A Little of This and That

This week has kept me busy with a little of this and that.  First, I finished quilting a quilt for a friend that made this for her granddaughter. It has cute black cats on a sparkly hot pink background, pink and lime green fans on a black background and lots of hot pink fabric (the granddaughter's favorite color).

Also long arm basted a Civil War quilt for a friend that is going to hand quilt it. She is a great hand quilter so I can't wait to see what she does.  I know it's going to be even more stunning when she finishes.

Also this week I finally finished my ruffle neck scarf that I started last winter.  I don't have a picture of it yet, but now I can try a new knitting project I've been wanting to start.

This morning found me in the kitchen instead of my sewing room hulling Persian Lima beans.  This is what they look like before you hull them.

The green one is not really dried enough for picking.  The next 3 are ready to harvest. They are so much fun to hull.  In fact, if you leave them on the kitchen counter to dry out more, they will actually pop open on their own and the bean inside will fly out.  Ask me how I know this.  One morning I came down and there were a half dozen or more little red beans all over the floor and in places that were not even close to where I had them drying.  The beans are a beautiful deep maroon color with black veining through them. They are shiny and smooth.  They almost remind me of a polished rock or stone.

When they are sufficient dried, the shells get real brittle and twist causing them to split apart.  When they twist real tightly, the seeds pop out and you are left with empty very tightly twisted wrappers.

Can you see a couple beans still inside the wrappers on the left. Those twisted curled ones in the front are empty of their seeds and it is almost impossible to untwist them open again. The beans will fly out of there if I leave them on their own; but I won't because I'll find them in the most unlikely places all over your kitchen later!

We like these to use in homemade vegetable soup.  They are a great substitute for meat if you are cooking vegetarian.  They swell up about 3 times their dried size after they are cooked.  Their flavor is sort of nutty, but most of the time they take on the flavor of the broth they are cooked in.  There are many recipes on the internet using these with Peruvian rice and dill weed, but I have not tried any of them yet.  

I also made up another batch of my steel cut oat hockey pucks.  See previous post about that process here.

Now I have two quilts that need the bindings sewn on, so it's back to the sewing room.   Hope you have a great weekend.  The weather is beautiful here and summer is returning next week.