Give the Gift of a Meal......

What a wonderful gift to receive a meal when your home is out of order...
death, sickness, new baby, hospital duty, parent duty, or just too much going on...a gift is just that!!



Here is a wonderful site to help you organize your meals for a friend and it also has ideas for meals to take to that someone special. I have friends that have use this site and received meals from this wonderful plan too!

Take Them a Meal and here is an example of listed recipe all ready for you to prepare and take...

Crunchy Browm Rice Crust Chicken Pot Pie

Serves 6

This is a delicious alternative to traditional chicken pot pie. The Parmesan melts into the rice to create a tasty crust, but omit the cheese, if you like.

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus more for greasing 
• 1 tablespoon butter 
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces 
• 1/4 pound sliced button mushrooms 
• 2 teaspoons chopped thyme, divided 
• 1 large carrot, chopped 
• 1 rib celery, thinly sliced 
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped 
• Salt and pepper to taste 
• 1/4 cup brown rice flour 
• 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth 
• 1 cup whole milk 
• 1 cup cooked brown rice or brown and wild rice blend 
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika 
• 1/2 cup frozen peas

Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a 9-inch pie dish with oil; set aside

Heat oil and butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, until no longer pink, 4 to 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, 1 teaspoon of the thyme, carrots, celery, onions, salt and pepper and cook until just tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add broth and milk, stir well and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer until very thick, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, combine rice, cheese, paprika, remaining 1 teaspoon thyme, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.

Stir peas into chicken mixture then season with salt and pepper and transfer to prepared dish. Scatter rice mixture evenly over the top then arrange dish on a baking sheet to catch any drips. Bake until bubbly and crust is crisp, about 30 minutes.

Let me know if you have ever used this site OR if you are planning to use it to help coordinate meals for a friend...it will be fun to see the results!!

Blessings all for a healthy and gift giving week!!

Kathy

My Room with a View....and Give Away!!

This is the first house where I have had a room designated for sewing. Through the years, I have sewn on a card table, the bed, the floor, a desk...so I have truly enjoyed my sewing room which is an extra bedroom. It needs redecorating since I last did it 12 years ago, but what the heck, it is MINE!!!!!

I sit in my mama's recliner to use the computer, crochet, work on needlework and watch my small, did I day small, 5" B&W TV...NO, it is NOT a flat screen!!! I think it might have costs $25...

Well, also from this chair it get the joy of looking at may treasures from my life...

My most recent addition is my childhood pink and blue doll baby play pen. I so remember playing with it and all of my other doll accessories in my bedroom and many of those are still in my daddy's attic!!!

After I placed it there, I began to immediately fill it with other treasures...

The doll blankets that our maternal grand mama made for my sister and me,

my Raggedy Ann dolls...much in need of a good bath!!!.....her white pinafore is around her some where...

... well remember placing a marker on her mouth and watching it run.....notice I did NOT do it again to poor Andy...

a wall hanging I made for mama's 80th birthday...

Other items in this vignette  are, a wicker basket that was in my parent's house for many years, I think mama also fixed it up for my little niece with a pretty pink ribbon for a nursery item and I also remember it being in my grand mama's house as a child. Daddy reminded me one day that it was very old and belonged to my great grandmother, his grand mother Sula Heath. He said he never remembers it having another handle, so it has been with out for at least 80 plus years!!! I keep my patterns in it and that is exactly what she used it for.

Oh, and the newest treasure is the small wicker chair that I bought at an auction last Saturday night for $6...it does make a nice addition..

Don't you want to join me in my chair????

EDIT:

Great give away 44th StreetFabric  ...Lori Holt's fabric ......check it out!!!


Blessings all,
Kathy

Lovely little buttons...

I have had such fun creating my Etsy store and deciding what to make and what to sell...I really enjoy sewing  my little church bags...I have used these for my personal use and decided others might like them too!! The one I use most often is my hand bells bag that holds my notebook and gloves.

Most recently I have been selling buttons, some that I have cherished through the years and some newer. It just does not seem right to keep them all for myself...here are the latest cuties....

They were made in the 80's and are plastic not glass BUT they look like glass...with lovely hand painted pink  roses with green leaves and a white dotted border. They have metal shanks and there are four of them.

I also have some other hand painted ones that I will post later...

WELL, surprise of all surprises !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Guild did NOT select the easier Scrappy Heart for our "Block of the Quarter" but the lovely
North Carolina Lily!!! Isn't that great and what a lovely quilt top one of our members will receive.
So, I am off to the Thistlebee Quilt Shoppe in Goldsboro to select background fabric. Those interested members will receive color instructions and background fabric and select reds and greens from their own stashes to complete.

Here is the background fabric that I purchased...


If you are interested in the updated and modified instructions that I am giving them, let me know and I will send them to you...OR just

Fall is arriving a bit early...???

Well today is a wonderful day here in eastern NC...temp around 70!!!!!!!

Just cleaning up the garden, cutting back some flowers and potted plants and purchased our first yellow mum. Here is that cute little pumpkin from an earlier post and it is still in fine shape so I will put it on the front steps with the mums...may also need a BIG one too!!! Cliff really loves going to pick out the larger pumpkins.

What am I sewing?  Well here are two "block of the quarter" blocks that our guild is going to look and select which one they would like to make....

The scrappy heart...

OR

The North Carolina Lily...



I LoVe the lily and make some up just for me IF the guild decides not to make it...

It was featured in the  American Patchwork Magazine  and is also offered on line...


Have a good week and thanks for dropping by!!

Blessisngs,
Kathy

The end of my Guild Presidency...

For the past two years, I have served as president of the Neuse Quilters Guild in Kinston, North Carolina and have learned so much about how our guild functions. We are a small group with 36 members with 21 active members.  We meet weekly unlike most and so we get to know one another well. We still have 3-4 of our original members who take their memberships very seriously and serve as our guild "authoritarians!

I look forward to being a "regular" member again and sitting with my favs and doing some hand quilting...as my sunflower quilt still needs work...

On my last day as president, my sweet husband came and brought me these lovely flowers

and I was just thrilled and sooooo surprised. But he knows what a challenge this was for me serving ladies who are older than me, for the most part, and my first real challenge since retirement too.

The members make quilt blocks for the outgoing president and I choose this little 6" basket with rick rack handles so I can make it into a wall hanging to place on my sewing room wall...

Here are most of them with a few members who will bring them in a few weeks...

and here are a few close ups too...

Aren't they just beautiful!!!
I can hardly wait to get all of them and begin on the quilt.

Thank you Neuse Quilters

Blessings all,
Kathy