i’m a farmer chick. i didn’t know i was a farmer chick, but apparently i am!

I don’t own a farm. I don’t live on a farm.  I own no cows, chickens (we don’t know a damn thing about chickens!), or other livestock – unless you count my unusually large dog. but i LOVE it when the fields are plowed into perfect lines just before they are planted… i love it when the hay is bailed, waiting to get loaded onto the truck.  I love rows and rows of trees in bloom, not in bloom, with fruit on them, in the dead of winter…I love how those trees are in lines diagonally too… so when you’re driving past looking at different angles, you can still see the rows!  i love vineyards, mustard or wildflowers growing between rows of grapes, driving into orchards to buy fruit…  hanging out under fig trees…

i’m just a farmer chick. i need a farm when i grow up.

I have the good fortune to live near a little farming community.  Right now, the cherry trees have blossomed, the trees have leaves and cherries are right around the corner!  When I drive past Chan’s Strawberry field, I can see a little red here and there.

Pretty soon, I’ll be racing down Walnut and running up to the stand to get the first-morning berries to go  home and make jam, tarts, pies, hand-pies, and anything else i can think up!

The corn is sprouting up everywhere, the tomatoes have been planted, some of the produce markets are opening…

We had quite a winter, ended up having to move from our home to  a smaller one… but a little silver lining is the view from our kitchen

My camera is on the blink, I’m in the middle of unpacking still…  I’m busy, I’m busy, I’m busy and all of this was really not reason enough for anna to constantly *remind* me that she would like me to blog once in a blue moon…

Lots of things have happened… we’ve moved, my daughter came home!

(my daughter ISN’T the one flipping anyone off!, KRISTI!!!!)

my oldest son moved out… (but he’s just 15 minutes away so i still get to grab lunch with him occasionally or run into him at the gym.. okay, so i never run into him at the gym, but we go to the same gym!)

and something amazing happened…  i got a response from a comment from cassie, asking where i’d been, and when i told her i’d moved, she sent me a little housewarming gift!!  i couldn’t believe it! i expected a card, a note or maybe something else small, but this was truly amazing.  cassie, i didn’t know you’d sent it already until i saw your post today and interrogated my household members… and voile, look what appeared!  i’m stealing your photos since my camera is missing it’s battery and my youngest son’s camera now miraculously has one.

anyway, she made me a darling key fob, a beautiful dish towel, and the cutest recipe book you’ve ever seen!

and another view…

can you believe it???? it’s just the cutest thing ever!  thanks cassie, for thinking of little old me and spending so much time to make me such a beautiful gift.

okay.. that’s about it.  my 3 blog readers will now be happy that they heard from me again, and life goes on as usual…

where’ve i been all my life????

okay peeps, i’m getting stalked to post.  what have i been up to?  baking things for friends: 

haha. i actually stole this photo from my neighbor’s blog since i didn’t take a picture of it myself!!  It’s a caramelized nut tart from bon appetit.  i’ve been making it for about ten years and we LOVE it.  you can find the recipe here. 

 

making a million jars of homemade applesauce…having thanksgiving with my little sister… her husband(who i don’t have a recent pic. of) and her three little munchkins!

and then there was bu-bu-bu-becky and the joes (please sing that to the tune of benny and the jets)(and also, please notice that smokin’ hot red ben sherman shirt that joe junior is wearing.  i didn’t know i loved ben sherman, but apparently i do. i wish you could see the back of the shirt, it’s so cool. okay, sorry enough about the ben sherman shirt) 

i snarfed that pic from becky’s blog  - i’m thinking it was a while ago since she is now 7 months pregnant with twins… but you get the idea.   joey  (becky’s husband and tocino lover extraordinaire) is a photoshop genius. you have to see this. he’s a riot. she was reading the twilight books.. here, you’ll get the idea..

my little brother brendan was here with his girlfriend allie and his son tyler… i don’t have recent pics of them so you’ll have to take my word for it. 

and then there were my boys… and my other boy… and of course baloo…. after everyone was gone,i realized we hadn’t got to hear joey and joe play guitars and sing to us.  maybe for christmas. 

Speaking of CHRISTMAS… it’s NINETEEN days away and i’m not even CLOSE to being ready.  i was hoping for christmas i would win one of those stupid quilt giveaways that i entered for but NOOOOO… some other blogger they didn’t know got them!  i’ll keep trying.  one of these days, a random stranger will make a quilt and give it away and i’ll win the drawing. it’s bound to happen, right?  my mom says she has the same chance of winning the lottery as the people who buy tickets… but i’m holding out. i’m going to win a quilt giveaway from a random blogger who painstakingly made it to give away to ME.   sooo.. all you blogreaders out there, get to work, start making quilts for your giveaways… i have a better chance of winning one if more of you make them.  

in the mean time… i’ll be hanging out with elisa… watching her win the lottery (she won mucho dinero this week! shhh don’t tell anyone), decorating, baking, making candy, aaannnddddd

my dolly is coming home tonight for short visit. i’ve been dying without her.  we’re devising plans to keep her from moving to texas. 

so i’ll be making her favorite dinners, apple pancakes with cinnamon syrup for breakfast tomorrow… and doting on her every chance i get.

see you guys inna few.
:waves madly

another giveaway!!!

camille is having a giveaway.. and what a giveaway it is!

if you comment under her post, a chance at your fav. thimbleberries quilt, if you post about it, 3 more chances, if you go to modalissa’s blog and post there, double your entries, if you send me $100, double ‘em again, and if you send me a few thousand, i’ll hire someone to make a quilt for you AND for me instead of just taking a friend to the movies and dinner!  

 

i haven’t had time to do the dishes, quilt, cook dinner, write thank you notes, but i DID have time to BLOGSURF!!!

and guess what i found? a gorgeous giveaway!!!!!!! 

of this beautiful quilt:

go to the link shown above and read the story of this beautiful quilt.

i was checking out all of the designer’s blogs who just got back from market and i have a least a dozen quilts that i want to make.  i have to narrow it down to 2 or 3 and then i’ll show you which ones i’m picking!!  i have to weed out my large amounts of fabric that are piling up under my bed in bins, on shelves in my closet, in my dining room on my little table…. 

okay, off to get some chores done that i avoided all day!

What was I thinking????

one day, a long time ago, when i was setting up my i-google page, i installed a widget that happened to be a “counter”.  what did i want to count down to?  my birthday?  of course i wanted to count down to my birthday, but i really don’t need a reminder as to when my birthday is!  it’s like a national holiday around here. i would count down to christmas!  guess what i found when i logged onto my computer today?  my little counter widget thingy, telling me it was just:

FIFTY NINE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

after my stroke was over…. i realized i had to start on my christmas list!!!!  i’ve been buying gift cards for my kids for a while, working on little projects here and there, but fifty nine days??????  oh my.  i think i want less friends than i have anyway, some of them are getting difficult to manage.  i have to decide who to cross off of my list.  the one who stole my produce?  off the list. whew! that was easier than i thought.  (not like she was really ON the list anyway!)  sigh… i guess i have to get going on christmas stuff this week. deck the halls.  ’tis the season.  i already have my christmas gift… for me.  it’s quite lovely. 

thimbleanna  posted her dome a while back… or at least displayed it, and i was green with envy.  i wasn’t really green with envy,  i was just going on a mission to get one.  i got one.  my life hasn’t changed quite as much as i thought it would, but it looks cute on my island in my kitchen. now if my battery weren’t dead on my camera i would show you a picture. you might have to wait a bit. 

what else has been going on in my life?  becky and joey were supposed to come to dinner last night but couldn’t make it.  i was going thru becky’s blog and was just cracking up at her stories… i loved the one about joann fabrics and the cutter lady who called her number, with her being the only one there.  now i know they do that now, and i’ve had it happen, but reading her rendition of it was great… and then there was the alien dream… joey lived with us before they got married and we got to have them around quite a bit and now we’re just missin’ them so much… anyway, come to dinner….. i’ll make girl food for you (vegetables).  and joey can have a meat-fest.  

okay, i’m off to run bonk to the orthodontist in Egypt  Fremont.  I’ll be back in about fourteen hours. 

Hope you’re all having a wonderful day and for those of you that just went to market, i’m soooooo jealous and welcome home!!!

Giveaway that ends today!! so HURRY on over!!!!!

i’m just saying that.  don’t bother.  i would rather win it myself and there will be 2000 entries before we know it!  Pigtails and Snails  is having a quilt giveaway!  i can’t imagine making a quilt and then giving it away!!!!  (except, i guess that’s what i do, except not to random strangers) 

k. guys. i tried to post the button in my sidebar but i’m intellectually impaired. any ideas? 

<a href=”http://pigtailsandsnails.blogspot.com/2008/10/quilt-giveaway.html”><img border=”0″ src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FyZMOsifuEY/SO-jVoE7QzI/AAAAAAAAAwY/Q5imZDt02PQ/s400/blog-banner_144x288_v1b.jpg” width=”144″ height=”288″></a>

Mayonnaise Chicken

Well if that doesn’t get your attention, NOTHING will.  Most of my friends are afraid to cook dinner for me.  I’m a bit of a food snob.  Okay, more than a bit.  Well….. one time, about 18 years ago, my friend Holly, bless hear heart, decided to bring me dinner, because I’d just had a baby and it was her friend-ly duty, to bring me dinner.  Since I had taught this woman quite a bit about how to boil water  simple cooking, i was a bit leery, and leery I should have been.  She showed up with a 9×13 and dropped it off.  (Did I bless her heart already?)  After she left, we set the table, and I dished up the chicken dish for everyone.  I put a bite of the chicken in my mouth and then ran for the sink.  I couldn’t get it out of my mouth fast enough and then couldn’t get enough water in to rinse off that awful film that had lined my entire mouth.  I’m cringing just thinking about it.  Okay…well,  I made the call. High School Drama Class finally paid off.  I had to know.  What was that godawful concoction that nearly killed my entire family in one sitting?  Mayonnaise chicken.  She was so happy we liked it.  She just took some frozen chicken breasts, dumped a jar of mayonnaise over the top and baked it until it was all brown and bubbly, and then – the clincher – brought it to my family for us to E.A.T.  

Sooo….. I brought a pot of White Bean Chicken Chili over to a friend tonight who hasn’t been feeling well.  I was not in the mood to cook today. Just had a bad, awful day and didn’t want to cook.  I know, hard to believe, but true.  So I called someone from church and copied their quick and dirty white bean chicken chili recipe that is wonderful and brought that over.  Then…. I get the call.  The one where she wants to know “what was in it”.  That same call I made to Holly… all those years ago, about “Oh my, what was in that chicken, I just can’t place the flavor…”  So, did she really like it and want to know “what was that sauce?”  or was it the mayonnaise chicken syndrome.  I guess I’ll wait a good while and tell her the mayonnaise chicken story and find out.  But for now, it’s a mystery unsolved!!! 

I didn’t take any chicken chili pictures…so I’ll post the last one I have of my son in uniform before he got out of the Marines.  I love this pic. because he used to get that same little look in his eye when i would pick him up from elementary school, the minute he made eye contact with me.  So when he saw us in the bleachers at boot camp,or got off from a bus from a 4 day flight and a 7 month deployment… we’d get that same little look.  He has hair now.. he’s growing it out, but since I only have about two pictures of that “look” here it is.  After his last deployment they unloaded about 15 busses of Marines and we hadn’t seen him in MONTHS and this is him when he first found us in the crowd.  

Much a’blog about nuttin…

I’ve had blogger’s block.  What’s a girl to do?  I think I need some excitement in my life.  Tomorrow is my final class for Flight of Fancyi’ve finished every block except for the words…and that center block, the one with 117″ of 1/8″ bias!!!!!  

Did I mention that there was A HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN INCHES OF EIGHTH INCH BIAS????? Elizabeth from Late Bloomer, did a tutorial for the basket on her blog.  I thought it would make it all easy for me to do.  I don’t know Elizabeth, so I can totally tell her that while i’m pleased beyond words that she put that whole lakehouse line into one quilt that i loved, with all due respect, i’d sort of like to grab her by the neck and squeeze it until her head comes off for that whole 117″ of 1/8″ bias in the center block, bless her heart.i”M I’m sure I won’t feel the same way when I’m done with that beautiful center block.  I tried to get Robin to do it for me, but she didn’t budge.  I just love Robin, but c’mon now!!!    okay.. so i’ll keep you posted on my progress….  or lack thereof. 

now… drumroll… for the exciting news!!  becky and joey came over for dinner.  they got married late last fall and joey was commenting on how fat becky was and she brought me over a picture…  

and there wasn’t ONE baby in there, but TWO!!!!!!!!!!  becky is going to have twins and it looks like boys!  just what we need, a few more boys in da family!!  we’re not positive they are boys yet, but the thought of twins is still very exciting!!!   i’ve already started picking out fabric to start working on Nanette’s “In the Leafy Treetops” quilt for them. I’m going to do one in blue and one in red, providing they’re really boys.  

I haven’t posted in so long I can’t remember what I’ve been up to….. Melissa and I made some marinara sauce….  i made some lemon shortbread cookies, i’ll post the recipe for them soon.  I copied Ina Garten’s shortbread cookie dough recipe and then added some lemon zest and iced them with powdered sugar and fresh lemon juice icing.  You have to make sure you cut them THICK and bake them until they are crispy!   I’ve been working on my FOF blocks for my class tonight at the local quilt shop

Another drumroll…..  my baby got his drivers license yesterday!!!  

Okay, so September was a good month afterall… twins, drivers licenses and bit o’ sewing, cooking and canning.  No complaints over here.

just another attempt to save anna from herself….

i have a confession.  i’m a copycat poster. it’s true.  anna made a chocolate cake in a coffee mug.  and then MICROWAVED it, and then worse still, ATE it.  yeah. i know. gives me the creeps too.  a few of her imaginary friends posted some real chocolate recipes and i’m adding my favorite one to the pot.  i even found a chocolate post on bakerella’s site i’m being lazy since it’s not yet 6am and am not rising to the “anna photographs everything for her posts”  bar but i get off the hook… it’s not yet 6am, remember?  we’re going to be lucky if this makes any sense at all!  

My mom first made this cake for me for my 6th birthday cake. I’ve loved it for a million years! It’s best the next day chilled, for breakfast!!! (i figure if i’m one million and six, i look great for my age, instead of looking crappy at 45)

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups HOT water

2 3/4 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

2½ cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

1½ teaspoons vanilla

Cream Filling: 1 pint heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup powdered sugar

Frosting: 2 cups powdered sugar

⅓ cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

¼ cup cocoa powder, unsweetened

up to 2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour three 9 inch round cake pans. Stir together the cocoa and boiling water from the first set of ingredients. Set aside to cool Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the cocoa mixture, mix only until just combined. Divide evenly between the three prepared pans,and spread the batter out flat. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes in the preheated oven,until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before inverting cake onto rack. If you leave the cake in the pan for too long, it will stick to the pan and break apart while you are removing it from the pan. Cool COMPLETELY.

Whip cream until soft peaks form. Fold in vanilla and powdered sugar. Spread cream onto two of the cooled layers. Stack the layers onto a nice plate, putting the two creamed ones on the bottom. Place the plain layer on top.Frost the sides with chocolate buttercream frosting. To make the frosting, beat the butter, powdered sugar, vanilla,cocoa and milk in mixer until light and fluffy. Frost sides of the cake, leaving a ridge that sticks up over the edge. Top with whipped cream and garnish with chocolate shavings or fresh fruit.this photo is of a TWO layer cake instead of THREE.  i’m thinking i must’ve made it for someone i didn’t like very much so i kept a layer for myself.  i’m sneaky like that.  hopefully the person i made it for doesn’t recall getting a two layer chocolate cake from me, doesn’t read my blog, and so i won’t be discovered.

Yeah, So I’m basically Bakerilla These Days…

Some of you may recall, Thimbleanna went to visit her friend Cami a while back… and cami made some wonderful baked items, including croissants. 

and Thimbleanna referenced the Baking with Julia cookbook.  

so… i go onto amazon, i buy the book, i spend THREE DAYS baking those stinkin’ croissants.  i proudly bring two of them into the office, alongside homemade raspberry jam and my son’s friend says:

“Uh, Brigette, I generally don’t eat anything that I can’t recognize as food”.  Ratbastard. what was he talking about?  

 my croissants looked EXACTLY like cami’s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THEN.. this morning i decided i should bake some cookies for my husband’s sunday school class…  i opted for something i’m familiar with:  peanut butter cookiesthey turned out great.  our neighbor was in a car accident and i bake stuff for them sometimes, so while the cookies were baking, i decided to whip up some apple strudel.  

no, i won’t marry you.  i’m already married, but thanks.  so… a while back… thimbleanna made some sweet rolls with her auntie annie.  apparently they are rolls rivaled by none.. and she lovingly placed them into her patisserie dome.  i fell gaga in love with her dome.  i had to get one for myself.  i googled it.  they have it at some shoppe in hollywood, waaay too expensive. i ordered it from the place she got hers – all to no avail – the woman she got hers from is missing a few brain cells and is having a hard time ordering said patisserie dome.  i had to take matters into my own hands! 

and there you have it!  my new dome!!! eat your heart out anna!!