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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

The Power Of The Apron...

I just love the chickens and eggs on the apron!
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Apron is about sharing and one of the things we have been sharing are recipes. Marcia made and shared a pastry treat that got my attention on one of her posts called Pastelitos de guayaba. I hope I have that correct.  Click here to see Marcia's post. They looked so delicious and her directions are very easy to follow. 
I felt that I had to make these while I had the apron. Thank you Marcia for introducing me to this new dessert. I had never tried guava paste before. I found it in our grocery store in the international isle with the Goya products. They were so easy to make that I didn't mind spending time in the kitchen. I actually felt like I was crafting something while assembling the little food art squares. They look, smell, and taste amazing. 
The power of the apron - trying something new.
 You will need these things...
You will get this result - YUM! 

Monday, November 26, 2012

Traveling Apron And Tradition

 I mentioned previously that I prefer to not spend too much time in the kitchen. I'd rather wear an apron to do crafting. However I do cook and during the holiday's I spend a little more time in the kitchen. There are a few traditional side dishes that my family loves to eat during certain holidays. One favorite is potato filling. I once thought everyone everywhere had heard of potato filling but I learned a few years ago that it's a Berks County, PA dish. My mother-in-law, Helen, gave me the recipe I use for the filling over 41 years ago. Wow! That is a lot of potato filling making, isn't it?
I'm also going to share my pie dough recipe because I am told that my pie dough is very flaky and tasty.  I'm so glad that my turn with the apron has fallen during this time of year.
PIE DOUGH
2 cups + 2 Tbsp Flour
3/4 cup shortening
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. lemon juice or vinegar
1/4 tsp. olive oil
pinch of baking powder
6 Tbsp. cold water
Cut together flour, shortening and salt using a pastry blender or a fork until crumbly. Remove 1/3 cup of the blended mixture from the bowl. Pour it into a 1-cup measuring cup; add water, lemon juice (or Vinegar), and olive oil. Stir. Add baking powder to the dry mixture bowl, stir slightly. Pour contents of the measuring cup into the dry crumbles. Gently cut together. Form dough into a ball. Roll out dough on a lightly floured board. Makes 2 pie shells.  

I made all the dough for our pie shells. But I must confess that I'm sharing the apron with my daughter.  She actually prepared all the pie fillings this year.    
Additional my granddaughter helped to chop and fry the onions, celery and bread cubes. Oh, how I like help with cooking. 
 Pecan Pie
 One of two pumpkin pies
Helen's POTATO FILLING
1  1/2 scant cup chopped celery
1 scant cup chopped onion
15 medium to small potatoes
4 cups of bread cubes
2 eggs 
 parsley sprig
milk as needed
butter as desired
salt and pepper
Fry onion and celery until clear, not brown. Fry bread cubes until slightly brown. Cook potatoes until soft. Mash, adding milk, butter, salt and pepper as desired. Pour mashed potatoes into a butter baking dish. Add remaining ingredients and stir until well blended. Bake in a 325 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Click here to read more about the traveling apron.
I hope you enjoy the recipes and please let me know if you try them.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Giving Thanks

The apron arrived in time to help me prepare a few Thanksgiving side dishes to take along to my brother's.  We had a delicious meal and a great time with family and friends yesterday. 
The Pink Saturday theme for this week is Giving Thanks
I have so much to be thankful about. I could go on and on and I would mention all the things most people are thankful for like their families, friends, a home, electric, water, freedom, etc. 
I truly am thankful to God for all the blessings in my life. 
Here in blogland I'm thankful for my blog sisters. This week I was blessed with receiving gifts from my sisters. The first gift to arrive was the Traveling Sisterhood Susan Apron from Marcia at The Little Shop Around The Corner. I've been invited to join the Sisterhood Of The Traveling Susan Apron; you can read about the adventures of the apron in my previous post (click here)
Below are some photos of the package Marcia sent. As you will see there was much more than an apron inside the package.  There was magic!

 The apron, a note book and a wrapped gift.
Marcia made me this gorgeous box

Looking inside the box
special trinkets
A beautiful hand stamped birthday card (card by Patti's Pretty Things.)  
Fairy Dust
It was even tapped with a special glittery tape
 
 Marcia knows how much I like the beach


A journal

 My grandkitty, Penny, practically stood on top of me while I opened the package. She never pays any attention to Catnip but she loved the wonderful aroma on the tissue paper and laid on it the rest of the day.
And if that wasn't enough two days later I received another package from my Secret Blog Sister. Awesome!

I will be sharing a few of my recipes in the next post. 
Thank you my sisters for the sunshine mail!
Please stop by to visit Beverly at How Sweet The Sound

Friday, November 16, 2012

We Gather Together ~ A Sisterhood

We Gather Together
is the theme for Beverly's Pink Saturday Blog Party this week. 
I'm sure Beverly had Thanksgiving in mind when she planned her theme list and it was my intention to post about my plans for our traditional family gathering on Thanksgiving Day. And I have included our plans in this post.
However I want to share news about another gathering I've been chosen to be part of. To gather is the bringing together in one place or group; accumulate; to collect by picking; are a few of Webster's definitions for the word gather. Perfect for the theme of gathering together for Thanksgiving and magically perfect for the invitation I received this week from Marcia at The Shop Around The Corner to be the next recipient of the Traveling Susan Apron. She picked me to join the sisterhood group. I'm honored and excited to gather together with the sisterhood in sharing the magic of the apron.
The apron was made by Susan at My Mother's Apron Strings. Susan is a special lady who not only posts a lot of delicious recipes she also makes aprons and gives one away every month!  Yes, you read that right, every month she gives away one of her beautiful aprons!
Now, way back in the month of March I believe it was, Meggie from Meggie On The Prairie won Susan's apron give away. Meggie felt that the apron held some magical qualities and she wanted to share its magic with her friends and so she began The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Susan Apron. Please stop by to visit these special ladies and read their stories about the apron.  The apron is scheduled to reach me in time for my Thanksgiving cooking. I will share pictures of the apron and my story in future posts. If you want to see pictures now and if you would like to check out some great recipes click on my sister's links.
We will be gathering at my brother's home with his family and some family friends on Thanksgiving Day. We ( my daughter and I) will be bringing a few traditional dishes to add to the turkey and vegetables. I make a potato filling and we bake a few pies, this year we'll be making pecan and pumpkin pies. One other thing I love to make for our gathering is a favor for each guest. This year I made match box favors pictured below. Each decorated box contains a set of mini Thanksgiving sentiment cards and (of course) a piece of  chocolate. The boxes could sit at each place setting or they can be used as napkin holders. I'll let my sister-in-law make the decision when we set the table.

The turkey graphic is from the Graphics Fairy and the sentiment cards are from http://www.skiptomylou.org/2010/11/16/10-free-printables-for-thanksgiving/
Visit Beverly at How Sweet The Sound
Happy Pink Saturday!
And wishing you all a  gathering of love (mixed with a bit of magic) on Thanksgiving Day!

Friday, November 9, 2012

Autumn - A Friend Is...

Last week Sandy took out our electric for several day. I'm so grateful to God that the only damage to our home was the loss of our refrigerated food. I also feel so blessed to have a wonderful friend who invited us to stay with her until our electric was restored. We are home, things are mostly back to normal, and here I am linking up to my favorite party, Pink Saturday. Click here to visit Beverly's Pink Saturday party. 
Before you leave to visit Beverly I want to mention another friend some of you may know, it's June from Dezinaworld. June has a new blog and she is trying to find her old blog friends and make some new ones as well. Please click here to  find her new blog, June's Joy. I love this quote June on her new blog post.
Below are a few photos I took before the storm.
A display at a local gardening center 
 Pumpkins on my porch
 Neighborhood horses enjoying a fall day.

Happy Autumn!