I finished pinning Baby Nacho's quilt yesterday while watching the last of the Call of the Midwife episodes.  My Beloved will watch Downton Abbey but not these.  He was busy working yesterday afternoon so I had time to pin.  Small Mister was not with me either.  It went much faster without having to track down the saftey pins when I needed them! 

Ready for stiching.  I am also less then 20 squares to the next quilt top.  I am going to cut out linen squares next.  My Beloved just cut the buttons off a linen shirt (it is the only way he will stop wearing them) so I hope to find some not so worn pieces of that for the next quilt.  

This afghan has been my project in the evenings when we watch videos.  It is a granny square pattern from Posie Gets Cozy.  I have tried to chose a grey for the outside edge and my Beloved picks all the other colors.  He really likes the orange and the red.  The pattern actually calls for only 80 squares.  It is one of the reasons I laid it out today.  I wanted to see how big 80 squares was.  Not quite big enough.  I am going to finish 100 and then put it together.  I actually have enough yarn bits (this is really nice for bits) that I will probably make another.  Or find another pattern I like and use that.  I am enjoying this even though I know putting it together is going to be tedious.

Amy was talking at skating on Sunday about ginger snaps.  She got me craving them so I went to my go to recipe in the Joy of Cooking.  The only problem with that recipe is that it makes 10 dozen.  10 dozen if you make them rather large.  I always think that is too many cookies so I cut it in half.  And roll the cookies in sugar like they were molasses crinckles.  The recipe actually suggests to frost them but I cannot see that.

ginger snap

Note:  From the Joy of Cooking, 1981 (yes, year matters with this cookbook)

6 tablespoons butter

1 cup sugar 

1 egg

1/4 cup molasses

1 teaspoon vinegar

1 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon cloves

Sugar for dredging

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl.  Add molasses, egg, and vinegar.  Beat well.  Mix in the dry ingredients.  

Roll small teaspoons of dough into balls.  Dredge in sugar.  Place on a baking sheet covered with a silpat or parchment paper.  

Bake 12 minutes

Very yummy.  Similar to a molasses crinckle but more ginger.

And Small Mister likes them.  He likes the size too.

I have a done quilt back.  For some reason, this one seemed to take much longer then normal.  It was probably my head space because what I really wanted to do was keep making nine squares.  20 more and I have enough for the next quilt I am making.  And my friend is not feeling well so I really hope it helps when she gets it.  I will eventually make one for me and I am excited about starting that as well.

My arthritic conditions have been really playing with me recently.  Injuring myself has not helped.  I think right now I would rather buy and grow flowers then food.  Well, except maybe for tea and homemade bread for toast.  My list for this weekend is overwhelming and I know it will not all get done.  I can hope that parts of it do.

I saw this on a blog where the writer had cut off the bottom of a romaine lettuce head and grew another head of lettuce from it.  Just what had been purchased from the grocery store.  Nothing special about that head of lettuce.  I was making coleslaw and thought, what the heck, I will try it with this pretty purple cabbage I was using.  So I cut off about an inch of the end that had been closest to the roots.  Where they had cut it from the plant.  I then put it in a shallow dish of water.  I have made sure there is always water.

I have cabbages growing!  They look like three tiny brussell sprouts right now.  This is so exciting.  When the plant seem much more established and I can see roots, I will plant it in my garden.  I am going to do this much more often.  It definitely makes me smile.

By the way, ink is in but not the paper.  More waiting going on.

The excitement today is a working computer and photopolymer plates ordered for printing.  The ink and paper are ordered too so life is pretty exciting.  I do admit that I hope to have some time without Small Mister to do some printing because it will be my first time doing this without guidance.  He also really likes to help with my letterpress.  Whether we are actually printing or not.  That could just be much too interesting!

I have variations of this tree ordered.  Something for my Beloved, my Mom, and two things for my Sister.  The only one missing is my best friend and by the time she makes decisions, I will probably have more to order.

Life is most interesting.

We have a computer back.  But not all my pictures.  I will figure this out as I go but blogging might be interesting for the next couple of days.

Over Mother's Day weekend, I wanted to go camping.  So my boys and I went.  The Tall Short Person had to work.  We found a small little state park about 2 hours away.  It was very quiet and kind of strange but we had a good time.  I could not have asked for more.

I have been working on letterpress business cards for family lately.  There is not much to take pictures of because i am sending proofs back and forth, having people decide on paper colors, and ink colors.  But I got to order ink and paper today.  I am downloading Adobe Illustrator (for the how manyeth time?) so I can do one more mock up.  Then I am ordering plates.  The paper is already on its way.

I will get to print next week.  Life is pretty exciting.  Or maybe I just like simple things.

I need to stay out of the computer store!

I have been coming home to needing to care for Small Mister.  My Beloved is working on knives and it is my turn to care for Small Mister.  Earlier this week, we had errands to run which we could walk to.  He likes being outside.  Today there were no errands but there was the garden.

We dug.  We pulled weeds.  We barely made dent in what needs to be done but Small Mister pays attention longer then what might be expected.  Especially when there are bugs or worms.

Or Grandmomma finds new, interesting vegetables.  I had an eggplant over winter and this is what I found today.  I gave two away and I am going to try to use the rest before they get wilty or mold.  The tomatoes are starting to come in as well.  I picked the first small cherry tomatoes last week.  The romas are green and ripening.  I have more then I wish to think about currently.  Especially since there is still kale, chard, and carrots.  

And flowers.  I am enjoying my flowers.

I do enjoy the gardening.  It slows me down.  And we are outside.

This has been on my board.  Then the please was added.  Pecan Pie :).  PLEASE.  With a please that big, what can you do?  Even if it is April?

I had never made on before so I found  a recipe for a pecan tart by a baker I trust.  I changed it to pie.  I took a suggestion from another cookbook author and prebaked the crust.  That seemed to help a lot.  Since  I was making the cassoulet at the same time, I used my little convection oven.  I was surprised how well it worked.  

So now I have a pecan pie recipe.  I might try others but this is quite good.  It got the seal of approval from the Tall Short Person who was the one who put PLEASE on the board.

pecan pie

1 cup flour

8 tablespoons butter

a pinch of salt

2 tablespoons water

2/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons molasses

2/3 cup light corn syrup

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons very good scotch

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 tablespoons melted butter

2 cups pecan halves

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a small bowl, put 1 cup flour and a pinch of salt.  Mix.  Cut in the butter until it resembles coarse corn meal.  Sprinkle with two tablespoons water and mix together.  It should come together in a ball.  Especially if you press a bit.  If not, add another tablespoon of water.

On a floured surface.  Turn out the dough.  Bring together and knead three times (I am not kidding, less is more).  Roll out into a circle.  It will be less then a 1/4" thick and a bit fragile.  Fold it into quarters and transfer to a pie pan.  I had a 9" pie pan.  Spread out the dough.  Patch any holes.  Cut off the over hang on the edge (make pie crust cookies) and flute.

Bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.  My day was such that I let my pie crust cool.  Remember, I was also making cassoulet.  I think that was a day I made granola and bread too......  Just a normal Sunday.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a bowl, mix all the other ingredients together but the pecans.  Place the pecans in the pie crust and spread evenly around.  Pour the custard mixture over the pecans.

Put the pie in the oven.  Bake about 40 minutes.

The pie will be puffed and brown when it come out of the oven.  Maybe even bubbly.  Let cool so it will hold together when you cut it.  If you do not, it is not like I did not warn you.

The Tall Short Person was very happy with this.