Balkan Puzzle

Some days you just need a warm chocolate chip cookie. You COULD spend an hour making an entire batch; eat one and quickly wrap the other forty-seven to surprise a neighbor. Or you could spend two minutes making yourself just one cookie.   

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day Cookie

1 tablespoon butter, melted

1 tablespoon granulated cane sugar

1 tablespoon brown cane sugar

3 drops vanilla extract (Yes, I’m serious. Use an eye dropper.)

A pinch of salt

1 egg yolk  (Break an egg into a cup, reach in with three clean fingers and gently pull the yolk out. Save the rest to make an egg white omelet for breakfast tomorrow.)

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl or wide cup. Cook in microwave for 40 to 60 seconds, or until NEARLY set. Makes one warm, delicious, gooey deep-dish chocolate chip cookie. Serve with a fork and a cold glass of milk, and resolve to start your diet again first thing in the morning.

Pineapple Rag

When my second state fair challenge quilt won a blue ribbon no one was more surprised than I. The challenge fabric had a white background covered with music notation symbols, as if they’d come loose from a piece of sheet music. It made me think of jazz; specifically the Scott Joplin piano solos I was obsessed with as a teen. I’d wanted to make a pineapple block quilt, which are traditionally red, white and green. I’d never seen one in pineapple colors. I found the paper piece pattern in a book I already owned, and I had a remnant of batting, half a yard of green batik and half a yard of gold in my stash. The only thing I had to shop for was the pretty sunflower print that became the outer border and the back of the quilt. I was shooting for Best Use of a Traditional Pattern, but got Best Use of Color instead.

Twist and Turn

Magic Blender Custard Pie

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted but not piping hot (Please don’t try this with margarine!)

4 large fresh eggs at room temperature

3/4 cup granulated cane sugar

A pinch of sea salt

2 cups milk (Skim is fine, but the recipe actually works better with 2%.)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup all-purpose flour (Hodgeson Mill flour is 100% non-GMO.)

Pinch freshly grated nutmeg

Put all ingredients except nutmeg into blender. Cover and blend until smooth (about 30 seconds), stopping to scrape sides if necessary. Pour into a 9” buttered pie plate. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Bake at 350F about 45 minutes, or until set. A delicate crust will form as it bakes. Serve the pie just as it is, straight from the oven. Or better yet top it with fresh berries or homemade preserves.

Pieced Star

Isn’t it wonderful to know that we don’t have to be perfect to experience the blessings and gifts of our Heavenly Father? We don’t have to wait to cross the finish line to receive God’s blessings. In fact, the heavens begin to part and the blessings of heaven begin to distill upon us with the very first steps we take toward the light. The perfect place to begin is exactly where you are right now. It doesn’t matter how unqualified you may think you are or how far behind others you may feel. The very moment you begin to seek your Heavenly Father, in that moment, the hope of His light will begin to awaken, enliven, and ennoble your soul. The darkness may not dissipate all at once, but as surely as night always gives way to dawn, the light will come. - President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Snowstorm

I bought the fabric for this quilt years ago at the Corn Wagon Quilt Co. in Springville, Utah. We were in Springville in May to pick up flowerpots we’d ordered four months earlier. On our way back from the greenhouse we liked to stop at the Corn Wagon, browse for fabric or notions on sale, and leave with a loaf of pumpkin chocolate chip bread from the bakery that used to be next door. This kit came with a pattern that included a dozen little embroidered snowman blocks. I didn’t like the snowmen, and thought I could improve on them. The following January, during a blizzard, I scrapped the snowman idea and made this quilt instead. Every time I see it I’m reminded of those storms that shut everything down and blanket the world in white.