A summer version

My husband likes creamed cauliflower, however the way his Mama made it was in the oven and it's way too hot to turn on the oven to make this side dish.  But he bought a head of cauliflower(he's the grocery shopper now) and some sour cream and brought them home hoping I'd indulge him - I like it too, but not enough to turn on the oven!

So off I go to my cookbook shelf to see if I can find a recipe for cauliflower in the microwave. Eureka!  I found one. Reading it through I realized I could assemble it just as I do for the oven but cook it in the micro for only 6 minutes and I essentially had the same dish.  And here it is:

I didn't tell him it was from the microwave.  And he liked it!  If you'd like to try it, here's the recipe:

Creamed Cauliflower
 1 head of caulflower (medium size) cut up into florets
 1 cup of sour cream ( I used Smart Balance)
 1 egg
 1 Tbs of flour
1/2 tsp salt, dash of pepper
1/2 tsp of garlic powder, 1/2 tsp of dill weed
 Bread crumbs

Grease a 9" ceramic/glass pan (something that can go in the microwave) with butter or PAM.  Set aside.

In a 4 quart pan, bring water to boil and toss in the florets, bring the water back to a boil and lower to medium heat and cook the florets for 3 minutes. They will be cooked but still a little crunchy.  Once they have cooked, drain in a colander and set aside.

While the cauliflower is cooking, mix the rest of the ingredients in a medium bowl until smooth.  Add the drained cauliflower to the sauce and fold the florets into the sauce until they are well coated (this was the only change from the oven version - on that one I pour the sour cream mixture on top only).  Actually, I like this new way better.  Pour the mixture into the prepared dish.  Sprinkle some bread crumbs on the top. Set in the microwave and cook at 100% power for 6 minutes  If you don't have a micro that turns, at 3 minutes turn the pan around so it will cook evenly.

Enjoy your cool kitchen!

PS If you're making it in the oven during a cool time outside, preheat oven to 350 degrees and cook in the oven for 30 minutes or when lightly brown.

Step 2 of Mod Quilt on Design wall

Well I decided on a plan for the mod fabrics - a simple one and adding a solid.  So on my design wall I now have this set up of squares cut from the six fat quarters.  I found a nice polka dot fabric for the back and  hopefully I'll have enough to bind with it.  Those solid areas are calling "feathers" to me. We'll see.  I've never done feathers as a quilting motif.                        

Orphan Block Not!

I was working with the weathervane block seeing if I could change it to see if it looks more like a flower.  I put a light center square, a circle for the stamens and pistol.  And curved corner blocks on the 4 central blocks.  The green corners I tried to quilt in a leaf pattern.  What do you think?

Well, I think I like the regular pattern better, but it was worth trying - and since I didn't want to have an orphan block, I finished it into a little quiltlet.  I'm thinking if I wanted to make it into a morning glory block, the center would be white not gold and I could use a blue batik for the flower parts and the center square in a white blue batik.  I'll see as a real morning glory has a star with 5 points radiating from the center.

Well, enough - the computer is in the "hot" part of the house and I can't stand it any longer.  Since I had a spell of heat exhaustion in 02, I start to feel nauseous when it's over 100.  This part of the house has no ac, so back to the living room I go.

Stay cool!

UFO #12 is done

This was a disappearing 9 patch that I made with large squares (8").  LOL - I started it when the D9P pattern first came out.  And all the fabric came from my stash.  The back is a cute puppy dog fabric from Robert Kaufman.  I quilted letters in the large squares using the letters in the word - Baby.  Now I need to work on a backing for #13 as it is a set of blocks from 2009.  The last ufo I started in that year. I'm happy to report I haven't started a new ufo in 2010!

Lily Report

Here's our precious baby at 2 1/2 months!  When she's awake, she is so aware. A very good baby.  Mom is going back to work July 12th - Oh, how I wished I lived closer so that I could watch her while she's gone (Deanna is working 24 hrs I think each week).














New Challenge

What do you think of these?   I joined the Inland Valley Modern Quilt Guild and am challenging myself to try to go out of my "comfort range"in fabric selection and see if I can make a Mod Quilt.
These are fat quarters I won online.  Are they modern enough?  I'll put them up on my design wall so I can think about what pattern to use.  And in the meantime, I've ordered a solid and am going to try my hand at it.

SAHRR Round 5 and 6

  Ready to show rounds 5 and 6. Actually, the prompt for 5 was make 4 of something. So I chose four patch, and actually since that made my q...