Brought to you by the letter M

Pinterest Parties are the latest crafting activity where you get together with others and make an item found on Pinterest.  Willow Tree Fabrics had a party recently where we got crafty with a letter of our choice and enjoyed snacks also found on Pinterest.

We started by tracing and cutting out the letter.  The M was so BIG they had to cut a bigger piece of burlap for it!   A chevron template was available for the design.

Chevron lines completed.  I know, messy lines, it gets worse!  Ha ha!

Some letters do better on this project than others.  I liked the letter S.   They are stapled to the back piece and then stuffed with plastic shopping bags.

Hot glue is available in metallics too!   We ran the hot glue along the staple line of the letter.

I added a wire hanger and gave it a decorative twist.

The M is so wide that it kind of collapses together at the top.  Maybe more stuffing in the middle would have prevented that.  I just attached the wire at the point that it would collapse the least.

The look better from a distance rather than up close!  I may hang it on the door for a while then it's going on my sewing room wall.

Have you been to a Pinterest party?

Lakeview Sunset

The winter sunset colors are pretty.

I've been trying to capture the silhouettes too.

Wheeler Lake

The window of time is so short, the sun disappears quickly!

God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.  Genesis 1:5

He's the perfect artist too!

Handmade Napkins: Blue and Brown

Looking at all the great fabric choices out there is more fun than eating!  Seems I'm been stuck on food posts lately, I just had to throw that out there.

The new house is ready and now it's time for a housewarming gift.    I have seen this particular homeowner wear blue and brown.  Casual and contemporary is the look I was hoping for.

I chose floral prints to go along with dots and circles.

These are so easy to make.

I like this one, kind of feminine with the pink.

Just choose the fabrics.  This is the hardest part because there are so many to choose from.  Cut the fabric in a 17x17 square (or whatever size you want them to be).

This one is my favorite.

With right sides together, stitch around the edges leaving an opening about 3" long.

No.  This one is my favorite.

Turn it inside out.  Press.  Top stitch around the outside edge making sure you close that 3" opening along with the topstitch.

No. No.  THIS one is my favorite.

I like them all!

Now on to a happy home!

Herbed Goat Cheese Spread

Turns out there is an internationally recognized goat cheese producer and cookbook author right here in my Alabama neck of the woods!  Yep, Fromagerie Belle Chèvre is located in Elkmont, AL about 10 miles away.

So the choice of goat cheese for this  Herbed Goat Cheese Spread from America's Test Kitchen was a no brainer since I like to support and shop local as much as possible.  And this cheese is available at our local Costco, too.   

The recipe calls for fresh chives and thyme.  I took the cheapy way out and used dried chives and my home dried thyme.  My apologies to Belle Chevre for that!  I just didn't have a use planned for the whole package of fresh herbs.   

Just mix the cheese with the herbs and a little extra virgin olive oil, milk, salt and pepper.  

It's a healthy and quite satisfying snack on a whole wheat cracker.  I'll be sharing this with my Mother.  She doesn't eat cows milk products and does occasionally eat goats milk products.

Now I can't wait to get the fresh thyme growing again this spring!  In the meantime, maybe I'll substitute the thyme with basil, dried oregano or a dried italian blend.  And I wonder how cilantro and jalepeno would be mixed up with Belle Chevre?  Sounds like some more blog posts in the future on this!

Garlic and Onion Biscuit Ring

Just when I swore off biscuits along comes a cooking club recipe for biscuits!  I was intentionally making healthy substitutes whenever possible.  Instead of baking biscuits at home, I'd have a couple of slices of whole wheat toast.  Sometimes, I admit an occasional fast food biscuit is unavoidable though, especially Bojangles chicken biscuits and Hardee's sausage and gravy biscuits.

So this one's for the Sweet As Pie Cooking Club since I'm enjoying it so much.  I'll bake biscuits at home one last more time.  Here's the recipe for this Garlic and Onion Biscuit Ring.

I chose the flaky kind, they're my favorite.  Roll them in the chopped onion, garlic, poppy seed and butter mixture and line them around a bundt pan.

Bake them until their nice and brown and done in between.  Since I wanted these a little crusty with that butter on the outside, they baked for about 15 minutes.

 Turn them out on a plate and eat one right away.

The Bassman loaded up the smoker this past weekend so we have lots of meats and veges already prepared and ready to warm up.  They were yummy along with our leftovers and the only thing to wash by hand was the bundt pan!  

Pan Roasted Chicken with Lemon Garlic Green Beans

After I typed the title, it looks like the name of this recipe from Real Simple lists almost all of the ingredients!  

The Sweet As Pie Cooking Club is mixing it up this year.  I enjoyed the year of the Pioneer Woman, and I expect to enjoy this year too.  We're selecting recipes from anywhere to share and try something new and different.  Anyone is welcome to join in, just leave a comment here or on the Sweet As Pie Cooking Club blog.

With the lemon in this recipe, I expected it to be best in the summer months.  But with all the rain we had, I was trying not to count the days, someone said we had 8 straight days of clouds and rain.   This dish turned out to be very light and refreshing on a dreary day!  That lemon added just a touch of sunshine!

The lemon slices went in first and I didn't get a photo of them, but doesn't it just look fresh and summery!  Some comments said it was too lemony, but not for us.

Just toss everything in the lemon, olive oil and garlic mixture and layer it in a baking dish with the chicken on top.

The chicken roasts to a nice golden color, yum!

This was a very different take on a one-pot dish.  It's not your one-pot casserole or crock pot dish.   We enjoyed it and the leftovers too.

The Bassman's Birthday

This year for the Bassman's birthday, I thought a weekend getaway would be more fun than a shirt.  (I have a hard time shopping for him.)   So we headed to the north Georgia mountains, between Chatsworth and Ellijay.    

Most of the time it was cloudy and rainy.  So at 3000 feet, it was mostly cloudy!

The clearest day

Arriving after dark, it was quite an adventure getting to the cabin.  There had been a wreck on one of the winding mountain roads, that caused us to have to detour.  Fortunately, a local lady (she was a God send) offered to lead us and a few other cars to the other side so we could get to where we were going.    So off we go following this lady whom we had never met, on a mostly dirt road through some kind of bypass that the locals knew about.  Oh my.  The fog, or rather clouds, were so thick we could barely see the front of the car.  Needless to say, my nerves were rattled by the time we got to the check-in place.  Then we were on our own to make it to the cabin in the clouds.  My nerves were totally shot by the time we drove that curvy loose gravel road to the cabin.  

Now, I grew up in the country, playing in the woods, running up and down hills, creek banks and dirt roads.  But not being able to SEE where we were going almost drove me crazy!  Fortunately, the Bassman remained calm and in control.

Cabin drive

We like to explore state parks on weekend trips like this so we went to Fort Mountain State Park to see what we could see.  We shopped and ate in Ellijay.  It's a small town with lots of antique shops and local art and crafters.   We enjoyed good food at Charlie's Italian Restaurant and the Cajun Depot (get the muffaletta).

Fort Mountain State Park entrance

Fort Mountain fortress structure

Hiking path to the fortress

Otherwise, back at the cabin, I didn't see much that inspired me to take a lot of pictures.  It was just so rainy and cloudy.

Table I liked at the cabin

So I spent a little time between the rain, playing with the timer on my camera.  Surely out of all those snaps there would be one good one!  

Us with trees coming out of our heads

Bassman silly collage

Happy Birthday to my wonderful hubby!