Someone, who was very kindly vacuuming, put my spinning wheel up on the couch. Of course Riley could not resist investigating and knocked it down onto the floor breaking the spinning head. It’s been given a wood glue bandaid while I wait for a replacement to arrive. I sure hope it gets here in time for SPA!

Last night after a delicious paella we had some Christmas carols by the fire. The weather is gorgeous and we couldn’t ask for a more delightful holiday.

We are having a lovely visit with family here in Florida with even some time to relax at the beach.

I tried to make brioche dough in the old mixer several years ago and it did not go well. There was more dough than could comfortably fit in the bowl and the motor was most unhappy with the very long mixing time required. Waiting for a Kitchen Aid mixer to die can be an exercise in futility. I’ll be passing the old one on to a friend. Enter new guy with a bigger bowl and a very hefty motor. I’m not ready to make brioche dough just yet but he’ll get pressed into service right away with a batch of divinity candy later today.

With all the holiday rush, sometimes just a simple supper is in order.

Creamed mushrooms on toast.

Saute mushrooms until they exude their water and it evaporates. Stir in chopped parsley, lemon zest, the juice of a lemon, minced garlic and salt and cook for about 60 seconds, stirring. Add 1/2 cup heavy cream and cook until thickened. Serve over slices of sourdough toast.

It’s not ALL holiday gift sewing around here. On Sunday afternoon, I took a break in order to attend a class at the Quilted Crow on invisible machine applique. It was an excellent class with very clear instructions and quite organized. There was quite a bit of homework beforehand and this is not a fast technique though it’s certainly faster than hand applique. I would absolutely do this again for a small special project. We finished 1/4 of the design during class and I was very glad I took the time to clean and oil my machine before I went because it was the most well-behaved machine of the bunch.

I found some fun stripey sheets for my stripey guest room!

We harvested most of our potato bags this morning and though we didn’t have any rotted ones like last year, we still didn’t have a very impressive crop. We’re planning to toss the plastic bags we’re using now and switch to these more breathable ones next year.