Baby Blankies

My mother tried a few times to get me interested in needle crafty stuff. When we were very young she sewed a lot of our clothes. I just couldn't get into sewing. My first attempt at a simple straight dress was a disaster. I refused to wear it. Not even as a night gown. It was truly hideous.

My next attempt at sewing was a project in seventh grade Home Economics. We were supposed to sew a fairly simple bag, suitable for beach going, complete with a drawstring handle. If I had followed the directions everything would have been A-Okay. However, I couldn't understand why we were supposed to do one step prior to the other when it seemed obvious to me by doing the second step first I could save some time later. I was wrong. It seems by doing the step I thought would save me time I sewed the thing shut where the drawstring was supposed to go. I obviously then used more time to undo and redo correctly what I had done wrong to begin with.

It seems sewing was not my forte.

A couple of years ago a friend at work was having a baby. I decided to try sewing one more time. This time I would try something I thought might be easier, like a baby quilt. Oh, I didn't have a pattern to follow. After all, it's basically just a bunch of squares or triangles all sewn together, right?

Ech. Sewing is not my forte.

I managed to finish the thing and it was okay, but obviously the work of a novice. I figured it could still be very useful, as my friend wouldn't be concerned about actually using the thing and having the baby ruin it. I handstitched my initials, the date, and the letters "SUPON". When asked what that stood for I explained: It's for baby Spit Up Poop ON blanket.

I got a chuckle out of everyone at the shower for that, but then I was totally shamed by a real quilt another girl made. This was something I would have framed and hung on the wall. Oh well, I tried.

My mom also taught me to knit and crochet, something I picked up a little easier. Actually, my knitting is a little lacking, but I can crochet an afghan like there's no tomorrow! So with the impending birth of my first grandchild (a girl) I've been a little crazy with the crocheting.

I don't think I'll ever attempt to make clothing again, unless it's a hat (I made the whole family hats that had built in scarves once!). I'm almost thinking I might attempt another SUPON quilt. The time is right!

Poor People Food

Being an army brat and growing up half my young life overseas, I never realized how poor my parents really were. I did notice that we didn't eat a lot of steak or roasts, and we never had the endless supply of pick-your-flavor-sodas that we have now. But that doesn't mean we had the distended bellies like the Biafran babies so popular at the time. "Finish your meal, there are babies in Africa that are dying." Sound familiar? (So how would my finishing my meal help them?)

Even as an unsophisticated kid with no special kind of culinary knowledge at the time it did not make one whit of difference. We never went hungry, even if we did have to eat some boring to me, sometimes, food. One thing we could always count on was spaghetti and meatballs (not meatsauce--ugh!) on Sunday. My dad taught my oldest sister how to make the sauce and meatballs, she in turn taught my second oldest sister, and she then taught me. Nowadays I don't make my sauce from scratch anymore and I just throw the meatballs together using the basic ingredients, no measuring. Somehow they always come out good.

People talk about "comfort food". To me that means food I like and food that reminds me of happy times. One of these is simply pasta with browned butter and parmesan cheese. How can you go wrong with that? We actually had it quite often, but think of the endless possibilities to switch it up now. Add bacon and eggs and it becomes pasta carbonara. Add a little shrimp and flour to the mix and it becomes a shrimp alfredo. Cold pasta with chopped veggies and a bottled Italian dressing becomes a pasta salad. Leftover pasta cooked with eggs in a skillet and veggies becomes a frittatta. See what I mean?

Today I'm making the basic pasta with browned butter and parmesan cheese. Perhaps not the most healthful meal, but it is simple and filling.

All you need are three ingredients: your pasta of choice; some butter; and some grated or shredded parmesan cheese.

Get a pot of water boiling and cook the pasta according to the package directions.

Meanwhile, start to melt a cube of butter over low heat in a sauce pan.

Once the butter is totally melted it's time to turn up the heat. Increase the heat to about medium, constantly stirring or swirling it around in the pan.

Very soon the butter will turn this nice brown color. Now is the time to remove it from the heat.

Put the cooked pasta on a plate or in a bowl, spoon some of the browned butter over top and sprinkle with the parmesan cheese. Here it makes a nice accompaniment to some left over baked chicken.

Eventually I'll share our other pasta recipes. Meanwhile let your imagination go wild!

Just For Fun

Carli and I got went to one of those inexpensive nail salons on Friday and got a pedicure. I thought I'd have a little fun with it.

This is one of my current favorite drinkie poos. It's called a "buttery nipple", although I'm not sure why. I think it should be named after the Werther's caramel, because that's what it tastes like. It's simply equal parts Irish cream and butterscotch liquer. I usually get the cheaper brands because we like to drink just a little. ;-) And no, I did not just have a few prior to getting my toes painted!

Pouring Cement

The work on our patio has begun. Before it was just a hodge-podge of miscellaneous sized tiles and bricks. Here it is cleared of our tables and chairs.

Then I put Wil to work removing and stacking the bricks/tiles. Of course I had to pay him.
It was inevitable that we'd come across loads of these ants underneath.
Finally everything was cleared out and just the border and dirt were left.
I removed the old borders and added a lot of sand. Then our cement guy, Kevin, came and leveled everything. There's my honey bunny supervising.

Bright and early Saturday morning the first load of cement came in. I had to move because it was splattering a lot more than I thought it would.

The cement got poured out until it looked like a great big giant diarrhea pile.

Then Kevin got in there and shoveled it all over to spread it out.

After all the cement was in (it took about one and 3/4 buggy loads) it was screeded (where a long board was dragged over the top to even everything out) and then the smoothing process began. This was done several times.

Eventually it got all smoothed out. Now it just needs to cure.

The borders were pulled out and right now it's looking pretty good. I could leave it at that if I wanted. But my grand idea was to tile the area so it looked a little prettier and more inviting. I have a few ideas.

Hopefully I'll be able to show the finished tiling job soon!