Happy Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day.  A day for honoring mothers. I think it was a grand idea to set aside a day such as this.  It's nice to be able to pause and think of just how much we have been blessed by our mothers.

I have a wonderful mother that I have been blessed with.  She worked hard while I was growing up, seeing to it that we were all taken care of, often seeming like the anchor that kept everything together during tough times.  Strong family values were important to her, and she instilled in each one of her children the importance of enjoying each other, something which all seven of us continue to do to this day.

Take a moment today, and thank the Lord for your mother.  And to all of you that are mothers, I hope you have had a chance today to pause and thank the Lord for choosing you to be a mother.

Happy Mother's Day

Just think, a day just for honoring mothers.  Of course, mothers should always be honored, but having a special day set aside for various festivities all in the name of honoring a mom is a blessing.  Being a mom can be hard work, young or old, and her hat may change as the years go by, but once a mom, always a mom. 

I will be honoring my mom today at a family picnic.  She has always been a great mom -- always beside each and every one of her children no matter what difficulties they have faced.  Thanks mom, for all that you have done, and will continue to be.

 

 

And as a mom, I am always more than blessed by the actions of my kids on this day.  My son sent me the flowers in the above picture, and they are so pretty.

 

To all of you moms out there, have a wonderful day.

 

Giving Thanks

This is the pecan pie that I have been waiting for.  Waiting for it to come out of the oven that is.  The reason being is that it is my last item to prepare before tomorrow's feast.

 A greater part of my day today has been spent in the kitchen with recipes here and there, along with various lists of what was needed to be accomplished, and the continuous loading and unloading of the dishwasher as items were crossed off my lists and placed in the refrigerator.  I just love cooking for this holiday.  Just think, a special holiday set aside for thanking our Creator for all of our many blessings.  And one of the blessings I am very thankful for is the mere fact that I can spend time cooking up a big feast for my family.  And tomorrow when we all sit down together at the table and I see everyone enjoying the meal, I will be giving thanks for my family that the Lord has given me, they are one of the biggest blessings that I have ever received.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there.  I hope you spend your day being pampered by your kids, enjoying sunshine, setting all calorie counting behind you for the day, taking a nap, reading a book, doing some sewing, eating some chocolate, and whatever else it is that makes you happy. 

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone.  I hope your day is spent with family, friends, good food, and fellowship.  It is a glorious day you know for He is risen!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

This special little day is here once again.  I realize that not everyone views it as special as I do, but to me it is a reminder of my Irish heritage that my dad was so very proud of.  He loved St. Patrick's Day, and raised us up to love it as well.  So today I am wearing my green shamrock pin, cooking a corned beef, and raising my glass to my dad.  Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone.

Lunch for a New Year

Growing up in a very traditional family, my mom would always prepare what she referred to as a "Dutch Lunch" on Christmas Eve.  And being the very traditional person that I am, I began doing the same thing when I was first married.  However, after a number of years, I realized that having this particular meal the day before another big meal, just meant too many leftovers to deal with.  So many years ago, I switched our Dutch Lunch to New Year's Day.  It suits this holiday so well.  Especially when there is a lot of football watching going on, and really encourages a nice lazy day of munching here and there.

My husband asked me just what exactly "Dutch Lunch" meant.  I had to ponder for a moment because I really didn't know where the term came from, except that my parents always referred to it as such.  So after looking it up, he enlightened me that a Dutch Lunch is "an individual portion or serving of cold cuts."  So now I know, and I think ours met the definition pretty well:

Happy New Year everyone!

Over the River and Through the Woods

Thanksgiving Day brings a wealth of memories to my mind.  Some of the earliest are actually hearing my sweet dad sing "Over the River and Through the Woods" to all of us in the car as we crossed the prairie on our way to a nearby town to spend the day with my grandparents.  I can remember the wonderful aroma as we walked into their house, and the table, with all of its leaves in place, set beautifully with grama's pretty crystal glasses.  While waiting for dinner, some of my siblings and I would take turns spinning in my grandparents' chairs that actually were just meant to swivle; however, one could get them spinning around at a pretty fast clip.  And I might add, we were never once told not to do it.  It was just part of the fun of being at Gramp and Grama's house.  My grandfather would have a roaring fire in his fireplace that, compared to my small size at the time, seemed like it must have encompassed an entire wall.  After we had enjoyed an amazing feast, it was time to make my grama's glasses "sing".  The memory is still so vivid in my mind of us sitting around the table talking, when someone would dip their finger in their water goblet and begin to rub it around the edge of the glass until a tone began to play.  We would all then join in the fun of making Grama's glasses "sing".

It is kind of funny what kinds of things stick in a kid's mind, and even carry on into our grown up years.  When my kids were younger, and we would travel to my parents' house for Thanksgiving, I would sing "Over the River and Through the Woods" to them.  It just seemed like the right thing to do while traveling to their grama's house.  Nowadays we have Thanksgiving at home, my kids are older, and I just sing the song in my own mind; however, at the end of dinner when we are all sitting around talking, someone, usually my son, will dip his finger into his water goblet, and begin to make my glasses sing.  I still always join in because it just seems like the proper way to end a Thanksgiving dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Happy Mother's Day

Tomorrow is Mother's Day.  A special day set aside for honoring our Mothers by possibly giving them flowers and cards, making them a nice dinner, and expressing our love in some such fashion.  For all of you moms out there, I wish you a very happy day as you receive the blessings that your children bestow upon you.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Today is the day that I celebrate my Irish heritage.  My father, bless his Irish soul, always made sure that we celebrated St. Patrick's Day.  As I have posted in the past, his father was 100% Irish, and we grew up never missing out on celebrating this day.

There has been some debate in the family about where our ancestors came from in Ireland.  My dad was very adamant about saying that we came from County Cork.  I know that I have relatives that have actually traveled to Ireland to locate some family history, and have reason to believe that we are from County Clare.  But to my knowledge, so far nothing has turned up.  Regardless of the specific Irish location that my family heralds from, today we are Irish and very proud of it.

"I met a little leprechaun down where the shamrocks grow.

I asked him why he stayed so small, and why he didn't grow.

He frowned his brow, and with his eye, he looked me through and through.

"Well, I'm as big to me he said as you are big to you."

(Author Unknown)

Happy Valentine's Day

Here's wishing all of you a very Happy Valentine's Day, complete with pink heart marshmallows and red roses!

Don't Forget the Candy Canes

I'm sure most of you are very busy right now finishing up your shopping, decorating, baking, etc.  Some of you may not have even begun your holiday preparations; but whatever stage you are in, be sure you don't forget the candy canes.  I think they are such a cheerful little Christmas treat.  They can be hung on a tree, tied onto packages, tucked into stockings, glued together to form a little heart decoration, even tucked into a table centerpiece.  Oh yes, and just eaten straight out of their little hard to open cellophane package.  And once the holidays are over, you can throw any leftovers into your food processor, and you have a delicious peppermint topping for ice cream, cakes, or any dessert really. 

Little Turkeys

Before Thanksgiving gets too far behind us, I wanted to share a picture of my little turkey place cards that my daughters made for our table.  I thought they were so cute, and really added a nice touch to our holiday dinner.  They got the basic pattern off of the Martha Stewart craft site, and then changed them up a bit to just make them even cuter.

The Day After

The china and the crystal have been washed and put away.  Cloth napkins are washed and drying.  The extra leaf  has  been taken out of the table.  Another Thanksgiving has come and gone.  But the warm, festive feeling still remains in the air.  Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  I spend several days prior to the holiday cooking for our feast; and even though the day always slips by much too quickly, I enjoy it immensely.  My sister, Molly, expressed it perfectly to me last night.  She said, "I love Thanksgiving - always feels just right."  I agree with her.  It does always feel just right.  I have so many memories of happy Thanksgivings, that each year just adds another one to he mix.

With Thanksgiving also comes the beginning of the Christmas season -- my favorite season of the year.  And what a way to herald it in than by having a day for giving thanks.  Because of all things that we can be thankful for, the birth of our Savior is the greatest of all.

Raggedy Ann Effect

The 4th of July is behind us now.  I hope that all of you in the U.S. had a very enjoyable holiday.  My kids and I made our traditional trek downtown to see the parade.  We always show up early to get our chairs placed in our usual spot.  After the official "chair placement", we will wander around downtown, buying ice cream or little snacks, and just enjoying the atmosphere.  This year before I left home I put on my new shoes that one of my daughter's had given me as a birthday gift, along with my new 4th of July socks.  To wear these two items together anywhere else, other than a 4th of July parade, might cause a few raised eyebrows because of the similarity to Raggedy Ann's attire.  However, they seemed to fit right in at the parade.

Easter Greetings

We had a great little vacation this past week.  My son is an expert surfer riding the indoor wave.  I gave it a couple of tries; but after being tossed into the air by the wave both times, I opted for body surfing instead.  It was much easier.

After returning from vacation, I had a couple of days to quickly prepare for Easter.  At this very moment, my daughter is setting the table, and everything seems to be in place.  Well, almost everything.  Upon completion of this blog post, I will put together a relish plate, and then everything will be in order.  But I just wanted to take a minute, and wish all of you a very blessed Easter Day.  This day carries so much meaning; and without it, there would be no hope in this world.  But we do have this day to celebrate Christ's glorious resurrection; and along with it, comes forgiveness and hope.  This is truly a glorious day for celebration!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

With my grandfather being 100% Irish, I grew up celebrating St. Patrick's Day.  I still enjoy celebrating with my own family.  Everyone was greeted with a "Happy St. Patrick's Day" greeting when I first saw them this morning, and I placed my corned beef in the crockpot first thing.  It will be served with cabbage and potatoes, as well as a green colored dessert (I'm thinking grasshopper pie).  And lastly, but certainly not least, we could never forget our special socks:

Christmas and Chocolate

I don't think that there are too many things better than the combination of chocolate and Christmas. Maybe the reason they go so well together is because at Christmas we have an excuse to make the rich and creamy desserts that normally we might try to talk ourselves out of because of the extra calories, etc. Last year for Christmas, one of my daughters gave me the book, I'm Dreaming of a Chocolate Christmas by Marcel Desaulniers. What a delightful book this is!

I think that Mr. Desaulniers is one of my very favorite cookbook authors of all time. I have several of his books, and have even made a few of his recipes. The results are always out of this world delicious.

Yesterday when my youngest daughter indicated she was suffering from boredom, I suggested that she make some cookies. This was the book that she chose, and made these:

They were melt in your mouth delicious! If any of you are interested in the recipe, just leave a comment indicating so (making sure I can link back to you some way), or e-mail me (see my profile), and I will be happy to send it to you.

Cranberry Salad

With all of our attentions having turned towards Christmas, I thought I would share a few special dishes that I like to prepare during the holidays. Growing up, my mom always made a special cranberry salad, which I must admit, I didn't care for when I was younger. An immature palate I guess towards cranberries. However, now that my palate has fully matured, I enjoy this salad tremendously. My mom would always present it beautifully garnished; and it looked so pretty on the table amongst all of her other delicious dishes. Its main ingredients are orange jello, cranberries, apples, and oranges. Having a tart and sweet taste at the same time, it really works well as a side dish with a meal, and doesn't seem like a dessert.

Cranberry Salad

Dissolve 2 cups boiling water, and then 1 cup of cold water with a 6 ounce package of orange jello. Let thicken to egg white consistency. In a food processor, process one large orange (peel too - but I section it up to remove the seeds first), one large or two small red delicious apples (including peel - but again removing the core and seeds), and 1/2 bag of frozen cranberries. Fold these ingredients into the thickened jello and put into a jello mold, pretty bowl, or 8" square dish. Keep jello in refrigerator until it has set.

Thanksgiving Highlights

Our Thanksgiving Day was very nice. We were blessed (as we always are) with the presence of my father and mother-in-law. They have joined us for so many Thanksgivings now, that it wouldn't quite seem the same without them. Even though I had spent so many days prior to and the day of cooking, it really was all worthwhile. Now I have been enjoying leftovers; and have granted myself a reprieve from the kitchen for a couple of days. Here is a picture of a few of our highlights: