Cookies!

The cookie shortage at our house is now over.  I got right to business this morning after showering and having breakfast.

I wanted to try the chocolate "surprise" cookie recipe that I think I got from Martha Stewart.  I always find her recipes fool-proof.  The chocolate dough was easy enough to make, and after baking for 10 minutes, you put half a marshmallow on top of each one and let it melt sightly.  After the cookie cools, you put a gob of frosting on top.  the cookie itself isn't too sweet, but the marshmallow and frosting makes it a meal by itself.

Then I made chocolate chip and molasses cookies, both from Betty Crocker mixes.  Even though they're easy, they taste very good and make about a dozen and a half.  I'm all about portion control these days, even though my output doesn't make it seem so.   I will pack some up for Chris to either take home or take over to friends.

As the cookies were cooling, I made some sweet roasted pecans some of which I plan to use in a salad with blue cheese on Christmas eve. And that's enough cooking for me considering yesterday I made a French Canadian meat pie (tourtiere) and French bread to serve to company.   Now it's time for me to put my feet up and enjoy the holiday.  An extra plus:  the sun is shining and it's 40 degrees out!

Best books of 2019

I had set a goal for reading 62 books in 2019, but so far, I've only read 51.  I blame it all on plugging away at the Laura Ingalls Wilder biography, Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser, for about a month.  It was quite thorough - perhaps too thorough - but I made it all the way through.  I didn't read as much before, during and after our trip to the Netherlands.  There was too much to see and do, and when I did sit down to read, it wasn't long before I fell asleep.

My favorite book was Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owen, which tells the story of a girl, abandoned in a primitive cabin on the coast of South Carolina.  She doesn't have anyone to talk to or play with, so spends her days observing and drawing animals, plants, and the waters around her.   She is a heroine in every sense of the word.  I had resisted reading the book because "everyone" was doing so, but I finally broke down, zoomed through, and thought it was just wonderful.    Other books I enjoyed were:

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
    A quirky heroine finds love.
Bookshop of Yesterdays - Amy Meyerson
    A young woman inherits a bookshop but has to move across the country and answer clues in the books before making it her own.
The Never-Open Desert Diner - James Anderson (and its sequel Lullaby Road)
     A down on his luck trucker helps who he can along his route which includes some unusual and nasty characters.
An Address in Amsterdam - Mary Dingee Filmore (who I saw in person twice - what a great speaker!)
     A young Jewish girl works for the Underground during the Nazi occupation in WW II.
Beneath a Scarlet Sky - Mark Sullivan
      A young Italian man works as a spy during WW II.

I also really enjoyed Charlaine Harris' "Shakespeare" series and devoured them all - maybe 5 or 6 in a few weeks.  And of course, I loved the latest installments by Louise Penny (A Better Man) and Jacqueline Winspear (The American Agent).

Christmas at our house

Thought you might like to see a Christmas throw I made about 20 years ago.  We had it hanging all year long in the stairwell of the B&B, and now I just get it out for the holidays.  It's a sampler/medallion throw with a cozy flannel back.  I made a pillow out of some scraps last year, and they look nice together on that antique chair no one uses (unless there's no other option).

I have a Christmas Dear Jane variation on the sofa and a Bonnie Hunter "Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll" in Christmas fabrics on a wing chair.  When I get out these quilts, it finally feels like Christmas has arrived here.  I have finished shopping and wrapping, and yesterday I finished my wool appliqued Santa.  Now it's time to make Chex Mix and cookies.  In fact, my second batch of Chex Mix (Chris' favorite) is cooling.   I will pack some up for Chris and his friends later.   I'll bake a bundt cake Tuesday for the quilt guild meeting, and then a few batches of cookies, just because I can.

Eventful days

The holidays are fun but can be hard on folks.  I went to two dinner parties last weekend, and today we have two open houses to go to.  One is at our public library and is a first community Christmas party there.  Long ago, in my first library job, I instituted one which was a huge success and became an annual tradition.  

After the library party, we're heading a few blocks away for an open house at Fred's.  He has done quite a bit of energy saving renovation, and the city Energy Committee wants to highlight his work.  He deserves the recognition.  We went to a party at his house last year, and it is very cozy.

Before the two parties, I'll look in on the Calico County Quilters meeting.  I have been machine quilting the state quilt guild logo challenge wall hanging and want to show it to Robin.  I was in a quandary about how to quilt this center but ended up highlighting the star in the center with a row stitched in the ditch and an echo.  I'll post a picture when it's finished.

She and I figured out the pattern which is the Vermont #2 block on www.quilterscache.com with a Delectable Mountains border.  It was difficult, and my mountains are really hills.  I've added some borders to make it about 36" square now.  Robin's is a little smaller, but she's hand quilting it.  I'm curious to see it.

Pre-Christmas busy-ness

It has snowed almost every day, and we have a good base layer on the ground now.  It can stop anytime LOL, but we know it won't.   Driving downtown in a squall late yesterday for the library staff appreciation dinner was a bit hair-raising, but I made it.  Because we have a garage, I rarely have to clean the car off, but I did after the dinner.  Ugh.

Nevertheless, it was a very nice event, with about 36 people attending - library staff, trustees and Friends of the Library members.  Because our public library is incorporated, we had some nice wines with our appetizers before the lasagna and all the trimmings.  The staff liked the goodie bags I made them - quilted potholders (made from orphan blocks) and homemade jam (either Strawberry-Rhubarb or Peach Melba).

I have just a few items to applique onto the woolen St. Nick, but I took a break this week to make a few fabric ornaments out of scraps.  These stars were very easy to make out of hexagons.  Sew two together face to face, turn right sides out, and fold.  Stitch the star down and add something to hang them with.  I tried using Steam a Seam 2, but they turned out a little too stiff.

My overflowing "Holiday" fabric box was given a real trimming this week, too, as I put strings into the string basket, cut smaller pieces into tumblers to make Christmas stockings with, and ironed what was left.  I can now close the box - with room to spare!  I hope to make a few scrappy Christmas stockings to store until next October or so since I sold one on etsy and the other in a local gift shop.  I also sold two table runners at the shop, and the owner asked for more.   So I took all the Christmas-themed runners out of the etsy shop and took them downtown.  Fingers crossed.  Any sales feed my fabric habit, of course.

Olde St. Nick

I've been working steadily on my Christmas woolen applique, and today I hopw to stitch down the tree, star, pocket, and bear.  I was so pleased that I actually remembered how to make a French knot for the eye.  Here's the pattern so you can see what the finished piece should look like.

It's about 8" tall, so some of the pieces are pretty small.  With my machine still in the shop, I am enjoying this slow bit of stitching.