Creme Brulee and Kolaches

Saturday morning (7/6) marked the start of some baking experiments…..Michael and I have recently compiled a list of things we want to make….I think I have made all of them at one time or another, but now we want to start making a few fancier things together. 

We are having company tonight, and Michael’s favorite dessert is Crème Brulee…so that’s what we started with:

-using a funnel really helps you to keep the hot water going into the water bath...and out of the creme brulee vessels!

He left for errands after that (the library and Lowe’s) and I headed to the studio to press my QoV: 

Janice, I don’t know what I was looking at on retreat with this quilt…..somehow I thought it was 4 blocks by 5 blocks and way too small…when I started to sew it together…it turned out to be 7 blocks by 8 blocks and a perfect size for a regular QoV…sorry, no wheel chair quilts coming your way :~(. 

After that I went looking for backing fabric to load up a few of my own quilts.  I thought I had 2 that I could do on black backing…but am re-thinking one of them.  Then I decided I could load up and quilt 2 QoV’s…that’s when I discovered I have NO QoV BACKING FABRIC?!!?!?!?!  How did that happen?  I was so bummed…..I went right into my phone and put it on the top of my list for FOUST in August…but until then, I won’t be able to quilt any of my own QoV’s.  I will probably getting 2 more from Scrap Happy that I will quilt for them. 

By then it was time to get cleaned up and welcome Mark & Diane for dessert and cards.  We played for a bit:

stopped to brulee our crème:

then it was back to playing cards.  Everyone loved dessert and it was a very relaxing and enjoyable evening. Freya was as good as gold....sleeping in her bed for most of the evening:

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I was up Sunday (7/7) to take my kolache dough out of the fridge (I made it on Saturday just before Mark & Diane showed up….along with my Apricot filling) to warm up before heading off to Pam R’s.

Gosh….we had a fun time together….I got all of my kolaches formed and filled while she was making her dough:

-I ran out of my apricot stuff, so Pam was kind enough to give me some peach butter

  I popped them into the oven and was all done just after 1 PM: 

I left 6 with Pam (my recipe made 20 and we are going to trade some to see which dough recipe we like better), and came home to glaze the rest:

I sent 2 down to neighbors Kay and Pete, gave one to Sandy when she came down to drop off a quilt (or two!!) and Michael and I each had one.  The remaining 9 fit nicely into a Rubbermaid container:

The dough was HEAVENLY….so very tender…thanks to 8 ounces of sour cream and a stick of butter!!! 

I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and reading a library book.  Michael and I had salads for dinner and watched the last 2 episodes of PROFESSOR T in the evening.

Pam finally got hers baked in the eveing, and sent a picture of her prune filled ones:

*** One thing no one ever talks about, when it comes to being an older adult, is how much time we devote to keeping a cardboard box because it is, you know, a really good box. ***