Recipe Time: Homemade Nacho Cheese Sauce

http://www.fifteenspatulas.com/homemade-nacho-cheese-sauce/

Is there anything better than a bowlful of delicious gooey warm cheese to dunk your tortilla chips in? Or slather over steamed broccoli? Or just eat a spoonful of?

Usually eating this sauce involves melting down a hunk of Velveeta, or opening up a jar of Tostitos Nacho dip...but in the past year or so my stomach has decided to violently reject these products. I think it has something to do with the umpteen preservatives or additives they're made with - just a wild guess.

The good news is it's entirely possible to make your own homemade nacho sauce with a minimal amount of time, ingredients, and effort. And yes, it completely delicious. I started with this recipe as my base, and then jazzed it up a little. Here's what to do:

Ingredients

• 2 T. butter
• 2 T. flour
• 1 c. whole milk
• 1/4 salsa
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 c. shredded cheddar cheese
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• Pinch of salt

In a medium sized skillet melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and saute until soft. Sprinkle in the flour and cook and stir one minute or until a smooth paste is formed and flour is starting to brown. Whisk in the milk and salsa and stir until thickened, about another minute. Add cheese, pepper, and salt and stir until cheese is melted. Remove from heat and serve. Makes about 1 1/2 c.

Notes:

• There are warnings not to make this with pre-shredded cheese, but I did and it was fine
• There are also warnings that this doesn't reheat in the microwave very well - the solution is eat it all in one sitting. Problem solved!
• You can go crazy and add all kinds of other stuff to this - chillies, jalapenos, different kinds of cheese, beans, whatever you like. Have at it.

Snapshots Quilt: Final Blocks and Borders

Gone Surfing

So, I'd fallen behind on the last few blocks of the 2015 Snapshots Quilt Along, so I spent Friday night sewing up the October, November, and December blocks. Sorry, the lighting isn't so great in my sewing room at night, so these don't look as fabulous as they do in person!

Sail Away

Walk in the Park

With all the blocks finished, I had fun arranging them on my design wall and figuring out what fabric I wanted for the borders. I decided on an aqua floral reproduction from Connecting Threads, and I think it looks cute!

The next step will be to figure out what to use for the background - the original quilt uses an aqua polka dot, which won't work for me...I'll have to go through my fabric stash and see what I have that might work.

Superstar: All together now

So, I finished up the little star blocks, and the chevron blocks, and was able to assemble the rows for the Superstar quilt. I like how all the different elements - Big Stars, Little Stars, Chevrons are mingled together with the nice bright white space in between.

Sewing the rows of blocks together is my least favorite part about assembling a quilt. There's lots of fiddling around making sure all your seams match and you don't end up with one end longer than the other, and it gets bulky the more you sew together, and then it gets tricky to iron. I don't know, I just get annoyed by it all.

All that aside, the top is now complete and ready for the next steps of basting and quilting!

Superstar: Little Star Blocks

Work continues to be slow, but steady on the Superstar quilt. I have almost all the components finished for the little star blocks, and I just need to sew them together.

The small blocks are made exactly the same way as the large ones, only instead of 4 1/2 inch triangles, it's 2 1/2 inches. Each unit needs to be trimmed down just a hair, which is perfect to do while watching netflix or listening to podcasts. I'm almost all caught up on "Serial", and I'm saving two "Savage Love" ones for tonight.

After the small stars are made, I just have to do the chevron blocks, and then this baby will start to come together. Guess what the chevrons are made out of? Why yes, that would be more Half-Square Triangles!

Friday Finish: Moroccan Tiles

I love the combination of curves and angles that this quilt has. I was originally going to hang this over my fireplace, but it's just a tad too big, so maybe it'll be more of a lap or throw quilt for the time being.

This was made with the "Isle of Enchantment" fabric line from Connecting Threads, and the combination of turquoises, purples, oranges, and pinks are striking.

I quilted this in an all-over spiral with variegated purple thread, and the backing is and binding are both prints from the same Isle of Enchantment line, and I hand-bound it, just for a more finished look for the intended fireplace hanging.

It's been awhile since I've hand-bound a quilt, and I like doing it - but man, does it take forever! This was 7 episodes of "Transparent"s  worth of work...that's 3 1/2 hours!

Superstar

I've had a busy couple of weeks with not a lot of time for sewing. A little while back I ordered the supplies to make this fun bright quilt and I was finally able to sit down to start sewing it over the last few days. There's something SO GREAT about untying a bundle of fabric or a jelly roll, unfurling each piece to iron it, admiring the patterns and colors up close. It's energizing and soothing, all at the same time.

This quilt is made up of of large stars, small stars and chevron blocks. Instead of constructing the stars with flying geese units, the pattern just uses two half-square triangles sewn together. I was annoyed by this at first, since I like sewing Flying Geese, but now I'm kind of a fan. You eliminate lots of waste for one thing, but also half-square triangles are nice mindless sewing, which is just what the doctor ordered for my over-loaded brain these days.

I've completed the large star blocks, and will start with the small ones next. They're basically the same, except a little four-patch is in the center instead of the stripes.

Friday Finish: Moxie

This was a fun quilt, start to finish. Part of it was the pattern, made up of large pieces with gentle curves - just hard enough to be challenging, but not enough to be frustrating. I think the other part was just the chance to play with colors, and give myself permission to be as loud and wild as I wanted.

I used the same orchid print for backing as I did on the Scrappy Strings quilt, since there was just enough of it, and I used the same dark blue print in the top for the binding.

Right now this is hanging in my living room, and I think it'll stay there for the time being.