Almost time to Celebrate.

One more row to go and then it's finished.  Couldn't help but share.

• Two years, on and off.
• One really big rug.  It outgrew my lap, THANK GOODNESS (I could lose a few pounds, but I'd have to shoot myself if my lap was that big).

• Almost finished.  I think there must needs be a party to celebrate.  I'll need to round up some new friends.  This is the group that I started out with at the beginning of the project...

Just kidding, but sometimes it feels like the rug took that long to make.

Why don't I ever start a small project instead of jumping into (or onto, in this case) such a large one?

When I took an upholstery class my first project was a sofa.
My first quilt...queen size.
My first garden plot...huge.

There might just be a disturbing pattern here.
Next time you see this rug it will be at the Stone House. 
Finally.

Linked to  Look What I made.

               That's the Ticket.
Knick of Time

Progress...

The cold front is coming in.  The wind is howling and as my Texas friend would say..."It's fixin' to snow".

Random Ramblings

I have a new project in the works.  Here are some hints.

Starting a new stitching project?  Make yourself a cardboard rectangle and punch holes.  Thread your floss through the card but save your original thread packaging and labels so that you can put the floss back when you are done with the current project.

I also like to add the symbol from the chart I'm stitching above the floss as well as the color name.

I always photocopy my charts.  I purchased the pattern and the chart is for my personal use so it's not a copyright infringement.    Notice the X under the bird's wing left of the pink arrow?  That's the middle of my design chart and I like to draw on the copy instead of the original.

 I bought myself a bit of much-needed Spring.

And last and definitely least, R. sent me this link.  She knows how much I like to entertain.  I guess SOMEONE (who has clearly lost all of their marbles) thinks spraying cherry tomatoes with edible paint is appetizing.   REALLY......................what will they think of next?

Happy Birthday

B. had a birthday and didn't want a photo of her blowing out her candles posted on the blog.  She said she wasn't camera-ready.  Whatever, she is always beautiful but I will honor her wishes. 

So here's her cake (minus her blowing out the candles).  I never said I wouldn't post A PHOTO (just not one with candles).  Happy Birthday darling daughter. 

You didn't think I 'd really let the opportunity pass to brag a bit and tell everyone what a great daughter, student, person, and friend you are...did you?

Plans for the weekend? Make some Bread.

I cut slits into the bread for steam to escape and I made an un-intentional design.  Doesn't this look like a shamrock?  I think I've found my new favorite St. Patrick's day recipe.

The weekend is a good time to catch up on chores that take a little more time.  OR...you could do something fun instead and make this quick artisan bread at the same time you are doing chores.  This is quick easy bread and won't take even a little bit of your weekend time.  Start the dough today and bake it tomorrow.

I love this recipe and make it fairly often and if you are a follower of my blog you might already know that.  If you are a newer reader or even an older one who hasn't taken the time to try this bread out,  don't delay.  It's fast, easy, cheap and tastes like you paid a small fortune for it at the bakery.  I made two large loaves this week; one to share and one for us.  It was gone in a flash so maybe I need to whip up some more loaves.  Start this sponge today and make it this evening or this weekend.  The refrigerator does almost all of the work.

Master Recipe: Boule (Artisan Free-Form Loaf)

Makes four small 1-pound loaves. The recipe is easily doubled or halved.  For 2-pound loaves, increase the baking time.

3 cups lukewarm water
*2 tablespoons yeast (see high altitude note below)
1 rounded tablespoon kosher or other coarse salt
6-1/2 cups un-sifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour, measured with the scoop-and-sweep method
Cornmeal for pizza peel
*For high altitudes (above 3,000 ft.): Decrease the yeast to 2 ¼ teaspoons and increase the salt to 1 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon.


Mixing and Storing the Dough:

1. In a stand mixer or a re-sealable lidded (not airtight) plastic food container add warm water (100 degrees), yeast, salt and flour.

2. Attach dough hook or use wooden spoon and incorporate all ingredients. Do not knead.

3. Option one: Allow dough to sit on counter 2 hours, then refrigerate for 5 additional hours and use. Or option two: refrigerate immediately and use dough the next day.

Store the dough in the refrigerator in your lidded (not airtight) container and use it over the next 14 days: You’ll find that even one day’s storage improves the flavor and texture of your bread. This maturation continues over the 14-day storage period. Refrigerate unused dough in a lidded storage container (again, not airtight). Cut off and shape more loaves as you need them. The dough can also be frozen in 1 pound portions in an airtight container and defrosted overnight in the refrigerator prior to baking day.

On Baking Day:
1. Prepare the pizza peel by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal.

2. Sprinkle the surface of your refrigerated dough with flour. Pull up the dough and cut off a 1- pound (grapefruit-size) piece of dough, using a serrated knife or kitchen shears.

3. Shape the loaf, do not knead. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a 1/4–turn as you go. Most of the dusting flour will fall off; it’s not intended to be incorporated into the dough. This should take 30 to 60 seconds. The bottom of the loaf will not be beautiful, but the top should be smooth.

4. Rest the loaf on the pizza peel and let it rise for 40 minutes. You may not see a significant amount of change in the loaf but it will continue to raise in the oven.

5. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F, with a baking stone placed on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray below on another rack.

6. Dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour (this allows the knife to cut more easily through the dough), and slash a 1/4- inch deep cross, scallop or tic-tac-toe pattern into the top, using a serrated bread knife.

7. Fill a measuring cup with 1/2-cup of boilinb water and set it by the oven. Place the loaf in the oven by sliding it off the pizza peel onto the preheated baking stone. Quickly, but carefully, pour the hot water into the broiler tray and close the door. Set timer for 25 to 30 minutes. After 10 minutes, heat another 1/2-cup of water to boiling.  Open the door and pour it quickly into the pan.  Immediately shut the oven door.  You are cooking with steam for at least the first 10 to 15 minutes of the baking process. This will help to form the hard, crackling crust of artisan bread that we’re familiar with and mimics the steam jet commercial ovens.  After 25 minutes, check the loaf by thumping on the bottom of the loaf.  If it sounds hollow, it is done.  If not, let cook for a bit longer.  Crusty, brown color is best.

8. Remove the loaf with pizza peel or gloved hands and let cool before slicing.

To achieve a sour dough taste, hold over some of the dough from batch to batch and mix it with your new recipe of dough. Soon you will have a sour dough flavor.  The longer you let the dough develop, the more flavor the loaf will have.

After I have used all of the dough in my container, I scrape down the sticky leftover bits on the inside of the container and mix then in with the water for my new batch of dough.  You can use a hand blender to dissolve them if they are dry, but I usually just stir them back into the new batch.  These bits of dough act much like sourdough starter and instantly boost the flavor of your new dough.  The authors of this recipe suggest that you use the same container and add your new dough ingredients but I wash my container out between recipes just to be safe.

Linked to Look What I made.

A New Favorite

In our Stone House, we have linen white walls and grained wood mouldings (very neutral).  A corner in the parlor needed some more color.  I think this solves the problem nicely.

The artist, Lee Udall Bennion, has a unique style easily recognizable to her admirers and to collectors of her art work.  Her medium is oil paint and she also makes and paints her own frames.  This scene portrays Lee and her youngest daughter and was painted 20 or so years ago.  Can you feel the artist's connection to the piece?  A. looks content and safe in her mother's arms, doesn't she?

It was a birthday present for Mr. City Home and I think it will stay on the wall for a good while.

You can see more of Lee's work here.

Creamy Rice Pudding

Some desserts fit squarely into the COMFORT category.  What they are not: fancy, trendy, and they don't require a trip to a gourmet food store for ingredients.  What they are: homey, nostalgic and just plain good.  They remind us of home, family, and gentler times.  This is one of those desserts. 

I adapted this recipe from a local restaurant and have made it all of my married life.  Every once in a while, I get an idea to "spiff it up" a bit or make it more elegant to serve to company, but it isn't that kind
of dessert.  It is what it is; simple, not-too-sweet, and just plain GOOD.  I think you might think so too.


The "secret ingredient" is freshly grated nutmeg.

Creamy Rice Pudding

(adapted from The Lion House)

2 cups of cooked long-grain rice

2 cups of whole milk

5 ½-ounces of evaporated milk (the smaller can)

¾ cup of raisins

1 Tablespoon of cornstarch

¼ teaspoon of kosher salt

½ cup + 2 Tablespoons of granulated sugar

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1/8 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon of freshly ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon of vanilla

In a small saucepan, scald the milks together. Measure the raisin into a strainer and set over boiling water just long enough to plump them (you can skip this step if you have fresh, soft raisins). In a 3 quart saucepan combine cornstarch, salt, and sugar, and blend them well. Stir in hot milk mixture, stirring constantly over medium heat until thick and smooth. Remove from the heat. Pour a little of the hot mixture into beaten eggs while stirring rapidly. Return egg mixture to hot milk and rice and stir until thickened (only a minute or two). Remove from the heat. Stir in the raisins, spices, and vanilla. Chill.

Makes eight- ½ cup servings.

Leftover Roast Chicken?

That roast chicken from last week...gone in a flash. The portion that wasn't eaten was sent home with the daughters for a quick after-class meal. The only "leftovers" was the carcass.

I used it to make soup and it just might have been better than the original roast chicken meal.

No recipe because you don't need one.  Forage in the refrigerator and pantry and go to town!  Here's what I did:

Put the refrigerated chicken carcass in a pot and covered it with cold water.  I scrubbed a carrot (no need to peel) and a stick of celery and chopped them into large chunks; washed an onion and put half of it into the pot, skin and all.  The skin gives your broth a beautiful golden color.  You'll be discarding these veggies, not eating them.  They're for flavor only.  Add a small handful of whole black peppercorns and let the carcass mixture simmer for 1 hour, straining off the foam as it develops. 

 I don't add salt at this point.  Remove the carcass to a plate, strain the stock, discard all of the solids and rinse out your pot.  Pick the chicken meat from the carcass, put it back into the pot, and throw that poor naked carcass out.  It's finished; gone; done; it's "given it's all" and worked every last bit of magic it has in it.  Skim off some of the fat from the stock and put it back into the pot with the chicken meat.

Now go back to the refrigerator and get another couple of carrots and some celery (I used just one rib).

Wash, peel, and chop them into bite-size pieces.  Put them back into the pot along with a 1/2 cup of long cooking barley (if you use short cooking barley, add it near the end or it will be mush).  Simmer the soup for about 20 minutes or until the barley is tender.  I had some Napa cabbage and some fresh baby spinach so I chopped them and added them to the pot.  Taste the broth and add salt and freshly ground pepper as desired. Let the soup simmer for 10 minutes more to wilt the spinach and cabbage. 

SOUP HEAVEN!  Simple, clean flavors; the stock was the star but the veggies were tender and sweet and the barley added substance.  I could have eaten bowls of this soup but one bowl was all I needed.

Now that's what I call "Leftovers".



Perfect Roast Chicken

We love chicken at our house.  Roasted chicken that is perfectly seasoned, perfectly moist, perfectly crispy and perfectly delicious.  Most of all...it is perfectly easy to prepare.

Perfect Roast Chicken

1- 4 to 5 pound roasting chicken, trussed

1 head of garlic, top sliced off

1 lemon, halved

3 Tablespoons of softened butter

Salt and Pepper

Preheat your impeccably clean oven to 425 degrees F.  (You want a clean oven.  Any particles in your oven will smoke at this high temperature).

Wash the chicken and remove and discard any giblets or necks from the cavities.  Dry the chicken well with a paper towel.

Salt and Pepper the cavities and and stuff the lemon halves and the garlic head into the largest cavity.

Rub the outside of the chicken with the softened butter.  Salt and pepper the outside well.  Much of the seasoning will run off when the butter melts so you want to use the seasoning quite liberally.

Place the chicken in a roasting pan.  You could put a layer of onions, carrots, and celery down in the pan under the chicken to provide a bed for it.  You will not want to eat the vegetables after.  (I do not put a bed down as I don't think it adds all that much flavor).

Roast the chicken for about 1 1/2 hours, baste frequently with the pan juices.  Check the thigh temperature with a thermometer.  Poultry should be cooked to about 170 degrees F. for safety.  Remove the chicken from the oven and tent it loosely with foil while it rests and redistributes the interior juices into the meat before slicing.

Let it rest for 10-15 minutes.  It will continue to cook a bit as it rests so don't overcook it in the oven.

Slice and serve.

This is great left-over and it's a quick week night dinner.

Royal Mail

This came today; Royal mail from London.  What could it be?  A treasure from Portabello Road?

A Royal hat?  A souvenir likeness of the famous Beefeaters?  A photo with William and Kate, or maybe even the Queen herself?

Ripppppppppppp......Bubble wrap.  It must be important and very precious!

Ooooohhhh....I can harldy wait.

YESSSSS!!!!!!  That daughter of mine sure knows how to send home gifts.  Just what this family likes;  Candy; specifically European candy that we can't buy in the U.S..   Our daughters send these Chucherias (Spanish name because Spain is where one of my daughters first discovered these candies) home when they go Europe and Abby took a little trip to Barcelona last week.  Sometimes they come home in suitcases, but it's nice to get them in the mail, too.  The long skinny sticks are sort of like licorice but with fruit flavors and they're filled with a soft, fondant like candy in the center.  And I gather one of my daughters ate a few Percy Pigs when she lived in London, because she requested some from there.  This candy package is becoming a tradition.  We're 4 for 4 now. 

That's what I call a Royal gift!   Thanks Abby.