5/13/19

Sewing Day Ahead

The past week or so has felt very busy, and yet, completely enjoyable. Today things will get back to normal, more or less. In fact, they'll be so normal that I'll be picking up the first share for this year's CSA tomorrow. We've been getting CSA veggies for about five years now, and so the first share of the season feels a part of our rhythm now.

It was a lovely Mother's Day yesterday. We had very nice weather...warm, but not too hot. Early on, we had a couple of visitors to our field.


They're probably sniffing out the rosebuds on our one rose bush. I'm surprised at how shaggy their fur is this time of year.


My first task for the day was to put the topping on the cheesecake and make an attempt at chocolate curls. These aren't half bad.


It would have worked better with a thicker Baker's chocolate bar, but I was using the thinner Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate. I stacked a couple of pieces on top of one another and used my Y-style vegetable peeler to make these. The pieces were stacked because I needed the height to accommodate the peeler.

With that finished, I got to work transplanting the tomato plants into their largest pots of the season. Usually, I go with a medium-sized pot first. These tomatoes seemed so big and sturdy, I thought I might be transplanting them again later in the week. The biggest pots were the better choice. Now, grow, You! Make tomatoes and be merry!


There was a lot to do getting ready for dinner with the kids last night, but I managed to make my way into the sewing room around 3:00. From there, I made 32 half square triangles and then puzzled out their placement.



Usually, I sew the wrong seam on these and have to take out one or two when I can't lay them out right on a second pass. Yesterday, I paid careful attention and got them all sewn together right...so far. When I left for the day, I still needed to sew the horizontal seams. There's still time to F-up.



It was time to stop for the day then. Erik called to say they were on their way. They arrived with two dozen roses, and Mae arranged them in a vase. So pretty.


We had a nice dinner and a nice conversation. Everything is going well in their world, and so it was all good news from them. Even Erik's beloved Trailblazers have made it into the NBA Western Conference Finals. Mike and I used to be Blazer Believers until a while back when they turned into the Jailblazers, and we lost interest. It might be time to start rooting for the home team again.

As for the cheesecake, it's always scary removing the "form" from the springform pan, but this one came off beautifully.


When you make this, you sprinkle chocolate chips over the crust, then add the filling, and then add more chocolate chips so that there is chocolate both under and over the filling. The topping is made from whipped cream, sugar, and instant coffee granules. It's such a tasty mix.


You can find the recipe for this Bailey's Chocolate Chip Cheesecake right here. Yes, it has a lot of cream cheese and a lot of eggs. Were you under the impression that cheesecake is diet food? Sorry if I've burst your bubble, but you'll be more successful in your weight loss efforts now that you know the truth.

Okay, so I'm taking it more easy today. I need to do a little work in the kitchen, but most of the day will be spent sewing. I'm catching up on my monthly blocks, but then I'm going to start sewing the Snow Globes together. It won't happen today, but later this week, I'll be coming for them.

7 comments:

Quilting Babcia said...

Your cheesecake looks really yummy, and those orange scrappy triangles are so lush. I really love orange fabrics in a quilt, any quilt pretty much!

Julierose said...

Loving your orange "oranges" ;)))) makes me smile--nice stars....
that cheesecake is lovely--hugs, Julierose

Angie in SoCal said...

Lovely everything, Barb. And Happy Birthday, too. Those orange blocks are something - all that glowing orange color.
That was such a sweet picture of your mom and you.

SJSM said...

What a lovely mother’s da you had!. Our SIL along with daughter put a garden in for us. We have clay soil and needed it broken up. SIL used a rototiller which just bounced off the clay for the first pass. It’s a good thing he was behind the tiller as he is in good shape and can keep the tiller under control. By mid afternoon we had tomatoes, peppers, eggplant strawberries all in the ground. We would not have a garden without their help. It is a wonderful mother’s da present.

I’m loving your stitcheries and the blocks. Orange has always been a color I liked. The baileys cheesecake recipe is in my list now. Thanks for the ever growing list of recipes to try.

piecefulwendy said...

Oh my, that cheesecake turned out really well! The roses are beautiful; what a lovely and thoughtful gift. This week, I'm going to go get flowers for my planters. I think we are finally at that point now, and it's supposed to be nice enough outdoors to do some planting. Coffee with a friend this morning, then probably sewing this afternoon. I'm supposed (according to my app) to do some intuitive exercise today -- I'm thinking maybe I should do interpretive dance (haha) - there will be no videos. Enjoy your day, Barbara!

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

Lovely cheesecake. I LOVE a baked cheesecake. I used to make them often and gave them as gifts to various people too. The Pillsbury Cheesecake cookbook has some of my favorite recipes. Your roses are so pretty. I am waiting not so patiently for the weather to warm so I can plant the petunias I received. A lady at the church where my grandson is a youth director sells petunia she grows with proceeds going to the church. The colors are unusual and Miracle Grow brings them to life.
xx, Carol

kc said...

Those peaches and oranges look as yummy as your cheesecake! Nice job on all of it!