April 2011-Tortellini Salad,French Bread

Another wonderful meeting with great friends. We had a big turn out at Sherry's house yesterday. We exchanged our pizza boxes and showed our new blocks. We now have 12 completed squares in our boxes and we can start to see what our quilts will eventually look like. We also had a great show and tell as you can see below.

Afterwards, Sherry showed us how to make cute pin cushions starting with just 2 circles of fabric.

Then, of course, we had a tasty lunch with a pasta vegetable salad, fresh sliced strawberries, homemade french bread and a fun dessert. The recipes are at the end of the post.

Pin cushion project

Sherry's quilt

Sherry's General Conference pillow(made while watching the LDS General Conference)-she changed some of the words to include personal things for her family

Nancy C.'s sewing table scrap catcher/pin cushion

Mary's disappearing nine-patch

Some of our cancer auction quilt squares started coming in this month. They turned out great!

Carolanna's purse

Carolanna's puppy quilt-wool

Carolanna's quilt

Carolanna's owl quilt

Carolanna's quilt

Close up

Jeanie's "Romantic" quilt

Jeanie's quilt

Maurene's purse

Maurene's click-it clutches made with metal measuring tapes

Maurene's wild side quilt

Rachel's schnibble quilt

Rachel's bunnies

Rachel's quilt

Nancy's little girl's Easter dress, hand smocked

Nancy's selvage blocks-her mom Diane is sending her selvages and Nancy will be making a string quilt out of them

Nancy's cozy

Nancy's tablerunner

Diane's baby quilt

Robyn's apron

Robyn's quilt made for a graduating high school senior

Lori's online swap clutches

Lori's "Living Large" quilt

Lori's diamond quilt-front and back

Tortellini Salad

18 oz. cheese tortellini

1 lb. snap peas

1 lb. grape tomatoes

Small bunch of basil

Cook tortellini in boiling pot of water for 7 minutes. Blanch snap peas and cool in cold water, drain. Halve grape tomatoes. Thinly slice a small bunch of basil leaves. Combine all ingredients.

Dressing:

1 T. mlnced garlic

1/4 c. olive oil

2 T. lemon juice

2 t. dijon mustard

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. pepper

1 t. soy sauce

1/2 t. dried basil

Combine all ingredients well. Pour over pasta mixture.

Note: You can make this a day ahead if needed. It keeps well and marinates the pasta.

French Bread

2 1/2 c. warm water

2 T. sugar

2 T. dry yeast

1 T. salt

2 T. oil

6 cups flour

1 egg, beaten

Sesame seeds or poppy seeds, if desired

Put all ingredients (except egg and seeds) into bread mixer (I use a Bosch). Mix for 4 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes. Mix again for 1 minute or so. Repeat this 5 times, which will take an hour. Place dough on floured counter. Divide in half. Roll each into a rectangle about 9 x 12 inches long. Roll up from the long side and pinch to seal. Arrange both loaves lengthwise on a large, well-greased jelly roll pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 30 minutes. Glaze with beaten egg and sprinkle with seeds, if desired. Use a sharp knife to gently make 3 diagonal gashes in the top of each loaf.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Remove to cooling racks and cover with a towel. Makes two loaves.

Note: I know this sounds time intensive. I put this in to mix first, while I'm busy in the kitchen doing other things--set my timer every 10 minutes and go with it!

Neiman Marcus Cake

1 chocolate cake mix

1 cube margarine

1 egg.

Blend and place in a well-greased 9 x 13 pan.

Topping:

1-8 oz. cream cheese

2 eggs

1 lb. powdered sugar

1 t. vanilla

dash salt

Mix topping and pour over batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Note: I didn't have a chocolate cake mix on hand yesterday so I used brownie mix. Cake mix works better!

March 2011-Spinach Avocado Orange Salad, White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake,

What a fun, productive and tasty meeting we had this month at Rachel's home. We had a great turnout too with 18 in attendance. We all manage to squeeze in and love being able to meet in each other's homes. After giving our star blocks to Diane for the Just One Star project sponsored by Moda, we then took a peek into our pizza boxes to see our new blocks for the month and quickly exchanged them for a new box.

Next came show and tell.

Afterwards while enjoying a great lunch of open faced salmon sandwiches, salad and homemade cheesecake, Lori gave us a tutorial for the cancer charity auction quilts we will be making for this year. I've included pictures of the square we each will make and also a step by step instruction for the curved piecing we will be doing. Lori made it very easy for us as she had all the white pieces pre-cut along with several of the wedge pieces. Also her method of using glue instead of pins for the curved piecing will save us so much time and effort. Thank you Lori!!!

Flag of Valor, Just One Star quilt blocks

Susan's black and white and red quilt

Susan's quilt

Susan's quilt top

Rachel's Schnibble quilt

Rachel's string quilt made with blocks from Bee Scrappy flickr group

Jeri's fireman quilt

Jeri's fireman's quilt

Lori's 4-patch baby quilt

Lori's camera straps(available on Etsy)

Linda's baby quilt for Louise

Lenette's little girl's dress. Pattern from Quilt Expressions

Jeanie's dresden plate charger-1 of 12 (almost finished)

Jeanie's wool topper

Jeanie's purse

Close up

Jeanie's charm pack and layer cake quilt from the Objects of Desire" line. Machine quilted in St. George, Utah at Quilt-n-Sew (435)673-1993

Diane's crocheted fabric rug

Cancer quilt square

Lori's demo for cancer quilt block piecing:

Thank you Rachel for this wonderful lunch!! You always give 150% for our group! Here are the recipes:

Spinach, avacado and orange salad.

Soak 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion in cold water about 10 min.

Dressing: Whisk 1/4 c. orange juice, the juice of one lime, 1 T. honey, 2 tsp. dijon mustard, 1/2 tsp salt and pepper to taste in a bowl. Whisk in 3 T. olive oil. Drain the onion; Toss with spinach, 2 sliced avacados, 2 segmented oranges and the dressing and top with chopped toasted hazelnuts.

Sandwiches: mix chicken or tuna or salmon with mayo and spices of your choice. Put on english muffin, top with tomatoe and cheese and toast under broiler till cheese is melted.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

2 cups oreo's cookie crumbs

1 tablespoons white sugar

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 (10 ounce) package frozen raspberries

2 tablespoons white sugar

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1/2 cup water

2 cups white chocolate chips

1/2 cup half-and-half cream

3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a medium bowl, mix together cookie crumbs, 1 tablespoons sugar, and melted butter. Press mixture into the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan.

2. In a saucepan, combine raspberries, 2 tablespoons sugar, cornstarch, and water. Bring to boil, and continue boiling 5 minutes, or until sauce is thick. Strain sauce through a mesh strainer to remove seeds.

3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). In a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt white chocolate chips with half-and-half, stirring occasionally until smooth.

4. In a large bowl, mix together cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in vanilla and melted white chocolate. Pour half of batter over crust. Spoon 3 tablespoons raspberry sauce over batter. Pour remaining cheesecake batter into pan, and again spoon 3 tablespoons raspberry sauce over the top. Swirl batter with the tip of a knife to create a marbled effect.

5. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until filling is set. Cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 8 hours before removing from pan. Serve with remaining raspberry sauce.

Original Recipe Yield 1 - 9 inch cheesecake

Use water bath and make sure you make early enough to refrigerate for 24 hours. Can use seedless raspberry jam but it is heavy and sinks instead of floated in the cheesecake. Use in individual cupcake holders.

Can use blueberries, strawberries, cherries with milk chocolate or white.

Can make individually. Use cupcake liners then peel off.