A Little Finish

Good morning, my friends. I'm hoping y'all had a lovely Mother's Day yesterday. We had a good day at this end. Our bunch meet-up wasn't until 11:30 a.m., and so I had some time in the morning to do a few things. It started with a pretty sunrise.

The Stanbro Men enjoyed a morning relaxing on the front patio.

Mike has been gnashing his teeth trying to get our automatic sprinkler system to work. He set this all up several years ago in anticipation of our trip to Alaska. And don't go getting any ideas about this being anything in-ground or fancy. Our sprinkler "system" is hoses, rainbirds, and oscilating sprinklers all controlled by an electronic "hub" that plugs into the regular electrical socket inside. (I don't understand all of this, but I'm sticking with my usual explanation for all technological gadgets: Magic.) Mike can operate it from an app on his iPad, and so he was able to turn it on and off while we were traveling in Alaska.

Fast forward to today, and the "hub" was giving him trouble. He finally ended up replacing it, but it still wasn't working right. Finally, finally, finally he got it working yesterday, and so all's well.

While he and Smitty figured that out, I took some time to sew the binding onto the Vintage Valentine. I figured I could do the hand sewing in the afternoon. I used that same binding fabric in some of the quilt blocks.

 

Okay, and then it was time to go. Mae's mom selected the restaurant in Northwest Portland. We'd never been there before. There are at least two of these in the city of Portland. It's a pastry shop, but it's also a Japanese-American fusion menu. The chef is a woman of Japanese heritage.

Everything in the restaurant was pink...the walls, the lighting, the menus...and so you're going to see that all my pictures have a pink cast. And would a Mother's Day brunch be complete without Mimosas? I think not. We could flavor them with a hibiscus-strawberry juice, black cherry juice, or orange juice.

And look at these desserts...little works of art, all. You can probably zoom in to read the labels.

We started with our main courses. I had the French Toast, which was a little like having dessert for breakfast.

Mae and her mom shared a serving of the souffle pancakes. These took a full half hour to rise, and so they were ordered in advance.

Erik had some Bao Bao Buns. They were a little like a taco in a thick soft shell. Mike had the tempura shrimp. I didn't take pictures of theirs. 

For dessert, I chose the chocolate caramel cake. This was a small cake...about donut sized, and it had a mousse-like interior, rather than cake-like.

This is a chocolate pine cone with marionberry filling inside.

This was called Mango Tango. It was a mango mousse with banana and passionfruit filling. This seemed to be everyone's favorite. (Of course we tasted one another's.) Those colors are true. I have no idea how that's done.

Erik and Mike ordered the Oreo Lava Praline Cheesecake. This was really yummy.

And here we all are postprandial! That's Mae's mom on the right.

It was lovely, and I was happy Erik and Mae thought to put it all together. Thanks, you guys.

On our way home, we passed by this red clover field all in bloom. We're seeing these all over our rural area. The clover puts nitrogen back in the soil, and when it's bloomed out, the seeds are harvested and sold.

Back home, the kitties were champing at the bit to get outside.

I didn't even pause before walking down to check on the Lavender Whisper peony, and IT OPENED!!!!! It's more pink than lavender, but it's very fragrant.

There are several flowers on this one plant.

I'm hoping the Joker peony will mend it's teasing ways and open today, but I haven't checked on it yet.

Before we left in the morning, I'd taken some items out of the refrigerator in preparation for baking some cookies. There are three pint jars of homemade sweet cherry pie filling in our pantry that are getting old and need to be used. With more cherries coming, the time is now. The night before, I'd inquired of The Google what I could make with cherry pie filling that wasn't pie. The Google came back with (among other things) this recipe from America's Test Kitchens for Cherry Cheesecake Cookies. And I had a partial brick of cream cheese I wanted to use, so that seemed the obvious choice.

There were mixed up, and then refrigerated for half an hour to firm-up the dough. Then, I rolled them into balls and rolled them in graham cracker crumbs. Then, I used a tablespoon measuring spoon to create a little dent, and three cherries were added to each. When they came from the oven, they looked like this.

So those are tasty. They're a soft cookie. I baked them for the maximum time listed in the recipe, and they were browned around the edges. I have a feeling they might have benefitted from a little more time in the oven. I'll try them again sometime. I've linked to the recipe above the image, but you'll need a subscription to America's Test Kitchens to open it. If you can't open it, and you really want the recipe, email me and I'll be happy to send it to you. I scaled the recipe down to 1/3 the original. The original recipe calls for three(!) cans of cherry pie filling, and I only wanted to use one.

So, while I was waiting for those to chill and bake, I finished hand-sewing the binding for the Vintage Valentine. It ends up at 16-1/2 x 18-1/2 inches.

Here's how it looks from the back.

It was a good day...busy and tiring. Later in the day Sadie was channeling my energy level.

So, I didn't get any more quilting done, but I'm hoping to have plenty of time for that today. It's a PT day. I had to reschedule my usual Wednesday appointment to accommodate Mike's cataract surgery that day. I'm also hoping to get in a walk on the treadmill. There's some housekeeping to do, but my top sewing priority will be to get another quilt block finished. If there's still time in the day, I want to sew the Hawksbill Honu into a finished quilt top.

When I bought this kit, I also bought some fabric for finishing it off, and so it's just a matter of cutting and sewing it all together. 

So...that's a full day. Fortunately, we have leftovers for dinner again tonight. And with so much going on, it's time for me to be on my way. Enjoy your Monday, Everybody!