Work on it Wednesday

Sewing, knitting and then some more sewing and maybe a bit more knitting. That's it, that's what I'm doing.

Holiday Gift Planning

It's know it's only April, but my abundance of yarn and fabric, along with the sage words of my dear friend Linda have inspired me to do handmade gifts for the majority of gifts I will be giving this year. I have been carefully considering all the people in my life and what would be the perfect gift for them. I've scoured magazine, my patterns (both knitting and sewing), looked through my abundant stash and I think I'm ready to begin. I have some birthday presents that I need to get done and then it's full steam ahead for Christmas sewing/knitting. It's kind of exciting and a real challenge to myself to endeavor to gift handmade. I'm not the fastest knitter in the world and while I can sew quite well, finding the time and motivation to do so isn't always a reality. I hope others will join in and try to gift more handmade items, even if you didn't make them yourself. I think it's wonderful to support the artisans in our communities.
What will I be making you ask? Well, I can't tell you now can I, or it wouldn't be surprise.

Monday's Meal

I love a good steak. Porterhouse, T-bone, Ribeye, you name it, I love it! Well this recipe can be used with any cut of steak you'd like, but try it with a less expensive yet tasty Flat Iron Steak and see if you don't fall in love. Cooked on the grill, or in a pinch in the oven it super fast and easy. Serve it with mashed potatoes, a nice green salad and a good red wine. Now that's what I call a meal!

Steak with blue cheese butter

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves, crumbled
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt (kosher if you have it)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 pounds flat iron steak
3 tablespoons softened unsalted butter
1 ounce crumbled blue cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Whisk together vinegar, garlic, 1 tablespoon black pepper, rosemary, oregano, and salt in a bowl along with the olive oil. Place the flat iron steak into a resealable plastic bag, and pour in the marinade . Squeeze the excess air from the bag and seal. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat and lightly oil grate. Remove steak from the marinade and discard the remaining marinade. Allow the steak to stand at room temperature for 15 minutes as the grill warms. Mash together the butter, blue cheese, chives, and black pepper; set aside. Cook the steak on the preheated grill to desired degree of doneness. Allow the steak to rest for 10 minutes before slicing thinly across the grain. Serve with a dollop of blue cheese butter.

Quilting...part deux

It's like night and day. First off, just cutting out the pieces has gone so much faster this time. I don't know what was wrong with me the last time, but I'm using the strip cutting technique and those blocks were cut up lickety split...thank goodness. Also I am using a pattern from a magazine called Kids Quilts. I don't have to think about anything, it's really all done for me. I'm jazzed about that. Even though quilt patterns might seem like a waste of money since it's all square, triangles and what have you, I've quickly come to realize that it is so worth it in my book to have someone else figure out all the yardage, how many blocks to cut and how big to make them, amen for quilt pattern designers! However I can't seem to do things the easy way. I had purchased some fabric at the quilt show that I wanted to use and the after fussy cutting the design into squares to make my blocks from I realized that they don't measure out exactly to the pattern and hence once I get all my blocks assembled I will have to cut some of them down to match the design of my fussy cut squares. It'll be worth it though because the fabric is perfect for the quilt I want to make. I'll probably make this pattern again though because I really like the looks of it. Wait a minute, did I just type that?

Work on it Wednesday

Today I'm going to prep for my sew in that I have planned for when I go on vacation in a couple weeks. I'm going to pick out all the fabric, make sure it's washed and ready to go, cut or trace the patterns and fabric and get everything ready so that when I sit down to sew I can work efficiently. As I mentioned before I'm making the spring and summer stuff for O. & the boys. I will start with E. because although he remains reed thin, his legs are getting longer and he is due for some pants that don't show off what color socks he's wearing. I'll be using mostly patterns from Ottobre, KS and a couple vintage New Looks I have. I'm hopeful that the latest Ottobre issue will arrive in my mailbox before I begin since it's up on the website and usually the hard copy isn't too far behind that.

The Bermuda triangle

I think it's located in the cutlery drawer of my kitchen. You see, for some reason my spoons keep disappearing. Until recently I only had three. We're a family of six, so only having three spoons could get a little complicated. Yesterday I made a stop in to the local Goodwill to pick up a couple of spoons and realized that there must be some kind of weird phenomenon that occurs with spoon because although they literally had 300 butter knives, I could only find six spoons. I purchased them, but now I find myself wondering where all the worlds spoons are disappearing to. I mean is there some alternate universe where the spoon is worshipped as a god? I really do wonder. So, if you happen to come across an odd collection of random spoons in your travels, please send them my way.

Monday's Meal

You know I love a good casserole. I mean what's not to love? It's all there and just one dish to clean up after and many times they taste better the next day so that's a thumbs up for leftovers.
So, this recipe is for a mystery meat casserole. The mystery is not that you found some random piece of meat in the back of the freezer, but that you can use whatever type of meat you want, ground turkey, beef, chicken, pork...really, seriously, whatever you want.

Mystery Meat Casserole

2 lbs of the ground meat of your choice
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/8 cup of green peppers, minced
1/2 cup of sour cream
1/2 cup of grated swiss cheese
8 ounce pkg of egg noodles
16 ounces of cottage cheese
1/3 cup of green onions, chopped
2 cups of tomato sauce

Preheat the oven to 375 degree f. Grease a 9 X 13 inch casserole and set aside. In a large pot boil noodles in salted water until done according to package. Drain and set aside (toss with a bit of olive oil so they don't stick together). In a large bowl mix together the cream cheese, cottage cheese and sour cream until well blended. Add the onion and green peppers. Set those aside. Brown your chosen meat until done, drain off any fat. Add the tomato sauce and warm through. In the casserole make the following layers, noodles, cheese mixture, meat mixture and repeat. Top with grated Swiss cheese. Bake for 30 minutes uncovered.