mother would be proud

Gone with the wind fabric Quilting Treasures 

Today while randomly blog-trotting I happened upon this fantastic fabric from Quilting treasures. 
When I was a little girl Gone With The Wind was my all time favorite movie. I am racking my brain at the moment trying to figure out what I need this fabric for.

Amazing apple cookies

• • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup softened butter
  • 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1 cup chopped apples
  • 1 cup raisins
  • 
    
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F 
  • In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter until light and fluffy. Mix in sugar and egg. Stir in flour mixture, and mix thoroughly. Fold in nuts, apples, and raisins
  • Drop by rounded teaspoon onto prepared cookie sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes. Cool on wire rack

Cooking help

Everyone needs a bit of help in the kitchen 

Pumpkin Pie

Pancakes before Turkey

My son loves pancakes. 

Turkey Stuffing

Stuffing Recipe


2 bunches of celery
2 medium onions diced
2 cloves of garlic copped
1 package poultry herbs fresh minced
teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 packages unseasoned stuffing
2 cups chicken broth
4 tablespoons freeze dried poultry seasoning. (i used lighthouse brand)
2 cups butter


Melt one whole stick of butter in pan, add celery onion and garlic. toss around until translucent on medium heat. Add fresh herbs and salt and pepper. 
Melt another stick of butter, after that melt the other two. add dried herbs
Meanwhile in large bowl add un seasoned stuffing
After butter mix is melted add all to stuffing. removing dried stuffing if needed and adding it  to bowl when stuffing cooks down. mix stuffing and butter  thoroughly
add chicken stock to moisten. Use less or more chicken stock
Cool for a bit before adding to bird.
Make sure internal temp in bird is 165.

TURKEY BRINE

I purchased a brine pre-made at whole foods this year. This is actually my first year brining my turkey. Mostly because I fell in love with the Honey brine turkey breasts at Wagmens. I absolutely love wagmens. It is really the most amazing grocery on the planet. Now that my family and I live on the west coast Wagmens is about the only thing I really miss. 




When I was 12 or so my mother took us to Half Moon Bay to visit family. There we met some distant cousins. One of these cousins ran a turkey farm, or something like this. I mostly remember my mother grilling this cousin about frozen Turkey. He told her that the frozen turkeys are not really different, the ones with the butter and such are just pumped with the stuff and put in a bag, all turkeys just get a bag change.
Knowing this info I just buy any old special turkey.
This year I ran around to find a 21lb tom turkey from Lucky's a Grocery here in California. 
I bought my bird on Saturday, Tuesday I tossed him in two turkey bags,(bags are in roasting pan) dumped in the brine and about 2 gallons of water. 
Tom Turkey sat in my little fridge 36 hours.

I washed him off. Patted him dry and added my stuffing. Recipe follows. I  also waited until my stuffing was cool to add to my turkey.


Tom turkey cooked for about 5 hours, at 350 or until the stuffing reached 165 degrees.


The brine was amazing and really made a difference. The meat literally fell off the turkey. 

Felt Banners

 For My sons 1st birthday I wanted to do something special.  I was looking around a bunch of handmade websites and came across something similar to what I wanted. 
Th original plans called for looping the top of the felt so that you could pull a string or piece of fabric thru. I just used grosgrain black ribbon and sewed the pieces of felt with black thread just using a basic stitch on my machine. 

After his birthday I took the banners our from the living room and hung them up in his room.
I left about two feet on each end of grosgrain ribbon as scrap so you can easily tie the banners up.
My Son Loves the banners in his room. Every time someone comes over he has to point up and show his guests his colorful wall hangings. 

The Day After Thanksgiving.

Yesterday included a feast that leaves many a night of leftovers.

Sailor Jerry Indian Girl