Category: Recipes in SC

Tropical Storm Debby

…is hanging out over Charleston because she has “nowhere to go” given a weather “high” to the north and northwest that keeps her stationary–and will keep her stationary for some days to come unless some wind develops to move her up the coast.

Meanwhile, while I’m writing, torrents of rain are falling as the bands swirl around over us.

Saturday night we had a thunderstorm that dropped 1.75 inches of rain. Since then the rain gauge has shown 8 inches of water–but it overflowed last night, so there was more. And now there is steady rain, which is often heavy.

A tornado touched down on Isle of Palms last night–where both of my sons live. It damaged a house and took out power lines, so one son does not have electricity at the moment. The electric company has promised to return power very soon now.

The other son and DIL are driving back from the Jersey shore (3 girls) and are about 5 hours out now. Right now they can get back to their house on IOP and they do have electricity. Flooding in this stationary storm is a big issue. If they can’t get home due to today’s rain, they will stay with me.

I took out all the saved chicken bones in the freezer on Sunday and made a huge broth–the packets of bones were taking up way too much room in my small freezer, so it was time.

When the broth cooled, I drained off the liquid and put it in the refrigerator. Yesterday I made the soup–and the broth had jelled so beautifully into consommé. The soup is DELICIOUS! So I’m ready if my son’s family comes here–and if not, I have food so I can “play.”

My noon dinner today–eaten inside, of course. All the porch cushions are inside the house to keep them dry.

Here’s the design wall right now: there are THREE projects on it. How fun is that?

On the left is the snuggly scrappy leader/ender quilt–it will get wider and one more row longer when I finish the 4th row of Prickly Pear on the right. The third row will be done today. Making the triangle rings takes time and I need 16 more.

On the bottom, I’m playing with “modern” Churn Dash blocks and the new Cat’s Claw ruler that came in the mail. These 2 blocks are 12 inches. I love playing, and goal is to see how I can make “modern” alterations to the Churn Dash block. It’s a challenge…from the modern group. And I have no idea where it is going.

And the hand-sewing (Big Stitch) project is coming along. It will be a wall hanging upstairs–it’s 32 inches square. Cathy Beemer taught us this Maria Shell method in our modern group’s monthly Sit and Sew. She made a whole quilt of these blocks with four quadrants, and I am in awe of that effort.

Now it is almost 1 pm. There are 3 more inches of water in the rain gauge. Folks here are worrying about the dry ponds filling up now, and the creek is about to overflow, which would impact my back door neighbor. Low tide is coming up, but the overflow water just does not have a place to go.

If the lull persists, when I’m done with lunch I’m going to take out my hearing aids, wrap up in my raincoat, and go out for some pictures.

That would be learned behavior from my father… He always wanted to investigate how deep the snow had gotten, or how high the tides were, and so on. And he always took us with him when he went out into the elements.

Bits and Pieces, Sunday, July 28

It is a quiet weekend here. I’ve resisted going out to get more sand and compost, in anticipation of FIVE Drift “Popcorn” roses arriving here this next week. Instead, I played. I cooked a bit, ate dinner on the porch, caught up on the book I’m reading, walked, sewed upstairs, and hand-sewed after supper downstairs with the tv and a harmless, simple tv series that requires no concentration, Wildfire.

As I’m sure I already wrote, I dug out the “Encore” azaleas in front that were so NOT happy there and took them to Bryan, who has more shade than I do. I couldn’t find the Drift “Popcorn” roses locally, and both Andres Hernandez and I tried. But I found them on Amazon for a very good price. I’ve ordered plants I couldn’t find here from Amazon before this time, and they come beautifully packed and healthy as can be.

The clay here was also not helping those Encore azaleas–when I dug them out, some had water at the bottom of the hole, after all the rain we had recently. And that is exactly what clay does. When dry, clay is like cement; when wet, it’s like mud soup. So, now, deeper holes and more sand for drainage to help with the “bathtub” effect. But the real problem was that the Encores had too much sun.

I made deviled eggs again this past week–I was, again, so hungry for them. And I put the broken ones on a recent salad made with some grilled steak leftovers. I’ve been able to eat my noonish dinner on the porch all week, as it has been cooler.

And, I saw this X post last night from Tony Heller documenting that it is actually cooler this summer in South Carolina. (The data is from the US Historical Climatology Network, which is a designated subset of the NOAA Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) network.). Heller has been putting up this climate data recently, state by state.

Screenshot

The design wall is filling up again:

“Prickly Pear” is coming along: two more rows are needed. It will finish at about 67 inches square. I have the centers and the pink backing and blue triangles all cut, but I have to make 16 more of the dark navy blue and pale, pale peach triangles for the third row and 16 more for the fourth row. I cut the binding and borders before I cut into the pink backing for the background units to make sure I’d have enough of that fabric. This project is…slow going. But it is a handsome quilt.

Longarm quilter Wendy Currie (Wendy’s Quilting blog) helped me decide on how to quilt this very modern quilt. I love her work. And I just ordered one of the pantographs she suggested. I also ordered a pink thread for the longarm that perfectly matches that pink field fabric. And I found a backing IN MY FABRIC STASH that is perfect.

The leader/ender scrappy quilt on the left is…scrappy. It is made from the two bins of the 3 1/2-inch squares of Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society I cut up back in Maine: one neutrals and one colors. It’s just fun–and will make a cuddly lap quilt meant to be used and used. I will probably donate this quilt to the Patchwork Gals extraordinary efforts to give quilts to those who need them, like foster children.

I spent time yesterday reading my current book: Jan Karon’s THESE HIGH GREEN HILLS. It’s the 3rd in Karon’s Mitford series. Yesterday I hit a part of the book I couldn’t put down as Tim and Cynthia were trapped in a cave with a tiny, hidden opening in the total dark. I find these books soothing to read. Peaceful. Until yesterday, LOL. I had to get Tim and Cynthia out of the cave before stopping reading and going upstairs to sew.

How many times do we get trapped in a metaphorical dark place that we slid into through a tiny opening? How many times does our “light” go out, leaving us in the dark? How many times do we need to be rescued?

It happens, doesn’t it?

Bits and Pieces, Sunday, July 30, 2024

The palm trees are “blooming” now. I still find their “flower” fascinating.

I have been so hungry for deviled eggs for days now. And I realized that I would be fine making some with my local eggs (Chucktown Acres) that don’t have corn or soy in their feed, with homemade mayo with a tiny bit of plain mustard that uses white vinegar for the needed acid to make it jell, some finely chopped sweet onion, and, of course, organic olive oil and salt. I wanted these eggs to be plain, so I didn’t add any herbs to my mayo this time.

It didn’t take but a minute–as cooking the eggs is quick and making mayo is even quicker and easier, and now I have some to drizzle over salads and other things in my bowls, like the chicken and potatoes below. I can’t use cayenne pepper to decorate, but my deviled eggs are DELICIOUS. They really hit that hunger spot I had.

Here’s my dinner salad last night. I had made a big bowl of salad with the last of the roasted chicken, so I just took half of it for my supper and added the eggs.

I washed my improv quilt. It has a coral backing that ran when I washed it, so I was nervous about washing this quilt as there are so many light colors on the front. But so many of these fun blocks used glue, so I needed to wash it out. I put 6 color catchers in the wash and crossed my fingers (and toes) as I so love this quilt. She came out beautifully from the dryer, and now is all crinkly and cute.

Right now she is living on a chair in my tv/reading/hand-sewing little room. With different folds, different parts of the quilt show on the chair. Right now it’s the red “wheels” block. (Tara Faughnan is going to do this “block” class again starting in September. If you are interested, go to her web site and sign up for her newsletter.)

So, improv blocks joins “Happy,” where I am working on the final hand quilting of the border. See the big pillow–I found it at Costco the other day so I don’t have to use one of the couch pillows I made to get a hand project up and out of my lap, which is too low for easy hand work. I’ve not had any issues with my neck or shoulders once I adopted this pillow practice a few years back, and as you know, I do a lot of hand work. (The loose orange threads you see are from the longarm basting I did to hold the layers together.)

In line, waiting for its turn, is this recent project which is set up to be a wall hanging and is yet unnamed. You can see the orange machine basting threads, which I will remove as I work.

“Pieces of My Heart” (the neutral) is on the longarm. The colored version with the light heart is growing on the design wall, and I’ve been making parts for the “Prickly Pear” quilt designed by Annabelle Wrigley and using her solid fabrics.

This double heart pantograph is new for me, and I’ll use it on both of these “heart” quilts. I am using a soft grey here as it was better for the backing than a neutral thread. There are enough darker “neutral” blocks here to make the light grey work well.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Bits and Pieces on a Wednesday

The leader/ender quilt is done, and it’s very cute. The pattern is “Pieces of My Heart,” and it is on the “all people quilt” web site. This lap size quilt will be 54 by 63.

The binding will be this Riley Blake stripe. And I found a great video of how to match up the strips on bias binding. It is super easy. And one doesn’t need glue. Here’s the link:

The 3 1/2 inch squares are all from my bins of cut-up Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star fabrics. I have two bins–one neutrals and one colors. The neutral bin is still half full, LOL. I think it is breeding in the dark of night. So I guess this project of using up this fabric is still ongoing.

Hmmm… I’m wondering how this little quilt would look made with colored squares and a low-volume heart. So that’s the new leader/ender project.

I’ve now finished–for the moment–the sewing project Cathy Beemer has been teaching us at our monthly Sit and Sew for the Charleston Modern Quilt Group.

I say “for the moment” as I would like to make a 60 by 60 quilt using this fun and creative method–especially now that I’ve more or less finished with the learning curve to make it.

To remind you what a bigger quilt would look like, here’s Cathy’s quilt, hot off the longarm and not yet bound. Cathy has taken many classes with Maria Shell, and you can see that influence here. (I love Maria Shell’s work.)

I installed a hanging sleeve as I’m seeing a wall hanging here. I sew my hanging sleeves with my binding. And I bound (bias, of course) with aqua, which is working well I think. I used a “request” lighter batting as I’m now going to hand quilt using the big stitch method and 12-weight cotton thread. I learned recently that one can install binding and sew it down with hand quilting, which is nice as one wouldn’t now have batting fluff everywhere. I basted the quilt sandwich on the longarm with easy-to-see and easy-to-clip loose orange thread.

I used a backing piece I had in my stash that has some of the same colors as the front.

Note that I do not sew down the label or the hanging strip until after I have finished quilting in those areas of the quilt.

No rain yesterday, so I watered early evening last night. And I got frustrated enough with my available water sprinklers and how they don’t work well in small yard areas that I spent some time this morning ordering two that should work better.

And, here’s a fun supper salad made with a leftover beef pattie and cooked potatoes, among other goodies, like fresh dill.

LOL, I see I left a sticker on the red pepper. That’s another rant–the glue on the sticker is super strong and takes pepper with it when one tried to get it off.

Daily, I set up my supper when I’m organizing my noon dinner.

Have a great day!

It’s Salad Weather

And the markets are full of wonderful berries. I am addicted to this mixture of organic blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries. (I drizzle the strawberries with a bit of maple syrup to sweeten their sourness as they are often picked green so they can be shipped.)

The other day I only had a bit of grilled steak in the refrigerator at supper time, so I fried an egg in a bit of butter to go on top of the salad. The corn is from some cobs I steamed. The base is a mixture of hearty baby greens. And I splurged on some fresh dill to put on my salads. The milk is, of course, raw milk, upon which I have thrived for over 20 years now.

This supper salad’s protein is one of the stuffed green peppers I froze a few weeks back. I added some of the steamed broccoli I cooked at noon. The onion bits are from an organic Visalia.

My new reverse osmosis system has been installed in the kitchen, so I now have what amounts to purified drinking water–which means it does not have any minerals either, and we need the minerals in water. So I’ve been drinking sparkling mineral water about once a day–poured over ice. Am I succumbing to the southern need for ice in drinks? It seems so…

There are several brands of sparkling mineral water here. I got a carton of Pellegrino at Costco about a week ago.

Today I’m cooking a small lamb rack I also got a Costco. I love lamb, but recognize that either one does or doesn’t.

Bits and Pieces

Yesterday while waiting for son Mike, DIL Tami, and granddaughter Mina to pick me up for an outing to see the building lot they have purchased south of Charleston, on the Kiawah River, I saw this strange and awkward insect on front porch wall.

It is a Crane Fly and is said to be a very timid little insect.

https://citybugs.tamu.edu/2016/03/15/crane-flies/

There is a farm on the greater property where the new building lot is located. We stopped in to visit the farm animals: laying chickens, milk goats, donkeys, and “Oreo” cows (Belted Galloways).

The chickens come right up to everyone’s feet, illustrating how very social chickens are.

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The goats, too, love to be petted and come to the fence seeking attention:

Some goats have two “wattles” on their throat. These appendages apparently serve no apparent purpose. It is thought that perhaps they once served a purpose, but one that goats no longer need.

We had a picnic in one of the development’s club house areas, all of which are right on the river.

It was a lovely outing, and I could see what is drawing Mike and Tami in this direction. Their Isle of Palms current house is now for sale. It is a big, wonderful house and has served them well. But their children are fast fledging from the nest, so this is a good time to downsize.

I cooked “pink” grits the other day–from the Marsh Hen Mill brand of grits, a farm on Edisto Island. The pinkness comes from the type of corn used. They cooked faster than the Anson Mills rough cut grits, but they were also much milder. And, not organic. (Organic corn is a hard act to raise, actually.) Marsh Hen Mill has several types of grits and also raises the Carolina Gold rice so special to this Low Country area.

Here, leftover grilled flank steak, roasted sweet peppers/carrots, spinach and garlic sautéed in butter, and the “pink” grits:

Marsh Hen ships their products if you are interested. Here’s a screen shot from their web site:

Enjoy this holiday Monday!

A Busy Weekend

And a fun weekend too.

On Saturday morning I was the host for the Charleston Modern Quilt Guild monthly Sit and Sew as the usual member who organizes this event had another commitment.

We meet at a local quilt shop, Five Eighth Seams, which so generously shares their sewing/gathering space with us once a month,

This store is so colorful and lively. It is a pleasure to visit it. All over the store are so many beautiful hanging quilts.

This picture looks into the main part of the building where most of the fabrics live. And I somehow didn’t get a picture of that main room

This picture below shows the size of the meeting room–which on Saturday morning was divided into two sections by that purple divider. Tables with plugs are set up everywhere toward the back of this room. There are also several cutting tables and ironing boards. It’s a perfect place to “sit and sew.”

It rained Saturday morning, so my granddaughter’s tennis matches were cancelled.

But Sunday morning, the play commenced again. My granddaughter won this US Tennis Association (USTA) competition for 12 and under girls just before a gully washer rain hit us hard. And after, in the semi-final match (a nail biter), defeating the number 1 seed.

Between matches, I dashed home to fix some food–as the week was busy, and I had to cook something.

I’ve never grilled a steak and roasted veggies so fast!!

And now I have food for today.

The gully washer put down 4 inches of water in about an hour! And the rain continued lightly into the early evening, so I sewed and missed my daily 1-mile walk, which has only happened twice this month.

Tomorrow the whole house water filtration system gets installed, with reverse-osmosis water in the kitchen.

And today I have some food errands to run, among some other housekeeping chores. And there will be sewing. There is always sewing.

Let’s Make Chicken Salad

I have been so hungry for some fresh chicken salad for days now. So, Wednesday I came home around noon from the very fun Patchwork Gals monthly meeting so hungry and longing for chicken salad. So, instead of making a quick omelet, I started making a fresh chicken salad.

What do you need? Chicken meat (freshly cooked and warm is best as it absorbs the mayo better), homemade mayo, an assortment of veggies, and herbs and salt. It doesn’t hurt to have a base to put the salad on either, like lettuce.

The chicken takes the longest, so I put it in a big pot, covered it with water, added onion, celery, carrots, garlic cloves, and some herbs and salt and started it to cook–as that part would take about 40-45 minutes. I was able to cook it covered so that helped cook it faster–and the veggies in the broth meant I’d have a nice broth when I was done that could be used for soup, a stew, or to cook a grain.

Meanwhile, I prepped the veggies I wanted: grated carrots, chopped celery, onion, red and yellow sweet peppers, and I put some frozen little petit peas in a small pot to cook. The amounts of each totally depends on what you like and how much of it you like. I like a lot of crunchy celery and the sweetness of the carrots. And, for me, the little peas are a must–they provide the pretty green color and are delicious.

Here’s the homemade mayo, which is dead easy to make in a blender. Break at least one egg into the bottom of the blender (I used two today–you could also just use the yolk in the second egg), add 1 or 2 tablespoons of something acid (lemon juice, mustard, vinegar), add salt and if you like some herbs, and have on hand EVOO olive oil for the next step. Turn on the blender (low is best) and start adding the olive oil in a thin stream until the whole mixture congeals, which just takes less than a minute. You could make a double batch, actually, and having homemade mayo on hand to drizzle over foods and this salad is a good thing. (Note to self!)

I also had on hand some baby bok choy that needed cooking, so I cleaned it and rough chopped it and dropped the bits into my simmering broth. It only takes a very few minutes to cook bok choy until the bottom thicker parts are still not totally soft. Remove with a slotted spoon and put aside. Here’s the base for my salad.

Before chopping, isn’t it pretty? So green. And using what I had on hand that needed cooking is how I like to cook.

When the chicken is deemed to be done–remove it to a big bowl and cut the carcass into parts so it will cool faster. If any parts are not quite done, drop them back into the simmering broth. Take the meat off the bones.

Then tear or cut (kitchen scissors) the chicken meat into chunks. And while I did this part, I allowed the broth to cook itself down a lot so it would be really concentrated and would take up less room in the freezer.

Next, just mix up all the ingredients and taste to see if you have enough salt.

AND, now YOU CAN EAT. For me, that’s porch time. Fruit is delicious with this savory chicken salad. Cantaloupe might be my favorite, but it isn’t quite in season yet.

Don’t forget the broth on the stove! I almost did.

And now I have delicious food for a few days, which frees me up to do other things.

Stuffed Peppers, South Carolina Heirloom Gold Rice, and A Specimen Magnolia Tree

I got hungry for stuffed peppers. So, six for me now and six for the freezer.

That’s one pound of organic beef hamburger and a package (not sure how big) of local grass-fed beef hamburger mixed with liver, heart, and gizzards. That’s a great way to eat these important organ meats that can be strong tasting.

This meatloaf type batch has a handful of rolled oats, an egg, some grated mozzarella cheese, some chopped onion, a grated zucchini (adds moisture), a splash of milk, some saved lamb fat, and some dried herbs and salt. I topped each stuffed pepper with some ketchup, which is about the closest I can get to tomato.

I cooked a batch of the Anson Mill’s organic Gold rice–only I didn’t do their method of boiling it, draining it, and drying it in the oven on a parchment covered cookie tin. This rice is naturally starchy, but this boiling/drying method takes away from the flavor of the rice in my opinion. I just cooked it and let it steam a bit.

I roasted some fresh green beans with added garlic and had some “asset” roasted sweet peppers and carrots.

On Sunday, I watched a granddaughter’s tennis match and saw this glorious magnolia tree.

The trunk was especially interesting–a child’s invitation climb up in the branches. And sure enough, when I got back to my car, there were children nestled along the limbs.

It’s a rainy day today, so I’m doing rainy-day home events.

I Nailed The Grits

It required attention and patience, but the third time was the charm with cooking these Anson Mills “rough cut” ORGANIC grits.

I soaked them overnight in milk and stirred them for the first 8-10 minutes and then didn’t leave their side until I was sure covering and cooking slowly wasn’t going to make them overflow. It takes about 40-50 minutes adding bits of water (or more milk) about every 10 minutes so the grits don’t burn on the bottom and cook very, very, very slowly until the chunkier bits are soft.

But oh my heavens! They are so delicious. I will be ordering again, but will drop down to the finer cut version, which is still chunky and slower to cook.

Here was my noon dinner on the porch–made with assets and the grits: roast chicken and roasted sweet peppers and carrots (with garlic), sautéed spinach (butter and more garlic), and sliced Honey Crisp apple and an espresso.

And I look at this view while I eat. My neighbor pulled out her struggling gardenias and put in these pink “Knock Out” roses–which are a hybrid made with landscape roses, tea roses, and maybe other roses. They will be smaller than my red landscape roses and will grow wider I suspect.

The taller plant on the corner of the house is a tea olive, which I would love to have, but I don’t have the right spot for one. They get tall over time, but have the sweetest fragrance when blooming. They are a quintessential Southern plant.

Here’s a link to the Knock Out roses: https://www.knockoutroses.com

There are now lots of colors–this hybrid has been around 20+ years now.

Here’s one up close. They are so adorable!

The 4th and final quilt in the 1920-30’s reproduction fabrics series is off the longarm and has been trimmed and bound. Yeah! I’ve called it “Four Stars.”

We, hopefully, will get some rain today. But NOT a tornado as we are under an alert until 7 pm. A nasty system is moving toward us. Just rain please and thank you.

I’m sewing together the blocks from this year’s online block class with Tara Faughnan into what I hope will make an interesting improv quilt. Certainly it will be a memory quilt for me. So far, so good.

And, at night I’m sewing down the binding on “Four Stars.”