Jenny, who won the halloween quilt, sent me this darling picture of her beautiful baby girl, Ava...seated in a pumpkin on top of the quilt! Ava looks quite content in her pumpkin - and I'm told she loves her new quilt!
This little guy is Baby Hulk! Isn't he adorable?! I spotted him at our church halloween party last night...he was a show stopper! I think everyone wanted to pick him up and squeeze him but didn't because they were afraid of ruining his coloring!
I couldn't resist posting this picture of my good friend Max...I don't dare tell you his last name because believe it or not, he's an upstanding member of our community! His grandson, who I didn't capture a picture of was dressed as a wolf...so grandpa Max was only too happy to dress as one of the three little pigs! He'll do anything for his grandsons!
I went to the party dressed as a witch - not a stretch for me - and the mister stayed home in his pj's - as you know, he's not much of a party animal...he's just an animal. I finally finished the last of my halloween projects...
Tonight, after passing out candy, I'll make my rounds ding-dong-ditching...it just wouldn't be halloween without a midnight run and a few screams! Oh...one more thing...this was in the Seattle Times this morning:
Cavity-fighting trick: Eat treats at once
When it comes to cavities, it might be better to let your kids eat their Halloween haul in one sitting. Dental decay is on the rise again among U.S. preschoolers, with the problem likely not so much the quantity as the frequency of snacking.
Here's Halloween advice from a dentist, if not a dietitian: Let your kids eat their sugary booty in one sitting. Read the rest of the article in theTimes.
Doens't that just give you a warm-fuzzy feeling for your dentist? EAT ALL YOUR CANDY AT ONCE!! Got to love that!
I live in a bubble. I can see out, and occasionally I can sneak out, but truly, most of the time I'm in my little bubble happily going about my business. Last night, I had a bit of an eye opening...I went to a friend's home to help sew buttonholes on a costume she was making for her son...her 29 year old son. And my friend, who doesn't really sew, she mends...had taken a picture from the internet and made a pattern out of newspaper to create the white coat worn by none other than the infamous Dr. Horrible....ever heard of him? Me neither. But apparently he's a world-wide sensation! He's all over the internet and I'd bet you'd recognize him...he's played by Doogie Howser...can't think of what his real name is but you know who I mean...I still don't get this Dr. Horrible, who has an official fan site and a sing-a-long site, I don't know whether it's a TV show or a movie or a backyard production...but whatever it is, it has fans that could rival any Star Trek convention!
Dr. Horrible wears a long white coat, weird goggles on his head, heavy white welding gloves and big white rubber boots that his khaki pants are tucked into...he's quite the dashing figure! My friend's son is going to wear this ensemble to the airport Halloween night to pick up his girl friend...I'm sure I'll be able to see him on the 10:00 news - being hauled away by TSA wanna-be cops - because if I'm not mistaken, people in masks and weird clothing are frowned upon at the airport!
If you have time to kill...look up Dr. Horrible, who's just trying to change the status quo, because, as he says, the status isn't quo...see what you're missing?
You might be thinking, roasted potatoes, had 'em...but I'll bet you haven't had 'em like this...coated in Italian dressing and Parmesan cheese...zesty and cheesey and roasty...for lack of a better word!
Roasted Potatoes - Italian Style - Adapted from kraftfoods.com
1 large baking potato, skins left on, cut into spears
1 large yam, peeled and cut into spears
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into spears
1/2 cup Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Toss potatoes and yam with dressing and Parmesan cheese. Place on lightly greased baking sheet. Salt and pepper to taste. Bake 30 minutes, turn potatoes and bake an additional 15 minutes or until tender.
"From Ghoulies and Ghosties and long leggety Beasties, and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!" - Old Scottish Saying - or so I'm told!rom ghoulies and ghosties and long leggety beasties and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!
From ghoulies and ghosties and long leggety beasties and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us! - - saying
This is another of Greg Atkinson's recipes - a Northwest chef whom I adore, mainly because every recipe of his that I've made has gone straight to the top of my favorite list...and it's a very long list! Last spring I had Borscht at a friends house and it was wonderful - but very different from this recipe. This is really like beef stew with beets - and of course, there's the color - a deep burgundy, maroon, crimson, scarlet, magenta...BEET COLOR!! When I came across Greg's recipe for this wonderful soup in the Sunday Pacific Magazine, I couldn't wait to make it! And it's perfect for Halloween...the color of this soup alone will have all of your little vampires sharpening their fangs!
The mister, who as you know, hates anything spicy or flavorful, stared as his bowl of Borscht with skeptical eyes...I had to BEG him to eat it and reassure him that he would love it - finally he gave it a little taste and to his surprise, he loved it! The boy was not so easy to convince - the color bothered him, he wanted to know what MADE it red...and knowing how he feels about beets (hates them) I offered up a little fib and told him I had put food coloring in the soup - and those lumps were just different potatoes. He ended up eating a huge portion...and now has a fondness for "Russian Potatoes." What he didn't know didn't hurt him!
I hope you'll try this soup - it's so good on a cold evening - and if you have leftovers, it will be a little thicker and even better the next day...in my humble opinion.
Borscht - American Style - Adapted From Greg Atkinson, The Seattle Times Pacific Magazine
For the beets:
2 large beets, about 1 lb.
1 quart water, or as needed
For the soup base:
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 pounds stewing beef, cut in 1-inch pieces
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 quarts beef broth
1 bay leaf
For the saute:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and diced
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
3 or 4 yellow-fleshed potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
half a head of cabbage, shredded
To finish the soup:
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
a few springs of fresh dill or a sprinkling of dried dill
1 cup sour cream
Trim the leaves and larger stems from the beets, but keep the skins and tails intact. Put them in a pot over high heat with 1 quart, or as needed water to cover and bring the water to a full, rolling boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pot and simmer the beets until they are tender, about 1 hour.
Once the beets are cooking, prepare the soup base. Melt the sugar in a dry pan over medium-high heat, and when the sugar is a deep caramel color, add the stewing beef sprinkled with kosher salt. Stir the beef around until it is well browned, about 2 minutes, then add the balsmaic vinegar, beef broth and bay leaf. Bring the liquid to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer the beef until it is tender, about 1 hour.
While the beets and beef are still cooking in their separate pots, prepare the vegetables. Warm the olive oil in a large frying pan and saute the onions and carrots over medium-high heat until they are beginning to brown. Add the potatoes and cabbage and saute until the vegetables are heated through. Add the sauteed vegetables to the beef base and continue simmering until the potatoes are tender.
Use a slotted spoon to left the beets out of the boiling water and under cold, running water, slip off their skins. Cut the cooked, peeled beets into 1/2-inch cubes, add the beets to the soup. Discard the tails. Season the soup to taste with salt and pepper and serve it will a pinch of chopped fresh dill or sprinkle dried dill on each serving and top with a dollop of sour cream. Pass the remaining sour cream. Serves 8.
"I'll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween." - Charles Swartz.
Thank you to all who entered my Halloween Quilt Giveaway!!!
I used random.org to pick the winner...and I'm thrilled to say that I KNOW her!!! Which makes giving this quilt away SO MUCH EASIER! So, without further ado...congratulations to:
True Random Number Service
List Randomizer
46. Jenny Z.True Random Number Service
Jenny and my daughter have been friends for years - so I've known her and her family for quite a while. Jenny just had her first baby a few months ago, little Ava, who is adorable...and I'm sure she'll look even MORE precious - if that's possible - when she's wrapped up in this quilt watching her mom eat candy!
Jenny!!! I'm so happy you won - I'll be in touch so I can get your new Halloween quilt to you before Halloween!
Last Saturday night was the long-awaited Halloween party for the little girls in my neighborhood...the one that's been in the works for MONTHS!!! They started asking me about it in January! Finally in July, I had them come for their first "planning session"....they made treat bags and came up with grandiose ideas like buying REAL magic brooms to fly on, stuff like that! In August they came for another "planning session" and this time they decorated their witch hats....in September they came and made amulets and we discussed our menu...they suggested we have REAL bats and REAL worms...and finally, a few weeks ago the LAST of the planning meetings was held and the girls made some decorations and put in their two cents on how everything should look...they had such a good time planning, and I don't think one of them even noticed that I didn't use any of their ideas! So Saturday was the party...and they were practically jumping off the walls with excitement!
Cute little critters, aren't they?! We started our evening off with dinner...first everyone had to drink their magic potion - little vials filled with Pop-Rocks - and then they were given their amulets - magical necklaces to ward off evil...the girls served each other their dinner...deadman over worms, ghost potatoes, pumpkin seeds, gotcha pasta, oozing innards, and bread bones...all washed down with witch's brew...
There were plenty of test-tubes to enjoy between the coarses...dried blood, desicated liver, goblin boogers, tarantula legs...fiendishly good!
After dinner, we donned our capes and headed out into the dark of night...there is NOTHING I like better than to ding-dong-ditch during the Halloween "season"...so I taught my protege's the finer art of ringing and running...of course, we LEFT treats - it would have been rude not to! Little bags filled with severed fingers...I only made one mistake...I failed to consider that my dear little friends could and would run faster than ME!!! I did my best to keep up but it almost killed me! We also did a little "boo-ing" while we were out...the girls stealthily approached a house, crept to the front door and then covered the door with cardboard ghosts that said, "you've been booooooooed!" Then they rang the bell and screamed as they ran away...and I, once again, tried to keep up!
After hitting about 10 houses we came back to the manse to enjoy some ghostly cupcakes...I think the girls had a great time, especially screaming around the neighborhood in the dark, they were screaming with delight, I was screaming in pain! But it was great fun...this is my 25th year of ding-dong-ditching...and you would have thought by now I'd know to wear RUNNING shoes instead of my witch's boots!
Today is the last day to enter to win my Halloween Quilt!!! Hurry and leave me a comment telling me why you want to win...Okay...enough celebrating, time to get back to it! I have a friend who is having breast reduction surgery today and she is SO excited about it! So to celebrate her new look, I made her a cake...with a semi-bare-breasted Barbie doll on top...Barbie's boobs were covered with band-aids...my friend looked like a Barbie doll before surgery and she'll look like a Barbie doll after - perfect in every way!
I used mini-cake pans, 3 different sizes and a Barbie doll who was missing her legs...I'm sure the boy used them for a science project or something...actually, I'm afraid to ask!
One year old. Pots and Pins is one year old today! Whew! I can hardly believe it...I've gone from not understanding how to post a blog to not understanding how to post a blog - thanks to the NEW and IMPROVED Typepad...I'm as frustrated today as I was a year ago! But that's neither here nor there...nope, it's time to celebrate! And what better way to do it than to say...
T H A N K YOU ! T H A N K Y O U ! T H A N K Y O U !
with a Quilt giveaway!!! A HALLOWEEN QUILT GIVEAWAY!!!
Here's what you do: Send me a comment, telling me why you want to wrap yourself up in this quilt on Halloween night, eating miniature candy bars until you're sick, and you'll get one entry. Blog about it on your blog and you'll get another five entries! (Be sure to tell me if you blog about it!) How easy is that?!?
This Halloween quilt is made with 100% cotton fabrics, machine-stitched, raw-edge applique, machine stippled. It's definitely big enough to wrap even the largest of mummies...it measures 80" x 64".
Contest starts Friday, October 24th and ends on Monday, October 27th at 6:00 pst...I'll announce the winner Tuesday morning, October 28th...Hopefully I'll be able to get the winner's address quickly then this will be expedited to the winners home to arrive on Halloween, Friday, October 31st...unless you live outside of the US, then I'm afraid it won't be there in time for Halloween but it should be there before the last of your Halloween candy is gone!
This is a NEW quilt, never been used, never been loved...it's just waiting to be shipped to it's new home...let me remind you that I do not make MUSEUM QUALITY quilts...I make 30 FOOT Quilts...quilts that are best viewed from 30 feet away...now, that being said, I'm sure you'll LOVE this FUN quilt and if you have little ghosts or goblins at your house, they'll love it even more!
Thank you for reading my blog!...Thank you for putting up with my whining about the mister (justifiably so) ...Thank you for making the recipes I love and then telling me about your versions...Thank you for your friendship and kind words...Thank you for understanding my two passions/addictions - food and quilting - and not making me chose one or the other...Thank you for catching my typos in such a nice way...Thank you for putting up with my dot-dot-dots...Thank you for coming back day after day! Happy Blog-a-versary to ME!
Can you stand another contest? Click on this link to see the most amazing watercolor portraits! Sitting Pretty is giving away a portrait - check it out at Sitting Pretty Studio but hurry, her contest ends October 31st!
For you Seattle folks...if you've never had Minea Farms Apple Cider then you're simply not living! They're located on the East side, on the Redmond-Woodinville Road and they are definitely worth the trip from where ever you are! I look forward to going there every Autumn...I love their Honey Crisp Cider and their Apple Cherry Cider...oh, their Granny Smith Cider is great, too! You can buy it fresh or frozen, I always buy some frozen so it lasts longer because the fresh stuff only lasts 6 days - not ever a problem for us because we usually drink it up long before that...it's Liquid Gold!
Before you go, check Minea Farms for their hours of operation - they're not open all the time. It's a charming little place and the minute you walk in the doors the smell of fresh apples fills every breath...reason enough to go! If you don't live in Seattle and you can't get to Minea Farms...I'm so sad for you!
"The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn." Ralph Waldo Emerson
I had SUCH a nice surprise yesterday! I went to Stephanie's home to retrieve my rotary cutter - which I left there in JULY - and she had me come in so she could give me my Halloween present! Now, who gives PRESENTS on Halloween?!?!? What a great idea!! She handed me three of the cutest plates - that she had found just for me! I felt giddy!!! And then, since I was already there, and she couldn't stand it, she announced she was going to give me my Christmas presents, too!!! She handed me a stack of fabulous plates that she's been collecting and saving for me!!! Woo-HOOOO! Stephanie is an artist...make that artiste...and she sees things with her artiste eyes that I just don't...she was thinking of the pictures I take of the food I make...a little rhyme for you...and thought that these plates would zing them up a bit!
I'll be looking for ways to use these beautiful plates in upcoming posts - and Stephanie, THANK YOU so much for thinking of me! I love them all!
I started this morning like I do most others...carrying dishes downstairs to the kitchen. The mister's dishes. Last night I made him this fabulous meal...truly, one of the best we've had in weeks! He loved it, even had seconds...and then, an hour after dinner, his nightly routine began. Clad in his pajamas, the mister, who likes to watch TV in bed, walked down to the kitchen and got himself a MIXING BOWL sized amount of cereal. He brought it back upstairs and ate his cereal while he watched NCIS or Law and Order or CSI or whatever grisly show was on. After finishing the cereal, he set his bowl and spoon on his nightstand...he would NEVER even THINK of carrying his dishes back to the kitchen...then headed back downstairs for ice cream...another HUGE bowl and spoon. Usually he stops after the ice cream, but last night he went back down for a plate full of dill pickles and a half a bag of potato chips. If I didn't know better I'd say he was pregnant...he certainly eats like he is and he's even starting to show! So this morning I carried two mixing bowls, two spoons, one plate and an empty potato chip bag downstairs...pitiful. I have friends who would NEVER allow this type of behavior...and I'm fairly certain one of them, after reading this, will cross me off her list. I know it's my fault, I didn't know I was supposed to TRAIN him when I got married. No one told me. And now it's too late.
I have another wonderful pork chop recipe, Cider Brined Pork Chops With Tart Cherry Chutney and up till now it's been my favorite autumn dish to make...but this one, well, this one is probably in my top five. This is SO good I'd have to say it's the PERFECT autumn meal...cider, fresh thyme, apples...and the cider "gravy," really more of a sauce, is so good you might be tempted to fill a glass with it. I let the pork chops sit in cider over night in the refrigerator, although letting them marinate for a few hours would do just as well.
Don't let these pictures fool you - this is an EASY dish...cook the chops, saute the apples, onions and thyme, make the gravy...that's it - about 20 minutes of prep time and 15 minutes of cook time...not counting the marinating. My only regret is that I only cooked THREE chops! I should have cooked the entire package - but then, we would have eaten them all in one sitting and an hour later he still would have gone on his feeding frenzy!
Cider Marinated Pork Chops With Cider Gravy, Sauteed Apples and Onions - Adapted from Food Network, Rachel Ray's Big Orange Book
(Rachel Ray's Big Orange Book comes out in paperback on November 4th - it's a good one!)
2 Golden Delicious apples, cored, peels left on, thinly sliced
3 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves finely chopped
1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups cloudy apple cider, separated (clear cider is not nearly as flavorful)
1/2 cup chicken stock
Marinte the chops in 1 cup of the cider in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight. Remove from refrigerator, discard the cider. Season the chops with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the chops until golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes per side, tenting loosely with foil once you turn the chops. Remove the cooked chops to a plate and cover to keep warm. Add remaining olive oil and the onions, apples and time to skillet. Season with salt and pepper and cook until just tender, about 5 to 6 minutes, stirring constantly. Douse with juice from the 1/2 lemon and remove to the plate with the chops. Add the butter to the skillet and when it melts, whisk in the flour. Cook for 1 minute, stirring, then whisk in the remaining 1/2 cup cider and stock. Season the gravy with salt and pepper to taste. Cook over medium-low heat for 3 to 4 minutes to thicken. Return the chops, apples and onions to the skillet, gently mix until all if covered with gravy. Put lid on and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes until heated thoroughly. Serve hot, spooning apples, onions and gravy over chops. Makes 4 servings.
"I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage." - Erma Bombeck
Being a quilter for over 30 years, I've learned one thing that's for sure (as my good friend Ops - short for Oprah - would say) and that's this: You can't go wrong if you buy too much! You will never be forced to have a "close enough" fabric in a quilt again! I've always said that I make 30-foot quilts - or put another way, quilts that look good from 30 feet away! One day I hope to make "inchers." In the meantime, as I struggle to make points match, I'm happily trying to cover every bed, sofa, and chair in my house with a quilt - that's normal, right?
Ahhhh....food....
We may live without poetry, music and art;
We may live without conscience and
live without heart;
We may live without friends;
we may live without books;
But civilized man cannot live without cooks.
He may live without books,
what is knowledge but grieving?
He may live without hope,
What is hope but deceiving?
He may live without love,
What is passion but pining?
But where is the man that can live without dining?
Owen Meredith...or as I like to call him....
The Earl of Sandwich
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