Serious Sewing Ahead

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It pains me to say this, but I have done no sewing in the sewing room since December 23rd. And just let me say that I am seriously Jonesing for it. What are you going to do? It's been a busy couple of weeks starting with our family dinner on Christmas Eve, heading over to Bend this past weekend, attempting to get organized upon our return, and then making our traditional ham dinner for New Year's Day. That was yesterday, and we had so much fun!

Recall that we agreed to forgo the Christmas gift exchange this year in favor of planning a family get-together. I had some anxiety about whether we could actually pull this off, and I've been referring to it as an "experiment". When we got together on Christmas Eve, we pulled off a veritable miracle by deciding on a place and a date in about five minutes' time. Try syncing the schedules and desires of six busy people sometime, and you'll know what I mean.

That accomplished, our goal was to look at some vacation rentals and come together at our New Year's Day dinner to decide on the actual rental. And again, we did it! Yay us! What surprised me about this whole endeavor was how much fun we had doing it.

Thanks to Mike, who's very smart about these kinds of things, we could put the links we'd selected up on our large monitor in the living room so that we could all look at the pictures of the places at the same time. Hilarity ensued as we started making comments about this thing or that thing...the more rude the comment, the more we laughed. Yep. We're a classy group. I'll just say there are certain advantages to having no young ears around to repeat things that are better left unsaid.

So we have plans to stay at a nice home overlooking Tumalo Lake in Central Oregon in March. You can see the place right here. All that's left to do now is sign the rental agreement and pay the rent. I am beside myself with excitement about this. When we decided to try this, I had almost no confidence we could actually pull it off. Of course, the acid test will be actually getting ourselves there on the assigned date. Of that, I am much more confident.

Once we had decided on a place, Matthew and Valerie found some hilarious videos on YouTube.

I don't generally spend a lot of time searching out things to watch on YouTube, but I'm starting to wonder if I should. They showed us one in particular that had us rolling on the floor. If you've ever seen those extreme skateboarders, then you'll appreciate this parody video of extreme wheelbarrowing.

I don't know when I've laughed so hard. There were others as well. As you might guess, it was a raucous evening.

Smitty got his comeuppance for all his pestering of Gracie when Matthew gave him a taste of his own medicine.

He was thoroughly put out at having all his toys piled all over him.

And he was getting quite enough when Matthew loved him to death.

We finally gave him a break and set him up with his own YouTube videos, which he watches with rapt attention.

He especially likes the one with blackbirds in it.

He's not much better than I am when it comes to falling asleep in front of the television.

So in addition to acting completely juvenile (which happens when you're around kids of all ages), we had a dinner of ham, my mother's version of a 7-layer salad (one of Erik's favorites), and Ina Garten's version of maple baked beans. I've linked to the recipe there. These beans are so seriously good that you'll never eat the canned ones again. They aren't difficult to make, but they do take some advance planning. You need to soak your beans over night, and then they bake low and slow in the oven all day on the day you want to serve them. Man, oh, man. Are they ever good. 

Also, I tried a new recipe I found in the December/January 2015 issue of Cook's Country called "Funeral Potatoes". I note that they have two versions on their website. The one I tried is the low-fat version, although I'd like to give the regular version a try. I'd link to the recipe, but the website requires a membership. If you can log onto Cook's Country, you can see it there. 

Finally, as promised, I'm giving you my recipe for Luscious Lemon Cheesecake. 

It's not much to look at in this picture. Recall that we were trying to decide if it was as good or better than the cranberry cheesecake I made last week. We couldn't decide, but we all agreed that choosing the best cheesecake recipe in all the world would be a worthwhile endeavor. I've been making this cheesecake for years. It first appeared in Cooking Light (of all places) in the days when we were still writing with charcoal and lighting the way with oil lanterns. I wasn't able to find it online, so here you go:

                      

Luscious Lemon Cheesecake

FOR CRUST:

2 cups crushed cinnamon grahams, approximately 26

6 tablespoons unsalted butter -- melted

FOR FILLING:

3 8-oz. packages cream cheese -- room temperature

1 1/3 cups sugar

3 eggs -- room temperature

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

FOR TOPPING:

2 cups sour cream

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

FOR GLAZE:

3/4 cup water

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

1 egg yolk

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon butter

2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

Thinly sliced lemon rounds, halved and twisted (Optional)

For crust:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 9-inch spring form pan. Blend crumbs and melted butter in bowl. Press mixture into bottom and up sides of prepared pan. Bake 5 minutes. Cool.

For filling:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese until soft. Gradually blend in sugar. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Mix in lemon juice, lemon peel and vanilla. Pour into crust. Bake until slightly puffed, about 50 minutes. Maintain oven temperature at 350 degrees.

For topping:  Blend all ingredients in small bowl. Spread on top of cake. Bake 20 minutes; topping will not look set. Cool 30 minutes.

For glaze:  Combine water, lemon juice and yolk in heavy small saucepan. Stir in sugar, cornstarch and salt. Bring to boil over low heat, stirring constantly, about 10 minutes. Add butter and lemon peel and stir until butter melts. Cool glaze for 20 minutes.  

Spoon glaze over cake. Cool completely. Refrigerate until well chilled.  

Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Garnish with lemon slices. Serve cold.

It's not difficult to make, but all those steps mean it's a bit of a production. Still, if you're a cheesecake lover, it's worth the effort. It's my favorite.

So that about brings you up to date. My friend Sue and I walked for the first time in a long time this morning. It was a brisk 26°F., but there was no wind, and so we barely noticed the cold. We had a lot of gabbing to catch up on, and so it was a great way to start the morning.

When I got home, I had a serious itch to stitch something...anything...and so I sat down and stitched up the whole sucker on my Gingerbread Square block. It was more stitching than I realized, but I did the whole thing anyway.

I'm really enjoying this project so far. Having the color on the fabric makes it so much fun to stitch. Recall that I purchased the floss kit for this project...all these pretty colors. Look at those sparkly ones in the upper right.

I'm winding the skeins onto the plastic cards as I use them. It's my first time using floss on spools like that. I've always eyed them suspiciously when I see them in quilt shops. They're always wrapped in paper and you can't really see what you're getting. In case (like me) you are unfamiliar with them, they come off the spool in double strands, and so you can cut the length you want and just thread your needle without the necessity of separating six strands down to two. Nice.

That's about all I have to tell you. I have a free weekend ahead. Mike was the best husband ever by helping me with a lot of the housework yesterday. I'm free and clear to do some serious sewing starting tomorrow. Our weather is still quite cold with the wind picking up every now and then. Gracie knows what to do, and I'm just about to go join her.

Have a great weekend everybody!