Merry Christmas

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Holiday Season! Don’t forget, especially in the cold and time of drought, how easy it is to forget our little animal friends. Here is an easy recipe to boost your local neighbor animal friends:

Robin’s treat

Take the left over liquid jelly/fat from your cooked ham, turkey, duck or chicken and scoup into an old tin pie plate. The way I do this is to take the bird (or ham) out of the liquid, pour out as much liquid (water) as I need for gravy making, then let the rest of the jell/juice sit at room temperature for an hour or more to cool down. After dinner is done and all the other dishes are cleaned – you are ready to tackle the gooey mess and clean it up. Take the juicey mess and drain the rest of the water that hasn’t started to solidify, toss this out. The globs you have left you can scrape into an old pie tin. Mix in any bird seed and bread crumbs, then set in the freezer (or outdoors if it is freezing) for about 2 hours. Then you can take the solid lump out into the yard where the birds like to eat and leave them a protein & fat packed treat. Even the squirrels love to come feast at this treat!

I’m a Grinch

A little more than the holiday blahs has caught hold of me this year, so I’ve decided it’s MY problem and I need to work through it. A recent discussion among fellow writers shows me that it is OK to whine a little; maybe getting it out will help. So I’m whining – BIG time. My husband lost his job last month, and prospects don’t look good for him. My son is barely putting in enough effort to pass his first semester of high school [what happened to my honor roll kid?]. Despite encouragement, and yes, sometimes punishment, I can barely get him to eek by a couple classes. Not because it’s a difficult subject – but because he doesn’t want to do his homework or {gasp} study for a test. Barely passing is OK with him. Can you hear me gritting my teeth? Oh, it’s not all classes – in 4 of them he has nearly perfect grades, some are tops in the school. Pffft. This too shall pass.

Because of my ‘funk’ – and not really liking my hubby or my kid very much right now [OK, I don't like myself either right now] – I declared we weren’t having a Christmas. Maybe a couple small gifts for the teen and that’s it. OK, now my son is depressed, but not really arguing about it. That worried me a little, so last weekend, I made my son get an artificial tree out of the attic and we decorated it. Good start. Then I told him Santa would come through with something, just don’t expect too much.

Today, my husband was upset about it all – I thought he understood that I really don’t want to spend money on useless or frivolous gifts to each other. Instead, he can do some ‘honey – do’s’ for me, like get my poor broken car fixed up with brakes & fix the door that won’t close. It doesn’t cut it for him, so I relented today and pointed out a couple things I needed that he could buy and wrap and surprise me with.

I guess I need to get presents for the dogs too, as I usually do every year. They are cheap and easy to please.

I’ve been baking off and on all week – all sorts of breads and cookies and candy treats. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy this. Today was a marathon bake with 3 types of cookies (I had to stop because I ran out of butter) and 4 loaves of bread. The banana nut bread that I made yesterday had already disappeared! More tomorrow after a trip to the store, but meanwhile, I have a whole bunch of goodies to send with my in-laws when they stop by tomorrow on their way to the family Christmas in Dallas. I won’t be there, but my baked goodies will be – and my good will. I’m just not in the mood to deal with people this year.

I’ll call my dad before Christmas, but he doesn’t know who I am half the time. I’ll tell the nurse to put my picture in his hand before she puts him on the phone; maybe that will spur him into a memory.

OK, I got it all out. Phew. I’m done whining for awhile. Now I’m going to count my blessings, snuggle up on the couch with a dog, a book, a hot cup of my favorite tea and a fresh piece of pumpkin bread. My Christmas tree is pretty and looks nice now that I have a few presents underneath. I do wish all of you a very happy season, whatever your faith may be.

Christmas Cooking

Potato Soup

 

One Christmas tradition we always had at our house was to enjoy, the Night before Christmas, a large heaping bowl of potato soup. We always had a huge family dinner on Christmas day that rivaled Thanksgiving and had been baking for days, moreso than even before because we added fudge, divinity, peanut brittle and tons of cookies. For years I never understood how my mother made such a wonderful soup. It seemed easy, but I just could not match the flavor or quality of mom’s soup. Several years ago during one of my annual trips to see the family at Christmas time (an 800 mile drive one way), I was pleased that my mom was going to be making the annual Christmas eve soup. I discovered I had been making just a very simple error and since then I’ve definitely gotten the hang of it – What a dummy I was! While we were cooking the soup that Christmas Eve, mom and I enjoyed some quiet time and I brought up the subject of the one time we were in the Middle East and had a somewhat ‘different’ potato soup that year. Mom was always determined that wherever we happened to be, we would try to maintain a semblance of our stateside lifestyle. And that included comfort foods such as potato soup on Christmas Eve – even if it was 120 degrees outside with the wind blowing sand under the door faster than we could sweep it out! This particular year, mom had sent dad to the market (souk) for the groceries and had mentioned she needed more potatoes. I have to remind you at this point that A) Dad grew up on a farm and spent many years in the garden hoeing his share of potatoes and B) food shopping was often a hit or miss deal in the Middle East – more like a treasure hunt. Well – dad brought home potatoes – but they were sweet potatoes! Whatever were we going to do? Mom was great at something I called her ‘make do’ mode – so we were going to make, yep – Sweet Potato Soup! We had always made SP bread, SP pie, just SP’s with marshmallows, SP casserole – so we could do this! It turned out great of course, but never became a staple at our house. But the story, of how dad went out to get some Red potatoes and came home with the sweets, stayed around for years. I decided to learn to make it all over again, using trial and error and some left over sweet potatoes from our Thanksgiving dinner – now I make it whenever I like, and YES – I like! I hope you will like this as well.

 

Sweet Potato Soup

 

Peel three large sweet potatoes, cut into small chunks and boil until mushy with a teaspoon of salt (about 20 minutes). Drain, reserving 2 cups of the cooking water. Mash or puree the potatoes. [Hint: I like chunks in my soup, so I reserve 1/4 of them and cut into little slices to add at the last] [Hint #2 – you can cook the potatoes days in advance or use leftovers!]

 

Gather your ingredients:

1 Tablespoon Arrowroot (flour works as well)

1 stick of sweet cream butter

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup cream (heavy whipping cream is best, Half–n-half works OK)

½ cup brown sugar

½ Tablespoon grated fresh ginger (or ½ tsp. powdered)

½ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ ground cloves

1 Tablespoon cooking sherry (optional)

 

In a large pan, sauté the Arrowroot and butter until you get a light brown roux. Add 2 cups of the reserved water from the potatoes, the sugar and spices. Bring this to a light boil, and then add the precooked, premashed potatoes. Simmer for about 15 minutes, then stir in the cream & sherry; then continue cooking for 5 minutes more. If you prefer a very creamy soup with no lumps, you may want to puree once more. If soup is too thin, simmering for a longer time will reduce moisture and thicken it up – or you can cheat and add a little cornstarch or arrowroot. If you like the chunks, stir them in when the soup is complete and heat thoroughly. This soup is great served hot or chilled (like I had it once on a cruise ship in a prior life) and makes 4 large servings. You can garnish with a dollop of whip cream or even float a few marshmallows on top.

Gingerbread People

What makes these cookies special more than anything is to find a cookie cutter that expresses who you are. If you are an animal lover, get some animal forms. Make those gingerbread people dress and look like the people you love and admire. They take a lot of work and a lot of time, but are so worth the effort.

 

 

 

 

Rhonda’s Gingerbread Characters

 

Don’t heat that oven yet or grease a cookie sheet! You won’t bake these for hours, or even days.

 

Ingredients:

 

½ cup shortening (like Crisco – not oil)

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup light brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup molasses (you can substitute honey in a pinch)

2 Tablespoons Vinegar

5 cups all purpose flour

1 and ½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

 

Cream shortening, butter & sugars. Beat in egg, molasses and vinegar.

Sift together in separate bowl the dry ingredients. Blend with the wet mixture slowly until well mixed. Cover and chill at least 3 hours. (Half can be frozen for later use)

 

When you are ready to tackle the cooking part (at least 3 hours later); preheat the over to 375 degrees. Roll dough to 1/8 inch on a lightly floured surface. Cut into shapes and place at least 1 inch apart on greased cookie sheets. (If you place the boys and girls too close together, they tend to reach out and hold hands while baking and the airplanes like to crash into the balloons). Bake for 5-6 minutes. These are very soft cookies, but easy to handle when cool. If you like a crisper cookie, add a couple minutes baking time. Cool slightly and remove from cookie sheet onto parchment paper or whatever surface you have prepared. Don’t decorate until completely cooled.

 

For decorations – go wild. You can buy over the counter frosting in a can or make your own. (Personally I like to make mine with butter, powdered sugar and vanilla with a few drops of cream to get the right consistency) Allow yourself plenty of frosting so that you can use various shades of food coloring to make different ‘clothes’ and other decorations. Plain white works just as well. I usually have several bowls handy with assorted M&M’s, crushed candy cane, dried blueberries and cranberries, candy corn, red hots, Skittles and more. For fine detail, I use some old syringes that you would use to give liquid medicine. Practice first if you are not used to fine details. Sometimes I just cover the whole cookie in white and stick things on it to make a pattern.

First Deer with a Bow

Black Friday

This year, the day after Thanksgiving, I decided I wanted to join my sister-in-law for an early morning visit to the stores for “Black Friday” shopping. Our families had spent a small quiet Thanksgiving dinner together, 4 adults and 3 children, and the two of us girls had actually made it to bed before midnite. Since we were in their town on the edge of Dallas/Ft. Worth, she was to be the driver and store selector as I had no clue where to go. I am happy to say our experience was a lot less tragic than the stories we later heard on the news about injuries and deaths in other locations.

Our first stop was a Wal-Mart store. We didn’t go at 5AM as the store advertised since we didn’t really have any ’special deals’ that we just had to rush in to get. We did go at 6:30AM though. When we first pulled in to the parking lot – the lot looked completely full. We drove down the first clear aisle we saw – and got a parking space right up front! My SIL was thrilled of course. When we got in the store, the first thing we saw were the lines at the cash registers. OMG – people had one or two baskets piled to overflowing and every register had lines that started at the front of the store and went all the way to the back. We weren’t even sure we could squeaze through the lines to look at merchandise! Our luck held as we went straight back to the rear of the store to electronics. After less than 5 minutes looking in the cases, my SIL had found the game she wanted for her son’s birthday, had gotten an employee, who was standing by with keys, to unlock the cabinet, acquired her game and we made our way into the rest of the store where I wanted to look at some clothes and shoes that were on sale. After pawing through piles of sale items in the clothing areas, we chose – nothing, except to leave the store. This chaos, while not wild, was not fun either and we figured we could live without the experience any longer. Luck still holding, we got to the front of the store and found an express line with only a few people in it; paid for the game and made our way past the security guard checking receipts and out to the car. We were in the store no more than 30 minutes. It wasn’t bad, but definitely not an experience I want to repeat. I do have to say also, I went to my own Wal-Mart store on Sat evening and found the hoodie and shoes [advertised: on sale only Fri 5AM-11AM] I had wanted – in the correct colors, sizes AND with the same sale price! No crowds, just the standard two or three persons in line as always.

To continue our ‘Black Friday’ shopping experience, we went to a large indoor mall off of I-20, I think it was in Arlington, TX. We drove into the underground parking structure [did I mention it was raining a little?] and drove right up to a spot about 3-4 car spaces away from the walkway over to the entrance. My SIL has great luck with parking, and the traffic wasn’t bad. I haven’t been inside one of these giant multi-story indoor malls in years, so didn’t really know what to expect. It was clean, it wasn’t crowded and the people weren’t frantically grabbing at sale items. My SIL commented that it wasn’t crowded as usual. Maybe it was the early hour [8AMish] or maybe the early crush had already come and gone. The stores were busy, but not packed. We found some good sales and didn’t have any problem with long lines at check outs or clerks to help us. The sales clerks [Macy's, Dillards, S&B's, Perfumania, etc] were helpful and courteous. This was NOT the Black Friday I had expected. I did buy one frivolous item from a gal in one of those outdoor kiosks [buy one today AND I'll give you a second one free PLUS you get this free gift item], but the rest of my purchases were clothing for my husband and son and really deep discount prices. I found – in THREE stores – the perfume I had been searching out for weeks with no prior luck, but I’ll leave that for my husband to buy now that I know where to tell him to go. (Yea, I’d like to tell him where to go, but I am cutting him some slack because he lost his job a couple weeks ago).

All in all, Black Friday is NOT something I want to make a special effort to attend, although I will always in the future take advantage of that weekend’s sales – just on a more reasonable day and time. And maybe I’ll get my sister-in-law to drive!