reuben spread/dip

If you like Reuben sandwiches then you will like this spread!  It is rich and hearty, so it's a good winter time snack.

This recipe makes a big amount but it stores in the fridge well and can be reheated in the microwave.

Reuben Spread/ Dip
7 oz. corned beef or pastrami
5 oz. aged swiss
1 cup drained sauerkraut
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp. ketchup
2 tsp. spicy brown mustard

Dice the corned beef and swiss cheese.

Add this to sauerkraut in a mixing bowl.

In another small bowl, stir together cream cheese, sour cream, ketchup and mustard. Pour this over corned beef mixture and stir to mix well. 

Spread in a baking dish. I like to use a glass pie pan.

 

Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 25 to 30 minutes.

Serve warm with rye or wheat crackers.

With this recipe you can be a bit flexible with the ingerdient amounts. The original recipe listed 8 oz. corned beef, but my package was 7 oz. and that was plenty. You might be able to scale back a bit more and have a creamier, more dip-able dish.

what I've been reading

I have been reading an interesting true travel adventure...

"From Alaska to Tierra Del Fuego - Across the Americas in Two Years"  by Michael Boyny

A youngish German couple , the Boynys, spent two years on the road driving first across Canada, then up into Alaska, south along the west coast of the US, then on to Mexico, and continuing through a total of fifteen countries to the very tip of South America.

They had been planning and preparing for their journey for a couple of years before it even began (in 2005). they researched all the areas they would be traveling through and also most importantly..the vehicle they would use for their travels.

The couple ended up with a 20 year old 4WD diesel Ford F250 pick up truck with a new camper top attached. They chose this vehicle because it was a common make and would be easier to get parts along the route if necessary.

a photo from the book

The Boynys loaded their truck with supplies in Germany and had it shipped across the Atlantic to Halifax Canada, where they picked it up after flying to  New York and spending a couple of weeks visiting the New England states.


Then they began their 33,660 mile drive!

The author is a professional photographer as well as a great story teller. The book is full of photos of breathtaking natural scenery and wildlife, and also cities, small towns and people they met along the way.

They took time to stop and hike,swim,kayak, canoe, shop at local markets, see points of interest and watch cultural events. They were robbed, had vehicle breakdowns, got sick, got lost. They met other travelers on the same type of road trip.

They drove through all types of terrain, from rain forests to deserts...mountains to below sea level...through all types of climates.

In other words - the trip of a lifetime!

I really enjoyed this book. I can't help thinking that I would have loved a trip like this...but truthfully,even if  I'd had the opportunity I would probably have been scared, and too much of a "softie" to rough it for so long.

  But it sure is fun to think about it...and to read the experiences of those who have done it.

won ton soup

Back around Christmas time, I had bought a package of won ton wrappers. Sometimes, I use them to make appetizers or little snacks when we are having people over.
You can use nearly anything for a filling...meat, cheeses and so forth...fold the wrappers over, brush with oil and bake until crispy.

But, here it is the middle of January and my won ton wrappers were still in the fridge, threatening to go past their expiration date!  I decided to actually try making won ton soup with them. It came out pretty good!

I looked over some recipes and sort of used what was on hand that might work.  For the filling I mixed ground turkey with onions, garlic, dried ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil.

It took forever to fold the won tons and seal them  up. After making 36 of them, I cut the rest of the wrappers into strips and fried them for a crunchy noodle topping.

I took the last of the broth from our Thanksgiving turkey from the freezer and added onions and garlic to that and simmered.

I didn't have any green onions for color...but some sliced romaine lettuce was a good substitute.

I probably wouldn't make this again. Putting together the won tons just takes too long.

We did like the flavor though, so I would use these ingredients to make a soup, maybe leaving out the won ton wraps and adding  a combination of rice and wild rice instead.

finished 16 Patch quilt

The quilting is finished on the 16 Patch donation quilt ...and I've got the binding on.

We quilters have a tendency to make feminine looking quilts...mostly because there are lots of florals and other girly looking prints at the fabric stores, but this one would be suitable for a man or woman. It will be one that will go to Hospice.

Since it was a lovely sunny day, I just brought out all the donation quilts our group members have finished so far...to get a photo.

The one on the left isn't quilted yet. Those are blocks made by others...I just joined them together and I'll layer and quilt.

The second from left and the striped one on the right were sewn by my friend, Shirley...and also the pink and white one. Those are all nice and bright and will be good Project Linus quilts- which go to children.

Third from left is mine, and beside it, is a quilt made by my friend, Isolde. She had this one already finished and wanted to donate it.  I really like her design! I want to make a quilt like this to keep!

Here is a close up of her quilt. I like the way she used even more triangles as a border and how the binding is also scrappy.

For now, I am going to have to put away my projects and tidy up the sewing room. The guest bed is in there and we will be having a relative staying the night before an early flight.

Clean up includes crawling around on the carpet patting it down for straight pins that I may have dropped !

I sometimes consider putting the guest bed in another room, but it is so handy to have it where I'm sewing, to arrange my blocks on it when putting together a quilt.

Well, I'd better get busy!

rainy day at the movies

Going out to see a movie is such a good way to spend a rainy day.

We used to go often, but now it seems like practically no time before movies go from the theater to cable or Netflix. We usually just wait to watch them like that, on TV.

But it seemed like all the conditions were right. It was raining. We knew of a movie with good reviews,"Unbroken".  And,we had...a gift card !

Actually we have had this gift card since Christmas 2013. It's only good for a theater a couple of towns away, or one across the river.

We decided on the one across the river. It had an earlier show time.  It was a nice theater...stadium seating, everything clean and updated. Really not that far away, either.  Not at all crowded in the afternoon.

And, what is even more pleasing to my eyes that my handsome husband?

My handsome husband with a big bucket of popcorn, of course!

The movie was really good, based on a true story of an Olympic athlete who fought in WW2, was stranded at sea in a life raft, captured by the enemy and endured more than you would think is humanly possible.

If you get a chance to see it - do!  "Unbroken".

pineapple upside-down cake

My older son told me he had been listening to the radio and they started talking about bundt cakes.  This made him think about a pineapple upside-down cake...baked in a bundt pan.

 I am pretty sure that I've never baked one like that, but Lonnie said he has seen a bundt cake with pineapple rings all around the outside too.

At any rate, they all agreed they would like  pineapple upside-down cake...but I just made  a flat one, since I had used the recipe before and knew it was a good one.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1  20 oz. can pineapple slices in juice
maraschino cherries
pecan halves
1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 340 °.Place 1/4 cup butter in 9" square pan and melt in oven while it is preheating. When butter is melted, sprinkle brown sugar evenly over top.

Drain and save pineapple juice. Place pineapple rings evenly in pan on top of brown sugar. Place a cherry in the center of each ring and fill in with pecan halves.

Prepare cake batter; Cream softened butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla. Mix well.

Stir salt and baking powder into flour. Measure reserved pineapple juice and add water to make one cup.

Alternate adding dry ingredients and juice mixture to batter, mixing as you add. 

Continue beating until smooth...one or two more minutes.

Spoon batter carefully over pineapple slices in pan.

Gently spread to edges.

Bake 28 to 30 minutes or until cake is done in center.

Allow to cool slightly...about 4 or 5 minutes. Run a knife around edge of pan to loosen.

Invert onto serving plate and carefully lift pan.

It's a really sweet cake. Good with vanilla ice cream!

Fruit desserts seem especially good in the winter time.  I guess I will search around the internet for a pineapple bundt cake recipe so we can find out if that's something good that we've been missing!

quilting that charity quilt

I finished up enough 16 Patch blocks to make a quilt top...and sewed them together.  I used up the rest of my leftover batting trimmings and pieced together a batting big enough for this small quilt (about 40" x 56").

I've layered and pin basted it and now I am doing the quilting!

Other ladies in my quilt group are also making quilts or blocks for our charitable giving this year.  Some are making these 16 Patch blocks and some are working with a different pattern. We will have a nice variety to donate to Hospice and Project Linus.

One member of our group, Jennifer, who also owns Busy Lady Quilt Shop , brought in some fabric scraps that we could use for making donation quilts and she also brought in enough of these finished "string blocks" to make about 3 small quilts.
Aren't they pretty!

Jennifer got one top assembled from them that same day, then another quilter took some home to sew together and I brought the third set home to work on.

These string blocks are made differently that other quilt blocks. The fabric strips are sewn to a paper foundation...something thin like phone book pages.  See how they look on the back?

The paper keeps the strips from stretching out of shape and also lets you see about how long to cut your next strip to add.

The paper is carefully torn away after the block is trimmed to size and before the blocks are sewn to others.

So, that's next on my list..sewing these blocks into a quilt.

antique mask..or what?

My grandfather on my dad's side loved to go to auctions and he must have enjoyed picking up things there that were out of the ordinary......like this....

It is a full head covering sort of a mask.  It is at least 70 years old...my dad remembers walking around with it on his head when he was a child.  It's a little scary looking!

It's made of a paper mache like material.   I tried to see if I could find pictures of something similar online but had no luck.

I was going to put it on my head and take a selfie but the opening is too small for an adult head (or maybe I just have a big head?)

So, do you suppose this was something made for kids to play with?  That doesn't seem right either because the eyes and mouth opening would be too far apart.

Maybe it was supposed to be for an adult but someone goofed up on the size of the opening? 

It's a puzzle.  Any guesses?

Okay...later edit...my older brother, Dennis, thinks it could be "Old Mr Boston".  I looked it up and found this picture...

It's very close!  And the time period is right...He was first featured on the cover of a bartender guide in 1935.

Different in that the mask has longer facial hair and is showing teeth...but could be designed that way for breathing and speaking through.

Stone Soup

Are you familiar with the old story of Stone Soup?  (You can read one version of it by clicking here)

My quilt group, The Mt Washington Quilting Bees, has Stone Soup day every year in January.

Members each bring an ingredient for making soup...what ever they want. It could be a vegetable, meat, pasta, barley...it's different every time.  They used to add a stone to the pot, and who ever got the stone in their bowl of soup would win a prize...but then they decided maybe that wasn't such a good idea...so now it isn't technically stone soup. It tastes as good or better, though.

We get a couple of our best cooks to oversee the cooking.

Here we are, looking over Carol's shoulder.  She made broth this year (at home) by simmering beef bones for 16 hours. She also brought along that little basket full of seasonings and spices. There to the left are a some of the cans of veggies that others have brought in.

While the soup was simmering, some of the ladies were working on blocks for our charity quilts.

Also, games were played in which the winnings were fabric strips anted up by the players! 

 Soon it was soup time!  Two big cauldrons full!

And there were a few extras,,,crackers, cornbread, desserts.  

Say goodbye to any diet related New Years resolutions!  

It was the perfect day for hot soup, though...freezing temperatures outside. 

it was on sale

It's a good thing that I don't have an actual pantry or I might have bought more!

These three pack, large cans of Libby's pumpkin were only $1.91 per pack at Sam's. That equals a hair under .64¢ per can.

29 oz. cans

Besides the obvious pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin roll type items, it can be used for pumpkin soup, pumpkin casserole...and I remember seeing a recipe for pumpkin risotto somewhere.

Gosh , that sounds a little like Bubba and his shrimp dishes in the "Forrest Gump" movie.

At any rate, I will be trying out some pumpkin recipes!

Once when I was shopping at Sam's with my older son, an employee told us to watch for the shelf tag prices ending in "1".      That indicates the lowest price before the item is taken off the shelves.

At that time we were each buying a twelve pound canister of hot chocolate mix for $1.61. Just kidding about the twelve pound size, of course...but it was a very large can!  Enough to get us through about three winters!

carrot salad

There used to be a buffet restaurant where my husband would take me and the boys occasionally...but it went out of business so many years ago that I have forgotten the name of it.

They had a few foods that I hadn't seen at any other restaurant, so I would get them there every time...spiced apple rings-deep red in color, some kind of a pink rice salad with mini marshmallows, and a carrot raisin salad.

My husband really liked the carrot salad, too...so I tried making it at home. At that time, I couldn't find a recipe for it, so just sort of put together my own version.Since then, I have found similar recipes and adjusted the ingredients a bit.
This makes a big batch so you might want to make only half.

Carrot Salad

1 lb. carrots

20 oz. can pineapple tidbits, drained

5 oz. pkg. dried cranberries or 3/4 cup raisins

1/2 cup Miracle Whip

1/2 cup sour cream

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

1/2 tsp. salt.

Clean and grate carrots.

Combins carrots, dried cranberries, and drained pineapple in a bowl.

Mix Miracle Whip, sour cream, brown sugar, and salt. Pour this mixture over carrot mixture.

Toss gently to mix. It may seem like not enough dressing at first but it gets jucier after it sits in the fridge for a couple of hours.   You may want to adjust salt and sugar to your liking.

My memory is foggy on this...but they might have served a carrot salad at lunch when I was in elementary school...in one of those flat bottomed, waxy paper fruit cups.

At that time, I wouldn't have touched it with a ten foot pole!

barbrcue rub

Barbecue...just say the word and you will have the attention of nearly all the members of my husbands's family.  To them, pork is the only TRUE barbecue. Other meats aren't even in the running.

They are always looking for the best barbecue restaurants... as my husband says " when I see a barbecue joint, I nearly skid sideways in the road!"

Time is devoted to trying to develop the very best method for cooking ribs or pork butts on the grill and smoker and discussing formulas and ingredients for the best sauce...preferably one that's hot enough to make your face red and sweaty when you eat it!

So, there was much discussion and excitement when my husband's son, Chris, brought us a jar of  "dry rub" at Christmas time. It's a blend he created and mixed. ( If you aren't that in to barbecue, a dry rub is like a dry blend of spices and other ingredients, that you coat meat with before you cook it.)

Chris was very closed mouthed about his recipe. Every time we asked, he would start listing the ingredients...brown sugar...paprika....then he would suddenly switch to another subject.

A few days later my husband was itching to try out the rub...just try it out on something, so I convinced him that we could try it on some chicken breasts that I had on hand (even though it wouldn't be TRUE barbecue).

Here is what the plate looked like when he brought it in from the grill.
Look at that piece of chicken on the upper left!  He was cutting off chunks and eating it as it was cooking!

It looks like he likes it !

curious turkeys

There was a cat prowling around the yard one afternoon. I stood at the window watching him as he climbed up on a planter...to wait and watch for mice or birds, I suppose.
He is there on the left...black..you can mostly see his tail.

Next, some wild turkeys (on the right) came out of the woods and were passing through the yard. When they saw the cat, they stopped in their tracks.

Then they started inching closer...craning their necks and turning their heads to look at the cat with one eye and then the other. So funny  to watch them!

They were curious but after they got that close they decided to go back the other way. I wasn't sure what would happen, but the cat acted as if the turkeys didn't even exist. He wasn't curious about them at all.

A different day...turkeys coming across the field...it's hard to count them. Maybe 23..24?

And in the front yard...This tom started spreading his feathers, but never did put them completely up.

A couple of times in the past,I have seen a male turkey displaying his plumage. It is a sight!

They spread those tail feathers and puff up all over. They pull their head back and stand there seeming so pleased with themselves. I guess the lady turkeys like it!