May 22nd, 2020

Something's happened in the kitchen during our coronavirus quarantine.  All of a sudden, bread making is popular, and not just for subsistence!  No, you can see pretty bread loaf pictures all over websites, like a new art form!  Well, I've been trying to buy yeast since mid-March so I could try my hand at the bread dough.  No yeast on the shelves for me!  So I have dialed back in time to bring out this everyday product that's been there all the time....

Rhodes frozen bread dough!  Now, I can get the scent of fresh bread without scrambling around trying to beg, borrow or steal some yeast!  These 2 were just regular white bread, for starters.  It made us both happy, even though we did have a little talk about who needs the crust pieces most.  Luckily, there are 2 per loaf, so that settled that!

Pan-Roasted Chicken Thighs from the Pioneer Woman. (Not my picture)

Looks good enough to eat, right?  While we're in the kitchen with that bread, here's a great dish to try that doesn't take a lot of special ingredients, because who wants to run to the store for fennel?  Or eye of newt?
This is a recipe from my Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook.  Her cookbooks are full of step-by-step photos.  She has a Food Network show and a big website full of resources, including things other than cooking.  Like ranching.
Click on the picture for a link to the recipe.  So if you don't want to buy the book at this moment, you can still whip up a good dinner tonight!

We're not always in the kitchen.  There are chunks of time for knitting while watching a movie or RV show or just the news, if you aren't already tired of that.  Here's something I just finished -- a new pair of socks for myself!  They feel so good, and will feel even better next fall and winter.  They are made from Rose Sport weight merino wool, made by Primrose Yarn Co., purchased in Charlotte, NC.  This color is named Undergrowth.  The pattern I use is a beginner sock pattern from my friend, Thora Lee.  I shortened the leg section this time because I am liking that better now.  I am no by means very experienced in making socks, but I know enough to fix my mistakes when I have to!

I've been toying around with the idea of making some fabric collage pieces, since I have lots of things to choose from right here at home.  This is my first little project.  It's not very big, and I mounted it on an artist canvas for hanging up.  The collage idea is not new, in fact, I remember doing it when I was a teenager, using pictures cut from magazines and glued onto the sides of a painted milk can to make a stool.  I wondered where that ended up?  I thought it was very cool!  Anyway, making fabric collages is a specialty of Laura Heine, a designer from Billings, MT.  She has a store, Fiberworks, in Billings as well as an online store.  She has put together many fun and quirky patterns that can be purchased, and I have a couple of them.  However, the idea struck me that I could make something small and personalized using her instructions, so that's what I did.  So that's been a fun little project to create.

I've also been inspired to make some new throw pillow covers, both for at home and for family.  Pretty easy and rewarding.  However, I find it hard to actually use them!  I don't want them to get squished or wrinkled!  The pillow on the right is a fabric panel print with the USA map in a whimsical sort of style.  The fabric was designed by Basic Grey for Moda, the line was called Metropolis and is 2 years old, I think.  I've done a little online searching but haven't found it yet.
The pillow on the left is made from my stash fabrics, using a "quilt as you go" technique that's fun to do.  There is a good tutorial on Youtube that I used to get started.  This method is used for some of the designer's bag patterns for Sotakhandmade, her pattern store.  I'm really loving that color of greenish gold that sometimes looks like bile.  Doesn't sound very appealing, but the color is right!

Because I never sew just one project at a time, I also never knit just one project at a time!  The kinky mess you see above is my nearly finished Phiaro Scarf with linen yarn from Lakeside Yarn in Excelsior, MN.  The shop has been renamed, BE at Lakeside, but still in Excelsior.  This is kind of an odd pattern because you first do a whole bunch of simple knitting, then you unravel sections of that knitting to make open bands running through the scarf/shawl.  The unraveled portion is all kinky when the knitting is removed, but does straighten out with blocking, a fancy name for wetting and flattening it.  I'm not all done yet, but I'll try to remember to snap a picture of the finished scarf to show you.  The pattern also involves cutting into the knitting, and I put that off for quite awhile.  Taking a scissors to my knitting is very abnormal!

One more easy little project that I made is this little picture to hang in our trailer.  It actually started out as a dish towel with the words and trimming, purchased at one of the Buckee's truck stops in Texas.  I had to shift around a few things to make it the right size, and then stapled it onto an artist canvas.  It really says it all!