Chat – Page 33 – Thimbleanna

A Chili Cook-off

48 Comments / October 6, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Chat, Recipes

Well, how’s the week going so far? Are you all busy? I hope those of you going to the fall quilt market have a super time. When you’re in the middle of all that frenzy, try to think of the rest of us back here in blogland, just sitting around, twiddling our thumbs waiting for your reports!

We had a good weekend here in ThimbleannaLand. I cleaned and scrubbed and cleaned some more, for two days in the kitchen. Even the dome had a bath in a towel covered sink to protect it from breaking. Now everything is all sparkly clean, including uglygreentile.

On Saturday night, I took a break from the cleaning. I’ve been wanting to find a good white chili recipe, so MeMum, MyDadLovesMeBestSister, and I decided we’d each try a new recipe and test them all together. MyDadLovesMeBestSister lives in a 90+ year old house and they’ve recently added an addition that includes a beautiful new kitchen, so, what better way to break it in than with a chili cook-off?

My favorite part of the kitchen is the beautiful new stove. The middle section of the stove contains a grill and a griddle. Be still my heart. It’s so brand spankin’ new, they haven’t even had time to install the tile on the back wall yet. That didn’t stop us though, we got right down to mixing and cooking.

Of course, there was a funny wine bottle involved. Don’t worry though, no chili was harmed during the event.

Skinnyb*tch MyDadLovesMeBestSister even wore her birthday apron — notice how it matches the wine bottle?

We cooked and stirred and laughed and had a good time. After the cooking, we passed out a ballot to everyone and we put the chili in little numbered sample cups for everyone’s tasting.

Did I get any pictures? No, we were too busy. That would have been a good picture though — just imagine all those little sample cups all lined up and ready to taste. We even dragged the drywall guy (who was working in another area of the new addition) into the kitchen and made him taste and vote. This chili (recipe brought by MeMum) was the prettiest.

But, this chili (recipe brought by me) won, hands down. Everyone loved it. That’s because it’s the only one that has cream and cheese in it and it will probably cause your heart to sieze up. It’s soooo worth it though. I found this recipe courtesy of Ms. Farmhouse. She always has wonderful recipes – her oatmeal cranberry cookies are one of my all time favorite cookies!

Anyway, we did change this recipe just a teeny, tiny bit. The other two recipes had shredded chicken and we decided that we liked that better than chicken cut into chunks. We also like the addition of cilantro.

Creamy White Chili

2 – 3 baked chicken breasts, shredded
1 Tbsp oil
1 onion chopped
14 oz. can chicken broth
2 – 15 1/2 oz. cans Great Northern Beans, drained and rinsed
2 – 4 oz. cans chopped green chiles
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
8 oz. container sour cream
1/2 pint whipping cream
8 oz. bag shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
1 package Fritos corn chips
Chopped, fresh cilantro

Heat oil in large pot or dutch oven. Saute onions until tender. Add broth, beans, chiles and seasonings and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add shredded chicken, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Add sour cream, whipping cream and cheese and mix well. Pour into soup bowls and top with partially crushed Fritos and cilantro and enjoy!

Thank you SO much Ms. Farmhouse for posting this delicious recipe — it’s sure to be a new family favorite here in ThimbleannaLand!

XOXO,
Anna

Banana Bikes

56 Comments / October 3, 2009 February 12, 2012 / Chat, Peep Days

One week ago today I was blissfully sewing with the quilty peeps. (In sharp contrast to the pantry and kitchen drawer cleaning I’m doing today {sigh}.) One of the highlights of my day with the quilty peeps, was being able to see the banana bike collection that Junie and her fabulous hubby have started.

Junie took the picture above — I was so busy taking pictures of all the bike parts, I didn’t get any good pictures of all four of the bikes together. (Thanks Junie!)

JunieHubby is an amazing guy. He rebuilds all kinds of really nifty old jukeboxes, coke machines, arcade games and probably lots more. He’s rebuilt all of these banana bikes except one — was it the red one? I think that one is a reproduction. Don’t hold me to that though. JunieHubby told me lots of really cool facts about these bikes (I remember gasping at the prices of some of the little parts) but I have a terrible memory, so I don’t trust myself to recount any of those facts.

Besides, I was too excited about being in the presence of relics from my childhood. Aren’t these the cutest bikes ever??? And LOOK at these fun colors. The red bike doesn’t have speeds and I think the reason I didn’t take a picture of the red handlebar was because it doesn’t have handbrakes — it has a plain handle. I liked the crossbar on the red bike though — without the shifter, there’s room for that pretty Schwinn logo.

My very favorite part of these bikes is the chain guards. Feast your eyes:

I mean really. How cool are those names? Oh. My. Gosh! I loved our pink banana bike when were were growing up, but I think I’d be in a real pickle to have to choose between pink and one of these adorable fruity bikes.

Junie and I had lots of fun taking pictures of all the little bits and pieces of these bikes. JunieHubby has spared no attention to detail — just look at those little racing flag valve stem covers on each of the tires. They’re on the rear tires too and they’re color-coded to match the bikes.

I love the pretty speedometers too. And the shiny brake drums. Hmmm. That’s not what you call it — the brakes are around the rim of the tire on a bike. Help JunieHubby! I love that pretty shiny part that’s in the middle of the bottom row of the picture below. Whatever it is, it’s pretty slick. Oh — and that fun coil-y part that’s under the speedometer. Pretty, pretty, shiny, shiny!

You’d all be very proud of me — I didn’t get any drool on any of the bikes. And when we were all done taking pictures, we grabbed Jewels and Gurney and took the bikes out for a spin. A very short spin. And we laughed a lot. ‘Cause you should try to set the timer on the camera and then run and hop on a banana bike with a cross bar and then hold hands. That’s why my tail light isn’t shining!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Junie and JunieHubby for sharing your super exciting hobby! {Smooches}!

XOXO,
Anna

Rambly Linkage

21 Comments / September 30, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Chat

Yay! We’re more than half-way through the week. Even more important, we’re at October. Holy Cow! September flashed by in a blur. Fall has definitely arrived here and we’re expecting our first frost tonight. I can hardly wait to break out the hot chocolate!

Once again, I’ve been BlogLucky! A few weeks ago Ms. YellowBeachDog had a blog giveaway. I left a comment but left strict instructions NOT to be included in the giveaway — it was right after my latest rash of winnings and I told her I didn’t want to be a hog about it. Mary Jane promptly ignored a direct order and drew my name out of the pot to win this pretty LuLu yellow bag. Thank you so much Mary Jane — I love the pretty color and the bright happy stars. It’s such a sunny bag and I’ll definitely think of you and California when I use it!

Before my winning streak, I won a giveaway at Dutch Comfort. I’ve been a fan of Nicolette’s blog almost from the beginning of my blog life — back even when she had a different blog. Look at the adorable bag Nicolette made!

Nicolette also very kindly included three pieces of blue and white fabric. Just perfect for me! And look at that adorable dutch fabric! When we were first married, we had the privilege of living in Germany for three years. During that time, we were lucky enough to go to Holland twice. We saw windmills, clogs, tulips and blue delft among other things. All perfectly represented on this adorable fabric (and I just noticed when taking the pictures that the red side of the bag contains this same print). Thank you, Thank you Nicolette — I just love it and I’ll always think of you and our trips to Holland when I use this bag!

Now, it’s been awhile since I shared links with you — here are a few sites I’ve been enjoying lately:

Felt. I haven’t really done any fun stuff with felt, but a few weeks ago, DottyCookie posted the cutest felt house with flowers that she’d made. Then she included a link to Checkout Girl who is non-stop felty goodness. AND, almost at the same time, Laura at Cupcakes for Clara posted THE CUTEst little felt family in a hoop. I’m smitten by them all!

What would you do if you stepped on the subway in NYC and photographers had set up a photo studio to take your photo? Would you run? Switch cars? Pose nicely? Find out at Color Me Katie’s Subway Yearbook Photos post. Too Fun!

For those of you with little kids, have you ever heard of Rick Charette? When our boys were little, Raffi was all the rage for fun songs to sing with children. We preferred the lesser known Rick Charette. I was thrilled to find that he has a website and you can get his music on cds (ha! we were back in the cassette era). I have very fond memories of walking barefoot along dirt paths in Maine with MyDadLovesMeBestSister when the boys were 2 and 4 — and we were all singing Rick Charette songs at the top of our lungs. You can listen to a few samples HERE. Some favorites of ours were Alligator in the Elevator, Mud, I Hate to Clean My Room, and Eeenie Meenie Miney Mo, just to name a few. They’re wonderful songs, and I guarantee you can’t listen to these songs very often without singing along!

Susan, of the very cool SweetPea site, has posted a spoonful of creativity every day during September. Susan is an amazing illustrator, and now she’s making the cutest little felted bears and mice ever!

Have you ever seen a dog open his own birthday present? Kitty’s cute little pup Danger (what a name!) does just that, and you can see it on the video at the end of THIS post. That’s one smart dog!

And finally…I’ve really been enjoying THIS site!

Happy October!

XOXO,
Anna

A Great Weekend

44 Comments / September 13, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Chat

So, do you remember last time I won a blog giveaway that I won three times? It’s happened again. Apparently my luck runs in threes. These three wins have been fantastic and I’m SO lucky! After the quilt, I won a copy of Victoria from Sweet Cottage Dreams. I love Becky’s blog — she’s so sweet and is always up to something fun. I haven’t seen a copy of Victoria since they started re-publishing and I’m particularly excited about this issue. The front cover has one of my all time favorite 7-letter words — British. Yum! Thank You Becky — I’m sure to enjoy this issue!

And then, I won a fun prize package over at Pieceful Chaos. Caryn sent me some really fun stuff — a cute 2010 mousepad calendar, a pretty fall notepad, a lovely packet of potpourri, and an adorable scissors fob. I love Caryn’s blog too — I’ve been reading it for a long time and she’s always sewing something pretty.

I have no idea how she knew I needed a scissors fob, but I was pretty desperate. A few years ago, when I was sewing with friends, I grabbed a scrap of fabric to tie to my scissors so that everyone would know they were my little scissors. I LOVE my new scissors fob. It’s just perfect for me — the cute little charm says Love Often on one side and Laugh Much on the other side. I love anything that tells me to laugh more — I think we all need to laugh more often. Look how pitiful my scissors looked before their sexy makeover:

Thank You Caryn. I LOVE all the goodies. THANK YOU to both of you for being so generous and for being such fun blog pals!

I hope you’ve all had a good weekend. Mine was perfect. I made like a hermit all day yesterday and stayed inside quilting while the beautiful sunlight streamed through the window. Today, I spent the afternoon with MeMum — we watched a few more installments of Monarch of the Glen and did handwork on our respective bindings.

Before I went to MeMum’s, I made a blueberry pie (oops, the shell cracked!) I found a new recipe that I wanted to try. It called for ground tapioca to be added to the blueberries for thickener. I was very hopeful, as I’m not a fan of runny pies. I’m thinking maybe cornstarch would have been better, as it was pretty runny. Oh well, it was delicious — more sauce for the ice cream, right?

I’m sad to see a perfect weekend come to an end, but I’m looking forward to the week. I’m really looking forward to catching up on blog reading — I’m really far behind! Next time, I promise, there will be an actual quilt on this blog!

XOXO,
Anna

Whew!

39 Comments / September 9, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Chat

What a whirlwind weekend we had here! I felt like I won the lottery on Saturday morning (well, I did really) — THANK YOU for all your wonderful comments of congratulations! I can’t tell you how very excited I am to have won Kellie’s beautiful Lilly Pilly quilt — Kellie is such a warm and generous person (and fabulous Mum) and I’m beyond thrilled that I’ll be able to see her beautiful quilting in the flesh. THANK YOU Kellie. From the bottom of my heart…Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! Kellie’s patterns are starting to come to the U.S. and I can’t wait until she’ll be coming here to teach classes — it WILL happen someday, won’t it Kellie??? So … I have nothing crafty to show, yet again, but gee … I have a good excuse, don’t you think? It’s been hard to concentrate!

I did manage to do a bit of big stitch quilting with pearl cotton, but it’s been slow-going. And SweetiePie was here on Sunday night and Monday. We had a wonderful time quilting together — she on her project and I on mine. MeMum even graced us with her presence for a few hours on Monday. SweetiePie and I talked a lot about Lilly Pilly (Eeek!) We’ve decided that when I finally get the boys rooms cleaned out and re-done, it would be the perfect centerpiece of a Grandbaby room … robin’s egg blue walls (for the boys) and the gorgeous pink Lilly Pilly (for the girls). Wouldn’t that be fun?

SweetiePie and I also talked a lot about yoyos. We went to our friend’s house so that SweetiePie could see the Ethan Allen yoyo quilt (I’m trying to get her hooked!) This time I examined the EA quilt — the yoyos are just a bit bigger than the ones I’m making with the large-size clover maker and there are just over 2500 yoyos in the king-sized quilt. Holy Cow! Needless to say, I won’t be making a king-size version. ;-) When we came home, SweetiePie decided to experiment with bigger yoyos. Pretty big, huh?

Yeah, it’s not very practical to have them that big, but the quilt would sure go together a lot faster, no?

And just so you have a little something to think about this week, here’s a picture of my September guy from my Extreme Ironing calendar at work. (Shhh, don’t tell, we can’t have cameras at work, so I had to take this with my cell phone.)

Just Because. There’s nothing hotter than a man wielding an iron. Have a great week!

XOXO,
Anna

P.S. Penny has put a poll on the Flea Market Fancy Freaks blog to ask what colorway you would prefer if Free Spirit were to reprint the fabric. Also, there are almost 500 signatures on the petition to bring Flea Market Fancy back — if you haven’t signed it yet, run over and do so now!