Back To The Salt Mines

That's my Mom's favorite expression, meaning 'Time to go back to work'.  She's says this now with a twinkle in her eye and a smirk on her face.  Darn retiree, rub it in, why don't you?!

So, by now I'm at that stage where if I ever see another platter of turkey, it'll be too soon.  Turkey sandwiches, turkey casserole, turkey soup.  Pretty soon I'm gonna start to gobble-gobble!  At least Christmas will be enchiladas and homemade tamales.  Ole! 

These past two days, the wind has been howling, making it somewhat miserable to be outside.  The weatherman says it's supposed to get up to the mid-50s, but I swear he lies just to get our hopes up.  I'm never satisfied with the weather.  When it's hot, I pine for cooler temperatures.  When it's cool, I pine for less rain and wind.  Do you think the Creator ever rolls his eyes in exasperation?

Today I made a big pot of loaded baked potato soup and took some down to my parents.  MPMOE and the Co-Defendants wouldn't touch it.  Are they weird or what?

 Yummy!  And made all the yummier with the addition of that wonderful cured meat, bacon!

I'd baked some chocolate cookies, which mysteriously decreased dramatically overnight and picked up peanut butter and oatmeal ones from my Mom.  They went great with my afternoon cup of coffee.

I got quite a bit of piecing done as well.  I think I can sew curves in my sleep now.

I still have a fairly impressive stack of blocks to pin and sew, but at least all the cutting out part is complete.

I hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving and, if you ventured out for Black Friday, I hope you didn't get pepper-sprayed!

Happy quilting y'all!

Gee Double Oh Dee, Good

Let me start by saying, I am not a baker.  In fact, I'm not much of a cook, although my kids say I make the best macaroni and cheese EVER (thank you, Kraft Foods for your neon orange simulated cheese powder).  I do, however, love to watch cooking and travel shows and at least act like I know what the heck those people are doing.

Yesterday, I caught some show on Travel Channel that was everything bacon.  Now, some folks don't like pigs.  Sure, they may be slovenly little suckers, but they taste divine.  PIG.  IS.  GOOD.  One restaurant, Slater's 50/50 in Anaheim, California, featured all sorts of bacony goodness: burgers, cocktails and...be still my heart...a bacon brownie.  Spare me the retching and gagging routine, please.  To channel my Mom: Have you tried them yet?  Well, then, how can you know whether you like 'em or not? 

They looked phenomenal and I thought 'Self, even YOU can make those'.  So, I did.

Crumble up the cooked piggy into the batter and bake.

At this point, my camera literally died (not even new batteries could help) so I don't have a picture of the pan.  But let me just say...I love chocolate.  I love bacon.  And damn if these brownies don't ROCK!!