Anita's Wedding Quilt

So Anita got married . . . back in February.  But here's the deal.  Anita is from Taiwan and her husband is from St. Louis, so what they did was get married at the courthouse in February, they had a traditional Taiwanese wedding over in Taiwan in March (the pictures are amazing and crazy), then they had a reception in St. Louis in April for their stateside friends.  So in the spirit of making her wedding festivities last as long as possible, I've taken until just now to finish their wedding quilt.
         

The quilt I chose to do was a chevron design.  I got the pattern from a website that popped up for me a number of times,  including on Jenny's blog; she made this quilt a few years ago for a friend.  I did something a little more modern, both color and pattern-wise because I felt that Anita and Trevor (who is a tattoo artist) might not be sooo into the flowery pastel-y fabrics I've used for past wedding quilts.  I hope I'm right!  The fabric, instead, is a few different Marimekko fabrics, which I scored on sale for like $3 a yard at Crate and Barrel Outlet.  I supplemented with some solid colors from JoAnn Fabrics.

fragile glass and hard alcohol mixed well at the wedding reception

            The wedding reception, by the way was a great affair (on April 14).  It was held at the 3rd Degree Glass Factory in St. Louis, and all us guests got to ogle beautiful, one-of-a-kind glass pieces while we got all cocktailed up, and then I bought myself a vase, so there goes the money I saved by making them their wedding gift (although, I think most people will agree with me that making a quilt isn't necessarily cheaper, especially not if your time is precious!)
           Anyway, the quilt's in the mail.  I hope Anita and Trevor will like it!

First (full) day of Summer Strawberry Sauce

Last night, I made dinner for my boyfriend.  Since most of the time we've been dating, I've been way too busy with school to cook anything more than macaroni and cheese, he seems to think this is a big deal or something.  It was really easy, however, and the easiest part was what I made for dessert: strawberry sauce (to put on vanilla ice cream).  

This recipe is from a Sheila Lukins cookbook, which is one of my old standbys.  

It calls for:

3 cups fresh ripe strawberries, rinsed, drained and cut up/quartered.

2 cups of sugar

2 teaspoons lemon zest

1 tablespoon lemon juice.

~Combine all ingredients in a 4 quart microwave safe dish mine was actually only 2 quarts and worked just fine

~Cook uncovered in the microwave on high power for 10 minutes.  this time was dependent on a microwave of 700 watts; my microwave is 1100 watts, so I decreased the time to 6 minutes

~Remove and stir, then put back in the microwave for 5 more minutes I put it in for 4 minutes

~Cool completely before pouring into containers and storing in the refrigerator.  Can be kept, refrigerated for up to one month.  

combine ingredients

mix ingredients

enjoy hot strawberry sauce.  enjoy it more once it's cooled down.

This is great for a cool, summer sundae, although we added hot fudge.  

The dinner I cooked to lead up to this dish was cornbread (also a recipe from Sheila Lukins), broccoli, and Barbecue Apricot Pork Chops.  This is one of my favorite recipes from Real Simple a number of years ago.  It is originally for chicken, but I've tried it with a few different meats, just be mindful of how the cooking time may change.  

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It took me about 4 months to read this book; it bookended my second semester of grad school. But whenever I managed to pick it up, however many weeks were in between readings, I knew just where I had left off. Each of the 3 main characters are very real because you can see both their good and bad qualities and the writing is also very real, including a disturbingly realistic view into the life of a manic depressive. It's a great account reminding us how we cannot choose who we fall in love with, but we can decide how to act on that love, for better or for worse.

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