"Stuff" That's on my Mind Today

This morning, I got out my favorite Irish cookbook, titled, appropriately enough, A Little Irish Cookbook. This is the book I go to when I want to make soda bread. In fact, it's a neat little book filled with yummy-sounding recipes.

Last year, I thought it might be fun to make some "real" Irish meals occasionally. I figured my husband must have some kind of genetic memory and would be yearing for the foods of his ancestors' homeland. So, with that in mind and excited about the idea of trying something different, I went surfing the internet for Irish cookbooks and picked two that had gotten good reviews. Eventually they arrived! Well, I have to tell you that it was a little disappointing to find the books filled with recipes for foods made from animal parts and other "stuff" that we in the US normally don't eat, except maybe on a dare and even then we'd probably think twice! Great photos of the Irish countryside in one of the books, but I found very few recipes I'd be willing to "risk" cooking. I tried to find those cookbooks this a.m. but they weren't on my shelves of "favorite" cookbooks, and they weren't in the pantry/closet where I keep the lesser used cookbooks. Nor were they on the bookshelf in my son's former room where I keep miscellaneous "reference" books. Hummm. Maybe they've headed back to Ireland since they're so obviously unappreciated in this home! On the other hand, at the same time I ordered those books, I ordered the little book of afternoon teas. I half forgot I had it and haven't had a chance to make tea goodies yet, but the idea appeals to me and the recipes in that book look much more appetizing than the ones in the Irish cookbooks!

Tonight's my monthly Thimbleberries club and I'm looking forward to the meeting. We have show and tell each month, and I have a stack of things to bring, including the projects I finished up on Sunday and the My Friend's House top I posted a photo of last week. I also have a completed quilt to show. I still have to add the label on the back, and I'll do that during my lunch break, but it's otherwise finished. The pattern is called Stars Over St. Louis and is one of Linda Ballard's--who is a very good teacher, by the way. I started the quilt in a class a year ago and finally got it all quilted and bound a couple months back, right around the end of the year. I really just love the way this turned out and I can hardly wait to put it on one of the beds when we get a little closer to summer. I changed the pattern slightly by adding another round of stars rather than a plain border.

Sorry the photo doesn't show the whole quilt, but you get the idea.

I'm still trying to recover from the whole Daylight Saving ordeal--what a cruel joke that is! I must go get myself another cup of coffee so I can wake up enough to apply my make-up; otherwise, I might leave the house looking like Mimi on the old Drew Carey show!