Kitchen Help

When her farm work was done yesterday, 

Baby Sister came to the kitchen to help Mimi with supper.

While Mimi was busy at the stove, Baby Sister was busy with her own work.

She stirred and stirred.

And then she discovered that the bowl and spoon also made pretty good music.

Stacking was part of the play, too. 

The den floor was full of toys but she had much more fun with the non-toys in the kitchen.

It will be interesting years from now to see what Baby Sister remembers from spending time at the farm. And what things she learned here will be lasting. I remember setting the table at my grandmother's house many times. She had a set of dishes where each place setting was a different color. I spent much time deciding whether to make each place setting one color or mix them up for a fun table. She always let me do it how I wanted to. I still love to set the table. A lesson I learned from MY grandmother.

Rainy Day Farm Work

All the farming was done indoors today because of the rain.  Granddaddy had time to give Baby Sister a lesson in farm management and agri-business. (Notice she has several farms.)

She listened very carefully.

And then it was time for her to go to work. With only a little help from her granddaddy.

Looks like it's going to be a good year for toy farms.

Say "Cheese"

A friend posted this easy recipe on her Facebook status this weekend as she was cooking for Thursday. I know she is a fabulous cook so I was happy to get one of her recipes. I had (almost) everything on hand already. So I quickly made it when we got home from the family dinner on Thursday. It was our post-Thanksgiving treat.

It is supposed to be shaped into a ball with the preserves spooned over the top, but I really wanted to use this favorite serving dish so we re-arranged the assembly part. I will actually make it into a ball next time. Thanks, Jackie, for a wonderful recipe and for letting me share it here. We'll use one this again and again, I'm sure.

Rosemary Goat Cheese Ball

4 oz. goat cheese
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh chopped rosemary
fig preserves

Mix cheeses, honey, pepper and rosemary until blended. Shape into a ball. Spoon fig preserves over the ball and serve with crackers or crudites.


Jackie's recipe calls for fig preserves and I had a jar of homemade fig preserves in the pantry. I will say it's a perfect combination, but I'm sure you could use another flavor. What I didn't have on hand was the honey so I substituted some light corn syrup and that worked.  Don't be skimpy with the pepper or the rosemary. It took longer than I thought to grind a teaspoon of pepper, but I'm glad I didn't stop when I wanted to.

Tonight the "big game*" will be on television so we will pull this out of the refrigerator for a game appetizer. How nice to have it ready and waiting.

*The Clemson/University of South Carolina football rivalry dates back to the 1880s. The game series has been played uninterrupted since 1909.

Berry Berry Good

Our Thanksgiving dinner is the kind where everyone brings a dish (or two...or three) to add to the buffet. Before she drove home for the holiday, Jessica sent me the recipe for this cranberry-apple dish and asked that I buy the ingredients when I did my grocery shopping. Then she was ready to cook when she got here. I already had everything on hand. I love recipes that don't require lots of "odd" ingredients.

Several people yesterday declared this the "best recipe" of the year. It could be a dessert (ummm....add a scoop of vanilla ice cream) as well as a side dish. Leftovers weren't too bad for breakfast either! Come on...it's oatmeal and fruit, isn't it?

Cranberry Apple Crunch

4-6 apples (red delicious or granny smith), peeled and sliced thin

2 cups fresh cranberries 

¾ - 1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons water

Mix ingredients and put in a 9x13-inch dish, sprayed with PAM

Topping:

1 cup old-fashioned oats (quick oats would work, too)

½ cup brown sugar

1 cup chopped nuts

1 stick of butter, melted

Spread topping over fruit mixture in dish and bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 min.

(also good with vanilla ice cream for dessert!)

Yesterday morning was such good family time in our kitchen. Granddaddy peeling apples, Jessica measuring and stirring, while I was busy with other cooking. These are good holiday memories. Having these recipes to hand down is part of what makes us "family."

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our family celebrated as we usually do...

with lots of food, lots of relatives, and lots of laughter.

We are thankful for much.

As we packed up to come home, there were others who were headed to another set of relatives to celebrate again. I am happy to be back at home with a few leftovers for supper. I'll share a few special recipes from today over the weekend, but for the rest of the evening, I'm disconnecting from the web.

"What? We're going to ANOTHER Thanksgiving dinner now?"

Pie Spectacular

I've still not spent any time in the kitchen since I've had all the sinus-y problems  (I am beginning to feel better, thankfully) so I'm sharing this recipe from Mommy. She sent the photo and the recipe last night. She made this last year and her family declared it wonderful. I will say it must be a labor of love. Most of my recipes are pretty quick and easy, but there are times when you just need to do a little more. 

Yesterday I posted about "knitted love." I think this must be "kitchen love." If you don't knit and you don't cook, just say the words "I love you" to someone who needs to hear them today. 

Here is the email I got from Mommy last night:  

(Looks like her someone special got into the pie before she got the topping ready.)

...........................................................................................................................

Make this for someone you love.  (Or maybe make it for someone you'd like to love YOU!)

PUMPKIN PIE SPECTACULAR from Southern Living November 2009

MAKES 8 Servings

HANDS-ON TIME: 20 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 3 hours, 25 minutes (including streusel and topping)

1/2 (15-oz.) package refrigerated piecrusts

2 cups crushed gingersnaps (about 40 gingersnaps)

1 cup pecans, finely chopped

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 (15-oz.) can pumpkin

1 (14-oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

2 large eggs, beaten

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

Pecan Streusel

7 ginger thin cookies, halved  (i.e., Anna's Ginger Thins)

Ginger-Spice Topping, ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Fit piecrust into a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate according to package directions; fold edges under, and crimp.

2. Stir together crushed gingersnaps and next 3 ingredients.  Press mixture on bottom and 1/2 inch up sides of piecrust.

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  Let cool completely on a wire rack (about 30 minutes.)

4. Stir together pumpkin and next 6 ingredients until well blended.  Pour into prepared crust.  Place pie on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Sprinkle Pecan Streusel around the edge of crust.  Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until set, shielding edges with aluminum foil during last 25 to 30 minutes of baking, if necessary.  Insert ginger cookies around edge of crust.  Let cool completely on a wire rack (about 1 hour.)  Dollop with Ginger-Spice Topping; dust with cinnamon.

PECAN STREUSEL

MAKES About 1 cup

HANDS-ON TIME: 10 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 10 minutes

Stir together 1/4 cup all-purpose flour; 1/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar; 2 Tbsp. melted butter; and 3/4 cup pecans, coarsely chopped.

GINGER-SPICE TOPPING

MAKES 3 cups

HANDS-ON TIME: 5 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 5 minutes

Stir together 1 (8-oz.) container frozen whipped topping, thawed; 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon; and 1/4 tsp. ground ginger.

Knitted Love

The good thing about sitting at home more than usual is that I finished a pair of socks in record time.

Yarn:  Cascade Heritage sock yarn

Needles:  Size 2 (2.75 mm)

When I had complained commented on a Ravelry forum about the unexciting plain gray socks I was working on, someone wiser than me replied...

I do a lot of sock knitting, often in boring colors for the people I love. Yes, it doesn’t have the same impact as knitting with some wonderfully colorful new self-patterning yarn in luscious colors, where each row is revealing new color combinations.
But that same boring “same-old, same-old” can also be wonderfully calming and therapeutic when my day has been full of stress, deadlines, rude people. In the prayer-shawl knitting, they talk about knitting prayers into the work. I often find myself praying or holding the intended recipient in my mind as I knit. I try to knit in a little “knitter’s magic” to help the wearer have protection in his day-to-day activities, especially if he’s going to be in dangerous places (police, soldiers), might do dangerous things by accident or on a dare (children, adolescents), or needs healing (the chronically ill or those facing surgery). I think about all the wonderful adventures these socks will have, and the many places he’ll take them in the course of their life.
I charge socks with having a special destiny, to keep the wearer warm and protected, no matter what each day holds.
May your socks carry the same magic every time he wears them.

Thank you for these words of wisdom. My plain gray socks have gone on to their new owner already. May these socks bless the wearer. Hope she will feel the "knitted love."

Now it's time to feel better and get back into the kitchen