Fleet of Foot

Good morning, my friends. And if there are any dads out there reading...then, Happy Father's Day to you!

And, wow. I am feeling so much better this morning. It was good to have my energy level back yesterday. I went a whole 24 hours without once using my inhaler. Things are definitely looking up.

The morning started with a few things on my to-do list. For the route I was taking and the order of tasks, it made sense to just have a little walk around first. The flowers are wowing me just now. This is the variegated hydrangea.

Honestly, I can’t get over the beauty of this clematis. The flowers are about four inches across. And look at that deep purple with the strip of red down the center. Incredible. They might have taken over first place for my favorite flower.

Oh…but it’s hard to beat my current first place finisher. The checkers dahlia is nearly open. Whoa. Eye-popping.

And the Stargazer lily. It is covered in buds. This is just the beginning.

And then there’s this funny little thing. If I’m remembering right, it’s a yellow calla lily. It comes up most years. Sometimes it flourishes and blooms. Sometimes it comes up and never does anything more than what you see below. Sometimes it just doesn’t show itself above ground at all. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. I’m told it was a mild winter here. Maybe we’ll get a flower from it this year.

The red leaf lettuce is getting big enough that we can start picking leaves off of it. I wouldn’t want to take much, but I think we can start to graze a little for sandwiches and the like.

From there, I went to work filling the bird feeders. As I was hanging one of the hummingbird feeders, I noticed the purple hydrangea is blooming as well. This is one of two flowers, and there will be many more.

So, it was nearing lunch time by then, and I had convinced myself to bake the Moravian Sugar Bread. It gave Mike something to snack on as a Father’s Day treat this morning. He’ll get his usual Eggs Benedict too. I’ll say more about the bread in a minute. For now, just know I put it in the oven, and then headed to the sewing room to fix the necks on the two middle Yoder sisters. 

Sadie was my emotional support cat for this activity.

So I mentioned this in yesterday’s post. I needed to very gently and carefully use my pointy-nosed tweezers to pry up the fused applique just enough to slip a small…maybe about 1/2-inch…square of fabric underneath. Then I could fuse it down again. And this turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. There. All fixed.

And, it wasn’t as obvious on the sister with just one braid, but I decided to give her a neck too. With the rest of her sisters all having necks, I was afraid she’d get the FOMO, and we can’t have that. Besides, we couldn’t have any of these little ladies walking around as if they’d been guillotined somehow.

Okay, and it was about that time that my bread was reach for the next step. When it came from the oven, it looked like this.

It’s a multi-step process to make this bread, taking a little longer than expected, but a lot of the time involved is just waiting for this thing or that thing to happen. Before it goes into the oven, you use your fingers to press deep holes into the dough. Then, it’s covered by a brown sugary/cinnamon topping, and then melted butter before putting it into the oven. When it comes out, it’s cooled for 20 minutes in the pan, and then flipped upside-down and cut into 9 pieces (or whatever size you want).

I snagged a piece that was warm, and it was really very nice. The dough is made with mashed potatoes. I thought Mike’s description of it was spot on: It tastes like coffee cake, but coffee cake has a dense dry crumb. This has the flavor of coffee cake, but the texture of a dinner roll.

I’d like to try this again with a couple of changes. First, one of the readers’ comments suggested covering the top with the sugar topping before making the finger indentations. It seemed like a good idea when I read it. Nevertheless, I think I might have gotten more of the sugary-cinnamon goodness into the interior of the cake if I’d done it as suggested in the recipe; that is, make the indentations first, and then sprinkle the sugar, making sure to get it deep in the indentations. 

Second, looking at the pictures that accompany the recipe, I’ve realized it probably was not supposed to have been flipped upside down. The sugar should be on top. It seems to me, it would need to be cut in the pan first, or else the pan would need to be lined with parchment before baking to enable the cake to be easily lifted out of the pan…top up. And all of that means I must try it again, and soon. When Mike really likes something, he says “it needs more practice.” This one definitely does. 

I should say that I also followed one of the readers’ suggestions to use instant potato flakes. Since I happened to have an open box, that seemed worth a try. I made it in the microwave, as suggested on the box, omitting both the butter and salt. I did include the milk. Here’s a link to the recipe if you want to try it yourself: Moravian Sugar Cake.

Okay…finally I could get to my sewing. I finished quilting the sashings on the Seasons quilt.

And that was the last place I wanted to use the tan thread on top. From there, I switched off to the yellow spool…this one:

It seemed a good plan to check my tension. Looks good on top…that’s the top line with the yellow arrow…

And the bottom looks good enough too…the bottom line with the yellow arrow. 

And then, with this being the Summer Solstice and all, where else would I start but with this summer block. This is the Summer’s Sun quilt block from Quilter’s Cache. I started around the center square and quilted radiating sunbeams from there.

It was nearing time to stop by then. I decided to thread the machine with the variegated blue…this one:

Checked the tension and left it needle down. That’s where I’ll start today.

It’s anybody’s guess how much time I’ll actually have for sewing today. With this being Father’s Day, there’s Eggs Benedict to make for breakfast. Also, Matthew is coming up today to spend some time with his dad. They’re both engineers and my understanding is that they are going to discuss AI things. (Don’t ask me.) He’s going to stay and have dinner with us this evening. I’m marinating some steaks for that. It’ll be a simple dinner. Mike will BBQ the steaks, and I’ll make some baked potatoes. Also, I’m baking a Lemon Meringue Tart. That was always on the menu for Father’s Day, but it’ll be nice to have Matthew join us. 

So, it seems as if I have another busy kitchen day is ahead of me, but I’m happy when I’m in the kitchen. I’ll do as much sewing as I can, and it will be a good day. I hope y’all enjoy your day as well.