A Smattering of Pictures

Thank you for your sweet comments after my tour-around-the-farm post. It doesn't seem like a farm most of the time. It feels like 4 acres that require lots of mowing. Maybe someday we'll figure out what to do with it.

Adam and I dashed over to the North Carolina mountains to see our youngest girl in college.

We decided to stay in a KOA campground. Did you know how cheap they are? Goodness!

I was glad to find a cabin during peak leaf-color season.
Julia gave us a tour around her very favorite place on campus, the Printmaking classroom.

She loves this discipline and works in this studio on the weekends.

We toodled around Asheville for the day with Julia and her best friend, and enjoyed a visit to a super-cool tea shop, Dobra Tea, where you sit on little round pillows on the floor and ring a bell for service.

Adam and I viewed this as a mini-vacation too. On the road, we found a park in Greensboro and stopped for a lunch picnic. Much nicer than fast food.

I wanted to share a few pictures from a copy of The Wind in the Willows I ordered lately, illustrated by Tasha Tudor - what a lovely combo!

The wintry adventure to Badger's home is my favorite part of the book.

This past week Adam made the prettiest veggie plate for dinner -- simple, delicious.

his homemade ciabatta, spinach, potatoes, fried okra and squash

I have a few fun photos of our grandson Isaac from a recent trip to West Virginia he took with his delightful parents to see family up there.

Do you have time for one more thing? Here are a few cards I painted before the trip. I think I'll paint lots of seasonal wreaths. They're so fun!

Tasha Tudor Cornbread

This very minute I'm correcting a long-standing wrong. I am finally posting the recipe for Tasha Tudor's cornbread, found in her receipt book (that's her old-fashioned spelling). I've been making this for years; it's the best cornbread on the planet. I've meant to post it on the cooking page (above) for simply ages and thought I had!

Tasha Tudor's Cornbread

(originally from her great-grandmother)

1 stick (1/2 cup) soft butter

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup AP flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup warm milk

1 cup yellow cornmeal

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Preheat a 10" cast iron skillet in the oven.

Cream butter and sugar and eggs.

(Tudor says to add only the yolks at this point, 

reserving the whites until later to whip and add separately.

I've done it both ways, and it does not significantly improve 

the finished product enough to warrant the work.)

Slowly add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk.

(I warm the milk in the microwave slightly.)

Fold in the cornmeal gently.

Remove skillet from oven and put some butter in it.

Pour batter in and bake for 25 minutes.

Slightly sweet cornbread is a lovely relief to those of us brought up on cornbread-cum-cardboard. Anna loves this cornbread crumbled into her beef stew. Enjoy!

Welsh Quilts

The other day I picked up an old Victoria magazine to read. I still have a few scattered around the house. They never, ever go out of style.

This particular issue was March, 1995. Over twenty years ago! I'm feeling a bit nostalgic.

This was when Nancy Lindemeyer was the magazine's editor. Remember her friendly but elegant style?

And before I launch into Welsh quilts, just look at this!!! Back in March of 1995, they invited readers to Bloomingdale's in NYC to meet Tasha Tudor, who would be there drawing and reading to them in the children's department. Can you imagine? Oh, I wish!! Now Tasha is gone. Nancy Lindemeyer is gone from Victoria. Time marches on and life changes, and sometimes it is not for the better.

Well, as I glanced at the magazine's cover, I noticed an article about Welsh quilts. My blogging friend Dasha is a quilter extraordinaire, and she derives such pleasure from quilting. I do not quilt. I wish I did.

I tried quilting once about 27 years ago. I know it was 27 years ago because my first nephew was a baby, and I wanted to make him a baby quilt. I did try. I cut fabric and sewed a few pieces together and made a stack of stars. Many years later I forced myself to finish the quilt, which was very ugly. I never gave it to him or any baby. It's around here somewhere, unused. I learned a valuable lesson about quilting: Do NOT use random pieces of fabric you have lying about the house to finish a quilt. They will match in neither color nor texture the lovely quilt stars you made so carefully a decade before.

On to Welsh quilts and why I think they may be my answer to quilting angst!

Apparently Welsh quilts are solid single pieces of fabric on both sides -- no cutting and piecing and making little two-inch seams. No worries about the fabrics looking good together. The secret to Welsh quilts is apparently the intricate stitching.

If you go to Google and type in "Welsh quilts" you'll see many lovely varieties of these solid quilts with so many lovely stitching rows, or perhaps a floral fabric, with that same stitching. I think I could enjoy this particular type of quilting. The idea of lots of curly stitching appeals to me. So maybe ... maybe ... I'll quilt again someday?

Crockpot Tortellini

I've been home in bed today, mostly, because I'm sick. Bad sore throat and hacking cough. Lots of hot tea happening here.

The cough kept me from sleeping well, so I'm tired too, but other than that, I'm not really sick. I found a Pinterest recipe I wanted to try for supper today, so Adam dashed to the store for some ingredients.

It's a crockpot recipe -- easy and yummy.

Here's the recipe:
In a crockpot, cook on low for about 4 hours: (be careful not to overcook your pasta into mush)
1 bag of frozen tortellini
2 cans of diced tomatoes (I used Del Monte basil/oregano/garlic variety.)
fresh spinach (I put about 1/2 bag in, but use what you like.)
1 package cream cheese, cut into chunks
1 container veg. broth (I made my own since I forgot to tell Adam to buy it. I put 2 chicken bouillon cubes, a chunk of onion, and a handful of old celery into some water to boil.)

And Adam picked up some sale bread to have with it.

I couldn't resist a taste or two. It's very good -- tastes healthy with the chunks of tomato and the spinach. The pasta makes it feel thick and hearty. Perfect.









I'm sitting in bed now, perusing some books I've neglected for a while -- Tasha Tudor's lovely life. I find her an inspiration -- not intimidating, like I have to make my life like hers or feel guilty failing. But seeing little pictures of her charm, her love of beauty and nature, this pleases me, and sometimes I succeed in placing some of that in my life. I know some people feel intimidated by others' lives, but I don't think we should. They don't live beautiful lives to make us feel bad. They live beautiful lives because beautiful lives are worth living. Every little bit of beauty counts.