Cookbook Challenge/Creative Output - more fixing/Warning for Dog Lovers

COOKBOOK CHALLENGE!

Did I mention that part of of my overflowing recipe collection also had to do with too many cookbooks?!  This is just a portion - and I haven't even cracked that Cooking Light one yet!

With the herb garden still going in full steam, I chose to make an herb cheese bread this weekend.  It's from a cookbook I've had a while called

The Bread Machine Gourmet by Shea MacKenzie and the recipe is Cottage Dilly Bread - it was good!

We didn't turn our slices into sandwiches like the picture suggests, we ate it warm from the oven!

Bread machines will bake your bread for you, of course, but it comes out with a thick crust on three sides.  I let the machine do all the heavy lifting of mixing and punching and timed rising, and then popped it into a conventional oven.

We will keep this recipe and make it again!

Cottage Dilly Bread

    1 1/2 pound loaf

3 cups bread flour

snipped dill - 6 Tbsp fresh or 3 Tbsp dried

2 Tbsp dry milk

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

3/4 cup water 

1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese

2 Tbsp canola, safflower or sunflower oil

2 tsp honey

1 package active dry yeast

2-3 chopped green onions through the green (I added this)

I place all the wet ingredients in the pan first, top with the dry - making a well in the flour to hold the yeast.  The recipe calls for "the whole wheat setting" if you are going to use the bread machine all the way through.  I use the "dough" setting and then bake in a bread loaf at 350 for 35-40 mins.


Creative Output - Fall Quilt almost done!

But first to size things up -

that's not right!  Somehow, with everything else in the right place, one row didn't add up.

trimming the other "correct" rows would just make the whole block short, not the 12 inches it's suppose to be.

Time to patch the patchwork!

I save scraps for just such an emergency.  Simply take apart the edges with my trusty seam ripper (which I've used a lot  for this quilt!)

It's complicated!

Anyway, peel away the top and bottom rows from the short needy row

 sew your scrap on to make the row longer, press and then sew the rows peeled away back on.  You don't need to peel back more than a 1/2 inch.

Then trim your sewed in scrap to be uniform with the block - and you've patched your patchwork!

 Voila! 

With all the pieces that go into just one block, I really don't think anyone will notice - sure beats starting all over on this tree of life block - 36 half square triangles, oh yeah!

A Word of Warning for Dog Owners!

My youngest drinks a lot of hot cocoa - at least a mug a day. We make our own - unsweetened dark cocoa power, powdered milk and powdered sugar - so much better and better for her.  She had used the last of the dark chocolate powder - and my trash loving dog got a hold of the container in the middle of the night.

Chocolate is poison for dogs

We woke up to a house full of diarrhea and vomit - by the front door, at the top of the stairs, in the dining room.  The good news is that we woke up to our dog still with us.  He had a fever!  He was panting and shaking.  I have never seen a dog with a fever before.

We kept the doors open for him all day Saturday and Sunday so he could run outside when he needed too, and he already better on Sunday. As of Monday he is about past it. So scary. The other thing to remember is that the container was empty!  Thank heavens he didn't get more that he did.  These doggies, they become family!

The carpets cleaned and the house scrubbed down, we are all feeling better.

The cat says she didn't do it.

Pam

Cookbook Challenge - Cookies!/Nursery School Project

Cookbook Challenge

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies - this one is a family favorite!  We got it from a container of old fashioned oats - yup, right under the lid!

I made a few changes 

 My kids like their fruit on the side or in a smoothies.  They even accept fruit as dessert

but please don't mix into baked goods!  Chocolate chips to the rescue!  I just make it good dark chocolate.  And - I add ground flax seeds to the batter.  They don't know it and they can't taste the omega 3's. Ha!

It just adds a little nutty taste - which works for a cookie!  Even with the flax and oatmeal my kids devour these.

 I just sent these off to my college son - he's my pickiest eater - and he always picks this cookie!

Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies by the Quaker Oatmeal Company

1/2 cup (1 stick plus 6 Tbsp) butter, softened

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda 

1 tsp cinnamon 

1/2 tsp salt (optional)

3 cups quick or old fashioned oats - uncooked

1 cup chocolate chips (or raisins)

Heat oven to 350.  In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.  Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well,  Add oats and chips; mix well.  Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto cookie  sheet.  Bake 8-10 mins or until golden brown.  Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets - store tightly covered.  Makes about 4 dozen.

Creative Output!

Save the container!  You can turn it into a nursery school project!

A wind sock for the kids to make in March!

cut out the bottom and buy some streamers from the party store.  Have the kids decorate a piece of construction cut to fit the container

and cut holes on the top for a string for the kids to hold onto and add colored streamers of the kids choice to the bottom

 Perfect March project.  Bread crumb containers will work too - how many cookies can a family eat since hot oatmeal doesn't get eaten too often around here.  And I need 12!  

Pam

Sew On and Sew On - Mistake! / and the Cookbook Challenge

Sew on!

Fall Quilt is Coming Along

I am being very organized with this quilt - it's complicated and life is full of interruptions.  Each block has 34 half square triangles

so I put them into plastic baggies, not to keep them fresh :-D but to keep each tree block separate.  The triangle paper I used makes 6 of each batik fabric I used, so two stripes make one color for each of the 12 blocks.

I made a

"tick" mark in on the baggie when I added a new triangle to help keep track of how many triangles I have - and how many more to go!

I love the background - a watery blue batik.  Most of the fabric for the leaves are batik as well.  One of the best thing about using batik fabric - it's the same on both sides!

Now that I have finally completed all the leaves, I've added the rest of the block components to the baggie and so it's a complete kit - ready to be sewn together!

To remove the paper, I dip the triangle into to water - it softens the paper so it doesn't tug out the stitches 

like that :-(

I have a towel on the ironing board to help dry the triangles.

 Remove all of the paper - reduces bulk!

I made a "block butler" - felt on a sturdy piece of cardboard, secured on the back with duct tape to lay the block out on - got to keep organized!

and I always keep the pattern near by

and yet, with all this careful planing and marking and laying out before piecing - how did this happen??

That doesn't look like a tree trunk!?

The one on the left is alright - the one on the right, not so much.  I blame football. My local NFL team was winning for the first time in many a year - I guess I got distracted!

Cookbook Challenge!

This recipe was one of my first I collected when I started branching away from chicken nuggets and tater tots - and it's my husbands favorite.  So it's a go to when I rather be sewing with the game on - even with tree trunk screw up!

It's French Dip Sandwiches  from the crock pot!  The recipe is from a book from the library from long ago so I can't remember the source - but it's a winner. Simple salty beef, drizzled with le jus drippings, serve on a hearty roll with romaine lettuce and a Cesar salad side - what's not to like! Raspberries, pears, and cookies for dessert, how easy is this!

French Dip Sandwiches  a crock pot recipe 

1 3 1/2 -4 lb boneless chuck roast, trimmed

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 beef bouillon cube

1 bay leaf

4 peppercorns

1 teaspoon fresh or dried rosemary

1 tsp dried thyme 

1 teaspoon garlic powder

12 French sandwich rolls

Place roast in a 5 quart slow cooker.  Combine soy sauce and next 6 ingredients; pour over roast.  Add water to slow cooker until roast is almost covered.  Cook on LOW setting for 7 hours or until very tender.  Remove roast; reserving broth.  Discard bay leaf.  Shred roast with a fork; place in rolls and serve with reserved broth for dipping.  Yield:  12 servings

Yeah!

...now to fix that tree block

Pam