Friday Night Soup

It's been a busy week trying to track down medications for David. For some strange reason, medicare has decided they want to discuss with his doctor why he is being prescribed Digoxin, a heart medication. He has been without it all week. Trying to get hold of one of his doctors has been a nightmare. You cannot just call Truman and get a message to his doctor, impossible. So we called his heart doctor, they called in the wrong prescription to the pharmacy. So, here we are on Friday night, weekend ahead, no way to talk to the doctor's offices or anyone related about this. We have several hours and I do mean several, like about 6 hours just today, trying to straighten this mess out. We've called Claire McCaskill's office, talked to someone one time, now the calls just go straight to voice mail??? If he starts having any chest pains at all we'll have to go to ER. So ridiculous!!! I don't think people who have never dealt with these sorts of problems have any idea how much time it takes and how much mental and physical energy it takes to deal with it. One phone call can literally take 2 hours by the time you sit on hold and get passed around from one person to another. 

On another note, Ada got her fox quilt today and loved it. 

Photo: EDF

For dinner tonight I made a white bean, kale and vegetable soup. Turned out delicious,

packed with flavor.

 Photos: SPBM

Happy Weekend to all!

Fancy Fox Quilt For Ada

It's been a busy week so far. As of 3:00 pm today I finished Ada's Fancy Fox Quilt. It is absolutely beautiful!!! I couldn't be happier with it. I have washed and dried it, and it is all soft, clean, and sweet smelling to be mailed to her tomorrow. Her brother has a blue one and even though I had made her another quilt, she wanted a fox quilt. She now has one. 

Photos: SPBM 

This is the back of the quilt.

I love the back of it, pretty enough to be used as the quilt.

  

Photo: SPBM

So happy to have it done.

And, I made her some napkins for her lunch box. She wanted some Hello Kitty, and I made her a couple of Halloween and Christmas napkins for the holidays. I need to get some Thanksgiving fabric, so she can have some for Thanksgiving.

Should make lunch time more fun.

And for some eating...it's tomato soup.

Last week I made some awesome tomato and basil soup. 

My own recipe, so all I can do is give you a list of ingredients. 

It was the best tomato soup ever. 

I used 1 box of tomatoes

1 red pepper

2 regular cans of stewed tomatoes

1 box chicken stock or broth

2 yellow onions

A couple tablespoons olive oil

6 garlic cloves

1 tbls. parsley

kosher salt to taste

ground pepper to taste

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teas. dried thyme (maybe a little more)

1/2 teas. crushed red pepper flakes

About 3-4 cups fresh basil.

I drained the canned tomatoes, saving the juice in a bowl. I cut the fresh tomatoes in half - they were not very large -added them to a olive oil coated cookie sheet and added the drained stewed tomatoes, and sliced red pepper. Drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with kosher salt and ground pepper.Baked in a 400 degree oven until they look a bit caramelized. 

I added approximately 2 tbls. olive oil to a pan and cooked the chopped onion until tender, added crushed garlic cloves and stirred around a minute or two. 

Added juice from canned tomatoes and chicken broth to pot with onions and garlic, added spices, crushed red pepper, thyme, and cumin, and chopped fresh basil.

Added the roasted tomatoes and pepper, cooked uncovered until it thicken and reduced just a little. I used my hand blender and pureed just a little, leaving chunks and texture to the soup. 

Topped with colby jack cheese and chopped basil. 

Made some cheese quesadillas to go with the soup.

Let me tell you, it was perfect!!!

A great fall dinner.

You can easily add or subtract to suit your taste. I use a lot of herbs and spices, and you may not like so much. We loved it. 

Busy As A Bee

I've been busy sewing lately. Making things for my kids, and trying to get some stuff made to sell. I really must find an outlet to sell more than what I am selling on Etsy. With this illness and no insurance, the medicine costs are unreal. I did without some of my meds last month, just a bit terrifying since my hospitalization and surgery. I DO NOT want that again. Anyways, a few things I have made this past week. 

A little dress for Ada, which turned out to be one size too big. But she can grow into it, would rather it be too big than too small.

Plain and simple, great for the summer heat. 

And made a little top using the same pattern. Loving the way this turned out, will be fun for her to wear. Made this one size smaller than the dress. It started out to be another dress but not enough fabric. So happy with the top though. Definitely will be able to spot her in a crowd. :)

Finished Ada's Yellow Fox Quilt Top, now ready to start quilting it. 

I had made a market bag with the same fabrics a while back, my daughter took it. Had enough fabric left to make another one. Love it!

Made another bag last night from bits and pieces of fabrics, It turned out beautifully.

 And my daughter sent me a photo of little E's. bed with his fancy fox quilt. Just love it, looks like such a cozy and comforting place to hang out. 

We have a new week to experience new and bigger miracles. 

Project complete

The weather is just crazy acting, cold one day, warm the next, and cold the next. I'll be glad when it is a bit more steady. If it gets a little cold in the house I have to turn the heat on,  along with Sjogren's I suffer from a syndrome that when I get a little cold my finger turn solid white or dark blue and so numb that it feels like if I touch them they would break off. I usually take gloves to the grocery store because it more often than not happens when I am at the store. So turning off the heat when it is cold at all in the house is out of the question. 

I made some soup with the remaining ham from Easter, and homemade wheat bread with olive oil, sun dried tomato and herbs dipping oil. 

No recipe, just cooked some lima beans and used some leftovers that were in the fridge. 

Really tornado like weather today, so far it has been winds and dark skies. It's that time of year, though. 

I've been staying busy, trying to keep mind occupied, several doctor appointments coming up. I get quite anxious about some of them.

A quilt I have been hand quilting for a very long time, finally finished. I have it in a box and ready to be shipped to my Bella, who ask for it when I was still sewing blocks together. I wanted to get some really great photos of it before shipping it, but the weather has not permitted me to do so. The photos I did get do not do it justice. It really is stunning. This quilt was inspired by Kaffe Fassett. Not sure I will ever want to hand quilt another quilt this big, it is queen size. Here are the photos I did get.

I have named this quilt Garden Party.

 Photos by spbm

And, I started on little Ada's Fancy Fox quilt. She wanted one after she saw her brothers, so I'm making her quilt in yellows, golds and oranges. 

I have the top together and am in the process of sewing the backing together, which will consist of the same fabrics the top is made from.

 Photos by spbm

 Thanks for looking and have a wonderful weekend!