Old words that are becoming New again

My Floating Tea Party

Mr. Bill says that he has heard of floating dice games, but this is the first time he's run across a floating tea party.

I say that sometimes good ideas are not necessarily planned , but just happen!  My little Valentine vignette that lived on my kitchen island made a few rounds in February.  I just popped the bear, the bird, the dog, the valentine cards, and the plate rack into a shopping bag.  Some cookies, some fruit and a few tea bags were tossed in with them and off we went.  The first stop was our daughter Collette and the grand kids in Illinois around Valentines Day and on the 28th we had a "Good-bye to February Tea"  at my daughter Karen's house where she has been under-the-weather and shut in for a while.  I even wore a hat for that one. 

It was so much fun Mr. Bill and I are planning more.  He suggested and 'Ides of March Tea' because we have a bust of Julius Caesar.  However, Mr. Bill is not in favor of togas.  I'm thinking of a 'St. Patrick's Tea'.  We probably will do both.

BTW:  The books on the table are from the Tea Shop Mystery series by Laura Child. 

A Chairy-full-of-Mary

  I never enter blog give-aways or contests.  Never, until now.  I was tempted and I succumbed. 

 Greetings from Geralyn is giving away a 'Chairy-full-of-Mary' on
 March 7. 



 And, my, what a chair full of stuff it is! Who could resis that?

Fortunately, the give-away rules are not very hard.

All I had to do was to come up with my favorite Mary Englebreight quote.  That was really easy, because 

the first time I saw the quote that ME had above the doorway to her workspace, I wanted a sign with the same quote for my sewing room.

 So, my daughter Karen designed and cross stitched one for me as a surprise!  I was thinking it was a few years ago,

but the note on the back says it was made in 2002.   Wow, time sure does fly!

I probably don't have much chance of winning.  There are many, many, entries.  But you can't blame a girl for trying.

I enjoyed having my special quote above the work table in my sewing room until we moved and downsized in August, 2009.  Now, in my cottage at the end of Hickory Lane, I am working at the kitchen table.  One of these days, I will rearrange things, find a permanent workspace, and rehang it.  After all, as ME says:

Post Script:  I didn't win :(

Meatball Kabobs

Our snow all melted and an ill wind blew in Sunday night. It was cold, damp, blustery, and rainy yesterday. The temperature was actually warmer than usual, but with the wind and the damp, I felt colder. The landscape certainly did not look like a winter wonderland!

What a relief to wake up to a light snow covering and gentle flurries in the air. The forecast for the last week of January is that the month will end with dignity - crisp and pretty.

We have been busy indoors putting away the stray ends of Christmas. After all the glitz and glimmer of the season, the house always looks a little dull. We made some adjustments to our decorating, but nothing takes the place of that Christmas warmth. After a few weeks, memories fade and everything looks fine again.

I'm mostly on schedule with my first-of-the-year bookkeeping. It's my time to clean out last years files and to readjust the budget to cover holes created by holiday spending. I also made some changes to my bookkeeping system. In the past, I kept two sets of spreadsheets that would both balance against my checkbook. One was to keep track of all expenses according to category, and one was to enter all expenses against future income to see how we were going to end up at the end of the year. It was a lot of work, since I was doing it for two checking accounts (four spreadsheets in all). I've decided to eliminate three of the spreadsheets and keep only the one for the household budget which is run through my checkbook and the only thing I really can control. This will be a lot more 'effortless' (my key word for the year).

Here is the delicious recipe Steve used for his meatball kabobs. I also happened to have this recipe, although I had never made it. He had another one for chicken kabobs that was different and equally delicious. I'll have to track him down to get it.

MEATBALL KABOBS

1 Package wooden skewers soaked in water 30 minutes before using.
32 frozen fully cooked 1-inch meatballs (1 pound), thawed
1 red pepper, cut into 1-inch squares
1 green pepper, cut into 1-inch squares
Opt: Wedges of onion, chunks of pineapple (Steve used both)
1/4 cup apricot jam
1/4 cup barbecue sauce

Thread meatballs, vegetables, and fruit alternately onto skewers.
Microwave jam on HIGH 15 seconds. Mix with BBQ sauce. Brush half onto kabobs.
Grill 8-10 minutes turning occasionally and brushing with remaining sauce.

Served with cous-cous or rice, this fits my profile for more 'effortless' cooking for the new year.

Betty and Me

We are on day two of heavy snow and I have spent some time curled up with a book and an afghan. It didn't turn out to be 'Snowbound' as I had predicted, but one of my good old cookbooks! (You just never know where your muse will take you).

I had been thinking that watching 'Julia and Julia' would be really great, but I didn't have the DVD. Then I was thinking that reading 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' would be really great, but I have given it away. Then I remembered that I have a cookbook that, like Julia, I have made almost everything in it - and it was all really good. It's my Betty Crocker Cookbook.

Not only is it good, but it's really old. I remembered where I first saw it, but I couldn't remember when.

I had turned into the cookbook aisle at B. Dalton's and there it was, propped up in it's own little cardboard display in the middle of the aisle. I took one look at the luscious red-orange cover with the picture perfect dishes on it and I fell in love. This was totally irrational because I was well on my way to becoming a food snob and would not normally consider having anything to do with something as banal as BETTY CROCKER.

How old is it? It took a while to find out. When I looked it up on line I discovered that there are more than one red-orange editions and I couldn't remember exactly what mine looked like. About 20 years ago I covered it with wallpaper and mystic tape because it was looking a little worn. Since there was no copyright info inside, I took the wallpaper off and there it was - looking pretty well preserved for a 30 year old cookbook that is used daily. 1978 is the first year this edition came out and I think that's when I bought it.

It was well worth the purchase if only for the five beef pot roast recipes and seven variations on pages 12 and 13; I've used these recipes countless times. Or for the Mandarin Salad on page 134; I use the sweet-sour dressing all the time on any salad. Or for the Bean-Mushroom Medley on page 166; several generations of our family have become famous for this dish. Or for the Watermelon Supreme on page 287; the aloha sauce is a superb addition to the fruit. Did I mention the Bonnie Butter Cake on page 247? It makes the best birthday cake ever. Of course, then there is the whole pie section. But I won't go on.

Julia of the book and movie had Julia Child to inspire her and she spent a year working through MAFC. I started out with Julia Child and James Beard, but in the end it was good old eveyday Betty Crocker that inspired me - and has continued to do so for 30 some years.

Sometimes you CAN judge a book by its cover!

Snowbound!

Out of the bosom of the Air,
Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
Silent,
And soft,
And slow
Descends
The snow.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - my first and favorite poet thrills me every time it snows with his lines - 'Silent and soft and slow, Descends the snow'. What a gift to be able to paint a picture with words.

Well, right on cue as we closed the Christmas season, the winter season jumped upon us. As I sit at my desk looking out the window across the field, I can't see anything but white. No houses, no road, no soccer storage shed, are in view.

Birds are being blown past my window on their way to the feeder and there is one lonely large bird digging in the snow trying to get down to the dirt for a snack. It may be the young grackle that I saw on my porch rail the other day. I wondered how it was going to eat. Grackles don't do seeds.

Snowbound! One word that paints many pictures: bread baking, soup simmering, hot chocolate and cookies; crunching in the snow to fill the feeders; curling up with an afghan and a book (probably Snowbound by Whittier). It used to paint a picture of snow shovels and snow blowers, but that isn't needed at our new place. We can just open the curtains wide and enjoy the experience and spectacular view.

Living in a new place leads to learning many new things and to many new questions. For instance, the weather forecasts around here are hard to figure out. 5-7 inches of snow today, 1-3 tomorrow, and more the next day. That I understand - but 'freezing fog' is something I never heard of before and is something that I can't even imagine. I'll let you know if I figure it out.

In the meanwhile, I am going to try to find something for the poor grackle to eat. What do you think - peanut butter and raisins?

The Evolution of Recipes

The picture on the right is of a Christmas Stolen. It's a German coffee bread that is traditionally served on Christmas morning. I've never made one before, but plan to this year.

The first Christmas thing I bake every year is a fruit filled pound cake that was originally called Kentucky Bourbon Cake. I was laughing as I put the fruit out to soak because I couldn't remember how the recipe went when I first started making it 35 years ago. I've lost the original recipe and am making more modifications this year to the already modified recipe.

It can't be called a Bourbon cake any longer because I decided to use Brandy. Since I live in Indiana, it could be named Indiana Brandy Cake. Originally it called for the traditional fruitcake type candied fruit along with raisins and pecans. Since I don't like citron or candied pineapple, I switched to green and red glaceed cherries. This year I have an abundance of dried cranberries so I decided to dump the glace fruit altogether. Mr. Bill is a little nervous because he doesn't like too many changes to his favorite recipes. I think it will be great! (Recipe follows below)

The reason I ended up using brandy was that I was too embarrassed to ask for bourbon. Even then it was an adventure to get the brandy for the cake. When I lived up north my local supermarket carried everything, even liquor. Well, my new local supermarket carries wine and beer, but that's it. I asked the checkout lady where I could get brandy and she looked shocked. I told her right away that it was for fruitcake, but I don't think she believed me. The bag boy knew, though, and informed me that there is a liquor store a little farther down the street. I had never noticed it. I felt a little funny going in there, and although I told the girl I was making fruitcake, I think I just should not have said anything.

The cake only takes 1/3 cup of brandy and a little more to soak the cheesecloth wrap as it ages. So now I had a lot of brandy left. Many years ago I made something called a Rum Pot. Over a period of 4 weeks you add different fruits to rum and sugar. When it is done, it can be served over ice cream or pound cake. Well, you probably guessed - this year I'm making Brandied Fruit instead. I could have called it Brandy Pot but it somehow lost a lot in the translation. (Recipe follows below)

All of that brings me back to Christmas Stolen. I never made it because it calls for citron. I'm thinking though that it might be great with glaceed cherries...or maybe even cranberries.

INDIANA BRANDY CAKE

1 1/2 cups raisins
2 cups dried cranberries (or red and green candied cherries)
1/3 cup brandy (or bourbon - maybe even sherry)
3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
6 eggs
1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

1. Soak raisins and fruits in brandy for several hours.
2. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan. Stir dry ingredients together.
3. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs until light and fluffy.
4. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk.
5. Stir in fruits and nuts.
6. Turn into pan. Bake a 300 for 2 hours. It's done when top springs back.
7. Cool in pan 20 min. Remove and cool completely. Wrap in brandy-soaked cheesecloth and then in foil. Store in refrigerator 3-4 weeks. Resoak as necessary.

BRANDIED FRUIT
Allow at least 4 weeks before serving.

1 can (16 ounces) sliced peaches, drained
1 can (13 1/4 ounces) pineapple chunks
2 cups sugar.
1 cup brandy (or rum)

Place peaches and pineapple in 2-3 quart sterilized glass or glazed pottery container. Add 2 cups sugar and the brandy. (Fruit should be completely covered with brandy; add more brandy if necessary.) Cover container loosely. Let stand at room temperature, stirring several times to dissolve sugar, for 2 weeks. (Stir carefully to avoid breaking up fruit)

After 2 weeks add:
1 can (16 ounces) sliced pears, drained
1 can (about 17 ounces) apricot halves, drained
2 cups sugar

Fruit should always be completely covered; add more brandy if necessary. Let stand at room temperature, stirring several times to dissolve sugar, 2 weeks longer.

After 2 weeks stir in:
1 package (10 ounces) frozen raspberries, thawed.
The Brandied Fruit is now ready to use. It will keep several weeks if stored in refrigerator. Serve at room temperature for best flavor. 15 to 20 servings.

I started my fruit last Thursday - to be ready for New Year's Eve.