like a summer day

What a welcome change from the weather we had earlier this month! A lovely sunny day with temperatures in the 70's.

I wanted to get outside and do something but the ground is saturated...I didn't want to be slogging around in mud.

I decided to try pruning off a tree limb that is touching our roof.

I could reach it easily with my pole pruner (there is a saw on the end) from up on the deck, but I couldn't apply enough downward pressure to get the saw teeth to really bite into the wood.  

So I gave up on that.    Oh well, there are a few more that need trimmed off anyway...ones that we can't reach...we will have someone come out to do it.

I did see my first spring bloom! A crocus.

 I n the evening I was sitting on the back porch and I saw a coyote. He was passing through and I didn't have my camera, but later I saw him again from inside the house,

Can you see him? I've drawn a red arrow pointing to him.  I hope he's not here to eat the bunnies!

quilter's day out

This past Saturday was Quilter's Day Out.  It is an event that takes place every year in March.  All the quilt guilds in the area (I think about 18 of them) set up booths at a conference center.

In each guild's booth,  quilts and other items made by the members are on display. They may also do some sort of demonstration of needlework...or hand out a pattern or an instruction sheet for a quilty item.

Hundreds of ladies and three or four men visited the show to browse the booths and also a "vendor room" where local quilt shops bring a sampling of their goods to sell...fabric, patterns, books and quilting tools.

Here is a look at the "Mt. Washington Quilting Bees booth (my guild). This was the day before the show...hanging the quilts and getting everything set up.

 And this is the day of the show.  At this end of the booth we had a game where visitors could spin a wheel to win back issues of quilting magazines our members donated. Look at those lovely quilts behind the tables!

Here is Jackie, Bobbie, and Shirley.

Jackie was demonstrating making "yo yos" so fast, her hands are just a blur!

Here is the other end of our booth...Phyllis, Carol...who was demonstrating hand quilting with a hoop, Diane and Jackie.  More pretty quilts behind them!

Then down a little further we had set up the game I devised for last years event,"Quilt Hole".

Made from a bag toss game board...covered by a small quilt top.  Visitors could choose a fat quarter (a quarter yard of fabric folded into a small square and tied) and try to toss it through the hole.  

If it went through...they got to keep the fat quarter...if not, it's all over...only one toss per guest.

That's Michelle in the photo above(in the black tee shirt), who helped me all day with the game.

The ladies who won a fat quarter were so tickled when they won...it's like they had won a huge prize. Some squealed or did a happy dance. Some were just shocked that they had actually got theirs through the hole.

It was really fun to see the winners.  

I should have taken a photo of the rest of the room with the other guilds and their booths. You can see a little in the background of this photo if you biggie size it.

And hanging across from the game area is this amazing quilt that Diane made. It is just the top...it isn't layered and quilted yet...and the light from the window behind it makes it difficult to see all the detail...but it is adorable.  So many people stopped to look at it for the longest time. There is so much to see there!

I have made a few sections of that same pattern. It's one of the things I want to finish this year. Mine won't look this good but I can get a lot of good ideas on color and value placement from Diane's quilt.

This striking red and black quilt was made by Isolde. She is a member of the Bees, but was on duty registering people at the door that day.

We Bees did win the "Best Booth" award...which is a certificate, and bragging rights until the show next year!

what I've been reading

I've just finished this true crime book...
"The Prince of Paradise" by John Glatt

It's about the murder of Ben Novack Jr and his mother, Bernice...but the story begins with Ben Novack Sr , a self made millionaire who built and owned the famous Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach..

This first section of the book is the best part.  Novack Sr. grew up in New York...raised by immigrant parents who ran a small hotel. As an adult he started up and owned several different small businesses and ended up in Miami with a hotel of his own there.

He really started making a lot of money quickly in 1942,  when the US Army took over Miami Beach to use as a training center...requisitioning over 200 hotels to house the troops, with the government paying the hotel owners a generous amount to rent the rooms.

Novack Sr.  was able to buy  four more hotels during that period...each rented out for the troops every night. That's how he really began building his fortune.

When a large tract of beach front property went up for sale, Novack Sr seized the opportunity and bought it. He hired an architect to design the biggest and grandest hotel on the beach, and named it the Fontainebleau.

Meanwhile he divorced his first wife and married Bernice, and when the hotel was completed, they lived in an apartment there with their son, Ben Novack Jr.

I don't want to give away all the details of the story, but Novack Jr grew up and was a successful and shrewed businessman as well, building a large event planning company.

He married and divorced, then remarried a woman named Narcy, who assisted him in his business. His mother also worked for him and the two women did not get along well.

The rest of the book describes how Narcy, the wife, becomes unhappy with her situation and asks her brother to hire someone to murder her husband and his mother.

The writing in these chapters really bogs down with names of those involved in the killing, what cars they drove, telephone calls they made, who they stayed with, and on and on.

There are graphic descriptions of the murders.  Then we learn how the police and FBI solve the case and how things went at the trials of the killers, Narcy, and her Brother...and the legal wrangling over who should inherit the family fortune.

I have to say this author isn't the best...but if you like true crime stories you would probably like this book.

frosted banana bars

Between the two of us, my husband and I usually eat one bunch of bananas each week (or is it a hand of bananas?).
Sometimes though, a few get to that over ripe stage, so I peel them and keep them frozen to use later in recipes like this one.

Frosted Banana Bars
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup mashed ripe bananas

For frosting....
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
8 oz. cream cheese
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat the eggs in, one at a time, then stir in sour cream and vanilla.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl, then add to batter and mix well..

Stir in the mashed bananas...

Spread mixture in a greased  10" x 15" pan.  (I do not have a pan this size so I use a cookie pan that's a bit bigger...which makes thinner bars).

Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 18 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare frosting by mixing cream cheese and melted butter until creamy, blend in powdered sugar and vanilla. Spread on cake layer when cooled.

Caution: leaving small amounts of frosting in your mixing bowl may attract Sasquatches!

Slice into generous squares to serve.

They are good and moist!  Good at room temperature but I think the flavor is more intense after they have been refrigerated.

trees can be scary

Remember that scene in the "Wizard of Oz" movie, where Dorothy picks an apple off a tree, then the tree comes to life and is mean and nasty to her?

Or what about the tree in the "Poltergeist" movie? It comes alive and breaks right through the window and grabs the little boy.  So scary!

Well, I am keeping an eye on this tree of ours, it is definitely developing a face!

A few years ago, people were buying those kits that you could hang on a tree to look like a face...but this one is completely natural.   It's a lot more distinct when gets wet on a rainy day (like today).

It's looking right in our upstairs bathroom window!

So far it doesn't have a mouth.  If I start seeing any signs of one - it's goodbye tree!

Just kidding of course.

tortilla pizzas

Pizza with thin crispy crust is my husband's very favorite kind.  I can't remember how we got started making pizzas on flour tortillas...it must have been his idea... but  I like them too. You can taste the toppings more so than with a thick crust.

Quick to put together!    He likes sausage, onions and peppers (yellow peppers on sale this week).

We use this little counter top pizza oven. This is the type of oven my husband sold to customers when he first started in the wholesale pizza business years ago.  It has coiled heat elements top and bottom, so it bakes the crust and melts the cheese at the same time.  

Did someone say melted cheese ?!!!     This one is about ready. It bakes right on the rack. There is a pull-out tray below for cleaning.

Lonnie likes it cut in squares...party cut.

I had just enough leftover cooked spinach to top this one, along with Canadian bacon, peppers and onions.

The house sure smells good when they are baking!   

These tortilla pizzas can be baked in a regular oven but you have to be very careful that the edge of the tortilla doesn't  flop down between the lines of the rack and dump a bunch of  toppings off in your oven.

It's a mess. Experience speaking here!

friend's special quilt

My last charity quilt is ready to be pin basted and quilted. I will show it when it's finished.

Meanwhile, I want to show you a quilt my friend Linda made.  It's a memory quilt to be given to a family friend, a teenage girl who lost her father. The quilt is put together using the father's clothes.

Linda with her quilt

Before Linda began work on the quilt, she brought the clothes in to the quilt group meeting to see if anyone had ideas on how to use them.

She didn't have a lot to work with...some jeans and flannel shirts...some tee shirts, printed ones and plain ones. 

I couldn't imagine how she would be able to come up with a quilt using that assortment...but she is so creative! She made the best and most interesting memory quilt.

She made some blocks by cutting the words and picture parts from the tee shirts.

Other blocks had strips of the flannel shirts combined with pictures of the young lady and her dad copied onto a special photo transfer fabric.

I really like these blocks that combine the jeans and flannel shirt fabrics, with the pockets and labels sewn on.   

This quilt will be such a special gift for the young lady...something she will cherish always.

Linda has told us that she hasn't been quilting very long, but that she has been sewing for many years.  She makes really cute toddler outfits...and other clothing...even shirts for her husband, matching up plaids and everything.  
That amazes me, but it doesn't make me want to try it myself!

son's hammock tarp

The Sasquatch had on his Christmas wish list, a tarp to string up over his camping hammock. He had told me where I could get a pattern and the materials to make one and I  wrote a post here , about sewing it together on Christmas Eve.

Before the weather got nasty, he had a chance to set the tarp up with the hammock to see how it works out.
The gray tent-like covering is the part I made. Underneath is his yellow hammock. It looks pretty cozy!

Would you sleep here?

He actually didn't sleep there at the time, either. Just trying out the set-up...right beside the Salt River.

It wasn't too far from the abandoned camp houses that I wrote about last week...but below these rock cliffs.

One of the camp owners made a set of steps from concrete blocks in an opening.

I like this photo of a huge boulder nearby. Wonder just how many thousands of years it's been sitting there?

All these pictures were taken by the Sasquatch.  If you want to see any more of this area and the abandoned camps, you can go to his online photo album and scroll through.

To see the album...

click here

soup on a snow day

It was just like the weather forecasters predicted...lots of snow had fallen overnight.

This is looking out the back door. See how it has drifted above the bottom of the door glass?

There is a swimming pool under there somewhere!

We didn't have to go anywhere but I cleared a path to the Jeep in case something came up.

The night before, I made a big pot of soup using a bag of red lentils that I'd picked up at the grocery a couple of months ago, and had forgotten about.

After looking online for a recipe using  lentils, I settled on this one, since I had the rest of the ingredients on hand. It sounded different and interesting.

Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup 

1/4 cup butter or olive oil

2 large sweet potatoes, chopped

3 large carrots, chopped,

1 apple, chopped

1 onion.chopped

1 lb dry red lentils, rinsed and drained

ginger , salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, paprika

4 cups (or more as needed) of vegetable or chicken broth.

Melt butter in a large open soup pot, Add chopped vegetables and saute until onions are soft. The original recipe said to peel the apple and sweet potatoes, but I did not. The skins are good for you!

Add spices, broth and lentils. 

Bring to a boil, the reduce heat and simmer until lentils are fully cooked, about an hour...adding more water or broth if needed.

It's a filling and healthy soup...I really liked it.  My husband wasn't so thrilled with it.  He only took about half a bowl and he drenched that with hot sauce.

That's okay, he usually eats about anything I cook.  Maybe it just isn't a "man soup"...there's no meat in it.

I'll just put some in the freezer and save it for another snowy day.

out to lunch

My older son and I are beginning to think we're jinxed on picking restaurants.
 A few weeks ago we were looking for a place to eat a late breakfast. One place was closed Mondays (that day), a Bob Evans restaurant wasn't where it used to be, and so on. We had started out downtown and ended up eating over on the east side.

 It happened again when we were out for lunch yesterday. The first place we went, a Mexican restaurant that served brunch, was out of business.  The second place, a Cuban restaurant, was only open for lunch on certain days.

Chopper is pretty good at figuring out restaurants to try, and our third stop was "El Mundo".

 Neither of us had eaten there before, but they have been there for a lot of years so we figured the food must be good.
 When we walked in, it was a very small room with only a few tables, which were full except for one. There was a counter where you place your order. The man behind it told us there was a regular dining room upstairs if we preferred.

"Ummm, where are the stairs?"

Well, you go back outside and around the corner of the building and you will see them.
 That's the door you go in at the top center of this photo.

It was sort of small up there too, but not crowded. We were waited on by a burly young man wearing a toboggan.

Chopper asked him what some of the favorite and most popular dishes were and we took his suggestions.

That is my meal up close, grilled fish tacos. Across the table is what my son ordered, Carnitas (roasted pork with tortillas and sauces).

The food was really good! Good quality, fresh, hot and tasty!   I wish I could make grilled fish that good at home.

The only bad part was some horrible and repetitive music that was playing. It wasn't Mexican music...maybe more like jazz...but bad jazz.  I can pretty much tune out that sort of thing but Chopper really loves music and notices it everywhere he goes. 

From what I understand there is an outdoor eating area,as well, open in the evenings in warm weather. Maybe not as crowded as inside.

With our luck though, they would probably be piping that horrible music out there,too!

one more charity quilt

My quilt group is really churning out quilts for charitable giving. We have set April 1st as a deadline to get them all finished up.

I am sewing this one, so far, from scraps that the owner of out local quilt shop (Busy Lady) brought in.

I have about 6 more blocks that I will sew from my own stash of fabric and I should have it finished in plenty of time.

I have enjoyed making these quilts but now i am anxious to get back to my own projects. There are a couple of things I need to finish up and also one that I really want to get started on.  I bought the pattern and fabric for it two years ago!

roasted turkey wing drumettes

Back at Thanksgiving time, I bought a package of these turkey wing portions to cook along with the turkey, since it was a smaller size than what I usually buy. They came out really good...white meat, but not quite as dry as turkey breast meat.

After Thanksgiving I picked up a couple of marked down packages at the store and they have been in the freezer until now.

It's the top meaty portion of the wing only. They look like big chicken legs.  I put them in a ziploc bag with some oil and spices and let them marinate in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Then spread them out on a foil lined pan and baked at 350 degrees.

I wasn't sure how long it would take for them to be cooked through. I kept checking them but they did get dry on the outside by the time the inside had completely cooked (at 1 hour and 15 minutes).  If  I do this again, I would try covering them for the first half of cooking and then remove the cover to let the skin crisp up.

But they were tasty and something different to try. 

I also roasted a few chicken legs the same way, but a shorter time. Better results with those being dark meat.

We had them for Sunday dinner with mashed potatoes, green beans,cornbread casserole, and pinto beans.

I know...two kinds of beans in the same meal.   I try to make things that everyone will eat, though.