Marking Occasions

This week, our youngest child will graduate from high school, bringing a chapter of our lives to a close. 2018 also marks 10 years since our oldest graduated from high school. For this post, I thought I would share a little about the quilt that marked this first of three high school graduations for our family.
To be perfectly honest, I don't think that this quilt was initially intended to be a graduation quilt. I had intended to make this quilt earlier in his high school career. At that time in my life, I was also pursuing my third degree while working full time. Spare time for sewing wasn't exactly in abundance. I also made this quilt while we were still living at our previous home. I didn't have dedicated sewing space so I needed to limit my endeavors to a table in a corner of the family room or even a small table in a back bedroom that more or less served as a storage room and study space for me.
In some ways, this quilt marks the occasion of my efforts in creating full size quilts. In previous years, I had tied a few quilts and sewn binding around quilted panels for baby quilts. This one gave me my first opportunity of piecing multiple blocks and then arranging them into a quilt. This quilt features a couple of classic quilt blocks - the 9-patch and the sawtooth star. As you can see from these pictures, in creating these blocks, I took a little liberty in combining different colors to create the blocks - particularly with the star blocks. 

This first quilt was also an occasion to develop my piecing skills, including making flying geese blocks. Unfortunately, I ended up with more chopped triangle points than I would have preferred - all part of this occasion of learning new piecing techniques.

Another occasion that I marked in creating this quilt was working with a professional quilter to determine the machine quilting design. When she asked me how I wanted it quilted, I think I just stood there a bit slack-jawed and said, "I don't know." The notion that I would have to decide on a design as well as the density of the quilting pattern had not occurred to me in the slightest. Fortunately, the quilter was understanding and helped me select a stippled pattern for the main portion of the quilt and then a looped pattern for the border. I was quite pleased with the outcome.

During the past 10 years, our family has marked many other occasions. These include three, soon to be four, additional graduations; a wedding; the birth of a grandchild; and the forthcoming arrival of a second. Before this year comes to a close we will be marking the occasions of sending one of our children to a new job in the Pacific Northwest, and moving our third to a college dorm. 

Through all of these occasions, God has been truly faithful. We have experienced His sovereign grace and sufficiency over and over. I will close this post with a reflection from the psalmist regarding the reason for marking occasions and numbering our days.

So teach us to number our days,

That we may present to You a heart of wisdom. 

Psalm 90:12

Nugget Noodles

The topic of this post actually dates back to the days when my boys were in their early elementary school years. As a young family, we didn't often have the time and energy for more elaborate cooking. There were certainly days when we were even known to rely on Hamburger Helper or LaChoy bi-packs for a quick dinner. It was during this time of our family's life, that this dish came into existence. If I remember right, I originally used fettuccini or linguini. Over time, we switched to radiatore, and it took on the name of "Nugget Noodles." To this day, my now young adult children will, on occasion, ask to have nugget noodles with kielbasa for dinner. Given that our youngest child is now on the brink of graduating from high school, I thought I might as well share this recipe from our family's earlier years with you.
As I mentioned above, we now most commonly use radiatore pasta. The most recent time we prepared this dinner, however, we also had some rotini on hand so we used a combination.
Rotini are a type of corkscrew pasta. I haven't been able to identify when this pasta type was invented, however, the name originates from a 17th century Italian word for "small wheels." Rotini supposedly originated in southern Italy with the goal of developing a pasta that would retain sauce better. 

Radiatore are said to resemble radiators and were allegedly developed between the First and Second World Wars. As with rotini, they were developed to better hold sauces. Finding radiatore can sometimes be hit or miss in our local grocery stores. If we do see some, we tend to buy a box or two to keep the pantry stocked.

So now, let's put this dinner together, here is a quick picture of what you will need:

Ingredients:
16 ounce box of pasta - preferably a type like radiatore or rotini that will hold sauce well.
16 ounce bag of frozen California style vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots). Feel free to substitute another preferred vegetable type.
16 ounce jar of prepared Alfredo sauce. Pick whatever style you like. We've used a traditional Alfredo, roasted garlic, mushroom, … you get the idea.

Directions:

• Prepare the pasta according to directions and drain
• Prepare the frozen vegetables so that they are warmed through and drain.
• Toss the pasta and vegetables together and stir in the sauce.
• Cook over low heat until warmed throughout.
• Grill a Kielbasa sausage and serve it with the pasta/vegetable mixture.
• Enjoy a dinner of nugget noodles