Ready for Fall

 I finished my Quilty Stitches cross stitch sampler. Thank you to Little Miss Shabby for the free pattern. Here is the link http://www.littlemissshabby.com/quilty-stitches/ I am so pleased with how this came out! I am going to frame it and put it in my sewing room. I am going to get some framing advice from one of my coworkers. Now I can move on to some other hand work projects like wool felt appliqué and quilting with perle cotton.

I know it is nearly fall because look what I found at the grocery store last night! I buy both issues every year and savor reading them.

Since our weather has been very mild here at the end of summer it is making me want to transition into fall now. Quilting, cooking, and working also help me get into the fall mode. This is one of my favorite fall/winter recipes and I always have everything on hand for it. This was a Pampered Chef recipe from years ago that I altered and made it my own. I made it this weekend and my whole family enjoyed it!

Baked Potato Chowder

Ingredients:

• 6-8 baking potatoes
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 2 cups of milk
• 4 ounces cream cheese chunked
• salt
• pepper
• grated cheese of your choice for topping
• cooked bacon bits or diced sausage for topping
• chopped green onion for topping

Wash and bake your potatoes as you usually would. I usually do 1 hour in a 400 degree oven. Remove and allow to cool enough to handle. Scrape the potatoes out of their skin (it is ok to leave a little skin on and sometimes I save the skins for later in the week and make baked potato skins) and into a soup pot on low heat. Add butter and mash slightly. Stir in milk, cream cheese, salt, and pepper. Heat for about 10 minutes on low heat until warmed through and cream cheese has melted. Serve with desired toppings--bacon bits, cooked & diced sausage, and chopped green onion. It is also great left over!

Have a great week!