I’ve always thought the number thirteen has been given a bum rap. It’s not that I’m not superstitious – I am. I’ve been known to walk out into traffic in order to avoid walking under a ladder or anything that resembles a ladder because we all know that’s bad luck – but the number thirteen has proven to be a pretty good thing for me over the years. I’ve had so many positive things happen on Friday the Thirteenth that I actually look forward to them.
Month: December 2013
The year Pat saved Christmas dessert.
7:30 Christmas eve & I was in the home stretch. Pat & Edie were cleaning up dinner dishes and I was heading upstairs to start wrapping. It had been an impossibly long day that started with the snuggling of a baby pig in the kitchen of Farmer Tom when we went to pick up our freshly smoked Christmas dinner ham.
After leaving the farm, we hit the grocery store for the forgotten holiday essentials like candy canes (it’s not a proper tree without them I was told) before heading home to start the baking & wrapping. After a long afternoon of cooking, I was looking forward to calling it quits when that timer went off and I could pull the cake destined to be Christmas dessert out of the oven. Continue reading
History is doomed to repeat itself.
One of my very first blog posts talked about my failure to properly label items in my freezer, leading to Edie not trusting my “I’ll just pull something out of the freezer” dinner plan, unless of course, said item was properly labeled. I made the vow then to be better about labeling things I shoved in there.
The Holiday Party Weekend.
Between the three of us, we attended 5 holiday parties over the weekend that covered almost every aspect of the holiday. There were cookie swaps, bad christmas sweaters, wreath making, the Holly Ball and a bowling alley bash to be crammed into one gloriously, festive weekend.
That Apple Pie Jam I keep babbling about.
My friend Wynn shared this recipe for Rum Raisin Apple Pie Jam with me somewhere around my second bushel of apples this fall. It looked interesting, so I gave it a whirl. I followed the recipe to a T, with the exception of the sugar. 9 cups of sugar to 6 cups of apples? That made my teeth hurt just reading it. I cut the sugar back to 2 cups and used some of the excellent dark rum Peter brought Pat from Guatemala. Continue reading
College Football Food.
Saturday’s plan was to sit and watch college football most of the afternoon & evening, which never fails to inspire me to cook a big pot of something and maybe even bake a batch of bread to go along with whatever is in the pot. This Saturday, with it’s line up of conference championships, inspired me to make some recipes from college friends. That and some Double H andouille sausage I picked up at the Holiday market. Pat asked if I was going to make gumbo with the sausage. Considering I have at least 3 different batches in the freezer and it not being a favorite of at least one household member who says watching football with her parents is sort of like this beer commercial, I decided against it. She was already in for a long day of football with us (First SEC Championship, then the ACC & Big 10 games) and I didn’t want to antagonize her. Besides, gumbo takes time – not just the time to chop all those vegetables, make a broth and a roux, it needs to simmer for a few hours and is really best after all the flavors have had time to meld – next day gumbo is way better than fresh gumbo. Instead, I went for jambalaya, which is infinitely easier and far quicker. You can start chopping your veggies and an hour later, your jambalaya is ready to serve. Not so with gumbo. Continue reading
An Early Christmas Present.
I got a message from my neighbor Steve the other day, he was cleaning out his mother’s things and was I interested in some old cookbooks and loose recipes he wanted to see to a good home? Continue reading
Scenes from a holiday.
Accidental Self Portrait
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 