Baking, Cooking, and Canning

 Good morning, my friends. I didn't think I'd have time to write this morning. As it turns out, my doctor's appointment isn't until 11:00, and so I have plenty of time for writing and for slow-stitching.

Before I tell you about yesterday's comings and goings, I can scarcely believe that I forgot to tell you about the pie I baked for Pi Day on Saturday. This was a Sweet Cherry Crumb Pie for Two. 

The recipe I've linked to is for the full-up version of a Tart Cherry Crumb Pie. It's from America's Test Kitchens, and so you'll need a subscription to open it. If you can't open it and you want the recipe, just email me, and I'll be happy to send it to you. For this particular pie, as a pie for two, I made just half the recipe. Also, the only part of the recipe I actually used was the part for the topping. I used a Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust and some homemade sweet cherry pie filling I made a while back using cherries from our own trees. I have made this pie from scratch before, and it's a delicious pie. The topping is wonderful. In any case...belated Happy Pi Day, Everybody!

So in yesterday's kitchen wanderings, I whomped up three half-pints of Small Batch Tomato-Jalapeno Jam. 

I love this stuff. I've made plenty of condiments from tomatoes. Salsa, of course, and also tomato chutney, Amy's Tomato Jam, and Moroccan-Spiced Sweet and Hot Cherry Tomato Preserves. Of all of them, the Tomato-Jalapeno Jam is my favorite. For one thing, it's pretty easy to make. From start to finish, this took me about an hour and a half. Mainly, I was setting a five-minute timer, and stirring it when time was up. We had it for breakfast this morning on our fried egg sandwiches, and mmm, mmm, mmm. That is some tasty stuff. Don't let that jalapeno pepper scare you. I remove the seeds and the ribs, and so there's no heat imparted...just the nice tang from the pepper.

With that finished, I could get back to my sewing. Smitty helped me clear the decks and spread out the Fantastic Felines for sandwiching. The quilt is 60 x 60 inches. I've always said 60 inches is my limit for sandwiching quilts in my sewing room. Larger quilts are sandwiched on sawhorse and plywood tables set up in the garage.

And having done this once, I've reaffirmed my 60-inch limit. 

Now it's draped over Eliza, awaiting its turn under my quilting needle...hopefully, this afternoon.

When that one was finished, Sadie was subbed in as my kitty helper. The decks were cleared, and she was awaiting the arrival of the Painted Ladies to be squared up for binding.

An efficiency expert, she helped me hold it down while simultaneously giving it the snuggleability test.

Having done all that, it was ready for binding. I used the same gray from the main body of the quilt.

And now that one is downstairs awaiting its turned to be clipped and hand-sewn. Hopefully, I'll have this finished in a few days.

After wrestling with two big quilts, we both needed naps.

For dinner last night, I tried a new recipe for Baked Artichoke Pasta with Creamy Goat Cheese. It was tasty, and not too difficult. I did just half the recipe and baked it in an 8 x 8 inch baking dish. When it came from the toaster oven, it looked like this:

If you click on the link I've given you, you'll see this is intended to be baked in a skillet. Since I was only doing half, I poured all of it into a baking dish and did it that way. It makes a large amount, and so there are leftovers. If I were to make the whole recipe, I'd probably still do it in a 13 x 9 inch baking dish. I figure the baking dishes are better for refrigerating leftovers. 

So that was a full day. It's gloomy out this morning, and we're expecting more rain over the coming week. We're hopeful of some better weather around Thursday, and I'm really needing to get out and do some weeding. Fingers crossed for some warmer temperatures and sunshine. As for today, I'm hoping I'll have time to get back to my sewing. If there's time, I'll get a start quilting the Fantastic Felines. For those, I'll just do a diagonal grid to make it easy on myself. Besides, I like the look of a diagonal grid. Also, I'll get started hand-sewing the binding on the Painted Ladies quilt. If there's even more time, I'm hoping to get the Gumballs quilt sewn into a finished quilt top. 

There's plenty to keep me busy today. Right now, there's time for some slow-stitching, and that's where I'm headed next. Have a good day and a good week, Everybody. Tomorrow is St. Paddy's Day. If you remember to wear green pajamas tonight, you'll be safe from pinching tomorrow morning.

Ready for Binding

Good morning, my friends. It was a very nice day here yesterday. It's still too chilly to be outside, but the sunshine was very nice. It gave me a chance to get out and take a look at what's what in the garden. Of course, the heather has been in bloom for a long time. We planted it because it is a winter bloomer.

A few daffodils have opened…the white ones with a yellow center. Last fall we planted some unconventional colors, but they’re all still in tight buds.

The flowering plums lining our driveway are starting to open.

All five of my peonies have shoots coming up. One of the peonies was replaced a couple of years ago. Since we were gone last year, I haven’t yet seen the new one bloom. That will give me something to look forward to.

All four of our blueberries have buds coming on. 

The blueberries had their best year ever last summer. We weren’t here to enjoy them, but our neighbor picked them and shared the image below. It’s been about five or six years since we planted the blueberries, and up until now, their yield has been paltry. This year…this year will be our year to enjoy them.

The Edda clematis has survived another winter. (I believe our winter was fairly mild this year.)

It had its best year ever last year too. Here’s another image our neighbor shared while we were traveling in Alaska.

There's some progress to report today. Happily, the quilting for the Painted Ladies is finished. It's ready for binding now.

Here’s a peek at the back.

With that finished, I went back to work on February’s Inverted Star. Sadie helped me with that. She was giving me tips on how to remember to use the leaders and enders. I’m still only remembering about 10% of the time.

She also helped me trim them to size.

It didn’t take too long, and I had February’s green Inverted Star finished.

Here are the two blocks I have for this quilt so far.

Today I have a few non-sewing things to do. For one thing, I need to make some tomato jam. It’s one of my favorite condiments and, tragically, I’m completely out of it. Fortunately, it’s a small batch recipe, and so even with processing time, it won’t take up too much of my day.

From there, I’m really hoping to get the Fantastic Felines quilt sandwiched for quilting. If I can get that done, I’ll get busy sewing the Gumballs into a finished flimsy. 

While I was out yesterday, I despaired about the weeds coming up. Especially the hairy bittercress. It is terribly invasive, and so I try to pull it all up before it has a chance to bloom. When I was out yesterday, I noticed some already has flowers, and so there’s no time to waste. Also, I need to cut the dead stuff off some of the other flowering shrubs. It’s too cold to be outside just yet, but we’re hoping for some warmer weather toward the end of the week. 

Tomorrow’s post will probably be late. I have an appointment to see my PCP. It’s just my annual check-up, but I’ll have a chance to whine to her about my shoulder issue. She might be able to grease the wheels if she also orders an MRI. One can only hope. Also, the orthopedist was going to send her a note about whether a calcium supplement and Vitamin D alone are enough for my thinning bones. My last bone scan showed osteopenia. Since I’ve already suffered a shoulder fracture, he expressed some concern about it. So…lots to talk about with her. We’ll see how it all comes out. I’ve always considered it a privilege to grow older, since I know so many who passed on much too young. Nevertheless, I could do without these age-related issues.

If you’ve enjoyed this post, you can thank my dedicated editor, Smitty, who’s been reading over my shoulder as I type.

It’s Sunday morning pancake time, but Mike has gone back to bed. He woke up too early, watched his Formula One races, and now he’s back in bed. Pancakes might not happen today. 

Sunny Saturday

Good morning, my friends. The sun is shining this morning. It seems a miracle! It's been at least a week since we saw the sun last time. My first job this morning will be to get outside and fill the bird feeders. Also, I know some of the daffodils are blooming, and so I'll want to wander around and find every blooming thing.

As for yesterday...it was another day of not-much-accomplished. I took the first stitches on September's block for "A Year in the Garden." 

And I made some progress on the Painted Ladies. I expect to finish the quilting today. Nine of ten rows are finished. Here's the top half.

Here's the bottom half.

Now I have it set up to quilt the final vertical row. I lost my way a little yesterday, and so I've already quilted one part of it. It should be quick work getting it to binding stage today.

When I'd done two rows, I went to work on February's Inverted Star block. I have the half square triangles sewn together, and I had them about 2/3 trimmed before I needed to stop for the day. 

When I went upstairs, I saw the first Rufous hummingbird of the season. We have the Anna's hummingbirds year-round, but these guys are only here for part of the year. Seeing the first one is another sure sign that spring is on the way.

There are a couple of easy housekeeping chores on today's list of to-do's. Also...it's Pi Day. I must bake a pie in celebration. I'll get that going very soon. As for sewing, I'll finish off the rest of the quilting, and I'll finish February's Inverted Star. 

Next on my list of priorities is to attempt to sandwich this not-large-and-not-small quilt on the ping pong table in my sewing room. At 60 x 60 inches, it's right at the edge of the size I can sandwich in that space, but I've worked out a strategy to get it done. 

You might remember when I was gnashing my teeth over this project, trying to use up three cat panels in a single quilt. Then I read about an organization called "Leave it for the Pooch." I've linked to their Facebook page, which seems to be their only online presence. In a nutshell (info from Kim):

Our 501(c)(3) non-profit was started by my son, Jayson, when he was 11 years old. This year marks our seventh annual Quilt and Art Charity Auction. Historically, we work with animal rescue organizations that provide logo t-shirts, which our volunteer quilters transform into quilts. We also gratefully accept donated quilts and art pieces. All items are featured in an online auction on Bidding Owl, typically held for two weeks from late June to early July. Once the auction concludes and items are shipped, we host a live "Draws for Paws" event on Facebook. Jayson blindly draws one eligible 501(c)(3) animal organization per item to receive the funds. Organizations receive 90% of the proceeds (minus fees). 

They've requested donation quilts with an animal theme. When I read about the auction, this quilt immediately sprang to mind as a good candidate for donation.  It needs quilting and binding, but I have plenty of time to get it finished for the auction in June. That will be my next quilting project, even though it's jumping in line ahead of some of the others. When I have that ready to go, I can sew the binding on the Painted Ladies and get that one ready to be finished off. 

In other time-sensitive projects, I still need to finish sewing together the Gumballs quilt top. I selected that for March's OMG. There's still plenty of time, but I need to get going on that too. The top four rows of blocks are sewn together.

There are still two more rows of blocks to add, and then it will move to the quilts-to-be-quilted pile. I'll need to create a back for it, and I have some fabrics picked out from my stash.

Okay, so it's looking like a good day ahead. Seeing the sunshine this morning brightened my mood considerably. It'll be good to get outside and get a look at things.

Medically-Induced Coma

Good morning, my friends. It was a day with no quilting. It wasn't planned that way, but my morning doctor's appointment wore me out. It wasn't terribly stressful, and the news I got wasn't unexpected. Nevertheless, I still have no answers, and that left me feeling kind of glum for the remainder of the day. I'll say more about this at the end of my post. If you're not interested in someone's health-related woes, you'll be happy to have me leave it for the end so you can make your escape. Don't worry, I'll warn you.

So let's just see if anything else was accomplished. Before I left, I had some time for some slow-stitching. 

Later in the day, I finished it off while we watched the news.

Here are the four blocks I have for this quilt so far. 

I was kind of burned out on the quilting, and a day off sounded good. Instead, I went to work on February's Inverted Star block. I had a lot of help with this.

February's block is green. Smitty helped me choose the fabrics for this. He's good with greens...like green grass and the green of his eyes. Yep...green is a solid color. The color of money. And honestly, these look delicious to him.

I got as far as cutting the pieces I'd need. Somehow I miscounted when I cut the background pieces, and so I needed more of those too.

I want to get back to my quilting today. There are three rows left to quilt. Two rows is a big bite, and so it's doubtful I'll have enough energy to add in the third. Nevertheless, I expect the quilting will be finished tomorrow, one way or another.

Last night's dinner was a new recipe. This was pretty easy to do...easy enough to add it to my RV recipe list. This is Spicy Marmalade Chicken and Sweet Potatoes. A simple marinade is mixed up for the chicken. I used bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, but you could also do this with boneless, skinless thighs. The chicken needed to go in the marinade for a minimum of a half hour. When I had that going, I cut up the sweet potatoes and put those in the oven to roast. After ten minutes, the chicken was added to the same sheet pan and returned to the oven to roast until it was done. 

And that was a tasty dinner. We liked it. When I see the word "spicy" in a recipe, I've learned to turn down the spice some. For this, I used only half the amount of crushed red pepper. We didn't actually notice any heat from that, but I'd still do it the same way. If you like more spice, then by all means, add the full amount. It's your stomach.

Since I knew I'd be finishing off the sheep yesterday, I traced out the ninth block for "A Year in the Garden."

These are the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

And that's where I'm headed next. Maybe breakfast first. 

Okay, so here's the story with my shoulder. Way back on December 28th, the day we left on our trip, I noticed my left shoulder was aching. I chalked it up to the effort required to carry laundry baskets full of my belongings out to the RV the week before. It seemed odd, though, because I'd been working out on the Bow-Flex a couple of times a week. I'm not trying to look like Mrs. Universe, but I use enough resistance to maintain strength. So...okay...maybe my shoulder was sore from that. Only...it never got any better.

About a month into our trip, I decided to try a strategy a doctor had given me for my knee a while back. He described this treatment as "2-2-2." Two naproxen (Aleve), twice per day, for two weeks. So, I did that. It made no difference whatsoever. It gave me no pain relief, and it was no worse when I stopped taking it. 

Okay...so inflammation is apparently not the problem. Since then, I've just been living with it since the end of December until I could see the doctor yesterday. He's the same doctor who treated my shoulder fracture a few years back (different shoulder), and I like him a lot. He was conservative about recommending any surgery for my shoulder fracture, and it turns out, no surgery was needed. I can trust a doctor like that.

So yesterday, I got x-rays, which didn't show much. They showed the expected arthritic changes you'd  see in a person born during the 14th Century. (I've carted a lot of wagons in that time.) The doctor believes it is a torn rotator cuff, and that makes sense to me. It would explain the sudden onset too. Okay, so that means I need an MRI. He was concerned, however, because a lot of insurance companies are requiring a trial of either physical therapy, or injections, or both, before authorizing the expense of an MRI. He's ordered the MRI, but he also gave me a referral for PT, just in case. 

As it stands, I'm waiting to see what will happen with the MRI. Will they authorize it? If so, that would be the best case scenario. Will they insist I try PT and/or injections first? It's unknown at this point. It left me feeling kind of bummed at having no answer and no solution in sight. It's painful to the point that it's doubtful I can participate in PT in a way that would be helpful. I fear it will only make the problem worse. I'd be willing to try the injection, but that probably won't help either. I'm hopeful they'll just authorize the MRI and we can get on with whatever surgery is required to repair it. And that's where it stands. Maybe today will bring some answers. I'll keep you updated when I learn anything new.

Okay, standing up straight now. A day awaits. Slow-stitching is next.

Passing for Normal

Good morning, my friends. If I write fast this morning, I might be able to get this done before I need to get ready for my doctor's appointment. If I run out of time, we'll have to meet back here later today. 

Yesterday was the first time since we've been home that the day seemed pretty routine. I did my usual stuff in the morning, did a little housework, did a little laundry, and I had plenty of time for sewing. It was a good day. Then, this morning, I was up at my usual time, and that left me some time to write this post before I need to go. 

So what's going on with the sewing? Thanks for asking. I took the first stitches on the fourth block for Home is Where My Flock Is. These are fun to stitch.

Two more rows are quilted on the Painted Ladies. That brings me to just three rows left to quilt. Here's the top half of the quilt.

And here's the bottom half. 

From there, I headed into the sewing room and sewed together January's block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The pieces were cut. I needed to sew together 24 half square triangles, and then trim them to 2-1/2 inches.

And voila! My first inverted star. Amazingly, I sewed it together on the first try with no mistakes.

And then I added a solid blue border. My friend, Kate, did this with hers, and I like the look of that. Also, it'll protect those edges from stretching.

And since I didn't get any of my bonus triangles sewn together while we were traveling, I've turned them into my first ever leaders and enders project. I have a whole shoebox full of bonus triangles sitting beside my machine. With them so close at hand, you'd think I'd get into the swing of starting and ending with them, but I was having the hardest time remembering the ender. I'll get it, but it's going to require developing some muscle memory about it.

Nevertheless, I managed to get about five 4-inchers and five 1-1/2 inchers sewn together. Hopefully, I'll live long enough to sew all of them together and turn them into something before I die.

There was some happy mail yesterday. I needed a backing fabric for the Raggedy & Friends quilt. (It still needs to be sewn into a finished flimsy.) So, I went in search of "Raggedy Ann fabric" and found this from an Etsy seller. There's way more fabric here than I need, but it was a good price, and so I went ahead. This piece was just a bonus. There's about two yards here.

And there's about 4 yards of this one. This is the one I'll use for the back.

I can turn what's left over into a donation quilt for Quilts for Kids.

Also, I wanted to show you this creation of Mike's. When we're RVing, we've had this ongoing problem with different wraps, especially the stretch-tite plastic wrap, falling to the floor as we go down the road. The stretch-tite box has been pretty much destroyed from falling so many times. (The box is kind of important for that particular product.) So Mike created this rack unit on his 3-D printer. Each wrap is contained on a shelf with a lip that will prevent it from sliding out of its spot, and the rack is attached to the wall with double-sided tape. Cool. As always, he's my hero.

Okay, so I managed to get it all down with time to spare. If I hurry, I can get in a little slow-stitching before I need to go. I'll be back tomorrow to tell give you the news about my shoulder. It's raining hard at this end. I hope y'all are having better weather at your end.