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.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A few weeks ago we drove over to Gosport, Indiana, to visit Nate's Candy Jar, which specializes in home-made candy.  Bill is quite smitten with their caramels, softer and larger than the little squares we buy at the grocery.  When we walked in, it smelled like Heaven.  Alyssa was just wrapping these fancy candied apples for Halloween!  Fresh cupcakes are under the dome.  The bottle of hand lotion is one of the things I took home that day.  She sells Watkins too, whose products I have always liked.  I have their lovely vanilla from her too.

Look how many old fashioned candies they have!

They have all kinds of candy!  And every bit tempting and luscious!  Worth the 22 mile trip, I assure you.

Today I have finished the pies for tomorrow, pumpkin, of course, then sweet potato and cheesecake with pineapple sauce. There are cookies too, Alexander Tortes (from my Russian cookbook) with an apple filling. The cranberry chutney is done.  The chicken breasts are marinating in orange juice, soy and garlic. Tomorrow morning I will start by frying the onion rings for the green bean casserole, cutting up bread for the dressing and setting some white yeast dough for hot rolls.  While the chicken and dressing and rolls are baking, we'll make the whipped potatoes and gravey.  My daughter is bringing things too, fruit salad and olives and celery and I don't know what else!  We will have a feast.
And about time, I've been getting ready and we've been eating frozen pizza, soup, and leftover salmon patties all week!

So here are the menus:
Thanks giving:  Baked marinated chicken breasts, sage dressing, green bean casserole with extra mushrooms and home-made fried onion rings, whipped potatoes with  gravy, hot rolls, relish tray, cranberry chutney, fruit salad and for dessert, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, and pineapple sauced cheesecake.
Friday:Leftovers of the very best sort.
Saturday: Home-made vegetable soup and toasted cheese sandwiches
Sunday Italian spaghetti, tossed salad
Monday, Hoppin John with sausage, rice and black-eyed peas, tossed salad
Tuesday:  Baked Pasta with cheese, tossed salad
Wednesday:  Hoppin' John, tossed salad


I have made the sweet potato pie by a Southern recipe calling for butter, vanilla, white sugar, eggs, milk and nutmeg.  I had not made a distinction between pumpkin and sweet potato before but this recipe is delicious!  How do I know?  Well, I licked the bowl, of course!  The pumpkin pie was made with frozen Halloween pumpkin, the very one Eliyah decorated with a black marker.  There is an easy way to do this.  I did a pumpkin and a pie squash at the same time.  Split each one and scrape out the seeds.  Save to toast in the oven if you like.  Put the halves in baking pans with sides (to catch the juice) and bake at 350 for about an hour, or until soft.  Remove from the oven and let cool.  Then just scoop out the soft flesh with a spoon and put it into plastic sandwich bags, 2 cups to each, lay flat on a cookie sheet and freeze.  2 cups will make a regular sized pie.  If you like it smoother, mix up the filling in your blender!  There is almost no waste in doing this.

Ready for freezing.  The squash is a darker color than the pumpkin.   Notice my thick stemmed geraniums, just starting to bloom again  now that they have come inside!

Just the empty skins left.

Here's hoping you have many things to be thankful for this year,  I know I do.  And many happy returns!

Is it Fall yet?

Summertime

      I am really enjoying summer this year, even through the heat, even though I keep putting off the yard work and it's getting pretty shaggy now.  And now that Eliyah comes three days a week, I am sure I'm going to play some every week.  Last week he beat me roundly at checkers!  I am enjoying the garden produce and the flowers too.  Here are some Zinnias in the yard of a friend who has a green thumb.  She has lots of tomatoes too and I took some home and canned Salsa for her and for us.

In my Friend's yard are many flowers.

Some people don't realize how pretty Hydrangeas are in alkaline soil.

 

There were six jars of salsa but we have already eaten one!

     Here is a new cookbook I bought last week when I was Not-buying antiques with a friend.  It's a Russian cookbook from 1969, a Time-Life series. (it cost me a grand $2) It has a number of recipes in it so I was surprised to find that it's not actually the cookbook, but a story-line that goes with a spiral bound cookbook.  Bill has ordered me the other part but in the mean-time, I have begun to use the recipes in the book  This one is Kulebiaka, salmon in pastry.  I try to have fish about once a week but Bill is not very fond of seafood, unless you mean shrimp.  I liked the look of this recipe and the fact that the filler was rice rather than my usual oatmeal when I make salmon patties.  Herbs made the taste memorable and really, I was surprised that canned salmon could taste so good, and ordinarily I like it anyway!

Here is the book

Here is the pie, well, one-half the pie

    

A better view

Here's the picture in the book.  It was not difficult to make.  Recipe follows.

     Here are my menus for the week:
Thursday-  Hot dogs, roasted garlic potatoes, sliced tomatoes, watermelon
Friday-Sandwiches only as we had eaten lunch out and were not very hungry. Later we had popcorn.
Saturday- Kulebiaka, fresh corn on the cob, tomato salad with blue cheese and watermelon
Today- Spinach dip and toast squares, pasta with red sauce, salad, almond cookies
Monday-Anniversary dinner at Scholar's Inn, It's been 11 years since Bill came to stay with his little suitcase!  In October we'll celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary.
Tuesday-left-over Kulebiaka, steamed mixed vegetables, Cherry tomatoes with blue cheese, watermelon
Wednesday-Chef's salad with cheese, egg and meat, baked potatoes, watermelon, if there's any left!
Thursday-Hamburgers with lettuce and tomato, garlic roasted potatoes, cookies, if there are any left!

Kulebiaka, or my version of it.

1 can salmon, 14 ounces
1  1/2 cups cooked rice
2 eggs, beaten
1 small onion, minced finely
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
1 scant teaspoon salt
some ground pepper
4 large pats butter
1 recipe best piecrust

Piecrust: 2 cups plain flour, 1 stick butter, 1/3 cup cold water, 4 tablespoons cooking oil
Work the butter into the flour, first with a knife, then with your fingers.  Measure the cold water, add the oil to the water and pour into the flour and butter mixture.  Gently mix until barely sticking together.  Divide in half and roll out each half into a long thin oval, one somewhat wider than the other, make it about 10 or 12  inches long and about 6 or 7 inches wide.  Mix the salmon, with its juice but picking out the backbones, the rice, eggs, onion and flavorings well.  Spoon onto the wider piece of pie crust, piling it up high. Dot with butter.   Lay the second piece of crust over the first and the fish pile and press the edges down, then fold the bottom, wider portion over the top edge and crimp.  Cut a steam hole in the middle. Transfer carefully with two spatulas to baking sheet.   Bake at 400 for about 50 minutes, watch the browning at the end.  Makes about 7 or 8 generous servings.

For the tomato salad, I just chop up tomatoes, sprinkle with bits of blue cheese and drizzle with a little salad dressing.  Cherry tomatoes can be cut in half.

     I am always on the look-out for a good recipe.  I don't mind paying for a cook book that has several recipes that become family favorites and end up being used frequently through-out the year.  Of course, the internet has an endless supply of recipes and I do use it and keep a loose leaf notebook full of print-outs, but to do a search you need to have a recipe in mind.  A cook book with a regional theme, or an opinionated author may have something I haven't even thought of.  And yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks!