Pots and Pins

I've been Tagged...

I was tagged by Lucy's Tales From Home...check out her blog - she has wonderful recipes, great ideas and always something fun to share...now, back to the tagging...I'm supposed to tell you 6 unimportant things about me...only 6!!  There are so many to choose from....but this is what I came up with:

1.  I cannot throw out a can of corn, beans, peas, etc., and leave one piece of whatever in the can...I always imagine that that one little piece of corn is screaming at me to SAVE IT so it can do what it was put here to do...be eaten!  Now you know I'm certifiable.

2.  I'm addicted to chap stick - exclusively Bonne Bell Lipsmackers - I don't know what I'll do if they ever stop making them!  It's the first thing I put on in the morning - before getting out of bed - and the last thing at night...I always carry one in my pocket, my purse, my bra...and heaven help whoever is with me if I lose it!

3.  I do not eat eggs.  It's not that I don't like the taste of them, it's the IDEA of them that I don't like...a chicken LAYING an egg...and then we're supposed to eat it...when I was little my big brother told me that chickens don't pee and that the yolk in the egg is yellow because that's where their pee goes...of course I believed him then and I believe him to this day...so I don't eat eggs...unless they're baked inside a cake or a cookie.

4.  I do not tan...I turn red and then peel.  Very uninteresting, don't you think?

5.  I do not like bridges.  That's all I'm going to say except that floating bridges are the worst of the worst and to get to Seattle from the Eastside I have to either cross one of the two floating bridges or drive all the way around the lake...really, it's a lovely drive...and it's only an additional 30 minutes or so...

6.  I have 11 quilting projects in various stages at the moment - and hopefully, this afternoon, I'll have time to start a NEW project...it's always more fun to start a new one than to work on an old one...but eventually they'll all get done - if I live long enough.

Now that that's done....I tag:

Kate, Dine and Dish, Knot Sew Crafty, Rainy Day Creations, Sweet Eye Candy Creations

There you go...5 of you now have to post 6 unimportant things about yourself - we can already read the important things about you on your blogs!  Oh, no need to thank me...I mean, it will be thanks enough just reading about how crazy YOU are!

Donut Muffins...

I got this recipe from my friend Joyce, who calls them Conference Muffins.  And I've seen this recipe on The Pioneer Woman Cooks, she calls them French Breakfast Puffs...although there is nothing French about them.  After making them a few times for my family, they have dubbed them Donut Muffins because they taste like a cinnamon-y cake donut with a muffin texture on the inside...basically they are down-right delicious and addictive and there is no way you'll be able to eat just one, or even two...grab three and run, that's the only way to keep yourself from eating the entire pan!

After the muffins come out of the oven you'll be sorely tempted to eat them just as they are - they'll smell heavenly and they'll be screaming out to you...but don't fall prey...be strong, it'll be worth it, I promise.  Once the muffins are cool enough for you to handle, you'll roll the entire muffin in melted butter...see?  I told you it would be worth it!  Then you roll the butter-coated muffin in a cinnamon-sugar mixture...and next, you are going to TRY to put the finished donut-muffin on a plate...do not put it straight into your mouth, if you do, you're sunk...finished...you'll have no will power left...you'll end up dipping and rolling the muffins and stuffing them into your face as fast as you can!  Save yourself the embarrassment...just put it on the plate, repeat the process with the remaining muffins and then, and only then, can you eat them...

Donut Muffins - Adapted from Joyce Murray and The Pioneer Woman Cooks

(I tinkered with their recipes a bit - because I like to do that - I added vanilla extract which I think is a brilliant addition- it gives the batter a little more "richness" and chopped pecans - because I just like them - but you can do what you want!)

3 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup shortening (Crisco)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup milk

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 teaspoons cinnamon

1 sticks butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease 12 muffin cups. (Do not use cupcake papers.)  Stir together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.  Set aside.  In a different bowl, cream together 1 cup sugar and shortening, then add eggs, vanilla and mix.  Add flour mixture and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition.  Stir in chopped pecans.  Fill prepared muffin cups 2/3's full.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until the top is a light golden brown.  In a bowl, melt 1 stick of butter.  In a separate bowl combine remaining sugar and cinnamon.  Dip baked muffins in butter, coating thoroughly, then roll them in the cinnamon-sugar mixture, coating thoroughly. Eat at your own risk.

"Small cheer and great welcome make a merry feast."  William Shakespeare

No Post Today....

Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday
77° F |	86° F |	88° F |	85° F |	77° F |

Not only is the sun out, the Mountain is out as well so that means I must go out and try to eliminate the pasty-whiteness of my skin...a forecast like this is a rarity around here...so are sunglasses and sunscreen, which will be my first purchase today.  I'm just hoping that I don't wilt with all of this HEAT!  For a Seattleite, anything above 72 is hot...geeze, we might even have to turn on the air-conditioner for the first time EVER!  Hope you have a great day too!

Watermelon Cookies...

When the boy was 5 years old I came across a recipe for watermelon cookies in a magazine.  He loves watermelon....so I knew he would love these cookies.  He is forever asking me to make them for him...now here's the interesting thing...they are just sugar cookies with mini-chocolate chips...but in his mind they are watermelon cookies and even though they don't have one drop of watermelon flavoring in them, he swears they do!  These are the boy's very favorite cookie...

The boy does not eat sugar cookies...I can make batch after batch, in all different shapes and colors, with all different sprinkles on top and he won't touch them...but these cookies?  He'll eat every single one!

Wrapping the dough up in plastic and then refrigerating it is the key here...you can't slice a soft cookie.  Also, try to get the green colored dough as even as possible - or else you'll have some cookies with big "rinds" - not necessarily a bad thing!

Ooops!  How did that picture of Baby Max get in here?!?  Max arrived yesterday (with his mom) for a week long visit and I couldn't be happier!  He is such a darling - and I'm loving having him here.  Caesar Beezer The Wonder Dog, however, is not thrilled...I think he sees Max as one big Snausage!

Watermelon Cookies - Adapted from Southern Living Magazine 1989

2/3's cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

red paste food coloring

green paste food coloring

1/2 cup mini-chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Combine butter in the bowl of electric mixer with sugar and beat well.  Stir in egg, milk and vanilla.  Combine flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture, mixing well.  Remove about 1/3 of the dough to a separate bowl and set aside.  Add small amount of red food coloring to color dough as desired, beating until blended.  Stir in mini-chocolate chips.  Shape dough into a cylinder, placing it on plastic wrap to shape, then wrap it up tightly and refrigerate for 30 minutes.  To reserved dough add a drop or two of green food coloring and mix well by hand.  Spread out a piece of plastic wrap on counter, place green dough on top and roll to approximately 1/4 inch thickness in a rectangle, the length of the cylinder of red dough.  Remove red dough from fridge and place on top of green dough, roll green dough around red cylinder.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an additional 30 minutes. 

Using a sharp knife, slice dough 1/2-inch thick into rounds.  Cut the rounds in half, making two cookies.  Place on ungreased cookie sheets one inch apart.  Bake in 375 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until desired softness/crispness.  Cool on wire racks. 

Optional frosting:  The boy does not like his watermelon cookies frosted...and since he eats them before anyone else gets a chance I usually don't frost them - but I do like them frosted - it gives the edge a nice shine and a little extra sugar is always a good thing!  To make frosting:  Mix 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, two tablespoons water and green paste food coloring together in a small bowl and mix until smooth.  Dip the rounded, green edge of the cookie into the green icing, letting the extra drip off and place on wax paper until frosting is firm.  Makes 3 dozen cookies.

My new watermelon table runner is now finished...oh, and so is that plate of cookies...the boy said they were..."the best tasting watermelon cookies"  I've ever made!  What a creature! 

Cleaning Slippers!

Go ahead and laugh - but I'll bet my kitchen floors are cleaner than yours!  Thanks to my new lime green cleaning slippers!!! 

They really work!  Of course, I'm spending a lot more time walking around the perimeter of the room but the dust bunnies are gone!  Come and see for yourself - you could EAT off my floors...but only if you insist.

Watermelon Table Runner...

I love days like this!  I woke up thinking I was going to do one thing and ended up doing another...I think that's called ADD but whatever, it makes life fun!  Nothing says summer like watermelon and when I saw this table runner I wanted it....like now....and it took about an hour to whip up.  Oh, it's not finished...I still have to sew down the binding and sew on the seeds but that's sit-in-front-of-the-TV-at-night stuff.  I couldn't wait to show you though how cute it is...and it's going to look great on my kitchen table - summer inside and finally outside, too!  We might even have a warm 4th of July - which would be the 3rd time in 20 years!  But I'm not getting my hopes up yet...

You can download this pattern for free and make one for yourself - it's super easy!  Just go to All People Quilt - which is a great resource for sewers and quilters alike and no, they're not the same thing!

I didn't exactly follow their pattern - I don't really like patterns, which is another way of saying I CAN'T follow patterns - but this is so easy you really don't need one.  I love how "happy" it is...might have to make some watermelon cookies now just to complete the picture!

Banana Pudding...

If I were to slit the mister's wrists - not something I would intentionally do no matter WHAT I say, he would surely bleed red and gray - the colors of the Confederacy...he is a good-ol'-Southern-boy at heart and as such he loves grits and gumbo and sweet-tea and banana pudding with Vanilla wafers...just like the kind his momma never made but the kind his friends momma's did.  Last Saturday we stopped by the grocery store together - usually I never take him in the store with me because he constantly throws things we don't need into the basket and the bill is always twice as high!  But, there we were - walking up and down the aisles, him tossing in cereal like he was shooting hoops for the NBA and me doing my best to remove them without being seen...then he spots the Vanilla Wafers and begins to whine about banana pudding and how I never make it...so we struck a deal, I would make him banana pudding and he would stop throwing things into the basket.

Turning to one of my all-time favorite "Southern" cookbooks - The Blue Willow Inn Cookbook by Jane and Michael Stern, I found the Banana Pudding recipe I was looking for.  The Blue Willow Inn is a real place, in Social Circle, Georgia and the rumor is Margaret Mitchell was inspired by The Blue Willow Inn when she wrote about Tara, her fictional majestic southern mansion in Gone With The Wind.  This cookbook is a great read, even if you don't cook - it has fascinating anecdotes about the restaurant and the early days of Social Circle.  Isn't that an odd name for a town?!

Margaret Mitchell stayed at the Blue Willow Inn and while there, she met Redd Upshaw who was from a nearby town.  The two had a "passionate courtship" and were later married.  But the marriage was short-lived and ended in a very nasty divorce.  Redd, apparently, was a cad and was not really the "marrying kind."  Many think that Redd was the inspiration for the character of Rhett Butler...because he really didn't give a damn about Margaret, The Blue Willow Inn and presumably Banana Pudding.

Banana Pudding - Adapted from The Blue Willow Inn Cookbook by Jane and Michael Stern

6 tablespoons flour

8 tablespoons sugar

dash of salt

2 eggs, beaten

4 cups milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Vanilla Wafer cookies

4 to 5 bananas, sliced

Whipped cream for topping

In a saucepan combine the flour, sugar, salt and eggs.  Add the milk a little at a time, stirring until smooth.  Cook over medium heat, stirring continuously until thickened.  Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.  Cool thoroughly (place a piece of plastic wrap over top of pudding and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.)  Line the bottom of a casserole dish or a trifle dish with vanilla wafers (I used  mini-wafers) then the bananas then the custard.  Repeat until the dish is about 2/3's full, ending with the custard.  Top with the whipped cream.  Refrigerate any leftovers.  Makes 8 to 10 servings.

"Marriage is not merely sharing the fettucini, but sharing the burden of finding the fettucini restaurant in the first place."  Calvin Trillin

July Banner...

I came across some flag fabric the other day - couldn't remember what I bought it for but decided that I needed to do something with it - after seeing several types of these banners at the quilt show this spring, I decided to make one for myself and this is what I came up with:

Triangles cut from red and white stripped fabric, letters cut from blue fabric with white stars, zig-zagged on to the stripes, bias tape connects them all.  I cut the triangles and letters with pinking shears - no hemming needed so this was fast and easy and it's now ready to hang up for the July 4th festivities!

Good news...summer is supposed to arrive this week!

Caveman 101...

Saturday we coasted into the gas station on fumes - I have a tendency to wait until the tank runs dry before putting in gas...the mister got out and started to walk into the building to pay with cash...but the door was locked; attendent had left a message on the door saying she'd be right back...so he came back to the car and was about to get in and drive off because HE DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO OPERATE THE PUMP WITH A CREDIT CARD!!!  Fortunately, I, being unable to see wounded animals without helping them, came to his rescue and walked him through this very complicated process....how proud I felt when the screen prompt read:  Begin Fueling Now

Cost of gas:  $4.45 a gallon

Cost to fill my tank:  $75.01

Cost of seeing the mister master the machine:  Priceless

Note to Self...

No more writing posts after 10:00 pm...the witching hour for me...as they are FILLED with typos!  Thankfully I have eagle-eyed-friends who let me know of my gaffs...how embarrassing!  The Peach and Nectarine cobbler is NOT made with peaches and tangerines!  Sheesh, I don't know what I was thinking about when I typed that!  Yet another recipe that has now been corrected...maybe I should look into another line of work...I'm good at cleaning toilets...and I'm good at pulling weeds...does anybody out there need a weed-pulling-toilet-cleaner?!? 

I'll end this post in the most perfect way possible...with my Max...