Viva Las Vegas!

Yesterday, I travelled to Las Vegas. No. Not that one.

This one. Las Vegas, NEW MEXICO.

Neither of these images are mine. The bottom one is a painting of Las Vegas, New Mexico by David Lee Thompson.

I arrived too late to take photos of the historic plaza.  But early enough for the meeting of the Chicken River Modern Quilt Guild to do a little shopping at ThreadBare–a sweet fabric and yarn store where the meetings are held.

We enjoyed a tasty potluck and chat.  It's been a while since I have been face-to-face with quilters and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone (and probably talked too much ...)

Round robin projects were rotated and, of course, as whenever quilters meet, there was some show and tell.  This is Lin's quilt, made from a set of randomly pieced squares.  I was awed by those perfectly straight and square stripes.

It wasn't sure what food to bring to a group of people I have never met.  

I decided to make something vegan, gluten and corn-free to avoid as many food allergies/aversions as possible.  The trip was more than an hour, so something cold seemed to make sense.

Even though tomatoes in January aren't always wonderful, I've been craving them, so I made Moroccan Lentil Salad.  This recipe is a little like stone soup because although there are lentils in there, there's so much more of everything else: hot and sweet green peppers, red and yellow peppers, green onions, chickpeas, cilantro and tomatoes–I halved a handful of cherry tomatoes and while they didn't taste like the fresh, ripe tomatoes of summer, they were OK.