VISITORS AND VITTLES

Almost two weeks ago our older son Tim came for a visit.  It's always a pleasure to have him around!  He did a lot of work in the landscape, which was a great help to Jim.  I made some very nice meals.  So our mealtimes together were delicious and a good time of fellowship.

The day after Tim left a couple whom we know from many years ago came for a visit.  We both enjoy both of them, so again we had some times of fellowship that were a big treat.

Now it's back to just the two of us, and not so much cooking.  Well--that's not quite true because this afternoon the quilt club has a planning meeting to set up next year's schedule and we follow that with a potluck.  Our potlucks are always delicious!

When we went on our yearly "shop hop" two weeks ago I mentioned my recipe for potato salad, which includes some ingredients not ordinarily included.  Some of the women expressed doubt about how that would turn out.  So I decided to make a batch of potato salad for tonight's potluck.

Here's the recipe.  See what you think of it.

SUPER POTATO SALAD
(This recipe is for a crowd, supposed to serve 30 people.  I cut it down according to how many people will be present.)
10 pounds of potatoes
12 hard-cooked eggs, sliced
1 cup sliced radishes
1 bunch green onions, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 large onions diced
2 cups of diced celery
1 cucumber, peeled and diced (That was before long English cucumbers were available.   I include the skin.  The green is a nice accent.)

Peel and dice the potatoes.  Boil for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and cool.
While the potatoes are boiling prepare the other ingredients.  Fold the cooled potatoes into the other ingredients and fold in the dressing (recipe follows).  Refrigerate.  Tastes fine the first day, but better the second.  Garnish with paprika and parsley.

DRESSING
(Also good for coleslaw)
2 quarts of salad dressing
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup vinegar (I like cider vinegar.)
1/2 cup sugar
3 teaspoons salt (Original recipe calls for 3 tablespoons.)
1/2 teaspoon coarse ground pepper
1 teaspoon prepared mustard (yellow mustard)

Mix all ingredients and add to potato salad.  Extra dressing can be stored for a long time in the refrigerator, just like the salad dressing.

This recipe seems to have come from a magazine.  Mom copied it and gave credit to Helen Schwartz.  This is the only potato salad I make because I think it's just the best!

I made the potato salad yesterday and Jim and I had some for supper.  Now what am I going to leave for him to eat for supper tonight while I'm away?  (I treat him awfully well--when I'm away there is always a meal prepared for him to heat up.)

As I picked up some groceries this morning I had an inspiration.  I bought 2 bags of split peas, came home and started a batch of this really good pea soup.  He'll be happy with this for his supper.  It's made in a crock pot, so it's perfect for making ahead and being ready to serve when he's ready to eat.

SUPER PEA SOUP

8 to 10 cups of water
2 (450 gram) bags of split peas
1 onion, chopped
2 good-sized carrots, diced
3 (mild) Italian sausages, cut into rounds and then the rounds cut in half
1 tsp. salt (we don't use much salt in our food.)
1/2 tsp coarse ground pepper
1 large or 2 small bay leaves

Put all into a large crock pot, bring to a boil on high, turn down to low and simmer for several hours.

This recipe makes a LOT of soup, more than we'll eat in one meal.  That's one of the good things about this recipe.  I ladle the soup that remains into quart containers and freeze it.  Freezes well and thaws out just fine.  You do have to remove it from the freezer well ahead of time because it is pretty thick and takes a long time to thaw.

Well, those are two of my favourite recipes that I use over and over again.  The potato salad is especially nice on a hot summer day and the pea soup is great when it's cool and dark outside.  ENJOY!

FUN DEMO DAY

Yesterday I was at IDA where The Fabric Nook is located from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., doing a "Demo Day."  The subject of the demo was this quilt:

This is the second quilt I made on the "Charming Baby" quilt pattern, with the 3D Pinwheels.  The demo was devoted to showing how to make the 3D Pinwheel blocks.  We had a small but fairly steady stream of people interested in seeing how the blocks were made.

I had prepared blocks for another baby quilt and pinned them to a display board, made from one of those very old, folded cardboard design boards we used to use in our home sewing.  I had covered it up with a picnic table cloth, with the flannel side out.  It worked well.  You can see it to the right. 

Mostly when no one was there to see the demo I made the four patch blocks for between the pinwheels.  When I had a lot of time I bought a charm pack of 5" squares in kind of fall colours and cut them up for a new Midi Bag.  I'm going to demo that in Mary's Quilt Shop in July, and she needs a few to advertise that class.

There was a good set up in the fabric area with a table for sewing, cutting and pressing.  I finished all the Pinwheel Blocks that day.  Soon I can sew that quilt together and donate it somewhere.

It was a very enjoyable day, and I got a lot accomplished.  In September I will be doing two Demo Days on paper piecing.  The first one extremely simple as all the pieces are made with either 1 1/2" strips or you can make them with 2" strips.  

Some time ago I made some placements from this pattern, Tessellated Leaves, which I got off the internet.  And about two years ago I made a wall hanging for our AZ condo from that pattern, very enlarged, from placemat size to wall hanging size.

SO CUTE!

A pair of robins are raising their brood in a Medora Juniper (an upright form) that grows at the southwest corner of our home.  We are staying away from that area until they are all fledged.  But yesterday as we were sitting downstairs we saw this very young robin sitting on the top of a Caragana standard near the nest.  He sat there for about an hour, every now and then opening his large mouth in a begging food gesture.

Jim had spotted him and called me down to see.  I grabbed my camera and got this shot:

He seemed lonesome, a little lost and definitely hungry.  The drops are some rain sprinkles on the window.  After I took the picture, with the telephoto lens fully extended and turned the camera off, Mama Robin showed up and began stuffing worms into his wide-open beak.

I quickly turned the camera on again and extended the telephoto lens, but I was too late.  She was finished.  She flew off to find more food for her brood.  I won't forget that sight!

Later the stray returned to the nest, preferring that to the cold, wet world out there.

Landscape Blooms

We like to go for a stroll around our landscape on Sunday afternoon.  Here are a few of the plants currently blooming:

Allium

Anemone

Lilac 

 Spruce buds

Spurge

And here's my finished project for this weekend, a Disappearing Four Patch.  

This quilt top was made last year for a demonstration at The Fabric Nook of my method for Disappearing Four Patch blocks that results in every intersection "nicely nesting."  I find nesting seams much easier to achieve good points, so I worked out a method that gives that result.  This weekend I made the "sandwich," quilted and bound it.  This will be a donation quilt.

A SNOW DAY

Believe it or not, it snowed here today.  The day started cold and stayed cold.  I think our high was about +3ºC, or not far above freezing.  But we didn't have it so bad!  West of Calgary there were at least 4" of wet snow.  We're not complaining because we really, really need moisture.  Hard to imagine that the north of Alberta is still suffering wild fires and here we had a dump of snow today.  But Albertans take pride in being able to handle a surprise like this.  We just tough it out!  (As if we have any choice!)

I had a nice finish today to a lap quilt that my friend Susan asked me to make for her.  Work started on it this past weekend; I did a lot on it yesterday and today I was able to finish sewing on the binding.  On my give-away quilts I sew the binding to the back, press it toward the front and sew it down on the front by machine.  I think it's pretty cute: