Long time

It's been a long time since I have entered an entry. Life has been crazy!!! Here are some highlights of the last few weeks.
- God has provided some work for me with a new sewing job (temporary) and it's paying for my new Baby Lock sewing machine. Praise the Lord for His provision.

- I have been using some of my extra time making gifts for the giving season of Christmas. I will post some pics after they have been given.

- My application is in for nursing school. Gasp*** Breathe***

- Volunteering in Jubal's school. I love it!

- And the last big adventure...drum roll please..... taking care of my husband who had an appendectomy Monday night. He got to come home yesterday and is on the mend. Whew! That was a wild ride. I am so glad he is feeling better.

Poor guy

Incisions on the belly

What have your latest adventures been?

My first Shoulder bag

I have wanted to learn how to sew a shoulder bag for a while now and could not find a good tutorial on the internet. However, last week, Sew Mama Sew posted a tutorial for one and I tried to make it today. My efforts were successful and I finished my first shoulder bag in a couple of hours.

It was really easy and I added a little flower applique for a personal touch. I am so excited about it that I will hopefully crank some out over the next couple of weeks. If you are wanting a cute handmade bag to add to your collection, I highly encourage you to try this one.

On a roll!

This is a fantastic dinner roll recipe that I tried tonight and they are delicious. They are called Sweet Dinner Rolls and I got them from Allrecipes.com. They are made from yeast and so they take a little planning but they are so worth it. If you do not have a bread machine, you can mix the ingredients and knead until smooth and elastic. Then let the dough rise for an hour before shaping. If you have a bread machine, it's so easy peasy.
Happy Baking!

• 1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1/2 cup warm milk
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup butter, softened

Place water, milk, egg, 1/3 cup butter, sugar, salt, flour and yeast in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough/Knead and First Rise Cycle; press Start.

When cycle finishes, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a 12 inch circle, spread 1/4 cup softened butter over entire round. Cut each circle into 8 wedges. Roll wedges starting at wide end; roll gently but tightly. Place point side down on ungreased cookie sheet. Cover with clean kitchen towel and put in a warm place, let rise 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden.

Cabbage soup recipe

I love cabbage. It has such an yummy earthy flavor and I love to find new ways of using it in my cooking. Recently I found a great recipe called Rustic Cabbage soup (101cookbooks.com) and it is so good! So, here it is. If you don't like cabbage so much, I encourage you to try it. I think you would like it in this soup. The bouillon in the recipe can be found at many health food stores. If you can't find it, a veggie stock will be just fine.

Rustic Cabbage Soup Recipe

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
a big pinch of salt
1/2 pound potatoes, skin on, cut 1/4-inch pieces
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
5 cups stock, preferably no-salt Rapunzel Herb Bouillon
1 1/2 cups white beans, precooked or canned (drained & rinsed well)
1/2 medium cabbage, cored and sliced into 1/4-inch ribbons

Warm the olive oil in a large thick-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the salt and potatoes. Cover and cook until they are a bit tender and starting to brown a bit, about 5 minutes - it's o.k. to uncover to stir a couple times. Stir in the garlic and onion and cook for another minute or two. Add the stock and the beans and bring the pot to a simmer. Stir in the cabbage and cook for a couple more minutes, until the cabbage softens up a bit. Now adjust the seasoning - getting the seasoning right is important or your soup will taste flat and uninteresting. Taste and add more salt if needed, the amount of salt you will need to add will depend on how salty your stock is (varying widely between brands, homemade, etc)...

A beautiful day

Guess what Jubal and I did today after school?

Pumpkin Muffins

Here is a great recipe I found on Pioneer Woman's website. Jubal helped me so this one is good to make with the kids. They are so moist and yummy and pretty healthy too! You can top with cream cheese frosting or just a cinnamon/sugar mixture.
Happy Fall Baking!

Moist Pumpkin Spice Muffins (With Cream Cheese Frosting)

Muffins:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1 heaping cup pumpkin puree or just plain ol' canned pumpkin
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup golden raisins (optional!)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously grease 12 muffin tins.

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Cut in butter with two knives or a pastry blender until all incorporated. In a separate bowl, mix together pumpkin, evaporated milk, egg, and vanilla. Pour pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. Add raisins. Fold gently until mixture is just combined. Pour into greased muffin pan—batter hardly ever fills all twelve unless you keep it down to 1/2 full. Sprinkle generous amounts of cinnamon-sugar over the top of each unbaked muffin.
Bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove and allow to cool. Ice with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/4 cup softened butter
4 ounces cream cheese
1/2 pound powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all ingredients on high until soft and whipped. Spread onto completely cooled muffins, or place into a large pastry bag with a large star tip and go crazy!

Store in fridge, as icing will soften at room temperature.

A new home

Okay, I am guilty. I am guilty of having some plastic bags in the house ;). My excuse: I really like having them to use as trashbags and picking up after the dog. For years I have just stuffed them in a back corner somewhere, out of sight, and sometimes out of mind.
Well, I was inspired a couple of weeks ago and now they are stuffed in a cute little sack in my kitchen. I got the idea from this tutorial and it turned out really cute. The other neat thing about it is that you can use any fabric scraps that you may have. I have quite a stash of scraps so I was eager to use some up. So now, all my plastic bags that were stuffed in a corner are now hanging in their cute happy home in the kitchen. Nice.