02092014 Sunday Up to date with Building Blocks, Making Plans for SFO, and Dinner for M

Today was a pretty filled day.

It was great that DH was feeling well.  We went to next door house that had open house garage as the house is being sold.  The lady who lived there passed away, she and her husband were not very friendly with us, so although it is sad they are gone, perhaps the new owners will be more open to saying hello and sharing  our days.

DH got a microwave at the sale.  It was run by a firm, but already she had contacted people to come and take things away.

When we got back DH finished making yogurt and then I made ricotta cheese for the first time.  We ate on English muffin with a little bit of honey.  It was nice!  So easy to make.  I'll never buy it again.
I only made a little as I only had NF milk and I wasn't sure if that would turn out okay, but it did.  The full recipe is:
Ricotta Cheese
8 c milk
2 c buttermilk
put in sauce pan and heat.  Around 175 the curds really separate so wait a bit more then remove from the heat.
Put cheese cloth on top of a strainer on top of a bowl and carefully pour the contents of the pan and let the liquid dip off.  Once that is done put the remains in a serving bowl.  Done!
(I did this first batch with 1 c milk and 1/4 c buttermilk so only got enough to very thickly cover an English muffin half.)

I finished marking the Building Blocks pattern for Block 1.2 and 1.3, then sewed the 1.3 block - it seemed easier to me.  and it was a lot easier so that was a good choice.  My thread color however doesn't show the stitches very well, so that was a bad choice.  Leah had wanted us to use plain fabric or thread that would show up, I'm bummed that this grey does not show up the way I expected it would.  Oh well.  I can (at least) see the stitching clearly on the white fabric!

Our friends from Boston rang and we decided what hotel to stay at in San Francisco.  I rang my friend in Sacramento and set it up that I would see and stay with her a few days after DH returns home.  DH will come to see where she lives and we'll go out for dinner or lunch before he leaves.  We still have to figure out how we are getting from the coast to Rockland/Sacramento but that will be doable no doubt.

Then it was time to greet DS and his friend - who was accepted to the Master's degree program in chemical engineering.  We went to Pomegranates Restaurant - http://www.pomegranatesd.com/  They have wonderful meat dishes, but also a nice selection of vegetarian ones.  We started with the salad sampler.  Yum.  Potato salad with cucumbers and peas, beat salad with walnuts, carrot salad with walnuts, eggplant salad and the final was the bean and tomato and cheese salad.  All yum!  I had borcht for dinner and we all shared a cheese boat - very nice.  Finished off with some unusual honey cake and ice cream with a strong spicy sauce that hit all parts of the tongue.  Then they came over and we played a map game.

When they left I did the quilting on the second design.  A nice looking but rather boring grid design.  At the end I had to add one more line so I went out to the margin and then came back in.  I hope that will look okay when it's put together.  My bobbin broke in a white section and I forgot I had white fabric when I hid the thread so it will show forever.  I had tied a knot before hiding the thread and discovered I could not retrieve the thread and redo it.  Oh well.

So now I'm up to date for the Building Blocks project - I think I will be able now to sew on other projects too since this project doesn't really take up that much time to finish up.