Fresh Tomato Salsa

This is a classic red salsa with a delicious fresh taste.  I prefer a hand food processor so the salsa is still a little chunky.  It is much easier to control the cutting when using a hand food processor.  They sometimes are hard to find in stores, but you can easily find them at Amazon.com.  Try to get one with a curved blade - they cut more easily.

Fresh Tomato Salsa

          1/2 orange, juiced                                 1/2 Tbsp salt

          1/4 lime, juiced                                     1/2 small jalapeno, sliced (remove seeds for mild)

          2 cloves garlic, minced                          1/4 med onion, cut into chunks

          10 sprigs of cilantro                               4 med roma tomatoes, cut in chunks

Place all ingredients except tomatoes in food processor and cut into fine pieces.  Add tomatoes and process until tomatoes are in small pieces, but still chunky.  (If using electric food processor, be careful to just pulse a few short times.)  Serve immediately or refrigerate until  serving.  Also delicious with avocado.  Just cut an avocado into small pieces and stir into salsa by hand.  Enjoy!

                                        

         

         

         

Fresh Peach Pie

There is nothing like fresh peach pie!  In this recipe, since only the sauce is cooked and not the peaches, you get a wonderful fresh peach taste.  Add whipped cream or vanilla ice cream and the "peaches and cream" taste is amazing!  You can use a store bought crust or the pie crust recipe below which is easy (and inexpensive) to make and nice and flaky.

Fresh Peach Pie

                    1 - 9" pie crust, cooked                   2 large peaches, mashed
                    1 c sugar                                          1/2 tsp pure almond flavoring
                    4 Tbsp cornstarch                            2 Tbsp butter
                    1/3 c water                                       3-4 large peaches, sliced

In large saucepan, mix together sugar and cornstarch.  Add water and peaches.  (Peaches can be easily peeled if you first submerge them in simmering water for 15-20 seconds.)  Cook at medium heat stirring until sauce thickens and looses opaque look.  Remove from heat and stir in almond flavoring and butter.  Cool.  (Can use ice bath to hurry process.)  Spread a small amount of sauce to cover bottom of pie crust.  Fill crust with sliced peaches.  Spoon rest of sauce over peaches, covering to edges to seal.  Place wax paper over top and refrigerate for 2-3 hours until chilled and set.  Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.  Enjoy!

Flaky Pie Crust

                    2 c flour                                            1 c Crisco shortening

                    1 tsp salt                                           1/2 c cold water

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.  Mix flour and salt together in medium bowl.  Cut in shortening with a fork or pastry blender until the shortening is broken up into small pea size pieces.  Add water and gently combine until it starts to stick together.  Do not over mix or knead!  Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.  Roll into a ball and divide in half.  Flour surface and roll into circle big enough to hang over pie pan.  Fold in half, then half again and gently pick up and place in pie pan.  Unfold gently.  The crust will tend to shrink as it cooks, so make sure not to stretch the crust in the pie pan.  Prick the bottom and sides generously with a fork to prevent bubbles while cooking.  Cook for 10-12 minutes until light golden brown.  Cool.  Makes 2 pie shells. (For cooked pies, fill pie shells before cooking and follow pie instructions for baking.)

Springville Art Museum Quilt Show - 2012

I'm lucky to live in a city that is nicknamed "Art City".   We have an amazing Art Museum that has a quilt exhibition every year.  Here is just a sampling of some of the amazing quilts!

This is "Tree of Life" by Laura Delis.

The details are intricate and beautiful.

 This is a fun quilt called "Busy Bees" by Shauna Mooney Kawasaki using lace t-shirts, drawn & colored insects, crocheted flowers and beads.

What creativity!

I love traditional quilts.  This one, called "Modern Pine Burr" was made by Konda Luckau and Machelle Hansen and quilted by Kaylene Parry.

Detail of the amazing quilting.

Xenia Driggs Stirland made this award winning quilt called "No Place Like Home".

Isn't this a creative use of yo-yo's?

"My Favorite Town Square" by Judy S. Fitzgerald, quilted by Xenia Stirland.

Look at the fun details in this quilt.

Kathy Ann Porter made this collage quilt named "Blue Fish".  Love the ocean wave border.

She used transparent Setacolor paints, Shiva paint sticks, crystals and beads for the embellishments.

A beautiful quilt titled "Celtic Twilight: by Kristen White Webb.  Love the graphic movement.

   Another quilt by Kathy Ann Porter called "Tree of Life Doodle".

Look at all the amazing embellishments!

This was made by Marian E. Eason for a quilt challenge about a play on words.  Can you guess what play on words she used for this incredible quilt?  "Bird Brain".  How clever!

"Jane's Garden" by Lisa M. Schetselaar.  These Jane quilts are fantastic - but I don't think I'm crazy enough to try one yet.

This embroidery quilt is by Charlene Nelson titled "Bats Surrounding Hocuspocusville".  This picture doesn't show the amazing embroidery unfortunately.   Aren't the wacky flyinggeese great?!

Every embroidery block has such fun details.  What a great Halloween quilt!

"Autumn's Glory" by Lisa J. Tucker.  Wonderful use of color and technique.

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Jacqueline Thomas made this "Dancing Among the Dutch" Baltimore Album quilt using the hand needle turn method.  Quilted by Denae Hansen.

Perfect choice of fabrics for this look and wonderful quilting.

Another applique quilt with a totally different look.  This one is LuAnn Carlson's "My Whimiscal Quilt Garden" quilted by Carmen Geddes.  LuAnn used the machine applique method.

Don't you just love how quilts are all so different?

A striking quilt by Megan C. Legas titled "Amalgamation".  

Even though machine quilting can be amazing, there is just something about hand-quilting.

This pictorial quilt is by Susan McBride Gilgen and is named "Emma's Vigil at Cumorah II" using hand dyed & batik fabrics.  Wow!  Too bad these pictures don't do the quilts justice.

The quilting detail is amazing!

Another beautiful traditional quilt titled "French Nosegay" by Marilyn Landry Toone.

Close up of the wonderful hand quilting.

Lisa Brothman made this "Black Medallion" quilt using only black fabric.  All of the color in this quilt comes from the thread!

She uses her home machine for all of the quilting and couched cording to separate the medallion rounds.

Here is the quilt that won Best of Show.  Sorry the lighting isn't the best, but it is an incredible quilt with beautiful colors.  It was made by Helen Butler and is named "Millie's Quilt".   Can you see the block that looks like the truffala trees in the Dr. Suess books?

She used the needle turn hand applique method.  

She also does her quilting on her home machine (yes, even this big quilt) and used metallic thread and 100% poly invisible thread.

A look at the back where the quilting really shows up.  Notice that cute label?

There were so many wonderful quilts - too many to put here, but I hope you enjoy the sampling of the many different techniques and the wonderful creativity of these quilters.  If you are a quilter, try something new and stretch your abilities.  You'll be surprised at what you can achieve!

Baked Basil Layered Zucchini

My mom was a pro at making dinner from what we had in the garden or frig.  This dish is one of my favorite zucchini dishes.  She didn't have a recipe for this one - she just threw it together, so I hope I have come close.  Our zucchini and tomatoes are coming on in the garden, so I just had to make this.

All you do is cut the zucchini and put in the bottom of a 9" x 13" pan, then add the onions and tomatoes.  Sprinkle generously with basil.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Then sprinkle the top with cheese (you could use cheddar too) and cooked bacon pieces.  I use the pre-cooked bacon because it is easy, but you can cook the bacon.  Just don't cook till crispy because it will cook more in the oven.  Use kitchen scissors and cut bacon into small pieces.  Cover with foil and cook in pre-heated oven at 400 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until zucchini is soft.  Take off foil for the last 10 minutes to crisp up the bacon.

There you go - a delicious vegetable side dish.  Enjoy!

  Baked Basil Layered Zucchini

          4 medium zucchini, cut lengthwise, then in 1/4" slices

          1/2 medium onion, sliced

          3-4 medium tomatoes, sliced

          basil, salt & pepper to taste

          8 slices bacon, partly cooked, cut into small pieces

          1 heaping cup mozzarella cheese (can also use cheddar or combination)

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.  Spread zucchini in bottom of 9" x 13" pan.  Layer onions then tomatoes on top.  Sprinkle generously with basil.  Add salt & pepper to taste.    Sprinkle with cheese and bacon pieces.  Cover with foil and bake for 30-35 minutes until zucchini is soft.  Check at 20 minutes to see if zucchini is almost cooked.  Uncover for last 10 minutes to crisp bacon.  Serves 8-10.

Quilts at Sisters, Oregon

My husband and I went to Oregon last week to visit family.  After leaving the airport, we visited Multnomah Falls and then looked at the map to see which way to go to our destination.  I noticed that if we went out of our way a little (ok, maybe more than a little), we could go through Sisters - a well know quilting mecca.  Guess which way I chose!

We missed the outdoor quilt show by only a week (always on the 2nd Saturday in July).  This year they had more than 1300 quilts on display outside.  Unfortunately, this was the 1st year in their 37 year history that it rained and they had to quickly take the quilts down in the afternoon.  

They still had some quilts displayed inside local businesses and in a quilt store and fiber arts stores for the month of July.  Some had closed for the day, but I was lucky to go in a few.  I especially loved the Stitchin' Post owned by Jean Wells  (founder of the Sisters Quilt Show, quilt artist and author of many books).  Here are some pictures of my favorite quilts.

 

Two quilts designed by Sue Spargo.  Sorry I don't have better pictures, but they were hung high on the wall.  They are bright, beautiful applique quilts made of cotton and wool.

Here is a close up of one corner.  I love the cotton prints with the wool.  The colors are actually brighter than this picture shows.

Below are a few fun pieced cotton quilts.

Interesting design using the rail fence block.

Love the graphic nature of these 2 simple quilts.

Another Sue Spargo design.

Holiday quilts are so fun.

Some stunning landscape and art quilts - pictures don't do them justice.

A display of some of Jean Wells books and designs.

If you are interested in seeing more of her work, visit: jeanwellsquilts.com

If you want to know more about the quilt activities in Sisters, Oregon, visit:  sistersoutdoorquiltshow.org

Quilting Tip:  I asked Coleen, a friendly employee at the Stitchin' Post what her favorite quilting tip was.  She says she loves to use glue.  "Use glue in paper foundation piecing, when using small pieces and applique.  Don't be afraid of glue."  

I agree.  I've found glue to be very useful.  Just don't put any where you will be stitching and make sure it is a glue that washes out.  Washable glue sticks work, but I especially like the quilter's glue that has a small applicator tip.  Then you can get it right where you want it.  My friend Jill Finley makes "Appli-Glue" that is awesome.  You can check it out at:  jillilystudio.com/shop/AppliGlue.htm