Beautiful Fall Day in Seattle

A couple of weeks ago we traveled north to spend the day taking in the King Tut exhibit in Seattle at the Pacific Science Center.  It was one of those gorgeous sunny Fall days and we had a memorable trip.  My daughter is an Anthropology  major in her Junior year and begged to see the exhibit.  I had seen it when it was there in 1978 but I was just a teenager then and thought it would be great to see again.  Of course they brought some different pieces this time.  None of which I can show you because they allowed no photography of the exhibit.  I can tell you they had a stone toilet seat there that I am sure I would have remembered had it been there 30+ years ago.  Missing was the sarcophagus that I remember from then but there was a small canopic jar that held his stomach, one of a set of four of these jars that held his vital organs and it was beautiful---and yes --empty.  While I think most of the items were not King Tut related but rather just period related to the other Pharaohs of the Valley of the Kings ---  many were from King Tut's tomb and  it was amazing seeing all these pieces in front of us that are from around 1332 BC --- over three thousand three hundred some years ago.

We ditched the Space Needle and instead headed to the waterfront.  What a great area and we enjoyed exploring the piers and had a great lunch at Ivars.  The last time my husband and I had been to the Seattle waterfront and lunched at Ivars, I was 6 months pregnant with our oldest daughter.  She just celebrated her 25th birthday this month.

At least the long car ride was another chance to get some hand sewing done.  I got another Garden Step block done.

and I put some hexagons blocks together that I got from the traveling stash box I won recently.  There are soo cute! Not exactly together together but obviously they aren't exactly color coordinated for that.

and of course we saw this guy at the "Ye Olde Curiousity Shop" at Pier 54 and I must say something about him reminded me of the fast approaching deadline for the Wicked Blog Hop coming soon...hint...hint ;)

Hugs and Keep Stitchin'

Hexagon Hoot

Well here is the result of one of my outdoor cooking experiences last week.  Have you ever heard of pie irons?  We use them every time we go camping and every so often when we build a fire in the fire pit in the back yard.  They are great for making dessert after dinner.  In the past we have only made "pie" in them.  Here is our standard recipe:

• Butter a piece of bread and sprinkle with cinnamon
• Insert it into one side of the pie iron, butter side down
• squish the bread down so you can make a hole for your fruit filling
• spoon in the fruit filling of your choice -- we usually stick with can cherry or blueberry filling
• butter another piece of bread and sprinkle with cinnamon
• Insert it into the other side of the pie iron, butter side down
• close the pie iron and lock down the clasp on the bar
• cook for about 10 minutes, flipping sides every few minutes to toast bread evenly
• Peek to see that it is done, if not close and cook longer
• If golden brown,  pop it on a plate,  let it cool down and enjoy!

This trip we tried new recipes --- most with no trouble.  We made blackberry pies with fresh fruit and crescent dough for the crust.  Even though the ended up delicious---we were quite concerned when the dough started bubbly out the side of the pie irons.  What remained inside cooked up great.  What spilled out was fuel for the fire. We made cornbread--- it actually turned out awesome and never overfilled the iron. We could only fill one half of the iron and it raised great.  We also made grilled ham and swiss cheese sandwiches that were delicious.  With each of these recipes the KEY is to check and make sure you don't burn the what you are cooking.  Here is where I ran in to trouble on the trip.  I stopped to check that I wasn't burning what I was yearning to eat and here is what happened when I wasn't using my noggin'

I laid the pie iron on the empty chair next to me and the chair cushion instantly melted away.  Oops...My husband loves these chairs.  What to do???.... As it happens I had brought some extra fabric with me because I have always wanted to learn to make hexagons but had never taken the time to learn.  Since I thought it would be a great car ride or campfire filler I brought the instructions and some paper hexagon patterns with me.  I found this great free template download by Abi over at Snippets and Blabbery and I promptly cut out a few and was surprised how quickly I could put a whole flower together ---even though I was a complete newbie to this.  Must have been the added incentive of needing to fix my Hubby's beloved chair.







Yep that patch was going to be the perfect size to cover my
"Boo Boo"
So I just starting stitching that baby into place and 'Tada' all fixed and beautified!!!

Now I think I need to add a few more to really
max out the girl power on this chair.  You know this chair is permanently "mine".  Not sure if I want three or five of these on here to really cherry up this chair.





Here is a picture of the pie iron.  This is when we cooked cornbread to go with our Sausage and Bean Dutch Oven Stew. We thought we should go low heat and slow with these so we started out on top of the grate but ended up holding them below the grate to get enough heat to cook them.  They were delicious.

Keepin' it together --- do the same