...And a great time was had by all!

The weather in CNY was absolutely beautiful for our Memorial Day picnic yesterday! Not too hot or humid, but warm and sunny; couldn't ask for a better day.

I have to tell everyone about the recipe I found last week on the King Arthur Flour website. I had no clue that you could actually make the New England style buns at home. There were actually two recipes; one for cornbread hot dog buns and one for buttery hot dog buns. Of course, I as soon as I saw the recipes, I just had to order a New England style hot dog bun pan.

The pan arrived at my door on Saturday and on Sunday evening I was putting the dough together using the recipes I found.

Here is a picture of some the ones I made:

Oh my, they were so good! The best part is that I know exactly what they were made of...no preservatives!

The dough recipe was very easy and required very little kneading unlike some breads I have made in the past. Definitely, they would be easy dough recipes for a beginner to handle. You could even use a bread machine if you have one large enough to handle the dough; I think one that makes a 2 pound loaf would work.

We grilled some of them as we were grilling the hot dogs so they would be warm and slightly crispy. Both buns were delicious, but I particularly liked the cornbread buns. In fact, I am going to work some of the leftover cornbread buns into my diet this week.

As a side dish, I made a Mr. Food recipe for Hillbilly Beans. I have made this recipe many times and I thought it would be a good addition to the hot dogs and cheeseburgers. If you love using a slow cooker, you might want to try this recipe; it's so easy to do. After you put everything together, you set the slow cooker for either 4 hours (high) or 6 hours (low).

When I make the beans, I always cook on low for 6 hours. I also add those little cocktail hotdogs during the last hour of cooking even though the recipe doesn't call for adding them.

In addition, I made Hawaiian Macaroni Salad; my youngest son made tomato pie, pizza muffins and carrot cake; and my oldest son brought shrimp.

You can find the recipes for the hot dog buns and Hillbilly beans on my Pinterest board...Recipes that I have to try.

Come to think about it...I guess I should make a new Pinterest board for recipes that I tried and loved. All three (3) of these recipes would definitely be included on that board!

A little self-promotion...

I'm finally finished hand-sewing the prototype for the pattern I have been working on. Just have to do a little re-reading and clean-up of the written instructions. Before I make my designs available in my Etsy store, I like to make sure that anyone who sews one of my patterns can easily know what I am saying when they read the instructions .

It has taken me almost a year to get to this point with this particular design. Sometimes my patterns just seem to take shape on the first try and sometimes, it takes many tries before I get what I want. In that case, I put it aside for a while and focus on other projects.

That is exactly what I did with this one. The idea was in my head, but the design just didn't come together to suit me until just recently.

Normally, my passion is to create doll patterns, but for variety's sake (variety is the spice of life, right?) I also like to create other sewing patterns as new ideas pop into my head.

This particular design, depicting one of my favorite quotes, uses wool felt and is typically called a candle mat or penny rug which was popular in the 18th century. It can be used as either a table decoration or wall hanging.

That's it for now...I hope everyone will remember to always...

Throwback Thursday...

Thought I would have a little fun since it is Throwback Thursday. I think I was in 4th or 5th grade in this picture.

Wow...how time flies! It doesn't seem like this picture was taken just 20 years ago (probably because it wasn't).

At any rate, I am just happy to be no matter what my age. Age is only a number!