Zooming Through the Week

This week was really busy for me at the day job, which means not much was going on here in the evenings. Here's what I accomplished during the week.
Two pillowcases (with owls so you know I am keeping these)
The blue one is mine and the green one is for S.

The continued 90+++F weather and no rain has just about killed my Recession Garden: Year Two. (Is the Recession over? No. Not here. This garden was supposed to last through the first frost in October) The last of the tomatoes, as pitiful as they are, and some scraggly basil are the only things harvested recently.

I made a huge lasagna from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution cookbook for lunches and dinners this week.
It was great! I'll definitely make this again.
I also made a blueberry pie with Michigan blueberries on sale at Whole Foods. (blueberries have so many antioxidants I bet the antioxidant factor outweighs the dessert factor don't you?)

Tomorrow is Silver Thimble Club (yea!). I better figure out what project I'm going to work on and get the stuff together before I crash. Happy weekend everyone!!!!

Dinner at Chez Crazy Cat Lady

Every once and awhile (like yesterday), I like to cook a new recipe that takes at least three pans and dirties up about 17 dishes. S. found a recipe for Country Captain in the New York Times awhile back and thought it sounded good. Country Captain is a pretty obscure name for what is basically chicken in a tomato/curry sauce with some vegetables served over white rice. The dish is popular in Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia, but originated in Philadelphia in 1857. This version is topped with sliced almonds, currants, and crumbled bacon. I served it with sauteed kale and glazed carrots and a New Zealand sauvignon blanc. Et voila!
It's super yummy! And there's enough leftovers for about two or three more meals.

Winter Solstice

Happy (official) first day of winter. I'm catching up on blog reading and love all the snow photos. Wish it were snowing here (sorry Karin!) Since it went from mid- to high 60s yesterday to windy and cold today, it might as well snow.

Yesterday was a fun time at the cookie swap. It was the first official gathering of Pat's new Silver Thimble Quilt Club. I need to explain some backstory (if you want to skip the story, just scroll down to cookie photo, I won't mind).

For the past 4 years, Pat was the "Sister Superior" for our Stitch n' Sisters sewing group at the LQS. Well the LQS, Stitch n' Quilt, closed this month and we needed a new place to go. Pat started up the sewing group again and we are meeting at a fellowship hall now. This group is the best ever. On the 3rd weekend of every month, we get a 5-hour sewing time (Friday day, Friday evening or Saturday day) and we can purchase a quilt kit (at a discount) or work on our own projects or work on past projects. There are about 60 of us spread across the three meetings and I am so happy to get back sewing with everyone after a few month hiatus. In honor of our newly reformed group, Karin has anointed Pat with the title "Most High Exalted Thimble". Check out Karin's blog for photos of our first project starting in January. Melisa, The Wonderful, owner of Sweet Home Quilt Co. is providing kits for this quarter so ya know they are going to be great and we'll all have to buy them (pssst: Melisa offers an online discount to bloggers, how cool is that!).

So here are the cookies I brought to the cookie swap: Andes Mint Chip Cookies.

I discovered Andes mint chips last year and hunted them down again this year (found at Super Target). They are so yummy! Don't you just love Andes dinner mints? This recipe is on the back of the package. So have a cup of coffee, enjoy some cookies, and send some snow this way.

Baking with Bella

Not really. While I was baking, Stella Bella was doing this

(this is a favorite cat lounging spot)

We are having a potluck lunch at my Day Job tomorrow so I am bringing dessert. Let's bake some cookies.

Get out the trusty Kitchen Aid and the oh-so-trendy-and-retro orange Tupperware measuring cups (these may be as old as I am, I'll have to check with Mom)

Of course along with butter and brown sugar, eggs, and flour, these cookies are good for you because they have whole grains See oatmeal = good for you, breakfast even. On to the next step,

let's just skip on by the chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk and focus on the whole grains ok?

and pecans--these are good for you too. Yum glossy melted chocolate let's not think about hot fudge sundaes and focus on finishing cookies. We need to put some dough into a pan, top with chocolate, and finish with some more dough.

Pop in the oven. Bake.

And here they are. Now where's a glass of milk...