Seeds 2011,Turkeys & Cupcakes

You all know that I can't grow anything from a seed...I've been telling you about my seed disasters for the past 7 years.

Ever the garden optimist, I buy seeds again this year.

Just look at these beauties!

I am most excited about these two:

I have never even heard of Poppy hens and chicks....but they are a true art form....how great will these things look in indoor arrangements? I get all tingly just thinking about it!  Bells of Ireland, I have grown once before.  They are just cool because they are green and so unique in an indoor arrangement.

I googled Poppy hens and chicks and found that they actually do get a flower! I was wondering, since the seed packet shows only the seed heads. I got this info here.

I am sooooooo excited about these. I hope I can get some to grow.  Are they just California poppies? That is what they look like to me.

Other than my normal  8.5 hours at work , I have been spending my snowy days inside sewing.  Cupcakes and turkeys--that's what I've been making........

I puttered around until I figured out how to make a turkey out of a Dresden Plate quilt block.

I made two of these guys (slightly different) and I am intending to make a table drape for Thanksgiving with them.

I went to Joanne's on Sunday and brought home some cupcake fabric. I am currently working on something using these little cupcake squares:

I will show you the finished results, should I ever really finish them!

There Must be a lot of Us Not Baking Much Anymore

because in the last two hours I have had 8 people come to my blog while searching for "how to get lumps out of brown sugar". They were from:

1. Topsham, Maine
2. Saginaw, MI
3. Chicago, IL
4. Sdewickley, PA
5. Columbus, OH
6. District of Columbia
7. Clementon, NJ
8. Berkeley Heights, NJ

I had to chuckle a bit because, I, too, bake way less than I used to and I often have lumpy brown sugar.  It's good to know so many others have similar problems.  Good luck to all of you trying to save your brown sugar in the last hours before your Thanksgiving feast. I wonder, are you making sweet potatoes with brown sugar or pumpkin pie? For those of you in distress who find this post when you search, I have posted my  method of dealing with lumpy brown sugar  here .

Right after work today, I threw a load of laundry in and went out to cut down some greens for my holiday decorating.  It is supposed to snow/sleet/rain for the next few days and I wanted to get the greens before all the branches are weighed down.

I headed right to the big pile of branches left from the recent tree that fell down. I snipped a lot of  nice little branches of different greenery.

 Then I clipped some of the shrubs near the house that I grow just for this purpose.  I ended up with two nice pails full of assorted greenery.

Sometimes procrastination pays off.  Since I have never cut down all of my dead flowers, I have tons of interesting seed heads, like these black-eyed Susans:

I snipped a few of these, some Sedum Autumn Joy and some .......oh, my.............

what is that white feathery stuff......I just hate when I forget the name of a plant......it happens every fall/winter. .. as soon as I am done gardening, my mind moves to other things...............ahhh...it just came to me.........astilbe!

At the moment I have no idea what I will do with all of this.  I am posting it now so that I will be forced to do something with it.  That is one of the great things about a blog. In order to have something to post, I must actually turn all of these branches into some sort of decoration now that I have said I will.  I am hoping to create a few beautiful arrangements soon.  Right now I have to go check on the laundry.

Miscellaneous Musings

Yesterday, Patti, from Osage Bluff Quilter, left me this message:

Me again, Do you get Country Living Magazine? I got mine today and they have stockings made from tissue dress patterns! You iron it onto bondable vinyl. Weird!!
Mon Nov 22, 08:33:00 PM 2010

I read the comment early this morning and since I no longer get this mag, I googled it to see if I could find a picture.  After not too much effort, I found it.

How creative is this?!! I sent Patti a reply stating that I could see these used for a gift of notions for someone in a sewing/quilting group.  What a unique packaging this would be for a gift!  I only wish I was in such a group so I could use this idea. 

If you are in such a group and want to make one of these stockings,  you can find the directions here at Country Living's site.  If you use the idea, send Patti a thank you email. :)

Speaking of magazines, I got my December issue of Southern Living today.  I have not opened it yet, because I have been busy setting my Thanksgiving table (you can read all about it here.)
Back to the magazine...........today I sent in my $20 for 13 issues of Southern Living. What a bargain!  I don't live in the South, but I really enjoy this magazine.  At less than $2 an issue, I could not pass it up.

Before going to work this morning, I spent about 15 minutes sewing on the 'Ho Ho'  banner.

 I am going to make the reverse side say "Noel" so this one takes double the work of the Thanksgiving banner.  I hope to have it done by the weekend.

Tomorrow is hump day. I can't believe how fast these weeks go by!

Not much Happening around Here

I have been thinking about the table I will set for my Thanksgiving dinner. I am pretty sure it will be this Vintage china. The dinner plate is a pattern called 'Windsor Fruit'.  from Johnson Brothers England. Of all the dinnerware I own, I think 'Windsor Fruit' is my favorite.

The vegetable bowl behind the dinner plate is a different pattern from Vernon Kilns. It is called 'May Flower'. I think the two work beautifully together. They are from the 1940's - 1950's.

Here is a close up of the 'Windsor Fruit' plate.

The pic is from replacements.com. I went there to find out when the china was made. Whoa, was I impressed when I saw the price of this dinner plate! Let's just say I made a very good purchase about 20 years ago when I bought this nearly complete service-for-eight set.

I am not even cooking on Thanksgiving Day. We are going to my MIL's for dinner. We already have a turkey, so I plan to cook it on the Saturday following. I will do the whole turkey day shebang all over again. The best part will be having leftovers for a big turkey/dressing/fresh cranberry sauce sandwich the next day.

I am not even cooking anything to take to  my MIL's.  I found this 14-slice variety pack of cheesecake and that is my contribution--every piece is a different flavor. Can you imagine making 14 different cheesecakes and assembling this?
You have to love those huge food distribution stores--in this case, Gordon Food Service.

Other than working and getting my hair cut, I have not accomplished much this week. 

I did start a new banner for Christmas. It will be a 'Ho Ho Ho' banner, but so far I have only completed two H's.  It took a bit less than 10 minutes before work one morning. 
I guess I am just not in the mood to sew this week.

I have also been ordering library books. The Country Decorating one I had last week was a Dud--other than the sunflower tree, there was not a thing I was interested in. I already have a pic of that tree in my files. I got it off the net a few years ago--more proof that the net is the place for ideas!

 Now I have three novels to read.

 I had better get started--a couple of these are pretty thick!


So that was  my week--not too exciting--I hope yours was better!

Thanksgiving Decorating--still at it

It's not like I am spending a lot of time decorating for Thanksgiving. I showed you the banner I was working on last week.  That took a while to sew and figure out what to do with. But today's decorating took very little time. ( I sometimes wonder WHY I post pics of my humble abode for all to see.  It is nothing compared to the half-million dollar homes on the decorating blogs I surf each morning.)  I guess I feel that most of us do not live in those homes and some of you may  be interested in seeing real decorating in humble homes, like mine.

This pic shows where the cabinet is in relation to my family room and kitchen.



Basically if you walk through the dining room and turn right, you are in the family room.  Turn left and you are in the kitchen.
Today after work I wrapped some faux leaves and pine cones around this rooster on the opposite side of the dining room --

I love this rooster candle holder! I think I am the only person  who does. Nobody has ever commented that they liked this bird! I am talking about people who have seen this gorgeous fowl in real life (LOL). 

Anyway I embellished him with fall leaves and some pine cones.

  Then to balance it out,  I added a  some leaves, grapes and pine cones on the knob where you open the curio cabinet.

I wanted the curio to complement the china cabinet I showed you on Sunday. Here you see both of the  cabinets in my dining room:

They flank the entrance  to the family room.

It took me only about 15 minutes to do the curio after work today. I am now happy that both cabinets have a little Thanksgiving/Autumn decor.



I made some chicken noodle soup on Sunday.  I was stirring the bow-tie pasta in and it seemed like I needed more pasta. So I added more.........and then more..................When it finally was done---Whoa!, I had hardly any chicken broth! It was more like chicken/pasta stew!


DH says he likes it this way.  Personally, I like a little broth in my soup!

I Accomplished a Lot on this 25-Hour Day

Every now and then we need to stay home and spend an entire day working around the humble abode.  Today was one of those days.

I was up early and used my extra hour to read blogs and sew.

 This is what I was sewing.  I started it last week and posted a small blurb on my sewing blog, Perpetually Piecing. I don't know if any of you (other than Patti) ever read it. I don't post much there during gardening season, but in the winter, I post quite regularly.

Anyway, after sewing this morning, I spent about five hours doing rather strenuous necessary cleaning chores, like scrubbing floors on my hand/knees, laundry, vacuuming.......helping DH carry the glass deck table down to the basement...............all sorts of boring jobs.

When all of that was finally done, I got to putz a bit with my sewing project...a FUN project, not another chore!

Here is what those little bits of fabric morphed into:

A banner for Thanksgiving.

Here is a close-up of the bottom:

and the top:

When I first finished it, I had no idea where I would put it. In fact it was so long that I did not even think I had a place where it would fit!  I was quite pleased when I finished this.

I also changed my bed quilt this morning after I washed and made up the bed with those 1200 thread-count sheets. I put my multi-colored log cabin on the bed.

It's a bit heavier than the one I had on.  With the heavier sheets, we should be all set for the colder weather.

So I have had a good Sunday.  I hope you all did, too.

My First Thanksgiving Meal is just about an Hour Away

On Thanksgiving day we are having a family meal at my mother-in-law's home. That will be nice, but I always like to cook my own turkey, so today was the day I decided to do that.

The bird is in the oven now. We will have sweet potatoes and stove top dressing ( I hear some of you saying "YUCK!"). My MIL will be making the real stuff, so I see no reason to go to all that work today. I did make my own cranberry sauce. It's incredibly easy to do. I am not making any mashed potatoes either. This is a mini Thanksgiving meal. I really only want the turkey for the leftovers.

Even though it's just me and DH, I still set a nice table early this morning.

The newly-purchased pumpkin plates worked nicely on this table.

There are only two place settings.

The pumpkin plates could be a salad plate, but I am using them as a dessert plate tonight.

In fact I already have the dessert all plated up.

No pumpkin pie tonight either. Again we will have that on Thursday.

Today DH bought a Hershey chocolate Edwards pie.

I squiggled a bit of chocolate sauce on the plate, cut the pie and

voila! Dessert was finished....'ya gotta love convenience.


I think it's just about time to carve that bird.

Preparing for Thanksgiving

I bet a lot of you are busily preparing for a big Thanksgiving meal.

We are going to my MIL's and I am only making a dish or two.

Tonight I decided to boil my sweet potatoes for my side dish. I happen to love sweet potatoes and Thanksgiving just wouldn't be the same without them. I want the fresh ones--not canned. After all it is Thanksgiving. Would it hurt us to labor just a bit more over our meal as the pilgrims surely did in 1691?

As you may notice, I don't put in all that much extra labor. Since sweet potatoes are a pain to peel, I boil them first. When they cool, the skin will come right off. Have you ever seen a more beautiful intensely-colored veggie?

I don't do the marshmallow topping. I like a brown sugar, butter and pecan topping. Today I was reading recipes on line and found one that uses Rice Krispies mixed with the ingredients above. I think I am going to try that. Has anyone heard of such a topping?

I am also planning to make a pumpkin roll. Judging by my search counter, pumpkin rolls will be a pretty popular dessert this Thursday. Last year I posted pictures of how I roll them and it seems a lot of people are wondering how and searching for "pictures of rolling pumpkin rolls". I will have to go read my own post since I haven't made one since and can't remember exactly what I did.

How did I ever survive without this blog? LOL.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

I bet you will never guess what I made from the last of my TG leftovers of mashed potatoes and squash.

How about Lasagna?

Granted, it's not your typical tomato-based Italian lasagna, but we thought it was quite good.

I used a bechamel sauce (that's the white sauce in the pan, which is simply equal parts butter and flour (a roux) and milk. I used 1/4 cup butter & flour and probably 1.5 or 2 cups milk. I did not measure the milk. Just slowly add enough so that the sauce is the consistency of a thick spaghetti sauce. I seasoned it with just salt and black pepper.

I put a few spoonful of the white sauce on the bottom of the lasagna dish so the noodles would not stick. Then I put down 2 noodles. I put the mashed potatoes on top of the noodles with just a bit of bechamel. Then two more noodles.

I put some more bechamel on top of the noodles.

Then added the squash and half of the three medium onions I caramelized.

Add two more noodles (You will use a total of 6 noodles for a small pan like I made). If they are a little long for the pan, just fold them inside.

Pour the remainder of the onions on top of the two noodles. Top with the remaining bechamel and spread evenly. Cover with foil and bake for about 1/2 hour at 350 degrees. If you like cheese, pull it out now and throw some cheese on top. Bake just until the cheese is melted--about 20 minutes more.

Let it rest at least 10 minutes before cutting.

I can't fit any more pics on this post, so will add the finished product below.

It's Hard to Believe a Dead Poultry Carcass

can make something so tasty!

On Thanksgiving day, I immediately threw the carcass in a pot of water and let it simmer for about 4 hours. I left the bones in the pot and refrigerated it for 36 hours, then strained it all Saturday to make this soup. I was quite surprised to find that I actually got a flavorful broth (previous attempts have not been so successful).

So far I have not been motivated to begin my Christmas decorating. Everything is sitting just as it was in yesterday's photos.

This morning I've been caught up in playing with these red, white, blue strips of fabric.


Sometimes I just feel like sitting at the machine and making blocks. I find it quite amazing that these 1.5 inch strips turn into something like these blocks!



I'm not even sure what I will do with them.

For TWT

who asked about a few recipes from Thanksgiving.
The dressing has no recipe. I just throw stuff in. I used unseasoned croutons. I did caramelize about 4 medium onions before tossing them in (about double what you see here, I did two batches), about 4 cups chopped celery, about 2 tsp poultry seasoning, salt pepper and quite a few of my very own sage leaves.
The plant on the deck is still producing sage. I've been growing it for two years and this is the first time I've used any of it.

I took those little sage leaves rolled them into a tube and produced a rather nice little "chiffonade" of fresh herbs (not to be confused with a "julienne", which is a less delicate cut. LOL, see I've learned a little something from all that Food TV I watch!

Lovely as the "chiffonade" was, I decided I wanted them smaller, so I sliced through them a few more times and ended up with more of a "dice".
I used chicken broth for the liquid (about 3 - 4 cups).


The cranberry sauce is one 12-ounce bag fresh cranberries, one apple peeled and chopped, 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar. Boil just until the cranberries pop. Remove from heat and put in a splash of strawberry extract (that's what I'm holding in the photo). Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

And last, but not least, those buttery flaky rolls..........Go to your local Walmart bakery. I've found that they do a better job than I, so why compete? :)

Just Waiting for the Turkey.....

I don't often set the table in just one china pattern, but today I used all Vernon Kilns dishes, called Fruitdale, a pattern that dates from the late 1940's. I think this china is just beautiful. It may be my favorite pattern to look at with no food on it. (It's not so beautiful filled with food.)



Here's my take on the pumpkin turkey. My orange pumpkin was just too bold with these dishes so I had to come up with something more in tune with the table.

I used one of my newly-purchased fake gourds secured (with earthquake putty) to a glass canister turned on it's side with purple daisies and yellow statice as the tail.


So the table is already set for Thanksgiving. .. 5 days early.... but, hey, who's counting? LOL.

I have to do a working woman's holiday... you learn to do these things when you have the the time. My squash is already cooked and in the freezer, too. I bought premade apple dumplings with cinnamon sauce that I just have to put in the oven for one hour, so dessert is all planned. I may sprinkle some of those pumpkin bread crumbs around & atop the apple.

So everything is going smoothly so far.

Judging by what people are searching for, it looks like lots of people have Thanksgiving on their minds. I've had TONS of searches for pumpkin roll, pumpkin roll breaking, and how to make turkeys out of gourds. If you are one of the people who found me with those searches, I hope you find some helpful info here!

Turn a Pumpkin into a Turkey

Judging by all the places on the internet that tell you how or sell you kits, I guess it's a big thing, though I have never turned a pumpkin into a turkey.


turkey in a box decorating kit Build and decorate your perfect turkey. 9 piece set includes: pilgrim hat, turkey head, pilgrim collar, 4 trail feathers, 2 wings. Everything you need except the pumpkin!

S 15.00

How about this one made from fringe? (Personally I think this one is butt ugly!)

Pumpkin Fringe Turkey


Even Bob Timberlake gets in on the turn-your-pumpkin-into-a-turkey action with this
Turn an ordinary pumpkin into a holiday gobbler. Place any pumpkin on the sturdy iron pedestal feet, then push-mount the head and tail into position. Use to create flocks on the porch or as a whimsical centerpiece for the table. Imported.

$29.95

This item is available for rush delivery here.










This one is my favorite. It's also the most expensive kit at $34.99. I found it here.


I loved this Pineapple Turkey. It's super simple to make and won't take much storage space after the event since you can eat the body!

I think I am going to use this one for my Thanksgiving table.

A hunk of squash, red pepper and cloves

a pair of scissors, a metal skewer and one toothpick (nearly hidden under the red pepper)

So what do you think I am going to do with this odd assortment of items?

Skewer up the squash and pepper, flavored with the cloves,and grill it for a little snack and then pick my teeth clean with the toothpick?

No, that would be way to predictable.

Got any other ideas?

Give up?

OK, I will show you...............







I bet you never would have guessed this, would you?
LOL.
Isn't he just adorable?
He would be perfect for a Thanksgiving table if you had planned to serve that squash. If not it would be a waste to buy so many squash just for the turkey heads.

I saw this idea someplace a while ago. I can't remember where, but I kept it tucked away in my brain. Yesterday at work the cook was cutting up squash & red pepper and I asked her if I could have these little pieces.

I disclosed my little baggie of company property to The Boss before I left, who raised an eyebrow in question.

"Times are tough at Zoey's house," I said. "You know what you pay me. This is all we can afford for dinner."

He just gives an incredulous shake of his head and walks back into his office. LOL. I love to work in such a fun place.