black bottom shortbread

I thought I was not going to have anything to blog about tonight but then my Beloved asked for cookies.  I had been reading about black bottom shortbread earlier today and thought, why not?  Shortbread are a standard in this house so easy peasy.

Black Bottom Shortbread

1 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

4 ounces melted semi sweet or dark chocolate

Dredging sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and cream together.  Mix in the vanilla.  Mix in the flour.  The dough may be a bit crumbly but it will all come together with a bit of hand mashing.  Remove half the dough and set aside.  To the remaining half of dough, mix in the melted chocolate.

On a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper or a silpat, take small balls (about a half a teaspoon) of the chocolate dough and flatten.

Place a similar small ball of vanilla on top of the flattened chocolate dough.

Flatten the vanlla dough and then pick the cookie up and dredge in sugar.  Back for 15 minutes or lightly golden.  Let cool for at least 15 minutes before trying to take off the cookie sheet.  They have a tendency to break if you do not wait.  Guess how I know (grin)!

Enjoy.  

I do not know if these even resemble the recipe I heard about today but I know they are sure yummy and easy.

getting distracted

I needed to lay out all the nine squares to see how they would look in a baby quilt top.  Instead, I was distracted by Gary Vaynerchuk and his talk.  Pretty excellent.  Tells it like it is and is the truth for every situation.  I had to watch it so I did not get started on this quilt top as soon as I should have.  Or started drinking tea for that matter.

But I got down to it and a little bit at a time, the squares were laid out.

Until it was done.  I did find taking pictures of the quilt top seemed to help me see what it would really look like.  Photographs and tea helped.

But now it is like this again because I have to go back to my sewing machine and put it together.

Thanks Gary for the excellent distraction.  Or was the quilt the distraction (evil grin).

busy weekend, quiet week

It was a busy weekend.  We went to friend's house on a lake.  We played in the woods and the water, met new people, had fabulous conversation with old and new friends, and ate well.  I got a chance to learn to row.  I think I have fallen in love.  I would really like my own rowboat but I will have to save my pennies  I have it all picked out already.

But because of the busy weekend, it may be quiet around here this week.  I did not work on all my projects.  

I did not even get bread made.  A loaf is rising in the refrigerator as I type.  I will bake it in the morning so I will have fresh bread for breakfast.

I did finish all the nine squares for the current baby quilt I am working one.  100.  I hope to lay them out tomorrow and I will take a picture and post here.

But like I said, it may be a quiet week.

roasted eggplant and white bean spread

It was another quiet evening.  I got more nine square squares made.  I listen to audiobooks while I do this in the evening so you could say that I read at the same time.  And I drink much tea.

But for quiet evenings I like simple dinners.  I picked an eggplant up at the farmer's market  I chose to roast it and make a spread with it by adding white beans.

Roasted Eggplant and White Bean Spread

1 eggplant, chopped

1 head roasted garlic

1/2 onion

olive oil

salt and pepper

16 ounces cooked white beans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Put the eggplant and onion in an oven proof pan.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Put in oven and roast for 45 minutes to an hour.

Cover the bottom of another ovenproof pan with olive oil.  Slice the head of a garlic in half.  Put cut end down into the olive oil.  Roast for 30 minutes to an hour (will depend on the size of your garlic).

Put the roasted eggplant and onion in a bowl.  Take the roasted cloves of garlic out of their papers and put in the bowl with the eggplant.  Mush it together.

Add the white beans and mush them in as well.

Serve on toast or with fresh chips.

Simple soothing food.  It is really good.  Perfect for a quiet evening at home.

my quiet evening

It was a quiet evening for me.  A run to the library.  A bit of time with an audiobook and  my sewing machine.

I am three quarters of the way piecing another baby quilt.  This is for Miss K and her boy. Then there is Miss L, Mr R, and the Tall Short Person.  They are all had babies or having babies this year.  The one quilt that has to be done by late October is the Tall Short Person.

This with a pot of tea was lovely.

I made a pot of red sauce.  A little bit of onion, garlic, basel, salt, pepper, port, and tomato and a bit of slow cooking and this sauce had the flavor like there was meat in it but there was not.  I would give you the recipe but there is not really a recipe.  I get teased around here that I am an Italian grandmother.  Nope.  I will be an American grandmother.

There was pasta to roll out and cut.  It was a bit interesting after a couple glasses of wine but it was all good.

Everything bubbled while I drank my wine and read a book from the library.  When my Beloved came home, he served up dinner and we talked.  

It was a lovely evening.  It would have been perfect if My Beloved had been home for the evening but I obviously made due.