A Little Stitchin'

Gentle Freinds,  still plugging away on the border along the top... now I've turned the corner ...

... I may just stitch the vine all the way around just for peace of mind that it matches up.....

That's about it for today sports fans thanks for stopping by do stop again!

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar

A Happy New Year!!!

Gentle Freinds... it's the Chinese New year today and this year it's the Rat!! To you all ... 

"Gong hei fat choy"...

  "wishing you great happiness and prosperity."

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar

A Little Rainy Day Mint

Gentle Friends, I just got back from braving the downpour for a little morning deliciousness...

 I usually don't get takeaway coffee much, it gets pricey... but from about mid-November to whenever the supplies run out I will get many Tall cups of Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks!!!  It's probably my favorite drink they make and it's very seasonal.  The Starbucks in SF have all run out of the fixins so I can no longer get them in the City, but here in Berkeley, they are still making them!! In fact, I can say without a doubt that peppermint is probably one of my favorite flavors ever...  I can't think of anything peppermint that I do not like.  I don't care for spearmint and don't get me started on wintergreen, but peppermint... oh lordy delicious!!

  With the rain starting and the cold weather blowing it is a real "Treat Tuesday!!"  I thought I should also get a pain au chocolate... or as it's called at Starbucks... chocolate croissant... it's not a good as the ones I have gotten in France... a bit pale and stiff, but it's buttery and chocolaty so it fits the bill this morning!

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There you go sports fans, thanks again for stopping by do stop again!!

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar

A Little Stitchin'

Gentle Friends, here's a little snaperoo of where I am on the border...

... I think this is a great border and it's what first drew me to this sampler... so I'll just keep bee-bopping along.....

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That's about it for today sports fans thanks again for stopping by do stop again!

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar

A Little Stitchin'

Gentle Friends so here's a snap of my New Year start...

The sampler is called "Sarah Woodham 1770" a sampler reproduction from Shakespeare's Peddler.  I'm stitching it on LL 40ct Buttercream using the overdyed floss conversion.  It's been around since 2009 and I've wanted to stitch it since I first got it, the border is really great!!

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That's about it for today sports fans, thanks for stopping by!

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar

A Little Street Parking

Gentle Friends, as you may know, or not, my job shifted dramatically over the Christmas Holiday and I am now working in Downtown Berkely.  So now instead of just driving to work and parking, in less than 25 minutes.  At about 5am I drive over the hill into the Castro, then I have to find parking.  

Then I walk down to the Muni Station and take Muni (the SF City train system) to the Embarcaderro Station.  Where I go even further underground to the Bart Station and catch an Antochio train under the bay to the 19th Street Station in Oakland where I change trains for a Richmond train which I ride to the Downtown Berkeley Station.... the office is almost directly in front of the station once I come up from underground.... so that's the silver lining but the ride sort of sucks!!  Going home in the afternoon is a bit easier as I can take an SF Airport Train all the way to the Embarcadero Station and just change onto one of the Muni trains going to the Castro...  

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Well, this morning after I found parking and opened the car door in the street were these...

... it had been raining off and on all night so they were really wet but I could see they were $10 dollar bills... so I scooped them up and stuffed them into my pocket thinking.... " some drunk dropped some bucks last night!!"  Once I got to the office and really looked at them ...this is what I then saw...

... it's movie money, how crazy is that.  They look and feel really real......  

oh well, you win some you lose some!!  Yes, those are Milkbones, good for the teeth!!  

Not really,  we have three super cute dogs here running around the office... that gotta have their treats!!  I'll post some snaps later on.

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Have a super weekend!!

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar

A Little Christmas Finish

Gentle Friends, I finished up "Tidings" last week... it was a fun stitch and so seasonal.  I often want to stitch some in "season" but things either overlap or I just procrastinate until its too late and just don't get to it or whatever.  But, this year I was on point all around and here tis'.....

"Tidings of Great Joy" by La-D-Da

I switched out some of the called for floss:

WDW Baked Apple to WDW Red Rocks

GAST Tarnished Gold 

GAST Wood Trail

DMC 3782 to GAST Shaker White

GAST Carriage Black to WDW Gun Metal

GAST Moss to WDW Collards

Stitched on 40ct LL Vintage Pecan Butter

I also made a few little tweaks as I stitched along that made more sense to me and the way I think the piece should look... but they are small changes and scattered. I'm thinking that I'll get this finished up into a small Christmas pillow instead of framing.....  I did get started on a new project It's a traditional sampler that comes from Shakespear's Peddler that Therese did a few years ago.  Sadly I've no snap of my progress so I'll just save that until stitching Monday.

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There you go sports fans.  Thanks for stopping by do stop again.

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar

Some Christms Snaps...

Gentle Friends, since I've been off the grid so to speak for the last two weeks I thought I'd fill in some of our Holiday with a few snaperoos.....

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Let's start off the Friday before Christmas...  we headed downtown to see The Nutcracker...

... I had gotten our tickets months ago, and since it was the 75th Anniversary year I knew they would be selling out the prime nights fast!!

Our SF City Hall was all aglow for the season...

... the Ballet shares the space in the Opera House...

...with its lovely ceiling and the lobby all decorated...

... there was a shop with all sorts of fun stuff ... 

... I made sure we had better seats than last year...

... this is the trailer they released so you can get a taste of how really lovely this performance was...

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Then starting on Sunday I began my tamales adventure.  I've already posted a snap of the carnitas/pork cooking.... then on Monday, I made the chili sauce...

... you have to clean the dried chilies... pop the stems off and clean out the seeds and veins


....and then cook them down a bit...  then you take them and grind them for a while in the processor...


....  you take the processed chilies and strain out any bits that didn't pulverize so that...


... you end up with a smooth delicious chili sauce to add to your cooked meat.
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So, Monday evening I took the dried corn husks and pour some hot water over them to sit in overnight...they have to be weighed down so they stay covered with the water... you can see two pounds of sausage I turned into Pinwheels for Christmas morning and some bacon I turned into some hors-d'oeuvre before Christmas Dinner...


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Then Tuesday morning I started in making the masa... I whipped my lard for about 15 minutes to get it nice and fluffy


... then added the tamale flour, pork stock I had saved, some of the chili sauce and then just let this beat scraping down the bowl every now and then for about 20+ minutes.... when I thought it had gotten to the right consistency I did the test...




... the test was to take a little bit and drop into cold water to see if it floated, and first time out I hit it and my little blob floated!!


... then it was on to making the tamales.  I made a 100 or so and it took a little more than an hour to do.  I also steamed them Christmas eve to have one less thing to do Christmas Day. Tamales reheat well!!


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I made a key Lime Pound Cake for the Baby Jesus' Birthday cake this year.


... we ended up doing a buffet type of dinner for everyone that came over... Rico made Spanish Rice, beans and some guacamole and chips. We also had a green salad to round things out.  It was a very different Christmas Dinner than I've ever had or made, but we all enjoyed it and it was a real learning experience!!



....... and here's the cake all cut up after dinner we served with really delicious pink champagne a friend brought over.  It's from Korbel and is only available at the winery, it was a superb ending to our tasty meal!!
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That's about it for today sports fans thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!
edgar

A Little Wish.......

Gentle Friends,  just a quick note to say...

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar

.... and so it begins.....

Gentle Friends, you'll get to ride along with me and my tamale-making...  I've got my pork on the stove with onion, garlic, and some bay leaf... it will cook for a few hours until fork-tender and falling off the bone...

(not my picture, I'm using my yellow le Creuset stockpot to cook in, 

but this better illustrates whats cooking)

... after it cools I'll shred the meat strain the broth (it goes in the masa) and get things together for making the salsa roja tomorrow...the house already smells great!!

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar