The Twelve Days of Christmas

Here is an ornament from our oldest son's second Christmas. His theme is snowmen and this has always been a favorite given that it is made from a jingle bell. Around here, anything that makes noise is a favorite. I hope you've been enjoying seeing some of Christmas at our house, only a few more days until Christmas now. I'm off to sew, almost done with a dress-up dress!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Candy making has been a part of Christmas in my family since the very beginning. Pecan Pralines and my mom's Chocolate Fudge are just about as important as the Christmas tree. Every year I try out a few new recipes, so far I have whipped up Nutella Fudge, Peppermint Bark and Peanut Butter Bars. I highly recommend them all.

When I was young, we were always at my Mamaw's house. They had some dear friends named Mr. Dick and Mrs. Norma. Among other talents like quilting and sewing and training award winning bird dogs, they were unbelievable candy makers. For the 55 years of their marriage, they made at least a dozen kinds of homemade candies together every Christmas. Their Peanut Butter Balls were known throughout the land, legendary I tell you. So whenever I stir up a batch of Pecan Pralines like I did last week, I always think of Mrs. Norma and Mr. Dick. Then I eat an extra piece in honor of them. Sweet memories!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

This cowboy santa is part of my middle son's ornament collection. I do believe it's my favorite of the santas. Do you notice anything strange about it? Well, it made it through two Christmases before part of it bit the dust. And around here, that's kind of a record!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Today I want to show you one of my favorite ornaments. Every year I give my four year old daughter an angel ornament. This one was actually given to me but she immediately requisitioned it for herself since it was, after all, an angel. It's an unusual ornament, I think that's what I like so much about it. Simple and rustic but elegant at the same time.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

I put this together yesterday using a thrifted tin box and tray, glass ornaments my mother-in-law gave me years ago, pine branches from my neighbor's tree and holly from my yard. What do you have around your house and yard that can be made into new Christmas decorations? Be creative!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Every day from now until Christmas I want to show you a little Christmas something from my house. I am going to start off with this simple ornament. It belongs to my middle daughter, every year I give each of my children a themed ornament and her theme is stars. Quite fitting for her calm bright personality. This soft, cream colored, wool felt star was her ornament last year and I love the contrast between it and the green texture of the tree. Just lovely!

Friday Photo

A recent thrifting venture yielded two bags of vintage buttons. Which in turn have yielded hours of fun for little treasure seekers. Oh what fun to be had in a jumble of buttons!

Chai

When cold wind whips around our little house and I find myself wearing my old sweater and wool socks all day, it's time for a little something hot to sip. I love a good hot cup of tea, somedays it's hot cocoa, others call for steaming coffee with a generous pour of cream. Only last year did I discover chai. Yummy creamy hot milk in exotic spiced hot tea. It's so very easy to make and if you can find a source of bulk spices, it's very inexpensive.

Last week as I was herding the chickadees to bed, I stopped and filled a pan with two cups of fresh water. Into that I dropped a cinnamon stick, two cardamom pods, five cloves and five black peppercorns. While I tucked everyone in, it simmered fragrantly on the back burner. Twenty minutes later I took a break from sewing the lining of Cubbie's new diaper bag to turn off the heat and drop in two tea bags to steep. By the time I finished sewing the name tag onto the top of the bag, it was ready. All I had to do was strain it into my waiting mug and stir in some raw sugar and warm whole milk. Perfect! Want to come over? I'll make you some.

Mom's Famous Christmas Fudge

In our family, it's not Christmas without Mom's famous Christmas fudge. An old-fashioned (no marshmallow fluff here, folks) chocolate fudge full of pecans. Throughout the month of December, we will cook up and devour several pans of the sweet chocolatety confection. Just for you, I made a batch and photographed the process. Sweet of me, wasn't it? Well, I try!

In an iron skillet (the old splattered cookbook page says iron skillet and we have never tested fate by using anything else), combine 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 8 tablespoons of cocoa.

Add 1 cup milk, 2 tablespoons of corn syrup or 1/8 tsp cream of tartar and 2 tablespoons of butter.

Bring it to a boil. The smell of boiling fudge is embedded in my memory as Christmas. That and fresh pine and tangerines.
You have to cook it to soft-ball stage. Now, of course you can use a candy thermometer, they all have soft-ball stage marked on it. I don't have too much luck with them. For one thing, you can't clip it onto the side of an iron skillet, it only will clip on to a deep pan. Another thing is that they often measure inaccurately and have to be tested in boiling water and adjusted to show the correct temperature. A bit too much for me to mess with when I need a pan of fudge. So I will now show you the simple and fail-proof cold water method. You will thank me. You're welcome!

Above you can see the lovely fudge boiling away and a cup of water with a drizzle of fudge in it. The water must be cold, not iced, but cold tap water. After about 5 minutes of boiling, drop a good teaspoonful of the hot fudge into the water. It will be liquidy and kind of dissolve. You have to keep boiling.

A few minutes later, the teaspoonful of fudge will make a squishy ball in the water but it will by almost too soft to pick up out of the water. In another minute or two, the fudge will make a soft ball that you can easily pick up. It should form into a ball but slightly flatten as it sits in your hand. When that happens, pull the pan off the burner. You did it! Now wasn't that easy? Just be sure to change our the water between tests and it's very important to sample the "tests" each time to be sure you got the recipe right. When the kids catch onto what you are doing then you have to share with them. Set the fudge aside to cool for 10 minutes without disturbing.

Now, roll up your sleeves and beat the dickens out of it with a wooden spoon. You have to beat it until you are sure your arm is about to fall off. As soon as it starts to get glossy and thick, stir in 1 1/2 cups of chopped pecans. Stir them in quickly or it will set up in the skillet. Then as fast as you can, spread the fudge in a buttered 8 inch cake pan and let it cool. When you can't stand it anymore, turn it out onto a platter and cut it into pieces.

The final product will be determined by how close you get it to soft-ball stage. A little under, it will be creamy and soft, a little over and it will be firm. However it turns out it is delicious, even a "flop" will be devoured. Anyway you do it, it's part of our Christmas. I hope you try it, it might just become part of yours! Oh, don't forget to let any kid who happens to be around "clean" the pan with a spoon. They will love you forever.

Friday Photo

There is some Christmas doll making going on over here. This doll is from a fun little book about making dolls from fleece. So very soft and cuddly. She and her sister are soon to be shipped off to my two little nieces. I think they will be well received!

The Glamorous Tightwad

I have long been addicted to being a tightwad. You know it's bad when your mother-in-law stages an intervention. Part of my therapy has been to force myself to buy bread and salad dressing even though it cost considerably more than making it yourself. My progress has been inspiring, at least to myself it has.

Well, my new venture with buying stuff instead of making it myself like the proverbial Little Red Hen has taken a serious hit. A slam into a brick wall hit in the form of this book. Do It Gorgeously by Sophie Uliano, also author of Gorgeously Green and the website and blog, www. Gorgeously Green .com, has undermined all my progress. Her focus is on making your own products (think Pine Sol and insect repellent) to save money, be more "green", and reduce the toxins in our homes. I am hooked! So far I have made:

Green Goddess Washing Powder. Super easy to make and use.

Gentle Facial Exfoliating Scrub. Oatmeal and lavender, can't stop using it!

and All Purpose Cleaner. Makes cleaning the stove and counter easy and quick. I also tried her recipe for Best Ever Cough Syrup, Rinseless Car Wash,

and Gorgeously Green Purifying Green Clay Mask.

Up next is Chamomile and Aloe Cleansing Cream to go with Geranium and Apricot Moisturizer, Regenerative Floral Beauty Balm, Vanilla Body Cream, Whitening Peppermint Toothpaste,

Cough Drops and Citrus Furniture Polish. There's a bit of everything in here.

There is an initial cost on some of the recipes, especially the beauty products, since they use essential oils but they last for a long time. I have my list and will be purchasing things as the budget allows. So, here's to my new venture as a glamorous tightwad. I like the sound of that already!

Christmas Sewing

I've been working on my Christmas sewing projects. One has been in the works for a while and others I just started yesterday. For several years now I have given handmade things to everyone in our family, the kids usually find a mix of handmade and store-bought/vintage gifts tucked under the tree. Every year it's the handmade things that bring me the most joy to give. There is really nothing like seeing someone you love open something you produced with your own hands, if they love it and use, all the better. The scarf and hat sets I knitted for the kids two years ago have seen more use as leashes in their favorite game of "Dog and Owner" than for warmth, but at least they use them for something.

A set of potholders with a matching dishtowel are all ready to be packaged up and sent off to my sister along with some fleece dolls for her little ones. My mother's gift is almost done, can't say what that is, she'll find out! A sister of mine who has a birthday today has something that is halfway finished. The fabric for a darling stuffed elephant is waiting to be cut, that's for Sweet Baby Girl. Last night I even squeaked in a handmade treat for myself.

If you are thinking of making some things for people you love this Christmas, give it a try. Choose something simple that uses materials and skills you already possess and you will find more joy than ever before in giving gifts this year!

Friday Photo

I know this is the second week featuring a certain toddler's hair. Jumping on a friend's trampoline brought on a major static attack, cracked me up. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!

A Year of Pie: Spiced Pumpkin Pie

At our home, we are serious about Pumpkin Pie. It was the first thing I ever cooked for my husband when we were dating. Over the years it has been his birthday "cake" multiple times, kind of to be expected when you have a late October birthday. I have made it from fresh pumpkin many times, even tried cooking down the pumpkin puree in an iron skillet to make it extra rich before adding it to the pie filling. You name it, I've tried it.

The real breakthrough came from an old Bon Appetit magazine salvaged from the free bin at our library. Several years ago, the actual magazine met it's fate but the torn out page found a permanent home in my recipe file. What sets this apart from the back-of-the-can recipe is the combination of sugars, the spices and the addition of molasses and real cream. No evaporated milk to be found here friends, just the straight up real stuff. My only change from the original recipe is to use a homemade crust instead of the frozen crust they call for. Don't mean to sound like a food snob here, folks, but a pie crust is really easy to make. Do not fear the crust. Try my recipe and you will see for yourself what a difference it makes. That said, let's make some Spiced Pumpkin Pie!

In a good sized bowl, combine your dry ingredients. I love the contrasting colors of the four spices all together.

Here are the four different spices I used. All my spices and herbs come from our local natural foods store where they have a bulk herb section. Not only is the selection incredible, they are very fresh and much much cheaper than what you find at the grocery store. I could just stand there and open each jar one at a time and smell them all. I keep my spices in 4 ounce canning jars, they are a perfect size and you can enjoy all the pretty colors whenever you open the cabinet.

Above you can see the three eggs, funny how different the colors of the yolks are. Also, you can see my favorite eggbeater. This one hangs by my stove and gets used everyday. If you don't have a sturdy vintage rotary beater, find yourself one. You'll be forever grateful, they are so very handy.

This vintage pyrex bowl has a pretty cross-stitch pattern that you can't see on the outside, inside it has the beaten eggs, molasses, heavy cream and pumpkin puree. Pumpkin puree from a can. I love it.

Pouring the cream/egg/pumpkin/molasses mixture into the sugar and spice mixture. It's kind of mesmerising pouring in there isn't it?

Here is the pie, ready to go into a hot oven. The sacred magazine page is sitting right by the pie.

And now the finished pie, still slightly puffed from baking. I have a thing about crust, incase you hadn't noticed. The bottom of the crust must be golden and baked. Obviously this presents some problems since it is on the bottom of a searing hot pie plate. This is why I alway use glass. When I think it's just about done, I carefully take it out of the oven and lift it up high enough to see the bottom crust. If it's not brown enough, it goes back in to finish. An underbaked crust is the ruination of many good pies. Bake that crust!

Spiced Pumpkin Pie

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons unbleached flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon allspice

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1/8 teaspoon ginger

1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (one can)

2 tablespoons molasses

3 eggs

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 nine inch pie crust

Stir together the first 8 ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, molasses, eggs and cream. Pour into the first mixture and then into the pie crust. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake about 40 minutes or until the center is just set. Cool and serve with lots of freshly whipped cream.

Serving with lots of freshly whipped cream is just what you'll find me doing this Thursday, this and The Other Pie.

Friday Photo

What better way to scoop homemade laundry soap than with an antique silver spoon!

Raisin Scones

Every couple of weeks we have hot scones for breakfast. Basically a scone is a lightly sweetened biscuit. Beyond the basics, the sky is the limit with scones. You can bake up savory scones with herbs and cheese to serve with a rich stew in the winter or quiche and a beautiful salad in the summer. Of course, small dainty scones with strawberry jam and devonshire cream is a must for tea party. This recipe is tried and true, and it's bona fide since it comes from a bread book written by a British baker. I have adapted it a bit for my taste and I always double the recipe to feed the horde. This recipe is dedicated to my dear friend Sally, who has never been too old for a tea party!

Raisin Scones

adapted from 100 Great Breads by Paul Hollywood

1 2/3 cups unbleached white flour

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons of butter

2 medium eggs, beaten

scant cup of milk

1/2 cup raisins

sugar for sprinkling

Mix together the flours, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or by hand (I always use my hands, they are your best kitchen utensil!). Mix together the eggs and milk, then stir into the flour and butter mixture. Knead lightly in the bowl or on a floured surface, adding more milk if the mixture is too dry. Knead in the raisins until evenly distributed. Pat the dough into a thick circle and cut out with a biscuit cutter. For breakfast I use a large size but for a tea party I would use my smallest cutter. Put the scones on a buttered baking sheet and sprinkle them with sugar. I only use raw sugar for baking and it makes the loveliest crust on the tops of the scones. If you only have granulated sugar it will be just fine, but raw sugar is amazing for this. It will make you will make you feel quite fancy indeed! Bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown. Serve right away with plenty of butter, jam and devonshire cream. Be sure to wear your best hat!

Friday Photo

Here is my favorite photograph from this week. This also happens to be one of my favorite people. Yesterday evening, after a rain shower, the sun was shining and I sat outside with our youngest son while he played and chattered away. Right now he loves airplanes, balls to roll and throw and "big" spiders. As you can see, he has a head full of fabulous golden curls.

Veteran's Day

I love Veteran's Day. For many years now I have called my grandfathers and my grandfather-in-law to thank them for what they did for me and our country when they were young men. This year I will call my grandfather in Michigan to thank him. I'll think of my paternal grandfather and the stories he told about seeing Paris at it's height of destruction after WWII. I'll also think about my husband's grandfather and all the stories he never told a soul about his four years of service in Europe during WWII. Then I'll call my little brother to thank him for serving two long deployments as a Marine in Iraq. Great courage is what it took to do their jobs to protect our country and years of great courage to come home and pick up their lives and carry on. Thank you!

Grade B Baby!

For several years I have been reading about Grade B maple syrup. The elusive syrup that is made after the Grade A syrup you find in the store, the stuff maple syrup makers save for themselves to pour on their pancakes and drizzle over their vanilla ice cream. An internet search showed where I could order some, after I won the lottery that is. I resigned myself to enjoying the regular stuff until that fine day when we could visit Vermont and hunt some down.

Well then, I was perusing our natural food store, filling up my jar with some blackstrap molasses from the bulk section, when what should I see but a spigot labeled Grade B Maple Syrup! Could it be? If you happened to see a woman crying in the bulk section, that was me. I filled up my jar, toted it home and proceeded to sample the nectar with a spoon. Of course, my husband caught me so then I had to share. Now every Friday morning you will find us pouring our Grade B (that's what we call it) over our pancakes and the person who cleans up the kitchen gets to lick the spoon!

Friday Photo

Inspired by my very own creative mother, I have been taking at least one photograph everyday. Doesn't sound all that ambitious, but sometimes I'll go several days without picking up my camera. To rectify that I have been taking daily photographs of life around me. And this, my friends, is my offering to you this week. I do hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Of Disasters, Culinary and Otherwise

Lately I have been slightly forgetful and distracted. Not too bad of a problem unless you forget to turn off the burner under a pan with a colander full of pasta in it. Then being forgetful tends to chap your hide. And did you know that after it cools, you can peel melted plastic right off of the beautiful pan you just "inherited" that same week from your mother-in-law. A great deal can be accomplished with a good dose of determination!

And a little note to self, if you put some chair cushions into the washer to clean them, check them first to see what they are stuffed with. In the off chance that they are stuffed with a million little chunks of foam, try another method of cleaning besides the trusty old washing machine. Otherwise you will find yourself scooping out wet little chunks of foam with a dixie cup for at least half an hour. And that's all the nuggets of advice from little old me today!

Thrifting Treasures

On a recent trip to see my family, my mom and I treated ourselves to a day of thrift shopping, antique browsing and non-stop talking in a town near their farm. Of course, since it was just us girls (Sweet Babe was with us) we ate yummy girl food for lunch at a charming lunch spot.

Two of my favorite finds of the day are featured in the photo above. I am delighted by the teacup from the Hotel Peabody in Memphis Tennessee which is still in operation. Of all the china patterns I have seen, this is one of my all time favorites. The weight of it is what makes it perfect. It's like those old restaurant mugs that are just the thing for a steaming mug of coffee on a cold morning. Extra cream please. In fact, I had my coffee in it this morning!

The New Encyclopedia of Modern Sewing is beautiful, full of photos and sketches from the fifties. I picked it up because it had a whole chapter about recovering furniture, something I plan to undertake quite soon. I do believe it will be right at home by my collection of Home Ec books from the fifties.

What is your favorite thrifted or antique treasure?

Read it and Weep

I have a friend here in town, she's one of the doctors at the pediatric clinic we use, and God is using her to transform ordinary lives. Without knowing what would come if it, she embarked on a short medical mission trip to Haiti last winter. Next month she will be going back for the fourth time. To say that God captured her heart through the people of Haiti would be a serious understatement. Her blog, Beyond this Mountain has been transforming my life.

We all read and hear of disasters though there hasn't been anything as devastating as the earthquake in Haiti in our time. I think it is easy to become numb to devastation and statements like "300,000 to 500,000 people died in the earthquake in Haiti". The fact that I could skim over statements like that and read the rest of the paper broke my heart. When you break it down into amounts you can visualize it's not so easy to pass over. There are about 68,000 people living in my town, if you go with the smallest number of deaths, that's about 4 1/2 times the people living here. For every person I see, there would be almost 4 other people who would be dead too. Kind of heard to swallow.

What my friend Stacy is writing about are the people who survived and are now living in what's left. This is what is changing my heart. There are very few jobs, their translators earn $10 dollars a day when they have work. One of them supports his parents and 8 siblings with his $10 a day when he can get work. Work that he has to walk up to 2 hours a day to have, 2 hours each way, in 100+ degree weather. Now whenever I spend money, I break it down into how many days it would take them to earn that. He would have to work 3 days to buy these diapers, 1 day to pay for my library fine, 1 and 1/2 days to pay for this book. Makes it all look different.

Please read Stacy's blog, really read it. Join me in thinking and praying about what you can do. Let the reality of what is happening to these people sink in.

Life

Oh my, it's been too long since I took the time to write. I do love my little bit of the blog world but I've been swept away with life and busyness lately. We've been working on school, making worm jars, eating, cleaning up from eating, cooking, doing laundry, kissing the baby and the other ones who used to be babies. I've been adjusting to our new homeschool schedule and figuring out how to teach more than one student at a time. Of course, there is the perpetual refereeing of fights and administering of justice. There's even been a bit of sewing going on. Not anything ambitious but still, it's refreshing to get out my machine and remind myself that I do love to sew.

These photos are of my kitchen and dining room/school room. I love this space, it's small but homey. We use every inch of it and lately it has been showing it. My usual means of self-motivation aren't working to get a cleaning system in place but I'm trying to get rolling. I've used several cleaning systems in the past, including FlyLady (which I love) but something in the back of my mine says the "just get up and do something" system would work just fine. Thanks for listening to my ramblings about life and cleaning. I hope your fall is off to a glorious start!

Bread for the Challenged

I love bread. It's serious folks, I bake some form of bread almost every day. Yesterday it was tortillas, today was homemade crust for our cheese pizza at lunch, Monday I made a loaf of the hearth bread you see in the photograph. This weekend it was two loaves of braided Oatmeal Sunflower Bread for a family get-together. I am blessed to own a wonderful bread mixer that I love but with the time constraints of homeschooling and keeping up with the brood, I was looking for a faster and easier option for my baking fixation.

Enter the no-knead bread method. This had been all over the internet but I just recently picked up the book at our library. If you are a cookbook reading nerd you will enjoy reading through his introduction and the descriptions of each recipe. If you are a bread snob like myself you will love the final product of his recipes. What I can't get over is how easy and quick it is to make fabulous bread following his methods. My only problem is that it makes one loaf. My family is ravenous and one loaf doesn't last too long. But I guess that's a good problem to have.

To make the loaf in the photograph I mixed 1 and 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour with 2 cups of white flour, 1 teaspoon of yeast, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt and about 1 and 1/2 cup of water. It takes just enough water to make the dough come together, it will be sticky but that's okay. I stirred it together right before I went to bed, popped a lid on the bowl and left it on the counter. That's all! No kneading, watching or punching down. Nothing. The next morning, I turned the dough out onto the countertop after I sprinkled it with some flour and quickly shaped it into a ball. Then I dusted a cloth napkin heavily with flour and set the ball of dough, smooth side up on the napkin and let it rest. The dough is quite sticky so you have to work quickly but it isn't critical to get it smooth or perfect, just rounded up. After about an hour I put my cast iron pot with a lid into the oven while it heated to 450 degrees. About 45 minutes later I took the lid off the pan and tipped the risen loaf off of the napkin and into the pan. This is a bit nerve-wracking for recovering perfectionists but it will rise in the pan while it's baking and that seems to take care of any mess-ups in the dough transfer. The bread baked for 15 minutes with the lid on and 25 minutes with the lid off. Then all there is to it is to cool on a rack.

This recipe works great for pizza dough if you increase the yeast to 2 teaspoons and let it rest in the bowl for about 2 hours. I mix it up before we start school to make pizza for lunch. It just can't get any easier than that.

I hope you try it out and look for the book, he has so many other recipes that I didn't try out, not yet anyway!

A Year of Pie: August is Fresh Peach Pie

Everything has been wild and crazy around here. So much of my time since the baby's birth has been spent adjusting and just staying afloat. It is however peach season, my favorite season of all. I wait all year for August, the divine month of perfectly ripe Arkansas peaches. While I was waiting to pay for my bushel of Red Haven's, tears came to my eyes. It's pretty serious, folks, peaches and I go way back. On Sunday I chopped some up for preserves, set some aside to eat fresh and then sliced the remainder up for our August edition of A Year of Pie. Perfection!

You don't need a recipe for Fresh Peach Pie. Just peaches. Oh and pie crust would be nice too. Above you can see the sliced peaches tossed with about 1/2 cup of brown sugar, a pinch of salt and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. Let it sit while you work on the crust.

When you get the bottom crust in the pie plate, fill it with your luscious peaches and dot with butter. Wet the rim of the bottom crust and gently lay the top crust on it and fold the edges under.

Crimp the edges, brush the top with milk and sprinkle with sugar, be sure to cut some slits in the crust for steam to escape. Put it in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling out of the slits. Set your beautiful creation on a rack to cool as long as you can stand to wait and then serve that baby up!

August Break - Splash!

Lots of splashing is going on around here. These two boys have taught themselves to float and swim. Big Sister has finally stopped crying when water gets on her lovely bathing suit. The addition of a wading pool for the little ones has done wonders for promoting peace. All in all having water available to splash and play in has made for a pretty fun summer. Good times!