Seeing Red

About ten months ago, I joined a "block of the month" project. As you will see from the pictures, this project has kept me "seeing red" in the literal sense.

Although I've been intrigued by different block of the month projects in the past, this was the first time that I have actually joined one. This particular project is titled, "Saturday Soiree," and features reproduction fabrics from Marcus Brothers from their Gallery and Red and Blue collection. As you may have just surmised, this project can be completed using either red or blue fabrics. Given that I am a 3-time graduate of the University of Utah, I didn't have to think twice about selecting the red option.

For those of you who may not be familiar with block of the month projects, most support the quilter in completing one quilt block each month with the goal of having a set of completed quilt blocks that can be assembled into a completed quilt at the close of the year. Since I began this project last June, I have enjoyed receiving each month's block kit and instructions. The red colors are really quite stunning and feature high contrast between the red and the white. Here are a few examples of the blocks that I have completed.

Now comes the tricky part with block of the month projects. Remember the part about having a set of completed quilt blocks? Just because you finish the year with 12 completed quilt blocks, that doesn't mean that your quilt is ready to be sewn together. This is where the "finishing kit" comes in. 

Depending on the nature of the project, the finishing kit could include components that are more complex than the 12 feature blocks themselves. In the case of the Saturday Soiree quilt, this is sort of the case. In addition to the feature blocks, the quilt also includes six 12-inch chain blocks, four corner capstone blocks, and ten side triangle blocks for a total of 20 additional blocks to put together. 

Just to keep things interesting, this quilt also features 48 pieced sashing strips featuring red and white squares and triangles. Each sashing strip contains 13 individual pieces. If you do the math correctly, that amounts to a total of 624 individual pieces within these 48 strips. Here is an example of what several hundred patchwork pieces look like along with the layout for an individual sashing strip.

Please don't misunderstand this posting as an expression of frustration at this particular project. Even with all of the hundreds of small pieces, it has been a fun project, and I am looking forward to the finished product. 

In many ways, this particular project is analogous to our life's journey. Although our lives include a number of amazingly stunning "feature blocks," much of life is lived in the day-to-day experience of what can be regarded as "the small stuff." Although the work of assembling the small pieces can feel like drudgery and have us "seeing red" in the figurative sense, these are the components that frame and accentuate the "feature blocks." Often it is easy for us to become so focused on these smaller details that we can miss the larger vision of the end goal. Sometimes, we do well to pause, step back, and get a glimpse of the larger goal to which we are striving.

Over the past few weeks, I have found myself "seeing red" and getting caught up in the frustration of some day-to-day processes that have caused me to feel rather defeated. In the midst of it all, I have been reminded, through God's Word, to remain faithful in those aspects for which I have responsibility. My role is not to encroach outside of my assigned scope but rather to remain faithful and persist in what has been entrusted to me. The following verses from Psalms serve as a reminder:

Love the LORD, all His faithful ones. The LORD protects the loyal, but fully repays the arrogant. Be strong and courageous, all you who hope in the LORD. Psalm 31:23-24

Happy Pi(e) Day!

If you have followed any of my cooking-related posts to date, you probably have garnered that we are a family who likes to eat. You probably also have sensed that we enjoy finding somewhat "quirky" opportunities for preparing different food items. Today, March 14, is one of those days. 

For those of you who are mathematically inclined, you will recognize, March 14, or 3/14, or 3.14 as bearing a resemblance to the numeric expression for pi, which is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. For those of you who are less mathematically inclined, or just like an excuse to eat, simply add the letter "e" to the end of "pi," and you get Pie Day.

Two years ago, I spent a few days in Columbus, Georgia, in late February. Because we love good down home Southern cooking, we took the advice of friends and had lunch at a place called  Country's Barbecue. While we were there, I was intrigued by an item on the dessert menu called "chocolate chess pie." I had never heard of it before, and we were quite stuffed from the fabulous Southern style barbecue, so we didn't order it. I did, however, resolve to look it up later. I followed through and made my first chocolate chess pie on March 14, 2012. The results were very good so I thought I would share the recipe for this post as well as a few photos from this year's baking efforts.

antique pie chest

The exact history of chess pie is a bit obscure. What is consistent among reports about its origins is that it is a Southern dessert. One report suggests that chess pie may have come from England, and that it may have been served in New England as well as the southern colonies. The origin of the name, "chess pie," is a bit obscure as well. One report suggests that it could have come from the term "pie chest," meaning a cabinet for storing pies. Other reports suggest that the name came about through the slurring of the words, "it's jess pie," when the baker was asked what type of pie it was.

Although I am sharing a recipe for a chocolate chess pie, other chess pies are made without chocolate and actually contain a tablespoon or two of cornmeal. There are actually other variations of chess pies, including lemon, orange, peppermint.

Here is the recipe I used. I hope that you like it.

Chocolate Chess Pie

1 1/2 cups white sugar
3 tablespoons baking cocoa (I use heaping tablespoons and prefer Hershey's Special Dark baking cocoa) - dark chocolate has healthy anti-oxidants, right?
2 eggs
5 ounces (1 small can) evaporated milk
1/4 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

• Stir the sugar and cocoa together in a medium-sized mixing bowl and set them aside.
• Beat the eggs together and pour them into the sugar/cocoa mixture
• Pour in the evaporated milk, melted butter, and vanilla and mix together using a hand mixer
• Pour into an unbaked 9-inch pie shell and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until set. 

Pie Crust

I prefer making my own pie crust simply because it tastes better. I've been using the recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook for as many years as I can remember. Some secrets I've learned through the years are that chilling your pie crust ingredients makes for a flakier crust. On days when I will be making pies, I typically put a stick of Crisco in the freezer in the morning so that it is thoroughly chilled when it is time to make pie. Here is the recipe for a single 10-inch pie crust.

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/3 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

3 to 4 tablespoons cold water

Directions:

• Stir the flour and salt together
• Cut the shortening into the flour and salt using a pastry blender until the particles are about the size of small peas. I will usually cut up the chilled shortening into chunks to make this process easier. 
• Sprinkle in the water about a tablespoon at a time, stirring the mixture with a fork until all ingredients are blended and stick together. Be careful not to over handle, or the pie crust will be tough.
• Roll the pastry out on a floured surface until it meets the dimensions of the pie pan. Fold into fourths and transfer to the pie pan. Unfold and ease it into the pan. (Note: this much easier said than done. I frequently need to repair my pie crusts before pouring in the filling.)

You can serve your chess pie with either ice cream or whipped cream. I prefer to use a dollop of whipping cream (the real stuff, of course) rather than ice cream because the pie is rather sweet and rich all by itself. 

By the way, in case you were wondering,  pie are not square. Pie are round; cake are square. (Sorry, bad, cheesy math joke.)

How to Make a Baby Quilt

Since I have been writing about different quilting and sewing projects, I thought it might be fun to undertake a blog post that provides instructions on how to make a quilt. Over the past few years, I have been keeping rather busy making baby quilts. At this point, I think I have lost count. I do enjoy baby quilts for several reasons - most of all because I love celebrating the arrival of new babies. Baby quilts also go together much more quickly than larger quilts and help provide a sense of accomplishment.

The baby quilt pattern that I am about to share is a favorite standby. In part, because it does go together quite quickly. Another reason is that it offers a chance for some fun and creativity with fabric choices. This quilt is commonly referred to as a "Split Nine Patch" or a "Disappearing Nine Patch." Because the dimensions that I will share are for a baby quilt, I call this one a "Baby Split Nine."

The "Baby Split Nine" is a charm pack-friendly quilt. For those of you who may not be as familiar with quilting terms, a charm square is a 5 x 5 inch square of fabric. Many fabric designers put together "charm packs" of about 42 charm squares featuring the different fabrics in a given fabric line. If you find a fabric line that you like, but a charm pack isn't available, you can easily create your own charm pack by purchasing 1/6 of a yard of 7 to 10 different complementary fabrics from a given fabric line and then cutting them down into 5 x 5 inch squares. In the example below, I selected seven different complementary fabrics from the Camp-A-Lot fabric line from Riley Blake. I don't recommend using fewer than 7 different fabrics, because this is a quilt that really does benefit from variety.

Here they are cut into 5x5 inch squares ready to be combined to create the quilt:

Before I go any further, a fabric supply list might be helpful. Here is what you will need:

• 45 5 x 5 inch squares of fabric. Note that I mentioned above that a typical charm pack only has 42 squares. Not to worry - you can cut 3 additional squares from the fabric that you will use for the inner and outer borders.
• 1/4 yards of fabric for the inner border
• 5/8 yards of fabric for the outer border
• 1/3 yards of fabric for the binding. Hint: you may want to consider selecting a fabric for the back that also would also work as a color/pattern for the binding. If so, you won't need to buy extra fabric for the binding. You can just trim off the extra backing fabric once the quilt has been machine quilted. The choice is yours and really depends on your overall fabric choices. On some occasions, I've used the same color for both the back and the binding. On other occasions, I have used different fabrics for the back and the binding.
• 1 1/3 yards for the back - the nice thing about this quilt is that its dimensions do not require you to piece the fabric for the back together. 1 1/3 yards allow for adequate overhang on all dimensions.

Now, here are the steps to assemble the quilt top:

• For all sewing, use a 1/4 inch seam.
• Sew the 45 squares into five nine patch blocks. This is where you want to have fun and just be random in how you arrange the blocks. That being said, if I have a "bigger" print or pattern, I try to place it in one of the four outer corners so that it will stay intact in the next step. With smaller prints, I try to make sure that they aren't always in the same position. Before I start sewing the blocks together, I often set them out on a floor or table for a quick review. Here is how I arranged the blocks for this quilt. You can see how I have moved the patterns around in each block and that some blocks feature more than one square of the same print. 
• The next step is to cut the blocks into fourths. This is what adds even more variety to this quilt and gives it its distinctive appearance. Here is an example of one block that has been cut into its four equal pieces. After you have cut all five blocks into fourths, you will have 20 small blocks.

• The next step is to arrange the 20 blocks into four rows of five blocks each. From the pictures below, you can see how the position of the "small" square is rotated as the blocks are sewn together. The second picture illustrates two rows sewn together. Note the ongoing pattern of rotating the individual blocks.
• Once the blocks have been sewn together, it is time to sew the inner and outer borders to the quilt. 
• The inner border strips are cut 1 1/2 inches wide. 
• The outer border strips are cut 5 inches wide.

The following picture illustrates inner border strips that have been cut to 1 1/2 inches x the width of the fabric (WOF) which is about 44 inches.

Here are a few hints for cutting borders. Although they seem fairly benign, they can be a bit tricky and make the sides of the quilt "bow out" if you are not careful. Even though the cut strips will be longer than the sides of your rows of blocks for this quilt, I recommend cutting them to the exact length plus about 1/2 inch. This "extra" can then be trimmed off. For rectangular-shaped quilts, you will obviously have "long" and "short" sides of the quilt. I prefer the look of sewing the borders first to the "long" sides and then to the "short" sides.

• Measure the length of your quilt at its middle to determine the appropriate length for the "long" sides of the quilt. 
• Cut the border strips for the "long" sides of the quilt and sew them on (still using a 1/4 inch seam). 
• Now, measure the width of the quilt at the middle to determine the appropriate length for the "short" sides of the quilt.
• Cut those strips and sew them to the quilt.
• Repeat the above steps for the outer border.

Just to make things tricky, here are some things to consider if you are working with fabric an outer border (or any wide border) that has a "direction" to it. The main thing is that you think about which way you want the direction to go. In the case of the quilt I am illustrating here, I chose to have the pattern go across the long sides of the quilt. As such, I cut two 5 inch strips  x the width of the fabric for the "long" sides of the quilt. So that the direction of the fabric would be the same on the short sides of the quilt, I cut the "short" sides along the length of the fabric. To accommodate the dimensions of the quilt, I had to piece them together, but you can get the idea from the pictures here.

Once the borders have been attached, the next step is to take the quilt top and back to be machine quilted. Many local quilt shops have individuals who provide machine quilting services or can refer you to a local machine quilter. You also will consider what type of batting you would like to use. I have had baby quilts finished with either a poly-down batting and a lightweight 80/20 batting. I don't know that I have a strong preference for one or the other. Both result in a nice quilt.

The next step is to attach the binding. You can create either a single-fold or double-fold binding. I prefer a double-fold binding because it is more durable for a quilt that is intended to be well-used.

• Cut strips 2 1/4 inches wide and cut the ends at a 45 degree angle. As shown in the picture below, be sure that the angles on the two ends are parallel to one another. For this quilt, you will need to cut 5 strips. Sew the strips together.

• Once you have sewn the strips together, fold them in half, wrong sides together.
• Sew the folded binding to the top side of the quilt, using a 1/4 inch seam.

• Fold the binding over to the back of the quilt, pin it down, and attach it using a blind stitch. I prefer hand stitching mine down. It takes time, but I think it provides a neater finish.

 Here are some up close pictures of the blocks and machine quilting for this baby quilt. My machine quilter never ceases to amaze me with her work. I love the edge-to-edge camping design that she chose for this quilt.

A closing thought on babies and the source of my motivation for sharing these gifts with them before I close out this post …

Behold, children are a gift from the LORD… Psalm 127:3

Celebrating the Olympics with Borscht

I absolutely love the Olympics! I'm not certain whether I enjoy the Summer or Winter games more. I'm always happy to have the television on whenever the games are being broadcast. I first became enamored with the Olympics in 1980 when I was in the 7th grade. I was especially enthralled with figure skating and had my own dreams of becoming an Olympic champion. For good or for bad, that dream was not to be realized. I did experience an Olympic dream in 2002, when I was able to attend the ladies' figure skating free skate event when Sarah Hughes won her gold medal. I was sitting in the less expensive seats in upper bowl of the arena, but I was still thrilled to be there. What saddened me was that the much higher priced lower bowl seats were essentially empty until about halfway through the event when the more highly ranked girls were ready to take to the ice.

I still continue to watch every moment of figure skating that I can. Already during this Olympics, I have been amazed by exquisite performance of the Russian pairs champions which was so reminiscent of the past champions from the Soviet Union. Watching Evgeny Pleshenko's expression as he came to the realization that he would need to withdraw from the men's singles competition because of injury was heartbreaking. I was also amazed at Jeremy Abbot's courage to get up after a dramatic, clearly painful fall and complete his short program flawlessly.

As an "event," the Olympics also provide an opportunity to try new recipes with an international flair. Fortunately for me, my family is willing to humor me in this endeavor. During the Torino games, I came upon a wonderful recipe for baked ziti. During the London games, we enjoyed a dinner of bangers and mash as well as a tea party or two. 

Growing up during the Cold War era, I have always been somewhat intrigued by the Russian-speaking countries and their culture. Over the past several years, I have spent time in Russian-speaking countries. I've worked to learn the Cyrillic alphabet to be able to read in Russian. I've also found myself applying some of my German language skills in my endeavors to learn Russian. Although most people don't think of Russian cuisine as something they are eager to try, I have enjoyed most of the foods that I have served. I have enjoyed borscht (beet soup) during my travels, but I have never prepared it myself until now. The verdict from last night was that it was a success.

Before I proceed to the recipe, I will humor you with a few pictures of Olympic memorabilia just to illustrate what an Olympic "junkie" I truly am. This picture highlights some of my items from the Salt Lake games, including my pin collection and cowbell. Yes, my boys and I were avid pin traders, and we rang our cowbells and cheered when we attended the 4-man bobsled event. The orange zipper bag is from the closing ceremonies.

I'm not sure how many of you will recognize this second picture. These are stickers from Chiquita bananas (yes, really) that I collected during the 1980 Lake Placid games. At the time, I didn't know what to do with them, so they ended up being stuck to a plastic sandwich bag. Most of the time, I keep them in my Olympic memorabilia box. Yes, I really am that pathetic. 

Now on to my newly-found recipe for borscht:

Ingredients:

8 cups of beef broth

1 pound of bone-in beef shank

1 large onion

4 large beets

4 carrots

1 large baking size russet potato

2 cups sliced cabbage

3/4 cup chopped fresh dill

3 tbsp red wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

sour cream for garnish

Instructions

• Bring 4 cups of the beef broth, the beef shank, and the onion (peeled and quartered) to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours or until the meat is tender.
• Remove the meat and trim to remove the bone, fat, and sinew. Chop the meat into small pieces, cover, and refrigerate.
• Allow the broth to chill for several hours and skim off the fat.
• Peel and chop the beets, carrots, and potato. Add to the chilled broth along with the additional 4 cups of broth and bring to a boil. Simmer until the vegetables are tender, approximately 30 minutes. 
• Note: I have typically cooked beets by trimming the tops, boiling them, and then peeling them. For this recipe, I followed the instructions and went ahead and peeled them using a potato peeler. I then cut them up into fairly small pieces as shown in the picture below:

• Stir in the meat, cabbage, and 1/2 cup of the dill. Simmer until the cabbage is tender, approximately 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and add the vinegar. 
• Note: at this point, we also found that we needed to add another cup of beef broth.
• Ladle the borscht into bowls and garnish with a dollop of sour cream and the remaining dill.
• Serve with warm bread and enjoy

If you will excuse me now, it's about time to turn on the Olympics!

Putting Pieces Together

The start of a new year makes for a good opportunity to develop some new skills. For me, it's probably no surprise to anyone that a number of the new skills that I have learned this year related to quilting. Three weeks ago, I had the wonderful opportunity of attending a 2-day quilt retreat hosted by Village Dry Goods in Brigham City, Utah. This year's teacher was Pam Buda whose quilt designs and fabrics are rooted in prairie life of the 1800s. You can see more of her quilting designs and fabrics at her website: Heartspun Quilts. Pam's Prairie Women's Sewing Circle Club series feature stories and quilt designs from this era of history. Needless to day, these themes resonate with me and my favorite quilting styles.

Here is a short summary of the projects and skills that I developed during the course of the retreat. Part of what I enjoyed the most about these projects was the process of organizing the pieces together and then combining them into patterns that were much more than the sum of the individual parts. 

The first day, we worked on a pattern called Settlers Puzzle. You can see from the picture to the left that the early stages of putting the pieces were a bit tedious and not exactly remarkable at first glance. As we continue on, however, triangles are added, strips are sewn together, and a small block is completed.
After four small blocks were completed, it was time to arrange them together to create the larger pattern that will be repeated throughout this quilt. Here is a picture of how mine turned out. When I purchased the fabric for this project, I hadn't fully thought about the consequences of the strip pattern. As things turned out, I was rather pleased with the subpattern that was created when the four blocks were put together. What do you think?

Part of the fun of participating in classes like these is seeing the fabric choices of the other ladies and how they work together. Here is a picture of the blocks that our class created. I like how some chose to reverse the light and dark fabrics within their quilt blocks. You can also see that one participant created her block with a variety of red fabrics as the dark color rather than the same one.

The second day saw the class working on techniques for improving our accuracy using some of Pam's "make it bigger, cut it down" tips. Part of the fun of this class was seeing fundamental quilt block components such as half square triangles, four-patch blocks, quarter square triangles, and square-in-a-squares come together to make the center block for a lap-sized quilt. The center block is featured in the picture below. See if you can identify the smaller subunits within this block. 

My final "new skill" for the month of January has been learning how to use a rather nifty triangle ruler. I came across this ruler at Quilter's Haven in Bountiful and then ended up buying fabric for a baby quilt so that I could test it out. The picture below shows how you cut strips of fabric to the specified height of the triangle and then rotate the direction of the ruler to cut the triangles.

To create the blocks for this particular quilt, you sew a smaller white and a larger colored triangle together like this. You then sew two 2-triangle units together to create a 4-triangle unit.
The next step is sewing two 4-triangle units together and trimming the block so that it is a square. 

For the particular pattern that I used, I also added a machine appliquéd square in the center as you can see on the picture of the completed quilt top. I am excited to get it to the quilter and then to its yet-to-be-born owner.

Arranging pieces within a quilt has parallels within both the Old and New Testaments as to how God designates roles and responsibilities for His people. While some pieces in a quilt may catch a person's eye more than others, each is essential to bring harmony and completeness to the quilt. Even so, each believer is essential to the unity of the body.
In the book of Numbers, God assigns specific responsibilities to the families of the tribe of Levi in relation to the service of the tabernacle. Some families had  responsibility for the furnishings of the tabernacle associated with worship. Others were responsible for the tent pegs and cords - not the most glamorous of roles. At the same time, without these individuals to carry the tend pegs and cords, the tabernacle would not have had a supporting structure where worship could occur.
In the New Testament, Paul reminds believers that while we are all baptized into one body by one Spirit, we are many members of that body, each with a distinct role and function. Paul also reminds believers that the purpose of these different roles was so "… that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another," 1 Corinthians 12:25.

Time For Tea … and Downton Abbey

In a recent post, I had mentioned something about not having time to follow a television series with any regularity. As it turns out, that is really only a partial truth. For me, there is one exception to that claim, and that is Downton Abbey. Although I am a bit of a latecomer to the series (began watching Seasons 1 & 2 right after Christmas last year), I have to admit that I am rather enamored with the show. I love the costumes, the manner in which historical events are incorporated into the show, and the screenwriting, especially Lady Violet's lines. 

Since the close of Season 3 last February, I have been eagerly counting down the days to the start of Season 4 (well, maybe not literally, but you get the idea). Now that the start of Season 4 is upon us here in the US, I thought it only fitting to mark the day with an English-style tea party. My tea parties most likely don't exactly meet Downton standards, but here are a few pictures and recipes that you may wish to use in creating your own tea party.

Dill Dip

Since discovering this recipe, it has become my "stand by," and I can't remember the last time I made dip using Hidden Valley Ranch mix. The exact amounts will vary based on how much you make, but part of the fun is seasoning this dip to fit your tastes.

• Equal parts sour cream and mayonnaise - for the most part, I don't measure these but rather eyeball the amounts. Often I will start with roughly 1/2 cup of each.
• Dried dill weed. I typically start with about 2 teaspoons and then can add more if needed.
• Garlic powder. I prefer powder over fresh so that I get just a hint of garlic flavor rather than have it overpower the other flavors. I tend to use 1/8 teaspoon or less.
• Dried parsley. I tend to start with about 1 teaspoon and then adjust as needed.
• Dried onion flakes. This is optional based on your tastes. I typically take about 1/2 teaspoon and crumble them a bit more in my fingers before adding them.
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Stir all ingredients together. Chill for an hour or two so that flavors can meld together and serve.

Cucumber Sandwiches

What would an English tea party be without cucumber sandwiches? Although easy to make, these sandwiches do take some time to prepare. 

• Peel a cucumber and slice it very thinly. Place the slices on a paper towel-lined plate and sprinkle with salt to allow the cucumbers to "sweat" for about 1/2 hour or more. Blot the excess liquid from the slices.
• Spread the bread of your choice with a thin layer of cream cheese. I prefer to use a heavier bread that won't fall apart when I spread the cream cheese.
• Place a double layer of cream cheese on the bread. Top with another slice of bread that has been spread with cream cheese. Cut into small squares or triangles prior to serving.

Deviled Ham Toasts

I discovered this recipe a few years ago in one of my English tea books. I am providing the American adjustments to the ingredients and measurements.

• 1 tbsp butter
• One 5 oz can of smoked ham, drained
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• Cayenne pepper (to taste)
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp dried parsley

Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Stir in the remaining ingredients and warm through. Spread meat mixture on bread as either an open-faced or traditional sandwich. Cut into small squares or triangles before serving.

Shortbread Cookies

Shortbread is actually a traditional Scottish dessert comprised primarily of butter, sugar, and flour. Shortbread is traditionally shaped into a large circle which is divided into wedges, small circles, or oblong rectangles. As you can see from the picture, I have topped the cookies with a dollop of sweetened whipping cream and fresh raspberries.

• 1.5 cups butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3.5 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp salt

Mix the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl. Mix in the vanilla. Mix the flour and salt together and combine into the sugar/butter/vanilla mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. You may also need to mix the dough together with your hands. Note that it will appear very dry and crumbly. Once the dough is thoroughly combined, wrap it in plastic and allow it to chill for about 30 minutes. 

Roll the dough out until it is about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes as desired. I used the rim of a drinking glass to cut my dough into circles. Bake on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet for 20 minutes at 350 degrees until edges begin to turn brown.