Easy holiday dessert: Pumpkin Cake Roll

I know what you're thinking, this kind of dessert looks soooo complicated to make, right? I've always found cake rolls to be somewhat easy. I thought maybe I'd just had a lot of luck with them. Then a woman on the TV show Steven and Chris duplicated my thoughts, when she said that cake rolls are very easy for the home-baker. Okay, so maybe it hasn't been luck or skill, for me.

A couple of things to know about cake rolls.

• You need to use a cake recipe that is "flexible" when baked, like a sponge cake. A cake mix cake, or tender butter cake, will crack if you try to roll it up. 
• The baked sponge cake needs to be rolled up while warm. 
• Cake rolls can be frosted, but I think they look nice just dusted with confectioner's sugar, either plain, or blended with cocoa powder, or with cinnamon or nutmeg sprinkled over the top.
• They are moist cakes, so can be kept rolled, filled and wrapped in plastic, in the fridge, overnight, meaning I'm not rushing around at the last minute baking, filling and frosting a cake.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If Thanksgiving dessert is all about the pie, then Christmas dessert must be all about the cake. At least that's the way it is in our home.

Some years, it's a steamed dried fruit cake. Other years, it's a cake roll, sometimes chocolate and iced (Buche de Noel), other times I go "easy" and make this pumpkin cake roll. No icing, no layers, but spectacular in presentation -- it's really fairly easy. I follow one of the Libby's recipes, with just a few tweaks of my own. And, I can make it the day before, wrapping the filled, rolled cake in plastic wrap and keeping in the fridge until an hour before serving. At that point, I plate it and sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon/nutmeg.

Cake rolls can be filled with butter cream frosting, 7-minute icing, jelly, or any cake or smooth pie filling. I've made this particular cake roll several times over the last few years, and always WOW! guests. I've baked these for open houses, holiday dinners, and to bring to potlucks, all with resounding welcome. 

I wish you lived closer, as I'd invite you over for tea and cake. That's how much I enjoy making this pumpkin cake roll!

If you'd like to give it a try this year, here's how:

Ingredients:

cake:

1/4 cup powdered sugar (confectioner's sugar)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup canned pumpkin (if using home-cooked pumpkin, strain pumpkin in a sieve, overnight before measuring)

cream cheese filling:

8-ounces cream cheese

6 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup powdered sugar

additional powdered sugar and ground cinnamon and/or nutmeg, for sifting over finished cake

Equipment:

15 X 10-inch jelly roll pan

waxed paper

large off-set spatula, or metal spatula

non-terry dish towel

cooling rack

large mixing bowl

mixer

Preparation:

towel sprinkled with powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Grease jelly roll pan, bottom and sides.

Cut waxed paper to fit the bottom of the jelly roll pan. Place waxed paper into greased pan. Butter the waxed paper, and sprinkle pan and paper with flour, then tap out.

Spread dish towel out on counter and sprinkle with the 1/4 cup of powder sugar, all over (this will help the cake roll to release from the towel later).

Instructions:

Sift the dry ingredients together, onto another large sheet of waxed paper or into a medium bowl. Stir as needed to combine.

In the large mixing bowl, beat the eggs until foamy. Slowly add in granulated sugar, and mix until thick.

Add pumpkin, and beat until well-combined. Stir in the dry ingredients.

Spread batter in prepared pan, evenly to edges.

Bake for 12-15 minutes (time will depend on your jelly roll pan). When done, the top of the cake will spring back when pressed lightly.

Remove from oven, and immediately loosen edges, all around, with a table knife. Go under the entire cake with the off-set spatula or metal spatula, to loosen. 

Tip the cake over onto the sugared dish towel. The cake will still be hot. Peel the waxed paper off from the bottom of the cake. 

With a sharp knife, trim 1/2-inch all around the edge of the cake. This will allow it to roll more easily.

You'll roll the cake up without any filling, and allow to cool, rolled up in a towel. This will shape the cake into a roll. So, at one of the long ends (a 10-inch end), begin rolling up the cake and towel together.

Place on a cooling rack, with the seam side down. Cool thoroughly (a couple of hours max).

You can fill this cake roll with a pumpkin mousse, or use this recipe for a cream cheese filling.

In a medium bowl with mixer, beat together until soft: one 8-ounce brick of cream cheese (room temp), 6 tablespoons of butter (room temp). Mix in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 cup of powdered sugar, until all is smooth and well-combined. Chill for about 15 minutes.

Unroll the cooled cake, and spread the inside curl of the cake, evenly with the cream cheese filling. 

Reroll the cake, this time without the dish towel. It won't matter if the cake looks flour-y or the filling is oozing out. The final sprinkling of powdered sugar will conceal any flour-y looking portions. And the oozing filling will be left behind on the dish towel. Transfer to a large sheet of plastic wrap. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 1 hour. At this point, the whole cake roll can be refrigerated until the next day, if you want to do this ahead of time.

When ready to plate, unwrap from plastic, center on plate, and sift generously with more powdered sugar, then lightly sprinkle on some ground cinnamon/nutmeg.

Turkey or ham?

Now this is a turkey that I could eat leftovers from, day after day! It's gorgeous, isn't it? One pound of milk chocolate -- yum!

Do you remember the friend that I made English toffee with several weeks ago? Her sister-in-law is a local chocolatier, and sells these in November. This one was a hostess gift to us, on Thanksgiving. I wish we could keep it forever, but alas it HAS to be eaten. It would just go bad otherwise, right? Okay, I'll make the grand sacrifice. Someone pass me the hammer.

My question to you, do you do turkey, ham, beef or something else for Christmas dinner? I might have mentioned that I buy hams just before Christmas. They keep in the fridge, in their original packaging, for a few weeks, before needing to be cooked or frozen (check use by date on label). And in the next two weeks, our area supermarkets will feature them at their lowest price of the year.

In fact, 2 grocery store chains in my area have them this week for 99 cents per pound, for bone-in shank half ham, and bone-in whole hams. I was able to pick up 1 half ham and 1 whole ham (30 lbs total), at that price, the other day. This could be all the ham we'll want through early spring. But I'm still toying with the idea of 1 more half ham. I'll need to check the freezer space before making that decision. What do you think? Do you buy extra ham, to freeze? I'm on the fence.


Back to that chocolate turkey. I'm afraid no pardon for him -- his neck will be on the chopping block this weekend!

When college students come home for break

the curried carrot soup that my daughters made for dinner on Tuesday

Fall quarter has now ended at the university that my two daughters attend. One quarter down! Woohoo! Just 11 more!

Funny thing, early on in the quarter, I asked one of my daughters what she thought about her classes. Her reply, "Mom, you were right, university classes are a lot harder than high school classes." I put a surprised look on my face, but in my heart I was smiling, as I said, "Oh?" It was one of those funny parent moments. But all three of my kids are very hard workers. They all rise to the challenge of hard coursework.



My daughters are commuter students, meaning they come home every evening. But there have been days when it felt more like they were living away, as I only saw them briefly in the mornings, as I drove them to the bus, and again for 5 minutes, when I picked them up in the evenings. Family dinners went by the wayside this fall, as they used every spare moment to work on assignments and projects, away from the family, in their rooms.

Even though they've been living here all along, there are some similarities to the student who comes home on break. The one that I knew I needed to address right away, was a lack of responsibilities during break time. With classes out, their main job, to do classwork, is on hiatus.

Wednesday morning was our first morning of break together. I know myself, and I know that I would get frustrated if it began to seem that they thought break meant vacation from responsibility.  So, right off, I established the chores they would have over break. It's not an onerous list, by any means. Here it is:

-- Prepare dinner 3 days per week: Tuesdays, Fridays and Mondays. Some of the days they will get to choose the menu, other days I'll have a menu in mind. They began with Tuesday night's dinner. The two of them made this amazingly yummy curried carrot soup. They've made this a few times before, using a recipe that they've found online. I really need to get the URL for that one, and pass it on, because it is quite good, and uses very inexpensive ingredients (carrots, potatoes, onions, black pepper, curry powder, to name most of them). With the soup they made blackberry scones and peanut butter filled celery sticks.

Preparing dinner in our house is actually a time-consuming job, as we cook almost everything from scratch, and there's no room in the grocery budget for convenience items. But this is great experience for them. Learning to cook and feed themselves well, at a young age will go far with their health and finances in the years to come.

-- Clean up the kitchen every morning after breakfast. This is one of my usual chores, so I am happy to pass it off to them each day over break.

-- Clean the main bathroom every Saturday. (I'm secretly hoping that they'll start to notice when one of them leaves their pj's on the bathroom floor, and bug each other to pick up their stuff.)

-- Perform 1 big chore, of my choosing, assigned once per week (such as dusting the house, cleaning out the fireplace, or cleaning the baseboards).

-- Hang laundry 2 days per week. We do laundry 4-5 days a week, here. Hanging most of it to dry. Their help will give me a bit more time to do other chores.

My kids are really great, and I'm not at all complaining about them. They do offer to help out around the house, and they have such sweet attitudes about everything. But I do think that even great kids forget that there is a lot of work to be done around the house every day, and need a little nudge.

It's really not a lot that I'm asking of them. They'll still have plenty of time to have fun and enjoy their time off. But I did feel that I needed to establish this at the beginning of break.

So, what does this all mean for me? Well, I don't feel like the only one who never gets a vacation. I have several days away from the kitchen per week, meaning I can recharge, and am more likely to go ahead with time-consuming menu items, like the fresh pasta that I made for dinner on Wednesday. And I have time to work on Christmas gifts, decorating, baking, and the fun Christmas stuff. It means that my time is freed up a bit, to do more frugal activities around the house. In this way, my daughters' help will save us some money. And it means that I can feel good about my kids learning how to tackle various responsibilities.

Christmas break is 3  1/2 weeks long. Ask me at the end of 3 weeks how this all worked out! LOL!

How about you? Have you found some methods for training kids (younger or older) to help with household chores?

The blackberry vinegar is decanted

blackberry vinegar - it's jewel-toned beauty sparkles on my kitchen counter

Just in time for winter citrus salads, cabbage slaws, and chopped turkey salad, the blackberry vinegar is decanted and ready to use.

I began the infusion in late August (you can read more from that post here), with wild blackberries and white vinegar. Yesterday morning, I strained off the berries and decanted it into an empty bottle (held the chive blossom vinegar, previously).

For a vinaigrette dressing for citrus/avocado salads, I whisk berry vinegar with oil, a pinch each of salt and sugar, and a teaspoon of orange zest. (For an easy berry vinaigrette, the recipe that I use is in this post. Any unsweetened berry vinegar will work in this recipe.)


Or, for dressing cabbage slaws or chopped turkey salad, I simply mix berry vinegar with mayo, a tiny pinch of sugar and a handful of dried cranberries.



As my kids used to put it, "I like to make stuff". I enjoy the process of taking some raw materials and transforming them into something useful, or of beauty.

How about you? Do you enjoy "making stuff"? Do you make your own salad dressings? What's your favorite homemade dressing?

Circumstances that make us spend more money than we had planned

Certain times of the year and certain circumstances seem to drive us to spend more money than we'd planned. Vacations are one area that I think many folks spend more than planned. Circumstances that make one feel sad for a person, or guilty over something, tend to make us go overboard on our "comfort/remorse" gifting. One other specific time of year when a check on spending seems to get lost in the mail, is the Christmas season. And nowadays, the Christmas season spans so many days on the calendar, there are just too many opportunities to over-spend our budget.

Here we are, in the midst of the holiday shopping, celebrating and entertainment season. It's so easy for me to spend money freely in December. If it's charitable giving, and we have the money in the bank, then maybe that's a good thing. But sometimes I go overboard on gifts, or am too busy to really plan my time and money spent. A quick meal from a restaurant here. Disorganized errand running there. It all adds up to going over our budget.

In years past, we could fudge a little on the budget, because we knew there would be plenty of income to cover any extra expenditures. Things are different this year. Our budget is tight. There is enough money there. But there's no stretch to the budget this year.

Knowing this has made me acutely aware of how I spend, why I spend, and how I can get a handle on extra expenses. It's required being very mindful, some good sense talking-to in my head and focus on the goals that lie before of us.

Our goals -- Keep our daughters at the university for the duration of their education. (They have responsibility in this, as well.) Continue funding our retirement, in large sums. Continue giving generously, whenever it is needed.

On a reduced income, sticking to our goals means that I must be vigilant with spending choices.

For example, typically I'm rather haphazard about trips to the post office in December. I like to run out to the PO whenever I have a parcel or two ready to go. Some years, I make 3 separate trips to the post office.  It's a good 15 minute drive each way, and not at all on my way anywhere. Plus, I must consider my time spent, not just driving there and back, but waiting in line. My time is more valuable than ever this year. The time spent on unnecessary extra errands, is time that I could have been working productively at home, thus saving us more money towards our goals.

This year, I was about to do the same as I usually do, when it really hit me, I had to change this one little thing about my holiday mailings, in order to spare time and gas spent on extra runs to the PO. And I did. It does mean that one of my gifts may just barely reach its destination in time. But this one person will surely understand my situation this year.

Another area of over-spending occurs with gift giving. I see something that I think would be "perfect" for someone on my list, after I've already spent the budgeted amount for that person. In past years, I've gone ahead, and gone over budget, figuring we'd cut the budget in some other area to cover this gift. Well, last Friday, I was in Kohl's when I found a sweater that I really wanted to buy for my son. I've already bought his gifts, but this sweater really caught my eye. I must have carried that sweater around for an hour, while I tried to settle my mind on this. In the end, I remembered our goals, and realized that in a month's time, this "perfect" sweater won't seem sooooo special anymore, and I'll find other sweaters that I think are just as nice.

I've also shown restraint when it comes to treats while I'm out and about. The holiday season means that I'm running more errands than usual. I easily succumb to buying treats for myself while I'm out. But this year, I've managed to curtail that impulse. I do a couple of things which help keep me from buying snacks or quick lunches. One, I plan for my next meal ahead of time, so that I know, after my errands are done, I have something yummy and quick to make at home. Two, I have planned a couple of treat days, for when my family is home. I'll be using gift cards for the bulk of those meals and snacks out. When I'm feeling tempted, I remind myself that these treats are on the calendar. 

And finally, it really struck me, friends, real friends, don't want me to compromise our financial goals, in order to buy them something that they may or may not love. Real friends want the same for me as I want for them. I want my friends to have a restful Christmas. I want my friends to have peace about how much they spend or the time that they put into making a gift. I want my friends to give me the gift of their friendship, and truly nothing more. It's the friendship that I need, not more stuff.

I'm not doing perfectly on my holiday spending, this year. I did go over budget on my husband's gifts. But I am doing a lot better than previous years. And I think this will show when the credit card bills roll in, come January.

My hope for you, is that your budget is not nearly as tight as mine this year. But if it is, I hope you have found ways to keep yourself on track.

Pumpkin-y questions

Okay, so a couple of you are curious about my intentions with my pumpkin haul from last week (14 pumpkins for free!)

SandyAZ wants to know, "how much canned pumpkin will you get from all those free pumpkins?"

And Delores, gifted with 4 pumpkins over the Thanksgiving holiday, "it's just my husband and I. I don't know what to do with these pumpkins. Besides pie and muffins, do you have any recipes?"

So, for Sandy, this is 5 of the pumpkins cooking down in my largest stock pot. I've been reducing the pumpkins down to about 2  1/2 cups of puree per pumpkin, on average. So, with my 14 recently acquired pumpkins, I should have about 16 pints of pumpkin puree. Of course, I'm using much of it in cooking this week.

The pumpkins looked to be going soft, so last weekend, I cooked 7 of them, and this weekend, 5. I have 2 of the free pumpkins left, and 3 other pumpkins that I grew in my garden. I am hoping to get them all cooked by the end of next weekend.

Sandy also asked if I can or freeze my pumpkin. I freeze it. But I'd be interested in knowing of other's experience pressure canning pumpkin. Canning would save freezer space. I've just never canned anything that wasn't either high in sugar or vinegar, and am a bit nervous about canning.


For Delores, depending on the size of the pumpkins, you may go through the 4 quickly enough. Cook and can or freeze the puree. Then use the pumpkin over the month's of winter. I find pumpkin to be fairly versatile. It's flavor is mild enough that it can be added to many of my regular dishes.

This weekend, I made a batch of pumpkin soup, some pumpkin muffins (my favorite recipe is from the inside of a Libby's label on canned pumpkin) and added some pumpkin to a chili-mac casserole on Friday, and some to refried beans for Saturday night's burritos.

I frequently add 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree to casseroles and other dishes. The flavor, in small quantities, doesn't seem to compete with other recipe ingredients.

I made a successful pumpkin soup last winter, from Live and Learn's blog. It had peanut butter and curry in it. Live and Learn, if you're reading today, could you give us a link to that recipe?

I make a delicious pumpkin, sage, Italian sausage and cream pasta sauce. I'll be making this later this week, when I have time to make some homemade fettuccine.

Pumpkin oatmeal is a nice change from other oatmeal flavors. Just add some pumpkin (about 1 to 2 tablespoons per serving), cinnamon, nutmeg and sweeten with maple syrup, or add maple extract.

I've been wanting to make pumpkin butter. Does anyone have experience with making pumpkin butter?

I've also thought that I could blend some of this pumpkin with homemade applesauce, for a pumpkin-spice applesauce. I'll try it and let you know if we like it.


What else? Do you have any favorite pumpkin recipes that you could add to this list?

November grocery money journal

If you follow grocery store sales, you will have noticed that autumn is the best season for stocking the fridge, freezer and pantry. November, in particular, stands out as the month with the most sales on a wide variety of basic groceries, from baking supplies, to canned veggies and autumn long-keeping fresh vegetables, and to turkey and cheese. I buy more groceries during this month, than any other month of the year, more groceries than we can consume in a month.

While November has some of the best deals, just around the corner January, February and early March will have some of the fewest great deals on groceries. I use this info to my advantage, and really stock-up now, enough to carry us through the leaner months to come.


I'm a bit nervous about this month. I do have a bit of a surplus entering the month, plus the usual $170. I will hopefully find great deals on turkey, ham, cheese, butter, potatoes, celery, yams, and canned vegetables. I have a surplus of $64.05 to add to this month's budget of $170, for a total of $234.05 to spend this month on groceries.


Nov.1 Dollar Tree for soy milk (1 qt.) and peanut butter (10 small jars). Spent $11

Country Farms produce stand for the last bit of clearance. Squash, pumpkins, oranges, limes, grapefruit, avocado and apples. Spent $22.76

Safeway to use coupons. Milk (1.89/gal, bought 2), cheese (2-lb block for 3.99), spent $7.77 for a total month to date of $41.53

Nov. 6 Walgreen's has eggs for 99 cents/dozen. I pick up 7 dozen eggs. The sell-by date is in mid-December, about how long this amount of eggs will last for us. spent $6.93, for a total $48.46

Nov. 8 Dollar Tree, need soy milk, spent $1, for a total of $49.46

Nov. 11 Fred Meyer, 1/2 gallons of milk for 99 cents, limit 4. also find autumn mix candy for 32 cents. I buy 1 bag to add to the Thanksgiving dessert buffet. spent $4.28, for a total of $53.74

Nov. 15 Albertson's to buy turkeys. the deal is spend $35, then buy one turkey for 99 cents/lb and get another turkey free. I buy shortening for pies ($5.79/3 lbs), marked down quarts of half and half creamer (50 cents each, I buy 2, I'll freeze most of this), milk for $2.19/gal (limit 2 w/coupon), 8 oz cream cheese ( 88 cents, limit 6), and two 22-lb turkeys. I spent $40.83, for a total of $94.57.

Nov. 20 Albertson's again. I wasn't planning on buying anything but the potatoes on sale, then thought to spend another $35, and buy one turkey, get another free. So, I find 8 packages of our favorite brand of breakfast sausage on markdown for $1.99 each, regularly $3.99, a family pack of ground beef for $1.99/lb, Italian sausage marked down for $2.99/19 ounces (I buy 2 packs, will divide and freeze when I get home), and two 2-lb packages of powdered sugar, celery (89cents/lb), yams (99 cents/lb) and 1 10-lb bag of potatoes (97 cents, limit 1 per transaction), plus my 2 turkeys. Spent $53.73, for a total of $148.30 for the month so far.

Nov. 21 Albertson's, this time with my coffee and butter coupons. I buy 2 cans of coffee (34 oz, $5.99 ea), 2 pounds of butter (1.99, limit 2 w/ coupon), and my 10-lb bag of potatoes (97 cents), for $16.93, for a total of $165.23

Nov. 23 Albertson's, this time I take my two daughters with me, and all three of us buy 10-lb bags of potatoes, for a total of $2.91

Fred Meyer, we buy 16 cans of pumpkin ($1 ea), 2 lbs of butter (1.67/lb), 10 jars natural peanut butter (1.88/16 oz), 1 gal skim milk (marked down, $1.50), 1 package choc chip for 1.79, 6 cans of corn (50 cents ea w/coupon), 1 can of decaf coffee (5.99), can cream of mushroom soup (75 cents), for a total of $51.17, bringing spending for month up to $219.31

Nov. 24 Albertson's again w/ family members to buy potatoes. we buy 3 10-lb bags, for a total of $2.91, total month to date, $222.22

Nov. 29 Bartells for canned nuts and sparkling cider, on sale. Tins of nuts are 30 oz for $4.99 each. I buy 3 tins and get rainchecks for more, and 6 bottles of cider (1.99 ea), spent $26.91

Fred Meyer while shopping for socks, etc, I find 5 half gallons of milk for 89 cents each, spent $4.45, for a total of $253.58 spent for November.

I went over budget plus surplus by $19.53. This amount will be deducted from December's budget of $170. I think we'll be okay, though.

What I stocked up on this month: 80 pounds of potatoes, 4 frozen whole turkeys, 5  1/2 lbs of nuts (and hope to buy more when stock comes in), sparkling cider (we'll use this throughout the winter and early spring, for special occasions), an assortment of meat, cream cheese, the winter's supply of coffee, peanut butter, winter squash, fresh and canned pumpkin, and a couple month's supply of butter.

Ending the month I can get a glimpse of how we'll do year round, with our grocery spending. Looking into my pantry, fridge and freezer, I can see that we are very well stocked. We have enough here that we really could go months without shopping. We'd run out of eggs and milk, but otherwise be okay. So, that's reassuring. I even had the thought that we could cut our grocery spending further. But I don't need to, so I won't. It's nice to have a bit of extra money in this category, so we can have some luxury foods, like cheese, cocoa, nuts, cream and plenty of meat.

This month, I'll be looking for good prices on ham, onions, butter and cheese.

Quick and easy weeknight dinner: Chili Cheese Potatoes

Like chili cheese fries, but healthier, and no drive to the fast food place.

This is such a quick and easy dinner. The potatoes are microwave-cooked. The chili and optional bacon are leftovers. And the rest comes together in a flash -- I think the most time-consuming part is scrubbing the potatoes. These are a huge hit with my family, as it's a cross between home-cooking comfort food and diner fast service.

Ingredients:

potatoes, scrubbed, but still in skins
leftover chili (meat, vegetarian, canned or homemade)
grated cheddar cheese, about 3 to 4 tablespoons per potato
minced onions, or scallions, a couple of teaspoons per potato
leftover cooked bacon, crumbled, 1/2 to 1 slice per potato (optional)

Equipment:

microwave oven
microwaveable container for the chili

Method:

Pierce potatoes all over with the tip of a knife. Microwave on high, 2 to 4 minutes per potato, until cooked (check after the minimum time). In my microwave, I do 5 potatoes, on HI, for 9-12 minutes. I begin checking after about 8 minutes, and remove any potatoes that have softened. Then continue cooking until all potatoes are done. **Microwave time will vary according to potato size and microwave wattage.

Heat chili.

Split potatoes lengthwise, and squish to open. Add salt and butter, if desired.

Top with a couple of large spoonfuls of hot chili (so it pours over the sides), some grated cheddar cheese, and spoonful of chopped onions or scallions.

Pop back in microwave for 40 seconds, to thoroughly melt the cheese.

Optional -- if you want over-the-top-potatoes, crumble one slice of bacon over each.


Super simple supper for my hungry family. Do you have a favorite super simple supper?

It's just an ordinary day around here (and why I think that's good)

Today's chores . . .


Laundry,

cleaning up the kitchen and getting dinner ready,

keeping the fire stoked,

baking bread,

making yogurt,

and maybe a little knitting in the afternoon.

It's the holiday season, and we all feel the pressure to being doing "holiday work" -- baking holiday cookies, making or shopping for gifts, wrapping Christmas presents, and on and on.


Ordinary is good!

Ordinary keeps us grounded in what matters to our families. In the long run, whether or not I baked Christmas cookies on December 4, won't matter to my husband and kids. But keeping up with daily chores, like laundry, cooking and general housekeeping, will matter. After all, eating cookies for dinner, and wearing dirty socks, isn't in my family's best interest.

It's nice to have just an ordinary day, right in the midst of the holiday frenzy. What are your chores for the day?

Easy to make gift -- Lemon-Rosemary Finishing Salt

Finishing salt is a final seasoning, sprinkled over cooked pasta, meat, rice or vegetables.

I happened to be in Home Goods a few weeks ago, and saw finishing salt for sale for about $8 a small tin. Seasoned salt for several dollars! Now this is a gift that I could make myself at home, for about half the price, and in minimal time! I chose Lemon-Rosemary, as I was in a Mediterranean sort of mood. And here's how I made it.

For one 4-ounce tin of finishing salt:

Equipment:

cutting board and knife
citrus zester or fine grater (you can also do as I do, use a vegetable peeler to remove the thin layer of zest, then fine chop with a knife)
electric coffee grinder (or small food processor that can pulverize particles of herbs and coarse salt)
small bowl
baking sheet with raised edges all around (jelly roll pan)
oven


Ingredients:

the zest of 1 lemon
1 large handful of fresh rosemary (you'll need 1/4 cup of fresh rosemary leaves)
1/3 cup of coarse Kosher salt
one 4-ounce tin (I found these at Michaels)


Method:

Wash rosemary, spin and press dry in a towel. Set aside.

Zest the lemon, and set aside.

Pull the leaves off of the stems of the rosemary, and measure 1/4 cup of leaves. In the coffee grinder, process 1/2 of the leaves, until finely chopped. Add 1/2 of the salt and 1/2 of the lemon zest. Process again, until salt is medium-fine and yellow-green. Pour and scrape into the small bowl. Repeat to finish with rosemary, salt and lemon zest. Wipe out your coffee grinder. (You'll want it completely dry inside when the salt is processed one last time after baking.)

Stir the seasoned salt, to combine well. Spread on baking sheet. Preheat oven to 225 degrees F.

Dry out the salt mixture in the oven for 10 to 20 minutes (I did a large batch, on an insulated baking sheet, and it took 20 minutes to get it all dry). Stir the mixture every 5 minutes. The seasoned salt is fully dry when the lemon particles are dry and the rosemary is flexible, but not succulent. The clumps in the dry mixture will break apart, but feel dry.

Leave on the baking sheet until thoroughly cooled, about 20-30 minutes. Process through your coffee grinder one last time, to break up any lumps. Fill tins.


Lemon-Rosemary finishing salt adds the final touch to baked chicken pieces, freshly cooked pasta (along with a drizzle of olive oil), sprinkled over focaccia bread dough (drizzled with oil) then baked, or added to plain steamed vegetables or rice.

Busy weekend, and some freebies

14 free pumpkins at the home and garden center

Thanksgiving weekend is now behind us, but Christmas is just around the corner! It was a busy weekend here. The Thanksgiving gathering of friends and family. The post-Thanksgiving clean-up, early Friday shopping, playing chauffeur to teen daughters for their various projects (the university quarter is coming to a close and they are scrambling to get it all done), church on Sunday morning, and friends coming over in the afternoon to make gifts together -- all totaled to a very busy weekend.

gifts some friends and I made -- knit headbands,
bags of cider/wine mulling spices,
tin of lemon-rosemary finishing salt, and gift tags

Friday, we did go out for a bit of shopping, as I'd said we'd planned. Can't beat half-price socks and free donuts and juice. In addition to this stop, we swung by the home and garden center. Every year, just after Thanksgiving, this store puts their pumpkins, gourds and corn stalks out for free. Now that's my favorite price! They had a large mountain of free pumpkins, so I was able to get 14 small ones. 7 of the small pumpkins had lost their stems already, so I immediately began cooking them up. Each pumpkin yielded about 2 cups of cooked puree (enough for a pie or double batch of pumpkin bread).

Saturday's mail yielded one more freebie -- another $10 gift card to Kohl's. I'll use this for a gift for a family member. I'm actually getting quite close to being done with my Christmas shopping. Now I feel that I can focus more on the true meaning of the season.

It was one busy weekend, but full of fun and fellowship. What were the highlights of your weekend?

Any Black Friday shoppers out there?

I'll be going out to pick up socks, half off. But then I'll come back home, to decorate for the holidays, and bake cookies.

We'll look through our stash of movies, get out a puzzle, and have a fun family afternoon. Dinner will, of course, be leftovers. We'll choose one of the movies we got out earlier, and have dinner while watching a movie.

Black Friday is my day to relax. What are your plans for today?

Making the table setting work, when you have a crowd

Happy Thanksgiving!

In yesterday's post, I had a photo of the table setting for our Thanksgiving dinner. There will be 10 of us for dinner, later this afternoon. 10 diners may not sound like a lot to you, but for us, with just 5 in the family, most nights I am cooking (and setting a table) for just 4 or 5, total.

Our table seats 8. But on Thanksgiving, especially, we like to have everyone gathered around the one table. The Thanksgiving meal is a fellowship event, and we like to have the entire family tucking their feet under the same table on this occasion. No kids' tables here.

To accommodate all 10 of us, we needed to make some adjustments. I'll let you in our our little "secrets" for today's table.

I pulled our drop-leaf game and puzzle table up to the end of our fully-extended dining room table. The game table sits slightly higher than the dining room table, so the drop leaf rests on the dining room table top.

I don't have a table cloth long enough for this improvised table, so I laid a card-table cloth over the game table, with the dining room table cloth layered over the top of the two tables.

I like to use placemats on the table, even with a cloth. Most of my table cloths are at least 50 years old, with the oldest of them around 95 years old. These have been passed down to me from my great-grandmothers, on both sides of my family. Adding placemats protects my family "heirlooms".

However, I don't have 10 of any one design of placemat. So, you'll notice that I used two different designs of placemats and fabric napkins. I think they all go together well enough, and go with the autumn tones of the dinnerware.

The straw placemats are our patio placemats for summer. The sage green napkins are part of a set with a table cloth, that I made for our kitchen table.

I folded the matching table cloth and used like a runner, over a side cabinet that is in the process of being refinished (the top has been sanded bare).

The striped fabric placemats and floral napkins are our "regular" dining room linens.

You may also notice that not all the dinnerware is of the same pattern.

I collect brown transfer-ware stoneware.  I shop thrift, vintage, and discount,

picking up pieces that look like they would fit in with the rest, even though they're different patterns.

The candle jars may look familiar. These are the same candle jars that I used on the deck all summer. I peeled out the used candle wax, and replaced with some battery "candles" for the evening. The colors of the ribbon, raffia and ivy coordinate with my overall color scheme today.


Our dining room has dark caramel walls, white trim, and dark sage green curtains and valance. These room colors influenced my table color scheme. The table is set in sage, camel, tan and white.

This could look like a hodge podge of pieces. So many of the elements don't quite match. But I'm hoping that they're unified by the single color table cloth, the turkey dinner plates, and the color scheme. I think it all works.

What's on your Thanksgiving menu?

So, we just assume that everyone has turkey, yams and pumpkin pie, for Thanksgiving. But the truth is, each family is different, and feast favorites vary from region to region.

My brother doesn't eat turkey, so for the last 15 years, his wife has been making Beef Wellington for Thanksgiving.

I'd never eaten green bean casserole, until I was an adult. Now it's a favorite of my kids, and I couldn't skip it if I wanted to.

A good friend comes from the South, and sweet potato pie is favored over pumpkin pie.

So, what's on your menu for tomorrow, and when do you eat your big meal?

Here's ours:

Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Spread on Crostini

Roasted Turkey

Sage, Apple and Onion Dressing

Sweet Potato Casserole

Green Bean Casserole

Mashed Potatoes

Pumpkin Crescent Rolls

Cranberry Sauce

Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

Spiced Apple Cider

Eggnog

Coffee

(I'm not cooking all of this. Our friends will be bringing a couple of the dishes.)

Our friends will be arriving around 3:30. We'll enjoy some time over appetizers and cider, then have dinner around 4:30. And one other detail, we'll be listening to Christmas music. Does listening to Christmas music and having Christmas decorations up on Thanksgiving sound wrong to anyone?

Now I've got to get into the kitchen. So much to do, so little time!

Will you be buying an extra turkey or two this year?

And, what are the turkey deals like in your area, this year?

The deals are not nearly as good this year, as last, for my local stores. Many of the stores have a "spend $150, get a turkey for free" deal going.. This deal is especially hard on lower income folks, who just don't spend that large of an amount at one time. So, I'm not pleased with that deal.

Another local chain has "spend $30, buy a frozen turkey for 59 cents/lb". This doesn't sound too bad. But it is about 20 cents more per pound than this chain had last year, on their "deal".

Finally, the best deal for me this year, "spend $35, buy one turkey for 99 cents per pound, get one turkey of equal or lesser value for free". I was able to find turkeys which were identical sizes, so my price per pound was 49 cents. Still 10 cents more per pound than last year. But as it was the best deal around for my circumstances, I'll take it. In fact, I got 4 turkeys with this deal, this year. I'll roast one this week, and save the other 3 for the rest of the year. At least we'll have plenty of poultry for the months to come.

Buying extra turkeys at Thanksgiving will help me keep our grocery spending low through the rest of the year.

"Christmas is a coming, and the egg is in the nog" (making eggnog at home)

This is a two-step, cooked homemade eggnog. The first step cooks the sweetened egg custard. The second step incorporates the cream and flavorings. "Is it good," you wonder? Everyone's tastes will be different, but according to my family, "this is better than store bought!"


I was going to post this recipe after Thanksgiving, but I had a second thought that seemed to think now would actually be a very good time to post. For those of us hosting Thanksgiving this year, we'll likely have leftover whipping cream and/or half and half. For those of us not hosting, whipping cream is a loss leader sale item at many grocery stores this week, which would make yummy eggnog even more economical to make at home!


Every time my daughters and I venture out to the grocery store (they love to tag along, as they can "influence" some of my purchases this way), we check the dairy case for some "about to spoil" eggnog. That's our family joke about the milk products that I buy. I come in the door and announce, "I scored some milk about to sour -- woo hoo!" In other words, marked down. Anyway, we've been sorely disappointed to not find any eggnog in our price range, so far this year. And not wanting to wait until January 3rd to have our eggnog, a solution needed to be found.

After a few shopping trips with this same ending, I finally thought, "well this is silly. Let's just make some! The recipe is around here somewhere."

So, here's my recipe. It's just a basic recipe, that I've adapted to my own quirks and preferences. I have 3 problems with homemade eggnog.

1) consuming raw eggs, ugh! salmonella? No thanks!
2) egg-y tasting sweet things. I enjoy scrambled eggs, egg salad, and quiche, but just don't care for egg-y sweets.
3) beverage "bits". You know, when cooking egg into a drink, those tiny, stringy bits of egg that somehow escape all my mixing.


So, here's both my recipe and my technique, which address all my quirks.

For a little over 1 quart of eggnog (which, according to my mother, should be enough for 8 servings of 4 ounces each):

ingredients:

4 to 6 whole eggs (I use 4, but feel free to egg it up with 6), or the equivalent in egg beaters
1/2 to 1 cup of granulated sugar (I like 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of sugar, sweet but not overly so. Begin with 1/2 cup, and after it is all made, taste, and add more as desired.)
2 cups milk (I use 2 %, but 4% would be richer)
2 cups whipping cream or half and half (I use half and half, and save the whipping cream for a topping)
1  1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract and 3/4 teaspoon rum extract)
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (I like the full amount of nutmeg)
up to 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon (I'm not a huge fan of cinnamon in my eggnog, but a small pinch does enhance the flavor, I use just under 1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon)

optional extras: 1 to 2 tablespoons canned pumpkin (to taste), and an extra pinch each of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and ginger, for pumpkin eggnog

brandy, rum and bourbon are the traditional alcoholic enhancements added to eggnog. I prefer to use rum extract for the rum flavoring, then I don't have to worry about inadvertently serving someone alcohol if they don't want, or shouldn't have it.

equipment:

medium mixing bowl, or top of a 2-qt double boiler
2 quart saucepan, or bottom of a double boiler
electric mixer, or blender
candy thermometer (very important)
spoon for stirring
rubber spatula

process:

--before you do anything else, fill your saucepan or bottom of double boiler 2/3 full of water, and set to a boil on stove.

--Meanwhile, break eggs into mixing bowl or top of double boiler. Add sugar. With an electric mixer, beat well. Scrape sides of bowl and beat again. Mix in milk, scraping sides of bowl.

--Place bowl or top of double boiler onto pan of water. Place your thermometer into the milk mixture, and hang on the side of bowl. You will need to cook this mixture to 160 degrees F (71.11 C). This is important. According to foodsafety.gov this is the temperature needed, to kill bacteria in egg dishes.

--Cook mixture, stirring occasionally and scraping sides down with rubber spatula, until egg and milk mixture reaches 160 degrees F. Stir the liquid, and test the temperature in several places in your bowl/double boiler. This mixture will coat the backside of your spoon, but more thinly if using fewer eggs.

--When all is 160 degrees F (this should take about 20 - 30 minutes, of occasional attention), remove from heat.

--With electric mixer, beat in cream or half and half. Add spices and extracts. Taste and adjust the sugar or spices. Beat again, until thoroughly incorporated.

--If adding pumpkin/spices or alcohol, use mixer to incorporate.

--Set a mesh strainer over a large pitcher. Pour cooked mixture through the strainer.

--Cover pitcher and chill for 4 hours or overnight. This thickens with chilling. To serve, top with whipped cream and a bit of nutmeg, if desired.

--After chilling, you can use the mixer one more time, to mix in any "skin" that may have formed.

Food safety and homemade eggnog

• Homemade eggnog should be stored in the refrigerator at 40 degrees F or below, and only up to 3 days, for optimal food safety.
• Make smaller batches, if you don't think you can consume an entire batch within 3 days. (I make a half batch at a time. We drink small portions at a time, about 3 to 4 ounces. It really doesn't take that long to make another batch, when we run out.)
• Don't leave eggnog out of the refrigerator for more than 2 hours. If serving at a party, you can fill one large bowl with ice, then set a smaller punch bowl with the eggnog, inside, PLUS, add an ice ring to the eggnog. Your ice ring can be made of milk and sugar, flavored with a bit of nutmeg, if desired. Take the temp of the eggnog every 20 to 30 minutes. It should remain at or below 40 degrees. If you don't think you can keep a punch bowl at 40 F for the duration of your event, it is much safer to have a couple of smaller pitchers of eggnog. Bring 1 pitcher out of the fridge at a time, making sure no pitcher remains unrefrigerated for more than 2 hours. 

Final note

How thick and creamy your eggnog turns out will be determined by whether you use whipping cream or half and half, whole milk or 2 % milk, 6 eggs or 4 eggs. If you're attempting to make a skim milk version of eggnog, you may want to add a thickener to the egg, sugar and milk. Beat in a bit of corn starch or arrowroot with the eggs and sugar.  And, of course, eggnog can be made with soy milk, almond milk, rice milk, and alternative creamer (Trader Joe's carries soy creamer).

Homemade eggnog -- enjoy!

The problem with going out Christmas shopping for other people's gifts

The problem I encountered on Saturday, when out shopping for 2 gifts for Christmas, is I found I suddenly "needed" new things that I had previously not realized that I needed.

It is so tempting, this time of year, to have the "wants" every time you turn around. I saw so many adorable Christmas decorations, some really lovely clothing, and some wonderful kitchenware. By the time that I realized what was going on in my "wanting" little heart, I knew it was time to get home, and get a grip on what I truly need and some of my more reasonable wants.

I did find 2 very nice gifts, though, and spent very little cash for them. I had a pocket full of gift cards, that covered all but the tax.


So, when I came home from shopping, I lit a couple of Christmas candles, put on some Nat King Cole Christmas music, made myself a cup of ginger pear tea, and savored the quiet time after being out.

Turkey tip: keeping a thawed turkey in the fridge -- how long?

The key to a uniformly cooked turkey is beginning the roasting with a perfectly thawed turkey. Thawing a frozen turkey in the fridge is difficult to time right. I may think I've allowed the proper amount of time, only to have parts of the bird still icy on roasting day.

The way around that is to begin thawing it in the fridge, a day or two before you might usually begin. A thawed turkey can remain in the fridge, up to 4 days, according to Butterball. Personally, I prefer to roast it within 2 days, as I think the flavor is better, roasted sooner rather than later.

BTW, the recommended time for thawing is 1 day for every 4 pounds of turkey (according to butterball.com).  Better get Tom or Thelma into the fridge and start thawing!

The squirrels got a good deal on 120 tiny little snacks this fall!

Squirrels -- cute, right? I used to think so, too!

So, my 175 bulbs that I planted -- the squirrels didn't touch the daffodils, but it looks like they dug up a fair amount of the crocus bulbs. "Nice little snacks, and how nice of that lady to bury them just where we could find them!" Arghh!

On Veteran's Day, one of my daughters and I went out and replanted another 60 bulbs. Then we covered the whole shebang with landscape fabric and weighed it down with stones. At least if the squirrels do find the bulbs, they'll have to work a lot harder this time, if they want to eat any. And so far, the fabric has not been disturbed. I'll pull it back up in February, and sprinkle with whatever I can come up with (cayenne pepper is supposed to deter squirrels), until the bulbs develop roots.

The crocus in our front yard are never bothered much by the squirrels. That may be because the rooted plants make it just difficult enough to not be worth the effort (especially when the nice lady's neighbors so kindly toss out peanuts for the squirrels).

Finally, a use for the landscape fabric that the previous owners left in the garage, 18 years ago!

Girlfriend gifts: ribbon and charm key rings

These are what I call girlfriend gifts, something small, that you might give to a gal pal. My "girlfriends" this time are, again, my two daughters. These will be stocking stuffers, for a house key, now that they come and go whenever.

They are super simple to make, taking me about 20 minutes, each, and the only skill required is a little hand-sewing. Materials are just a 9-inch length of ribbon (grosgrain), a charm I used initial charms), a plain key ring, and some Fray Check, or clear nail polish.

To make:

Take one 9-inch length of ribbon,

and cut the tail ends at angles.

Brush the cut ends, lightly, with Fray Check or nail polish, and lay on waxed paper to dry.

When ends are dry, slide key ring onto ribbon.

Fold ribbon in half, even in length, but just slightly off in centering, so that you can see a bit of the bottom half of the ribbon, beneath the top half.

With a needle and thread, use the running stitch, close to the ring (but allowing a little wiggle room, for moving keys and ring around). Pull the ribbon slightly with your left hand, while stitching with your right (to make your stitches somewhat close to the ring).

After making stitches across and back, back track to the center, with more stitching. Then make 1 stitch down length of ribbon, to place the charm slightly lower than your stitching.

If your charm has a jump ring attached, remove it.

Sew the charm in place with 3 stitches, finishing inside the folded ribbon.

Knot 2 or 3 times, then cut thread. That's it.