Marriage Samplers

I've been married over 37 years now (wow, does time fly!) and over the years I've stitched a few marriage-themed pieces.  I had them interspersed throughout our home. I decided to put them all together on a display wall in our bedroom and I love how it turned out. Having similarly-themed items in one place seems to call attention to them more. It's also turned into a display of how my stitching has evolved over the years. My first piece was a stamped cross stitch pattern, then I graduated to doing counted cross stitch on Aida cloth.  Now most of my pieces are some sort of evenweave or linen. It continues to be a very relaxing hobby for me.

This is my first cross-stitched piece, a stamped piece.  I remember doing this right after we were married!

I love these "marriage rules"!

This one has special meaning for me, I finished it in the hospital while my Hubbers recovered from a stroke.

 

Strawberry Pavlova

Besides looking forward to the end of tax season and a more manageable schedule, mid-April is also when my favorite local strawberry patch is open for the season. This fruit stand is about 1/2 mile from my house, I often ride my bike there.  It's a small husband-wife operation, every time I go out there he is usually in the field picking berries and she is assembling baskets.  There is nothing that compares to fresh, locally grown strawberries!

My first after-tax season desserts usually consist of these fresh strawberries.  We had guests over for dinner and I decided to make individual pavlovas rather than a shortcake, something a little different.  A pavlova is a dessert made of meringue-like shells.  The edges are crispy and airy and the centers are softer, almost like a marshmallow. The center is smoothed out so that the meringue will hold a whipped cream filling, forming a little indentation. They are very easy to make, impressive to serve, and are suitable to making ahead of time.  When it's time to serve dessert it's just a matter of adding the whipped cream and topping them with the fruit. Any kind of fruit can be used but I especially like them with any sort of berry, or combination thereof.

They can be filled with a simple sweetened whipped cream or embellished with more flavor.  On this night, I added a few dollops of lemon curd as I love the flavor combination of lemon and strawberry.  A strawberry puree can be mixed in and the berries drizzled with chocolate. Cinnamon flavored whipped cream is a great base for an apple topping.  Mix and match to whatever fruit you have on hand!

You can make a big pavlova and serve it like a pie or individual ones.  You can spoon the mixture into a piping bag and pipe the circles or spoon mounds of the egg-white mixture onto the parchment paper and shape with a spoon.  It's all in how fancy you want to get!  Either way, it's best to draw the desired sized circles onto parchment paper.  I used a ramekin.  Once the circles are drawn, turn the paper over so that the meringues aren't on the penciled side of the paper. Pipe or shape the meringue onto the marked paper and bake.  Easy, peasy!

Before baking!

After baking!  Cracking of the shells is normal.

Pavlova Shells

4 eggs whites
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon white vinegar

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.  Trace 6-8 circles (or one 9-inch circle) onto a piece of parchment paper with a pencil.  Flip paper over and lay on baking sheet.

Place sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl and whisk together.  Place egg whites in a stand mixer with whisk attachment.  Beat for 1-3 minutes, until soft peaks form.  With mixer running at medium-high speed, slowly add the sugar mixture, until all is incorporated. Increase speed to high and continue mixing 3-4 minutes longer, until mixture is smooth and glossy and holds stiff peaks.

Add the vanilla and vinegar to the mixture and mix to combine, scraping down edges of bowl with a spatula.  Place mixture into a piping bag and pipe rounds onto the prepared sheet (or spoon mixture onto the marked rounds and shape with a spoon).

Use a spoon to make a little indentation in the center of each mound.

Place pan in oven and decrease temperature to 250 degrees.  Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the edges are set and sound hollow when tapped.  Turn off the oven and crack the door open, let pan cool completely.

Spoon freshly whipped cream (lightly sweetened) into center of each shell.  Top with desired fruit.

Pavlovas can be stored in an air-tight container for a day or two.

Tax Season 2019 Projects

My 42^nd tax season (yikes!) is in the books.  It’s been a tougher than usual one this year; our partner retired so we took over most of his accounts and the additional workload, we had a major tax law to learn, explain to our clients, as well as the changes it made to our tax software.  We had to put down my beloved 16-year old cocker spaniel, Harley, on March 19.  It’s just been a rough tax season but we have made it through another one!

I haven’t had a day off since February 4, literally worked seven days a week, long hours. I’ve done just basic cooking, no baking, and I’m behind on keeping up with the weeds. The laundry, thankfully, is not behind! The tendency is to come home from work and just crawl into bed.  But, that’s so unproductive! In the past I tried to keep up with my cross stitching and did a lot of reading.

Four years ago I decided to learn how to quilt with an online weekly sew-along.  It started in January and I found it to be a great stress relief from the daily grind of dealing with numbers.  Sewing, even a few minutes a night, was a great way to unwind.  My first quilt was a success and I was hooked on the hobby!  The second and third year I did a sew-along with the same instructor but they were appliqued quilts.  By the end I was pretty much over applique. In 2018 I got ambitious and did a quilt of pieced birds. In retrospect, it was over my skill level but I persevered and finished, though not until June.

This tax season I picked a much easier quilt, just some squares and rectangles to sew together in a cross tile pattern.  My goal was to finish the 20 blocks by April 15.  I finished those mid-March. 

 

My buddy, he was always "helping" me. This was a few nights before he passed.

 

I also joined a mystery block of the month club whereby material and pattern for that month’s block(s) arrive about the first of the month.  I’m loving the colors and designs of the fabric but the blocks are quite detailed, lots of points and half-square triangles. It’s testing my novice piecing skills.  I’ve not started April’s blocks yet but the fabric is ready to be cut out.  I still have two weeks of April left!

This quilted flower and pitcher has me so intimidated but I will jump in!

A few weeks ago another blog started a project doing a two-color quilt using instructions from a book I already had.  Yes, I caved and am now doing that sew-along (I already have it ear-marked for a birthday gift later this year).  I am on schedule, finished the second block yesterday.  The third block will be released on Thursday.

 

 

Though I wasn't home much the past three months I feel very accomplished in all I was able to get done creatively.  I can't wait to get back in the kitchen, especially to bake some goodies.  My hands long to feel some dirt instead of a computer keyboard. It's good to have free time once more!