Christmas coffee

This Christmas eve eve, I woke up early, finally a day off before Christmas and so much to do. I started the coffee and took a look at my list. Hmm…just exactly what was it I have to do today? I decided to treat my self to one of my favorite delights of Christmas, Barbers eggnog stirred into my coffee and to take the time to sit down and savor it. It smells like Christmas, sugar and spice and everything nice mixed with the warm comfort of coffee. I considered how Christmas had come to this, me with no frantic shopping trips, no overly ambitious cooking schedule,and no 1:00 a.m. marathon gift wrapping session. Could it be that I had done everything? that I was ready for Christmas? Or was it that I no longer had anything to do? My children are adults now, with homes, family, friends and lives of their own. They make their own Christmas celebrations. My closest friends are still shopping for presents for their grandchildren, in between attending their school programs and their own company Christmas parties. Some are taking care of their parents’ shopping while preparing the food and house for large family gatherings they will now host. Some have a long lists of of bridge club parties, bible study and women’s circle Christmas lunches, neighborhood caroling, bunko group cookie swaps, office parties and more gifts to buy. There is so much to do to get the house decorated and also ready for college children with their friends, girlfriends and boyfriends moving in for a few days. I thought back on all my years of doing these things and teetered on the edge of poor me for just a moment. But then I breathed in the smell of my favorite once a year Christmastime eggnog coffee, became aware of the quiet and relished a moment of peace on earth. I realized that Christmas has seasons like life itself. A season for everything. I had experienced, loved and survived all those different Christmas seasons. And God willing I will have new seasons of Christmas in the future. But this year I had time for quiet, for a moment enjoying the winter birds in the backyard while sipping Christmas eggnog coffee and being grateful for the peace of God on earth that Christmas gives to us.

wine and winter comfort foods

What is your favorite winter comfort food? Which wine makes it even better? Last night a local wine store, The Vintage Wine Shoppe, vintagewineshoppe hosted a Customer Cook-Off: “Winter Comfort Foods”, one of their annual food and wine pairing tasting events. They invited their customers to participate in a friendly competition. The  contestants presented favorite recipes to sample. The Vintage Wine Shoppe’s Staff expertly paired wines with each dish for tasting. Mardi Gras beads & Gold, purple, and green feathers decorated the cooks as well as the table serving Mardi Gras Crawfish paired with a 2009 Mohua Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand. A fragrant Butternut Squash & Apple Soup ladled into tiny tasting cups alongside a basket of crusty bread and a small fountain gently pouring a gruyere cheese fondue was paired with a 2009 Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc/Voignier, 90 WA. An absolutely yummy Shepherd’s Pie was paired with a 2008 Chateau Briot, Bordeaux, and Paula Dean’s Creamy Mac & Cheese was enjoyed with a 2008 Lucky Star Chardonnay. You could choose either  a 2009 Les Garrigues Grenache Blanc or a 2009 La Vielle Ferme Rouge to compliment the White Chili. At the end of the tasting, the customers  had a chance to vote on the best food and wine pairing, and particularly  nice, a chance to to buy the featured wines at a “tonight only” price. Thanks TVWS!  The winner last night was the Sausage & Wild Rice paired with a 2007 Domaine Coudoulis Lirac. All in all, it was a delightful way to spend a Friday night, tasting some new wines at the local wine shop along with friends enjoying some classic southern winter foods. So be a yokel and buy your wine local.

Sausage & Wild Rice

1 lb sausage

1 cup chopped celery

1 med bell pepper  chopped

1 large onion chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

29 ounces organic light fat free chicken broth

1 can low salt & low fat cream of mushroom soup

1 can low salt & low fat cream of  chicken soup

1 (8 oz) can sliced water chestnuts

8 oz fresh mushrooms sliced

1 box of long-grained and wild rice mix

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

2 oz sliced almonds

Garnish with fresh parsley

In a large skillet cook the sausage until browned and crumbled, drain. Add celery, bell pepper, onion and garlic and cook until tender. In a 9 x 13 casserole dish, stir together the chicken broth, soups, water chestnuts, mushrooms, whole box of rice mix, and thyme. Stir in the sausage and vegetables. Sprinkle the almonds on top. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 1 & 1/2 hours. Let sit five minutes before serving. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve with your favorite salad, bread and wine.

magic movie box

If you were born circa 1952 then you have seen a lot of changes in the way we watch movies. My first and favorite memory of going to the movies was the Drive-In Theater. My mother would dress my sister and I in our PJ’s. We would climb in the back seat of the family car, an aqua and white ’57 Chevy and go to the Drive-In movies. I loved the little box speaker and the tray that attached to the car window.  And there was a person who brought popcorn and cokes to the car. Usually the next thing I remembered was waking up in my own bed the following morning, not the end of the movie. Then there was panovision or something like that and “How the West Was Won”. We dressed up to go to that new theater with three projectors on three screens. You felt like you were in the movie. I covered my eyes when Debbie Reynolds was almost trampled by the stampeding wagon train. Going to the movies meant going downtown to theaters like the Empire, the Melba and the grand dame of them all, The Alabama Theatre. They are all gone now except The Alabama. If you have never been there,     GO now! alabamatheatre.com/ It still has balconies, a stage and an organ that comes up out of the floor. It has gilded boxes where I was sure the Queen mother sat and where your children surely will expect Kate and William to sit when they visit. It is still magical. This is where I saw Gone with the Wind, on a screen 40 ft high. In high school, a movie date was the ultimate.  We all sat together in the balcony to watch “Our Man Flint”.   Then came movies on TV and the new smaller and louder theaters, 12 crammed into the space of one old one with sound systems that shake your teeth. There was VHS then DVDs, and movie playing machines in your own home. And there were the video rental stores where I discovered Foreign Films and left children crying in the aisle when they could not agree or when I refused to rent all of the movies at once.  And on to online options, everyone watching what they want on their own laptop or cell phone or whatever. But I have found a new way, well new to me this week. It is a red box outside the door of my local WinnDixie. So as I leave with my groceries, there is this DVD rental that looks like a coke machine. With your email address and a credit card, it will hand you a recent movie that you take home with the milk and bread. It immediately sends you a confirmation email and one the next day when you return it, and all for just one dollar. How cool is that? redbox.com

So however you go to the movies, enjoy. A good movie can still be magical.

southern snow

In those parts of the country that get snow most winters, it is just part of the weather. But in the deep south it is a theme party!   Like all great parties there must be a theme, decorations, entertainment, a guest list, the right outfit and a menu. The theme and decorations are the snow itself, all white, sparkly and everywhere. Yes we all go outside and marvel at it. We stick out our tongues, dance around in it, make snow angels and ice cream if we are really lucky and get more than one inch. We go out and slide around on sleds and cookie sheets, in our cars and on our bottoms. Also, we expect to stay home from school and work, so that takes care of the guest list. And we call each other to share our viewing of the magic stuff. If going outside, we drag out our down coats, fur lined hats and boots that we store away for use once every five years. Or we make do with a layered look, bright colored rain boots and flannel pajama pants were big this year among teenagers. We find old ski clothes with colors representing each decade. Remember neon? staying inside requires a different outfit. We go for the Orvis look or what we imagine they wear in the alps depending on personal style. Then there is the most important thing, the menu. Everyone starts days ahead to plan their menus and take stock of their pantries. The grocery stores are packed sometimes two days before the storm and wiped out by the day of. I love to go to the stores at the height of the panic, just after they let school out and before it starts snowing, just to peep in other people’s baskets. I took a poll the day before our current snow storm. I  asked my friends what foods they made sure were in the house just in case they get snowed in. The top five were chili, chips and dip, vegetable beef soup, chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate. What? No mention of milk and bread? Surviving is primordial and it is a no calorie zone. Everyone knows that the rules are these; 1. In an emergency you must have enough to eat to survive 2. You must eat more in extreme cold weather 3. Snow day calories don’t count. And then it is time for the party. The world is more silent. You can hear the kids playing and giggling outside. You have time to talk to your  neighbors in the street and to your friends on the phone. You eat, play, wonder at the beauty of it, relax, snuggle and enjoy the party.

So after my last post I learned a new word, upcycle.  Turning this year’s Christmas cards into next years gift tags is an example. Upcycle is when you turn existing, no longer useful materials into something new, useful and of better quality or better environmental impact according to Wikipedia. Upcyling is the opposite of downcycling which is the other half of recycling. How is this different from recycling something? Well you do it yourself, it doesn’t require shredding or melting and it is more fun. So what else can you upcycle? Does wearing vintage clothing count? Better yet, deconstructing it and making new items? Remember in the movie Pretty in Pink when she made a new prom dress out of old ones? Only she did not know it was called upcycling yet. I recently attached  an old silver art deco pin to the clasp of a plain black velvet evening bag. It made both unused  items into a  new and lovely clutch without using any new materials. If you were born around 1952, then you learned this from parents who were depression babies. It was called “not being wasteful” or “being frugal or creative”. But now you can tell your snobby green friends that you not only recycle, you upcycle too. What do you upcycle?

Christmas card gift tags

Who thought it was a good idea to make gift tags the same size as return address labels? Not anyone born around 1952! They are too small to see much less read. Isn’t there enough confusion during the gift opening? oops, that one is not yours, it is your sister’s…no, not your Dad, MY Dad…but I have already opened it…sorry I thought it said Tom not Tim… MOOOOOMMM he opened my gift. And that is if I can even find my glasses on Christmas morning. So here is my solution. Take your Christmas cards, cut the fronts off, use a hole puncher to make a hole in the corner and attach them to your gifts with ribbons or sparkly pipe cleaners. You can write To: and From: with names on the blank side in very LARGE LETTERS. And as a special bonus, they are varied to suit everyone on your gift list. They come in all sizes, colors from sparkle and glitter to pastels, styles from classic religious art to whimsical puppies in Santa hats. And they are really beautiful. Did I mention that they are free and you are recycling something? But most of all they are big enough to see. Merry Christmas!

Peanut Butter Crunch Candy

This is an easy to make, fail proof recipe that makes a ton of candy that you just can’t stop eating.

Christmas Crunch Peanut Butter Candy

1 & 1/2 lbs white chocolate candy coating
1 box peanut butter flavored Cpt. Crunch cereal
1/2 jar dry roasted salted peanuts (8 oz.)

Melt chocolate carefully in a large soup pot.
Remove from heat quickly, add all the cereal and peanuts.
Stir just until all of it is coated with the chocolate.
Pour onto wax paper in a somewhat single layer.
It will harden at room temperature. Break into pieces.
Store in an airtight container.

No fat, no calories, Christmas calories don’t count.

I'll be home for Christmas

We all grew up watching movies, tv shows and now commercials in which everyone is waiting for the happy ending moment when the person arrives at home just in time for Christmas. They made their way through wars and snow storms and against all odds in time for babies to be born, to see someone on their deathbed or just to join the family around the Christmas tree. Why do we want to come home? family and friends for sure,  and the sounds, sights, smells and tastes of our memories. It is not just the cake only mother makes but the love, the safe warm feeling of acceptance, the happy feeling of being home. It all came back to me as I hung up the phone, my child cannot get a flight because of snow storms half way around the world. We can have Christmas in January I say. Don’t worry I say, but we are both disappointed and teary eyed. I start to think about the parents for whom this is always their life. Their children are always far away, not home for birthdays or just everyday events. And my heart hurts for those parents whose children will not be coming home again. So we still look to Christmas for the universal message of love and hope given by the baby lying in the manger.

Christmas in Dixie

No doubt there is a stereotype of Christmas in the south and it is based on some truth. There is plenty of yard art, retro decorations and creative festive attire on both people, pets and vehicles. We love our colored lights, and yes sometimes all year home. But we also love mantles draped in ribbons and magnolia leaves from our yards, red roses arranged with long needle pines and cotton, oranges and lemons, Christmas trees from  our local farms. We love pecans made into pies, baklava, candied in cinnamon sugar or dipped in chocolate. Of course we also love candy made from assorted unhealthy cereals that we don’t allow our children to eat. We bake cookies and casseroles, organic and not at all. We love the church choir Christmas programs, the children’s nativity play and the candlelight service at church on Christmas Eve. We love that it’s not that cold and the sun in out even while singing “Dashing through the snow, in a one horse open sleigh”. What is a one horse open sleigh anyway? We love college bowl games and family games in the yard with the new balls. The kids are in their new SEC jerseys and the Dads showing off how they used to do it. We love driving to Grandmother’s house, opening piles of gifts and eating feasts, at all the grandmother’s houses, the aunt and uncles house’s too. We love country music at Christmas no matter what we listen to usually. It seems perfectly logical to sing “…let’s give thanks to the Lord above ’cause Santy Claus is comin tonight” And even better if Elvis is singing Blue Christmas or Alabama with the all time best Christmas song ever. We love Santa, dancing and singing animals, moose, deer, anything with a red fur trimmed hat or with jingle bells. We love having friends over for formal black tie dinners and potluck with the Sunday School class, or lunch with the girls or a few beers with the guys. We love saying Merry Christmas to each other, neighbors, family and perfect strangers. It is not Christmas in New York or Montana, it’s Christmas in Dixie and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Merry Christmas y’all.

vintage popcorn popper

I found this old popcorn popper in my parent’s basement. I remember when we made the leap from using a pot on the stove to this magic appliance. On the stove, you had to shake the pot back and forth, know the perfect temperature and when to take it off or you ended up with burnt popcorn. It was an acquired skill. Failure filled the kitchen with smoke, the wrath of someone who would have to scour the pot and burnt popcorn that you couldn’t eat. But then came the popper. Like magic you just added the oil and popcorn and plugged it in, not even a switch to turn on. So I took the popper home and cleaned it up in search of my childhood memory of a big bowl of popcorn shared by the whole family. I bought Mazola pure corn oil, Orville Redenbacker’s plain popcorn and followed the amounts given on the jar. I added a 1/3 cup of corn oil and a 1/2 cup of popcorn, plugged it in and the little red light came on. The minute I smelled the steam I knew this was the popcorn of my childhood, not today’s microwaved, ultra healthy air popped or unhealthy over salted and oily movie popcorn. This smelled pure and happy. Too late I realized it said “for 4 quarts” but it was OK. As the popcorn reached the top, it gently lifted the lid, and then popcorn bubbled out and onto the counter. I poured it in a large bowl and salted it lightly. It filled my mouth with a “butter” taste even though I had not used any. It has a different texture too. It was delicious!
I don’t know if you can still buy these, maybe only at garage sales. But I am hanging on to it. Oh and a bonus; Did I mention that my roommate and I made it through our first year of college with only a popcorn popper to boil water or cook food? What a jewel of an appliance.