Sophia's visit - bits & pieces

Not much to add here.  I'm at Heather's now, having safely delivered Sophia home.  I'll go down to Chris's this afternoon and thought I'd post a few photos of things I didn't post about before.

No visit would be complete without a visit to The Pottery Place.  This time Sophia chose this happy dragon bank and got him all fixed up.  She didn't get quite as elaborate on this one as she has on some of the past ones but I think the orange dots are a nice addition. :)

She also wanted to try cross stitching and, unlike our sewing attempts, I was able to help her get a good start with this.   I have lots of small patterns because of my miniature needlework so the first one she decided on was a cute lady rabbit with a pretty bonnet and bow.

First stage on the left and I should have had the wit to choose something besides white for the flower because I tried outlining it with a couple of different colors and decided they didn't help so it's a little invisible.

And here she is as done as she's going to be.

We also finally got around to making some pasta - ravioli this time and the reason it took so long to do it was because I really had to work up my nerve to try it again.  I had some leftover cooked chicken and made what I thought might be a decent enough filling and then we proceeded to make the dough.

 It went pretty well actually.  We didn't have any tearing putting it through the rollers.  But after eating it, we realized we should have put it through the very thinnest section.  It was a little thick.  And my filling really wasn't very good but once I find a decent sounding filling that isn't all cheese, I'll try again because overall it was a pretty good attempt.  And I may try to make myself start making fresh noodles periodically instead of always buying them.  I enjoy the process once I get started.

And, finally, I decided to make some potato bread.
Way back years ago I came across the recipe in a Pennsylvania Dutch cookbook and tried it and we all really liked it so for a while I was making it every week or so (used to make French bread too before I discovered the potato bread).

I guess I took a picture with my camera which I don't have with me but here's a picture of what half of the second loaf looks like. :)  We pretty much finished off the first loaf and I froze the other to bring with me and share with Chris and Heather.

Sophia was busy with her cross stitch so wasn't interested in helping but that was fine - I enjoyed the process.  I didn't use loaf pans like I used to because I didn't have two the same size.  I just shaped them into long cylinders and baked them that way so they came out sort of like an Italian loaf.  And they're quite tasty I think.  I noticed when I toasted a slice that it tasted slightly sweet so I might cut back on the sugar just a bit next time.

I love the bread from our River and Rail Bakery but it would be nice to make bread myself sometimes.  Smells so good and give me a nice feeling of accomplishment.

So I guess that's the highlights.  I really enjoyed her visit - she has a wonderful sense of humor and we laughed a lot.  It must be a very strange experience visiting your 73-year old grammy (who is used to a quiet life) when you're 10 and it's just the two of you but she seems to like it and I do too.