Harry Covert

Steve and I had two guests for Thanksgiving dinner. My brother, Jacob and Harry Covert. Of course, we ate Harry.

The food was delicious. Turkey, ham, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans.

Dessert was a special treat. Pumpkin Cheesecake with Caramel Swirl.

It was a great choice. It has a lighter consistency than regular cheesecake, but you still get the creamy goodness of a cheesecake.

I'm Cut Out For This

I'm still sans my sewing machine. Steve told me I should take a break from sewing every now and then.

This past week I didn't do anything, until Friday night.

When you don't have a machine, what do you do? Cut out a future project.

I washed and ironed my fabric for my Amazon Star. Then I started cutting for the quilt.

I'm not sure if you all are familiar with Judy Niemeyer patterns, but she includes instructions and templates for cutting out her quilts.

I knew by looking at the quilt that it would be very involved, but the cutting was proof. Eight pages of cutting instructions. Ten ziploc bags later, I have everything cut and sorted.

I have to admit that the instructions were well written and easy to follow. The next step is to get my machine back and start sewing.

I'm Lost!

Can you tell what is missing from this picture?

Is there anything sadder than a sewing table missing a sewing machine? I was having trouble with the tension on my machine, so I took it in to be serviced at Gratz Sewing.

They are so good that typically they are booked out three weeks. I lucked out! I'll be getting my machine back in a week.

While I can't sew, I think I'll revisit finished projects that haven't made it onto the blog yet.

Earlier I had mentioned that I finished Mystery by Mail #43. Well, it is no longer a mystery. This is a picture of the finished product. Auntie's Choice.

I think it is lovely. The main block is Aunt Suki's Choice. I think it has an amazing secondary design that is created by added a pieced sashing in between the blocks.

I also love the earth tone Asian fabrics. Very elegant!

Mystery Treats

I did Mystery Weekend this past Thursday and Friday.

Some of my favorite things about the weekend are the different fabric choices, show and tell, the great tips and the treats.

I have to say that I didn't bring the hit treat. Some one brought caramel peanut rolls. They were so popular, they disappeared before I could get one.

I brought Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread.

I have to say that it turned out really well. I made my own pumpkin puree, which I think added to the flavor and helped made the bread more moist.

Making pumpkin puree is very easy. Here are instructions.

Once you taste the difference, you'll never use canned puree again.

A Marriage of Convenience

What do you do when you have turkey meat and pumpkin puree?

You put them together and make Pumpkin Turkey Chili.

When you put it all together and it still isn't working? Chili marriage counselling.

Steve and I obviously started with boiling a turkey carcass and harvesting the meat. We used it in place of the ground turkey.

Once we finished the recipe, it really wasn't good, so we added more salt, red pepper flakes, mexican oregano and cumin. We also added some broth and an 8oz can of tomato sauce to make it less thick.

The last step is to arrange your chili bowls into eyes, your cheese into a mouth and make a sour cream beauty mark to really enjoy your dinner.