Bringing Good Cheer

If you're familiar with very many Christmas carols, then you'll recognize the following words as lyrics to Carol of the Bells.

Hark! how the bells

Sweet silver bells

All seem to say

‘throw cares away.’

Christmas is here

Bringing good cheer

To young and old

Meek and the bold

Ding, dong, ding, dong

That is their song

With joyful ring

All carolling

One seems to hear

Words of good cheer

From ev’rywhere

Filling the air

Oh how they pound

Raising the sound

O’er hill and dale

Telling their tale

Gaily they ring

While people sing

Songs of good cheer

Christmas is here

Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas

Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas

On, on they send

On without end

Their joyful tone

To ev’ry home

Hark! how the bells

Sweet silver bells

All seem to say

‘throw cares away.’

Christmas is here

Bringing good cheer

To young and old

Meek and the bold

Ding, dong, ding, dong

That is their song

With joyful ring

All carolling

One seems to hear

Words of good cheer

From ev’rywhere

Filling the air

Oh how they pound

Raising the sound

O’er hill and dale

Telling their tale

Gaily they ring

While people sing

Songs of good cheer

Christmas is here

Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas

Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas

On, on they send

On without end

Their joyful tone

To ev’ry home

Throw cares away, Christmas is here. Bringing good cheer.

Our greater society seems to have taken a wrong turn when it comes to celebrating Christmas. While watching YouTube videos the other week, I was bombarded with ads for the "perfect gift for someone you love." I was browsing a forum one afternoon, and there was a multiple page thread on the Advent calendars that folks were gifting their family members or wanted for themselves. These Advent calendars definitely fall into the luxury category. There are calendars for specialty jams, Funko Pops, coffee pods, teas, figurines, Godiva chocolates, Legos, crafts supplies, and even ones for cats. I had no idea these sorts of Advent calendars even existed, and even more surprised that so many folks were buying and gifting them. 

The type of Advent calendar I grew up with was made of 2 stiff layers of paper, printed with a nice Christmas scene and with 24 little doors set into the top layer of paper. Under each door was a little picture or a Bible verse. It was exciting to wake up each morning, get dressed and then open that day's little window. The picture or the verse truly was a nice surprise and treat to start the day. By the time my children came along, Advent calendars were often filled with small chocolates. I still see those types in stores beginning in November each year.

I have no problem with people buying expensive gifts for their loved ones, spending what could be interpreted as large sums of money on some of these gifts. The amount of buying and spending isn't my point. My point is today's buying and spending seems to overshadow the rest of the Christmas celebration.

We were talking at the dinner table tonight about what Christmas was like for my kids' grandparents during the Great Depression, and how their experiences might have colored how they chose to celebrate Christmas once they were the adults. My husband recalled that in his family, gift-giving took a back seat to other aspects of the Christmas holiday, such as the church service, a nice family meal, a holiday concert or two in the weeks leading up to Christmas, and sharing with others. In my own family, we went caroling, visited a local care home, participated in (when younger) and attended (when older) both church and school Christmas shows, had a special Christmas meal, attended our church's Christmas Eve service together, as well as exchanged gifts. As a kid of course the presents were a highlight. But my parents were wise enough to not allow the gifts to overshadow the significance of the birth of our Savior. I would hope that even if a family had no religious orientation, they would intuitively know that bombarding their children with many, many, many shiny baubles and playthings might not be in their best interest, and would therefore try to balance the gift-giving with other types of activities.

My daughters were asking when my family would set up a tree when I was growing up. They were stunned when I told them somewhere around the 15th or 16th of December. That seemed late to them. They also asked what we did between the Thanksgiving holiday and Christmas celebrations, as if Thanksgiving simply had to lead directly into Christmas. I replied that life pretty much went back to normal after Thanksgiving for a couple of weeks. We went back to school and my parents' lives continued as normal until about mid-December when the Christmas festivities, shopping, baking, and visiting would begin. Black Friday as a national shopping spree didn't even exist when I was a child. I wish Christmas caroling in the neighborhood would make a comeback. We enjoyed both the caroling and being the lucky householder to hear the sweet Christmas a cappella music. 

The tune for Carol of the Bells originated in the Ukraine as a New Year song in the early 1900s. The English version with Christian lyrics was introduced to American audiences in 1936 during the Great Depression. The rearrangement and new lyrics transformed the music into a Christmas song, with references to caroling, handbells, and of course wishes for a merry Christmas.

The lyrics to Carol of the Bells recall a less consumer-driven Christmas holiday. Christmas in itself brings the good cheer, not the number of packages under the tree or whether or not one received a luxury Advent calendar. To note, this good cheer is available to all, young, old, meek, bold. 

Lucky for us, one of the easiest ways to tap into the Christmas good cheer is also free, listening to carols online. In December, I like to take a few minutes each day to "throw cares away" briefly and enjoy  some of my favorites. I hope you enjoy this a cappella version of Carol of the Bells.

Replacing the Makeshift Zipper Pull on My Winter Jacket

Towards the end of last winter the pull on my winter jacket's zipper broke off. I used a paperclip to zip up and down my jacket for the rest of the season and the beginning of this year's.

I tired of looking less than polished when going out in my winter jacket. A paperclip front and center just screamed haphazard to me. I initially thought I'd buy a replacement zipper pull. You can buy replacements at fabric stores. The one above is the least expensive option at Joann Fabrics, for about $3 and change. However, I'm rarely in the area where our local Joann Fabrics is located, and I simply became impatient.

I had a thought that I could fashion a new pull from my jewelry-making supplies. This morning I pulled out the box of beads, findings, wire, and pliers. After trying a few different items without success, I settled on a large ring with a bead that fit.

Here's the repaired jacket's zipper pull. It's not perfect, but I like how it looks, and equal in importance, it works. My cost was $0, and I was able to make the repair in less time than I would have spent going to the fabric store and back.

A normal December Monday

Over the weekend we finished decorating the inside of the house for the holidays. Sunday late afternoon, we had a short break in the rain, so I ran outside to clip a handful of short branches from a cedar tree in the yard. I made two of these mini-swags to go in front of the two kitchen windows. They make the room cheery and didn't cost anything. I had pieces of wire in a jar, the fruit picks leftover from a garland we used to do on the banister and the two ribbons from a package many years ago.

I also made gingerbread men cookie dough and a small batch of more eggnog. Getting into the holiday spirit.

This morning I needed to go grocery shopping. A week ago Monday, I made a quick dash to Walmart to pick up basics -- milk, eggs, carrots, bananas, and jalapeño peppers. I was using the car in between the excursions of two family members who also needed the car. So I was as quick as I could be. Later in the week, I thought about doing more grocery shopping, perhaps getting a start on some Christmas meals shopping. I decided to wait until today and make what current meals from what we have on hand. We're needing more space in the freezer for another delivery of beef coming up shortly. Better to use what's already here than add more to the freezers.

So, this morning I went to WinCo, Chefstore (wholesaler), and Grocery Outlet. My list really wasn't very long. I bought more almond flour so I could do another batch of almond paste for almond macaroons, plus avocados, bananas, tangerines, dried cranberries, turmeric, black pepper, cayenne pepper, mixed nuts, a little bit of Christmas candy, chicken breasts, a Christmas ham, a 5-lb loaf of cheddar cheese, and a pint of whipping cream on markdown for 78 cents. The dried cranberries are for Christmas brunch muffins. The spices go into my super-charged spicy morning cup of cocoa (turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, coconut oil, milk, cocoa powder, honey, black pepper, honey). I began this as a way to use up the turmeric I had in the cupboard. Little did I know I'd enjoy this spice in cocoa so much I'd need to buy more! The mixed nuts are for some favorite nut bars I make every Christmas. The one item on my list that I didn't buy was fruitcake fruit. One daughter expressed interest in making my mom's fruitcake recipe. However, the fruitcake fruit was so expensive! If we go ahead and make the fruitcake, we'll improvise on that ingredient. What I noticed while shopping was how much more expensive several foods were today, comparing Christmas 2022 with today. Ham, chicken, and cheese added quite a bit to my spending. The almond flour, however, was less than I paid for it in summer. So not everything is more expensive right now, just almost everything that I would buy this time of year.

After grocery shopping, I stopped by the pharmacy to pick-up my husband's rx and went to the post office to mail something. I was pretty beat by the time I got home. I feel like I'm still recovering. I have pain everyday still, although the pain is less and less each day.

I thought I would get to decorating the outdoor tree and making a swag to hang over the garage. But it was too cold and wet for me to want to do that. Maybe tomorrow's weather will be better.

Just now I tucked a chicken pot pie into the oven for our dinner tonight. Should be tasty.

Anyhow, today was a normal December Monday for me. How was your day? Any special activities, or  was it just a normal day for you?

And now I'll go wash the dishes that I dirtied while getting dinner together. have a lovely rest of your evening.

Leftover November Whipping Cream Becomes December Eggnog

We always have some leftover heavy whipping cream after Thanksgiving. And what perfect timing, too. As Thanksgiving in the US is just before the beginning of December.

I'm fussy about consuming raw or undercooked eggs, so the eggnog I make is a cooked egg version, using a double-boiler on the stove.

The other day I made a quart and a half of eggnog, using the leftover whipping cream, milk, sugar, whole eggs, vanilla, and spices. The whipping cream itself is just cream, no carrageenan or tore stabilizers in the brand I bought. So my homemade eggnog was made without preservatives, stabilizers, gums, corn syrup, or additional colorings. Compare my homemade ingredient list to Kroger's eggnog ingredient list as printed on their label: pasteurized homogenized milk, cream, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, egg base (egg yolks, sugar, guar gum, carrageenan, salt, artificial flavor), spices, natural  and artificial flavor, annatto and turmeric extracts (for color).

I filled 3 pint containers with the finished eggnog. I offered one pint to my son and daughter-in-law, put one pint in the fridge, and froze the third pint. Both commercial and homemade eggnog freeze well. If it separates upon thawing, I simply run it through the blender (immersion or pitcher blender) and all is good.

My family's recipe for eggnog:

4 whole eggs, or the equivalent in egg beaters

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar 

2 cups milk

2 cups whipping cream or half and half

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

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 or all-purpose cooking thermometer (very important)

spoon for stirring

rubber spatula

whisk

mesh strainer

large pitcher

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. If using a non-instant read thermometer, place it into the milk mixture and hang on the side of bowl. If using a digital instant read thermometer, just keep it handy. 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. I typically allow the mixture to cook to 165 degrees F, just to be on the safe side. USDA's recommended 160 degrees F is a minimum temperature for egg dishes.

Cook mixture, stirring occasionally and scraping sides down with rubber spatula until egg and milk mixture reaches 160 to 165 degrees F. Stir the liquid well then test the temperature in several places in your bowl/double boiler. The mixture will thinly coat the backside of your spoon.

When all is 160-165 degrees F (this should take about 20 - 30 minutes of occasional attention), remove from heat.

Whisk in cream or half and half. Add spices and extracts. Taste and adjust the sugar or spices, blending again until thoroughly combined.

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

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

Cover pitcher with plastic wrap and chill for 4 hours or overnight. Homemade eggnog thickens with chilling. 

The whole process goes very quickly with little hands-on work. I typically have other things I'm doing in the kitchen while I wait for the egg, sugar, and milk mixture to reach the right temperature. This time I was folding laundry while the mix heated. 

Food safety and homemade eggnog

• Homemade eggnog should be stored in the refrigerator at 40 degrees F or below 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 often make a half batch at a time. We drink small portions, 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 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 half hour. 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 notes

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, or adding additional 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 for a non-dairy version. I do this for myself, making a 1/4 batch, since I'm lactose intolerant.

Leftover eggnog makes great holiday eggnog scones, pancakes, waffles, muffins, coffee and tea creamer, stovetop pudding and bread pudding.

Anyway, just a way to use leftover whipping cream before it sours.

Happy December, everyone!

Homemade Almond Paste for One-Third the Cost of Store-Bought

Every year, I bake a special bread for Christmas morning, using a recipe from the Scandinavian side of my family. I make this in advance and keep it in the freezer until Christmas Eve, then thaw in the fridge overnight. I'll be baking this Crêche Bread in the next few days. 

A key ingredient to this recipe is almond paste. If you've ever bought almond paste, you know this stuff is pricey for the tiny box it comes in. Walmart sells the Solo brand for $5.44 (8 ounce box).

I use the whole package for 1 loaf of bread. When I can save anywhere in this recipe, I do. Which brings me to this DIY recipe for almond paste that I found on King Arthur Baking Co website. 

I made a half batch of the recipe this morning, which yielded a little more than 6 ounces of almond paste and used ingredients I had in my kitchen already. The most expensive of these ingredients is the almond flour, which I buy in bulk from WinCo for around $6/lb. The bonus to making my own (beyond saving money) is my product did not contain any preservatives.

I followed the instructions on KA's site, using measuring cups/spoons instead of weights. I think this would be one recipe where weighing the first 2 ingredients would produce the quality of product that would approximate commercially-made almond paste more closely. But I don't have a kitchen scale, so I used my cups and spoons. However, I was able to fiddle with the end result by adding slightly more almond flour at the end, until it had both the taste and texture I was expecting.

Here's the full recipe:

Almond Paste

Yields about 1 1/2 cups (375 g or 13.23 ounces)

1 3/4 cups (168g) blanched almond flour (which is about .37 of a pound)

1 1/2 cups (170g) confectioners' sugar

1 large egg white

1/8 teaspoon table salt

1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract,  to taste

Using either a food processor or mixer and bowl, combine the almond flour and confectioners' sugar. Blend in the egg white, salt and extract, pulsing or mixing until you can see a ball forming. There will still be some bits of mixture in the bowl. Press these together with the ball that formed.

Double-wrap in plastic and store inside a plastic or glass container.

According the King Arthur's website, this will keep in the fridge for up to 1 month or in the freezer up to 3 months. I think this would actually keep in the freezer longer than 3 months, if wrapped well enough. But of course, YMMV.

I will add to this recipe, since Large egg whites are not uniformly the same in volume, you may need to add a bit more almond flour to end up with the stiffness usually found in commercial almond paste. In addition, you may find that you prefer a less-sweet almond paste, as I do. I ended up mixing in a little more almond flour to get a stiff paste that was not cloyingly sweet. The final result should be about as stiff as Play-Dough.

So, did I save money making my own almond paste? Here's the cost breakdown, based on the full recipe above:

Almond flour, about $2.22

Sugar, 37 cents

1 egg white, 7 cents

Extract and salt, 3 cents

Total for homemade 13.22 ounces (not quite double the Solo brand 8 ounce package), about $2.69. Solo's product costs $10.88 a pound, while the DIY version costs about $3.25 a pound.

The project took about 10 minutes start to finish including clean-up and was super simple. I'll be making my own almond paste from here on.

Maybe you're curious -- whats' the difference between almond paste, almond filling, and marzipan?

Marzipan is sweeter and often used as is, rolled out into a sheet to top a cake, or mixed with colorings to make shaped candies. Almond paste has a stronger almond flavor and is less sweet. Almond paste can be turned into something like marzipan by adding additional sugar and an egg white. Almond filling is a product that can be used as is to fill pastries, cakes, and tarts. It has added sugar, thickeners like cornstarch, and sometimes milk added to ground almonds. If you're buying almond paste for a recipe, make sure you have the right product. Almond filling cannot be used where a recipe calls for almond paste. 

What other recipes is almond paste used in?

Some years, I bake amaretti cookies. They call for almond paste, granulated sugar, and egg whites. Light and crunchy amaretti are a gluten-free Italian cookie. Other years, I've made almond macaroons, anther gluten-free cookie. Here's a recipe very much like my mother's.

While I haven't made this, a friend of mine has -- Dutch Banketstaaf, also called Banket. These are a filled pastry cut into cookies.

Frangipane or almond cream filling is a traditional French tart cream that can be made with almond paste, eggs, sugar, a thickener like cornstarch and sometimes a bit of rum or brandy. Once spread in the tart shell, it can be topped with thin-sliced pears for a Frangipane Pear Tart.

I grew up knowing almond paste as a Scandinavian ingredient. As it turns out, almond paste is used in many different cuisines. 

Have you ever used almond paste in a recipe?

Have you ever noticed that the size of eggs can vary in the same carton?

When I find a deal on medium-size eggs, I go ahead and buy them, even though many recipes specifically call for Large eggs. When I get them home, I sort out the largest of the Medium eggs and set them aside in the fridge. I then can use these larger eggs in recipes that specifically call for Large eggs and use the rest where size of egg is not so critical (like quiche, frittata, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, or even pancakes).

Here are some of the Medium eggs that came in a 5-dozen pack from WinCo recently. Can you see the difference in sizes here?

Here are 2 large and 1 small of these Medium eggs for comparison all from the same tray. Can you see the difference in sizes here? The size of the largest could really pass for a regular Large egg and not Medium. While the smallest might pass for a Small egg, again not a Medium.

When eggs are packed in cartons or trays for consumer purchase, they aren't all the same size. USDA regulations stipulate that a carton or tray of eggs must meet a minimum weight based on sizing, regardless of what each individual egg weighs. So, you may find a few larger as well as smaller eggs in the same carton.

If this interests you for price comparing eggs, in the US Jumbo eggs must weigh 30 oz per dozen, Extra Large eggs must weigh 27 oz per dozen, Large eggs must weigh 24 oz per dozen, Medium eggs must weigh 21 oz per dozen, and Small eggs must weigh 18 oz per dozen. Knowing this required weight per carton and size can help determine cost per ounce, which in turn can help you determine when those Medium eggs are a deal or simply priced the same per ounce as the more-convenient-for-recipes Large eggs.

Anyway, size will matter with what I'm preparing tomorrow. I'll save this largest of the eggs for that recipe while using the smaller eggs in tonight's dinner frittata.

How was your Thanksgiving?

Did you get together with extended family? Did you host or were you a guest? What was on your menu? Do you have any family Thanksgiving traditions? Did you try anything new?

For my household, as I mentioned before, we hosted my son and daughter-in-law. 

Here was our menu:

• roasted marinated pork loin (the kind that comes pre-marinated)
• roasted whole chicken (made the day before), glazed with cranberry sauce/orange juice/sage/onion powder/salt/pepper inspired by Southern Living magazine 
• gravy made with roasted chicken drippings
• cranberry mustard -- cranberry sauce blended with yellow mustard
• green bean casserole (prepared by one daughter)
• sweet potato casserole (prepared by other daughter)
• oven-roasted broccoli -- Asian-inspired, frozen broccoli tossed with garlic and sesame oil, then oven-roasted (both daughters)
• casserole dish of bread/herb dressing

From son and daughter-in-law:

• maple-roasted Brussel sprouts with pumpkin seeds
• cooked shrimp and cocktail sauce
• bottled cranberry juice plus Sprite

Dessert:

• an apple crumb pie and a pumpkin pie
• My son and daughter-in-law brought some chocolates (something they did last year, too) and some persimmons.

After the big meal, the six of us decorated the Christmas tree. I'm not sure if we'll see them again before Christmas Day, so like last year, we took the opportunity to decorate the tree as a whole family. This has become a new Thanksgiving tradition for our family. 

I tried to spread the work out over a few days, cleaning and cooking beginning on Monday. My daughters took care of setting the table and cooking a few dishes. My husband helped with cleaning both before and after. I simplified our menu and cooked what I could in advance. I like how this holiday went for us. Everyone pitched in to some degree, and while I was tired the next day, I was not nearly as tired if I had tried to do it all myself, or if I had waited until Thursday to do all of the cooking. And there was plenty of variety so everyone had something that really hit the spot.

We finished the leftovers on Sunday. And today I finished all of the clean up -- table cloth and napkins in the laundry and all of the sheets of used foil washed to use another time.

So, tell me, how was your Thanksgiving?

You want to see what's growing under my lights this fall?

I didn't get to planting buckets of salad greens for the light garden in time this fall. Instead, I pulled some herbs and one pot of lettuce indoors to grow during the very coldest part of fall and winter.

Top shelf, the big pot of lettuce. I have yet to harvest any. Perhaps in a week or two, we'll do taco salads with this lettuce.

Middle shelf, I have the herb pots from our grill station, the rosemary, sage, and thyme. I wasn't sure how these thin can pots would do for insulating plant roots in sub-freezing temps. In hopes of keeping these three herbs alive for a second season, I've moved them indoors under the lights. As soon as the temps moderate from this cold snap, I'll move them back to the deck during daytime.

On the bottom shelf I have the cilantro that has been waiting for me to use it in salsa. I didn't have the motivation or energy to make a large batch of salsa earlier. I usually make 2 or 3 batches of salsa using the recipe in this post in August or September, using cilantro from my garden. Fortunately, I planted this cilantro in a pot. It was easy to move under lights that way. I had noticed that it was about to flower, so I knew I had to make a batch of salsa right away. This morning I went to Walmart to pick up milk, eggs, carrots, and bananas, so I also bought 5 large jalapeño peppers.

Oh man, the salsa smells so good. The batch made just just under 8 pints. I'll need to do one more batch in a week or two, when the cilantro has had a chance to grow more leaves. 15 to 16 pints of salsa should do for us until next summer.

So, that's what's growing under the lights this fall. After we use the lettuce, the cilantro bolts, and I move the pots of herbs back out to the deck, I'll give the lights a rest until late January when I start seeds for next spring and summer's garden.

Travel back in time with this vintage grocery shopping film

Hi friends,

While I was recovering last week, I watched some fun, vintage instructional videos on the roku. I wanted to share them with you, as I suspect many of you enjoy these as well. Here's the first one. Click on the title below or the photo above:

Home Management: Buying Food, 1950

While some of the advice really doesn't apply to us these days, others hit on some thoughts we've exchanged here, especially the truth that buying more than your household can use may cost more through waste than buying smaller quantities, even if the unit cost is much lower in the large size. Another, impulse buying can wreck a budget. The exception is if you find a deal on something while shopping, this type of impulse buying can save substantially.

Anyway, I thought these films were not only entertaining, but interesting to see how government agencies and universities played a role in "educating" the citizenry on how to shop, budget, make-do, plant gardens, etc. Today, we mostly get this sort of information presented in video form through private and commercial websites. I was curious how and where the vintage films were presented to the public. In my brief digging online, it appears that there were large collections of educational and instructional films held by universities. They were rented out (for a small fee) to schools, universities, colleges, clubs/lodges/organizations, commercial enterprises, and public libraries. Some instructional films were specific to an industry and served as employee training films. Many others enjoyed much broader audiences, such as this grocery shopping film. Most likely this particular film was used in university-level Home Economics courses, as well as community women's clubs as a sort of educational entertainment program. 

This one is an 11-minute film. If you have some time, you might enjoy it. I find these sorts of films to not only be a source of entertainment, but also inspiration to stay on the sensible, frugal path.

For friends in the US, I wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving. For friends outside the US, I'll be back on Monday, and hope you have a lovely weekend.

"Count yourself lucky"

My husband reminded me today to count myself lucky. Despite all that I've gone through this fall, my health situation is not in the least dire.

Let me explain my husband's perspective. If you've read my about me page, you know that my husband's career has been in grants and contracts. What I don't specifically mention is the area of research for which these grants apply. My husband's work has almost exclusively concerned cancer research.

He works from home 3 days per week, using our landline as his home "office" phone. For the most part, our friends and family no longer call on this line, but reach us by cell phones instead. On the days my husband is home, I only answer this phone for him when he's outside or I know he's in a meeting. On the 2 days he goes in to the downtown office, I do answer the phone, taking messages and trying to be a kind voice for the caller.

One of the cancer research projects he's currently working on is for the vaccine for breast cancer. We get a lot of women (or their spouses) phoning, trying to get help applying for a clinical trial. Today, a woman called who was having trouble with the online application and wanted a live voice to help her. My husband was in the commute home from the downtown office at this time. So I took her name and number and also told her to call back tomorrow. My husband also said he would give her a call and see if he could help her.

Many times, these women have tried absolutely everything else for their cancer with limited help and are desperate to try something, anything. My husband knows that not all of the women who want to try the clinical trial will be approved for it. I have some experience with this scenario. When my mother had exhausted all of the approved treatments for her own breast cancer, she was guided into a clinical trial. In the first phase of the trial, the only qualification for remaining in the trial for the second phase was to have the cancer not progress. My mom's cancer remained stable at that point, so she stayed on for phase two. To stay on for the third phase of the trial, the cancer had to diminish in phase two. My mom's cancer hadn't shrunk or diminished at all, it had only remained stable. She was let go from the clinical trial at that point. I remember how heartbreaking this was for our family. In our minds, if a cancer isn't actively growing, they should have allowed her to stay in the trial. But that's not how these trials tend to work.

So when these women phone and ask my husband for his help in applying or finding a clinical trial, my husband tries to do whatever he can, even though this is not really his primary role. His name and number just happens to pop up on the university cancer research site.

When I discussed today's phone call with my husband, explaining my note, I detected a note of sadness in my husband's voice as he retreated from the kitchen. As he left the room, he simply said to me "count yourself lucky."

My husband is right. I am "lucky". I not only have this Thanksgiving to enjoy with my family, but likely a couple dozen or more Thanksgivings with them.

I thought as Thanksgiving 2023 is just 2 days away, this would be an appropriate story to share with you friends. I actually had something else in mind, but this is what came up and seemed right. For those of you who are leaving Wednesday to join family and friends, have a lovely Thanksgiving. If anyone else is around tomorrow afternoon, I'll post what I had previously had in mind for today. 

Wishing all of you a happy Thanksgiving!

Rule #1 for Good Stewardship of Food Supplies

Use the foods that look like they will spoil before using the pristine items. 

My chore yesterday and today was to preserve the onions that looked like they wouldn't last too much longer before beginning to go soft. 

In late September or early October, I bought a 50-lb bag of yellow onions. I wasn't feeling great that day and didn't take the time to look over the bags. I simply pointed to one and asked my daughter to load it onto our trolley. When I got it home, I discovered that several of the onions had developed a powdery surface mold. We'd had quite a bit of rain in the preceding weeks. So I assume some of the onions sat out in the wet at some point. For the most part, the insides of the most affected onions looked okay. With the very worst of them, I peeled off the outer part and chopped the inner, good part to freeze in a large bag. I'll use these onions when the fresh ones are gone. 

A month later, I checked the onions in the cool storage room and found about 10 that needed using or preserving right away. I decided to make onion powder out of these. 

Over the weekend, I washed, peeled and began to chop the 6 largest onions. As I chopped the onions, I filled my dehydrator trays. One mistake I made was to dice the first 3 onions. After loading the trays and moving them to the dehydrator, I realized that the onion dices were falling through the openings in the tray. For the next 3 onions, I quarter sliced them, hoping fewer pieces would fall through the slots.

Anyway, the onion dices are now dry and the slices are soon to be dry.  I will finishing drying the slices in the oven to speed things along.

I decided to just do the dices in the oven along with the slices. Here's what a large jelly roll pan of 6 large onions, mostly dried, looks like.

Oh my goodness! I was taking care of something else and was smelling something really, really yummy coming from the kitchen. I had turned the oven up to 225 F after a few minutes at 200 F. I overdid the onions a bit! They're browned but not burned, thankfully. When I dry onions again, I'll make sure to not leave the kitchen and set a timer!

We make mistakes, and then we learn.

After sifting through the dried onions for pieces that felt not-quite dried (setting aside to add to the green bean casserole on Thursday),  I "powdered" the browned onions in my food processor. 

I'm telling myself I have gourmet onion powder. Anyone can go to the store and buy regular old white onion powder. Mine has been browned. Ha ha.

So you may be wondering why I went to the trouble to dry and powder onions. I like the depth of flavor you get when adding onion powder to a dish that already contains fresh onions. It's simply richer, in my opinion.

I find that in the fall I play catch-up with several different produce items. Apples always go soft and wrinkly long before we've used them all. I made applesauce with the soft ones a couple of weeks ago, leaving the better ones to use later. Pumpkins sooner or later develop soft spots, necessitating immediate processing. Those 3 large pumpkins I mentioned cooking and pureeing before my oral surgery? I didn't process those because I was being efficient and getting ahead of the game. No, I noticed soft spots on those 3 and absolutely had to cook them before I lost them altogether. These are the large, jack o'lantern pumpkins that I bought in late October.  I still have the remaining good 2 pumpkins in cool storage. I can wait to do something with those for another week or maybe two. Potatoes will also go wrinkly, soft, and begin to sprout at some point later in the fall or early winter. I will need to sort through those and use the worst of them in December. 

With the onions, while it would make for pleasant cooking experiences to just use the best looking ones right now, it makes for better stewardship of our supplies to use what will go bad first. I will use more and waste less by using food items in this order, worst condition first, best condition last.

My big chore is done for the day. I have a pumpkin and chicken soup cooking on the stove for dinner. And now I'm resting for the remainder of the afternoon. I went too long before taking more pain relievers and now I'm waiting for this dose to kick in. A piece of dark chocolate should help. 

Thanks for reading along. Enjoy the rest of your day and evening, friends!

It's been a rough road

Yesterday was the first day I felt remotely okay. Still I tired very easily and needed regular doses of Advil and Tylenol. I have swelling around both eyes (with lovely black and blue around each), so I've needed to limit my screen time, as well as bright lights. I'll see the oral surgeon in a couple of days for a follow-up.

The surgical experience was terrifying, as I told my daughter as we walked to the car immediately afterward. Both IV sedation and sleeping pill sedation were medically ruled out for me. My remaining option was laughing gas combined with lidocaine. Usually, lidocaine injections are prepared with epinephrine to extend the time of nerve-blocking effect. I'm allergic to epinephrine, so always have to remind dental professionals to leave it out (I remind them multiple times and ask if it's in my chart a couple of times too, just to be on the safe side). The end result is I need additional injections midway through any procedure, but it is up to me to speak up and tell them pain is returning.

So, they put the nitrous mask on me (laughing gas) and I begin taking deep breaths while the nurse does my blood draw. She must have thought the laughing gas was working for me, as I'm pretty relaxed during blood draws now. Shortly after, the oral surgeon came in and gave me 4 injections of lidocaine. As was mentioned in the comments a while ago, the palate side injections (into the roof of the mouth) are far more painful than the cheek side injections. I definitely flinched during those. 

At that time, I didn't realize that they usually begin with lower concentrations of nitrous in the nitrous/oxygen mix, then work up as necessary. I wish someone had explained this to me, that I needed to signal that I wanted more nitrous than I was getting. As a result, I felt no effect from the laughing gas, no relaxation, no nothing. I basically had the extraction and surgery with just lidocaine, and the whole thing was simply terrifying. The lidocaine wore off part way through, so I signaled for another injection. This was not how I had anticipated the procedure would go.

The pain came on quickly as we were driving home. What I realize now is I should have either requested one final lidocaine injection before leaving the surgical center or brought Advil and Tylenol with me to take in the parking lot as we drove away. All numbing had completely worn off by the time I got home, and pretty intense pain was setting in. I did get an rx for narcotic pain killers, but those didn't work out for me. I had an adverse breathing incident that lasted about 45 minutes after taking half of a tablet. I'm not sure if it's a true allergy or not, but I didn't want to take any more chances. I've been dosing with both Advil and Tylenol on a schedule since.

That's the end of this leg of the saga. I will need an additional surgery prior to post implant work. So, I will be working with my medical doctor and the oral surgeon to put together a better anesthesia plan for the surgery itself and pain management plan for post-surgery. What I went through this time was unacceptable at several junctures.

The people who were heroes in all of this

There have been some people who went above and beyond their job description for me during this period. 

Our local pharmacists have been absolute heroes. I've needed 3 prescriptions for antibiotics and 1 for pain killers. This is the busiest pharmacy I've ever encountered. The turn around time to get your prescription is always several hours out. When picking up my first prescription, I mentioned to the pharmacist that I had a bad tooth infection and couldn't wait for the antibiotics to kick in. She told me in the future, if I felt I needed the rx right away, to give them a call and they'd expedite mine. That's exactly what I did the other 3 times. The pain killer rx wasn't due to be ready for 3 more hours when my daughter called in for me. They had it ready in 15 minutes. I am thinking of how to thank them personally. I may bring a large box of See's over in December as a thank you.

The doctors at the walk-in clinic where I had to go twice to get prescriptions for antibiotics were kind, compassionate, and knowledgeable. The endodontist where I got an extra opinion at the very beginning was kind and took her time explaining what was going on in my mouth and sinus cavity. Sometimes you need to receive compassionate and informed care to see that what you've been getting is subpar. 

The phlebotomy techs at the lab where I now prefer to get my blood draws are very good. I barely bruised and was in and out quickly for each draw (in stark contrast to the blood draw done at the hospital one evening -- big lump on my arm the next day).

The nurse who attended to me during the surgery was kind, caring, provided additional and helpful information, and was the best at drawing blood I've ever had. The bruise after was so tiny.

You friends, who prayed for me or provided kind and compassionate words, are so valuable. I had days where I just felt like someone must've just prayed for me, as I would feel relief from pain or anxiety seemingly out of the blue. Thank you all.

Not to be minimized by mentioning them last -- my daughters and my husband have been my support system through all of this. They all came with me and sat in the waiting room, then once home brought me medications and food as I needed. They've done all of the cooking and chores, and tried to cheer me up, distract me, or just leave me in quiet when I needed that. They ran out to the store on a couple of occasions to pick up a special toothbrush and some soft foods. 

I feel grateful to have received so much kindness and compassion. It does make up for those times when things weren't going so well.

And now, I need to start getting ready for Thanksgiving. Today I'm baking 3 loaves of bread, one to use in bread and vegetable poultry stuffing/dressing. In the days leading up to the surgery, I baked up and pureed 3 large pumpkins, freezing them for pies. I also pre-made the pie pastry and lined 2 pie tins for the freezer, so pie-making should be quick. My daughters will be making 2 side dishes. I'll ask my son and daughter-in-law to bring whatever they'd like to have. And that just leaves the meat. We won't be doing turkey, as I don't want the hassle of dealing with the leftovers and carcass. Instead, we'll do a pre-marinated pork loin and a whole chicken for the meat portion. Our Thanksgiving dinner will be a simpler one this year.

How about you? Are you preparing for Thanksgiving? How has your life been these last couple of weeks? Thank you again for your kindness and patience. I should be back on track now. Wishing you all a lovely rest of your weekend.

p.s. I know several of you have been reading along in the Psalms with me. This was the one area of screen time that I took each day. I was surprised and blessed by these particular Psalms. So many days these were the words I needed to read. I hope they've been blessing you, too.

I'll be away from my blog for the rest of the week

My dental issues have reached a point where I need an emergency extraction this week, even without clearance from my doctor. I've had an infection for a week. I had to go to urgent care over the weekend to get a rx for antibiotics. Still in pain. Not my best week. Anyway, I won't be posting the rest of the week. But I'll check back in next week. In the meantime, please say a prayer for me. Thank you, friends.

I hope you all have a wonderful autumn weekend!

Update: My oral surgeon now says she can't get me in right away (like she had originally told me if things got bad) and I'm on a cancellation list. I'm now trying to find another reputable oral surgeon who could do the kind of specialized work I need sooner than 2 weeks out. (It's a little more than a simple extraction, it involves my sinus cavity, too.) For those of you praying, thank you.

Monday, Nov. 13 update. I'll be back near the end of this week. It's been a rough 2 weeks and I'm not very communicative right now. Thank you all for your continuing prayers and thoughts.

Happy Halloween!

I realize not everyone celebrates Halloween. So, if you don't, my wish for you is that you had a beautiful autumn day. I also realize that most of you will see this post tomorrow, after Halloween.

Gone are the days of helping my kids dress up in costumes. But then again, gone also are the days of freezing in the night air while I took the kids out into the neighborhood.

Here's our family's Halloween this year.

We get about 30 trick-or-treaters each year. This year's treats are a choice between individual packs of Circus Animal Cookies or mini containers of dinosaur slime.

Outside, by the door I've set up the fake pumpkins. Real pumpkins kept outdoors are a snack to the local squirrel population.

The real pumpkins are indoors on the dining room windowsill with my other fall decor. I bought 5 medium size jack-o-lanterns to supplement our homegrown small pumpkins. I likely won't carve a jack-o-lantern today, as that would mean I'd have to cook up the pumpkin tomorrow, and I don't have time for that this week.

We decided we'd each contribute something to tonight's dinner. One daughter is making hamburgers, another is making a batch of brownies, my husband is cutting up celery sticks, and I'm making broccoli with cheese sauce. Dinner will be tasty, and no one person has to do all of the work.

One of our family's traditions is to watch a movie while we wait for the trick-or-treaters. So we'll do dinner and a movie this evening.

Halloween wraps up around 8:30 in my neighborhood, so I will still get my early bedtime.

Wishing you all a lovely afternoon and evening. Be back tomorrow evening!

Herb & Parmesan Focaccia Recipe

When I make scratch pizza, stromboli, calzone, French/Italian bread or focaccia, I use this dough for the bread part. That recipe will make enough dough for 2 large pizzas. When I made focaccia last week for the 4 of us (yielding 2 large squares each), I made a half recipe, using:

3/4 cup lukewarm water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
3/4 teaspoon salt
1  1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 to 1 tablespoons oil (the oil tenderizes the dough, so if you like a chewier crust, use the lesser amount, and if you prefer a softer bread crust, use the greater)
about 2 cups of flour (half white, half wheat is my preference)

1) In a large mixing bowl pour water and sprinkle with yeast. Stir in salt and sugar.

2) Mix in 1 cup of flour and the oil.  Add remaining flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until the dough is just a tad bit soft still. If it's too stiff, it's difficult to stretch on the baking sheet.

3) Knead right in the bowl, for about 3-4 minutes. Allow to sit for about 40 minutes.

4) Grease your baking sheet.

5) Punch down dough. Stretch onto the prepared baking sheet.

Focaccia is more of a bread than a pizza crust. You'll want to press the dough out until about 1/2-inch thick all over, as opposed to stretching a pizza crust as thin as you can get it without tearing. Dimple the top of the crust with a fingertip.

6) Allow the pressed dough to rise at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Now for the topping part.

For the herb and Parmesan topping:

generous amounts of olive oil (see my notes below for saving on olive oil)

chopped fresh (or frozen) rosemary

crushed dried oregano

shaved Parmesan cheese

optional -- some folks add a sprinkling of coarse salt to the topping

optional -- you can add some freshly cracked black pepper, if desired

Preheat the oven to 405 degrees F.

After the dough has risen, drizzle it with olive oil. It will puddle in the dimples. Sprinkle with lots of the herbs. Shave generous amounts of Parmesan over the top. I use a vegetable peeler to shave block Parmesan. If Parmesan is not your thing, you could substitute some shredded mozzarella or provolone cheese.

Bake for about 16 to 18 minutes, until the focaccia is golden. Cut into sticks or squares.

Interesting, while the olive oil still sits in pools while baking, shortly after removing from the oven, the bread absorbs the oil. Delicious.

My method for stretching expensive olive oil -- I blend half and half olive oil with vegetable oil in a bottle kept in the pantry. This is what we use for salad dressings and cooking. When I really want the flavor of the olive oil to stand out, I will use undiluted olive oil.

My rosemary survives winter about half the time. During the summer months, I chop and freeze rosemary. In this focaccia, I didn't feel like chopping some fresh rosemary, instead I used frozen chopped rosemary. It keeps its flavor in freezing.

Buon appetito!