Greyhound Tragedy in Florida

Some of you may have read about the terrible, senseless, death of greyhounds at the Ebro race track in Florida. The man responsible has been arrested, as it happens on a drunk driving charge, and the whole thing is being investigated.

My personal position and the position of many of the other members of the rescue group I am involved with is this:

This is only to a degree a problem of greyhound racing. Certainly there ought to be better checks and balances in place. But, there was help all around him if he had only asked. There are many adoption organizations ready to take in hounds at the end of the season. So, it is much more a problem of a very sick man, possibly a hoarder, who is taking out some personal issue on this terrible way. There are people in all societies who mistreat animals. This man just did it on a very much grander scale. Greyhound lovers  around my area are hoping he is punished to the fullest extent of the law. Not only because of what he did personally, but to be an example to anyone else who might be thinking animals don't deserve respect. Often the punishment for animal cruelty is relativley mild.

It struck me that when he is in jail, he will be treated much more humanely in his "crate" than he treated the animals under his care. And, animal loving tax payers will have to support him for as long as he is behind bars. Doesn't seem right, does it.

Southeastern Greyhound Club 5K race fundraiser.

Last Saturday we spent a few hours in Kennesaw, GA to support the runners in the third annual SEGC 5K fundraiser. The race brings in much needed dollars to fund the effort to rescue retired racing greyhounds. This time of year is particularly important, since the tracks close for the winter and retire more dogs than usual. We want to be able to help as many as possible find their forever homes.

We registered our Donna as a "Running Mate" - runners were assigned to a hound so that those unfamiliar with greyhounds could learn more about the breed as pets. Donna was lucky enough to have two of her human runners win their category, so got to have her picture taken with them.

Our daughter participated as a runner and earned a second place medal in her age category. We are so proud of her for being willing to help the cause and for doing so well.

Here is the overall winner with Donna, and our daughter posing with Donna too. Two pretty girls together!

The quilt top is D O N E !

I set a new record for myself by completing the top in one month. I love how it turned out, especially since I wasn't sure I wanted to do this design at all. When I showed MDH, he said "I'll have that one." That's a first too.  Here it is: 

 

I have to find a better place to take a pic, but you get the idea.                                                      

New quilting tools :)

Bulloch Hall Quilt Guild recently hosted Bonnie Hunter as speaker and teacher. We learned how to use a couple of nifty rulers - the Tri  & Recs rulers. They make the "Peaky and Spike" blocks  popularized by the late Doreen Speckman a cinch. Here is one block from the quilt I started in her class:

I've completed the 9 alternate blocks and am working on the 16 of this layout. Look for the completed top soon.

Great quote from Mark Twain

"The man who doesn't read books has no advantage over the man who can't read them."

New quilt blocks

My friend is involved in a project to make quilt blocks for each of the countries participating in the London Olympics in 2010. She invited members of our guild to participate and I signed up for Egypt and Seychelles.

The Egypt block is based on a quilt block called "Moon over the mountains" which just happens to translate really well as a pyramid.

The Seychelles one is a stylized sailfish in the colors of their flag. The sailfish is on their coat of arms. The red triangle design is called "flying geese" so it is a kind of joke about the flying fish. I don't now if anyone will get it, but it amuses me :)

Banoffee Pie

Delicious, easy pie from South Africa (probably from the U.K. originally). We used to have to cook condensed milk to the caramel stage, but now you can buy the canned Dulce de Leche.


















1 graham cracker crust
3 to 4 ready to eat bananas
1 can Dulce de Leche
1 container Cool Whip or some fresh cream


Slice the bananas into 3/4 inch thick chunks. Place close together flat side down in crust. Scoop caramel into a microwave safe bowl and warm slightly to facilitate spreading. Cover bananas with caramel, filling all the spaces between. Spread Cool Whip or whipped cream over the top and chill.

Why mia

Our family has experienced the untimely loss of son, brother, and father with the death of my brother Anton. He was 57 years old. He was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma several years ago and managed quite well until the middle of June, when his body just couldn't fight any longer. Things deteriorated rapidly until he lost the battle on July 17.

Anton was a good son to our mom, a good friend to his friends, a good father to his three beautiful daughters and a good brother to me. He will be sorely missed.

One thing my brother loved to do, and is much praised for, was cooking meat on the barbecue - what we in South Africa call a braaivleis. On Father's day, June 20, 2010, Anton cooked Alton Brown's ribs for his family. By all accounts they were delicious. So in his honor, here is the recipe from the foodtv website, and a picture taken of him and his girls that day. (Edit: We made this recipe for a family gathering to honor my brother,  and it is excellent. Highly recommend.)

If you would be interested in supporting research for this (currently incurable) disease, the family requests that donations be made to The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation at http://www.themmrf.org

Who Love Ya Baby-Back?
Alton Brown
(Recipe website)

Ingredients:
2 whole slabs pork baby back ribs

*Dry Rub:
8 tablespoons light brown sugar, tightly packed
3 tablespoons kosher salt (or 2 teaspoons table salt)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon jalapeno seasoning
1/2 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
1/2 teaspoon rubbed thyme
1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Braising Liquid:
1 cup white wine
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon honey
2 cloves garlic, chopped

Directions:
Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
In a bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix well. Place each slag of baby back ribs on a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil, shiny side down. Sprinkle each side generously with the dry rub. pat the dry rub into the meat. Refrigerate the rigs for a minimum of 1 hour. In a microwavable container, combine all ingredients for the braising liquid. microwave on high for 1 minute.

Place the rib on a baking sheet. Open one end of the foil on each slab and pour half the braising liquid into each foil packet. Tilt the baking sheet in order to equally distribute the braising liquid. Braise the ribs in the oven for 2 1/2 hours.

Transfer the braising liquid into a medium saucepot. Bring to a simmer and reduce by half or until of a thick syrup consistency. Brush the glaze onto the rib. Place under the broiler just until the glaze caramelizes lightly. (Obviously, this is where Anton would use the barbecue). Slice each slab into 2 rib portions. Place remaining hot glaze into a bowl and toss the rib portions in the glaze.

*The recipe makes several batches of dry rub.

Crazy quilting

No, not the kind you are thinking of. I just made 24 square in square blocks - centers are 1/2 inch and finished size 1 1/2 inches. Why do I do this to myself!

The 4 patch posey quilt is shaping up nicely. You will definitely need your sunglasses though. That fabric I cut up is B-R-I-G-H-T.

Pictures to follow.

Home made pizza. Yum.

Purchased pizza dough from our local Publix. Rolled it out and brushed with olive oil. Sprinkled with thinly sliced fresh basil, sliced kalamata olives, sliced garlic, feta cheese and finally mozzarella cheese. Baked on my Pampered Chef pizza stone for 10 mins at 450. Quick, easy and delicious.  Sorry, no pic. It disappeared before I thought about getting the camera out!

Neenish Tarts

A delish cookie from New Zealand. My good friend from N.Z. often makes these little tarts. They have a filling made from condensed milk, one of my favorite things. Here is my first attempt at making them. Not as pretty as hers, but very tasty.

On the left is the tart pan and the cookie shells.

Want a recipe?

Neenish Tarts
Modified from http://www.recipezaar.com/Neenish-Tarts-51665

PASTRY (Same as Christine’s)
    4 ounces butter
    4 ounces sugar
    1 egg
    8 ounces flour
    1 teaspoon baking powder
    1/8 teaspoon salt

FILLING
    4 tablespoons butter
    4 tablespoons icing sugar
    4 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
    2 tablespoons lemon juice

DIRECTIONS
Turn the oven on to 350 deg F.
Cream the butter and sugar, add egg and beat well.
Mix in sifted dry ingredients.

Knead well.
Roll out and line patty tins, prick and bake about 10-15 minutes.
When cold, fill with the filling.
Filling: Soften the butter, add the sifted icing sugar, condensed milk and lemon juice.
When set, ice half the top with white icing and half with chocolate icing.

To make the icing, get two bowls and put in each:

5 Tablespoons Icing sugar
1 Teaspoon butter
(In one bowl put 2 teaspoons of cocoa)

Add boiling water a teaspoon at a time until the icing is thick, not runny

Ice one side of each tart White, and the other side with the chocolate icing. Let the icing set

Visit to sunny South Africa

May is supposed to be cold and rainy, but we were blessed with beautiful weather both weeks. Visiting the country of my birth is always a special time. The Western Cape is a beautiful place. Mountains, the sea, lovely wine farms - nothing like it in the south eastern U.S.

We had a list of foods to eat while we were here and managed to find time to have most of them. Some of the things I miss the most are the foods I grew up with.

Here are some from the list:
Koeksisters -  a donut type of pastry, fried then steeped in ginger flavoured syrup.
Boerewors - farmer's sausage; beef, pork, pork fat and spices. Grilled on the bbq
Droewors - a dried version of the above
Sweetie Pies - a marshmallow, chocolate covered confection
Melk Tert -  a custard pie with subtle cinnamon flavour
Snoek - a popular local fish from the barracuda family.
Fish and Chips - fried with delicious batter
Kabeljou (Cob) - another local fish
Custard sauce
Mebos - ground up dried fruit pressed in to a flat cake and covered with sugar
Dried fruit in general
Scone - English style, not hard and dry like in the U.S. - with jam and cream

We ran out of time to have Biltong - the S.A. version of jerky, chocolate logs - another kind of candy, soft serve ice cream with a flake inside, and more I can't remember right now.

As always, we try and catch up with family and friends during our visit, but time is so short it is hard to do. I always say I'll stay for longer next time and this time I mean it!

I'm at the airport in Johannesburg, waiting for the flight home. Back on U.S. soil tomorrow.

Graduation Day

Younger son graduated from college on Friday. Yay :) To celebrate the family helped prepare a delicious meal of rouladen, potato dumplings, red cabbage and green beans with mustard vinegarette and carrot cake. Rouladen is a recipe my South African mom got from her German M-I-L. Thinly sliced beef rolled around bacon, onion and garlic, then browned and braised. Sauce thickened and finished with sour cream.

Here are pics of the proud parents and the great food.

Meatball Eggplant Pasta Sauce

Here is something different for you to try if you like eggplant. Next time I make it I'll post a pic.

Meatball Eggplant Tomato Sauce

Meatballs:

1 to 1 1/4 pounds lean hamburger

2 to 3 Tablespoons finely chopped onion

1 small clove garlic, finely chopped

1 slice bread, made into crumbs in a processor

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 Tablespoons milk

1 Tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped finely

1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (fgbp)

Mix together and form into balls. A little larger than golf ball size works well.

Eggplant: One large, diced into 1 inch cubes. (Don’t make them smaller or they will disintegrate.)

Sauce:

1 medium onion, sliced thinly

1 large clove garlic

One 16 oz can diced tomatoes

One 16 oz can (or 2 x 8 oz) tomato sauce, or one 6oz can tomato paste plus 8 oz water

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

fgbp to taste

1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt, to taste

Olive oil

In a wide, shallow pan with a lid, sauté onions till softened but not colored. Add garlic. Stir till you can smell the garlic.

Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, seasonings, and eggplant, stirring to mix.

Nestle meatballs in sauce, partially covered (so sauce can thicken a bit) and simmer gently till meatballs are done and egglplant is soft, about 30 mins.

Serve over your favorite robust pasta, such as shells, dumplings, linguine. Parmesan on top is great if you have it.

My first pattern, packaged and ready to find a vendor!

People are always admiring my quilting tote, so I have designed a pattern for one that I hope to sell at a local quilt store. Here is a picture of the totes on the front cover:

The sample I made for the store looks very much like the one on the left.

I am working on a quilting workshop where my students can learn a skill (curves without curved piecing and a stack and slash technique) and then finish their sample block as a Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt for Ami Simms' Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. Here is the small quilt I will use as a sample:

It is 8.5" by 10.5", small enough to fit into the Priority mailer.
I'm hoping to inspire some quilters who haven't heard about the AAQI project to make and donate again in the future.

April is "Adopt a Greyhound" month

If you are considering adding a hound to the family, take a look at the Southeastern Greyhound Club website (www.greyhoundadoption.org) to learn more about what great pets Greyhounds are. SEGC is part of the national organization called Greypets of America (www.greyhoundpets.org) where you can find a listing of adoption groups in your area.

Our Donna just celebrated her 11th birthday and Lucky will be 13 in May. They are wonderful companions and easy dogs to take care of. Here is a great picture of them in the back yard. Aren't they cute!

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Life remains hectic. Time for some relaxin'

The last couple of months I've been busily finishing my little quilt for the Bulloch Hall Quilt Guild challenge. The theme this year was "Don't worry, be happy." The quilt had to be 20 inches square, and include "sunny" yellow. Here is my interpretation:

The green ribbon says a bunch of guild members thought it should win :)
I used a new technique I read about in the September issue of American Quilter. The whole design was printed on freezer paper (the kind that is ready cut for the printer, another :) ), then each piece is cut apart, ironed onto fabric and then reassembled. You then stitch between the pieces of freezer paper, remove all the paper, trim the exposed seams and couch cording onto the seams. I didn't realize the technique is not really suited for small pieces, so the quilting took forever, but I really like the end result.

Mystery Complete

The Paper Panache Paper Pieced Piece is complete. It is such a busy quilt, with all those tiny pieces, I decided it didn't need much quilting. So stitched in the ditch and added a bit of sparkle, and here is the result:

Mouth watering!

So the Korean meal had enough garlic and green onion to exude from our pores for several days. It was m..m..good!

The main feature:
Pulkogi - thinly sliced beef marinated in soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, sugar, green onions and sesame seeds, then grilled on the BBQ or on an indoor grill. Served with red leaf lettuce and kochuchang, a fiery pepper paste.
















 One of the side dishes:

A family favorite - bean sprout salad. Soy bean sprouts, lightly steamed, seasoned with a little salt, sugar, soy and vinegar.








The dessert:
A very good caramel bread puddling with chocolate chips and pecans. No, I don't know how many calories per serving, so please don't tell me.

Nativity Quilt, Korean food and Snow!

I did not manage to get the quilt done before Christmas, but I'm trying to finish it before the deadline for the Bulloch Hall Quilt Guild show. Deadlines are great motivators, aren't they!

Not much stitching happening the next few days - it's the daughter's birthday so we are preparing a Korean feast for the family on Saturday night. If you know Korean food, you know there is much chopping and slicing and dicing to be done. The menu will be:
Miso soup with tofu and mushrooms
Pulgogi
Bean Sprout salad
Kimchi of course
Chapchae (I cheated and bought it ready made this time)
Seaweed
Rice
Red leaf lettuce and kochujang for wraps

And for dessert, a most un-oriental dulce-de-leche bread pudding.

Pictures and recipes to follow.

A most uncharacteristic image for this part of the world (Johns Creek, GA). About a half inch of snow on the ground. It's supposed to melt by morning, so here is what it looks like at 11p.m