Category: Food and dining

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Valentines Day, no surprise

As sad as it is to say sometimes, my husband is not and never has been a romantic of any kind. Zip, Nada, Ziltch. In other words, we don’t do Valentines Day. I don’t even think he remembers when our anniversary is, since he’s never said anything after all of these years.

All this has caused me not to even try to make any plans or even attempts at trying to go out of my way with cards and such for him. It’s not really out of my way, but I don’t think it would mean anything. So, instead…I still get Valentines and candy and such for the kids, despite they are nearly all grown. Just something a little special.

When they were small, I’d make cookies and decorate them, and get balloons and have party with cake and Valentines. Now they all have plans it seems and so I just make supper for who ever happens to be home, and call it good enough. I might start volunteering at the school for the 1st and 2nd grade classes. Little kids still really like holidays and I think it might be just what I need to pick up my spirits.

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Popcorn

One very cool snack food that I adore is popcorn. I have learned over the years that the smell of popcorn at the office is a bad thing, so I don’t do that unless I am working late and no one else is there to smell it. Burnt popcorn is even worse.

Sadly, I just read online that dentists recommend not chewing on ice cubes and not eating popcorn, as they both lead to cracked teeth and expensive dental repairs. Well, pooh – do I take this advice or continue enjoying my occasional bag of popcorn? My next dentist appointment is in March. I think I will ask my dentist when I see him.

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Chocolate gift ideas

All of my friends adore chocolate. I’ve been letting my fingers do some shopping online and have seen some great gift ideas. I usually don’t eat sweets or much sugar at all, but every once in a while I get a craving for some chocolate. It’s a craving that usually strikes believe it or not, in the middle of the night. My mom is the same way. She keeps a chocolate bar in the drawer of her night stand and in the middle of the night, will break off a piece and eat it, then go back to bed. In fact, my oldest daughter is the same way. I think we get it from my mom!

Online I found some great gift packs to give my friends and family for Christmas. Usually my mom will always get a box of chocolate covered cherries from all of “us kids” (I have two brothers and three sisters), but she secretly gives most of them away, I found out. But we have been giving her boxes of them since we were young. It’s sort of a tradition. I like them, but only if they have the clear liquid in them, not the white kind.

My youngest daughter always asks for her stocking to be stuffed with chocolate. She loves the dark chocolate, so she’ll be set for sometime. I found a great sale on it and the chocolate mint is my favorite!

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Chirstmas candy

I’ve decided to start making Christmas hard tack candy again for Christmas gifts. Everyone who remembers years ago when I made it has been asking for it. What a compliment, I think. I’m going to go to get the flavoring and ingredients tomorrow, and since I collect various jars, and have plenty of old blue Mason jars, that would also be a gift, since they are really hard to find now.

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Stuffed Like a Turkey

Today I am still stuffed from all the turkey and side dishes we ate yesterday. I spent the entire day in the kitchen cooking a big traditional Thanksgiving dinner with all the side dishes. Everything turned out great except for the homemade yeast rolls. I had made the dough from scratch for the rolls Wednesday night and set them aside to rise, but it was so cold out with this awful winter weather and so drafty in my old kitchen that the dough did not rise and I had to toss them out. That was disappointing, but there was plenty of other food and no one seemed to miss the hot rolls.

My turkey was perfect and one of the biggest ones that I’ve ever cooked. It barely fit into the Reynolds cooking bag, which is what I swear by. The cooking bag keeps the turkey moist and keeps all the juices inside the bag so you have plenty to make gravy. And another trick that I learned is to put the turkey in the bag upside down. Everyone likes to roast their turkey with the breast side up, but that is what drains the juices down and away from the breast meat. If you put the turkey in the oven with the breast down, all the juices run into the breast meat and it is just oozing with delicious juices when you carve it and serve it at the table.

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Pumpkin Pie

One of the very best smells in this world is a baking pumpkin pie, and you have to admit that it is also one of the best tastes in this world. I have always loved pumpkin pie, I like to have it year round not only at the holidays like many people. Turkey is something else that we have the year round just not at Thanksgiving, in fact most of the time we get a nice Honey Baked Ham for Thanksgiving and have the turkey for our Christmas table. You have to admit that the food during the holidays is some of the best of the whole year.

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Bakers Twine

Have you ever heard of Baker’s Twine? Me neither. I have, for years, always kept some special twine in the kitchen that I used to tie the legs of poultry when I was roasting it. This twine is on a large cone, and I have had that twine so long that I don’t remember where (or exactly when) I bought it, and the label is long gone. But I do remember that when I got it that I had to go to a specialty place because I wanted to make sure that it was food-safe twine. I had read a recipe that called for using food-safe twine to tie the legs of poultry together, and that piqued my interest in finding it.

Before I purchased that particular twine, I never used any kind of twine when I was cooking, because I didn’t trust it to be food safe. This kitchen twine that I have now, I use it for everything that I need twine for – including bundling cardboard and newspapers together for recycling.

Last weekend I went to a birthday party, and saw that some of the gifts were tied with a very pretty, decorative twine. In the past I’ve seen gifts wrapped with yarn, but not this pretty twine before. I asked the people that had wrapped the gift “where did you find that pretty twine?” and they told me that they had found it online, and that it was called Bakers Twine. It didn’t take long for me to find a few websites that sell it! There are a lot of really pretty color combinations! I don’t know how I am going to choose which colors to buy!

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The dreaded grocery store

Once again, it’s time to make a weekly trip to the local grocery store. I hate to shop, let alone grocery shop. Prices have gone sky high and there seems no end in sight. One can of veggies that went for .49 are now doubled…and that is the store brand or generic. I’m armed with my list, pen and grocery money, but it took me all of last night to figure out what I am going to make for a week’s work of dinners, plus what to buy for the extras that we need. It’s all starting to bum me out a bit, to be honest.

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Picnic and Fireworks

Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays because the family always goes down to the elementary school for the town celebration. The fire department sells grilled chicken dinner with potato chips, corn on the cob and cole slaw, there are several local bands playing music to provide entertainment, and when it gets dark the fire department sets off a pretty decent fireworks show. We get to see some of our friends that we haven’t seen in a while, spread a blanket out on the lawn and enjoy the nice weather.

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Restful Father’s Day

Father's Day (free clip art)
Father’s Day (free clip art)

My father loved to nap on the sofa whenever he got the chance. That made it a challenge to our large family, to let the house be quiet enough for him to sleep – we had a lot of very active and loud kids! We always wished he would nap in his bedroom, and I never understood why he did not do that.

On Father’s Day you could usually find him sleeping on the sofa in the afternoon. When he’d wake up, though, he would take us out to eat a nice dinner at a family steakhouse!