3 Bakers~12 Months~36 Recipes

Whilst blog trolling, I found Farmgirl Fare some time back and became a devoted reader. Now she and a couple of pals are tackling "a year in bread," and while I'm a pretty confident bread baker, I'm also ready for a challenge. In that spirit, I've added their link to the sidebar.

First up is pizza, and pizza is my Hubby's favorite food (he's pictured at left with other unknown pizza dudes at Shakey's Pizza in San Jose, circa 1974). Team member Kevin says that he started his pizza-making career at Shakey's Pizza Parlor, as well. My friend Chris met her first husband working at Shakey's, but I digress. Back in the day, Hubby could eat pizza for three meals a day, but he absolutely hates dealing with the flour after years of wearing it. I've been making focaccia for years and he would often "top" them for me since, he could prep an entire pizza in one minute way back when. Recently, we've been making homemade pizza again as the delivered pies just weren't cutting it for us. We like no-sauce, low cheese pies with toppings that don't sog it up.

I don't know when this month I'll have time to try out the three bakers' different crusts, what with houseguests coming and baby-watch starting. If you have a "skin" in the freezer, pizza is an almost instant dinner, and with a one-hour delivery time in our fair city it is almost faster to make your own.

Today we went to a local winery, Lambert Bridge, to take a wine-blending class with their winemaker. We were given small bottles of 2005 cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot and petite verdot to blend into our own cuvee. I blended one for my grandson and his soon-to-be-born brother and called it "Cates Brothers Blend." Hubby made one for DD Sarah's girlfriend Kristin who was just appointed by Ahhhnold as a San Francisco Superior Court Judge (go figure that, she is not exactly a member of the republican party). We called hers "S.F. Superior Blend."

Sorry Mr. B!

It would appear that your Robot quilt has been claimed by Gator and we all know she doesn't share well!

Seriously, the binding is almost done, just a few feet left to stitch down, which is a good thing as we are heading down for a quick visit and delivery of same on Tuesday.

Yesterday, Lynn from quilt guild came over and gave Sharon, Mary and I a lesson in sock knitting. As so well said by Jenni at Fairybread, learning to knit with double point needles is like wrestling a hedgehog! Lynn is a great teacher and has given us the task of being ready to turn the heel by our next guild meeting in 2 weeks! Yikes, I better get busy!

Thanks!!!

Thanks so much to those who pointed me in the right direction for blog help, especially Paula, who took the time to check to see if I did it right. It is now good to go!

I finished quiting the Robot quilt today and machined the binding down. Now to finish clipping and burying threads and sewing the binding down by hand. Yippee!!!!

Caesar's Quilt

We were finally able to present the memorial quilt to Norma and Dennis at the last guild meeting. It turned out very well and they seemed to like it.

I'm still plugging away on the robot quilt and have just six of the 12 inch blocks to quilt with rocket ships left to quilt, then the border. I'm determined to get it done withing the week, so stay tuned.

Blog Help Kindly Requested

In going through the many wonderful quilty blogs I do every day, I've noticed that many have customized headers and I'd like to add one to this site.

Would one of my very talented fellow bloggers kindly email me and help me do it?

I'd be ever so grateful!!

Book Meme; It's a Small World

Blog trolling today, I found this cool blog via a blogger who commented on my blog. One of the reasons I love the blog-world sew much is the community that can be found with quilters round the world. Since I'm known as the "book slut,"** this meme was right up my alley! Thanks to Diana at Dented Thimble (who I don't know) for this. I found her via Carmina's blog in Spain. As I said, I love how small the world is when you're blogging. After all, we are all Quilting Sisters, aren't we?

Book Meme

Meggie posted this on her blog earlier in the week and then Bookfool posted it today. I'm not sure whose list it is but it looked like fun and I thought I'd join in. It seems to be such a strange mixture of current and past best sellers, Oprah books, with the odd classic thrown in.

Look at the list of books below:
* Bold the ones you’ve read
* Italicize the ones you want to read
* Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.
* If you are reading this, tag, you’re it!

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien) Never have, probably never will
6.The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien) tried and abandoned more than once
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens) In High School, under duress. Needs a re-read.
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez) Fabulous but a very slow read
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)*
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith) Read this 5 times as a teen.
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier) One of my favorite movies ever.
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield) Read most, but gave up
100. Ulysses (James Joyce) Someday...

Strange list, but if you see anything on there I simply must read, let me know.

** Definition of Book Slut: Will ready anything, anytime, anywhere.

Wishin' and Hoping

And wondering with my chocolatey face if my Nana is EVER going to finish quilting my Robot quilt! Or update her lousy blog.