I worked on these afghans for Quinten and Joshua for several months. I was a bit apprehensive about giving them as gifts. After all, they’re little boys. Why should they get excited about handmade blankets from their Mimi. When I watched this video, I was overjoyed. Quinten’s remark that didn’t make it on the recording was his exclamation, “I always wanted a blue blanket!” Well, that made my heart melt. I guess the afghans weren’t such a bad idea afterall.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY-16gFaq6Y
After many years away from needlearts, I have found a new affection for them. My mother and grandmother taught me how to knit and crochet when I was in elementary school. They are hobbies I’ve enjoyed very much through the years. Crocheting is easy, and there are hundreds of free patterns on the web. If you don’t know how, there are also hundreds of free videos on the Internet where you can learn.
I like the ability to pick up the work whenever I’m in the need for something to do. I can crochet for one-half hour or off and on all day. I can even do needlework in the car, which I did during our 24-hour car trip from Montana to Indiana for Christmas.
The pictures I took of the two project aren’t great, but here are links to the pattern for the boys blankets.
Happy 15th Anniversary to my wonderful husband, Richard! Wow! On this date in 1998, Richard and I were married at my parents home in New Chicago, Indiana. I couldn’t imagine being married anywhere else, and my mother made our wedding such a special event. She decorated the far end of her living room to look like a wedding chapel. The minister who married us was a friend of my dad’s from the U.S. Steel Mill in Gary. And my Grandma Szewczyk, who was 97 years old, was able to join, along with my sister, Carol who traveled from Pennsylvania, and my daughter, Jessica. Jessica sang Mom made us all a special lunch. She even went to the trouble of making Swedish meatballs – Richard is part Norwegian from a group who settled in North Dakota. We ordered an “atomic cake” from a small family owned bakery in Lake Station – it was yellow cake layered with fruit and whipped cream – it was a special cake our family ordered for special occasions.
Happy Anniversary, to my sweetheart. I love you so much!
On this day In 1982, I gave birth to the first of my two children, Jessica Marie.
She was a much anticipated granddaughter, the first after my brother and his wife had three sons. This picture was taken in the Spring of 1983, just before her first birthday. We were living in Canfield, Ohio at the time. The house we rented had a huge screened in porch, and if I had something to do, I would put Jessica in a playpen, bring my project to the porch, and she and I would play and visit. By the time this picture was taken, Jessica had already lived in three cities: Indianapolis, where she was born, Minneapolis, Minnesota, where we moved just after she was six weeks old, and Canfield, which is a small town outside of Youngstown, Ohio.
I made her a birthday cake in the shape of a rabbit, and thought she would be so pleased. But, Jessica cried and wouldn’t have anything to do with her bunny birthday cake. I’m not sure why she was so bothered, but it was so funny! We celebrated her first special day in Ohio, and then went to visit my parents in Indiana for several days. The first birthday of my first child! Such a special time, and I couldn’t wait to see her pictures. But things happen . . .
The only Mexican food I knew growing up were the tacos my mother made, and they were awesome. Hers is one of those recipes the taste of which I have never been able to accurately recreate, and I helped her do everything but the frying. Mom would make hers with El Milagro corn tortillas that were shipped daily from Chicago. Mom was absolutely overjoyed when she reached into the box at our local Mexican food market and found the paper wrapped dozen to still be warm – that’s how fresh they would be. We never ate refried beans or rice or burritos or enchiladas – and Mom refused to try avocados Her story was that avocados were one of the highest calorie fruits, and her waistline could not afford to fall in love with another high calorie food. But now we know that avocados are an excellent source of monounsaturated fat, the good fat, the kind of fat that may actually help lower blood cholesterol levels. Ole!
Where he belongs – out of the kitchen and outdoors with a sandwich.
After extensive research, I have come to the conclusion that where ever you are working in the kitchen, your husband will be directly in your path.
Ten percent of the time, it may for some perfectly legitimate reason. The other 90%, what on earth made him decide to plant himself there? Directly between me and the television, so my line of sight is blocked from the IU/Michigan basketball game. Or, while I prepare dinner, he plants a blockade between the stove and the sink. “Scoot, scoot!”
A few months ago, I was reading a recipe from another blog, Baked Bree. It was just before my birthday, and I fell in love with her Funfetti Cake. I scrolled down through the instructions and photographs, and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the baked cakes cooling in the pans. What’s that? How did she do that??
I wasn’t the only one who took notice, and Bree let us in on her secret. She uses Wilton’s Bake-Even Cake Strips. These strips are padded strips of cloth sewn together. As you’re getting the cake ready, put the strips in a bowl and cover them with water. They should be totally submerged, and quite wet when you lift them out of the bowl.
Just before you pour the batter into the prepared pans, you remove one strip at a time, run the strip between your thumb and forefinger to remove as much water as you can, and wrap the strips around the outside of the cake pan. Fasten the strip with a T-shaped pin that’s included. Put the cake pans in the oven and bake.
The chocolate layers turned out beautifully. You can find the bake-even strips wherever Wilton cake supplied are sold. They even sell another package of four varying size strips for differently sized cakes.
I always have fresh citrus fruits in the kitchen close at hand – you know, just a couple of lemons, limes and oranges. The juice and/or zest of any of these can be shaken into a fresh vinaigrette or sprinkled onto seafood or meat just before serving, or mixed with some yogurt, mayonnaise and a little sweetener for a fruit or vegetable dip. You never know when some fresh zest will come in handy as an addition for cakes, pies or frosting. As little as 1/2 of a lemon can make a big, wake-up-flavor difference. And a flavor enhancer to packaged food.
My husband, Richard, has been sick the last few days with a head cold. He’s knocked out and not terrible hungry, but I wanted to fix a quick meal that would have enough spicy heat to loosen up his congested sinuses and something pleasing and fragrant to give him hope he would recover. Normally, I don’t buy prepared, pre-packaged food, but Richard, in a weak moment, bought some frozen orange chicken at Costco. OK, not a big deal – heated the chicken in the oven according to directions, made the rice. In a small saucepan, I added the frozen, syrupy goo that was supposed to be the sauce for the meat. I dolled it up with zest from a fresh orange, squeezed orange juice, 1/4 teaspoonful crushed red pepper flakes, and about one tablespoonful of soy sauce. The orange and crushed peppers really came through in the sauce, and had the desired effect. For a little while at least, my husband was able to breath a little easier and enjoy his meal.
My husband and I love salmon, and since we’ve been married, salmon has become a steady part of our diet. Funny, I never ate much salmon growing up. We lived near Lake Michigan and there are lake salmon, but our fish diet was most exclusively perch. But my dad and I loved smoked salmon. He and I used to wrangle over the small jars my aunt would bring us from her fishing excursions in northern California – Aunt Jane and Uncle Lou caught, prepped and smoked their own. When we had a supply and just before dinner, my dad would retrieve the coveted jar from the refrigerator, and he would break off a chunk for us to share – wow – it was awesome! And, if you’ve never tried it, smoked trout is out of this world, too, but I digress . . .
When my children visit, we usually get a whole salmon filet, and either bake it or wrap it in foil to cook on the grill. But when they’re not with us, Richard and I buy frozen salmon filets from Costco. They’re good sized – about six ounces or so, individually wrapped, thaw quickly, and one bag is enough for several meals.
One of many fun things about visiting my sister is that we do shopping neither of us have time to do. Well, of course we shop, but there is so much variety as compared to what is available to me in Billings, that I jump at the chance for a shopping adventure. Carol is my willing partner in crime, and we were in the mood to shop for fabric.
Off we went to a couple of stores that had great selections, and the prices were unbelievable. I picked out a couple of remnants as samples for my master bedroom. I wanted to bring them home for my husband’s approval, before I bought more to finish my master bedroom project. We have very different tastes – he was not looking forward to pink, blue, green floral patterns, the girly stuff that I love.
For the first time in over 20 years, my sister, Carol, and I were able to spend an uninterrupted week together. Ever since she and I began our families, all of our visits surrounded holidays, family events, and vacations at our parents home in Northwest Indiana, her home in Pennsylvania, or at my home near Indianapolis. Rarely did we have a chance to just be together, just the two of us, to visit and do the thing we like to do.
Carol’s birthday is in February, so this year I decided to fly to PA for a visit. I’m so glad I did! For her birthday, she treated me to a Wine and Truffle Paring at the Paradocx Vineyard in southern Chester County. (What a great sister!) The business name is a play on words. The winery is owned by two husband and wife teams who are all practicing physicians. I thought the name was pretty clever!
