Quilt, Bag, Meal [+Recipe]

If this post seems random, blame the three cups of coffee I had today. Both my body and brain are twitchy. I never consume caffeine so three cups in one day is nuts.

I finally made a quilt for myself, and actually completed it! I splurged and had it professionally quilted knowing that I would see all the flaws if I quilted it myself. This way, I will never see them. Woot! Super Swoon! I am loving the focal fabric!!

And here it is: Finished and spectacular! Ps, I have already napped under it! Since I live in south Texas and we are having heat indices of 106+, I had to really crank up the a/c for said nap. It is 64" x 64" and I am short enough that it works as a quilt, but if I get too snuggly, my toes stick out the end.

Here is the fabric I used for the back. It is from Connecting Threads.

I also tried a new bag pattern: The One Piece Bag by Fig Tree & Co. It was pretty easy, but mine isn't even close to perfect. It doesn't look too bad, though. :)

This was my first time to successfully install a magnetic closure!! I'm spweeeeing with pride!

I also worked on cleaning out my fridge. You know how that goes: "Hmm, this is about to go bad. What can I make out of it?" I ended up with Brussels sprouts, one potato, an onion, and eggs. Well, I always have eggs since I have chickens, but still. I decided these things could be put to use as a hash.

Side note: I'm on a quest to find a way to prepare Brussels sprouts so that everyone who hates them will like at least one recipe.

While working on the hash, I decided poached eggs would be a wonderful addition to this dinner for breakfast concoction. Then it dawned on me... I don't know how to poach eggs! That could have been problematic. Not to fear! I watched a Martha Steward tutorial and built up the confidence to try.

Sadly the first one came out disastrous. It would soon become dog food. Really though, it wasn't too bad considering it was the first egg I had ever poached.

I decided to give myself one more try before giving up since I have two spoiled dogs and they wouldn't want to share an egg.

If this one failed, I would switch to a different type of egg preparation and have two happy puppies. These are my puppies: Bear & Fritz. Bear is the rat terrier mix and Fritz is the wirehair dachshund terrier mix.

 Miraculously, it turned out okay! Mmm, the yolks from my backyard chickens look so dark orange.

Then it occurred to me that the first egg I used came from Hyacinth. She lays light brown eggs. This is Hyacinth. She is a Barred Plymouth Rock.

The second egg I used (the one that turned out!) was a blue egg. Violet is the little lady who lays the blue eggs. This is Violet, an Ameraucana.

Not wanting to leave anything to chance, I used another Violet egg for the third poached egg attempt. No, I do not usually sort eggs by chicken, but it looked prettier for the picture this way. 

Poor little Rose. She lays the dark brown eggs that were neglected in this endeavor [and almost in this blog post!]. This is Rose, my Rhode Island Red.

Surprisingly, the third try at poaching an egg turned out just as well as the second (my poor dogs were forced to share an egg. The horror!). Also, this is what the hash turned out like. What a delicious breakfast for dinner meal! Mmm.

The hash was super easy. Here is a basic recipe. I made it up as I went, so you should experiment as this is merely a guideline. Add different veggies or spices. Go crazy and have fun with it!

Brussels Sprout Hash Recipe

Ingredients

• one potato, grated
• 7-10ish Brussels sprouts, chopped
• Half an onion, chopped
• A few cloves of garlic (# depends on your love of garlic), minced
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• Salt & pepper to taste

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in pan. 
2. Add potatoes, Brussels sprouts, onion, & garlic to pan.
3. Sautee until potatoes are nice and cooked. I think crunchy is the standard for hashes.
4. Salt and pepper to your taste. 
5. Serve and enjoy!