Oct 2012-Creamy Chicken Vegetable Soup,Apple Pie Bars, Pumpkin Bread

We met at Cindy's this month and we met on Halloween day. Jeri was the only one brave enough to dress up. She was on her way to see her grandchildren. What a fun grandma!

These are Kelley's cute blocks from a project she is currently working on. She said she's having such a good time piecing these that she doesn't want to see it end. She even pulled out her Featherweight in an airport on a layover and proceeded to sew through the night until her flight the next morning. That might be a first!

 Rachel's Halloween penny rug

 Rachel's gift for a friend who owns tractors

 Rachel's block of the month. This took over two years to complete and is gorgeous.

 Sherry brought a completed donation quilt top using our black and white donation squares.

 Jeanie's Navy quilt

 Maurene's restoration of her husband's grandmother's quilt. She replaced the frayed squares with photos of her family. The fabric she added to the borders and backing came from old shirts that she purchased.

 This is the grandmother in the center. She had to have her arm amputated, but that didn't seem to slow her down.

 Maurene's scrappy quilt

Maurene's quilt-Rachel quilted it for her

 Little boy quilt made by Nancy

 Little girl quilt made by Nancy

 Tablerunner made using charm squares by Lenette

 Cindy made this beautiful log cabin for her son on his return from his mission

 Back of the log cabin

 Scrappy star quilt by Cindy

 Lap quilt by Jeri

Kathi's quilt

 We had lunch around a large round table in Cindy's kitchen. It was fun to sit together, eat and chat. Thanks Cindy for all your work.

Mint brownies

Recipes

Creamy Chicken Vegetable Soup

In a large pot add:

9 cups water

1 cup chopped onions

2 cups chopped potatoes

2 cups chopped or grated carrots

1 to 2 cups chopped celery

  cook until tender

add 12 chicken bouillon cubes

in a separate bowl 

melt 1 1/2 cubes of butter

whisk in 1 cup of flour

add butter/flour mix to vegetables

add large bottle of cheez whiz or 1/3 of a large brick of velveeta ( I use velveeta)

Add 2 cups of shredded pre-cooked chicken

Heat and Eat

Apple Pie Bars

1 cup softened butter 

1/3 c plus 1/2 c sugar, divided

1 Tbl sour cream

1 egg

2 1/4 c flour

3 Granny Smith apples; cored, peeled, and sliced thin  (I use 4 apples)

1 tsp cinnamon

Topping:  1/2 c ch pecans (optional)

               2 Tbl sugar

               1/2 tsp cinnamon

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.

2.  Beat butter and 1/3 c sugar until creamy.  Beat in sour cream and egg.  Stir in flour until a soft dough forms.  Spoon half of the dough into the bottom of the prepared dish and gently press down.

3.  Combine apples, remaining 1/2 c sugar, and 1 tsp cinnamon.  Mix until evenly coated.  Place apples evenly on top of dough in dish.  Cover apples with remaining dough.  (It won't completely cover the top of the apples.  Just flatten pieces of the dough in your hands and randomly place on top of apples.

4.  Combine pecans, sugar, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon.  Sprinkle on top of dough.

5.  Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until golden brown.  Let cool completely.  Cut into bars.

Pumpkin Bread

( bread machine recipe 1.5 lb. loaf)

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup cooked pumpkin (canned)

2 TBS Vegetable Oil

2 TBS Honey

3 cups Bread flour

1 1/2 TBS Dry Milk

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Ground Ginger

1/8 tsp Ground Cloves

1 1/2 tsp Active Dry Yeast

I mix bread in my bread machine on the dough setting and then form it into loaves and let it rise the second time. I bake it in my oven at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.  I usually make two smaller loaves instead of 1 large loaf so it make need to bake a little longer if you use a large pan.

SEE YOU AT OUR NEXT MEETING AT LENETTE'S ON NOV. 28th.

Sept 2012-Bok Choy Salad,Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken,Peanut Butter Sheet Cake

Thank you Rachel for hosting our meeting this month. Your home is always decorated with such creativity. It's like walking into a fun fabric/craft shop!

Our cancer auction quilts went together very fast this year and we are donating them to Expedition Inspiration for their annual cancer research auction. After meeting at Tracey's, where we cut and sewed the top, she and Monica machine quilted both the large and small quilt on Tracey's longarm quilting machine. The large quilt is made up of a layer cake called Always Forever. The backing is a wonderful cozy white flannel. The pattern is called Twister (this link will take you to a tutorial that our fellow Material Girl, Corrie, posted).  We were pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy the quilt top came together.

Below is the smaller quilt. Kelley took it to finish the binding. This one was made by alternating pink and white squares before cutting the twister design.

 Here's our show and tell for this month:

 Jeri made these primitive wool table runners. The pattern is in the McCall's Fall Magazine 2011

 I took this picture of some of Rachel's Halloween decorations she's made and has displayed in her home.

 Susan made these adorable spiders.

 Susan also made this table topper from her hand-dyed wool collection. She picked up the pattern for this at the local quilting store.

 Susan's wool wall hanging. Sounds like this is for her daughter-Lucky! This pattern is The Woolen Needle.

 Susan was busy this month. She also made this table topper.

 And she made even one more. This one is different than the first one not only in colors and background, but she added whiskers on the kittens!

 Close up

 Kelley's blue and yellow quilt top. It's a Schnibbles pattern.

Kelley's ladybug wall quilt. Very vibrant.

Kathi's fence rail quilt. Check out the great border!

 Rachel's fall quilt. The backgrounds are cotton, the rest is wool- Gorgeous! This is a Heart To Hand pattern. The pattern comes in four sets, the title is Autumn Quilt.

 Close ups

 Rachel's Pizza Box Exchange quilt!

 Close up

 Rachel's star quilt. This pattern is called The Lone Star from Six White Horses. The method is paper piecing. This lovely block was found on Pinterest.

 Rachel's twister quilt top

 Another peek at Rachel's cute decorating

Bok choy Salad

1 bunch Bok choy washed and cut up fine

1 bunch green onions chopped

½ stick butter

3 tsp sugar

1/4 c. sliced almonds
Ramen Noodles

¼ c. Sesame seeds

Put Bok choy and green onions on a platter.

In a skillet melt butter and sugar.  Add crunched up ramen, almonds and sesame seeds and stir occasionally till lightly brown and caramelized.  Let cool.  Top with ramen crunch and drizzle with dressing right before serving.

Dressing:

½ c. canola oil

½ c. Sugar

¼ c. red wine vinegar

2 T. soy sauce

Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken
Recipe adapted from: Baby Center

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (thighs would be fine too)
Salt and pepper
1 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup diced onion
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (could also use olive oil or canola oil)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional - doesn't really add heat, just adds more flavor)
4 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 6 Tablespoons water
Sesame seeds

Directions:
Season both sides of chicken with lightly with salt and pepper, put into crock pot. In a small bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, garlic and pepper flakes. Pour over chicken. Cook on low for 3-4 hours or on high 1 1/2 – 2 1/2 hours, or just until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken from crock pot, leave sauce. Dissolve 4 teaspoons of cornstarch in 6 tablespoons of water and pour into crock pot. Stir to combine with sauce. Replace lid and cook sauce on high for ten more minutes or until slightly thickened. Cut chicken into bite size pieces, then return to pot and toss with sauce before serving. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve over rice or noodles.

Peanut Butter Sheet Cake

Source: Nina Jones

Ingredients:
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla

Frosting:
3/4 cup butter
6 Tbsp buttermilk
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a medium pot add the peanut butter, water, and butter and bring to a boil. Remove from heat.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar, brown sugar, flour, salt, and baking soda with a fork. Add to the peanut butter mixture.
4. Add the eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla to the bowl and mix well.
5. Stir well and pour into greased or parchment lined cookie sheet pan (jellyroll pan). Bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees.

For the Frosting:
1. In a small pot bring the butter, buttermilk, and peanut butter to a boil.
2. Remove pan from the heat and add the powdered sugar and vanilla.
3. Pour frosting over the warm cake.

Above are the cute mason jars that we decorated at the meeting too. They were quick and simple. Just paint the inside of the jar, add your vinyl face stickers to the outside, place a candle inside and voila!

Thanks to Rachel and all. See you next time on October 31st at Cindy's.