More summer bounty

My neighbor, Mary Mac, works at a farmers' market. She brought me some strawberries the other day. I was tempted to eat them all while standing over the sink. But I did stop soon enough to make a quick fruit cobbler before they were gone.

This is so simple and you can make it with any fresh or frozen fruit you have on hand.

Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup and 2 Tablespoons flour
1/4 cup and 2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup and 2 Tablespoons milk
1 cup sliced strawberries, or raspberries, or fresh peaches, or nectarines, or whole blackberries
1-1/2 teaspoons sugar

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Put butter in a small casserole dish and put it in a microwave to melt it. Remove from microwave and swirl it around to coat the sides and bottom of the casserole.
In a separate bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt to mix. Add milk and whisk it into the dry ingredients to make a smooth batter. Pour batter into the casserole, then scatter your fruit over the batter. Sprinkle 1-1/2 teaspoons of sugar over the fruit.
Bake at 350 degrees until the batter browns and the fruit bubbles. My oven takes 50 minutes.
Serve warm with ice cream, or cold with cream.

Summer gifts

Yesterday, at the post office there was a box of vegetables on the bench outside. I took two tomatoes and had one with my dinner. It was delicious. Thank you.

Lights for Christmas

I finished some Christmas lights just in the nick (St. Knick) of time.

Remember those old, old Christmas tree light strings? The kind that were so delicate and temperamental. If one light went out, the whole string went dark. To fix it you had to remove one light bulb at a time and replace it with one you knew was good. You would go from bulb to bulb and finally two bulbs from the last one the string lit up!

This was a tedious process. It was important to plug in the string and see that it lit up before you hung it on the tree. My father did this. After a few days of admiring the tree with its festive display, one string would go dark. To do the testing and replacing one had to crawl around and into the tree. It was worth it.

Today, I sewed up some 4.5" square Christmas lights quilt blocks that will never blink off.

If you would like to make your own paper pieced Christmas lights, click on the graphic below and you will find a three-part foundation to print out. If you don't know how to paper piece, go to my Paper Piecing Primer http://www.winnowing.com/ppp.html

Here is a suggestion for fabric placement:

Merry Christmas.

Before summer ends

Try this delicious cheesy casserole before we run out of summer squash or zucchini.

 This is a recipe for one or two people, but you can expand it easily to serve more.

Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon butter
1 slice of bread crumbled
1/2 onion chopped
1 medium summer squash (or zucchini)
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1/2 teaspoon milk
1/2 teaspoon "Perfect Pinch" or any other non-salted herbs of your choice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter the inside of a small lidded casserole.
Crumble the bread slice and mix the crumbs with soft butter and set aside.
Slice the squash into thin rounds.
Chop the 1/2 onion.
Sauté the squash slices briefly in olive oil in a skillet.

 Next, add the chopped onion and sauté until the onions are soft. Sprinkle vegetables with your herb seasoning. Add some pepper and a tiny bit of salt (to your taste).
In the meantime, in a separate bowl, mix together the cheeses, sour cream, and milk.

 Put the warm squash-onion mix into the casserole.
Gently stir in the cheese mix into the vegetables.
Use your fingers to drop the bread crumb pieces over the top.
Bake covered for 25 minutes. Take off the cover and bake five minutes more to brown it a bit.

Flashback Friday

I was sorting through some old photos this week and came across a picture of Robert at a wedding in the early 1980s, and then I found a picture of  Victor Thresh (our grandson) wearing a tux for his high school Senior Prom last year. I was struck by the resemblance. Two handsome guys.

So Mochi fun

 I've been having such fun. Mochi is a yarn from Crystal Palace Yarns. It's 80% Merino wool and 20% nylon and comes in all sorts of marvelous colors. There was a Mochi Hat contest on Ravelry and I wanted to enter. I ordered two balls of Chunky Mochi intense rainbow from K2TOG in Albany, CA on Friday, February 21.

 It was delivered to my post office box on Monday the 24. I had until Friday, the 28 to get it finished and post a photo before noon. I was still knitting the last row of ribbing Friday morning. There was no way I could get it blocked and photographed and uploaded before noon. Well, darn it.

 The beret project combines knitting and weaving. First, you warp your loom-board on a kraft paper pattern.

 Then you weave the weft yarn to make your circle beret top.

 The woven circle does not have to be hemmed. Pick up the warp and weft loops all around the edge and begin knitting.

I think it is really neat. To toot my own horn: please check out my book, Knitter's Weaving Book. There is a free downloadable PDF pattern for another beret using the same technique on that page. The book is also available on Amazon.com

Decorating finished

 I was a little late this year but I managed to finish my Christmas decorating. Whew!
This year the log cabin tree has ornaments! I designed this in 2009. If you want to whip one up before tomorrow, click HERE for the pattern.

My sons and grandsons visited me this week so I am feeling content and cozy. Now that I have the decorating done I can sit back and read with my new Kindle.

I'm also weaving a collar for a sweater to use in the forthcoming Knitters' Weaving Projects book.