Sunday, February 24, 2013

Inspiration

Spent the day yesterday at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton VA.  I come away from this event (as well as my Modern Quilt Guild meetings) with a mixed bag of feelings - from 'I can't wait to try that!' to 'I am soooo not worthy'.  Here is a sample of what inspired me this year:

 Love the hexis!
 Love the buttons!
 Love the different sizes of the same blocks!
 Love the quilting!
 Love the zippers!  (Look closely!)
Love the buttons and the beading!

 These blocks are 1 1/4". Above is a close up.
Civil War reproduction fabrics. Love it!

 The quilting, beading,
 and button embellishments were amazing.

 These two are just a small part of a stunning quilt from Sandy UT.

Hm...what would one do with all this fabulous wool?



Make an amazing 3D quilt, of course!  
You could look at this for HOURS!

So what did I do when I got home?  
Just kinda bounced off the walls!

Paquette Palate

It stands to reason that your family will develop a taste for the foods you love.  My comfort food has always been Potatoes and Gravy.  Urban legend has it that my first words were 'Teetoes 'n Geebee'.  My kids also love Potatoes and Gravy, and to take it to a higher culinary plane, I throw in some crust and make it a pot pie.  My Chicken Pot Pie is one of my family's favorite meals.  I made it recently at Joe's request and I thought since this blog was originally formulated to share recipes and food ideas, I'd share this recipe.

The most important part of this recipe is the crust.  This recipe is from a Betty Crocker cookbook that my mom gave me when I moved into my first apartment in 1981.  The binding is gone, and most of the pages are loose.  You can tell where the good recipes are because the pages are stiff from having food slopped on them.  Can you find the book?



I've adapted the recipe for my recipe file:


It's the celery seed that makes this pastry!  And 4-5 Tbs of water??? I always have to use more...


Roll out the dough - then I put it in my big Pampered Chef Deep Dish Baker.  Into the crust I put a variety of things. This particular day, I didn't have any leftover chicken or yummy homemade gravy, so I used a rotisserie chicken from the store, five boiled and cubed potatoes, one diced onion that I sauteed with about two cups of sliced carrots.  I topped that with about a cup of frozen corn.



Then I poured two cans of chicken gravy (oh I SOOOO much prefer to use my own homemade gravy, but alas, I had none...) over top, using the end of a wooden spoon to poke holes down into the veggies so the gravy soaked down into it.



Put on the top crust - add a few cookie cutter embellishments and bake!



I like using the stoneware, because it bakes the bottom crust nice and crispy as well as the top.  YUM!

I'd love to hear what makes your Pot Pies fabulous!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

In Preparation


I attended a Taize service last night at St. Mary's Catholic church. If you are not familiar with Taize, it is described as:

“… a meditative form of common prayer.  Gathered in the presence of Christ we sing uncomplicated, repetitive songs, uncluttered by too many words, allowing the mystery of God to become tangible throughout the beauty of simplicity.  A few words sung over and over again reinforce the meditative quality of prayer.  They express a basic reality of faith that can quickly be grasped by the intellect and that gradually penetrates the whole being.”

Here is just one example:


I don’t think my friends would characterize me as a person who is short of words.  However when it comes time to speak to God, I become a woman of very few words, and the words that do come do not sound like something I would say.  I’ve been exposed to people who pray in tongues, and I ‘get’ that charism, but I haven’t embraced it for myself yet, although I think this gift would ease my muteness.

But Taize!  To sing the prayers – chant-like – the ostinato underlying the beautiful psalms  It is such a release of spirit to be able to sing words of praise, longing and worship.

With that spiritual foundation laid, it is time to prepare for Lent. ..