Scattered

It's Tuesday, and I should have something written right now. I do not, however, so you get whatever comes out of my brain and into my fingers to type. Whee!

The sun juuuust came over the horizon, lighting up my living room and highlighting the fact that I really need to take my pothos plants down from their shelves in the living room and rinse them off. So dusty. 

I actually got up from my chair and went all the way into the kitchen (maybe fifty feet) to take this illustrative photo for you. You're welcome.

I do appreciate how impossible pothos are to kill. The only live plants I have in my house are these two pothos and an aloe plant. I prefer to have my plants outside.

Poppy's friend is coming over in about three hours for a New Year's Eve tea party with their dolls. My dad made Poppy a rolling pin, and brought an extra for a friend if she could think of anyone who would want it. Of course she could. So I need to make some pie crust dough for the girls to roll out so they can make little hand pies--they can choose from several different jams to fill their pies--for their tea party. I think this will be a very popular activity. I just have to make the dough soon so it can chill.

This works out nicely, because the girls can use half of the two-crust recipe I make, and the other half can be for tomorrow's New Year's Day pecan pie. I promised I would make another pecan pie for the child who was sick on Christmas and couldn't eat that one. I will also, of course, make our pork, black-eyed peas, greens, and rice. It's not New Year's Day without it.

This is the last really big celebration meal I have to make. And thank goodness for that, because I am kinda over cooking celebration meals. I mean, I like it, but it gets to be a bit much by this time of the year. It starts on December 15 for A.'s birthday and continues with a son's birthday December 18, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, my birthday, New Year's Day, and usually Epiphany on January 6. It's a lot. 

I am not making tamales this year for Epiphany. I just . . . don't want to. We actually go back to school--and I go back to work--on Epiphany this year, so it's unlikely to be a very elaborate meal for that, although I do have some gingerbread I froze a couple of weeks ago, so at least I have something special for dessert without making a lot of effort.

I can hear the chickens squawking around on the porch. They're supposed to be shut up in their coop until afternoon, because then I can find their eggs without having to hunt for them. Also, if they're out all day, they just hang around the porch, making a mess right where we walk into the house. I don't know how they got out. Maybe the strong winds yesterday blew the coop door open. Guess we'll have an egg hunt today.

Okay, that's enough of that. I have pie dough to make and I'm sure you all have important things to get going on as well. Happy New Year to all. May 2025 bring us all good fortune, in all senses of the word.

Snapshots: Before, During, After

 Before Christmas we have new life.

The chickens--well, at least one or two--started laying again the very day of the winter solstice. Their laying is tied to the daylight hours, but that's pretty spot-on for the resumption of eggs.

And this little lady arrived exactly one week before Christmas. 

I didn't get a lot of pictures of Christmas Day this year. The oldest kid was sick, and we had a Christmas morning Mass this year instead of our typical Christmas Eve service, so we waited until we got home at 9 a.m. to open most of our gifts. 

By the time we got home, we were all in search of warmth, since the heat in our church hasn't been working for the past couple of weeks. I brought our space heater and a basket of lap blankets to share with anyone who needed one, and we all wore long underwear, but it was still only about 48 degrees inside the church.

The sun made it look deceptively warm, but I assure you, it was not. At all.

The younger ones did get to open their gifts to each other and their stockings before we left for church, though.

Poppy had sewed a stocking for her American Girl doll, Charlotte, and made sure there was something in it for each of her dolls. I didn't know she had done this until she had hauled them all out and started handing out their gifts.

Girls, man. They're built different for sure.

This photo looks like a crime scene, but it was very cute in real life.

Charlotte in her new outfit, and Poppy in her new slippers.

Two days after that, it was time to celebrate again. This time, my birthday. The celebrations started with what is apparently now a traditional 5K run.

Speedy purple shoes ready to go.

This year, I ran it in 34 minutes and 31 seconds, which is my fastest time yet.

I did make my own birthday dinner, because I prefer to do that, but someone else made the brownies for my brownie ice cream sundaes.

And there was salted caramel sauce left from the cheesecake bars, just to complete the deliciousness.

And then yesterday, more celebrating, as we drove 100 miles to a swimming pool for Poppy's friend's birthday party.

I prefer to stay fully clothed at pools and function more as a lifeguard.

We still have another week of our Christmas break left, so there's time for more celebrating! Next up: health wealth, and happiness in the New Year.

There you have it! My (celebratory) life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Christmas Food Traditions

Friday 

Short version: Lamb chops, leftover rice, carrot sticks with ranch dip

Long version: Four of the six family members had the lamb chops, which were just fried. The recent birthday boy finished the leftover shrimp, and I had a salad with some hardboiled eggs and feta in it.

Saturday

Short version: Green chili hamburger stew, crackers, molasses cookies

Long version: I spent a very long time in the kitchen this day making Grandma Bishop's molasses cookies. 

Batch seven or so starts to get a little wonky.

I double that recipe when I bake them at Christmas, so it takes a few hours. For this reason, I knew I would have no energy left to get back in the kitchen to make dinner later. That's why, while the cookie dough was chilling, I made green chili hamburger stew to have for later.

Good call. Good cookies, too.

Sunday

Short version: Posadas potluck

Long version: This was the night we went to our parish Christmas celebration. The potluck featured several stews with a ton of chili in them. I tried one piece of meat from a red chili from one of the boys' plates and almost burst into flames from the spice, so I stuck to the posole. This was made very mild, with a red chili sauce to be added as needed. I didn't need it. The bland posole was just fine for me, thanks.

I brought these cheesecake bars.

Yum.

For once, I actually followed the recipe. Except for the fact that topped them with drizzled salted caramel sauce instead of berries. I don't regret it, either.

Monday

Short version: Tuna melt sandwiches, potato chips, cucumbers

Long version: One child was sick. One child had been in a city with A., where they ate a very late lunch and weren't hungry when they got home. For the two children eating, I made some tuna salad that I used to make them tuna melts. They were very pleased with this. 

My mother had left the potato chips for us, which were also appreciated.

Tuesday

Short version: Linguine with bull bolognese, green salad with vinaigrette, eggnog and molasses cookies

Long version: I unearthed a frozen container of the second half of the double recipe of bolognese I made for the insane lasagna lo these many months ago. The night before a big holiday is always a good time to make something easy for dinner. This seemed like it would be easy and celebratory.

It was.

I use this recipe for eggnog, because it neatly takes care of the egg yolks I have after separating eggs to make our Christmas chocolate roulade. And eggnog with molasses cookies is the perfect combination. The recipe actually calls for six egg yolks. I have seven left after making the roulade. The extra egg yolk doesn't make much difference, except that I always have to thin the eggnog a little with milk after it's chilled.

Wednesday

Short version: Christmas ham, scalloped potatoes, carrots with maple syrup and butter, green peas, sauteed mushrooms, chocolate roulade

A relatively easy meal. The ham was a fully-cooked spiral sliced ham that just needed to be re-heated. I coated it in mustard and maple syrup, which was good.

I don't even use a recipe for scalloped potatoes. I just layer thinly sliced peeled potatoes with salt, pepper, garlic powder, cream, and milk in a buttered Pyrex until it's full, and then bake it uncovered until most of the liquid is gone. It always takes longer than I think, though, so the potatoes were in the oven for like an hour after everything else was done. No matter. I just stuck everything else on top of the woodstove to keep warm and we ate at 6 p.m. instead of 5 p.m.

The roulade is probably the most labor-intensive part of this meal. I forgot to butter the parchment paper before pouring the batter on it, and I was sure it was never going to come off, leaving me with a mess of chocolate sponge chunks. With some very careful unrolling and coaxing with a spatula, however, I did manage to get it all off. So that was nice. And it was, as always, delicious. A welcome light dessert after a heavy meal.

I didn't get a photo of the buffet. Oh well. It looked pretty much like last year, anyway.

Oh! And I did find enough parsley in the garden for the mushrooms. This is always very satisfying.

Thursday

Short version: Ham and rice skillet

Long version: I used leftover rice, diced ham, peas, carrots, onions, and cheese to make a skillet meal. Very tasty. Anything with ham is.

Refrigerator check:

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

Merry Christmas

Tidings of comfort and joy to all of you.

Posadas, With Random Photos

Happy Christmas Eve! This year, we got to experience a very New Mexican Christmas tradition for the first time. It's called Posadas.

The word "posadas" means something like "journeys." It's a kind of traveling pageant recreating the journey of Mary and Joseph trying to find lodgings in Bethlehem. It's a very old Mexican tradition. It used to be common in every little village in New Mexico, including ours, although it hasn't been done regularly here in about twenty years.

Pause for this Christmas card sent to us from the MiL's sister. Is the sheep knitting her own wool? Is that kind of funny or kind of disturbing?

In the posadas, one little girl is costumed as Mary, one little boy as Joseph. Often they would have an actual donkey or pony for Mary to ride. And then there might be other people dressed as angels or saints, but there was always a crowd that walks with them. These are the pilgrims. This little procession would go to different houses, knock on the door, and sing a song that requests lodging. There would be people in the house that would respond with a song saying nope, be on your way, until the last house, at which they would be invited in.

I guess originally this would happen for the nine nights preceding Christmas, and then on the last night they would be granted entrance to the house. In our village, I'm told the posadas were just for a few nights, but they would visit three houses each night, and at the third house they would be invited inside. Inside the homes, there would be lots of food and drinks and more singing.

Inside our home, I found some more random decorative things in the tree ornament bag, which were duly added to the dried weeds on the big bookcase.

Our priest decided to have a parish Christmas celebration on Sunday that included posadas. Poppy was tapped to be Mary. One of her brothers was Joseph. They got to knock on the doors and lead the procession. In one of the villages of our parish, the church, the rectory, and the parish hall are all clustered together, so we used these as the "houses."

We started at the church. One of the older parishioners who used to lead the posadas in his village led the singing of the pilgrims. Our priest, who has a very nice singing voice and also plays the guitar, led the response singing for the residents of the house. (Which actually just ended up being him and me, because I was holding his lyric sheet for him so he could play the guitar.)

So at each place, Mary and Joseph would knock on the door, the crowd would sing the song requesting entrance, we would respond, and then the crowd would move on to the next "house."

The tree in our real house. I keep the lights on all day, because an unlit Christmas tree just looks sad to me.

At the last stop, which was the parish hall, the response song invited Mary and Joseph and their followers inside. And then we sang some Christmas carols before sitting down to a very New Mexican potluck featuring a lot of very chili-heavy stews that were delicious but WOAH SO SPICY. At least, for me.

It was a lot of fun. As you might imagine, the children were particularly enthused about it. I hope we do it every year, because I think it would get much easier once everyone knows what to expect.

And now I will leave you with a decidedly non-Spanish Christmas song that is still my favorite for Christmas Eve.

Snapshots: Pre-Christmas

First, an old photo from a couple of weeks ago when I took a kid to the dentist. It's a hundred-mile drive, and most of it was like this on the way there in the morning.

Wintery.

And some more-recent photos . . .

It makes me very happy that all of my children like to read.

One child really, really wanted a four-foot stuffed bass he saw in a Bass Pro catalog. He put it on his list for the gift exchange at school, and someone actually got it for him. So now I have this thing appearing all over the house. It's something else.

And last, two of the children collaborated on this, which I found randomly on the floor of the kitchen. It sure feels like this at this time of year.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Done with School!

Friday 

Short version: Sloppy joes, raw radishes, yogurt with maple syrup

Long version: Thanks to state requirements increasing the number of instructional hours in our school year, we had to add a couple of Fridays to the school calendar. This was one of them. I had a small jar of barbecue sauce in the refrigerator, so I made sure to thaw some ground beef and then used the sauce and some frozen diced onions to make sloppy joes.

Those who were still hungry after their sandwich had the yogurt.

Saturday

Short version: Chili

Long version: I made this mostly to use up some lamb stock and canned beans that had been hanging around. It made for a good meal to feed those of us at home, and the two hunters when they came back pretty late from bird hunting.

Sunday

Short version: Birthday lamb steaks, quail, dove, fresh bread and butter, green salad with ranch dressing, pumpkin custard with whipped cream

Long version: The previous day's hunt yielded two quail and two doves. The children gutted and plucked these, and then I just roasted them whole. Both are very small. The quail is all white meat, like chicken. Dove is a very dark meat, like a goose.

This was A.'s birthday. He always likes lamb, so I pan fried some steaks from the back leg and then made a sauce with red wine and butter. I used that sauce on the game birds, too.

It was quite a meal.

Pumpkin custard is just pumpkin pie without the crust. I overbaked it. Boo.

Monday

Short version: Rotisserie chicken, fried chicken, rice, salad with vinaigrette

Long version: My parents arrived for a short visit just after we got out of school. They had stopped at the store before coming and bought two rotisserie chickens and some fried chicken. They got the fried chicken because for the eight of us, we really needed three rotisserie chickens, but there were only two at the store.

Most of the kids chose to have some of the fried chicken, so that was a nice option for them.

Tuesday

Short version: FFA food

Long version: This was the night of the big FFA fundraiser, which is a dinner and an auction. The FFA kids prepare the meal. It was ham, rice, green beans, salad, rolls, and a sopapilla cheesecake.

And then we had the auction. It raised a ton of money for the FFA, which was the point, but man, auctions are so not my scene. So loud.

I spent most of the day baking--mostly for the auction, but also for the next day's birthday and some gifts.

Gingerbread, sourdough bread, chocolate chip cookies, crispy rice treats, pecan pie. This is just the stuff I wrapped up for the auction. There was plenty more left for us.

Wednesday

Short version: Birthday shrimp, chicken, pureed potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette, pecan pie with vanilla ice cream

Long version: Three members of our family have birthdays in the second half of December. This was the youngest son's tenth birthday. He requested the shrimp and potatoes. Some of the family doesn't much care for shrimp, so I also made some chicken and gravy with the chicken I had pulled off bones after simmering the rotisserie chicken carcasses.

I used this recipe for pecan pie again--once again using maple syrup in place of the golden syrup--and it came out much better this time. I think because I chopped the pecans. Or maybe I baked it longer. In any case, it got many rave reviews.

Thursday

Short version: Refried bean quesadillas, still-frozen green beans, leftover bread pudding

Long version: I was at a basketball game until about 5:30 p.m., so when I came home with the basketball player, I just made some quesadillas with flour tortillas, cheese, and canned refried beans. The kids had been eating all day at school, what with making gingerbread houses in the morning, lunch, and then the holiday parties after that. They did not need an elaborate meal. And I didn't want to make one. So that worked out.

I did let them have the last of the bread pudding from the birthday boy's requested breakfast. Not that anyone needed anything with more sugar, but oh well. 

'Tis the season for sugar everywhere.

Refrigerator check:

Might need a grocery run before Christmas.

And now we are on Christmas break until January 6. Alleluia, everyone can SLEEP IN.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?