Blogging From A to Z Challenge

I'm participating in the A to Z Blogging Challenge for the month of April.  I'm still deciding what topic.  I was going to do Doctor Who A to Z to try and win fans, one letter at a time, but I'm not at all confident in my persuasive writing ability.  So then I was thinking of doing cocktails. 

I'll probably go with the cocktails. For the ones we haven't tried, we'll have to have a Cocktail Wednesday to test them out.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please send them my way. My first post comes out on Monday so I'll have to have made a decision by then.

Cocktail Wednesday - Blackberry Collins

So, since my OD is in town, we decided it was a good time to have Cocktail Wednesday.  I had original wanted to have a New York Sour, but opted for what looked like what could be a more popular cocktail - a Blackberry Collins, recipe from here.

Ingredients

• 9 ounces fresh blackberries (about 1½ cups)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups chilled dry gin
• ¾ cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 cups chilled club soda
• Lemon wheels (for serving)

I started by making a blackberry syrup, with the sugar, water, and blackberries. Per the directions, they were cooked about 20-25 minutes. This is what was left after I got the juice/syrup from the cooked berries.

 

 We then juiced the lemons.

The lemon juice was mixed in with the syrup -- we didn't have much ice so we didn't get the mixture chilled - and it was pretty thick and sweet.

We poured a shot of gin into a glass, over ice, added the syrup/lemon mixture, and topped it off with club soda and a lemon wheel.

It was great!  Only change I'd make is to be sure to dilute the mixture with more ice -- or add less to the glass.

Belated Happy Birthday ...

I am a day late with this post but yesterday was my YD's 29th birthday.  She, several friends, my OD, and my husband and I all went to Napa.  I had thought this would be a simple trip with just a few of us, but it turned into a party .. including a limo (or mini bus to be precise).
We started at her house at 8 a.m.

We first went to Alpha Omega - my OS has a membership there.  The atmosphere was great.

Then we went to Merryvale - atmosphere and wine were both great.

Then we had lunch at Tra Vigne Pizzeria -- great food. (No pics ...)

We ended at Raymond -- which ended up being rather disappointing.  The wine was not up to the standards we expect.  Not sure why.  We tasted wines we don't normally get from them and none were very good.  We're members there so I hope this is just an aberration -- if not, we'll have to cancel our membership.

So anyway.  Happy Birthday to my youngest ... next year will be her 30th (and my 60th).

Helper.

Progress .. a little

So, I've been working on this one quilt for over two years .. and it's not the Grinch quilt (although I've probably been working on that even longer).  Anytime I have a quilt that is different from my normal quilts, I tend to drag my feet.  Anyway, here's what the quilt looks like.

I need to add some fabric to the sides to get it to be a full-sized quilt.  I'm going to use navy for those panels. and then, I'm thinking I'll do the back like this.  But I might change my mind and try something else.  These are the colors of the recipient's favorite hockey team.  I'm just not sure the pattern is what I want.  I need to think a little more on it.

Anyway, I am probably going to do the binding in a red/white stripe which should look good on both the front and back.  We'll see ... 

P.S. -- I decided that I really didn't like what I was doing for the back of the quilt so I'm doing something a little more creative .. we'll just have to see how it turns out.  If it turns out, it will be so much better than this boring block thing.

Second Finish 2018 - Starry Night

Here is my second finish for this year ...

This is for my nephew's new baby Oliver.  I'll ship it out next week -- I need to grab a card and a little outfit as well.

Here is the fabric for Nate's quilt.

I got these extra fabrics to reach a minimum to get free shipping.  I don't know what I was thinking.  Obviously, I wasn't that close to getting free shipping ...  I also accidentally ordered one yard too many for Nate's quilt.

WIPs and other stuff

So, my nephew and his wife had their baby on March 8  - Oliver William

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  Here is the blanket I'm working on for him/them.  I need to finish the quilting.

This is the other quilt I'm currently working on.  I've sewn all the blocks in rows, now I need to attach the rows.  After I sew the rows together I'm going to add a border, probably grey or brown.  There are two additional blocks I'll try to embed in the border. I'm probably going to quilt with straight lines -- maybe 4 or more inches apart -- both directions so it'll be squares. My goal is to finish this by the end of this month.  I'm irritated with myself for dragging my feet on this one.

After all this, I'm hoping to work on the Grinch quilt.  I also have Nate's quilt -- I got the fabric for it today.  I'm excited to get started on it; but I've got to finish these two first.  Here's the pattern I'm going to use.

(image from here)

We're going to be remodeling our house this year.  I might have to take my sewing stuff to my daughter's house so I can sew during the remodel.

White Chicken Chili

As we were preparing our grocery list for the week, we had decided to make Chicken Tortilla soup. To make sure we had all the necessary ingredients, I pulled the recipe book down from the shelf (not a cookbook but a notebook we put print outs of recipes in sometimes).   Before reaching the soup recipe, I happened across a White Chicken Chili recipe and Paul suggested we try that.  So we did.

Ingredients:

• 2 -3 T of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 med onion diced small
• 2 large cloves of garlic – crushed and minced
• 1 ½ lbs of Chicken Breasts – diced
• 2 cans of Beans (Pinto, Cannellini, (add 1 of Black beans for variety)
• 1 small can of green chili’s – diced
• 1 med can of Las Palmas Green Enchilada Sauce
• 1 jalapeño minced (if you like it hot don’t remove the ribs or seeds)
• ½ t of cayenne (optional)
• 2 teaspoons of ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3 T of Masa Harina / or 2 corn tortilla’s
• 2 T of cilantro – minced

We got the necessary ingredients from the store(s) - Costco and Safeway.  I then relaxed a bit and at about 4 p.m. started the prep.  I decided to get everything ready ahead of time.  I cut the jalapeno pepper, the onion, the garlic and the cilantro and the chicken.  Drained and rinsed the beans and opened the cans of chili peppers and enchilada sauce.  I didn't get the spices ready though I had them all out (having them in small bowls would have made things easier). 

It came together really quickly once I had everything prepared and it was really tasty.  Will definitely have again.  I think it made about 6-8 bowls.  Just enough for one meal.  So next time I'll double the recipe so that there will be leftovers.

Of course, no pictures of the completed chili ...

Over You

It's interesting how some songs stick with you.  Over You by Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton is one of those for me.  It reminds me of my mother.  I know it's a song about death and getting over it so that's no big surprise, but it was the timing of it.  It came out in early 2012, which is just a little over a year after my mother died, and it struck a chord with me. 

Today would have been my mother's 90th birthday.  I miss her.

Happy Birthday Mom.