Peanut Butter Pie

Be careful about reading health books.  You may die of a misprint. 
                                                              ~Mark Twain

After spending most of yesterday (8 hours) sitting in waiting rooms at the hospital, the above quote gave me a chuckle.  My Mom is doing well after surgery - groggy, sore, and complaining.  She was in recovery for over 4 hours and was finally moved to CCU where she spent the night.  She will be moved to a room today, if one becomes available.  And she thought she would be going home last night after surgery!  Where do the elderly come up with some of these ideas anyway - wishful thinking I suppose. 

Photo Of The Day:

Another Gerbera from my yard

Since I have run out of facts about Gerbera daisies to share with you, here are a few quotes about flowers that I enjoyed reading:

Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into.  ~Henry Beecher, Life Thoughts, 1858

Earth laughs in flowers. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Hamatreya"

If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn.  ~Andrew Mason
 
God loved the flowers and invented soil.  Man loved the flowers and invented vases.  ~Variation of a saying by Jacques Deval (God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages.)
 
A flower's appeal is in its contradictions - so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance, so small in size yet big in beauty, so short in life yet long on effect.  ~Terri Guillemets
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A definite bright spot in my day yesterday was the mail when I arrived home.  My swap partner, Shawna (of That's Sew Shawna),  from the Brown Bag Quilt Contest sent me the most fabulous fabric.  I think I know what pattern I will be using but I will share more on that later.  Here is the beautiful fabric she sent from The Fat Quarter Shop:
 

True Love Birds by My Mind's Eye for Riley Blake Designs

She was so sweet to send the entire 12 fat quarter collection when the contest only calls for 8.  Shawna also enclosed a wonderful little note.  Thank you, Shawna!!

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How about a recipe today!  Something sweet and delicious?  I found this recipe on one of my favorite blogs From The Kitchen Of: Mrs Bettie Rocker - she shares some of the best recipes around! 

Peanut Butter Pie

Ingredients

9 inch deep dish pie shell

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 cups milk

2/3 cup sugar

dash salt

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs, separated

4 tablespoons corn starch

whipped cream

Directions:

1.  Bake empty pie shell according to directions.  In a small bowl, place powdered sugar and peanut butter.  Cut sugar into peanut butter with a fork until mixture is crumbly.  Place half of mixture in bottom of baked pie shell, reserve remainder.

2.  In a pot, place egg yolks, milk, 2/3 cup sugar, vanilla, salt, and cornstarch.  Cook over medium to medium low heat until thick, stirring constantly.  Pour over peanut butter crumb mixture in pie crust.  Sprinkle half of the remaining peanut butter crumbles on top. (The rest goes on top of each piece after topping with whipped cream)

3.  Bake at 325 for thirty minutes.  Refrigerate for several hours before serving.  Top with whipped cream and remaining crumble mixture to serve.  Enjoy!

Personal Notes

1.  I thought I had done something wrong with the egg mixture as it seemed to take forever to start to thicken.  When it first started to thicken there were big lumps.  Just keep stirring and everything will smooth out and thicken very quickly.

2.  I don't care for peanut butter, but the DH, DD, and SIL absolutely loved this pie!!

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Reminder

I haven't been able to keep up on my blog reading the last two days :(  I do so miss reading all of them as I learn so much, enjoy the stories, and marvel in the creativeness of everyone.  So, I am not up to date on any giveaways.  However, you won't want to miss the Fall Into Fall Quilter's Giveaway that starts tomorrow.  I will be participating with a giveaway!  Last I checked there are over 140 bloggers that will be hosting giveaways!!  I can't wait to check out all of the blogs and finding some new ones that I haven't visited before.  Doesn't it sound like fun?!?

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Final Thoughts

Thank you all for your prayers and wonderful thoughts while my Mother goes through this health ordeal.  I'm confident that she will come out of this the same cantankerous 82 year old that she was when she went in - lol!  She really is a wonderful woman but she certainly is opinionated, she is always right and you might as well not argue with her because you will NEVER EVER get her to change her mind.

So I leave you with this final quote:

If you do everything you should do, and do not do anything you should not do, you will, according to the best available statistics, live exactly eighteen hours longer than you would otherwise.  ~Logain Clendening

Give Your Fingers A Work-Out

It's Thursday so it's my day to go out to lunch.  My good friend of many years picks me up almost every Thursday and off we go, usually to our favorite haunt - The Village Grill.  If it's cool enough we try to sit outside on the patio.  The patio is probably at least 5 degrees cooler than what the real temp is because it is almost completely covered by an old camphor tree.  Plus they have umbrellas up over all of the tables.  We know most of the waitresses  by name and we usually get real good service.  Of course, it might also be because we usually tip quite well.  9 times out of 10 I will order the same thing - a salad called The Mixed Grill Salad.  It consists of romaine and spinach leaves, grilled chicken cut into bite size pieces, dried cranberries, pineapple chunks, pears, and raspberry vinaigrette salad dressing.  It also comes with walnuts and cucumbers but I have them hold those - have trouble swallowing the walnuts (due to ALS) and can't stand the taste of cucumbers.  My BFF tries to have something different every week but lately has been heading down the salad lane as he says that he is getting "fat".  I keep telling him it comes with age, after all, he is on the downhill side of 50 - LOL!!!  They only serve breakfast and lunch, sure wish they had dinner service.  Their breakfasts are fantastic too, plus you can get those all day, so sometimes it's breakfast for lunch.

Remember the Project Linus afghan I talked about last week.  Here is the pattern that I promised.

I originally posted this picture under my first blog, More Than Quilts

Shell Afghan Pattern


Approximate Size: 45 X 45"

Materials:  4 1/2 skeins Red Heart Super Saver  (7 ounces each) - I don't count the rows but use up 4 complete skeins of the Super Saver and with the 5 skein I add 8 more rows. 

I use crochet hook size I/9

Abbreviations:
ch = chain
sc = single chain
dc = double chain


Chain 134 loosely.

Row 1:  In the 5th chain from hook, work 1 single chain, chain 2, and 2 double chain, *skip 2 ch, work 1 sc, ch 2, and 2 dc all in the next ch.  Repeat from * across to last 3 ch, skip 2 ch, work 1 dc in the last ch.

Row 2:  Chain 3, turn. Work 1 sc, ch 2 and 2 dc clustered all in the first ch-2 loop. Repeat in all loops across to last loop. Work 1 dc in ch-3 space at the end of row.

Repeat Row 2 until piece measures approximately 45". Here you have two options: Option 1: Do not break off yarn. Continue around the corner and the remaining 3 sides of the blanket, working 1 sc-ch 2-2 dc clusters in each space. Slip st at the end. Break off with 3 inches of yarn and weave in yarn ends.  Option 2: Break off yarn, start a contrasting color and continue around the corner and the remaining 3 sides of the blanket, working 1 sc-ch 2-2 dc clusters in each space. Slip st at the end. Break off with 3 inches of yarn and weave in the ends.

Admire your work and then bring it to your nearest Project Linus coordinator to be give to a child in need!  The nurses in the hospitals where Project Linus blankets are delivered really like this pattern as there are not many holes to get tubes and things tangled in.  Of course, you can always use this for making afghans for all of your loved ones and adjust the size to the person you are making it for.  I try to use bright colors when creating the afghans for the kids.  The current one I am working on is green but I haven't decided on the border color as of yet.  I usually try to make them unisex (or metro-sexual, I suppose, is the "proper" terminology) so that is makes it easier on those handing out the afghans.

This is really a simple pattern.  I'm able to crochet this while watching tv and rarely have to look down to see where I am on the row.  I have found that I like crocheting much better than knitting as it is much easier to pull out rows to correct mistakes.  And I don't have the trouble of dropping stitches like I did with knitting.

Update on my Hawaiian quilt pattern.  Thought I was finished with my design but the instructor made some very good suggestions, so it's back to the drawing (and erasing) board for me.  I knew that I wasn't much of a freehand artist and this is certainly confirming that thought!  I know the basis of the first lesson is designing but it's about ready to kick my butt.  Hopefully today will be the final draft!

I just signed up for a quilting challenge.  It is called the Brown Bag Quilt Contest.  The rules are as follows:
Gather four, 1/2 yard cuts of fabric, 8 fat quaters or a total of 2 yds. (Nice, clean, smoke-free, pet-free, quilting fabric preferably from your stash.)

2. Wrap it up securely for shipping (Include a little note of introduction, maybe a photo & any information you want your new "Brown Bag Quilt" friend to know about you.)

3. Leave a comment after this post & email your request to participate along with your mailing address to: thelittleredhen.quilts@gmail.com

4. Wait for a reply matching you to your new "Brown Bag Quilt" friend. You will also be sent a participant number to use later.

5. Mail your lovely "Brown Bag" fabric package to your exchange friend.

6. When your fabric arrives, construct a quilt using 90% of the fabric in your "Brown Bag". You may add: Any percentage of fabric from your stash & you may add 1 newly purchased  fabric piece. There is no min. or max. quilt size required.

The quilt will be yours to keep.

For more information and to join in the fun go to (link below picture):

http://stashmanicure.blogspot.com/2010/08/brown-bag-quilt-contest.html

Happy Thursday!  If it's not, just remember that tomorrow is FRIDAY! Stay cool and we will chat tomorrow.