Oh Boy...

Thursday, June 4, was the last day of school, which makes my baby boy a SENIOR in high school. I am not sure when he grew up...I, of course, have not aged at all.

Here he is, touring the Indiana University campus last spring.

Dinner Party Planning...

The dinner party is tonight and I am still making plans.

I think we will start out with cheese, crackers & wine on the back porch. Yesterday I made a quick run to Trader Joe's. {So lucky to have Trader Joe's!} They have a great selection of cheese so I picked up some Saint Andre and Double Cream Champignon. We also have a 1/2 wheel of Maytag Blue Cheese. This combined with crackers and some red grapes will make a great starter.

For dinner we are having a salad, grilled pork tenderloin, asparagus, and heavenly potatoes. What are Heavenly Potatoes, you ask? Well... our friends Pete & Peg love to be in the kitchen and they often cook for friends. They share the best recipes! So here is a great recipe for heavenly potatoes, but I like to call them...

Pete's Potatoes

3 lbs russet potatoes, pricked with fork
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup whipping cream
3 oz Gruyere cheese, grated
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Garnish:
chopped fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place potatoes directly on oven rack and bake 45-60 minutes, or until easily pierced with fork. Remove from oven, cool slightly, and halve lengthwise. Grease 13 x 9 x 2 inch or 3 quart baking pan. Scrape out potato flesh. Discard peels or save for another use. Mash potato flesh with electric blender or hand mash until smooth. Add butter and milk and stir until blended. Spread in prepared pan.

Increase oven temperature to 500 degrees. With electric mixer, whip cream to soft peaks and fold in Gruyere by hand. Spread evenly over potatoes and sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake until heated thoroughly and topping is golden brown, about 10 minutes. Garnish with parsley and serve warm.

{YUM}

The great thing about these potatoes is that they can be prepped way ahead of time and popped in the oven when needed.

For dessert I think I'll make a trifle. Since blueberries are so good right now... how about...

Blueberry Lemon Trifle

3 cups fresh blueberries, divided
2 cans (15-3/4 ounces each) lemon pie filling (or make it from the box)
2 cartons (8 ounces each) lemon yogurt
1 prepared angel food cake (8 inches), cut into 1-inch cubes
1 carton (8 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed

Set aside 1/4 cup blueberries for garnish. In a large bowl, combine pie filling and yogurt. In a 3-1/2-qt. serving or trifle bowl, layer a third of the cake cubes, lemon mixture and blueberries. Repeat layers twice. Top with whipped topping. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Garnish with reserved blueberries.

I served this at book club one time and it was a big hit.

Now I just need to decide on a salad. Something simple... I think I'll call Peg and ask her.

Oh-Cherry-Oh Giveaway...

Before I run off to Rockin' Bobbins, Anina of Twiddletails is having a giveaway! It is a Moda charm pack of the Oh-Cherry-Oh variety. All you have to do is answer one interesting question in the form of a comment.

Sewing to Share...

I should be cleaning and prepping for tomorrow night's dinner guests, but a cup of coffee with you is much more fun.

My quilting group the Rockin' Bobbins meet tonight. We are still exchanging nine patches for a scrappy reproduction quilt. In the last 2 days I whipped up my contribution for the month of June. This is probably one of the few times I wasn't completing my required sewing an hour before the meeting.

While I am at it I thought I would show you a couple of nearly completed projects {sans binding}.

This is a quilt I made for my sister's birthday.

{That's right... her birthday is in November... I'm a little late.}

There is a funny story behind this quilt. Last October, while traveling to Homestead Cabin Retreat (that is to Wisconsin from Indiana), my sister Jeanne(from Iowa) met me in Rockford, IL at The Quilter's General Store. Are you still with me? Anyway, Jeanne doesn't quilt, she barely sews. One time she was going to make a table runner with fabric, trim, and a glue gun {that CRACKS me up}! But I digress. This quilt was on display at the store and there was one kit left. Jeanne purchased the kit and asked me to make it for her birthday. I agreed. So I went on my merry way to the retreat, then traveled home and tossed all my quilting stuff into my sewing room. November rolled around and I asked Jeanne what she wanted for her birthday. {She always says my homemade gifts are best.} " The quilt,"was her reply. "What quilt?" I said. "THE quilt!" she retorted. I had no idea what she was talking about. She reminded me WHAT quilt. "OH... that will have to wait," I answered sheepishly. And we had a good laugh complete with giggles and a few snorts.

{True Confessions: This is pretty typical of me. I still have the t-shirt quilt to complete. Jeanne gave me the t-shirts, cut out and ready to go, last July. Shameful isn't it?}

Here is another quilt, bound to get done at some point. {Highly questionable quilting pun.}

This quilt is mine, mine, all mine!

Have a good day and get in a few laughs if you can!

What's Up Wednesday...

It is hump day; well we used to call it that when I worked full time. You know, middle of the week, get over the hump, it is downhill from here sort of thing. I was thinking the rest of the week will be cake… and I could get in my sewing room, maybe organize {clear a path to the machine} and sew a little. Then the husb told me over coffee this a.m. that he’d like to invite 3 colleagues and their spouses for dinner Friday night. {YIKES} I need to clean and plan a menu. It wouldn’t hurt to get some weeding done and plant the rest of my flowers. And the windows could be done too. I’d better add cleaning out the frig.

OH BROTHER!

I did manage a little sewing last night. I whipped together the last graduation pillowcase. And I worked on my Civil War Era 9 patches – I can’t wait to get that quilt done. It’s gonna be a good one! I do need to get some sewing done because the Rockin’ Bobbins meet tomorrow night. Per usual, I’ve put off my required sewing until the last minute.

Whatever…

Guess what… I went to WW and the scale was very good to me. I was down 3 pounds. This… after the Infectious Disease dinner and 3 graduation parties. I can’t tell you all the goodies I passed up. REALLY. I was so happy I sent text messages to the near world to tell them about it {now I am letting the blogworld know}. This begs the question … who am I trying to convince I can do this? The entire universe or Me?

Now, I have been giving my blog some thought. My original intention was to share my quilting and knitting projects and sprinkle in a few recipes. But I find myself blah-blah-blogging about other mundane details of my life. I know I am not that interesting, so let me offer up an apology, but for me… blogging is cheaper than therapy.

Thanks for listening!

Book Club...

When we moved here, the wife of the man that hired the husb invited me to join her book club. I jumped at chance, as I knew no one - and well, it is always so great to feel like a part of something. It is funny, historically I almost never read {besides People magazine and cookbooks}. Between working full-time, being scarred in the second grade with poor reading comprehension, and the burden of a father who taught Senior English and was probably the most well read man in Illinois... I didn't have the time or inclination. But for nine years I have been reading along {Dad would be so proud of me} with group of wonderful women and have a fabulous friendship with Marianne.

The book club meets on random Sunday afternoons and we choose books and meeting dates as we go. It is really quite informal and I like that because I have heard of book clubs where participants are basically shunned for not finishing a book. We are just happy to see one another. Well...I have missed the last 2 get togethers and have not been keeping up. But I sat with Marianne at an Infectious Disease Dinner {clarification: a graduation dinner for the ID department} and got the details from the last meeting.

We are reading Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore.
I am excited because I picked up this book at the the Women Of Faith conference last August and I haven't read it. {I have a stash of books - but it in no way rivals my fabric stash...Hmmmm maybe my yarn stash.}

Our book club is always looking for a good book. Let me know if you have suggestions. We may have read it, but discussing books is always fun.

Read on...

Can it be June already???

It is June 1 and with 4 days of school left, summer break is almost here. My plans for the summer are ambitious.

Take Charlie to Chicago to catch a plane for Germany.

(Have I told you he is going for 3 weeks as an exchange student at an all girl school? Really, what more could a 17 year old American boy want?)

Visit my sister and celebrate her youngest son’s high school graduation.

{Congrats Riley!}

Spend a week in northwest Iowa on a lake with Iowa friends. Can’t wait!

Spend a week with Mom…and possibly see my niece baby Emerson!

Spend a second week in Iowa for

Registers Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa.

Meet Laurie in Wisconsin for a quilting retreat at

Homestead Cabin Retreat.

Take a long weekend RV trip to Mackinac Island (last summer we hit Niagara Falls).

Plus I have quilts to finish, others to start, books to read, and wine to open. I think I’d better get started today!

xxoo



PS... Happy Birthday Mary!!!