Dancing Hearts and Other Stuff

While my husband and my sister-in-law watched the Superbowl on Sunday, I worked on my dancing hearts quilt top and managed to get the top done before bed. The next hurdle will be to get it quilted in time for Valentine's Day! It turned out a little larger than I had initially thought it would be, but that's because I decided to add 8" borders to showcase the Valentine fabric I found at Bearpaws & Hollyhocks.

I used a couple charm packs for the hearts and added about a yard of background fabric, a yard of the black polkadot sashing fabric, and then the border fabric. Because of the directional print in the border fabric, I purchased a yard and a half, but I have plenty leftover for another use.

To make the hearts "dance," I used Sharyn Craig's method from her book Twist 'n Turn. I like this book quite a lot because with her method, you can set blocks that don't quite seem to go together colorwise or that aren't precisely the same size as one another--in fact, I bought the book as a solution to setting some swapped blocks that varied a little in size.

I took a few breaks from sewing to watch bits of the Superbowl and cook up a pot of clam chowder soup. Did you watch the game? My husband and Kath were cheering on the Patriots, but I kind of wanted to see the Giants win. Not that I have anything against the Patriots--in fact, I very rarely watch football at all, so I really didn't care WHO won the game, but I always like to see the underdog win. I think the Giants had to overcome quite a bit mentally just to have a chance, since the Patriots were so heavily favored and were expected to walk all over the Giants. I guess my biorhythms must still be peaking, because the Giants won--yep, it's ALL about me! LOL!

The clam chowder turned out to be just the thing to eat while watching the game. The recipe I have is an old favorite and isn't really a classic clam chowder. It's another one of my simple soup recipes, so I'll share it with you. Be warned, though, that my measurements are a little sketchy--I'm one of those cooks who just tosses stuff in and keeps tossing until it tastes "right," but this should get you a pretty good pot of soup as long as the uncertainty of my measurements doesn't scare you off! Here's what you'll need:

3 potatoes

Carrots (I use the peeled baby carrots in a bag)--enough for about a cup or so when sliced

3 cans of minced clams

About 2-3 cups of milk

1 can of cream of celery soup

1/2 pound Swiss cheese

Seasoning

And here's what you do:

Peel and dice three potatoes--dice to about 3/4".

Slice/dice carrots to roughly the same size.

Put potatoes and carrots in a soup pot. Add the juice from three cans of minced clams and possibly a bit of water to not quite cover the veggies. Add seasonings--I usually toss in some salt, pepper, rosemary, and a bit of garlic. Sometimes I also add in some sauteed chopped onions and crispy cooked bacon--it just depends on what I have on hand and what I'm in the mood for. Cover veggies and cook on medium-low heat until tender.

Stir in cream of celery soup. Now here's the tricky part--add milk until the soup is still a bit thick but not too thick. You don't want a thin milky broth but you don't want it too heavy either. It's not rocket science, so just use your best judgment. If you're in doubt, remember you can add more milk later.

Heat the soup and add in the minced clams and the shredded Swiss cheese. I use about 1/3 to 1/2 pound of cheese, which is maybe about a cup or two of shredded cheese. Stir and continue heating until the cheese is melted. That's it! Now EAT! Yummmmm!