Week 28, July 3, 2016

Thoughts and Quotes:  What kind of man would live where there is no daring?  I don’t believe in taking foolish chances, but nothing can be accomplished without taking any chances at all.

                            Charles Augustus Lindbergh, first man to fly across the Atlantic solo

Whichever - foolish or daring, a big thank you to our forefathers.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA

Another month has come and gone.  The year is half over.  Let's make the second half the best six months we've ever experienced.  Push yourself to be the best you that you can be. And don't forget to check your fire alarm batteries.

TV's: The new TV's are installed and working, and I can even use my old apparatus and play all my VHS tapes and DVD's.  The new TV's are more rectangular than square, so the new one in my family room doesn't quite fill the hole.

Thank yous:  To Stan and Cliff, who got me through the agony of replacing defective receivers and upgrading and adding TV's.  While waiting for someone to show up for an appointment, I feel in limbo and can't seem to start a project.  So I succumb to -

Temptation:  Instead of doing the work I had planned, I made gift sets from wallpaper.  I forgot to take a photo of the wallpaper before cutting it.

  

I remembered this time.

Here's another.

I made two sets with this - different looks.  I had already starting cutting when I remembered the photo.

As we were waiting for things to recycle, Cliff and I started talking about cooking. I mentioned that I was going to make a recipe for a Chicken in a Pot I found on the internet and said that I would post the outcome. The photo on the internet was beautiful, but when I removed the chicken from the Crockpot, I ended up with this. It literally fell apart. Part of the recipe was putting two sprigs of rosemary in the cavity. Cliff mentioned that he didn't like rosemary that much, but adding apple and/or orange sections would be nice. Well, this baby didn't have room after I added lemon wedges, garlic cloves and the rosemary. Should have listened to Cliff - only two small sprigs of rosemary overwhelmed the other flavors - even the spice rub. Should make a decent chicken salad though.

Tri-Tip:  You might have seen this when I posted it before, but I promised Cliff I'd post it for him.  So here we go.

TRI-TIP

Harter House

1 2-1/2 lb tri-tip, with fat on one side

Santa Maria seasoning (available at Harter House) Rub all over tri-tip, all sides

Oven Roasted

Heat oven to 350

Place tri-tip on a rack in a shallow roasting pan, fat side up, no water, and no cover, do not turn

Roast 1 hour and 15 minutes

Barbecue

Bring charcoal to high heat

Sear tri-tip 15 minutes with fat side down

Push coals to one side, cook tri-tip with fat side up away from the coals, for 1 hour

Can also be cooked on gas barbecue

Adjust cooking time according to weight

Tent tri-tip with aluminum foil and rest ten minutes before cutting

Starting at point end, cut across the grain into thin strips

If there's no Harter House in your area, choose a seasoning which says "Garlic and Herb".

Tips:  Friend Katie Sue's husband John took us to Chile's for dinner.  We had great Mexican food (which I forgot to photo - as usual), but I had heard that you could pay at the table and I wanted to see how it worked.  Well - not only can you pay, you can play games while you wait for your order.

I'm happy to report that I went to college and became a doctor, but Katie Sue had twins and bought a mobile home.  John got married and we had to each give him $5,000 as a wedding gift.  We didn't have time to finish our game, so we don't know who won, because it timed out while we ate.

Now here's the Tip: You're given no warning, but $1.99 is added to your tab for playing games.  John bought dinner - thank you.  It was delightful and delicious.

Tablescapes:  Several of you commented on how much you enjoyed Peter's beautiful table from last week's post, so I thought I'd share some photos of the last Tour of Tables, a fund raiser for the Springfield garden clubs.

This is Peter's table - Birds of Paradise

This one is Winter Greetings

 Green with Envy

These tables put mine to shame, but mine are everyday, practical tables with mostly thrift store and yard sale finds.  We'll get to mine later, and I'll show you some more of these high class tables next week.

Time for Others:  Card friends Katie Sue, Jeanne, and Susan sent me these very patriotic 4th of July cards, and I just had to share.

And remember the cards I've been making with a tea time theme?  I sent the rest of the pieces to Katie Sue to give to her card class ladies.  Jean sent me one that she made, and I wanted to show how an expert does it.

Togs:  I was serious when I said that it would be a brown week.

Day 36, June 27

The triangular piece was originally a flimsy white fabric which I covered with rows of seam binding.  Those little beads are not white pearls, but silver-brown beads, so the addition of the seam binding made a big difference in the look of this top.

Day 37, June 28

Day 38, June 29

The first photo is more near the color, but I wanted to show that the plaid has a stripe running through which matches the pants.

Day 39, June 30

More color distortion.  I took these photos on a rainy day, and had only artificial light.

Day 40, July 1

Day 41, July 2

Day 42, July 3 (Pants from Day 41)

Another brown week next time.

H A P P Y   4TH   OF   J U L Y

PRACTICE SAFETY WITH YOUR FIREWORKS

EAT LOTS OF WATERMELON