Bride

Going to a dear friend's wedding in New York. I don't think this'll be finished by the wedding on Sunday, but it's a ton of fun! She's done some massive cross-stitch pieces in the past, so I think she'll appreciate it.

Bless you both, Kate and Dave!

Spoonbread

Here, so I'll be able to find it (and you will too!), is my great-grandmother's spoonbread recipe, altered to include whole corn:

2 c. milk
1/2 c. cornmeal
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs
2 T butter
1 small can corn

In a double boiler, scald milk, add cornmeal and salt, and cook 20 min. or more until it's pretty firm.

While it's cooking, beat egg whites until stiff.

Remove pan from heat, stir in egg yolks.  Add drained corn.

In a well-greased souffle pan, fold in the egg whites and the corn mixture.

Bake at 350 for thirty minutes or so.

It's good!

What's your dream car?

If it's just expensive fancy cars, my dream car is..

1998 Mercedes S500

(And that's actually not so expensive anymore, now that they're all 12 years old.)

But the car that would just tickle me so greatly to have is a Trabant.

I lived in Germany for a year, and spent two weeks with a family in former East Germany.  They spoke fondly of their Trabi, and I ended up writing a school paper from their stories -- taking the engine out and into the house with them in the evenings in winter, carrying around a set of strong rubber bands and electrical tape for repairs, actually speeding once when the spring holding up the gas pedal broke (brilliant engineering, there)... But really, I do love them.  Their style's so much like my second favorite car, the HM Ambassador in India.

Best thing?  You can get them quite cheaply these days.
Here's an ebay listing.

From the description (translation): "both autos are more or less driveable."

And (at least right now) for 10 Euro the pair!

Do you have a silly dream car?

Giveaways

So I meant to come back and post again, but for the past three days I've been surfing all of Sew Mama Sew's giveaways!  I've subscribed to many new blogs (note: if your blog only puts the title or a line or two in the feed, you have to be exceptionally fabulous for me to keep you.  I like full posts!), and I've entered many giveaways -- only for things I'll actually use, so if you're coming back to see me from your giveaway post, it's because I liked your stuff, not just because it was free!

The only one I'm actually mentioning is a giveaway by Sweet Tea Mom, because they're the cutest potholders ever.  I've made some cute ones myself, and bought some cute ones, and skipped over many giveaways of ones that weren't cuter than what I've already got... but hers win!  Go see them :)

(Not that all the fabric giveaways aren't awesome.  Just these really are great potholders!)

Back and Berries!

I know, I've been gone a very long time!  I oversaw a massive move at work and was so exhausted every night that I didn't make anything at all for four months... going a bit crazy by then... and I've only just now begun picking things back up.  Made two inkle belts for the boss and a coworker, since part of the move involved a spreadsheet, the use of which threw out my wrist, leaving me with only weaving or stitching as craft opportunities.

We spent this past weekend at my grandparents' place in the country.

Picking dewberries.

They tend to make your hands red. (That's Himself's hand over by mine.) They have nasty prickly thorns -- my right arm still looks like I've got measles, with little red welts all over it -- but they're worth it.

They lead to great preserves.

Recipe:
1 cup sugar
1 cup berries
put them in a pot over medium heat and stir until it starts to look like syrup
put them in a jar and process as normal.

No pectin, no added water, no anything else.  Just goodness!

(Other options: jelly, jam, cobbler, pie, or straight up and fresh off the bush.)