Wednesday, March 29, 2017

some sewing, and pickled eggs

Here's what I've been working on...This is my main project.  I have around 300 of the nine patch squares made and I'm putting them into blocks with the gold fabric.

The pattern is not my idea. I am shamelessly copying a quilt I saw online. It's a good pattern to use up some of my smallest pieces of leftover fabrics.


And to keep from getting burned out on my main project, I am also working on a little boy quilt.


I had ordered a bundle of fabric fat quarters online. They were labeled as "I Spy" fabrics, so I expected to get lots of children's and novelty prints.  
When my order arrived, most of the fabrics wouldn't really work for playing "I Spy" in a toddler quilt. However there was this cute Ninja fabric and some coordinating prints in there.


Not a lot to work with but I added some fabrics from my stash and it will be enough for a quilt.


Unrelated...pickled eggs.   By coinsidence, my older brother and I both started experimenting with pickled egg recipes around the same time.  I had just made a batch when I saw on his FB page that he had made some too.

My first batch had water added to the vinegar and didn't seem pickle-ey enough, and it had too much of a clove flavor from the pickling spice blend I'd bought.

Next, I bought a jar of the expensive pink pickled eggs from the grocery to find out exactly what sort of taste pickled eggs should have.  That was a waste of money. Mine were better.

For this second batch, I left out the sugar and used vinegar, spices, red onions and jalapenos.


They have to set in the fridge for about a week to soak up the flavor...then I'll see if I need to make any more changes.




Friday, March 17, 2017

what's cooking

Click here  to see the recipe for Lemon Loaf.    That link will take you to a blog with a lot of good recipes. The blogger is a ranch wife who has to cook for a crew of hired hands during the times when they are there to work the cattle...so she knows how to make some tasty chow.

The Lemon Loaf recipe is not her original recipe, but it's one she tried and recommended.
She is right...it's good!

My glaze turned out a bit too thin and runny. I will have to make another one soon and try again.




And here is something else fattening...bacon wrapped, cheese filled hot dogs.

Chopper mentioned that he remembered me making these when he was little, so I thought I would make some again and surprise him. 

Actually, my dad made these a few times when we were kids - that's where I got the idea.



Well, the bacon could have been a bit more done and a lot of the cheese ran out on to the baking sheet (but it was easily scraped off and smeared back on top of the dog).
 

Whew, they are rich, so a few of them go long way.  A nice combination of flavors.
 They were even better reheated in the microwave later...it helped to crisp up the bacon a bit more.