Another March Around The Sun

I took last week off from blogging. It was my birthday week so I treated myself a little. We did get to see Little Lady, and oh, how she had grown. I ate cinnamon rolls. A friend dropped off the cutest little bundt cakes for us so I really did have birthday cake. (I don't think it counts if you have to bake it yourself.) I got birthday cards and text messages and even phone calls to wish me happy birthday. 

I watched Christmas movies to my heart's content while I started pulling out some Christmas decorations.  Hallmark is the king of this market, but I found some good ones on Lifetime. And I haven't even gotten to the new ones on Netflix. We all know that our beloved Hallmark Christmas movies follow a formula—accidental meeting of people who don't get along, forced togetherness turns into love, the first kiss is interrupted and then at the end when all is well and they DO get to kiss, it snows. Maybe they are fun because they are predictable...in a world where not much else is.

My favorite one of the week—above average for this genre—was Christmas In Vienna. It's from Hallmark. It's worth watching just to see the city of Vienna at Christmas. So many scenes of that beautiful city during the holidays. And I happened to see the female lead do an interview a couple of weeks earlier and she really is a classical violinist. It was refreshing to see a real musician in one of these movies. (I checked. It still comes on a few more times in the coming weeks.)

I also gave myself time off in the kitchen. When I did cook it was recipes I've made many times before. Daddy-O had to fend for himself part of the time. That "meat" on the plate is exactly what it looks like. Spam. Don't judge. I didn't have to cook. I promise I will feed him better this week.

I don't have my week's menu plan done (it's a new thing for me and a hard habit to get going) but maybe it will include something that calls for remoulade sauce. Regardless of my menu, I'm posting the recipe here right now, so that I know where to find it later. I nearly panicked when I went to look for the paper copy the recipe and it wasn't where I thought I had put it.

This was delicious a few weeks ago when I made it to go along with crab cakes. Maybe this week I do something with shrimp. 

REMOULADE SAUCE 

1 cup mayonnaise 

2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning 

1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped 

1 tablespoon horseradish sauce 

1 tablespoon whole grain mustard (I used German mustard) 

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce 

1 teaspoon Texas Pete hot sauce (or to taste) 

1 teaspoon lemon juice 

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Mix all ingredients and store in refrigerator.

Get Sauced!

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

We had a wonderful week with grandchildren (and daughter & son-in-law) here for Thanksgiving. The little girls are a perfect age to visit. Young enough to love bedtime stories and hugs, but old enough to do their own baths and brush their own teeth. 

For the last two years we did not have our extended family Thanksgiving dinner, like we had done each year since I was a young child. Things can't stay the same forever. But this year a lovely young couple in our family invited everyone to their house for the big dinner. They wanted to revive the Thanksgiving tradition. They live in a historic home, built in the 1700s and moved to its current location in the 1800s. It was perfect for nearly 50 of us to gather. The weather cooperated so tables were also set up on the large porches. 

They knew about how many people to expect. But the huge number of dishes we all brought caught them by surprise. There were casserole dishes, bowls and platters on every available surface. The desserts had to be moved to another room. We've never exactly had a food plan. The hosts provide the turkey, dressing and gravy. Some of us make the same things each year (I always make macaroni & cheese and bake bread and rolls) so the essentials are covered, and our more adventurous cooks bring something different every year. And it always works out.

One of the dishes that Mommy always makes for Thanksgiving is cranberry sauce. Some people love the canned cranberry sauce—although there can be great disagreements about jellied vs whole berry. But our favorite is her homemade cranberry sauce. Here is her recipe. It's quick and easy and delicious.

CRANBERRY SAUCE

1 lb. fresh cranberries, washed
2 cups sugar
1/3 cup water
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 orange, zested and juiced

Combine berries, sugar and water in a medium saucepan and stir together. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat. Reduce to a simmer and stir in cinnamon stick and ground spices. Simmer for another 5 to 7 minutes. Some of the berries will burst. Some will remain whole. Add orange juice and zest and stir. Cool before serving.


I read last week that someone spooned leftover cranberry sauce over vanilla ice cream. I might try that with the very last of the sauce that fortunately was left at our house. It would have to be good!

As fabulous as the food was, the very best part was all of us being together again. It's this day that keeps us connected as a family. Fingers crossed that our young hosts were not too overwhelmed with all of this. Because we'd love to be invited again next year.

Give Thanks In All Things

Honey Mustard Sauce

I want to share a quick recipe and then I'm walking away from the computer for the rest of the week. Our house is full of (grown) children and grandchildren home for the holiday. Busy days around here!

Jessica was the first to get here. (She is already back at her home—it's a revolving door here this week.) I made a simple dinner that night. Baked chicken, sweet potatoes and green beans. The baked chicken looked so plain that I thought surely I could dress it up a little bit. I did a quick search for honey mustard and found a simple recipe and then tweaked it to use the ingredients I had on hand. 

Oh my goodness. This is seriously good stuff! It was delicious drizzled over the chicken. We think it would be fantastic as a salad dressing (I'm thinking grilled chicken salad.) Make our favorite homemade chicken fingers and use the sauce for dipping. And during Thanksgiving week, you might need it to spread on those sandwiches made from leftover turkey.

HONEY MUSTARD SAUCE

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup dijon mustard

1/4 cup honey

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)

Whisk all ingredients together. Will keep for a couple of weeks stored in the refrigerator...if it lasts that long.

I have so much to be thankful for. Ages ago, I kept a gratitude journal—"write down five things each day that you are grateful for." Some days it was easy to list five. Other days I had a hard time finding five. Then I figured out that my world was made up of mostly small things. That's where I found the treasure. 

I learned I had to be aware. I had to actively look for the "grateful" things. A tree in flaming fall colors. The smell of bacon frying. The sound of a rooster crowing in the early morning. Looking at this old journal I see that "clean sheets" are listed more than one time. I began to look forward to finding my five things each day and writing them down. I loved those few minutes at the end of the day when I got still and quiet and picked up the journal. After a while I stopped writing the list, but the habit of seeking out and taking note of the little things has remained.

This morning I pulled out that old journal and have read list after list. Yes. So much to be grateful for. Maybe this is the season to start the written journal again.