Christmas Stuff - Part 2 - 2013

Food is Christmas ‘stuff’ as much as ornaments on the tree. Every December there are foods that stand out. Some are new for the year and some are part of the family tradition. Here are the December 2013 special foods for my Christmas.

Red Velvet Cake - The food with the most tradition this year. My mother use to make it from scratch. Now I buy it at the grocery store - making sure that it had cream cheese icing (not the icing that is mostly butter).

Pumpkin Ginger Scones - The food that is new this year and destined to become part of the tradition. I’ve already modified it to use butternut squash in place of the pumpkin!

Cranberry orange relish with plain yogurt - The food that joined the tradition a few years ago. It had good color, is healthy compared to so much Christmas fare, and has a welcome tangy taste.

Kale - The food that I started experimenting with last fall but only decided belonged in my refrigerator when winter weather got serious. I include it in every soup and stir fry I make! It is loaded with good nutrition - and lends a green color to winter meals. I buy a large bag of pre-washed Kale and keep it in the freezer. It crunches easily into small pieces when it is still frozen and cooks up the same as fresh when used in soups and stir fries!

Popcorn with pumpkin seed oil - The food that will go beyond Christmas now that I’ve learned to make it. I pop the corn in a paper bag in the microwave. No more not-good-for-you additives from the packaged microwave popcorn! And then drizzle it with pumpkin seed oil which turns a nice green color on the white corn…..green and white for the season. Add some apple slices for nutritional balance and to achieve the full Christmas color scheme!

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving prompts me to think about:

• What I am thankful for
• Traditions 

Being Thankful

Thanksgiving Day is the annual prompt to take stock - to acknowledge and appreciate. Are the aspects of our lives for which we are thankful also the aspects that contribute to our feelings of happiness? For me - I think they are. And Thanksgiving Day 2013 finds me celebrating an abundance of good vibes:

Family (husband, daughter, parents, sisters, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins). Most of the family is far away this Thanksgiving but 2013 has been a better year than 2012 - the trend is good and I’m thankful for that.

Health. Feeling well enough to do all the things that make life wonderful ---- it’s not something I take for granted. I’m thankful.

Coursera. I am hooked on the many offerings from Coursera. It seems like I have 3 or 4 going almost all the time. The topics, quality of presentation, and cost (generally free) are all worth being thankful. It is one of the areas of technology that I appreciate without any reservations.

Volunteer work for Neighbor Ride and Howard Country Conservancy. I am thankful for non-profit organizations in my community that provide me with a meaningful way to give back to my community by volunteering. Somehow volunteering has more personal meaning than simply donating money.

Home. Every time I travel I realize how thankful I am to have a home to welcome me back. Coming back from Florida just a few days before Thanksgiving means that we are cleaning house first thing Thanksgiving Day…and then relaxing to have our feast.

Traditions

There are activities that are like clockwork this time of year

Three cobs of Indian corn are hung on the front door. They are over 5 years old but dried corn lasts a long time. I like the colors - the dark, muted colors of fall - against our dark green door.

Food

Brisket cooking in the crockpot. My husband does not like turkey so we cook something else that will result in a lot of left overs - a brisket. It totally fills the crockpot. Our big meal with be in the evening so I don’t have to get up in the middle of the night to start the main course like I did when we were eating the feast at midday.

Cranberry orange relish from the Wegmans recipe. This was a tradition started last year. I liked this relish so much that I’ll never make the old boiled cranberries in sugar recipe ever again.

Pumpkin custard and baked potatoes and cooked in the same oven. We always make custard rather than pie and, since our family is small, the custard goes into the oven 1.5 hours before meal time at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.  Then at 1.25 hours before meal time the potatoes go into the oven as it gets turned down to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. The custard is done about 0.5 hours before meal time and is taken out to cool.

Old videos. This is the new ‘tradition’ starting this year. We’re going to dig out 20 year old videos of our daughter as a young child - to recall a trip to Florida from that time in our lives and contrast the Florida of 2013. Next year we’ll look at some other old videos.

Pervious Thanksgiving posts 

• 2011
• 2012