Sleepless in Amherst

What do you do when you can't sleep? Get up and cook! I guess it was weighing on my mind that I had a lot of things that needed cooking.

I have chicken thighs marinating for chicken tandoori. I had bought the garam masala yesterday after I had seen how many spices go into it. It was much easier to buy prepared garam masala!

[By the way, it's just 7:59 a.m. so this may be a little flakier than usual. I know I am going to pay for only 4 hours or so of sleep.]

The crock pot is happily cooking beef and mushrooms; I froze the other half of the roast. The chicken breasts turned out to be huge so I got 3 portions out of each one. Some have creole seasoning, some with marinara sauce, some with my own blend of spices. The cauliflower mushroom risotto has just finished. (I learned my lesson to set the timer for every 7 minutes. I kind of get lost to all other stimuli when I'm writing this blog.)

The new recipe that I have for Swedish Meatballs will have to wait.

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Here are some highlights from the Worcester quilt show that I went to last Friday.

This is my favorite -- the water is all beaded and beads highlight the canyon wall striations.

This cascading water was a type of taffeta or something. It's stunning in person. The camera does not do it justice. 

Gloria Steinem here is part of the Herstory exhibit.

Each of the owl's feathers were hand appliqued.

These yellow flowers were created by tiny (machine) puzzle pattern stitching which must have taken hours.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why this woman made the water look like a brick wall. I love everything about this quilt except for that.

This is another Herstory quilt celebrating one of the first recognized female pilots.

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I went to see "The Goldfinch" at the movies. I really liked the movie (my companion did not) and I don't want to give away the plot. Essentially, the story is about a young boy who is at the Metropolitan Museum when a terrorist bomb explodes. He gets a concussion and his mother is killed. The painting of The Goldfinch goes missing.

There are a lot of plot twists and turns and I enjoyed every one of them. I recommend this film.

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I'm sending you all good wishes. I hope you're enjoying this autumn weather as much as I am! I don't have to wear a coat but it's nice and cool in the morning and evening. It should be a perfect temperature at nap time.  Cheers!