Happy Long Weekend!

Here's the progress photos you've all been just dying to see:

T&T:

And I reluctantly dragged out JDD Bell Ornament:

I just have the over-one background stitching to do.

I rode everyday; Em rode Thursday night which is normally Axe's night off because I'm stitching, so I gave her Friday night off instead. I fell asleep on the couch both Friday & Saturday nights, waking up around 1;30 and 12:30 respectively, derailing any normal night time ablutions, which would have made me wide awake again. I worked a tad Sunday afternoon for a friend. Today I went to the mall for only the second time since last Xmas. I had Miss Vicki's coupons for free bloomers, and Clinique was having it's bonus event.

I'm on a chocolate chip cookie binge. i made some dough last week and sent most of it back to Boston with Em. The cookies it made were too crispy though. It called for melted butter- I think it was a Cook's Illustrated or a King Arthur's Flour recipe. I was still craving them today, so I just made a half-batch of good old fashioned Original Toll house cookies. Nothing like the original. And if you let the butter sit out on the counter all day, it's even soft enough to mix by hand! Perfect texture, consistency, buttery, brown-sugary taste!  For supper I made my all-time favorite sandwich: I don't have a name for it, so here's how to make it: Slice one green pepper and one sweet onion thinly into strips, toss together in a large bowl with 2-3 TBSP olive oil and about 1/2 tsp salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste. Grill on your George Foreman for about 7 minutes, or until you have good char marks and onions are translucent and wilted. Stir around midway thru cooking time. Meanwhile, slice a good sub roll open, and take ONE slice of American cheese (yellow or white) and tear into strips and cover bottom side of roll. When veggie are done, layer about 1/3 to 1/2 of  the mixture on top of the cheese strips, and close top of roll to keep heat in. Let sit a few minutes (if you can stand it) to melt the cheese, then scarf down. The sub rolls I get at my market are about 9" long, so i get 2 very filling sandwiches out of this amount of veggies. I keep the unused mixture in the frig, and re-heat in a small skillet. You can top the re-heated stuff with the cheese in the skillet, and cover to let it melt and then turn it into the roll. MMMM--M! Good thing it was a long weekend- it's going to take more than a day to get the onion smell out of my hair!

Well, I think I've satisfied my chocolate chip cookie cravings for a while- hopefully until my Christmas baking marathon. I bought 2 quarter sheets from a local restaurant supply warehouse store- nice heavy aluminum ones- perfect with my silicone mats. I can't wait for Xmas baking!

Thought of Ireland: