3/29/20

Here's What's Cooking

Smitty has developed a strategic plan to deal with his free-loading housecatmate. Their morning routine has always been to wake up the people, chomp on the morning treats conveniently dispensed by the now-awake people, beg to be let into the clubhouse (that's their space between the basement and main levels of the house), take a morning nap in the clubhouse, come back upstairs and beg for more treats. Only, since we've been home, Smitty has worked out a new plan. He first begs for the clubhouse to be opened and lures Sadie down there too. Once Sadie is asleep in the clubhouse, he sneaks back upstairs where all the laps belong to him exclusively now. Pretty smart, huh?

So here he is taking advantage of Mike's lap.


When Mike got up from his chair, he came and took up my lap while I did my slow-stitching. Generally, Sadie has this job. It's one of the best jobs a cat has in this house.


Slow-stitching time was over though, and so I went back to work on the Guacamole block. I needed to finish the top-stitching and stitch in a few more details. When all of that was finished, it looked like this:


By machine, I stitched some white thread to lighten up the ends of the onions, and I stitched in some roots. Also, some lines on the garlic cloves, and some ribs on the tomato.


Bits of tomato were stitched by hand into the guacamole.


After that, I needed to hand stitch the fringe on the table cloth and add borders, and the whole thing was finished.


The fringe was kind of a bugger. The pattern instructed me to cut 40 4-inch lengths of 6-strand embroidery floss and to tie a knot in the center of each length. Well...does anyone know a way to get the knot to land in the center? Because I don't. I got better at it as I went along, using my fingers to guide it to where I wanted before pulling it tight. Then, I was to use a needle and thread to make two loops around the knot, thus fastening it down. I worried those would pull out, and so I took my first stitch through the knot, and then made a loop over it before moving on to the next one. The whole process took about two hours. I'm happy with how it turned out though.


Menacingly, there are still five more blocks of the 12 total that will require stitching more fringe. That will have me dragging my feet on an otherwise fun project. And since several of you mentioned you were hungry for guacamole now, I'm including the recipe that was included with the pattern. Each of the blocks in the quilt has an associated recipe.


When I make my way into the sewing room today, I'll be starting on another new project...this City Bank quilt. I'm hoping to make a dent in my blue and green scraps. The one pictured here is done all in solids, but I'll be using what I have in my scrap bins. I'll probably get a mix of prints and solids.


This pattern can be found in this book by Cherri House:


I've made several quilts from this book. It's a good book.

When I fed my starter yesterday, I added 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour and 1/3 cup of water. It about half filled the jar when I was finished. When we went to bed last night, it looked like this:


Whoa! I think it's ready! So I've gone back and forth about which loaf to make, and I've finally settled on an Artisan Sourdough No-Knead Bread. I've made it before with good results.


It uses both whole-wheat and white bread flour. This morning I mixed it up and left it sitting at room temperature.


Now it will sit until around 3:30 this afternoon when I'll take it through the next steps. I'm hoping we'll have some fresh bread around dinner time.

So that's what's cooking today. What's cooking at your house? Hint: It doesn't have to be edible.

14 comments:

Shepherdess55 said...

When Sadie wakes up from her nap in the clubhouse, does she realize she's been duped out of lap time?

For the fringe, I would cut the embroidery floss longer, maybe 5-6" and proceed with tying knots as near to the middle as possible. Then after it's attached to the block, I would trim the fringe to an even 2" length.

Katie said...

I think the lemon needs some dimples, too...perhaps french knots to give it the look? And for the fringe, why not sew those lengths of thread as though you are tying a quilt? That's pretty much what it looks like now, so other than taming the threads to go the direction you wish (when tying a quilt they do whatever they want!), it seems a possible option. Or maybe I've got quarantine brain. Or whatever kitten Finn has that had him frantically attacking my pantleg as I tried to brush my teeth this morning?!

Marcia Kennedy said...

Just finished having french toast and sausages my husband made for us. He likes to cook. I do, too, if it is about once per week. Otherwise, if it weren't for hubby I would be 100 pounds lighter and eat foods I like eating (yogurt, salads, hard boiled eggs, most veggies)! Hope you and your whole family are and stay healthy!

Quilting Babcia said...

Still awaiting signs of life from my sourdough starter so yesterday we cooked a turkey breast in the crockpot for the first time. Used a recipe from the Damndelicious site and it was wonderful. Made some oven stuffing to go with and a simple cranberry relish. Mini Thanksgiving that will keep on giving for a few more days I hope. Your guacamole in the bowl looks almost three-dimensional. That one block would make a fun mini quilt for the kitchen.

LavenderBlue said...

The guacamole project is wonderful. After living in San Diego for 33 years, I miss the authentic southwestern food here in Georgia. But every region has specialties....lots of delicious shrimp here. ;-)

works4me said...

Great finish on the guacamole block. I admire that you never shy away from a challenge.

I am currently cross stitching instead of quilting. Later today I will go through my bread machine cookbooks so I can let the machine do the work tomorrow. I am also thinking of making some double chocolate cookies. Last time I made them hubby said they were too chocolatey. Is that even a thing?

Sally Trude said...

Buddy and Molly did not know that they should be paid for waking me up each morning and are now insisting on back pay. Molly also wants to know if she should get paid treats for keeping me from falling asleep.

Julierose said...

Oh thanks for the guac recipe--I've been thinking about some since your last post...
I love how your guacamole block is coming out. You do such lovely machine stitchery...mine leaves a lot to be desired...;000
Cheeseburgers on the grill (in the rain yet--what a guy!!) and my own homemade french fries crisped in the oven with olive oil..sooo good.

~ ~ ~ waving from our house to yours...julierose ;))

Vroomans' Quilts said...

So much fun play in the first block. Smarty pants Smitty - remember Sadie will have pay back some where down the line.

Sandra W said...

Fringe. My suggestion is similar to another comment. I would simply stitch the fringe on and the stitching would become the knot. That is, make the stitch look like a knot by adding another stitch. And, as already suggested start with a longer thread and trim them all afterwards.
Love that photo of Smitty napping.

QueenB said...

Thanks for all the info. I have loved reading all of your adventures. I especially love seeing what Smitty & Sadie get up to, and your stitching as I quilt and embroider myself.Do you have a website for the artisan sour dough bread? I have printed the recipee for the starter which has the pineapple juice as my hubby brought pineapple juice instead of apple juice.
Stay well. Simone in Melbourne Australia

Linda said...

I can't get over how real the guac block looks. Really pretty work.
I wish my cats would sit on our laps like yours do.
Your bread always looks amazing, I would weigh 600 lbs at your house. At our house Hubby cooked burgers over the weekend; I never tire of them!

Anonymous said...

I think for the fringe I would take a couple of stitches over the middle of the threads and THEN tie the knot- thus fixing two problems at once- the thread would be knotted in the middle and they would be secured without having to stitch through the knot- what do you think?

That Smitty is a clever one!

piecefulwendy said...

I'm running very low on flour. Have some on order, but who knows when it will arrive. (Had to order; none in stores) On the quilt side, I'm playing with an improv piece that started out in one direction and ended up in another. I like it, and that's all that matters, right? That little guac block is very cute. I like all the little touches you put in. Not sure I'd have liked that fringe step either, but it looks great! Sneaky Smitty. :-)