Tuesday Tales

It wasn't called a nor'easter, nor was it given a name but we certainly got dumped on again this past weekend.  

Saturday was a beautiful day and most of the snow that had fallen the previous weekend had all but disappeared.  Late Sunday morning, the heavy rain started which quickly changed to freezing rain, to ice pellets and then SNOW!  

The winds were blowing just as hard as last weekend's storm, with sustained gusts of up to 65 mph creating blizzard-like conditions...again!  We lost power from about 10 p.m. on Sunday night until 8 a.m. yesterday.  

Thank goodness for our stove in the kitchen because that kept the entire downstairs warm...and to the person who came up with the idea of flannel sheets on the bed during the winter months... a GIANT hug to you because they as well as four quilts kept us warm in bed.

Is there a better reason as to why one can never have too many quilts?

Monday morning...the calm after the storm.

After the power was restored, I decided to bake some muffins.  We had a bumper crop of rhubarb last summer and there are still several bags left in the freezer. I'm sure we'll have an even better crop this summer so I thought that I'd better start to use some of it up.  I was going to make a rhubarb pie but decided on muffins instead.

Fresh perked coffee and muffins...yum-a-licious!

Oh, and there are lots more too!  This recipe makes 18 decent-sized muffins.

Here's the recipe if you'd like to try some.

Rhubarb Muffins

2 1/2 C all purpose flour

1 1/2 C packed brown sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 C buttermilk *

2/3 C vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 C finely chopped rhubarb

Topping

1/2 C sugar

2 tbsp butter

2 tsp cinnamon

In a large bowl, combine first 5 ingredients.  Combine egg, buttermilk, oil and vanilla:stir in dry ingredients just until moistened.  Fold in rhubarb.  Fill greased or flour-lined muffin cups about half full.  Combine topping ingredients then sprinkle over each muffin.

Bake at 375F for 20 minutes ur until done.

*If you don't have buttermilk in the house, just add a tbsp of white vinegar or lemon juice to the cup of regular milk that the recipe calls for.  That's what I did.  I also used half all purpose flour and half whole wheat flour for mine.  If you use frozen rhubarb as I did, it increases the cooking time to almost 50 minutes...and they still tasted great!

If any of you are procrastinating as I was about getting an iPad, procrastinate no more!  I love my new toy and thanks to my friend Lesley at The Cuddle Quilter, the learning curve has been a breeze!  A couple of phone calls and I was off and running.  There's still a lot I have to learn but I'm getting much more use from it than I ever thought I would.

I'm really making a dent in my scrap project as well.  I decided to sort through them and pull out all the pieces that I could cut into decent 1 1/2" and 2 1/2" strips and to leave all the little pieces as they are.

Here is the first pile...

  

and this is the second.  

Slowly but surely I'm achieving my goal.

I still have tons more to sort through and every piece has to be ironed before cutting to ensure an accurate cut.  I find repetitive rotary cutting to be hard on my back after a while so I work on them for about a half an hour at a time and then move on to other chores.

I finished your First Friday Freebie for March and now we just have to wait until Friday, March 1st for the reveal.  I had a lot of fun designing and making it. 

The writing and PDF'ing...well, that's a whole other can of worms...and if you can read between the lines, I'm not too fond of worms.  *wink*

Rather than their favorite place by the fire, I found Frankie and Ollie catching a few rays in the family room this morning.  You can tell that the sun's rays are getting stronger when they choose the sofa over the stove.

Move over, Ollie cuz I'm coming up to join you.

 And just in case you're wondering, here's where you'll find me!

Have a super day!