Sew, a needle pulling thread

I have been thinking a lot of about sewing this week. It started with this post by Stephanie. Then came Courtney's post. Finally, today, Anna Maria posted this.

image from flickr r.black67

There is such beauty and inspiration in the pieces that go into sewing: the notions, the tissue paper patterns, and the fabrics. When I was younger, I loved tagging along with my mom to the fabric shop where I happily wandered the aisles and gazed at the embroidery floss, the threads, and the buttons. I would glance through pattern books and dream of creations to make and wear. And, of course, I would weave my way through the fabrics, touching and examining their beauty.

While my tastes have evolved and I would probably not reach for the same fabrics as I did then, the feeling and inspiration I get while in a fabric shop is still the same.

Photo at Etsy shop craftyfolk

Photo at Etsy shop AuntieMsChildApparel

Embroidery Floss at Etsy shop beckandcallgirl

Embroidery Floss at Etsy shop beckandcallgirl

Embroidery Floss at Esty shop TRUECOLORSFORYOU

All of these images and the aforementioned posts have me wondering if it is time to break out the sewing machine and embark on a new project!

Fancy Ladies

In 1st grade, I had a "Fancy Ladies" birthday party. My distinguished guests and I were attired in the loveliest frocks from our respective dress-up collections, and we feasted in my family's dining room. If my memory is correct, my parents even served us with their finest china, crystal, and silverware (did they really? what were they thinking?? I am hoping now that they just set the table with "fancy" chargers!)

I had such grand designs for the party, but halfway through dinner, I ended up crying on our steps. When my mom told me I needed to stop crying and rejoin my guests, I replied with the age-old classic, "It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to..." I then sang a woeful rendition of the chorus. Life is tough at the age of seven.

Oh, and the reason for my tears? Two of my guests were absolutely not acting like "fancy ladies." I did return to the party, and soon my tears were all but forgotten.


Thankfully, I have not found myself crying on my steps during any parties since, although, I have not hosted another "Fancy Ladies" party either! The "Syracuse" dinnerware, by R. Haviland & C. Parlon available at Horchow, makes me believe I would happily take the plunge again.

Chile Glazed Chicken Hoagies with Slaw

I have been cleaning my freezer out because we just purchased half a cow, all nicely wrapped pieces of meat, labeled, and ready for the freezer. I took everything out of my freezer, organized all the contents, took out what was getting to look a little old, cataloged everything on a list to be posted in the kitchen, and put everything back. What a great feeling and I have to say a first for me! I am hoping to get the whole beef story and pictures up this weekend; I also need the reference so there is a starting point to make notes for what I do and don't like this time around. The feeling of having a stocked freezer is very heady. I feel "almost" ready to go out and buy a whole farm. . .except hubby might have a slight heart failure over this idea =D.

Anyhoo, we ended up with a small pile of meat that really needs to get used up. Frozen chicken breasts are included in my pile of need to use "but" I don't want to just cook anything to use all this meat up. (All this meat includes 3 black Angus ribeye steaks; half a bag of Costco frozen, skinless, boneless chicken breasts reserved for when I was going to make all these chicken sandwiches ahead of time for lunches; ready made dinners I forgot about, like split pea soup, homemade pork and beans, and a chili rotini; a half bag of frozen shrimp; and some odd-and-ends pieces of chicken.) I decided I was making Mexican chile glazed chicken breast hoagie sandwiches. I found the recipe in a Bon Appetit magazine for last month and the meal takes about 45 minutes to make. I can handle that.

The sandwich is absolutely delicious. I would hold back on using quite so much chile sauce on the chicken breasts next time "or" use a little less pickled and sliced jalapenos. Yep, I said pickled jalapenos. This is a first for me and I loved them in the coleslaw. There is no pickled flavor that could be tasted. Just great crunch and a little heat. Awesome football Sunday food!

Chicken Hoagies with Chiles, Cheese, and Romaine Slaw


Ingredients~
4 large dried New Mexico chilies, stemmed and seeded
5 Tablespoons olive oil, divided
4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves
3 cups thinly sliced romaine hearts
1 cup thinly sliced sweet onion "or" red onion
1 7-ounce can or jar of pickled sliced jalapenos, drained, 1/4 cup juice reserved
4 6- to 7- inch-long French baguettes or what ever hoagie rolls you prefer
8 ounces feta cheese. . .The cheese totally makes this sandwich too. . .YUM!



Directions~

Place New Mexico chiles in a medium saucepan; add enough water to cover generously and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until soft, about 15 minutes. Drain; reserve cooking liquid. Place chiles in process; add 1/4 cup reserved cooking liquid and 4 tablespoons oil and puree until smooth. (This takes a little bit of doing). Transfer chile sauce to bowl; season with salt and pepper.

Reserve 6 Tablespoons chile sauce for sandwiches. Brush remaining sauce all over chicken; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until cooked through, 6 to 7 minutes per side. Let chicken rest 5 minutes, then slice thinly crosswise.



Mix lettuce, onion, and jalapenos in medium bowl; add 1/4 cup reserved jalapeno juice to slaw and toss. Spread reserved chile sauce over cut sides of bread. Top bottom halves with chicken, then cheese, then some slaw. Cover with top halves of bread and serve with remaining slaw alongside hoagie.

Chicken breasts waiting to be fried up with the chile glaze spread on them. Salt and pepper have also been sprinkled over all.

Up close look before cooking. You can see the pretty chile pepper red coloring.

Something different...Pumpkin Spice Cake Balls

No cookies today...I thought I would supplement the cookies with a few other baked goodies here and there. What do you think?

So, here is my project from yesterday....Pumpkin Spice Cake Balls. These are originally inspired by Bakerella. If you haven't been to her blog, go now! (I'll wait!) :) Months ago, I bookmarked her Red Velvet Cake Balls and added them to my "must make" list.

A few weeks later, I got an email from my girlfriend, Terri, about making cake balls. Then, last week, my sister emailed me with two other sites, here and here, on making cake balls. I thought this must be a sign, I needed to make cake balls!

This time of year, I really have a thing for pumpkin....I cannot get enough, so I made Pumpkin Spice Cake Balls. Mine are nowhere near as pretty as Bakerella's; I'm going to call them rustic. :) I added some chocolate jimmies because I had them on hand. They were such a hit. My son & I took them to a group we meet every week. I had 4 requests for the recipe within 1 minute!

See the "rustic" crack and cake showing through? :)

The possibilities are endless! I can't wait to try these again with other flavors. Let me know if you try these...I'd love to see your combinations!

....my son really had a good time helping to make these as well; this is a fun and messy project for kids!......

Pumpkin Spice Cake Balls

1 box French Vanilla cake mix (or yellow or plain vanilla)
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1 can cream cheese frosting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
chocolate candy melts or almond bark

Beat everything together (ending with the eggs) according to the package instructions and bake in a 13 X 9" pan. Make sure the cake is completely baked (no gooey middle) before removing from the oven. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Crumble the cake apart in a bowl and add most of the can of cream cheese. Using your fingers, mix together until the cake holds together when formed into a ball. Add more frosting of necessary. Roll into balls of about a 2 bite size. This should make about 50. Place on cookie sheets lined with wax paper and refrigerate several hours.

When ready to dip, melt the candy melts (I used two bags of melts total) a 1/2 bag at a time following the directions on the package. Roll with a spoon and place on another waxed paper lined sheet. Scatter on sprinkles if using while the chocolate is still wet. Store at room temperature.

Barefoot Contessa Thursday ~ Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup

It's Barefoot Contessa Thursday and we made a rich and creamy mushroom soup. I was worried the soup would taste like a basic mushroom soup indistinguishable from something coming from a soup can "but", Boy, I must have been on another planet for even considering this! We made our own stock for the base of this soup. How cool is that? The flavor is incredible and the mushrooms with leeks, cream, and a good share of chopped, flat leaf parsley were fabulous. I did forget my loaf of crusty French bread. That part was a bummer. I wish I had made this soup over the weekend because there were several steps that required time for simmering. The recipe took about 2 hours, start to finish. After getting home at 6 p.m. from work, dinner was late but the soup was well worth the wait. Thank you Chelle with the blog Brown Eyed Baker for picking this recipe out for us. Great choice!

The recipe for this wonderful mushroom soup was posted on the Food Network website and I am also posting the recipe here because I want a quick reference so as to make this again very soon. What a great way to start the Fall season!

Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup
by Barefoot Contessa

5 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms
5 ounces fresh portobello mushrooms
5 ounces fresh cremini (or porcini) mushrooms
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1/4 pound (1 stick) plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, divided
1 cup chopped yellow onion
1 carrot, chopped
1 sprig fresh thyme plus 1 teaspoon minced thyme leaves, divided
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts (2 leeks)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions~
Clean the mushrooms by wiping them with a dry paper towel. Don't wash them! Separate the stems, trim off any bad parts, and coarsely chop the stems. Slice the mushroom caps 1/4-inch thick and, if there are big, cut them into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.


To make the stock, heat the olive oil and 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large pot. Add the chopped mushroom stems, the onion, carrot, the sprig of thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and cook over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until the vegetables are soft. Add 6 cups water, bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Strain, reserving the liquid. You should have about 4 1/2 cups of stock. If not, add some water.

Meanwhile, in another large pot, heat the remaining 1/4 pound of butter and add the leeks. Cook over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until the leeks begin to brown. Add the sliced mushroom caps and cook for 10 minutes, or until they are browned and tender. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute. Add the white wine and stir for another minute, scraping the bottom of the pot. Add the mushroom stock, minced thyme leaves, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the half-and-half, cream, and parsley, season with salt and pepper, to taste, and heat through but do not boil. Serve hot.

The stock's aroma smelled absolutely delicious! In fact, the rewarding feeling of knowing I had just made my own stock from scratch for this soup was pretty great too!

I love Riesling wines so I went with a flavor I would know.

A Room Reveals A Wedding {A Relaxed Elegance}

This is the first post of "A Room Reveals A Wedding," a new segment that will be featured on Under A Paper Moon. I enjoyed Cassandra's Inspiration Board Contest so entirely that I wanted to be able to showcase this concept on a regular basis.

Inspiration for weddings can come in many forms, and one such source can be a room, which speaks to a person's style and taste. In "A Room Reveals A Wedding," a room's mood and design will be interpreted into an event inspiration board.

This first inspiration room is an elegant, yet relaxed bath featured in Homes & Gardens. I love the tranquility in this space; it's very easy to imagine unwinding in this bath after a long day. Through the use of warm-hued whites, accents of tan, brown, and green, and varying textures, the bathroom feels quite inviting.

The Inspiration RoomHomes & Gardens

The wedding based on this room would exude the same warmth and relaxed elegance.

The Inspiration Board

Row 1: L to R- Homes and Gardens, Our Labor of Love photography, West Elm
Row 2: Kelley & Nate- Photogen, Inc., Carrie Patterson Wedding Photography, Tulips via flickr kmjdepalma
Row 3: snowberry bouquet- Martha Stewart, Whitebox Weddings, Rebecca Cole Design
Row 4: Leigh Miller Photography, Programs- Dasha Wright photographer via Brides.com, candy buffet- Martha Stewart

Hanging Art- Part 3

This last collection of images features groupings that are a further evolution from the order seen in Part Two and are quite the antithesis of the groupings in Part One. These arrangements feature repetition and symmetry in a structured way.

House Beautiful

Cottage Living

Cottage Living

Metropolitan Home

Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart

S.R. Gambrel

After viewing this group, tell me, what style appeals to you most? Do you prefer organized chaos, straight organization, or something in between? I may know Christine's answer, and I am looking forward to hearing yours.