Public Apology

         I have been remiss in my blogging of late and it has been brought to my attention by multiple individuals. Please accept this humble apology and my pledge to blog more frequently than at 20 day intervals. Massive update post coming soon to a webpage near you. Please enjoy the pictures and video below while you wait with eager expectation.

W , making sure our Christmas tree is level.

One of my favorite ornaments. I made bunches of these crochet snowflakes two Christmases ago because my grandmother always had them on her tree. Love the old fashioned feel.

W and I had a  Christmas ornament engagement shower  (with Sarah and her fiancee) and this is one of the ornaments we were given-it came from Rachel! Great memories :)

I love this ornament. "Two Peas in a Pod." It's so whimsical and fun!

This one is from last Christmas. It looks like a weird little peanut, but it's Baby P. His first photo!

The Christmas Pickle. It's a German family tradition. You hide the pickle somewhere in the tree on Christmas morning and whoever finds it first gets an extra gift. My mom does it at her house too and it's usually something like movie tickets, John Mayer tickets a couple of years ago, gift cards, etc.... Fun!

This is a completely non Christmas related video, but I just found it on my video camera and could not stop laughing. Enjoy and think of warm weather.

Let it Snow

It's snowing right now, big fat fluffy snowflakes that are hard to see in this picture.

I'm sitting inside with my Christmas flavored coffee in my Christmas mug and lovely smelling Christmas tree,  Christmas shopping on the computer and admiring my Christmas ornaments.

Here's one of my favorites: "Candy Cane Kitten." When we were little, my Mom gave us an ornament every year and she would try to stick with a series. The first ones I remember are these porcelain Hallmark cats. I have three of them, and they were probably made in the late 80's or early 90's. I could not wait to get them out every Christmas and Heaven help my brothers or sister if they laid a paw on these little kittens or tried to hang them on the tree. I still enjoy getting them out and remembering Christmases gone by.

Grown up Christmas To Do List

1) Do the Christmas Shopping for friends and family.

2) Figure out when and where we will celebrate with both sides of the family.

3) Get the youth choir ready to sing Christmas music in two weeks and sew costumes for the children's musical this weekend.

4) Buy Christmas flavored coffee and a Santa hat for Baby P.

5) Select the perfect Christmas tree and decorate it.

Well, at least the really important things are done. 

Scone Schmone...

Last night I thought it would be a nice treat to wake up to fragrant coffee and fresh, homemade scones.

Bah humbug.

This was my first attempt at scones, but I know that they can be finicky and the ingredients have to be added just right so I was really concentrating. The dough looked perfect and smelled so good. I started to roll it out and by some weird fluke I hit the espresso pot with the rolling pin, it shattered and flung slivers of glass all over the kitchen. There is nothing more frightening than seeing a hunk of something edible covered with sharp bits of glass.

"We here at Shards of Glass have determined that there is no safe way to eat a Shards of Glass Scone."

So obviously I threw it out and luckily had just enough ingredients to start a second batch (after cleaning up from the glass disaster). I mixed and rolled and sliced and just as I was putting the little guys in the oven I realized that in my hurry I had left the egg out of the dough. Bleepety bleep bleep bleep!!!

I tried to bake them anyway and they melted out into a flat, hard piece of yuck within minutes. Fail!

I'm going to eat you, Scones, if it's the last thing I do. Since I threw away six cups of flour, a quart of heavy cream and a pound of butter yesterday (among other things) I'm going to need supplies. Troops!

Thanksgiving Time is Here...Happiness and Cheer...

No...

Turkey Time is here...Lots of Ham and Beer...?

Maybe...

Thanksgiving Time is here...Bagels, lox and "schmeer"...?

NOPE!

Thanksgiving has come and gone, although I like to think that the Thanksgiving season continues on until December 1 then we can get down to serious Christmas business. Thanksgiving time is here with lots of turkey, ham, cheese grits, brussel sprouts, potatos, yeast rolls, three different kinds of pie, stuffing, you name it and we probably ate it. I have enjoyed two Thanksgivings thus far and have one more to go this weekend.

On Wednesday (W had to work) so me and Baby P went to the lake for Thanksgiving with my side of the clan: parents, my brother and his wife, my other brother and my sister. We literally cooked for two days and had probably one of the best meals I've ever eaten. The turkey was to die for. We used Pioneer Woman's Brining Recipe. I'm telling you: Best. Turkey. I. Have. Ever. Eaten. I keep going back to the fridge for little nibbles (even cold it's fabulous) and the flavor was unbelievable. You boil together water, apple cider, brown sugar, lots of salt, peppercorns, orange peel, some herbs and lots of garlic. Then you stick the turkey in that delicious smelling broth and put it in the fridge for about 16 hours. I'm drooling again. Really, do it sometime...not drool, make this brine...it would even be good in miniature with a little, bitty, whole chicken.

Here's our turkey! That's really our turkey, not just a turkey leg model.

Then we had the cheese grits. We borrowed the recipe from Josie's (a little restaurant/diner here) and they're amazing. They involve a little something called "processed cheese food" (that's velveeta, to the common man), chicken broth, some diced tomatos, garlic and cayenne (the secret to their greatness). Yum, yum, yum...I rewarmed them for my second dinner yesterday and I'm eating them for breakfast right now!!

Then there was the gravy, brussel sprouts (done with pancetta, salt, pepper and chicken stock), baby red potatoes braised in butter then tossed with assorted fresh herbs and I'll stop there because we really went out of control with the side dishes. My sister got halfway through dinner and had to go lay down on the couch.

Then yesterday, W had to work and several family members had a stomach bug, I did an entire separate Thanksgiving dinner for us. He requested a Honeybaked ham (always a crowd pleaser), I made the green beans that his mom always makes (mushrooms, ham, cheesy sauce, green beans baked in a casserole), cheese grits (duh!!), potatoes, and coconut cream pie (our fave!).

It was a great Thanksgiving! Can't wait for the one on Saturday with W's family!

I'm making cheese grits.

Five Things I'm Thankful for this morning...

1) Boiled Custard: I love it. It is delicious and thick and creamy. It involves cooked eggs, thank you! Unlike, egg nog which is slimy and disgusting. You can add nutmeg or cinnamon or whiskey or rum to it and it is even more delicious.

2) The six hours of uninterrupted sleep that I got last night.

3) Scrabble for iPhone. It helps me to be addicted in a highly portable and unembarassing way (even in public places).

4) Food, cookbooks and food blogs. I love browsing for new, interesting recipes. I love trying them out and discussing the pros and cons with other foodies. I love eating these tasty treats and I am very thankful for food, it's one of God's good gifts. Not just because it nourishes and sustains our bodies. God, in His mercy, also gave us tastebuds to enjoy a multitude of different flavors and textures, the creative ability to enjoy making it, eyes to enjoy its beautiful colors and appearance, and a sense of smell to enjoy its delectable odors- which makeThanksgiving fifty times better.

5) I'm thankful that my Mom invents shorthand for text messaging. The latest addition to her lexicon is 'PTL'

My sister had this text convo with Mom last week:

Chloe: "I aced my math test. :)"
Mom: "Yay!!!!! We were praying!!!! PTL"
Chloe: "OH MY, PTL? If that means Praise the Lord I'm going to pee my pants. "
Mom: no response

More Thanksgiving to come. PTL, ya'll!

It's Christmas Time in the City...

I think stores are jumping the gun, putting out Christmas decorations and merchandise way  before Thanksgiving. I'm usually not excited to see it, but I walked past the seasonal dishes area in Target (one of my favorite, I always get sucked in...) and saw this:

Just look at it!

Little stubby legs, little stubby arms, huge beard!

And I have a thing about Christmas coffee mugs...

I collect them.

I use mugs every day!

And it was only $3.99...

So here sits Santa in my living room, with his funny little grin and his gift-wrapped package, filled with warm half & half...and Coffee too, of course...