Things I like Thursdays Jan 31

Greetings!

Well, I hope everyone is warm and safe.  We are fine here in Az., but 75% of the country is freezing! Crazy weather. It looks like rain will dampen the Phoenix Open this weekend but it will be nothing compared to the rest of the country and visitors are still in shorts.

However, I will be inside quilting if possible. I need some down time and also want to put some Valentines mug rugs together. In the meantime, here are some "likes" of mine that I want  to share with you:

1. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Do I even need to say more? Smart, likable and strong. Hopefully, she can continue to pull Congress together and get their job done. I try not to post political statements on our "like" days , but this last week was just too much stress on our country to not acknowledge her -many times.

2.  Cream-less Mushroom Soup .  I saw this on "The Kitchen" airing on Food Network and tried it right away. Here's the link:https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/geoffrey-zakarian/cream-less-mushroom-soup-5535311.

It doesn't look pretty but it's really good and I don't even like cooked mushrooms.  I did not use sherry vinegar or toppings as the recipe suggests.  I did use "Bella" mushrooms.  It was pretty quick and easy, too. Who knew you could use bread pieces  instead of dairy products to make soup creamy?

 I needed to try this recipe  because mushrooms are quite the health food which I need right now.


3. The Arizona Science Center.

 I hadn't been there in about 10 years and it's geared to elementary kids, but our family enjoyed the visit. It's in downtown Phoenix which is not far from us. Just a LOT of traffic. Thomas enjoyed the trip. I think he was 3 or 4 when he was last there and he's much more aware now and curious about planets, weather and the world.  There was  an interactive weather exhibit which he loved because he got rained on.  The one thing I noticed on that very crowded (hundreds of kids) day at the center  was the fact that Thomas was the only kid in a wheel chair. The museum is very  ADA adaptable, so I was surprised.

4. My new iron:

It's a "Black and Decker Classic" I got thru Amazon.  It's very heavy so you get a good press. Not sure how my wrists feel about that, but we'll see.  I'm going to try and keep it dry.  We have "hard" water here so the calcium builds up very quickly inside the iron.  My last 2 irons were used with steam and I could never keep them clean.  One time, the steam picked up the calcium inside and dumped it on a finished quilt.  It was gross. Luckily, Woolite removed the stains. Now, I will try to use a spray water  bottle if steam is absolutely necessary.  Of course, I also use diluted  Mary Ellen's Best Press on fancy stuff.

 This iron reminds me of mom's old GE iron that she had all the years I was growing up!  (I've had at least 5 irons over the years).  I was the only girl and the eldest of 4 so I got to iron dad's white work shirts and daily white handkerchiefs which he always carried. I used an old Coke bottle with the holes in the cap to sprinkle water on garments.  We soaked the shirts and hankies  in a starch mixture and left them rolled up in the fridge till it was time to iron-usually on Saturday.  Wow-there's some memories.
 So far, I love how this new iron presses the item flat.

Well peeps, that's all for this week-hopefully I'll have some quilts to show you next time.  Please join us at Lee Anna's site:Not Afraid of Color  for fun "likes" and stories.

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!
mary☺