Salad Days and Murder

Plus - pastel woodland critters, colorful monsters, and an adorable family of quail

Last week I mentioned that I got my sewing room (mostly) unpacked and set up. Yay!

It’s still just mostly unpacked and set up, so no photos to share yet. Basically, I got it set up just enough to make the samples for the May pattern for the Funny Faces Club. (Whew! That was cutting things a lot closer than I like.)

I finished those samples just in time to head back to the east coast for Malice Domestic - a really fun convention for readers (and writers) of traditional mysteries.

The photo above shows Alan and me - but we also brought our daughter and Alan’s mom. It was such a fun weekend! And I discovered so many new authors I’m eager to try!

People have been asking where the book recommendations are in the new newsletter. Well, this is what my library currently looks like. 😂

When I say current, I mean it. I took this photo this morning.

Our last house had built-in bookcases and our new house does not. I love Billy bookcases, so we’re headed to Ikea today after work. Then there will be assembly, and unpacking, and sorting, and alphabetizing. And we still need to figure out our whole lamp situation! (This home only has overhead lights in the kitchen and bathrooms.)

I’m guessing we’re still at least a week away from truly being able to access (and read!) our books.

So I can’t share the sewing I did last week because that pattern is a surprise that won’t release until Wednesday. And I can’t share what I’ve been reading because I haven’t been reading much. That leaves me with. . . recipes!

People have also been asking about recipes, and one person asked if there was a searchable archive on Shiny Happy World of all my previous recipe recommendations. Sadly, all those recommendations were in my newsletters (not on my website) and my previous newsletter service had no archives. 🙁

But the new newsletter service I’m using does! And I created a tag to use for any newsletter that mentions a recipe. Fancy! You can find them here. Right now that’s just last week’s bean recipe - but this week is a bonanza. I don’t have an archive of previous newsletter posts, but I DO know a lot of the recipes I recommended because I make them over and over again! So here are my ten favorite salad recipes in no particular order - mostly (but not all) from Smitten Kitchen because she’s my favorite.

(If you’re not already getting the Smitten Kitchen newsletter, see the archives and sign up here. It’s one I open Every Single Week.)

1. Date, Feta and Red Cabbage Salad - this is the second thing I made after I got my kitchen set up. I just love this salad! It’s crunchy and sour and sweet and salty and delicious. Sometimes I eat it with a link of chicken apple sausage on the side.

2. Cauliflower Salad with Dates and Pistachios - a similar flavor profile, but this is a warm salad. She has great substitution suggestions for this one, with guidelines for creating your own combinations. One of my favorites so far has been to use carrots instead of cauliflower, dried apricots instead of the dates, and almonds instead of the pistachios. Delicious!

3. Hummus Heaped with Tomatoes and Cucumbers - I think I make this once a week in the summer. If I can’t be bothered to toast pitas, I like to scoop it up with these pretzels. The square shape and tight grid make them terrific for eating with dips.

4. Nutty Green Veggie Crunch Salad - it tastes as delicious as it sounds!

5. Roasted Sweet Potato, Wild Rice and Arugula Salad - three of my favorite things, plus cashews!

6. Spring Salad with New Potatoes - I don’t like mayonnaise, so most potato salads are a hard pass for me. But this has a mustard vinaigrette! And pickled onions! And radishes! It’s sooooo good! Sometimes (especially if it’s all I’m eating) I’ll make some extra dressing and pile this on a bed of arugula - about half lettuce and half potato salad.

7. Warm Brussels Sprouts and Pear Salad - this is more of a fall salad, but it’s a favorite and I know some readers are in the southern hemisphere. 🙂 If you can’t get dried cranberries where you live, try another tart dried fruit. I think cherries would be terrific, and they probably won’t need soaking.

8. Warm Spanish-Style Giant-Bean Salad with Smoked Paprika and Celery - the recipe says to serve it with crusty bread, but this is another one that’s delicious on a bed of arugula

9. Summer Pea Salad with Unexpected Dressing - unexpected indeed. I suspect she didn’t say more about the dressing because people will think it’s too weird and skip it, but trust me. It’s delicious! I used a mix of shelled peas, sugar snaps, and snow peas.

10. Tuna and Green Bean Salad - another summer favorite! This is another one I’ll often eat on a bed of arugula or romaine, but it’s also great as-is with a big pile of halved salted grape tomatoes on the side.

Bon appetit!

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I’m not sharing much sewing, but you are!

Look at the gorgeous quilt Amanda made with the Woodland Critters pattern! I love the soft colors she used!

Earlene made this super fun quilt for her grandson, whose favorite movie is Monsters Inc.

She used the Mix & Match Monsters pattern, but designed a couple of additional blocks for the movie characters!

I have to share this work in progress as well. Look at the adorable family that Eileen made with the quail pattern!

There’s a tutorial here showing how to add a baby to any block. Isn’t this a fabulous way to use that idea?

Head over to the Shiny Happy People group on Facebook to see lots more wonderfulness people are making with my patterns—and to ask questions and share photos of your own projects. It’s my favorite place on the internet!

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The archives and sale now have their own newsletter every Friday. Last week I totally expected this to be the link clicked the most, but instead it was this.

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If you know someone who’d like to read this, please share! 🥰

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Happy stitching!

I hope you have a fabulous week!

Best,
Wendi
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PS - Just for fun. . .

Have a fabulous week!