3 Favorite Foods

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Barb

It is all about the food, isn’t it?  Thanksgiving.  And then the favorites in our family carry over to Christmas too.  And some even to Easter.  So I thought I’d share 3 favorites that we had on Thanksgiving Day.  Maybe you’d like to try them for your family holidays.

Sweet Potato Casserole

Sweet potatoes.  Nothing says Thanksgiving at our house like sweet potatoes.  And this recipe could qualify as dessert.  It’s a family favorite.  I’ve been making it for too many years to count.

The cast of characters:  sweet potatoes or yams (is there a difference?), sugar, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, salt and butter.  And for the topping: brown sugar, flour, pecans and butter.

Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into large chunks.  You can even used canned if you want to skip this whole “peeling, dicing and cooking the sweet potatoes” part.

Send them for a swim in a big pot of water with a little salt, and simmer until they are soft enough to smash.

Then mash them all up with a potato masher.  And if you’re using canned this is where you start.  With the mashing.

Dump in the sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt & cinnamon and then pour in the melted butter.  Mash it all together.  Then pour the luscious sweet potato goodness into a greased casserole dish.  I used butter to grease the dish.  Because it really needed extra butter.

For the topping…. dump flour, brown sugar and pecans in a bowl and add the melted butter.  Stir together with a fork.  Mixture will be crumbly.  And yes, I like those pouring butter pictures.

Then sprinkle the topping all over the top of the sweet potatoes.  Sswweeeet!

And it will look like this!  Easy peasy.  Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.  YUM!

And if there is someone in your family who can’t stand the sight of nuts, you can leave them out <gasp!>  OR you could do them like this:

With some added mini-marshmallows on the nut-free side of the foil for that one person in your family who doesn’t like nuts.  This is how I made them last year.  This year?  The nut-free people got their own dish of sweet potatoes.  Made by said person’s mother.  Thanks, Kaye!  Here’s a pic of her sweet potato dish:

We actually had three sweet potato dishes at Thanksgiving this year.  Apparently we are a sweet potato loving family.

And here’s the link to the page where you can print my recipe without having to use up all the ink in your printer printing all the pics above:

Sweet Potato Casserole

Pea Salad

This is a favorite at our house.  Mom has made it for years and it wouldn’t be a holiday for us without it.  If your family can’t stand the sight of peas, then just scroll on past the simple pea salad to the crescent rolls.  Because believe you me, you don’t want to miss the crescent rolls.

Simple ingredients:  peas, mayo, onion, hard-boiled eggs, relish.  I added a bit of dill and some dijon mustard this time to give it a little extra punch.  Just because I felt like it.  And everyone seemed to like it.  Sometimes I use dill relish instead of sweet too.  But some in the family weren’t impressed with that option. 

Chop the onion.

Dice the eggs.  I saved one and sliced it for garnish.

Dump all ingredients into a bowl and stir it up.  Easy.  I’m all about easy.

Put it all in a pretty serving bowl and garnish with the egg slices.  I also sprinkled some paprika on top to make it pretty.  And because it’s what Mom always did.

Cover and refrigerate overnight.  It’s better if it has a chance for all the flavors to chill out together overnight.  Handy printable is here:

Pea Salad

Yeast Crescent Rolls

I saved the best for last.  These rolls are really, really yummy.  I got this recipe from a friend many, many, many years ago.  I hope she doesn’t mind if I share it with all of you.  I wouldn’t know how to find her to ask!

Ingredients: flour, sugar, yeast, salt, eggs, oil and water.   We had some actual whole wheat grain and Dear Hubby ground it for me.  I wish I had remembered to take his picture doing it.  You’ll have to use your imagination.

Dissolve the yeast in ¼ cup warm water.

Mix dissolved yeast, sugar, eggs and warm water together.  Add oil…….

………..salt……….then add the flour….

….. and mix.  The mixture will be very gooey.  Cover and let stand for 8 hours or overnight.

In the morning the mixture will have risen quite a lot.  I used a really big bowl so the gooey mixture didn’t rise all the way to the top and get all stuck to the kitchen towel with which I had covered the bowl.  At this point you will need to add some extra flour.  About a cup or so.

Divide the dough in half and, on a well floured surface, roll the dough out into a big circle.  Like you would if you were making pie crust.

Like so.

Cut into 12 wedge-shaped sections.  A pizza cutter works great!

Then starting at the big end of each piece, roll it up into little crescent shapes.

Like this.  Easy as pie.  Or maybe easy as crescent rolls.

Place them on a greased cookie sheet and let rise 5-6 hours.  Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes.

At this point I was so busy getting things ready to go that I totally forgot to take a picture of the finished rolls!  They were touching each other by the time they were ready to bake.  I do have this picture of the basket we served them in:

Kaye specifically asked for the rolls to be placed near her plate when she saw them.  So I thought right on the plate would work for her.  And this picture gives you a sneak peak into the cute touches that Janna did for our Thanksgiving meal.  Aren’t the placecards just the cutest?  She made them all!  You’ll see more in the next blog.

Here’s the link to the recipe for the rolls:

Yeast Crescent Rolls

By the way, this dough works very well for cinnamon rolls too.  Instead of cutting into wedges, I just smear softened butter on the rolled out dough.  Then pile on brown sugar and cinnamon.  Pecans are nice too.  Roll the whole thing up and slice into about 1″ thick slices.  Place in a cake pan and let rise 5-6 hours.  Then bake until golden brown.  Drizzle powdered sugar/milk icing on top. 

I hope you enjoy making at least one of these dishes for your family.  But at our house, it’s not Thanksgiving without all three.  Enjoy!  More Thanksgiving fun times coming soon.

But for now, I think it might be time for another helping of Pumpkin Pie Dump Cake.  If I can find a little space for some in my already-full-thought-I-might-never-be-hungry-again stomach.

Hugs,
Barb

Posted in food, recipes | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Fall

Posted on November 25, 2010 by Barb

It’s finally Fall in North Texas.  I know that those of you who live in more northern climates are not exactly happy to hear that we are just beginning Fall here.  But you have the beautiful trees.  So we get the beautiful weather.  I think it was 80° yesterday.  But a cold front is expected to arrive shortly.  And the trees are changing.

Here’s the thing about Fall in our area.  While you northern folk have large groups of beautiful trees, we get one pretty tree per square mile.  So the conversation on a drive to view the colors goes something like this:

“WOW!  Look at that pretty tree!”

*long pause*
*long pause*

“Oh, look!  There’s another one!”

*longer pause*
*longer pause*

“Over there!  Another pretty tree!”

You get the picture.  Not quite the impact of Fall in New England.  Or even Indiana.

Miss Kitty enjoys a walk in the driveway on the pretty Fall day.  It was quite blustery yesterday and she enjoyed chasing the leaves around the driveway.

“What, Mom?  More pics?  I just want to relax in the sun.”  This is her very annoyed with the camera look.

Doesn’t she look regal as she surveys her domain?

And the leaves continued to blow and pile up in our driveway and front yard.  Look at the clean yard across the street.  Why can’t they pile up over there? 

Here’s the problem with cleaning them up……..

See all the leaves in the trees that still need to fall?  Sigh.  It’s a never ending job this time of year.  And why can’t we have one of those trees with the pretty red leaves in it?  Ours are just drab brown.

Miss Kitty doesn’t care what color they are.  She just wants to jump in the pile.  And chase the blowing ones.

Here’s the problem with not cleaning them up…….

This is what it looks like under the car in the garage.  The minute you open the door the garage fills with leaves.  Sigh.  Did I mention it’s a never ending job?

But that’s the nature of Fall.  And I actually love the falling leaves and cooler temps.  And Thanksgiving.  I spent most of the afternoon and evening preparing lots of yummy recipes for our big Thanksgiving Day meal with family.  This year we are going to Janna & Paul’s house and I can’t wait.  I’ll be sharing pics of all the food preparation and some great recipes soon.  Perhaps you’ll want to use some of them for your Christmas celebrations.

And this is the help I got as I slaved away in the kitchen.

I guess she wore herself out chasing leaves in the driveway.  She was too tired to even give me a little meowy conversation while I made the Pumpkin Pie Dump Cake.

And this guy was no help either.  Not sure what he wore himself out doing.  I guess he was just being a cat.  Oh, what a charmed life he leads!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Barb

Posted in Boo, Miss Kitty | Tagged , | 4 Comments

A Guest Photographer at Handi Quilter

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Barb

Recently Dear Hubby went on a trip.  To Salt Lake City.  To the Handi Quilter facilities.  With his Dear Sister.  You know her as Pam.  You’ve seen her before on the blog.  But wait!  I have pictures!

 

Here they are at dinner one evening in Salt Lake City.  Their mother is really going to enjoy the blog today.  Hi Mom!

But I should explain.  Dear Sis, Pam, is opening a new business in Grapevine, Texas.  She is going to sell Handi Quilter Machines.  She’s going to do lots of other things at her little shop too.  She’d love to tell you all about it, I’m sure.  I considered putting her cell phone number here in the blog today, but was afraid she couldn’t handle the overload of the millions, maybe billions, of blog fans who would be calling her to hear all about it.  So you’ll just have to watch here for further details as she begins to get things ready for her big Opening Day.  I think I need to schedule a blog appointment to take pics of the new place, don’t you think?

Anyway, Dear Hubby is going to be her super-duper, handy-dandy mechanic for her machines.  He’s really good with those mechanical things.  He likes to take things apart and put them back together again.  And he mostly gets all the parts back in the proper places.  Without having parts leftover.  Always a good day when there are no parts leftover.  Pam took him along to get some training on these specialized machines at the offices in Salt Lake City.  And I had four nice quiet days at home with nobody to cook for except me, Boo and Miss Kitty.  Thanks, Pam!

Side note:  Miss Kitty has finally decided that she likes me.  Guess that’s what four days with Dear Hubby gone will do for a cat who was totally bonded to him.  She thought he deserted her.  And that she better warm up to me real quick if she wanted to survive live the good life.  The life that she observed Boo living.

Here’s the Handi Quilter building.  I like their sign.  “Any day spent quilting is a good day.”  Sounds good to me!  By the way, in case you haven’t guessed it, Dear Hubby is the guest photographer.  Unless he is in the picture.  Then I think he handed the camera off to any Tom, Dick or Harry willing to push the button on the camera.

Here’s the class in the training room.  Don’t they look engrossed in their training?  While Dear Hubby flits around taking pics for the blog.  He’s learned well, hasn’t he?

Look at all those machines.  Ready and waiting for quilting lessons.  I bet Pam was itching to get her hands on one.

The boys got the machines with their innards exposed.  They like to play with machine innards.

By the way, I’m mostly making up the commentary as we go along.  That’s because I do my best blogging at 1:30 a.m. and Dear Hubby has been asleep for hours and hours.  So I can’t ask him to clarify things for me.  Pam can correct me in the comments.  I’ll try to sufficiently embellish on all stories so that I keep your interest.

This pretty much looks like a warehouse to me.  Machines all getting boxed up and ready to head out the door.  To Grapevine, Texas.  Pam is going to need a boatload, or maybe a truckload, of machines to satisfy all the quilters in North Texas for sure.

They got bags and scissors.  I know because Dear Hubby brought one of these home.  (No embellishment necessary here.)

See?  I told you Pam couldn’t wait to get her hands on a machine.

Nice doodling, Pam!  I think you need a bit more practice.  Or is this Dear Hubby’s doodling?

There were nice quilts on the walls everywhere too. 

And look!  They even got pictures of the food!  Dear Hubby has learned well about what’s necessary to be a guest photographer on this blog.  I have no idea what this food is, but it sure looks yummy!

The boys like to tip the machines up and check out all the parts and pieces.

And the innards.  They are all about those mechanical innards.

They saw this cool chandelier on their way to dinner at a fancy-schmancy restaurant one night.  At least I think that’s where they saw this.  Sounds good so I’m going with that story.  Pretty cool ceiling too, isn’t it?

And they totally forgot to take pics of the food that night.  At the fancy-schmancy restaurant.  But look at the view out the windows!

Here’s another……

I guess with a view like that, you might be too busy looking out the windows to remember to take pictures of the food.

Nice view of the Salt Lake City countryside.

Last one out the window.  Just because the picture was taken and I thought you needed to see it.

And this one as they were leaving the restaurant.  I know that because it’s quite a bit darker outside.  I’m pretty smart, aren’t I?

All around the HQ facility there were fun little signs.  And Dear Hubby took pictures of them all.  Thought I’d share the best of the best.

This one is for all my perfectionist friends.  Now they will all consider themselves searching for excellence instead of perfection.  But I will still consider them perfectionists.  They can’t fool me!

Works for me!

I’m so glad to learn this.  I was very worried I wasn’t getting enough exercise.  Not.

A nice, serious one……

And the nieces…. and the nephews…..

Amen.  And Amen.

Pam’s new motto.

Cute.  Real cute.

Just had to share this one.  Wonder if Dick, Harry or Lucy took it.  Good shot, whoever you are.  Maybe it was just the good subjects.  Good smiles.  Isn’t this a good one, Mom?

Yeah!  Another food shot!  And it looks yummy.  I can identify it too.  Lasagna, salad and bread.  Lunch on their last day.  Maybe it just looks yummy because I’m writing this at 2:00 a.m. and I’m hungry.  But it will look yummy to you if you read this before breakfast.  And check this out…….

Dessert.  I want some.  Now.  Chocolate whipped cream yumminess.  <gulp>  Wouldn’t it be good with morning coffee right about now?

One more shot of the whole gang.  Looks like they had a fun time, doesn’t it?

So now you can all head on out to Grapevine and see Pam’s new place.  The Quilting Depot.  Just as soon as she has her Grand Opening.  When is the Grand Opening, Pam?

And many thanks to our Guest Photographer!

Hugs,
Barb

Posted in food, quilts | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

You Asked…. More Quilts!

Posted on November 21, 2010 by Barb

I considered a different posting and then back to The Quilts of Houston, but so many of you said, “More, more, MORE!”  So more it is!  We are all about quilting after all, aren’t we?

 

Very cool 3D optical illusion quilt.  Cool!  And I can’t imagine graphing that one out.

This one is Dear Jane blocks!  Very nice setting for those little blocks.  You can read all about Dear Jane and see other DJ quilts by typing “dear jane” in the search box at the upper right corner of this blog.  Go ahead.  You can come back here after you look at more DJ quilts….

And now for my Journey into the Trees section of quilts……

Almost like a painting, isn’t it?  Wait until you see more……

Great colors.  Loved the tree trunks too.

Hard to believe these are quilts, isn’t it?  I love the irregular edge on the top and bottom of this one.

Loved the water in this one too.  So much that I thought it deserved a closer look…..

Pretty realistic looking, isn’t it?

Once again, almost a photograph.  Incredible. 

And this concludes my fascination with trees at the quilt show.  Amen.

How about some really bright, large butterflies?

Butterflies of a different color here. 

I liked this one a lot too.  I’m a log cabin block lover and I really love the subtle way they used them in this one.

How about this one?  With lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of bling!

Here’s an up close of just the center.  Awesome detail.  Amazing quilting too.

Up close of the left side.  Did I say amazing quilting?  Love all the sparkly bling.

This is the upper right side.  Nice fireworks.  Amazing quilting.  I’m stuck on amazing quilting.

Elly Sienkiewicz entertained us with Baltimore Album blocks and signing her newest book.  Such a sweet, gentile lady.

And how about this celebrity?  Recognize him from Extreme Home Makeovers?  It’s Ty Pennington!  Notice the picture over his shoulder.  Wonder how he feels about lifesize pics of himself greeting him wherever he goes?

Beverly explains important things seen at Market as we load up the back of her car and Janet watches from the back seat.

And since you hadn’t seen any food in awhile, I thought it important to share this picture of my plate of food at the Moda party.  Yummy barbecue and all the fixin’s!

I also took a class with Helene, the designer of these fabulous cat blocks!  Meet Pepper Puss.  All the students got fabric to put together one of these cute cats.

And we learned her technique of fusible glue to appliqué the pieces.  I’m going to be teaching a class on this in the New Year.  It’s a very neat way to do fusible appliqué.

Back to a few more quilts…..

Pioneer Woman needs this one to hang on her wall.

Cute little sleeping raccoon.  I’m in my animal phase now.

Loved this cute zebra.  Wouldn’t he look great hanging on the wall at your Lake House, Kaye?

This 3D quilt was quite different. Here’s a view from an angle…..

Interesting, isn’t it?  How about an up close to really see how it’s constructed….

I don’t even want to think about how the quilter put this one together.  Just enjoy the innovativeness.

This one was in the embroidery category.  But you absolutely have to see it up close.

Amazing, isn’t it?  But I have more…..

One more…..

You can close your mouth now.  Because I think I just saw your jaw drop.

And there were more in that same category…..

But you have to see these up close to really appreciate them.

Pretty cool, isn’t it.  One more of this one…..

All the stitching was really somethin’.

Love the bright colors on this one.  But of course, you have to see it up close too….

Isn’t it cool?

This quilt was entered in the Group Quilt category.  Each of the ladies in this Bee did a self-portrait.  Using Kaffe Fassett fabrics!  Just a couple up close…..

What an incredible use of those bright fabrics!

Aren’t they something up close?  Amazing the way those bright fabrics provide the shadows in the faces.  Now you have to scroll back up and look at the whole quilt again.  Pretty cool, isn’t it?

Once again, if you want to see which quilts won ribbons at the show, visit this link:

Houston International Quilt Festival Winners

None of the ribbons were hanging on the quilts when I viewed them at Market.  Interesting to see which ones actually won after I got home.

Hope you enjoyed the Quilt Show!  Now it’s time to make some Pumpkin Pie Dump Cake for Thanksgiving, don’t you think?
Happy Quilting,
Barb

Posted in quilts | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

Houston Lives On!

Posted on November 20, 2010 by Barb

I still have way too many pictures of quilts from the Houston Quilt Festival to let them go to waste.  So we’ll see how many we can cram into one blog.  And if there are leftovers, I’ll show more with the Thanksgiving leftovers.  We’ll have an “all about leftovers” blog.  With food and quilts – our two favorite things!

Moving right along……

How about this special quilt?  Swwweeet!

I loved this “tea quilt” too.  So much that it deserves a closer look.

Great teacup.  Fabulous quilting.

It’s just too cute…. lots of great things to see up close.

Cupcakes growing on vines and cute little spoons all the way around.  Very cute quilt!

Amazing piecing in this one.  Want a closer look?

Oh, my!  I don’t even want to speculate on how many little pieces are in this quilt.

I love log cabin quilts and thought this one especially striking.

Fabulous.  Bling and all.

I especially love the way the quilting stands out on this one.  Beautiful.

Sweet penguins.  A fabulous quilt.

How about all these barnyard animals?  What a happy farm!

You have to back away from your computer to fully appreciate this one.  It’s Boo!  And he comes into focus better from a distance.   Cool cat!

Here’s a really beautiful Baltimore Album.  Unbelievable.

It deserves a closer look too.  Look at all those teeny, tiny circles.  Berries and more.  Oh, my.  It takes my breath away.

Fabulous applique.  Unbelievable.  Awesome.

Don’t even get me started on describing this one.  Words fail me.

And I loved this whimsical little quilt.  Especially the treatment on the edge.  But you have to see it up close.

There’s more……..

I just loved this one for some reason.  So whimsical and clever.

It just makes me happy looking at it.  And such detail.  One more….

OK – I can move on now.  I just loved that little happy quilt!

This one gets a closer look too.  I love closer looks.  In case you couldn’t tell.

I have no words.

This quilt was really amazing.  But you have to see up close of the quilting to really appreciate it.  Have to.

Faces within the face.  Lots of faces.  There’s more.

Aren’t they amazing?  This quilt won Viewer’s Choice and you can sure see why.

You have to scroll back up to the picture of this whole quilt now to see how hidden these images are when you view this quilt from a distance.  Incredible.  One more.

This is the forehead.  Just in case you couldn’t tell.  The quilting in this just blew me away!

I still have pictures.  Lots more pics.  If you’re with me this far and you’d like to see more, give a shout out in the comments on this one today.  Just a little “Yes!  I need to see more!” would suffice.  Otherwise we will leave Houston quilts and move on to other things.  Your choice!  Don’t be shy.  Just let me know.

Happy quilting!
Barb

Posted in quilts | Tagged , , | 23 Comments