traditions – Peaceful Reader

Christmas morning

The stockings are all hung and filled. We have an abundance of presents under and around our tree. Creatures are stirring somewhere in the house. The sunrise this morning was beautiful with shades of orange, pink, and lavender. It’s a new day, a Christmas morning. I’m thankful I no longer have to pull off the ruse of Santa for the children who are now full grown adults.

We had a lovely Christmas Eve together. In the afternoon Kaylee, Sam, Greg and I made the trek to Waverly to see my mom and play a round of Spite and Malice with her. When we returned I got cooking. I did a lot of early preparations so I didn’t have to spend long hours in the kitchen. I’ve also gained a sous chef in Kaylee’s boyfriend Sam. I put him in charge of the Roasted Squash Salad, same salad we had at Thanksgiving and it was just as good the second time around. For dinner I made Thyme and White Bean Pot Pies. Earlier in the day I created the filling and then the dough so all I had to do was assemble them and slide them into the oven. I added small florets of cauliflower and spinach to this recipe because I could imagine the flavor mixing well. I owe our dinner spread to Dana @Minimalist Baker.

Does everybody have a routine for their holidays? We do thanks to the Holt side of the family. We open up stockings with everyone taking a turn. It’s a calm way to start the day and after we eat breakfast. I am making a vegan scramble with sweet and gold potatoes, spinach, and vegan sausage with grits on the side. Then we get into the fun of opening up the presents under the tree. Again we take turns. Japhy used to wear the Santa hat to pass gifts around to each person.

For dinner I’ve made two soups I’ve made before and all I have to do is reheat them. I will make bread to serve with the soups. Creamy Vegan Wild Rice Soup and Corn Chowder from Natasha’s Kitchen. I made the corn chowder vegan by omitting the whole bacon step and using a combination of creamy oat milk and coconut milk. I usually don’t do the bacon step but the milk switch is new. I’m pretty confident it will taste similar.

My people are all still sleeping and I’m enjoying these last few minutes of quiet time. Our family is growing with the addition of Sam and Courtney, Tristan’s girlfriend and I’m enjoying getting to know both of them as we play games (a hilarious round of Scattegories last night), cook together, and chat. today we will play a round of Spite and Malice, work on the music puzzle that is spread out on the dining room table.

I hope you have a peaceful day whatever your plans. Take care of yourself. Happy holidays from us to you.

Feeling the blues, finding the joy

I know I’m not the only one but it still feels uncomfortable. I went to bed on Christmas night fighting all manner of demons. Did everyone get something they were excited about? Was there enough food? Was there enough joy and laughter? Our time together is very limited as a family and we had a new boyfriend in the mix. Did he enjoy his time with us? Was it all stimulating enough? Did we take them to cool places in town? Were we Covid-cautious enough for the New Yorkers? And the tree-oh, the tree was a whole thing!

It’s hard to answer all these questions as you head off to sleep and truthfully you never know but here is what I do know: our bellies were full with good food, we laughed and played together and there was not one fight! People seemed happy with gifts they received and most importantly they seemed to enjoy the gift giving process as well. Even the son got on board with gift giving in real time. Last year he ordered everyone’s gifts Christmas Day and while that had its own thrill, this year he said it was important to see everyone’s faces as they opened gifts! There in is the gift worth opening-the spirit of simple giving.

I’ve worked to let my anxious feelings go over the last few days. It is what it is and I can see us laughing together especially over our online Jeopardy, the raucous sounds of lively foosball games rising from the basement, and the joy of sitting around the table together. One of my highlights was listening to Kaylee explain just how Christmas morning would go because we have a pattern, a flow to how our traditions unfold and that description was priceless.

The new year is approaching and the children are once again scattered back to their homes but we will hold the Christmas of 2021 especially dear because we could be all together and we were happy for those days, sharing our memories and our lives. We say “cheers” for a healthy and hope-filled 2022. Find what makes you stay sane…

May Day! May Day!

No May Day baskets this year. I asked and Groovy Girl was like “I’m too busy, I’m too tired!” It is a stressful time for a sophomore, her first year in high school. We used to always do May baskets that we would deliver to a set group of friends before school began. I delivered May baskets when I was young as well and it is one of those wonderful traditions that I love to see continued. I was very happy to see a kindergarten class making May baskets to deliver to a 6th-grade class.

I did bring her some treats today after grocery shopping; some french bread, a Mexican coca-cola, and a small bag of Bob’s Chia seeds – odd treats, yes, but she loves them.

It’s really the thought that counts. But if I want this tradition to continue I’m going to need to work a little harder myself. Already I’m thinking of little friends that I (we) could quickly deliver to near us. It would put a smile on their little faces and the tradition would continue in some fashion. Did you do May baskets growing up?

May Basket traditions (NPR)

Happy Be Grateful Day

{Roger Williams on Smithsonian}

I have mixed emotions about this holiday. I don’t have any trouble being thankful and realizing ALL that I have to be thankful for but the celebrating of this particular holiday just reminds me of the horrors we inflicted on Native people then and still. It also seems like a ticket for overeating. Do I sound like a humbug? Yes I probably do. I just wish the holiday was simple and not followed by a crazy shopping frenzy. So today I challenge you to think about what you are truly grateful for and to realize our lives are built on the backs of others. Read here for another look at Thanksgiving. And this young person perspective.

My Grateful 11:

My family; 5 of us make up a unique team of weirdness filled w/ humor.
My brother Jason; he is my family rock and pushes me to be more.
The elders in my life; mom, my in-laws, my stepmom and my dad in spirit.
Nature; thank heavens for parks of all kinds, places to hike and breathe.
Public education; may they one day be truly equal.
Public libraries; free books to borrow is a wonder.
Books and reading; I love to be transported.
Delicious food; well cooked, unusual ingredients and flavors.
My health; which is often rocky but I’m very lucky to be alive.
My lovely house; I can see a layer of dust over the floor but ehh-
Friends that bring me quiet times, good times, and laughter.

What brings you joy? Celebrate that today. Fill your plate with the stories that are told around the table and find happiness in the people you are sitting with around the proverbial table. Reach out and think of the many marginalized people in your community.

Thanksgiving Delights

I made a sweet potato pie last night. It looks beautiful. I have to wait until tomorrow to taste it. It looks simple in the photo but the flavor will be great. The cool thing is that new stove sitting in my kitchen. Love it.

To make the pie I used the best pie crust recipe I have in my files, given to me by my mother-in-law, Phyllis.

Perfect Pie Crust

For a double crust pie:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup Crisco
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup cold, cold water

Mix together dry and cut in Crisco with a pastry blender. Pour in cold water and mix only enough to stick together. Roll out one-half of the dough at a time for double crust pie.

I never fail with this recipe. My sweet potato pie is not a two crust pie so I have the second half of the dough in the fridge waiting for inspiration. I didn’t have any Crisco way down in my pantry so I tried a butter/Coconut oil (in solid form) combination and it seems to have worked. The true test will be tomorrow when we eat it.

Sweet potato pie is very easy; a handful of sweet potatoes, baked, then peeled, a little organic sugar, 3 eggs, fresh nutmeg scraped in, and evaporated milk (I used regular after boiling it down). Work it all together, pour it in the pie shell and bake it at 350* for 45 minutes. The middle won’t jiggle when it’s all done. Best served at room temperature with a small dollop of fresh whipped cream seasoned with cinnamon. Can’t wait.

Tomorrow night we are having a friendsgiving and I’m making a big dish of vegetable lasagna with some organic, local ground beef thrown in. I found the veggie lasagna recipe at The Pioneer Woman. Crusty french bread and a large tossed salad will be perfect together. For one guest I’m making homemade mashed potatoes with gravy and some cranberries so it will seem a little more like Thanksgiving. I don’t ever really miss the turkey because the side dishes mean more.

Be grateful for everything in your day; the sweet and the sour.

Weekend Cooking; Tomato Risotto

Good morning weekend foodies!

I spent Friday and Saturday morning at my mother’s farm making salsa from all her farm-fresh, huge tomatoes. This was our second annual event and we had just as much fun although Groovy Girl was not as much help or even all that cheerful as she had an allergy attack.

She loves the chickens though and actually gathered an egg moments after laying. It was warm and her smile was big. My hands were full of tomatoes though so I did not get to snap a photo. If you want to see last year’s post with recipe included click the word SALSA. It is interesting to look back at old posts-I noticed Groovy Girls hair is shoulder-length, it’s grown a lot in one year.

This year I brought home three batches of salsa. The last batch I made (mostly) on my own and did a bit of experimenting. Instead of two cups of sugar I replaced one of those cups with my stepfather’s honey. If it proves tasty next year I’m going to go out on a limb and do two cups of honey. It should still add the hint of sweetness and I won’t be dumping in two cups of white sugar. It’s a salsa revolution!

{NY Times}

In other cooking news this week I made tomato risotto after an email from my sister-in-law said that her and my brother loved this recipe from the NY Times. It just happened to be the day that the Times was hacked AND I couldn’t reach my twitter page. Because I had my heart set on risotto I found this alternative recipe on Emerill’s food network page. It was delicious and Groovy Girl ate three helpings. Emeril’s has cream in it and no basil so she didn’t have to worry about picking out “green things”. I’m not including a photo from Emeril’s page as the picture is less than thrilling. Imagine the above photo with out any green. I added a heavy dose of pepper and freshly shaved parmigiano-reggiano to the top of the adult plates.

Now I’ve made risotto before but for some reason this time I really want to know if any other rice can be substituted for arborio rice? I get that it comes from a special place in Italy but in a pinch can I use another type of rice that I have in my dry storage. Has anyone ever substituted another kind of rice for risotto? I’m curious just to know.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Read’s Weekend Cooking. Click her link to find many other food-related posts. She has an apple cake posted today that sounds wonderful. Have a wonderful Labor Day.

Weekend Cooking; Salsa Olympics

Sun-kissed girl and tomatoes

We spent another weekend up at the farm with my mom. She called and said tomatoes were not selling at the farmer’s market any more and we needed to make salsa. She said this with such enthusiasm I couldn’t resist even though I had so much to do at my own home, getting ready for school. I tucked Groovy Girl into the car with the new Kindle Fire and a good book and took off for the wilds of Northeast Iowa.

We’ve prepared this same salsa for the last few years although last year my mom made it herself as we just couldn’t coordinate a time to do it together. This year my cupboard was completely bare of any salsa and I knew I couldn’t make it through the year without this particular staple to my diet.

Groovy Girl collected ALL the tomatoes for our second batch of salsa!

Friends of ours, our minister and his wife, passed this recipe on to us. They also make it every year although I think we’ve changed our version up enough that they do not taste similar anymore.

Salsa

Skin 20 cups of tomatoes. To do this you need to boil a pot of water, place tomatoes into hot water and watch for skins to start “popping.”

1 1/2 cup cornstarch
4 cups onions, chunked up
2 cups green peppers, chunked up
2 banana peppers, chopped
5 large garlic cloves, smashed
1 jalapeno, sliced
2 cups sugar
3 T. cayenne pepper
4 tsp chili powder
2 T. cumin
1 T. coriander
4 T. salt
2 1/2 cups white vinegar

Once the tomato skins have popped scoop them out and run a little cold water over and peel skin back. Cut out the stem and down to get that odd white core out (about 1/4 down). Loosely chop tomatoes and add to food processor. After each batch is processed add it a large pot. (We only processed our tomatoes for about five quick spins-we wanted to it to be medium chunky) Save out two cups of processed tomatoes and add the corn starch in and stir to dissolve. After you finish processing tomatoes and they are cooking in large pot add onions, peppers, and garlic to food processor and quick pulse to combine. Again only a few pulses because you want to see small chunks of greens and yellows. Combine spices, peppers, and garlic into tomato pot. Stir to combine. This is a great time to do a taste test to see if you want to spice it up more. (The original recipe calls for more hot peppers and cayenne but I like it not as spicy because my kids eat it like this. We’ve worked hard to make it kid-friendly without compromising flavor. )
Our pot was so full we had to scoop back and forth to really mix it up. Slowly add the tomato/cornstarch mix and stir well. Cook 20-30 additional minutes.

(My grandmother’s canning pot)

Put in hot sterilized jars and seal. The tops should pop if sealed correctly. What a satisfying sound as you hear them go “pop”, “pop”, “pop” 14 different times! A glorious happy feeling.

This salsa-making session will always be remembered as our Olympics-

1. We made one batch and crazily decided “let’s do it again!”
2. The Olympics played non-stop on my mom’s kitchen television while we (I) chopped, stirred, pulsed, and poured. I’m sure I took home a medal-14 in fact!

Our goal is to include Groovy Girl a little more each year. This year about all she wanted to do was gather the tomatoes but next year she will help a little more. Eventually my mom will have taught me how to do all that fancy canning stuff on my own and Groovy Girl will by my helper. I clearly remember making jam in my grandmother’s kitchen. She sat in her green chair while my mom and I took out samples to her so she could check our progress. The cycle keeps turning.

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click her link to read many other food-related posts.

Bread Givers

I purchased Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska a few years back while my family and I were in Washington D.C. We toured The Holocaust Museum, which was heartbreaking but informative and well worth the tour. Afterward we spent a few minutes browsing the museum kiosk store. This book’s synopsis caught my attention so I bought it, brought it home and added it to my bookshelf. Maybe I should have read it right then but I waited four years and pulled it off just recently.

Snynopsis: Sara Smolinsky, the youngest daughter of an Orthodox rabbi, watches as her father marries off her sisters to men they don’t love. The sadness and injustice of their broken lives leads her to rebel against her father’s rigid conception of Jewish womanhood. “No girl can live without her father or a husband to look out for her,” he proclaims. “It says in the Torah, only through a man has a woman an existence.” But Sara replies, “My will is as strong as yours. I’m going to live my own life. Nobody can stop me. I’m not from the old country. I’m American!” She leaves home, takes a job as an ironer, and rents a room with a door: “This door was life…the bottom starting point of becoming a person.” Set during the 1920s on New York’s Lower East Side, the story of Sara’s struggle toward independence and self-fullfillment-through education, work, and love-is universal and resonates with a passionate intensity that all can share. (from the back cover)

My thoughts: You can see why the book appealed to me. Sara is an intense character who, as the youngest, watches all these family mistakes play out. Rather than allow her father to ruin her own life she strikes out on her own, leaving behind her mother, father and sisters. Her sisters make fun of her even as they complain about the terrible marriages their father has forced them into. Father’s love of the Torah and studying are completely (for lack of a better word at the moment) CRAZY! He takes the Torah at it’s word only as it applies to help his cause.

The struggle between family members, old and new traditions, right and wrong are so fanatical and vivid-I raced home every night to read a few more pages before making dinner. It made me grateful for my own father who was very forward thinking and giving of his time and thoughts, unlike Sara’s father, who never listens and always talks with bitterness. Not only were the characters memorable but the language was extraordinary. This book will stay with me for a long time but only in spirit because as per the Reading From My Own Shelves Project I must depart with it-I’m glad it is going to a good home. Tina graciously accepted to take it home with her.

Memorable quotes:

and this one from a particular blue day while she is living alone working hard each day to put away money to go to school:

Had a miracle happened? My father come to see me? In a rush of gladness words from Isaiah flashed before me as in letters of fire: “I will join the hearts of the parents and the children.” Never had there been any show of feeling between Father and us children. Only once a year, on the Day of Atonement, he put his hands over our heads to bless us. Now, as I looked at him, he seemed to me like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Solomon, and David, all joined together in the one wise old face. An this man with all the ancient prophets shining out of his eyes-my father. (she’s so happy to see him even after all the bad)

“Father,” I cried. An then my voice stopped. For I suddenly became aware of his cold, hard glance on me.

“Is it true what Max Goldstein said?” His eyes glared. “Is it true you refused him?” Not a word could force itself out of my tight throat. “Answer me! Answer me!” His voice grew louder and harsher.

“It wasn’t the real love,” I stammered, hardly aware what I was saying.

“Love you want yet? What do you know about love? How could any man love a lawless, conscienceless thing like you? I never dreamed that a decent man would want to marry you. You had a chance to make a good ending to a bad play, and you push away such a luck match with your own hands. I always knew you were crazy. Now I see you’re your worst enemy.” (204)

There is so much wonderful in this book-this newer version has a great forward and introduction written by Alice Kessler-Harris, which gave me a lot of insight into Anzia Yezierska’s life. It’s not often I wax poetic about an intro to a book but it’s a great opening. I wish this book would be mandatory reading for high school or college. It’s fits into many different themes: history, gender studies, religion, philosophy, early immigration to the U.S., and American labor in the 1920’s. It shows what it was really like to work hard and hope for a better life. I’m so glad the forces that be made me pick this book and purchase it. I’m trying to get Teen-age Boy to read it before I pass it over to Tina. Purchase this classic book from an IndieBound bookstore near year…click on the title to find it-Bread Givers

Whatever you’re reading today-I hope you are enjoying it! I’ll be reading and lesson planning while the game goes on but if I had to root for a team it would be the Green Bay Packers. Why? Because I’ve read about both quarterbacks and Aaron Rodgers wins in my book.

“I’ll show you how quickly I can marry off the girls when I put my head on it.” “Yah,” sneered Mother.

“You showed me enough how quickly you can spoil your daughters’ chances the minute you mix yourself in.

If you had only let Mashah alone, she would have been married to a piano-player.”“Did you want me to let in a man who plays on the Sabbath in our family? A piano player has no more character than a poet.” “Nu-Berel Bernstein was a man of character, a man who was about to become a manufacturer.”

“But he was a stingy piker. For my daughters’ husbands I want to pick out men who are people in the world.”
“Where will you find better men than those they can find for themselves?”
“I’ll go to old Zaretzky, the matchmaker. All the men on his list are guaranteed characters.”
“But the minute you begin with the matchmaker you must have dowries like in Russia yet.”
“With me for their father they get their dowries in their brains and in their good looks.” (71)

What a holly, jolly Christmas so far

The holidays started officially for us yesterday (thursday) as we hosted 6 young girls, ready to do some holiday baking. Groovy Girl had her first cookie bake-off. They poured, measured, cracked the eggs, learned the “scoop and sweep” flour method as she took them through her mini-baking lesson. This is the same girl who two years ago “hosted” her own cooking show, which I taped but never got uploaded to a computer because the dog ate the Flip camera.Yes, that was not a very merry moment. Her friends had a wonderful time as they made cookies and watched The Polar Express while they cut out, baked and decorated the cookies. Decorating and eating ranked the highest in fun factor. I think gumdrops were being eaten as fast as I could cut them up. I love to listen to children talk; they are generally so uninhibitated and yesterday was no exception as they shared their own baking experiences and knowledge with each other! Hopefully, we’ve begun a new tradition with this holiday party.

Four days ago I needed to make a treat for my daughter’s school party; luckily we still live in a school district that allows homemade snacks and that no one in her class is allergic to peanuts because we whipped up these delicious Double Peanut Butter Cups thanks to Kathy at Bermudaonion. I didn’t take a photo of mine (there is one with the recipe at Bermudaonion) but the Christmas platter came home empty and she told me several students had seconds.

In my family it is tradition to have oyster stew on Christmas Eve but my husband is allergic to certain types of shellfish so when I got married I had to throw the tradition out. We’ve done clam chowder for the last few years but I’m never quite satisfied with what my clam chowder tastes like compared to what I’ve eaten on my travels to the East Coast. This year I tried a brand new recipe from Clinton St. Baking Company Cookbook, which I also discovered thanks to a Weekend Cooking post at Bermudaonion. As soon as I read her post about this cookbook I knew it was the perfect Christmas gift for my mother-a cookbook collector and brunch lover. I found one last copy sitting on the shelf at my local Barnes and Noble, which, sadly, is our own local bookstore. Local trumps indie when your making that last dash for gifts. My family is totally okay with receiving books for gifts that have been “test” read by the giver so I spent hours perusing the contents of this fabulous book. I still plan to give it to my mom with the straight up knowledge that I may have to borrow it from time to time. I’ve already tried two recipes from it-both were delicious and I just ooooh’d and aaahhhh’d as I looked through it. This will be on my list of must-eat eateries when I visit NYC. Thank you Kathy for brightening my holiday cooking TWICE!

If you missed out on getting yourself something merry this season, buy it here-Clinton St. Baking Company Cookbook

Enjoy the ~~video~~ (never did get the video to upload after three days of puttering with it)now, photos of the baking party. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good day, filled with roasting fires, a few perfect presents, time to read and a dinner table filled with good food. Don’t you just love a young girl who bakes in a huge string of pearls.

Holiday Traditions

Teenage Boy, Groovy Girl and two friends, after tree search.

We always get our tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving at a lovely tree farm, Kris Kringle’s, and they serve hot cider and have a fire in an outside pit. It makes for a lovely few hours and two years ago we invited another couple and their children to join us, so we’ve added to our celebration.

That is what I love the most about the holidays-it seems we make more time for friends and family. We are having friends over tomorrow night just because we ran into them recently at my husband’s play and decided we needed to get-together for dinner and before Christmas is really upon us. They are coming for dinner tonight and I’m making a chicken. If you’ve ever read my sidebar list it says I’m a vegetarian that eats locally-raised meat (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver changed my mind) but not frequently. I met a farmer (through a friend) who raises chickens and other cute farm animals as well. He started doing it 10 years ago for just the same reason I didn’t eat meat-he didn’t trust what was happening to our corporate- produced meat sources. I’ve only been back to eating meat about a year now.

I digress-this post is supposed to be about food and friends-not cute farm animals, who might be friends also. My mother used to make this rosemary and goat cheese chicken so I searched around a little last night, looking for something similar and came up with a roast chicken recipe at Jamie Oliver’s website. He, like Kingsolver and Alice Waters, is making a difference in how people eat and I admire the work he’s doing with the British school lunch program. That would be my dream dinner party-cooking together with Barbara, Alice and Jaime! Thrilling!!

Tonight will have the roast chicken, mashed (home grown) potatoes, spinach and feta lasagna, brussell sprouts and a small salad. Half the group is vegetarian thus the reason for the lasagna which comes from this fabulous cookbook from The Grit, in Athens, Georgia. We’re starting off with champagne, with pomegranite seeds tossed in and will move on to a lovely bottle of red, which I haven’t purchased yet or I’d mention its name as well. Thinking about wine makes me think I should check my old version of The Wine Trials to find a perfect (and reasonable priced) wine!

Could I mention any more food links? Well, most definetely Yes!, but I’ll stop there. This is how things go at my house-inviting two people, one couple, for dinner has led me to all these dining spots, recipes and brought up all these whirlwind ideas.Like now my mind is thinking about a post debating hard copy cookbooks vs. online. My mind on food. Don’t ya just love the holidays!! Tonight will be filled with good conversation and good (hopefully) food and my mind will chill.

Happy eating and reading! Cheers.

p.s. last week’s Morrocon-Style Lentil and Chickpea soup was a huge hit with my family. We ate it simply, soup and fresh-baked bread. Yum.

***This food-related post is linked to Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Pop over there and read about Crescent Dragonwagon, a writer of children’s books and cookbooks, and her new Cornbread book. My husband might need this for a Christmas gift. He loves cornbread but makes it from a box. Hmmm.

Seriously, Have a Happy Saturday!