A recipe and a cute photo!

Lately I have been having lots of good memories of childhood, whether it songs I heard when I was a kid, crafts I did, or old photos, it's put me in a warm nostalgic mood. The recipe I'm sharing today is one my Mama used to make, and it was one of my favorites! It's a white bean and escarole (or spinach) soup. Maybe this is where my love of white beans first began! 
It is a very simple soup and therefore each ingredients really shines. I highly recommend it for these cold days of winter.
The original recipe calls for escarole (a bitter green, similar to kale and swiss chard) but I like it with spinach, which is much easier to find!

White Bean and Spinach Soup
adapted from Molly Katzen

2 cups cooked white beans (canned or 1 cup uncooked, simmered in water for 1 1/2-2 hours)
1 tablespoon oil and butter
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt
black pepper
5 cups stock/water (if you cooked your own beans you can use some of the leftover cooking water)
1/2 pound chopped spinach

In a pot, melt the butter and oil. Saute the onion and garlic for 3-5 minutes. Add the celery, carrot, bay leaf and salt and pepper. Saute another 5 minutes.
Add the stock/water. Cover and simmer about 20 minutes.
Add the beans and spinach, cook on low heat for another 15 minutes. Season to taste.
Simple and delicious!

Here is one of those nostalgic photos...

That's me on the left, my dad in the middle and Zoe on the right! We were quite the ragamuffins!

This one's full of good ideas!

It's a good idea to have this guy around...

Happy 24th Birthday Zach!
I know a public announcement is not your favorite thing, but you are a great human, I count myself lucky to be your one and only sister and darn it, I'll tell the world!

Jakob and His Quilt

A few months ago I made this quilt for my Cousin's baby in Germany. It finally arrived this week, Zach sent it via boat and it took about 2 months!
I received this picture today...

This is Jakob and his new quilt! What a cutie!

Mushroom Bourguignon

It looks like Monday is going to be recipe day! Today I am making a recipe from my new favorite cookbook/old favorite blog. I got this cookbook last month and have already enjoyed many recipes out of it! Its the Smitten Kitchen blog's cookbook. It is awesome and delicious.

The recipe for today first appeared on her blog in 2009, and was made by my friend Tracy in PEI around the same time. I rediscovered it last month in the cookbook and am already making it for the second time this season (rare for me!). The recipe is for mushroom bourguignon, the vegetarian version of beef bourguignon. Very good and perfect for the winter months.
Here is the link to the recipe on the Smitten Kitchen blog and here are my side notes...
Mushrooms: I have yet to use portabello mushrooms as the recipe calls for, I've used a combination of cremini and white button mushrooms. And I just quarter them because I like chunky mushrooms.
Red Wine: If you have it use, it makes it extra rich and yummy, but if you don't usually have red wine kicking around just use extra stock/broth.
Pearl Onions: I haven't found these yet, but honestly I haven't looked that hard. I am just as happy to add a bit of extra white onion in. But if you want the real deal, I think there may be pearl onions in the frozen section of grocery stores.
Noodles: I love egg noodles with this, I usually cook them in boiling water and then saute them with a lot of butter when the mushrooms are ready. If you have some parsley or dill in the fridge, chop a bit up and sprinkle it in with the noodles too.
Gluten-Free (known as G-Free in our house): Substitute the flour in the bourguignon for rice flour and serve on rice noodles (but don't forget to saute them in butter!).
Just a 'few' changes!
Enjoy!

A Good Idea...

Zoe suggested that we collect awesome things that we do/experience throughout 2013 and put them in a jar to be opened New Years 2014. I thought this was the greatest idea. We grabbed two mason jars, got a collection of scrap papers and put them in an obvious place to (hopefully) remind us to keep it up for the year.
We got pretty excited as we did this and wrote our first 'awesome' thing of 2013. I got a little giddy thinking of all the amazing things that this year could bring. Ah, the possibilities are endless! If I think of all the stuff that has happened in 2012 I can't imagine what 2013 will be like.
I think this jar is also a great reminder to find good things in any situation and be grateful for those moments of joy, amidst the craziness of our lives.
It's not too late (it never is) to start a jar for yourself or family. It will be pretty neat to see what your year looked like condensed into awesome moments come 2014.

The Crafty Room

..and by room, I mean entire apartment!
On any given day our kitchen/dining room looks like this:

Zoe and I both love to sew/quilt. She's currently working on a quilt, maybe I'll share some pictures when she's done!
The dining room table is perfect for duelling sewing machines!

Fact: The Bernina sewing machine I use is my Mama's and she got it when she graduated high school! It's still in fine form and just goes to show that quality lasts.
I hadn't quilted all of December (a travesty) and was really looking forward to this week when I knew I would have time to play around with scraps and new patterns.
Check this out, this block uses strips of scrap fabric and I think it's amazing!

I probably should have taken the picture not on the 'kitty' ironing board, but that's where the magic happens!
Imagine an entire quilt made of these blocks. WOW.
In another effort to weed out my huge pile of fabric I made a few quilt tops that I will make into baby blankets for donation. I love quilting full size quilts, but I love-love making baby quilts! These quilts are pretty scrappy and crazy colored but make me smile!

That's what I've been up to these days, as well as a few knitting projects and hand sewing. I swear I could sew/knit all day everyday!

Happy New Year!

Hello Everyone! Long time no post...sorry about that. A few of you I've seen have asked why there was such a lack of posts recently, and my answer was I got busy (etc.) but really I think I was a little uninspired. But here we are at the start of new year and I've got things to tell you and recipes to share. I've missed you guys!
So, I did a little renovation of the blog (what do you think?) and have decided to give myself more of  a structure to my post topics. I did a bit of brainstorming with my Roomie/Bestie Zoe and came up with a few ideas. Here are some topics that I will post about weekly on their allotted day (yes, I am getting very organized!):

• Recipes
• Good Ideas (books, places, restaurants, movies etc that I think are awesome!)
• The Craft Room (where I would share what I'm currently sewing/quilting/knitting)

Feel free to leave a comment about anything else you would like to add to the list! Seriously, I will try my best to accommodate you! Want more interviews? Videos? Facts?  Ask and I'll try and fit it in.

Phew, that feels better! Thank you for being patient with me, it'll be worth it!