Cliff Hanger

     I've been thinking all along, "Why would the Congress or the President want to lower our taxes?  Or reduce spending? Isn't the whole point to grease the government with some fresh cash?  Why would they care if the ones who pay the taxes are the poor?  Governments have always lived off the backs of the poor."  But I wanted to believe that somebody was going to look out for the poor guys, the 99%, in other words, us.  Now it seems that is just a myth, a fairy tale.  We'll see . . . .

     Christmas this year has been a bit hard for me.  Last child has gone, you know.  I have had to relinquish a lot of traditions.  I did get into some lovely holiday cooking though.  I felt inspired to whip up some low carbohydrate goodies.
    
     For Thanksgiving we had a large baking chicken with dressing and lovely gravy.  I tried  to eat only token portions of dressing and potatoes.  There were fresh green beans.  We had sparkling pear juice with our dinner.  And ate by the light of the oil lamp.

Other yummy treats were Fajitas with baked chips of cut up tortillas and mashed avocados and sour cream.  Then sliced spiced chicken, cheese and bacon club sandwiches with Clam chowder.

 Then on Thursday we had "Little bits and pieces", meatballs simmered in mushroom soup, skewers of cherry tomatoes, cheese and cocktail onions. . .
 and nut and raisin bon bons.  Note my Brother Larry's hand-made card as decoration on the table.

 This was a new menu and it was so successful we are planning to have it again tomorrow night.  Christmas night we're going Mexican!
      One of the last things Eliyah and I cooked before his Christmas vacation started was Tuscan Bean Stew. White beans cooked in the crockpot with tomato bits, lots of garlic, some carrots and celery, smoked sea salt and at the end, half a pound of  thin sliced peperoni.  That was yummy indeed!
     Now I must go in the kitchen and bake a pineapple pie for Bill.  And a few Mincemeat tarts for me!

Black Friday

     "Why is it called Black Friday?"  my husband asked.  "Is it that miserable?"  He was contemplating buying frenzies at Big Box stores.  He only likes Antique Malls.  There he is an indefatigable shopper.  
     "No," I replied, "It's about being in the black, financially."  And I thought about what I had said.  The stores would be in the black, making a profit, but what about us, the buyers?  Would we be in the black?
     According to the early morning National news (3:30 am) credit card debt is up and so are defaults on credit card payments.  So no, we wouldn't necessarily be in the black.  More likely in the red, trying to right the economy on borrowed money.  Then I saw an item on the computer, spam most likely, saying "boycott shopping on Black Friday. Instead, make it a no-buy day."  And I thought, "That would keep us in the black!"  I really like the idea.  It fits right in with my buying diet.  Not that I'm so good at it.  We went to the Southport Antique Mall last week.  I didn't spend much but I did buy.  Not new stuff but that doesn't really get me off the hook does it?

Character Doll, Old woman with glass eyes.

The Basket Seller

     I can't make out why the old Woman is dressed in a pinafore like a little girl.  Of course, she is naked at the moment and I have done major surgery on her, giving her elbows, knees and wrists, so that she can be posed.  I've been to Joanne's and gotten snippets of purple and red to make her a dress and hat.  The basket lady's face is faded but I don't intend to strip her down.  Maybe a little judicious face painting is in her future.  What fun!

     

     As I mentioned previously, we are back on the once a month grocery shopping schedule.  Last month I bragged that we had saved $50 doing that but now I have to report that I spent that money on sale meat and things we ran out of, such as butter, white bread and soft drinks for my Husband.  This month I spent over the allotment but after all it is Thanksgiving.  And Christmas is coming up.  The little house is full of food and goodies.  One of the things I did was to buy bones and make beef broth.  I saw it done on the Victorian cooking videos I saw on youtube.

     It wasn't a short task, in fact it took two days to finish.  The meat and vegetables were first roasted in the oven, then cooked all day, cooled and skimmed, then, the next day reduced a bit.  I got 4 pints of pretty but rather carrot flavored beef broth.  For what I spent, I could have bought the most expensive bouillon available!

  

The recipe recommended throwing the meat and vegetables away but I couldn't bring myself to do that, but minced up the meat and using some of the broth made an excellent Strogonoff for Sunday dinner.  On Monday I had not planned anything nor taken something out of the freezer so I hurried to make some tomato soup (tomato sauce, canned milk, some tomato paste, dill weed) and grilled some cheese sandwiches.  I felt guilty about it just until Bill sat down and rubbed his hands and said "Oh, good, one of my favorite meals."

     Eliyah and I went to May's greenhouse to look for miniature plants and found many to choose from.  They didn't cost much either.  So we chose miniature palms, frittaria and a small fern.  Here are the terrariums we made"

       We are cooking at home alone for Thanksgiving.  A difficult choice but we plan to eat out for Christmas.  We did the same thing for our Birthday and Anniversary, ate out on one and at home the other.  After all, I make good feasts.  In fact, Bill insists that my food is better than any restaurant's, although he loves to eat out.  My menu is entirely predictable, though I won't be eating the mashed potatoes, I'll have a dab of sweet potato plain.  Also only a dab of stuffing.  No cranberry sauce but I'll be making a cheesecake out of Victoria Magazine with a glaze of cranberry juice  thickened with geletin and using sweetner rather than sugar.  So carbs but not unlimited carbs.  Now that I limit carbs, I find not much need for sugar, it's far too expensive in carbohydrates!  That surprised me but I confess that there are many proteins that I actually like better than sweets.  This week I made Pate' or chopped liver, if you will.  Flavored with sour cream, dill and spring onions, it is a delicious snack.
     I am reading a book, "Disaster" about the history of Earthquakes, floods, plagues and etc. 
I have to say, it is making me very thankful this week.  My petty complaints don't mean much beside catastrophes which do away with 90% of the population!  Nothing like being put in one's place.  A very Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

The Birthday Week

     It's not just the Birthday Week, it's also the Anniversary Week, the part of the year we celebrate most seriously  We were married 11 years ago just a week before our Birthdays.  This year we had a lovely week indeed.  On our Anniversary we ate a nice Stir-fry at home after spending the day out shopping, reading at our favorite Non-lending Library, Barnes and Noble, and having a quick lunch at McDonald's.  On our Birthday we opened presents at breakfast.  Then we had a quiet day reading and went out to Outback for a festive dinner.  There were lots of calls and e-mails and Happy Birthdays on Facebook.  I wore all black with Mother's jade necklace shining on my neck.  Even on Sunday we went to a party, a Christmas event at Elegant Options Antiques.  They were swamped with people, eating their elegant snacks and standing in line to buy Christmas ornaments and presents.  We chatted with friends and acquantances.  Not too early for a Christmas event evidently!
 

 Here are some of the gifts I received.  The little jewel box is reminiscent of Laura's box and I was overcome to get it.  Note the tiny book for Abe Lincoln.  I loved the lazer cut card from Bill and the preying mantis one.  Another favorite is below:

 From my Daughter in Seattle and her Husband.  Who wouldn't want to be addressed as Super-Mom?

Here is how the book looks on Abe's desk.  It is beautifully bound.

You remember how I longed for a fan for Mary.  We found this one at Oolitic Antique Mall.  It was a charm from a necklace.  Bill cut off the little loop.    On Monday we were quite unready to resume normal duties.  But on Tuesday I mopped the floors and straightened up for Eliyah's usual visit.
     We read the last Chapter of The Long Winter on our Birthday.  And neither of us could resist a few tears:

"The table looks some different from what it did a few days ago" Pa said as he heaped Mrs. Boast's plate with turkey and stuffing and potatoes and a large spoonful of cranberries.  And as he went on filling the plates he added, "It has been a long winter."
     "And a hard one," said Mr. Boast.
     "It is a wonder how we all kept well and came through it," Mrs. Boast said.
     While Mr. and Mrs. Boast told how they had worked and contrived through that long winter, all alone in the blizzard-bound shanty on their claim, Ma poured the coffee and Pa's tea.  She passed the bread and the butter and the gravy and reminded Pa to refill the plates.
From "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Putting up food for the Winter

"They were all dressed and washed when Pa came in with the milk half frozen in the pail.
     After he had got his breath and melted the frost and snow from his mustaches, he said, "Well, the hard winter's begun"
     Why, Charles," Ma said, "It isn't like you to worry about winter weather."
     "I'm not worrying," Pa replied, "But it's going to be a hard winter."
From "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder

     It's turned warm now, for a week or two but I'm still expecting another load of wood any day now.  It's better to be prepared . . .  Perhaps this is "Indian Summer".

     Last week I bragged about saving $50 on this month's groceries.  Then the next week's grocery store flyers came out.  What's this, chicken breasts for .77  a pound!  And pork roast for $1.78 a pound!  I did read a prediction that meat would go down before it went up, the supposition being that farmers would first butcher a little early rather than buy the more expensive feed this fall.  Later the price will go up to pay for the feed.  So I bit and spent another $25.  Then I went home and boned 15 chicken breasts and froze them, and with what we already had that's 25, count 'em 25 approximately 1 pound chicken breasts in the freezer.  As well as 4 pints of chicken broth with chicken bits in, ready to make soup.  That is kind of a big production, and one needs to plan to take off the trash afterwards before it begins to stink!

See the pile of bones and skin on the left?

Note the wax paper instead of lids.  That way the jars won't break when the broth freezes.  After it's frozen, you may replace the paper with lids, providing that the jar wasn't over-filled and conseqently bulging from the top!  If you're going to use them soon, the waxed paper will do fine.  Because I poured rather than ladled, most of the fat is in one jar, but that's all right, I'll use that one to make a cream soup or sauce, adding the flour shaken in a jar with some liquid, broth, milk or water, depending on what I'm making, instead of mixing it with butter to make a roux.  I boiled this broth down to make it flavorful and rich.  I added celery leaves and smoked salt and freshly ground pepper for flavor.  As a diabetic, noodles are not such a desirable addition but I was thinking of beaten egg to make those thin shreds such as in some Greek soups.
While I was at the store, I looked at .17 a pound potatoes.  Two decades ago I liked to buy potatoes for .20 a pound, in 50-pound bags.  So I looked at these sale potatoes.  But they were spotty and shriveled.  Last years potatoes, the last stored ones before the new crop comes in.  I'll wait.  I may pay more but I will have fresh potatoes, thank you very much!


     My daughter in Seattle is missing the mid-west autumn.  We've already had three frosts and windy days and rain so we're a little past the peak but here is a picture of our back yard.  I do love the fall!

I've had requests for the Beef and Barley stew from last week.  It's very simple:
1 # stew beef or chuck, cubed
1 medium onion, minced
2 ribs celery, thinly sliced
1 can minced tomatoes
1 t Worcestershire sauce
1 t smoked salt
1/2 t freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup whole barley.  I had to buy Bob's Red Mill this time and it wasn't precooked like Quaker, but it was lovely after cooking all afternoon in the crockpot.
1/2 package of mushrooms, about
About 2 quarts of water, home-made stock or boullion.
I don't brown the meat.  I just put everything in the crockpot and turn it on.  Wait, I don't put the mushrooms in until an hour before we eat.  I did this at 10 am and by 6 pm it was delicious.  We ate it with rye toast and butter on the side.   
I have been watching Victorian Cooking on youtube and they recommend browning shin bones in the oven and then simmering them in water with unpeeled onions and carrots, salt and pepper, all day for a lovely broth.  And I will try that just as soon as shin bones go on sale, but a quality boullion is quite acceptable to my way of thinking. 
   

A Windy Day

     "Now Laura," Ma said kindly, "You must not be so easily discouraged.  A few blizzards more or less can make no great difference."
                         "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder


     On Wednesday we went to the stores and bought 5 weeks worth of groceries.  That includes the Butcher store, the Health food store and two grocery stores.  It took us about 2 1/2 hours.

At the Health food store, I bought bulk molasses and maple syrup, Tibetian Pink rock salt and Applewood smoked salt, chili powder and decafe Earl Grey Tea, and a dozen lovely red peppers on sale for .33 apiece.  These define the tastes of this month's cooking, to some extent.  The peppers are frozen, nearly a gallon of them for fajitas, salads and omeletes, Eliyah will make pancakes after school to eat with maple syrup, and the salts, well, nothing tastes better for me than scrambled eggs with smoked salt and ground pepper for breakfast!  The total was $24.80 and constitutes my quarterly trip to the Health food store.  Counting that and the others, my total for 5 weeks was $300.75.  We saved $50.  Of course, as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.  If we find ourselves jaunting to the store in less than a month to get some goodie we're out of, well, that would be a failure of the budget, wouldn't it?
My menus for this week include Pasta, which will make three meals,  Beef stew with barley and mushrooms, Pork tenderloin sandwiches and Clam chowder with toasted cheese sandwiches.  We bought plenty of ice cream, fruit and chocolate for desserts.

This week I made Rye bread for a change, using the molasses and some cocoa powder to impart some color and flavor.  I rolled the loaves in chopped sunflower seeds too.  It is yummy.  

Today is a very windy day.  The air is like, buoyant, as I noticed when I went out to rescue two t-shirts left out to bleach in the sun.  So I left the garage door up and the door into the house open, to bring in that leafy air.  When I went out to get something in the garage, I found a wren trembling on the work table.  She was so afraid of me she wouldn't shoo out, she just couldn't move with fear.  I put up the second door and left her alone and now she has gone.  It is so windy, the garage must have seemed like calm from the storm.   

Eliyah made breakfast Pizzas Thursday, biscuit dough with eggs, cheese, bacon and a slice of tomato.  They were very good and he has written down the recipe for his box.  We used lard in the biscuit dough, which gives it a special flavor.

 Some have mushrooms on them.

My sole decoration for Halloween is the witch in our kitchen, brought all the way from Yugoslavia.

I have been making lists at the dining room table by lamplight, even though it's the middle of the day.  I find it makes the lists go better, and now I think I'll add a cup of Earl Grey tea too. 

Cozy Winter Days are Coming Again!

"A b-b-b-blizzard" Ma chattered.  "In Oc-October.  I n-n-never heard of . .. "

Quote from "The Long Winter"  by Laura Ingalls Wilder

She originally called it "The Long Hard Winter" and so it was.  But her publisher felt that was too frank for her audience of children so it was shortened.
And no, there has been no blizzard here, just some cool weather.  But I love the thought of snowy cold weather.  Now that I'm retired and don't  have to go out to work every day!  I have already moved the table close to the stove for warm cozy meals.  Eliyah and I have brought in wood and stacked it on the hearth.  Every morning I read a chapter from "The Long Winter" after breakfast.  Not that we are having fire in the stove yet.  The Chimney Sweep hasn't even been here yet.  I am just anticipating!

I brought home some souvenirs from Florida.  A lovely little Nocturn, a little night painting:

   And a reproduction sewing bird.  It is impossible to actually stick a pin in the bright red cushion and I don't know how they managed that!

 Also  a set of Majolica canisters that are actually worth something.  You will see them in the background of this next picture.  The picture is of a bottle of oil.  The plastic bottle was so thin that it crumpled and spilled oil on the counter when I grabbed it to pour in the skillet.  I found a nice whiskey bottle to put it into and I like it very much, easy to hold and to pour.

   In line with being cozy for winter, I am cooking beans for the next month or so:

 I will put them in the jars, cover them with wax paper and canning rings and freeze them.  Beans, it turns out, are a proper carb for a diabetic.

It's almost time for our show so I'll stop now except to note I have gone back to monthly grocery buying.  It seems to save me about $50 a month.  More on this later.

Home again, home again, jiggity jog

     I have been gone on an extended trip, a working trip and come home thinner and very grateful for my life here.  We saw several accidents, which were horrifying, found that the cottage we were to stay in had been burgled and even the bedroom furniture taken so that I slept on a couch with a throw pillow the whole time we were there.  We emptied the house and cleaned it up as best we could and there was no time for fun in sunny Florida.  I wouldn't go back for a mint of money!   Florida was interesting though, as it always it.  It seemed to me that the Spanish Moss was thicker than I remember.

 If you look closely, upper third,  left of center, you can see an opportunistic moss attached to the phone wire where it is looped!

We loaded the car to capacity and beyond.  I loved this picture because if you look at the window you see a reflection of me, taking the picture!

     The trip was a good distraction from the sadness of finding out my old friend Ida had left this earth for Heavenly pleasures, (no doubt about that, none).
And another sadness, my youngest daughter has moved across the country to Seattle.  I have had the pleasure of her company all these years and now she has gone away to have adventures apart from me.  I miss her more than I can say.  I helped her pack and move and in cleaning out the house, brought many things back to my own house.  When I realized that she was really gone, I got some of those things out and spread them around, to use and to think of her and be grateful that she has been so near all these years.

 Her parasol is awaiting repair to the handle.

 The pantry is full of a motly assortment of new stuff.

 The clothes pins I fasten plastic bags shut with have a new container.

 My hair clips now reside in the box she used to use.

 This tiny cup was detached from a tea ball to become a companion to an India silver teapot.  The dolls will have a teaparty for Christmas, of course.

 This stone sculpture by another daughter, Jude, now lives on the hearth.

   This Norfolk pine has pride of place in the window of the bird room.  Though these days there aren't many birds feeding.  You can see the pan of water I've been keeping out for the deer.

     This morning during breakfast I was staring out the window in a vacant way and noticed something on the screen.

I went out into the rain to take it's picture.  It's a Preying Mantis, her abdomen swollen by eggs, I suppose.  I will recognise the egg casing when she is finished, because we had one in a vase of dried flowers for several months, in our old house down south,  until they hatched and when I looked, the wall appeared to be waving like a flag, as a sheet of hundreds of tiny white babies climbed upward in search of sunlight.  I opened the door and the cat and I watched as they gravitated out, turning pale green as we watched them surge towards the light.  I can't even estimate how many hundred there were.  But lately, I haven't been seeing very many adult Preying Mantis.  I would have liked to keep her in a jar for Eliyah to see but I didn't want to endanger her health or her babies' either and neither would Eliyah. 

NIB

     So often when I am trolling e-bay for treasures, NIB appears.  It means "new in box".  Everything is worth more if it's new in the box, the original box, mind you, not some Johnny-come-lately replacement box.  Now I have been looking for furniture for Mary Lincoln's room for some time.  She is taller than doll house dolls.  1/6, in fact, not 1/12.  That's Barbie size however most Barbie items are not old fashioned enough to suit Mary's taste!  But Bill has found something New-in-box!

 As you can see by the label, "Wood Dresser with Mirror"  Made in Japan, not occupied Japan so pre-World war II.  About the 1930's.  The style is just exactly Civil war era, called Jenny Lind, after the singer.  I was so pleased and I confess, happy to spend the grocery money this week on it!  We have installed the new window, the wall paper and the dresser but not the curtains and the scenery outside the window yet.

Note the tiny soap on a tiny doily.  Hand-made lace decorates the mirror and lies under the bowl.  Each drawer opens and I now lust after tiny gloves, hankies, a fan, and comb and hand-mirror to put in them.  Some people are never satisfied!

     Last week the most successful dinner menu was lamb stew.  I wasn't sure Bill would like it.  There was some ground lamb left in Rose's fridge when she moved.  I carefully added garlic, finely minced red onion and smoked sea salt and pepper and made large meatballs of the mixture, then simmered them in beef broth, with carrots, celery and mushrooms and a couple of tablespoons of barley.  It was a big hit and made enough for two meals for us, just with salad and toasted rye bread.  Yum-o-la!
More about our diet next time.

Art Show

     I've been to the Waldron Art Gallery twice this month.  I went to see a 40 year retrospective show of the employees and former owner of Pygmalion's Art Store.  The store always advertised itself as the Art store owned, run and staffed by artists.  My Daughter worked there for years.  So two of her pieces are in the show.  It was a lovely show but I hadn't taken my camera and the place was really too packed to make picture taking feasible.  So Eliyah and I went after school.  However, my photography leaves a lot to be desired!

"Tree" by Jude Heichelbech

Artist - Jude Heichelbech

 

 This wet-sculpted cement dog was the work of Tom Zeta, I just love the look this dog gives you!

All in all, a very successful show!

     I have put my sewing in the downstairs closet.  I confess the picture makes it look cluttered but I feel very comfortable in there.  My projects are lined up in hanging shelves on the right.

     I have cut out a pink dress to sew.  I'd like to finish it this week.  I have a pink and white shawl I want to wear with it.  It's a very simple pattern with only three pieces.