Tornado Damage 2011

We had a tornado hit our area last Tuesday (June 21st), but thankfully there were no personal injuries reported, and not many houses were damaged. Most of the damage was to mature trees. The most damage to our house was inside - our dogs like to play UNDER our bed, and somehow they ripped my bedskirt!

Does Dora look guilty?

My poor bedskirt! I have since repaired it - not the type of sewing that I like to spend my time on!

This poor house had not one, not two, but three trees uprooted! They said one of the ways they knew it was a tornado, was by studying the direction the trees were twisted out of the ground and tossed.

I wonder how badly this person's truck was damaged!

This was a huge tree, split in half (nice pic of Hannah in the mirror!).

Typical tornado damage - tops of trees just snapped off, and set down on the ground. I saw several really tall pine trees damaged in this manner.

This house had damage on the edge of its roof, caused by a falling tree. All in all, our area was extremely lucky. The tornado was in our area for exactly two minutes, did all this damage, yet no houses were damaged (except by falling trees), and no lives were lost. Very lucky indeed.

Emily's Father's Day Dinner

Here is my daughter, Emily, cooking up a storm this past Sunday for Father's Day dinner!


She was ably assisted by my other daughter, Hannah. Check out Hannah's newly-blonde look! She had to opt for either all blonde or all brown, for her role as Sandy in "Grease" - I think the blonde works for her!

Of course, Scott got into the act, too!
First, he was tasting the guacamole...then he was mixing the all-important mojitos!

My main job was keeping up with the used dishes! I think Emily used most of my pots and pans (just kidding Emily), but it was worth it!

This is the fantastic Mojito Chicken - by Guy Fieri on the Food Network - which we all agreed was the best chicken dish ever! First a dry rub marinade, then browning in a skillet, then oven baking in broth, and finally oven glazing. Scrumptious!

This is Emily's warm corn and tomato salad - she also made stuffed peppers, which you can see below -

...but the best part? Spending all day together with the family! Happy Father's Day, Scott! We love you!

Father's Day Breakfast

Father's Day 2011 was a food extravaganza! Starting the day was my very modest breakfast for two. The main event was Bacon and Tomato Cups from Melody's fabulous blog fibermania (which now has a sub-blog called fabu food!). Anyway, my cups had neither bacon nor tomatoes! I substituted canadian bacon for the bacon (6 slices, chopped), a few chopped red and yellow pepper slices for the tomatoes, and shredded jack-cheddar-mozzarella cheese for the Swiss. Get the picture? You can put whatever you like in these easy little bites!

By the way - for those you scoff at the idea of using mayo in these breakfast treats - instead of eggs - let me remind you: mayonaisse is made of ....oil and eggs. So there you go. Step one is above - chopping the canadian bacon (like my retro kitchen? complete with the slide-away cutting board).

These frozen chopped onions are a MUST HAVE in my freezer. Why cry over chopping onions, when someone else can do it for you???? By the way, this little corner of countertop? It's just about my only usable counterspace in my entire kitchen. To the left of the sink is my dish drainer, and...oh yeah, that's it. No more counterspace! Did I tell you, I have a retro kitchen? It's tiny, but I have cooked for as many as 40 for dinner.

Here are my able assistants, Dora (7 months) and Cohen (3 years). Once I started chopping canadian bacon, they were VERY close by! Cute, aren't they?

Also on the menu - Tuscan cantaloupe from Trader Joe's. It looked like a regular supermarket cantaloupe, but with deeper, darker green ridges in the rind, ... but the inside was the best part! Super juicy, fragrant, and deeply flavorful - yum! One of my favorite foods in the world!

Makes quite a nice breakfast, doncha think? Happy Father's Day!

AAQI Quilt Finished!

The mini quilt below (8.5" x 11.5") is entitled "Sunrise", and made for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. This is an online quilt auction, which raises money for Alzheimer's Research. Victoria, over at 15 Minutes Play, encouraged us all to make one to donate, and I was happy to participate.

This shows my husband, Scott, and his mom, Maurine. Although she has Alzheimer's, we are grateful that she still can visit with us, and seems to know us, especially Scott, even though her memory is pretty much gone. She is lucky to be in such a nice care center, where they take such good care of her. The day we dropped by, they had just fixed her hair, and she was dressed so nicely for the day.

The morning sky background is curve-pieced, and the sun (which was in my leftover box) was machine appliqued.

"Sunrise" is dedicated to the staff of Morningside Heights Care Center, in Marshall, Minnesota. They treat all of the residents with round-the-clock love and respect. We are so grateful.

My quilt is not on the website yet, but will be added in the next month or two. If you would like to view the quilts currently on their website, or to learn more about the initiative, go to alzquilts.org. Thank you!