Early Work Mercantile Update

The April 1st edition of Early Work Mercantile has been updated. I know you will want to make like the Easter bunny and hop, hop, hop on over and see what goodies everyone has to offer! My offerings this month honor some of our bird friends that have returned from their winter homes.

Both were made from a Maggie Bononomi design. Sometimes it's fun to just tweak the colors and see what you come up with. Well, off to watch the basketball championship game and do some more stitching. Go KU!

Spring Greens

I recently took a pasta cooking class with Chef Paige Vandegrift at A Thyme for Everything in Lee's Summit, Missouri. Chef Paige recommended tossing cooked, drained pasta with olive oil if you're not immediately adding a sauce. This will help keep the noodles from sticking together. I'm looking forward to the opening of our local farmer's market and the fresh veggies that will be offered there, but in the meantime we enjoyed a taste of spring in Creamy Spring Pasta, from this month's Cooking Light magazine.

3 quarts water

1/4 cup bread crumbs (I used panko)

1 tablespoon butter

3 garlic cloves, minced and divided

1 1/2 cups of 2 inch diagonally cut asparagus

1 cup frozen green peas

6 oz uncooked fettuccine

2 teaspoons olive oil

1/3 cup finely chopped sweet onion

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/4 cup water

1 cup 1% milk

3 oz Neufchâtel cream cheese

1 oz Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated (about 1/4 cup packed)

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon

1.  Bring 3 quarts water to a boil in a Dutch oven.

2.  Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 garlic clove to pan; saute 1 minute. Add breadcrumbs; saute 3 minutes or until golden brown and toasted. Remove breadcrumb mixture from pan; wipe pan clean with paper towels. 

3. Add asparagus and peas to boiling water; cook for 3 minutes or until crisp-tender. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon.  Rinse under cold water; drain. 

4.  Add pasta to boiling water; cook 10 minutes or until al dente. Drain and keep warm.

5.  Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Add onion and the remaining 2 garlic cloves; cook for 3 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently.  Place flour in a small bowl; gradually whisk in water.  Add water and milk to pan, stirring constantly with a whisk; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cook 1 minute or until thickened.  Remove from heat; add cheese, salt, and pepper, stirrng until cheeses melt.  Add pasta, asparagus, and peas; toss well.  Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and tarragon.

Sprucing & Springing - Display Chain

This is my first time joining Misi's or any display chain although I've followed several and always enjoy everyone's photos and comments. Here's what's springing on Cottonwood Lane...

Beautiful redbuds

Oh no!

 

Pansies are thriving

Lovely lopsided crabapple

I collect reproduction chalkware and usually spring sprucing includes displaying these. I didn't get my collection out before my accident so I don't think the whole gang will make their appearance this year.

 Still working on sprucing up the master bath. The good news is the cabinets arrived! The bad news is the short ones are the wrong size and will have to be remade.

Scenes from Washington-Ouch!

Son's college trumpet ensemble competed in the National Trumpet Competition at George Mason University last week, so we spent several enjoyable days listening to a lot of talented trumpet players and touring nearby Washington DC. including Alexandria

Gadsby's Tavern, Alexandria

Several Smithsonian museums

The National Cathedral

The Space Window

Kneeler and stoll handstitched by Cathedral sewing guild

Seeing the beautiful monuments and the cherry trees about to burst into bloom

and Fair Oaks Hospital

As we hurried to catch a train on Saturday morning to visit Georgetown (home of Georgetown cupcakes!) I tripped over a hose at the Metro station. Thought I could walk it off and actually boarded the train, only to realize the pain was pretty bad. Apparently I fractured the kneecap. This is actually our fourth vacation that has included a trip to an emergency room. Does your family have these kinds of vacation experiences too?

Still Here and Still Remodeling!

 Even though Easter is fast approaching

flowers are blooming

and the signs of spring are all around

I've been in somewhat of a funk. The bathroom remodeling project that was supposed to take six weeks has now gone on for eight and will last another two to three. I know all this dust and disorganization will be worth it when it's done

but right now I don't think we'll be tackling another project any time soon!

Early Work Mercantile Update

It's always a good day when I dig through my wool stash and find just the snippet I need! Below is the completed Tulip Sampler Pillow. I changed the colors on a Blackbird Designs piece and then decided I needed to add a wool accent. If I was smart I would have picked the wool first and then keyed the floss colors to match, but luckily it all worked out to my satisfaction.

This past week has been a little discouraging as I've been hit by a cold virus that really left me feeling drained. I don't like being home and not feeling up to doing anything, but at least if I have to lay around I have a couple of warm kitties to snuggle with!

Weekend Work

I enjoyed spending some time catching up on everyone's blogs this weekend. Work has been very busy and it seems like we've had a lot of other commitments as well, but here is a little of what's going on in my little corner.

I'm almost done with a little spring sampler pillow that I'll be listing on this month's EWM.

I provided lunch and treats for a meeting today with one of my ministry teams and decided to try a new cookie recipe. My old standby recipe for chocolate chip cookies uses a combination of butter and Crisco. I don't like to think about actually eating Crisco in anything, but do like the resulting crispness it brings to cookies and pie crusts. This recipe from tendercrumb used only butter so I decided to give it a try:

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

 2 sticks unsalted butter

3/4 Cups granulated sugar

1 1/4 Cups light-brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 Cups plus 1 T pastry flour

1 1/2 Cup bread flour (I used unbleached all purpose)

1/2 T salt (I didn't use that much)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 T vanilla extract

1 lb bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used about 12 oz, a mixture of semisweet and bittersweet Ghiradelli)

Directions: 

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

- Cream together softened butter and sugars in large mixing bowl.

- Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. 

- In a separate bowl, mix together the flours, baking powder and baking soda. Add to liquid mixture along with vanilla and mix well.

- Stir in chocolate chunks.

- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate several hours or overnight. This helps the cookies hold their shape and goodness knows we don't want any funky misshappen cookies! We'd have to eat all the mistakes.

- Roll cookie dough into uniform sized balls (mine were about 1.5 inches round) and place on prepared cookie sheets.

- Bake until lightly browned but still soft--about 13-15 minutes for the size that I made.

- Cool slightly on baking sheets before transferring to wire rack and cool completely. 

I definitely liked the chunks of chocolate and, not being a fan of really sweet things, liked the bite of the bittersweet chocolate. I liked that the cookies maintained their shape, but I have to admit I think I prefer the texture of my Crisco recipe cookies.

Signs of spring in the yard--the tulips I planted last fall are starting to break through (as well as the Autumn Joy sedum in the background). Unfortunately the rabbits seem to have noticed them as well so I'm going to go spread some dried blood around them as soon as I finish this post. Will that keep the squirrels away as well?

DH painted and installed a new wood floor in my Taj Mahal closet this weekend (the contractor asked him where he's going to keep his clothes). We are waiting for the cabinets to be completed so the entire master bathroom project should be done by the end of next week. Hooray!