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.
Category: another day in the life
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.
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
Life is what happens when you make other plans.*
It’s a known fact about my childhood that going to sleep in your own bed did not necessarily mean you were going to wake up there. My parents were big fans of spontaneity and surprises. As in, let’s put the kids in the car at 4 am and drive to so-and-so’s house to make breakfast. Or let’s go surprise so-and-so at the beach. Decide to head out on a camping trip at 8 in the evening? Just par for the course. Continue reading
Wines (and beer) I drank – Birthday Edition.
When I invited a few girlfriends over to help me celebrate my birthday recently, I requested no gifts, but told them to feel free to bring wine. Which they did, because I have some pretty rad girlfriends. As a result, here is the birthday edition of Wines I drank. Continue reading
Back to back fun.
Oysterfest this year came on the heels of Halloween, giving us four back to back days filled with excessive fun, merriment and junk food. After arriving home from Urbanna yesterday morning, we promptly crawled into bed and pretty much stayed there the rest of the day to recover from so. much. fun. Continue reading
The Best Holiday.
I know I say this about every holiday, but Halloween really is the best night of the year. The flurry of costume construction in the days before, the actual day, where the children are far too keyed up to do anything but talk about how much candy they are going to consume and then, finally, FINALLY, they are let loose to roam the streets, going to door, with the universal language of lights on, someone’s home and all you have to do is knock on the door and they will give you candy. The air is filled with fun and the sense of community. Parents wandering with a red solo cup in hand, looking after a group of kids that got just a little bit ahead of them while they stopped to chat. Or refill as the case may be. Continue reading
Tuesday morning.
I ripped out the remnants of the summer vegetable garden yesterday. The heavy frost last weekend took out what was left, which wasn’t much. The mini-cukes & the malabar spinach were the only plants producing anything, the tomatillos having bitten the dust somewhere around the middle of September and the tomatoes had looked pathetic for probably almost as long.
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 