Fog Beach

Wednesday is now Farmers Market Day...but my pockets were empty and my head was as foggy as the sodden sullen sand.

That didn't stop me from thinking, "Oh I'll just stop in and LOOK!" at the market.

Who knows, maybe I'll win the Lotto [oh it's all gone? too bad.] and be able to buy lots of these gorgeous spring/ summer flowers?

A girl can dream..and plan.

Because, really. I can't plant summer flowers til perhaps mid-June when the weather clears and the earth and ocean are warming.

The market wasn't very busy! Grey skies and high prices are worrisome to many. This is my favorite booth: fresh herbs, potted or snipped into bunches; lilacs! [sigh]; asparagus as thick as your thumb....

So no lovely produce to share this week. Instead a delicious and possibly healthy chicken salad recipe that is perfect for the fridge and busy schedules.

This is really also a great winter recipe, because it uses staples and year round produce like apples and avocado.

Best served with warm multiseed/grain croissants [BJs or Costco?] on a bed of baby butter lettuce. Could be deconstructed for a box lunch if you figure out how to keep the apples pretty, not brown....

 

                                     Chicken Salad Recipe

serves  3 or 4

2 whole boneless chicken breasts, poached/ shredded/ diced

1 pink-cheeked Yellow apple [Gala, Golden Delicious, Pink Lady etc] -- diced. Not peeled.

1/4C. chopped walnuts

1/4 C. mixed dried fruit [Trader Joe's Golden Berry Mix: Golden raisins, reg raisins, cherries, blueberries, cranberries]

1/4 to 1/3 C. crumbled bleu cheese

1peeled, ripe avocado

.......

 dressing:

2 parts mayo to 1 part low fat sour cream

splash of raspberry balsamic vinegar

1 T olive oil

2 t. sugar or splenda

lemon pepper to taste

 *I do not add salt.*

Do NOT use Granny Smith/ green apples, too sour. Do not use low fat mayo, it slides off and is watery, ick.

........

 

Cape Cod variation: chicken or turkey;  whole walnut pieces; red Delicious apples; celery. Omit sour cream.

Citrus Variation: chicken or turkey; sliced peeled navel oranges  [disks,  halved] or mandarin orange segments, canned; bleu cheese; toasted slivered almonds [matchsticks not the flat kind] --on top. Celery optional. 2t. horseradish mayo optional. Sub lemon juice for raspberry vinegar optional.

This is also lovely stuffed into halved whole wheat pitas!

love

           lizzy

gone to the beach.....

 

Foggy with a Hint of Thunderstorm...

 

Hi! Dire warnings of dense fog and thunderstorms have limited my beach walking recently. Yes I know, at least it is not a tornado, like some of you may be having....

Photos taken in dense fog are often not very pretty....

And I definitely did not want to be a few miles down the beach when---if!--- the thunder began to rumble.

Instead I wandered through my little neighborhood, admiring the flowers and trees that survived H. Sandy. The fiddle headed ferns are so magical, like in a storybook!

I can see where the floodline was because many plantings, even the salt air tolerant kinds, cannot withstand even a little saltwater submerging.

Many hedges have sadly brown and nasty bottoms, three to four feet up for the ground, with just a crewcut of green on their tops. These are some beautiful survivors, planted in a lucky high spot!

When the rain really poured down I worked on my medallion panel for Lori's quiltalong. here 

I am underwhelmed by the results.

The workmanship [mine] is not the best. I think I felt pressured by the fast schedule of the project. My ''just get it done'' mentality was not a positive way to approach the job. I'd rather be slow and have the seams pretty and the points meet?
But I guess I forgot...

 

 

It actually looks cuter in the photos. Maybe it will grow on me? Start over? Set aside, or toss?

Dilemmas, but in the general scheme of things, not ...you know...huge.

Hope everyone is safe and busy getting ready for [gasp!] summer this weekend?

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

 

 

 

The Dollhouse

I used to have a doll house.
Well more than one. I had the doll house my dad made me when I was about 7 years old. It was filled with his handmade furniture and my beloved 3" rag doll lived there.

...and then I had a grownups type doll house a few years ago, filled with adorable handmade primitive miniatures. like these, on etsy!
This was a semi-disaster, as certain family persons did not care for this ''thing'' and enjoyed creating small earthquakes and ruining my painstkingly set out displays.

None of which has to do with today's post, lol.

This is about the pink Schoolhouse quilt block I have.

My friend Mel suggested that it be the focal point of a doll quilt. She called it The Dollhouse.

Fun idea. I am searching for ideas for it now.

 

 

I also wanted to do a pink and blue doll quilt. So maybe the ideas will merge?

 

 

This book was a gift for my birthday. Really fascinating, I love the authentic diary excerpts. Rosemary Young's books

I just wish the antique inspiration blocks were pictured larger. In fact they are so tiny I'm not sure if they are Ms Youngs's version's or antiques. (There are also large colored diagrams and I understand a CD if you'd wish to print out the blocks instead of drafting each one.)

My favorite is this newly designed block called The China Doll.

 It really looks like an 1860s china doll, doesn't it. The story was that an older brother bought the china doll, a gift for his baby sister, while away fighting for the Union  Army . And sadly the doll was delivered home strapped to his coffin. Yes he died [typhoid, I think, not in battle, only age 19] but the doll lived on.

I love how it says When this You See, Remember Me. I wanted to put that classic quilt motto on the Porch quilt label but decided No. My kids would roll their eyes in disgust at the sappiness. But I still love it.

Wonder if I can somehow merge this doll block with the pink schoolhouse block? I am stumped as there should be, it seems to me---only One dollhouse..and One doll.

love

lizzy

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