Wednesday....

Wednesday is "What's Cooking?" day over at JudyL's blog and last week's ingredient was Cinnamon.  I use a lot of cinnamon in pies, crisps, oatmeal, french toast etc., but my favorite recipe using cinnamon is this seasonal one, French Pear Pie. We have our own pear tree so most years I have a good stock of pears on hand in the fall.  It's a pretty easy recipe to make, so here's what you need:

9" or  larger unbaked pie crust

Filling:  

Enough peeled & sliced pears to fill  the crust level full
3 T. frozen orange juice concentrate
1/2 t. grated lemon peel (I use the dried)

Mix well and pour into unbaked crust.

Topping:

3/4 to 1 C. flour
1/2 C. sugar
1/8 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ground ginger
1/3 to 1/2 C. softened butter (Not melted)

Mix thoroughly and spread over the filling, covering well to the edges. Pat down gently.
Bake at 400* for 40 minutes.  (I usually bake for a little longer at 375* so the crust doesn't get too dark.)  Cool and serve topped with vanilla ice cream. Yum!

French Pear Pie

And this is what it usually looks like before I can get the camera out. :)

 That pie plate is a humongous vintage one that is at least 10", maybe 11", so I get eight good sized pieces when I make this pie, adjusting the amount of pears and topping ingredients accordingly.

What Am I Reading?

This is what the start of my day looked like:

Frosty view.

Close-up.

Right after this the wind started blowing a little, knocking the frost off the branches. Looked like snow.

Saturday night I stayed up way too late to read the Obamacare Survival Guide by Nick J. Tate.  It puts into understandable language what citizens can expect. It will be available in the local library as soon as I can get it cataloged and processed.

 

The other book I've been reading is Ready Scrap Shoot by Joanna Campbell Slan. It's the fifth book in the Kiki Lowenstein mystery series. I've enjoyed all of them so far, though I thought the fourth one was the best to date.  The sixth book in the series comes out in May.  If you have a Kindle, she also has some Kiki Lowenstein e-book short stories available on Amazon.

Block Piles Growing

The piles of blocks for the teal blue/orange quilt are growing. When the upper pile gets the frames sewn on they will be ready to set together.

The pattern is a variation of the QOV quilt designed by JudyL.

I Had Plans...

.....for my

I was going to watch a
movie.

I was going to sew.






Didn't happen!!!!  The snow didn't even start till after 2pm and I get off work at 3. Bummer!!!!!   I didn't go back for the evening hours so I guess you could say I got a 2 hour Snow Day.  I did make some yummy homemade veggie beef soup and homemade biscuits for supper. Perfect for a snowy night.

And today I finally got to sew.
No movie though.
Scalded my thumb pressing
seams. Looks like it will
even blister.  :(





So if you were one of the lucky ones to get a snow day today I hope you made one of these.

What I'm Reading

Here's what I'm currently reading:

All about genetically modified seeds and the REAL story of the effects of GMOs.  BtCorn, Roundup ready soybeans, BtCotton,  and Roundup ready canola are the most common.  If you read food labels you will find that corn and soy are in almost everything. I always thought canola oil was one of the "healthy" fats; now I know better.

GMO products have been linked to various negative health effects from allergies to cancer.  They have never been tested for safety beyond ninety day studies until a French scientist did a two-year study on rats. The rats fed GMO grain developed horrendous cancers and 70% of them died before their natural life-span was up. The GMO industry has tried to smear this scientist's reputation and say his methodology was faulty but it isn't working very well. 

GMOs are banned in many countries around the world yet have the full backing of the FDA and the U.S. government.  In fact, the U.S. government pressures these other countries to allow GMO products in. Personally, after reading even half of this book and doing further reading online, I think the GMOs should be banned worldwide and  GMO pushing companies should be fined into oblivion for what they are doing to unknowing consumers.....using us as guinea pigs for something that should never have existed in the first place.

In addition to the adverse health effects of GMOs the increased use of herbicides is creating "super" weeds.  Farmers may think they have the world by the tail because they can spray their fields and the weeds are all gone. But just wait, soon the sprays won't work any more and stronger, more poisonous chemicals will be introduced or farmers and their families will be back to walking their beans & corn, chopping out the weeds with machetes like we did in the good old days. Back to using cultivators. (Do younger farmers even know what those are?)  If BtCorn kills insects do you really think it's not doing harm to the animals and humans who eat it?  I'm afraid our farmers have been hoodwinked and they've joined in whole-heartedly because they've been promised bigger profits. In America money talks.

Really I should just stick to reading my mysteries. It would be better for my blood pressure. What good does it do to know about stuff like this?  Big business and the U.S. government says it's all good for us. So it must be, right????

See what others are reading at Patchworktimes.

What I'm Working On

Who needs a design wall when you have an ironing board???  Especially when you only have two blocks to show.

These are the first two completed blocks for #2 Granddaughter's orange & teal blue quilt.....though the blue doesn't look very teal in the picture. In looking through my fabrics everything was either too green or too blue. Finally I settled on three that were what I thought were about right and went with it.  Besides when it's done that orange is just going to pop out and hit you in the eye and no one will even notice if the blue is the exact right shade.

Sounds like this week will be good sewing weather. Supposed to have 6-10 inches of snow from Wed. afternoon through Thurs. afternoon according to Accuweather. Oh, please, please can we have a snow day on Thurs. ???  It's getting late in the winter and we all NEED a snow day!!!

P.S. I just noticed that this is post 400. How did that happen so fast?????

Baby Steps......And An Ooops!

Tuesday night's Quilt Club was a "bring your own project night," so I worked on putting together some of the star blocks for Orca Bay. These finish at 6".  Cute!

 

I was surprised that I got ten of them done, what with all the visiting and snacks and all. Now I see that the one on the lower right has a little "oops" that will have to be corrected. It's funny how I don't notice these things until I see them in a picture. 

A while after I got home on Tuesday night my throat got real itchy and I coughed a lot in the night.....and I'm still at it. Don't feel sick or anything, just keep coughing because of the itchiness. My voice has been croaky and my ribs ache from the coughing and the throat feels quite sore at times though it doesn't look inflamed. I've sneezed a bunch of times today so I sure hope it isn't working up into something. Last year at this time I was in the process of coming down with  shingles so this seems minor in comparison.  Maybe next year we can just skip February??? Guess I'll just medicate myself well before going to bed so I'll be ready to go to work in the morning.  Working on Saturdays....grrrrrrrrr!

Hope you have a nice weekend.

 

Hearts To You

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

What I've Been Up To

Well, let's see. I got my annual new ironing board cover. It looked so nice when I took this picture.  No stains, no scorch marks. Lovely.  It's already showing some wear.

 

I've also gotten two baby quilt tops put together. 

They're the same, but different, made from 30s reproduction fabrics for the twin girls my niece is expecting in early April.

Today I was playing with fabrics, trying to choose what to use for two more quilts. Big ones this time.

Orange, teal blue, cream & lime green accent for my #2 granddaughter.  Generous double size. Why she had to choose such a strange shade of blue to paint her room I will never know. If these aren't quite right she will just have to deal with it.

Queen size in dusty purples, chocolate and a cream print. I'm not really satisfied with these browns so might have to see if I can run across some I like better. I've made enough quilts with browns that the best ones are pretty much used up.

Looks like I'll be busy for a while. If I don't post you'll know I'm cutting and sewing like mad.