Pin Cushions

Do you need a pin cushion? a friend recently asked me, offering me this lovely pottery bowl stuffed with fabric to make a decorative holder of needles and pins.














I do have some, but I can never have too many! I replied.

I have them all over the house: I keep at least one beside my reading chair - in case I need to sew on a button. Others are in various sewing baskets with my thread and sewing machine supplies.

Each one has a history!

I made this one after seeing one like it in a quilter's sewing basket. (My daughter has always hated it!)














How can you push pins into a sleeping old lady?! she always comments with a shudder...














But pin cushions are meant to be fun! How else would you explain this heart shaped one? I made it from a pattern printed on fabric!














A heart stuck with pins... created perhaps by someone stung a little too often by cupid's arrows?!














And then there is this hat that my mother made out of a cardboard circle and a mound of batting, covered with cloth...














This needle book is also practical. I made it as a child - either in my first home economics class or as a vacation Bible school craft... Girls were taught to make practical things like that in those days!














Whenever I made it - learning to embroider and do a blanket stitch around the cover as well - it has been a useful addition to my sewing basket over the years!

More Middle Eastern Food Memories

After my recent stuffed pepper meal, I headed to a nearby supermarket that carries imported food, to hunt for a jar of vine leaves, in order to make the Middle Eastern version of what was a staple meal when I was growing up: cabbage rolls.

In the Middle East, grape vine leaves are wrapped around a mixture of rice and meat and slow cooked, just as cabbage leaves are in East Europe. Vine leaves are much smaller, so of course the rolls are smaller too. But otherwise they are made in almost the same way, though the water vine rolls are cooked in can be either tomato-water or olive oil, lemon juice and and water. This recipe from Recipe Link has them cooked in a mix of water and olive oil.

I have grapes growing in my yard, and on occasion I have used them, but vine leaves are available in jars at supermarkets as well.

I was surprised to find, not only vine leaves, but cans of already stuffed zucchini...














And eggplant (another Middle Eastern favorite)...














And grape leaves...

So, of course, I had to try them! I see they are imported from Turkey.














Not quite as good as home-made, but they would be a welcome change from baked beans on a camping trip!

Another Afghan DONE!

I have never crocheted as many afghans as I have this winter! (And it's only January!... A few more winter months to go!)

It all started in September with the Mystery Afghan project that got me crocheting again...

Then when four squares didn't seem to fit into that project, I added a border to them, making this afghan...














Then I started to gather up yarn scraps to add to this (still unfinished) afghan...

All the while, I was working on another afghan - one inspired by a free Bernat pattern I saw online. (Not sure why it isn't shown here - but if you sign up for free patterns, you may find it.) ...but which I didn't exactly follow!














Basically it's a granny square first in variegated yarn, surrounded by several rows (still in granny stitch) of one of the solid colors that appears in the variegated. Finally each square is finished of with a row of single crochet in the variegated again - and the squares are joined together. This gives the narrow variegated stripe around each box. I finished off the afghan with two rows of single crochet - one in the variegated, and the second in the plain, to add a narrow border around the whole thing. So here it is - finally done!

(Now all I have left to do is gather up the leftover yarn and add it to my unfinished striped afghan...)

Perhaps this will be my next "project-for-waiting"... that I carry with me to doctor appointments and other places where I expect to have to sit and wait.

Killing Time

What are you doing to kill time these days? my 91-year-old mother asked me on the phone recently, after we had exchanged greetings and she had commented on how the cold and snow were making it impossible for her to go outdoors for her daily walk.

To kill time? The expression - which I hadn't heard in years - seemed odd! At her age - and mine - time was certainly no enemy?!

In fact, for me, time was passing all too quickly! My days were full of so many plans... Would I manage accomplish them all?!

These years - when I no longer have to please an employer - are bonus years! Years when I can focus on all the things I enjoy: traveling, writing, visiting family and friends, creating fabric and yarn "art"... I can finally be the "freelance writer" and "artist" I've always wanted to be!

I"m finally living my dream! What pure joy!

So I hang up the phone, my mother's words a sharp reminder to appreciate life, to live each day to the fullest!

(I wonder where the horrible expression - "killing time" - ever came from?!)

Stuffed Peppers

Now that weather has turned cold, I like to assemble meals that bake in one casserole dish for an hour or more... like stuffed green peppers and zucchinis.

I use the same stuffing my mother used to put in the cabbage rolls she made weekly during the winter. I prefer to stuff peppers, as cabbage leaves have to be softened by dropping the cabbage into boiling water for a few minutes before the leaves are removed. So peppers are easier!

Having earned how to make the stuffing by watching my mother, I have no recipe... Just a vague sense of what to do...

So here it is - enough for about 5 green peppers!

Prepare the green peppers by washing them and removing the tops and seeds. Set them upright in a casserole dish while preparing the stuffing.

The stuffing: Chop an onion...














Toss it in a bowl with about 1/3 of a cup of uncooked rice and about half a pound of ground meat. Add ground pepper, garlic, dry parsley, and mix it up.














I prefer to use my hands and knead it like bread. Fill the peppers with the mixture.














Today, I have a little mixture left over - so I take several zucchinis out of the fridge, cut them in half, and scoop a little of the insides out, carving a little "canoe." After filling the "canoes" with the leftover hamburger mixture, I cover each "canoe" with the other half of the zucchini. Here they are in a glass baking dish, surrounded by leftover chopped onion and inner bits of zucchini.

In the Middle East, the zucchinis are carefully hollowed out with a special knife, and the inner part is thrown out, but I toss the inner part into the casserole dish, to cook in the sauce.














The stuffed vegetables need to cook in a liquid. I use canned tomatoes mixed with water - enough to cover the veggies. I also mix some chopped garlic in the tomato-water mixture. I pour enough liquid to reach about half way up the vegetables in the casserole, adding water if necessary. Then I sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese on top.

Cover and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (170 degrees Celsius) for about an hour.

The beauty of this dish is that it is very flexible - add a few more spices, if you want. Or cook a little longer if you're running late!














The meal will still taste good!

Small Talk

My students who were learning English often commented that the only place they were able to practice their English was at the bus stop. There strangers would talk to them, usually commenting on... the weather!

Why always the weather? they wanted to know.

It's a safe subject - it doesn't offend anyone, I replied, explaining that "small talk" was a polite way of acknowledging that a person was there, a way of being friendly without being personal. I also added that every city was different. In some large cities, nobody talks to strangers.

Do people standing at a bus stop in your country talk to each other? I would often ask. And if so, what would they talk about?

Politics, an African student said.

That's too controversial for Canada, I would reply. In Canada the weather is perfect... It changes frequently, so there is lots to say!

This past week, for example...














Saturday... "Winter is really here!"














Sunday... "Those roads sure are icy!"














Monday... "Feels like spring!"














Tuesday... "I wonder if we're in for a mild winter... Wouldn't that be nice?!"














And the following Saturday again... "Skiers are going to be happy!"

Something new to say every day! And nobody is offended!

New Years Resolutions

What's your New Year's Resolution? I ask Terry as we drive pass this sign...














Resolution? I've never made one, and I never will, he replies. How about you?

I make resolutions most years, I reply. To exercise more, watch what I eat... I probably make the same resolutions every year! (Maybe even every month!)

Do they help?

I don't know! I'd like to think that they do! ... But maybe all they do is make me feel guilty...!