Five on Friday: September 19, 2014

1. One of the sweetest ads I saw on a recent Etsy email was for crocheted hats/scarves etc for little ones. I thought the shop was named The Velveta Corn.  Velveta??? that fake cheese? You try and see what you see - thevelvetacorn.  Well I was reading the letters incorrectly. It is The Velvet Acorn.  For that silly mistake of mine, I'll link her shop up HERE. Go have a look and tell me if those things aren't just precious.

2. Speaking of crocheting, I am volunteering for a group that makes quilts and afghans for a local shelter. This women & children's shelter is one that I've known about for years, but never visited. I don't think I  have the ability to do more than cut the material for the quilts, but I am willing to learn how to crochet.

I hate to say it but seeing the afghans that the group has crocheted made me want to run out the door screaming. They are soooo not to my taste and remind me of the worst items seen at craft shows.  (Yes, this is a judgment and those residents of the shelter are often happy just to have something new and just their own.) I hope I can stick my ground and only make baby/toddler afghans in white and yellow or white and green or something "I" like.  If I'm not enjoying it, I know I won't finish. I want simple clean colors. I am amazed at how some yarn still in the skeins can look so cheap. I guess it's cheap dye, cheap looking yarn.

This might be my first project. I'll even consider 'poy-pul' since that is the color of the Baltimore Ravens and the shelter is in Ravens territory.

click here for link

3. My tomatoes are done! well, they have been done for a bit, but I wanted to let you know that they didn't get canned, they all got frozen. Washed, blanched, skinned, and mushed up. Believe me, with my two boxes of tomatoes, that was enough. The last bit of room in the one chest freezer not filled with his Alaska fish now has vintage 2014 tomatoes. I hope to enjoy them in January!

4. I've not been one to add QR codes to my scrapping pages, but if you like doing that then these templates look ideal for you.

click here for link

5. It's getting to be time to start making dinners for my dh and 'the guys'.  I think this is going to be one of the dishes. I plan to test it on himself to see if the heat is up to his taste. Click on the image to see the recipe.

Maybe you'll feel like trying this out and reporting back to me on what you thought. In any case, have a great weekend!

Humma Humma Hummus

Most of the time I try to keep myself off Twitter. You know how it is. You can easily lose a day of the week there! So many people, so many interesting conversations. The extrovert in me feels like she is wandering at an never ending party, made even better because most of the people I follow aren't getting drunk.

Yesterday, a Tweet caught my eye. It had been retweeted by @kalynskitchen and I trust Kalyn to have good taste as well as good recipes. Now hummus is pretty darn basic in my kitchen but this recipe was truly written and illustrated with a lot of humor. So if you like your chickpeas with a good dash of funny, go have a look.

Read all about Roasted Tomato Hummus, and how Bev got to the point of this lovely photo above. You can find it at Taste for Adventure. Seriously, go have a laugh and then get back into the kitchen and get your hummus on!

Souper Saturday cooked on Sunday

Well the thought was there Saturday and the recipe came out. Then I remembered I was going to be having a big meal midafternoon and really didn't need lunch or dinner at home. Ok. Let's move on to cooking on Sunday and the final result to start.

This recipe came from Jessy (aka the Wicked One) over at GardenWeb. I'm not sure if the Uncle Bill in question is her uncle or not. One of these visits to CA, I'll have to ask Jessy about it. First, my lovelies, you read the recipe. Oh I know, you always do that. Well, I always think I do but sometimes I realize as I'm in the Midst of It that I've kind of skimmed it, not read it. DH would say this is typical of my rush to Not Listen. btw, that binder you see is ALL soup recipes.

I might have chopped the onion and garlic by hand but I wanted to make hummus next so I used the food processor which would then have a little flavor leftover for the hummus.

Saute those babies up, onions first then the garlic for just a tad. No burning!

Add the next batch of ingredients and blend nicely. You can see I used Knorr shrimp base instead of chicken or vegetable as I was adding some crabmeat.

Here is the soup with the dried oregano and pepper added. It was toooo cold to go out and get some fresh oregano when I was starting this but that oregano is a hardy soul and still flourishing outside.

I finished it up by adding about 1/2 cup of crabmeat and a good handful of feta. You can find the whole recipe and my notes here and check out the blender pureeing tip from Chow. This was a perfect Sunday lunch. Now I just need to get some more crab for the leftovers.

Maryland Summer - Sunday Supper

With a dinner like this, a slow end to a good Sunday,





and weather cool enough to eat outside without 'enduring' ...well that is summer in Maryland at its best. And yes, there will be watermelon later.