Traditions and Resolutions

The first Christmas Paul and I were married, we had just moved to a new apartment, so we didn’t really have a Christmas tree. However, I did insist on buying a tree-top angel to bring a little bit of home to the place, since when I was growing up, this angel was always on the top of the tree:

At some point during the following year, our puppy found its way into the box of Christmas decorations and tore everything up, including the angel. That meant, of course, that we had to get a new angel. But that was the year we were broke (we had a little baby by then), and so we just got a little, very inexpensive angel. She’s pretty enough, but I wanted something more for my annual tree. So the next year we bought another, and a tradition was started. The picture at the top is a few of our angels. My absolute favorite is the Texas angel in red. At this point, we’re at 18 angels…or we would be except for the crappy weather that has kept UPS from delivering my angel to me for TWO WEEKS!!! I’m trying to be patient, however, it’s getting a bit old. (New Year’s Resolution #1—Patience.) Eggnog. is one of those love it or hate it kind of things. Me? I love it. If it was available year-round, I’d buy it year-round. I guess it’s a good thing it’s a limited-time only, get it while you can thing then. Or as Dad says, we’d all be the shape of weeble-wobbles. Eggnog is a major part of our Christmas tradition. It is what makes Christmas morning extra special for us. Come Christmas morning, after presents are opened and I’ve had my first cup of coffee, I move into the kitchen, thickly slice the bread (this year we bought cinnamon swirl bread – yum!) and quickly dip it into a bowl of eggnog mixed with a little extra cinnamon and nutmeg. They must be cooked slowly, over a medium-low heat otherwise the sugar burns. When served with a side of sausage and drenched in warm maple syrup, nothing else says Merry Christmas quite like it. (Resolution #2—eat healthier) On this day, 17 years ago, I was holding my day-old baby and enjoying a New Year’s Day steak dinner compliments of the hospital. Yesterday, to celebrate Nick’s birthday, we went out for Mexican food (delicious!) then came home and had a cherry/pineapple dump cake with ice cream. Because the cake was hot from the oven, we stuck the candles in a bowl of ice cream (that’s what’s on fire in the picture of Nick and Austin above). We’ll have a big birthday dinner for him this weekend when I have more time to spend cooking it. Hopefully I’ll remember to take pictures! (Resolution #3—make fun family time a bigger priority. The kids are growing up so fast!)

Proof that my son loves me…

He’s only heard about it, never tasted it for himself, but when Nick’s culinary teacher passed out the recipe for French Onion Soup, Nick decided he would make it for me cause he knows how much I love it.

Whoever created the combination of the perfectly warming-to-the-bottom-of-your-toes soup, with the crunchy bread and the ooey-gooey cheese on top, was a genius. And I thank him or her.

In preparation for the soup, I made some homemade beef broth a couple of weekends ago, using soup bones saved from the last time we filled our freezer with beef.

Nick couldn’t believe how long it took for the onions to carmelize and was very impatient during the process. The only change we made, was that we deglazed the pan with sherry, which is not an ingredient that was included in his high school recipe.

It is so much fun to see (and taste) Nick’s kitchen skills developing. He’s such a great kid.

French Onion Soup

2 1/2 pounds onions, sliced thin (we used 3 medium onions)
2 oz butter
6 cups beef stock
2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 t Worcestershire Sauce
salt & pepper to taste
Hearty bread, grated swiss, parmesan or other good melting cheese

In a heavy pan, over medium-low heat, melt butter and add onions, turning so they are all coated with butter. Carefully carmelize the onions without burning. This is a long, slow process and may take as long as 45 minutes. Cook them until VERY brown.

Deglaze the pan using some of the beef stock (we used a splash of sherry).

Add stock, thyme, pepper and Worcestershire. Bring to a boil, then simmer 20-30 minutes. Season with salt & pepper to taste.

Serve with bread and melted cheese.

Yum!

Snow Ice Cream

It has been snowing for the last couple of days. Snowing a lot!

Yesterday I braved the elements and went into the office, but was smart enough to bring my work laptop home with me so I didn’t have to worry about it today…I’m up against a Friday deadline, so a non-working snowday was NOT an option.

It snowed almost all day long. The boys went out and pelted each other with snowballs for a while, and Paul got a hankering for some ice cream. Really – ice cream! It’s snowing big, fluffy white flakes. I think hot chocolate and Paul thinks ice cream. He apparently has always been fascinated with the idea of snow ice cream and today was the day!

We carefully filled a bowl with clean snow, made the base and folded in the snow.

Wanna know something funny? It tasted JUST LIKE REAL ICE CREAM!

Who knew? (Besides Laura Ingalls, of course)

Snow Ice Cream Recipe #1
source: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art38570.asp
Ingredients:

1/2 c. sugar
1 c. cream
2 eggs
2 tsps vanilla
Pinch of salt

Place the above ingredients in a large bowl.
Mix with an electric mixer. Add fresh snow..approx 5 – 6 cups and mix in to blended mixture.
Eat immediately.

NOTE: Always make sure you’ve had snow falling a while before you collect snow for ice cream so you know it will be clean and free from contaminates.

Matured Tastebuds

When I was littlewe had Koolaid every night for dinner. My siblings and I fought over the honor of choosing the flavor packed and mixing it up. Red was my favorite. It was as much a part of getting ready for dinner as the plates and silverware. That pitcher just had to be on the table.

And there were many Sunday mornings that before we left the house for church, Mom would throw a roast in the oven for later that day…like 4 or 5 hours later. I remember those roasts. Well done (VERY well done), with roasted potatoes and carrots, all covered in gravy. The roast was terribly dry, but that’s what roasts are like…right? That’s what gravy is for, after all!

I left home with the idea burned in my brain that meat…all meat…was to be cooked until there was nothing left to cook. This included roasts, steaks, hamburgers, pork loin, everything! When Paul and I got married, if we ever went out for a “fancy meal” all steaks were ordered well done. And we would have sent it back if it came any other way.

Somewhere, somehow our tastes started to change. I stopped thinking that KoolAid was a great additions to meals, and I realized that with the sole exception of pot roasts, beef is best somewhere between barely and really pink, depending on its application. And along with the pink comes juiciness, tenderness and flavor!

I also realized this last week that a roast can be part of a weeknight dinner, even if its not cooked in the crockpot. Somehow, even though I discovered that roasts should not be cooked through and through, I never made the leap to the one hour of cooking can be done after work.

But this week, the stars were aligned. When I asked Paul to pull a roast out of the freezer, in my mind I was thinking a chuck roast to go in the crockpot, but instead he grabbed a sirloin tip roast and I knew that if I crockpotted that thing, it would turn into a lump of petrified wood. So, resigning myself to a late dinner, I came home from work, looked the cooking time up online and was thrilled to see a one-hour cook time. By 7:15, we were sitting down to a juicy, delicious roast. A little later than normal, but not too much. And man…was it worth it!

Try it yourself and see. But may I suggest pairing it with a nice red wine rather than KoolAid.

Sighs

This has been a strange week for me. It was my birthday, and it hit me kinda hard. I’m getting old. It put me into a bit of a funk most of the week, and I’m afraid that my family took the brunt of it. Because of timing, my birthday dinner is postponed until next weekend when Nick will prepare a gourmet feast of my favorite foods.

In preparation of one of the courses, I spent today making beef stock with bones that have resided in our freezer for a couple of months now. I thought of taking a photo of the stock, but there’s nothing photogenic about it. It’s just brown.

In an effort to get me out of my funk, Paul and I took a drive last Sunday. Not having a particular place we wanted to go, we just drove north along a couple of smaller highways.

We passed through many small towns, passed a lot of vehicles that had Christmas trees tied to the roofs, and thoroughly enjoyed the scenery. At one point, we pulled into a little parking lot and watched the North Cascade Elk Herd for a while. I wish they were closer, but the scenery was beautiful.

Here’s the same photo, zoomed in so the elk are visible:

We also saw probably 10 bald eagles, but none of them cooperated for a photo shoot. But the river where we spotted 5 of them at the same time was amazing with the fog hovering over the water.

When we got home, the boys had gotten the Christmas decorations out, put the lights on the house and set the tree up. So we spent the rest of the evening decorating the tree and my funk was gone.

Then a couple of days later I looked out my back window and sighed deeply with contentment. After all, THIS is my backyard.

I am blessed.