Cooking with Dee » Christmas

Fragility

pawsinsd — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:05:02 +0000

Life is fragile. We “lose” people. they’re not lost, they’re gone from us forever. We lose some and they’re still living, but still lost in a way.

When we’re young we think we’re invincible, in our 30′s and 40′s we go along and get along, doing all we can for our families. In our fifties we could be on top of the world but still faces and bodies begin to sag.

Then, I guess we’re to choose between Botox and plastic surgery or just getting old, hopefully together with someone we love. I prefer the latter.

Just as we become comfortable, parents begin to age and there are flights here and there in these times. We also begin to think of our own aging.

A good thing comes with this if one is lucky, and that is wisdom. It’s even better if someone else benefits from that wisdom that we can share. Luckily we are at an age where we can still obtain wisdom from our elders and impart it to a younger generation.

Many of our friends and family are gone but others remain and we hope to remain close to them for the rest of our lives while remembering those who went before us.

I will try my best to be closer to the family and friends I have. I will not make Christmas cookies, because they’d be overcooked or burned and I don’t make cookies. I may try a pannetone bread pudding this year but only if I buy the cake.

OK, I may make a trifle for Jim’s office, and dinner for any office and neighborhood “strays” or adult “orphans” from the neighborhood for Christmas dinner. It’s the least I can do. Hear than Andrew? And J, you can bring the girlfriend! We’ll initiate her to the inevitable parent situation.

No, I’m not a matchmaker, just want your roads to be less bumpy than ours. Cheers and happy holidays to you and yours. Dee

The Christmas Spirit

pawsinsd — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 04:47:09 +0000

Perhaps over the weekend, recuperating from Thanksgiving, we’ll get it. I don’t think my husband ever gets it. I have to hear the right song at the right time on the car radio, shed a tear and then I’m in the holiday spirit.

We’ve seen my husband’s family for Thanksgiving and my family will be absent this year, Patagonia I think. So we’re on our own and tend to take in strays.

Christmas is a holiday in which I can use my imagination. We started with turkey, moved to prime rib, yorkshire pudding and the entire English feast. I’ve done pork roasts with hard cider gravy and corn-stuffed apples.

There’s something about that song of Maria with the Nightengale that brings me to tears every year. It was always on the car radio when I drove home from Thanksgiving with my husband sound asleep in the passenger seat and our dog at his feet.

Do I need to buy Michael Buble’s Christmas to get in the mood to see how many we’ll be feeding this year? Menu, everything, depends on this year’s muse. I have to cry, first. It’s tradition. With love and two new ornaments for a wreath we’ll get this weekend, I remain your trusted scribe and omnivore, Dee

Holiday Traditions

pawsinsd — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 01:13:16 +0000

I think now that my family always fought with them. We never knew when to get the tree. Lights went up by our mother and father. We each got our own ornament each year so got to hang them, and I was the oldest so always got two more than my younger sister. tee hee.

Dinner used to be turkey with all the trimmings, which changed I don’t know when, as Mom went to a traditional British dinner with prime rib, potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and sides. I did the “sides,” changing them every year.

Everyone discussed presents and the routine was changed every year, even though everyone said it was “routine.” Opening Christmas morning vs. Christmas Eve. After we were adults, we each picked a stocking and stuffed it for less than $20. I think our parents got each of us four a gift or two, and we got them and each other something. Hopefully my siblings don’t read this blog (unless it mentions mincemeat) otherwise the debate will start anew.

One thing we did agree on was that breakfast started early morning with Hungarian pull-apart coffee cake made by my sisters from brioche with cinnamon, sugar and nuts. We had that with coffee or tea. Early afternoon was the dinner. Then, desserts were mainly predictable, added over the years.

There were always mincemeat tarts, Scandinavians, Snickerdoodles, date squares, gingerbreads and lebkuchen. This year we are flying to my Dad’s for Christmas eve and day. Mom is gone now. My husband and I have been together for ten years and we don’t get each other Christmas gifts. But I was born in November and he in December and we don’t give gifts for those occasions either. That may be why we flew to see his family for Thanksgiving and mine for Christmas. Happy holidays! Cheers, Dee

Quiet Country Morning

pawsinsd — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:51:15 +0000

Sleeping nearly soundly because the dog had begun her early morning waking pattern, which ends with a paw on my leg or arm to GET UP! It was still dark, even though it was seven o’clock. Beep beep beep beep.

The snow came quietly overnight, a few inches that mostly melted during the day. Yeah, the ski resorts don’t like that melting stuff! I pulled up the shades as it’s always warmer when the snow falls, and it looked like Christmas. Then I heard what Jim calls the “articulated tractor,” a huge piece of machinery that can plow an entire neighborhood street in one fell swoop. If you’re on the street when that thing comes around, stay clear. It’s huge and seems to be going a good 30 m.p.h.

We went out before the driveway/walkway was plowed and it was slippery. Shortly afterwards, the skid loaders did the driveways with scraping snow and BEEP BEEP BEEP on back-up. Then the ski resorts started setting off mortars for avalanche control in the back country.

Interestingly, a number of ducks have decided to winter here, at least before it gets too cold for them. They may be stragglers, who knows. All I know is looking out at 14′ piles of snow placed by huge machines, my husband came home from work at eleven this morning with what I thought would be a cold, so I’m cooking a gorgeous stew, but now turns out to be a stomach bug. Guess I’ll be eating alone. Here’s to those quiet country moments, which we do actually get a lot of out here in nowheresville. Cheers, Dee

Buffalo Gals

pawsinsd — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 06:01:37 +0000

I remember this song from being a kid, then watching Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed “dance by the light of the moon.” Now Wylie and the Wild West has given new life to this pre-Civil War song with a honkey-tonk flair.

But I remember my Buffalo Gals, the gaggle of gals I hung out with in high school while Buffalo wings were making a splash across the USA. We hope my best bud and her husband will visit us and ski this winter, we met after many years but I’ve still not met her better half.

We remember OJ when he was merely a star football player. We lived for the Bills and the Sabres. What else is there for a Buffalo gal to do? The gang lives all over the country now and I’d love to get together with my Buffalo gals. Cheers and happy holidays to all, Dee

Christmas?

pawsinsd — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:23:49 +0000

The house is so quiet
The reindeers’ asleep
And Jimmy and Zoe’s
Company they keep

And Christmas time is here
The most wonderful time of the year

A Volvo for Jimmy, a songbook for Dee
Zoe has boots and some treats from Margie

And Christmas time is here
The most wonderful time of the year

We’re liking the winter, our first such to see
The cold and the snow just for you and for me

It’s Christmas time, it’s clear
The most wonderful time of the year

We’re missing our families and wish they were here
It’s not really Christmas without them to cheer

It’s Christmas time, we know
Wish we could all go and play in the snow.

Cheers, Dee

ps Thanks, Burl Ives.

Happy Holidays

pawsinsd — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:13:42 +0000

Thanks for reading and writing in. I hope my first full year of posts was informative and, at times, even inspirational. As a child I was too shy to speak my mind and unsure of how to express myself through words. In my thirties I started speaking out, and there was a lot to say aloud and through negotiating and opining upon issues about many things I believe in. After a few letters to the editor were published in our local paper and others in the NYTimes, I was floored! I tried bad poetry but the best I could do was an ode to my husband-to-be shortly after we met. Of course I didn’t show it to him!

My husband and I don’t buy each other birthday or Christmas gifts. This blog was his gift to me 1 1/2 years ago and it has inspired me to do the best I can to reach out and learn from others, talk to people, find out how our soldiers’ parents are doing, what people are cooking or even knitting (that’s for you, girl) or playing on the guitar. For someone who cringed at the thought of a class called “creative writing” I still don’t know if I can do that. I tell stories. Like some people, some of my stories have morals.

We’re alone this Christmas, not such a bad thing. I’ve ordered a rack of lamb and will make scalloped potatoes, spinach with garlic and olive oil (spinaci aglio e olio), and braised carrots. That’s what I think now, anyway, that I’ll marinate the lamb in olive oil, thyme, rosemary and garlic then roast it on high heat.

We moved halfway across the country from all our family for a job. We will spend time with them, and several have already ventured out here to visit so we don’t feel so bad about not flying to see two families this Christmas. In the meantime, I wish you and your family every happiness and hope you enjoy your time together. It’s not about gifts, it’s about family. Cheers, Dee

I wish you warmth and comfort and family memories not only during the holidays, but all of the year.

Flowers

pawsinsd — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 09:37:46 +0000

Jim took too long last night buying software, and showed up with two dozen roses, white and pink. I think he thinks he has to make up for the years he walked to work and there were no florists in town.

Early this morning I made three arrangements and, with the alstroemeria I picked up the other day it’s nearly more flowers than we can handle. The roses are gorgeous, opening fast and will be gone before the new year so must be enjoyed now.

For me, having fresh flowers is better than a Christmas tree, at least this year. Next year I may want to place my/our lifelong ornaments on a tree. My parents bought us each an ornament every year, labeled it and when we went away after college we got a box with our ornaments. What a wonderful way to keep memories.

Jim doesn’t have any, but I’ve been garnering two a year since we’ve married, each a different theme. OK, I bought two wooden socks, one blue and one green, the year we met, before marriage, because he was alone and needed a steak and baked potato and ornaments without a tree. Last year it was a Scottish lad and lass, this year a cowboy snowman and reindeer bearing a sheet of cookies.

My childhood ornaments are scattered but there are some with dates and I remember placing them on our tree. I’d love to see them all decorating a real tree.

Couples tell stories they remember, perhaps over and over. I think having an ornament from a certain year might bring up a new memory and topic.

I remember when my sister and I disturbed a beehive, when we recovered mice from the back of the Buick, and when my brother climbed the TV tower and wouldn’t come down. So many more. Time becomes more precious every day. Jim remembers riding Free, a dairy cow, and countless other stories.

So please keep cooking, for family and friends. And hand down your family recipes for traditions to continue. Dee

Merry Christmas

pawsinsd — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 15:28:18 +0000

I woke up the dog this morning at seven to go for a nice walk in the park with her buddy Jasper. She’s eaten her breakfast and is nestled under my down pillows with Jim, both sound asleep over two hours later. Jim deserves it, Zoe does as Zoe wants.

So, it’s grey and cloudy today, so far. My holiday decorations consist of one bay leaf wreath Mom gave me, that is up indoors year-round. One wreath on the front door with two ornaments (photo on site) and a crinkly-leafed poinsettia. No tree or other decorations or presents.

We’ll probably see one of the new movies this afternoon, and I have one of Jim’s favorite dinners planned that is easy to execute if I have an hour to make baked potatoes. A quiet day to say hello to family long-distance. I’ve been looking for a place to live. We checked out these incredibly snooty new places (still being built) the other day and I don’t know what they’ve been smoking over there. The two-bedroom is nice but in this economy they’re charging Reagan-era prices. No thanks.

I just re-located a site with a lot of this one guy’s renovations. We have been in touch once in the past and he had nothing that met our needs at the time. Uniquely, he rents a lot to college students and recent grads who stick with him from basic studios and one bedrooms on up. In the past he’s done a lot of the restorations of vintage properties himself and I can always tell his work because the floors are gorgeous wood, built-in bookcases, Viking ranges, unique materials and always vintage-looking tile in the bathrooms. Problem is, many of his places are under 1,000 s.f., have no available parking or storage and have only one bathroom.

Now I believe he’s branched his site out to others with quality properties and there are a few I’ll show to Jim when he’s awake and has eaten breakfast. I plan to make my chicken salad for lunch with tarragon and roasted pecans and celery, and there’s a bowl full of broccoli soup I can heat up for him. Ribeye and loaded baked potato for dinner, with perhaps braised carrots, and/or steamed green beans. I’ll decide later on.

Ironically we combed our local grocery store yesterday, stocking up because they’re going to be closed for 36 whole hours! I think it’s the hurricane mentality. Ten pounds of potatoes; two boxes Raisin Bran with blackberries for topping; 48 rolls of toilet paper; four rolls paper towels; dozens of sodas; wine; chicken broth for the dog; and perhaps a partridge in a pear tree.

Enjoy the day! After gifts and breakfast our family started to get bored. Mom and I slaved in the kitchen getting ready the prime rib, Yorkshire pudding and vegetables. Mince tarts and cookies were already done. Sister and brother would announce they were going to a movie so we had to change dinner time while I was seething that I had to be the responsible one and help out at home. Dad was working while listening to classical music on the stereo. Yeah, that was probably the year before Mom and Dad split up. It’s been a mishmash since then. No more “tradition.”

So there are a few new movies out today and I think we’ll go. Otherwise I did purchase Mamma Mia last week and it remains unopened. If we want to laze around we could do that and see a movie tomorrow. So that’s what I’m thinking nearly 9:30 a.m. and having some quiet time at home. Cheers! Dee