Hey! Guess What Today Is?

No, it's not the day I shoot up and go looking for bunnies in the backyard! I just know one (or more) of you will come up with that guess!

Today is flu shot day! Woo-hoo! And no, I'm not being sarcastic. One of the nice little perks at my office is that they bring in a nurse once a year to administer flu shots to any of the employees who want them, and the firm foots the bill. We can also arrange shots for our family members (for a fee), and my husband will come in for one too. (I think if I pay extra, they might just let me administer it to him!)

I'm a firm believer in flu shots, although I know there are people who disagree and that's fine. But I CAN tell you that the two years we didn't get flu shots (once because of a shortage of the vaccine and once because we had a new office manager who forgot to make the arrangements), I got the flu and was sick as a dog and missed a week of work each time. Ugh!

I signed up for a Thimbleberries class on Friday night from 5 to 10 p.m. I just hope my arm isn't sore from the shot! I'd hate for anything to get in the way of a good time! Oh, and if I don't post to my blog on Friday, don't worry about me--I'll just be off, piecing up a storm! We'll be working on Christmas projects from this year's Thimbleberries Christmas Street book. Now that I feel like I have a handle on Halloween and Autumn, I'm starting to think about Christmas!

Done!

I finally finished binding the Halloween quilt and thought I'd post a photo--

Here's a close up of one of the blocks. Nothing fancy in the quilting, but I thought you'd want to see anyway.

Tonight after work I'm off to Quilters' Corner for Thimbleberries Club. I wonder what will tempt me there? It's usually something!

Had to Share--

What's Black and White and Hops All Over?

Last night, our favorite Italian restaurant was having a take out special in honor of Columbus Day--buy one pasta entree, get the second free. Since it was the last day of our vacation, and I was busy making a complete and total mess of the kitchen, I sent my husband off around 6:30 to pick up dinner. Just as I was starting to get concerned by around 8:15 when he hadn't returned, he walked in the door carrying our meal. As it turned out, he and a lady behind him had to wait well over an hour for their orders. To tell you the truth, it really didn't bother me much since I was battling the huge pot of dark brown ooze otherwise known as apple butter, but my husband was none too pleased. Still, they did give us our dinner for free, along with two coupons for a free appetizer or dessert. And by then, I was about done with my canning, so I could sit down and enjoy the meal--and watch the last couple minutes of the Monday night football game, which was the most exciting part.

This morning I stepped out onto our back patio to see a black and white bunny rabbit. It took a few seconds to register that it was a bunny and not a cat, but when I turned to go get my camera, the furry bundle of fluff hopped off. Now I wonder: Was it a hallucination? After all, we don't get a whole lot of bunnies hopping around in suburban Sacramento yards. Maybe I'm running a fever? Maybe I should call in sick to work?

Little Ms. Domestique

I finished quilting a Halloween quilt last night and wanted to get the binding on today, but so far, no luck! What have I been doing instead?

Well, this morning I did a whirlwind job of cleaning my house. I think I broke all known land speed records. Admittedly, with us gone for a few days, it wasn't too bad, but then dust is dust, and it waits for no man.

So, that done, I got my shopping list in order and did my grocery shopping. Once I got the groceries put away, I figured I'd start on my apple butter, chicken soup, and potato leek soup. In between, I'd make my binding. Of course, you already KNOW that didn't happen!

So I got the apple butter started--which starts off with boiling down apple cider and then adding a bunch of quartered apples. While those were cooking, I thought it would be a good time to catch up on everyone's blogs--I'm happy to say that I'm now caught up! Even if I didn't leave comments on each and every blog, I DID read them.

But here's a tip. Actually a couple tips.

1. Don't read blogs while cooking apples. Why? This is what happens:



2. Don't clean house before making apple butter. Why? See above.

And that photo doesn't even show the part where it boiled all down the front of the stove!

So, once the apples are all cooked, you press the whole mess though a strainer to get rid of the peels, seeds, etc. What a pain! After that, you put all the "pulp" back into a pot and add a bunch of sugar and spices and cook it for two hours, stirring almost constantly. WHAT? No way! Okay, so I cheated and didn't stir almost constantly. What I pretty much did was read a blog, go out and stir, read another blog, go out and stir. That went pretty well for the first hour or so, but then--

Well, read tip number 2 above. See what happened?

It's like making spaghetti sauce! It bubbles and bursts all over the place! Okay, so what's next? The directions say to cook it until it "sheets." I've made candy before and I'm familiar with sheeting, but this stuff is a much coarser texture than candy. I figured, though, that when it got to the "sheeting" point, I'd know. Eventually I got tired of testing it to see if I would consider it to be sheeting, so I just filled the jars I sterilized--nine of them. Bad news! Nine jars were filled and about two thirds of the apple butter is still in the pot. Needless to say, I'm sterilizing more jars. I'll be known as the apple butter queen! Everyone I know will be getting apple butter for Christmas! Well, unless that sheeting thing was important and I didn't wait long enough. In which case, I'll be known as the apple butter jester.

Oh, and those two soups? Nope, they're not done either. The chicken soup is about half done but I need to go cook some veggies in the broth and finish that up. The other soup, potato leek, will have to wait. And that binding? Well, maybe I'll get around to that once I clean my kitchen again.

From now on, I'm just BUYING apple butter. Except I won't need to for maybe ten years. I wonder if it's just like child birth--you forget the pain after awhile?

Ft. Bragg Vacation

For the most part, my husband and I enjoyed our time in Ft. Bragg. Thursday morning we packed up and hit the road out of town. Of course, here's one of the first stops that any trip requires:

After we "fueled up," we headed west, traveling on the north side of Clear Lake. That stretch is one I've always disliked because it is mostly comprised of a string of vacation "resorts" (that look to be in great need of repair) and mobile home parks (also in need of repair). The general feel is one of economic depression. We were pleasantly surprised to see that in the several years since we last traveled that route, quite a few improvements have been made. Many of the old "resorts" are gone, and many of those that remain have been repaired and repainted. The leaves on the trees were turning to yellow with a few touches of flaming red here and there.

We stopped in Upper Lake to visit a "quilt shop" that really wasn't--it was more of a craft and gift shop with a back room that had several bolts of cheaper quality fabric. Across the street, though, we found an antique shop where I bought a wooden rolling pin and a large-ish wooden spoon/scoop. I had been looking at a craft magazine on the drive; it had several ideas for painting wooden items, and I thought that scoop would be perfect for a craft project.

We arrived in Ft. Bragg around 4 p.m. and headed directly to Sew and Sew, the quilt shop that Su Bee first told me about. I didn't take any photos there, but it was a nice shop with a great little annex full of sewing machine "stuff" and thread. The personnel were very friendly and helpful and told me what I'd need to get started on the punch needle embroidery kit that I won from Sharon over at Red Geranium Cottage, so I didn't leave the shop empty handed!

After my quilt shop "fix," we headed over to the Holiday Inn Express to check in. I think I mentioned that I had a hard time deciding where to stay and settled on the Holiday Inn because I figured it was "safe." Well, we were given a room on the third floor with a king bed, two upholstered chairs with foot stools, a table and chairs, a dresser, and a large bath room and dressing area. Best of all, we had this view from one of our windows:

The funny thing about Ft. Bragg is that much of the land in town between Highway 1 and the ocean is privately owned by a lumber company, so unless you're staying in the north or south side of town, views of the ocean are limited. Although the ocean looks pretty far away (that's it past the bridge in the distance), we were very happy to find we had any view at all! And it wasn't something I even expected since I hadn't booked one of the rooms with a "view" of the gully/canyon that leads under that bridge.

After checking in, my husband and I headed out to dinner. The restaurant we picked was one that was highly recommended in some of the guidebooks and reviews I read, but truly the food wasn't anything to blog about--acceptable but nothing out of the ordinary.

The next morning, we headed south to Mendocino. If I've ever been to Mendocino before, I was too young to remember. What a cute town! If I had the money, I could easily just stay there! Where Ft. Bragg had little view of the ocean, Mendocino is built on the headlands with a view everywhere you look. Many of the houses were built in Victorian times, and there are shops and restaurants everywhere.

We first went to the Mendocino Art Center where they have a gallery and studios for classes. You'll remember that my husband likes to make things with leftover bits and pieces of "stuff," and we really liked this bench, which is just up his alley!

I think I'll continue to encourage my husband to learn more about welding, because I'd just love to have a garden dotted with rusty metal "garden art." (See that bird cage in the first photo? There's a metal bird in the cage that's pretty fun!) Oh, and speaking of gardens, many of the shops had small garden plots that were just beautiful--the tallest, hugest cosmos I think I've seen, along with delphiniums, dahlias, and fuschias--all huge and lush. Among the shops we visited was a quilt shop, but again, they had little in the way of fabric. Still, they had lots of neat gifts and things, and I managed to find a couple items to bring home to add to my fall decorations.

Around mid afternoon, we headed back to Ft. Bragg and down to Noyo Harbor for a late lunch. We had driven down there the evening before, and I noticed that a small restaurant all the way at the end of the small harbor seemed to be doing a booming business, so that's where we went for lunch.

Cute, right? We could have dined out on the patio, but it was a little bit chilly, so we opted for a table inside, right in front of a window looking out on the harbor.

As we were looking over the menu, I heard several other diners talking about how good the restaurant's Asian slaw was, so we ordered their "ultimate tacos"--beer battered prawns with avocado and slaw. I think that was probably our best meal of the trip!

After lunch, we wandered around a few of the little shops in Ft. Bragg and sampled a beer at the North Coast Brewing Company. Also, on Su Bee's recommendation (thanks Su!), we headed over to the Mendocino Chocolate Company to select and bring home a few mouthwatering truffles! Yum! We also picked up a couple things at a butcher/smoke shop to bring home to our son who loves hot stuff! He took care of our pets for us while we were away, so the least we could do was bring him home some Cajun Death Jerky and this Hot Ass Sausage.

I think you'll appreciate that my husband said he personally wouldn't want to eat any sausage with the word "ass" in it for fear of what it might contain, but we don't think that will bother our son.

On Saturday, we packed up and headed out of Ft. Bragg. Our route took us through the small town of Anderson where we stumbled upon a farmers' market. Of course, we had to stop and load up with fresh produce. Further along, we came to the wine country, where the vineyards were dressed in their best fall colors--what a beautiful sight to see the rolling hills looking like a patchwork quilt made up of grape vines in green, yellow, and brown! Our last stop was the town of Calistoga, where we walked along, window shopping, until we came across a restaurant that looked promising. There we dined on clam and corn chowder soup for lunch.

I had planned to stop at a quilt shop in Napa, but when we went looking for it in the downtown area, we found most of the streets were roped off for some kind of event, so we continued on our way. The only really disappointing part of the trip was that for some reason, my husband had very little appetite, so our dining experiences were somewhat limited and frustrating. He said he felt fine, but he just wasn't hungry. By the time we got home, my own stomach was somewhat uneasy and still is, so I think we may both have had a little bit of a bug.

Although our time away was fun, it's nice to be back home again. Since I'm off work until Tuesday, I still have time to do some quilting, cooking, grocery shopping, and blogging. Oh, yeah, and the house could use a little bit of cleaning again, but I think I'll just ignore that for now. I'm off to the Sweat Shop--it feels like it's been a long time since I've been there!

I'm Ba-a-a-a-a-ack!

I missed all of you while I was gone, but we had a nice trip and saw some really beautiful scenery! I'll tell you more about it tomorrow and share a few photos. Remember, I'm not much of a photographer, so I'll have to see what photos I took that actually are worth sharing. Much of the time, I was too awestruck by the scenery, food, shopping, etc., to remember I needed to take photos to share with all of you!

Tonight, though, I'll share some photos of a few Hometown Christmas blocks. These were made by Julia, a gal here in Sacramento who is also working on the project but doesn't have her own blog where she can share them with you. Here are the blocks she's made so far:

Julia actually made two of the wreath blocks--one according to the directions in the book and one the way I made mine. They're both terrific!

Are all of you Hometown Christmas peeps working on your project? I have a Halloween quilt that I'm trying to finish quilting now, and once I'm done, I'll start on the next block, which is "due" by the 15th. For those of you playing along, feel free to either complete the last block in that first row (the cabin and tree like Julia made) or the next block in the book (the red cardinals). I think I'll work on the birds next. How about you?

Getting Ready . . .

I've spent much of the evening getting ready to go on our mini vacation, doing laundry and such. Someone I know once said they felt like a ferret on speed--yep, that's exactly how I've been feeling the last several days. It seems like I've barely had a chance to catch my breath since sometime last week. I'm sadly behind in my blog reading for one thing. Hopefully once we come home on Saturday night, I'll have a couple days to relax and get caught up on life at home.

Sharon over at Red Geranium Cottage got back from her own mini vacation and wrote me to ask whether I'd gotten the packet of patterns I won from her. Yes, indeed I did get the package, but that's all I knew at the time. Why? Because all of my mail for the last several days has piled up with no time to sort or open any of it. Finally, FINALLY tonight I did just that. Look at the great patterns Sharon sent me!

Well, look if you can--I'm really and truly a poor photographer, without a doubt. But if you can't quite make out what a nice haul I received, take my word for it! One of the patterns is actually a punch needle kit. Have you tried that yet? I haven't but I keep eyeing the patterns because they're so darn cute! Now I have a really good reason to try it. I need to get one of the needles, but maybe I can pick one up on my travels.

You may wonder what I've been busy doing that has kept me so insanely occupied. Actually, so do I! Here it is, Wednesday night, and I can't even really remember what I've been doing since sometime before last weekend. Okay, yes, I do remember going to Apple Hill. And in case I forget, I blogged about it, so I can always refresh my memory. And, of course, we made applesauce as you know--blogged about that too. The rest of last weekend is a bit of a blur although I know I worked hard because my back's still hurting along with several other joints and muscles I didn't even know I had, and for a few days, I was walking around like a 85-year-old crippled woman.

I know I spent time finishing the leaf quilt. Here it is in all its glory:

And I spent time decorating the house--I think that's what really killed my back, muscles, and joints. In fact, now that I think about it, I made a stop at Michael's on the way home from work last Friday night, and then I decorated Friday night and Sunday night, I think. While I was in Michael's, I saw an arrangement I really liked, so I bought what I needed to come close to their version. Here's mine:

Before I go, I'll leave you with a bunch of photos of the fruits of my decorating endeavors--and it appears those fruits are mostly pumpkins. Oh, yeah, and first of all, let me show you the HUGE pumpkin my husband picked out when we were up at Apple Hill. I was watching the scale when they weighed it and I know it was over 23 pounds--because I saw "23" and thought for a minute it was $23. No, I have no idea how much it actually cost because the receipt had all sorts of amounts identified as "produce," so I don't know which was the monster pumpkin. My husband loves to carve pumpkins for Halloween--when he does this one, I'll make sure to share the "after" photo.

Behave yourselves while I'm gone! I'll try to catch up with everyone on Sunday.

Apple Queen

Remember those apples we brought home from Apple Hill? Well, we've been making applesauce. My husband and I do this almost every year, because at Christmas time, we often make up food gift baskets for family members. Last year in September, we went to visit Kairle in Utah for a quilt retreat and made a stop at the Lehi Roller Mills where we bought several pancake and muffin mixes for last year's baskets. We aren't sure what we'll put together this year, but applesauce seemed like a good start.

After several years of making applesauce, my husband and I have the process down to the efficiency of a production line. When I got home from work, he had already prepared (peeled, sliced, cored) two batches of apples. Later, while he made a Starbucks run and I was cooking the second batch, I zipped out another batch.

Do you have one of these nifty contraptions? If you do anything with apples and don't have one, do yourself a favor and buy one--buy them as gifts for anyone else you know who peels apples. I've been using these for about 20 years now and this is the second one I've purchased--the first one finally gave out a couple years ago. They are super fast!

If you're interested in making applesauce and don't have a recipe, read on and I'll share mine.

First you'll need about 12 to 13 apples per batch--9 cups of peeled, cored, and thinly sliced apples. Use a pot large enough to accommodate the apples, and to that you'll add 1/2 cup of apple cider and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.

Cook over medium/high heat until the mix comes to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and continue cooking for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so.

Once the apples are cooked, add 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/8 tsp. of salt, and about 1 tablespoon of cinnamon (can you tell I don't really measure much?!). Add nutmeg if you like--it's not my favorite, so I don't. Continue to cook the apple mixture for about a minute or two.

Applesauce can be refrigerated for a week or two, or you may want to can the applesauce for longer storage. If you aren't familiar with the canning process, you may want to read up on it--I'm sure there are sources on the internet. You'll need canning jars with seals and bands, but the process is fairly simple and worth the effort. I managed to process three batches of applesauce in about an hour and a half.

Oh, and on the last batch, which we'll probably keep for ourselves, I added some raisins and blackberries, which resulted in a reddish pink applesauce. Kind of pretty to look at, and I suspect it will taste pretty good too! This chunky applesauce can also be used as a base for pie and pastry fillings. Yum!

I have another box of apples, but it will have to wait until my husband and I come back from Ft. Bragg. I'm thinking about hunting down a good recipe for apple butter or, better yet, apple pumpkin butter similar to the jar I bought at Apple Hill--that stuff is seriously good!

Going, Going, . . .

My husband and I are going away for a couple days, leaving Thursday for the coast--Ft. Bragg, California. We've had this vague idea about going to the coast in the fall for quite some time now, and about a month ago, we scheduled our days off work. For some mysterious reason, I haven't been very motivated to make specific plans, and in our family, I'm the travel planner. Do you have someone in yours who makes all the plans and arrangements?

For any normal vacation, I would have spent the last month or so pouring over travel guides and the internet, planning out where we'll go and what we'll see once we get there, and researching all the best places to eat. Oh, yes, and I would have first looked for somewhere to stay. But this time I didn't. And for some reason, most of the hotels and motels in the area are booked this coming weekend, although why that should be the case is a mystery to me.

Lodging along the coast north of San Francisco tends to be a little pricey. I've looked at what's available and read real-person reviews, and it seems no one can agree on anything. Some visitors will give a place a two star rating or less and say they'd never stay there again, while others claim the place was wonderful, and give it five stars. So, just to be on the safe side and not invest an arm and a leg for a two-night stay, I ended up booking at a Holiday Inn Express. If we enjoy our time in Ft. Bragg, we can always come back another time with a better idea of where we want to stay and what we want to do.

I've only been to Ft. Bragg one other time, and that was probably about 15 years ago. Our kids were little, money was tight, and we were on our way to a camping vacation on the northern part of the California coastline. On that occasion, I had in fact poured over travel guides and saw that Ft. Bragg had a place called Glass Beach--I thought it might be worth a stop. It was also about half way to our destination and would be a good place to grab lunch.

Back then, my husband had a small pick-up truck with a camper shell. He had bolted a salvaged bus seat into the bed of the pick up, and that was where the two kids rode. Because the back of the bed was jam packed full of camping gear, the only way for the kids to get in and out of the camper was to climb through the small window in the back of the cab. Not very conventional, I'll be the first to admit, but it worked for us.

That morning, we got on the road and headed west toward the coast. As we wound through the redwoods between Highway 101 and the coast, our son got car sick. Or maybe it was our daughter. In any event, as you can imagine, it was a mess. Whichever kid it was had to climb into the front seat and puke out the window. Did I mention there was some kind of bicycle race going on? We must have provided a sight!

By the time we arrived in Ft. Bragg, it was lunch time and we were all hungry, so we found a seafood restaurant on the harbor. The restaurant was up on wooden pilings and the windows around the perimeter of the restaurant provided a great view. Just as we were nearly finished with our lunch, an earthquake hit, the restaurant swayed back and forth on the pilings, and we all had to evacuate. I think that was the first time our kids felt an earthquake.

Having finished lunch, we headed toward Glass Beach. Driving through the rutted parking lot, looking for a parking spot, we hit a bump and knocked off the fuel pump. Or water pump. Or some kind of fairly expensive pump thingamabob. While the kids and I checked out Glass Beach, my husband went in search of the nearest phone booth and called a tow truck. We learned that all the garages in Ft. Bragg were closed for the weekend, so they had to tow our pick-up south to Ukiah for repairs. Because it was a weekend, it was hard to get the right part, and it took several hours. There wasn't much to do while we waited except sweat a lot, since it was August and the temperature was over 100 degrees.

I think we finally got out of Ukiah in the late afternoon and got back on the road for another four hours or so of driving to our campsite, where we unpacked and set up camp in the dark. Ah, those were the days!

I wonder if all this has anything to do with my lack of enthusiasm for making plans to return to Ft. Bragg? But I know there's a quilt shop or two in that area, so I guess I'll just focus on fabric. And hope Mother Nature isn't planning to shake anything up while we're there.