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June! It is an unbelievable beautiful June weekend in South Carolina. Half the year gone by, though. A week is a day is a month … When I lay my
head down at night, I wonder where the time has gone and what I accomplished during the day. The calicodaisy shop is buzzing
right along and I have great hours at my part-time day job, so mostly I just
wish I had a few more hours in the day to fit it all in.
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Meanwhile, with
my shop assistants’ help, I am busy organizing and reshuffling and throwing and sending to the thrift and organizing
again in the sewing studio. My husband is
building two sewing tables right now from repurposed counter tops, so I can line
the machines up in a row and move down the line for sewing piping or labels or
serging, as the process requires. I’m
anxious to see how this will streamline my process. I tire of switching out the machine feet,
especially on the manual machine. While
I don’t think the place will be pretty enough for my personal goal of a
feature in “Where Women Create,” it will be very organized when we are
finished!
Last month, I
ordered something I’ve wanted for years but never jumped in, but for five easy
payments with QVC, a digital pressure cooker is mine. However, now that I’ve read up on pressure
cooking in general, I think I wouldn’t be afraid of the new manual ones
available now. My mom is an expert with the "old" ones, but they are a bit scary. Anyway, success with the digital PC (pressure cooker) so far. Last week,
a whole chicken and a batch of Boston Baked Beans; yesterday a quick whip up of Italian Wedding Soup of sorts with my own ideas here and there. This can be made stove top, of course, but it
took just 6 minutes in the PC! Recipe
below.
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Cherries are in
season in the South - well, shipped in from California. All the pie making
stars aligned for me, and I had time, inclination, fresh fruit, and
company to spur me on to making a cherry pie.
I even remembered to use a pie bird bought years ago at George
Washington’s place - Mt.
Vernon gift shop - with cherries painted on, too, so appropriate for the day and no soggy pie bottom.
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What else? Well, embroidered pillow covers, of course. Clients have been sending in great ideas, and I just follow their instructions to new products. I do
love the appliquéd state pillow covers, as seen at the top of the post. Everyone has a great idea for their states
and color combinations. A Louisiana one is up next
in the orders in gold and purple.
I think a little heart added at the spot of the client’s town would be a
good addition. Must think on that. AND, I am still surprised at the custom pillow cover “packs” ordered to decorate wedding reception sites. It’s lovely to create an item to be part of
the special day. The best part of having
custom pillow covers created for the day is that they are still useful for
years to come in the home and add to the memory keeping.
My blog posting time is up. Must move on the next thing
on the to-do list, and that would be Walmart. You’ll have to give
the soup recipe a try. Even though it’s
summer, the fresh lemon juice keeps it light and bright.
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Mish’s Italian
Wedding Soup
2 Tablespoons
of olive oil
1 yellow onion
diced
1 cup of celery
diced
6 cups of
chicken broth
16 ounces of
small meatballs
1-1/2 cups of
uncooked piccolini pasta (small bowtie pasta)
2 cups chopped
baby spinach
1 clove minced
garlic
Juice of half a
lemon
1 teaspoon of
sugar
1 teaspoon of
Italian seasoning
Salt and Pepper
In the Pressure
Cooker (my amateur instructions):
1. Heat the oil and sauté the garlic a bit, add
the onion and cook until translucent.
2. Add everything else.
3. Lock the PC cover, set on High (15 psi), and
pressure cook for 6 minutes.
4. Quick release at the end to release the
pressure.
On stovetop,
this is what I would do:
1. Heat the oil and sauté the garlic a bit, add
the onion and cook until translucent.
2. Add everything else but the pasta. Bring to boil and then turn down to simmer
for a while so everything can cook together.
3. Bring back to boil, add pasta, and cook for
the time noted for type of pasta used.
