Decorating

I don't remember when or why I began decorating so early for Christmas. I draw the line at starting before Thanksgiving, but anytime after the dishes have been washed and the leftovers put away is fair game. This year my younger daughter and I spread the work out between Friday and Saturday.

I'm not much of a "pack rat", but there are some things I have a hard time parting with, Christmas decorations being one of them. My dad hand painted our names on glass ornaments when I was a little girl. I still have one survivor. My mother was quite "crafty" and I treasure the tablecloth she made representing the "Twelve Days of Christmas". It's starting to look worn in places. I have many of the decorations my kids made over the years, though some of them stay in the boxes and don't get displayed anymore. Any sort of decorative container that a gift arrived in has been packed away to set out in following years.

Earlier this month we got some new flooring in a few areas of our home. It required moving lots of stuff around, so I took the opportunity to clean out. As we pulled out the boxes of Christmas decorations this weekend I realized I was still in clean-out mode. I'd recently made a plea in the church bulletin on behalf of our craft group asking for old decorations no longer being used. It was easy to sort through my decorations with a critical eye and move a number of them to a box for the church.

Perhaps someday I'll be able to put into practice the words of my favorite architect.

"Less is more".

Another cake

The holiday is over and we only have a sprinkling of Thanksgiving fare still in the refrigerator, the majority of leftovers parcelled out yesterday.

Let me look back for a moment to the delicious meal prepared on Tuesday night. In addition to the Bacon Wrapped Chicken dish and accompanying sides, I tried a new cake recipe a friend shared over the phone last week. She told me an old man in her church always brought this cake to potluck functions up until his death at age 103. Supposedly, the critical factor is to use a Duncan Hines brand Butter Recipe Yellow cake mix. The only way I altered the recipe was to sub fat-free half & half for the milk. Once the cake cooled, I drizzled it with chocolate and caramel syrup. The result was a delicious, dense poundcake type dessert.





Duncan Hines Butter Yellow Cake Mix
3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 milk
1 stick butter, melted
3 eggs
8 oz. carton of sour cream


Pour into a greased bundt pan and bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

Thanksgiving 2009

We normally have extended family join us for our Thanksgiving feast, but this year it was just my husband, me, our son and two daughters, a significant other, and our granddaughter. We had a wonderful day filled with food and fun. We ate, played board games, ate, celebrated our granddaughter's birthday (the 28th) and ate some more.

What a feast it was! Turkey and cornbread dressing, goose and wild rice, gravy, spinach casserole, corn, sweet potato casserole, green beans, stuffed eggs, cranberry sauce, black olives, cheese and crackers and rolls. My daughters provided the desserts this year. Older daughter brought two things. I'm not sure what either was called, but both were delicious. One was a pie with cream cheese and condensed milk and the other was chocolate cheesecake balls dipped in chocolate, drizzled with more chocolate. Younger daughter tried a new pumpkin cheesecake recipe that turned out great. I'll leave you with a picture of it.... yum!!

Easy Party Chicken

Once upon a time many years ago there was a recipe that my aunt called "Easy Party Chicken". Everyone in my family loved it and we referred to it as "Bacon Wrapped Chicken". In February of 2001 I decided I wanted to become a vegetarian. Selfishly, I said if I couldn't have Bacon Wrapped Chicken then no one could have Bacon Wrapped Chicken. Shame on me. Time passed and we all forgot about the dish.

Last Spring I decided I had been a vegetarian for long enough. I've had my first taste of new recipes my family has enjoyed over the past eight years as well as pulling out many old favorites. A few weeks ago my son mentioned Bacon Wrapped Chicken. It hadn't been spoken of in years and I'd totally forgotten about it! I haven't been able to get it off my brain since then.

Last night I had everyone here for supper. Speckled butter beans, rice and.... Bacon Wrapped Chicken!! Mmmmmmm. It was everything I remembered!

Easy Party Chicken

4-6 boneless chicken breasts
dried beef - 1 jar
1 carton sour cream
1 can cream of celery/or chicken/or mushroom soup
1 Tablespoon worcestershire sauce
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 tsp. instant chicken bouillion
butter

Butter casserole dish and line bottom with dried beef. Wrap chicken breasts in bacon slices and place on the dried beef. Sprinkle with chopped onion.

Mix soup, sour cream worcestershire sauce and instant bouillion. Pour over chicken and spot with butter.

Cook uncovered at 275 degrees for 3 hours or shorter time with higher heat. It will be lightly browned on top. This can be frozen ahead of time and then cooked.

Holiday Goose

We always have wild goose as part of our Thanksgiving feast in addition to the traditional turkey. I thawed a Speckle Belly (sometimes called a White-Fronted Goose) today. This recipe appeared on my old blog a long time ago. Figured it would be an appropriate time to post it again here.

Holiday Goose

Take a fresh goose and place breast side up in a steamer basket in a dutch oven. Cover and steam on the stove for about an hour to remove the fat. (keep an eye on the water level so the pan doesn't cook dry) Remove goose and steamer basket and pour off greasy water. Return goose to the dutch oven, breast side down, and stuff cavity with wedges of apple, onion and sliced celery stalks. Pour 2 cans of beef broth over goose, season as desired, then cover and bake 3-5 hours at 275 degrees or until done.

This dish is good to prepare a day early. Remove the meat from the bone when done then pour some of the baking juices over it to keep it moist. Refrigerate, then microwave before serving the next day.

Favorite Five – Reality TV

I’m not much of a fan of Reality TV. In fact, I probably wouldn’t have included it in my Favorite Five series if Quid hadn’t mentioned it in an earlier comment. I’m not even sure the choices I’ve listed all technically qualify as reality shows. Anyway, here goes....

1. American Idol – Talk about a program that requires an investment of your time! I’ve only watched one season from start to finish and that was the Taylor Hicks year. During two other seasons I’ve picked it up for the final 12 (or 13 as was the case this past year) contestants. Now that I have a DVR, I may try to watch it from the beginning during the next season. It’s great being able to skip all the boring parts.

2. Iron Chef – Not the American version, but the original Japanese version that was dubbed in English.

3. Pimp My Ride – It always amazed me how they could take a pitiful looking vehicle and customize it in such neat ways to suit the personality or profession of the owner. I loved the host for the show, Xzibit . A funny guy!

4. Skating with Celebrities - Plagued with a variety of “issues”, this program only lasted one season. Too bad. I enjoyed it.

5. I couldn’t decided between these two for my last choice: Parental Control (I watched the later version of the show) and America’s Best Dance Crew (produced by Randy Jackson of American Idol fame), Totally different, but equally entertaining.

Common Words

If you’re like me, another way to waste time on the computer is just what you need. (NOT!) I got an e-mail today with a link to a site where you are given 12 minutes to come up with the 100 most common words in the English language. I never do well at things when timed and only came up with 46.

Give it a try HERE and see how you do.

For the record, if a word you type into the box is correct it will automatically move it to the list (which is not in any order). If it’s not correct, you’ll have to back-space it out and try another word.

Eggless and more (or less)

Think you know about Southern cooking? See how well you do at this Southern Food Quiz that caught my eye on the MSN page today. I scored 10 out of 10 and would have been disappointed in myself if I hadn’t. After all, I’ve lived my entire life in the South!

I don’t normally post recipes that I haven’t tried first. However, I was “talking cakes” with a friend on the phone this morning and was reminded that she won’t eat anything with egg in it. So, I’m posting this recipe for her. I copied it from the August 2009 issue of Guideposts magazine. It was submitted by Rosemary Marbach of Boston, MA and looks like it would be delicious.

“Violet”, this is for you. Let me know what you think if you try it!

Eggless, Milkless, Butterless Cake

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1½ cups water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cups dark raisins
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons water
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 325ºF. Combine sugar, water, oil, raisins and spices in a saucepan, and boil for 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Take pan off heat and let cool for 10 minutes. Dissolve baking soda and salt in 2 teaspoons of water and add to raisin mixture (it will foam). Blend in the flour and baking powder. Mix well, Pour batter into a greased 9-inch-square pan and bake for 55 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cake cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Serves 10 to 12.

I got one!

I’ve heard about them for years and those that use them love them. Algernon’s recent post, and the comments that followed, got me to thinking about them more seriously. The “them” I’m referring to are neti pots.

I have lots of sinus issues, but a real aversion to antibiotics. So, as long as things don’t get serious, my doctor allows me to ride out my sinus problems without medication. After several days of debate, I decided to purchase a neti pot in hopes that maybe some of my sinus issues would go away.

While headed to visit a friend yesterday, I stopped by the local Walgreens to see if they had any neti pots in stock. They had the travel variety (plastic), so I made the purchase. The first words from my mouth when I arrived at my friend’s house were, “have you ever used a neti pot?”. Her response, “every morning!”. She gave me pointers on positioning and what type of salt to buy. My neti came with 50 packets of “Sinus Rinse”, a mixture of sodium chloride and sodium bicarbonate. I’ll use those first, but probably switch to kosher salt when they’re gone.

I’ve found it fairly easy to use, so far. The only drawback I can see is that I have to heat distilled water in the kitchen microwave then carry it to the bathroom to use in the neti pot. I was going to use warm tap water, but the instructions don’t recommend that unless it is ultra-filtered or chlorinated. Being on a personal water well, ours is neither. We have good water and I don’t mind brushing my teeth with it, but we distill what we drink.

Maybe it’s just wishful thinking on my part, but I already feel like it’s helping!!

Favorite Five - Book Series

If you’re waiting for “favorite books” or “favorite authors”, don’t worry… I’ll get there eventually. Today, though, I want to focus on book series. I read so many series, this one is especially hard for me to narrow down! I’ll try to limit my runners up to just a few.

1. The Marcus Didius Falco novels by Lindsey Davis. – Based in Rome during the reign of Vespasian, I started this series when the first one came out about 20 years ago. The author intersperses plenty of humor with the action which makes the central characters all the more fun.

2. The China Bayles herbal mysteries by Susan Wittig Albert – Another series I began reading at their onset, these books not only provide a good mystery with well developed characters, but they also include lots of herbal lore and recipes. I tend to kill plants in real life, so I garden vicariously through these books. Each book has one particular herb which plays into the storyline.

3. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books by Alexander McCall Smith – I bought the first one through QPBC and it sat on my shelf, unread, until several more had been published. Once I finally picked up the first one, I was hooked!! I haven’t seen the HBO series based on the books, but I’ve heard it’s very good.

4. Tales from Grace Chapel Inn published by Guideposts – This is one of those kinds of series you sign up for by mail and receive a new book approximately every six weeks. The first in the series explains the overall situation of how three sisters open a Bed & Breakfast together in a small town in Pennsylvania. The remaining books are “stand alone” stories that revolve around the sisters and the guests that visit their B&B. Written by a variety of authors, they are light, easy reading that I always enjoy. I haven’t received one in quite awhile, so I’m afraid I’ve reached the end of the series. I still have one on my shelf with a Christmas theme that I’ve saved for the upcoming holidays.

5. The Richard Jury novels by Martha Grimes – The main character of this series is an Inspector with New Scotland Yard. Although the author is American, I think she does an excellent job writing a British detective series. Each of the book titles is the name of a Pub found in the story.

Any of the runners up listed below could just as easily have been one of my top five picks.

Roma Sub Rosa (Gordianus the Finder) series by Steven Saylor, Brother Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters, Adam Dalgliesh novels by P.D. James, Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, Kinsey Milhone (Alphabet) series by Sue Grafton, Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich, Matthew Shardlake mysteries by C.J. Sansom, Yada Yada Prayer Group novels by Neta Jackson, The Mitford series by Jan Karon.

There are more that I enjoy, but I had to stop somewhere!! With the exception of #4 on my list, I would recommend reading any of these series in the order in which they were written.

A book, a bazaar and a ballgame

It’s been a busy week, but not too busy to finish a book I started over the weekend. It’s fun to discover new authors through other folks’ blogs, especially when you get to have some interaction with the author! I followed a link from Pen and Paper over to Crime Fiction where I discovered the book Cut Short. I enjoy reading books in this genre and decided to give it a shot. I thought it was quite good and plan to continue with the series as she writes them. If you like P.D. James, Ruth Rendell or the sort… I bet you would enjoy this novel by Leigh Russell.

Whew! The Bazaar is over for another year. We had a fairly good crowd yesterday and I'm pretty sure we ended up making more money than we did last year! Our group takes a break now until January when we clean up the craft room and get started for the next year. I still need to tie up all the loose ends for this year, but that should be done by the first week of December.

Last night my husband and I attended our granddaughter’s final soccer game of the season. This is her second year to play (she’ll be 8 this month) and she’s actually quite good at it. None of our kids played soccer, so it’s been a new experience for us. I’ve always believed in good sportsmanship and last night I caught a little glimpse of what I don’t like about children’s athletics. The game was for the championship in their age division and there was a man there, I presume someone's grandpa, that I hadn’t noticed at any of the other games. He was quite vocal in his opinion of the kid refereeing the game. The league uses older kids to call the games and this particular young lady was a little tickier than most we’d had throughout the season. I don’t know if she was truly being fair or not, but hey… it’s just a ballgame! Despite what the man thought were unfair calls, our granddaughter’s team won.

Cooking for the Bazaar

Tomorrow we will have the annual Holiday Bazaar at our church. Sponsored by our “Wednesday Worker” craft group, we offer all sorts of handmade crafts and holiday decorations, a big spread of baked goods and preserved items, lots of jewelry, and a huge selection of “Trash & Treasure”. In addition, we serve a breakfast of muffins, cinnamon rolls, coffee cake, etc. One of the items I provide for the breakfast is this pear cake:

Pear Bundt Cake
1 can (15-1/4 ounces) pears in light syrup
1 package (18-1/4 ounces) white cake mix
2 egg whites
1 egg
2 teaspoons confectioners' sugar

Drain pears, reserving the syrup; chop pears. Place pears and syrup in a mixing bowl; add dry cake mix, egg whites and egg. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Beat on high for 4 minutes.
Coat a 10-in. fluted tube pan with nonstick cooking spray and dust with flour. Add batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with confectioners' sugar. Yield: 16 servings.

I always make a few things for the bake sale area including my Van Gogh cake and bags of these crackers:

Seasoned Oyster Crackers
16-20 oz. plain oyster crackers
1 pkg. Hidden Valley Ranch Original Buttermilk Recipe salad dressing mix
¼ tsp. lemon pepper
½ to 1 tsp. dill weed
¼ tsp. garlic powder
¾ to 1 cup vegetable or canola oil

Spread crackers into a jelly roll pan. Combine remaining ingredients and drizzle over crackers, stirring to coat well. Place in a warm oven (lowest setting) for 15-20 minutes, stirring once halfway through.

This year I also tried a new recipe. Of course mine don’t look like the picture in the magazine, but they still taste okay. Not the best, but good enough to sell. From a recipe submitted to Simple & Delicious magazine by Rebecca Clark of Warrior, AL., they're called Oatmeal Surprise Cookies.

1 cup butter, softened
¾ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
2 ¾ cups quick-cooking oats
1 ½ cups chocolate-covered raisins

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs. Combine the flour, baking soda and pumpkin pie spice; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in oats and raisins.

Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto greased baking sheets. Flatten slightly. Bake at 350º for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks. Store in an airtight container. Yield: 3 dozen.

Here's hoping for a successful day!!

Favorite Five – Ice Cream Flavors

Ice Cream is not something for which I have a great weakness. I do love DQ Blizzards, but since our Dairy Queen closed, they’re no longer a temptation.

I have to be in the right mood for ice cream. When I am, these are my favorite flavors:

1. Vanilla

2. Pralines and Cream

3. Mint Chocolate Chip

4. Coconut Almond Fudge

5. Orange Sherbet

Blogger

Blogger has been acting a little strangely for me the past few days.

When I read blogs, I normally go to my dashboard first and look for updates from those I follow. I’ll link off from there if something catches my eye or otherwise interests me. While talking with my brother this week, he mentioned an entry he had made on his blog. I checked later and there were three entries that had not appeared in the updates on my dashboard. Then, on the opposite end of the spectrum, I had updates for four entries from another person’s blog, but some of those entries were as much as a week old. I had already read them since I get e-mail notifications of new entries for that blog, but thinking back, I can’t remember if they showed up in my updates at the time they originally posted. Hmmm.

How do y’all read blogs? Do you use the dashboard and depend on updates from those you follow? If you do this, do you click on the entry or the entire blog? Do you just go to individual blogs and read all the entries down to where you last read one? Do you think you ever miss entries this way? Do you care?! (sorry…I got carried away…)

Just curious.

The Organic God

Having a close relationship with God is important to me. I’ve considered myself a Christian all my life (brief testimony), but it wasn’t until about ten years ago that I started hungering for a more intimate relationship with God. I’ve used various devotional guides throughout my lifetime, and still make that a part of my daily quiet time, but it wasn’t until I tackled my first in-depth Bible study that I finally touched on that personal relationship I was looking for.

Most of the studies I’ve done have been by Beth Moore. I think I’ve completed all her workbooks, my most recent being the Psalms of Ascent. She never fails to make me ask questions, dig deeper, study harder and ultimately draw closer to God.

Even though my daily devotions are vital, I can always tell when I need that extra boost that only comes from a group study. So…. when my church recently offered a 6-week course by Margaret Feinberg entitled The Organic God *, I jumped at the opportunity. The book, paired with the corresponding workbook and videos from our group sessions, made for a delightful and thought provoking study, different from any I've done in the past.

Just what I needed!



* "Organic means natural, pure, no additives. Margaret Feinberg wants us to know the God revealed in the Christian Bible without prejudice or corruption. In the course of 10 creative and engaging chapters, she introduces us to the character of God….Feinberg is a gifted storyteller and spiritual teacher. She has a knack for leading us to an 'aha' insight or a reflective 'hmmm.'" — The Dallas Morning News

Favorite Five – Words

Words are an important part of our everyday life. Reading, speaking, listening… we all use them. Etymology is important to some folks and there are several “daily word” sites, such as the one I subscribe to, which provide this along with pronunciation, meaning and an example of usage.

I like words. You may not think you do, but surely there are a few you like better than others. I’ll tell you mine if you’ll tell me yours…. and please, keep it “G-rated”.

1. Vacuum - Hands down, this is my all-time favorite word. I love the sound of it and especially like spelling it aloud! There’s something about those “u”s.

2. Ominous – I remember learning this word not in spelling, but as a vocabulary word from a story in school. It was used in reference to “ominous clouds” before a storm and I’ve used it in weather discussions ever since.

3. Business - When I learned to type in High School (on an Underwood manual), I liked the way this word seemed to flow from my fingers. Why this particular word I don’t know, but it always just “felt” right.

4. Ombudsman – A fascinating word! I rarely see or hear it, but when I do it jumps out at me. Mainly, I think, because it’s such an awkward word that doesn’t flow from the lips easily. (interesting note: When I checked its spelling in my dictionary, I discovered it’s on the same page as “ominous”.) (additional note: Yes, I tend to use a real dictionary more than “spell-check”.)

5. Viaduct – This is not a word most small children know. However, due to having one over our community’s train yard near the downtown, I would venture to say most kids in our area are familiar with the word. When I was little, it was a known fact that if you didn’t hold your breath the entire time you drove over it, a murderer would come to your house that night and chop off your head while you slept!

To Kill A Mockingbird

There are a number of books that I feel like I should have read at some point in my life. You know the ones I’m talking about… the classic you somehow missed out on in school, the Pulitzer Prize winner, the novel the critics raved about. Some of them I still have hopes of reading someday. Others are actually sitting in my TBR pile, just waiting for the right time. Then again, some you really don’t care anything about, no matter how "important" others might think they are.

A good friend, who happens to be a retired English teacher, and I were discussing some of these books over the summer. She was surprised to find out I had never read To Kill A Mockingbird (by Harper Lee) or seen the movie version (starring Gregory Peck).

When my birthday rolled around in September, she gave me a copy of the book. I read it last week and really enjoyed it! In fact, I can’t imagine why I hadn’t read it before. I may have to insist my husband put the movie in his queue at Netflix soon, while the book is still fresh in my mind.

Ocean Dimensions

After taking a couple of months off from “puzzling”, I recently completed the final puzzle in the Visual Dimensions 3D Motion Puzzle series. Jungle Dimensions and Outer Dimensions are featured in entries on this blog. I worked Floral Dimensions when I still used 360.

It’s disappointing how poorly they photograph. Being “motion puzzles”, they really need to be seen in person and viewed from several angles to be appreciated. I think this one took the poorest picture of them all.

Next up is a Jan Van Haasteren puzzle. They don’t photograph well, either, but for other reasons. They’re a lot of fun to work, though!

I Like Pie

I found this recipe in my Great American Brand Name Recipes Cookbook. I substituted a cup of peach pie filling for the applesauce and it became Peach Chess Pie.
Delicious!

Apple Chess Pie

1 (9-inch) unbaked pastry shell
4 eggs
1 (14-ounce) can EAGLE® Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk (NOT evaporated milk)
1 cup applesauce
½ cup margarine or butter, melted
¼ cup REALEMON® Lemon Juice from Concentrate
2 tablespoons cornmeal

Preheat oven to 425º. Bake pastry shell 8 minutes; remove from oven. Reduce oven temperature to 350º. In large mixer bowl, beat eggs. Add remaining ingredients except pastry shell; mix well. Pour into prepared pastry shell. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool. Serve warm or chilled. Refrigerate leftovers