Safe and Sound

Good morning, my friends. Well, our big scary storm turned into a big nothing burger yesterday evening. We got some rain, but barely any wind, and no tornados nor monster hail. (I think our northern neighbors in Washington got the worst of it.) The sky grew dark around dinner time. Interestingly, I could see a rainbow, even though we'd only seen a few sprinkles of rain. You can see it in the lower half of the image below.

Looking to my left, I noticed the flowers on the star magnolia had opened some, and so I ran out for a couple of pictures before the rain could ruin them.

And there was so little moisture from the storm, the flowers still look good this morning.

The earlier part of the day was warm and sunny. The kitties got lots of time outdoors. When it grew darker and stormy-looking, they were bored by the whole thing. 

It seemed like a perfect time for some shut-eye.

And since nothing was happening at our place weather-wise, I texted the kids to see how things were at their place. Erik lives in Beaverton, about 30 minutes east of us. Nothing going on there. Matthew lives on the east side of Portland...maybe an hour from us. This was the text exchange I had with him.

While we were monitoring the weather for any signs of impending doom, I was in the middle of making dinner. I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but I had to purchase a block of Swiss cheese for a recipe a while back. (Query: Why doesn't Swiss cheese come in "shredded" packages? Why do I have to buy a whole 8-oz. block?) And that always leaves me with a big hunk of Swiss cheese to figure a way to use. And at some point, I actually ended up with two partially-used blocks. Well. This meant calling in recipe reinforcements. How could I possibly use that much Swiss cheese? 

So, I've done a couple of things with the cheese. Last night's recipe used a full cup (and the last of one of those blocks). This is French Onion Meatloaf.  It was baked in a loaf pan lined with foil, which made it easy to remove it from the pan.

It wasn't hard to make, but it took about two hours. The onions were first browned with some oil and butter until they were very brown. Half were added to the meatloaf and half were added to the top when it was almost fully baked. The cheese was also added at the end. It was very tasty and a good way to use a full cup of shredded Swiss. This was originally a Cooking Light recipe, but it's no longer available online. I'll give it to you here. And probably everyone has their own way of making meatloaf...certainly I do...but I offer this up for its use of plenty of Swiss cheese.

French Onion Meatloaf

Adapted from Cooking Light

Serves 8

Ingredients:

Cooking spray

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

2 medium sweet onions, (about 1 pound), thinly sliced

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons sherry

½ cup seasoned bread crumbs

¼ cup whole milk

¼ cup beef broth

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

2 large eggs, beaten

2 pounds ground beef

1 cup shredded Gruyere or Swiss cheese (about 3 ounces)

Garnishes: fresh thyme sprigs, chopped parsley (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9- x 5-inch loaf pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.

In a large skillet, heat oil and butter over medium-high heat. Add onions and sugar to pan; cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, for 20 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook an additional 5 minutes or until onions are browned and very soft.

Deglaze the pan by adding sherry and scraping brown bits from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Cook an additional 3 minutes or until sherry has evaporated. Cool for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl add half of the caramelized onions, bread crumbs, milk, beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and eggs. Stir to combine. Add in ground beef and gently mix with your hands to combine. Do not overmix.

Transfer mixture to prepared pan and gently press down to form an even layer. Bake for 55-60 minutes. Carefully remove from oven and drain fat. Top with cheese and remaining onions. Bake an additional 5 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf reads 165°F.

Let cool in pan for 15 minutes before slicing. Garnish with thyme sprigs and chopped parsley, if desired.

* * * * *

Okay, so that pretty well covers the end of the day. Let's back up to the beginning of the day. I had one housekeeping chore, and I went for a walk on the treadmill. There was time for some sewing after lunch. I quilted another row on Jericho's Wall.

It was left needle down right here. Today I'll be quilting the fourth of seven rows, so I'm making progress.

With that finished, I traced out two more embroidery sections for the Raggedy & Friends project. These are the two sections for Block 5.

There was still some time left in the day. Smitty helped me study the pattern in preparation for sewing together The Story of My Day.

Mainly, I'll be sewing all the blocks together, adding a narrow border, and then adding a wider pieced border. The pieced borders will be a bit of a puzzle to sew together, as the block borders were. This is the diagram from the book.

I had time to sew together two of five rows of blocks. 

If there's time for sewing today, I'm hoping to finish sewing all of the blocks together, and then I can start working on the borders.

And that's a big "if" up there because I'm getting a pedicure today. Afterward, I'm going to break down and go shopping for some jeans. If you've been paying attention, then you know I've been patching my jeans for over a year, trying to extend their life. 

Also, I've never been a fan of this skinny jeans fad going on right now, and so I've been patching my old jeans waiting for the style to change. Recently, I've become aware that we're back to jeans with higher waists and wider legs, and that makes me very happy. I'm starting to feel more confident that I can have a successful jeans shopping expedition if I can force myself back into a store. And, all of that to say, that I'm still on the fence about whether to go jeans shopping today. The idea isn't filling me with dread, and so I just might do it. And that would cut into my sewing time. Hm. It's a cruel world of decision-making, isn't it? I'm starting to think I'm too old to make up my mind about anything.

But for now, I'll combine my jeans-shopping contemplation with a little slow stitching. You can check back tomorrow for the exciting conclusion.