Quilt Update and Italian Wedding Soup

I've been diligently working on my quilt everyday. I try to reserve an hour or two every afternoon to cut, piece, sew and press.

After many happy hours of solitary sewing I finally put the quilt together - pinning and basting the back to the batting to the top.

Some quilt facts:

Two hundred and twenty-four patches make up the quilt top. The patches are made up of nine 2.5 inch squares each. That adds up to 2,016 two and half inch squares.

This is what the wrong side of the quilt top looks like, so many stitches!

This is what the quilt top looks like:

I am finally at the actual hand quilting of the quilt and have new found respect for our great grandmothers and their daughters and all the other generations of women who quilted. And to think they did it without the aid of rotary cutters and electric sewing machines. After all this work I'm not sure I'll ever let anyone actually cover themselves with this blanket.

With all the snow we've been getting I find myself cooking more and more warm, satisfying food. You can make this nourishing soup in 30 minutes. It makes a nice size pot and tastes every bit as good the next day as the first.

Don't wait for an Italian wedding to make:

Italian Wedding Soup (serves 8)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

For the meatballs:

1 pound ground chicken

2/3 cup panko bread crumbs (or fine bread crumbs)

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced

1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 large egg

Combine all of the above and mix well. Form into 1.5 inch meatballs and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, turning the meatballs half way through.

While the meatballs are baking:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup onion, minced

1 cup carrots (about 3 carrots), diced

3/4 cup celery (about 2 stalks), diced

10 cups chicken broth (canned or homemade)

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 cup small pasta (I use Acini di Pepe, but you can use Orzo, tubetini, stars or any other small pasta)

12 ounces baby spinach, washed and rough chopped

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot. Add the onion, carrot and celery (the mire-poix). Cook until tender (about 8 minutes.) Add the broth and wine and heat to boiling. Add the pasta and boil according to package directions for al dente.

When the meatballs are done baking, add to pot with broth and pasta. Simmer for 2 or 3 minutes. Stir in the spinach and simmer for one more minute.

Serve with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese on top.

Interruptions and Mushroom Crostini

MUSHROOM CROSTINI

My first quilting lesson was yesterday.

I spent 3 hours happily learning how to square the fabric:

and how to measure the fabric using the cutting board and special measuring thing and how to cut the fabric using a rotary cutter:

Anne demonstrating how to use the rotary cutter and special measuring thing..

And finally, how to sew the cut fabrics into strips, cut the strips and then sew the cut strips into the "Nine Patch" design I'll use to piece the quilt top together.

Sewn strips of fabric

Cutting the strips into 2 1/2 inch "patches"

Piecing the patches into a "Nine Patch"

Some of the completed "Nine Patches"

Anne taught me that the design components are endless! I came home and immediately set up my office with cutting board and sewing machine. Anne is a really good teacher and I had no trouble squaring the fabric, making the strips and then the patches. I spent the entire afternoon happily sewing away and before I knew it, I started hearing hungry rumblings from the kitchen area. The natives were getting restless. I couldn't believe so much time had passed!

Grr.. I hate to be interrupted when I'm in the flow - but everyone's gotta eat and cooking is my primary job, so I packed up for the night and headed down to my other "work room"

A quick check of the refrigerator and a gathering of ingredients later and I had dinner on the table in 20 minutes. If you are pressed for time and limiting your meat intake, try this simple dinner for a quick, yet satisfying bite.

Mushroom Crostini: (serves 4)

1 loaf french bread, cut on an angle into 4 to 6 inch 1/2 inch thick pieces (see photo)

4 cups mixed mushrooms (I used 1/2 portabella and 1/2 white button), sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

4 ounces goat cheese

1 tablespoon herbs du provence

Preheat the broiler. Cut the bread and place on a cookie sheet. Broil until golden and toasted, turn and broil other side.

Cut bread on angle about 1/2 inch thick

Mix the goat cheese, a few grinds of black pepper and the herbs du provence together.

When the toasts come out of the oven, spread cheese evenly on the toasts. Set aside.

Heat olive oil in large saute pan over medium high heat, add mushrooms and saute until mushrooms begin to release their juices. Add balsamic vinegar and continue to saute until almost all liquid has evaporated.

When mushrooms are cooked through, top the cheese toasts and serve.

A Cook's Notes: I serve the crostini with a mixed green salad and a very cold bottle of Chardonnay. This meal cooks up and cleans up quickly, allowing you to get back to what you were doing before the hungry throngs demanded your attention.

It is supposed to start snowing tonight and continue well into Wednesday night with predicted accumulations of 12 inches or more. Woo-hoo, sounds like a slow cooker day with lots of uninterrupted sewing time.

Stay warm everyone.