It wasn't all perfect!

Here's the Mince pie.  Most of it is still in the fridge.  I think it's just too sweet!  Another quart is still in the jar in the fridge.  Maybe I can turn it into plum pudding or some kind of cake?
We had a hitch in the Holiday plans.  My Daughter, who would come and help cook and eat the best dinner on Christmas Eve, got a migraine and had to stay in bed.  I was a little rushed to get the dinner cooked, then we ate hastily and took dinner to my Daughter's house.  Not how it was planned.  And I was so sorry she felt so bad.
My Husband and I went on to Spring Mill Inn as planned and that went very well indeed.  We opened our presents and there were very satisfying surprises on both sides.  I'll do a post on my gifts soon as they have sparked some activity here at home!  We walked in the village early in the cold morning, ate of their lovely breakfast buffet (which is ridiculously cheap), sat in front of the fire and then went home.  Christmas dinner was easy as everything was cooked already.  Our company came, we talked, we ate and finally we opened presents.  I think everyone got things they needed or  even loved.  The last bit of Christmas cheer was watching Downton Abby before bedtime.

We missed having a white Christmas by two days!  Tuesday morning it looked like this!  Just beautiful.  But short-lived.  By afternoon it had mostly melted.

I am afraid Mary Lincoln didn't make it home in time for Christmas.  When I undressed her I found she had no skin!  She needed more underwear too.

Now here she is with new skin, new petticoats and a tiny corset!  The dress is under construction and full of problems.  More on that later.


The menus for the week were all about left-overs.  
Monday we ate cold sliced ham and cheese, salad, potato casserole heated in the oven and Christmas cookies.
Tuesday, Chicken and dressing, also left-over
Wed Quiche and home-canned green beans
Thursday Canned beef stew and chicken sandwiches with Swiss cheese, broiled
Today:  Left-over Quiche, last of the asparagus, dark chocolate for dessert.
Saturday, Hamburgers and roasted garlic potatoes and the last of the cookies.
Sunday:  Large Shrimp cocktails, baked potatoes with sour cream, tossed Chef's salad, white wine.


Quiche recipe:
Crust:  
3 cups plain flour
scant 1/4 cup sugar
1 stick butter or 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/4 cup oil
!/2 cup ice water
Mix sugar and flour and cut in solid shortening until mealy.
Mix oil and water and pour into flour mixture all at once.  Stir gently until mixture makes a ball.  Divide into 2 or 3 portions.  1/2 makes a bottom crust and some lattice strips for the top.  Or make 3 thin bottom crusts.  Keeps well for several days in the fridge.
Filling:  
2 eggs
1 clove garlic
several slices of onion  
4 ounces or more sharp Cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon dried parsley
salt and pepper to taste
Put these ingredients in the blender and pour in milk to the 2 cup line.  Blend until cheese is just little chunks.
Arrange in the raw crust bottom 1 1/2 cups just barely cooked crispy  broccoli and chunks of ham, about 1 cup.
Pour liquid filling over.  Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until center is mostly set or a knife comes out clean.  I left out the onion this time and sliced some green onions over the top when I took it out of the oven.
I am thinking about New Year's resolutions and how I might improve on last year's performance.  More on that later.

I have put away all the Christmas decorations except for this one postcard, which I get out every year because it is such a good likeness to a house I once lived in as a teenager.  Not exactly, of course, being a painting by an Indiana artist, Ronald Mack, called "Homestead".  I have only two photos of the house we lived in, in Virginia but neither shows the house and the approach, the  aloneness of the location, as this painting does.  It was the last time we lived together as a family, dysfunctional but not yet broken.

I have moved a table near the stove for us to eat warm.  We already had our breakfast, the favorite omelette with Swiss cheese and spinach and mushrooms, and now I am sitting there with my coffee, reading the book Total Chaos by Jean-Claude Izzo, translated from the French.  For lunch I had just a quarter of an avacado, salted and eaten from the shell with a spoon and the last cup of coffee.  Mmmmmm, delicious!  Outgoing mail is propped against the lamp, lest we forget to put it in the mailbox tomorrow morning.

This New Year's I did make some resolutions,  to eat less, exercise more and to fast from spending money.  Amazingly, I have actually eaten much less and have walked on the days the street was not covered with snow or it was below 10  degrees outside, but somehow fasting from spending has not worked out so well.  I had read about a woman in New York who did this.  She was asked about groceries and she said Oh well, one has to spend some money but just in general I try to find some other way to get my needs met.  I loved that.  My daughter says that might be called "bricolage".  I understand that to mean working things so that more items do not have to be added, just using what you have.  Sounds a very green thing, no?  But in my own case, I ended up buying a new kitchen range, since three burners misbehaved, on Christmas day even, ramping up to high no matter what the setting was on and burning things all 'round.  However, if you like, you can excuse me because it was still 2010 when I bought the stove.  The new china shown in the picture above was definitely bought in the new year.  And though the first 10 pieces were cheap or free, the necessary plates and cups and bowls were purchased and were not cheap.  They are, however, not made in China!  It is Pfalzgraff from the '60's called "Gourmet".  Oven safe and reasonably resistant to chipping, unlike most new china.  Dark brown with a white drip all around the edges, I have quite fallen in love with it.  Now it takes up the space I used to set the bread dough in to rise.  I already had two pitchers in this style.  However, you will notice some blue and white little pitchers on the right in the picture,  I also have a large pitcher in that style.  Somewhat at odds.  Are you sure that things have to match?

I tell you, I am unwilling to give up the big blue pitcher, its the perfect size for iced tea and frozen orange juice!

Additionally, I found at an Antique Mall a lovely Tell City rocking chair rather like one I used for years that went to it's real home at another daughter's last summer.  And on the back a reproduction coverlet bought at the same booth.  And for this purchase I have no real excuse except that the price was very reasonable.  But saying I bought something because it was on sale sounds like recreational shopping to me!