Cooking and Quilting

Not as much was accomplished yesterday as I'd hoped, but I still have some things to show for my day's activities. I'll admit I took my cues from Sadie. When I went downstairs after writing yesterday's post, I found her ensconced in Mike's lap, looking very comfortable.

Matthew called early (for him). He wondered if he could come by to work on his van. Of course! we said. That kind of threw my morning off, although I can't say it was Matthew's fault. Any excuse to slug around, you know. When I got myself going, I blanched and froze all the corn I harvested the day before. Eight ears were frozen in gallon zip-lock bags. The rest were stripped of their kernels to freeze in quart bags. 

Except for the husking, it's a pretty quick process. Mike and I took the unhusked ears out and husked them over the garbage can. When I heard we were going to have several days of rain, I harvested as much corn as I could. I'm not sure whether it will be affected by the rain, but I wasn't taking any chances. We've had a good harvest of corn so far, but I'm still hoping we'll get a little more before it's finished for the season.

When that was finished, we had lunch and naps, and then I got busy stitching the binding on the bag ladies. I've turned the third corner now, and I'm about 80% of the way around. It should be no problem finishing it off today.

So, the next thing on my agenda was to get started on the Blue Corn Bread block for New Mexico Kitchen...this one:

These quilt blocks each come with a recipe. Here's the recipe for the blue corn bread. I might actually have to try this if I can find some blue cornmeal.

The blocks all start out by making the foundation. They're split 50-50 between pieced backgrounds and overlay backgrounds. This one is an overlay background. The "tablecloth" is made by fraying the edges of the fabric.

So, I didn't get very far with the applique before it was time to stop. This one is going to require both machine and hand embroidery. I can stitch in the straight lines on my machine, but the lettering will be done by hand. On the left, you can see where there is some "whole kernel corn" in a measuring cup. The measuring cup is not applique, but stitched directly onto the background. If you can't see it, refer to the picture from the pattern cover above. (Okay, well I just scrolled up there and it doesn't show very well. You'll have to take my word for it until the stitching is finished.)

Sadie was my helper for this. I'll just continue on with this block today. I expect to finish the applique and at least get a start on the top-stitching. It's doubtful I'll finish it in one day, but sometimes I can surprise myself.

For last night's dinner, I tried two new recipes. This is Braised Carrot and Sweet Potatoes with Candied Ginger. That's fresh cilantro sprinkled over the top. This turned out to be really good. Despite the candied ginger, it was a savory version of sweet potatoes...often a sweet dish.

Unfortunately, the recipe is a Cook's Illustrated recipe, and so you need a subscription to their magazine or website to be able to see it online. If you really want the recipe, you can email me, and I'll send it to you.

For the main course, we had these Brown Sugar-Pineapple Pork Chops. These were really good. I'm not a big pork eater, but I'm always on the look-out for something to do with pork chops. 

The recipe for these has you frying the pork chops in a skillet. They're first seasoned with salt and pepper and then rubbed with a spicy rub. We did them just as the recipe suggested, but I had Mike grill the pork chops on the barbecue. It made it a lot easier and less messy. The canned pineapple and red onion are sauteed in a skillet with the reserved pineapple juice and "sprinkled" with a quarter cup of brown sugar. I didn't pack the brown sugar when I measured it, figuring that "packed" brown sugar is hard to "sprinkle." So anyway...we both really liked this recipe. The spicy rub is a nice contrast to the sweetness of the pineapple. That's goat cheese crumbled over the top, which seemed like a weird addition, but it tasted good. This recipe is easy enough to do in the RV, and there are leftovers enough for another dinner.

Okay, and so that brings me to the end of the day. Today I'll finish up the bag ladies, and then get back to the New Mexico Kitchen block. Oh yeah, and I guess I'll grudgingly do some housekeeping chores. It should be a pretty easy day. The rain is still coming down today. If I'm remembering correctly, it's supposed to clear up some tomorrow. 

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

It was time to post the winner for the final Bag Lady stitch-along in my last post, and I completely forgot. So, without further delay, Mr. Random has spoken and called the last month's winner for:

#2--Sharon!

Congratulations, Sharon! I have your address, and I'll be putting your needle threader in the mail within the next couple of days. Thanks to all who stitched along over the past year. It was fun.

We've reached Crystal River, Florida, now and we're having the most wonderful (and busy) visit with my email pen pal friend of many years, Karin. Backing up just a tad to yesterday, we left Little Manatee River State Park yesterday morning. When I brought in the slides on the RV, huge chunks of ice broke off and fell to the ground. They're a little incongruent with the palm fronds there, but that's the current state of Florida. 

It gets a little warmer with each passing day, although we're told it will be colder as we head a little farther north for our next stop. One of my Facebook friends asked me if I could sense the price of oranges and orange juice rising in this cold weather. Actually, we've only passed one small orange grove in all our time in Florida. It makes me wonder how many oranges are actually being grown in Florida these days. Here's the one grove we passed. I had to work fast to avoid missing the shot...that's how small the grove was.

As we turned the last corner on our way to Karin's house yesterday, we came upon a pair of Sandhill Cranes walking down the street as if they owned the place...which, I guess, they do. These are the first we've seen. What magnificent birds!

Later on, we saw the same pair at Karin's backyard feeder.

Karin, for her part gave us the most wonderful gifts. She's an expert machine embroiderer. Look at these pretties. This tee towel design is perfect in both stitching and sentiment.

I confessed to Karin I'd only done just a little bit of machine embroidery, and I can promise that nothing I did looked as good as this. Also, this roll of TP...in case you've had a crappy day. Very cute.

She explained that she's done these TP rolls as gift exchanges and she tucks lottery cards into the roll. What a great idea and a perfect way to showcase her skill with machine embroidery. Also, she treated us to the most delicious ziti with sausage dinner. Her husband, Dick, grilled the sausage, and then she added it to the pasta, layered with cheese and sauce for a great dinner. Also, a beautiful and colorful green salad. We haven't been eating a lot of vegetables on our trip...especially lettuce...because it doesn't keep well in our RV refrigerator. A beautiful green salad was a welcome treat. Oh yes...and pumpkin pie...swoon!  Thank you, Karin. 

The only other thing that was accomplished yesterday was to finish off the second block for Heart and Home quilt.

Next up, I'll be working on the next block for the Sundress quilt, but that will probably have to wait a couple of days. We're busy seeing the sights and keeping a weather eye out for manatees. More in my next post.

Bag Ladies of the Fat Quarter Club December Linky Party

Welcome to this last party for the Bag Ladies of the Fat Quarter Club. We've had a lot of fun this year, but I'm afraid the party's over after this.

Today, it's time to celebrate Earlene, so come on! Let's party! Earlene is a colorful gal, and with her bread basket there, I'm thinking she might be a woman after my own heart.

Everyone who links up will be eligible to win this fabulous prize! It's a magnetic needle threader from Puffin & Company. This being December and officially winter, I'm thinking some of you are wanting some winter woolies. With that in mind, this month's needle threader is the sheep.

These are especially created for long-eyed needles and embroidery floss.

Here's what you need to do to win:

1. Link up below showing us your progress on whatever Bag Lady you happen to be stitching; it doesn't have to be Earlene. You don't have to finish your block to link up, however, you should have taken at least a stitch or two. Please link using the URL to your blog post, not your entire blog. If you don't have a blog, please feel free to post an image to our FlickR group, click on your image, and use that URL to link up.

2. In order to win, I need a way to contact you. If you aren't sure, please include your email address in a comment below. To avoid becoming spam bait do it in this format: yourname at yourserviceprovider dot com.

And that's it! Pretty short and simple. I'll keep this linky open until Thursday, January 4, 2018, at midnight (PST). Winner will be announced sometime during the day on Friday (assuming internet access).

Now, I can't wait to see your bag ladies!

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Quilt Shop: Wandering Stitches Quilting Studio; Orlando, Florida

We had a full day yesterday. We first met up with Mike's former co-worker for a tour of the plant here in Orlando. We ended our visit with her around lunch time, and so it seemed like a good time to get something to eat.

At least two of you have told me that a visit to Orlando isn't complete unless we visit Gabriel's Sub Shop, and hey! I'll bite. (Pun intended.) And so we decided to head on over there to see what all the fuss was about.

It was one of those order-at-the-counter kinds of places. They also had a printed menu with more detail.

When I'm in a place like this, I usually pick their most generic sandwich. My choice was the "Regular" sub. It was delicious with ham and salami, and I love those banana peppers on a sandwich.

Mike had the Cheesesteak sandwich. It was good too.

So thanks to y'all who told us about this place. It's always fun to eat local fare.

I'd checked my quilt shop app earlier, and this seemed the most likely suspect. It was the closest one to where we were.

It turned out to be a good choice. It was located in one of those industrial parks, and so the storefront was nothing fancy.

Walking through the front door, it looked like this...a wall of fabric directly ahead of me, and then another room toward the left of the image. Their Christmas fabrics were on a table there in the foreground, and those were all 50% off.

Also directly in front of me...aboriginal prints. It was my opportunity to pick up the one that got away back there in Decatur, and so I picked up a bolt right away and hung on tight throughout my visit.

This was a Bernina authorized dealership, and so there were Bernina products in a room to the right of the front door.

On the opposite wall were scads of threads. You know I love thread as much as I love fabric, but I'm steering clear of it for this trip. I'd say I'm being good, but you know it's already way too late for that.

Toward the back of that room was another room with several long-arm machines. I had a feeling these could be rented.

Heading into the room to the left of the front door were lots of bolts of fabric. The ones in the image below were all children's fabrics.

Behind me were some colorful choices and some pretty polka dots. Those were tempting.

To the right of the children's fabrics was yet another room with a couple of long-arms and those lockers there to the right of the image. That's what made me think one could rent time on the machines with a nice place to secure your belongings. There were a couple of pretty quilts hanging on the back wall too.

The next image shows some end-of-bolt cuts that were on sale. Below them were some specially marked bolts. That yardage was also on sale.

There were plenty of pretty batiks.

And, really, just lots of fabric to look at.

I liked these sewing themed fabrics. The spools there caught my eye.

There were more Christmas fabrics at 50% off in the image below.

There was a whole room full of 108-inch wide fabrics. These are sometimes hard to find, and so I guess I know where to shop in the future. They have an online store, and so one could probably order just the right quilt back here.

Even these "digital" fabrics were 108 inches wide. Nice.

There was a wall of novelty buttons.

And this being Orlando, there were plenty of Disney-themed choices.

Also lots of Go! cutter dies and a good supply of notions and scissors.

There was a good assortment of patterns.

So, I enjoyed snooping this shop. For my regional print, this is the aboriginal fabric I picked out. It was so interesting, but I chose it for the gators. (Being an aboriginal print, those are probably crocodiles, but we won't tell anyone, will we?) They had this print in several different colors. It's a fabric that has lots of potential in its own right, but there are also lots of interesting shapes and colors for future Ruth McDowell-style quilts. I can see some animal eyes there and some great patterns and shapes for texture. With so much potential, I got two yards.

Also, this one was on sale, and so I picked up a yard of it to use for bindings or sashings or who-knows-what. It'll get used for something.

Today, we're leaving Orlando and heading toward the Gulf Coast of Florida. Our next stop is going to be an RV park in St. James City, Florida, which was the closest thing we could find (with vacancies) to Sanibel Island, where there is great shelling. Can't wait to see that. We'll be there through the New Year's weekend, and basically, we're just getting off the road for the holiday again. Our grocery shopping is done for the next week, and so it should be a nice several days of sight-seeing and relaxing.

Oh yes, and don't forget, Bag Lady stitch-along people...the Linky Party goes live on New Year's Eve. It's your last chance to link up, because after that, the party's over.

A Day of Many Stops

Today's first order of business is to announce the winner of the November linky party. We spun up the random number generator and came up with:

#1--Nan Brown!

Nan, I've sent you an email, so check your inbox.

We spent the day doing a little of everything yesterday. Our first stop was at Camping World. We only found a few of the things we were looking for, but they had fresh popped popcorn...always a favorite...and I amused myself by looking at the Christmas ornaments.

Next up...we tried to lead ourselves into temptation with a stop off to get a look at an RV we've been eyeing. You'd have to ask Mike what the deal is with the RV's because I could swear we'd seen this exact RV at one of the RV shows. He says no. It was the same floor plan, but a different manufacturer. He wanted to see the one built by Alpine, and he found one at a dealer here in South Carolina. So we took a look at it, and it is definitely the RV of our dreams. 

We looked at a couple of different ones, but this is the one we're lusting after. It has the most beautiful kitchen. On that far wall is a floor-to-ceiling pantry.

It also has a full-sized refrigerator. The one shown here is a domestic refrigerator, but we're wanting one that can run on propane as well as electricity. It would still be the same size as the one you see here. It also has a microwave/convection oven above and a regular gas oven below. Some manufacturers have done away with the gas oven. Our truck camper has no gas oven, for example. The convection combo works fine, but I still want the option to use a gas oven if I want to. They've also upgraded the ovens so they now have electric starters rather than a pilot light.

And (swoon), this one has a dishwasher. Can you believe that?

It also has a beautiful stainless steel sink.

The island kitchens have always bothered me a little because there isn't much room between the island and the back counter, and so storage there is difficult to get into. This manufacturer installed a pull out cabinet next to the dishwasher where trash and recycling go. It makes good use of an awkward space.

The bedroom has a king sized bed. Our current RV has those little windows next to the head of the bed, and we've always liked those. This one has them too. There's a nice big closet which is lined with cedar.

We were having a problem getting the doors opened, but to the right is where the washer/dryer combo goes, and you can see the cedar is there too.

Finally, the bathroom. The shower stall is nearly as big as the one at home, and it's just a very nice bathroom all around.

The living room has two recliners and a sleeper sofa. On the wall opposite the recliners is a large television and an electric fireplace below. (I'm not a fan of the fireplaces in RVs, but they all have them now.)

The small table has a leaf and so it can be expanded if you have other folks over...we usually just open it up for ourselves since we keep the laptop set up on the window side of the table.

So, nice, huh? We had absolutely no intention of buying it when we went in, but then the guy priced out all the options we wanted and came back with a killer deal. Oh. My. Gosh. Well, we spent the next couple of ours gnashing our teeth about this, but ultimately came to our senses and we're going to pass. The timing is all wrong, and it isn't in keeping with the plan about how we wanted this to play out. When you're laying out such a big chunk of change, its best not to be hasty. We're acting like grown-ups for a change. The dream lives on, however. Sigh.

After that, we stopped off at a quilt shop. This one was a very small shop, and the woman working there was sweet as she could be. I'll tell you about the quilt shop in a separate post. From there, we headed off to find a seafood market. They were all up and down the main drag in Murrells Inlet, near our state park. We scored a dozen oysters for Oysters Rockaway. I had dinner in the crockpot already, and so those are chilling in the refrigerator. We'll cook them tonight.

On the way back to the RV, we stopped off at a lagoon we cross over inside the state park. When we drove into the park the day before, we noticed a number of egrets and herons on the right side of the image below. As we drove out yesterday morning, the water level was higher, and we saw none. When we came back in the afternoon, it looked much as it did the day before, with lots of photographers packing long lenses. 

On the right side, it looks like this. You can see there is a long wooden boardwalk out in the distance. We're going to walk that today sometime.

On the left side the water is deeper and less marshy in appearance.

There's another shorter boardwalk and overlook there. At the end of the line is a sign discussing the fact that alligators live in these waters. We haven't seen any...yet. There are also signs posted around advising that feeding alligators is illegal.

So, I had only my point and shoot camera along, and I'd like to try again for more bird pictures. For yesterday's shoot, I saw a few of the larger birds. In the image below, you can see a Great Egret on the left and a Great Blue Heron on the right.

Next is another shot of the same birds from a different angle.

Here I was able to zoom in on the Great Blue Heron. It's not a bad shot, but I'd still like to get a shot of these birds with my DSLR camera and telephoto lens. I'm hopeful we can do that later on this afternoon.

This is the Great Egret. It's almost as large as the Great Blue Heron.

This next one is a Snowy Egret. They're smaller than the Great Egrets, and their bills are black instead of yellow.

There were also some smaller birds. I believe these are the Semipalmated Sandpipers.

An informational sign told me there were fiddler crabs in these waters as well, but I didn't see any. We'll get back over there this afternoon, and I'm hoping I can get some better shots.

After that, we headed back to the RV and got Smitty out for his promised walk.

He could be a high model for these harnesses, don't you think? Such a handsome hunka Mancat.

This is a very nice state park, and we got lucky with a very nice spot. There's a sort of secluded area among the trees there where Smitty can listen, look, and stay hidden. On the other hand, we saw an off-leash cat running around here yesterday, and don't you know that got his blood boiling. He's claimed this territory as his own, and we can't have off-leash cats running around fouling the air.

So that was our day. Today we'll spend some time here at the park. We want to walk that marsh boardwalk, and I want to try again for some better pictures of the birds. There's also a nice beach access. We walked out there last night, and it was perfect viewing for the super moon. It should  be a nice day ahead. I hope you have a nice day planned for yourselves.