In the last day or so, two different bloggers have written things that have had an affect on me in different ways, and I want to share them with you. If you are a quilter, you may be familiar with both of them.
#1: Judy Laquidara of PatchworkTimes.com – Judy is a regular read of mine, and she is a prolific poster. She usually posts something more than once a day, and she’s always interesting. She might be chatting about quilting, designing, food, gadgets, family, small-town living, or – well, any regular reader knows she has a lime-green kitchen, a dog named Speck, and a doting hubby named Vince.
Yesterday Judy talked about bread. She bakes a lot, and talk about bread on her site is nothing new. However, yesterday Judy talked about the book “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day” by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. Go to Judy’s site (click on the word “bread” above) to read the bread post and find her link to an article written about the book as well as a link to the book authors’ site. All WELL worth visiting.) I was soooo inspired, I spent about five minutes last night mixing up a bowl of bread dough according to the directions in the article. No kidding, about five minutes. Following Judy’s cue, here’s what I made for our lunch today:
A calzone-type loaf made with leftover ham and cheddar. And wow, was it good. On the down side, I’ve raised the bar regretfully high for future lunches around here. Before today, Jim had been happy to get a peanut butter sandwich or soup out of a can. I’ve now added “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day” to my Christmas list. Thank you, Judy, for sharing so many of your tips and practices. I’ll bet a lot of people are eating really good bread this week because of your post.
#2: Sandi Andersen of A Legacy of Stitches – Sandi used to live in a neighboring suburb to me, we used to belong to the same quilt guild, and we have many friends in common. To be honest, though, I have gotten to know Sandi better through our blogging! She shares her experiences of living in a small, picturesque town in Minnesota through her photographs and writings. Sandi is also very generous with her volunteerism, shares her patterns and ideas, and has hosted some give-aways. Her current give-away is very special. She is giving away a Christmas stocking filled with Joy and goodies. It’s the requirement to be entered in the drawing that has touched me. You can enter one time each day, but to enter you must leave a comment sharing a Christmas memory. Such a simple thing. She started things off with, did you have a Christmas stocking as a child. (No, I didn’t. And it wasn’t because I was especially naughty either — none of the kids in my family had a stocking!) Here is the only remnant I have of my childhood, my walking doll named Ellen. I remember getting her as a gift when I was about 9 or 10 years old, and she was purchased by my parents with S&H Green Stamps (remember those?). And how do I remember her name is Ellen? I wrote it on the bottom of one her bare feet!
So each day I’ve been letting my mind wander back through the years, searching for Christmas memories to share. What a wonderful gift! It caused me to call my 80-year-old mother today to talk about my childhood Christmases and see if I had my facts straight. And in the process, I found out my mom was the kid in her family who would pry the tape off the package to peek inside. That made me laugh! Every family has one…
So thank you, Judy and Sandi. It’s so much fun to share our lives and experiences through our blogs, and because of your words, my kitchen smells wonderful today with the aroma of freshly baked bread, and I’ve been enjoying tripping back through my memories to all those Christmases Past.
Sue
