Sweet River Studios

A lot of people are intimidated by gravy but you don't have to be. Once you do it, you'll see how easy it can be. Two things you MUST have when making a really good gravy is stock and brown bits. So in order to get ready for our gravy we need to make stock. Yes, you can buy turkey or chicken stock to make this and you can even start with turkey stock from the store or start with water. Either one is fine but the stock you make at home will be 10x more flavorful then the store bought stock. And that's what you want - flavor. So in my stock, I'm going to start with turkey stock bought at the store instead of water. I figure the more layers of flavor I can add to the stock the merrier. The purchased turkey stock (pictured below) was a nice dark color, which I was pretty happy with. You can use this as is or reduce it further to concentrate the flavor but I'm going to add more meat and vegetables. I bought 4 turkey legs and 4 thighs for my stock but I also had...

At my cooking class, we learned how to make emulsion type sauces. We learned how to make a hollandaise sauce, which we put over the classic poached egg and toast. We also made a mayonnaise and roasted potatoes. And we made a white wine sauce for our hamburgers with caramelized onions, along with a ceasar salad with dressing. All of that was in just one day! Needless to say, I'm usually stuffed at the end of class. The following week was salad week and all we did was chop a lot of veggies and make salad dressings and a pumpkin soup. It was definitely a lighter meal but I was still just as full.

It's less then two weeks before T-giving and I'm on cooking duty this year. It's been a few years since I've cooked and I've been taking a french cooking class so I'm ready to start planning and start cooking. We also have a couple of people with food allergies, so I try to be mindful of what everyone can or cannot have and make sure there's something for everyone. There will be some new items this year and of course some traditional. I like to change things up a bit but others don't want anything but the same thing year after year but since I'm cooking it's my house, my food, my rules. If you've never cooked Thanksgiving before here's a few tips: Plan Ahead. Don't wait until the last minute to go shopping. Make a list of what dishes you're serving, under that write down your shopping list and under that list keep your recipes. Then under the recipes or next to them, write down the day you're going to make them. Also, f...

When I first started learning how to sew, I decided to learn paper piecing. Paper piecing is very easy to learn. It's learning how to sew pieces of fabric together in a certain order and you sew them together by sewing on lines printed on the paper. Yes, you sew on a line so everything is straight and everything lines up fairly easily. My first paper piecing pattern, was the 4th of July quilt pattern by Judy Niemeyer from Quiltworx . The hardest part is literally getting all the fabric cut and taking off the paper. But I learned a lot about 1/4" seams, trimming, sewing and piecing all the parts together. I thought the instructions for the pattern was really well done and was easy for a non-sewer to follow. After the 4th of July quilt and my sewing skills improved, I got another pattern called Amazon Star. This was a very, very big quilt. I think it was 98x98" and I really didn't like handling something that big. That one taught me that I don't like Y seams. I go...

Over the last few weeks of cooking class we've been learning how to make different stocks, binding of sauces and of course soup! We made 6 six soups last week and I got pictures of 4 of them below. We also made a salad with dressing and homemade butter to add to our bread. We made a potato leek and a celery soup... and a spicy vegetable soup with pesto.. ... and a parsnip and pear soup with apple cider reduction. We also made a french onion and cauliflower soup which I didn't get pictures of. I've learned already after just 4 weeks of class to not eat breakfast (or very little) on Tuesdays. All of the soups were really good and I'm looking forward to more classes.

The fall horse was more difficult to paint than the other two but I think I did okay. I put fall colored leaves, flowers and grapes on vines around the legs and I might add more on the skin of the horse. I also started the summer horse. I went with a black horse with blueish highlights and I'll probably add sunflowers and butterflies on it and maybe some cracked parched earth under it's hooves. I took about 2 weeks off from painting to take a break from it but hopefully, I'll start the background area soon then onto the quilting.

I can't believe I actually signed up for a 30 week cooking class! What was I thinking?! Okay enough whining. I signed up for the 30 week French cooking series offered by The Seasoned Farmhouse in Columbus and our first class was October 3 and should go through mid-May with a couple weeks off for holidays. I've never been the Seasoned Farmhouse but I knew about their cooking classes but believe me when they're announced they fill almost immediately so it's really hard to get in. When I saw this 30 week French cooking series I gave it a brief thought and discarded it. Signing up for a 30 week class isn't something to do on a whim and the cost was considerable for the class so I decided to watch it and if the class looked like it would fill then I'd sign up. One class was offered on Monday nights and one on Tuesday during the day. So I watched and waited. When I saw the Monday night class fill within a few weeks I didn't think the Tuesday class would but it s...