More Food and a Project

Dan and I were invited to Robert and Dawna's for New Year Day dinner. Robert is a wonderful cook -- we never say no to an invitation from them!

Dawna's a master of presentation -- here's a picture of her at her beautifully decorated table:


And a closeup:


I had brought crab cakes that I baked and plated on a salad of baby greens and then on to the star of the show -- Robert's wonderful buffet!





Poached salmon with lemon, turkey meatballs and a cucumber salad....at the table, Robert passed a mustard sauce that was ostensibly for the meatballs but we put it on everything!


And there was a yummy fried chicken dish and pork tenderloin. With only 6 people eating, Dawna and Robert won't have to cook for a week!


Deciding that after all the holiday eating we really needed to notch it down a bit, lunch yesterday was "Cleansing Ginger-Chicken Soup" from my new Canal House cookbook. The recipe calls for poaching a cut up chicken in water, ginger, onion and seasonings, then removing the breast after 30 minutes and let the rest of the flavor go into the broth.


I really couldn't waste all the rest of that good chicken! So I took out the breasts, wrapped one up in Press & Seal and stuck it in the fridge; cut the other one up, divided it between two bowls and ladled in that yummy broth. I let the rest cook for a while, removed the legs and thighs and refrigerated them and then cooked the rest to result, after straining, in a quart of healthful broth just waiting on the refrigerator shelf for inspiration to strike.

Now, on to sewing:


I wanted to play more with free motion, making a wall hanging that I could carry around with me on my teaching rounds to show some techniques. I wanted to make a large sketch but didn't have a roll of paper, so I unrolled some gift wrap, cut it to the size of my fabric and anchored it on my table with several copies of my latest issue of Generation Q Magazine!


My plan is to stitch a seascape with feathers for the seaweed at the bottom and some fish, bubbles, etc.


This is my backing fabric, a batik I've had in my stash for a while....


My face fabric is a hand dye from my friend Saundra Seth.


This is my actual working sketch; roughly 20"x42". Since this workshop teaches the use of thread weights, types and colors to create depth in free motion stitching, I drew the sketch using three different markers: black for my heaviest stitching, purple for medium weight and pink for background. Then I pinned it to my Big Board and propped it up in my sewing room where I can use it for reference throughout the sewing.


Now to mark the major lines on my fabric, layer it with wool batting and make some thread decisions. Hmmm.....all those beautiful Mettler metallics -- definitely need to use those!


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