Today was much like I thought that it would be on Monday. Oh, what is a pleasant way to put it ? As the days at home pass, each child seems to need a larger amount of personal space around them. Isn’t that just such an obscure way to say that the squabbling level rises with each passing day ?

Did I mention that The Father did something to his back last Sunday ? He really has been in a lot of pain, had to go to GP and get pain-killers in fact. It is quite embarrassing all around, for that Sunday he didn’t work in the storage at the office, as he often does. We didn’t dig up some floor, move furniture, lift the car to change a tire.

Nope. The only thing that he did last Sunday was sit in his comfy couch and watch football with The Boy.

I suppose that age is indeed beginning to whither us, if this has happened.

First cooking, now sewing, next I’ll be giving stain- removal tips, I know…

However, I have just started a new quilt and while I won’t pretend to give quilting lessons, I wouldn’t mind showing how I do it. Mind you, it usually takes me about 2 years to make a quilt…

Once the guy from the KPN ( March 5, am I counting the days ?) comes by and straightens out my computer, quilting stuff will be thrown over on the right, by the puppies and other such things.

Until then….




I started quilting when I was about 18. This doesn’t mean that I have made a lot of quilts, for it takes me a very long time to finish one. That is why I started quilting : Bucky’s convent education left it’s mark in a busy- hands- are- happy- hands atmosphere our home. Yes, as well as being able to cut a fine balk, as a child I was taught to knit, crochet, do fine embroidery ( ‘the back should be as tidy as the front’) , you name it, I learned it. I even know how to darn a sock, but who wants to ?

When doilies and antimacassars went out of fashion, I found myself fidgeting about in the evenings, not knowing what to do with my hands. Quilting seemed to be the perfect thing for me, they take forever and you can always use a blanket.

Patchwork appeals to my fondness of geometrical figures, although one day I might do an applique quilt , for they show off the fine feathered rings nicely.

The quilt that I am starting uses the pattern Storm at Sea. It is a pattern I have wanted to do for a long time, and in fact bought the material for years and years ago. Even then, I couldn’t decide what shades of blue to use and so bought a light, a medium and a dark blue. I ended up using the medium blue for The Boy’s baby quilt, so I’m left with a very light and a very dark blue. I am beginning to think that the light blue won’t work after all, that it will wash into the white, but, well, this is a blanket, not one of life’s big decisions.

Once I have picked out my pattern I then have to decide what setting I want to use:


this setting


or




this setting.

The next thing that I will do will be to break down the block and rescale it. I tend to like blocks on a smaller scale than usually used. Lots of math involved.

(Last night-)

Mummy Dearest : Someone is hot linking me and I’m really annoyed.

The Father : If the Internet annoys you so much, don’t go on.

Mummy Dearest : Well, that’s just like me saying don’t watch football if it upsets you so much when Ajax loses ( not, of course, that they ever do).

We actually have three TV’s in our house : one in the kitchen that the children use, one in the living room and one in the playroom. The one in the playroom appears somewhere on that long list of things that have yet to be done in our happy home. Perhaps snuggled between connect- the- heating- for- the- upstairs and paint- the- kitchen, like hook- the- kids- TV- in- the- playroom- up.

Usually, none of this poses any problem, as the kids go to bed at 8.30 on school nights. But now it is vacation , they can stay up until 10 ( all except The Baby). They are going to watch an Eddie Murphy film tonight, a real thigh slapper, I am sure, in the kitchen. For me, Eddie Murphy films are not unlike brushing the dogs : lots of farts and belchy noises.

The Father- who is football’s biggest fan- is going to be watching football tonight in the living room. I stopped watching football the day that Ajax’s biggest fan had his first child and needed someone to keep the cherub quiet. And while I have been known to watch a game or two since that blessed event almost 11 years ago, I really don’t give a hoot about the game tonight, which- I believe- is Bayern vs. Real Madrid. But I could be wrong on that and I’m certainly too lazy to look it up now. Really, run all of the way downstairs to check the TV guide. Suffice it to say it is nothing I would be sorry to miss.

So here I am, poor little me. My little sewing box with pieces of the new quilt just waiting to be made whole again, and no where to sit. I like to listen to something as I sew.

I suppose that I can just find a book. And read.

( Poor little martyr that I am…)

The soup was ok. Actually, it was a good soup, just didn’t really strike either The Father or me as being a ‘goulash’ type soup ( think : autobahn) . It was a bit too spicy for the kids ( corrected by changing, I suppose, the ratio of mild and hot paprika powders in the future) but they loved the little noodle wads.

I strongly suspect that this is one of those soups that tastes better the next day.

I’ll find out tomorrow.

I am very fond of goulash, and yet haven’t a clue as to how to make it. I have been following the ‘daily recipe ‘ in the local paper and seem to feel that these will be good recipes. For me, a good recipe includes basic ingredients, not packaged mixes.

So, the other day, the recipe was for a goulash soup. Ok. I’m game. Tuesdays are – after all- soup day here.

100 gram doorregen spekblokjes.

3+ ounces of fatty bacon, in strips or cubes.

3 grote grof gesnipperde uien.

Three large, coarsely chopped onions.

2 teentjes fijngehakte knoflook.

Two cloves of garlic, minced.

500-600 gram in blokjes gesneden dooregen runderlappen.

Uh, 1 to 1.1 pounds of…soup meat. Beef.

1 theel. karwijzaad.

One teaspoon caraway seed.

2 theel. milde paprika-poeder.

2 Teaspoons mild paprika powder.

3 theel. scherpe paprika- poeder.

3 Teaspoons hot paprika powder

4 grote ontvelde en in blokjes gesneden tomaten.

4 large, peeled and chopped tomatoes.

1 flinke, in blokjes gesneden rode paprika.

One large, diced red bell pepper.

500 gram in blokjes gesneden aardappelen ( geen afkokers).

1 pound of cubed, peeled potatoes. Ones that don’t turn to mush when you cook them ( uh, is that what a ‘geen afkoker’ is ?)

Zout.

Salt.

Zwarte peper.

Black Pepper

1 eetl. ragfijn gehakte bladselderij voor garnering.

One tablespoon finally chopped celery leaf for garnish : eh, skip that baby.

Voor de csipetke : 75 gram gezeefde bloem.

For the dumplings : 2.5 oz sifted flour.

1 theel. ijskoud water.

1 teaspoon ice cold water.

1 losgeroed ei.

1 beaten egg.

Saute bacon in pot until crispy and then remove from pan. Saute onions in the bacon fat. Add meat and garlic , turning until meat is..less red. Add caraway, salt, and both paprika powders. Add 1 3/4 liter ( 7 cups) boiling water and simmer until meat is tender.

Add tomatoes, bell pepper and potato chunks. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add the reserved crispy bacon bits.

Make a dough with the flour, water, egg and salt. Roll balls about the size of a hazelnut and add for the last 15 minutes of cooking.

Who knows. It smells great and I love soup.

Can anyone see the images here ? I’m working on trying to prevent hot-linking and while I can see the images fine, Moi reports that she is no longer seeing them.

Today in town.

elvis

The kids have this week off. On the plus side, I enjoy a week without getting up at 6.45 am, on the down side, by Wednesday we will all probably be driving each other nuts.

Except for a couple of hail showers, we have had fine, sunny weather today. And so, I worked on brushing the dogs and then The Girl and I took them to the dikes for a walk. Note the jacket : it is my protest symbol. You see, it is The Father’s jacket. He hasn’t washed the dogs ( his job, in the complicated division of household duties here in casa kitchen ) for months and they go beyond reeking. And so, when ever I’m doing anything with the dogs, I wear his jacket.

Not going to stink mine up, after all.





In the photo, from left to right : elvis, me, buddy.

Guess what this is :

On Saturday, I finished cutting the pieces for my next quilt. Yesterday I began sewing it all back together again.

Somewhere down along the line, this pile should turn into a quilt using the pattern ‘Storm at Sea’.

The Girl says the things that I won’t allow myself to think. Trying to deal with the hot-linking here, she came up to my room of my own. In tears. The other cat, Jimmy, had a claw stuck in her clothing and- at 19 years old- had panicked, clawed and scratched at The Girl. The Girl told me how Kitty would never have hurt her, how she still listened for Kitty. How Kitty was our family cat, Jimmy the eccentric Aunt. I looked at my screen, not responding.

For everything that she said was true. I still sometimes catch myself hearing Kitty outside of my window, an echo, I suppose.

And remember how we unplugged the baby-phone, for Kitty always came into our room and woke us before the machine had even registered that the infant Girl was moving.

The Girl says just the things to lacerate my heart.

Somebody seems to be hot linking me. Again.

But I could be wrong, it’s been known to happen.

http://my.studenti.it/user/seaver 58 0.4 %

http://my.studenti.it/megasito/gestione_preview.php 22 0.1 %

Brian, you and I need to have a little idiot- to -mentor chat.

And should anyone be able to figure out which picture it is ( I suspect that it is that one of M. 1234′s home back in the Old Country), I would be eternally grateful.

But again, I could be wrong.