Favorite Food

Stories about food

This Little Guy

| Cindy Anderson

This little guy lives in the bottom of my dish towel drawer.  He’s stitched to a homemade, linen bag that my oldest daughter Jenny gave me a long time ago. The bag is meant to hold a loaf of bread.

There was an era when Jenny had the time to make bread. Those days are few and far between. She is wrapped up in the task of home-schooling her three children. Anything she touches, whether it be bread-making, home-schooling as well as her talent for sewing is done with excellence. I’m very proud of what she has accomplished and the wonderful person that she is.

While putting away a stack of clean dish towels recently I saw this little guy looking up at me and it spurred me on to jokingly send her a text message. This is what I said:

a-little-bird

This little guy lives in my dish towel drawer. Every time I pull open that drawer I see him. Perhaps sometime he will once again wrap himself around a warm loaf of homemade bread. Hint, Hint!

She replied:

LOL, I’ll keep that in mind.

You know, it never hurts to ask! The worst she could say is “No.” On the other hand, a maybe is way better that no. I’ll keep hoping she can sneak in the time to make a fresh, steaming, hot loaf of yummy homemade bread. Until then, every time I open that drawer and see the little orange birdie he will help to keep the dream alive.

For now….

Cindy Anderson of In A Stitch Quilting

Meal Train

| Cindy Anderson

Two weeks ago today my newest grandson was born. Our family has established a tradition of orchestrating a schedule to provide meals to the family for the first two weeks at home. I am a very enthusiastic participant for several reasons. First of all it gives me extra time to spend with our newest family member. I just love being able to cuddle with the tiny little person. Of course the added bonus is being with my daughters and their other children. All of them add so much joy to my life.

Today is one of my self designated days to provide a meal to the family. Even though the weather outside is predicted to be sweltering I’ve decided to prepare a meal filled with comfort foods. The wonders of air conditioning are what will make it all possible.

Of the items on the menu are Chicken Parisienne (a family favorite) and a recipe from Betty Crocker called Angel Toffee Dessert. To round off the meal I will add a vegetable as well as some type of fruit. I realize that this may not be a menu that would be added to the list of healthy options but I don’t care. It’s my last scheduled meal train visit and I’m going to make it a comfort food extravaganza.

Here are the latest photos to be added to my family photo album.

Ms Katie.jpg

My daughter Ms Katie and Mr. B

Miss A.jpgMr. B’s sister Miss A

Time for me to get organized and set this meal in motion.

Thanks for being a part of my day! I look forward to your next visit.

Cindy Anderson

FREE Fabric!!!

| Cindy Anderson

Last Friday I had the pleasure of spending the day with two of my classmates from the retreat I attended in May plus one more fabric enthusiast. Two of the shoppers, Nancy and Eileen, came from Madison. Barb, my roommate at the retreat, lives in Milwaukee.

Our rendezvous was a fabric shop in Mukwonago, Wisconsin. Mukwonago is approximately sixty minutes, give or take a few, from my home. If you aren’t a fabric nut like I am you probably are wondering why I would drive so far to purchase material; especially when there are vendors near by. To that thought I would give four responses.

  1. The closest merchant to me sells discount fabric. I like low prices but not low quality.
  2. I prefer fabrics that do not fall into the “Civil War” era for color and design.
  3. It’s FUN!
  4. I could receive FREE fabric there!

Free? Yes, I said free! Back in May I went to the Mukwonago quilt shop known as Quilt-agious to participate in their second birthday celebration. While there I registered for their drawing. The lucky winner of the drawing would be entitled to one yard of free fabric for the next twelve months. That translates into twelve yards of free fabric. Who wouldn’t love to take advantage of that opportunity!

To my surprise, on May 17, 2016, I received a very exciting phone call. The caller ID identified the incoming call as originating from Mukwonago. As I raised my phone to answer, my heart started to race. Could it possibly be? The caller identified herself as being from the quilt shop. When she announced I was the winner of the prize I was overjoyed. I couldn’t believe it! I had won their awesome prize.

Friday was the day chosen to meet my friends to retrieve my first yard of fabric. The four of us had a wonderful time exploring the shop, caressing the fabric and comparing notes on which ones were our favorites. There were many fabrics that we all adored. One in particular was chosen by all of us as worthy to purchase. It’s the one shown below.

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Shopping often works up an appetite. Not more than two doors down was the restaurant where we grabbed a bite to eat. Before finishing our meal, new plans were hatched to check out two more fabric shops. Both were fairly close to one another. Their close proximity made it easy to justify the additional browsing.

While brainstorming about fabric combinations, at our second destination, an idea began to develop. Since all four of us had purchased a section of the same fabric we decided this would be the perfect opportunity to challenge one another to use that fabric. All four of us agreed to participate. The only two requirements were that the fabric needed to be in the challenge piece and it needed to be finished by December of 2016. Any other fabrics or embellishments added were at the designers discretion.

I think it would be safe to say that all four of us had a wonderful time shopping, eating and sharing conversation. Setting up the fabric challenge was just icing on the cake.

Normally I would give updates on my project as it progresses but, since my friends just may be stalking my website, I can’t afford to give them any sneak peeks. Just like them you will have to wait.