I Like Thursday: Chicks, Chocolate and Quilting

Ooh, wow - I spent an amazing week on Cape Cod with my chicks!  A few of the group couldn't attend, but those of us that could make it had terrific weather and good times all week.  

Every day was an adventure:  day-trips to Chatham, Wellfleet and Truro.  Long walks on the beach.  We enjoyed the sunset every evening and even roused ourselves out of bed one morning to see the sunrise.  Even that was an unexpected adventure:  5:45am and traffic was backed up on Bracket Road between the high school and Nauset Light beach.  From our vantage point two cars behind a cop car (with flashing lights) we could make out people walking down the street in the morning gloom.  So I hopped out of the car, jogged up past the cops, joined the end of the procession and asked them what they were doing.  Turns out we caught Senior Sunrise - an annual tradition of the seniors in the beginning of the school year to walk from the school to the beach for the sunrise.  Interesting tradition!  

I Like Thursday: Trimmings, Trails and Trials

Thursday.  The weeks have been flying by lately.  Sharing some of the good stuff with LeeAnna and friends at I Like Thursday.  

 

I Like Thursday: All Sorts of Cookies

A quick little I Like post full of cookies to share with Lee Anna's I Like Thursday.

This year Thanksgiving weekend was focused on cookies.  I made cookie dough before Thanksgiving, baked cookies the day after Thanksgiving, then attended the family cookie swap party on Sunday.

I dusted off an ancient recipe for date filled cookies to swap.  I remember the cookies were always really big, so I worked to make three smaller rolls.  I had to make extra filling to accommodate the larger surface area - but they came out quite nicely.  The other goodies will be gifts - stuffed figs, caramels, berger cookies and white chocolate dipped ginger molasses cookies.

In the Works

Busy weekend.  Glad I took Monday off to catch my breath!

I worked on my Two-Colour Mystery quilt.  Week five consisted of mitered blocks.  Following the assembly instructions produced a small stack of triangles, so I made a tiny stack of 1¾-inch squares.  Don't know what I'll do with them, but I'm sure I'll think of something.

Easter Candy!  This year I swapped out toffee (I've been struggling with the recipe lately) for caramels (some with pecans, some plain).  Last year I tested out chai spiced cookie dough truffles as well as coffee buttercreams.  Both were such a hit I kept them this year.  I overdid the amount of chai in them this year (oops) but the coffee was perfect. 

I Like Thursday: Winding Down 2023

December has been enjoyable, with lots of likes to brighten my month!  I met up with three of my friends to swap goodies and stories.  I also met up with my hiking buddy for a hike around Tully Lake.  The best part - being introduced to the fun of skipping stones on the ice.  I had no photos or videos of our experience, but check this one out.  The sound the stones make were really cool!

The family cookie party!  So good to see aunts, uncles and cousins.  Making the gingerbread houses is a hoot.  So many different designs.  The one in the upper left makes me laugh - the roof has two big bites and the gingerbread man is missing both his head and a leg!

I Like Thursday: Easter and Quilt Prep

I picked up some daffodils last week.  They fit nicely in this cute little vase I picked up a few years ago.  A little sunlight, a little green and yellow - it makes me happy!

I've spent the last few days working on Easter candy, a little at a time.  Candy centers.  Almond buttercrunch.  I'm still working solo, so I'm doing small batches and experimenting.  Last year's coffee buttercreams were good, so I'm trying it again  year.  I intended to make chai buttercreams, but instead I added some chai spice to some of the cookie dough truffles.  I'll be curious how they taste.

I Like Thursday: Little Bits and Pieces

Quick post this week to share with I Like Thursday.  Work has been busy.  Managed to get a bit of work done in the yard.  Pulled fabric and have been researching a quilt (I think I finally picked a pattern).  Working on my crumb blocks.  Once I go through them, I'll move onto strings and selvedge blocks.  And then onto my next baby quilt.

Experimenting With Caramel

I have a favorite recipe that calls for a bag of caramels mixed with evaporated milk.  For me, that was a bother - I rarely kept a bag of caramels in my pantry, I hated removing a zillion wrappers and melting the caramels with the milk was always a sticky mess.  Caramel is just sugar, cream and butter, so I wondered how hard it would to make from scratch.  The short answer?  Hard at first, but now I can make it faster than unwrapping and melting those store-bought caramels!

I've played with a few different caramel recipes for the better part three years.  Some use straight sugar, others mix it with water or corn syrup.  I don't keep corn syrup on hand.  I tried the straight sugar recipe (referred to as dry caramel) but it had hard lumps or was crumbly instead of being chewy.  (Yes, I managed to make caramel that wasn't gooey.)  It tasted good, but I was aggravated with the issues.  I tried mixing the sugar with water to make a syrup first (called a wet recipe), but wasn't happy with those results either.  It separated.  It didn't set right.  At least the failures were tasty and paired well with ice cream.

I Like Thursday: Critters and Candies

Ooh, some fun uplifting stuff to share with LeeAnna's I Like Thursday this week.  Let's start with the cute piggy that arrived on Tuesday afternoon.  This is Domino, who is torn between being terrified and endlessly curious.  I'll give him a day or three to make up his mind.  Hopefully I can get better photos.  But his first night here he got to thumpa-thumpa-ing all over the cage once we covered it.  

I Like Thursday: Lost and Found

Wonderful weather on Sunday.  I spent the day hiking around Dana, MA with a friend.  The town of Dana was disincorporated in 1938 to create the Quabbin reservoir.  It remains well above the water line (unlike some other towns) and is part of the watershed.

The buildings are gone but many of the foundations are there.  We were intrigued by the lime green moss on these rocks.  It looked like florescent spray paint.

I Like Thursday: Candy and Eggs

 

I enjoyed making Easter candy over the weekend.  They make a pretty picture.  I really hope next year to have some friends and family over to make them, too!

Speaking of Easter - have you ever seen the Faberge eggs?  I remember seeing them at a museum years ago.  Impressive.

Wow - that suddenly reminds me of Colleen Moore's dollhouse.  I love dollhouses, and was amazed at the pictures and descriptions of this one.  Gold and jewels!  Working waterworks.  How cool is that?  Got to see it in person in 1985. 

Another Solo Candy Making

I found myself making Easter candy by myself again this year.  I had figured last year's solo work was a fluke.  Maybe next year will be different?

I was a bit more ambitious and made more than last year, hoping that I'll be able to give it away in person (instead of shipping it).  I also tried a new recipe for cookie dough truffles.  I worked on the centers during the week so I wouldn't tackle too much at once on Saturday.

I Like Thursday: Some Valentine's Love

A day off.  How nice!  I haven't had President's Day off in years.  (Unfortunately, I worked a chunk of the weekend... but we won't focus on that.)

The Richardson's chocolates I got last week were delicious!  Alas, by Tuesday they were all gone.  They tasted as good as they looked.

I was unable to see my mother and sister this weekend, but did spend some time playing Riven with my sister.  This has worked out really well, each of us playing the game on our computers, exploring and brainstorming solutions over the phone.  We squeeze in an hour here or there during the week.

I Like Thursday: Winter Arrived

"Did you know your Thursday post hasn't appeared?" Rob commented this morning.

I thought:  of course it hasn't, I haven't written it.  Wait.  It's Thursday?!?

So let's see if I can write this in less than 15 minutes... 

Part of the reason I hadn't written it was because I payed Riven with my sister last night.  Each on the phone, our own copy of the game in front of us, and go exploring together.  It's worked better than I thought and we've been enjoying it.

I Like Thursday: Feeling Accomplished

It's been a busy week.

Making progress on my quilts.  Creekbed is sandwiched and I know how I want to quilt it.  That's on hold as I get the braid quilt ready for quilting, too.  The borders went on without too much fuss (although I needed to tack on 3" to be long enough).  I stitched together the backing - of course discovering it wasn't quite as long as I hoped.  I'm now I'm piecing together a stripe to go across the middle.  I plan to have that assembled, then sandwich and baste the quilt before the sunroom gets too chilly to work in.  Then I can focus on quilting both quilts.

 

I Like Thursday: Candy, Carry Case

Wait... what?  It's Thursday?  How did that happen?  At about 10pm on Wednesday night I suddenly realized I hadn't written a post.  For some reason I thought I had one more day.

I made Easter candy.  It was a solo effort this year - so strange.  I sent a box home to my parents.  I know my mother was thrilled.

I managed to get my mother and sister up on a video conference.  I haven't seen my mother at all since before my surgery.  Not the same as in person, but it was nice.  We have another scheduled for Saturday.

I stitched more masks and sent them out.  Yay.

Isolated Candy Making

I was going to trim down the participants for candy making this year, but I hadn't figured on paring it down quite this much!  Just me.  Working solo required a smaller number of recipes.  I picked items that would freeze or would ship well and could be scaled down easily.

The counter was a mess as I melted butter for the toffee, chopped white chocolate for paves and dark chocolate for ginger nut clusters.  Stuff scattered all over as I tried to organize what I wanted to work on first.

I Like Thursday: Chocolate and Pretty Things

I have attended the Newburyport Chocolate Tour with my mother the last couple of years.  This year it was a beautiful day - perfect for wandering around Newburyport.

First stop was the Garrison Inn.  It was a tough choice which chocolate to take from their wonderful selection.  But I was more impressed with the marble floor.

Easter Candy 2019

I kept busy on Saturday (and a bit on Monday) making lots of chocolates.  Saturday it was a group affair with my friends.  My sister even made a late appearance, which was very cool. 

We do a lot of dipping.  Aren't all the centers pretty?  There's Oreo truffles, pumpkin cheesecake truffles, two types of buttercreams, cookie dough truffles and peanut butter balls.  I forgot to get mint Oreos this year, so we added raspberry flavoring to the plain Oreos I got.  We made some mint buttercreams instead.

Along with the pretty truffles, we made black and white paves, butterscotch nests, ginger nut clusters and toffee.  Everything came out beautifully.  

I Like Thursday: Busy, Busy

I missed I Like Thursday last week - had to much to do.  The new guinea pig kept me busy as I refereed between Wedgwood and Mabel.  I know it doesn't look like much, but I have been diligently working on the Homebase quilt.  My weekends have been packed, which has been cutting into my creative time.  Fun, yet frustrating.  Gotta roll with it.

I went to Newburyport on Saturday.  My mom treated me to a chocolate tour.  We spent the day walking from shop to shop, collecting chocolates and baked goods.  The local Starbucks was offering mini mocha lattes.  Some places offered goodies from local chocolatiers (oh, Sweet Sloops!) and bakeries.

I liked this sign (where we stopped to pick up chocolate ice cream).


This shop had these neat polymer clay bug (called YIPES! lol).  I mean, I wouldn't want a bug pin, but they were amazingly intricate and colorful.  What fun.