Sister's Choice Quilts

Cherry Garcia Brownies

I made the most amazing brownie dessert this past weekend.  Cherries are in season here, and this recipe for Cherry Garcia Brownies is reason enough to buy a bag of cherries and make these for yourself at home.

First of all, the recipe is by Delish and can be found here.  One major change I recommend is to use a 9 x 13" pan.  Do NOT use an 8" pan.  That would be a disaster. Your pan would be way too full and the cake would never bake properly.  Also, there are conflicting directions on what temperature to bake the brownies.  The video says 400 and the instructions say 350.  I think 400 would be way to hot an oven.  I did 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes.  Check after 45 minutes.  If the cake is awfully jiggly, give it a couple more minutes, but don't let it get too brown.  I also used more cherries than the recipe called for (maybe 1 1/4 cup).  I used Duncan Hines family-sized brownie mix and as I said, put it in a large pan.

You start with your basic brownie mixture and put it in your 9 x 13" pan.

Now here is where the magic happens.  You mix a large block of cream cheese with your pitted chopped cherries along with 1/2 cup of chocolate chips, an egg, some sugar and vanilla.  

I could have stopped right there, gotten out a spoon and just eaten that.  Good sense prevailed, however, and I plopped spoonfuls of it on top of the brownie mixture and swirled it around.  

Pop it in the oven and bake at least 45 minutes at 350.  You end up with the best of two worlds: hot fudgy brownies with a cherry cheesecake topping.  

Trust me, this is a really yummy dessert to make when cherries are in season.  It would also feed a lot of people if you ever have any kind of gathering in your house again.

 

The Joys of Home Baked Bread

I was struggling a bit with content ideas for today's blog post, and ended up going with exactly what is going on at my house at this point in time.

In between reading, a token effort at homeschooling, washing my hair, shopping for leopard print sandals and looking up cherry brownie recipes, I came up with this:  home bread baking.  I love to make bread at home.  Back in the day I used to make my own bread dough, complete with kneading it and the whole shebang (oh dear, does anyone say shebang anymore?  What does that even mean? I am really showing my age). At any rate, I used to make bread the old fashioned way, and remember the description of how you know the dough has been kneaded enough:  It feels like a baby's bottom.  And that's the truth.

A few years back my family gave me a bread-making machine, and I love it.  

You put all the ingredients into the machine in a certain order, close the lid and press "start" and the magic happens with no further interference from me.  I usually entertain a moment or two of guilt that I am not doing all the work myself, but it doesn't last long. 

I cannot begin to pronounce the name of my machine, but I can tell you I have had it for a couple of years and it is going great.  I won't give a recipe, because each machine probably comes with its own instructions and I just follow what the little brochure tells me to do.  The results are fabulous.

Do you make bread at home?  It is without fail, always a hit when I make the effort.  You all must excuse me now.  I have something important to do.

My Favorite Cookbooks Lately

This book is everything.  It is Slow Cooker: The Best Cookbook Ever by Diane Phillips.  And it truly is the best slow cooker cookbook I have ever used.  Without a doubt. This slow cooker book has over 400 recipes and I have yet to make one that hasn't been raved about.  You won't find many photos in this book, but if you can follow a recipe and are fairly experienced in the kitchen, you will do fine and love this book.  This is not your typical crock pot cookbook that calls for five ingredients and a can of Campbell's soup.  These recipes involve browning the meat before dumping into the slow cooker, and lots of unexpected (but tasty and not hard to find) ingredients that take each recipe to another level.  Some of my most used recipes from this book are Tarragon Chicken, Chicken with Figs and Balsamic, Chicken Tagine, Shrimp Chowder, Back Bay Corn Chowder, Chicken Mushroom and Barley Soup, Bistro Dijon Sirloin, Smothered Pork Chops....I could go on and on.  It is my most used cookbook, probably ever.

Diane Phillips is an amazing cookbook author. I have many of her books and they are all heavily used, heavily marked, and have tons of little Post It flags marking the recipes I have tried and loved.  I have her Perfect Party Food book, which is a must for any type of entertaining.  It is what I reach for when I go to a big Sunday dinner at my father's house.  That book is worth it just for the corn pudding recipe alone (Gulliver's Corn).  The book is full of make-ahead, take-along, delicious recipes that everyone always seems to like and ask for again.  It is full of salads, great suggestions for buffets, and some wonderful soups and stews.

She also has a great book called The Ultimate Rotisserie Chicken Cookbook, and another one called You've Got It Made:  Recipes to make now and bake later.  Both of those are really good as well.

This is my most recent cookbook and is already a hit with the family and me.  Step By Step Instant Pot Cookbook by Jeffrey Eisner.  Jeffrey first came to my attention on YouTube.  He has a channel called "Pressure Luck" (lol for clever title), where he does step by step recipes for the Instant Pot.  When I got my Instant Pot last year I started watching his videos and trying his recipes.  Everything I made turned out, made tons, and was enjoyed by my husband.  Now Jeffrey has a kind of corny sense of humor, but seems like a lovable teddy bear of a guy.  His first cookbook (in the photo above) was just recently published.  And you know what I really like about this cookbook?

Yes!  Photos of every single step of the recipe!  You can also go back to his YouTube channel and watch his videos as many of the recipes in his book were done on there first.  If you like your cookbooks to have photos and if you like being held by the hand and led through each step of a recipe, you will love this.  I will say that his recipes are not low calorie and often have long lists of ingredients, which doesn't scare me.  I have three Instant Pot cookbooks by other authors and this book is without a doubt the best one I have seen and used.

If you are tired of cooking the same thing all the time and want some new ideas, both these books will fit the bill.  Obviously they both call for small appliances (a slow cooker or an Instant Pot), but if you have those on hand already, you will definitely get some terrific ideas on how to use them.  Something different to do while stuck inside sheltering in place, right?  Give them a try.

I wish I got paid for recommending things, but I sure don't.  My posts are never sponsored and I only talk about things I have bought myself and love.

Rainbow Salad

I made a Rainbow Easter Salad on Sunday.  It was so colorful and delicious.  Basically, all you do is arrange rows of colorful veggies in a rainbow pattern over a bed of mixed spring greens (or lettuce of your choice.  My dressing was an orange vinaigrette: 3/4 C. of good olive oil (mine was Mandarin Orange flavored), 1/3 C balsamic vinegar (I used a white grapefruit balsamic), juice of one orange, zest of one orange, one diced shallot, salt and pepper.  I had fancy olive oil and balsamic, but that isn't really necessary.  Just use good quality olive oil and the balsamic of your choice.  It was so fresh and light and citrusy. 

Wasn't that fun yesterday to learn about different cozy mystery series?  There were some great suggestions from other readers in the comments, so I hope you read them and took notes.  Right now my reading is the pits, and a light, happy "who done it" really fits the bill.  

Are any of you able to do any gardening these days?  We had our first day of sunshine in weeks yesterday.  The temperature was cool, but we had a picnic lunch out on the back porch, and it was lovely to be outside.  I realized while we were sitting out there that in the next couple of weeks we should plant new hanging baskets and re do our planter pots in our back yard.  I am craving those spots of color and the structure of needing to feed and water them.

Do you suppose if we call ahead to our local hardware store/garden center that we could order some spring flowers?  Maybe they do curbside pick up.  I could give them a very good argument as to why flowers are essential.

 

Filling the Time

Filling time, or doing time?  We are getting by either way.  Today along with our homeschooling, we made a chocolate cake.  It starts with a cake mix, but tastes a lot fancier.  It is a Pioneer Woman recipe called Top Secret Chocolate Cake.  It was so good, as tasted and reviewed by Chef Eva.

We are also working on a jigsaw puzzle.  Donuts.  That is probably what made me think we needed cake.  I am so addicted to these darn puzzles.  I get nothing n.o.t.h.i.n.g done when we have one out.  I need to be taken by the arm and led forcefully away.  I am obsessed.

Today's Laundry Basket Mystery block could not have been easier.  We made eight 6 1/2" half square triangle blocks.  Look at my stack of blocks on the right.  I will be excited to put this together.  I am hoping I can find a border fabric that works with this quilt top.  I will have a lot of fabric leftover, maybe I can come up with a scrappy border. 

Are you doing the Moda BlockHeads 3 sew-along?  Today's block gave me the complexity I have been craving, but if you are making the block, do check out Fig Tree and Co. for some tips on making the construction easier.  At least I think the method described is easier than making so many half square triangles, as called for in the regular instructions.  Basically, you substitute square in a square blocks and flying geese for the 48 half square triangles.

Hope you all are getting along all right and are able to get what you need. 

A Tea Party and Two Meals

Week One of Social Distancing is now nearly complete and we survived.

So yesterday Eva and I got all dressed up and had a tea party.  Three kinds of tea, cucumber sandwiches, scones, lemon curd, the works.  It was just what we homebound girls needed.  You may think you have no reason to get out of your sweat pants, but just do it.  It doesn't matter if you don't leave your driveway, don't see another soul but your family, just make an occasion and celebrate family and fellowship and togetherness.  We may be stuck at home, but by golly, we can still party with one another.

We had a lovely time.  And, whew, looking at that photo, I sure do need a hair cut.  I have no idea if my hairdresser is operating these days, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that this shelter in place rule is over before my hair is down to my knees.

On another topic, what are you all cooking these days?  No excuse not to make a bit of effort since we are home all the livelong day.  I have been trying to make meals that I can get some leftovers from.  On Wednesday my husband roasted a chicken with potatoes, carrots, and onion.  It was a tiny little fellow, and we ate half of it between us.  On Thursday I took all the meat off the bones and made chicken enchiladas.  My favorite simple chicken enchilada recipe is from Dinner at the Zoo, a fun blog site.

This is my dish of enchiladas before I popped it into the oven.  I cut the recipe in half because I only had two cups of leftover chicken.  I used 10 enchiladas instead of 14.  It makes great leftovers too, in case you can't eat it in one sitting.

The superintendent of schools in our county gave his talk yesterday afternoon, and of course, no one has a clue how long school will be closed.  What he did make clear, however, was that the teachers will be providing all the learning materials either online or in physical packets.  The expectation is that every household with a child will homeschool their children with these materials for as long as we have to stay home and schools are closed.  He does not want any child to be unprepared to pass on to the next grade.

At this point, I am pretty much in awe of what these teachers have to do on a daily basis to educate our children.  Since Eva's parents are still working each day, homeschooling has fallen to me.  For the most part, I am really enjoying it, but when Eva gets tired and her attention wanders, it is more frustrating.  I am good at presenting the materials and working with her, but maybe not so good at scheduling breaks and snack times to shift gears now and then.  It isn't like I can say "Recess!" and send her out to run around in the driveway for twenty minutes.  And my goodness, is she ever missing social interaction with other children.

Are any of you homeschooling right now?  How do you meet these challenges?

 

Empanadas

I was craving something different for dinner last night and was browsing through some cookbooks for ideas.  I came upon a Pioneer Woman (Ree Drummond) recipe that she calls "Meat Pies".  It turns out they were exactly the same thing as something my Argentine cousin/sister makes that she calls "Empanadas".  Whatever you call these wonderful little hand pies, they start with a delicious meat filling.  This was a mixture of ground beef, Anaheim chilies, onion, tomato paste, and some savory spices (chile powder, cumin), shredded Jack cheese and parsley.  Making the filling is quick and easy, but then the real work begins.  Once your filling is cooled down, you have to roll out little balls of dough and fill them and shape them into turnovers.

Making 36 of these was taking forever, so I enlisted my husband's help to do the crimping and egg wash on the little turnovers.  He was an excellent crimper.  I highly recommend an assembly line process with this recipe.

Our finished "meat pies" were so pretty and quite delicious to eat.  We did our best but we only could eat about 10 of the 36 turnovers, so we are saving the leftovers to serve on Tuesday when Sara comes to dinner.  The recipe says you can freeze the finished pies and reheat later.  

The only change I would make is the following:  PW's recipe called for using frozen dinner roll dough, which you thaw, let rise and roll out to form the turnover crust.  My cousin always uses pie crust for her dough and it is better.

I hope you had a great weekend.  It was grey and dreary here, and I was having some back issues, so I took it easy.  We did venture out on Sunday afternoon and took Eva to see Dr. Doolittle, which was actually pretty funny.  Lots of "adult" jokes that would go right over the little ones' heads if you know what I mean.  We all agreed that the polar bear was our favorite animal character in the movie.

Pizza!

I have been completely obsessed with making pizza lately.  Several of you requested my recipe for pizza dough, and I plan to include it in today's post.  I'll also tell you about some of our favorite toppings so far, and what other accessories come in handy for making pizza at home.  We do not have a fancy pizza oven.  We just use our regular oven and our results have been so good.

The photo above is of a pizza challenge we did with our son Ahren when he was visiting from Ireland over the holidays.  He wanted to make pizza the way he would have to do it when he got home--that is with no fancy pizza stone or food processor for mixing the dough.  He made the dough by hand, and cooked his version of pizza in my cast iron skillet!  And you know what?  It was delicious.  You do not need any fancy stuff to make pizza in your own kitchen.  The toppings he used were marinara sauce from a jar, pepperoni slices and lots of mozzarella cheese.  The size of his pizza was determined by the size of the cast iron skillet he baked it in, which was 10".  This made for a thicker, more doughy crust, which I thought was fabulous.  You do have to preheat the pan in a 500 degree oven and then spread the dough in the blazing hot pan, which wasn't as tricky as it sounds.

Here is the recipe for pizza dough that I use.  It can be made in the food processor, which is fast and easy.  If you don't have a food processor, it can be made by hand, you just have to knead it for five minutes or so.

Pizza Dough
2 3/4 cups Bread Flour
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (one packet)
2 tsp salt (I used Kosher)
1/4 C extra virgin olive oil
1 cup warm water

Put the bread flour, yeast and salt in the processor and mix to combine.  Slowly add the olive oil, slowly add the warm water.  The dough will form a ball and whirl around in the bowl.  Process for 1-2 minutes.  Plop it out on the counter and knead it around for a couple of turns.  Form into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and let rise on the counter for 20-30 minutes.  Divide into two balls, wrap both in plastic wrap and refrigerate until you want to use.  

I make my dough in the late afternoon, let it sit in the fridge until dinner and use one ball of dough for a 12" pizza to feed my husband and I.  You can leave the second ball in the fridge for 24 hours, but if you aren't going to use it within a day, freeze it.  It unthaws quickly and tastes just fine if it's been frozen.  To roll out your dough, sprinkle some flour on your counter and roll it out to about 12 inches. You can pick it up and twirl it around like a pizza chef if you think you want to do that. It is very forgiving, but don't drop it on the floor!

   

My all-time favorite pizza is Italian sausage and mushrooms.  Cook the sausage and mushrooms separately ahead of time, spread over marinara sauce and top with lots of mozzarella cheese.  I added green onions because I had some on hand.

This one has pesto sauce, caramelized onions, pancetta and mozzarella.

I was feeling fancy and used goat cheese, cooked chicken, sauteed shallots, corn and cherry tomatoes.

I do have some accessories that I like to use which I think make the process easier.  My son would disagree and say you do not need anything other than a cast iron pan.

I have a pizza paddle which I place my rolled out dough on.  You put all your toppings on the dough and slide the whole thing off the wooden paddle onto your pizza stone.  You do dust the board with corn meal so the pizza slides off easily and does not stick.

This awful looking thing is my pizza stone.  You put it in your oven, turn the heat up to 500 degrees.  When the oven and stone are up to temperature, you slide your pizza onto it using the wooden pizza paddle shown above.

Your baking time will be anywhere from 8-12 minutes, depending on how thick your dough is, how many toppings you have piled on the dough etc.  You just have to keep checking it.  When it looks right, take it out of the oven.

I have a cookbook called Truly, Madly Pizza which has my dough recipe and lots of topping ideas.  When Ahren made his version in the cast iron skillet, he watched a Pioneer Woman video of her making cast iron pizza and how she spread the dough in the hot pan.

I hope you will try making pizza at home.  My husband and I make it a joint effort, and it has been a lot of fun.  If you do make it for yourself, do tell us about your results.

It Is All Catching Up With Me...

Christmas will be here in one week.  I still have some gifts to wrap, last-minute things to pick up, a school performance to attend, cookies to bake, menus to plan and shop for, my son arriving from Ireland today, a guest room to get ready, and I have Eva overnight because her parents are entertaining their employees.  And I am pretty sure I forgot a few things, like my manicure appointment and my date to walk with friends on Friday.

And three more of these to make:

These little triangle pouches are such fun to make, can be finished in a jiffy and people seem to love them for carrying lip balm, hand sanitizer, or even earbuds for audio devices. I attach lobster hooks on little tabs so folks can clip them to whatever.  I have given two away as teacher gifts, so they aren't in the photo, for a total of nine made so far.  I need to make three more, by my calculations and think I can just about manage that.  It is a nice little "extra" gift to tuck in a bag.  Especially if you put something fun inside it.  It is bad luck to give a zippy bag without something in it, don't you know?  If anyone is interested in a tutorial, I took lots of photos while I was constructing them, so I could do that.

Eva and I made an astonishing mess making spritz cookies for her to give her parents and grandparents in the little tins above. I found them at Savemart and think they will be perfect.  They are small, so they won't hold a ton of cookies, which is good.  The little spritz cookies will be perfect.  The lids are see-through, which is kind of fun. It is amazing how we totaled the kitchen much fun we had making those things.  I will be sweeping up sprinkles for the next six months, but it was worth it.

Oh!  And I totally forgot to share with you this adorable little wool kit I bought from Shabby Fabrics!  It arrived yesterday and I cannot wait to start it in the New Year.  The pattern is easy (beginner-friendly)  and adorable, and the wool included is so pretty.  It may have just slipped into my shopping cart while I was shopping for other people.

Are you relaxing right now and enjoying the days up to the holidays, or are you totally overcommitted and frazzled?  There must be a balance we could strive for.  I'll get the essentials done in the next two days, and then I swear, I am going to chill out and enjoy my son's visit.

Holiday Gatherings

Hope you all had a great weekend!  I got a little sewing done, and finished my piece for the snowman applique.  The snowman and his broom will go on the right in the empty space.  It will be just the right amount of wool applique to get me started.  Of course I don't have any wool yet, but the Etsy shop where I bought some has shipped it, so yippee.

We had a family gathering on Sunday night, and I was so pleased with all our decorations.  We were all decked out.

My husband, as I have said, loves holiday decorations and thinks the more we have out the better.  He recently came home from a trip down to the Monterey area with a metal tree centerpiece decoration that has holders for five candles.  I wanted to give it a bit more oomph, so I added my crazy snowmen collection around it, and I like the results.  Everyone gives me a hard time about these snowmen, but they are wonderful collectibles that I acquired in the 90's.  

I get a lot of teasing about these funny looking little guys, but they are near and dear to my heart.

I've been watching some YouTube videos on making little zippered bags, so I may attempt one this week if time allows. There is always time to make a few zippered bags before Christmas right?  We have what, nine days? Have you seen the ones that are in the shape of little triangles?  So cute.