Farmers Market, Seven Dollars in my Pocket

 

Hi guys! Yep, my pockets ''were to let'' as the heroes say in old fashioned novels. But don't worry, I'm not going to inundate you with ads or requests for ,lol, donations! Just poor planning on my part, I forgot to detour to the local ATM before shopping. One drawback of an outdoor farmers market is that it's cash only.

So what should I BUY!? Swiss chard looks interesting.

Lots of beautiful mid-summer ''truck garden" produce, plus eggs and herbs and cheeses. I think these softball sized round zucchini would be excellent stuffed with quinoa or couscous. [How would I precook the little green spheres? Microwave?]

Many onions for my planned onion tart. Lori from Humble Quilts has shared her rustic tart crust with me for that project.

 

But to me, fresh tomatoes almost always win, they're such a luxury.

I bought a couple heirloom tomatoes and a very tasty though funny looking giant yellow squash.

Every summer I must make fried tomatoes at least once. It's a tradition, from my dad, through his Virginia-raised mother's background. Like ham and fried chicken, but yummier. In my childhood home, fried tomatoes were traditionally served with pork chops [and gravy!] and corn on the cob. I usually just have the tomatoes and corn, plus a salad or squash.

Recently my friend Mel had mentioned loving squash dipped in cornmeal and fried. I had to try that! And it is delicious. We decided the cornmeal would be great used for fried tomatoes too. After all, I now own a huge sack of cornmeal, what'll it be?

I mixed in some flour and paprika, dried onions, pepper and salt. The flour helps the crust stay on the tomato and not stick to the pan.

Fried, yes, fried---in olive oil instead of bacon grease like my mom did. She kept an old green crock in the fridge, with the Sunday morning bacon renderings collected. I wish I had this crock! Wonder if my brother saved it?

The tomatoes [and the giant maybe Delicata squash?]---were wonderful. Well worth my seven dollars and I even had a few dollars to spare for a few ears of corn.

Frugal Lizzy? I'll be, like, on all the frugal queen blog rolls. Or maybe not! It's grey today, a perfect beach hike day! I hope I find treasure...

love

lizzy

gone to the beach......

 

 

 

 

Blowsy Roses in a Cobalt Jug

Hi! The markets here have been selling what they call ''field roses"---such a sweet old-fashioned seaside summer flower.

The bunches are mixed colors and very inexpensive, about 5 or 6 dollars a dozen. And unlike fancy long-stemmed Valentines roses, these open up into tiny colorful cabbage-y blooms.

 

I love them in my big old cobalt Bennington jug.  It takes a lot of flowers to fill this guy, so I don't get to use it often.

 

 

They last a long time. I snipped the final buds and tucked them into a lavender Mason jar.

So pretty. And no, they have no scent. Too bad. I love them anyway.....

 

 

love

lizzy

gone to the beach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thinking About Knitting. And Quilting.

 

 

 
Hi guys! I hope your day is as sunny and beautiful as mine is here at the Beach!

I am still not getting much done. Mo and I are working out a new way of doing things, where he can sit with me here and hold his own chewy. Yes that's my leg,lol.

Of course he'd prefer I just surrender my chair entirely. So comfy now that he has shredded and bunched it into puppy shape.

Do not be fooled! Mo is a very bad boy. "The dog ate my knitting!"

I've mentioned that I like having a knitting project on hand. Sometimes one's guests are a trifle dull or the wait at the dentist is way too long. For me a simple hand work project can stave off annoyance and jitters. (I get a big kick out of telling the very long-wait specialist MD that I knitted an entire hat while waiting endlessly for my 2 minute turn. He looks bemused and carries on, clueless as ever. Male doctors' time is important, female patients' time is of no value. You knew this, right?)

Anyway this blue hat has been on my needles for awhile. Then Mo attacked the yarn. What a mess, plus he ripped it off its needles. Yummy. Dogs may be colorblind but he loves bright colors.  I was pretty upset because I love this bulky blue and turquoise tweedy yarn. It took me hours to untangle and rewind. And reknit.

I am now at the decrease stage, just where I want to be to try out my friend Hunter's beautiful spiral decrease for a watch cap. I believe it is based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's How to's but entirely written by Hunter.

To make her complete hat I dug out some colorful worsted yarns from my stash. These are alpaca or cashmere blends.

I wish I had more of this gorgeous bulky cashmere. I am hoarding it for a headband/ ear warmer thing.

But instead of being thrifty, I treated myself to a skein of 100% alpaca worsted from Purl Soho. here

It is soft like a cloud. And how could I resist the color's name of Sea Salt? It's a beautiful neutral taupe, the color below is the most accurate, and if the hat comes out as nice as Hunter's, here on her blog, it will make a lovely Christmas gift for some neutral loving NYC-ish friend or family member.

To avoid the Mo attacks I worked outside on my deck table. I use my little turquoise stool as a yarn holder when I wind wool skeins into balls. Look at that blue sky!

I'm looking forward to starting my new hat!

And I am very excited about Lori of Humble Quilts Patriotic Flags quilt along. I dug out the bin with all my patriotic fabrics. Here is Mo helping me choose.

I had planned to use only stashed fabrics for this project but it requires some fairly large pieces of material , especially the center eagle.

You need MORE fabric, Mommy?

Off we went to Joann's . I don't have a real LOS, local quilt shop. So my choices are a voyage to Joann's or online buying. And I needed thread!

I think what I found this time is really captures the look of the quilt in the photo. Especially if tea dyed in some cases. And evrything was half price! I was a very happy girl.

Here are browns for the eagle.

No funky olive greens, though, for the spacer stars. May have to do some Rit dying when we get that far.
IF I get that far. My little helper is, well, not so good at that. But he is a great puppy!~

PS Mo ripped the hated Dustbuster off its wall dock this morning while I was showering. He tore it down, charger dock and all!---and took it entirely apart. And he was so proud---he vanquished the evil interloper machine!
sigh.

Time for my swim!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.............

 

 

 

Patriotoc flag quilt is designed by Jan Patek. Quilt along is on Humble Quilts