Oh My, Cherry Pie

This summer, the cherry tree in our front yard fruited gorgeously. It produces those little tart cherries that don't make for good eating, so it's not that exciting, but Shawn decided that he would make it his mission to collect enough of them for me to be able to make something with. So over about a two week span, he climbed the ladder, yanked on branches, and even practiced his tree climbing skills to collect as many of the little things as possible. Though the robins got most of the cherries, we ended up with quite a bit due to the tree being so dang huge.

It was so cute. Shawn up in the tree, being so gung-ho about his little cherries. He even pitted each one before freezing them. He cut open each one, then added a little water to the pile of pits and boiled them for a bit, adding the resulting juice to the cherries in the freezer. (He read online that that would increase the depth of flavor of the fruit.)

So after all his effort, he ended up collecting just shy of 4 cups of cherries. (It almost filled a large yogurt container.)

Christmas Eve proved to be the time when the cherries were meant to shine. My sister and her husband hosted our family Christmas Eve dinner, and we were asked to bring a pie. I had never made a cherry pie before, (much less could count the number of times I've eaten cherry pie in my life on one hand,) but decided that I needed to try my hand at a classic cherry pie.

I have a confession to make. I almost never make a pie crust from scratch. I find cutting the butter into the flour to be a pain in the ass, and though doing it that way makes for a super delicious, flaky, buttery crust, Krusteaz make a pie crust mix that is plenty yummy.

So the first step was to dump the cherries into a colander sitting over a bowl and sprinkle 1/4 cup of sugar over them. The goal is to collect the juices from the cherries to use later. While the cherries are resting, I made the pie dough and used half for the bottom, and put the other half of dough into the refrigerator to chill for later.

Then I dumped the collected cherry juice and put it into a small bowl. The cherries went into a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat with about a teaspoon of lemon juice. Into the cherry juice I mixed in 3 tablespoons of cornstarch and another 1/4 cup of sugar. Once the cornstarch was dissolved, I added that to the saucepan with the cherries. I cooked the cherries and the juice until they were starting to thicken, and took them off the heat to cool for about a half hour.

Now I knew that 4 cups wasn't going to be enough to cherries to fill an entire pie so I decided to add some pears, since that is a fruit with a mild flavor on its own. So I cut up a couple pears and used about half of them to line the bottom of the pie plate.

Once the cherries were a bit cooler, I mixed in a 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract then poured it into the prepared pie plate. This is when I added the rest of the sliced pear, but just fitting them in here and there so that they were evenly placed.

Now it was lattice crust time! I've never done a lattice before, so I was excited. It was pretty easy and super fun. I gave it a little egg wash, then sprinkled with large sugar crystals for a little sparkle and some red decorative sugar in the middle for extra festive-ness. Hey, Shawn put a lot of effort into collecting these cherries so I wanted to make sure to put as much effort into the pie.

Into a 400 degree oven it went and stayed there for about 35 minutes. I knew it was done when the filling was bubbly and the crust was nice and golden brown.

Holy shit. This pie was delicious.

Next year, I'm getting into that tree with Shawn.

Hoping everyone's holiday was a smashing success...

Festive Invasive

I just realized I've been slacking on the holiday posts lately. Well, I've been slacking on all posts, but I feel like I have an pretty decent excuse.

But what I haven't been slacking on is finding super easy projects. First was the dryer sheets, then came the sauerkraut, now I'm here to tell you about my holiday holly wreath.

In past years, I've made what I call a "festive holiday door hang." Those were always really easy to whip together, but this time I wanted to try my hand at a wreath. Pinterest LOVES wreaths. Though I personally am not on Pinterest, (I know, shocking, isn't it?) I've noticed the wreath making mania that has struck the home decorator at large. Since I'd never made one myself, I didn't realize the fun that can be had when creating this super duper satisfying and easy project.

So we have this English holly tree in our yard. I hate it. Holly is horribly invasive and the awfulness is helped even more when the berries are carried all over the place by birds. Our yard is covered in holly seedlings and I'm constantly pulling them. Ugh. Did I mention that I hate it? The problem with this tree is that it's so old, it's like old growth. The trunk is at least 18 inches in diameter, and it's hugely tall. We haven't cut it down for several reasons: it's on the border between our neighbor's and our yards, it does house tons of birds, it keeps our house cool in the summer by shading it (yeah, that big), and cutting it down won't kill it anyway.

But once a year during the holidays, I'm glad we have it.

Shawn did some pruning while cleaning the gutters a few weeks back and I took what he cut and decided to try my hand at this whole wreath-making business that everyone on Pinterest seems so excited about.

For the frame, I just took a wire hanger and stretched it out into a circle, leaving the hook as is. Next, I cut about 6-8 inch pieces of the nicest-looking parts of the holly. I think I cut about 60 pieces total, making sure to get some pieces with berries, and others with just the lush, waxy green leaves. The nice part about having an old growth holly tree is that when they get that big, they lose the need to make spiky leaves. So it was nice to not have to worry about injuring myself.  Next, I cut longer pieces of twine and tied the pieces in bunches of three. Using the ends of the twine that was left, I then tied the bunches into the hanger in two places to keep them in place. Making sure that the nicest sides were facing out with the berries scattered nicely, I just tied the rest of the bunches on the same way, all facing the same direction. I added a gold bow to finish it off, and ta-daa!

This took me a total of a little over an hour, from start to finish.

I really like it.

I think I understand this whole wreath making thing.

Happy holidays everybody. May this world be a little more peaceful. Now go hug your people.

30 Day No Waste Challenge

Happy Earth Day, everyone! It's my favorite day of the year!

Since it is a special day to celebrate, appreciate, and protect our lovely home planet, I thought it would be a great day to start something I've been meaning to for a while.

I'm going to challenge myself to not throw away any food for the next 30 days. Since I got pregnant last June, my habits of wasting food have been a little sad. Being super sick, fatigued, and hating vegetables resulted in a lot of food going bad in the refrigerator. Then the heartburn made it so that I couldn't eat certain foods, which were really weird at times, so that didn't help either. Things have been better since Eddy was born, but I still forget stuff in the fridge because I've been cooking a lot less. Granted, in the grand scheme of things I think I'm actually doing ok, but any food thrown in the trash is too much food in my opinion.

Did you know that the average American throws away over 200 pounds of food per person, per year? Though that number can vary depending on the source, whatever it is, the fact that it is more than zero isn't ok. I think most of that is from the food service industry (that's another can of wasteful worms,) but we're not exempt from some of the blame. Cliche moment of the day: Think of the starving children in Africa! (Or in Seattle, for that matter.)

Seeing food get tossed is a huge pet peeve of mine. Working with kids and having this issue is really hard. Kids throw away so much food. They just don't get it. I've seen my students and campers toss whole bananas, unopened granola bars, and apples with one bite out of it, right into the can like it's nothing. There have been countless times I've picked perfectly good food out of the trash and tried to get some sense out of the kids. And they look at me like I'm crazy. It drives me crazy. I will definitely instill this value in Eddy, you can bet on it.

Why is this important? The other day, much like a fourth grader (sad face), I threw away an entire avocado that I let go brown and mushy in the refrigerator. Let's think about this one avocado. It grew from a tree, was picked by some dude, packed by another dude/machine, loaded into a truck, used fossil fuels to get to the store where I bought it, and unpacked and put out into the produce section by someone else. That's a lot of energy, effort, and hours used to get it to me, just so it can go into the compost. I definitely feel some guilt about that. And that's just a piece of unprocessed, uncooked produce. Imagine how much more wasteful it would be to throw away a loaf of bread, or a piece of meat, or a granola bar that has had even more fossil fuels pumped into it in production.

This is important to me and I think we as a society that is constantly drowning in food just aren't used to the idea that food is energy.
Food is fuel.
Food is resources.
Food is sacred.

This challenge is going to make me change my lifestyle a bit.

Tangent - Currently, I am team teaching a class at the community college with my dad called Sustainable Business. This is a class that looks at various industry and discusses the different ways businesses can be more sustainable. Making changes in the name of sustainability isn't just good for the environment, but also has economic as well as social benefits as well, that in turn, help the business itself become more efficient and profitable. It's a great class. One of the first assignments we gave the students was an ecological footprint assignment where they took an online test to see how sustainable their home lives were. After they took the test they were asked to pick 5 (out of the dozens) of possible lifestyle changes that the results page offered. Most people were thoughtful about their choices, but the answers of one lady blew my mind. She started her paper by saying that she thought she was already doing everything right. (Her result was not that of someone even trying to live sustainably.) Then she continued to say that it was really hard for her to come up with five lifestyle changes because all of them required a little bit of sacrifice on her part. THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT YOU CRAZY WENCH! It drove me nuts, but I had to give her full points for the assignment for doing it. Ok, thanks for letting me get that out.

So my sacrifices (that I'm willing to make because I know how important it is):

1. Buy less food - If I only have a few options, then I'll eat what I already have, and won't forget about something that's in the back of the 'fridge.
2. Meal plans - Have a plan for everything I buy. The avocado went bad because I liked the idea of it, but didn't have any plans for it.
3. Don't go out as much - I threw away some french fries last week because the burger I got just came with them and I couldn't eat them all. We all know day old fries are nasty.
4. Eat something that might not be the tastiest - Take responsibility for acquiring something and just eat it. As long as it hasn't gone bad it won't make me sick. 
5. Eat the thing that will go bad over the thing that can wait - If the dinner options are vegetables in the crisper vs. vegetables in the freezer, always go for the fresh ones, the frozen ones can wait.

Here are the rules I've set for myself:

1. Food counts as trashed if it goes in the garbage, disposal, or compost.
2. It does not count if the chickens eat it. (It turns into more food and fertilizer to grow more food.)
3. Peels and things that a normal person won't eat don't count either. (I'm not going extreme here.)
4. If it has gone bad, I suck, but I don't have to eat it.

So we'll see how it goes. I think this will help with my overall health, as well as keep a few dollars in the pocket since I won't be throwing them away. I have some slightly wilty carrots in the crisper that I should do something with before they get to the point of petrification.

What sacrifices can you make in the name of Earth Day?

Here, Have a Little Pre-ssert.

So last year I shared with you my favorite Thanksgiving recipe.  This year, I will share with you another fave.

TANG SALAD!

Tang?  Wait, isn't that the powdery orange stuff that, mixed with water, makes flat orange soda?  The stuff that astronauts drink?  The stuff that is slowly being phased out and is really hard to find in grocery stores? 

Indeed.  That's the stuff.

This recipe is one that I grew up with, and one that my grandma made every year.  It's so good.  Mostly because it's like getting dessert during dinner, or as Shawn calls it, pre-ssert.

This recipe is full of "wholesome" ingredients.  See below:

Ingredients
1 large box orange Jell-o (or two small boxes)
4 tbs. Tang
1 pint orange sherbert
1 or 2 cans mandarin oranges

Directions
Mix Tang with Jell-o and dissolve in 2 cups boiling water.  Let sit until it starts to set.  In the meantime, get the sherbet out and let it start to thaw.  It's easier to mix in when not straight out of the freezer.  Mix in the sherbet with a mixer or a whisk.  It's important that you don't mix the sherbet in while the Jell-o mixture is still liquidy because you'll get a bunch of foam on top.  Once the sherbet is mixed in, gently fold in the mandarin oranges and pour into a mold of your choice.  I use a bundt pan, but any cool mold is fun.  Refrigerate overnight and serve when the turkey is ready to eat!

Mmmm... dessert at the dinner table.  Love me some traditions.

Oh, and here's my thankful list.  It's not as well-written as last year, but maybe next year when I've gotten all mushy with motherhood I'll have some deep things to say.
* Zantac.  Heartburn is a bitch.  Zantac makes it better.  I Love it.
* Not having gestational diabetes.  I passed the test today.  Booyah!
* Shawn.  And Shawn.  And Shawn. 
* Kitties.  Mine especially.
* Bubba.  He's a good dog.
* My house.  My chickens.  My garden.  My couch.
* Family and friends.
* Being healthy.  Having friends and family who are healthy.
* Nature.  It's always there when I need it to provide calm and wonder.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Coughing Through Christmas

I hope everyone's Christmases and New Years were a blast and full of fun and family and overall goodness. Overall, ours was pretty successful.  Grandma came up from California, thoughtful presents were given and received, lots of delicious food was consumed, and many card games were won and lost.

The hitch was the presence of a tiny black cloud called a cold that I've been battling since the 21st.  It started as a persistent dry cough that followed me everywhere I went.  I didn't let it bother me too much though, as I was determined to have a great Christmas.  No matter how much I tried to cover it, I still ended up coughing on most of my family members and my sister came down with a cold several days later.

The biggest issue with having a cold during the holidays is the whole after-Christmas hangover that follows.  Days of eating heavy food and doing little physical exercise leads to feelings of bloatedness and sluggishness.  It's too cold and wet to feel the motivation to go outside, and everywhere you look, there's a mess to be cleaned.  This cough and cold made all these shitty feelings feel even shittier.

Part of me feels glad that I don't have to take work off to get over this, but the other part of me is angry that my vacation time is being totally wasted.  I can't do anything.  My cough was so bad that I could barely hold a conversation with anybody, my body was exhausted from my non-stop hacking, and the only thing I can do is quarantine myself from everyone so no one else has to go through this.  I've probably gained a bunch of weight from all the rich food and lack of movement.  I feel like Jabba the Hut (minus the womanizing.)  Now I have a constant splitting headache that is magnified every time I cough.  I'm just glad that the amount I'm coughing has been cut in half.

The only things that have brought any relief are Nyquil and a tea concoction I've been guzzling for the last 4 days.  I read somewhere that thyme can be a natural expectorant (nature's Mucinex), and honey ginger tea is great for soothing your throat.  So each day, I've been mincing about an inch of fresh ginger and putting it into my tea strainer that I have for our Keurig.  To that I've also been adding about a quarter of a teaspoon of thyme.  To each freshly brewed cup, I also add a squeeze of lemon and a teaspoon of honey.  I then sit on my couch and desperately cradle the mug to my face while sitting in a fetal position and try to breathe in the sweet ginger vapors to sooth the tickle in my bronchial tubes and let the tea warm my body from the inside out.  It has helped greatly.

My current favorite accessory.

But this whole ordeal got me thinking.  I feel like crap.  This must mean my body is full of crap.  In fact, I know my body is full of crap because I put it there.  And crap can't fight colds.  So I need to get it out.  I've always wanted to do a cleanse or a detox.  Shawn and I have 4 days off together starting tomorrow, so here is our chance.  I did some research and found a program, complete with recipes, that lasts 4 days.  We get to eat three meals a day, but three very specific meals.  I'll be making a lot of veggie shakes.  Will we hate it?  Probably.  Will we feel really hungry and sad that we don't get to eat carbs or sugar or dairy or caffeine?  Absolutely.  Will Shawn go into major coffee withdrawals?  Yes.  I know I have a sugar addiction.  That's a fact.  I will go into withdrawals as well.  Now Shawn hasn't really had to go through the whole cold thing as bad as I have but we've been wondering about a possible gluten issue with him so he's on board with this as well.  We might not last all 4 days, but we will try our hardest.

Of course, you will get to read all about it.

Next time you hear from me, I will likely be angry and miserable.

Here's to health and feeling better in the New Year.

Oh boy.

Decking the Cottage

I LOVE Christmas.  Love love love it.  I love the lights, the family, the food, the colors, the happiness, the joy, the presents, the decor... I could go on. 

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the hubs and I had a revelation that not only would this be our first Christmas together as a hitched duo, but it is also the first time we have our own place to deck with all the glory that is the holidays. 

So off we went. 

First Shawn put up lights around the house.  Just a few colorful strands lining the front of the house and roof and some running down the gutter next to our front door.  Sure, it's not anything people will ooh and aah at, but we do.  Every time we drive up at night we make sure to remark, "why look at this charming little cottage.  How lovely."  It's fun.

Our little cottage was made even more lovely by our additions last weekend.  First, we bought a little tree.  My family rarely did the whole live Christmas tree thing so getting a live tree is a big deal to me.  But we figured this was a special occasion.  It's a smaller one, just 5 feet tall, and nice and skinny so it doesn't take up too much space in our tiny living room.  We decorated it with all the ornaments from both our childhoods.  It's kind of perfect.

The other thing I did was make a holiday bouquet to hang on the door.  Shawn kind of wanted a wreath but we didn't really want to pay for anything else (other than the tree) that was going to die.  So I got the idea that maybe I would make something festive.

First I started with a pile of branches carefully selected from around my house.  Some pine, juniper, 2 kinds of fir, some holly complete with berries, and cedar.  I also found a pine cone along the interurban trail behind my house for an accent.

Way more that I needed.

Then I arranged them on the floor in a nice array.  I'm no florist, so I did the best I could.

I had a lot left over.

Then I banded them tightly with a rubber band including the pine cone.

The stems will all be different lengths but they can be cut after they're banded.

Next I made a festive bow out of some ribbon and tied that around the top to conceal the rubber band.

Thicker ribbon would have made a prettier bow, but it's all I had.

That's it.  Hang it on the door and all your guests will be greeted with a nice, fresh-smelling piece of festive fun.  I really like the word festive.  Can you tell?

There's nothing better than sitting in front of the fire, surrounded by the smell of a live Christmas tree, watching some great BBC programming.  It really helps in getting through the sad, cold, dark, wet Seattle winter.

Some Thanks and a Recipe I am Thankful For

Happy Thanksgiving all!  Ah, I love holidays and all the joys and excitement it brings.  Despite it being a pretty busy day, I think we all need to slow down and take a moment in our day to think about all the things we are thankful for.  My rolls are rising in the oven, so this is my perfect time.

This year has been a particularly thank-full year.  I am thankful for the lovely situation that came about and put us into our new cozy home.  I am thankful for all the little birdies outside who are currently enjoying a Thanksgiving feast from the recently refilled bird feeder.  Chickadees eat hastily, before the juncos shove them aside, finches take a bite here and there, while the nuthatches hang upside down and feast.  All movement and flitting about is temporarily disturbed when the big guns show up: Stellers Jays and Flickers scare the little ones away for a bit, but their sheer number gives them the courage to hold their own.  This lovely scene is simply topped off by the pair of hummingbirds that come daily to visit our hanging fuchsia plant.  (Sigh.)

I am also thankful for the ladies getting their feathers back.  Frannie looks better then ever, and both her and Elsa are back to their normal selves.  Also, I, as well as the chickens I assume, am thankful for the awesome chicken coop that we built this year that is impervious to large rains.  Gone are the days of coop flooding!

I am thankful that I live in a household where we both have jobs, considering the struggles that so many people are still going through in finding employment.  What we have might not be much, but it brings us satisfaction and sometimes you just have to be glad for that.

I am thankful for my Gus and Nikolai, and even Skipper for welcoming me home each day, keeping me warm while on the couch and giving me unconditional love and affection daily.  They may be a pain in the ass at times and prevent us from going on any trips, but they are my babies and I wouldn't know what to do without them. 

I am thankful for my friends and family, who I can always count on to make me laugh, keep me grounded, and who's presence will never allow me to feel the pangs of loneliness.

Finally, I am thankful for my Shawn.  I am thankful for the amazing epic day we shared called our wedding that I still look back on with excitement.  I am thankful for his "stepping up" that suddenly happened after the wedding and all the hard work he puts into our household and keeping our home feeling warm and cozy.  I am thankful for his daily dealings with my crazy and reminding me it's ok to be myself.  But most of all, I am thankful for the love that he shows me each day, I only hope that I am able to reciprocate in a way that makes him as happy as he makes me.

May we be this jolly for ever and ever.

Now back to those rolls.

This is a recipe that my family has been making for as long as I remember, and since they are SO DELICIOUS, naturally, they only get made for the Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts.  Though I would like to make them more often since they are SO DELICIOUS, they would probably lose their charm so I painfully await them each year.  I've taken them to many a Thanksgiving feast outside of our family and I get rave reviews each time.  I've heard people call them Firecracker Rolls, Orange Rolls, or just "those amazing rolls."  Seriously, you'll be thankful for this recipe.

Holiday Citrus Rolls

Ingredients
One large orange
1 1/2 tsp. Lemon or Orange Zest
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cardamom
1 packet yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
5+ cups bread flour
1/2 cup sugar
4 tbs. butter (plus 2 more for later)
2 eggs

First, zest the lemon or orange.  Then squeeze all the juice out of the orange into a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup.  Add one cup of water and the butter to the juice and heat until the butter is half melted.  In a large mixing bowl, stir together a cup of flour, the yeast, the cardamom, the sugar, and the salt.  Add the warmed mixture and stir till smooth.  Then add the eggs and zest, stir until smooth again.  Now add the rest of the flour until the dough gets to kneading consistency.  Turn out onto floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes.  Place into greased bowl and let rise for about an hour or two.  (I did it overnight since I wouldn't have time to make it and bake it the next morning and it rose really well.)

After first rise, punch down and knead for another couple minutes.  Cut them into the size of your choice and shape them into balls.  Place them into a greased casserole dish or a high sided jelly roll pan about a half an inch apart and let rise again until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.  Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a dish.  Paint the tops of each roll with the butter then sprinkle with some sugar.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden.  Enjoy.  The fluffiness, the crunchy sweetness of the sugar, and the citrus/cardamom combination is to die for.  Try not to eat them all before dinner.  I've eaten two already.  You know, for poison testing.  But don't worry, I made a batch and a half so there's plenty left... as long as I don't eat them all on the ferry to our dinner destination.

I am so lucky to have so many things to be thankful for.

Sparkles...

Regifting is not a sin, Jesus does it every year.

Now before you chastise me for the title of this post let me explain.

This year, my family and I spent Christmas at my grandma's house in Sacramento.  It was really fun. We played a ton of games, shelled 44 pounds of walnuts (a Christmas tradition,) recycled the classic jokes about being Portuguese, and talked about family members who are gone from this earth but not from our hearts.  We ate till we couldn't see straight and reminisced about what it felt like to feel hunger.  It was awesome. 

Our family is not religious.  My dad was raised Catholic and my sister and I were baptized but that's the extent of my religious upbringing.  Though I'm sure my grandma would love it if we went to church with her, she understands and doesn't bother us about it.  So, like a good Catholic, she went to mass on Christmas morning while the rest of us stayed behind and got breakfast ready.  She came home, and we did our Christmas morning as usual. 

During lunch, someone brought up the concept of regifting.  We discussed whether it was good or bad and decided it can be a great thing if all the circumstances are right.  First, the item being gifted has to be a wanted item.  Shawn once got a package of socks from his grandpa that he had already opened and decided they didn't fit.  It was clearly an afterthought, and therefore was a bad way to regift something.  Second, the gift has to be from someone who either will never know of the regifting, or from someone who didn't put much effort into the gift and will not care if it was regifted.  And lastly, it has to be an item that the recipient has a need for or can appreciate.

An example of the last two requirements is the Christmas gift that my sister's BF gave to his mother.  The company that both he and Shawn work for gives out annual gifts to all its employees.  Last year it was an ice cream maker, this year it was a box of a bunch of random locally made goods.  There were cookies, toffee, and pretzels, as well as a hand-carved ruler and a picture frame.  Do the boys have any need for this stuff?  Not really.  My sis's BF was already planning on getting his mother a gift of Seattle-based goods anyway so this was perfect.  They printed a picture of the two of them and  put it in the picture frame, wrapped the box, and away it went to Alabama where a very excited mother awaited.

See, regifting isn't always evil.  It's good for the pocketbook and if the recipient is happy there is no harm done.  An item that is not useful to one person is given a new life and adopted by someone else, putting some relief to the the ever-growing problem of us all having too much stuff.  I can justify anything in the name of sustainability.  And who says that you have to spend money to give someone something they can appreciate?

Ok, back to the Jesus thing.  So right after this conversation about regifting, my grandma changed the subject by asking us why we have Christmas in the first place.  (They had asked the kids this during mass that day.)  We responded with, "well, it's Jesus' birthday."  Then she asked us why we get gifts for someone else's birthday.  After all us heathens looked at each other blankly for a few seconds she replied "because Jesus is very generous and he wants us to have his gifts."

To which my dad quickly responded with, "he just regifting."

Judging by the amount of laughter this caused, including from my grandma, I'm guessing this will become an annual family joke from here on out.  Hopefully this explains away the title of this post, and if not, explains the kind of sense of humor my family appreciates.

Hopefully, your holiday season was filled with silly jokes and fun times as well.

An accurate portrayal of the chaos that ensues when 8 people try to shell 44 pounds of walnuts.

Awesome chicken quilt made by my Auntie Martha.  Yes, my parents are dorks.  That's why I am too.

The Nog Dilemma

To cook or not to cook?  I still have this question.  For this first batch of egg nog, I decided to go with the non-cooked kind since I know my eggs are safe.  (I made them extra safe by dunking them in boiling water for 20 seconds each to kill off any possible salmonella on the shells.)

So yeah.  It's the holidays.  Like every year they have totally snuck up on me and I have to remind myself to get festive.  So I stare at our Christmas tree to try to get in the spirit.  We've been drinking a lot of store bought egg nog, (by the way, Twin Brook creamery nog is the BEST,) which has helped but I decided to go one step further and make some of it myself.

Looking up recipes online was confusing.  There are a ton of recipes out there and some are just too much trouble.  Not only are some cooked, but some have beaten eggs whites mixed in (which sounds gross because I don't like drinking things that could be considered "frothy",) and some have so much cream that I have a heart attack thinking about it.  I also don't partake in the consumption of alcoholic beverages, so a bunch of other recipes were out.

So I looked at several recipes just to get an idea and came up with my own.  I decided to make a smaller batch first, and make adjustments if necessary.

Ingredients:
4 eggs
4 cups milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup sugar (rounded, so there's a little more)
1/2 tsp nutmeg
a dash or two of cinnamon
a dash of salt

Directions:  Beat the eggs with a hand mixer then slowly add the sugar, vanilla, and nutmeg.  Once mixed well, add milk, one cup at a time.  Chill, and enjoy!

The frothiness dies down pretty quick.

How does it taste?  Awesome.  I'm having hard time not drinking the whole batch.  Oh, and our nutritionist neighbor told us that the cholesterol in eggs is made worse by cooking the yolks.  Since these yolks are raw, you can drink this guilt free!  Even awesomer.  Happy holidays!

(Maybe I could just drink the whole batch and just make more to replace it... then no one would know...)

School's out! It's Christmas time!

Merry Christmas everybody!  Ours was quite nice.  My grandma came up from California and as usual, we've had too much food and too little sleep.  Grandma is going home today (tear) and slowly but surely real-life is showing itself again in the form of messy houses and ongoing master's projects.  Here is a recap of the last couple days,

Christmas eve was started with lunch with my fam, then Shawn and I drove over to Poulsbo for dinner with his very loud and proud relatives.  Christmas morning started with the regular breakfast-crepe-pigfest back with my family, then after clean up was present time.  There was a surprisingly similar theme of sustainable and eco-friendly things among the gifts that were shared and half of them were hand-made.  I could just list them, but I feel like being a little creative.  It's not like there aren't enough remakes of the 12 days of Christmas anyway.

The 12 Gifts of Christmas
For the first gift of Christmas, my sister gave to us,
A bucket of elephant poo.


For the second gift of Christmas my sis and I were given,
Two chicken books,
And a bucket of elephant poo.


For the third gift of Christmas I gave to my ma and sister,
Three Harry Potter passes
Two chicken books, 
And a bucket of elephant poo.


For the fourth gift of Christmas my Parents gave to gave to Als,
A 45,000 year-old rolling pin,
Three Harry Potter passes,
Two chicken books, 
and a bucket of elephant poo.


For the 5th gift of Christmas, I gave to my Shawnie,
Five months of XM radio!

A 45,000 year-old rolling pin,
three Harry Potter passes,
Two chicken books, 
and a bucket of elephant poo.


For the 6th gift of Christmas my parents gave to Shawn,
New Zealand Rugby pride,
Five months of XM radio!
A 45,000 year-old rolling pin,
three Harry Potter passes,
Two chicken books, 
and a bucket of elephant poo.


For the 7th gift of Christmas, we gave to my papa,
A hand-made viking lawn game,
New Zealand Rugby pride,
Five months of XM radio!
A 45,000 year-old rolling pin,
three Harry Potter passes,
Two chicken books, 
and a bucket of elephant poo.

For the 8th gift of Christmas, we gave to my grandma,
A giant book of memories,
a hand-made viking game,
New Zealand rugby pride,
Five months of XM radio!

A 45,000 year-old rolling pin,
three Harry Potter passes,
Two chicken books, 
and a bucket of elephant poo.

For the 8th gift of Christmas, Als and Zack gave to me,
A sustainable surge protector,

A giant book of memories,
a hand-made viking game,
New Zealand rugby pride,
Five months of XM radio!
A 45,000 year-old rolling pin,
three Harry Potter passes,
two chicken books,
and a bucket of elephant poo.

For the 9th gift of Christmas, my Shawnie gave to me,
A mate gourd and bombilla,

A sustainable surge protector,
A giant book of memories,
a hand-made viking game,
New Zealand rugby pride,
Five months of XM radio!
A 45,000 year-old rolling pin,
three Harry Potter passes,
two chicken books, 
and a bucket of elephant poo.

For the 10th gift of Christmas I gave to parents gave to us,
Wool and possum gloves,

A mate gourd and bombilla,
A sustainable surge protector,
A giant book of memories,
a hand-made viking game,
New Zealand rugby pride,
Five months of XM radio!
A 45,000 year-old rolling pin,
three Harry Potter passes,
two chicken books, 
and a bucket of elephant poo.

For the 11th gift of Christmas, my parents gave to us,
A dual toilet flusher,

Wool and possum gloves,
A mate gourd and bombilla,
A sustainable surge protector,
A giant book of memories,
a hand-made viking game,
New Zealand rugby pride,
Five months of XM radio!
a 45,000 year old rolling pin
three Harry Potter passes,
two chicken books,
and a bucket of elephant poo.

For the 12th gift of Christmas, my sister gave to her man,
12 flying ninja hippos,
A dual toilet flusher,
Wool and possum gloves,
A mate gourd and bombilla,
A sustainable surge protector,
A giant book of memories,
a hand-made viking game,
New Zealand rugby pride,
Five months of XM radio!
A 45,000 year-old rolling pin,
three Harry Potter passes,
Two chicken books,
and a bucket of elephant poo.

There were other gifts, but these are just the notable ones that would fit into the song.  They may not seem that exciting, but we were all pretty happy with this year's haul.  It was definitely a little more low budget than usual, but I don't see anything wrong with that.  Sometimes it's the most inexpensive stuff that means the most to someone.

There was a lot of cooking done too, and almost every meal that was dined on had some element that came from someone's backyard.  Breakfast always included berries (blueberry and raspberry) out of my parents awesome berry patches, eggs from our chickies were used as often as possible, and pumpkins from our garden made a reappearance in a couple pies.

But don't be fooled.  We don't just eat and open presents in our family.  We also play LOTS of card games.  Countless rounds of scotch bridge were played, each one full of drama and shouting and no one won or lost a game twice.  (Well, I may have lost the last two we played, but oh well.)  Cribbage and Pedro also came into play here and there, (Pedro is a Portuguese card game that brings out the competitive spirit in all of us) and all in all, we had tons of fun.

With all the festivities coming to a close, I am definitely feeling a little sad, but also ready to get back into a calmer, more reliable schedule.  A lot of things have been neglected, the chickens haven't had as much outside time and my house is a mess.  I still have one week until school starts, so I plan on really doin' some fun stuff, like trying my hand at cheese-making.  I'll make sure to let you know how that goes.  Until then, happy homesteading!