Scooter 1994 - 2008

My dear old cat Scooter developed cancer and a couple of months ago we made the sad but merciful decision to put her to sleep. I'll miss her "helping" me with my quilting and the laundry, I'll miss her hanging around my ankles waiting for tidbits in the kitchen; and I'll even miss her delicately licking my eyelids at stupid o'clock in the morning to tell me she wanted breakfast.

Since Scooter warranted her own label on my blog I've put together a little photographic tribute which was inspired by a recent post by Deb.

Six Word Memoir

Some time ago, my blog friend Tammy of Wee Treats by Tammy tagged me for a meme. The original concept was:

1. Write your own six-word memoir.
   
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like (uhhh no thanks - although I'm happy to share a photo of Scooter - doesn't she look pretty with her daisy chain necklace? I must have been really bored that day).
   
3. Link to the person who tagged you in your post (see above).
   
4. Tag five more blogs with links (see below).
   
5. Remember to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play (done).

OK, here goes....

1. Generous
   
2. Creative
   
3. Gregarious
   
4. Indecisive
   
5. Impetuous
   
6. Deadline-challenged (that is so one word!)

I'm not one for tagging but they are THE RULES so here I go in no particular order:

1. Deb of Red Shoe Ramblings
   
2. Lisa of La Mia Cucina
   
3. Bron of the eponymous (I've always wanted to use that word) Bron Marshall
   
4. Barbie of Barbie2Be
   
5. Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness

La Festa al Fresco - 2007

Lisa and Ivonne are hosting an event called La Festa al Fresco the premise of which is to prepare a dish using seasonal ingredients. Lisa talked about something that grows in your area and I'm not sure whether scallops count? They are certainly seasonal and are in season right now. Prices vary wildly from $10.33 a dozen down to $6.95 when they're on special. My husband was out for dinner one night last week and since he doesn't care for scallops mixed with stuff like pasta and veggies I decided to create a special dinner for myself. It wasn't half bad although I think I need to fiddle with it to make a sauce that's tasty yet not too calorific. Next time I think I'll leave the mushrooms out.

Sautéed Vegetable and Scallop Pasta
Serves 1

Ingredients

1 dozen scallops
1 zucchini
½ a red pepper
2 shallots
Mushrooms
1 nice juicy ripe red tomato
Olive oil
Splash of cream
Splash of white wine
Pasta of your choice – fusili or rotini is nice
Salt
Pepper
Parsley
Parmesan



Method

Slice the vegetables as desired


Saute in a little olive oil and set aside
Meanwhile, cook your pasta in plenty of boiling, salted water


Drain the pasta
Rinse, pat dry and trim off any icky bits on the scallops

Scooter hopes she'll get lucky with a stray scallop trimming...


Sear the scallops
Mix everything together
Grind some cracked pepper over it
Garnish with parsley or parmesan if desired
Enjoy!

Cuter than Scooter?

I don't think so!

I'm in the process of making a couple of baby quilts which need to be made quickly due to my leaving things til the last possible moment. Procrastination should be an art form I tell you. The babies are due 11/04 and I leave for my holiday to the US on 19/04 so perhaps I should be sewing rather than writing this post? I pulled out this quilt to use as my reference and laid it over a nearby chair and naturally any quilt or garment that is laid over a piece of furniture becomes an instant cat bed.

Why can't I just give this quilt away and only have to make one more? Well this quilt won a blue ribbon at the Georgetown County Fair - from memory I think the ribbon was for the quilting which was just an all over, meandering stipple pattern. The quilt sentimental to me and I haven't had the heart to give it away.

Here's a sneak preview of my efforts so far.....


Because the quilts are being given to friends in the US I wanted to use a New Zealand theme and have chosen some fun fabrics for the feature squares. For the first quilt I chose Buzzy Bee which is somewhat of a New Zealand icon. Buzzy Bee has been around since the 1940s and almost every New Zealand child would have had a Buzzy Bee pull along toy. Now you can get plush toys, stationery, key rings and buzzy bee themed clothing - it's just not the same. The other quilt will have little cartoon kiwis (as in the flightless birds, not the furry fruit) as the feature fabric and will be in similar colouring.

Scooter helps with the laundry

Happy New Year

Just in case you were wondering if I had fallen off the face of the earth I thought I should post something but since I've not been very creative in the kitchen lately this is the best I could come up with.

Scooter thinks that any pile of clean laundry is a special little bed just for her. She doesn't actually look very comfortable but perhaps she was just annoyed at me taking her photo.

Lucky Stars

Didn't I tell y'all that this was a Food and ART blog?

During my Christmas vacation this year I started a quilt for my cousin in Australia and surprise surpise it's still not quilted. This is situation normal for me because I enjoy piecing but the thought of basting a top so I can quilt it is not my idea of fun. My cousin's birthday is at the end of this month so I guess I'll be sending this one out to be quilted or else there's no hope of her getting it this decade! The pattern called Lucky Stars by Terri Atkinson. While I didn't set out to copy the pattern right down to the fabrics the colours are what my cousin likes and I have a swag of batiks so it was an easy choice. I enjoyed making the pattern so much that I'm making another one in autumn colours for my other cousin.

I had intended to take a picture of the quilt hanging on the clothesline but it has been a little windy here so I resorted to putting it on the floor which doesn't give you a great angle. I have come to the conclusion that putting a quilt on the floor is like catnip for cats.

Scooter says "I wonder if anyone is watching?"......



Guess not!


This is FUN

I'm off to sew my backing fabric together now. Stay tuned for the next instalment of Lucky Stars in a few weeks.