Remembering Rosita

November Gratitude Day 3 : Love. My beloved Aunt Rosita is fading away in Hospice as I write this.

She and my mom got me into quilting back in 2004. A few years ago, I made a quilt for my Unca Ray (her husband). It was a Red Barn Quilt--because he grew up on one of those classic Wisconsin Family Farms with a Red Barn. While Auntie has been so sick these past few months, she sort of "took over" that Red Barn Quilt. My mom told me today that very Red Barn Quilt covers her now in Hospice in her final days.  She is wrapped in Love.  If you are a quilter, you know what an incredible honor that is! I can't be there in person, but I am there in spirit.

 Photo from Quilt Camp in 2010.    

Holly Matucheski (Ma), Rosita (in red), me and Carrie Z.

From Quilt Camp 2009.

Rosita, me and Holly (Ma)

Though Rosita and my mom were sisters-in-law, many people thought they were blood sisters, or Mother and daughter.  An honest mistake : See the resemblance?

It was my Birthday.  ;-)

This quilt top was made by my Aunt Rosita in her Quilting Connection class at Cutting Edge Quilt Shop in Antigo, WI. When she showed it to me, I liked it so much that she gave it to me, along with the book. - See more at: http://sweetleafnotes.blogspot.com/search?q=bargello#sthash.s4OoS6Sb.dpuf

This quilt top was made by Rosita.  She'd taken a class on Twisted Bargello Quilts.  I liked it so much she gave it to me.  I finished the quilting on it and got to keep it.  I brought this quilt to put on display at her funeral.   There were MANY of her quilts there.  Her specialty was machine embroidery.

Here's a link to Rosita's toffee recipe.  She would bring this over on Christmas.  Yum!

Every time I would go home to visit my parents, Ray and Rosita would come for dinner.  I saw them almost every time I went back home.  They sort of took the place of the grandparents in our family after Gramma and Grappa Matucheski died.  They became the kindly, funny, and encouraging elders of the family.

Saturday-After-Thanksgiving in Oshkosh 2012 :

Farewell, Mike

We lost a family friend last weekend.  Mike Clark -- May he rest in peace.

This is from a March day in 2004 at Cherokee Marsh, one of my all-time favorite places in the world.
Mike and Caroline liked it, too.  Mike wanted to go there for his birthday that year.  And we got to go along.

Mike and Caroline were the adults who watched over me when I lived in Madison during my college years and after.  I am still grateful for their friendship, and gentle guidance.  Such kind and interesting people, reading great books, and traveling the world.  And their kids were really interesting people, too!

I met Caroline when I worked at the Cancer Prevention Clinic on the UW campus.  When Dr Love lost interest and moved on to other projects, Caroline told me to go down to the Health Science Library, that they'd give me a job.  They did ...  and every time I needed a job, they hired me in the ILL Dept.  After I got my Masters in Library & Info Studies, they hired me as a professional Librarian.  That's when I got to work with Mike.  He took care of the computers there -- back when Medline was updated with a dozen CD-Roms that had to be installed on a tower.  Mike would load them to a test server, and he wanted me to search on it, try to break it, and figure out if things were working as it should before he made it live.  Although he knew the computer end of it, he wasn't a searcher.   It was the best of both worlds.  I liked working with Mike -- It was a tempo thing.  He was quiet, but content, and a much calmer pace than the usual fray.

Farewell, Mike.

Rhubarb Crisp

Rhubarb Crisp

5 cups diced Rhubarb
1 cup sugar
3 T. flour

Topping :
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup brown sugar (or less)
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 cup butter (aka 1/2 stick)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Mix together first 3 ingredients and put into a 9-inch pie pan (or other glass baking dish--avoid metal, if possible).

For topping, combine all dry ingredients.  Cut in butter until the mixture is crumbly.  Sprinkle over filling.

Bake at 375 degrees F  for 30-35 minutes, or until rhubarb is tender and topping is golden.

We remember this fondly from our days at Summit Ave. Coop in Madison, WI, where Susan Hollingsworth used to make this delicious treat!

Crock Pot Cream of Broccoli Soup

I found this recipe here.   It's remarkable how much it comes out looking like the canned soups -- except, I know exactly what's in this soup!  No mystery ingredients.

Prep Time : 10 minutes

Cooking Time : 5-6 hours

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 onion, diced
• 5 tablespoons flour
• 1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons salt
• pepper (I used 1/2 tsp)
• 1 (1 lb) package broccoli
• 3 cups skim milk
• 1 cup water
• ¹⁄₃ cup Cream

Directions

1. In a skillet, heat butter, add onion and simmer about 5 minutes or until soft but not browned.
2. Stir in flour and seasonings.
3. Add onion mixture to crock pot and slowly add milk and water, stirring until well blended.
4. Add broccoli and cook on low until soup reaches desired consistency, approximately 5-6 hours.
5.  Add the cream in the last 20 minutes
6. Add additional spices to taste -- ie, thyme, garlic powder, etc.

Pumpkin and Harissa Sheet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This recipe has earned it's place in our family's favorite recipes.  Time to record it here on the blog for safe-keeping.   I've tried other pumpkin muffin/cake/bread recipes, but this is the one we like the best. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease a 10 x 15 inch baking pan.

Harissa Chili Paste - for an extra kick of flavor

We have to order it from Amazon.com, as no one around here sells it. Copper Olive sells the harissa-infused olive oil (quite pricey, though). 

Wet ingredients :
4 eggs, beaten
16-oz can pumpkin
1-1/2 - 2 Tablespoons Harissa Paste
1-1/4 cup sugar  (2 cups in the original recipe)
1 cup vegetable oil
________________________________________
Dry ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
1/2 tsp salt

In a mixing bowl, beat the pumpkin, sugar and oil.  Add the eggs and mix well.
Combine the dry ingredients and add to the pumpkin mixture, beating until well-blended.
Pour into the greased 10-15 inch baking pan.  Bake for 25-35 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Wait for the cake to cool before adding the frosting.  It's the cream cheese frosting that tames the hot pepper in the harissa. 

Cream Cheese Frosting 
5 Tablespoons butter, softened
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup powdered sugar
3-4 Tablespoons milk
chopped nuts for the top, if desired.

Beat the butter and cream cheese together. Add the vanilla and blend until smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar and mix well.  Add the milk a bit at a time until you get it to a spreadable consistency.

************************************

The original recipe came from here.  We amended it slightly to our own tastes --  with the addition of 1-2 tablespoons of harissa hot pepper paste.   I swear, this particular pepper from North Africa was MADE for pumpkin!    My friend Vicki made some pumpkin muffins one day, but instead of the regular olive oil, she grabbed some harissa-infused oil.  It was an accident, but they were so good, and we craved more of that harissa heat, that now we make them on purpose!

My husband's mother used harissa in small quantities when he was growing up.  You had to be careful with it (as in consider wearing a haz-mat suit) because it was so hot!

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

1 can cream of chicken soup (condensed)
1 cup milk
3 cups shredded chicken
1pkg frozen mixed vegetables (peas, carrots, green beans, plus broccoli, cauliflower, etc)
1/2 tsp Thyme Leaves
Poultry Seasoning (to taste)
Ground Black Pepper

1 Can Refrigerator Biscuits
(If you're really feeling ambitious, mix up a batch of home-made buttermilk biscuits.)

Boil 2 chicken breasts for 20-25 minutes, then shred them. 
Stir-fry the frozen vegetables to make sure they are thawed and cooked before adding them to the pot pie.  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the soup and milk in a large bowl. Stir in sauteed veggies and chicken.  Add the Thyme, Poultry Seasoning, and Ground black pepper.  Stir and pour into a baking dish.  Top with the refrigerator biscuits.   Bake for 45 minutes or until hot.

Yummy on a cold winter's day.

Blueberry Butter in a Crock Pot

 

Blueberry Butter in a Crock Pot

At the December Craft Sale, I bought a jar of home-made blueberry butter for my husband.  Unfortunately, when I got home, it was dark, and I didn't see it sitting on the back seat.  I unpacked some other things, and the nearly frozen jar hit the driveway pavement and broke.  ;-(    Sigh!
So I decided to make good on my gift, and make my own batch of blueberry butter.  It was easier than than I thought it would be.  The hardest part was committing to spend $11+ on 2.5 pounds of frozen blueberries.  I have to say : It was worth it!

The Recipe
2.5 pounds frozen blueberries
1 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 lemon, zested
Juice of 1 Lemon

Pour the frozen blueberries into a crock pot.  Let them cook for 6 hours.  Stir every hour or so.  After the first 2 hours, I propped open the lid so the steam could escape and it could reduce to a proper fruit butter. 

In the last hour of cooking, I used a stick blender to puree the mixture, and smooth out the lumps.  Then I added the sugar, and spices.  You may need to add more sugar--not all blueberries are created equal.  This batch seemed sweet enough.

SO GOOD!  It tastes like mulled blueberry cider--but spreadable.  Now if we only had some buttermilk biscuits fresh from the oven!

Welcome, Baby Challah!

Our friend, Samara made this lovely Challah bread.  She delivered it swaddled in cloth, like a baby.  It's about that size, too, but a lot less squirmy.

It's a wonderfully rich egg-y bread to start with.  What better treatment than to soak it in more eggs with cinnamon and milk to make French toast!  So delicious!  What a treat!  Thank you, Samara!

Apple Crisp - Autumn Tastes and Smells

  

 

THIS is the taste and smell of FALL!  The first batch of apple crisp of the season. Yummy!  We get the first apples of the season in August.

Apple Crisp Recipe *
Peel, slice and core 8-10 apples (We don't really measure anymore, we just fill the pan.)
       Cortlands and/or MacIntosh cook down nicely.
       We prefer the saucier apples for this.
       You want enough to fill the baking dish.  Heap it up, because the apples tend to cook down.
       Also-sprinkle some lemon juice on the apples to keep them from turning brown as you work. It also adds a pleasant tang. ;-)

Topping :
1 cup oats
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 cup butter (or 1 stick of butter)

Preheat oven to 375 degees F.
Put apples into a 13 in x 9 in glass baking dish.  You can also sprinkle some cinnamon and ginger on the apples.
For topping, combine all dry ingredients.  Cut in butter until the mixture is crumbly.  Sprinkle over apples.
Bake at 375 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes, or until apples are tender and topping is golden. 

Enjoy!

*  This is another "old family recipe" from my Coop days.   It's adapted from Susan Hollingsworth's Rhubarb Crisp recipe from Summit Ave. Coop in Madison, WI.

Who Makes Your Heart Catch Like This?

Who makes your heart catch like this?
[Click on the link to watch the short video.  Sorry I couldn't imbed it here.]

Read the explanation in Patti Digh's blog post before you watch the video.  It will provide a context for what happens in the video :  3 minutes without a single word. 

A heart opens and blossoms in the presence of another.  What a gift to be able to witness it!  Life past, present and future(?) right there in 3 minutes.  Oh, how I hope they at least went out for dinner afterwards so they could talk. 

One commenter, Marion Williams-Bennett summed it up this way : "Everything happens in this three minutes - Love, passion, forgiveness, hope, connection, remembrance - while others look on. Then, he walks away and she finds herself and starts over. It's life in three minutes."

Yes, there are a few people who could make my heart catch like this.  And I think they know who they are ...  ;-)   Thank you to Patti D for asking the question. 

It also makes me think about the concept of presence.  Was the artist really there with other people who sat down with her at the table?  The ones she didn't have a past with?  I'm not sure ...  She was guarded, that's for sure.