The Antique Show

I’ve completed a number of Jan Van Haasteren puzzles over the years. They work up quickly and are lots of fun. I don’t think I’ve ever included a picture of one (on this blog or my 360) because they don’t really photograph well. Too detailed and “busy”. That said, here is one I just finished entitled “The Antique Show”.

Christmas recipes

I’ve been taking Simple & Delicious magazine (formerly Quick Cooking) for a number of years. A part of Reiman Publications, it’s a great magazine filled with easy, yet tasty recipes. Seldom does an issue arrive that I don’t find at least one recipe that I want to try. Here are three I served on Christmas Eve… all of them “keepers”. I was out of milk, so I subbed light soy milk in the baked pancake, I omitted the hot pepper sauce in the dip, and I made the pie in a glass pan, so I dropped the temperature by five degrees and baked it for a full hour.


Baked Blueberry Pancake
Submitted by Norna Detig of Lindenwood, IL

2 cups pancake mix
1½ cups fat-free milk
1 egg
1 Tbsp. canola oil
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
Butter and maple syrup

In a large bowl, combine the pancake mix, milk, egg, oil and cinnamon just until blended (batter will be lumpy). Fold in blueberries (if using frozen, do not thaw).
Spread into a greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Bake at 400° for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with butter and syrup. Yield: 6 servings.


Sun-Dried Tomato Dip
Submitted by Andrea Reynolds of Rocky River, OH

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
½ cup sour cream
½ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and patted dry
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
¼ tsp. hot pepper sauce
2 green onions, sliced
Assorted crackers and/or fresh vegetables

Place the first seven ingredients in a food processor; cover and process until blended. Add green onions; cover and pulse until finely chopped. Serve with crackers and/or vegetables. Yield: 2 cups.


Pear Custard Pie
Submitted by Barbara Rea of Glenshaw, PA

1 sheet refrigerated pie pastry
3 medium ripe pears, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Unroll pasty into a 9-in. pie plate; flute edges. Place pears in pastry. In a small bowl, combine sugar and flour. Stir in the eggs, cream and vanilla. Pour over pears. Bake at 375° for 45-50 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Yield: 6 servings.

Christmas 2008

Our family gets together on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day. This tradition began one year when our children were small and Christmas fell on a Sunday. We knew it would be hard to get them up, do “Santa”, open gifts and still get to church on time. So… we opened gifts the night before and it was such a success, we decided to continue doing it that way every year. With the kids older now and some having to spread their time between more than one place, it works out quite well.

Another tradition we began several years ago is our annual game of “Holiday Bingo”. I like to be the “caller” and pick out the prizes, simple stuff like candy, fishing lures and fun lip balms. Last round is a cover-the-board game for the grand prize, a Wal-Mart gift card. After bingo we open gifts then spend the rest of the evening playing games, visiting, watching TV or whatever. This year Older Daughter, her new husband, Younger Daughter and I had some serious competition going with the Pictionary game!

Rather than trying to have a sit-down meal, we found it’s much easier to provide an array of snack items. Chip & dip, cheese & crackers, mini sandwiches (turkey, ham, beef, goose), boiled shrimp and lots of desserts. More than enough for everyone!

Things were quiet here on Christmas Day. My husband came in from checking the livestock and announced we had a new arrival, so I visited the pasture that afternoon with camera in hand in hopes for a glimpse of the “Christmas calf”. No luck, she had it hidden somewhere. I did get a few pictures of the donkeys, though. Here’s one of the baby Jenny had in October. He has on his fuzzy winter coat! I also couldn’t resist taking a picture of this cow (or maybe it’s Bully??) curled up in a ball. Cute!

2008 Holiday Edition of iPod Roulette

1. The Bells of Dublin/Christmas Eve (The Chieftains) – “Bells of Dublin”
2. Christmas Song (Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds) – “A Very Special Christmas 3”
3. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear (various artists) – “Peaceful Christmas” This album is all instrumental featuring harp, flute, English horn, cello and guitar.
4. I Saw Three Ships (Bronn Journey) – “Christmas Rose”
5. Greensleeves (Vince Guaraldi Trio) – “A Very Special Charlie Brown Holiday Collection”
6. O Holy Night (Aaron Neville) – “Aaron Neville’s Soulful Christmas”
7. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (David Benoit Trio) – Another selection (but different artist) from “A Very Special Charlie Brown Holiday Collection”
8. Good Christian Men Rejoice (Phil Keaggy) – “Majesty & Wonder: An Instrumental Christmas” This has always been one of my favorite Christmas albums. .
9. We Wish You A Merry Christmas (Pete Jacobs Orchestra) – “Big Band Christmas”
10. Tonet, Ihr Pauken Erschallet, Trompeten (Leipzig University Chorus) – “Classical Christmas”
11. O Come All Ye Faithful (Nat King Cole) – “Now That’s What I Call Christmas! 3” He has one of the smoothest voices ever!
12. I Believe in You (Sinead O’Connor) – “A Very Special Christmas 2”
13. It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas (Johnny Mathis) – “Now That’s What I Call Christmas! 3”
14. O Holy Night (Faith Hill) – A recent “Single of the Week” on iTunes.
15. Just Like Me (Vanessa Williams) – Yet another from “A Very Special Charlie Brown Holiday Collection”.

For my special “holiday edition” of iPod Roulette, I decided to bend the rules just a bit. It amazed me that with 275 songs to choose from it “randomly” selected four from the same album (The Chieftains). So…. unless the song was by a different artist, I skipped to the next song when there was a repeat. There were so many good artists that didn’t get played in this round, but hey… there’s still plenty of time for holiday music!

Movie Time Again!

Our younger daughter is her father’s child when it comes to movies. She loves them! When she’s home from college we tend to rent, buy and watch more movies than ever. We’ve seen quite a few during the past week. A couple of them were newer movies: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Both the kind of movie you love to pick apart, but still have fun watching. Last night we decided on the spur of the moment to go see The Day the Earth Stood Still. It was pretty good, but I thought the ending left a little to be desired.

While in the mood for “family movie viewing”, my husband and I decided to introduce her to a few of our favorite movies. First up was my all-time favorite Western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Directed in 1962 by John Ford, it stars Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles and Lee Marvin. There are lots of great scenes in the movie, but my favorite is when Valance’s henchman volunteers to grab up the steak that’s been knocked to the floor and John Wayne’s character kicks him in the face. Trust me, in context it’s a very funny scene. In addition to the movie, I’ve always loved the song of the same title by Gene Pitney.

The next evening we watched Quigley Down Under starring Tom Selleck, Laura San Giacomo and Alan Rickman. I’ve been a big Tom Selleck fan since his Magnum PI days, but especially like him in gunslinger roles. In Quigley he’s hired to kill off wild dogs in Australia, but learns upon arrival that it’s actually Aborigines he’s expected to shoot. Naturally he refuses and ends up being the one hunted. Quite entertaining!

Finally, we watched Zulu starring Michael Caine and narrated by Richard Burton. Based on fact, it tells the story of the battle at Rorke’s Drift where approximately 100 British soldiers defended their post against 4000 Zulu warriors. Eleven Victoria Crosses (the British equivalent of our Presidential Medal of Honor) were given out as a result. The score by John Barry is fantastic and the Zulu songs and chants included are quite mesmerizing. Definitely a movie worth seeing at least once!

Stethoscope

Here's a YouTube clip I was sent earlier in the week that I couldn't resist sharing:

One of my favorite poems

This poem by Rebekah Tempest is found in the Women's Devotional Bible. I shared it at 360 the first Christmas I blogged there. It's so good I wanted to share it again here.

Enticed by love
they came to see
God
in human frailty,
a newborn babe
at purest birth
delivered, squirming
to the earth.
This promised child
clutched in his hand
Salvation
sent at God's command.
But with salvation
death was brought,
and pain and suffering
too, were caught
entangled in his tiny palm;
flailed silently
into the calm
of night that held,
so innocently,
the Man
who'd set his people free.
- Rebekah Tempest

Imperfect Christmas Cookies

Shelby is one of my best internet pals. We met on another site six or seven years ago and we've become quite good friends since then. Someday I hope we can meet in person… preferably at her house since she lives in France!

She posted a beautiful entry on her blog today and said I could share it here. I hope it touches you as much as it did me.

Imperfect Christmas Cookies

How I love imperfect Christmas cookies! You know the ones! They’re thick on one end and thin on the other. They’re the angels with the brown and white cow sprinkles or the purple maple leaves. After twenty years of child raising I think I’ve seen every imperfect cookie imaginable.

It all started out when I was a young lady, just a kid really. My mom and grandma were Christmas bakers extraordinaire! We seemed to have a new model every day of December; in fact our Norwegian heritage practically required it! The cookies were so good and looked so nice! I’d enjoy them while watching all those Christmas specials on tv and dream about my perfectly decorated house, with my color coordinated Christmas tree, my holiday ambient music and of course loads of Noel specialities, the king of which being the decorated Christmas cookie.

I got married to the man of my dreams and our first Christmas was spent together in the married couples dormitory at Bible school. Wanting enjoy every day of our vacation, I’d decided to make ahead my Christmas cookies in the dorm kitchen. I wasn’t much of a cook back then so my Christmas cookies were less than Better Homes and Gardens perfect. My man didn’t mind. He’s known as the family cookie monster now, but back then I was amazed at the relish with which he devoured those first cookies that I made. My perfectionism took a blow that day, when I showed him that first plate of Christmas goodies. It was so far from perfect. Little did I know the true importance of imperfect Christmas cookies.

A couple years later, I was sharing my Christmas baking skills with a blond cherub who looked like she was straight from a holiday card. I laugh when I remember that first baking day in our tiny suburban Paris apartment. It was a calm day compared to a few years later when my cherubs had multiplied and I was juggling three or four at once who wanted to roll, cut out and sprinkle all at once. Running from the dining room table to the oven, watching small hands, making sure the dough was being cut out and not eaten raw, I burned a few of those treats. No matter how imperfect those cookies were, that man of mine would sneak in and steal one while the kids were rolling and cutting (and arguing too from time to time). Everyone would stand back and appreciate their cookie craftsmanship with a glass of milk on those wonderful December afternoons. The floury faces and chubby hands would warm my heart. What was it about those oh so imperfect Christmas cookies that were so very delicious?

When the teens got to cookie making, the overall esthetic quality of the average Hill family Christmas cookie greatly improved. The kitchen was quite a mess after those baking sprees, but nothing that a whistle and a shout from mom couldn’t remedy. On those afternoons, we were lucky if we had a cameo appearance from the high school aged boys who’d throw on a handful of green and red sprinkles, swipe a cookie and run off to basketball or homework. Those magical cookies were just as good as last year... or were they better? One child loved those angels with bright red sprinkles. Another said the brown stars were the best. Dad would just smile and eat another one, basking in the bustle and holiday hum. I would just wonder, what was it about those Christmas cookies? Even when we’d give them as gifts or bring them to a Christmas party, they'd bring smiles to all faces.

This year, I’ve been too busy to do any yet. Lydia took over for me today and asked me for the recipe. I found our usual one and she started to make some with the two youngest. Today while listening absently to their cookie conversations, I realized what those magical ingredients were. No matter what the cookie looked like, or what decorations adorned it, the two most important ingredients remained the same.

Those ingredients are TIME and LOVE. It takes a little time to make those cookies. Actually you need to consecrate pretty much a whole afternoon to do it. That time consecration is important. Your priorities are the things that take the most of your time. This special time was set aside to make those Christmas treats. Time to mix and bake but also to talk.That cookie time is more than food prep. It says to the people you bake with and for that they are important enough to have that TIME spent on them and them only. The fact of spending that time on those cookies just for THEM equals LOVE. While baking, a lot of listening gets done. Undivided attention is given to family members during this holiday ritual. The bakers come away with that “good all over” feeling. They been listened to and communicated with. They’ve also sown into that baking time so the cycle of giving and receiving is complete. Love has been given and received. And that love reproduces itself later on when those imperfectly made cookies are given and eaten.Those imperfect Christmas cookies may never make the front page of any culinary magazines, but when they are made and eaten, something wonderful happens every time.

Visuwords ™

A friend sent me a link to an online graphical dictionary and thesaurus a few weeks ago. I just now got around to checking it out and found it to be a rather clever site.

Check it out for yourself!

Visuwords ™

Fall puzzles

It’s been a busy fall which hasn’t left much time for working puzzles. Here are two I’ve managed to complete over the past couple of months.

The first is a Joan Steiner puzzle. As I explained in an earlier entry at 360, the real fun in working her puzzles is identifying all the everyday items used to create the scene. This one is called Look-Alike City.


The next is a “Kodacolor” puzzle entitled Autumn in Portland, OR. It didn’t start out to be that difficult, but the last 200 or so pieces were a real challenge to place!

Two interesting novels

Historical Fiction has always been my favorite genre when it comes to books. I started with Anya Seton as a teenager and have read many other authors over the years.

My daughter picked up a book at Barnes & Noble last year which I just got around to reading last month. Year of Wonders: a Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks is based on true events that occurred in Eyam, Derbyshire during an infestation of the plague in the years 1665-1666. The book revolves around a housemaid, Anna Frith, as she and her fellow villagers choose to quarantine themselves from the outside world in an effort to halt the spread of the disease. Depressing, yes…. But also fascinating, informative and filled with hope and insight into the nature of people facing hardship.

The second Geraldine Brooks novel I read was People of the Book. It was inspired by the true story of a Hebrew codex known as the Sarajevo Haggadah. The central character is a book conservator named Hanna Heath. There is a certain amount of drama dealing with her personal life, but the interesting part to me is when the story goes back in time to explain the events surrounding various items she discovers while working on the Haggadah. I found it to be different, but equally as enjoyable as Year of Wonders.

Geraldine Brooks has a third novel, March, which I hesitate to read. From what I know about it, it is a sort of “sequel” to Little Women dealing with the absent father from the original novel. It’s been so many years since I read Little Women, I would feel as if I had to brush up on the story to enjoy March. Who knows… maybe someday?