Christmas Party

(my daughter’s Blue Danube)

After a wonderful week at my daughter’s for Thanksgiving,

I am home and currently working

on a

Christmas party that my husband and I ,

along with our dear, dear friends

are having this Friday.

Here’s the catch…

We had this same party in

1985!

We are each bringing

sausage balls

a dessert tray

a savory surprise

and

we are also serving small sandwiches on baby croissants.


There will be a DJ, a variety of beverages,

and lots of dancing.



Tomorrow is decorating day, and I will take lots of photos.

I also bought a pair of black sequined pumps,

to which my husband said…

“you may break your neck.”


I sure hope so!

 

To You and Yours

Dear Friends,

May you have a glorious Thanksgiving celebration this Thursday.

I read this early this morning,  and this is what I am celebrating.


”A thankful attitude opens windows of heaven.”

                                                          Jesus Calling, November 22


Whoosh!

Can’t you feel the air coming in through that open window?


Enjoy every single moment.


You are loved and appreciated.

 

                               Laura

                               White Spray Paint

Congealed Salads Have a PR Problem

Source

 

The only thing separating conjealed salads

from renewed culinary stardom,

in my opinion,

is its name:


CONJEALED.


This is NOT good ladies.


Of the things that conjeal in the world ,

I can’t think of one I want on my plate.


However,

we know conjealed salads are different.


If you , like me, first saw one jiggle in the sunlight

at some special family event,

loaded with mystery fruit,

with your little girl eyes level with the picnic table,

then you know they are family works of art.


They are desserts labeled as salads,

they are every color of the rainbow,

and aside from their hidden treasures,

they are self-firming.


They just need a new name!


That is my mission this week on White Spray Paint

in what is evolving into family food week.

What do you think?

Throw a name in the hat!

Jiggly Salads?

Cranberry Help, Please!

 

source

Oh dear…

dare I confess this?


My family likes jellied cranberry sauce.


There I said it.


I do make an effort to get the wrinkles out of its cheeks prior to serving.

source

I know some of you might be having

flashbacks ,

after seeing these photos,

of your elementary cafeteria days the week of Thanksgiving,

but I have unsuccessfully tried to find a recipe that has

fresh ingredients that:


a.  isn’t so tart your eyes cross

b.  doesn’t have such a strange texture it feels funny in your mouth.

My grandmother Mamaw made fresh cranberry

relish that met the above criteria.


She was an amazing cook,

but my mouth is puckering and my eyes are crossing right now thinking about it.


So, I need your help.


I studied cookbooks last night,

and I just don’t trust the recipes I read.



If you have a recipe that is wonderful and

you are willing to share it,

I would be so grateful.

Dear Daughters: Expected Expectations

My Father,  Thanksgiving,  2010


For as long as I can remember, I thought I was

just like my mother.


Lately, in steely, one on one,

no nonsense, look somebody in the eye conversations with

people who don’t think the way I do,

I realized I was also

exactly like my father,

with

ONE

major

exception.



He says something in 3 words;

I use 53.


There is a code of expected behavior all tied up

in what he seems to be saying,

in so few words.


It is the communication of

expected

expectations.


Not the high and low that the world today exhorts.

It is EXPECTED.


It in turn causes you to expect it too.



Some of his classics:


*keep a tight rein

*did you learn anything?

*you don’t have any business…

*sister, that’s a two handed turn


***

Hobby Lobby Alert

Have fun!

I resisted.

Conversation with self in Hobby Lobby:

Me:  You’ve got to be kidding. Look at those black and cream toile pumpkins.

Me Back:  No.  Stop the insanity.

(Remember that diet book??)

Cart Before the Horse Decorating

I know there are valid steps in the process

of  creating a beautiful

to the eye of the beholder home.


I just don’t operate that way.

I have just christened what I do as

Cart Before the Horse Decorating.
Here is how it works.



* I didn’t want to invest another dime in our 30 year old

sofa because it has sinkholes to China,

but when the Crate and Barrel Outlet had olive green velveteen pillows for $5.99,

I became a fan (of the pillows).

We can now sink in elegant comfort.



*When  I had one of those middle-aged spark plug kind of thoughts driving down the road of

“I want a subdued leopard rug in front of the living room couch!”,

I decided to ignore the worn too small rug that is there temporarily.

I am now on a quest for a leopard rug that doesn’t look like a Halloween costume.


*When a lady at a junk store in a neighboring town could not find the glass top that went with the heavy brass

coffee table base I  had to have,

and she said,

“Senora, you want this one?”

Of course I said yes- even though it doesn’t fit.




It is sort of like creating my own reality.




Which is so much fun!

***




And so in the interest of full disclosure,

I see some things in the photo that need

changing.


*the couch still needs to be replaced

*the lamps need to be replaced with something metal

*the coffee table needs an anchor like books or something with more color


*the rug has to go




As soon as I buy my Thanksgiving groceries,

have my grandsons for a visit,

decorate the house for Christmas,

Christmas shop,

and change my mind 10 times,

I’ll post after photos!

Blog Post Spacing Issues

Hello Everyone-

I have been having spacing issues with my published blog posts recently.

Any posts that I have deleted or re-posted has been because, once published ,I realized the lines and margins in my post were all over the place.

If I am fortunate enough to be on your blog roll, I am sorry if I keep jumping around.

I use LiveWriter- any ideas on why this is happening and how I can fix it?

Apothecary Jars, Punch Cups, and Canisters

If I had lived in a

different era,

I would have served

a lot of

punch.



How do I know this?

I have had a long-time love

for punch bowls and cups.



The last time I teetered on my step stool to check

above the refrigerator,

I have 3 milk glass punch bowls,

2 cut glass punch bowls,

and a dark green glass punch bowl-

all with matching punch cups.

During my recent

house fixing,

I introduced my apothecary jars

to my punch cups,

and I found an interim solution

for my need to use them.

True confession…

I have a million punch cups,

and

today while selling at our booth at a local market days,

I located a sack of silver plate punch cups I bought at the flea market this summer.

Woo hoo!

Layers

Although this photo of our den

(with the clutter cleared away),

may not send this message,

I do love layers.


(desk by the back den window)

I love,

in no particular order,

layered cake

layered salad

layered clothes

layered jewelry (be still my layered jewelry beating heart)

layered accessories

and

(drum roll please)

layered on

Christmas decorations.

I am clearing away space…

are you???

PS… and yes, I did have a video posted on my blog yesterday,

but when I went back and looked,

it made me nervous.

Maybe because it was the length of

Gone With the Wind,

plus,

I showed photos of our bathrooms.

Who wants to see THAT?

And finally,

my middle daughter who tells it like it is said…

“  what’s with the creepy music?”

Film career ended.

Faux Twitter: Hanging a Gallery Wall

(this was one of the many projects I recently completed)

Level of Difficulty for Someone With My Personality?

comparable to natural childbirth

***

6:00 am Woke at 6 and realized I was out of coffee. Unacceptable, unimaginable. 

6:15 am Drove to Chick Fila ( who has delicious coffee) to jump start my engine.

6:30 am Drove home and entered the house feeling caffeinated and calm.

6:45 am Tried to ‘measure off the space …’ (according to the tutorial) where I will be hanging my prints.

7:00 am If I am holding the measuring tape at one end, who is holding the other end?

7:10 am Used a trick I ALWAYS used before blogging made me realize I was hanging things wrong.

7:15 am Stared really hard at a miniscule bump in the texture of

the wall and without dropping my gaze- walked toward it and marked the spot. Whatever…

8:00 am Took a break and wished for more coffee.

8:15 am Got down on the floor with my roll of butcher paper and realized I had forgotten the tape and scissors. 

Lithely (not) unfolded myself and started again.

8:30 am Took another break.

8:45 am Lowered myself to the floor holding all of my utensils and ‘ cut 2 strips of paper the length of my pre-measured space and taped them together’ (according to the tutorial). Did a little muttering.&^%$

9:00 am Placed prints on the paper in ‘EXACTLY THE SPOT’ (according to the tutorial) where I wanted them.

9:15 am Drew outlines around the frames. Still on the floor ,which has never been my favorite place to spend time.

9:30 am Now for the tricky part. I  measured the distance from the picture hanger to the top of the frame and marked the spot on the paper. ‘This must be exact.’ (according to the smug, self-satisfied tutorial) 

This is what I was supposed to do next.

9:45 am Taped the paper on the wall. Hammered nails into EXACTLY marked dots.

10:00 am With one giant, brisk tug, jerked paper away from nails in the wall. (Like stripping a tablecloth under a set table.


This is what I did instead.

10:03 am Stared really hard at bumps in the wall that looked about right, while holding straight pins in my mouth with my tack hammer clutched between my legs.

10:08 am Hung all 6 prints.

10:10 am Returned to Chick Fila, got another cup of coffee, and decided to ease my pain at Ross.

Thanksgiving Progressive Dinner: Workhorses and a Recipe

                                                                          (Franciscan Apple, my Thanksgiving workhorse)

 

A while back,

I wrote a post about Franciscan Apple being my

workhorse at Thanksgiving.


This is what I said and what I added today:

There is something so comforting,

so perfectly weighty and substantial about Franciscan’s Apple ,

that it is the logical  shoulder for the wonderful mound of food I’ll serve to my family on Thanksgiving Day.

       

It is not so precious-

so fine

that it can’t be scraped and stacked before washing,

or even jostled in the kitchen sink. 

Young and old can ‘fix their plate’ from the buffet I set up on our kitchen island, and I don’t have to hold my breath.


Not because I don’t love it or care about its safety,

but rather

because we (Franciscan and I) trust each other.


Why?

Because we are both workhorses when the need arises-

however worse for wear and slightly ‘aged’ and dated we both might be.

        During Thanksgiving preparations, I feel like every cabinet door in my house is open,

as I bring my dishes out of their seasonal hibernation. 

I bet you do the same thing.

       And now for a very humble

‘workhorse’ recipe.

Laura’s Cornbread Dressing

*based on my mother’s

and her mother’s recipe

2 boxes Jiffy cornbread mix

1 bag Pepperidge Farm Herbed Stuffing mix

4 eggs, beaten

multiple cans of chicken broth

1 medium onion

1 bunch of celery chopped

1 stick butter, melted

poultry seasoning (or sage if you dare)

Bake your cornbread in a 9x13 pan the night before you are going to prepare the dressing.

Once it is cooled, crumble it.

When ready to prepare the dressing, add the bag of stuffing mix and toss gently with your hands.

Melt the stick of butter in a skillet and saute the onion and celery.

Add that to the cornbread mixture, including all of the butter from the pan.

Add the 4 beaten eggs and mix .

Now for the rocket science part.

Start adding chicken broth and poultry seasoning until

both the perfect taste

and

the perfect consistency is reached.

This will require lots of tasting

by

COMMITTEE

(my husband, my daughters, etc.).

 

Bake in a 375 degree oven until done.

*you will need a large pan

Disclaimer:

This is not light, fluffy dressing.

This is a dense, hopefully moist dressing that

provides the perfect base for turkey and gravy.

  

Enjoy!

Thank you to Home Sweet Homemade for asking me to join in this wonderful progressive dinner.

***

Linking to:

 

Thanksgiving Progressive Dinner

I am participating in

a wonderful Thanksgiving Progressive Dinner at

Diane’s blog

Home Sweet Homemade.

It starts Wednesday.

Stop by for great recipe ideas!