Little Less Sugar

Mashed Potatoes

4 pounds potatoes, peeled and quartered

4 tablespoons butter

2 cups milk

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender, about 15 minutes; drain. Heat butter and milk until butter is melted. Blend milk mixture into potatoes with potato masher until smooth and creamy. 

Green Bean Casserole

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

1 cup milk

2 teaspoons soy sauce

6 cups frozen green beans, thawed

2 cups French fried onions

Stir soup, milk, soy sauce, green beans and half the onions in a 2-quart casserole dish. Bake at 350F 25 minutes. Stir again, then top with remaining onions. Bake 5 more minutes.

Cranberry/Orange Relish

1 unpeeled orange, cut into eighths and seeded

12 ounces cranberries, rinsed and drained

1 cup sugar

Place half the cranberries and half the orange slices in food processor. Pulse until mixture is evenly chopped. Repeat with remaining cranberries and orange slices. Stir in sugar.

Wild Geese

A little more than ten years ago we planted a small English walnut tree in our back garden. We also planted an Elephant Heart plum and an Asian pear. When we moved to England a few years later, we chose to rent our house rather than selling it. The fruit trees fell victim to a black Lab our tenants weren’t supposed to have. He used all three saplings as chew toys and only the walnut survived. The year we moved back there was a nice walnut crop; almost enough to fill a five-gallon bucket. We enjoyed Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies, Walnut-Banana Bread and Walnut Pesto all winter long. The next two years late frosts took most of our nuts. This year though, our cup runneth over. We could have filled the five-gallon bucket at least three times. We’re running out of places to put them. Maybe this Christmas our neighbors should all receive nutcrackers and bags of fresh walnuts.

Straw Flowers

“Our sacrament experience can be enhanced when we arrive well before the meeting and ponder as the prelude music is played. President Boyd K. Packer taught: ‘Prelude music, reverently played, is nourishment for the spirit. It invites inspiration.’ ‘This is not a time,’ President Russell M. Nelson explained, ‘for conversation or transmission of messages but a period of prayerful meditation as leaders and members prepare spiritually for the sacrament.’ The sacrament hymn is an especially important part of our sacrament experience. Music elevates our thoughts and feelings. The sacrament hymn has even greater influence when we focus on the words and the powerful doctrine taught. Instead of tuning out the familiar words of the sacrament prayers, we can learn much and feel even more as we participate spiritually by considering the commitments and associated blessings included in these sacred prayers.” - Elder Peter F. Meurs

Darting Bird

This quilter’s poem lists 35 blocks, most of which I’ve posted here. I’ve catalogued over 1660 blocks in six years, but the poem mentions twelve I’ve never made. Aha! A to-do list for 2017!

“I’ve sought inspiration a quilt for to make. There's a wide choice of patterns, now which should I take?

Here's Baltimore Album and Sunbonnet Sue, Seven Sisters, Clay's Choice and Log Cabin too,

Anvil and Churn Dash, Birds in the Air, Country Crossroads, City Square,

Broken Dishes, Tree of Life, LeMoyne Star, Contrary Wife,

Mexican Star, Pickle Dish, Cherry Basket, Goldfish,

Thousand Pyramids, Irish Chain, True Lover's Knot and Airplane,

Tangled Garter, World's Fair, Kansas Troubles, Windblown Square,

Also Hovering Hawks and Flying Geese, I really don't know what to piece!

Four-Patch, Nine-Patch, Tumbling Blocks, Grandmother's Fan, Jack-in-the-Box,

Spider Web, Kaleidoscope, there must be one. I've not lost hope.

I've thought and thought, I'm ready to wilt. Eureka! I'll make a sampler quilt!” – Source Unknown

Catherine Wheel

Members of the Lincolnshire county council in England were looking for ways to prevent sexual assault. One of their solutions was this sign, posted in ladies’ rooms in pubs and bars: “Hi. I’m Angela. Are you on a date that isn’t working out? Is your Tinder or POF (Plenty of Fish, an online dating service) not who they said they were on their profile? Do you feel like you’re not in a safe situation? Does it all feel a bit weird? If you go to the bar and ask for ‘Angela,’ the bar staff will know you need some help getting out of your situation and will call you a taxi or help you out discretely – without too much fuss.” I’ve seen no word about whether or not this tactic has been successful. But then, if I did, how discrete would it be?

Friendship Name Chain

Leonard Cherry married his high school sweetheart, Hazel, in 1942. When WWII broke out, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, the forerunner to the U.S. Air Force. He became a B-24 bomber pilot and eventually trained other bomber pilots. After the war he co-founded an auto repair business in Fort Worth. In 1980 Leonard sold the business so he and Hazel could spend more time with their only son David and with their grandchildren. When Leonard’s health failed he was put into hospice care. Hazel was well, but moved to a nursing home next door to be near him. Leonard passed away at 1:00 in the afternoon. Before midnight that night, Hazel had joined him. “It's hard, you know,” said Davie. “To know you can’t call mother or go by and see Dad. But when I think about it, I smile because of how much they loved each other.”