GRANDMOTHER'S SEWING ROOM: More Burp Rags

  

I was wanting to do some more work with my embroidery machine, so Baby Kay has 2 more

colorful burp rags!  She still has a stack of these I could liven up..

GRANNY'S KITCHEN: Butter Beer

 

     Our family have all been Harry Potter fans since back when. I read all but the last two books aloud to the kids during family time. The last two, we bought the unabridged books on CD and  listened to them. We made it to most of the movies on opening night or at least opening weekend.

     And doesn't butter beer sound good?!  Last time we watched one of the Harry Potter movies (we never did manage to get all these bought), I googled butter beer and found several different recipes.  For mine, I put a couple tablespoons of apple caramel and a couple tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk and almost a tablespoon of butter in the bottom of mugs and microwaved until melted. I stirred to mix then poured in vanilla cream soda. YUMMY!!

Here is the food network site I got my recipe from.

This site is the top ten butter beer recipes -- I cannot wait to try some more of these! 

Here's a fun looking one at mugglenet : much like the one I used, but without the sweetened condensed milk.

Even Fox News has a butter beer recipe from Orlando's Harry Potter world. This one is a bit more complicated than the others, but I might give it a go one of these times..

But then again, the one I made was good.. I may just stick to that when I want butter beer!

I thought I'd better copy my favorite recipe here in case the food network site ever closes that page!

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 cup butterscotch topping
• 2 tablespoons whipped butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups vanilla cream soda

Directions

Combine condensed milk, butterscotch topping, and butter in a glass heatproof measuring cup. Heat in microwave for 1 minute. Remove and stir until butter has melted and incorporated into mixture. Meanwhile heat cream soda in another heatproof measuring cup for 1 minute 30 seconds.
Divide butterscotch mixture between 2 (10 to 12-ounce) mugs. Fill mugs with heated cream soda and stir thoroughly. Serve garnished with an old-fashioned butterscotch candy stick.

GRANDMOTHER'S SEWING ROOM: Baby Hats

 I chose a free standing lace flower design. Here is my machine sewing it out.

Here is the finished Product. I put a little tulle behind it.

Here is another more detailed shot of the flower. 
You can purchase the pattern here at cute embroideries.

GRANNY'S KITCHEN: Chicken Alfredo with Broccoli

I just love some of the easy recipes from Campbell's soup! I use it to make my own 'Hamburger Helper' and in various other easy dishes. I have several cookbooks that use Campbell's soup, and I also use the website here to look for recipes.  Today I made easy Chicken/broccoli Alfredo using cream of mushroom soup.  I cooked up some chicken breasts, then cut it up. I added a can of the Cream of Mushroom soup and 1/2 can of soup. Add salt to taste (doesn't call for it, but I think it needs it!) Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti (recipe calls for linguini) adding a bag of frozen broccoli the last 4 minutes of the spaghetti cooking time.  Stir some cheese into the sauce mixture: recipes calls for 1/2 cup Parmesan.  I had a little Romano and some mixed colby/cheddar. Drain the pasta/broccoli and pour the sauce over. Quick, easy, and yummy!!  I see this as something I could quadruple (x4) for easy pot luck!!

GRANDMOTHER'S SEWING ROOM: Puppy Quilt

 This is a machine embroidered quilt that my mother and I made. Each of the machine embroidered dogs is different. I found the cute puppy material to put between the blocks.

 Some more details of some of the embroidery work done. Also, if you look closely, you can see some of the quilting. It is not clear here, but the quilting pattern is dachshunds.

 In this photo, you can see the back end of one of the dachshunds on the quilting pattern and the front of another dachshund.  It is a continuous line pattern that I saw in a book and drew it out on a long piece of paper off a fax machine roll. I drew enough to put on the quilting machine for tracing onto the quilt.

 More embroidery detail plus you can see more of the dogs printed on the fabric I used around my embroidered blocks.

I made these pillow cases to match the quilt. The bottom of the case is the backing fabric that I used on the quilt.  I gave this quilt to my husband's brother Geary and his wife, Vernetta. They own a kennel called "Show-me puppies". I didn't get a photo of it, but I quilted that name across the top of the quilt before I started quilting the rows of the dachshunds.

GRANDMOTHER'S SEWING ROOM: Christmas bookmarks

Here are a couple of the bookmarks I made for Christmas. If you look closely, you can see both the wash-away stabilizer and the tulle I used as an extra stabilizer for this FSL (free standing lace) project. The wash-away stabilizer on the top bookmark has been washed away, but the tulle is still there to help keep the bookmark together.

GRANDMOTHER'S LIBRARY: State Fair by Earlene Fowler

I just finished reading State Fair. It is the latest of the Benni Harper mysteries written by Earlene Fowler. Benni Harper is the curator of a folk art museum in California, so the books have wonderful crafty elements in them. As a matter of fact, all the names of the books are names of quilt blocks and, of course, there are quilts in the story!  In 'State Fair", the quilts are on display at the state fair. In this story, one of the quilts is stolen from the fair exhibit and wrapped around a murder victim.. (aahhh!!  I know, quilt sacrilege!)

Benni is married to the local sheriff, who frowns on her exploits! I just love all these books: there is no foul language nor any explicit sex scenes.  Benni is very family oriented, living close to her father and grandmother and cousin. I really enjoy these wonderful books and wouldn't think twice about having my children read them!