I’ve been stitching strips of cloth onto a king size flannel sheet, finally getting back to the bed cover I’m calling my heart’s compass …
It’s not exactly a quilt, as there’s no middle layer. And I’m perfectly okay with the stitching that shows on the other side. It’s a combination running/backstitch that I like to call the Texas Two-step …
In other news, we are headed to New Mexico in a couple of weeks. Our first ever visit was in 2014 when we celebrated the 40th anniversary of our first (blind) date. This time around we’ll be celebrating 48 years together. After a week in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos and Abiquiu, we’ll head over to Missouri to see Meliss and her crew.
You’re supposed to update phone apps? Or they don’t work correctly? I didn’t know that, but now I do and the long-running “Why won’t the WordPress images enlarge?” saga has finally come to a positive conclusion.
So now when you see a bunch of pictures, like this work in progress by Don …
PhotoSketchAcrylic painting in progress (12” x 12” on wood panel)
you can click on any one of the images to bring up an enlarged view in what the WordPress Happiness Engineers call a carousel. Wheeeee 😉
Now I’m in the process of going back to past posts to update the galleries so they too will once again enlarge properly. So far I’ve made it back to July 2021. Onward … or is that backward?
I’ve been stitching napkins. Mostly because the linen/cotton napkins that I bought ten years ago have gotten unpleasantly stiff and non-absorbent. So I bought some linen thread and two yards of checked linen from Burnley and Trowbridge …
in order to have enough to make 8 napkins (with thanks to Mo for the idea to to use red thread, and to Hazel for the cross stitches and to Dana, whose table settings are aspirational) …
They washed up and air-dried beautifully. Which is important as I’m not a fan of dryers and definitely not one for taking the time to iron napkins since we use them at every meal.
And speaking of meals, here are two that I wanted to document for future reference.
Pork Meatballs (4 servings)
1 lb ground pork
Hoisin sauce
Minced ginger (bottled)
Garlic (just a touch)
Wasabi (buy at sushi counter)
Sesame oil
Panko
1 egg
Combine all ingredients. Form into 24 small meatballs and place on parchment paper. Brush with a mixture of hoisin and peanut oil. Bake in an air fryer or hot convection oven for 10 minutes or so.
Serve on stir fried vegetables (mushrooms, cabbage, snow peas, carrots, celery, and scallions sauced with ginger, hoisin, sesame oil, garlic, and mirin) or Asian-style slaw (shredded cabbage, carrots and scallions dressed with peanut oil, rice wine vinegar, ginger, sesame oil, and agave).
Pork meatballs on stir fried veggies with peanuts
Bahn Mi
Leftover pork meatballs
Bolillo rolls
Mayo
Chili sauce
Shredded carrots
Mini-cucumbers cut into matchsticks
Lots of cilantro leaves
Finely sliced poblano
Heat leftover meatballs just enough to warm them. Split rolls, remove some of the bread in the middle to form a hollow, spread lightly with mayo and toast on griddle until edges are light brown (putting a plate on top to weigh them down works well). Combine chili sauce and mayo to spread on toasted rolls. Top with meatballs, carrots, cukes, poblano and cilantro. Delicious with Heineken 0.0 non-alcoholic beer (a recent and much appreciated find).
Sorry, no picture … we dug in too quickly to get a good shot. Maybe next time 😉
I'm Going to Texas (version 2.0) 