Sally Inspires Me!

I first wrote about Sally V. George last March for National Crochet Month. Here's an excerpt...

"I've had a link on the side of my blog for a long time now of The Crochet Works of Sally V. George. Her remarkable talent is painstakingly-detailed in the patterns she created. The website continues now, thanks to her family. I encourage anyone to make a donation through Paypal in order to keep the site going and continue to make Sally's works available to us all. While the patterns may look "old" to some, to me they are quite inspiring."
I'm so happy that her family has continued to make the patterns available on a new, updated website at The Hook & Yarn Shop. You can read about Sally's work and download patterns to learn from her wisdom.

My favorite from the collection, is the Easter Basket. The handle uses a piece of cotton clothesline and the crossed-chain trim on this design is beautiful. I've learned so many techniques from Sally's patterns, but this trim is my favorite. You can see how I added this style to the sleeve edging on this Pink Shrug design from a few years ago.
Although some of the designs may seem old-fashioned, and you may not ordinarily make things like that, I encourage you to take a closer look....it may inspire you!

MMM Cheesecake!

Yes, Martha, it cracked. It almost always does, but it was delicious!
Our yearly extravagance for Easter dinner - an Italian-style cheesecake with the crust baked-in.

Mom's Easter Bread

The Irish Soda Bread was the best-ever! (Well, I admit that I messed up the first batch and it ended up all over the oven and the floor as I was cleaning it up.) The second batch was perfect! LOL

As promised, here's my Mom's Easter Bread recipe. This old recipe card was written by me when I was in 7th grade.... or so. It's somewhat time-consuming, but you gotta love it! I'm dieting (and ate too much Soda Bread) so I'm not making this recipe this year. I'm sure my sister and Mom will be though!

EASTER BREAD

Ingredients:
12 cups flour, 9 eggs; 1 1/4 cups water, 1 1/4 cups shortening, 2 cups raisins, 1 1/4 cups sugar, 2 tablespoons anise seed, 1 package dry yeast, 1/2 teaspoon anise flavoring

Soak yeast in 1/4 warm water. Beat 1 egg and add 1/4 cup water. Mix yeast water, egg/water mixture, and another 1/4 cup water. Add 1 cup of the flour to make a spongy batter. Mix until smooth. Let rise 2 hours or until triple in size.
Beat the remaining 8 eggs together, add the sugar, raisins, the anise seed, and the flavoring and set aside.
Put the remaining flour in a LARGE bowl. Make a well in the center. Add the shortening, the egg mixture, the yeast/sponge mixture and 1/2 cup water. Mix and work dough. Knead well. Place in a large, greased bowl and let rise until double. Punch down dough and let rise again. (This rising process may take awhile. Keep in a warm place, but not too hot, and be patient.) Form loaves. I don't remember how many loaves I get out of this size batch. Usually 4 - 6 medium-size loaves - depending on the size. Let rise, covered. Bake when ready at 350 degrees F - until done. Some people test by a thumping sound. I can just tell when they're done. They're dark/golden brown. Brush hot loaves with butter if desired.

Sweets for Easter

Here are some sweet Easter finds from my good friends at Etsy and ClevelandHandmade....

Faux chocolate? Absolutely!
These bunnies would make a perfect basket treat.
Visit LazyMamaDesigns at Etsy.com.


Here's an egg pillow, with a bunny friend too. So pretty!
Visit FloradoraInc at Etsy.com.


These peep cards are so perfectly cheery. Many colors and styles to choose from
Visit Handmade at Etsy.com.