Golden Brussels sprouts for dinner

Here is a new recipe we enjoyed tonight along with a Deli Rotisserie chicken and a small bowl of butter pasta. Dinner was made in a flash. Something good and quick on a cold snowy night!

24 small brussels sprouts
1 T. olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup grated cheese of your choice

Wash the brussels sprouts well. Trim the stem ends and remove any raggy outer leaves. Cut in half from stem to top and gently rub each half with olive oil.
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in your largest skillet over medium heat.
Place the brussels sprouts in the pan flat side down (single-layer), sprinkle with a couple pinches of salt, cover, and cook for roughly 5 minutes; the bottoms of the sprouts should only show a hint of browning.
Once just tender, uncover and cook until the flat sides are deep brown and caramelized. Toss them once or twice to get some browning on the rounded side. Season with more salt, a few grinds of pepper, and a dusting of grated cheese.

Enjoy!

9:21 25 snowy degrees, (probably already 3 inches)

A black eye?

Just popping in to say it's darn cold here in Missouri, it went from 62 this morning to 16 this evening. High winds and blowing snow are adding to that, making it miserable outside.

Look at this picture, cute isn't he?

See his owie?Saturday his big brother was throwing a chunk of ice at a tree to break it up. Long story short, he missed the tree and hit Alex. Thank goodness Alex had on his hat, it took some of the force off of his eye. Anyway it sure made Grandma feel bad, I can imagine what Alex felt like.

Jan 27 2008 the Horse Quilt is Finished

I did it! I pieced this quilt and even machine quilted it on my sewing machine. It's the biggest one I've machine quilted. It fits my twin log bed rather nicely.

It all started with a remnant from Hobby Lobby of the horse fabric. Then I found the horse head pattern at Silver Linings. I have used Linda's paper pieced patterns many times, including the dogs black Labrador and Pomeranian.

After I finished the quilt, I made the dust ruffle. I still have fabric left,

so I will whip up some curtains soon.

When I finished my sewing, I headed outside to 52 degree weather. I started up the 4 wheeler and took a ride down the rode. Then I

trimmed the Forsythia bush and hauled away some cedar limbs from the ice storm.

Bentley enjoyed running with the 4 wheeler, then we BBQ hamburgers and enjoyed the almost spring like weather. I made a quick salad to go with the burgers and a pitcher of ice tea for BT. He had been working in the blacksmith shop most of the day.

We ate dinner and then we crashed!

7:28 PM 53 degrees.

Apologies to PAULA

Here is the pumpkin muffin recipe (See October 2007 post) that Paula asked for some time ago. Sorry Paula, I had forgot to correct my email at the time and didn't get your response. Hope you're still readin'

Pumpkin Praline Muffins

1 c. whole wheat flour, 1 c. flour, 1/3 c. sugar
2 t. baking powder, 1 t. baking soda, 1 t. pumpkin pie spice, 1/4 t. salt, 2/3 c. canned pumpkin, 1/3 c molasses, 1/3 c. canola oil, 2 eggs, 1/4 c. milk, 1 t. Vanilla

Topping: 3 T. butter, cut into pieces, 1/3 c. flour, 3 T. light brown sugar, 1/3 c. chopped pecans. Combine in a small bowl, using your fingers to run them into a crumbly topping. Set Aside.

Heat over to 400 and grease the bottoms only of 12 standard muffin cups.

In a large bowl, whisk, flours and sugar, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt. In a medium bowl whisk together pumpkin, molasses, oil, eggs, milk and vanilla. Stir the pumpkin mixture into the dry ingredients just until batter is blended.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups and sprinkle on the praline topping. Bake 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Makes 1 dozen.

Enjoy!

Guess who came to dinner?

Last night we had company over for dinner. Guess I should have given them directions, after all it had been years since there were here. It was BT's sister Grace and husband Danny. Brady was still at the house when they arrived, Grace and him had fun, she had him pinned down giving kisses. Of course Alex arrived during that time and wanted in on the action too. She told Lori, sorry I got them worked up for you to take home.

It was a hoot, Grace has the best sense of humor and always keeps you in stitches.

I fixed a big pot of Gumbo and grilled sour dough bread for dippin' Our dessert was healthy Carrot cake. If you want that recipe, I posted it several days ago. It was great, moist cake.

After dinner we retreated into the living room and did a lot of catching up.

A Blast from the past

I just wanted to share my gift I received last week.

One morning at work, Julie opened the night deposit box and retrieved the payment envelopes left over night. One #10 envelope had attn: Patti on it. I wondered what customer was complaining to me now. Instead I found 3 pictures and a note from an old friend of my late brother.

Danny had worked with Wesley for many years, in the note he said he found the enclosed pictures in a cabinet at work and thought I might want them.

You see Wesley passed away in 1998 at the young age of 51. I don't know the story behind this picture, but I'm pretty sure, Wesley never owned this car. It looks like the pictures might have been printed in 1992, if that's the case Wesley would have been 44 when then were taken.

I'm just glad Danny shared it with me. thanks Danny!

Linemen's Gloves

Today we woke up to freezing temperatures outside, it had dropped from 34 to 26 in 30 minutes. Roads were freezing up fast with the little moisture that accumulated last night. BT saw three wrecks in less then 4 miles. Thank goodness he got to work safely and called me from there.

My mission was to scrub the kitchen, mudroom and down stairs bathroom and then sew until I had to go to work at 12:30. I got a phone call from an old friend that I hadn't talked to in months. 45 minutes later, I was scrubbing. It cut into my sewing time, but I still enjoyed the humming of the machine.

In fact I used the old Nechhi machine in the basement. It was a gift to me from my mother in 1966. It still did just what I needed. One of the linemen had me do some sewing on a new pair of gloves he got. The gloves had long cuffs which he didn't like so he cut them off and asked if I could bind the edges. Day before yesterday I took care of the first pair, when I returned them he asked if I would mine doing another pair.

Linemen at my office are notorious for teasing. I just had to give them some fuel for their fire. So after I hemmed the edges together today, I searched my scraps for a nice piece of dainty lace to finish the edges off for him.

Aren't they cute?

He will take a lot of ribbing over these! I put the lace on with big basting stitches because I know he will give them one big tug.

I made it to work ahead of schedule. It was decided to wait until tomorrow to give the gloves to Matt, that is until all the co-workers are present. I will keep you posted on the show.

Yesterday I bought this cabinet off of craigslist! (Thanks Cousin Mindy for the introduction).We will pick it up Saturday if it's not raining. (Forecast is a low of 7 degrees for Saturday, so it maybe snowing or sleeting, but I don't think rain is a possibility.) Pretty neat isn't it? It still has the original wavy glass in the doors, along with casters on the bottom.







Today I sold this one and will put the new one in it's place.

7:36 PM 24 degrees.

The Blacksmith Shop

Well here is what the shop looks like with the new sign the kids gave BT for Christmas.

And to let you klnow what was going on inside today.................

Removing the last of the Cedar Tree

The ice storm of several weeks ago all but killed a Cedar tree that we had protected for years at the end of the drive way. When we came home from Oklahoma City it was bent over and froze to the concrete. It had to be clipped to even get around. Once the tree thawed and straightened up, it was butchered to a bowl shape. Not a pretty sight, we had no choice but to cut it down, and all that was left was a stump about 6 inches high. Saturday BT decided to remove that part of it. He first dug around it to expose the buried stump. It took several tries at chain sawing it, a lot of chopping with the ax and manual labor to remove it. As you can see we had some excellent help.

That is until they got in our way and we penned them up! Just kidding, Brady decided to do it all

on his own.

Of course Bentley could care less that they were in his pen. He was on a mission to get what ever was in the big brush pile beside his kennel.

As church time approached, we cleaned the boys up and headed out. I must say they were pretty darn good in church. We took what Brady called "quiet toys" and that kept them occupied. We then met Lori at LaBamba's for dinner at 6:40. She took the boys home from there and we retreated at home to our computers and recliners.

61 degrees!

A QUILTER'S PRAYER

Guide my hands to work as Your hands work, to know the power of Your love in every stitch I make, in every thread I knot.

May my hands be guided by the same love and care with every quilt I make, knowing that this love and care was and is and will continue to be a gift of blessing to the one it is intended for.

May the works of my hands be pleasing in Your sight, O God.

Lord, bless my work today.

As I choose materials and patterns, may I be reminded of the uniqueness You blessed us all with.

As I cut each length of thread, may I be reminded of the doors that must be closed in our lives so that a new and stronger door may be opened.

As I twist each knot, may I be reminded of a bond of love so strong, nothing will break it.

As I run the thread between my fingers, may I be reminded of the times You have touched my life, my heart, my soul.

As I sew each stitch, may I be reminded of the healing power of Your grace in each of us.

As I concentrate on my craft, may I be reminded of the love and care You put into each of our lives.

As I add my last stitch, tie my last knot, cut the final cord, may I be reminded of the completeness with which You commanded in each of us before we were ever given to this life.

"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom." (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

Reprinted from Patricia Hauze prayers. Prayers

The Quilt is Revealed!

I have patiently waited for the day to show you the quilt I had been working on for about 6 months. It's a Black and White Quilt for my son Jeremy and his wife Lori. It was their Christmas gift this year. It is King Size, has their name in it along with the year of 2007 and was machine quilted by Brenda Rathmann.

I didn't keep a count on the pieces of fabric but there are plenty. I used the paper piecing technique for the blocks along with a computer program I have where I can enlarge or decrease the block size. After starting with 8 inch blocks I quickly learned I would be making blocks far too long, so I went to 12 inch blocks, by the time I quit I had gone all the way to 24 inch blocks. For you non quilters, a king size quilt measures almost 120 inches square.