Sixteen Album Blocks

 

Slow Cooker Honey Butter Pork

 

5-pound pork loin

2 tbsp olive oil

2 teaspoons EACH paprika, thyme, onion salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

3/4 cup honey

1/2 cup unsalted butter

5 cloves garlic, crushed

1/4 cup vinegar

3 teaspoons cornstarch

 

Combine paprika, thyme, onion salt and cayenne; rub all over pork. Brown pork on all sides in oil. Place in slow cooker. Deglaze pan with butter; add garlic and cook until golden. Stir in honey and vinegar. Pour sauce over pork; cover and cook on low 4 to 5 hours. At this point, you can either shred the pork and add it to the sauce in the pan, or carefully slice it and serve it topped with the sauce.  

Blessed Log Cabin

 It’s amazing what passes for controversy these days. I’ve been following the subject of “preferred pronouns,” and find myself completely mystified. If you and I are speaking to one another, the only pronouns we’ll use to describe each other is “you” and “I” or possibly “me.” These are pronouns without gender. The only time one of us would use a gendered pronoun (he, she, him, or her) is when we’re not in each other’s company. So, if you inform others of your preferred pronouns, you’re telling them how to refer to you IN YOUR ABSENCE. Doesn’t that seem a bit self-important? While we’re on the subject, if you find yourself using the words: he, she, him or her a lot, you might want to stop and ask yourself if you’re guilty of gossiping. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” There’s an idea worth discussing.

One Dozen Album Blocks

 

QUILTERS' ACRONYMS

FART - Fabric Acquisition Road Trip. Almost any vacation can become a FART.

HSY - Haven't Started Yet. Never have fewer than a dozen HSY’s on hand, just in case.

LAQ- Long Arm Quilter. If you don’t have one, it’s good to know someone who does.

PHD - Project Half Done. As in, “I’m busy working on my PHD right now.”

PIGS - Projects in Grocery Sacks. PIGS breed in dark, quiet places like closets.

SABLE - Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy. I’m pretty sure I’m not there. Yet.

STASH - Special Treasures All Secretly Hidden. A quilter is always adding to her STASH.

TGIF - Thank Goodness It's Finished! When one quilt is done, buy fabric for two more.

UFO - Unfinished Object, or perhaps Unidentifiable Fabric Object.

WIP - Work in Progress. Whatever is on my design wall at the moment.

WOMBAT - Waste of Money, Batting & Time. No one openly admits to having these, but...

WWIT - What Was I Thinking?

Rosebud

 

“When asked where meaning comes in life, most people rank family first. This includes family living and gone before. Of course, when we die, we don’t cease to exist. We continue to live on the other side of the veil. Still very much alive, our ancestors deserve to be remembered. We remember our heritage through oral histories, clan records and family stories, memorials or places of remembrance, and celebrations with photos, foods, or items which remind us of loved ones. Think of where you live—isn’t it wonderful how your country and community remember and honor ancestors, family, others who served and sacrificed? For example, at the autumn harvest remembrance in South Molton, Devonshire, England, Sister Gong and I loved finding the little church and community where generations of our Bawden family lived. We honor our ancestors by opening the heavens through temple and family history work and by becoming a welding link in the chain of our generations.” – Elder Gerrit W. Gong

Prickly Situation

This is the fifteenth quilt I’ve made for the Utah State Fair Quilt Challenge. The theme for this year’s challenge is “Be Leaf,” to go along with the green challenge fabric that’s covered with tiny leaves. Very likely, when the fair opens September 8, the western wall of the Zion Building will be full of lovely wall hangings depicting trees and bushes full of bright green leaves. I wanted mine to be different. I’d originally designed this to be 30” square, like most of my other challenge quilts. The center would have been 20” square, with an elaborate pieced blue-and-white border called “Delectable Mountains.” But the closer I got to assembling the top, the more I came to realize this quilt didn’t WANT to be square. And it doesn’t want a border at all. Later today, I’ll take this to the fairgrounds and submit it, and then wait a week or so to see if the judges agree.

Nine Album Blocks

 

One of my favorite scenes in It’s a Wonderful Life is George Bailey’s honeymoon. Having rescued Bailey Savings and Loan with all their cash, Mary sets up a honeymoon suite in the abandoned Granville place. It’s pouring, but there’s music and firelight inside. Two hens are turning on the spit: a clever jury rig involving a gramophone and a wooden spool. I can’t make rotisserie chicken. I don’t own a spit, or even a gramophone. But I can make a copycat in my slow cooker. Peel and slice a whole onion; lay the slices in the pot. Crush and add two garlic cloves. Rinse a whole fryer (two to four pounds), pat it dry with paper towels, and place it on top. Drizzle two tablespoons of olive oil over the bird, then add salt and pepper to taste. You can add a little poultry seasoning or broth, but they’re not necessary. Cover and cook on high six to eight hours. 

Two Dozen Log Cabins

 

Proof that insulting people is a lost art:

 

“He had delusions of adequacy.” – Walter Kerr

“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.” – Oscar Wilde

“I’m so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here.” – Stephen Bishop

“He’s a self-made man and worships his creator.” – John Bright

“He’s not only dull himself; he causes dullness in others.” – Samuel Johnson

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.” – Oscar Wilde

 “He uses statistics as a drunkard uses lamp-posts; for support rather than illumination.” – Andrew Lang

“He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.” – Billy Wilder

“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But I’m afraid this wasn’t it.” – Groucho Marx

 Here’s my favorite – an exchange between George Bernard Shaw and Winston Churchill:

Shaw: “Enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend, if you have one.”

Churchill: “Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second, if there is one.”