February 2014 Recipe Challenge Results

I am really enjoying going through the recipes each week to find something new to make for dinner.  It is also nice to make things that I have had for so long.  The good news is that most of them still look appealing :) 

We had a mixed bag this month and there are several recipes that will go to the recycle bin when I finish this post.  No meal was bad, but they just weren't good enough to repeat.  Here's the rundown of what we made in February. 

The first recipe of the month was Orzo with Chicken and Asiago.  The funniest part of this recipe was trying to get the kids to find Asiago cheese in the case at Kroger - they had a hard time with the spelling & pronunciation.  We were short on orzo, so did 1/2 orzo and 1/2 pasta and it was still pretty good, but the kids weren't crazy about it.  It is a one pot meal, one dinner meal (no leftovers if all four of us ate it), which is nice every once in a while. 

Orzo with Chicken and Asiago

Next up was a pitch-in at work, so I pulled the Firecracker Brownies recipe.  I thought they would have some great secret ingredient like cayenne pepper, but they were just straight up brownies with chocolate chips and nuts.  And they were pretty dry...not nearly as good as the Betty Crocker box, so this recipe is history.  Having said that, they did all get eaten at the pitch-in! (P.S. I didn't take a picture of them - they looked like standard brownies.)

That night was the start of the winter Olympics, and I had a crock pot meal going all day to make dinner easy so we could settle in on the couch.  Hungarian Beef Stew was a big hit - it makes a nice savory stew/soup that you put over egg noodles.  The noodles also make it easy to make a swap for the kids - they had noodles for dinner without the stew. I love this use for stew meat and we are sure to make it again. 

Hungarian Beef Stew

Cashew Chicken was next on the list, and I had to buy fresh ginger for it - a first time purchase for me. I found out easily how to mince it thanks to Google. It was just as good as what we've had a Chinese restaurants, although I need to learn to moderate the spice a little more.  We all enjoyed the dish, but Jenna didn't like her cashews - no worries there, I was able to eat them for her. This recipe was from the Cuisine at Home magazine, and they don't share their recipes online, but I do recommend the magazine!

Cashew Chicken

The next meal was an easy weeknight dinner - Pasta with Chicken-Sausage Sauce.  It was okay, but just okay.  Our biggest complaint with it was that it was bland, and there was very little sauce to coat it.  Mike wound up taking leftovers for lunch and said it was better when he added sauce and spices. This is another one we won't keep to make again. 

Pasta with Chicken Sausage Sauce

We had friends over the day after Valentine's, so I made the pink dessert - Strawberry Whipped Sensation.  It was super sweet and it never did set very well.  While the picture of it in the ad was pretty, it did not look that good for me!  I will prefer to use my strawberries another way in the future. 

Strawberry Whipped Sensation

Next up was Beef Taco Skillet.  As I looked at the recipe, I realized I have (and use) another very similar to this, so I was curious to see if this would work, as it was a little easier version.  It was another one that tasted okay, but just okay. I prefer our other recipe for a taco casserole much more. 

Beef Taco Skillet

The next night was Barbecue Roasted Salmon and the same story.  We had a couple salmon dishes we really loved last year, but this one just didn't measure up.  In the end, it didn't taste very barbecue-y to me at all, and no one raised their hand to eat it when we had leftovers. (Thankfully, Mike was willing to take one for the team!)

Barbecue Roasted Salmon

Over last weekend, we had two final recipes for the month.  The first was Rosemary Chicken with Zucchini.  I was apprehensive about this one because it called for Mustard, and I don't like Mustard.  I was really prepared not to like it, but in the end I did!  And so did the rest of the family.  The kids weren't crazy about the roasted veggies, but they did okay and they really liked the chicken.  This one is another that is easy to make, but it takes an hour to cook, so you do have to plan ahead. 

Rosemary Chicken with Zucchini

The final recipe of the month was a dessert - Sugar and Spice Cake.  Jenna and I made this one together and we had a good time whipping eggs into a meringue and separating egg. It looked really pretty with the two layers, and it tasted okay...but not great. The cake part was dry.  That hasn't stopped the rest of the family from eating the leftovers though. We won't be keeping this one either. 

Sugar and Spice Cake

So, at the end of the month, we were 4 for 10, so it is a little defeating. However, it is nice to clear out a few recipes and find a few gems.  We'll keep at it in March! Let me know if you try any of them and how you like them. 

It's Done!

I just have to share a quick post to show you the finished Stained Glass Log Cabin quilt top! Yay, after 7 years (give or take), most of which was spent in a cabinet, I am so pleased with this top. 

Several people have asked about the pattern and it is in this book.  My mom gave it to me when I was new to quilting as I just loved log cabin quilts (still do). This is the first quilt I've made from the book.  

I do have to say that log cabin quilts are tedious. I love the end result (see the other one I've made here), but actually find them quite boring to piece - strip after strip and it takes a long time - and a lot of cutting - to see the final result.  Having said that, I know that I have a few more log cabins in my future! 

Stash Report - Weeks 6-9 2014

I haven't done a stash report since the beginning of the month because there hasn't been anything to report, so we'll call this the "no report stash report."  The good news is that it means that I have been working on my goals for the month, which include doing lots of quilting and getting a UFO into a top.  

My goal for this weekend is to get my stained glass log cabin into a finished top and I am pretty close.  I decided that I should chunk it together rather than put the rows together because the blocks are all sized and trimmed a little differently.  This started as a bee project, where each person in the bee made one block, so the full set of blocks was made by about 15 different people.  If you've ever worked on a project with blocks from multiple people, you know that no one makes the same size blocks! 

I divided the quilt into four sections and pieced each section together, and today I will join those sections into the top. 

No shopping or cutting have happened over the whole month of February, so my stash report stats haven't changed one bit.  I am headed out to my bee retreat next Sunday afternoon, so I should have some cutting to report soon. I haven't yet done any pre-cutting, but must get to it this week so I can be efficient at retreat. 

Fabric added last 4 weeks: 0 yards
Fabric used last 4 weeks: 0 yards

Fabric added year to date: 5 1/8 yards
Fabric used year to date: 5 1/4 yards

Net fabric used 1/8 yard

Hopefully I will have something to report next week! 

Design Wall Monday - President's Day 2014

After doing almost no sewing over the weekend, I got to it this morning since I had the day off and had to make myself scarce while the cleaning ladies took care of making the house look beautiful. Rather than quilting, which is what I've been doing the most of lately, I decided to pull out my log cabin blocks so that I could finish them up.  I got all the piecing, pressing, and trimming done, and they are now up on my design wall...and trailing onto the floor.  

Blocks on the wall...and the floor

It is a fun mix of blocks and I am really looking forward to getting them into a top! I did the math when I was working on them and figure that I started this project in 2006.  I think that it will be much better for having rested a few years, as I now have more variety of fabrics.  

Hope you had (or will have) a chance to do some sewing on this President's Day.

The story of some cats

Back in November, Elizabeth over at Oh Fransson posted that she was going to host a catventquiltalong for the month of December, with a new cat released daily for 25 days.  I thought the finished quilt was cute and showed it to Jenna, who fell in love! I told her I'd make it for her as long as she helped, and she did. 

First up was to pick the colors. Jenna sorted through my scraps and decided on pink, purple, teal/blue, yellow, and green.  Her color matching was excellent, and I had a good stack of each color to work from. 

25 cats all ready to become a top

I started off a little late and worked through the month of December, but didn't get my blocks done until the first of this month. The fun part of working on this quilt is that I pulled out my leftover pieces from Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt from last year (Easy Street) and used them as leader/enders. I made some good progress on this and think that it will become a small wall/lap quilt. 

Easy Street Leftover blocks

Once I had all the blocks on the design wall (in order of how they were released), I sent Jenna down to arrange the blocks however she wanted, and she came up with a very cute layout. 

Jenna's layout

I finished up the top last week and really like the result, and she absolutely loves it.  I have a couple other quilts in the queue in front of this one, but I know Jenna won't let me forget to get it quilted - she can't wait to have it in her room. 

Finished top

The other fun thing about this quilt was playing along on Instagram. Everyone working on it used the hashtag #catventquiltalong and there are some pretty creative projects from it. If you'd like to follow my adventures on Instagram, you can find me at @jenquilter - hope to see you there!  

January 2014 Accomplishments

I really started things off well in January - on the 1st, I quilted a wall hanging and made three kitty blocks.  After that, I had to go back to work and it turned into a bitter cold + snowy month.  Those two factors together had me snuggling on the couch under a quilt more than working on a quilt! 

I did manage to make progress on several things that should be finished in Feb or March, and wound up with a respectable 17 1/2 hours sewing.  Here are the things I got done: 

- Quilted and bound Winter Wonderland wall hanging

Wall hanging

- Finished first section of stained glass log cabin blocks and trimmed them to be ready for the next section, started piecing the next section. 
- Loaded and started quilting my Oriental French braid

Quilting in progress

- Made a pet bed and sewed up 2 others

Pet beds

- Cut out all the cats and pieced all but 6 of them (shown here with all the cats done)

February will look like more of the same - I really would like to get these projects finished up before I go on to new ones.  I posted my four goals for the month earlier, and I am continuing to plug away at them. 

Cooking in January - 2014

The cooking challenge has changed slightly this year.  Now that I've gone through almost all of my cookbooks, it is time to work through the next big thing - the giant envelope of cut-out recipes.  These include recipes from friends, from magazines, from the side of boxes or cans, the coupon section, etc. etc. 

After digging through the recipes the first week, I decided that I needed to do a little organizing to make the process work better. So, on one of my days off, I sorted all the recipes into five folders - appetizers/breads/sides, main dishes, drinks, breakfast/brunch, and desserts. I am not surprised that the dessert folder is the biggest...we could probably make a new dessert every 2-3 nights and just barely get through it in the year. The next fullest folder is the main dish one, which is good because that's how we do the majority of our cooking. 

I hosted my bunco group in January, which made it easy to start. I picked an appetizer recipe and a dessert. 

The appetizer was Parmesan-Scallion Pastry Pinwheels. I'd never used the pastry sheets before, but found them to be easy to use and the appetizer was great - there wasn't a single one left at the end of the night. 

Pastry Pinwheels

The dessert was Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake.  I love a bundt cake and this one delivered. Two of my guests don't like coffee at all and they couldn't taste the small amount that goes into this. I will admit that I couldn't find a cake mix without the pudding in it, so I just used a smaller box of pudding with the mix. It seemed to turn out fine and I don't remember anyone turning it away! 

Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake

For dinner later that week, we had Slow Cooker Beef and Bean Burritos, which were heavenly. Mike said the house smelled great when he arrived home and the meal was fantastic. I have decided that every time I see a London Broil on sale from now on, I am buying it to make these! I must have been too busy eating to take a picture of these...

The next dinner was from a hand-written recipe from my former boss. She must have brought it to a pitch-in or maybe just told me about it. It doesn't even have a name on it, so I am going to call it the Chicken Tortilla bake.  It was quite good but I think it would almost do better as a dish at a pitch-in or a party because it isn't that substantial. We paired it with veggies for dinner.  

After we made that, we tried individual apple dumplings made with crescent rolls. They were fun to make with the kids and very tasty! I even sent a few to my mom's with the kids the following morning and they had them for breakfast. 

Gooey Apple Dumplings

The last recipe for the month was Ham and Peas Casserole. It was a great dinner! Everyone in the house liked it and it was a nice change of pace from the casseroles we usually make since eggs and cornbread were the "guts" of it.  This one will be going into our rotation, and it would be great for a brunch recipe too. 

Overall, we were 6 for 6 this month - I think we will make all the recipes again!