I'm making a blanket

Well with my job hunt I've had some time on my hands, which is nice since my Summer was actually SUPER busy. I've finally had a chance to be a little crafty. I've made some firecracker writing pens, some cards, digitally scrapped a few things and now, the big challenge.... I'm making a blanket. Now I have a REALLY old sewing machine packed away somewhere so I've decided to tackle this by hand. Yes that's right, I'm sewing this bad boy by hand.

In the past week, I've cut all the fabric and batting, stitched the batting to the fabric pieces, and have sewn 3 pieces together. Here's the progress so far...

FIRE, FIRE!

Ok so, the hubbie is in the office working and I was chilling in our room watching some SHAYTARDS and the fire alarm goes off. It was so loud. Brendon and I RUSH to the alarm board to see what was up and that's when we realized it was the fire alarm.

There was no fire. We couldn't figure it out. We searched the house and no fire. So the fire department was canceled and we went back to what we were doing. I was walking back down the hall and I found a puddle of water and at first I thought it was from one of the dogs. It wasn't, the fire detector is dripping. GGRR-eat.

Well I decided to take it upon myself to see why it was dripping. I turned the bathroom faucet on and ran it thinking it might be there. Nothing. I flushed the toilet, nothing. I turned the downstairs air on... nothing. Then I turned the upstairs air on and with in the matter of minutes the drips started to get faster. DING DING, I think we have a winner.

See the dripping:

Sickerdoodle Bars

Lastest sweet treat I made.

Blackberry Pie Bars

First time making them and they are YUMMY!!!!! Here's what it looks like and the recipe.



Blackberry Pie Bars
adapted from Rebecca Rather, The Pastry Queen

Crust and Topping

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled

Fruit Filling

4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup flour
pinch salt
zest of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp almond extract
2 (16-oz) packages frozen blackberries, thawed and drained
*I used fresh because I couldn't find frozen.*

To make the crust and topping, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.

Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times to mix. Cut the butter into 1/2-inch cubes, and add to the flour mixture. Process until the butter is evenly distributed but the mixture is still crumbly, 30-60 seconds.

Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the mixture to use as the topping. Press the remaining mixture into the bottom of the pan, and bake 12-15 minutes. Cool for at least 10 minutes.

To make the filling, whisk the eggs in a large bowl, then add the sugar, sour cream, flour, salt, lemon zest, and almond extract. Gently fold in the berries and spoon the mixture over the crust. Sprinkle the remaining flour mixture evenly over the filling, and bake 45 to 55 minutes.

Cool at least 1 hour before cutting into bars, or scoop out of the pan to serve cobbler-style.

~Enjoy