The Recipe Box Swap

I added the stuffed mushroom recipe over at I have to say....
She is hosting The Recipe Box Swap.
Head over and check out all the other great recipes! I can't wait to try a few of them!

Machine Quilting

Here is a quick video of me machine quilting taken by my mother-in-law. Sometimes I think she is my number one fan! She grabbed her phone and said she needed to video me so I could post it on my blog. I think that is so sweet. I don't think she even reads my blog... but she knows that it's important to me and points out opportunities she thinks will be a good post.

Edit: Katy does read my blog. See she is my #1 fan!

I am quilting my Swing Patch quilt using her Bernina. This is the first time her machine was used on the frame and she thought it would be a good idea for me to do the first test run on a quilt I made rather than one of her quilts. Isn't that just so thoughtful of her ;) She can be very sneaky like that.

The frame is very low which is why I'm so hunched over. She is quite a bit shorter than I am.

I am quilting an all over flower pattern. Towards the end you can kind of see me make the circle of the center and a few pedals before the video ends.

I had some 'hiccups' with her machine. Come to find out it needed to be serviced. Shortly after the video was taken I brought my Juki over and finished the quilt with it. Her Bernina is a very nice machine, but it might be a little too much technology for my taste. I like my simple Juki. I suppose you love what you have and are used to.

Valentine's Day

I couldn't resist a Valentine post. I'm a sucker for the holiday. I, like most, agree that love should be shared and shown everyday but I love all the pink and hearts!

Steve and I pretty much have an agreement that there is to be no stress due to this holiday. There shouldn't be lots of money spent, especially on flowers and it should be fun.

Steve will normally stop by the wholesale flower shop and pick up some flowers on his way home. If you are looking for beautiful flowers at a very reasonable price I would highly recommend going to a wholesale flower shop that is open to the public... if there is one available near you. Many times I have stopped in and just picked something I liked out of the cold storage just to spruce up the house. I will call Steve and tell him he is such a good husband to buy me flowers. It's a silly little joke between us.

Anyways... He always says Valentine's Day is for the woman and I shouldn't get him anything. And sometimes I don't because it is so hard to shop for a man!

This year I didn't listen to him and have a few plans up my sleeve.

I surprised him at work with a Frappuchino from Starbucks because Starbucks = Love. (at least for us it does)



(I also treated myself to one!)
Courtesy of Groupon I also got us two 90-min massages for 50% off! Let me tell you this was not planned at all, but I am so excited about it!

I will also be making heartshapped ravolies with homemade marinara sauce for dinner.

For desert I got Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Yum!

source

I treated myself to a spicy chicken salad from the Thai restaurant around the corner and also 'splurged' on a copy of Martha Stewart Living magazine. Happy Valentine's Day to me!!! After all, we need to show some love to ourselves :)



Do you celebrate Valentine's day? Do you go all out or keep it simple?

Am I the only one who buys myself Valentine's gifts?

Stuffed Mushrooms

This recipe comes from my dear sweet Aunt Justine. She is one of the most amazing woman I have ever met! I think I get a lot of my craftiness and cooking skills from her. Sometimes I think I should have been her child, but I suppose my mom makes me much more well rounded ;)

My husband has been in love with her stuffed mushrooms for some time now and I have never gotten the recipe from her... until now!

We were getting ready for Super Bowl and all he could talk about were her mushrooms. So I made the call. They are surprisingly easy. And like most recipes that come from her there are few exact measurements and quite a bit of 'eye balling'.

If you want more specifics let me know and I will make them again with accurate measurements.

Here we go...

-Mushrooms - I got mine at Costco. If you get the smaller package from a grocery store you will have extra filling

-1 block cream cheese

- Parmesan cheese - I used fresh and quite a bit of it. She uses the stuff that comes in a container and said about 1/3 of a medium size container.

-Sausage - The kind you get in the meat section. New York Style, Hot. (I didn't take a picture of the package, so if you aren't sure what to get let me know and I will get a picture in the store)

- Garlic - A few cloves. I used 4-5

Brown sausage in a pan.

Wash and de-stem the mushrooms. I didn't scoop out anymore of the mushroom than what came out with the stem. You can if you want, but according to Aunt Justine once they are cooked you can't really tell a difference.

Chop stems and garlic.

Once sausage is about half way done add garlic and chopped stems. Make sure sausage bits are pretty small especially if you have smaller mushrooms.



Mix room temp cream cheese and Parmesan.  

Add sausage mixture to cream cheese mixture. The warm sausage helps the cream cheese melt into a yummy mix of goodness! Spoon mixture into mushrooms.

Top with more Parmesan cheese. I like fresh parm so I used quite a bit in my recipe. You can use as much or as little as you like. The cheese on top helps give it a little bit of crispiness. 

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or golden brown.

 

Remove from pan and plate. 

Now enjoy! These are very easy to make and reheat very well! They do have a little bit of spice from the sausage, but I think that is part of what makes them so good.

According to Steve they are little bits of heaven.

Let me know if you make them and how they turn out, or if you have any questions about the recipe.



Morning Routine

Our morning routine usually goes pretty seamlessly. Neither Steve or I are morning people so there is minimal talking and interaction. Since having Olivia it has made our routine still a little different, but close to the same it was before. I get up first, shower and get ready. If the baby wakes up while I'm getting ready Steve will get her. About the time I finish getting ready Steve heads to the bathroom to start his routine. This is at 7:20 every morning. After 7:20 baby is my responsibility.

This usually works out well for us. But Steve sometimes will play it to his advantage. Case in point:

Olivia fussed in her crib so he brought her back to our bed and snuggled with her until she fell back asleep. All the while I'm getting ready. She starts stirring about the time for Steve to get up and me to take over. I walk over to change her diaper, because he 'just didn't think about it'. Upon unzipping her sleeper there is poop EVERYWHERE. Half is dried, and half is still seeping out everywhere. How did he lay next to her and not smell this??? I think he did and was just buying time until he knew it was my turn. Olivia ended up needing a bath and LOTS of diaper rash cream. I will keep pictures out of this post for your benefit and my own.

He also forgot to take our only car seat out of his car so I can take Olivia to daycare this morning.

Really, you didn't see the gigantic car seat in the back seat when you turned around to back out of the driveway???? I simply find that hard to believe!

I'm am thanking God for Mother-in-laws and Starbucks this morning! They are my saving grace :)

Be My Healthy Valentine - Another Swap

I love Valentine's Day and I love getting fun packages. Janna has a great swap for Valentine's Day which is one of my personal favorite holidays!

You should sign up for the "Be my healthy VALENTINE SWAP"




This is such a neat idea, and a great way for us ladies to get to know each other better!

Head on over to sign up, who knows, we might end up being partners!

sign up no later than Wednesday, February 3, 2011.

"Swap Followings" Link Party

I am very excited about this linky party! It is a way to gain new followers, but to also find new blogs to follow. I like that the hope is to gain lasting friendships with fellow bloggers!

If you are new to my blog, welcome! My name is Jenn and I love to craft, sew and play with my daughter. I am married to a wonderful man named Steve. We have a beautiful one year old daughter Olivia. We live in the Central Valley of California. It tends to be sunny and warm so we spend a lot of our time outside. My blog has so far been just a mismatch of random ramblings. My hope is for it to show more of my crafting and quilting along with ramblings from my daily life. My goal is to open an etsy shop in the next month or so. There are so many feelings and fears that go along with it, but that is a post in and of itself :) I hope you look around and become a follower. Please let me know in a comment that you are following. I would love to head over to your blog and follow as well.

Head over to Homemaker on a Dime and join the Link Party!

I will be doing a post on some of the blogs I find with a little feature about them. Hopefully you will also take a look at their page and find some new friends along the way.

Happy blog hunting :)