What's Cooking?

It has been awhile since I posted a recipe so I thought I'd share two recipes with you today. First, let me say I would have posted this yesterday but Blogger was having hiccups and rather than try to fight with it, I thought I'd wait until this morning.

I love make-ahead recipes because it makes preparing a meal so much easier. They’re especially welcoming when you’ve been working all day or you’re running late because the soccer game went into overtime. Two of my favorite recipes are Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting and Grilled Lemon Chicken. Super Easy!

My children always loved working in the kitchen with me while they were growing up and I always stressed for them to read the recipe and gather all of their ingredients before they begin baking. This will prevent you from getting into the middle of a recipe only to discover you don’t have everything necessary to prepare your food.

I gathered all of my ingredients to make my chocolate cake. Of course, after this picture was taken and I had started assembling my ingredients, I discovered the eggs could not be seen in this picture... But they really are there. I did not show the boiling water.

These are the utensils required to make the cake. The mixer is shown with the ingredients.

Prior to assembling the ingredients in my mixing bowl, I sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. I choose to use a fine mesh strainer over a deep bowl for this technique. Simply add the ingredients to be sifted and gently shake the strainer over the bowl.

The purpose of sifting is to remove all of the lumps from your flour and cocoa.

If you do have some lumps, use a spoon to break the lumps before proceeding to finish sifting the ingredients.

This is what they will look like. All of the lumps have been broken up and you have a light powder mixture.

Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla in mixing bowl.

Add the boiling water to creamed mixture and blend until dissolved. Add eggs and mix well.

Add dry ingredients to wet mixture. I use a 1/2 cup measuring cup and mix well between each addition. This will help eliminate any lumps that may form.

Batter will be very thin.

Pour into a 13" x 9" baking dish. I spray the dish with a cooking spray to prevent the cake from sticking. Bake in preheated 350° oven for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool.

Once cake has completely cooled, add powder sugar, butter, vanilla, and milk to mixing bowl. Mix well. I use a wire beater because I like the light texture it gives the frosting.

With a rubber spatula, scrape the sides of the mixing bowl to ensure everything is mixed well.

You don't want to over beat your frosting, but you do want it to be smooth.

With an offset spatula, spread frosting over cooled cake.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

To make the grilled lemon chicken, you will need olive oil, a couple of lemons (even though I only pictured one), salt, pepper, chopped garlic, and chopped rosemary.

We'll use poultry scissors, a citrus reamer (or similar), a fine grater, small bowl, and a 13" x 9" baking dish.

I've washed the chicken in cold water and dried inside and out with a paper towel.

From the backside of the chicken, using your poultry scissors, cut the spine from the chicken.

The removal of the spine will allow you to lay the chicken flat on the grill.

Open up the chicken and remove any additional fat. You can either cut the fat out or, like I do, grab hold of it and pull. It peels right off.

The fat has been removed and I've wiped the inside of the chicken with a paper towel.

Lightly sprinkle both sides of the chicken with kosher salt.

Add olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, rosemary, and pepper into bowl. Whisk until ingredients are well combined.

You know it's combined when you can no longer distinguished between the olive oil and the lemon juice.

Add chicken to baking dish and pour marinade over chicken. Coat both sides of the chicken well. For a strong lemon flavor, put chicken skin side down in dish. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Remove chicken from refrigerate and allow it to sit at room temperature for 20 - 30 minutes while grill is preheating. Place chicken on grill and turn off burners underneath chicken. Grill chicken for about 20 - 25 minutes on each side. Chicken is done when juices are clear or leg moves easily. If chicken is not browned enough, place chicken over burners on other side of grill for about 5 minutes on each side. Allow chicken to sit for 5 minutes before cutting.

Squeeze fresh lemon juice over chicken before serving.

Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting
350° 30 minutes


2 cups flour
½ cup cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
½ cup butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 cups boiling water
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350°. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. In mixing bowl, cream together vanilla, butter, and sugar. Add boiling water, blend well. Add eggs and mix until well blended. Gradually add dry ingredients and mix well. Pour into 13” x 9” baking dish and bake for 30 minutes. Allow cake to completely cool before frosting.

Buttercream Frosting

2 cups powdered sugar
½ cup butter, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 – 5 Tbsp milk
Dash of salt

Add all ingredients into mixing bowl and beat until smooth. For chocolate frosting, add ½ cup cocoa. With offset spatula, spread frosting over cake. Cover cake with plastic wrap and refrigerate.


Grill Lemon Chicken


1 – 3 ½ lb chicken, flattened
Kosher salt
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tsp grated lemon zest
½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 Tbsp garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp rosemary, finely chopped
2 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
3 lemons, for juice and zest

Wash chicken with cold water and dry with paper towel. Remove spine using poultry scissors. Sprinkle both sides of chicken with kosher salt. Combine olive oil. Lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, rosemary, and pepper in small bowl.

Place chicken on baking dish and pour marinade over chicken, coating both sides well. Cover dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Turn the chicken a couple of times while marinating.

Remove chicken from refrigerator and set out at room temperature for about 20 minutes. Preheat grill. Place chicken, skin side up, on grill. Turn off burners underneath chicken. Cook for 20 – 25 minutes per side, until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken from grill, loosely cover with foil and let rest for about 5 minutes before cutting. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over chicken before serving.

Oh The Treasures Around Me...

I know I'm supposed to be working from my 'resources' but I needed to purchase some fabric with a large scale print so I could continue working towards perfecting my machine quilting technique. I had planned to purchase something inexpensive at JoAnn's Fabrics, but I also needed to go into our local quilt shop to purchase a couple of fat quarters as prizes for the winners of a couple BINGO games a group of us play.

So I’m in town running errands and make a stop at Calico Creations, the local quilt shop in Mount Vernon. It’s a small shop but the owner keeps a pretty good selection of fabrics in stock. Their inventory of sale fabrics is located in the back of the shop and this is where I usually begin BROWSING. By BROWSING, I mean scanning the shelves; maybe pull a few bolts out to TOUCH, and FLIPPING through anything that is resting against the shelves on the floor during my first GLANCE.

OK, I’ve safely made it through the first GLANCE of the sale fabric and I’m making my way over to the children’s prints. Having nine grandchildren, I’m always on the lookout for fabric I can use on something for them. I pull out a couple bolts to TOUCH the fabric and HOLD a couple of them next to each other to check for COMPATIBILITY, but I safely make it through the children’s prints on my first PASSING.

Flannels are next in line. I love flannels. They work great for sewing receiving blankets as baby gifts. But, although there are several cute prints, I decide I have a large enough stock at home and can BYPASS the flannels.

One of the winners of our BINGO game wanted blue or yellow Batik for her fat quarter. A true yellow and not orange-yellow, which I knew would be a difficult wish to fulfill. But I quickly GLANCED through the Batiks and since I was unable to locate a true yellow, I selected a blue Batik print. One down, one more to go!

The second winner of our BINGO game is working on a town quilt. For birthday blocks, everyone is stitching a building as contribution to her town. To go with this theme, she requested prints that would lend themselves to landscape items; grass, trees, brushes, etc. This quest might be more difficult because it will take me through the rest of the fabric in the shop.

I’m back to GLANCING and TOUCHING all the lovely fabric. I longed for some Moda and Amy Butler prints. I spent several minutes GLANCING at the black and white prints. And I drooled at all the Brights and Jewel tones. The same jewel tones found in all the luscious fall prints that now overflowed from the shop’s shelves. Oh the restrain it took to get through the first GLANCE and then the second GLANCE…

It was during my third GLANCE that I came upon a fall print with shades of orange, yellow, green, reds, and browns that I thought would be perfect for use in her town quilt. But, not before I found a couple more treasures…

I found these Amy Butler prints buried in the sale fabrics at 40% off the regular price. I'm participating in a Friendship Bag Swap and think these would look great in a Friendship Bag. Don't you?

Again, I found another coordinating print to go with the Amy Butler print and at a whopping 40% off. What do you think? Another bag or perhaps a pillow? Oh the possibilities!

After shopping at Calico Creations, I headed over to JoAnn's Fabrics in search of a large scale print to use for practicing my machine quilting. I'm not a fan of JoAnn's fabric because most of the time it is cheap and doesn't hold up well to use. However, since this was for practice use I thought JoAnn's was perfect. The prints above have a soft hand and the print has lots of connecting shapes that I thought would be perfect for practicing my machine quilting technique. I was a little put off by the price, but it will work and I can always use it for a set of small zipper pouches afterwards.

As I was heading to the counter to get my fabric cut, I happened upon this beautiful print. The fabric is so soft and the colors are lusciously vibrant. I could not pass this one up. I'm sure I could use another print to practice my machine quilting and in the end, it will make a great bag or something. YUMMY!

Oh, I almost forgot! Before I left Calico Creations I just had to purchase these three prints for Elijah's quilt. He loves cars and his quilt will have construction trucks on it. His bedroom is decorated in primary colors too. Don't you think these will go well with his trucks? Now I need to find some more TREASURES to add to my RESOURCES.

Friends

It's amazing how friendships are formed through this medium. It's a great opportunity to meet someone who you wouldn't have otherwise met. Isn't that fun? Plus, you learn so much about gardening, sewing, quilting, cooking, or whatever interest you. One of the blogs I've come across is having a Give-A-Way in celebration of exceeding her 250th blog entry. And who doesn't love to win things? Browse her blog and make sure to enter for her Give-A-Way: http://robich.blogspot.com/

Challenges

One of the groups I participate on has started a monthly challenge block. Each month one of the members selects a challenge block and submits it to the group. Each member has the choice to participate or not. Of the ones who participate, at the end of the year, they will have twelve 9-inch blocks to use in a quilt.


This month's challenge block is the Alabama block. The block itself is rather simple and would be quick to make if you use a strip piecing technique. Here's a link to the block's instructions: Alabama Block - 9".

Musical Angels Quilt Sandwich - Update

The musical angels quilt is pin basted and I've confirmed the quilt backing is laying flat with no wrinkles present.

I've rolled the sides and clipped them in anticipation of starting to machine quilt it.

I purchased Pfaff's Fabric Mover with Stitch Regulator after attending a demonstration at the Puyallup Sewing Expo last March. Prior to purchasing, I also spent about 10 to 15 minutes testing it out to ensure it was what I wanted.

The unit came with a DVD showing how to install it as well as how to use it, a foot control, stitch regulator controller, power supply, and a connector to connect the stitch regulator with my machine.

Here is a picture I took after I have installed it onto my machine.

I've been a hand quilter for years but have always wanted to learn how to machine quilt my quilting projects. I've attempted a couple of times but never successfully. When I saw a demonstration of the Fabric Mover I thought it was the answer to my problems with machine quilting.

I’m a little frustrated with my progress but not enough to give up. I’m going to make a couple more quilt sandwiches to practice on and hopefully I’ll become more comfortable with the mechanics of my technique. Perhaps, instead of using muslin to practice on I’ll go find a large scale print that I can use.

So, until I am more comfortable and confident of my machine quilting skills, I will not be quilting my musical angels quilt.

Can you believe this?

It's been a slow weekend and I haven't gotten a lot of sewing done. I did finish pin basting my musical angels quilt yesterday and it's rolled up in preparation of machine quilting it. However, I'm having some technical difficulties in the machine quilting part and rather than being frustrated all weekend, I'm going to take a break and tackle it again later.

I do have something to share with you though….

A friend of mine sent me an email last night with one of the funniest videos I’ve ever seen. You have to view it and then tell me what you think of it.

Sweden's Got Talent

Some people will do anything to become famous. LOL

The Devil Made Me Do It!!!

I’ve been having a lazy day today and haven’t made it into my sewing room yet, so instead of an update on a sewing project, I’m going to tell you a story.

Every parent has a funny story or two about their children as they were growing up. Some of us have more than others, but they’re all funny stories that other parents can relate too. Although I have funny stories of all my children and their friends, I seem to have a few more humorous memories of my youngest son, Tramaine, than the others.

I’m the second oldest in my family of nine girls and two boys. Like most children who were the oldest, I was the responsible one, or at least that’s what my parents thought. If the first born is the responsible one, what does that make the youngest one? In our family, Tramaine was the tattle teller. The one I was always asking where his nose was, followed by put your nose on your own face, as he had that look of indignation.

I was at work when I received a telephone call from my oldest son, Randy. I was away from my office but was able to take the call at one of the other desks outside in ‘cube’ land. Randy announced that Tramaine, who was about 6 years old at the time, peed into the cat dish that was outside on the back deck. Of course, he had no idea why his little brother would do such a thing… but, I had my suspicions. Having told Randy to put Tramaine on the phone and here is a brief recall of our conversation, to the best of my recollection:

Mom: “Did you pee in the cat dish?”

Child: “Yes.”

Mom: “Why?”

Child: “I don’t know.”

Mom: “Do you usually pee in the cat dish?”

Child: “No.”

Mom: “Then why did you pee in the cat dish today?”

Child: “I don’t know.”

Mom: (who is getting rather irritated at this point) “What do you mean you don’t know?”

Child: (who you can hear sniffling by now) “I don’t know.” (I was sure I could hear him shrug his shoulders as he responded.)

Mom: “You must know why you peed in the cat dish. Why didn’t you go in the house?”

Child: “I don’t know.”

Mom: “There must be some reason why you peed in the cat dish!”

Child: “The devil made me do it!”

Mom: “The DEVIL made you do it?!”

Child: “Yes.”

Mom: “Go clean out the cat dish. We’ll finish talking about this when I get home.”

Mom has now hung up the telephone only to hear everyone in the office snickering and saying, “The Devil made me do it!” as she walks back to her office and closes the door.

I think parenthood is overrated.

What's Happening In My Sewing Room?

Our weather is continuing to cool down and I've been taking advantage of the cooler temperatures working on pinning my musical angels quilt. But before I get to my progress, I want to talk about another block I made.

I belong to an online quilting group where are members live in western Washington. We meet for sew-ins at least once a month and partake in other activities as well. We also are very supportive of each other when someone is facing a challenge or a blessing in their life. This could range from an illness or death, to having a baby or moving. When an event such as this occurs, we traditionally work together to make a comfort or celebratory quilt for them.

Our members contribute Jake's Heart blocks and submit them to whoever volunteered to assemble the quilt. It's a simple block and goes together rather quickly. Here's a link to where you can find the instructions for assembling the block: Jake's Heart Block

I've placed two of the blocks together so you can see what they would look like. One block features the purple fabric and the other one features the green fabric. One of my favorite layouts is to assemble four blocks where you make a flower blossom. Once the quilt blocks have been assembled, it is then forwarded to another member who has volunteered to quilt it. It is then presented to the recipient. Wouldn't it be nice to receive one of these?

Here is picture of my musical angels quilt. As you can see, I've pinned a good portion of the quilt sandwich. I've also trimmed the batting around the edges to the same size as the quilt backing. Below is a close-up of the middle block.

As soon as I finish pinning the quilt sandwich I am going to audition some quilting designs and quilting thread. Perhaps tomorrow I'll have made more progress to share.

Quilter's Stimulus Package Give-A-Way

Elaine of Faithful Quilter: Elaine's Journey, is featuring another Quilter's Stimulus Package Give-A-Way. If you would like to enter, visit Elaine's blog to see how you can enter. But hurry. You only have until August 10th to enter.

Good Luck!

Today's Adventure

Rather than spend my morning in my sewing room working on my getting my musical angels quilt ready for quilting, I spent it at our local Department of Licensing office. Ugh! I don’t know why I put off going in until the last minute. I suppose it has to do with the fact it is one of my least favorite places to go; second only to going to the dentist’s office.

I’m sure most of the DOL offices are similar to ours. There’s never enough employees to service the people and if you aren’t there as soon as the door opens, your wait could be a couple of hours. And while you wait, if you’re lucky enough to have a chair to sit in, you’re squeezed in like sardines, literally shoulder to shoulder, hoping and praying your number comes up quickly. Of course they have a couple different series of numbers going at the same time and when they call a number you have to run up to the window quickly or else they’ll go to the next number and you'll have to pull another number. (I’ve seen it happen.)

Well, I was delayed in leaving the house and by the time I arrived the office had been open for about 25 minutes. I’m not sure why, but at every DOL office I’ve seen, they have very limited parking and our office doesn’t allow parking on the neighboring streets. I had to circle the parking lot before I could find a parking space. When I walked up the steps and reached to open the door, a little old lady walked up too and as I held the door open for her, I noticed there were at least 50 people waiting. Needless to say, the little old lady got to the number machine first and as I pushed the button for renewing my license I was praying I would get a low number. The little old lady was given number 14 while I was given number 15. They were on number 3. I should have ignored the little old lady and marched on in, and then I would have been the one holding number 14. Hey, it would have saved me about 20 minutes!

After standing for about ten minutes, a seat opened up and I sat down between the little old lady to my right and a young man on my left. I had brought a book with me, anticipating I would have a lengthy wait ahead of me, but every time I started to read my story someone would interrupt me. I travel for business all the time and can be reviewing project data and contracts while waiting for my flight and someone will invariably start talking to me. Well, I digress… The little old lady to my right began telling me how her husband had gone to the courthouse and while he was going through security one of the security officers stole his expensive pen and she didn't trust our local government officials. I couldn’t quite understand what the young man on my left was trying to say because he spoke with a very heavy Mexican accent. This went on for almost two hours and once my number was called it took me five minutes to pay for my license renewal and take my picture.

I think next year I’m going to renew my license on-line and avoid getting to know my neighbors.

Musical Angels Quilt Sandwich

I'm ashamed to admit that I have not done a lot of sewing / quilting lately because it has been just too hot. For the last week or so our daily temperatures have been in the high 90's and low 100's, but with the high humidity, these temperatures are even higher! For the Pacific Northwest, this is very unusual. I don't consider myself a wimp, but I found myself whining every day, wishing for cooler temperatures.

The temperatures were much cooler this morning and I took advantage of it and began working on creating a quilt sandwich with my musical angels quilt. At this phase of your quilt, it is important to prepare your quilt correctly or you run the risk of ruining your quilt and watching your hard work disintegrate before your eyes. I don't think there is any quilter out there who hasn't made mistakes. Even experienced quilters. We all have our favorite ways to create a quilt sandwich and I'm going to take you through mine.

My first step is to iron my quilt top and backing. I prefer not to use steam during this process because steam adds moisture to the fabric which can result in distortion during handling. With my iron set at cotton/linen, I begin to press the quilt top and backing.

Next I find the width and length center of my backing by folding it in half lengthwise and marking with a glass head pin on all sides. I repeat for locating the center of the width.

For this quilt's backing, I chose to use a pin on each side of the center back because it happened to be at a seam.

I've marked the center on my cutting table using a piece of painter's tape. By matching the centerback of my quilt backing with this mark, I will ensure my quilt top is centered on the back and batting. There is nothing more frustrating than to get everything laid out only to discover you're too short on one side and have to start over again.

Here is the backing centered on to my cutting table.

I use 1" binder clips to hold the backing on to my table. This will ensure the backing is taut and remains centered. You want your backing taut so you don't have bubbles after you've finished your quilting. Although it is taut, you don't want to stretch and distort your backing.



Using the same process, I've added the batting to the backing. I know some people pre-wash their batting, but I choose not to because I like the antique/vintage appearance it has after washing.

Before I add my top I've double-checked to ensure all of my seams are pressed in the proper direction and loose threads have been cut.

Here is the quilt sandwich with the top added.

I still need to pin it, but I've made some progress and am a few steps closer to getting it quilted and passed on to my granddaughter.

Friendship Bag Swap

One of the authors of a blog, Tonya's Sewing Room, I follow featured a fun swap and I thought it would be exciting to participate. The swap is titled Friendship Bag Swap and each participant will make a bag to send to one of the other participants while receiving a bag from someone else. Sound like fun? Go to the Quilt Gallery site to learn more about the Friendship Bag Swap. Maybe we’ll be making friendship bags for each other.

I Received A Gift

Our youngest daughter, Katie, and grandson, Elijah, came to visit with us a couple of days ago. We had a wonderful visit. Usually, the first thing Elijah does when he comes into the house is to run to our bedroom looking for Papa's licorice. He loves licorice. Black. Red. It doesn't matter. Licorice is licorice.

Elijah attends pre-school while his mom is at school or work and he made me something special while at school the other day.

It's a beautiful butterfly! I have placed it in my sewing room so I can look at it while I am working on a project and think of Elijah.

We went to the river to cool off. Elijah loves the water. He found a log to jump off of while someone was there to catch him as he hit the water. He thought that was great. He also loves to throw the rocks except him and Papa go to war when he throws them around our antique cars... but that's for another day. LOL

Isn't being a grandparent wonderful?