W for 'wishes'

In honor of  double-you, ABC Wednesday's letter du jour I send best wishes to my bloggie friends for a wonderful holiday as we celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah and a new year ahead.

May peace and plenty be the first,

To lift the latch to your door.

And happiness be guided to your home,

By the candle of Christmas.

Irish Blessing

decking those halls

'Tis the season of lights and almost Tuesday, which means linking a photo to Ruby Tuesday where red is the color of the day. On our Christmas tree blue decorations far exceed red. The red star on the left is from David's childhood tree which makes it really, really old. On the bottom is a blown glass 'candy apple' on a stick with us since the girls were little.

Not really red, except maybe if cats were inclined to blush. . .this is Bean making a hasty exit after being discovered under the tree for the millionth time today. Note 'the look.' Bad cat.

More fun @ Ruby Tuesday!

Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles. anon

Seasons Greetings to my Bloggie Friends!

I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.
The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.
I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.
Charles Dickens

Accept the good, my friends!

'God save Elizabeth'

While the earth sleeps, a bit of the cheerful color red can be seen if one really pays attention. These are random shots in my home at Christmas, around the bend and on a small, local lake in my neighborhood. In the photo below, in the upper left corner you can see a small hockey rink with lawn chairs for the 'audience' that has been cleared on the lake.

Visit Mary the Teach's meme, Ruby Tuesday for more glimpses of red.

The rose is red, the leaves are green, God save Elizabeth, our noble queen. Anonymous
Lines written by a Westminster schoolboy in the margin of his copy of Julius Caesar. Quoted in P W Hasler (ed) The House of Commons,1558^1603 (vol.1), p.474.

do not disturb!

Mutts/Patrick O'Donnell
As for me, I'm having a little trouble letting go of the holidays past. . .maybe because we're securely burrowed down in another Minnesota winter. Thankfully, in spite of the below zero temps, there's usually a bright blue sky. I can live with that. And I guess I can survive putting all the decorations away for another year. Its just the sweet memories that interrupt my intentions and my unreliable Libra laziness energy level.

In spite of the cold each day the sounds of birds surviving and thriving--chickadees, jays (red and blue), ravens and juncos--gives me hope and is reason enough to smile.

Few bunnies show their whiskers in the quietness of winter, but I've seen their tracks. More stalwart hearts.


See Camera Critters for more reasons to smile.
Perhaps I am a bear, or some hibernating animal underneath, for the instinct to be half asleep all winter is so strong in me.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Christmas Gift Suggestions

To your enemy, forgiveness.

To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.

To yourself, respect.

Oren Arnold

All good wishes to my bloggy friends for these holidays! Good cheer and happy hearts, my friends.

the whole truth

In 1988 I moved back and forth from my hometown in Idaho for the last time. Dave, our two elementary aged girls and I were moving to Pennsylvania. Our journey would take us on to Chicago and Minnesota, but I never went back to Idaho except for the two funerals of my parents. Despite the years of neglect and abuse in my childhood a quasi-relationship existed with my parents, no spoken apologies on their part and a lot of therapy still to do on my part to live a healthy 'rest of my life.'
In the early hours on the morning we were leaving, my mom and dad were waiting for us when we arrived at the airport to catch our flight. This in itself was an omen because they had to drive the 50 miles in the pre-dawn to see us off. My dad was teary eyed and my mom smoked a lot while we waited. Then she put out her cigarette, reached in her pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of tissue paper. Unwrapped I found three Christmas ornaments from my childhood in the 1950's. They were my favorites; ones I helped put on that special place on the tree each year and she wanted me to have them. A peace offering?
Only two remain thanks to what seems like endless moving in my life. Knowing that the holidays rearrange our feelings of nostalgia and longing for those weeks in December every year, I still can't help smiling when I find these in the decoration boxes. This year they seem especially dear to me, enough to have their own photo taken. Can you see me in the one where some of the color has rubbed off? A metaphor for the sweetness of life?

The truth is that life is delicious, horrible, charming,

frightful, sweet, bitter, and that is everything.
Anatole France

word-less Wednesday

mysterious silver threads and a Finnish recipe

The color du jour for Favourite Things Thursday is silver--which had me wondering: when does gray become silver exactly? There's the silver in everyday utensils, paint brush ferules and palette knives, the bright sun on water, duct tape and so on.





two holiday fruitcakes or

soft sculpture or

the lackluster paint on the doors of my uncle's gray Chevy

Do these gray clouds over the Japanese Embassy have a silver lining? What about the gleaming silver guard hairs on this rabbit hiding in the rain? Rhetorical questions all.
Here's silver for sure--David's hair and beard. He's been sporting gray hair since he was in his 20's and now it has a luminous silver-white hue, inherited from his Irish grandma, Lucille Feagan. This photo was taken on New Year's Day and because we were sad our nest was empty again--and before I was to fall on the ice later in the day--Dave made Ropsua for breakfast. It is a baked pancake his mother always made on holiday and birthday breakfasts. The recipe below is a variation of her recipe and another I found on line. Its really easy and delicious but you have to eat it the minute it comes out of the oven...enjoy with butter and syrup.

Ropsua (pannu kaku)
Makes 1 large pancake

3 eggs, well beaten

3 c. milk (or new milk) Dave's mom uses part evaporated milk+water

1- 1/4 c. flour

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

couple Tbsp. sugar

Melt about 2-4T butter in 9 x 13 pan and put in hot oven (425 degrees) until butter melts and sizzles. Pour in mixture above not stirring, return to oven for about 30 minutes until set. It will puff up, then fall when taken out. adapted from Mojakka

Thanks to clever Blue and her fun meme, Favourite Things Thursday for giving me an opportunity to share this bit of our family tradition. By the way, only one of our two daughters likes Ropsua. Surprising?

Christmas day sky--and wishes

This photo was taken on Christmas afternoon in our neighborhood. We've had snow and cold for days. Notice Dave and Erica trudging along in the lower corner under a bright blue winter sky. See more skies worldwide by visiting SkyWatch hosted by Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren, Louise and Fishing Guy here.

Sending my best holiday wishes, dear blogging friends!

One kind word can warm three winter months.
Japanese proverb

Happy days are here again. . .I think

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself.

Alan Alda

At the beginning of 2006 life got a little dicey: Dave was laid off from his job in February, Erica had open heart surgery in March, Audrey moved back to Chicago and took her wonderful cat, Squirrel with her in April at about the time Dave moved to the Twin Cities for his new job. So what would a woman in mid-life do in this minefield but get a mondo case of HIVES which lasted for several weeks. Looming in the future was giving my notice at the law school to leave a job I had enjoyed and preparing the house to be sold after 14 years. Erica left for med school in August, the house went up on the market in September after hours of lonely cleaning, sorting and hauling to the curb. So from August 'til October I was alone with the pets, bowl after bowl of ice cream, Without a Trace reruns and realtor visits. When I moved up to St. Paul in October last I spent the time before the holidays unpacking, adjusting and trying to make the holidays happy in a one-bedroom apartment with noisy neighbors above us, up to my ears in heart palpitations and EKGs and stress tests, all magnified by a nagging loneliness. Long story short, I couldn't bake cookies for various reasons for a few years, mostly due to this unsettled-ness. This fact came back to me as I was cutting biscotti yesterday along with the joyous realization that I was happily baking cookies again! Thus, the recipes that follow.

So the baking continues in between wrapping and cleaning. I found this recipe on Martha Stewart Living to use since I had bought dried currents to try a steamed pudding for Christmas. They are sturdy, sweet little cookies and I would definitely keep this recipe on hand. Alongside is an addition to my pitcher collection in bright yellow-green glass filled with this season's lemon verbena I grew.

Lemon-Currant Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for baking sheets
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup sour cream (I used whole milk yogurt)
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dried currants
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter two baking sheets, or line them with parchment paper. Combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl; beat until light and fluffy. Beat in sour cream and egg.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually beat the dry ingredients into the butter mixture until they are well combined. Stir in currants and lemon zest.
Drop heaping teaspoonfuls of dough about 1 1/2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheets. Bake until cookies are puffed and golden around the edges, about 20 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes on baking sheets before transferring cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

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Yesterday I made chocolate shortbread, also a Martha recipe. I have only made the traditional shortbread but this chocolate variety is really delicious. I did use the fork tines to make the 'rays' in a circle because I read recently that in Scotland that has been a traditional cookie embellishment for centuries. They resemble the sun's rays and have been made to coincide with the Winter Solstice.

Chocolate Shortbread

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. With an electric mixer, beat butter until creamy. Add flour, sugar, and cocoa; mix just until combined. (Chill dough in the refrigerator 10 minutes if it is too soft to handle.)
Pat dough into an 8-inch round cake pan; press edges down with the tines of a floured fork. Bake until firm, 30 minutes. Immediately score into eight wedges; cool completely. Turn out of pan; break wedges apart.

Like snowflakes, my Christmas memories gather and dance; each beautiful, unique and too soon gone. Deborah Whipp

I will honor Christmas in my heart. . .

Granted it has taken me awhile to get into the spirit of things, but I FINE-ally did some baking and I can highly recommend this recipe that I baked off this afternoon.
Don't let the little matter of Weight Watchers scare you--they are the real deal, right down to the unsalted butter, smell delicious while baking and are lovely to look at, umm, what's left of them, that is.


Weight Watchers
Oatmeal-Pecan Lace Cookies
1 1/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup chopped pecans, finely chopped
1/8 tsp table salt
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg(s), beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350ºF and cover 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Mix oats, sugar, baking powder, pecans and salt together in a large bowl until well incorporated.
Add butter, egg and vanilla to oat mixture; mix well.
Drop teaspoonfuls of batter onto prepared cookie sheets and flatten each out, leaving at least 2-inches between each cookie.
Bake cookies until edges turn golden, about 8 to 12 minutes. Let cookies stand on cookie sheets for 2 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. Yields 2 cookies per serving.
Notes: You can substitute any kind of nut for the pecans.

Saturday I attended a chili feed/auction for Dave's motorcycle association where I had a taste of Minnesota, in the form of Cathedral Windows. Maybe I've lived under a rock for too long, but I had never heard of them. Several other of the woman at our table were well acquainted with these pretty and apparently very easy, no bake gems.


For a lively post about 'competitive' cookie exchanges plus an interesting and time-honored recipe for Joy’s Cookies using almonds and sesame seeds (!) see Inland Empire Girl's wonderfully homey site. She's from my part of the country--northern Idaho/eastern Washington.

Now, if its holiday cheer you need, visit Julie Marie's post about her vintage Christmas decorations. She'll transport you right back to childhood, she will!

Have fun and remember to save a beater for me to lick.