After a Week on Vacation what do you make for dinner?

I made chicken fried steak, corn, mashed potatoes, homemade bread and a peach cobbler.

comfort food and being home in my own bed sure was nice.

I did have a fabulous time and felt as if I was living a Corona Beer Commercial.

taking a break

My Green Bean Tutorial

Obviously, I start with nice and fresh green beans. Trim the stem end and rinse them well.


In a large skillet or pan, melt 2 Tablespoons of bacon fat (I keep my bacon drippings in a jar in the fridge for just this purpose)over medium heat.



Next slice lardons of some sort of pork product - bacon, fat back or I used smoked pork jowl for this tutorial.

Render off the fat from the pork until the lardons are crispy and look like this.



Then I add in some onion flakes about 1 Tablespoon (yes you can use fresh, but I like the intense flavor of the flakes).



Reduce the heat to low and add in 1 teaspoon of pepper.


Add in the green beans and give everything a good toss, coating the beans in the all the pot liquor.



Then I add in 1 cup of water.



Put the lid on and let it simmer on low for 20-30 minutes stirring occasionally until the beans are tender.



Serve them up with your favorite meat and taters and enjoy.

Busy Weekend

On Saturday, my husband had his ring and cap ceremony for the Scottish Rite. It was an interesting ceremony - lots of ritual and circumstance. Here is before the ceremony and his after picture with his new cap.




On Sunday, I made this little sun dress/coverup for our upcoming trip to Mexico. Regena told me about the pattern so I went and go it and sewed it up. What do you think? My hubs said it needed somthing so it didn't look too much like a tent. So I added some ties in the back to give it some shape in the waist. What do you think - did it work?

Look What the Mail Man Brought me Yesterday!

Originally uploaded by amysgreatadventure

I have some swaps coming up so I've been looking around for various fabrics for bits and pieces. When I was on one of my fav sites Fat Quarter Shop they had some great things I couldn't live with out.

Can you Tell What it Is?

Originally uploaded by amysgreatadventure

I stitched this last night while watching TV. I picked up the new Cross Stitch Magazine and this was one of the free patterns in it. I had the aida from my thrifting with Sue over the Christmas break, tons of miscellaneous threads that I'd picked up at JoAnn Black Friday sale - so I went for it. I like it but do you know what it is?

Over the weekend I did this little piece. It's a part of the Welcome Bow pattern that Karen sent to me. But I did a few alterations to make it more specific to what I want to use it for. I'm pretty happy with the little chicken.




Also, the hubs read my post on the truck quilt. He advised that I need to design the quilt for a specific spot in the guest room. Also, he put in a order for two table runners for the guest room (no he doesn't live in there, but he dresses out of there and keeps his toys in there - bows, arrows, helmets). He suggested using some of his old Carhart jeans. I'll have to marinate on these for a while.

Sew Much 2 Luv

My darling friend Karen has opened her Etsy shop today. Please go take a look - she does some amazing work.