I did something awesome. And by awesome I mean totally lame.  The only photos I took at the April meeting of the Suppose Creative Guild were of food.  But I guess food counts as something creative.  Kathy created it in fact.  This clam dip is a family favorite; we have it every Christmas and it’s great for parties and guilds and such.

And now you can have it too, if you so wish.  If you don’t love seafood, don’t be afraid that there are clams in it, you might still love it.

Clam Dip

(This always goes fast, so we usually double or quintuple this recipe.)
Mix well:
8 oz. cream cheese
1 small can chopped clams, drained
chopped parsley
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3 drops tobasco sauce
lemon juice to taste
1 Tbsp grated onion

Heat over the stove and serve with bite-sized pieces of the most delicious bread you can find.  If you’re feeling a little fancy, put it in a hollow bread bowl, wrap it in tinfoil, and heat it in the oven before serving.

Our small town main street after the first real storm of the season.

Winter is not being wishy washy this year. Way to be loud and proud, Winter.  So I am trying to get as close as I safely can to the fireplace in the classroom at the shop.  It’s not all bad; things are feeling especially Christmasy and it’s a good excuse for homemade soup!

Last week at our Creative Guild meeting Kathy provided some hot liquid comfort of the savory sort.  As is always promised at these meetings, we’d like to share her secret recipe right here.

Kathy’s homemade chicken soup has long been a family favorite, and the secret is in the dumplings.  After boiling a chicken, shredding it and adding it back to the broth along with carrots, onions, celery, potatoes, and other favorite veggies, the true magic commences with the addition of the dumplings…

Dumplings for Chicken Soup

For a pot of soup feeding more than 4 people, double this recipe. You may find you need to make another batch the next day to add to the leftover soup!

bring to a boil:
1 cup milk
1/2 cube butter

dump into milk mixture all at once:
1/2 cup flour
1 scant tsp salt

Stir vigorously until a ball forms in center of pan.  Remove from heat and add, one at a time, 2 eggs, beating each one in individually.  Drop by teaspoonfuls into hot soup, scraping batter off spoon with index finder.  Do not boil. Heat for 20 minutes.

Let’s catch up with the goings on of the Suppose Creative Guild, shall we?  For many of us, the favorite part of guild meetings is show & tell. Here’s a taste of what we got to see at our November meeting.

Faye showed off some intricate paper piecing in this Christmas wall hanging.

Emma Jean made this quilt with one of her daughter’s old dress.  Way to repurpose!

And finally somebody else made something with the ugly fabric from our December party game.  Check out Evelyn’s scrappy scarf that will end up with frayed edges.  Too bad she didn’t use the purple lamé (she claimed it frayed too much).

Impressive festive wool creations from Leanne:

And Jennifer demonstrated a quick and fun way to make coasters, the way we learned on Allsorts, and she added a triangle variation. Great idea for a quick gift as you can make a set up in no time and tie it up cute.

And last but not least, the treats!  Emma Jean brought some delish Apple Bread, perfect for this time of year.  A big thanks to her for sharing the recipe (and credit where it’s due: it came from a 1971 Ensign magazine!).

Apple Bread
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups cooking oil
3 whole eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups thinly sliced peeled apples

Sift together flour, soda, salt, and cinnamon.  Cream together by hand the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla.  (Be sure to add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.)  Add the sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, alternating with the apple slices. Beat well.  Bake in a loaf pan at 325° F until lightly browned and done.  Wrap bread in foil as soon as cool, and it will keep in the freezer very well.

Need a treat to take to the family reunion/picnic/girl’s night/bedtime? Enjoy these cheesy, creamy recipes from Suppose Creative Guild President, Lauree.  Again, no photos (next time: click before chew), but trust me when I say they looked and tasted uh-mazing.

Baked Cream Cheese

8 oz cream cheese
1/4-1/3 cup soy sauce or tamari
crackers
apple slices
pear slices

Marinate cream cheese in an oven proof dish in the refrigerator for 4-6 hours.  Every hour ladle soy sauce over cream cheese. Pre heat oven to 350 degrees and bake cream cheese for 5-7 minutes until warm but still firm. Serve with crackers and fruit slices.

Barbados Cream With Fresh Fruit

1 ½ cups plain Greek style yogurt
1 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup brown sugar
4 cups fresh fruit ( strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, mango, grapes, pineapple, apples, etc.)

Mix yogurt and cream in a large bowl with a wire whisk until smooth and thick. Sprinkle brown sugar over top, making sure to cover entire surface. Cover and chill at least 4 hours. It should have a cracked and brown looking syrup on the top. Carefully whisk the mixture a little and serve over fresh fruit or as a dip.

We are always too excited about the snacks at Suppose Creative Guild meetings to take photos of them (I’ll try harder next time), but they must be shared nonetheless. The guild eats are always beautiful, but more importantly, delicious. Last month Anita brought homemade pitas and hummus. It was just so good I begged for the recipe.  Since there are no images to tempt you, you’ll just have to imagine a bowl heaping of perfectly blended and perfectly seasoned hummus speckled with cilantro, surrounded with fluffly warm pita triangles just begging to be devoured.  If you’re imagination is good enough, you’ll be wanting this:

Anita’s Hummus

• 1 can garbanzo beans
• juice from half of a lemon
• 1 1/2 Tbsp tahini (sesame paste – this is not absolutely necessary, but I like it)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1-2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin (or more to taste)
• salt to taste
• small handful of cilantro (or flat leaf parsley)

Add to food processor and mix until smooth.
I play around with this recipe a lot – sometimes I’ll use other white beans, or experiment with other seasonings. Adding a roasted red pepper is also yummy.

Anita’s Pitas

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 tsp sugar (or honey)
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 1/2 cups flour, plus more for dusting [I like to mix half white, and half whole wheat - sometimes I need to add a little more flour, just make sure that it's still slightly sticky but pulls away from the side of your mixing bowl]
• 1 tsp olive oil

In the bowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the yeast, sugar, and warm water; stir to blend. Let the yeast stand until foamy, about 5 to 10 minutes.

Stir in the salt. Add the flour, a little at a time, mixing at the lowest speed until all the flour has been incorporated and the dough gathers into a ball. Turn the mixing speed up to medium or medium high and knead until smooth and elastic (if you stretch it, you should see a “baker’s window”). Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, turn it over to coat, and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise until double in size, about 1 1/2 hours. Can keep in fridge up to about 3 days, but usually turns out best if you use it earlier.

Place a large pizza stone on the lower oven rack, preheat the oven (and stone) to 475 degrees F.

Punch the dough down, divide it into 8 pieces, and gather each piece into a ball; keeping all of them lightly floured and covered while you work. Allow the balls of dough to rest, covered, for 15 minutes so they will be easier to roll out.

Using a rolling pin, roll each dough ball into a circle that is about 8-inches in diameter and 1/4-inch thick. Make sure the circle is totally smooth, with no creases or seams in the dough, which can prevent the pitas from puffing up properly. Cover the disks as you roll them out, but do not stack them up. Put 2 pita rounds at a time on the hot pizza stone and bake for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the bread puffs up like a balloon and is pale golden. If you would rather have flat bread, poke the dough with a fork. Watch closely; they bake fast. They take about 3 minutes in my oven. Remove the bread from the oven and place on a rack to cool for 5 minutes; they will naturally deflate, leaving a pocket in the center (unless you poked them!). Wrap the pitas in a large kitchen towel to keep them soft.