Finally Feeling Better…

The pink stuff is doing its magic; my appetite is slowing returning, although a lot of things are triggering more heartburn. I barn sat this weekend so I did some stitching-YAY! I went to bed early every night- like before 9:30. Friday night Em & Adam and a friend in a second car decided to pick up his chaps from the tack room at 11:30 at night- which really startled me. At least i had the sense to call her to see if it was them before I finished getting dressed to head outside. Then last night the local pack of coyotes (not the 40-something variety either, but the smelly hairy ones) decide to howl at the dead of 2:30-ish in the morning. Now THAT’s an eerie sound!

Garden Grew Page 11:

and an overall:

The next section starts the trellis!

And Quaker Halloween:

Poor Chickie fell down the stairs. I don’t know why she was upstairs- I was downstairs. I’m watching her like a hawk to see how badly hurt she is. We’ve went out to the yard & she did her business, but she seems “not right” just yet. Keep your fingers crossed!

I'm still here somewhere....

busy week last week: 2 nights of town rebel meetings, plus a painful stomache ache since last Sunday left me with little leftover energy to type, never mind stitch or cook. I had dry cheerios for breakfast and a one-slice ham sandwich for lunch all week, then I had crackers for supper Monday, oatmeal Tuesday, nothing Wednesday, pastry at Jeanne's Thursday, nothing Friday. I picked up some of the pink stuff Friday, and that's been making me feel better. I can tell it's wearing off when the raging heartburn starts, but at least I've been getting a breakfast and a late lunch/early supper in.
Well- off like a herd of turtles!

A Finish!

“December Swirls” by Bent Creek on 28ct. natural linen w/ specified floss

My next start:

“Red-Winged Blackbird” by Bent Creek on 28 ct. natural linen. Obviously, I’ve turned him into a Black-winged red bird, or a red blue jay as Bob calls them, aka: a cardinal.

Jeanne gave us each a zippered pouch- she scored a deal on a multi-sized set from TJ Max. AND she baked her delicious blueberry coffee cake. I have a piece for breakfast tomorrow.

Mild Rant Alert:

One of the boarders at my old barn posted a R.I.P. about her horse on Face book page, who passed away yesterday unexpectedly. He was a sweet horse- I really liked him- she could be wacky, which means she must be terribly upset. She didn’t deal well when her other horse passed away a few years ago. Anyway, a mutual FB friend coincidentally made a mobile update, just after the memorial post. (At least I thought it was coincidental, based on what I knew or thought to be this girl’s personality and the fact that she’s in another state) The mobile post was a joke about “Is there any horse that doesn’t suck money out of your wallet?” The answer “ Yeah, a dead one.”  It was so horrifying and insensitive I had to write a private message that she may want to remove it, because this mutual friend’s horse had just died. I don’t know how FB works, but the joke post appears on my page just before the memorial and it’s SOOOO awful!! I just rechecked, and the joke is still there, now with comments adding insult to injury, literally. Not about the specific deceased horse, but the 2 people are FB friends so I know the grieving one can read the other’s updates, and vice versa. The fact that the offending post is still there makes me think she a.) doesn’t care  and/or  b.) made the joke specifically and intentionally in reference to the deceased horse. I’ve tried to politely point out her faux pas on the assumption it was unintentional. I guess she will be my first “un friend”. Gah!

Wonderful Wednesday Wrecipes

This recipe started as the Cook’s Illustrated version, but I didn’t have buttermilk and I didn’t feel like using the mixer. I think some finely chopped walnuts would be a splendid addition to the topping. Here we go:

New York Crumb Cake

Topping:

• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• ¾ tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 8 TBSP (1 stick) butter, melted & still warm
• 1-3/4 cup cake flour

Cake:

• 1-1/4 cups cake flour
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 6 TBSP (3/4 stick) butter, cut into 6 pieces, softened, but still firm
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

DIRECTIONS:

Topping:

1. Whisk sugars, cinnamon, salt & butter together in a medium bowl.
2. Add flour and stir with spoon until mixture is the consistency of cookie dough. Set aside while you prepare the cake.                                                                                           

Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8” or 9” square pan with non-stick foil, or use regular foil and spray with vegetable oil + flour non-stick spray.
2. In a large food processor bowl, pulse the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt together about 5 times.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
3. Add the chunks of butter, and pulse until mixture resembles moist crumbs no bigger than a pea.                                                                                                                                                         
4. Add egg & yolk, vanilla, and sour cream, and process about 30 seconds. Stop & scrape down sides of bowl, and pulse again if necessary until all ingredients are combined in a smooth batter.                                                                                                                                 
5. Spoon batter into prepared pan & spread evenly.                                                                                                                         
6. Take the ball of topping, and break apart into pea-size pieces. Sprinkle evenly over top of batter, starting at edges and working towards center. DO NOT press topping into cake!!!                                                                                                                                                                      
7. Bake at 325 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes, and crumbs are golden and test skewer comes out clean.                                                                                                                             
8. Cool at least 30 minutes then lift cake out of pan with foil edges. Dust with confectioners’ sugar before serving if desired.

No dusting for me- I was too lazy and too hungry!

Back to the Soup….

It’s humid, sticky and GROSS today! Blech! At least it’s not hot. But my deodorant sure has worn out!

I stitched more on this today:

I probably could have finished it, except I miscounted by one stitch both vertically and horizontally. I didn’t find this mistake until I had worked backwards on the lettering to the “m” . So I worked forwards from the “D”, and had to unstitch the “mber”, and scrunch the “m” and “b” together by half a stitch to make it fit.

Hopefully no one will be looking too closely when (ever) I finish finish it.

And a Stitchy Time was had by All…

I reached the right side of my Quaker Halloween chart:

I’m about 2/3 done.  Woo-hoo! I’m cooking a steak, grilled potatoes, and a Greek salad for supper. I just remembered I had some wine….perfect!

Come to Mama!!!!!!!!!!

Next week’s WWW:

I’ll leave you in suspenders as my dad would say, until next Wednesday,  for what this scrumptious pan of goodness is!

And Back to Halloween…

Progress:

That empty medallion at the lower left is supposed to be for personalization; I don’t know what I want in there, maybe not even initials.

This center flower was a bitch. I unstitched various parts of it as I worked counter-clockwise no less than 3 times. The last was from the leaf at 11:00, back to the leaf at 2:00. Then I got my groove back.

After took the photos, I removed the fabric from my Q-snaps to iron. The wrinkles were aggravating my OCD. I also tested the threads for color-fastness. The Tapestry Green and the Aged Plum both bleed. Surprisingly, the black didn’t seem to leak! I ironed the piece and thankfully, most creases came out. Now I have it mounted in a scroll frame. I forgot about an eBay score I made for a multi-sized scroll frame set and it had rods the perfect length. Now I have to make another frame cozy to fit this size. In all my free time…..

Think Cool Thoughts….

One thing about stitching Xmas designs in the middle of the Dog Days of Summer is, you can imagine being enveloped in cold, dry air. Like air conditioning, only green…yeah….that’s the ticket!

I finished this today (Day Late and a Dollar Short, as usual):

“Swirly Snow” by Whispering Winds Designs

on 28 ct. “Nordic Blue” with various fibers & beads

And the art-sy shot:

Then I started this:

“December Swirls” by Bent Creek on 28 ct CC Natural Linen w/ specified threads.

BBBBBrrrrrrrrr!!!!!! I’m getting chilly already!

Watch out bloggers- they're coming for you!

Legal shark sues Boston bloggers

Note that in the instance of the American Idol blogger, she posted a column WITH CREDIT. And was still sued. The second-to-last paragraph only briefly mentions "fair use" and use of hyper-links and excerpts instead of entire articles.

Nothing like taking all the fun out of life!

Wicked Wednesday Wrecipes…

I’ve been busier than a one-armed wallpaper hanger  for the past week. Work has taken off like crazy, including personal stuff. I’m going to have to work my last month of Fridays off to keep/catch up. Not much cooking has been going on, except for a chocolate cake for Bob (my Chocolate cupcake recipe), and a couple of batches of Creamy Chicken Taquitos for the freezer. I came across some sinful recipes today for the “Try-Sometime” List:

Butterscotch on Butterscotch Cake

Peanut Buttercup Popcorn from My Best Bites (OMG! The perils of having a Type I diabetic in the house! Do I DARE make this recipe????!!!!!)

and this one , which at first glance seemed similar to my Chocolate cupcake recipe:

Everyday Chocolate Cake from Smitten Kitchen. Actually, it’s a bit more than a little different, aside from the buttermilk. (I wish I had thought of baking in a loaf pan. I baked Bob’s in a single round layer; I turned it onto a wire rack (upside down) to cool. When I got back to it about an hour later, the bottom had cracked in 3 huge crevasses, so my plan of filling it went out the window. The top had domed so high, the weight of the cake edges pulled the whole thing apart when I cooled it upside down. Damn the luck!)(I flipped it over & just frosted it.)

And just for visual stimulation: