Tag: friends

Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday

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“A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.” 
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“One winter morning Peter woke up and looked out the window. Snow had fallen during the night. It covered everything as far as he could see.” 
― Ezra Jack Keats, The Snowy Day

“Summer friends will melt away like summer snows, but winter friends are friends forever.” – George R.R. Martin

“It was the kind of snow that didn’t amount to anything on the ground. It would just dust the dead grass. The technical term for that level, he decided, was an “annoyance” of snow.” 
― Cassandra Clare, Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy

“In the winter, the snow had become glittery fairy dust that had given all the creatures of the meadow warm clothes and a fire to help them endure the winter.” 
― Carla Reighard, Elle’s Magical Shoes

Battle Cheesecake- Party Pictures And Recipes
Party Posts · Recipe Roundup

Battle Cheesecake- Party Pictures And Recipes

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Battle Cheesecake was the most delicious battle I have ever been in! It was lots of fun. Fancy was completely worn out, as you can see.

The votes broke down to K winning the fruit and unusual category and I won the chocolate. Overall, it was a tie though. There was a tied vote on the fruit category. Here are all the cheesecakes.

I was a little distracted and didn’t get close-ups of K’s cheesecakes. They are the top ones.

I just want to take a moment to brag that I fit 6 full size cheesecakes in the fridge. 🙂 Who knew my stackable cooling racks would be so handy?

We had seven people attend. We cut tiny slices and put the three categories together. K brought meatballs and we had a salad from the garden lettuce which exploded into growth. Everyone voted anonymously and a friend counted the votes for us. I had a lovely set of kitchen towels and some rubber spatulas for prizes. I kept the jar of jam which was the third prize. 🙂

Here are K’s recipes. She made a Death By Chocolate from Delish.com, a Thimbleberry (with four Yoopers in the room, she totally won this one,) based on the Blueberry recipe from Rae-Gun Ramblings, and a tiramisu one from Allrecipes. 

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/7757/tiramisu-cheesecake/

https://www.raegunramblings.com/2010/04/recipe-blueberry-white-chocolate.html 

She took out the white chocolate and subbed thimbleberry jam for the homemade blueberry jam in the recipe. Also had a thimbleberry mousse on top.

https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a50419/death-by-chocolate-cheesecake-recipe/

Her cheesecakes were softer than mine, more mousse texture. They were all delicious and I think her chocolate one was definitely smoother than mine. I had lumps! 😳

Here are my cheesecake recipes. I tried to find some in my cookbooks, but am apparently low on baking cookbooks.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough from Delish.com. 

https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a46039/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-cheesecake-recipe/

The Husband casually sent me this recipe on a list and there was a strong suggestion that I try it. 🙂 He enjoyed it, but felt it was missing something. This cheesecake must have weighed 5 pounds.

Raspberry Swirl from Martha Stewart. https://www.marthastewart.com/340227/raspberry-swirl-cheesecake

The raspberry puree doesn’t go deep enough for me. It was softer, possibly slightly under baked. Pretty good though. I would make it again.

Kahlua Chocolate Cheesecake by Baker By Nature. https://bakerbynature.com/kahlua-chocolate-cheesecake/

I used homemade kahlua from my Mom. It was good, but not as smooth as I would like. It was topped with a bittersweet chocolate ganache. Mmmm…. chocolate.

It was fun and I would totally do cooking challenges again. We think the Husbands were a little more serious about it than we were. I think we both used mostly new recipes. It was a fun excuse to have a smaller party and have quality friend time.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s Shark Week and The Great White Abyss is on. Have a great night!

Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday

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“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emerson in His Journals

“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart”
― Eleanor Roosevelt

“Friendship,” said Christopher Robin, “is a very comforting thing to have.”
― A.A. Milne

Crafty · Gardening

Crafty Weekend

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It was too hot to work in the garden, but everything is still alive! I’ve been watering frequently and the zucchini grows every time I look away. We have buds on the strawberry plants and a few of the tomato plants. I’ve used some of the oregano and the rosemary in a pot roast recipe and it was delicious.

I did some work in the basement and cut some more scraps down into squares and strips. I cut them into squares and strips measuring 2 inches, 2 1/2 inches, and 3 1/2 inches. Then I store them in baggies separated by measurements. Those bags are in suitcases. The theory is that I can then pull them out of the bag and have scrap quilts go together quickly. Most of the time it works. The quilts I’ve been working on lately have all been scrappy quilts, so I haven’t had to use them. My bags of 2 and 2 1/2 inch strips are currently overflowing, so I should find a quilt that needs those measurements.

I also cut out some new tea wallet pieces and made four tea wallets over the weekend. They just need their buttons to be completely done.

I tend to work on tea wallets in batches. It’s easier to chain piece them like you would a quilt square. I sort them into colors too, so this batch needed black thread. Two of these wallets have plain black fabric for the inside and two have black music print fabric, which doesn’t photograph well at all. It has treble clefs printed in black on a slightly darker black background.

It felt good to get some more scraps cut. I need to make some more tea wallets again. I changed out my order at the floral store and now have many more for Christmas, but not a lot of generic ones. I also need to figure out some more masculine fabrics. I figured the circle ones could go to either gender and I have more plaid and gun fabric I can use. I have a lot of floral wallets and pastel colors at the moment.

More fat quarter pieces got folded and added to the trunk. It still looks I did absolutely nothing down there, despite working for a couple of hours. My latest Netflix/fabric sorting show is called The Dr. Blake Mysteries. It’s set in 1959 in Australia. My Netflix watching gets progressively weirder the more fabric I want to cut. It’s pretty good. A bit laid back, but has social justice themes and murder, so what’s not to like?

We had people over this Sunday. My friend needed help with a bellydance costume and her husband plays video games, so is friends with my Husband. There was supposed to be an Atari marathon, but our TV is too new and they ended up playing Lord of the Rings in the Wii. I am atrocious at those games, so I was glad that the Husband had someone to play with who was actually good.

We had a new recipe for pot roast and a huge salad for lunch. It was lots of fun. My friend took some of my give away fabric too, which made the Husband very happy and her husband not so much. 🙂

Fancy was extremely excited to see them. They give her lots of love, because of course, the Husband and I never pet her…

This was Fancy shortly after they left. She was tuckered out.

In other news, I am getting ready to use my yogurt maker. It just came in the mail today. I’ve made my own yogurt in the past, but the texture wasn’t quite right. I need a plain starter yogurt and will be getting that tomorrow. I’ll let you all know how it works out. I’m excited to be making it again. My yogurt habit was getting expensive and one of the Food Network magazines has a “50 Things To Make With Yogurt” booklet in it. I see tastiness in my future!