Baby quilts and a recipe

One of my friends from college just became a dad on Friday. Twins, even! And what do twin babies need? Quilts!

I used some of the seemingly endless Moda Verna jelly roll that I bought a few years ago (and have used in a few other quilts), and made improvised stacked-coins quilts with the same fabric in both quilts. I used off-white cotton from Halfpenny Home for the sashing, and a brown print with blue circles for the binding. I used a little bit of one of the blue strips for the corner of binding on one of the quilts, so that they'd be easy to tell apart (and because I ran out of the brown)!

The backing, which you can't see in any of these pictures, is blue polka dot flannel. Soft and warm for February babies!

I finished these just before leaving for NY, so I got to wash them and dry them in New Rochelle (we don't have a dryer at home), and deliver them in person.

LOVE!

While I was there, the then-almost-parents made a wintry salad that was so delicious that I asked for the recipe.

Barlow Salad (adapted from Food & Wine Magazine, March 2012)

Salad:

1/2 head red cabbage, thinly sliced

1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced

3 small oranges, peeled and sectioned

large handful cilantro leaves (that's coriander, for the Brits)

large handful tamari almonds, crushed [I'd never heard of these - apparently tamari is similar to soy sauce but stronger)

zest of 1 lime

zest of 2 lemons

Dressing:

juice of 1-2 limes

juice of 3-4 lemons

1/4 cup of good olive oil

salt & cracked pepper to taste

It was delicious, and wintry, and healthy. Make it!