![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Weekend plus
Phew. I feel like I've been on a treadmill since the middle of last week.
It started when I firmed up plans with my mother-in-law (MIL) to go to the quilt show in Edison over the weekend. My husband's aunt was also going to join us, and since our apartment is midway between the show and his aunt and uncle's house, we decided to invite everyone over for dinner. Everybody was happy to accept, and that left us to put on a Q-style sit-down dinner... that had to be cooked in advance, as I was going to be at the quilt show all day long, and husband would be keeping his dad entertained.
We had three nights to clean the house and plan dinner. For starters, husband wanted to make a fennel, orange, and arugula salad, followed by a pasta dish of homemade ravioli, then dinner. I decided I'd make spezzatino again, because it's an easy dish and it tastes even better when reheated. We'd serve that over polenta, only Mom Q and Aunt L don't like polenta, so we had to make some pasta for them.
Our big learning experience was working with pasta dough made with durum semolina flour rather than regular all-purpose flour. I made the first batch, and I must have made it too wet, because it would NOT roll nicely in the pasta roller AT ALL. With a lot of frustration, we eked out about 25 ravioli - not a lot from a pound of dough. When husband made more dough the next night, it rolled into lovely thin sheets, and we had enough dough left over to make some tagliatelle for the picky eaters.
Mom and Dad Q arrived bright and early on Saturday morning, and I'd be lying if I said their punctuality didn't amuse the hell out of me. Mom Q is notorious for dragging her feet on her way to events - unless quilts are involved! Then she's out of the door like a shot, something that never fails to frustrate Dad Q. It was a short drive down to the convention center, and Aunt L met us about 45 minutes after we got there.
We spent most of our time before lunch looking at the exhibited quilts. There were different groupings of quilts; some were created in response to a specific challenge, some were in keeping with a given theme, and some were part of an invited exhibition of one specific quilter's work. The two challenges were "The Noble Elements" (quilts that reflect the theme of water or fire) and something about disabilities (for example, one had sign language appliqued onto it; another depicted how the quilter feels with a migraine.) One of the featured one-woman shows had a series of wall quilts depicting the quilter's cat Oreo, and I really liked one hanging where the cat is drinking out of the toilet. Some of the quilts were very beautiful and interesting, and others I just didn't get.
Mom Q and Aunt L then moved on to the vendors, and wow is that painful. They can, and often do, spend hours picking over fabrics. Me... well, there's a limit. I meandered around with them for a while and picked up an African zebra mask from Kenya as a birthday or Christmas gift for Dad Q. Then one of my lenses started to bother me, and when I took it out, you could see that one of the edges was ripped. So, that was the end of my day at the quilt show! Mom Q and Aunt L stayed, and I made my escape, but not before grabbing a picture book of different Japanese mon and a cover for the iron and ironing board so I don't ruin more surfaces with starch.
Everyone came by around 5 PM for antipasti, and we all had a very nice dinner without too much mess. All of our dishes went over well, and Dad Q paid husband a high compliment by telling him that his sauce tasted like it used to. We even had a goddamn ricotta cheesecake in grand Q tradition (and I hate ricotta cheesecake.) It was nice to entertain everyone and show my in-laws that I can cook, and well.
Sunday, we literally laid in bed until noon. We got up, had our Sunday morning waffles, and went right back to bed for a snooze. We deserved it! I hemmed and hawed over whether to make the long trip to Joann's for more fabric to match for my friend Laurie's baby quilt, but it didn't make sense to go up to Ledgewood when the damn quilt show was 15 minutes away and my admission ticket was still good. Husband decided to wash the car, and off I went.
I came back with a few half-yards and a book about how slaves escaping used quilts to communicate information about the Underground Railroad. The rest of the afternoon was spent cutting triangles for Double Pinwheel blocks, then piecing, then sewing. Fun. No Oscars, though I'm happy that March of the Penguins won.
Now for a busier-than-usual week. O_o
It started when I firmed up plans with my mother-in-law (MIL) to go to the quilt show in Edison over the weekend. My husband's aunt was also going to join us, and since our apartment is midway between the show and his aunt and uncle's house, we decided to invite everyone over for dinner. Everybody was happy to accept, and that left us to put on a Q-style sit-down dinner... that had to be cooked in advance, as I was going to be at the quilt show all day long, and husband would be keeping his dad entertained.
We had three nights to clean the house and plan dinner. For starters, husband wanted to make a fennel, orange, and arugula salad, followed by a pasta dish of homemade ravioli, then dinner. I decided I'd make spezzatino again, because it's an easy dish and it tastes even better when reheated. We'd serve that over polenta, only Mom Q and Aunt L don't like polenta, so we had to make some pasta for them.
Our big learning experience was working with pasta dough made with durum semolina flour rather than regular all-purpose flour. I made the first batch, and I must have made it too wet, because it would NOT roll nicely in the pasta roller AT ALL. With a lot of frustration, we eked out about 25 ravioli - not a lot from a pound of dough. When husband made more dough the next night, it rolled into lovely thin sheets, and we had enough dough left over to make some tagliatelle for the picky eaters.
Mom and Dad Q arrived bright and early on Saturday morning, and I'd be lying if I said their punctuality didn't amuse the hell out of me. Mom Q is notorious for dragging her feet on her way to events - unless quilts are involved! Then she's out of the door like a shot, something that never fails to frustrate Dad Q. It was a short drive down to the convention center, and Aunt L met us about 45 minutes after we got there.
We spent most of our time before lunch looking at the exhibited quilts. There were different groupings of quilts; some were created in response to a specific challenge, some were in keeping with a given theme, and some were part of an invited exhibition of one specific quilter's work. The two challenges were "The Noble Elements" (quilts that reflect the theme of water or fire) and something about disabilities (for example, one had sign language appliqued onto it; another depicted how the quilter feels with a migraine.) One of the featured one-woman shows had a series of wall quilts depicting the quilter's cat Oreo, and I really liked one hanging where the cat is drinking out of the toilet. Some of the quilts were very beautiful and interesting, and others I just didn't get.
Mom Q and Aunt L then moved on to the vendors, and wow is that painful. They can, and often do, spend hours picking over fabrics. Me... well, there's a limit. I meandered around with them for a while and picked up an African zebra mask from Kenya as a birthday or Christmas gift for Dad Q. Then one of my lenses started to bother me, and when I took it out, you could see that one of the edges was ripped. So, that was the end of my day at the quilt show! Mom Q and Aunt L stayed, and I made my escape, but not before grabbing a picture book of different Japanese mon and a cover for the iron and ironing board so I don't ruin more surfaces with starch.
Everyone came by around 5 PM for antipasti, and we all had a very nice dinner without too much mess. All of our dishes went over well, and Dad Q paid husband a high compliment by telling him that his sauce tasted like it used to. We even had a goddamn ricotta cheesecake in grand Q tradition (and I hate ricotta cheesecake.) It was nice to entertain everyone and show my in-laws that I can cook, and well.
Sunday, we literally laid in bed until noon. We got up, had our Sunday morning waffles, and went right back to bed for a snooze. We deserved it! I hemmed and hawed over whether to make the long trip to Joann's for more fabric to match for my friend Laurie's baby quilt, but it didn't make sense to go up to Ledgewood when the damn quilt show was 15 minutes away and my admission ticket was still good. Husband decided to wash the car, and off I went.
I came back with a few half-yards and a book about how slaves escaping used quilts to communicate information about the Underground Railroad. The rest of the afternoon was spent cutting triangles for Double Pinwheel blocks, then piecing, then sewing. Fun. No Oscars, though I'm happy that March of the Penguins won.
Now for a busier-than-usual week. O_o
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject