Remains of the Day

Matthew paid me a surprise visit yesterday, and so my plans for the day were put on hold. We passed one another as I was leaving to get my hair cut. By the end of the day, Smitty was downright despondent over the lack of sewing time.

Sadie gave up and napped in the cubby of her scratching pole. Sometimes she likes to get into that space where the toy mouse hangs.

Matthew stayed the day, ate dinner with us, and then stayed the night. He'll head back to spend the day with Lyndsey this afternoon. I'll be leaving this morning for my monthly pedicure.

For dinner last night, I was on a mission to use up some of the CSA veggies. We had a beautiful head of lettuce, and I used it to make this Butter Lettuce Salad with Oranges and Red Onion Dressing. The red onions are marinated/pickled in the dressing, and then fresh oranges are added. Otherwise, the lettuce is the star of this show. I had some CSA sugar snap peas too, and so I tossed those in as a way of dispensing with them.

Now, you'll have to use your imagination with this next dish because it isn't a looker. The other members have been raving about it on the CSA Facebook page, but this was my first time making it. This is a recipe from Smitten Kitchen, and her recipes are always winners. I used her Swiss Chard and Sweet Potato Gratin recipe to make this dish. It takes a good amount of Swiss Chard, and I didn't have enough, so I supplemented with CSA spinach and kale. Also, it can be made using regular potatoes, but I used sweet potatoes.

The recipe makes a ton of food, and it's supposed to be baked in a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. I split mine between two 8 x 8 dishes with a plan to freeze the second one. She suggested baking it first and then reheating after thawing the frozen dish in the refrigerator, and so that's what I did. Anyway...although it looks as if it's already been eaten, I can tell you that it was delicious. It's a bit of a to-do to put it together, but it can be done ahead of time. Greens are always the hardest CSA vegetables to use. It's always a treat to find a recipe that makes them taste good and uses up so many. I used a combination of chard, kale, and spinach, but really, I think you could use any greens you want in this dish.

Mike and Matthew needed to do some work outside after dinner, and so I was able to get in a little sewing time at the end of the day. It was time to start sewing the blocks together for the Guatemala quilt. I was just getting ready to sew on the first horizontal lattice strip when Sadie showed up.

You're doing lattice strips? Blech! I hate that kind of sewing! I'll come back when you start laying out little bits and pieces, and then I'll help you with the layout. Deal? Deal.

So if I was doing lattice strips, then you know I had at least one row sewn together. I laid it out on the floor to take a look...

and then with no help from Sadie, I sewed the first lattice strip to the bottom.

Your quilt is not large enough to accommodate my handsome and hulking furry body.

Well, I assured him that the quilt was only just getting started, and then I sewed the second row of blocks together.

I was in the process of pinning the second lattice strip to the bottom when I needed to stop for the day.

The quilt consists of 8 rows of 6 blocks connected by sashings, and then a lattice strip between each row. There is one narrow border around the whole quilt. Since I'll be working with this on and off the machine, I worried a little about the raw edge at the top fraying and stretching from so much handling. It seemed a good idea to sew a line of stitching across the top to stabilize it until I can sew the border on. That will be the last strip I sew, and the quilt will get a lot of handling in the meantime.

So, I didn't get much done yesterday, but I'll have all of this afternoon to work on it. I should be able to get well along by day's end.