Baking and an Update

 

My baking frenzy for Christmas went very well. My family members all left on Christmas with a box full of about fifteen different cookies. It was fun. My Mom called later and said it was a good thing I have her and her boyfriend their own box of cookies because they might have come to blows otherwise. (Sound effect of Lynne laughing),

It was even more fun to hear my granddaughter and son got together to make his favorite brownies, and she even made the whipped cream to eat with them!

I know I haven’t been blogging much lately, but I’ve had a lot going on. Now that the Holiday Season is over, I have taken down and put away all the Christmas decorations and got the house back to “normal.”

I have also decided that I am not getting another cat. It was a hard decision. I have offered a colleague all my cat supplies - kitty condos, tents, cat hammocks, etc and she has agreed to take them (She has three cats).

Since I was able to get rid of all the cat stuff I had room in the office in the closet so I could reorganize my pantry. I bought two wire shelving racks and put them in the closet and then reorganized everything. I was able to devote a couple of shelves to some of my roasting pans and Dutch ovens and my big stock pot.

This is it, above. It took a lot of thought. And I had to rearrange a couple of shelves after I put the racks together. I realized that it access was important, and that I didn’t want to bend down to get something I used a lot (like canned tomatoes.) I need some “liners” so small items will sit on the shelves better, but those are on order.

AFTER I DID THAT… I sat at the desk and went through the huge stack of bills and old statements that were weighing on my mind. Now that’s all done, and I can’t tell how how good that feels.

2022 was a hell of an up-and-down year for me. Some stuff really sucked, and some stuff was pretty awesome. I had made a list of things I wanted to get done around the house, and I managed to complete a lot of them. My office is no longer the pit of despair. My guest bath is no longer tired, dated, and impractical. My kitchen is pretty and organized. My spa bathtub is no longer a catch-all for junk. Some of those things have been weighing me down for years. No longer.

I’ll be in the studio sewing before you know it. 

A Little Retail and Baking Therapy

After class at QT on Saturday, I did some shopping. I have been thinking about making a pink barn, but more on that later. I found these...

and thought, oh, I can fussy cut the hell out of these.

So they both came home with me.

I have also decided to make a smaller bird quilt so it will be easier to display as a sample quilt. I'm not teaching until August 10 when I am teaching Birds at Quilted Threads, so I am going to enjoy having my weekends to myself for a while.

 I've had a hankering for a good sandwich, so I made some bread this morning.

I also made homemade angel food cake (really) because I have been thinking of this dessert a lot lately. You can see how to make it here, on one of Millie's blog posts from 11 years ago. Hint: It's kind of like an adult s'more. I made it as the dessert on my son's Night Before The Wedding Dinner for 35 people, but I had bought I think four or five angel food cakes from the grocery store that time. Even with that many people, and that much cake, there were no leftovers, this was so good. It's perfect for summertime.  Try it and see!

x

Not Big Enough

I love to bake. I generally bake something every weekend. Sometimes I need chocolate. I made Melissa Clark's Coconut Fudge Brownies from her book Cook This Now the other day.

They were delicious. How Good? My Mom asked for a two pieces, one for herself and the other for her husband. So I gave her a couple of pieces.

A little later she calls me.

"Lynne. Those brownies."

"Yeah?"

"Not. Big. Enough."

I laughed.

"SERIOUSLY," she said, "You're gonna bring these to work tomorrow and everybody is gonna say they same thing."

My Mom was right. I did bring them to work (because I couldn't eat them all myself), and sure enough, they evaporated quickly. My pals agreed with my Mom, they were definitely not big enough. (Most came back for seconds and thirds.) I'll make these again, that's for sure.



I'm still working on the Dark Majesty quilt, but I finally cleaned the house. I did all the vacuuming, I cleaned the bathrooms, and paid the bills. I deserved those brownies.