Giveaway!

I am doing a little giveaway to celebrate that I have finished my first set of embroidery patterns (there's a little sneak preview in my previous post.) In addition to one copy of the PDF pattern itself, I'll be giving away a tea towel (my favorite kind, the flour sack ones that are so handy in the kitchen!) and some embroidery floss to make your own "Time for Tea" kitchen towel. Flour sack towels are 100% cotton, and are what I used to embroider the two samples in my previous post. As seen in the photo below, they can be a bit wrinkly, but I think that makes them more homey. The embroidery floss is what I use for embroidery, DMC floss in some of my favorite colors that would go with this particular pattern (and of course, you can continue use the patterns for all sorts of fun embroidery projects after the towel is done!)
To enter, please leave a comment sharing your favorite treat to have along with tea (add a link to a recipe if you want to share it!) before midnight (EDT) on May 31. I'll pick a comment at random on June 1 and announce it on the blog, so check back to see if you are the winner! If I don't hear from the winner by June 2, I'll pick an alternate. Thanks for visiting and good luck!

ETA: Comments are now closed. Thank you for visiting!

Sneak Preview

I've had some sketches for fun little embroideries I've been working on for a few years. One of the earlier sets is this particular one, and I finally made some time to get it started this week. To celebrate their impending arrival, I'll be doing a little giveaway next week. Here's a sneak preview of a couple of them. They are so much fun!

Sour Cream Pound Cake

I baked lemon sour cream pound cake last evening. After looking at five different recipes, I sheepishly realized they are pretty basic and rather similar. I combined a few recipes to make it lemon flavored. They turned out delicious!!! Here's my recipe:

Lemon Sour Cream Pound Cake
3 cups unbleached flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups granulated sugar
2 sticks butter (room temperature)
6 eggs (room temperature)
1 cup sour cream (room temperature)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Grated zest of 2 lemons
Juice of 1/2 lemon (I should have added more, but I wasn't sure how it'd affect consistency)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease (generously to prevent sticking) muffin tins or bundt or 10" tube pan.
Sift flour and baking soda together. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar at medium high speed using mixer.
Beat eggs in one at a time using low speed. Add sour cream, vanilla, and lemon zest.
Incorporate flour and baking soda while mixing at medium low speed until smooth. Try not to overmix.
Pour into pans. Bake about 30 minutes for cupcakes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool for about 5 minutes on rack, then loosen from tins and let cool. If using bundt/tube pan bake for about 1 1/4 hours, let sit on rack for about 10 minutes before turning out to cool.

Makes 12 servings (520 calories ea.), I got about 20 cupcakes (about 310 calories each - approximation in calorie count is because I got 18 plus 12 mini cupcakes).
I might make a glaze with the remaining lemon juice and some sugar to add next time, but I was pleased with the buttery flavor, light crumb, and texture, though the lemon turned out to be more like a hint of lemon... gee, I'll have to try a few more just to make sure ;D My favorite part (and one of the reasons for using muffin tins) are the crispy bits around the edges of the tops. Yummy!!!

Flu

My poor neglected little blog! I caught the flu after my last entry and it really hit me hard. I had a flu shot in the fall but it didn't do anything to prevent this one. I'm slowly getting back to my old self but have a ton of things to catch up on. I hope if you are reading this that you're healthy and well! At least the garden is still blooming. These are Gaillardias I grew from seed. It took them a few years to get going but now they are bursting with blooms!