Summer so far...

It started out like this...favorite summer foods. A yoga retreat in May in the middle of the gorgeous fields below and the sweet flowers and sounds of summer...

  

It was a very busy spring cleanup after a long cold winter. All of May was graduation party after graduation party. I had everything in order to start my summer gardening. I got the veggie boxes planted...the patio planters planted...the deck all set up...the lawn never looked so good...I finished two swaps I was involved in...it had  been quite busy and WE WERE READY TO START SUMMER and we were off and running! 

Then one evening this huge line of storms came through our area and BAM. All that work was for nothing. Tornado force winds and apparently a few touchdowns came through our area like Godzilla onto Japan!! We lost 5 100 yr. old trees and bushes. The lawn was torn apart by the trees coming down. Days without power and internet... we have a generator to supply us water and a few lights. Thankfully we no one was hurt.  It was actually quite amazing! However our town and neighbors we all worked together to help everyone clean up and remove dangerous hanging branches and such. 

So we are back up and running and have had family visiting for 12 days and it is great...but I am ready to get  back to projects!! The sewing machine is calling my name and the basket of yarn is as well. I started the My Small World Quilt by VeryKerryBerry and I adore it. I haven't gotten extremely far but as you can see above, but this week I will definitely make some progress! The gnome embroidery designed by me was for the mini quilt for KidGiddygnomeswap on Instagram. I adore drawing and stitching up these patterns!

The Sandwich...Tomato, Cucumber and Cheddar with  Basil Mayo:

• Thin sliced tomato and cucumnber 
• High quality cheddar cheese sliced as well
• While grain bread...I use a fresh baked from our local Wholefoods
• 2 Tbsp.Mayo with 4 or 5 chopped Basil leaves mixed together
• Salt & Pepper

That's it ...simple quick and perfect for a hot summer day!

So whats next...working on my quilt...and a cross stitch SAL( I'll share more later) and I want to start reading the Outlander books as I was addicted to the series...and really how can you not be with this guy...

You can now wipe away your drool...;-)

Be well, Ming

Good food and good fun!

My friends say I have spoiled my family in many ways and may have ruined their future mates for life when it comes to my cooking...yes, I am bragging about myself just this once...well maybe twice! When my family sees old bananas on the counter I know whats coming..."Mom you should make Banana cake" like at 7:00 pm as I am cleaning up the dinner dishes. They are all filtering home from college and such these days so I do not want to disappoint ...however I got a bit lazy this winter with cooking so I felt I  needed to fulfill the request ( I really wanted to say are you flipping nuts its 7pm)! So I thought how can i make this as easy a possible for myself...one bowl...not much measuring (it's an Italian thing...sorry)...and delicious. Here's what happened...Banana cake with Mascarpone cheese frosting. 

 

My Dear Friends,

Do you know that happens when you take a container Mascarpone cheese add  a cup and half of              confectioners sugar, some vanilla and lemon juice and whip it at high speed? It turns into an tangy marshmallowy deliciousness that stops all time and space and Angles start to sing!! I will now call this my go to frosting forever more!

Yours Truly,

Ming

So here's what I want you to do ...

For the Banana cake:

In a mixing bowl mash...

• 3 old bananas
• 1 cup raw sugar 

Now add to mixture

• 1/4 cup safflower oil
• 2 eggs
• tsp vanilla

 mix again until  incorporated and then add

• A scant 2 cups flour...I use King Arthur
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt...I am now using mineral salt in my cooking and baking
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

Now mix this and lastly add

• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt

Mix again and and pour into a 8x8 baking pan sprayed with cooking or baking spray and bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

For the Mascarpone Frosting:

• 4 oz. container of Mascarpone cheese
• 1 1/2 or 2 cups confectioners sugar 
• 1 tsp. Vanilla extract
• juice of a half a lemon may be more to your liking

mix together and just whip it at high speed till incorporate well and watch the Magic happen!

The possibilities are endless with this frosting and what you can add in and alter. I also added some Spanish chocolate shavings too!

Now onto other happenings...

 Gardening has started literally overnight...we went from freezing temps to everything starting to flower and sprout. Finally!! We added two new gardening beds and are going to add more. That was the heaviest dirt I ever had to shovel and move! My daughter is home now and first thing was to get my Great nephew Gavin introduced to the dirt and he loved it and took it very very seriously!

...and it was another Crazy Knitting Night and as usual the craziness and laughs were in abundance.

Our Sandra (who we swear has a small army in her basement knitting for her ... this woman busts the projects out like nobody's business!") showed off her latest finish a West Knits design and not without striking her best Stephen West pose! In February we went to the West Knits workshop at our local yarn store and it was a hoot! She is now on her second West knits design ...I have even started my first ;-(!!

I have lots of projects getting ready top show off  and now that the temps are rising I can sit at my computer and not freeze any more! 

Of course the knitting gals and I love us some Downton Abbey so this meme is just so fitting from @hey_lady_hey on instagram....How true is this!!

Have a wonderful weekend and if you have those old bananas around give the cake a go you wont be disappoint!

Be Well,

Ming

Sights of Summer & Blog Hop

 Beautiful splendid summer, must you move so fast???...too fast for me. I really don't want to complain because it really has been wonderful so far. Here are some beautiful sights that I captured this week...

Summer's Splendor

Summer so far has given us quite a bit of splendor...Great berries, beautiful blossoms in my garden, wonderful treats from a needle book swap and a week at the beach with family.

 

 

Some good stuff so far this summer!

 The berries have been great this season and I made this Strawberry Rhubarb and Sweet Dumplings with the last of them some weeks ago. All I did was take 2 cups of flour, 2 tsp.baking powder 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tsp.cinnamon mixed it with some milk to make a thick batter and dolloped it onto the the fruits which were dressed with some sugar and lemon juice. I took it to knitting night and they loved it.

The Needle book swap... My needle book recipient got a book with her initials cross stitched on it and made with some civil war scrap and along with it some goodies from Maison Sajou. Then I received this awesome goodies from Tanya from Tanya Quilts in CO. She made me this awesome embroidered project bag along with goodies that included chocolate which I ate upon arrival! Amy from Amy Made That hosted it. It was great fun and I love meeting new blog friends. My garden...the Morning Glories and Sunflowers are here and they are beautiful. My Anise plants are keeping the bees so very busy lately( I so wish I could find where they are taking all that nectar and get my hands on that honey!) and the Day Lilies have come and gone. The vegetable garden is making a real push now as well. The garden is in a lull now waiting for the later summer blooms to make their debut. Cape May NJ...we spent a week with my Husbands family, close to 30 of us! It was so nice to spend extended time with those who we don't see often. I haven't been to Cape May since my oldest were toddlers. It was so nice to see that some of my favorite stores were still there. My favorite being the Scandinavian gifts shop. Years ago I decorated my house with items from there and are still adorning my home. Unfortunately they wouldn't let me take photos in the store. Such charming stuff. Maybe I will photograph what I bought next post. They have a website www.swedethings.com. Then a trip to Winterwood an amazing Christmas store. So sweet my handsome boys at Sunset Beach where we searched for Cape May Diamonds while watching the sunset.  They are little quartz stones that when you polish them and they resemble diamonds. It was a beautiful evening. We had unseasonably mild weather at the beach it almost felt like September. We saw dolphins everyday in the ocean and took a haunted house trolley tour of all the Victorian homes that are supposedly filled with spirits. It was just great to sit in the trolley on a breezy eve and get a great look at all the beautiful Inns.

I have some new projects going and am looking forward to showing you. So how did you like the tutorial?

I hope your summer is sharing some its splendor with you as well. 

Be Well,

Ming

During A Rainy Week...

Much was accomplished...this is what has been going on...

It may be a bit gloom outside, but I have to say I am happy for it. As it is giving me a much needed break with the yard and garden work. So needless to say I am enjoying it.
The Shawl...  A few months back I joined Romi's Mystery Shawl KAL. I couldn't post any pictures of it until all  the clues were given. It is over now and I'm not finished it as it was giving me a hard time  but I persevered and am finally making good progress. I love the Lorna's Laces special edition Olympic yarn Sochi 2014. I am in love with the warm golds with the hint of silver. I think it goes amazingly with the grey.
The Cake ... If you want a quick and easy cake really one bowl ..you must try this. It is a great base cake with berries. Quick easy effortless.I did make it into a Bundt and added about 1/4 cup more cream as it was looking a bit to dense for me.
The Onsie...I am making these for the 4th to sell on Etsy and some for some new editions that will be joining us this month. Lots of friends having babies. Very easy cut applique and I will be adding some stitching. Maybe a tutorial in the future???
The Food...Asian chicken lettuce wrap and homemade egg rolls ( I just followed the directions on the package of the egg roll wraps). These were easier than I anticipated. I got the recipe idea from Pinterest but them went online and used the one linked here. I didn't feel like it needed all the extra flavors so I altered the recipe and kept them simple. They were extremely GOOD! 
The Flowers...this is what is blooming right now in the garden...My shrub roses, Lantana and the honeysuckle...lots of pink right now which really makes a splash against the grey skies...a great color scheme.
The Rain... is hanging on for the rest of the week but to me it is anything but gloomy for I am finding it to be extremely inspiring and creative.