Cajun Corner – Vol. 7,
No. 4 – March 21, 2015
Bon Jour! Welcome to Cajun Stitchery’s weekly email
and welcome to our family.
ΘΘΘΘΘ
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Wow! This year has been crazy so far. I've been working on a project that actually began in mid-December. It was a beautiful bed cover. We took photographs of a gorgeous 17th or 18th century bed cover. Then I digitized some of the embroidery from the bed cover. We finished the new and improved bed cover last week. This week we are working on matching shams for this beautiful bed. I don't usually mention the projects that I create for this customer because she prefers that I not show our creations. That means I cannot post photographs. So, you don't get to see. No fun in that. So, I usually don't mention it. But I have been busy.
We have the studio that George remodeled and I decorated. It is so adorable and I love working on my embroidery projects over there. It came to my attention a few years ago that I really need to start entertaining in the studio. I don't really have a store front. I take orders mostly over the internet. But I love using our projects to decorate the studio. Insofar as a store front, Cajun Stitchery is more, shall we say, exclusive, by invitation only. These projects need to be seen for sales purposes, of course, but for art purposes as well. My girlfriends have been giving me platters and all sorts of fancy dishes and stuff to assist me in entertaining. This year the entertainment began in earnest.
To say that I'm not a great cook is an understatement. I'm not really interested in cooking and therefore, I don't cook well. I tend to agree with something my mother told me years ago. We can sew and wear or use the item for years and have that good feeling of accomplishing something beautiful for a very long time. When you cook, the dish may indeed be a work of art, but then, people come along and eat it and it is gone. Or, if no one eats it, it rots and it is gone. Nope. I prefer a longer lasting good feeling.
Anyway, I decided to cook chili one night this past winter and told George to come over for dinner at the studio. Well, I had the ground beef in the skillet and the beans in a pot and everything was cooking pretty much all day. That's when I noticed it. I looked at my hands and realized I had broken a nail and couldn't find it. Visions of the nail in the ground beef or beans was tormenting me. I searched through those 2 pots for hours thinking whether or not I should tell George. Maybe the nail wouldn't end up in his plate. If it did...that was just too disgusting to think. I searched and searched totally mortified. Distraught, I hung my head and walked to my embroidery machine. There on the floor was my nail. Whew! So, my entertaining attempt had some stress involved.
Later, I decided to invite my CPA and dear friend over for dinner, wine and taxes. It was a riveting evening. Absolutely nothing like wine while doing your taxes. LOL That evening we had boiled shrimp, potatoes and corn. Success! Both dinner and taxes went just fine.
Last November I invited several of our friends to the studio for shrimp gumbo. The gumbo was delicious but I noticed one of my friends did not eat it. I asked why and was informed that even though he lives on the waterfront, and has a big, beautiful fishing boat, he doesn't like seafood. I had no idea and was, of course, disturbed that a guest would go hungry at my party.
After Mardi Gras this year, I invited my friend, as well as others, to a Meat-Fest dinner. Everything was meat and no seafood was allowed. It was very interesting. I will tell you that chocolate covered bacon is fabulous and you simply cannot eat just one. The appetizer was a meat tray of luncheon meat that I rolled into little tubes with little pots of mustard and mayonnaise for dipping. The main course was pulled pork with barbeque sauce. Dessert was the chocolate covered bacon and ground beef brownies. The ground beef brownies were interesting because the recipe said that many people are allergic to nuts and the brownie recipe merely substituted two tablespoons of fried ground beef for the nuts. Otherwise, it was a normal brownie recipe. One guest brought hot wings and another brought bacon cupcakes. The bacon cupcakes were maple flavored cupcakes with bacon on top. Delicious. We had so much fun at the Meat-Fest party that some of the guests are planning Meat-Fest 2016.
A week later I had my Mardi Gras krewe over for our monthly meeting and dinner. Our krewe is an all female krewe. The girls always bring various dishes. This dinner theme was Mexican. I made tacos. We had a margarita station. I cannot really tell you what all was served because I spent most of the evening at the margarita station. We all agreed that we definitely need a repeat of this gathering.
After all of that entertaining, I was tired of cooking. Guess we'll give the entertaining a rest for now but I definitely am planning a 4th of July shindig.
Peggy Henshall,
Owner
Cajun Stitchery
www.cajunstitchery.com
www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com
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