Peace and Plenty - Anita Shackelford

Ramps!

4/15/2021

The ramps (wild onions) are coming up and we had our first taste of the season this morning!

Preheat the oven to 375.
I used my small toaster oven, since I was making breakfast for two.
Wash the ramps and cut away the roots. Slice bulbs, stems, and leaves; all of the plant is edible and flavorful.

Also slice a couple of pieces of thin deli ham and saute all together for a few minutes, until the ramp is tender and the ham starts to brown.

Butter a ramekin or small oven safe cup and fill the bottom with the sauteed ramp and ham.
Drop a fresh egg on top, being careful not to break the yolk.
Season to taste.

Bake the dish for about 10 minutes. The dark you see around the edges here is just brown butter and ramp leaves.
The egg white should be tender and the yolk semi- liquid, the same texture as a poached or soft boiled egg.

I diced and browned a left over baked sweet potato and we added a slice of whole wheat toast to complete the meal. It was yummy!

My Meatless Monday Menus - Green Beans and Mushrooms with Pesto Noodles

4/12/2021

This is a good vegetarian meal, or you can add a bit of chicken if you want to make it a more substantial dish. It's delicious either way. I used green beans and pesto from last summer's garden and homemade noodles, but everything here is easily available from the market. Total prep and cooking time is about 20 minutes.
Makes 2 generous servings, or 4 side dishes.

Cook the green beans in salted water until they are tender crisp, then saute them with the onion for about 5 minutes. Both should be tender and just begin to brown.

Add mushrooms and garlic and continue to saute slowly until mushrooms give up their moisture and begin to brown. Season with salt and pepper.

I added a little bit of cooked chicken to this meal, but skip this step if you want a vegetarian dish. Continue to cook long enough to warm the chicken.

Add the cooked noodles and pesto and stir to coat everything.

I like to serve this type of meal in a shallow bowl.

Serve with fresh Parmesan cheese on top, if you like.

Recipe:
1 T olive oil
1 large onion, cut into chunks
2 oz fresh or frozen whole green beans
4 oz fresh mushrooms, cut into pieces
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1 cup cooked chicken, cubed (if desired)
2 oz basil pesto
2 oz fettuccini or noodles, cooked
Fresh Parmesan cheese for garnish

Bunny Quilts

4/3/2021

I've put together a collection of bunny quilts I've made over the years, to share with you on this Easter weekend.
The cutwork quilts are part of my on-going Block of the Month class, and the Picture This! is another class now included for my Journal subscribers.
Enjoy the photos and Happy Easter!
Anita

Bunnies and Baskets is a Cutwork Applique project.
The pattern is available here:

Easter Baskets is my Block of the Month May Baskets, filled with pretty eggs.

Rabbits in my Garden is a Picture This! quilt, with a slightly non-traditional block and sashing set.

Beware the Fox! is a Picture This! quilt, made with a small piece of Japanese yukata and sashiko quilting.

This bunny quilt was painted by my Uncle Ray Palmer. I quilted it with my Ivy Grid and Frame, my Olive and Leaf Border, and P2P Sun blocks in the corners.

My Meatless Monday Menus

3/26/2021

Probably everyone has a favorite Mac and Cheese recipe. Here's one we like. I think the smoked cheese makes it seem more than just a side dish. Simply add a side veggie or a green salad and it's a great meatless meal.

Smoky Macaroni and Cheese

1/2 lb macaroni
2 cups of half-and-half
1/4 cup flour
1 cup Fontina cheese
1/2 cup Smoky Gruyere or Sharp Cheddar
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. black pepper
Bread crumbs
Favorite mixed grill spice seasoning

Cook the macaroni and drain well. Pour into a greased casserole dish.

Mix the flour into the half-and-half and whisk to remove any lumps. Cook slowly to thicken. Add the grated cheeses and stir until melted. Pour over the macaroni and fold in until well coated.

Top with bread crumbs and a light sprinkle of seasoning. Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes, until bubbly and beginning to brown.

Irish Chain Quilts

3/24/2021

Before March is over, I thought I'd take a minute and talk about patterns for an Irish Chain quilt. People often are in search of a pattern designed to fit inside the blank square, with all of it's pointy edges. The patterns shown below, are drawn to fit that way.

Jen's Irish Chain is a typical block with pattern extending into all of the little corners.

The Irish Chain Fill block extends into the corners and has an open center to accommodate blocks with applique or embroidery in the center.

But when I quilted the quilt shown here, I wanted to use more traditional feathers. By quilting straight lines through the chain and another line into the white areas, I changed the open space from pointy to a simple square and my Square Feather block fit perfectly. And since my Amish Feather Border matches it, I only had to make two design decisions for the whole quilt. Using a block and a border from the same set is a Quick Custom idea and I'm very happy with the traditional look of this quilt.

Here are the patterns I used in this quilt.

Infinite Feathers
Large Square Feather

Infinite Feathers Amish Feather Border and Corner

These two would work as well.

Leaf and Feather Set
large block

Leaf and Feather Border

I hope you'll keep this idea in mind for when an Irish Chain quilt top comes your way.
Anita

My Meatless Monday Menus

3/21/2021

Creamy Asparagus Soup

We have a large asparagus bed and always look forward to enjoying this first spring vegetable. When I cut the spears for fresh eating or freezing, I rarely think of making soup. If you also hate to give up a "good vegetable" for soup, consider this...Cut only the top few inches to eat as a side dish and save the remaining long stems for this recipe.

Stems can be woody near the bottoms, but with this pureed recipe, almost all of the stem can be used.

We grow both green and purple asparagus. Both are green after they are cooked, but green is probably better for this soup.

Creamy Asparagus Soup

1 1/2 T olive oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 - 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 - 2 stalks celery, chopped
1/4 cup white wine
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
8 oz. fresh asparagus
4 oz. Neufchatel (low fat cream cheese)
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan or Romano cheese

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat the olive oil, then add the onion, garlic and celery and saute until soft. Stir in the wine and continue to cook until the wine is dissipated.

Stir in the broth, water, asparagus, and the bay leaf. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 - 15 minutes, until asparagus is tender.

Remove the bay leaf and blend vegetables, along with remaining ingredients until smooth. Add more broth or water if needed for desired consistency. Taste, and adjust seasonings, as desired.

Enjoy!
Anita

20th Century Bindings

3/19/2021

Moving into the 20th century, we can find quilt bindings that are the same as in earlier times and some that are different.

Shaped edges were popular on Double Wedding Ring and Grandmother's Flower Garden quilts. Other quilts were shaped simply as a design statement.

Most bindings I've seen from this period were finished by hand, but machine stitching can also be seen on some.

In 1987, I finished an Amish style quilt with a faced edge, wrapped around to create a border on the front. I don't remember now why I did it that way, and I'm pretty sure I had never seen the technique, but it worked well for me. As I was looking through quilts to photograph for this blog, I was surprised to see this same finish on an early quilt in my collection.

You will also see a rescue quilt that I set together in the 1990s. I was sure I saved fabric for binding, but... I didn't want to add a different fabric to it, so I added a narrow facing strip and turned it to the back.

And finally, there is a photo of a wide blanket style edge finish. Again, I don't know why I did it, but it did give me the opportunity to repeat all of the fabrics used in the body of the quilt, so that worked ok, from a design standpoint.

So many ways to finish our quilts and Hurray! when they are actually finished :)

Straight Edges

Simple straight edge, straight grain binding, square corners, finished by hand.

1930s Ocean Waves with straight edges, bias binding, slightly rounded corners, finished by hand.

1930s Rescue quilt, straight edge, bias binding, mitered corners, finished by hand.

1920s sateen applique, with straight edges, intentionally rounded corners, bias binding, finished by hand.

Shaped Edges

1930s Double Wedding Ring with curved edges, bias binding, applied by machine.

Rescue 1970s DWR quilt with curved edges, bias binding, finished by hand.

1930s Grandmother's Flower Garden with shaped hexagon edge, bias binding, finished by hand.

1929 pieced quilt with deeply curved edges, bias binding, finished by hand.

1930s Rescue GFG quilt with shaped hexagon edge, bias binding, finished by hand.

1930s Rescue quilt with new border, curved edges, bias binding, finished by hand.

1930s Texas Star Rescue quilt with a pieced border, bias binding, shaped and mitered corners, finished by hand.

Faced Edges

Applique quilt with wide facing strips, turned to the front to create a border with mitered corners, finished by hand on the front.

1987 Amish style quilt with a wide facing strip, turned to the front to create a border with square corners, finished by hand on the front.

1940s Rescue quilt with a new border, bias facing strip, turned to the back, finished by hand.

Blanket Edge

1988 wall quilt with a wide pieced strip, stitched to the front, turned to the back with equal amounts showing, finished by hand on the back.

Quick Freeze for Vegetables

3/18/2021

At the grocery this week, I found good prices on two vegetables we like, so I bought extra; more than we could fit into menus right away. I have the equipment to blanch and freeze large amounts of vegetables when we are bringing them in from our garden, but today I want to share a quick idea I use to prep vegetables for freezing when I have only a small amount.

Beautiful asparagus and broccoli from the market, washed and ready to cut into smaller bites.

After veggies are prepped, the next step is to bring a large bowl of water to boiling, in the microwave.
I added the asparagus to the hot water and blanched (cooked) it on High for 3 minutes. This process is important because it stops the enzymes that cause food to spoil.

Also have ready, a bowl of ice water. Make sure the bowls you use are stoneware or other ceramics that will tolerate the sudden change of temperature for this technique.
Use a slotted spoon and lift the veggies out of the hot water and into the ice water to stop the cooking process.

Let the veggies chill for several minutes to be sure they are cold all the way through.
After cooling, lift the vegetables out and drain them in a colander to remove excess water.

Spread them out on a baking sheet and place them in the freezer until they are completely frozen.

Frozen spread out like this, the asparagus was easy to pick up and put into a freezer bag.
Label and date are a good idea if you do very many packages.

The broccoli went through similar steps, although I blanched these pieces for 5 minutes because they were larger and had thicker stems.
You can read on line for suggestions on blanching and freezing other vegetables. If you have the freezer space to do this, you can count on having just what you need to make a favorite recipe.
P. S. Some of the fresh asparagus is going into tonight's dinner. Watch for that recipe later.

19th Century Bindings

3/16/2021

A question arose this morning about how vintage quilts were bound. I decided to photograph and share some of my earliest quilts here. I think you might be surprised at the variety of ways quilt edges were finished. Clearly, there was no one right answer. I'm sure they vary somewhat by date, region, family influence, skill and preference of the maker. I hope you enjoy seeing them. I'll take a look at 20th century quilts another time.

c1840 Chintz. 1/8" binding rolled back to front.

Early Trapunto quilt. Knife edge with cording.

Red and green applique with straight grain binding and rounded corners

Turn of the century with bias binding and rounded corners

Mid 1800s Applied straight grain binding, square corners

Mid century red and green Knife edge and quilted twice

Red and green pieced with straight grain binding and rounded corners

Late 19th century with bias binding and mitered corners

Early 20th century with a straight grain applied facing, turned to the back.

Late 19th century with bias binding, mitered corners, applied by machine.

My Meatless Monday Menues

3/15/2021

Several years ago, we decided to eat a vegetarian diet. We followed that plan for 3 years, we ate well, and I amassed a large file of vegetarian recipes. We have now added meat back into our diet on some days, simply because there were meals that I missed making. But we grow a large garden and I still make meatless meals several times a week. We know it's good for us and I hope by sharing some ideas here I can encourage you to try it too.

I was sorting through the freezers today, to see what was left from last summer and to decide what to eat for lunch today. This is what we had:

Best Tomato Soup*

7 quarts cut up tomatoes
7 celery stalks
4 onions
8 whole cloves
4 bay leaves
1 cup sugar
4 t. salt
a little black pepper

Use food processor to chop tomatoes, celery and onions. Boil until tender and then puree. Put spices in a bag and boil with pureed ingredients. When soup is well seasoned, add sugar, salt, and pepper.

You can see this makes a big batch; I freeze it in pint containers, which makes a cup of soup for each of us. We won't have fresh tomatoes for a long time, but I know some of you do now or will soon. It's easy to cut the recipe in half if you want to try a little smaller amount.

Carrot-Zucchini Veggie Burger

1 1/2 cups carrots, shredded
1 1/2 cups zucchini, shredded
1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. ground black pepper
1 1/4 t. ground chili powder
2 green onions, thinly sliced
2 large eggs, whisked

Microwave the vegetables for about 2 minutes. Let cool slightly.

Add flour, cheese, salt, pepper, chili powder, green onions and eggs. Stir mixture until well combined. The chili powder is the secret for great flavor in these.

Heat 1T of oil in a skillet. Drop 1/4 cup fritter mixture into the skillet and flatten it into patties. Cook the fritters, 3-4 minutes on each side, until golden brown.

I serve these with a slice of Provolone cheese and a fresh tomato slice if we have one. They also freeze well and can be microwaved for a minute or so to serve any time of year.

Even if your veggies come from the market, I encourage you to give these recipes a try. They are both delicious!
Watch for more recipes each week and let me know what you think.

Author

Anita has a long background rooted in traditional handwork and quiltmaking, which she still enjoys.

Often, these days, you'll find her digitizing patterns for the Statler Stitcher and other computerized longarm quilting machines.

Her summer days are spent in the garden and she loves finding new ways to prepare good veggie-based meals.

She's always in search of a way to balance all of those activities and find time to share with others who are passionate about the same things.

This page is a sneak peek into what's happening in her world right now.

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