And Then I Fell

We were up bright and early on Saturday morning. Erin and I headed over to Dana's to pick her up to head to the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo in Gwinnett. Of course, Dana offered to drive so we could ride in her new car - that was a treat. And of course, if you know my girls or me, we had to stop at the one and only fast food restaurant as far as we are concerned - Chick Fil A - for breakfast. Then on to the Expo. First time for all of us.

We walked into the exhibit hall and were met with displays from vendors from across the U.S. that were demonstrating and selling just about anything and everything a seamstress might need or want. Sewing machines, fabric, irons, embroidery and quilting machines, patterns, and even a booth that sold shoes for quilters . . . hmmm, I didn't know you had to have special shoes to quilt! They weren't very fashionable either - didn't buy any for my Mom who is an excellent quilter without those shoes!! They also offered classes and "make and take" sessions.

We walked through all the vendors once just to get an idea of who and what was there, pick our favorites, and then head back to make some purchases after we watched some of the fashion shows and demonstrations. One that really got our attention was titled "How to be a Charming Stripper"! Not what you think!! A charm pack is a pack of 5" x 5" fabric squares that can be used for quilting and this told how to use the charm packs for quilt strips. Whew!!

We watched two fashion shows - one that featured "new designers" mainly for adults and my favorite . . . Sewing for Children: The Hottest New Patterns. Lots and lots of class ideas there!

The main reason I wanted to go was to see some of the designer fabrics

that are so popular now - Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Moda, and Jennifer Paganelli - that I hope to use in some of the upcoming classes at Just Sew! Studio. Some of the displays were disappointing as it looked like the fabric was the same old stuff that's been available for 10 years. But we found several booths that really sparked our creativity. Grand Bazaar Fabrics from Alabama had lots of Amy Butler's fabrics and patterns; Young at Heart from Griffin, GA was there with beautiful children's patterns and lots of precious fabric for kids and adults; and Sew it Up from Texas had really cute patterns from Pink Fig, Mod Kid Boutique, Lila Tueller and Sew Sensible just to name a few.

So we made a few purchases - fabric and patterns - and headed back home. We visited with Dana and Lyla for a bit and then Erin and I ran a few errands before going home. Dana #2 (Greg's girlfriend) met us at the grocery and Erin headed home with her before they went out for Mexican. I got home from the grocery and loaded up both hands with as many bags as I could carry and headed for the stone sidewalk that leads to our front porch. Just as I stepped from the driveway to the sidewalk, I rolled my ankle and couldn't seem to catch my balance. I felt myself starting to fall and there was nothing to grab on to to stop my fall and down I went. I thought I was going to fall face first on the stone walk, but thank goodness I turned at the last minute and landed on my right side. I laid there for a minute and then was able to turn and sit up and then the pain began. I knew I had done something to my right hand and quickly pulled my ring off in case my hand started to swell. I've heard several stories of people having rings cut off their fingers and I wasn't going there. My groceries were scattered all over the sidewalk along with the contents of my purse. I found my cell phone and called Erin to ask her to come help me get up. She got me into the house and did a quick nursely (new word I made up!) evaluation and decided I should put ice on my hand and take ibuprofen. I could bend my fingers but they were really sore. I didn't want to make a trip to the ER on a Saturday night. To make a long story short, I will be fine. We made a quick trip to Regional First Care this morning for x-rays. Just got a call from the doc and they reread the x rays and I have a cracked radial head (elbow) which will require a visit to the orthopedic doc now ... and hopefully not a splint! My right arm is in a sling for now. Hopefully my family will take care of me. And I didn't break either jar of pickles when I fell. Now I'm off to figure out how to start sewing some of those cute ideas with my arm in a sling. Maybe I'll make a cute sling!

Okay, I am a day late linking up to A Wee bit of Me Wednesdays, but here goes . . .
{one} what color is your kitchen?Sage green walls & black "antiqued" cabinets painted by Dan, Dan the painter man!

{two} do you have a good luck charm?No - just pray a lot
{three} do you prefer to write with a pen or pencil?Depends on what I'm writing

{four} can you use chopsticks?No! None of the food makes it from the plate to my mouth.
{five} do you prefer baths or showers?Showers. I tried to relax in the tub when the kids were little,
but someone would always knock on the door and ask if I was okay orsome other very important question that couldn't wait until I was out. Greg used to slide notes under the door to me!
{six} what is your favorite salad dressing?After a trip to Italy - extra virgin olive oil with just a little salt.Amazing!
{seven} can you sing the alphabet backwards?I've never tried

{eight} do you have any allergies?Ragweed
{nine} crunchy or creamy peanut butter?creamy. reduced fat.
on a toasted english muffin with a banana& honey!
{ten} have you ever hitch hiked?Never ever!

Head on over to www.myleighashley.com and link up!

Just Sew! Studio

The world we live in moves at such a fast pace. Instant this, drive through that, and I have to have it now! One thing that seems to have been lost in recent years is the ability, or desire, to make something yourself. But if the blogs I’ve been reading lately are a sign of things to come, crafting and sewing might just be making a comeback.

Sewing used to be a skill that was passed down from mother to daughter –teaching her to make her own clothes and things for her home. Boys were taught to build things with their hands – furniture, barns and houses. These were things that my parents were taught. My Dad built my parents first home with the help of his uncles. He filled that house with pieces of furniture that he built by hand – a cradle, a dining room table, a hutch, a desk, a Grandfather clock. My Mom and Grandmother learned how to sew and quilt. My Mom has made quilts for each of her children, grandchildren, and siblings. One of my most prized possessions is a quilt my Mom made and gave to me when I was about to leave home to attend college in another state. That quilt was made with leftover scraps of fabric from the many outfits she sewed for me as I was growing up. You can’t buy that in a store!

When I was about 12 or 13 years old, my Mom signed me up for sewing lessons at the local Singer store and I haven’t stopped sewing since. Barbie doll and baby doll clothes, blouses, pants, shorts, skirts, dresses, curtains, pillows, my wedding veil and the suit I wore as my “going away” outfit at my wedding are all things I’ve sewn. I remember being so proud when I modeled something I had sewn for my Dad and he would ask me, “Did you build that yourself?”. Or if I started sewing something on Saturday to wear to church on Sunday he might ask, “What are you building?”. If you think about it, sewing is very similar to building. You are taking individual pieces and connecting them to make a finished product.

My daughters have encouraged me this past year and a half as I’ve started Francie Beth Boutique and sold handmade signs and picture frames. Even my husband and son have pitched in and cut and sanded signs and slapped on a few coats of paint. Now, I hope to share my love and knowledge of sewing with others who might want to learn to sew with Just Sew! Studio. If your mom tried to teach you to sew, but ran out of patience after threading the machine for you for the 10^th time in 10 minutes or if the pattern instructions were too confusing, give sewing another try. In March I will be offering two classes teaching you how to make a decorative pillow. The class will be about 3 hours long and you will leave with a finished pillow. It’s a cute project, you’ll learn a few basic things you need to know about sewing, and you’ll go home with a pillow that you can tell everyone, “I made it myself!” and no one else will have one exactly like yours! For more information please visit here.

We Interrupt This Marriage For . . .

We hadn't been married very long in the early 80's when I realized that occasionally football came before me. Not all the time; just Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights. Now back in the day I still had a good bit of free time (meaning no children!) and enjoyed cross stitching. Does anyone still do that? Anyways, while Dan watched football, I cross stitched (or did laundry, or the dishes, sewed, cleaned or went shopping).

There aren't a whole lot of things you can cross stitch for an outdoors kind of guy, but I found something that fit him perfect. A small cross stitch sampler that had a football goal, football, and heads of the people in the stands with the saying, "We interrupt this Marriage for the Football Season!". Perfect!! So I cross stitched away and gave him his gift. He was impressed.

Now almost 30 years later, I have come to realize that simple saying, "We interrupt this Marriage for . . . " is a powerful piece of advice. In the last 29+ years, our marriage has been interrupted for any number of activities - football, fishing, camping, hunting, 4-wheeling, time with the guys, and now the most recent . . . a boat - a fixer upper no less! He boasts to his buddies that when we were first married, and he would head off with some friends for a day (or weekend) I was so sad to see him go. Now I tell him to go and have fun! I now welcome the time alone to go off and do the things I enjoy or to stay at home and relish the peace and quiet. If you know my husband, you know that we are total opposites. He is the outgoing, always talking, never met a stranger kind of person who falls asleep and wakes up talking while I am much more introverted and quiet. I love my peace and quiet!

All of this to say that these interruptions have been good for us and I think we are both happier for the time apart, but we also enjoy our time together more!

January 2011 Snow Day(s) + Snow Ice Cream

On Monday morning, most of Georgia woke up to a winter wonderland! Everything here was covered with a thick blanket of white snow, and it was still coming down. We ended up with about 7 inches of beautiful, fluffy snow. But then, the icky sleet and freezing rain came and covered everything with a sheet of ice. Now I should tell you, ice is not my friend. Never has been, never will be! In the past, I've slid on ice in my car and was then hit by another car that started sliding and I've slipped and fallen while walking on ice. Neither event was fun. So now I cringe and stress about having to get out on the ice (in a car or on foot).

On Tuesday, I was beginning to get a slight case of cabin fever so Erin and I went outside and built a mini snow lady. She's a pretty cute snow lady with sweet gum balls for eyes (makes her look like she has eyelashes), a carrot nose, and she hasn't melted a bit over the past two days.

Trying to use my unexpected time off wisely due to the snow days, I did some organizing in my pantry, several loads of laundry, and worked on a few Francie Beth Boutique projects, and I cooked! In case you don't know it, cooking is absolutely one of my favorite things to do when I have plenty of time. Two new Gooseberry Patch cookbooks were added to my cookbook collection at Christmas and I have been browsing all the recipes and hints. So it was just second nature to try out some new recipes. It's been hard to find a granola recipe that has the texture and consistency I've been looking for but I think this one is pretty close (crunchy with some clumps of granola). We made the easiest snow ice cream recipe I've ever seen (thanks to Paula Deen's post on Facebook). It's especially yummy with a spoonful of Nutella on top! And I think I've found just about the best brownie recipe.

Unfortunately my snow days have come to an end even though our yard and decks are still covered in white frozen stuff. Dan drove me to and from work today, but I'm on my own for tomorrow. Hopefully no sliding is involved. And I'll be getting back to my Zumba workout to get rid of the extra calories I enjoyed.

Paula Deen's Snow Ice Cream

8 cups of fresh snow or shaved ice

1 can sweetened condensed milk (I used fat free!!)

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Pour condensed milk and vanilla over the snow (or ice). Mix well and serve immediately.

Granola (adapted from Sunny Anderson's recipe on FoodNetwork.com) Great for breakfast, as a snack, mixed in with yogurt, or on top of ice cream!

1/2 cup maple syrup* 1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil pinch Kosher salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon 2 egg whites

3 cups rolled oats 1 cup coconut (optional)

1 cup sunflower seeds 1 cup craisins (optional)

1 cup chopped nuts (pecans, almonds)

1/4 cup flax seeds (optional)

1/4 - 1/2 cup wheat germ (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In small pan, whisk syrup, oil and cinnamon. Cook until it bubbles. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

In large bowl mix oats, nuts, seeds, wheat germ, sugar and salt. Pour syrup over and mix well.

In small bowl, whisk egg whites. Pour over granola and mix well. Evenly spread the mixture onto prepared sheet pan. Bake 35-40 minutes, stirring three times during the baking time.

Remove from oven and place in a bowl and cool. Add remaining ingredients when cool.

*Substitution for Maple Syrup - 3/8 cup corn syrup, 2 Tbsp unsalted butter and 1/4 teaspoon of maple flavoring. Add these ingredients in place of maple syrup to the oil & cinnamon and follow recipe as listed above. I've tried the recipe with the maple syrup and this substitution and I like the substitution the best.

Brownies (I need to think of a more exciting name for this recipe, because these are more than just brownies!)

1 cup unsalted butter 2/3 cup cocoa

2 cups sugar 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

4 eggs 1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla 1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup unsifted all purpose flour 1/2 - 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Melt butter and stir in sugar and cocoa until dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool. In separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. Beat eggs and vanilla into the cooled cocoa mixture. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips. Spoon into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until brownies spring back when touched in the center. Cool completely before cutting (if you can wait!).

I was on "vacation" last week. Vacation from work, from my home & my responsibilities there, and from cooking. It was enjoyable to eat out for a few nights and not have to worry about did I have this ingredient or that, was there enough time to fix this before it got too late, and especially not having to do the dishes.

Dan and I had a wonderful time exploring the North Georgia mountains - Tallulah Falls, Clayton, Hiawassee, and Blue Ridge.We enjoyed fish & chips, coleslaw, and fried green tomatoes at Rumor Hazit in Clayton (this restaurant was decorated very "beachy"; probably the closest I will get to the beach this summer) and prime rib, baked potatoes, and fresh veggies at The Stockton House while taking in beautiful views of the mountains. But I was definitely glad to get back home to my family and to my kitchen. Some people say they hate to cook. I love to cook - just don't like all the clean up after I'm done! Tonight I decided to try a new recipe for Calzones. I'm still waiting for Greg to get home from the lake and give it his approval, but Dan & Erin said this recipe is a keeper.

The basic recipe I followed was on allrecipes.com, posted by D. Adams. I changed it just a bit.

Calzone Dough - (should make enough dough for 8 calzones)
1 7/8 cups warm water
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups flour + 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. dry milk powder
2 1/4 Tbsp. sugar
3 tsp. active dry yeast

Fillings -

Pepperoni
Italian Sausage
Mushrooms
Green Peppers
Onions
Mozzarella Cheese

I used my Kitchen Aid mixer & dough hook to make the dough, but you could also do this in a food processor. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Combine flours, salt, dry milk, and sugar. Slowly add yeast & water and mix until a ball is formed. Dough should be soft and hold together. Depending on the weather you may need to add a bit more water or flour.

Pour 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil in a large bowl, put dough in and turn to coat with the oil. Cover with plastic wrap or heavy kitchen towel and set in warm place and let rise until doubled.



Once dough is doubled, punch down and shape into a ball. Knead it a few times and then divide it into 8 pieces. On a lightly floured board, roll each piece out into about a 6-7 inch circle.

Fillings - fill with anything "italian". I used sweet italian sausage links that I sliced into pieces and browned while I was waiting for the dough to rise, pepperoni, chopped onions & green peppers, sliced mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese. I used maybe 1/2-3/4 c. filling for each
calzone, keeping the filling just off center on one side of the calzone. Then gently lift the side of the dough that has no filling on it and stretch it over the filling so you have a half-circle shape. Take a fork and push the back of the tines into the dough to "seal the edges. Then poke the fork gently in the top of each calzone about 4-5 times to let the steam escape when cooking. Place on a baking sheet you've lightly sprayed with Pam. Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes. About half way through the cooking time, I beat one egg and added 1 Tbsp. of water. I brushed this on the top and edges of each calzone to help it brown and be a little shiny.


I served my sauce on top of the calzones.
1 14 oz. jar of pizza sauce
leftover green pepper, onions & mushrooms
1 clove garlic

Saute any leftover green pepper and onions in pan with olive oil. Add chopped garlic and stir until veggies begin to sweat. Add mushrooms and sauce. Simmer over medium low heat until calzones are done.


Buon appetito!

An Early Thanksgiving

This past weekend we got together with some friends to celebrate an early Thanksgiving because one of them is being deployed in the next week and won't be home to celebrate the holidays with his family and friends. This young man was in middle school when I met him. He is now a grown man, married, and has a precious child of his own. He's headed off on his second tour of duty.

On Sunday morning our church had a special Veteran's Day program. My eyes filled with tears as this young man I've watched grow up stood in front of the church along with 45 to 50 men and women who have served, or are serving now, in the U. S. Military. I am so thankful to him, to my Dad, and to all the others who have served or are serving now to allow us the freedoms we enjoy today. Thank goodness there are still those who volunteer to serve!

As I was deciding what to bring to this early Thanksgiving, I automatically thought of what my family always has on Thanksgiving and Christmas - two of my favorite times of the year! Turkey (there's another story here about a deep-fried turkey but I'll save that for another day), dressing (made by my Dad), green beans, corn pudding, sweet potato souffle, cranberry relish, pumpkin pie. As family and friends gather together to share all the blessings we've experienced in the past year, we also share some some really good food. Why do we only make some of these dishes on these two days?

One of the dishes I took Saturday night to the get together was Corn Pudding. Several of the people there said they had never had corn pudding, but it's something my family has had at Thanksgiving and Christmas for as long as I can remember. The Microwave Corn Pudding is actually my favorite, and the one we normally make. Both are good!

As I look forward to celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas at home with family and friends, I remember all the young men and women who will be far away from home on these special days. I pray for their safety and quick return home, and am so thankful for their sacrifice!



Microwave Corn Pudding - Serves 8
(Recipe can be easily doubled or tripled for family get togethers!!)

1 can creamed corn
3 Tbsp. margarine, melted
3 Tbsp. self-rising flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten

Mix ingredients in ungreased casserole. Cover and microwave on high for 12 minutes or until center is firm. Lid can be removed halfway through cooking time if pudding is too soupy.


Baked Corn Pudding - Serves 10

1/3 cup sugar 1/2 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. all purpose flour 1/2 tsp. pepper
3 eggs 1 (15.25 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 cup milk 1 (14.75 ounce) can cream-style corn
1/4 cup butter, melted

Directions - In a bowl combine the sugar and flour. Whisk in the eggs, milk, butter, salt and pepper. Stir in the corn and cream-style corn. Pour into a greased 1 1/2 quart baking dish. Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees F for 45-50 minutes, or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. (Adapted from Baked Corn Pudding as posted by Peggy West on allrecipes.com)