Let the planting begin...

 Started the day with a ride... we haven't done that in a while.  It was a good riding temperature,  we were out almost as soon as it was light enough.  

Next on the agenda was getting some outside work done.  I have been intending to put chicken wire over my raised beds for a while and finally go that task done this morning.  Chicken wire is to keep the kitties from using the beds for the kitty box... at least that is the hoped for result.  I got all 4 beds done, and was ready to call it a day... had to take a bit of a break.

After lunch I went to Walmart to see if they had any herb plants.  I found a variety of parsley plants to choose from, they had a couple thyme and some bigger basil plants, and that was all I found that I wanted to consider.  It was too hot to put them out when I got home, but did get them in the ground after supper... even got them watered.

I'm hoping I will have better luck with my raised beds this year. It is actually pretty late to get busy prepping these beds, but it has been crazy the last 2 or 3 weeks.  Between rain and getting sick it just didn't get done.

My pomegranate tree is loaded with blossoms right now, there are even signs of fruit starting.  I have no idea what I have to do to make the right changes so the fruit actually develops into an edible size.  I had two fruit total off the tree last year and they never got big enough to pick.  

I also have a volunteer Moonflower.  It came up in between the patio blocks last summer and has returned this spring.  The plant already has spikes ready to start producing blooms. 

Plan is to go to Fanicks on Friday.  Will be looking for a couple native trees.  I don't seem to have good luck with my fruit trees.  I also needs to some hanging plants for my porches.

Spring has sprung

 It has been long enough that this will be a challenge... the creation environment for this blog appears to have changed... it has been close to a year.  

It would be no surprise to find my sewing accoutrements in almost every room of the house, but they dominate in the upstairs rooms.  In an effort to make my sewing environment more user friendly, I decided to move my main sewing machine into the same room as my cutting table and ironing board.  Initially this room was my longarm room.   

About 18 months ago I decided it was time to let go of that side of quilting.  I had done enough quilting, and I was ready to move on to something new.  That is when weaving came to the forefront, and buying a loom meant I didn't have room for both crafts in my space available.  So the longarm was sold and the loom moved into its space.  I will likely make a few more quilts, but the type that does not require me to have a longarm... but I do think I am done weaving.

My sewing room has always been one of my favorite rooms, but my recent changes have taken it up a few notches.  I now have ready access to a few of my sewing machines with no need to "put them away" when I am done with a project.  The opportunity to rediscover my serger and learn just how much I can enhance my creation experience brings a smile to my face.

 Butter Pecan Shortbread Cookies

I have made cookies of all kinds over the years.  A while back I came across a recipe that knocked my socks off when I tried them.  They were super easy and one of the best cookies... I don't know that one cookie holds the best title, but this one is right up there near the top of my list. There are only 7 ingredients and the longest part is letting them chill so you can slice them into the perfect little cookies that they become.

When I decide I am going to make these, I take 2 sticks of butter out to set on my counter to come to room temperature, then go about whatever I was doing.  When it is time to start the cookies I put the butter in a mixing bowl and add 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/4 cup of white sugar.  I blend the butter and sugars till they are nice and creamy, then I add 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1 egg... again blend till smooth.  Next I fold in 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup of chopped pecans.  

Once the flour and pecans are blended the batter is ready to be divided in half and wrapped into 8" logs.

The two logs are then placed on a plate and into the fridge for about 2 hours to chill.

When the two hours is up preheat the oven to 350º then take them out of fridge and unwrap... slice into 1/4" to 1/2" slices.

These should fit nicely on two parchment lined cookie sheets. The original recipe said to bake them for 13 to 14 minutes.  First batch I made I decided to cut that back to 11 minutes and that works perfectly for me every time.  

I remove them from the cookie sheets immediately and let them cool on a wire rack.

These are so easy and so good, I guess the reason I don't make them too often is because I could sit down and eat a whole plate of them, and that would not be a good habit to get into

Strawberries anyone?

 It's been a while since I posted anything new here, but decided today might be a good day to start posting some of my cooking experiences. I recently went to visit my daughter, which does not happen very often as she lives 1,200 miles away.  When I have the time at her house, it makes her very happy when I bake or cook something.  This time when we were at the store buying the fixings for the brisket I was going to do, I saw some strawberries and suggested I should maybe make a Strawberry Crostata.  Of course she had no idea what a crostata was, but I convinced her it would be worth giving it a taste test. 

You will need 1 piecrust, 1 pound of strawberries, 1/3 cup of strawberry jam, 2 teaspoons cornstarch, 1 tablespoon lemon juice (plus the zest if you like).  Egg wash and sugar for the top.

A crostata is basically a pie without a lot of fuss. You can use a store bought piecrust, or use your favorite recipe.  I haven't done it yet, but if I use my own recipe for the piecrust, I could make a really big crostata.  Typically when I buy strawberries from the produce section of my local store, I buy a 1 pound pack. If I wanted to make my crostata bigger, maybe 1 1/2 pounds of strawberries would be good.  Significance of a crostata is there is no real structure to the crust, so it leaks a lot... meaning that a baking sheet with sides is essential and parchment paper to line the pan.  I roll the crust in my basic circle,  maybe 12" across.  The edges don't have to be symmetrical, in fact they can be quite ragged.  It is best to have the base without cracks though. The next thing is to cut the strawberries up into a small mixing bowl and for 1# of strawberries you blend in 1/3 cup of strawberry jam and 2 teaspoons of cornstarch along with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Toss the strawberries until they are coated, and the jam is dispersed.  I have used raspberry jam in the absence of any strawberry jam on hand.  Now pour the strawberries into the center of the crust and try to stay about 2" from the edge as you spread them around. Fold the crust up over the strawberries and pleat as needed, keeping the center open. My recipe then says to brush the piecrust with an egg wash and sprinkle with sugar... I bought a box of turbinado sugar just for these little treats... not necessary, but I like the result.  Also, at my daughter's I couldn't find eggs in her fridge and she was not handy, so I used milk to brush on the piecrust... basically you want the sugar to stick to the piecrust around the edges.  You can sprinkle some sugar directly on the strawberries, but not necessary.  Bake this in a 400º oven for 25 to 30 minutes.

I serve mine with whipped cream, but it is also quite good with ice cream on top... probably most would choose the ice cream first.

I use a piecrust recipe from my grandmother, but I came across one that looks like it would be super easy Pop can Pie Crust.  I have not tried this pop can one, but maybe next time I will consider it.

Cookie Cutters Found

Yesterday I saw a fancy pie on FB that inspired me to look for yet another hidden treasure.  I knew I had many cookie cutters, so not a problem... just didn't know it was going to be another treasure hunt.

These surely are not your typical cookie cutters.  Of course cookie cutters can come in a vast variety of shapes and sizes.  I bought these particular ones several years ago at IKEA. Until today, the tape had never been taken off the cover so I could take one out.  Things like these don't have very much purpose most of the time, until you remember you had these... somewhere, and you don't know where that somewhere is cause you have moved a couple times and nothing is in the place you remember you put them.  Now I don't make very many cookies that require using a cookie cutter, and especially not a moose... but this pack of cutters was with all the other cutters... but I could not remember where.

Persistence does pay off. I knew there was a possibility I might not have these anymore, but I did know I would still have cookie cutters... somewhere. I not only found these after many trips in and out of the garage and up and down the stairs, but I found a whole drawer full of cookie cutters. Of course, when you are on a treasure hunt you can find lots of things you didn't even know were lost.

I decided today would be a good day to make quiche and my cast iron biscuit pan was the perfect pan for little mini-quiche delights. I sauteed some mushrooms and onions, then added some mixed veggies.
Topped it off with some shredded cheese before adding my egg/milk finish.

I did use two of my cookie cutters to try out the pie crust critter thing, but I am not sure this technique works too well on top of a mini-quiche.  Besides the squirrel and snail were a little big for this biscuit pan. In order to have them show up, I think I needed to brush them with an egg wash so they would brown up a little.

Oh well, these tasted wonderful and a mini-quiche with a little salad on the side made a perfect lunch.

Heffalump

 She is known as Shorty, but she is often referenced by a few other names. This morning Heffalump came to mind as she positioned herself on my lap.  She knows how to get quite comfortable. 

Shorty is an old kitty, well semi-old anyhow... 13.  Since we left Wildflower, she has become an indoor kitty and has lost her youthful physique as a result of a "less active" lifestyle. She does not like to be picked up, but has no problem invading your space... if she is in the mood. Very lovey at times.

One of the hazards of kitties in the house is the occasional mishap that can occur.  I think it was likely Boston, who loves our bed, who put a hole in one of my prized quilts.  The hole was towards the edge, so I just think she grabbed ahold when she was jumping up on the bed.  The resulting hole was only about the size of a quarter, but if left unattended would certainly have grown larger.

Once the hole was discovered, I removed the quilt from the bed to keep it safe while I hunted for a scrap of fabric.  I was sure it could takes months to locate the scraps I knew were hiding someplace. 

I had made a few expeditions into my stash to explore all the nooks and crannies that fabric can hide in, without success. When I finally found this little stack of triangles, it was kind of like when you stop looking for something and it just shows up.  Totally not on my agenda to search for this scrap yesterday.  I was in my quilt room and decided I should do some reorganizing when I discovered this little plastic container with random stacks of little cut scraps.  This little stack of triangles are the only scraps I found from this quilt.

I thought it was amazing that I made this discovery, but even more pleased at how well fabric glue can work on little holes. I know where the hole was, but even I have to search for where the hole was.

First Saturday in September

Morning glories are one of my favorite flowers, and that would be mostly related to its germination reliability. I planted these last year along the two front sections of our side fence and it totally covered those sections of the fence, including the roof of the shed on the inside of the fence.  They are annual flowers, so saving the seeds is essential to keeping them going year after year.  This is only the second year for these, but they did an amazing job of covering the fence again.  Next spring I will have to prep the ground the full length of the fence and add in some more colors... I am thinking red, white and blue would look awesome. Did I forget to mention that prepping the ground for any planting around the house is a major task as the soil is like digging through hard packed clay. You almost need a jack hammer. Nothing like our previous house that was in the middle of the sand dunes... or so it seemed. So I still have to haul in my planting soil even though sand is not an issue.

I don't have lots of space for a garden here at our current location, which probably is not a bad thing as I can get a little overwhelmed with all the tasks involved with staying ahead of a garden here in South Texas where rain is a precious commodity. The good thing about gardening here is you can have a garden going almost year round.  I have scaled back and focus mainly on trying to keep some herbs growing along with my flower beds.  Most of the herbs I planted in the spring have succumbed to the torture of the sun and lack of rain.  I am not nearly as vigilant with my watering as I should be. Now that we are on the other end of the hot summer, it will still be "hot" for a while, but I can start thinking about some new herbs.  I am actually a little late at the start, but not finding any plants at the nurseries yet,  this is my attempt at sprouting some seeds before putting them in some soil . Hopefully I can get some plants started to put outside soon.

I finished a quilt yesterday. The duck blocks have been sitting in my stash for at least 20 years.  I thought it was about time to do something with them.  These were passed down to me and had previously been trimmed to size, which made it very difficult to keep the corner reed bunches intact.  Not sure what the original intention was for these blocks, but they are beautiful, and required fusing the edges to a border.  I contained the raw edges with a machine applique stitch, which hopefully will not fray in the washing process.  Not sure where this quilt will end up, but I am hoping to find a home for it where its history can be appreciated.

Just a little note here... comments help with inspiration. Occasionally someone tells me they really like my little tidbits of info I share, but not many comments are posted here.  I guess I am used to Facebook and all the comments that appear. I tried to make it easier to acknowledge a post was enjoyed by the check boxes at the end of the posts, but even those don't get a check. Granted, not all posts are interesting to you, but even a constructive comment...  A word here and there would be appreciated, and it could inspire more fun and interesting posts.