At Last!!!

Last day of NaBloPoMo!

last turkey sandwich:

That’s on Portuguese bread, with a light  smear of mayo, some cranberry sauce, some Havarti cheese and a bit of stuffing for the flavor, toasted.

Last bowl of soup:

With carrots, onions, celery and corn and fresh thyme, and egg noodles. (actually I still have a least a bowl left).

I didn’t have the soup with the sandwich- they were separate meals.

I managed to post every day, and one day I even made two posts! Congratulations to all my fellow NaBlo-wers (as Stitch Bitch calls us!)

And thanks to all who visited and put up with some very lame writing, and special thanks to all the encouraging comments!

And I’d like to thank the academy….oh! wrong acceptance speech!

I’m SO done!

And she stitched….

More Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow Square 10.

An hour’s worth of work listening to my forgotten Spotify playlist. Fun!

Celebrities in Stitches….

taken to a whole new level:

Totally Severe

Time Flies….

When you’re putting up Christmas lights on a deadline. I’d show a picture except I started off with a partial outage on one string, and I had to plan the layout of my 3 strands along my gutter  so that the bad section would be at the easiest place to take down when (if) I get the replacement strand. I had to go out to a last minute birthday party invitation, so I plugged everything in, admired my 2-3/4 strings of lights on my way out, and when I came home, a second strand had a partial outage. Before I started hanging these up, I literally unplugged every bulb in the bad 3-foot section and tested with a spare. I found one bulb with a bad filament, and replaced that too, but to no avail.  The futility of trying to find the bad bulb is making me think I should just get new lights, possibly just a straight string, rather than the icicle type I have now. Do you know that not all icicle lights look the same when lit? So I may as well start fresh with a new look. Or maybe I should just skip it. I could get LED’s- energy efficient! Or colored lights!

Anyway, I got this chart when I was shopping the other day:

I have to research alternate color combinations. The called-for threads are GAST “Currant” and “Blue Spruce”, not that you can tell by the model picture, which seems faded. I think I want at least some gold in there, if not blues and violets and emerald green. I don’t intend to start it anytime soon, so I have time to decide.

Five More Days...

I mean posts, before I can hop off this bus to crazy town. I didn’t even make it thru one episode of Hawaii Five-O last night before I crashed. I never even saw who done it. I’ll try to stay awake for more tonight- I have the last episode of Fringe, several CSI’s, a Glee or 2, and a bunch of Prime Suspects. I have to get it all under control before The Closer starts Monday. I LOVE that show!

Absolutely stellar weather today in Massachusetts- about 63 degrees, partly sunny, little to no breeze. I went for a little ride on Axe this afternoon around the barn property. We can open all the gates and 2-1/2  laps around all the paddocks is about 40 minutes. it’s like a mini trail ride without going on the trails.

I didn’t get to my x-mas lights- tomorrow is supposed to be marvelous too. Barn chores this morning as well as tomorrow morning, plus seeing Bob, and a couple of household chores. I gave Bob most of my apple pie- the chocolate cake is wreaking havoc with my waistline, but I’m NOT giving it up!

Mom’s birthday is today- HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

Black Friday….

No, I didn’t go shopping. I did go to work for the morning. Came home, walked Chicken numerous times and watched a couple of episodes of ‘Kitchen Impossible” starring Coni Spinster’s hunk of a specimen of a man, Robert Irvine, went to the barn to help bring in the ponies, whereupon I learned it was a good day to not do barn chores in the morning due to feisty horse and pony. Then I came home, turned on the computer, went back out to the supermarket in search of another Marvel frozen turkey to stick in the freezer for Christmas, found an unfamiliar substitute, which I did not buy, then came home and just finished re-heating leftovers.  Now to sit in front of the TV and watch all the shows I’ve been too tired to watch for the last 3 weeks.

TTFN

Happy Thanksgiving Again!

Here’s my de-luscious bird:

It came out perfect, if I do say so myself.

Dinner for one:

I packed up about half of everything for Bob, who had day-surgery yesterday on his elbow & didn’t feel up to traveling.

Dessert (round one):

Sorry about the smudges- I had to roll the slice upright. But it tasted good!

Happy leftovers!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Google Turkey doodle

Click on the picture and it re-mixes itself.

Wonderful Wednesday Wrecipes…

This makes a great weekend breakfast treat (hint for those who have house guests this weekend!)

Cinnamon Swirled Bread (for the bread machine)

Makes one 4” x 9” loaf

BREAD:

• 1 egg plus enough water to equal 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 TBSP plus 1 tsp sugar
• 6 TBSP butter, softened
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 tsp yeast (bread machine or quick active dry)

FILLING:

• ¼ cup butter, softened
• ½ cup Demerara sugar (you can substitute brown sugar) mixed with
• 2 tsp cinnamon

1. Place all ingredients for bread in bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select “Dough” cycle. When machine cycle ends, turn out dough onto lightly floured surface and cover with a clean towel and rest for 10 minutes.
2. Then gently roll dough to approximately 9” x 15”. Spread with ¼ cup of softened butter leaving a ½” margin clean around the perimeter.
3. Sprinkle evenly with cinnamon sugar. Roll dough tightly into a log 9” wide, pinching along ending seam to close.
4. Place log into greased 4” x 9” loaf pan, gently tucking in ends as necessary, seam-side down.
5. Cover with clean towel, and let rise about 1 hour in warm, draft-free space, until dough reaches top of pan or is roughly doubled in size.
6. Bake in pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes. Top should be golden brown, and bottom should sound hollow when tapped, or get an instant read thermometer which should read 190 to 200 degrees to be done.

Never write an obligatory post when you’re tired..

Because you get what happened yesterday. I apologize.

So my chocolate cake is baked and cooling; my brine is boiled and also cooling. Tomorrow I have to do stalls in the morning, then bake a flat apple pie, cook the squash OH! and brine the turkey stupid! And bake a loaf of  oatmeal bread for some good leftover turkey sandwiches. And then clean my house to an inch of its life in case Bob & his son come up for dinner instead of me schlepping it down to them. I’ll be making this stuffing too. At some point, maybe I’ll have time to stitch.

Excuse me while I go get a paper towel to wipe the snort off my monitor.

Complaint Department…

If you don’t like whining & complaining, then don’t continue reading:

Google mail needs a filter to sort by senders so one may delete en masse.

Verizon needs to treat their 25+ year customers a little bit better. Why do new customers get the good deals and existing customers get bubkiss?

People walking their big dogs need to pick up after them when they defecate on my lawn. My dog doesn’t poop on your lawn. One of these days I’ll follow you home so I can return your dog’s poop.

What’s with the rash of telemarketers calling & texting my cellphone- which has been on the Do Not Call Registry since day one???

My local supermarket, Hannafords, needs to stop raising prices every single week. Their own brand English muffins, have gone from 99 cents (for as long as I can remember) up to $1.59 just last week. And they are out of their brand peanut butter, too.

The tattoo guy needs to stop living in his store.

Airlines need to quit it with the fees. A story on the news this morning said they’ve made billions-with-a-“B” on fees this past year (what do they think they are- oil companies??)

Seriously, the Occupiers need to go home. And stay there. I fail to see what political agenda they are trying to serve by pooping on police cars. When you start yelling at little kids walking to school, or preventing waitresses from getting to their jobs, while letting Michael Fatso Moore get away with insisting he’s “not in the 1%”, you’re not helping your “cause”.

And hey FLOTUS: if I want to eat  a cheeseburger with mayo and salt on it, it’s none of your business. I don’t bitch at you when you stuff your face with Kobe beef and lobster, on MY dime.

And now that I’ve regressed to political sniping, it’s time to call it a day.

God will this month EVER end……..

Abstract Art?

I started this today:

On 30ct. linen over one, I’m stitching Square 10 from Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow as an ornament.

Call me crazy….

Maybe elves will sneak into my house at night to finish this for me? What attracts elves- candy canes, maple syrup and what else? I’ll have to dig out my Elf DVD.

Spring Chicken

Chicken got a much needed grooming earlier this month.
Hairy Chickie:

Groomed Chickie:

TGIF….

the only part about moving my computer back into the computer room is not having this next to me while I blog:

Please pardon the kitty scratches on my couch.

Under Construction…

More Beacon House tonight:

We had a full house at Joanne’s tonight- everyone showed up despite the rainy cold weather. We made plans for our Christmas party: we’re going to an Italian restaurant called The Chateau. It’s supposed to be fabulous- I can’t wait!

After discussion with Linda (no blog) and Deborah, I’m going to keep the 2 trees I’ve already stitched and stitch a mix of  the correct colors & incorrect for the following 4 trees.

Chicken was glad to see me when I got home.

Delilah I’m not too sure:

What a puff ball!

Wicked Wednesday Wrecipes

Do you remember Vanilla Cupcakes for 2? Here’s the chocolate cake for one (well, 2). The cake is a bit brownie-like, but it has peanut butter cream filling!

From Picky Palate:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake for Two

• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and spray 2 mini bundt pans with non stick cooking spray . Or you can recycle a 12.5 ounce can, such as the type cooked chicken comes in, washed & dried thoroughly.

2. Place flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, baking soda, egg, oil and vanilla into a large mixing bowl. Melt chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second intervals until smooth. Pour into bowl and mix all ingredients until well combined.

3. Divide batter between prepared pans and bake for 20-25 minutes or until baked through. Check with a toothpick for moist crumbs. Let cool for 10 minutes then remove from pan by flipping over firmly. Let cool completely then cut in half lengthwise.

4. Place peanut butter, powdered sugar and milk into a small bowl and mix until smooth. If mixture suddenly turns dry, add a bit more milk. Spread over bottom cake and place second cake on top.

5. Place chocolate chips in microwave safe bowl and melt in 30 second intervals until smooth. Place butter and powdered sugar in small bowl, mixing to combine and add melted chocolate, mixing until combined. Spread evenly over cake and top with sprinkles if desired.

Please pardon my deficient frosting skillz.

And the inside:

My peanut butter filling needed that tiny bit more milk.

But it sure tasted good!

I'm not losing my mind completely...

I DID write a post about a movie Ellen Page from Juno was making, called "Stitch & Bitch"!
Here's the link back to my old post: Is Our Hobby Making The Big Time?

Did this movie ever get finished? Any one know...?

Potluck…

I’m sitting  here trying to think of something even remotely entertaining to write about, and I remembered that I had posted a long time ago about a movie that featured cross stitching. Did it have the Juno actress in it?

Anyway, I googled “cross stitch in movies” and found this:

“The Cross-Stitch”

Has anyone seen this? Where have I seen the actress before- “Desperate Housewives”, maybe?

Then there is this: “Outlander”, a novel by Diana Gabaldon, originally published in the UK as “Cross Stitch”. This I found interesting, as I had found a copy of this book at the recycling center (the Dump Library), and thoroughly enjoyed it. I believe there is at least 2 sequels, but i haven’t searched those out .

Then  there are the web sites that generate designs for sale that I kind of think may break some copywrite rules, but while this site may do the same, they actually have a list of “Movies to Stitch By”, which they define as “great movies that show women stitching”.

There’s this story about pixelated people, movie characters specifically. I think Miss Anna over at Stitch Bitch, gave a link last week to Martha Stewart’s craft site for a story called “Family Portraits Cross Stitching”. Anna even gave the PDF link for the templates- these could be use to make cute Xmas gifts!

OK- the dog wants to lick my hand, so I have to go now. Plus dishes & lunch making. ACCHH!! 7:44 already???!!!

Home Building…

To kill some time before I went back to the barn this afternoon to bring in & feed the ponies, I put on the Cowboys game today, which got switched to the Steelers game, and did some stitching :

As you can see, I started the house. I’m going to think about the trees a bit more. I got a comment from Anna to just keep going with this combination, and another each from NatalyK and Linda (no blog) suggesting  to go  with a correct/incorrect combo. I like the combination in the photo in the magazine- the dark green trees with light spots. I may wait to stitch a tree on the opposite side to see how it looks.
And that’s all she wrote.

A Wall..

Day 12 of NaBloPoMo, and I got nuthin’!

So I googled “stitching”, and got this link: Stylist Home

which led to this one: The Cutting (& Stitching) Edge

which led to this one: Sally Hewitt

And there’s really no need to go any further than that.

But if you must, go back to The Cutting (& Stitching) Edge, and

check out the eight links on that page.

11-11-11

In honor of Veteran’s Day, i would like to thank all present and former members of the military, as well as all deceased members, and their families, for their sacrifice on behalf of our country.

It’s been a while since I splurged on this:

I’ve been working on plans for a pizza shop at the Hanover Mall for the past 2 days- it must be subliminal!

The only way to make it perfect would be an icy cold Budweiser, but since my house is a chilly 63 degrees, I’m opting for a fire in the wood stove, and a glass of water.

Plus I have to get up early and shovel horse poop. No liquor for me!

PS:

did anyone hear from Coni Spinster Stitcher today? She was concerned about superstitions about today’s date….

Beacon House – HELP!

I worked a bit on it today, I had my day off due to horse shoes and a dentist appointment.

I added a friend for the first little guy and a dog for them to play with. I also reached the bottom border on the left.

Here’s where your help comes in: I don’t remember why, but I went looking for Beacon House chart errors the other day, and came back to Carol’s blog, who I remembered had started the piece and found floss errors, in addition to the HUGE fabric size error. I wish I had refreshed my memory about a month ago because one of the floss errors was those trees: they should be stitched in the darker green with lighter green “dots”- reversed colors from what I did (as called-for by the floss/symbol guide).

There is one more tree on this side below the boys, and 3 trees on the right side of the piece. Should I correct the colors on the 3rd tree, left, and stitch the corresponding color combinations on the right, or keep this combination for the left side all 3 trees and do the correct combo on the right or continue with combo on the 3rd tree as well as the right side? Mind you I really don’t want to unstitch both of those trees!

Wonderful Wednesday Wrecipes

Here’s something different:

Chorizo & White Bean Soup

• 1 package dry white beans (about 2 cups)(I used Great Northern White beans)
• 8 oz. ground chorizo sausage
• 1 medium onion, chopped to ¼” dice
• 1 large carrot, chopped to ¼” dice
• 1 large celery rib, chopped to ¼” dice
• 1 cup water plus up to 2 additional cups of water
• four - 14 oz. cans chicken low sodium broth
• one – 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 2 bay leaves
• ¼ cup flat Italian parsley, minced
• 1 box frozen, chopped spinach
• salt & pepper to taste

1. Place the dry beans in a large pot and cover with water 3 inches above beans. Soak overnight or up to 24 hours. Drain and rinse thoroughly before using.
2. In a large stock pot cook chorizo without browning, breaking it up into little pieces.
3. Push the chorizo to one side of pot, add a splash of olive oil, and then the onion, carrots and celery. Cook until the onion turns translucent, but not browned.
4. Add the 1 cup of water, chicken broth, diced tomatoes and their juice, bay leaves, parsley and rinsed soaked beans. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for one hour, uncovered, stirring occasionally. Skim off any foam that collects on the surface.
5. Meanwhile, defrost box of spinach and squeeze excess liquid out.
6. Add 1-1/2 cups water, bring back to a simmer and cook for one more hour, until the beans are soft. At this point, add the drained spinach.Continue to stir occasionally.
7. If the beans are not done, add ½ cup more water and cook an additional 15 minutes.
8. When beans are done to your taste, adjust level of liquid and add up to ½ cup more water. Adjust seasonings with salt & pepper.
9. Serve with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese and a chunk of crusty bread.

I’m a Twit I guess….

Can someone explain Twitter to me? I’ve had an account for over a year. I think I established it for a coupon deal site. (Which doesn’t even make posts anymore!) I follow about 40 people/groups/entities and four even follow me back (yikes!) I've made a total of 48 tweets. I mostly find it annoying.
I just _ don’t _ get _ it.
How do I view, or is it even possible to follow, a conversation between one of my follow-ees and someone else? It’s so frustrating trying to understand what people are talking about when there’s only one side of the conversation. (Unlike Facebook, which I mostly understand) What’s the deal with the “#” sign and the “@” sign? Not that I ever would, but how do you post pictures? How do you view things that are recommended by newscasters: “Follow on Twitter…etc.”
Why is this Twitter thing so popular???

What’s Next?

My fingers are starting to itch for Christmas designs. I picked out the following designs for my own pleasure, as well as some gifts:

Top: “Peace & Quiet” by Erica Michaels and “Joy Sampler” by Lizzie Kate

2nd row: “Merry Ho Ho”  and “Winter Sampler” by LK, “Barnyard” by Bent Creek

3rd row: “Sleigh Ride” by BK and “Sweet Nothings” by JBW Designs

Bottom row: “Think Snow” by The Sweetheart Tree and “The Holly Berry Sampler” by Bent Creek

“Barnyard” I’m going to stitch for a barn person. I can personalize the horse to look like her own. I think I want to do “Sweet Nothings” for my barn owner, or maybe one of the squares from “Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow”. She gave me that chart a couple of years ago. I think I want to start that next as my BAP, when I get Garden Grew done.

Back to the Garden…

Here’s the rest of my progress on Garden grew:

 

Day 2 above

Day 3 above. This leaves me at page 20, the last page. There is a flower that spans from page 19, but I think when I pick this up again, I’ll start at Page 20 and work to the left. OH! and I have to stitch a spider web & spider in the left inner corner of the arbor. I’m still trying to find a blending filament to use.

Well!

Talk about a waste of natural (or otherwise) resources, not to mention what were probably very expensive wedding gifts.

I’m talking about the girl with the fat ass that married the currently unemployed basketball player 72+ days ago and filed for divorce this week.

Let’s mock her, shall we? The following link will take you to a calculator that figures out how long you have been married in “Kardashians”, a unit of measure that represents 72 days of marriage. For instance, I’ve been dating Bob for 68.61 Kardashians.

Kardashian Calculator

Look What I found….

at my local supermarket:

It didn’t seem to have the crumb topping as advertised, and it was kind of sweet (even for me), but for $1.89, I can’t complain too much.

Of course, the next time I go to shop, it’ll cost $2.09, because they raise their prices every week since the Stop & Shop closed.

Bastards!

Winter….

at Beacon Hill House. I don’t know why I want to use “Hill”.
Anyway, not much progress to show:

I had stitched over 3 threads with Oatmeal in the band of snow to the right of the little man. Then I switched to the Light Khaki for a row or 2. Last Thursday, when I resumed stitching, I caught the error as I stitched underneath the little man to meet up with the errant section, and saw I was off. I spent half of my time un-doing, and re-stitched the bad row. (Between bites of that delicious cupcake!)
So what you see is about the same as the previous picture….*sigh*

The Return of Wonderful Wednesday Wrecipes!

In honor of fulfilling another day of NaBloPoMo, I am re-instituting WWW. I hope you’ll enjoy!

I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen a couple of years ago. I tried it by halving the filling and making mini cheesecakes, and they were fabulous for gift-giving.

I made a large one for a party my local rabble-rowser group was having last month. I altered a few things to my tastes. Keep this one handy for the holidays:

Cappuccino Fudge Cheesecake
Via Smitten Kitchen:Adapted from Bon Appétit, February 2002

Crust
one 9-ounce box chocolate wafer cookies or 9 ounces of chocolate graham-y bears
1/2 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
7 tablespoons hot melted unsalted butter

Ganache
1 1/2 cups heavy or whipping cream
20 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup Kahlúa or other coffee-flavored liqueur

Filling
three 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder or coffee crystals
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons mild-flavored (light) molasses
3 large eggs

Topping
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Make crust: Finely grind cookies and brown sugar in processor. Add butter and process until crumbs begin to stick together, scraping down bowl occasionally, about 1 minute. Transfer crumbs to 9-inch-diameter spring form pan with 3-inch-high sides. Wrap plastic wrap around fingers and press crumb mixture firmly up sides to within 1/2 inch of top edge, then over bottom of pan.

Make ganache: Bring cream to simmer in large saucepan. Remove from heat; add chocolate and Kahlúa. Whisk until chocolate is melted and ganache is smooth. Pour 2 cups ganache over bottom of crust. Freeze until ganache layer is firm, about 30 minutes. Reserve remaining ganache; cover and let stand at room temperature to use later for decorating.

Make filling: Position rack in middle of oven and preheat to 350°F. Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl until blended. Scrape down bowl, making sure you get to the bottom. Beat in flour. Stir rum, espresso powder, vanilla, and molasses in small bowl until instant coffee dissolves; beat into cream cheese mixture. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down sides of bowl between each addition.

Pour filling over cold ganache in crust — it will go nearly all of the way to the top. Place cheesecake on rimmed baking sheet. Bake until top is brown, puffed and cracked at edges, and the center two inches moves only slightly when pan is gently shaken, about one hour. Transfer cheesecake to rack. Cool 15 minutes while preparing topping (top of cheesecake will fall slightly, making room for topping). Maintain oven temperature.

Make topping: Whisk sour cream, sugar, and vanilla in medium bowl to blend. Pour topping over hot cheesecake, spreading to cover filling completely. Bake until topping is set, about 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer cheesecake to rack. Refrigerate hot cheesecake on rack until cool, about three hours.

Run small sharp knife between crust and pan sides to loosen cake; release pan sides. Transfer cheesecake to platter. Spoon reserved ganache into pastry bag fitted with small star tip. Decorate top of cake with piped stars and/or lattice. Chill until lattice is firm, at least 6 hours.

Do ahead: Cake is best made a day ahead, so the flavors have time to settle. The cake also takes enough time to make that it’s best not to rush through it the day you want to serve it. It can be made up to four days ahead. Wrap loosely in foil, forming dome over lattice; keep chilled.

My poor decorating skills! At least the flavor made up for its appearance!

First Day….

of NaBloPoMo. I must be completely insane!
I survived my barn sitting- 10 days of dark mornings and not-early evenings. I ended up going to work everyday, as I’m not sure anymore if I have paid vacation days, and was up by 5:15 on the weekdays and 6:15 on the weekends. There were several mornings I had to get up at 3:30 to let the dogs out because one had been having “tummy trouble” prior to my stint, and I was afraid of having to clean poop out of carpets. So as soon as I heard whining, I was up in a flash. Luckily, no accidents!
I made great progress on Garden Grew- I have just one page left.
Here’s where I left off:

Here’s after my first day:

Since I have 30 days to fill, you’ll have to wait for subsequent pictures!