This Week's Blocks

Civil War Block 20--New England Block

1800 Sampler Quilt Block 20
Uneven Nine Patch on Point

1880's Sampler Block 19 Puzzle Block

Dutch Treat Flower Basket

Dutch Treat Flower Pot

Dutch Treat Flower Tag

Dutch Treat French Urn

Which completes row five

This will be the start of the second section when I begin quilting.  But here it is just laying beside the first four rows

I haven't quite kept the pace I wanted.  It's been six weeks since I started Dutch Treat #3 and I had hoped to do a row a week.  Still five rows isn't bad considering.

The sun is finally shining today.  Yesterday it rained most of the day and the sun didn't come out until it was nearly time for it to set.  Seemed like a good day for a pot of soup.

My version of Pasta E Figoli

And some yeast corn bread to go with it.

Today I made some banana cookies. 

 Not too bad but I think I'd rather have banana bread.

Row 1 is Done!

One week and row one of Dutch Treat #3 is done!

 Yesterday and today I finished three more blocks.

Border Crossing

Brooch

Blue Bells

This afternoon I sewed the first 14 blocks together to make row one.  This time I'm going to sew my rows vertically to get better control over the long vertical sashing and keeping it straight.  I'm using the dark brown fabric I initially bought thinking it might be the foreground fabric.  This one is going to be so much fun!

 I also made a big pot of bean and ham soup this afternoon along with a couple loaves of NY rye bread and some nutty spice cookies.

Yum..time to go eat!

Thankful Thursday--Apricot Crescents

I have so many things to be thankful for, but one of them is that I am still able to share my joy of baking with others.  Today we baked and delivered four plates to some special friends from our church celebrating birthdays and others "just because".

Apricot, coconut & pecan crescents

I normally bake these with apples and pecans

AUSTRIAN SOUR CREAM APPLE PECAN CRESCENTS

I found this recipe in a Taste of Home publication around 2000. They were

one of my best sellers at our local farmer's market the summer of 2001.

Everybody loves them!

1 pkg. (¼ oz.) dry yeast

3 C. flour

1 C. butter, softened

1 C. (8 oz.) sour cream

3 egg yolks, beaten

½ C. sugar

½ C. finely chopped pecans

¾ tsp. cinnamon

1 med. tart apple, peeled, cored & finely chopped (I like Granny Smith)



Combine yeast and flour; add butter and mix well (I like to do this by hand,

gently working butter throughout the flour until it is like cornmeal). Add

egg yolks and sour cream; mix well. Shape into four balls and place on

plastic wrap. Flatten slightly and seal. Refrigerate overnight or at least

several hours.



In a small bowl, combine sugar, pecans and cinnamon; set aside. On a floured

surface, roll each ball of dough into a 9-inch circle. Sprinkle with sugar

mixture and chopped apple. Cut each circle into 16 wedges; roll up from wide

edge and pinch to seal. Place with point side down on greased baking sheet.

Bake at 350 º for 16 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately

remove to wire racks to cool.

Icing:

1 C. powdered sugar

4 tsp. milk

¼ tsp. vanilla

finely chopped pecans (optional)



Combine sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth; drizzle over the crescents

while they are still slightly warm. Sprinkle with pecans if desired.

Note: These contain yeast but no rising is required before baking. I like to

use a little strong coffee for some of the liquid in the icing. These are

not quite a cookie, not quite a roll, not quite a pastry...but something

wonderful.


After I'd been making these for awhile I realized that I actually had copied down an almost identical recipe in my personal collection probably sometime in the 70's.  That version called for apricot preserves, coconut and pecans and that is what I did today for the first time. 

Hope  you try them!

Snails, Pears, Fennel & Oranges

Two people contacted me yesterday to say they'd like to swap siggy blocks. So I had to get some more ready.

Then the mail came with two more siggys from people on the list. It is such fun to see all the different fabrics and designs.

Gerry in The Netherlands put a lot of work into hand appliqueing this beautiful pear because she lives in an area with many fruit trees.

Renate from Germany did a wonderful job on this cute snail siggy.

Then, even though our air conditioning was struggling to keep up with the high 90's yesterday, I decided I needed to bake some bread. I pulled out a recipe I hadn't made for awhile, but one of our favorites. The ingredients are a bit unusual but it has a wonderful flavor and texture, especially toasted. I didn't have fresh orange peel so had to use dried, which works, but isn't as good as fresh.

If you like to bake bread, give this one a try and don't be put off by the white pepper. It gives a nice zing to the flavor.

ORANGE FENNEL LOAVES

1 pkg. yeast
1 C. warm water
1 1/4 C. milk
1/4 C. butter, melted and cooled
1/4 C. sugar
1 1/2 T. grated orange peel (fresh is best, dried will work)
1 T. fennel seeds, crushed
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. white pepper (if you have it, otherwise black is okay)
6-7 C. flour

Dissolve yeast in water and let stand until foamy. Stir in remaining ingredients, adding flour last. Let rise in greased bowl until double (1 1/2 hours). Divide in half (or fourths like I do) and form into loaves. Let rise until almost double (1 hours). I like to cut a cross or other pattern in the tops just before baking--suit your fancy, but you need to pierce it somehow to allow for expansion. If you just snip a "plus" sign on the top it looks pretty.

Bake about 25-30 minutes for smaller loaves or 45 minutes for larger at 375 degrees. Brush with butter after taking out of oven (of course!)

Be sure and try this toasted!

Baking & Sewing

This week is going by quickly with not a whole lot of the latter taking place. Yesterday was chicken & noodle dinner day at our church, which of course means 4 pies for me to bake.

Two custard and two French coconut

Tuesday I finally made a Dear Jane block after nearly a month recess. This is H-2 Jacob Anthony

And Tuesday night I finished this Dutch Treat block called Trellis. It's definitely pretty wonky.

Today I finished the last of the 60 siggie blocks for Cootiebug's swap

Now I need to give some serious consideration to FINISHING something this month. I think joining the One Project A Month challenge has jinxed me. Normally I finish a lot on a regular basis. So far this year I've only finished three things.Yikes..I need to get busy!

Chicken & Noodles

Today was another busy day. I baked four pies this morning using some of the pie crust dough I put in the freezer last Sunday. I made two French coconut and 2 custard. One of the custards really browned more than usual and the other I managed to dump a lot of cinnamon in one spot. But they all tasted okay I guess. The pies were taken over to our church mid afternoon for our monthly chicken and noodle dinner. We hold these six times a year, Oct, Nov, Jan, Feb, Mar and Apr. I talked about them in this post.

Though we are supposed to start serving at 4:30, by that time I'd already taken the money for 65 adult dinners plus all the carry out dinners and orders. By the end of the evening we had served about 119 adults and 9 children. I haven't counted up the carry out orders yet. So it was another successful event.


I had already eaten quite a bit of my supper when I thought to take a picture. This is what we serve for $6 plus bread, beverage and your choice of pie. Not a bad deal, huh? I was eating at my desk so that's why it looks kind of cluttered.

Back to quilting. This is what I worked on yesterday...more of the One Block Wonder blocks.

Last night and tonight I completed three more Dutch Treat blocks

Butterfly

Canada Goose

(looks more like a duck to me)


Chiclets

Tomorrow we are off to Ft. Scott early in the morning for Tom's first cataract surgery. I'm sure all will go well and we should be home by noon.

Hope everyone had as beautiful of a day as we did.

A Day With Friends

Brrrrrrrrrrr..it's cold outside! 10º this morning. At least we don't have snow though somehow that would seem more normal to this Iowa bred girl when temperatures are this low.

But I get to stay inside and have fun today. A couple of friends will arrive soon to spend the day eating, laughing and working on Dear Jane blocks. Not sure which we'll do the most of but what could be better?

In the meantime...here's three more Dutch Treat blocks completed.

Brooch

(Oh, how I hated those little bitty wedges)

Spears
Spinning Star

Yesterday was a baking day. Two loaves of sourdough ...........

To go along with roast beef, potatoes, carrots, onions and cabbage. Too bad I had to leave for quilt guild board meeting just when it was done and wait to eat it much later. Still good!

Hope you have a happy quilting day too!