Cooking with the Queen Bee (and neighbor)

Last night for dinner we had this - followed by this for dessert (the pineapple version.)

Mmmmmm - yum!

Both were first time attempts at these recipes - and both are keepers! Nothing like experimenting on company!

It's so great having neighbors who like blue cheese as much as we do!

Tutorial Tuesday - nope...

Tutorial Tuesday has been usurped by an annoying headache. Sorry.

In it's place - a chance to win a GORGEOUS quilt! Visit Old Red Barn Co. for more details - and watch for my video entry coming soon. The script is written, the cast is chosen, the set is partially constructed (unless the Munchkin reconstructed it this morning when I was not looking).

Turtle of the Day - the Dratyl

I picked this guy up in one of my two visits to Hong Kong. I think it was my spring trip in 1991 - where I called my Sister Terri one morning, found out she and a friend were heading to Hong Kong (from London) the next day, and while she was sleeping London time, I was scrambling Kanazawa time and finding a ticket to fly to Hong Kong and meet them. Surprising, especially since it was the start of Golden Week in Japan. (I was back in Hong Kong for Christmas 1991 with Brother Bill - but that's another story)

I have always called this one Dratyl -part dragon, part turtle, but I really knew nothing of it's mythical meaning when I bought it - I just thought it was a fun and different kind of turtle, and a cool way to remember my trip. It is made of soapstone, I think, so you can scratch it with your fingernail, and it is VERY heavy (it was in my carry on - believe me - it is HEAVY!)

That was an interesting trip - it was early in my stay in Japan, and really the first time I just took off traveling without a travel buddy to "hold my hand" so to speak. I also got to Hong Kong airport FOUR HOURS before they did, with no idea of the hotel we were to stay at, no travel guides to Hong Kong at all, no local currency, and only a vague idea of their flight numbers and route. All sorts of "what do I do if..." scenarios went through my head. Seriously this was way out of my normal style of planned and researched travel - as was very very evident when I realized upon landing in Osaka very late in the evening after a fun filled few days in Hong Kong that A) the last train for Kanazawa had already departed and B) I had no clue of any place I could stay the night (it was about 3 hours by train to get home from Osaka).

I had met a family in line at the Hong Kong airport that was from Kobe - and they must have been more astute, or less jet lagged, than I because they realized from our conversations that I was going to be stranded, so they waited for me on the other side of customs and offered a place to stay for the night. We took an airport taxi/van back to their apartment and I ended up spending the entire rest of the weekend with them, sightseeing in a very beautiful area. They took me around some newly developed areas where tourists don't go very frequently, and then on the last day they traveled all the way back to the Osaka train station with me, made sure I had my ticket, loaded me up with travel food and snacks, and stood on the platform as the train pulled out of the station.

I often marvel at that experience -not something I would ever dream of doing now -but at the time it felt safe, comfortable and perfectly natural.

I wonder if I dug through my box of stuff if I could find their address - and if they remember that crazy weekend the way I do?

Got Your Sunglasses On???

I finally got the borders put on my Summer Sunshine quilt -it's only been 3 months (and 2 quilts and a garden in between) since I last worked on it. The colors actually look subdued in this photo - but believe me - they are BRIGHT!!!

The piano key border was an adventure. Even with a rotary cut edge and a 1/4" foot, the strips wanted to get wonky. Fortunately the busyness of ALL those different fabrics (the 50 fabrics in the blocks plus some of the yellows from the star points plus some of the fabrics that are in Lazy Sister Sue's quilt blocks but not in mine) helps detract from the wonky-ness, and it all turned out really nice. I have a blue dragonfly fabric for the background and will bind the quilt either in the same yellow as the inner border, or in the dragonfly blue if I have enough.

Hoping for low wind tomorrow so I can hang "It Takes Two" and "Summer Sunshine" on the clothesline to get them spray basted.

Dirty Tales from the Garden V

Those Stinkin' Weeds

I really should not complain. As much as my garden was overgrown when we bought the house, it was nothing compared to what my mother had to contend with when carving out a garden for the house my family built.

She started with this:
















And after a few years (and a lot of rocks hauled up out of the creek bed by Dad) she had this (and ME - as I was born after the house was built):

Mom's gardens continued to grow and thrive, and were often photographed by passersby on our rural road. Since our road really did not lead much of anywhere, I suspect many of them made the drive up the hill just for the garden view. Gee - we should have charged admission!

Unfortunately, as the gardens thrived, so did the weeds. And even more unfortunately, Mom thought that weeding the garden was a good chore for her kids.

Oh how I HATED weeding. We did not have mulch - not that I recall anyway - and despite Mom's best efforts at enhancing and amending the soil of all the gardens, it remained not far off of what Alfred, NY was best known for - CLAY.

I really did not think I would ever become a gardener, or have house plants for that matter. Every spider plant we ever attempted to grow in my bedroom in Alfred died - and spider plants are not easy to kill! And though I loved the flowers in the flower beds, and the fresh peas and other goodies from the vegetable garden, the work and the weeds and the creepy crawlies (earwigs especially) made being in the garden less than my favorite activity. I would have much rather been in the creek (different creepy crawlies - those were OK), or with my nose in a book.

But I guess the lessons learned digging in the dirt paid off over time - my collection of houseplants is ever growing (a few have not survived, but I have come a long way since my spider plant killing days), I have had vegetable gardens at most places I have lived (except when I was in Japan), and my flower beds rival Mom's in dimension - although not yet in variety. I am even happy to say I have a few plants that I think were originally in Alfred, transplanted to SC, and now are back in my garden. (I told you I was sentimental about plants... go figure).

I miss the rocks, though. I used to love skippering down the front sidewalk in the summer rain, finding all the flat stones that had captured enough rain to be a little puddle, but a warm one as the stone gave its heat over to the rain.

Last summer my brother and his family came up for a visit, and spent a day back in Alfred digging in the creek. They brought me back a few rocks for my garden (no creepy crawlies, though) - I need to move them to where I can see them in the rain. And then, when the ground is a bit softened from the rain, I want to go out and weed.

Garden Grown Wild

Gardens are unpredictable. You never know what you are going to get out of your garden (like tough peas), or what is going to get into your garden (like the squirrels who sampled EVERY ONE of my peppers last year)

This year it's the vines - the crazy vines -they are taking over. Between my cucumbers rapidly overgrowing the bounds of their box (in the foreground) to my neighbors pumpkins (the bright green in the background- tough to see in this photo unless you know they are there) which are rapidly making a dash west from their home near the driveway across my lawn towards the stolen peonies.

Even the driveway melons are threatening to make a break for it. Before too much longer Hubby won't have any lawn left to mow.

Now if all these vines would just start to bear some female blossoms we would be in business!

And those pesky squirrels? This year I planted something special just for them... They can try one, as long as they leave me enough to make some of these. And if not -there is always the farmers market.

"It Takes Two" - Take II

Fully recovered from the quilting meltdown of last month - the wedding quilt top is now fully pieced and bordered and waiting for assembly. Zoe and I have decided to machine quilt this one instead of tying it, since I have a bit of time before it has to be delivered.

The wedding is tomorrow - so we decided to gift it after the couple return from their honeymoon - but then Hubby will be on vacation and not at the office so in reality I probably have until the first week in August to get this all finished up.

This and the two matching pillowcases to go with it.

Once again though I was frustrated by the color differentials caused by the overhead lights in my local JoAnn's. Two blue fabrics that looked great together at the store ended up not so great in reality - one being a more purple tone and the other a more grey tone. The "purply" one is the inner border -and while I am not totally crazy about it Hubby and I decided to leave it in. It's not "bad"... it just does not flow into the other colors as well as I thought it would when I picked it out.

I do like this pattern though - there are two blocks to make and the layout is fairly simple, points matching works pretty easily, and it is a great stash buster, especially for odds and ends of 2 1/2 inch blocks. There are a few in here that did not have enough squares to even make a 9 patch, so I scattered them into the four patches. I have plans (and fabric) to make a second one of these - using the same scrappy tans and browns but burgundy for the big blocks, and adding in some greens and florals to make it a bit more feminine. That one is for a Christmas quilt, and won't be started for a little while.

Plus I still need to figure out using up the "oops" blocks from the first go round on this. I think I have a plan - just need to clear up the living room floor again and lay some things out.

Flashback Friday - Rockets and Seagulls

Way way way back in 1969 - when I was just a wee little tot of 2 -my mother, Brother Rick (5 at the time) and I accompanied a family friend from NY to Florida by car.

According to my mother - I was awake the ENTIRE trip - which should be amazing to my Hubby, since I am known to sleep very soundly in the car on long trips now. Heck, I've been known to doze from home to work in the morning (15 miles), which is why I REALLY love car pooling!!

I have pretty much no memory of this trip - just the stories that have lingered on and on and on in the family lore. Or maybe one story in particular.

Me on the beach with food calling out to the seagulls "here biwdy biwdy biwdy" and then dropping the food as they came to get it.

I can still hear my mother saying "here biwdy biwdy biwdy" - most recently probably a year ago.

I only remembered vaguely that we saw a rocket launch - and when I scanned the slides a few years back and found the launch photos I thought - wow, that's cool. (Trust me -that is a launch you are seeing in the teeny teeny tiny speck of orange in the middle of this photo - to the right and below the black dust speck. What can I say -they were old slides)

I did not think much of it until the last couple of weeks as Hubby and I enjoyed the Discovery Channel documentary "When We Left Earth." If you haven't had a chance to see it - and are at all a space exploration junky -I HIGHLY recommend it.

Prompted by that, I decided to look up what launch I actually experienced. It was Apollo 9.

I wanted to be an astronaut once - but life took me in a completely different direction. Now I don't know if I would, although it is amazing to watch.

I cannot wait to see what possibilities are available to the Munchkin as our space program evolves from the Shuttle to the next phase. Look where we've gone just in MY lifetime!!!

Visualize Whirled Peas

Or at least peas that are fresh and sweet and warm right out of the garden - which is exactly how I like to eat them. As a kid I used to eat half the crop before we even got them into the house - and I was really anticipating that again this summer with my first pea crop since childhood.

Unfortunately I can only visualize and reminisce for now- as I left my pea crop on the vine a teeny tiny bit too long.

I was doing so well - I grew them in kitty litter buckets (cleaned of course) with holes drilled in the bottom for drainage, and I had them up by my picket fence where they could climb to their viny little content. They flowered and bloomed, and then suddenly were covered with many little pea pods - just full of potential. I kept them well watered and kept an eye on them as the peas filled up the pods.

On July 4th my brother in law tried one - "not quite ready" he said, although I thought they were just right.

I should have gone with my instincts and picked them then - before I got distracted by other projects and other dinner menus and other things.

Last night I went out to pick - and the pods were wrinkled and tough - the peas inside bitter and starting to shrivel. I tested each pod - trying to get enough for at least the Munchkin to try some. I got maybe 24 peas - out of maybe 40 pods...

The only Whirled Peas were the ones in the garbage disposal.

Oh well -good thing I saved out some seeds for a fall crop - and we already have this one growing in the Munchkin's garden. There's still hope yet.

I call it a "Moon Cheese Sandwich" - what do you call it?

The other night Hubby made quesadillas for dinner. The Munchkin, who loves grilled cheese, was balking at this new and unknown food, right up until I called it a Moon Cheese Sandwich. It was big and round like the moon - and the extra cheese shreds we told him were Moon Sprinkles.

I wonder how long it will be before these are "quesadillas" again - I can just imagine the Munchkin as a teenager asking us for Moon Cheese Sandwiches for dinner.

There are some other phrases we've established around our household.

Dip Dip Dip Dip is anything in a little dish, like salad dressing or yogurt, for the Munchkin to dip things in.

We have Big Engines (Dupl0), Small Engines (Take Along Thomas) and Soft Engines (magnetic)

The village truck that comes through to grind up brush and branches is the Christmas Tree Truck.

I know there are more - they are just not coming to mind right now...

I do remember some other "family-isms" from my childhood. All three of these happen to be courtesy of Brother Rick - Number 5 of 6 and just 3 years older than me.

The Ding Ding Ding Ding was the railroad crossing.
Beemers were fingers.
The Buttaboom was the well driller.

And you already know about "Fujicles"

Oh and Tickle Bumps are those quick little rises in the road that leave your stomach at the top even as the car goes back down. Lots of those in West Virginia where Sister Terri used to live.

Any peculiar family phrases in your vocabulary?

Update: other 'isms' via email and IM from family.. woolbozer, Dai-Um (William), Terri's angels 'Gardi' and 'Dear' (one sat on each shoulder)

Carrots and "Ungrens" and Peas - oh my

Just thought we needed a carrot and "ungren" growth update.

The Gardener Contemplating the Possibilities - and the Cow Poop.

The carrots are coming along well. This was the first burst of growth, and they are now looking more "carrot top" like - and need to be thinned. Must do that when the Munchkin is not around, as he wants to harvest them NOW!

The Gardener/Photographer taking a picture of the "hole" where he stuck ONE pea seed. He was oblivious to the fact that he was stepping on his carrots.

The Gardener watering his plot. It was not such a concern before the seeds sprouted, but after they came up his desire to BLAST the water out full force became an issue. Luckily the nozzle is adjustable and I have it set to a fine mist, even on max power.

The "ungrens" are a fizzle -I think out of the bag of bulbs we got 3.
No wonder they were on sale.

What can I say - the boy likes to water. Here he is watering the ground under the arborvitae and behind the daylilies - no plants there - just a hole that obviously needed water.

And this is the best crop of all...

Tutorial Tuesday - Wacky Wire Work Coming Soon

What do you get when you combine sewing notions, florist wire, polymer clay, flower pots, paint, glue and some empty bottles?

Wacky Wire Work...

We're still working on the photos to this one - so check back next week for Wacky Wire Work Part One...The Twist.

Turtle of the Day - Turtle Pile

What is it about turtles being stacked up? I guess I have not studied enough about how turtles actually live to know if they really do this in the natural world -but so many artists seem to stack them. Dr. Seuss (Yertle), the Chinese (although I am not sure if this is really authentic or just something that looks like something the Chinese might do) - no others come immediately to mind bit I am sure there are more.

I have two turtle stacks in my collection - one very much like the Chinese one linked above that I bought off eBay because the price was low and I was in a buying mood at the time, and the other in my garden

(sorry about the photo quality - the garden ones like to hide and the stacked ones are very dusty and up in the dark attic)

You wonder what the one on the bottom is thinking? For that matter -you wonder how the one on top got up there. Turtles don't strike me as the most agile of creatures and their feet don't really look like they are made for climbing.

Hmmm - things to ponder on a Monday morning. I think I will need more coffee for this one.

Dirty Tales from the Garden IV

Let's just call this one "cow poop"...

Hubby and I have been wanting to build planter boxes for a few years now. We actually have a really cool design drawn up that uses timbers and paving tiles to make a box about 18" high with a flat "shelf" around it, but it is too cost prohibitive for us to build those in the volume we would like to really be able to garden.

I mean - I would need one for the rhubarb alone, one for the asparagus bed I hope to start, and one for the garlic, onions and chives -and that does not include any of the annual plants like peppers, squash, tomatoes and the like.

So this year we took advantage of an offer of some free recycled landscape timbers, and some leftover timbers that we had from another project ("The Tree Story" will come later), and built some more modest, but truly functional, planter beds.

The Munchkin was helping as we filled them with topsoil, peat moss, and ... "cow poop"
He's been watching videos about farms and animals and "cow poop" and got very excited over this!

We're up to a total of 6 beds now - and 6 bags of cow poop. The Munchkin is in cow poop heaven. Now to just see how his carrots and "ungrens" (onions) grow...

Watch for growth updates.

NOTE: responding to comments - these boxes do not have bottoms in them. We have good ground soil under them, so I left them open so roots could go deep. We also do not have a problem with gophers, the lone woodchuck was "relocated" far far out of town, and the chippies and squirrels don't go under...they just go for the easy stuff on top. Wait till they decide to try the Scotch Bonnet and Jalapeño peppers!!! Bwaa Haaa Haaa...

Flashback Fridays - "Fugicles" and the Fourth of July

I don't have family pictures to go with this one (no sibling bribes involved - just no pictures) so you will just have to imagine.

Our house (as in my childhood home) was the site of the big neighborhood Forth of July picnic every year. "Neighbors" is a loose term -as this included some families that lived a bit further away, but in the tiny little speck of a one traffic light town that I grew up in, 'further away' was really not that far.

This was a loose affair - grills going, dishes passing, kids running in the yard, bocce and volleyball, fireworks (illegal in our state, but we had them anyway), and then a few parents volunteering to take their kids and others to the fireworks over the hills in one of the neighboring towns. We'd all pile in the back of someones station wagon and off we would go -sometimes getting a late start and watching them from the top of a hill somewhere. Other times being able to get down to the field and spread out a blanket and get snacks from the "carnies" before laying back to ooh and ahhh (my favorites are the bangers...or as I learned at a fireworks company a few years ago - the "retorts")

Some things were eagerly anticipated every year. The cherry bombs being exploded in the culvert behind the house, Mrs. B's dilly beans and then how she would beat the pants off anyone in bocce, my dad at the grill, ice cold lemonade - and "fugicles"

Mmmm - "fugicles" were magical chocolaty goodness and on the Fourth of July they were extra special. Maybe it was because they were brought by the "Fugicle Man" as I called him. (notice I could not say FudgeSicle - so I must have been pretty little at the time)

Fugicle Man was a professor at Alfred University, where my dad taught. I remember him being VERRRY tall, and not at all abashed about the fact that he was a bachelor who did not cook - so he brought Fugicles. I don't know how many years he actually came, or if he brought the Fugicles every year or just one - but in my family he will always be known as the Fugicle Man. And he knows it still.

The "neighborhood" Fourth of July picnic is now at my house. Dilly beans have given way to deviled eggs, and our "fugicle" is the United States of Jello. We've chosen backyard drive-ins over the trip to the fireworks, and our bocce set is all ready to go. This year we are doing pulled pork, and Hubby is opting to concoct multiple sauces for people to try rather than standing at the grill all afternoon.

Happy Fourth of July Memories - old and new.

Now I think I am going to go break me open a box of Fugicles and watch my Munchkin learn to play bocce.

What I did on my Summer Vacation

To start off the summer, I managed to schedule three glorious vacation days to myself - Hubby at work, the Munchkin at daycare - to get some big projects done around the house and to recharge my batteries. Don't get me wrong - the Munchkin is getting to be very helpful, and Hubby is a great help, too - but sometimes there is a lot to be said for working at your own pace and not having to worry about anyone else. Hubby sometimes says he gets "in the zone" - I think I was in the zone the past few days.

The first two days were glorious weather wise. I spent the majority of both days outside - mowing, trimming, weeding, installing an arbor (found one of the last ones in stock in the area - gotta love seasonal merchandise), mulching, planting, watering... I know it sounds like work - but to me it was divine - I had my hands in the dirt, the sound of the birds and squirrels, the wind in the trees. Ahhh. I don't have any pictures of my new flower bed (yes, I dug up sod, too) or anything else as it is hard to handle the camera with dirty grubby hands, but here is one of my two new arbors. This is the one we got a few weeks ago that the Munchkin calls the "plant playground." No plants are playing on it just yet, but I have a climbing rose all ready to be transplanted there in my next chunk of free time.

The second arbor has replaced the old cheapo wire one that is in the background of this photo between the arborvitae and the blue spruce. It matches the first one. Hubby assembled the first one a few weeks ago, then told me I should get another one (yeah!) - I assembled that one. Our plan is to use some edging to create a grass path between the front yard and back yard through the arbors, and extend the garden to the path on the one side and add more beds and an ornamental tree on the other side (where you see lawn now). It is a long term project but we grabbed the arbors while we had the chance.

Today is the third and last day of my "vacation" although I am off until next Tuesday and will have a great 4 day weekend with Hubby and the Munchkin. The weather today is cloudy and rainy, and we have 35 people expected here tomorrow for a picnic so I am working on cooking the pulled pork, cleaning the bathrooms, and doing laundry. Not as fun as the past two days, but necessary...

I hope to get the bulk of that done this morning and do some sewing on the wedding quilt this afternoon. I am back to the point at which everything came crashing down last time, and am glad to say that it looks like we are on track this time around.

Wishing all my fellow Americans a Happy Fourth of July.

Tutorial Tuesday - Clothespin Bag From a Shirt

This little tutorial does not have a full set of pictures - but it only took me 15 minutes start to finish, and made a fun and functional clothespin bag. It was a fun way to reuse one of my favorite shirts that my son wore as an infant without cutting it up into a quilt.

(note - this is not entirely original - I had seen similar bags elsewhere but varied my assembly to suit my style and the style of this shirt a bit more)

Supplies:
-One child's button up shirt - the one I used was a 6M size and held a full 100 count bag of clothespins, but you could probably use a larger size.
-One child's size hanger
-One bag clothespins
-Sewing machine or needle and thread.

Instructions:
-press the shirt well, paying close attention to pressing the sleeves and shirt tails so the openings are even.

-Pin the openings if desired - and stitch closed along the existing top stitching, matching the color of the existing top stitching as closely as possible. By sewing on the outside instead of turning it inside out to stitch, you preserve the "shirt tails" on your shirt. This shirt in particular had a fun little patch at the bottom of the placket that I did not want getting lost in a seam allowance.

-Be sure to stitch the sleeves closed as well - that way stray pins do not slip through the sleeve openings.

- open buttons /snaps down as far as desired. Tack stitch at the top button/snap if desired. A bag of heavy clothespins will put some strain on the buttons/snaps and you may want to reinforce that opening a bit.

-Insert hanger.

-Fill with clothespins, reserving 2 out.

-Clip two pins on the shoulders. This helps the 'shirt' stay on the hanger, and adds an extra bit of "cute."

To wash the bag, simply remove it from the hanger, empty out the clothespins and toss it in the wash. (and of course hang it back up out on the line to dry)

Because this is not outdoor fabric, I recommend storing your bag inside when it is not in use to make it last longer.

Hanging tip - a "stopper" of rubber bands wrapped tightly around the tip of the hanger "hook" will help to catch the bag if it starts swinging on the line.

(sorry about the indoor photos, but A) my new fancy schmancy retractable clothesline has not been installed yet and B) it's raining outside right now)