry if you don’t use enough oil!  This stuff is very sticky and will adhere to anything not oiled.  Just sayin’.

Here it is in the pan.  Do not cover it with anything.  Wax paper or anything else will instantly adhere to the marshmallows and you’ll never get it off. 

Now you have to patiently wait for 4-5 hours for the marshmallows to set.  What?  4-5 hours, you say?  No way.

Of course there is always this………

And this.

Which immediately looked like this.  Yum!

And then there was the yummy beater.

Yum!

And I scraped every last little bit off with my fingers and ate it up.

After the marshmallows are set, turn them out onto the counter or a board with loads of powdered sugar.  Just dust powdered sugar all over the entire kitchen. 

Cut them up into squares.  Be sure to dust the knife with powdered sugar too.  And your hands.

And you have to dust powdered sugar on all the cut sides too.  Or they would immediately adhere back together again.

I cut some of them into smaller squares and made this little mini pile.  A handful of these in a cup of hot chocolate……..mmmmmm good!

I got this recipe many years ago from a gal who works at EQ.  Here’s the link to that site so you can print out the exact ingredients and make your own.  Remember.  They are yummy.  And one bite will immediately quench those “why make marshmallows” naysayers.

Marshmallow recipe on EQ

One more pic.  While I was writing this blog last night, I kept running outside to check on the lunar eclipse.  Here’s my feeble attempt at a picture. 

It was really quite awesome!  And I really needed a tri-pod. 

Now go make some marshmallows!

Hugs,
Barb

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The Party’s Over…… Finally!

This is the last of my 518 pics from the JSS Christmas Party of the Century.  Is that a big sigh of relief I hear?

Show ‘n Tell

 

Show ‘n Tell began with Peyton, showing us the quilt that she made.  With her Grandma.  Who taught her everything she knows.

And a very pretty back of the quilt.  It was important for us to see the back too!  And is that a proud Grandma or what?

Jill showed us some really clever cards that she embroidered on her machine.  Next time I’ll make her take them out of the shiny baggies for the pictures!

And how about this spectacular quilt that Jill made!

Sherry brought this guy for Show ‘n Tell.  Aren’t those the biggest, best brown eyes you’ve ever seen?  I’d like to bring him home with me for a week or two.

Donna brought this quilt to show us.  Very nice, Donna!  And she had lots of fabulous, cute help holding it up.

Donna also showed this cool block for another quilt she’s working on.

Linda showed us the marvelous star blocks that she made for one of the gals in her Austin quilting group.

And then she showed us this fabulous wool applique that she made.  Isn’t it wonderful?  Peyton likes it too.

Here’s a little closer look.

And this is my favorite block.  It looks like Boo!

Cameron was my backup photographer for the party.  And I bet his pics were lots better than mine!

Dede’s Show ‘n Tell was a great book of pictures of her family.  Nice!

This nice Christmas quilt is Davene’s. 

And this one is Davene’s too.  I feel like I’m right in the cockpit!

This beautiful quilt is Suz’.  Fabulous colors!

And these spectacular black and white circles are Suz’ too.  They are really sizzlin’!

And I bet the backup photographer’s pic was better than my blurry one.  He was very entertaining.  Notice big sis’ hand on her hip….. cute!

Sally made cute little hot pads for all her neighbors.  To deliver to them along with homemade cookies.  About 5,000 of them.  Maybe not.

I bet the small fry photographer got a good pic of Lani’s fabulous Texas quilt too!

LaNelle shows us her marvelous wine blocks with Peyton’s help.

Cameron scowls at his camera.  Are the batteries dead, big guy?  He is quite an entertainer!

LaNelle made this wonderful quilt too.  It’s stunning, LaNelle!

LaNelle makes quilts in all shapes and sizes.

And garments too!  It’s awesome, LaNelle!

Maggie is a brand new quilter and she’s making Maggie Walker’s birds.  Apparently nobody told her that it was a hard pattern.  Shhhhhh – don’t tell her.  It’ll be our little secret.

Also apparently she learned how not to hold still for pictures from her buddy, Susan.  They are both one big flurry of activity!

This beautiful quilt was the one Susan made with Karen’s brown bag fabric for last year’s exchange.  Karen had it quilted and is now finishing up the binding!

Kay made this marvelous snowman redwork quilt.

And Jules did the same pattern in blue.  Love those snowmen!

Sue G made this cute little baby quilt for Sue H’s new grandbaby.

And proud Grandma, Sue, brought a pic of the baby for her Show ‘n Tell.

Sue also brought this cute calendar basket quilt to show.

And she brought the cute aprons she made for Christmas gifts.

And Linda helped Peyton be our model!

Peggy made this cute little paper dolls quilt.  And Peyton showed us how you could dress the dolls with clothes from the pocket on the front of the quilt.  Clever!

Peggy also made these wonderful pumpkins.  Where did you hide these, Peggy?  She must have whipped this one out when none of us were looking.

Judy R showed us her fantastic blocks that she’s making in the Baltimore Album class at Quilter’s Dream.  They are wonderful!

Judy grabbed my camera and took this great picture of me and my friend, Peyton.  Or was it Cameron who took this pic?  Whoever it was, they did a good job!

And with that the Party of the Century is over.  No more pics from me.  But the fabulous memories will live on in our hearts.  And in this blog.  For those of us whose memories need a little help now and then.

Now we can all look forward to the JSS January meeting.  When we will begin challenges anew for the new year.  And we’ll plan and look forward with much anticipation to next year’s Christmas party. 

Merry Christmas to all,
Barb

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