Sky-high egg prices and using egg substitutes

Last time you were at the grocery store, did you do a double-take when you checked the price of eggs? Wait till you hear what Californians are paying for eggs this week.

Our local Walmart has a relatively good regular price on large eggs in my area -- this week, eggs are about $5.50 a dozen for Great Value brand (cheapest brand). The LA Times reported yesterday that eggs are now bumping up against $9.00 per dozen on average in California. That's on average. So, in some places, eggs are even more expensive! Are we going to reach $1 per egg at some point?

I have about 18 fresh eggs and about 2 dozen frozen eggs remaining. Obviously, I'm doing what I can to use fewer eggs right now. My plan is to buy as few cartons of eggs at these higher prices between now and spring (when prices usually drop just before Easter).

This morning I was baking a loaf of banana bread. I had enough bananas to make a batch and a half. 

My mother's 1970's recipe calls for 1 egg. As I was making a 1 1/2 batch, I would've needed 1 1/2 eggs. I decided to use just one egg and add a half-egg equivalent in baking powder for the leavening.

I looked up possible substitutes in this post from 2022 on choosing which egg substitute to use. I ended up using the extra baking powder plus an extra splash of soy milk. The batter itself tasted good, so I was pretty sure the bread would turn out well.

It rose as I would expect for a 1 1/2 batch in a single loaf pan.

The texture looked great upon slicing into the loaf, dense but still plenty of tiny air bubbles throughout. 

The proof is really in the pudding, as they say. It tasted great and was plenty moist, no hint of a lacking 1/2 egg.

I'd call this egg substitution a success.

What are egg prices like in your area? How expensive is too expensive for eggs in your mind? Do you ever make substitutions for eggs in baking?

If you need some help deciding on an egg substitute, see this post: Egg Substitutes: Choosing Which to Use.

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things: Gifts that I received for Christmas -- avocado oil

Here's another one of those odd-sounding gifts, avocado oil. And yes, I asked for this. 

I've wanted to try avocado oil for a while, but it's just so expensive. So, I put it on my wish list this year. Often, I am able to try something relatively costly by requesting a small amount as a gift for a special occasion.

I received two bottles of avocado oil for Christmas from my son and daughter-in-law.

The smaller bottle (on the right) is organic cold pressed, extra virgin avocado oil (EVAO). It's flavor is subtly avocado-y with a tiny bit of fruity, yet overall mild. Online descriptions have included "grassy" and "buttery" in the flavor profile. It doesn't taste "grassy" at all to me.

Avocado oil is thick like olive oil and has a green-yellow color.

The larger bottle is not organic or EVAO, but is glyphosate-free. The label in this bottle indicates that the flavor is mild and could be used in baking as well as cooking.

Avocado oil has a high smoke point, so it's suitable for sautéing. So far, I've just used it in vinaigrette-style salad dressings.

I like to diversify the fats that I consume. I include meat fat, butter, olive oil, vegetable oil, coconut oil, and now avocado oil. Different fats have different benefits. Avocado oil is high in monounsaturated fats, which may lower LDL cholesterol. A large study indicated that people with diets high in monounsaturated fats had a lower likelihood of death from heart disease and cancer. Nutrients in avocado oil may also boost immune function and decrease inflammatory response.

Anyway, you can perhaps understand why I wanted to try this oil.

Have you tried avocado oil? What did you think?

These Are Few of My Favorite Things: Gifts I received for Christmas -- dried mushrooms

Before you start to think "what an odd gift to give to someone," I'll tell you that I requested this. 

I received 3 packages of dried mushrooms, one shiitake, one tea tree, and one mixed mushrooms from my son and daughter-in-law.

I love mushrooms, especially in the cooler months of the year. If you recall, last year I received a mushroom growing kit. While it was very fun, the mushrooms were all ready in a short period. I thought this year I'd like to try dried mushrooms, as I can pace myself with them and have a longer period to enjoy the mushrooms.

I've been rehydrating a large handful or two at a time in a quart canning jar after rinsing, in room temperature water on the counter overnight. The following morning, they're ready to use. At this point, I move the jar to the fridge. The rehydrated mushrooms keep in water in the fridge for about 5-7 days. 

When I want mushrooms, I scoop out a few, slice them, then sauté in butter/olive oil and add some dried thyme, and a pinch of salt. 

The liquid itself makes a nicely flavored broth. I add some salt, onion and garlic powder, and heat for a delicious hot beverage. Some of the nutrients leach into the water, so using the water as broth allows me to get the full nutritional benefit from the mushrooms.

I've been enjoying the mushrooms with breakfasts and lunches. I love sautéed mushrooms over toast, as is for a side dish, or mixed into other foods.

You may be wondering how they differ from fresh mushrooms. These are slightly more earthy and intense in flavor (but only slightly), and a bit chewier. When I go to use them, they don't need cooking, just heating. They're very delicious. 

Here's the real benefit to dried mushrooms, they keep for a long time in the dried state. So I can use a few now and then a couple of weeks later, use a few more, without worrying about any sort of expiry and wastage of mushrooms not used in time.

Have you used dried mushrooms before?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, dear friends. I thought I would be back to blogging way earlier than now. However, the holidays really wore me out this year. And when I become this tired, I can't think or be creative or articulate thoughts very well.

Here's a brief recap of my holidays.

I didn't have as much help leading up to Christmas as I have in past years. One daughter was sick and in bed the week prior to Christmas, and the other daughter was working on a big deadline for a client. Despite less help, I baked, cooked, cleaned, decorated, shopped, wrapped. and hosted day after day. I counted the number of batches of cookies that I baked these past 2 weeks --I baked 10 batches of cookies! Most of these cookies were given away to neighbors, friends, and family. We have some mini gingerbread men and a couple of peppermint swirls remaining from my baking. We also were on the receiving end of cookies and candies from some of these neighbors and family. I have frozen most of the cookies and will thaw them a few at a time over the coming weeks.

Whilst in baking mode, I revived my sourdough starter which had been dormant in the fridge for a couple of years. I made one very poor batch of sourdough pancakes, followed by a much improved batch of pancakes. After several mornings of pancakes, I made a poor loaf of long-fermented sourdough bread. This afternoon I began another loaf of long-ferment bread, tweaking the measurements a bit, in hopes of producing a much improved loaf this next time. I'll know later this week if my changes made a difference.

Christmas Eve was lovely, but a bit lonely. One daughter was still sick in bed. The other spent the afternoon with her boyfriend, then went to church in the evening by herself. My husband and I attended an early afternoon church service. This was the very first Christmas Eve that just my husband and I attended services together in literally decades. We have had kids with us every other Christmas since the first was born.

We had a wonderful family Christmas Day with our son and daughter-in-law. I may have been tired, but I really enjoyed spending the day with both of them. 

As one daughter had been sick on actual Christmas Eve, we postponed our family Christmas Eve traditional dinner and movie until the 27th. Every year after Christmas Eve church, we watch It's a Wonderful Life while eating Chinese. I make the Chinese meal using a bunch of frozen foods. A convenience food Chinese meal made at home is about half the cost of getting Chinese take-out.

A couple of days after Christmas we hosted a dinner with friends that we hadn't seen in several years, staying up far later than we normally do. Then the very next day, we had more guests at our dinner table.

New Year's Eve, we watched another movie and enjoyed taco salad bowls for dinner (made by one daughter). Afterward, we watched the countdown to the ball drop in NYC, then all hit the hay.

I think my other daughter could see I was running out of steam as the week progressed. She and her boyfriend made New Year's Day dinner for us.

And here we are today, 2 days into the new year already. I'm still finding it hard to believe that it's 2025. The days between Thanksgiving and New Year's flew by.

January has historically been my quiet month. This year will be something of an aberration to that. We have a couple of family gatherings this month, with both my side of the family and my husband's. I also have my last dental surgery later this month. This one shouldn't have the long recovery time as the last one. But I'm not looking forward to it, nonetheless.

One last thing -- I began physical therapy for my shoulder (the injury when I fell while painting the deck railing). My shoulder has healed, but it's lost a lot of strength. So the exercises have begun, and I hope to regain this lost strength over the next couple of months.

That about catches you up on my life since I last blogged. How have your past 2 weeks been? I hope that you have all enjoyed beautiful holidays spent with loved ones. Fill us in on the highlights of your Christmas and New Years. If you're still here reading this blog, say hey.

I'll have lots more to talk about tomorrow afternoon. Have a good one!

Merry Christmas, Friends!

Merry Christmas to all today! I hope you have a wonderful day filled with love, peace, joy and laughter.

Here's a favorite version of Little Drummer Boy. Enjoy! 

I'll be back soon.

When sadness and joy cross paths

I didn't write about this yesterday, as I wanted to focus on as much joy as I could for the day. Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of my mother's passing. Forty years sounds like such a long time. But in my mind and heart it feels much shorter. I miss her still. What I've come to realize over the years is that you can simultaneously hold sadness and loss in one hand while holding joy and celebration in the other. 

My family has so much to celebrate right now. My niece (with cancer) is doing really well. The surgeon "got it all." She needs to make a decision on what route to take next, but I believe she will do well either way. My nephew and niece-in-law welcomed their first baby into the world a week ago today. This would be my parents' first great grandchild. New life is such a source of joy. My own health is getting better with each passing month. And I'm nearly done with all of the dental stuff, too. All of my children are well and enjoying their lives, and they'll all be here for Christmas. And we have a new "fixture" around our house, a boyfriend of one of my daughters. My husband has an opportunity to travel this spring for work and see some of his siblings while he's there. One of my daughters dog-sits regularly and she has another gig this weekend. That means that I might get to briefly visit with the pooch for a minute or two if I volunteer to drop her off. He's a super sweet dog. 

So many lovely moments in my family's life right now. It's hard to dwell on sadness over my mother's passing anniversary. I'm certain I will see her again. And that is itself a joyous thing. It's okay that I'm a bit sad at times. But I've learned to not allow this loss to color my entire day or week.

Christmas is one week away. I have so much to do! My menus are made. But I need to shop for what foods I'll need. I have a few gifts still to buy, and all of them to wrap. There are more treats to be baked and tins to be filled. I haven't even finished decorating the house yet! I've got to get busy.

I'll be away from this blog until shortly after Christmas. Wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday! Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! May your celebrations be held with all of your loved ones. See you soon.

1942 Holiday Dinner Menu

Here's another vintage Christmas or holiday dinner menu. This one is from Good Housekeeping Cookbook, published 1942.

Old English Spiced Cider (served in living room) 

Roast Turkey with Giblet Gravy

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Glazed Small Onions

Buttered Green Beans

Canned Cranberry Sauce

Celery and Carrot Sticks

Mince-Apple Pie, with Fluffy Cream Cheese

or

Stuffed Dates and Spiced Brazil-Nut Chips

Coffee

The menu linked to a couple of recipes in the cookbook. The Old English Spiced Cider is a heated apple cider with allspice, cinnamon sticks, cloves, nutmeg, and brown sugar.

The mince-apple pie is a two-crust pie with part thin sliced apples and part mincemeat filling.

The Spiced Brazil-Nut Chips sound similar to my recipe for spiced mixed nuts. I'll include the Good Housekeeping recipe at the bottom of this post.

There was no recipe or menu listing for the stuffing for the turkey. It must have been assumed that one would stuff the turkey with bread crumbs. It also must have been assumed one would know what to add to the bread crumbs for a stuffing. See the advice below.

What was also interesting was the helpful advice for preparing this menu. 

"Day Before: Make dessert. Whip cream cheese with cream; prepare relishes. Cook and grind giblets for gravy. Make spiced cider. Refrigerate all. Prepare crumbs for stuffing

The day: Make stuffing; stuff turkey. Plan so turkey is done 20 min. Before serving. Put potatoes in oven about 1 hour before dinner. Prepare onions and beans. Start cooking onions 1/2 hr. before dinner, green beans 20 min. before. Reheat cider. Place pie in oven with heat turned off to warm up during dinner."

The menu is actually very appealing in its relative simplicity. The vegetable side dishes sound much less complicated than many of the holiday side dish recipes that circulate today. I may use some of these suggestions in my own Christmas Day dinner this year, such as the plain, buttered green beans and baked sweet potatoes.

Here's the recipe for the Spiced Brazil-Nut Chips.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a well-greased sheet of brown paper. Alternatively, a greased sheet of parchment, a silicone liner, or a buttered sheet of foil.

1. 12/ teaspoons water

1 egg white

2 cups blanched, shelled Brazil nuts

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Beat the water and egg white together. Halve the Brazil nuts lengthwise and roll in egg white a few at a time, coating well. Then roll these in a mixture of the sugar and cinnamon. Arrange on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until golden. Yields about 2 cups.

Frugal This and That

We're in another expensive period. So I thought I'd focus on areas that we are able to save. I can't help that the oven element burned out and the washing machine needs another part. But there are some frugal things that I can do in other areas. So here's where we've been frugal lately.

• I made a quart and a half of eggnog yesterday afternoon, giving away a pint to my son and daughter-in-law.
• I continue to bake cookies for the baking gifts that I'll be giving this Christmas. So far I've made gingerbread men, peppermint swirls, chocolate chip meringues, and today I baked caramel nut bars. Next up, I'll bake some shortbread, using the mold that my daughters gave to me for Christmas last year. Even with the high cost of butter and eggs this year, home-baked goodies are still a budget gift when you know the recipient will enjoy them. (We have several non-bakers in our circle who always appreciate these goodies.)
• We finally had the salvage yard come and tow away our old, old car. It hasn't run for many, many years. Repair work would have been cost-prohibitive. We hung onto it I guess out of nostalgia. The car belonged to my in-laws. My father-in-law passed away in 2019. Even as the car got older, FIL and MIL continued to think of it as the beauty it once was. So we never got rid of  it while they were alive. Then 2020 happened and many of our plans never materialized. We are finally now getting rid of it. And we got paid to have it hauled off! (For anyone wondering, yes, we did try to sell it. No takers.)
• I washed all of the plastic bags and used cling wrap today. I had gotten behind on this task and noticed we were using more and more new cling wrap. Washing the dirty bags means we'll go through less new wrap in the future and delay the purchase of a new roll.
• I baked 3 loaves of sandwich bread to get us through the week.
• I used ChatGPT to give me some suggestions on movies to watch when I was under the weather. I was able to stream several good titles for free and keep myself entertained during those days.
• I moved the "farm" indoors for winter. I brought 3 of the large plastic containers that I started with seeds in late summer into the kitchen and put them under lights. I have 2 radish tubs and 1 watercress tub. Outdoors I still have 1 more each radish and watercress tub. When we finish harvesting everything in these indoor three, I'll move those two inside. I'm hoping to collect seeds from the watercress. They had flowered while outside and are forming seed pods. If I'd left the container outside for very much longer, there's a good chance the seed pods would become moldy from the cold rains. In addition to these indoor greens under lights, I'm growing lentil sprouts on the counter once again. Between the watercress, radish, and sprouts, I can make a decent salad for myself to go with lunch everyday. Sometime in January I'll take a 6 week break from growing veggies.
• I skipped grocery shopping last week and have been making do with what we have on hand.
• I did go get gas for the car and used a 50 cent per gallon reward. I waited until the car was nearly empty so I would get maximum value out of that per gallon reward.
• My husband is repairing the washing machine and the oven himself. That right there is a savings of a couple of hundred dollars for the service call.
• We've eaten all of our meals at or at least from home this month. Both daughters and my husband take their lunches made at home to work. 
• I cleaned out the fridge last week so I could make sure we used everything up before it spoiled, using some beef fat, beef gravy, pumpkin stock, slice of avocado, wilted celery, softening potatoes, wrinkly apples, and eggs well past their expiry.
• We continue to keep the thermostat for the furnace set fairly low, about 65 degrees during the day and 60 at night.

That's about all I can think of right now. How do you handle those unexpected expenses when they just keep coming your way? Does it help you to focus on areas that you have more control?

Do you have a favorite Christmas cookie?

Do you share Christmas cookies with friends and neighbors? This year I'm adding a couple of neighbors and my daughter's boyfriend's family to my cookie list. I also gift a bunch of each type I bake to my son and daughter-in-law.

I bake mostly the same cookies every year. These are cookies that seem 'special" to us because I only make them during the holiday season. But I do prefer cookies that are on the easy side.

This is one such recipe. I modified one of my mother's recipes for chocolate-vanilla swirl cookies, making them peppermint and vanilla just for the holidays. They're so popular with my family that this year I'll be doubling the recipe. Here's the single recipe, in case you're interested.

Peppermint-Vanilla Swirl Cookies

These are a refrigerator cookie. You form the dough into logs or blocks, store the dough in the fridge for a days or two, then slice and bake when convenient to you. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening or butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I use imitation vanilla)
1 tablespoon milk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
red gel food coloring
peppermint extract, to taste, about 1/2 teaspoon

an extra teaspoon or two of flour for the red dough to stiffen

Thoroughly cream the butter and sugar.  beat in the egg yolk. Mix in vanilla and milk. Stir in the salt and baking powder, then stir in the flour a cup at a time. The dough should be fairly stiff.

Divide the dough into two portions. 

White dough: Wrap one portion in plastic wrap or waxed paper and refrigerate for 2 hours. 

Red dough: with the other portion of dough, mix in enough red gel coloring until you're satisfied with the red. Mix in peppermint extract to taste. Stir in the extra flour until the dough is as stiff as the white dough. Wrap in plastic wrap or waxed paper and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Roll each half into a large rectangle about 1/8 to  1/4-inch thick on waxed paper. Square up the edges and make sure both portions of dough are about the same size.

Turn the white half onto the red half (removing the paper) with the red extending about 1/2 inch beyond the white dough at the far end from you. Roll the dough up tightly, jelly roll-style, away from you. Gently seal the edge of dough to the roll. Roll this log in a fresh sheet of waxed paper, twist the ends of paper. Chill thoroughly, overnight is preferable.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking sheet. Slice the dough into 1/4 inch thickness and place on prepared baking sheet, leaving an inch or two between cookies. Bake for about 12 minutes, until set. Cool for 2 minutes on baking sheet then remove to cooling racks. Yield about 3 to 4 dozen.

You'll notice that this recipe uses a yolk only. I save the white to make a small batch of chocolate- chocolate chip meringue cookies later in the week, using this recipe here.

Yesterday I baked the gingerbread dough (using this recipe) that I mixed and refrigerated on Tuesday. I know some people like to do a huge baking day and get all of the holiday cookies baked at once. I prefer to break the work up into manageable chunks and do a little each day.

Will you be baking any cookies this holiday season? What kinds? Do you have a favorite easy to make Christmas cookie? Do you have a favorite Christmas cookie to eat? Are you a bake-them-all-up-in-one -day or do-a-little-each-day sort of baker?

What it looks like to get beef in bulk directly from a rancher

Our Most Recent Beef Delivery

I know that many here read my posts not necessarily out of desire to do what I do, but instead out of curiosity of what something looks like in someone else's life. Since I know many have not bought meat regularly from a rancher, I thought I'd show you what it looks like for us. 

What this post is not:

This is not an endorsement or sales pitch for the rancher that I contract with, nor is it a pitch to get you to buy your meat from a rancher or small farmer. 

What this post is: 

Showing you what we receive in each order, and how the arrangement works for our family

I was sick last week. Right in the middle of my sneezing fits, sore throat and fatigue, my beef delivery arrived. Like a big girl, I put on some real shoes (but still in my pjs and robe) and dragged the box from the kitchen door to the garage. I then sorted, listed, and marked each individual packet of beef before freezing.

Some points about how this works for us

• I signed up for the least often delivery but with still the lowest price per pound, which is once every 3 months. The rancher appreciates that I'm a regular customer, and he can count on me to purchase a set dollar amount/weight amount on a regular basis.
• The rancher decides what goes into each delivery. There's a good balance of cuts each time. And it's a set amount of weight for every delivery, 30 pounds.
• Our arrangement can be flexible. I can temporarily suspend deliveries, if our family becomes deluged with beef and needs to catch up. I can also request specific cuts or grind. For example, if our family really enjoyed a lot of ground beef, I could specify X-pounds of ground every delivery. Or, if I wanted additional roasts, steaks, or briskets for specific times, I can put in a request for that. Otherwise, I leave it up to the rancher to choose what I will receive. Within that framework, I know that I will never receive any organ meats or too many bony cuts.
• The meat is packed directly out of their freezer and arrives at my house still frozen solid. It's packed in a styrofoam cooler with dry ice. 
• The box is shipped to me. I don't pick it up.
• Each cut of meat is wrapped in butcher's paper, with no plastic, and is clearly marked with what type of cut it is.
• The cuts vary a little each delivery. Sometimes I receive more steaks, other times more roasts.

What we got this past week (totaling about 30 pounds)

• 1 large heal roast
• 1 arm roast
• 1 large rump roast
• 4 sirloin tip steaks
• 2 sirloin steaks
• 2 rib steaks
• 1 porterhouse steak
• 1 New York steak
• 1 large skirt steak
• 1 package fajita meat (about 1 pound)
• 2 packages stew meat (about 1 pound each)
• 9 packages ground beef (about 1 pound each)

In previous deliveries we've received briskets, filets, short ribs,English roasts, and kabob meat in place of some of what we received this time. 

Thirty pounds may sound like a lot of beef. We're a household of 4 adults. As we receive 30 pounds every 3 months, that works out to 10 pounds per month, or 2.5 pounds per adult per month, which is about 2/3 pound per adult per week. But that would only be if we ate all of the beef. We don't. We also share some of the beef with our son and daughter-in-law and other guests. So I guess we each consume closer to about 1/2 pound of beef (meat, bones, and fat) per week. 

How I handle and manage each delivery of beef

• I itemize our delivery on a pad of paper as I unpack the cooler. I consult this list regularly as I plan meals.
• I mark each packet with an initial for the month (in this case a "D" for December) and the year. This way I can ensure I'm using up the oldest packages first.
• Although I have four different freezer spaces, I store all of the meat in just one of those spaces. So after itemizing and marking the packets, I put them all away, still frozen, into the 0 degree F stand alone freezer. By keeping it all together, I can quickly see how we're doing on meat throughout the period, and we don't "lose" any meat in one of the other freezers.

Leftover styrofoam coolers

I'm not thrilled to be amassing styrofoam coolers. But I have been putting them to good use. When we cleaned out the deep freeze this summer, I packed all of the freezer's contents into these coolers to keep it all cold/frozen. I also used one cooler to make my fall floral displays for the wall pockets by the front door, cutting down one cooler to fit the planters, then poking floral picks into the styrofoam slabs. This coming spring, I'll put some of them out on a free pile. I'm sure someone can find good use for clean, good condition coolers. I will hold onto a couple of coolers for my own use, though.

My thoughts on our choice

I'm pleased to be doing a part in keeping a small independent rancher in business as he works to support his family. The quality of the meat is higher than what I was buying in the grocery store. It simply smells better when cooking, and the taste is better. It's more expensive, but that is the tradeoff for making this sort of choice.

So, that's what buying beef in bulk looks like for my family.

Have you ever bought beef directly from a rancher? What was your experience?

Cute Way to Gift a Pair of Socks

We gift simple items like mittens and socks to friends, family, and their kids. Both mittens and socks make inexpensive gifts. A couple of years ago I posted how I turned pairs of mittens and chocolate bars into cute snowmen.

This year I'm turning pairs of socks into cute little "cupcakes." The cupcakes were simple to make, requiring no real skill. I had everything I needed on hand, and they came together quickly. What more could I ask for, right?

What I used:

For each sock cupcake:

• 1 pair of crew length socks (no show would also work, knee highs could be too thick once rolled)
• 1 rubber band
• 1 white paper coffee cup
• scissors, both paper scissors and pinking shears (for the cup's edge)
• a toothpick
• a red pom pom (for a cherry on top)
• hot glue
• ribbon for the cup

optional

• cellophane wrap
• twist tie

How I made them

1-I cut about 1-inch from the top of the coffee cup, then zig-zagged the edge with the pinking shears.

2-I laid the socks out, overlapping the long edge of one onto the other by about 1/4-inch. I then rolled the socks up slightly at an angle to produce a swirl effect. 

3-I used the rubber band to secure the socks, adjusting the swirls as needed. I then popped the pair into the trimmed cup.

4-I made a dot of hot glue on the pom pom and poked a toothpick into it as far as I could get it. I then trimmed the pointy end off the toothpick so it wouldn't damage the socks. 

I poked the pom pom toothpick into the center of the swirl of socks.

5-I added a ribbon bow to the paper cup to make it festive for the occasion, securing the back of the ribbon onto the cup with hot glue.

The gift is basically done at this point. For presentation, I also wrapped my "cupcakes" in cellophane, securing with a gold twist tie. We save cellophane from other gifts and wrappings, so I always have a few pieces on hand. I wrapped the cupcake in a long rectangular piece of cellophane, up and around on both front and back, taping it in place on the backside while the "cupcake" laid on its front.

So easy. Yet it makes a pair of socks as a gift look actually fun!

My Quick and Easy Christmas-y Outdoor Wall Planters

So, if you recall, I filled our wall troughs with autumn floral, greenery, and mini pumpkins in early September. I had stuck a bunch of floral picks into brown spray-painted chunks of styrofoam.

The other day I pulled those blocks of styrofoam out, leaving the floral arrangements intact, and stored them in a dry place until next September. I left the supporting white styrofoam in place in the planters to help support our Christmas arrangements.

Today I took a few minutes to go clip some cedar and fir branches in the yard and gathered some red plastic ornaments, pine cones, and ribbon from my decorating  and craft stash.

I laid the evergreen branches on top of the white styrofoam, arranging a few smaller cedar pieces upright to add a little height, then topped the greens with pinecones and ornaments. Adding a plaid ribbon bow to each was the final touch. I spent less than 30 minutes, including finding everything and cleaning up. And here's how they turned out.

It may be simple, but it adds a little bit of color to the front porch and was my favorite price -- free. 

Later this week, I'll do something similar on the mantel in the family room, using evergreen branches from our yard, pinecones, more plastic ornaments, and some fairy lights that I stretched out on the mantel as part of our fall decor.

Christmas Breakfast Menu from the Late 1800s/Early 1900s

I'm currently putting together our Christmas Day menus and procuring the needed foods. This morning I headed over to Fred Meyer and took advantage of the 97 cent/lb half-ham deal. So I know I have a ham I can work with for brunch and/or dinner.

While poking around on the Internet Archive site (archive.org) the other day, looking for Christmas menus from times past, I came across a gem of a cookbook from over 100 years ago, The White House Cook Book; A Comprehensive Cyclopedia of Information for the Home, by Hugo Ziemann and  Mrs. F. L. Gillette.  The original copyright was from 1887. The publication date from the edition on archive.org was 1913.

This cookbook was written for the general public as both a practical guide to cookery/housewifery and a source of interesting information about White House hospitality during the later 1800s. There are menus for everyday meals, holiday celebrations, and also state occasions. There’s a menu for Gen. Grant’s birthday dinner, Mrs. Cleveland’s Wedding Lunch, and a menu for a 1,000-guest buffet. On the practical side, there are suggestions for teething children, making poultices, and a cure for ringworm.

Would you like to know how to seat 50 people around the table?  Here's what the layout would have looked like at a White House state dinner.

There was in fact a page of Christmas menus.

Here's the Christmas Day Breakfast Menu (found on page 500):

Oranges

Boiled Rice

Broiled Salt Mackerel

Poached Eggs à la Crème  (poached eggs smothered in a warm thin white sauce)

Potato Fillets (sounds a lot like French fries, sliced into 1/4-inch sticks, fried twice, until puffed)

Feather Griddle Cakes  (yeast leavened pancakes)

Wheat Bread

Coffee

My family would probably skip the mackerel and maybe the boiled rice. The pancakes, eggs, potatoes, coffee, and oranges sound nice. Although it sounds to me like a lot of work on Christmas morning. I think I'll keep working on our Christmas day brunch menu.

How about you? Have you begun planning your holiday meals for later this month?

Holiday Tip #2

Well what do you know? The holiday tip list is longer than one item. Ha ha.

Here's the tip:

If you'll be baking a ham for Christmas or New Year's, don't forget that you can use all parts of that ham. This particularly applies to bone-in hams. 

image:https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/glazed_baked_ham/

Four parts of a bone-in ham to make sure you use

1-Obviously, all of the meat is useful as is.

2-Liquid drippings from baking. Drippings are a combination of caramelized meat juices and liquified fat. This liquid makes a delicious gravy, even if you don't plan on using the gravy with the meal for which you baked the ham. The gravy would be wonderful on biscuits or mashed potatoes another day. Like other parts of the ham, the drippings can be frozen until needed.

3-Ham bones make delicious, flavorful stock. I like to oven-roast the bone after just about all of the meat has been picked off of it.  I place the bone on a baking sheet with raised edges and roast at about 375 degrees F for 20 minutes. Then I place the bone into water and simmer for several hours. The baking sheet may have some fat on it from roasting the bone. I pour that off into a container and save it in the fridge to use in cooking. Once the bone has simmered in the water for a few hours, I remove it from the heat, cool and pick the remaining meat off to use in soup, pouring the stock into freezer containers. 

Most folks dispose of the bone at this point. However, there is such a thing as "second stock," where the now-spent bone is simmered with vegetables and herbs in fresh water, extracting the last bits of flavor and nutrients (such as collagen). Second stock can be used as liquid in soups and stews, or as cooking liquid for vegetable dishes (where ever you might splash a bit of water). Second stock can also be used to dilute and stretch a first-run batch of stock when making soup.

Ham stock is really great in split pea and navy bean soups, as well as to make a nice binding sauce for casseroles when combined with some milk, flour, and seasonings. If you can't make the stock the same week that you bake the ham, wrap the bone in foil and/or plastic and toss it in the freezer to do later.

4-And finally, all of the fat on the ham can be rendered to be used in cooking later. I store our rendered ham fat in the freezer and chop off a bit as needed when cooking. 

To render the fat from a ham, dice the ham fat into 1/4-inch dices. It doesn't matter if there's a little bit of meat on the fat. Dice it all. In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat the fat dices over low, stirring occasionally. The fat will liquify slowly. When the fat is just about all rendered, you will have both liquid fat and small, dark and crispy bits, known as the cracklings. Cracklings are tasty for topping bowls of soup, fresh salads, added to cornbread or biscuit dough, or topping creamy pasta dishes, adding flavor much like bacon bits. Any cracklings that I'm not using right away I store in the freezer. Also, if you don't think you'll get to rendering ham fat in a timely manner, you can cut off and freeze the pieces of fat until a day that you do have time for rendering. 

We use ham fat for sautéing veggies, cooking egg dishes, and pan or oven-frying. If the ham fat seems to have too over-powering of a taste for a particular dish, I dilute it with part vegetable oil for that dish.

Years ago I posted about rendering ham fat for use in cooking later. See this post. I get many clicks on this post during the holiday season from Thanksgiving through New Years. So I thought some of you might also be interested in these how-to's.

I feel that using as much of a meat product as possible not only saves some money, but it's also a respectful thing to do for the animal used for cooking, and it spares other foods in the chain for the global population. *stepping off my soap box now*

I was at WinCo this morning. Their hams are priced at $1.89 for a butt portion bone-in ham. Fred Meyer has bone-in hams on sale this week for 97 cents/ lb with a $25 purchase. If I can think of $25 worth of food or household goods to buy at Fred Meyer, that may be the way to go. Will you be baking a ham this holiday season?