Finished Buttons Finnnnnnnnnnnally

It's not that the buttons take that long but I do them in layers and each layer has to dry before the next is applied....so the paints are always out for a week when I start...all over our only table. But I just haven't been motivated this winter to paint. Hopefully I'll remember that before I drag all the paints out again....


I love to have a pretty painted button though to put on RRs that I do.... The rose buttons are about an inch and the cottage buttons are just a little larger. I couldn't resist doing Pat Winter's pink retreat cottage on a button.

They have been sitting around unfinished for a couple months and I could always find something I would rather do... Now that they're done I can do whatever moves me without feeling guilty (for a while at least.) and staring at the mess.

I'm excited about starting on Wendy's encrusted RR blocks. She had masks in the center which just said Venetian Carnival to me. I love working with a theme....

Mother Krueger's Sour Cream Rolls......

For those who asked here's the recipe for the husband-pleasing sour cream rolls..

First I should add that you need to really love someone to make these as they are time consuming and messy...

Years ago I combined this little watercolor I did of her making the recipe, a little story, and a mini-biography. I framed copies for her children.....then her grandchildren..... and now her great and great-great grandchildren. If you have a family recipe that is associated with one family member, this makes a nice Christmas gift. I blogged about it before but you can see it here...

http://olderrose.blogspot.com/2008/09/recipe-for-christmas.html

Mother Krueger's Sour Cream Rolls
Note from husband: DO NOT SUBSTITUE ANYTHING ELSE FOR THE BUTTER!!!!

Ingredients
1 package dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup REAL BUTTER
3-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
1 egg plus 2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups sugar
Dissolve yeast in warm water. Cut butter into mixture of flour and salt. Add yeast, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla. Mix thoroughly; cover with a damp cloth or sarn. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.
Turn half of dough out onto a board sugared with 1/2 cup sugar. Roll into an 8 x 16-inch rectangle. Fold ends toward center, sprinkle with sugar and roll again. Repeat twice, using half the sugar. Roll about 1/4 inch thick and cut into 1 x 4-inch strips. Twist ends in opposite directions, stretching slightly. Tie in a losse knowt, dip in sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until delicately browned. Remove from cookie sheets immediately. Makes: 1-1/2 to 2 dozen.

Notes.

1. Because they are so time consuming I ALWAYS double this recipe.

2. There is NO sugar in the dough itself... It is rolled out in sugar which makes them so deliciously crisp and yummy...but also very messy to make.

3. Because of the sugar on the outside of the rolls they burn very quickly so watch closely.

4. The is a traditional German recipe and often found in community cookbooks in areas settled by Germans at the turn of the century.

We're on the dry side....

This is typical of the countryside around and south of Spokane, the eastern dry side of Washington state. People usually make the assumption that all of Washington is like the wet coastal areas but the Cascade mountains keep all the moisture on the west side of the state and the rest of Washington is mostly arid and desert. North of Spokane are mountains and forests all the way to Canada....but still very little moisture.

Installment One - The Purchase

Installment One - The Purchase
On a trip to Spokane in April 1980, my husband bought the farm. . . literally! "What's it like?" I asked on his return to Anchorage, Alaska. . . "Well," he replied, "the road to it is impassable, the land is overworked, and the house is so bad we'll probably have to tear it down." And that was the good news.

So in May after quitting our jobs and selling our house, we are driving to the farm and, because I'm a clever girl and an eternal optimist, I'm thinking I can probably salvage the house and I'll have a fabulous garden with lush perennials beds, tons of hybrid roses and a verdant lawn (gardening in Alaska wasn't the most exciting.)

Then he casually mentions there's a little problem with the well. "Whatta ya mean...a problem??" I ask with a fair amount of tension in my voice. He hesitantly admits there's only about a gallon-a-minute. If you've ever lived on a well you know that is barely adequate for a house let alone a garden.

Besides Spokane only gets 14" of moisture a year and that is in the wintertime....hardly boding well for the garden of my dreams. The house was indeed dismal and everything around it was dead... everything that wasn't buried in broken-down equipment and junk. Well there was one old apple tree living, but not a songbird to be seen. There was a pheasant and a killdeer. But as it turns out, being ground nesters, their habitat was under constant assault with chemicals...fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. In fact so many chemicals had been poured on the land over the years that it had seeped down to the water level of aforementioned well.

After I finished weeping and wailing, I began pulling at the duct tape which was holding up the peeling wallpaper in this dismal house built in 1906. I resolved I would have a garden by damn and there would be birds to sing for my bird-loving husband and never again would there be a single drop of chemicals on this land in my lifetime.

Photo taken in May 1980


Photo taken in May 2009 standing in the same spot -

There is a very small pond on the right where you can barely see the little bridge. It provides water for the larger wildlife.

Addendum for scrapbook: The Dismal House

The house (built in 1906) definitely lived down to my husband's expectations. As you can see there were real problems with the foundation.. I should say what foundation as only half the house had a foundation... the rest was sitting on rocks... not a rock foundation... just rocks. The lovely stuff you see on the outside of the house was asphalt material with a brick pattern. It was peeling and rotting. I'm sorry I don't have early pictures of the inside but the outside was grand by comparison.. My husband was right...we should have torn it down. The tree on the right was dead and the tree on the left was dying.

p.s. I am still working with the assemblage of this piece. I adored all Robin's little openings in her work. I started with felt and didn't like it so will go to town to get ultrasuede. It's also hard to condense the text to fit so there will be expanded text in the scrapbook which I am doing at the same time since I have all the photos out....

I need to vent!!!!

I know that supermarket checkers must go through some type of training and I'm wondering why it doesn't include both restraint on commenting a shopper's purchases and vegetable identification..... Since HWCH is going to be gone Friday night I am going to fix myself one of my favorite suppers...chicken livers sauteed with sherry, green onions and mushrooms.. When I went through checkout the clerk said "This must be for your cat or dog..right???" "No," I say.."it's for me." She wrinkled her nose and said "eeuuuuuuuu, you actually eat chicken livers?" followed by a little shudder... Thanks you very much for that personal opinion is what I wanted to respond..

And if I dare to buy leeks, parsnips, turnips, kale or even beets....I often get "What IS this?" and of course, followed by "What do you do with it?" followed by "eeuuuuuuuu, you actually eat ..." then a long consultation with the laminated vegetable chart like this vegetable just arrived in their store from outer space..

And while I'm at it, I really resent having to give my phone number, zip code, birthday of my first born and the name of my pet just so I can belong to their preferred shopper's "club"!!! I would like to get their specials and wander in and out of the store in complete anonymity. They probably use that information to track what I buy so they can all gather in the break room and collectively say "eeuuuuuuuu, she actually eats..."