Christmas Orders Are In…..

And I’m quickly wrapping up another order of totes.  One including a tote for a Breast Cancer Survivor, which I am honored to create a design for.  This should wrap up most the totes for the season and now I’ll be onto children’s craft aprons, which I cannot wait to design.

Butternut Squash Soup

I’m a huge soup lover, but have had my fair share of failed butternut squash soups either off the shelf or from the market.  I planned for a section in my garden for this invasive gourd just to try my shot of making my own version.  After harvesting the baby squash (before the first freeze) I was so excited and roasted them with butter and brown sugar….the house smelled incredible.  The rest of the steps of my journey are below, and boy it is a filling meal in a cup.  I couldn’t get over the aromas and flavors of every bit from a visually simple soup.  It’ll be hard to buy this off the shelf again, when I know how good it can be homemade.

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons chopped onion
• 4 tablespoons margarine
• 6 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
• 3 cups water
• 4 cubes chicken bouillon
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, saute onions in margarine until tender. Add squash, water, bouillon, marjoram, black pepper and cayenne pepper. Bring to boil; cook 20 minutes, or until squash is tender.
2. Puree squash and cream cheese in a blender or food processor in batches until smooth. Return to saucepan, and heat through. Do not allow to boil.

Winter Tails

“Winter?” you say?  I am staring at 10” of snow outside our window resting on our fence.  Yup, it's here…..ah well time to get out the scarves and mittens again.  Copper has had quite the eventful season, starting it off with surgery to remove an obstruction of a combination of toys, rug and stuffing from his bed.  Although this guy is heavily monitored and constantly gets things taken away from him when he’s up to no good, we were shocked to see how large this mass actually was.  Stitches are removed and the cone is gone, so now we’re back to a normal schedule of romping around on the weekends and he doesn’t know any different.  I am working on Christmas stockings for all 3 KitchStitch furry animals, will post pics soon.

Happy Halloween

I know it’s not here….yet, but it’s still my favorite holiday. I think it’s the combination of scary movies, creative entertaining, sweet treats, spooky tricks, pumpkin seeds, 3’ high ghouls and gobblins on their first expedition…..I love it all.  A few festive fabrics have made their way into the shop which made spooktacular shawls for entertaining this month.

 

Our pumpkin patch is full and a few of the big boys are still ripening.  We received our first SNOW last night so the rest of the veggies (tomatoes and squash) are safe to cut down, but not without making some chow-chow first.

I experimented with a fantastic zucchini recipe that was husband approved:

INGREDIENTS

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F ( 165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8x4 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and frothy. Mix in oil and sugar. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder, salt and nuts; stir into the egg mixture. Divide batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until done.

Well back to the shop, Christmas orders are in ….so expect some posts of works-in-progress…..

Finally….an August Post

After a couple of Texas weddings and a stiff order for more totes, I have finally been able to take a breather from a crazy summer.  Oh, and we have a new addition to the family, a yellow/red lab named, Copper.  But first, check out the final totes for my friend’s wedding.  I made a medium sized tote for the bridal party and a small cinch purse for the flower girls.  I love the name of the fabric for the mid-size totes, Clementine, reminds me of my sweet Nana. 

The bride ordered additional totes for her and the mothers.  I made half out of brown/pink tones and half out of black/grey tones hopefully hitting all personalities.

And finally, pics of our new lab, Copper.  He is 11 weeks old and is all legs.  He is such a sweet heart and I’m sure as all dog owner’s say about their own, he’s going to be a good dog and friend with the kitties.  It is definitely a well-worth lifestyle change for us and at the end of the day when we come home to wet kisses and a tail wagging….everything else melts away.

Socket Deer

I saw these in the Modern in Denver magazine the other day and had to blog about them, they are for storing your cell phone/gadget while charging…super cute idea.  I’ve been reading mixed reviews that people would run into them and that they need LED’s for night.  But, you wouldn’t put these in a main corridor of your house so they would be exposed, I would think, and having an LED is one less plug you get to use.  This would be very ideal for guest bedrooms to avoid having them plug into the hard-to-get-to socket behind the nightstand just to set their gadget on a table.  They are by Nendo, but I haven’t seen them sold in the U.S. or with a grounded socket…yet.

2 More to Go!

I have finished 4 totes for the bridal party and I have 2 more to go in this size. I hope each fabric style finds the equivalent personality!