Becka's blog

I tried a new salad recipe for lunch on Sunday. I found the recipe on the back of a bag of craisins. It is colorful and is a nice fall and winter salad. As I was cleaning up the kitchen I realized that I had forgotten to add the feta cheese to the salad. That turned out to be good because pregnant women are not supposed to eat feta cheese and DDIL, Katie was here for lunch. Mark and Katie just found out that they are going to be having a boy in April.

Here's the salad recipe -- feel free to add the feta!

Effortless Spinach Salad

8 oz. fresh spinach, washed and in bite size pieces
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
about 1/3 cup sliced red onion
1/2 cup craisins
1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds

Dressing:
1/3 cup raspberry vinaigrette
1 1/2 Tbsps. orange juice

Place the spinach, feta cheese, onion, craisins, and almonds in a couple of layers in a large salad bowl. Combine the salad dressing and orange juice and mix with the other ingredients just before serving.

I hope all of you will have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for this year here at our house and I hope you all are equally blessed.

Becka

I've been keeping busy around here, but unfortunately I can't show you pictures of most of my projects right now. I've been working on a few things for Christmas and for the upcoming wedding in the spring.

One thing I can show you is this little baby quilt that I've been working on. It's for a new little great-nephew that is due to arrive any day now. The top is all pieced and layered and partially quilted. Maybe, just maybe I'll get it finished up before the little fellow arrives.

Can any of you share what you have been working on this month?

Becka

This morning Rob and I ventured over to the parking lot sale at our local Save-Mor grocery store. Save-Mor is a bargain branch of Ingles. I'm not sure how many of these stores there are, but I have seen others up in North Carolina. About every two weeks they have one of these sales. They put things in neat rows of banana boxes out in a fenced off area of the parking lot. Some of these items are near their expiration date and others appear to just be overstocks or items that aren't extremely popular. People start lining up an hour or so before the sale and at 9:00 AM when the signal is given you are allowed to enter the fray and begin picking through the boxes to look for treasures you want to purchase.

Rob and I each took an empty box and went our separate ways and then combined our loot to purchase one box full. Here is what we brought home in our box:

We got all this for $7.00! Rob and some of our kids have gone to the sale before, but this was my first time. I know we will have fun trying some of the products and sharing them with others.

Becka

I recently bought a new quilting book, Foolproof Machine Quilting by Mary Mashuta. The basic idea she promotes in this book is making templates out of freezer paper or contact paper that you can use as a guide for machine quilting. Here is an example of a template made of contact paper:

The book has many pictures of actual quilts or partial quilts and she gives many suggestions for making patterns for the quilting motifs using household objects and paper folding. I used a small bowl as a pattern for the template:

I tried this method recently on a baby quilt I am working on and I have found it to be very helpful. Maybe someday I will feel confident enough to embark upon free-motion quilting, but until then I like using the templates to add interest and dimension to the quilts in a structured way. If you are like me and need to build up your confidence in machine quilting you might want to check out this book. Here is one of the stitched motifs:

Becka

Last week our daughter Megan, her husband Jim, and their son Drew drove down from Michigan to spend a few days with us. We had a wonderful time with the whole family. This visit was a brief one, so we tried to make the best of it. Here are a few pictures of the fam:

We celebrated three birthdays while we were all together. Here Jim and Megan are celebrating at a birthday party for Topher:

Here is Drew:

Nora and Topher are planning to be married in April, so some wedding planning was going on during the visit. Here they are while we were waiting for lunch at Hubba Hubba Barbecue in Flat Rock, NC:

Mark and Katie were waiting for their lunch there too. They are also awaiting the birth of their first child in April. We are thrilled that we will have another little grandchild.

And, finally, here's a picture of Rob and me during the birthday celebration:

While everybody was here I baked a ham. We had a couple of meals from it with the family and now Rob and I are finishing up the leftovers. I made this casserole with a portion of it. It is sort of like a cheese souffle, but much less fussy. It will "fall" after you remove it from the oven and let it sit for any length of time, but it still tastes good and the leftovers can be reheated in the microwave. I cut the recipe in half for the two of us.

Cheese Puff

6 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or whatever you like and have on hand)
1 cup cottage cheese
1 cup cubed or ground ham

Beat eggs. Add flour and baking powder, then milk. Beat until smooth and then fold in the cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, and ham. Pour into a greased two quart casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or until the mixture is set. If you insert a knife in the middle of the dish it should come out clean. Serve immediately.

We usually have this for supper, but it would work for a breakfast or brunch if your family is apt to arrive at the table promptly.

Becka