On the Move

I've progressed with the quilting.  It took some time to recall how to maneuver the darned thing through the sewing machine.  I had a bad start and set it aside for a few weeks, as I reconsidered my approach.  I decided to start quilting simple squares in black.  It gave me chance to recall how best to feed the quilt through the sewing machine without making too many visible mistakes.

The quilting has been moving right along now.  I finished over half of this stage of the quilting within two weeks.  I am hoping this will make the quilting the stars easier, because I can focus on where I'm stitching and not worry about the pins all over the rest of the quilt.  I also decided to not stitch-in-the-ditch the stars, but stitch the contrasting color on the front as well as the back.  I know, it's hard to envision.  I will be sure to post photos as soon as I sew a few.

A back yard full of flowers

Speaking of moving - no sooner than I get settled in a home office than my home moves.  The landlord plans to sell this place as our lease ends.  Bummer.  I shall miss the back yard, with it's wild, unkempt beauty.  I will miss having my office perched amongst the trees.  I am crossing my fingers that the new place will have untreated grass so I can allow Pinni and Cannoli to graze outside.

I'm also losing my quilting momentum as I focus on the move.  I'll try to stitch the last of the squares before I pack up for the new place, so I can start fresh with the stars. 

Nothing but Net

What's with the flashy thing?  We want pepper!

Cannoli is a growing little girl.  She's gained nearly two ounces in two weeks!  We're still working on the skittishness.  Perhaps being called a wuss in public motivated her to be braver?  Whatever the reason, there have been two noses at the grids in the morning awaiting bell pepper.  Noli still runs away when I come up to the cage, but she does an about-face and rushes back as soon as I tap the bars. 

Cannoli was all excited this week when I cleaned the cage.  Her popcorning always makes me laugh, especially her favorite move to get into the hammock.  I grabbed the camera when I saw her do this a couple of times and managed to catch the action.

Slopping Soup

I found this recipe for Vegetable Thai Curry Noodle Soup on Steamy Kitchen earlier this month.  I had a number of the ingredients on hand.  It looked interesting as a dairy-free, gluten-free, vegetarian meal.  I made it over the weekend.

It was simple to make, and the flavor was good, but I think we both liked the Black Bean Chicken Soup or my Lentil Kielbasa Soup better.  The soup was missing something.  The curry gave it some zing - perhaps all it needed was some more salt.  Did you watch the Steamy Kitchen video?  Maybe if I had the same quality ingredients it would have come out better.  That coconut milk looked nothing like mine.

So this didn't make the cut for my "keeper" recipes, but I may keep it in mind when I have extra coconut milk and baby corn that need to be cooked up.

What a Wuss!

Noli's favorite spot

I had hoped that Cannoli would quickly adjust to a new home, since she has the laid-back Pinniped as a mentor.  She seemed such an outgoing spark when we adopted her.  Turns out her spunky attitude is solely for other guinea pigs.  When it comes to the humans, she's still overwhelmed.

Cannoli is a great little wheeker.  She has no problem drawing our attention when we come home in the evening or rattle a plastic bag.  But as soon as we arrive with food in hand, she hides under the hammock in the back of the cage.  Veggies are nice, but not worth exposing oneself to get them.  After nearly two months of working with her, I can entice her to stretch her nose out from under the hammock, but generally the rest of her remains safely in the shadows.  To add insult to injury, Cannoli is a slow eater.  It means that Pinni polishes off her own share then goes and helps herself to the rest of Cannoli's piece.

Yesterday Noli was the bravest yet:  she came all the way over to see what Pinni was noisily munching, but decided that stealing the corn husk from Pinni was less risky than grabbing the piece from me that I had pushed through the grids.  As Pinni happily munched more husk, Cannoli stayed at a safe distance and ate pellets instead (and I caught her pulling the bowl).

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Good to the last bite

As I was taking photos of my slice of pie, the thought crossed my mind that if I botched these pictures, I'd have to set up and do it again.  Wouldn't that be a shame?  Alas, the first set of photos were fine.  I'll have to come up with a different excuse to cut another slice.

I've had this recipe for ages, and followed it faithfully... until this time around.  I pulled out the recipe to use up my left over Easter candy ingredients.  I had purchased an extra block of cream cheese by mistake.  It's not something I use on a regular basis.  What was I going to do with that?  I also had a handful of peanuts and a bit of cream to use up, and there's always chocolate chips and peanut butter on hand. 

As I read through the recipe I realized I had enough cream for the ganache, but not enough to whip for the peanut butter layer.  The whole purpose of making the pie was to use up what I had on hand, not go out and buy more.  So I beat in some plain Greek yogurt (maybe a half cup or so) to lighten it up a bit.  It's much denser than the original recipe, but still delicious.  In fact, I liked how it turned out so much, I may try this substitution again.

NEFFA 2013

I got a kick out of the Everything Else signs

I have survived another year of the New England Folk Festival! (...although my knee and ankle weren't too sure about that.)  It's a weekend of dancing, music, crafts, meeting new people and catching up with folks I haven't seen since the last festival.  I spent lots of time contra dancing, brushing up on my English dancing, taking in the artwork and the people and even learned a bit about native American flutes.

For me, the festivities begin on Thursday night, when I volunteer for setup.  Years ago, when I first volunteered for this, I managed to cut my hand within five minutes.  It was bad enough that I needed it cleaned out and a band-aid.  Harold dug out the first aid kit and patched me up.  I learned my lesson, and have always brought work gloves to NEFFA setup.

So this year, we start setting up tables and on the second table I grabbed I manged to snag my thumb on a rough patch of wood.  As I'm examining my thumb for a splinter, Harold, who was standing behind me, plucks my gloves that were hanging out of my back pocket and hands them to me.  Yup.  When it comes to NEFFA set-up, I'm accident prone.

At least I'm not so klutzy the rest of the festival!

Spring Piggies

Ah, springtime (if it ever warms up!).  A time of new beginnings, flowers and piggies in love.  Let's do a photo shoot!