Quilt Club Block 2 of 12

I love this month's quilt block, the colors are so rich. Putting it together was time consuming but so worth it. All this block making got me to thinking about the first quilt club I was a part of. Elizabeth was just an infant at the time so it was at least 8 years ago when I joined.

I held on to my blocks until I could find the perfect sashing fabric; which turned out to be leftovers from some photo quilts I made one year as Christmas gifts.

My favorite block in the quilt is this one. It's an applique heart in the center of a star. I used my then new to me Bernina machine to do the applique stitch.

This quilt top has now been added to my "to do" list. Maybe someday I'll get it quilted.

Sunday Baking

I recently purchased a set of new pizza pans at the thrift store for $2.And since the weather is cool, and since I feel lazy today, and since we all love pizza, I decided to bake some pizza.

Homemade pizza is so simple and easy to prepare.

And it always hits the spot!

Don't Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch

Out of 7-dozen eggs, we only hatched 4 chicks; and one of those chicks may die.

Not sure why we got such a small hatching, I know the eggs were fertile. Several chicks didn't even make it out of their shell.

Pat built a wonderful brooder box for the baby chicks. It has three drawers, a heater and a place on top for a lamp to sit.

Maybe the next hatching will yield enough chicks to fill all three drawers!

Green Eggs and Ham

It's been years since we have had hens that lay green eggs. Elizabeth requested green eggs and ham for dinner. She was truly excited.

How fun to play out a favorite story.

Pork Stock

Most of the time when I make stock it's turkey or chicken. After making the Andouille Sausage I found myself with a lot of pork bones; so after a quick Internet search I decided to make pork stock. I roasted the bones in a 450-degree oven for 20 minutes on one side and 20 minutes on the other side. The house smelled so wonderful when the bones were cooking.

When the bones were ready I tossed them in a stock pot, covered them in water, added some salt, celery and onion and simmered for a couple of hours.

The pork stock that came from the bones was amazing!

Next I used some of the stock for Carne Guisada; it was the best I ever made!

I am so going to start keeping all my pork bones in the future. Cooking with stock instead of water makes a huge difference in how well a meal turns out.

Andouille Sausage

Several months ago my mom made some Andouille Sausage. It looked amazing so when we visited her last month I asked mom to make more of the sausage. I was hooked; it was the absolute best sausage ever!

My mom uses pork butt but I used pork ribs that were on sale for 97-cents per pound and chose the fattiest package.

After cutting the meat off the bones I then sliced it into long strips.

The recipe is very simple. I decided to take a picture of it instead of typing it all out. I also used 2 tablespoons salt instead of 3 tablespoons.

After gathering all my spices I measured them out into a bowl.

When I first began to measure out all the ingredients I was afraid there was going to be too much garlic. But it was just right.

After mixing the spices well, I sprinkled them onto my meat and let it marinate in the fridge overnight before grinding it; this way the spices had time to soak into the meat.

I had intended to make my sausage into links but the butcher was out of casings so my mom suggested making the sausage into balls.

The sausage balls were put into the smoker box, which is attached to the bar-b-que grill, and allowed to slow cook while I was cooking other meats on the grill.

When the sausage balls were finished I was more than pleased; they were tasty and full of flavor. I think adding these to soup would be good or even making a sausage meatball sandwich. Yum, I am so excited about making homemade sausage!

A Gift From Elizabeth

Elizabeth made this for me today. The letter "I" represents exclamation points.