Where Does Goodwill Stuff Go if It Doesn't Sell in the Stores?

I've talked about this before, but I wanted to bring it up again this week. 

If you're not aware (from another country, maybe), Goodwill Thrift stores sell donated clothing and household goods. They receive so much merchandise every week that they can't possibly keep up in sales to match the volume of what is donated.

The stores color-code the price tags to indicate when donations were put out to sell and routinely cull the oldest-coded, unsold merchandise, to be sold at a steep discount elsewhere. All of this stuff goes to Goodwill Outlet stores.

As you can imagine, a lot of junk winds up in the outlet. But also, a lot of good stuff slips through without being sold in the main stores and ends up in the Outlet.

Instead of repricing each of these many, many items (which the labor to do so would drive up the price to the consumer), the Outlet sells everything except furniture by weight, with shoes, electronics, and hard goods less per pound and textiles slightly more. Clothing/textiles at our Goodwill Outlet is currently $1.79 per pound. The individual Outlet stores set their own price per pound, but the price per pound for all items ranges between $1 and $2 per pound across the country.

In case you haven't figure this out yet, buying high-value, but very lightweight items can be a steal. In 2019, I found a Calvin Klein summer dress that was lightweight. It was in excellent condition -- no stains, holes, or obvious wear. The price back then (even less per pound in 2019) was around 75 cents.

Clothing is not on racks, and most small hard items are not on shelves. Most everything is in large rolling bins. The employees roll out new bins periodically, removing the old ones to the back room. Shoppers descend on the "new" bins and begin digging through the piles. I'm not a huge fan of digging through bins, but my two daughters absolutely love to go to the Outlet. I sometimes think that they love a great bargain more than I do. 

Saturday morning they got up and out to the Outlet when they first opened. And they brought me home a "goodie."

They found this beautiful autumnal Jones New York silk scarf -- great colors and pattern to go with my fall and winter wardrobe. And yes, I wear scarves often! The price for this lovely scarf? About 25 cents! It needs a good pressing, but otherwise looks beautiful.

There are no dressing rooms and no mirrors at the Goodwill Outlet near me. I presume that is just how these outlet stores are. We deal with this, when it comes to clothing, by wearing leggings and slim-fitting tees when shopping at the Outlet, so we can pull clothing on over what we're wearing. To "see" how they look on us, we ask a family member to use our phones to take pictures from all angles. This works for us.

Anyway, that's where Goodwill merch goes when it doesn't sell in their regular stores.

Hi friends,

I'm just taking today away from my blog, as it's a holiday in the US. I'll be back tomorrow (Tuesday). Enjoy the rest of your evening!

Another Less-Egg Baking Success: This time a 1-egg pumpkin custard pie

Last week it was a reduced egg loaf of banana bread. This week I wanted to try using half the eggs in a pumpkin pie. 

This is a hybrid cornstarch pudding-baked egg custard pie. My thought was if I could combine a pumpkin pudding with some egg the pie might just work out with a single egg. I modified the recipe on the label for Libby's canned pumpkin. There's less milk, slightly more pumpkin, and less sugar, plus the tablespoon of cornstarch. 

The process to making the filling is two-step, cooking a milk and cornstarch pudding on the stove then combining with the rest of the filling ingredients.

just before baking

What I used:

1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 1/4 cups milk or half and half (I used soy milk)
2 cups pumpkin puree (I used home-cooked and pureed pumpkin)

1 large egg
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 9-inch pie crust, unbaked

In a medium saucepan, whisk together cornstarch and milk. Cook over Low-Med, stirring constantly, until thickened and has bubbled for 1 full minute (about 4-6 minutes total cook time). Remove from heat. Quickly mix in the pumpkin puree before the milk or cream mixture cools. 

In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg, then mix in sugar, spices, and salt. With an electric mixer, combine the egg/sugar/spices with the pumpkin/milk/cornstarch puree. 

Pour into an unbaked pie shell.

Bake for 15 minutes at 425 (if a metal pie plate, 400 if glass). Reduce oven to 350 (if metal, 325 if glass). Bake an additional 35 minutes or so, or until crust edges are golden and center of pie looks set.

just out of the oven

As you can see, the top of the pie has those traditional cracks in the surface that an egg custard pumpkin pie customarily has when first removing from the oven.

Cool on the counter for 1 hour, then transfer to the refrigerator and chill for 2 hours to finalize the set.

The cornstarch helps thicken and firm up the filling, so slices can have a more clean cut (like lemon meringue pie). When I've tried adding either flour or cornstarch directly to the uncooked filling, it has settled to the bottom of the pie, creating a thickened layer at the bottom. This new way with cooking the milk and cornstarch until thickened stabilized the cornstarch in the custard filling.

Here's a photo of a slice of pie after chilling 1 hour (I was impatient). The pie sliced nicely and came out of the pie plate intact. It's texture is soft and pudding to custard-like.

I think this is a success. The pie looks good and tastes delicious. The texture of the filling is great. And with eggs about 50 cents each right now, this is a money-saver to use one less egg.

Have you tried baking with fewer eggs than recipes call for? What has worked and what has not worked? Next, I will be trying to use half the eggs in a batch of brownies. I'm not sure how those will turn out. 

"Use It Up" Tip

This is how those plastic squeeze bottles of mustard work out for us. The first 98% of the mustard squirts out perfectly. With the last little bit, we slap the bottom of the upside down bottle while simultaneously squeezing. The result is a spray of mustard all over the plate as well as the sandwich, hot dog or burger. But I can't just throw the bottle out while containing a small amount of product still. So that almost empty bottle goes to the back of the fridge, and we get a new bottle out to use.

To salvage that last 1% or 2% of mustard, I pour in about 1 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice, put the lid on and shake it vigorously. I then take the lid back off and turn it upside down over a small dish or tiny canning jar. 

Why vinegar or lemon juice and not water? The primary flavor I taste in mustard is vinegar. (Vinegar is even the first ingredient on the label.) If I added water, I would be diluting that tangy taste and acidity. I use this salvaged mustard in homemade salad dressings, sandwich spreads, and marinades. So the vinegar or lemon juice is actually a plus in flavor and ability to break down meat fibers if used as a marinade.

Prepared mustard doesn't contain added emulsifiers, hence the need to shake the bottle before each use. Otherwise, the solids in mustard settle and leave a thin liquid at the top. In draining the salvaged mustard, this is much more obvious. The solids or thicker part sits in a mound surrounded by mustard-colored vinegar.

When I make a salad dressing or marinade with this, I try to pour off the liquid to use as the vinegar part of a mixture. I then use the thicker part in a mustard-mayo sandwich spread blend.

After draining the bottle for about an hour, I have about 2 tablespoons of useable product. I figure I've gotten near all of it out, and at that point I rinse the bottle with water to clean and recycle. And now, I've gotten rid of one more space-hogging item from our refrigerator.

Memories of My Nana: A Great Depression Era Breakfast That Didn't Short-Change on Protein

A lot of the everyday breakfasts of the Great Depression seemed terribly low in protein by today's standards. Growing up, my nana would tell stories of what my mother's childhood was like, often speaking of the foods she served and the playthings she and my grandfather made for my mother and her brothers. Everyday breakfasts were mostly starches with a little bit of protein. She and my grandfather had 3 growing children in the 30s, and my grandfather's income dwindled over the course of the decade to nearly nothing. 

They went from dining on breakfasts of thick slices of ham, a couple of eggs over easy, and slices of toast or some biscuits in the 1920s to a slice of bread or a biscuit in a bowl covered with warm milk by the mid to late-30s. Other starchy breakfasts included rice in warm milk, saltine crackers in warm milk, and oatmeal with milk. 

They were fortunate that they could get some eggs most weeks. On weekends, my grandmother cooked more elaborate breakfasts using these eggs. A family favorite (and one that actually gave them all a good amount of protein without too much extra cost) was creamed eggs on toast.

Creamed eggs on toast were hard-cooked eggs, chopped or sliced, stirred into a milk-based white sauce, and ladled over slices of toast or split biscuits. When the garden was producing, she would boost the nutrition of this dish with the addition of some fresh peas and green onions mixed in with the cooked egg and white sauce.

My grandmother was queen of the white sauce. She covered meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, potatoes, macaroni, and rice in white sauce. She even made a sweetened version of white sauce to top baked apples or baked peaches. White sauce was an easy way to add the health benefits of milk to meals suitable for growing children. During the Depression, milk was one food she could get plenty of for her family. Even in her later years, she still used milk liberally in her cooking.

I was curious about the protein content of creamed eggs on toast, so I calculated the nutrients based on my grandmother's likely ingredients. I discovered that the basic version of creamed eggs on toast contains about 12 grams of protein per serving and the green pea version contained about 13 grams of protein per serving. This is based on 1 boiled egg and 1 slice of bread per person, plus 1/6 of a recipe of white sauce that uses 3 cups of milk. I estimated she would have added about 1 cup of fresh peas to the entire family-batch (adding about 8 grams of protein). Even by today's standards, that's a fair amount of protein for a child's breakfast, and markedly more than the weekday starch-in-warm-milk breakfast.

Sometimes, it's the little things that make a difference

Although the days are slowly getting longer, it's still so dark when I get up in the morning and then again in the evening.

The remote-controlled battery candles that were part of our spring front porch makeover have added a bit of light to my dark mornings and nights. I brought them into the house for winter, which I think is probably a good idea anyway -- keeping them out of the elements and all.

But it's more than just the additional light in the house. The flicker (although fake) of the candles adds old-time-y ambience. I have one candle in one of the lanterns (from the porch) in the family room and the other candle on a candle stand (from a free pile 2 or 3 years ago) in the living room. They serve as night lights during the hours when the living and family rooms aren't fully lit, when we're scattered each in our personal spaces at both the beginning and ending of each day.

I find it very comforting to pass the living or family room and see the flicker of light. And that extra little bit of light means we are not bumping around in the dark as we move between bedrooms and kitchen.

Bringing in the candles from the porch is just a little thing, but it added so much atmosphere to our home during these short days of winter.

Hand-Me-Ups

A week ago, my daughter-in-law stopped by on her way to donate some clothing to a local thrift store. She had one item in particular that made her think of me, this Columbia Sportswear fleece jacket. I've seen her wear it a couple of times. However, she said she never felt that it fit her very well.

In late December, I thought I really should have asked for a new fleece jacket for Christmas, as my current one is quite worn. It was truly serendipitous that my daughter-in-law offered me this very thing I needed and about which I had been thinking.    

A lot of my husband's and my successful financial management and the quality of our day to day life is due to our openness in accepting other people's cast-offs, be it clothing, furniture, food, and even a car. If someone has offered us something that they no longer wanted or needed, we accepted and found a way to use the item or pass it on to someone else.

About 75% of our furniture came from other family members. The car we recently sold to a salvage company was my late in-law's former car. You may remember the trays of food that we were often given following volunteer work at our church's fund-raising luncheons. I've happily accepted hand-me-down clothing from my sister, my sister-in-law, my mother-in-law, my grandmother, and my stepmom. Accepting other folks' no-longer-wanteds has meant that we could live a higher quality of life on a smaller income.

This time, the needed clothing item came from the generation beneath me, my lovely daughter-in-law. It's a hand-me-up. It's the very thing I needed right now. Despite expressing my gratitude at the time, I'm not sure my daughter-in-law understands how much I appreciate this.

There's a bonus to cheerfully accepting other's cast-offs. These family members think of you first when giving something away the next time. And you never know what great stuff they'll be wanting to unload in the future.

How do you feel about offers of hand-me-downs or hand-me-ups as an adult? Do you feel obligated to accept or keep items long-term? Have you ever regretted accepting or turning down a hand-me-down offer? 

Mid-January State of the Pantry and Fridge

One of the things I love about mid-January is the manageability of our food storage. While these spaces are by no means lean, I can actually find what I need easily again.

Earlier this week, I took a few minutes to take inventory and tidy up the shelves and compartments of both the pantry and fridge. I deliberately skipped grocery shopping for about 10 days so our stock would dwindle enough to quickly do this work.

I'll need to grocery shop again over the weekend, but I won't be buying as much as I did November through December. That's a win for tidy food storage as well as my wallet.

Meals we've gotten out of a leaner fridge, freezer, and pantry this week:

• chicken pot pie, using a chicken breast, garden carrots, celery, potatoes and herbs, topped with pie pastry, and a side of watermelon pickles
• homemade pizza, beet salad (canned beets in dressing), lettuce and avocado tossed salad
• chicken stir fry, sesame noodles, homemade egg rolls (my daughter was ambitious that night)
• pot roast and gravy (from the freezer, last week's cooking) over cubed stale bread, roasted yams, apple wedges
• frozen fish sticks (with homemade tartar sauce), roasted garden potatoes, roasted yams, sautéed frozen garden Brussel sprout leaves and onions
• vegetable-beef soup (garden vegetables from the freezer, pantry, and fridge), cheese biscuits
• bean burritos, carrot sticks, sautéed misc. garden greens from the freezer

In addition to a tidier fridge, we've been making room in the freezer, too. I hope to get the small freezer emptied later this winter so that I can defrost it.

My digestion thanks me for the return to more basic meals after a long holiday period of goodies and rich food.

How do you feel when you open your fridge or pantry in January and it's not as full as it was during the holidays? Does this spark creativity in your cooking? Perhaps a sigh of relief? Does it prompt a bit of anxiety over having less? Or something else? Tell me what you think in the comments.

Have a great weekend, friends!

Fun Game We Played On Christmas -- Saran Prize Ball

I know that Christmas is over two weeks in the past, but I wanted to tell you about the game we played after dinner on Christmas Day. 

I put together a Saran Wrap prize ball. Prizes included individually-wrapped candies, pocket-size tissue packs, socks, travel-size toiletries, a device charger to be plugged into a car's 12 V cigarette lighter socket, dishcloths, individual packages of snacks, and low-denomination gift cards. In addition, there were notes wrapped up in the ball with or without prizes, saying "skip one turn," "take an extra turn," "everyone pass their last prize to the person on the left," "swap one prize with someone else's," etc.

To make the prize ball I wrapped the prizes/notes in between layers of Saran Wrap, forming a ball by the end.

To play the game, one person unwraps plastic wrap until they come to a prize and/or note. They then pass the ball to the next player. This continues until the wrap is completely undone.

You should also know that when we finished the game, we rewound the plastic wrap. My plan is to wash lengths of it, dry, then use in the kitchen as needed. No waste on this front.

It was a fun game. You could see what upcoming prizes were, but didn't necessarily know when they would be "found."

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things: Gifts that I received for Christmas -- a little electrical work

My husband is a busy man. He has worked hard to provide for us these past 38 years, and I appreciate that. So I don't like to ask him to do extra things for me on a regular basis. But, for gifts, I do ask for some of these little tasks to be done as my gift. 

 If you recall, last year on my birthday I asked my two daughters to help me spruce up our front porch as their gift to me. One year I asked my husband to install some new shelves in my closet as a Mother's Day gift. 

This year for Christmas, I asked him to do some wiring for a light that I got for free several years ago. This light fixture is for hard-wired application, but I wanted to be able to plug it in. I asked him to add a cord and switch to this light.

For my husband, this is a pretty simple task. For me, it's enormous to have it done so I can now use it. I think he enjoys doing a job as a gift for me. He knows that it means a lot to me. And it's in his wheelhouse.

I still need to figure how I will mount the fixture on the wall. But the electrical part is now done, and I'm that much closer to hanging this up in the house.

Do you ever ask for a job to be done as a gift?

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.