Category: holidays

Holiday highlights.

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Best Present Ever.
A vintage purple glass chicken candy dish.
And a stocking full of candy to fill it.
I’ve always wanted one of these, but have never said a peep about it. Somehow he knew.  The Kitchen Aid stand mixer (circa Christmas 1995) comes close, but something about finding something vintage, purple and a chicken without any prompting this far into things trumps all other presents ever.  
Did I mention the stocking full of candy to keep it filled for some time to come?
Our first eggs from the girls.

A marathon baking session with Betty.  Okay, more like, I took over Betty’s kitchen and oversaw a marathon baking session that included her chocolate chip cookies, Edie & Soph rolling out sugar cookies while I whipped up 5 pies for Betty’s holiday desserts and cleaned up after everyone wearing my  holiday apron made out of my parent’s former Christmas tablecloth that they received as a wedding present.  It’s got 40-something years of gravy, wine and chocolate cake stains.  It makes me unbelievably happy to wear all those memories while making more. 
An impromptu drop in at the Patience homestead resulting in her sharing one of her mince pies with us that somehow became the property of just Edie – making that not-so-wee-one’s holiday complete.  She’d heard mincemeat pies were traditional holiday fare and knowing I had some mincemeat in the freezer, was lobbying for me to make her a pie.   So, thank you Patience for saving Edie’s Christmas and saving me from making one more pie. She even shared a bite with Pat & I, despite swearing up one side and down the other it was never going to happen.
The best part of the holiday though, may be the days after Christmas, the ones where we sleep gloriously late, stay in our pj’s most of the day and eat our way through the leftovers I spent days cooking in anticipation of hanging up my apron for a few days.  Yes, that is definitely the highlight of my holiday, the complete and utter lack of obligations to anyone and anything other lazing around the house with my two very favorite people in the entire world.
 

4 days and counting….

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It’s the Friday before Christmas and in the midst of today’s pre-Christmas meltdown, I didn’t realize I was running out to do last minute errands at lunchtime.  Oh boy.  If I wasn’t heading upstairs to sew one last quick gift, I’d be popping open a bottle of something.

I got some serious Christmas baking on last night, knocking a few items off the to-do list like sugar cookie dough to be baked sometime between now & then in Betty’s kitchen for Santa Claus, Christmas biscotti (cranberry & pistachio) for Pat,  chocolate pretzels for Edie and Rachel’s pumpkin granola.

I’m not completely done yet – there still is no menu for Christmas dinner beyond Edie’s requested brussels sprouts and a yule log for dessert this year. Greens and chocolate cake sound pretty complete to me though.  Nothing is wrapped, but I don’t like to wrap early anyway.  Gives you something to do while you drink Christmas Eve.  And just today I finally got the last of the necessary ingredients to make Grandma’s Fruitcake Cookies, which are a holiday standard.  I know you’re wrinkling your nose at the idea of them and let me tell you – they are awesome.  Graham crackers crumbs, dates, pecans, coconut, maraschino cherries, a can of Eagle brand milk, squish together in mini muffin tins and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  They are the bomb.

Edie still claims to believe in Santa this year, very likely the last year this will happen.  The older neighborhood boys have been cornered and told to not ruin this for her, as they will not get any treats from my kitchen ever again.  She’s heard kids at school talking and told me she still believed in Santa because she knew there was no way her parents would ever spend that kind of money on her for some of those presents she’s gotten over the years.  Who knew my renowned cheapness would keep her belief in Santa alive and well?

Enough procrastinating for the day.  I’ve got to go get my proverbial Christmas doo-doo in a pile.  There are only 4 more days people!  If you still need more things to help you procrastinate, head over to    Jen’s Holiday Homes Tour if you haven’t already. Cheers all.

How to decorate a Charlie Brown Tree.

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Every year I am asked about our tree.   We often hear we have the best tree and so I find myself answering the question,  how do I get it to look that way?
We start with a tree that Pat & Edie cut down.  We prefer imperfect looking trees.  After Ashlawn-Highland discontinued the practice of having folks cut down trees from their fields, we found a cut-it-down yourself farm near Covesville that has the sort of trees we like.
This year’s tree started out looking like this.
(That would be the good side.)
First the lights go on.
I like to work from the inside out, starting at the bottom, wrapping lights around the trunk.  When I get to the top, I move the lights out just a wee bit and work my way back down.
That’s what 200 lights look like.
Working my way up and down, out and around the tree,  you can see where I’m slowly filling it in with light.
I took this shot after I had 400 on the tree – getting close, but still, not enough.
 This was where I ran out of lights to be used on the tree. That’s 700 Christmas tree lights. I wanted more lights, but I didn’t want to go out and buy them.  So I stopped there. From the moment we brought the tree in the house Saturday, we’ve realized it’s far wider than we initially realized. So 700 lights didn’t quite go as far as I thought they would. 
I know, there are some out there that think 700 lights are excessive.  I’m strongly considering making sure I have 1000 for next year, just in case. 
Next up come the hanging of the ornaments.  Here it helps to have lots of these as well.
This is where Edie comes in to help. Left to my own devices, I will spend days getting the lights just so before then carefully considering where each ornament should go.  I think 3 days is a decent amount of time spent putting a tree up.  My offspring however, thinks that you should be able to do it in an afternoon. She’s ever so proud that this year the lights went up in one try (there have been years where I’ve taken them down and completely restarted more than once) and they were done in under 2 hours.  This year’s tree trimming was definitely the fastest it’s been probably ever.
The first ornament hung is always this gem, the lone survivor of a set of pipe cleaner and styrofoam balls my parents made their first Christmas together back in 1968.  This was the most ornate of the set and every year this was the one my dad wanted to hang first. I always hang it in a tucked away spot.  It’s definitely a bit worse for the wear, but one I can’t not hang.
Edie’s first ornament this year was this beauty, hung in a spot of honor, smack dab in the front and center of the tree.
Until we got other ornaments hung around it, it was my own little episode of having that lamp in my front window. Thankfully, by the time we were done, it was not as prominent, without me having to rearrange it.  Or knock it off while watering plants. And because that kid can hang several hundred ornaments well in less than an hour, she had it blending it in no time flat.
We have a wide variety of ornaments.  There are ones from Christmas past, like this one:
There the ones Pat & I made and were given as children, like these two:
 
 I made that Jack in the Box in Girl Scouts back in 1978.
There’s also this one, one of my favorites.  I found that at an after Christmas sale the Christmas we were engaged while I was shopping with our mothers.  Could it be any more perfect?  Every year I hang it in a prominent spot.
We have ones Edie made.
And the ones she’s acquired over the years including princesses and Hello Kitty.
Ornaments get hung similar to the way the lights go on – from the inside out, so that the tree has a bit of depth and texture to it. I like to mix them all up, so that the Mary I painted as a toddler is hanging next to a Wise Man painted by my mother from one of those 1970’s wooden ornament kits (anyone remember those?) is hanging next to a vintage Shiny Bright I bought somewhere along the way.
I have a thing for vintage Christmas ornaments.  I have a hard time passing them up at yard sales and estate sales, but these days, unless I find something so spectacular that I don’t already have, I am getting better about walking past.  Not having enough room to store them all helps. 
I finish the tree with a set of glass ‘icicles’ I was given several years ago.  There are about 2 dozen of them in various combinations of colors and styles.  After they are hung, I drape a beaded garland, add the tree skirt and call it a day.

The tree skirt is an embellished vintage item. I was given the plain red corduroy skirt with a red & gold trim and green pom poms.  I added the buttons to look like snowmen and snowflakes.  
And here is the finished tree.  While pictures never do justice to it, you can see what a difference lots of lights and a giant tub (and a half) of ornaments and a few strands of beads do for a perfectly imperfect tree.  The only thing missing are candy canes, which will be purchased and hung in the next few days.
 
And that, dear friends and readers, is how you take a Charlie Brown tree and make it beautiful. They really just need a little bit of love.

I got a real name tag.

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Over the years, I have acquired a small collection of various name tags from different events I’ve attended.  By various, I mean, the names are various.  You see, I don’t always let a proper invite keep me from a party and some of the events I’ve attended over the years have had everyone’s name tags printed and laid out ahead of time, not allowing you to walk up to the door and get in if you haven’t made plans in advance. Which means if you are spontaneous like myself, you find yourself picking out a name and going with it.  Only once have I ever had anyone actually question the fact that I was not who my nametag said I was, because they knew the real ‘me’ and I was 20 years younger, several inches taller, noticeably thinner and a completely different race than the other version they knew that went with that name.  I found that telling the gentleman I was undercover for a very important investigation and that I would appreciate his cooperation, as it may or may not have to do with national security, I was not free to divulge anything further than that, in fact I may have said too much, helped quiet him.

In crashing parties, one must act with complete confidence and authority. 

Last Thursday evening was the holiday party for the local weekly that I’ve done some projects for this past year. Despite the fact that I’d been up & down all week with the upper respiratory bug going around town, I felt we should go and make an appearance.  Besides, I was feeling better that day, surely I was on the mend. (When they say that bug is a 10 day to 2 week bug, they aren’t joking, btw.  I was most definitely not on the mend, but that’s a completely different tale.)

As we walked in, there was a table with a guest list at which you were supposed to check in.  There was also a small collection of name tags which were clearly for people who are affiliated with the publication throwing the party.  Among the name tags was one for me, with my real name on it.   Even better was a title – “Green Expert”, a nod to the fact that I wrote (and partially photographed) their Green Homes and Living special edition this past fall, although in no way do I consider myself an ‘expert’ in being ‘green’.  Honestly, of the 18 pieces in that, 8 of them are some of sort of interest or project of ours around the house.  All I really did was write about us and just tried to make it not sound as personal as I do in this space.

I’ve had a good bit of encouragement lately from friends and family telling me I should just write a book already.  On what I ask and they all say, on just being me.  From what I’ve gathered, one should have a certain niche, a focus if they are going to pitch anything that’s going to be published.  If this blog is any indication, I’m all over the place – baking one day, canning the next with mentions of knitting fail, dinner fail and girl scout troop craft fail.  I’m more of a B+ personality than I am a type A.  I’m the underachiever of the overachievers, the overachiever of the slackers, not excelling at any one thing, but rather, doing a few things pretty okay.  Sometimes making everything perfect, staying on top of every little detail is just way too much energy that could be better used doing something else, like having a glass of wine with a friend or better yet, curled up with a book.  How does one go about putting that into a proposal for anything published? 

Not quite eighteen months ago, I was laid off and pretty quickly decided that I was going to just figure out a way to make a living out of being me.  Since making that decision, I’ve been much happier with my every day life, although cash flow can be a bitch.  I’ve made some things happen, I’ve had some things land in my lap.  It seems that in casting a wide net, I’ve caught a number of things that I’m pretty okay at – writing, teaching, cooking at the top of that list. 

When I started this post, I had every intention of talking about the party last week, how I danced with the guy dressed like a Christmas tree, because really, when there’s a guy dressed like a Christmas tree, you need to do something with him, right? Instead I had this moment where I realized that there was some link between the fact that I have a collection of fake name tags to the fact that I had a real name tag with a title that I found amusing to the fact that I am still very much trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up.  That this idea I keep hearing from people as something I should do – write a book – somehow needs to come to life.  And somewhere, in that link, is the theme.

It grew.

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Last year, my Girl Scout troop helped put together a little food drive at their school.  I was exceptionally proud of them and blogged about it.  Yesterday,  we went back to their old elementary school and helped out with this year’s drive.
We partnered with the same troop as last year, with their troop taking the lead this time around.  They made the posters and morning announcements reminding their schoolmates to bring in donations.  This year we had a third troop join us in the job of sorting and packing the donations.
I love that as each one of the girls walked in that cafeteria yesterday, the first thing each one of them said was “What can I do?”.  Give them a little bit of direction and every last one of them was off and running.  They worked together well and it’s oh, so good to watch that in action.
Just like last year, the recipients of the drive are families within that elementary school community. This year though, I think my girls had a little bit better understanding of exactly what that meant.
The best part though was seeing an idea I had summer before last take root and grow.  I might be the slackest Girl Scout troop leader out there – I’ve been told by our local Girl Scout council that I’m “robbing the girls of the true Girl Scout experience” because we don’t sell cookies.  We also don’t do a whole lot of crafts, we’ve never been camping (we do have plans to do that this year though, maybe), heck, from about March through the end of the school year every year those girls campaign to throw out whatever the plan is and just go run around and play on the playground outside and I let them.  Slacker or not, I came up with a pretty kick ass service project that other troops have not only joined in, but continued with.  It grew. 
I’m damn proud of that.

Pecan Pie.

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Being the slack food blogger that I am, I have no step-by-step shots of how I prepared my pecan pie last week.  Then again, the fact that I am sharing my pecan pie recipe the week after Thanksgiving is telling too, isn’t it?  It’s still good for Christmas though, right?  I mean, certain members of our household have asked if we can have another one sometime soon. 
I did not grow up eating pecan pie.  I’m not a big fan of cooking with nuts, so the idea of a pie devoted to them left me scratching my head.  It wasn’t until I met my better half that I realized that pecan pie is more about butter and sugar than nuts.  And certainly I can get behind anything that combines butter and sugar. 
The recipe I make is one that I got from a friend of Pat’s folks.  It’s pretty much the best damn pecan pie recipe in the world and the only one you will ever need to make. 
I’m such a slack food blogger that I didn’t even get a decent shot of my finished pie – this one is one Edie took with her father’s iphone, a little after the fact.  I tried making the crust edges all fancy, showing off the skills I picked up when I assisted in that pie baking class last summer, only to realize as I was pouring the filling into the pie crust that I had prepared a filling for a much bigger pie plate than I was using.  Whoops! I managed to fix it somewhat, but it wasn’t entirely pretty.  I ended up pouring what was left of the filling into a ramekin, baking that and we ate that hot out of the oven, giving us that pecan pie fix the night before Thanksgiving.
Enough with my issues, here’s the recipe.  Make it.  You’ll like it. 
Pecan Pie
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup White Karo syrup
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups pecans
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
Combine first three ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil.
Beat eggs in a separate bowl.  Pour a small amount of hot liquid into the eggs, beat and then add the remaining hot mixture.  Stir in the remaining ingredients and pour into prepared pie plate.  Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes.

Gratitude.

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So I’ve been kicking around the idea of some lovely gratitude post in honor of Thanksgiving this week and while I can think of many things that I’m grateful for, getting it all written down and not sounding utterly cheesy and sentimental is another thing all together.

In the last month, two different friends have been diagnosed with cancer. We have at least three friends whose parents have been diagnosed within the last few months as well.   Another has been posting about the unexpected adventure her family is having while she’s on book sabbatical in Jerusalem.  These things remind us not only what’s important, it’s that we should be grateful for all the little things that make our happy little lives exactly that.

In our house, every day is a day where we are vocal with our gratitude.  Before we eat dinner, everyone at the table takes a turn sharing what they are thankful for.  Some days it’s rain, some days it’s sunshine.  For years, Edie was grateful each and every day for “Daddy coming home from Friday” regardless of the day or the last time he’d actually been away.  Some days we’re grateful to be getting over a cold, other days it’s having had an exceptionally good day, others it’s just be to sitting at the table with each other.  Some days we’re not even sitting at the table, we’re in the den, curled up on the futon, plates in our laps, with “Jeopardy” on mute while we finish saying Thanks. Someone is always grateful for “Jeopardy” on those nights.

I am thankful for everything I have – my family, our friends, our neighborhood, our house.  I’m thankful for our health, I’m thankful the car is running well this week, I’m thankful Edie is having a sleepover tonight with her bff  that she’s known her entire life who lives on the other end of our street that I’m pretty sure we made snort at dinner with our very politically incorrect tales of what it was like to go shopping at two different grocery stores Sunday in the pre-Thanksgiving madness with everyone taking their grandmother there and just parking them in the middle of an aisle and how Edie got run over by the same woman more than once while at Whole Foods.   I’m thankful that if Whole Foods is going to be the closest grocery store to our house, that it has the best price on a gallon of milk around.  I’m thankful that all of Edie’s activities but piano lessons and Saturday morning soccer games all take place at her school, two blocks up the street and that she is capable of walking herself there and back.  I’m thankful she was given an electric piano upon which she practices and I’m thankful that she puts it on the organ setting when she wants to mix it up.  Nothing makes your day more than that, I assure you.   I am thankful for my husband, who can fix just about anything, saves the world for a living, puts up with me AND is good looking to boot, even if he does turn on the most horrid country station and then walks out of the room, made better when said station plays Johnny Cash doing “Sunday Morning Coming Down”.  I’m grateful he walked out of the room to go put a movie on for the girls and when he came back in it was with a bottle of wine in hand, to pour me another glass.  I’m thankful for all of you that read my babble and tell me you like it.  Happy Thanksgiving to each and every one of you. 

The Festival of the Bromance.

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Oysterfest, the best holiday of the entire year, the one that kicks off the entire grand holiday season, has come and gone.

Many oysters were eaten.  
Pork rinds were consumed.
 Surprisingly enough, my entire fried food quotient this year was one bag of pork rinds, despite the allure of so many over the top fried delicacies.
This year’s winner for the the most over the top fried treat?
 
Deep fried cinnamon rolls, rolled in bacon bits.
 
That bacon didn’t look nearly as good as the bacon we had back on the grill.
I’m pretty sure Ryan grilled meat from the time he arrived Friday until they left Sunday morning.
 Ryan brought a cooler of lamb & pork he’d raised, Dave brought rockfish he’d caught, there was even some Ankole sausage courtesy of Rieman’s father.  There was also the usual gathering of crockpots, breads, biscuits and other treats made by the sisterhood to round out the meat, oysters and fried foods.
The girls have gotten big enough to pitch in too, with Edie and Abigail baking a coffee cake Saturday morning.  Why yes, that is a bread knife Abigail is using to cut the butter.  She grabbed the first knife she saw laying around.
This year’s stellar bloody mary table was also a staging area for the nearby grill.
Or perhaps you like a hunk of meat in your drink?
No wonder someone thought this was a great event to have a free health screening at.  
There were plenty of our usual traditions, like the Fire Truck Parade Friday night, where the kids try to sit as close as possible to the loudest parade you’ve ever heard. (Don’t worry, we all wear ear plugs)
 
 There is the Saturday afternoon parade, full of Shriners.
 There is she crab bisque from the church on Main Street that is not to be missed.

 We added the oyster shucking competition this year to things we do at Oysterfest.
Those ladies were serious about their oyster shucking.
And we were serious about eating them.
This little guy, the newest addition to the Smiley clan, kept the sisterhood from hitting the bar Friday night, but it did get us a free ticket to wander around the fest by ourselves (accompanied by young Walker of course) Saturday afternoon. We were going to hit the wine garden, but the line was too long.  And we had wine at home.
We also enjoyed some quiet time to ourselves in this year’s back yard fort, as always, courtesy of Brooke, in the form of a pop-up camper that made for a most excellent grown up hide out.
There was plenty of the usual piles of kids and us trying to get them all to gather for one nice picture, whether posed or not posed.

The swords were Ryan’s Sunday morning craft project.  
When we got home last night, I found Edie curled up asleep in the den, clutching it, her souvenir of a good weekend.
They even ate in a pile, declaring this chair the “Mac and Cheese Chair”.
There were plenty of other moments that make the weekend so special, year after year.
 

The most notable moment comes Saturday afternoon, after the parade where someone realizes it’s only 3:30, how can it only be 3:30 when it feels like at least 5:30? Good god, how are we ever going to make it to put the kids to bed, can’t they go to bed at 5?  
Saturday of Oysterfest is the longest day of the year. 
Oysterfest isn’t just about a grill full of meat all weekend, or piles of kids or fried food or parades, it’s the official holiday of the bromance.

The entire group of men have a very strong bromance.  And every last one of the operates on the assumption that if you have a bromance with one of them, well then, you will have a bromance with all of them.
There’s a lot of love between those boys.

So much so that there is an entire holiday based on it.

The Sisterhood goes to the Lake.

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It’s hard to believe that just a week ago we were at the lake, gazing at the full moon to our hearts content.

Having piles of ‘cousins’

and more piles of ‘cousins’

and sunset cruises with fancy cheese & crackers & sausage and the occasional  Barbie doll.

The week our friend Will was offered his Granny’s cabin at the lake this year was the week that happened to have the Fourth of July in the middle of it.   Will and Mollie were kind enough to extend the invitation to us as well as a few other friends.  Granny’s cabin was a full house at the lake on the Fourth of July.

I brought my home made Fourth of July flair, remnants of an old dress I had made myself in college for the Fourth.  I realized the dress didn’t quite fit the way it used to, but I still wanted it around, so voila, I just made it into a banner to hang on the front porch on Patriotic holidays. 
The fabric reminded me of the old tv show, Love American Style. I vaguely remember watching that show with my parents, but I do remember it. Does that make me of a certain vintage? I think it does.

We hung it from the canopy on the pontoon boat, so we’d have holiday flair.  We also had a smaller flag off the bow and a large flag on a pole towards the rear of the boat.  With the exception of the boat that had red, white & blue bunting in light form, we definitely had one of the most decorated boats on the Lake. 
We had flair, oh yes we did.
Edie got to try her hand for a few moments at the wheel one evening when the lake was quiet.
She did a great job and was pretty proud of herself.

Abigail and Teal came down, as did Booty and Elizabeth.  We had met Elizabeth previously and I realized I knew her from around town, so it was good to spend some real time with her, since you know, Booty is part of the extended bromance. 
You know how sometimes you see a couple and you can just see that they just fit together?  Booty and Elizabeth are like that.  To see that she totally just gets him was even better.  And she showed up with cake.

She had me at cake.
The fireworks over the water were beautiful.  They were set off at a point just on the other side of the little cove the cabin is tucked away in, so we only had to go out about 50 feet or so in the boat to see them.  We didn’t have to enter the lake at all to see them, we just stayed in the cove.  
It was one of those old fashioned good times where the kids get up, put on bathing suits (or not) and swim before breakfast, the boys got lots of fishing done and the sisterhood cooked up some fabulous meals.
Thanks Will & Mollie for having us all out.  And thanks to Granny for letting us stay at the cabin.

A Feast for the King of the Castle.

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Since I am slightly demanding about being pampered on Mother’s Day (read: I want someone else to get up and make me coffee and I’m not cooking dinner that day), I feel the least I can do is make Pat anything he wants for dinner on Father’s Day, even if it’s something I don’t like, like lamb.
Pat & Edie are both fans of lamb.  Me?  I don’t care for it.  I have tried it numerous ways over the years and it just does not appeal to me.  Since I do most of the shopping and cooking around here, we tend to eat what I like, which means no lamb, except for special requests on days like Father’s Day and birthdays. 
Not too long ago, I had seen a post on E.A.T. for lamb burgers that Tim said (and I quote directly) “If you have shied away from lamb, this is a good recipe that has training wheels.” So when the request came in for lamb, I immediately thought of this recipe.  At the very least, I figured I’d be happy with the sides of hummus and couscous.
We opted to grill the burgers instead of cooking them on the stovetop, but otherwise, I followed Tim’s easy recipe.  I whipped up some hummus, some Tzatziki, a Couscous salad and a Watermelon Feta Mint Salad which Pat dubbed “Watafet”Salad.
I liked it.
I liked the lamb.  It was the cumin that did it I think.  Over the years, I have found the addition of cumin almost always adds something interesting to a dish and this was no exception.  We will definitely eat lamb burgers again cooked this way.    Thanks Tim.  You have just made my family very happy to hear we will be eating more lamb. 
I also followed Tim’s side suggestions, with the addition of the watermelon salad. For the couscous, I simply tossed some fresh thyme and chives from the garden with some chopped cherry tomatoes and black olives, salt & pepper and a dash of olive oil.  I’m the only person in this house who likes cucumbers, so I left them out, although they would be a good addition as well. There were some in the tzatziki, so I didn’t want to push it.   As for the “Watafet Salad”, I chopped up about a quarter of a watermelon and a handful of fresh mint.  I added crumbled feta, salt, pepper, lime zest, the juice of a lime and a generous dash of olive oil, tossed it all together and served it.  It didn’t appear to be a salad that would keep well, so I wouldn’t make more than you can eat at the time.  However, it was quick, easy and would be a great dish to carry along to a potluck.
It was a feast fit for the king of our castle.