When I was growing up, my mom would make Chex party mix every year around Christmas time. I spent many a New Year’s Eve playing board games with my family – and there was always a big bowl of party mix on the table.
Though I rarely make it, it’s something I identify with the holidays. Today mom and I made a batch.
Here’s the recipe that’s made the rounds in our family:
Mix ingredients in big brown paper grocery bag. Melt butter on low heat on stovetop and stir in worchestershire sauce. Place dry ingredients in shallow pans. Pour melted mixture evenly over dry ingredients.
Bake at 250 degrees for 2 hours, stirring every 20 minutes. Sprinkle with garlic salt between stirrings, to taste.
Mom and I set up her tree today. It looks nice. I took several photos of it, hoping for one to post here. On this one, the autofocus was a bit whacky. And it turned out blurry. But I like the bokeh effect of the lights. So… this one is the winner.
For inquiring minds: here’s a definition of bokeh on wikipedia
Last night my mom and I went over to Noreen and David’s for dinner. Colleen and Jake drove over and joined us. After dinner we all sat around just telling funny stories for a couple hours. It’s nice to laugh like that. Everyone in my family is a comedian it seems…
Instead of driving all the way back to Seattle, Colleen and Jake slept at my mom’s, as we were planning on going to Francine and Art’s in the morning to watch the Seahawks game… a rare treat for me, since in Texas all that is usually on the networks is the Cowboys or the Texans (ho hum).
When I went out the front door to get the paper I was greeted by this stunning view of the Olympics. They seemed particularly white today.
Francine whipped up some biscuits & gravy and mimosa’s — breakfast of football divas 🙂 Noreen and David came over after church and we all cheered and screamed at the refs until the Seahawks won in overtime. Awesome!
My mom has been on my mind lately, so earlier this month I decided to make a trip to spend some time with her before the Christmas bustle. I can work from her house there and spend the evenings with her.
So today, after work, I hopped on a plane. It is pouring rain here, and is expected to do the same all week. I wish i could bring some of this water home with me…
I’ll also have a chance to see my sisters and brother while i’m here. An added bonus. Noreen gave me this beautiful leaded glass piece that she designed and made just for me. Celtic knot… love it! She does beautiful work. I can’t wait to pick out a place to hang it at home.
Went for a bike ride around the neighborhood today. There are a handful of pecan trees nearby that are on common grounds in the neighborhood. We stopped by to gather a bunch of pecans that had fallen. We have several pecan trees in our own backyard, but they don’t bear much fruit – at least not any of the years we have lived here. So it’s nice to find a few that we can harvest from nearby. They are very sweet this year.
Julie and I rented a movie from a nearby RedBox last night – The Amazing Spiderman. It was a good flick. Stop number 2 on the bike ride today was the RedBox to drop the movie off. Then we rode to Academy to see what we could see. Then we stopped by the local pet store to check out the birdies. This is one of two very friendly macaws that live there.
We went for a sail today, the winds were 10-15 knots. A nice sail up towards Lakeway, and then down to Arky South, where we dropped a hook and ate turkey sandwiches. Then back to the marina before sunset. Julie and Joel joined us. A very nice day. I wonder why they call this Black Friday?! 🙂
A day of thanks. And family. And friends. A feast. And fun.
Every year my birthday falls near Thanksgiving, and every few years it falls on Thanksgiving. So, when I was a kid, my birthday cakes and decorations always had pilgrims on them. This pair of pilgrims are ones that my mom sent me several years back. I just had to break them out today. I hope each of you had a wonderful day.
We certainly had a great day. Julie, Marty, Sue, Laura and Joe joined us. The menu included roasted (brined) turkey – 2 of them, to make sure we had leftovers, absolutely heavenly mashed potatoes, delicious and sweet squash fest, cranberry relish, green beans, the (awesome) brussels sprouts dish, and homemade yeast rolls. For dessert we had monte’s apple tart, a birthday cake, and homemade vanilla icecream. Woof!
After the delicious and nearly debilitating dinner, we had to move around a bit, so we played games inside and out until the cows came home.
I am thankful for all the blessings I have been given, great friends and family. I am truly blessed.
And, one more thing to be thankful for: thanks, Marty and Sue for the pretty vase!
Birthday tulip from Monte. Birthday vase from Sue & Marty. 🙂
We hit the grocery store early today with our Thanksgiving shopping list: turkey: check….potatoes: check…green beans: check. Then I spied this spire and couldn’t pass it up. So we’ll have 2 green veggies on the table this year. 🙂 I love brussels sprouts and found this recipe from smittenkitchen.com earlier this year. I tried it once…with pork chops i think, and it was delicious.
Dijon-Braised Brussels Sprouts
Serves 4
1 lb brussels sprouts
1 T unsalted butter
1 T olive oil
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup broth (chicken or vegetable)
2 to 3 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
2 T heavy cream
1 T dijon mustard (or more to taste)
Peel several of outer leaves off each sprout and halve lengthwise. In a large, heavy 12-inch skillet heat butter and oil over moderate heat. Place sprouts in skillet, cut sides down, in one layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook sprouts, without turning, until undersides are golden brown, about 5 minutes. If sprouts don’t fit in one layer, brown them in batches, then add them all back to the pan, spreading them as flat as possible, before continuing with the shallots, wine, etc.
Add shallots, wine and stock. Once simmering, reduce the heat to medium-low (for a gentle simmer), cover the pot and cook the sprouts until they are tender can be pierced easily with the tip of a paring knife, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Remove the lid, and scoop out sprouts (leaving the sauce behind). Add cream and simmer for two to three minutes, until slightly thickened. Whisk in mustard. Taste for seasoning, and adjust as necessary with more salt, pepper or Dijon. Drizzle sauce over brussels sprouts and serve immediately.
We made a trip down to southeast Austin to run an errand or two this morning. Since we were heading down there, we planned to play a round of golf at Jimmy Clay Golf Course. So, we loaded our clubs into the car on our way out.
We played 18 holes. Not only has it been a while since we played golf together. It’s been a very long time since we played 18. We usually play a twilight 9 holes after work. But we got there early enough today to hit the range, the chipping and putting greens, and then play a full round. We even got a cart today… a treat… as we usually walk it.
It was a nice day – sunny with highs in the 70’s. I wasn’t quick enough to get a photo, but when we got there, we found a big flock of Monk parakeets (aka Quaker parrots) in residence at the golf course. They were noisily greeting golfers from the oak trees around the clubhouse. When we finished our round, they had gone – they must have returned to their nest for the evening.
Usually every November a large contingent of sailors head up-river for a multi-day raft-up…aka an Up-the-river cruise. This weekend the winds were so light, noone was interested in motoring for 6 hours to get up river. So, plans changed. Instead, we rafted up in a cove about 5 miles from our marina. It was a really lovely night, though. Temps got down into the 40’s but we were toasty down below. We baked pizza in the oven on Nirvana, and it turned out quite tasty.
We had 6 boats stay overnight. This shot was taken this morning by Robert from the dinghy, after Eric and Micheline left on Karma. We’re on the left on Nirvana, then Rory & Greg on Sapphire, Robert on Voodoo, Tony & Sharon (and Aussie) on Wind Thief, and Gray & Debbie on Sacre Bleu. This morning the winds finally picked up. We had a really nice sail back to our cove.
It’s Sunday, and I have 7 more days of vacation!!!
Over 2 years ago I posted a picture of the catboat wind thingie that monte made me (here’s the original post). It had sails made out of ripstop nylon which I had sewn and installed on each little boat. It worked great, and I LOVED it. As the wind blew, the boats started turning and the sails tacked and jibed as they went around.
Then last summer, I posted a picture of it after it had been attacked by squirrels (here’s that post). One of them went nutso in the heat of the summer and ripped up the sails. And just like that my catboat wind thingie was out of service.
Til today! Monte made new sails out of copper sheets, and fastened them to the mast with copper bands and replaced the string mainsheets with little pieces of metal chain.
It’ll take a stiffer breeze to make it go round, but it’s back! I love the new, improved version.
I was inspired to make this wreath by a do-it-yourself project that I ran across on pinterest (original link here) and pinned it in my “DIY: wannado’s” board a month or so ago. I immediately knew that I was going to try to make one – not just because I loved the way it looked, but because I have been hoarding corks for 10-15 years (much to monte’s bemusement) just waiting for a project I could use them in. The hot-pad-trivet-made-out-of-corks projects I usually run across just didn’t do it for me.
I love wreaths, and with Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner, I knew I’d better get started if I wanted to finish it before the holidays. I love how it turned out. Here’s how I did it.
What you’ll need: straw wreath body, straight pins, glue and lots of corks.
I bought an 18″ diameter straw wreath body (from Michael’s) a box of 1 1/4″ dressmaker pins (longer is better) and some craft glue (from Joanne’s). Then I dug out and dusted off several bags/boxes labeled “corks” from the garage and started sorting. I didn’t keep track of exactly how many I used, but I’m pretty sure it’s on the order of about 400-500 corks. I can’t help but do a little math here…. if i estimate that on average I spent $12 a bottle… that means this wreath cost in the neighborhood of about $5000. (heheheh… sigh) Anyway, as I was sorting, I tossed corks that weren’t 100% solid cork. Many were made up of lots of little pieces of cork molded in the shape of a cork. I also wanted to mix up the red wine (stained) & white wine corks and mix in a champagne cork every now and then. So I picked out bunches of them as I went along.
Sort your corks.
Stick a pin into each cork – get a good bite but leave as much of the pin hanging out as you can.
Stick a pin in the end of each cork.
Then put a line of glue on the pin.
Apply glue to the pin to help it bond with the straw wreath form.
Then stick the cork into position by pushing the head end of the pin into the straw wreath form. I inserted them all at an angle, where one row laid on top of the last one. Sometimes the pins went into a gap between the straw and didn’t stick well. So try to make sure you poke the pin through some of the straw when you push them in. Between the pins and the glue, the corks were surprisingly stable in the wreath when finished.
Push the head end of the pin into the wreath form at an angle.
I must admit that it was a little daunting getting started, but after the first row or two, it really was easy and went a lot quicker than I expected. Here is a close up of how the layering turned out. Some of the corks had years printed on the end or a unique logo, which added a nice touch to the detail.
Mix ’em up.
I hastily added the ribbon as an afterthought, to dress it up for the holidays. I know the ribbon looks a bit hokey, but I wanted to hang it up on the door to take a picture, so I was in a hurry. But you get the idea. After Christmas I’ll remove the ribbon and hang it on a wall in the house dining room or kitchen.
I was absentmindedly sorting coins that were weighing down my wallet today. I lined up, on edge, the nickels, pennies, dimes, quarters…. then I noticed one of the dimes was all silver. It is not often that I find a silver coin in my pocket anymore. When I was a kid it happened much more frequently. I guess more of them were in circulation (way) back then.
Anyway, when I zoomed in to take this macro shot I noticed initials “JS” under Roosevelt’s head. Google tells me those are the initials of the guy that designed the front and back of the coin, John Sinnock. He was Chief Engraver for the United States Mint, and also designed the Franklin half-dollar. You really can learn something new every day! You just have to take the time to look around 🙂
More numis-trivia: this dime is 90% silver, is worth about $2 today, and is one of 85 million minted in 1959. There you have it.
Today the US celebrates Veteran’s Day. My flag is flying out front. And my mind is especially on the veterans in my family. My father, my father-in-law, 2 of my uncles, a brother-in-law, my cousin and his son – who just enlisted in the Air Force. It’s an amazing thing, to give part, or all, of your life in service of your country. It wasn’t even yet my dad’s country when he enlisted shortly after immigrating to the States from Ireland.
To all US Veterans and their families: I thank you.
Sheila365 