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!