Nice day to play

Today was a very nice December day. We went outside for a while with light jackets on. Morgan was a late bloomer with her tricycle. I bought it for her when she was 18 months old. She just recently mastered pedaling. Once she mastered that, she was a whiz at braking on a dime and steering. She zooms all over the house on it! Today, we took it outside for her to practice her new skill. She will be getting a helmet soon.

As you can see, she enjoyed riding her tricycle outside. Look at that smile! I think Jim and I enjoyed watching her as much as she enjoyed riding. We helped her with the slight hill in our yard when we was going uphill.

While we were outside, Morgan's grandma came over with her two dogs. Morgan and her Grandma took Lefty for a walk. Lefty is a gentle dog that lets Morgan lead her without trying to pull Morgan.

Here is Rosina (Jim's Mom) with her other dog, Lucky. Lucky is a lovely chow mix. I love Lucky, but would never leave Morgan alone with her. Lucky has been know to nip at people. She tried nipping at me the first time I met her. Of course, she was tied up and I was walking onto her property. I didn't know about Chows and their demeaners at the time. I just saw this beautiful fluffy dog and thought she would be gentle. Of course, now that Lucky knows me, she is very good. She has never given me a reason not to trust her with Morgan, but I wouldn't chance it.

More tree trimming

I almost completed the tree today. I say "almost" because the branches haven't completely fallen yet, so I will be doing rearranging after they do. I bought a couple of new ornaments this year that I really love. The first one has Santa Claus kneeling at baby Jesus's side. A scripture is quoted at the bottom.

Phillipians 2:10

"That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow".

Maybe some would think this is sacreligious, having Santa Claus, the object of commericalism at Christmas time, on an ornament with baby Jesus. I think it is heartwarming. The ornament makes me happy just to look at it.

The second ornament I bought for our tree was a lion with a lamb in its arms with "Peace on Earth" across the bottom. This ornament is a reminder of the time of peace when Jesus will reign as King over the earth.

"The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, The lion shall eat straw like the ox, And dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,” Says the LORD. (Isaiah 65:25)

Morgan likes the tree so much that she wanted to sit next to it to play. I love having a real tree for her to enjoy!

Trimming the tree

I don't know why, but I have always decorated our trees by myself. I don't know if Jim just isn't into it, or if he stays away beause he knows I am a perfectionist and will want it a certain way. I any case, I do prefer to decorate the tree myself. From the time it's finished to the time itis taken down, I am always moving things around. With the real trees, the branches settle down and I have to move ornaments because they aren't positioned right anymore.

It was late, but I couldn't wait to get started on the tree. So, just after midnight, I put the star on the top and started stringing the lights.

Morgan liked the lights, so did I. Yes, it was after midnight and she was still up.

Tree hunting and boat parade

Jim and I decided to go Christmas tree shopping today. I usually wait a little later in the month to get a real tree, but then I found out that all of the trees in the lot are cut at the same time. Jim ended up working overtime the night before and was going back in that evening to work, so Morgan and I went without him. I asked Susanne if she could drive us over in her truck since she already had a car seat in her's and I would have had to move mine. Luckily, the tree lot is only five blocks away, so it was very convenient since she was already in the neighborhood.

When we arrived, Morgan was in awe of all of the trees we had to choose from. She had fun going around the lot, looking at all of them.

I usually know the tree I want when I first see it, and I did. But, I still went around the entire lot four times looking at all of them. When I kept going back to the same tree, I knew that was the one.

The tree is paid for and the guys are getting ready to load it onto Susanne's truck.

Now for the short trip home.

Two hours after we got home, I heard fireworks in the distance. I realized what was going on, the annual "Parade of Lights". It is a parade of boats on the river all decked out in Christmas lights. I had thought that the parade was going to be next Saturday! So, I hurried and got Morgan ready and rushed out to the river. We could hear the fireworks all the way there. Unfortunately, we arrived immediately after they ended. Oh well, it wasn't a total loss, the boats hadn't arrived yet.

I parked at the yacht club and we got out to walk to the boardwalk. It started to sprinkle, but it wasn't enough to warrant an umbrella.

You can't tell it in the picture below, but Morgan was excited because there were a lot of small children out there. She didn't quite know what we were there to see, but once she saw the boats, she really liked them. In fact, she wanted to ride them.

Here are just a few of the boats to give you an idea of the parade.

Some of the boats had Christmas music playing and the last one had Santa Claus. It was a small parade, but it was a nice treat. It was a shame that her Daddy couldn't come with us.

Budding artist

"Mommy, can you draw Caillou"?Caillou is Morgan's favorite cartoon. The main character is a four year old boy. Morgan asked me to draw him on the chalkboard. How could I resist that face!
So, I drew him (on the left) and then Morgan took the chalk and drew his sister. I was so thrilled! She had never tried to draw a person before! Nevermind that it is a head with arms and legs, but no body. I think she did a very good job.

Tweet tweet

It is always nice to see that some birds have actually managed to stay out of reach of our cat, Cinder. I love watching them come to the porch to eat. This coming spring, I am going to get more feeders for a larger variety of birds.

Just hanging out

I guess Sandy didn't get enough of us yesterday. Morgan and I went over to visit because her granddaughters spent the night and Morgan wanted to see them.
For some odd reason, I think she mainly wanted to play with Sandy's antique doll and her animals.

Sandy and Madison were busy making a quilt for Madison.

Sandy has a cat, Frosty, who has red pupils. I swear, this is not from the flash. This cat's pupils always look red. Pretty cool, huh?

We had a nice visit and headed back home.

Thanksgiving 2008

I lucked out this year and was off the day before Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving day. Jim wasn't so lucky, he had to work. Since I was off on Wednesday, I was able to prep and get a lot of things done the day before, like the pecan pies.

But, since Jim was working, I had to load everything to take to Sandy's house on my own. Sandy and I always do Thanksgiving at her house since it is much larger than our house.

I made the turkey, gravy, stuffing, royal yams, green beans slow cooked with bacon, roasted vegetables, and pecan pies.

I usually make more side dishes, but Sandy and her daughter, Paula, made more than enough. Sandy made a ham, so we had plenty of meat.

As usual, I couldn't get Morgan to eat anything, not even mashed potatoes. She had a great time though. For the first time, she didn't cling to me at Thanksgiving and I was able to eat my food.

Morgan kept busy playing with the dog and cats and stealing the cat toys. Here she is showing me a toy mouse, or "cat rat" as Sandy's husband called it.

Here she is running away with the cat's toys.

She enjoyed hanging out with Sandy's grandkids. Here she is with Madison.

She finally wore down.

As for the rest of us, we enjoyed our feast! All of the food was great, (as usual)! Jim didn't miss out though. I packed several containers of food for him and took it to him at work.

Wonderful pie

I have a sweet tooth and usually when something is too sweet for others, I love it. But, pecan pies have always seemed sickingly sweet to me. A lady I work with told me she found a recipe for a pecan pie that used oatmeal to cut down on the sweetness. I decided to give it a try for Thanksgiving.

My best friend, Sandy, and I always have Thanksgiving at her house with her family and mine. We split the cooking up. Since she was making pumpkin pies, I decided to bring a pecan pie. I ended up making two. I used the Oatmeal Pecan Pie recipe and a pecan pie recipe that didn't use any corn syrup.

Here is the recipe for the Oatmeal Pecan Pie:

Ingredients:
1/2 (15-ounce) package refrigerated pie dough (such as Pillsbury)
Cooking spray
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
2/3 cup regular oats
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325°.
Roll dough into an 11-inch circle. Fit into a 9-inch pie plate coated with cooking spray. Fold edges under; flute.

Combine brown sugar and remaining ingredients, stirring well with a whisk. Pour into prepared crust. Bake at 325° for 50 minutes or until center is set. Cool completely on a wire rack.



I was all ready to make the pie when I noticed that the recipe called for regular oats. I had bought the Quaker quick oats. I hoped that it would turn out okay. I also added to few pecan halves on top of the pie to make it look prettier. BTW, this is the first time I fluted the edges of a pie like that. Not too bad for a beginner!

The pie was absolutely delicious! It was a hit and has now been added to my Thanksgiving recipe collection. The pie was sweet, but not too sweet.

The pecan pie without the corn syrup was also very good, but the other one was much better.

Proud artist

I retrieved this chalk board that the neighbors were going to throw out and Morgan loves it. Here is her drawing of Mickey Mouse. Not bad for a three year old.

Polish Luncheon

Today we held our monthly luncheon at Cheryl's house for the first time. The theme this month was the Republic of Poland (or Polska).

Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north.

Polish cuisine is a mixture of Slavic culinary traditions. It is rich in meat, especially chicken and pork, winter vegetables, and spices, as well as different kinds of noodles the most notable of which are the pierogi.

Pierogi have long been a traditional Polish food staple. Dough filled with cheese, potatoes, onions, cabbage, mushrooms, meat (or almost any other ingredient, savory or sweet, that you can think of), pierogi are served steaming hot boiled or fried and are accompanied by sour cream.

Our original menu was much smaller than at past luncheons. Here was the menu:

Polish Cucumber and Sour Cream Salad

Cauliflower A La Polonaise (Kalafior po Polsku)

Golombki (Stuffed Cabbage) Sauerkraut and Mushroom Pierogi
Cheese and Potato Pierogi
Polish Eggs

Polish Quick Cake With Fruit (Placek Z Owocami)

Three of our regulars were unable to come due to sickness and other reasons, so we didn't get to try the Polish cucumber and sour cream salad or the Cauliflower A La Polonaise.

Sandy tackled the task of making the Polish eggs.

The eggs are served in the shells, so if you've never done it before, it can be quite tricky trying to cut the egg shells without damaging them.

The eggs were boiled in water with a TBSP of vinegar added to the water. I don't know what the vinegar accomplishes, but that was in the instructions. The the shell is cut lengthwise and the eggs carefully scooped out.

The eggs are then mashed and mixed with sour cream, horseradish, dill, salt & pepper. Then the filling is placed into the shells.

The eggs are gently pressed into seasoned breadcrumbs, then placed face down into a pan of melted butter and cooked a minute or two until the breadcrumbs are golden brown.

The eggs were pretty good, but I think it was a lot of trouble for the end result. (Sorry Sandy). There was nothing about them that wowed me.

Cheryl made the Golombki (Stuffed Cabbage) with Polish sausage.

The filling had:

1 Tbs Salt
1/2 Tsp Black Pepper
1 Clove Garlic, minced
1/2 Cup Uncooked Rice
1 lb. Chopped Beef
1/2 Lb. Chopped Pork
1/2 Lb. Chopped Veal
1 med. onion, chopped
6 oz. tomato paste

I liked the cabbage rolls, but they didn't have much seasoning to them. I don't know if this is normal for Polish cabbage rolls, or if that was just the recipe that was found, but they were plain and I would have liked to have had more flavor to the rolls.

I made the pierogi.

The dough was a standard egg noodle or dumpling dough. I should have used my pasta maker, but I rolled out the dough by hand.

The first filling I made was the mushroom and sauerkraut one. The sauerkraut was rinsed and drained, then sauteed in butter. I used baby portabellas and some wild mushrooms, minced them, and sauteed them in butter as well as some onions. Then I mixed the onions, mushrooms, and sauerkraut together and seasoned them with pepper.

The other filling I made was for the cheese and potato pierogi. Farmer's cheese is used for this dish traditionally, but I couldn't find any at my local stores, so I used cottage cheese which is also used a lot for a substitute. First I drained the cottage cheese for a few hours in cheese cloth. The result did not resemble cottage cheese, but rather it looked like a ball of soft cheese.

I boiled potatoes and mashed them with the cheese. Then I mixed in a raw egg, sauteed onions, salt and pepper.

The fillings were cooled before I put together the pierogi. Once I put them together, I placed them in a pot of boiling water and cooked them until they rose to the top of the pan. I made them the night before the luncheon and froze them afterwards.

After I arrived at Cheryl's house, I took my thawed perogi and browned them in a pan of butter. To serve, they were topped with onions that had been sauteed in butter, and sour cream.

It was a lot of work, but the end result was worth it because they were a big hit. I am a huge potato fan, but my favorites were the mushroom and sauerkraut stuffed pierogi.

Sandy made the Polish Quick Cake With Fruit (Placek Z Owocami). Here is the cake recipe:

3 eggs
1/3 lb unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups flour
fruit, any type (apples, peaches, plums, etc.)

Beat butter and sugar until smooth an creamy. Add 1 egg at a time, alternating with flour and beat well until blended. Pour batter into grease 9 x 13 pan. Arrange fruit such as sliced peaches, apples dusted with cinnamon or plums sliced in half on top of cake so it's well distributed. Bake at 350°F 30 - 40 minutes until cake is golden. Cool and dust with icing sugar.

Sandy used peaches for her cake. I liked the cake. It was a nice finish to our little meal.

We called Paula, looking for her. She mixed up the date and thought the luncheon was next week! We told her to come on over anyway. So, we waited for her to arrive before we ate.

Lori was at the luncheon as well.

Debi, Susanne, and Sharon were sorely missed. But, we had a nice lunch anyway. The next luncheon is at Debi's house. We will be discarding our usual theme of making food from one country, and will be bringing family favorites for a Christmas luncheon.