It's a miracle!

Today I went to a Christmas party for the Sewing Friends ASG neighborhood group. In general it was a pot luck luncheon at the home of the amazing Carol Lane Saber. You may remember my raves about her trunk show earlier this year of Japanese textiles and her incredible garments. Her home was filled with many wonderful textiles and other Japanese items. I wish I had brought a camera so you could enjoy the beautifully decorated and spotless rooms of her home. Since my home is close to a toxic waste dump right now, I really enjoy visiting homes like hers just to get away from the piles that need to sorted out from my Dad's Forida apartment.

That was not the miracle, the miracle is that I actually made something from scratch for the pot luck lunch. While we were clearing out my Dad's Florida apartment I found my mother's recipe box. Most of the contents were menu cards with desert recipes. Just what the post WWII bride would need to have a happy home. The rest were hand written file cards from the late 40's and early 50's. One that I found was for Peanut Butter Squares. I'm not sure when it was from but it is attributed to Hazel Goodwin, a neighbor from when we went to a cottage on Georgian Bay for the summer.

Here is the original recipe... with key amounts erased by some fluid spill:

Here is the result - the one piece that was not falling to pieces by the time I got home:

The women at the party all seemed to love them and, even though the icing became like a rock, I must admit they are delicious. Here is what I interpreted as the right amounts and the process:

PEANUT BUTTER SQUARES

1 cup smooth peanut butter

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

Melt these ingredients together in a large bowl over a pot of boiling water as a make-shift double boiler. Do not boil the results.

Remove the big bowl from the pot and stir in:

2 cups corn flakes

1 cup rice crispies (yes, these are beakfast cereal and I used generics)

Once well mixed (it takes a lot of strength to get everything well blended) press the results firmly into a well greased 9" x 13" cake pan. I used a canola oil spray but I bet mom used Crisco.

When cool, top with the caramel icing below.

Caramel Icing

1 cup dark brown sugar

3 tablespoons heavy cream

2 tablespoons sweet butter

Combine in a pot over medium heat and boil for one minute.

Have your mixer handy. Remove the pot from the heat. Quickly beat in about 1 1/2 cups of sifted icing sugar and enough vanilla to make it all combine properly.

Spread on top of the peanut butter base. To serve, cut into squares.

ENJOY!

In our family my mother made these for my younger brother as a special treat. She made pineapple upside down cake for my older brother as his special dessert. Today, someone asked me what she made for me and all I could remember is how she once made me boiled cabbage as part of a special back-to-school meal. YUCK! Maybe my brothers will remember my special dessert or maybe, like many women I know, as long as chocolate was part of the description I was happy.

PS - I think I will try these again with more corn syrup so that the cereal mixing will be less difficult.

Halloweiner 2007

I mentioned before that the Alex and the girls went to a Halloween party for Dachshunds rescued through the local organization. Today, I saw that they had posted the pictures that were taken then ...of particular interest to me because I had left my camera at home. If you would like to see Alex the Great in his minimilist costume click on this link - http://www.dachshundrescueofhouston.org/dogpics/Halloweiner2007/IMG_0084.jpg
I couldn't find any pictures of the girls, although several seem to be of Kelis she does not wear a harness so I guess the guy taking all the pictures missed them.

AND I am really pleased to see that Dachshund Rescue of Houston seems to be just a few dollars away from meeting a $10,000.00 matching grant challenge. I am heading back to the site to add a few dollars to my original donation...maybe that will put them over the top 10 days before the challenge expires.

I Am Legend

As part of my decompression from my trip to Canada I took yesterday afternoon off to see the new Will Smith flick 'I Am Legend'. As a science fiction lover this movie met and exceeded all my expectations. Heck, there was even a scene where Will is doing pull-ups where even the most jaded of us will be gasping for air at the sight of his incredible six pack. During an interview that I saw on Sixty Minutes he talked about how he and his manager have plotted his movie career based on the fact that the best selling movies are science fiction, heavy with computer graphics and include a love story. It seems that Will has covered all three in this movie.

If you are a fan of '28 Days Later' some of this movie will seem old hat but I still think you will love this movie.

As a side note, I took particular notice of the audience at the Tuesday afternoon screening. The audience was split pretty evenly between men and women but I noticed about 50% of the men were there alone while the other half were with a female companion. The women were there with a male companion or a female companion (seemed to be mothers and daughters). I was the only single woman at the screening. Women don't go to the movies alone?

I noticed something else really odd ... about 90% of the men were very overweight with their bellies hanging over their belt buckles. About 70% of the women seemed to be just right... not too heavy, not too slim. Of the half dozen kids present only one of them seemed to be a little heavy. Given my informal and purely subjective poll why do I see news reports and ads focusing on over-weight women and kids when I mostly saw fat men?

Both of my observations may have had to do with the fact it was a science fiction movie but both facts seemed curious to me. Next time I will have to go to a different genre and see if I can repeat the results.

Back From the Frozen North

I returned yesterday from Canada and a visit with my brothers and father. The key purpose of the trip was to hear the prognosis for my father's recovery from his stroke in late August. We did not hear a lot of good news. There was a lot of damage to the front of his brain which will not recover. He will continue to have poor executive decision making and is argumentative and easily distracted when asked to do tests by the occupational therapist. He has seen improvement in his physical skills but will not be able to live without 24/7 assistance for most everyday tasks, like getting out of bed, going to the toilet or getting dressed, for the rest of his life. His biggest physical problem is that he does not know where his left side is most of the time. I watched several PT sessions and in each one he seemed unable to keep both halves of his body coordinated.

It was not a great time as he can change his demeaner between one breath and the next. I took him to the local mall for lunch and some shopping on Friday. It was a really stressful time as one moment he would be engaging in a nice sonversation then he would start criticizing the family for ignoring him. I had a hard time with that as the last thing I wanted to be doing was freezing in Canada and continuing to clean his filthy apartment. That evening a couple of his friends came to the hospital and he could not remember that he had been out of the facility for the first time since he was admitted. His roommmate had to remind him of the trip, the purchases he had made and that his daughter had arranged it.

Frustration all around. My younger brother noted that all of us kids had cried that week... probably the first time since we were beating each other up in the backyard growing up in Stayner.

It started snowing Saturday night and didn't end until there was about a foot of snow on the ground Sunday night so I did no see him on Sunday. I was paranoid on Monday about my flight (most were cancelled on Sunday) so I headed straight to the airport on Monday for my flight home. Unfortunately my last sight of him was sitting in his wheelchair looking befuddled as a nurse tried to get him into the washroom for some much needed toilet time.

I really don't want to go back but I figure I will in March to see if he can be moved to a long term care facility and discuss with him, if possible, what we should do with his apartment. Despite the medical opinion I hope he will become more coherent before then.

Scarf Madness

Although Houston is not seeing the extremely cold and blustery weather that the rest of the country is , we do occasionaly need scarves to keep oursleves warm... or as a fashion accessory. I have been experimenting with some of the yarn I have around here that just isn't enough for a big project but just right for a scarf.

The scarf below is made from a chenille type yarn, multi-colored and hand dyed by the Great Adirondack Yarn Company. There was about 100 yards of it on the skein as I had only used a bit for the Carol Taylor project. The yarn was a little hard to work with as it tended to be a bit sticky. I garter stitched it on size 35 needles, 10 stitches wide, and ended up with about seven feet of scarf. I washed it in the washing machine and dryed it in the dryer. Some bits are now sticking out where the knitting was a little loose. Fortunately, that does not bother me as it does not detract from the great colors or the general coziness of the result.

My second attempt at playing with yarn for a scarf was a bit more adventurous. I had about six balls of various yarn in lovely sherbet colors. I garter stitched it using three strands of whatever was at hand, about 20 stitches wide on those size 35 needles. It came out to about four feet long and more like a shawl than a scarf. I don't know how cozy it will be but the various textures feel great and the fuzzy fringe will be fun to play with.

My final attempt is still on the needles but the texure is so fun that I thought I could share it now. I am using Tahki (I think that's the correct spelling) classic cotton yarn in navy and bright pink so there will be pink followed by blue followed by pink in color blocks. I had previously seen the basket weave effect in a fancy yarn shop with fancy wool made up into an elegant sweater. I loved the effect but had no idea how to do it until I read 'Drunk, Divorced and Covered with Cat Hair" by Crazy Aunt Pearl of blogging fame. The basketweave is achieved by knitting 10 stitches, pearling ten sticthes and continuing until you get to the width you want. I did not have a width in mind so I repeated the pattern once. The basketweave effect comes when you switch from knitting first to pearling first every ten rows or so. I'm using 5mm needles to do this one and it is 40 stitches wide.

BTW - Crazy Aunt Pearl's book is a wonderful read, not about knitting but about how she recovered from a divorce with knitting as therapy. We have all been devastated by an unexpected event in our lives and her journey is truly inspirational. You'lll laugh, you'll cry and, if you make it through the book, you'll find a few easy knitting patterns at the back of the book including instructions on the basketweave effect.

Dark Fairy Swap

While I was away I received a package from my partner in the Dark Fairy Swap sponsored by the clothier Free People. You may, or may not, remember that I was in two swaps at about the same time - one for fall craftiness and this one. I sent off packages that were kinda, sorta identical for both of these swaps. Kinda, sorta because they both worked off of a fabric box project.

Here is what I received from my partner in the Dark Fairy Swap - note the Ball preserving jars as yarn barns with incredible wooden flower decorations and wooly yarn goodness, the woodsy collage in a shadow box and the two pairs of sterling swirl earrings. The incredible thing is that most of the bits in the collage and the roses on the jars are objects found while dog walking. Thanks Chris for a truly rewarding swap.

Creative Canadians

When I travel and I find a quilt store, I like to see the work of local designers that I would probably not see back home. A few years ago I came across a Canadian quilt designer at a Kitchener quilt store. Her name is Kathleen Bissett and she has had several incredible quilt designs published. My father had become entranced with one of her designs and I made it for him. Its called Tango Tiles and was a bit of a pain to make. From a bunch of coordinated fabric strips that are cut and put back together several times you get the approximately 6' x 4.5' quilt shown below.

Although I know I missed on many of the corner match-ups, you really can't tell when the whole thing is done. This is a special quilt for me as my mother had passed away a few months before I finished it. Her name, her childrens' and grand-childrens' names are all quilted into the big blue squares . BTW, the edges are sraighter than the photo shows as the hanging method is less than ideal - double stick tape and a curtain rod. I failed to make a wide enough hanging pocket to accomodate the rod my father chose. Live and learn!

I just found another of her patterns at another Kitchener quilt store - Creative Sisters. The pattern is called Star Dance and I am contemplating making it up for the Winter portion of the Four Seasons Quilt Swap. It makes up into a 15" x 17" hexagon which seems like an idea size. The instructions are excellent and each step can be done in a variety of ways ... fusible applique, needle turn applique or foundation piecing. Then again, it may be all those blues on the cover sample that make me think of ice and snow.

If you come across her patterns and you would like a fun challenge, try one. Her website is at http://www.kathleenbissett.com/ . Maybe a Quilt guild in Houston would book her for a workshop... hint,hint!

BTW - if you are ever in Kitchener you must visit the Creative Sisters quilt store. They seem to specialize in batiks and asian fabrics and have the most 108" wide quilt backing fabric that I have ever seen... 200 bolts of it!

Maxine's Christmas Card

THANKS GLENNA!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii9Hxyp2K_c&eurl=http://www.humorhaus.com/hh1189.htm

This is a hoot, Brooklyn accent and all.

Stitch and Stash

While I was away I happened upon a really wonderful quilt store. While zipping by a plaza to drop off more stuff to the Hospice Thrift Store I saw the words 'QUILT STORE' out of the corner of my eye. I got a chance to stop by with my sister-in-law and found myself in a quilt lovers haven. It was bright and airy, had thousands of bolts of wonderful cottons and even had a selection of hand embroidery patterns and fibers. I also discovered a 'new to me' line of fabric by Shamash and Son. These were very colorful prints with an African flavor done on cotton from Korea with a wonderful hand. Their website is: http://www.stitchandstash.com/Home.jsp. The fabric I fell in love with is not listed by line of fabric and is only included in the Novelty listing. AND this company is no longer producing consumer cottons so their whole line is on sale for $4 - 5.00 a yard.


Here is a link for a particularly beautiful print I picked up a few yards of:
http://www.stitchandstash.com/ProductDetail.jsp?LISTID=5504686220715655425

Off the Road

I'm back in the land of the living... actually I've been back a couple of days but I seem to be spending most of my time sleeping. I did go to two different neighborhood group Holiday parties and came home with some good loot. I hope I gave as good as I got as I went stash shopping for my contributions. I will try to update this blog a bit more regularly now that I am connected again.

While I was away I attended a church bazaar where some of my Dad's things were being sold. While there I picked up a new dog toy. Its a long multi-stranded multi-colored rope, twisted into a figure eight with a bone in the middle. Alex has decided its his forever and has been trotting around the yard and the house with it in his mouth. He seems to think that I want it and when he sees me he immeadiately starts trotting away with it. The problem with it as a toy is that it is too big to make it through the doggy door without some clever manipulation and it really is heavy for such a little dog.

Here are the dogs playing follow the leader when I stepped into the yard..

Then Alex spots me and runs to find where he has hidden the new toy to keep it from me.

And here he is trying to keep it from me... let's try right... or left

The girls know this is all nonsense and just loll around the yard begging for belly rubs.

Do you think I missed them while I was away?