Over the Kitchen Counter: Angie's Place for Cooking and Crafts

Greek Salad Dressing

We've been on a real Greek salad kick lately and this is our favourite dressing recipe.  I just add the ingredients to my small mason jar, screw on the plastic lid, and give it a good shake.  It only takes a minute to make this lemon-garlic zesty dressing.

Greek Salad Dressing

1 Tbsp finely chopped garlic

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

2 tsp Dijon mustard

1 Tbsp oregano

1 tsp fresh chopped thyme

1/2 cup olive oil & salt to taste

Crazy About Quilting: Confessions of an Average Quilter

I checked this book out from the library and really enjoyed the cute and humorous stories by Ada K. Moyles.  Many of the articles were originally published in Quilt World magazine and now this Canadian quilter has assembled her vignettes in book form.  (It's available on-line at Amazon if you can't find it at your library).

This is definitely a light read - perfect for me, who has a hard time finding time to read long chapters and long books!  I finished the book in a couple evenings at bedtime and smiled often as I readily identified with the 'average quilter' experiences, from how to get the housework done faster to allow more time for quilting to the measurement of time itself in a quilter's world!

This is a charming little book and I would recommend it to any quilting lady out there - average or otherwise!  (Make sure to check out the Mental Health Questionnaire for Quilters...I think I'm in trouble!)

Friendship Isn't a Big Thing Scrapbook Page

Here's that Enchanted Power Palette again!  I had pulled out the Divine collection to scrap photos of my BFF but then I saw the quote sticker above in the Divine kit and knew it was perfect for my layout!

This time I punched the You & Me using the Creative Memories Border Maker and adhered it to another strip of embossed paper which I edged using the Eyelet Border punch from Stampin' Up.  I also added some red embossed paper on my polka-dot background, along with another shiny embossed Designer print paper.  I rounded the corners with the appropriately named Corner Rounder!  I added a journal box, matted on black, and 2 photo mats.  The last touch was some paper flowers at the corners.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I was in Cleveland I was very excited to find Ghirardelli chocolate chips.  This product isn't available where I live (well, I've never found it) and since I love Ghirardelli chocolate squares, I knew they would be awesome chocolate chips!  I couldn't wait to try the recipe on the back of the package and the scrumptious chocolate chip cookies did not disappoint!  Check out my video recipe below and for more Ghirardelli (to end the confusion - it's pronounced 'gear-ar-delly'...with a hard G) recipes go to the Ghirardelli website.

Border Guide Foot

I was just playing around with my Horizon and tried out a really fun and cool technique using the Border Foot.  The foot guides your stitching so you can have parallel lines of decorative stitches but you can also use it to make a decorative border using a combination of stitches.

I stitched out this example on my practice sandwich to demonstrate.  (I didn't line up the starting point so the sides are not mirror images of each other but you get the idea.)  You sew the first line of stitches to make the right side of the border.  Then by moving the fabric so that those stitches are within the guide marks on the special foot, you stitch the left hand side of the design.  Once that is done you center the needle between the two rows and add the decorative stitches right down the middle.  It really makes a beautiful border!  As you can see in the samples in the video below by Janome, even just simple rows of regular decorative stitches can be used in a variety of ways to add a lot of detail to a quilt or other project!

It is just so fun to discover and play with these awesome features on my machine - it opens up endless creative opportunities!

 

Craftsy Machine Quilting Course

Last week I wrote about Craftsy - the on-line provider of instructional craft courses.  While I am part of the free block-of-the-month class, I also signed up for my first paid course: Machine Quilting, and thought I'd share my thoughts with you.  The class is taught by Wendy Butler Berns, an award-winning quilt artist.  She offers 10 lessons taking you through all the steps to make a quilt.  I wish I had taken this class right at the beginning of my interest in this hobby - it would have saved me a lot of trial and error!  Wendy is very thorough and explains the process of quilt-making - from preparing the quilt to binding it at the end.

I will admit that much of the material was review for me since I have made quilts from start to finish but I was interested to learn more about the walking foot techniques and knew I was bound to pick up many other pointers.  The walking foot chapter was helpful and reinforced what I was already doing on my own and gave me suggestions to make things easier.

I also wanted to learn more about marking on a quilt and following a pre-drawn design.  Wendy gives a good overview of these topics, as well as free-motion quilting.  Wendy likes to machine-bind her quilts and I got some great ideas from that chapter.

I think this is an excellent course for a beginner quilter.  The steps are explained several times and Wendy doesn't cut corners with her lessons.  Some students complain that she makes a 'short story long' and while it can be repetitive in places, everyone learns differently and it's better to over-explain than under-explain.  You can always skip ahead to more relevant topics for yourself and your skill level or ask questions of Wendy if you don't understand a certain part.

Even though I knew most of the material presented, I am happy I took the class and can review it forever.  It's nice to have confirmation of what I'm doing, ask questions if I need help, and have access to particular information and points if I need to refresh or review.  There is also the aspect of inspiration and encouragement, feedback and affirmation.  I really enjoy that!

Tiny Pan

I love this little non-stick pan I picked up.  I actually bought two of them and they are perfect for all sorts of small cooking jobs in the kitchen: toasting spices, sauteing onions or garlic, melting butter.  Our favourite way to use this pan is for frying eggs for egg muffin sandwiches for breakfast.  It is the perfect size (I think it's about 4" in diameter) to cook the egg in a neat 'n tidy circle - ideal for topping an English muffin or bagel.  The pan didn't cost much at all (from the discount home accessories place) and is just a fun way to cook up a little somethin'.

Rum-Frosted Brownies

These Rum-Frosted Brownies sounded delicious and different so I eagerly whipped up a batch for a weekend dessert.  Well...I used actual rum in the frosting as was written in the recipe...and all I can say is it was a good thing it was the weekend!  I enjoy the flavour of rum but these puppies almost put me over the limit - they were really strong!  The brownies themselves were moist and fudgey and I did like the frosting layer with melted chocolate spread on top, but next time I make them I will use the non-alcoholic substitute of milk and rum flavouring!  (No complaints from hubby while eating the 'real thing'...and we didn't even let the kids have any!)

Rum-Frosted Brownies

1 cup butter

4 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, greased 9x13” pan

Melt butter and chocolate in saucepan. Remove from heat and cool. In large mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla. Stir in chocolate mixture. Fold in flour. Stir in pecans and spread in prepared pan. Bake at 350 for 30 mins. or until firm on top. Cool before frosting.

Frosting:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 (one pound) box powdered sugar

3-1/2 Tbsp rum

6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Beat 1/2 cup butter, sugar, and rum. Spread over cooled brownies. Melt chocolate and 2 Tbsp butter and spread evenly over powdered sugar mixture. Sprinkle chopped pecans over chocolate. Let stan until firm and cut into bars

* substitute rum with 3 Tbsp milk and 1-1/2 tsp rum flavouring.

Baked Lemon Sponge in the Crock Pot

I've shown you chocolate cake in the crock pot and Lemon Sponge Pudding in the oven, now I've got a Baked Lemon Sponge in the crock pot!

Very similar to the oven version, this cake is so simple to prepare and bakes up effortlessly in the slow cooker.  By simply setting the baking dish into the crock and adding hot water you create a bain marie...and the pudding cake steams while creating a delectable sauce right in the same dish!

This is a fabulous dessert - light and flavourful.  If you like the taste of lemon you will adore this all-in-one easy recipe.

Baked Lemon Sponge

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 Tbsp lemon zest

3 eggs, separated

1 Tbsp melted butter

1 cup milk

1 Tbsp icing sugar

1. Combine sugar, flour and salt. Stir in lemon juice, zest, egg yolks, butter and milk.

2. In another bowl, beat egg whites until stiff...fold gently into lemon mixture. Pour into 6 cup greased bowl (or souffle dish) and cover tightly with foil (use an elastic band to secure). Place in slow cooker and pour in enough hot water to come 1” up sides of bowl.

3. Cover and cook on high for 2-3 hours or until topping is set and light and fluffy. Sift icing sugar over sponge before serving.

Family (Today Is...) Scrapbook Page

My layout today is for photos from our family gathering last Thanksgiving.  We took a series of outdoor group shots of all the family and each individual group so I chose 3 to highlight on the page.  The green paper from the Enchanted Power Palette went perfectly with my photos and there was a title sticker (Family) I could use too.  I layered the designer paper (including 2 embossed papers and one I cut using the Picket Fence Border Maker), with photo mats for each picture.  Next, I added a piece of fluffy cord using my old sewing machine and a zig-zag stitch.  I made the title box using the sticker and a journal box I cut out from its mat, added some sparkly epoxy stickers, and I finally used the fun Date Smash Stamp!  (I had a little trouble stamping it nicely - how do those librarians do it!?!?! lol!) so I had to re-stamp it on another piece of paper and use my Modern Label punch to punch it out and cover my mistake.  I popped the whole title/journal box up on dimensionals.  The page is simple but I love it!