Thursday, December 30, 2010


I found this recipe on line after searching for a recipe that only made one loaf.  Since I mix the bread by hand, one loaf is easier to make, plus it tastes great right out of the oven.  I made some changes to the recipe adapted it to ingredients I have on hand! I haven't been able to find sour cream here in India but I can purchase the richest fresh cream, so thick and heavy like sour cream, so that's what I use and the bread tastes wonderful. I also like to add vital wheat gluten and potato starch ( either powdered or I save the water from boiling potatoes, both work very well.  The flour available here seems to have a lower protein than what I am use to so these are the adjustments I have made.  We will be having the bread tonight with Bruschetta, I can't wait! 


Yummy Bread Recipe
2/3 cups cold water
½ cup boiling water
1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten (optional)
1 tablespoon potato starch (optional)
2 Tablespoons orange juice
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
½ cup sour cream (I use heavy cream instead)
2 teaspoons instant yeast
4 ½ cups flour

Stir in waters, salt and sugar in a bowl, add sour cream then yeast, vital gluten, and potato starch.  Stir in flour.  Let dough rest ten minutes, Knead dough, let rest 10 minutes (repeat 2 more times)
Cover and let rise 1 hour. Bake @ 375 degrees 

As an added idea, we took a small piece of the dough, rolled it, coated it lightly with mustard, place a piece of gouda cheese in the center, wrapped it up and baked it until the bread was golden.  It was a delicious taste treat!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

All Bran Muffins




All Bran Muffins Recipe
I have a wonderful recipe to share with you today.  It is a variation of the original recipe featured on the Kellogg’s All Bran box of cereal. My mom use to make these for us when I was a little girl, they are a great source of fiber and delicious to eat!

1-¼ cups flour
½ cup brown sugar
1-tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt  
2 cups of All Bran Cereal
1 ¼ cup milk
1 egg
¼ cup vegetable oil (or ¼ cup applesauce)
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
Raisins (I used mixed dried fruit like blueberries, cranberries etc)
Nuts

To begin, place the cereal in a bowl, cover with milk and let stand while you assemble the other ingredients.  Combine the rest of the ingredients except the raisins and nuts.  Stir in the cereal mixture.  Once all the mixture is moist add the fruit and nuts.  You’ll notice I didn’t specify amounts on the fruit and that’s because I mix in what looks good to me (most recipes call for 1 cup but I find that sometimes that’s too much fruit) also it greatly depends on what I have on hand.

Place in a greased muffin tin (or use the handy muffin papers to save on washing difficulties)

Bake in an oven preheated 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until the muffins spring back to the touch.

I like using the applesauce because it cuts down on the cholesterol and as we are always looking for ways to cut the fat it’s one of my favorite ways to do so.  Enjoy!



Now for the latest update on our new addition, she continues to wiggle her way into our hearts, particularly Dave’s! She now bounces to the door when he arrives home from work and nothing will satisfy her except he stop to pick her up! 

She also loves lying at Tim’s feet when he is playing “Minecraft “ on the computer.  It’s quite fun to see how he has stepped up to help and train the Chloe’.

Of course I am coming to think of her as the pesky little puppy, she must have attention, and she must have it now!  Seriously, I love cuddling with her on the couch, she keeps me very warm during the cold Indian winter.  Although winter here is not cold compared to Utah standards, it is still quite cold especially when you consider the fact that there is no heat!  Everyone I have asked about it states, "It's only cold for 2 months, it's not worth it to put in heat."  To which I reply, "Tell that to my feet!"  

Because it has been so cold I haven't been in the mood to sew much, however, I have been in the mood to knit and crochet.  I have been able to complete  2 rosey earflap hats, the pattern for which can be found here: 

http://suzies-yarnie-stuff.blogspot.com/2010/11/rosy-earflap-cap.html 

I loved this pattern it worked up quickly (an hour per cap!) If your looking for a cute last minute Christmas gift this could be your answer!


Because these worked up so quickly I was also able to knit up a pair of socks for Dave in a nice comfortable wool! He will love them and with the marble floors here they will go a long way towards helping keep him warm this winter!



I used yarn from Light Brown Hare which fortunately ships internationally! The yarn knitted up wonderfully! I really enjoyed working with it.  You can find her yarn here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lightbrownhare

Have a great day everyone!

Friday, December 17, 2010

                     Our New Puppy Chloe’
The world’s cutest Lhasa Apso!

As you can see from the pictures we have a new addition to our family!  Chloe' can to our house December 11, 2010.  She was 42 days old at the time.  Dave bought her back from Mumbai, when he was there on business.  She is a Lhasa Apso.  A totally new breed to me, I don't I'd ever had the opportunity to see them before except in pictures.  They are a popular breed here in India and we wanted a dog that would stay small as we live in an apartment and I just couldn't do that to a golden retriever.  In fact, this is the first time since I was 8 years old that I have been without a Golden!  Technically, I still have my golden but she is half a world away living with my daughters as she was too old to make the journey to India.  The vet did not think she would be able to survive the trip.

Gabby

I sure miss her, she is the smartest Golden I have owned and at 50 I owned a few in my life!
Chloe is the smallest puppy.  And for such a small puppy she has quite the ferocious personally!  She wants what she wants now!  But already she loves to just be near us and when we work at the computer she lays on her blanket at our feet.

When Dave arrives home from work these days, the first words out of his mouth are, "Where's my puppy!"  She is definitely Daddy's girl.  She is also very attached to Tim! Hmmm, but then she really just loves to have attention.

Like a baby she eats four times a day.  And not surprisingly she has worms. I am concerned about taking her to the vet as she hasn't had any shots yet and I don't want to expose her to whats out there in the world but we will be doing that next week as soon as she is old enough to have them. We had a pound puppy that we adopted that died of Parvo once and I never want to have that happen again.  Despite the fact that we gave her the shot, it was too late she had already been exposed to the  virus. We are looking forward to many happy years with this pup.

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Hey happy 9th day of december, only 15 more days until Christmas!  I have a table runner that I have been designing that I must finish this week, hopefully I can get back into sewing.  It has been so cold here and there is no heat so I spend my days curled up with knitting watching classic television and old movies.  I am told it will be even colder in January.  I have a space heater on my Christmas list but since the electrical here is so poor it wouldn't be as safe to have one as I'd like.  I also have a puppy on my Christmas list.  We will see what Santa brings me!

I thought I would talk a little about marking quilts.  I use an old stand by.  I use shards of soap.  We use Dial soap, my husband loves it's antibacterial properties and as it gets down to the end I save the slivers and they are wonderful for marking darker fabrics, I haven't had a problem with them leaving stains yet.  I also like the price!  I also use a soft lead pencil for marking applique work, it rubs off and I usually turn it under when I am sewing.

I took a look at "Go" advertised on the Quilt Show, I couldn't believe they wanted $1200 for the thing.  Then you still have to buy more dies.  Does anyone have one of these. Is it worth the money?   I still like to preserve my money for fabric (I just buy less and have to love what I buy) so anything that would make that big of a hit in my budget would have to be a real time saver.

I found a nice blog this week that I thought I would share with you.  You can find it here:
http://www.crazyshortcutquilts.com/margueritas-blog/

She has a nice videos some nice crazy quilt patterns which are always a great way to use up fabric!  Have a great week everyone and I'll see you next week.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

My latest swap yarns for my sock yarn
blanket!

Decorations for Dewali at our hotel!

We've had a busy couple of weeks.  We traveled to Mumbai and stayed at the Oriental Hotel in West Bandra.   These pictures came from the front steps.  I love the drawings and think they would make great quilt designs.  Dewali is the festival of lights and they really celebrated.  Lots of fireworks!  They were even throwing fire crackers in the stairwell of our apartment building.  Something that was very startling to me!  The tradition is to give gifts of fruit and nuts.  India has a lot of holidays that are just cool.  My favorite is Brother/Sister day where you give gifts to your brother or sister depending on which day it is!
 I made this Christmas stocking for my son, Mike, who is currently serving a mission for our church in Los Angeles, California.  I will be mailing him a package this week with some wonderful indian things like a beautiful leather wallet that is embroidered.  The women here do amazing work and I am lucky enough to live near where it is all made.


My children are coming to India for the holidays. It will be wonderful to show them all the sites and just be with them.  They are very excited to have the opportunity to see where we live and meet all the people here.  I am sure we will spend several days visiting the markets not to mention the sites here in Bhuj.  We are also taking them to a wild life park which I am sure they will enjoy.  I sure do miss being near my children.  Mike will miss out on India this year but he will be coming here after his mission.

Mike has been having great success teaching people the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I am still amazed and grateful that someone took the time to teach me the gospel 29 years ago.  What a difference it has made in my life.  It has truly taught me that "Men (and women) are that they might have joy"

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Here in India there is a limited supply of food items, I managed to get a hold of some ground sirloin (no hamburger here) and I made a meatloaf yesterday. I thought I would share the recipe because it was so simple:
3/4 c Applesauce
1- 1 1/2 pounds of Ground beef
1/4 catsup
1 Tablespoon Parsley
1 Package of onion soup mix 
1 egg
1 cup oatmeal
combine well, bake in a loaf pan at 350 degrees for an hour and there you have it.

Now since I couldn't buy applesauce I made my own:
6 large apples
1 cup of water
1/2 c sugar
1 t lemon juice
1 cinnamon stick
Place all ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil, turn down to simmer about 20 minutes until tender, remove cinnamon stick and then mash with a potato masher.  It tasted great and couldn't be easier.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Pinks and Browns Triangles




920 Pink and brown half square triangles
One of my last UFO's.  I have been carrying this quilt around in my many moves since 2005.  I started it in Barrington, Illinois at Touch of Amish Quilt Shop.  It uses Triangle Paper 2 1/2" half square by Quilt Time. Each page yielded 24 squares.  I will be assembling them in 6 x 4 row blocks and them putting the blocks together to make a quilt.


 I used assorted pink and brown fat quarters as well as fat quarters of off white back ground fabrics.  To use the paper I ironed one pink with one off white right sides together and then ironed the triangle paper on the wrong side of one of the fabrics. I also added pins to help keep the paper in place.  I then stitched on the the dotted lines until  done.  Using my rotary cutter I cut them apart and watching tv peeled the paper.  Then I pressed them all open towards the dark fabric. About this time we moved to Utah so they went in a shoe box and there they stayed until now.  I spent the last week, sorting and pressing and deciding how to assemble them in a pleasing pattern.  I hope to have them assembled by the time we head to the US for Christmas.
my new sewing machine, I purchased it here in India.
I didn't want to risk my much loved Bernina 1230 on the
strange currents here in India.  So far so good, it sews a nice even stitch.
It does make a lot of noise though.

my next project Dresden Star
My recently purchased Indian fabric.

In keeping with a tradition I started when I started stashbusters, I am patiently waiting to start my next project "Dresden Star" until I finish a UFO.  With only 3 more UFO's to go after the pink's and brown's I am very excited.  I am going to make it with fabric purchased here in India.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Navratri Festival

A huge festival in town and the noise was incredible. The festival was Navratri which means nine nights, it honors the Mother Goddess-Divine Shakti.  She destroys evil and grants boons to her children.
Here of pictures of the sea of humanity that walked by our apartment building on the way to the festival.  It is estimated that 800,000 indians came to town for the festival and it turns out we live on the main entrance to town.  They walked passed us at all hours of the day and night. Lots of music, loud speakers encouraging the pilgrims as they walked along.

They played music and danced until all hours of the night, and they didn't stop during the day.  Making it very difficult for us to sleep. I understand that there is a lot of dancing and beautiful traditional clothing worn. Dave of course had no interest in heading into the sea of humanity for a closer look and so I can't attest to that being true or not. : > )!

 Dave needed to travel to Mumbai for business so Tim and I joined him.  We stayed at the Suba Galaxy hotel near the airport.  All three of us stayed in the same room on 3 twin beds, Tim's was a pull out chair.  The hotel had very good air conditioning and was clean.  The beds were thin mattress on wood so think very hard, no give at all.  But it was nice to be in Mumbai, it afforded us with a chance to attend church and to hang out with other Americans.  We played charades for the first with two other American families, the Williams and the Dickens.  It was wonderful to be able to talk and share ideas with others who are having a similar experience.  Although I was struck by how different the vegetable markets were in Mumbai, there was a much greater variety of vegetables and of higher quality than we were able to get in Bhuj.

A Muslim Mosque 

We had a wonderful driver by the name of Robin, who worked for Only Friends.  He spoke English and took Tim and I to see the various sites in Churchgate.

The Mosque is a beautiful site on a peninsula. The walk way was filled with people heading to and from the Mosque.

 I love this plaque in the Hanging Gardens.  Good health really does bless the generations.  It's interesting I did a life clock.  If I live in the United States, I will live until I am 79 years old, but with changing nothing other than the fact that I now live in India it cuts my life expectancy to 67 (only 17 more years to go).  Which is funny because my housekeeper says Americans aren't healthy and we need to be more like the Indians, but then she also says her bread is healthier because it's made with wheat?  Gee, since we are using the same flour to make both the breads, her comment just doesn't make sense to me.  After all, wheat flour is wheat flour or is it. ; > ).

Here are some more wonderful pictures we took.  This the view from the Hanging gardens down to the beach.  I think the thing that struck me the most was
how clean everything was in Church Gate.  Unlike
the rest of Mumbai there wasn't trash littering the park or the beach.  I loved looking at the incredible buildings.








The gateway to India

SeaLink Bridge

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Monkey Around the Yard Quilt Pattern


Here is my latest design.
Monkey around the yard.  It uses five different fabrics, one yard each.  The pattern can be found here :

http://tiny.cc/h29w5

If you make the quilt please be sure and share a picture.  I would love to see how your quilt turned out.







We have been quite busy adjusting to India,  I had a major success in making food like home this past week though.  I made scalloped potatoes with cheddar cheese powder and real bacon bits!  The boys loved it.   I did a typical scalloped potato recipe with with potatoes, milk, onions and flour.  To that I added 1.2 c cheddar cheese powder (which I purchased at Walmart, when I was in the United States) mixed with 1 cup of boiling water.  I layered the potatoes, milk, onions, bacon bits and cheese and baked at 350 degrees.  It turned out great and I will definitely cook it again.

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Mehndi Adventure in India


Mehndi hand painting, Liz had her hands and legs painted and then bought the stuff needed to take to America with her for the ultimate sleepover activity.  The designs are very intricate and beautiful.  It goes on like a your are decorating a cake, the same type of bag is used to apply the paint, which is actually a clay like substance.  You then let the paint dry for 24 hours before chipping it off (which makes a horrible mess)  and you are left with the designs.  They would make wonderful quilting designs something that I will explore when I get back from my visit to America. That said, I really hope none of my children ever get a permanent tattoo.  It is startling and not in a good way every time I see Elizabeth's.  And I keep telling her to go and wash her hands.  She just rolls her eyes!  By the way, you are encouraged to not wash your hands for the 20 or so days it is on your hands because the water wears it away.  Elizabeth is thankfully not following that tradition.


We found some wonderful clothing when we went shopping this week which was important as I will be taking some back to the US for my daughters,  Liz loves the leggings that they make here.  She says they are very comfortable.  I am having 3 more dresses made from some wonderful fabric that I found while shopping.

The really great thing is they fit the tops to you while you wait if they don't fit you!

Monday, August 30, 2010

Easy Sugar Cookies
I found this wonderful recipe this weekend and enjoyed making these cookies, they tasted like home and were easy to make without the use of a mixer (something I keep getting told is unavailable in India).
2 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup of butter softened (very soft)
1 1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream the butter and sugar until smooth add in egg and vanilla, gradually blend in dry ingredients. Roll into balls of dough and place onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in preheated oven 375 degrees or 190 degrees C. Let cookies stand two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

I was also able to finish making the monkey socks this weekend: They turned out great and were easy to make, once I had the pattern down they went swiftly.

I also started to make the sock blanket which will use up my leftover sock yarn but will be years in the making.