A Trip to Finland

Last week we enjoyed a sweet afternoon together at Carol's beautiful home. She "presented" a beautiful home cooked meal straight from the Lap Land. Linda's cute Trevor is currently serving a mission there and it was a real treat. Hopefully she will have recipes for us all to enjoy. The meal was wonderful! Thank you for being such a sweet hostess, Carol.

On to some business .... :)

Next year we are celebrating *T E N* years of wonderful togetherness! Isn't that great? We have been asked to present a trunk show in May at the Home Quilters Convention in SLC. (Correct me if I have that wrong, Carol!) So we will be busily completing as many of our projects as we can. It is fantastic motivation for all of us!

Ladies ~ You are all checked as admin. on here now and I am awaiting two email verifications. (That would be JM & RP) Let me know if there are any problems. I'm not voting to be in charge here. :) If I have left off any of our creations, please add on. I will now attempt to add the blog links! See ya soon!

Halloween at Ronda's

I believe that Ronda just might be the queen of Halloween. It was such a treat to have lunch and spend a beautiful Fall afternoon in her home. Thank you for having us.

When I grow up...can I be Ronda?

There are many hidden friends in Ronda's house.

A signature Ronda creation.

My favorite! Just loved his sassy attitude.A beautiful table set for guests.

And of course she springs a lovely surprise on us. Thinking it was going to be the beginning of a project... we wanted to know how long we had to finish it.

Jill...who did not have to turn anyone into a toad.

Purple Cats rock!

The surprise...penny rugs for all. Ronda you are absolutely amazing!

And those beautiful creative hands say it all.

New Quilt Block -- Are We Playing?

Hey Everyone,

I've designed a quilt block inspired by the Split Pea Soup recipe by Julia Child. It should be an interesting quilt year. Can you guess what it is? Let's play the game!

Split pea soup is one of those wonderful hearty soups of winter. Made with dried "split" peas, and cooked up with a flavorful, smokey ham hock, it's warm, filling, and satisfying. This split pea soup recipe is based on one written by Julia Child years ago for a Parade Magazine article. It's a shortened version of the split pea soup recipe in her book, The Way to Cook.

Split Pea Soup Recipe

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups green split peas
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 large leek, chopped
1 large clove of garlic, halved
1 herb bouquet*
1 or 2 well-rinsed ham hocks
Salt and Pepper
Optional garnish - small toasted croutons

*Herb Bouquet: Tie 3 cloves garlic, 4 allspice berries, 2 bay leaves, 1 teaspoon thyme, 8 sprigs parsley in washed cheesecloth.

Method
1 Pick over the peas and remove any stones. Wash and drain peas. Place in a 4 quart pan with the vegetables, herb bouquet, ham hocks and 2 1/2 quarts of water. Bring to a simmer. Skim the scum off the top of the soup for several minutes, until the scum ceases to rise. Cover loosely and simmer about 1 1/2 hours, or until peas are tender, stirring occasionally in case they stick to the bottom of the pan.
2 Remove bones, and herb bouquet from soup, discard. Either purée through a vegetable mill, or purée in a food processor and then pass through a sieve. Correct seasoning.
3 Reheat, taste again for seasoning. Ladle into warm bowls and garnish with croutons and or sautéed ham.
Makes 2 quarts. Serves 6.

Super Multi-Grain Bread

2 c. hot water

1/3 cup sunflowers seeds

2/3 c. 9 grain cereal

2 T. vital wheat gluten (Red Mill)

1 T. millet

1 T. yeast

1 T. flax seeds

1/4 cup honey

Measure these ingredients into large mixing bowl. Gently fold together with a spatula and then let the mixture rest for five minutes until yeast begins to foam.

Add:

1/4 c. oil

3 c. wheat flour

1-2 cups additional wheat flour OR

enriched white flour/organic white flour

2 t. lecithin

2 t. salt

Begin mixing with a dough hook on the mixer setting or dough until all ingredients are combined. Add up to 2 additional cups of wheat flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until dough begins to clean the sides of the mixer bowl. Knead for 8 minutes.

Add:

2 t. dough enhancer

Knead for 2 minutes longer until dough enhancer is mixed through. This dough doesn't need to rise twice. Just form the bread loaves or rolls straight from the mixer!

For multi-grain bread: Form dough into two large loaves. Place in greased bread pans. Cover and let rise until dough is doubled in size. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on wire rack.

For multi-grain rolls: Form dough into 24 round rolls, placing 12 rolls per large greased cookie sheet. Using a sharp knife, cut an X in the top of the rolls and pour a little melted butter on the top to fill the X. Cover and let rise until the dough is doubled in size. bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet to cool.

This recipe does seem to have the worlds most ingredients! You can get most of them from kitchen kneads. They served this at a church function and they were a big hit. Mark loves to make this bread - very hearty. Recipe is from a friend's friend and would be very yummy with the soup recipe below!!

End of Summer Soup Recipe

I make this soup at the end of the garden season in large batches and freeze it. I really overdid it last week and gave some of it away. We have had it twice since. Mike is a patient man. So here's the recipe as requested by Lisa. Don't worry Linda, the pie recipe will come soon.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2" chunks (I like them a little smaller)
1 medium yellow squash-same chunks
1 carrot, peeled and diced
5 tomatoes, diced
4 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 15 oz. can white or cannellini beans, NOT drained
grated Romano cheese
thinly sliced crusty bread
additional chopped rosemary and/or basil

In a medium saucepan, heat oil and saute onion until soft. Add garlic, squashes, carrot and tomatoes; cook 5 minutes on medium heat, stirring often. Add broth, basil, salt, pepper and beans, cook another 15 minutes on low heat, covered. Taste for seasoning.

Serve with grated Romano cheese and bread.

Leaf Embelishments

It was so nice to see everyone today. Thanks for a lovely lunch Leisa we loved being at Deer Hollow for the afternoon. Can't wait for Ronda's surprise Halloween quilt next month...do you think she just got tired of me bugging her and finally said yes. As promised, here are the close ups of the leaf embellishments from Sue Spargo's class. The picture directly below is a portion of the 50th birthday sampler piece Sue was making for herself. If you study it closely you can see all kinds of details and images. Have fun!

Material Girls with Sue Spargo

On a whim, I signed up for a class with national folk art quilter Sue Spargo at Material Girls in SLC. Sue was raised in South Africa and has a flair for color and design because of it. The emphasis of the class was on embellishment. Sue has a technique of combining wools, silks, velvets and embellishing with beautiful threads, beads, buttons, etc. She taught us to step way out of the box. I asked Sue to design a red snowflake for my quilt. At first I could tell she was thinking..."Now that's not out of the box, that's off the map!" I briefly explained the significance of the design and that it is my quilt signature. Suddenly it clicked, and she designed a beautiful snowflake with silk thread and beads to adorn the wing of my bird. A big thank you to Sue! I loved the class, and am really happy I took a rare moment for myself to attend.

Lisa, Sue Spargo, Debi Booth and Shanna Larsen

Sue was turning the big 50 in a week, and had designed
a piece to commemorate the event. Each item
she added to the piece had significance.

Fun girls to take a class with.

A detailed close-up of some of her work. I would

be happy to share some of what I learned at an

upcoming gathering of the Purple Cats.

Herbs that Wow!

There can't be a better way way to spend a beautiful spring day than sharing lunch with friends when Lisa is cooking! Bonus to be outside to enjoy the amazing weather!  Lisa treated us to a delicious salad with spring greens, grilled chicken, pinenuts and an amazing tarragon dressing - Dean's favorite herb scones and a melt-in-your mouth white chocolate berry parfait! Simply divine.  (Recipes will magically appear here in the very near future!) We missed Linda who is adjusting to her new job and working full-time now.

Below you can see her beautiful centerpiece that included 

a gift for each of us ~ a potted herb.

Thank you, Lisa, for being such a sweet hostess!  

Miss Izzy, the celeb graced us with her presence while 

poor Kenya and her bottled up energy had to wait in the garage.   :(  

 Izzy has the longest eyelashes that just blew in the gentle breezes.

Jill's Yummy Recipes

A couple of weeks ago we had our lunch gathering at Jills. I always love going to her beautiful home and seeing what she is going to serve. I have no idea how she keeps her teenage figure when she can cook such great food! She promised to give us recipes and I am helping her keep that promise...

Celery Slaw with Shrimp (yum!)

1/2 cup mayo
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup unfiltered cider vinegar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 clove garlic, chopped

2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon mild Spanish smoked paprika
coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 lb. apple wood-smoked bacon slices
1/2 head green cabbage, cored and shredded
5 celery stalks, thinly sliced
6 green onions, including tender green tops, chopped
1 bunch red radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese

To make vinaigrette, combine the mayo, buttermilk, olive oil, vinegar, mustard and garlic in a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Set aside. (Can be made up to 1 day in advance covered tightly, and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before using.)

In a large bowl, toss together the shrimp, olive oil, paprika, and a little salt and pepper. Preheat a large, nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Add half of the shrimp and saute until they turn pink and are opaque throughout, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and repeat with the remaining shrimp. Set aside to cool.

Rinse the frying pan, wipe dry, and return to medium heat. Add the bacon slices and fry, turning as needed, until crisp, about 6 minutes. Using a slotted spatula, transfer to paper towels to drain. Let cool, then crumble and set aside.

To assemble the slaw, add the cabbage, celery, green onions, radished, parsley, and vinaigrette to the shrimp and toss to coat all the ingredients evenly. Season to taste with salt and pepper and toss again.

Transfer the slaw to a serving bowl or deep platter. Sprinkle the crumbled bacon and the blue cheese, if using, over the top. Serve at once.

Serves 8

OK, I'll publish this and add the lemon souffles a little later. That was a long recipe!!

We have a winner...

A great big congratulations goes out to Kris for the completion of her Baltimore Album Quilt. It is absolutely amazing and incredibly beautiful. Remember when we started these? I think it must have been around 3 years ago. What an accomplishment. Kris's quilt was voted as the guild's favorite quilt yesterday at Spring Social! Yea!! And now Kris you are an award winning quilt maker. You go girl!

Marie at Red Rooster provided beautiful machine quilting.

Here is a close-up of Aileene Carmignani's yo-yo quilt.

I thought this would be a fun quilt to

hang in a sewing room.

An overview of the event. What a fun day!

Debi and Jill seem to be involved in a great story

about something.

Guess what I did?

This is the bulletin board down in my sewing room. On the right is a row of green to-do quilts/projects...

Notice anything different???

Woo hoo! It's at the quilters even as I write!!! I was so excited to see the finished top and Kaye was darling when she oohed and aahed over all of OUR work. Now I kind of wish I would have added a scalloped border...or gotten that little pencil line out...or....

Actually, it was a little sad to see it come to an end. It has been part of my life for almost 3 years and I have loved learning little things as I stitched away, or finding myself relaxing as the shapes took form, or loving the various fabrics you chose for the squares I worked on for your quilts....especially the batiks!

I hope to have it done for Guild. Woo hoo! Hopefully I can get a couple of those other green squares off of my bulletin board before we start any more projects!

March Madness

So this isn't about basketball...but about getting together in March. Had a great time at our own little "retreat" at Linda's darling home. Great food, sweet decorations and giftees, but best of all some of my favorite people.

Here are the dressing recipes I promised:

Cafe Rio Creamy Dressing

1 pkg. Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing

1 cup mayo (I used light)

1 cup chopped cilantro

2 cloves garlic

3 tomatillos-peel off the husk

1/3 cup buttermilk

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Put in blender-blend and store in refrigerator. Use within 1 week.

Cumin Dressing

1/2 cup peanut or canola oil

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup honey (preferably from Deer Hollow)

3 Tbls. lemon juice

1 Tbls. Dijon mustard

1 tsp. ground cumin

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 cup ground black pepper

This dressing came from a quick salad recipe:

5 0z. arugula or baby spinach

12 oz. smoked turkey, sliced

1 medium red pepper, cut in 1/2" strips

1/4 cup fresh cilantro

4 oranges, peeled and sectioned

Under Construction...

There will be some catching up to do, but you have to start somewhere.  The following photos are from a lunch we had Kris's house, late summer, 2008.  She is a chef extrodinare!  Look forward to any of her recipes shared on this blog.  They will ALL be great.  Kris also has a HUGE fettish for dishes.  The girl has a collection!  We love looking at them and most of all, eating off of them.