Cookies, Cookies, Cookies (and Spicy Nuts too)

Christmas just wouldn't feel the same without some home baked cookies - so both yesterday and today were cookie baking days at my house.  This year I tried several recipies that are new to me.  Both Cinnamon Thumbs and "Mom's" Best Cookies........and they both turned out delicious.  I found the recipe for Cinnamon Thumbs while doing a search on the internet.  The "Mom's" Best are from Margie on the About.com Quilting Forum.  She thinks her Mom must have really loved these - she found the recipe hand-written 3 different times in her Mom's cookie book.  Sounds like a good endorsement to me.  After I made them I can tell why - they're light as a feather and very yummy!

Cinnamon Thumbs

5 TB sugar

1 cup margarine, softened

2 cups flour

1 tsp vanilla

Cinnamon/Sugar mixture for coating:

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup sugar

Cream sugar and butter together.  Pour remaining ingredients (except coating ingredients) into a large bowl.  Mix.  Form into long snake-like logs as thick as your thumb.  Using a butter-type knife, cut pieces about the length of your thumb.  Place on a greased cookie sheet (I used Pam cooking spray) and bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes.  While still warm, roll in coating mixture (cinnamon/sugar mixture).

"Mom's" Best

1 lemon cake mix (or try other flavor - I used yellow cake)

1 egg

4 1/2 oz Cool Whip

Mix ingredients together.  Drop tsps of dough into powdered sugar and roll to coat. 

I used 2 spoons to scoop with and release with.  Worked out pretty well - these are sticky until they get rolled in the powdered sugar.

Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes until light brown. 

I also did the first steps for making Chocolate Coconut Balls, then put them in the refrigerator overnight, and dipped them in chocolate this morning. 

This recipe is from Hilda on the About.com Quilting Forum.  When I was looking over the recipe it reminded me of Almond Joy candy bars so I decided to put an almond in the center of each ball.  Oh my - these are decadent!   I think I'm going to have to give all of these away or I'm going to be in trouble.

Chocolate Coconut Balls

1 stick melted butter or margarine

14 oz. flaked coconut

1 can sweetened condensed milk

4 cups chopped walnuts or pecans (this is where I made the substitution to an almond in the center instead)

4 tsp vanilla

Mix together in a large bowl, stirring well.

Add and mix thoroughly:

2 boxes (2 lbs) powdered sugar

Form into small balls. Chill so it holds together when dipping in melted chocolate.

2 packages chocolate chips

1/4 square parafin

Melt in a double boiler.  Dip each ball and set on wax paper for the chocolate to set up.  If you refrigerate at this point, it will get freckles.

Today I'm still in the kitchen and having a great time.  I made spiced nuts and also made cookies with my granddaughter.  I know, more cookies..........but I just had to make some traditional Christmas cookies too.  You know.......the kind that are cut out with cookie cutters and decorated.  My granddaughter is getting all grown up, she's 16 now, but we still had fun decorating them together.  Here are the recipes we used.

Zesty Spiced Nuts

2 TB butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 TB water
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
dash ground thyme
1/2 tsp salt (slightly less if nuts are salted)
2 - 2 1/2 cups mixed nuts or nuts of your choice

1. Mix spices together and reserve.
2. Heat nuts in dry skillet and cook, stirring often, until they begin to toast (about 4 min on med high). (I found this enhances the flavor of the nuts but this step could be omitted, if desired - I eliminated it today). Remove from heat and set aside.
3. Put remaining ingredients, including reserved spices) in a large sauce pan and cook on med high, stirring until glaze forms, about 1 minute.
4. Return nuts to pan and toss to combine with glaze.
5. Cook for 2-3 minutes until nuts are glazed and are golden brown.
6. Remove and cool for about 10 minutes on a foil lined baking sheet - separate with a fork when cool.
7. At the end I also coated the nuts with a sprinkling of a cinnamon sugar mixture to dry them out more. Mine seemed a little too sticky.  I prefer to add the sprinkling of the cinnamon sugar mixture even if they weren't sticky.
8. Store in an airtight container or put in snack bags for just the right size snack.

The cayenne pepper that makes these a little bit "hot" is optional so you can leave that out if you prefer - this is an Emeril recipe and you know he likes to add the bam.  Here's a picture of how ours turned out.  This recipe only made a small bowl and they go very fast so you might want to think about doubling the recipe if you decide to make them.

Traditional Christmas Cookies (aka Sand Tarts)

2 lbs butter (4 cups)
4 cups sugar
3 small eggs
8 cups flour
Egg wash:  1 egg white & 1 tsp water

Cream butter and sugar with mixer.  Beat in eggs, blend in flour, then roll out real thin.  Cut with decorative cookie cutters.  Put on ungreased cookie sheet and brush top with egg wash.  Sprinkle with colored sugars and sprinkles.  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.  Also good for frosting with powdered sugar frosting, with or without tint.  Cinnamon & sugar and a half an almond are also good.  We used the cutting left overs and made Snickerdoodles with a sprinkling of cinnamon & sugar on them.

We also made Russian Tea Cakes (I think another name for them is Mexican Wedding Cakes) but I think everyone already has that recipe or one that's similar.  They're the ball cookies with nuts that get rolled in powdered sugar.  Here's a picture:

I guess that wraps up the baking I'm going to do this year.  My counters are full and goodie packages are in process of being assembled for family and neighbors.  My husband's office workers have already had a  sampling of some of the holiday goodies but now they'll get cookies too.  I may try to catch the mailman tomorrow and give him a little bag of goodies too.  I better save a few cookies for Santa and his reindeer too.  Don't you love this time of year! 

Cooking for the Holidays

I had so much fun this weekend.  I spent the whole weekend cooking - and I love to cook!  My grandchildren like homemade goodies; well, so does my husband, so I decided to contribute to their sweet tooths and make some holiday goodies.  I got onto the Chex website and made regular Chex Party Mix (without Worchestershire sauce, which we're not too fond of), added other things to it (M&Ms, cho chips, mixed nuts, and semi-sweet Puppy Chow) to make it a sweet & savory snack. 

That meant I also made Puppy Chow - they call it something else on the Chex site (Chex Muddie Buddies) but it's essentially the same recipe.  I made 2 batches, one that  used semi-sweet cho chips and one that used milk cho chips.  In the above mix, I used the semi-sweet Puppy Chow.  I packaged the milk chocolate Puppy Chow in individual snack sized packages.  We like that Puppy Chow the best.

I also made the Cheesy Ranch Mix.  I have to take it easy on sugar so this mix is one I really enjoy - I'm saving a lot of it for myself to snack on.  I'm having some for a snack while I type this - got to keep my strength up, ya know.

I also used some Chex cereal and some Crispix to make a Caramel Christmas Mix.  This is absolutely delicious.  A friend shared where to find the recipe on-line.  To find it go to Google Books and type in:  Patrick Lose Christmas Mix.  The first item will be an icon for one of his books.  Click on it and it will open right to the recipe.

I only made half the recipe which still made a huge amount. The whole recipe called for 3 boxes of cereal. Yikes! We loved the taste of this recipe but I'll do a few things differently when I make it again.  Namely, the Crispix broke apart badly, the Chex held up well, so I think I'll only use the Chex next time.  The recipe called for cooking the sugar/butter mixture for 5 minutes.  I think that was too long because it got too thick.   I wish the recipe would have had a temperature listed for my candy thermometer and I would have stopped cooking it when it got to that temperature. Next time I think I'll cook it somewhere between 230-250F so it will pour easier instead of setting up so fast.  I also think I'll put the nuts in a separate container and pour the cooked sugar mixture over them separately before mixing them into the other ingredients.  They didn't seem to get coated at all well doing it the way the recipe suggested.  The final result looked broken up and kind of messy but it sure was gooooooooooood. 

I also made Graham Cracker Toffee and Microwave Peanut Brittle.  They're both soooo good and favorites of both my husband and son.

Both Recipes are easy to make.  Here they are if you want to try them.

Graham Cracker Toffee

1 1/2 pkg graham crackers

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter

1 cup chopped pecans

Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with Pam or similar baking spray.  Line with graham crackers.  Heat butter & sugar on low to melt together, stirring to combine.  Raise heat to medium-high and bring to a boil.  Boil for 3 minutes.  Add nuts and bring to a boil again.  Pour mixture over crackers in the prepared pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes on a high rack in the oven.  Cool and break into pieces.

Microwave Peanut Brittle

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1 cup sugar

1 cup peanuts

1 tsp butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

To prepare the pan - line a baking sheet with foil and spray the foil with Pam or similar cooking spray (also spray your bowl and spoon).  Mix sugars in a 1 to 1 1/2 quart glass container (preferable Pyrex or Corning with some kind of handles).  Cook in microwave for 4 minutes on high.  Add the peanuts, don't stir.  Cook on high for 4 more minutes.  Stir in butter and vanilla.  Add baking soda and stir quickly before it sets up.  Pour out onto your prepared pan and spread out a little bit.  To get off the candy that has hardened onto your bowl and spoon, soak in hot water.

The final thing I made this weekend was Fantasy Fudge.  It's the recipe from the side of the Marshmallow Cream jar.  It's my son's absolute favorite.  Every Christmas for as long as I can remember, I make some for him without nuts, and some for the rest of his family with nuts.  It's kind of a family tradition around here.

I've started some big bags for my son and his family and for my granddaughter, who doesn't live at home, and her friends.  I'm also making some for some of the neighbors and sending some to work with my husband, for he and his co-workers to snack on. 

The big bags are filled with individual snack sized bags, like the picture above with the Puppy Chow.  The big bags are starting to fill up nicely.  This afternoon I hope to make 2 kinds of cookies to help round them out.  Sometime this week my granddaughter is coming over.  She said she wants to cook with me - fun!  I think we'll make some of the traditional Christmas cookies that use cookie cutters and get decorated with sprinkles.   *:-)

I Won Another Blog Drawing! Wow!

I can hardly believe it, I won Hilda's Blog drawing!  She sent me an adorable bib apron made out of jeans.  I just love it!  Thank you Hilda!  I really enjoy cooking so this is something I will definitely use.  I'm looking forward to wearing it to keep the spatters off my clothes while I cook - well, after I just look at it for awhile.  Isn't it adorable..............

Hilda also sent along a little tin with some beautiful beads and buttons in it.  I have a crazy quilt started so these will be perfect to use on it.  What a nice little bonus - thanks Hilda.

Another Christmas Party

I belong to a neighborhood quilting group too.  We get together at each others homes and do handwork, chat, and enjoy each others company once a month.  The hostess for the month makes lunch for us, so we call ourselves the Lunch Bunch.  We had our Christmas Party this week at Louise's house.  It was such an enjoyable day.  But........I forgot to snap pictures at the party this year.  When I got home I did snap pictures of the gifts I received though.  Aren't they great! 

You can tell this group enjoys food, there are a number of food related gifts (home-made candy & chocolates, home-made carmel corn, home-made bread & fudge, etc.), plus some flavored honey, and also a wonderful cookbook.  Did you see the cute oven fingertip mits?  I can't wait to try the Best Press - I've been wanting some of that for my ironing. The cute calendar is a 2-year one for my purse - that will come in very handy.  And did you notice the item in the center back? It's a framed poem about our Lunch Bunch that one of the ladies made for us.  I've already tried most of the goodies - yum!  I don't think I'm going to have to do too much holiday baking this year since this is such a nice sampling to enjoy.

For lunch Louise made a delicious Raspberry Cheese Blintz Casserole for us.  It was great!  All in all, it was a very nice day, with good food, gifts from the heart, and especially wonderful and supportive friends.  What could be better!

Christmas Party

Our applique group had it's Christmas Party last week.  It was at my house this year.  I enjoyed every minute of getting ready for it - from decorating the house and trimming the tree, to getting the house cleaned and polished, to cooking my part of the meal.

I really enjoyed making holiday poppers for table favors.  I filled them with various chocolates and a rolled up paper with guessing game clues written on it.  Each one had clues to an old time movie and then a question that related to the movie on the bottom where the person could tell about some personal memories - such as a memory of their favorite Christmas, for the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life".  The ladies enjoyed the game so much they said they hope to make it an annual thing.

The table turned out festive and nice.  Here's a shot of a few of the ladies around the table.

Of course there was plenty of good food.  Everyone brought a dish to share which always makes it more fun and interesting................and delicious. 

I made the main dish - Autumn Roasted Chicken & Sausages.  It's a Rachael Ray recipe, if you want to look it up on her site.  I included various vegetables that are good for roasting (peppers, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and asparagas).  The recipe calls for black grapes too - I couldn't believe how delicious grapes are when they're roasted.

Oh, and we had presents - wonderful presents.

These are gifts I will use and enjoy and these are friendships I treasure.  It's so nice to get together with ladies who enjoy applique as much as I do and to get to know each other better.  I don't think there's a one of them I couldn't call day or night if I needed help or just an ear to listen or a shoulder to lean on........or cry on.

I forgot to have someone snap a picture of me at the party so asked my husband to do that when he got home.  It was such a fun day and you can tell it made me happy from looking at my big grin.

I won! I can hardly believe it but I won a blog give-away!

I've just recently started blogging and already I'm loving it.  I even won a blog give-away.  How fun is that!  My friend, Kim, had a drawing for her first year blogging anniversery.  I was one of the two winners.  Look at the wonderful goodies I won:

The Candle Beads will look great on my holiday table.  The pretty fat quarter will be perfect for the Baltimore Album applique I'm working on.  And the beautiful multi-colored bracelet is one she made herself.  I just love it.  I wore it already - last night when my husband and I went out to dinner to celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversery. 

Christmas Party

Our local quilting guild Christmas party was yesterday.  One of the things we did was to make pin cushions to exchange.  They were all so adorable.  I would have been happy to take any of them home.  Here are 3 picture of the table with the pin cushions - aren't they cute and all so unique and creative!

 

These are the two I made to give away.  This first one is an old fashioned sewing machine.  I tried beaded fringe for the first time and also hand made the decorative straight pins I put in it.  I don't remember when the idea for this one struck me, I may have seen a picture of something similar somewhere on the internet.

This second one that I gave for the exchange is a pear.  The pattern for it was on-line at:  UKlassinus.blogspot.com

I received 2 pin cushions in exchange.  One is a rooster and one is a cupcake.  I think they're just adorable.  Here is a picture of them along with the other goodies I got at the party.

In the bottom left are homemade chocolates that Laura made to give us plus some chocolates from Cerretas Candy Company that Patty got for us.  Then there's the gift certificate for a fat quarter and a wonderful quilting book.  We each got a different book - I just love the one I got.  The books were what was passed in a right and left game.  A story is read, in this case, one that Sandy wrote, and each time the word right or left comes up, you pass to your right or left.  You take home what you're holding when the story ends.  It was a cute story and so nice to have such a wonderful book.

Handmade Christmas Gifts for 2009

I've been making Christmas presents this year.  It's been so much fun.  Gifts made by hand are my favorite kind of gifts to give and to receive. 

For a close group of girlfriends I made this nail kit case:

This is the version I made for a few of the guys in my family:

This is how they look when they're opened:

The pattern was free on-line at http://www.dhbuscher.com/

For some of the gals in my family plus another group of close girlfriends, I made these bracelets:

 

One of my girlfriends, Kim, taught me how to made these adorable bracelets - she's so nice.  The pattern is called spiral rope.  I've also seen this pattern free on the internet if you'd like to search for it.

My neighbor, Chris, also generously gave me a lesson on how to make earrings.  I tried a few pair to give along with some of the beaded bracelets.

I've also been working on a tote bag crocheted from recycled plastic grocery bags.  It's kind of hard on the arm and hand muscles to crochet with the plastic stips so it's taken me quite awhile to finish.  Plus I decided to make mine fairly large so it's taken some endurance and lots of breaks to get it done.  Haven't decided for sure if I'll give it as a gift or keep it - it didn't turn out quite as cute as I'd imagined it would.  Here are a couple of pictures - one shot has a few grocery items in it to show the size scale.

It's kind of deep, isn't it.  Lots more groceries can fit into this handy bag.  My friend, Kim, showed me how to make this tote bag at a class she taught at our local quilting guild meeting.  She brought a couple of handouts of free instructions from the internet - one of them is Marlo's Crochet Corner.

Baltimore Album Blocks - month 6 - Cornucopia

Here is my month 6 block, a cornucopia.  Our instructor gave us several cornucopia bases to choose from and we were to fill them with items of our choice.  I decided on doing some Fall things - a white pumpkin, an apple, a pear, and some blackberries.  I wasn't real happy with the red color I chose for the apple but liked the highlight shading on the fabric. I decided to tea stain the apple so the red would blend better with my other blocks.  That wasn't quite dark enough yet so I used coffee to stain it darker.  I also decided to put some shading on the pear with the tea bag and for good measure did a little bit on the pumpkin too.  Ahh, much better. 

I don't know if you can tell, but the lip of the cornucopia is braided.  This was the first time I'd tried doing that.  I made a bias strip and sewed it into a tube, then braided it, and sewed it down.  Something didn't look quite right - the braid was way too loose and chunky.  I asked my instructor, and sure enough, the seam I sewed in it made it bulky - I could have just folded in the edges.  I decided to take it apart and cut out the seam.  That reduced the bulk and I was able to make the braid tighter.  I'm much happier with it this way.

My second cornucopia is in process.  It has silk ribbon roses on it - another first for me.  And my third cornucopia is traced and ready to go.  Guess I have some catching up to do.  I'll have to applique like crazy to get back on track.  Being sick sure can slow a person down.

Turkey (or Chicken) Casserole Recipe

Here's a recipe that would be great for that leftover turkey.  I used it when I had leftovers from a rotisserie chicken, so it works good with chicken too.

Turkey (or Chicken) Casserole
1 cup rice, cooked according to package directions
10 oz broccoli florets
10 oz cauliflower florets
1/2 cup butter (I use Smart Balance)
1 onion, chopped
1 (10 oz) can cream of chicken soup
1/2 can (5 oz) milk (low-fat milk also works) & remaining cooking water (from broccoli)
2-4 cups chicken (cooked & chopped)
1 cup grated cheese (I use mild cheddar)
1 1/2 cups crushed buttery round crackers (I use Ritz)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cook rice according to package directions.  Simmer broccoli & cauliflower in about a cup of water for 10 minutes, then drain and reserve cooking water.  In large saucepan, melt butter and saute onion.  Stir in vegetables and cooked rice.  Once they're coated, stir in soup, milk, and reserved cooking water.  Pour about half the mixture into a 9 x 13" baking dish (you've sprayed with Pam or similar), top with turkey pieces, top with remaining mixture.  Sprinkle with cheese and then crushed crackers.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Note:  other vegetables you have on hand could be subsituted for the broccoli & cauliflower - such as carrots, peas, celery or even sliced water chestnuts if you like a little crunch.

Side note:  I got this recipe by putting "chicken" in the recipe finder at the end of my posts.  It took me to that recipe site where I also checked off rice and broccoli.  It gave me a list of recipes to choose from; this one sounded good, so we tried it the other day.  It was so good.  Give the recipe finder, below, a try especially if you know what food items you have in the house but can't decide what to make with them.  The search by ingredients layout is really helpful.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! 

The weather here is supposed to be beautiful today, our son and his family are coming to share a meal with us, the house is all cleaned and polished, the turkey is already smelling gooooood; what could be better. I'm very thankful.  Wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving and much to be thankful for also.

Best Ever Roast Turkey

For more than 20 years now I've been making our Thanksgiving turkey using a wonderful slow-roast recipe I found in "Let's Cook It Right" by Adelle Davis.  She says that in 100 % of taste tests, slow roast meats are preferred.  By cooking it this way, the meat is amazingly delicious, juicy, and tender.  In slow roasting, following an hour of preheating the meat, the oven temperature is set at the approximate temperature you want the meat when it's done.

Please note:  Don't stuff the turkey - cook your stuffing in a separate pan.

Calculation:  Length of time to roast the meat:  number of pounds of the meat x 25 minutes x 3 + 1 hour for preheating the meat.  Oven temp for the hour of preheating is 325 degrees.  Oven temp for the remaining time is the "done" temp of the type of meat - for turkey it's 180-185 degrees.  And don't open the oven while it's cooking - you'll let all the heat out.

Here's an example of how to do it:
This year we got a 16 lb. turkey.  I began thawing the turkey in the refrigerator about 4 days ago.  This afternoon I'll wash it, take out the giblets, salt it (plus add other herbs if desired), put it in a turkey sized roasting bag (follow bag directions).  I place mine BREAST DOWN in the bag, then put that on a rack in my roasting pan (it doesn't need a cover because of the roasting bag - if you aren't using a roasting bag, cover your pan - placing it breast down allows the cooking juices to flow into the breasts and makes even the breasts very good and juicy).   Put it in the oven for 1 hour at 325 degrees (to kill any surface bacteria), then turn the oven down to somewhere between 180-200 degrees.  The "done" temperature for turkey is 180-185 degrees - my oven's lowest temp is somewhere close to 200 degrees so I use that.  Since cooking time is 25 minutes per pound X 3, if I put it in at approx. 4pm today, my 16 lb. turkey will be ready at around 1pm tomorrow.  The calculations are as follows:  25 (minutes per lb.) x 16 (my 16 lb. turkey) x 3 = 1200 minutes (or 20 hours when it's divided by 60 minutes in an hour).  So that's 1 hour for preheating the turkey at 325 degrees plus 20 hours at the low temp = 21 hours. 

After that the turkey can be held in the oven a little longer until I'm ready to eat (for up to 24 hours of total cooking and holding time).  I want the turkey to be ready about 1pm* tomorrow.  To give it 21 hours, I'll get it in the oven by 4pm today. 
This is a no fail recipe.  If the meal is delayed, it can wait in the low temp oven, if the meal needs to be earlier, then the oven can be turned up to finish cooking it the tradtional way.  It's still just as wonderful.

In the morning you'll wake up to a delightful smell in your house.  With this recipe you don't need to learn how to carve a turkey either - it just falls off the bones.  Of course that means it won't be a turkey that you can put whole on a platter and carve at the table either.  You'll serve it in juicy pieces on a platter - but afterall, what do we want, pretty or delicious?
*I take my turkey out of the oven about an hour before we plan to eat so that I'll have the oven available to bake my various side dishes.  I will stick the turkey back in to warm it after that, if I feel I need to.  This year I think I'll serve it a little differently.  I have an electric fry pan that has a low setting.  I think I'll let the turkey cool enough to handle and then put the pieces in the electric pan, cover it, and keep it warm for the hour or so until it's time to eat.

Baked Coconut Tilapia Recipe

I'm always on the lookout for fish recipes - especially those using Tilapia.  It's such a nice mild fish and the price is right on it too.  I buy the large box in the freezer section - each fillet is individually wrapped inside the box so it stays nice and fresh in my freezer.  Here's a recipe we love at my house...........

Baked Coconut Tilapia
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup bread crumbs (fresh or in the round box - Progresso I think)
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
4-5 Tilapia fillets (about 4-6 oz each) (other mild fish could be substituted, such as orange roughy)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Combine half the coconut (1/4 cup) and the bread crumgs in a food processor (a blender might also work??) and process until fine crumbs form.  Pour into a shallow dish and stir in remaining coconut and salt.  Beat egg in a separate shallow bowl.  Dip the fish in the egg, then in the coconut mixture.  Place on a small, ungreased baking sheet.  Bake, turning once, until crust is light golden brown and fish is flaky - about 7 minutes per side.

In restaurants I usually see a dipping sauce served with it's cousin, coconut shrimp.  Something like orange marmalade warmed in a pan over low heat and thinned with rum might fill the bill, if you'd like a dipping sauce (per Paula Deen).  It's also good without using a dipping sauce.

The first picture below is breading the tilapia.  The second is where it is on the baking sheet and ready to go into the oven.  I've used parchment paper for easy clean-up but that's not really necessary.

                    

Beaded Bracelets for Christmas presents this year

I've been busily working away on beading some bracelets for Christmas presents this year.  I belong to a couple of quilting groups so I made one for each of my nine friends in one of the groups. Plus a few more for others I want to give something to.  I've made a total of 20 of these cute bracelets to give...............plus a few more for me to keep.  Here is a sample of some of them so you can see how they look.

The pattern for these bracelets is called spiral rope.  My friend Kim taught me how to make them (thank you again Kim).  I decided to make the ones for my quilting group in shades of blue to wear with their jeans (the first 4 are examples of them).  The next one is multi colored for my youngest grandaughter.  That one took the longest to make because the beads are so tiny.  I'm sure enjoying the process and can even do them while I watch TV.  Sunday night my neighbor showed me how to make beaded earrings.  I may be giving some of those this year too. 

Pumpkin Dump Cake Recipe

I made this recipe for dessert for my husband's Birthday last week.  He loves pumpkin pie; it's his favorite.  He said this seemed kind like a pumpkin cobbler.  It was sooooo good.  It would be good to serve at Thanksgiving or Christmas too, in place of pumpkin pie.

Pumpkin Dump Cake
1 (29 oz) can pumpkin puree (not pumpking pie filling)
1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk (I used evaporated skim milk)
3 eggs
1 TB cinnamon
1 cup sugar (or 3/4 cup Splenda & 1/4 cup sugar)
1/2 tsp salt
1 box yellow cake mix
1 cup walnuts or pecans (optional)
3/4 cup butter (I used Smart Balance), melted

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix first 6 items until well blended.  Pour into greased 9 x 13" pan.  Sprinkle cake mix over blended mixture and smoothout.  Sprinkle on nuts, if using.  Drizzle melted butter over the top of everything.  Bake for 50 minutes.  Serve with whip cream, if desired.

Children of the 30's Quilt

This Children of the 30's quilt is going to be a darling quilt - another class from Arlene S.   I've gotten 4 of the children finished so far and am in process of 4 more.  In this class Arlene taught us how to do the faces, arms, and legs using colored pencil.  The clothes are done using needle turn applique.  Then there's the cute little buttons, beads, and embroidery to make it all come together.

I hope you can click on these to enlarge them, the embroidery and such doesn't seem to show up too well in this view.

The layout for these little children uses GFG hexigons around them.  I'm using various colors of 30's fabrics.  This will be my first quilt using 30's fabrics and I think I'm really going to like it.

Autumn Harvest Quilt

Another needle turn applique project I'm working on is called Autumn Harvest.  I joined the group when they were on the last block and the class is over at this point.  I've completed two blocks though and will keep slowly working on them until I have enough to make into a quilt.  Arlene S. was the instructor of this class and I learned of it while taking one of her other classes.  She is such a talented quilter; I just want to take all of her classes.  I'm taking several of them - probably more than I really should but I just can't resist - her patterns are just beautiful.

A Dozen Roses Quilt

I've been working on a quilt I call A Dozen Roses.  It started in a needle turn applique class I took at my guild that was taught by Elaine C.  She's wonderful at applique and also is the leader of our Applique Antics group at one of the local quilt shops.  Here is the block she taught us to make.

You may have noticed that I'm using the same background fabric for the roses quilt as I used for my Baltimore Album blocks.  I may decide to use some of these blocks in a Baltimore quilt and this will let me decide as I see how many blocks I end up making.

The next block for the roses quilt was a bit more challenging.........

 

The next two are finished - one I like a lot and one not so much.  You'll see what I mean.......

Thankfully I can go at my own pace on these; they're not associated with a class - yeah!