You are here: Home / 2010 / February / Archives for 2nd

The Head is Growing!

February 2, 2010 · by

That title will probably attract some nice spam!

Just clicked on the AQS Publishing Blog and oh, what an interesting article!  :)   OK . . maybe I’m just a bit prejudiced but I did want to share the link.

Too often the author gets all the credit but those folks at AQS are amazing!  I have a hard time going back and reading my own patterns and trying to figure out what I’m saying sometimes.  How they can take the diagrams and instructions that I send and know what I mean and what I’m trying to say and transfer my charts and diagrams to their charts and diagrams . . I don’t know how they do it.  I appreciate all their work so much.

To the couple of you AQS ladies (and gents maybe) who read this . . THANKS!!

· Filed Under: Quilting · 8 Comments

The Beautiful Snow

February 2, 2010 · by

It’s so pretty!  Snow pictures could almost be a postcard . . a winder wonderland.

Until . . .

The businesses have their parking lots cleaned and all the parking lot crud gets scraped up with the snow and we have mounds and mounds of icky snow!  And, look how dirty and cruddy all those vehicles are from driving in the snow!

At Wal-Mart ..

At the grocery store  . .

Even my own driveway!  Yes, the blue trash can is in front because the sidewalk to the back has not been shoveled!   Pretend it isn’t there . . I tried to crop it out!

I’m ready to see green grass and flowers . . no piles of snow, no icicles hanging down.  And while we’re talking about snow, what time does the snow plow driver get up?  I’m not complaining that he’s coming by my house .. I just wish he didn’t wake up quite so early!  I know . . he’s kinda like Santa.  He has a lot of territory to cover and I’m real happy that he’s out there doing his job.

· Filed Under: Home & Garden · 7 Comments

Good News!

February 2, 2010 · by

Just talked to AQS and the books are  in and being shipped to me today!  Hopefully I’ll have them by Friday! I’ll spend the weekend signing books and they should be going out on Monday or Tuesday (or Wednesday) depending on how many I can ship at once without aggravating the post office people.

There are 16 quilts, all instructions written in the one hour format as we did in Quilt for an Hour projects.  Some of my favorite recipes, as well as time saving tips are included.

If you still want to order one, you can do it here.  I’ll sign your copy and get it right out to you.

If you don’t use paypal and want to send a check instead, send me an email and I’ll send  you my address.

Thanks!

· Filed Under: Quilting · 17 Comments

Curds & Whey

February 2, 2010 · by

Yesterday I set out to make mozzarella and it was quick and it was easy and it is good!  It’s a lot like making bread in that you have to get the “feel” for when it’s right.  The first batch I made, I must’ve pulled it a bit too long because it was a bit hard.  The recipe called for 1 T. of salt and I felt like that was too much so didn’t use that much and it tasted like it needed salt.  The second batch I didn’t pull as long, added the full tablespoon of salt and it was perfect.

Here you can see where I cut through the curds.

Starting to look like mozzarella, right?

The end product!  I got 1-1/2 pounds of cheese from each gallon of milk.

I saved the whey.  Hard to believe there’s 1-1/2 pounds of cheese and almost a full gallon of whey.

Some of the whey went into making this Italian bread.

I cut up some of the cheese, marinated it in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, crushed red peppers and we had this with lettuce for a salad at dinner.

One gallon of milk is left and I saved it to make cheese when Vince is home so he can play too.  I want to make cheddar but it’s going to be a while before I’m home long enough (weeks in a row) to deal with it so it will just have to wait.

· Filed Under: Cooking · 21 Comments