Not So Shabby Giveaway

I found this wonderful site for women's dresses. Shabby Apple also has skirts, swimwear, accessories, jewelry, home decor, flirty aprons and even kids clothing. Some of the styles have a vintage vibe to them, which I adore. I've been wanting to wear more dresses, and Shabby Apple has some really cute styles. A lot of them look really comfy too.

Here's the Giveaway!

The stylish folks at Shabby Apple are sponsoring a giveaway to one lucky reader. This elegant little black Boogie Woogie dress can be yours. Just check out that gorgeous floral appliqued skirt. The bodice is a soft cotton jersey knit, so how comfy would that be? You could boogie all night long! Here's the full description:

Some things are just better together: peanut butter and chocolate, Ella and Louis, love and dancing.  We decided to pair two things we love—the soft, cotton jersey of our favorite t-shirt, and the gorgeous sateen of our Jazz Age collection—to create the Boogie Woogie, an indispensably comfortable-yet-elegant little black dress.  A luxe jersey cap sleeve top is gathered at the waist with a wide satin sash, and a veritable bouquet of appliquéd, ruched flowers and leaves adorns the full sateen skirt that swirls just below your knee.  A truly inspired combination,the Boogie Woogie has star potential.

Entering to win is easy. Go here to like Shabby Apple on Facebook and then leave a comment on this post. Entries close Sunday, February 19, 2012. If you're not a follower of Nostalgic Cafe, I'd love to have you, though it's not a requirement of the giveaway. ;) The dress is only available to US residents, but if the random thingy picks someone outside of the US, I'll provide a prize for that person and the dress will go to the runner up.

If you're impatient like me or need a new frock stat, Shabby Apple is offering readers a 10% discount if you use the code: nostalgiccafe10off. Go check out Shabby Apple's fun and stylish clothes. It's almost Valentine's Day and you deserve a treat!

Rolling Along

Creamed spinach pinwheels for Superbowl Sunday. I defrosted frozen creamed spinach and added a little shredded mozzarella, grated parmesan and Panko breadcrumbs. Smear the mixture on puff pastry and roll jelly roll fashion. I froze the "log" for a bit to make slicing easier. Once sliced, bake them on parchment paper. Parchment paper is my latest discovery. Nothing sticks and clean up is easy. I need to buy a case of that stuff.

I pinned this recipe for Texas Roadhouse Rolls a while ago. I halved the recipe like she did. Gobs of rolls. I put a bit less sugar as we were eating these with Italian sausage soup and I wasn't sure a sweet dough would mesh with the savory soup. The dough is wonderful to work with and rich enough to warrant a few "oooh, fresh rolls?" from the peanut gallery. I used skim milk, but a richer milk would add some yummy calories. It took me a year to get used to skim milk. Now if I drink whole milk, it tastes like ice cream. True story. But really, if you go through the trouble of making rolls, you should use full-strength milk. They're not bad with skim, but go the extra mile.

Yeah, I'm a bread baking machine. The sour dough bread a couple of days ago wasn't the best. A whole week babysitting that starter, and the bread was so-so. I tossed it. But I did get a new pottery bread baker, so I made some beer, dill, cheddar bread the night before last. Oh yeah, it was good. That's butter in the middle of the rough loaf. Killer. I tend to like these artisan loaves better than the white bread stuff. This bread will be off the chart toasted with a poached egg on it.

The Italian sausage soup was good too. Brown a pound of Italian sausage and remove to a bowl. Drain excess grease if your sausage rendered a bunch. You'll need a little fat to saute the veggies. Add onion, celery, carrot, garlic to pot. I had a bit of a red pepper leftover, so I threw that in too. Saute veggies a bit and add a can of diced tomatoes, chicken broth, a bay leaf, and Italian spices. Let simmer 20-40 minutes. After simmering, throw in a drained and rinsed can of your favorite bean and whatever pasta you like. Frozen chopped spinach too. We're trying to avoid making a salad! Get all the veggies in one dish so you don't have to make a salad. Garnish with fresh Italian parsley and shaved parmesan. Serve with crusty bread or those Roadhouse rolls.

I didn't take a picture of the soup last night, but here it is for my breakfast. Like most soups and sauces, it's even better the next day.

The paper pieced heart block turned into a potholder.  Now what kind of bread can I make today?

Superbowl Sunday

I was a paper piecing machine over the weekend. I gave this LOVE mini quilt a try. It may need a little more quilting in the white parts.

And I also found a little paper pieced heart that looked fun. This little block is destined to be a thank you potholder for free concert tickets.

Self portraits are scary.

Speaking of free concerts, the Jimmy Buffett concert was great. Our new arena is amazing. Huge! Inspector Gadget and I had a great time and made it up past midnight. Today, I'm looking forward to making and eating appetizers and watching cool commercials a little later. I already have a baby shower under my belt, so the rest of the day is mine.

Finally Friday. Let the Weekend Commence.

So I started this sourdough bread starter on Monday. I halved the recipe because I didn't have eight cups of rye flour. Day three it really blew up (bubbled and grew) and it kind of had a weird odor. I guess sour means sour and we are kind of making our own yeast here. I'm still plugging away and adding new rye flour and water and changing out the bowl daily.

Here's what it looked like Wednesday. Scary, huh? I'm not sure I can wait until Sunday to use this stuff or if I can find a big enough bowl to transfer it to. It's really growing! I hope it doesn't turn green or take over my kitchen or something. Attack of the sourdough bread starter! I'm almost afraid to look today.

Guess who I have a date with Saturday night? Inspector Gadget, not Jimmy Buffett! Jimmy won't even know I'm there. We're going to go see Jimmy at our newest arena. We saw Jimmy in concert before kids and it was great. We've always been fans of his laid back, beachcomber, and sometimes philosophical  music.

Hollywood listened to Jimmy on the ride to and from daycare for years. She knows many of his songs by heart and it still troubles her to this day. She can't figure out why she can belt out Buffett songs. Ha! Maybe we should have been playing Rosetta Stone CDs, but who knew?

I am addicted to edamame. I buy them frozen and just put them in boiling water for 4-5 minutes. A cool water shock keeps them from continuing cooking and turning gray. I sprinkle sea salt on them. Just look at this edamame goat cheese toast. I need more soybeans, stat! My grocery store sometimes carry the frozen variety, but they didn't have them today. I can always find them at the Oriental market. Now I need a spare hour or two for the Oriental market. I can get lost in that place. And spend lots of money.

Work has been busy, but I had a little spare time to make this cathedral window pincushion. The tutorial is fantastic. I think I've tried this technique before, but this time it seemed much easier. No hand sewing involved unless you count the ladder stitch to close up the bottom panel. I even covered a button, which may have been my first.

Happy weekend everyone!

Time Well Spent

I found a cute new blog to stalk enjoy. Nicole at Mama Love Quilts has the neatest fabrics, creates the cutest quilts, sells adorable stuff and is generous with her tips and tricks. And she just started blogging in January, the little overachiever! ;) Oh, and did I mention she has cute babies? You know what a sucker I am for babies. Go say hi and welcome her to the land of blogging.

Check out the Sew Out Loud quiltalong too. As a text fabric lover, it will be fun to see what these talented quilters come up with. Oh boy, more new blogs to love. Isn't life grand?

The AAQI February art quilt auction started today. These little quilts make great gifts for friends and family. Our guild collected 15 quilts to donate today. It was so much fun seeing everyone's creations. What a talented group. Yumi and I are still making quilts to send too. I never tire of making those little quilts.

Still in Baby Mode

Eek, just look at this adorable onesie with the vintage cateye glasses. That baby is pretty darn cute too. Get the how-to for the onesie right here. I didn't have the stuff, but maybe I'll have to search out the materials. I thought about painting it, but this housework ain't doing itself.

I did have a leftover onesie and a cute iron-on, so baby Mia will have to do with what I had on hand. Her trousseau is already quite impressive and the baby shower hasn't even happened yet. Who doesn't enjoy buying baby girl garb? I have been averting my eyes in the baby section of every store. I was trying to make these burp cloths, but cannot seem to locate 3-ply cloth diapers. I've only been to two stores, but I give up. Obviously the cloth diaper movement did not make the huge comeback as I'd imagined. :P

Ellison Lane Quilts is hosting a Modern Mini Challenge with lots of fabulous prizes. This five week series kicks off February 6 with inspirational ideas from a crew of very talented quilters. There will be mini quilts and mug rugs with modern twists. I have a feeling we'll get ideas and inspiration galore, even if you don't create a piece to submit to the challenge. And seeing the Blog Hop list, I can tell I'm going to be adding a few new blogs to my reading list.

Ahh choo!

I'm still sneezing from making homemade ranch dip/dressing mix this morning. Inspector Gadget loves those little green packets, but you have to make a gob of dip or split the package. Plus, the sodium content is a bit high. MSG must pack a sodium punch. My feet swell if I just look at a pickle. You should see what happens when I eat one. My mom tells me this water retention thing goes away eventually. Yay!

In the past if I was out of little green packets, I would add my own spices to sour cream, but now I have enough ranch mix to last a while. I bet it's cheaper than those packets too. I'm going to start making my own laundry detergent next. Really.

We had wings last night, and I didn't have any green packets. I just added some dried dill, oregano, garlic powder, pepper, lime juice and fresh cilantro to sour cream. Wouldn't blue cheese crumbles be good too? I bet it's no surprise, but I have blue cheese haters in the house.

The wing of the night was this Fire Roasted Chili Lime recipe. You made a dry rub and kind of par grilled them on indirect heat on a grill. Since I grilled in the dark, I had to use my iPhone flashlight app to see.

Then you tossed the wings with the sauce mixture and put them back on the grill over direct heat. The flare-ups provided good light.

The butter in the sauce creates good char marks, but you really had to watch these babies on the grill. They were pretty good, but I think I prefer our grilled, Frank's Hot Sauce version, no butter. I always do a dry rub too. It's nice to switch up the wings as we eat them pretty often. These Spicy Thai wings are definitely getting in the mix.

Since I'm the grill master and busy out by the grill, I usually serve a simple crudite platter I can assemble ahead of time and call it a day. There was a Tator Tot request last night, so I threw those into the oven during the last grill pass. After a busy weekend, an easy Sunday night dinner (and easy clean-up!) is a really good thing.