New years eve is always a special evening for us.
However through the years I do not think we have had two exactly the same.
In our first years as a couple we sometimes went to New Years parties or hosted parties or at other times had a very romantic evening at home just the two of us.
When we moved to Eugene in the early nineties we started a new tradition. We would go to a very elegant dinner downtown usually at the top of the Hilton or sometimes at another favorite restaurant adorned in our finest attire.
Then home for a decadent desert and more champagne to ring the New Year at Times Square via the telle.
I suppose my most favorite is staying home having a lovely dinner that we prepare together, good champagne, and an over the top desert and playing games listening to our favorite music until it is time for the countdown at Time's Square.
However in years past there have been several eve's that we have fallen asleep before the ball dropped.
This year is different again from last year where we went to my hubby's family for a rather large gathering.
Monday night will find us still in our decorated Christmas home with the table festive with a New Years motif. New Years eve's hats awaiting to be plopped on heads if desired.
We are having hubby's sis and husband, it will be just the four of us this year. We will sit down to a dinner of thick creamy clam chowder with crusty bread and Cesar salad. For desert I am making a rich dark chocolate pudding with whipped cream.
We will have champagne on hand and also a white table wine.
Games are in order as we four enjoy that. Then if we are not crashed at midnight we will watch the countdown.
So a simple night, uncomplicated in any way to usher in 2013.
I am having a lovely today. I had no need to rush getting up this morning so I slept in until eight AM. I slowly read the paper with two cups of coffee and one Christmas cookie. Then I came to office and read my e-mails and returned a couple and peeked at FB.
I tidy'd the house, showered, took a short walk and here I am. A relaxed and feel good day even though it is gray once again outdoors and it is cold, brrrr was all I could think while walking. I was happy to come through the front door and leave the chill behind.
We certainly enjoyed the wok veggies and rice last night. As I did not add any broth to the veggies last night tonight's leftovers will be morphed in a chop suey of sorts. I am going to boil spaghetti noodles, drain and add chicken broth to the veggies and serve over the hot noodles with soy sauce(our version) is Brag's amino acids soy an alternative that is so tasty without salt.
We have the Oregon State game to watch this afternoon. We are hoping that the Beavers do well. So we will be cheering on OSU. I even have on a orange and black shirt for the occasion.
Needless to say we are primed for our Oregon game with Kansas State on the 3rd. I certainly hope for my husband's sake we win that one. Or it will be grim state of affairs in this household to say the least!
I am off now to read for a while. My book is a page turner as they say. I will fix a cup of hot tea to enjoy while reading. I really like having a cup or so of tea in the afternoon. And I do take mine like the English with a bit of milk. My English grandmother would be so proud.
Have a nice Saturday.
I took this photo off the internet. I just looked up winter scenes. This photo is lovely and spiritual looking I think.
We had a very enjoyable Christmas and it was so grand having my son Mike here with us. So it was the three of us sharing stories, good food and drink and gifts. Also we three made plans to get together this coming month. My hubby and son want to make a snowmobile day trip up into the MT. Hood area. Mike lives out toward the mountain on the east side of Portland so it is not to terribly far for a snow outing. It is fun to plan. I will keep the home fires burning at my son's house and be cooking some comfort food for when they return from their little adventure.
So now that Christmas is over and the ham and the deserts are lacking luster and the needles are dropping off the Christmas tree into piles onto the hardwood floor I am ready for a change. I will leave the decor and tree up until the 1st of the year. Then as always all comes down and is carefully packed away for next year and the house is cleaned thoroughly. However I will continue to find needles for a week or so. How can you ever get every single needle? The trees when they go out the door create such a mess.
According to my hubby's work schedule we will work in a trip to my brother's in WA. state and to my son's as I mentioned also to my daughters and the beach. These small trips will occur throughout January and February. It is nice we have them to look forward to.
I am happy with the day. The gray clouds rolled away during the night as we woke to a cobalt sky with high fluffy marshmallow clouds spattered about.
I took a walk along the country road with the orchards bordering it's one side. There were many birds in the tree's singing their songs and making much chatter as well as the occasional crow swooping through with it's craggy caws. I rather enjoyed the cold air walking west as the breeze was coming straight at me so I arrived home with reddened cheeks and a very cold nose. Refreshing!
We went for Mexican food yesterday. What a booming place that eatery was. But the service and quality of food was as good as always. I loved my roasted chicken enchilada with jack cheese and tomatillo sauce rice and black beans. Hubby had a steak burrito with the works. Of course we brought food home I had the remainder for lunch today and hummed just as loud as yesterday. Such tasty food. We arrived home with full tummy's and a very tired bodies as the many days leading into Christmas were busy. So we were couch spuds as they say. We watched the movie. "It's all about the Curve." with Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams. It was a very entertaining movie we thought.
Tonight in my kitchen I am preparing for our dinner wok food. I went to a grocery store this morning that has the freshest lovely produce and picked up bok choy, bean sprouts, leeks, savory cabbage and carrots, celery and onions and water chestnuts. I will dice some pork loin and add that to the hot oiled wok first to stir fry with fresh ginger and pepper. Then I will remove that from the wok and set aside. Then into the pork drippings I will add the sliced up veggies and a drizzle or so of toasted sesame oil, the chicken I set aside and toss and stir in the hot wok till all is crisp tender. I am making sticky Cal Rose short grain rice that I will serve the veggies and chicken over. Sounds about perfect to me. Truthfully I want a change from meat. The remainder of the ham will be morphed into ham and navy bean soup with the addition of corn muffins with honey butter in a day or so.
Well that is about all for today. I have a book to read. Yes my husband and I stopped by my book place when we went for Mexican food so I could buy a couple of books. I was going through withdrawal. I am a happy woman being back in book world.
Ciao
I wrapped the gifts for my hubby and son yesterday morning. Now they are tucked under the tree awaiting tomorrow morning.
My son Mike will be here early Christmas day. We are looking so forward to having him.
We thought he may come for tonight's little Christmas Eve celebration but it will just be the two of us which is usually the norm.
I am following through with what I planned. Flat iron steaks in the black iron skillet and a mixed green salad with my mother's blue cheese dressing and baked potatoes with the works.
After the flat iron steak has set with little pats of butter topping under a piece of foil for ten minutes, I slice it thin and stack it beside the salad. It is so heavenly dunked in that blue cheese dressing.
I have a nice bottle of wine we will share. Then we will settle down and watch "It's a Wonderful Life" for the millionth time.
Last night we watched "Christmas with the Krank's."
It is a silly Christmas show with Jamie lee Curtis and Tim Allen. We like both of them so it is always enjoyable to us.
My husband will be home around two today and will wrap his gifts for me. Wrap is a stretch He plops them into a gift bag and grabs a handful of tissue to cover the items with. Oh well better than his wrapping believe that is not pretty site.
I am down to making the apple galette and another quart of applesauce today and the Irish cream. So am on my way to being done.
It is gray here today but no rain is called for. Tomorrow however it is to rain and rain and rain all day. So we will have a merry little soggy Christmas.
The chicken noodle soup I threw together last night was very tasty. My hubby said to me, how can just grab this and that and toss it in the pot and it taste this good? Anyhow it certainly warmed us body and soul. I will have another bowl for lunch today. That is the good thing about soup it always taste better the next day as all the flavors meld even more together.
I woke early this morning. For me there is always a sense of wonderment and excitement on Christmas Eve day. I am like a little child in that respect. I do love it. I put the coffee to brew first thing and then turned on all the Christmas lights and started the Christmas music. My husband was laughing at me it was 6:00 AM and dark windows faced us and here I excited as a elf.
I will leave you now on this Christmas Eve day and get into my kitchen and finish my baking.
Have a good Christmas Eve day. There is always something to be thankful for and I tend to look toward those things this time of year.
When I awoke this morning I was thinking how thankful I was to have a very cozy warm bed. So many of the homeless and less fortunate are in tents, make shift shelters and what have you. I cannot imagine how cold and grim that must be especially this time of year.
I so wish everyone could be warm and have a home.
Blessings.
The rush is on to get the rum cake made. The photo is of last year's cake. It will look the same this year so why take a new photo when there is no time.
I should not even be posting today but my fingers are flying across the keyboard I will be quick.
I raced to the store this morning for a few fresh things for the Christmas table, now back to tidy the house. The kitchen counter is an array of gift wrap, bows, ribbons and tape awaiting the purchases I need to snatch from their hiding spaces to turn into gifts.
Hubby will be home a little earlier today so I must make haste in wrapping his gifts.
Then on to Rum cake and the prepping of other Christmas delights.
For dinner tonight I grabbed some chicken pieces from the freezer. I think there are a couple of thigh's and drumsticks so I will throw them in the red soup pot to boil away and then pick the meat off their little bones. Saute some celery onions and carrots in some olive oil and butter toss in some fresh herbs add the boned chicken back into the pot and top off with chicken broth and more seasonings. At the end I will add a handful of noodles. Yahoo dinner is made! Two crispy chabata rolls will round out the meal.
It is so dark today. But my mood is bright. The house is cozy with Christmas lights burning and Christmas music playing. I have cinnamon wax scent in my scentsy pot. The house surely embraces the holiday spirit.
So off I go to wrap gifts and then on the to the baking list.
Hope you are having a sunny Sunday where you are if not you can make a sunny mood!
Well now seems I can make pizza. That makes me very happy indeed. I had problems in the past with my crust so I kind of gave up on myself....but I'm back!
This crust is yeasty and very crispy. And my kitchen Aid mixer did not beat me up. The whole affair was very simple and quick.
I made the sauce from scratch also. Everything was yummy and as you can see I made a huge pie. Next time I think I will half the recipe. We do not need this much pizza. However a cold piece of that pie would be quite tasty right now.
I just finished the Christmas cookies the kitchen is still a mess. I only frosted a dozen and a half and I just made a thin vanilla glaze to coat them. I think the less the better when it comes to cookie frosting. Do not know that hubby will agree.
I thought I would get to gift wrapping today but the day is slipping away and I am working slowly now after being on my feet for a good deal of time today. My back is starting to let me down and has been for the past hour. That is why this break to blog as the kitchen sits in all it's messiness.
I have a few more things to attend to however so sitting here is not accomplishing what needs done.
Have a nice weekend. I will probably post something tomorrow but may be short as my time for attending to Christmas matters is ticking away.
Have a Merry day.
I am making pizza this evening. For the first time I will use my dough hook on my Kitchen Aid mixer. I have had my mixer for about three years and have yet to try kneading dough in this manner.
So homemade pizza crust with some wonderful toppings sounds about perfect tonight.
So we are still here on this earth today. Makes me a happy woman. Not that I felt anything was going to happen but who can say for sure.
Now I can concentrate on Christmas preparations.
Today I am making up the dough for my Granny's Christmas cookies. As they are rolled cookies and the dough needs to be chilled I will wrap the dough in plastic wrap and tuck in the fridge and make them tomorrow.
Over the weekend then I will make the rum cake and apple galette's. Hubby told me wants the galette's instead of a deep dish apple pie so I will oblige him even though I will need to make two as they are small.
I have also decided to make my Bailey's Irish cream. My son adores this stuff in his coffee. So I will make a fifth for him to take home and a fifth to indulge in here at the house.
Well guess what the weather is like Eugene Oregon today? Do you think it is same ol? You are so right. How many times can I go on to describe, grim, gray, wet, gloomy and chilly? However there is nothing I can do about it at least it is not freezing cold with thigh deep snow and high winds like the east coast is getting today.
What foul weather they have in that part of the country. It seems they are always dealing with something or other. No thanks.
This is crazy but I am antsy today as I finished my last book yesterday and thought I had another stashed away to read, but there is none.......makes me sad. So I looked through my bookcase which holds many books but could not find one I could reread that I would not remember at least parts of it. So now what? I do not know when I will get back over to where I get my books at this point either. So that means I will have to go cold turkey for a week without a read! Don't know that I can do that.
I will let you know tomorrow about my experience with the dough hook and pizza dough. Could be interesting.
I remember one time a friend had given me a pasta machine. So I set my new machine up reading all the instructions and assembled my ingredients. I put the dough in the machine and as the dough started to form it flew out of the top of the container and wads of dough shot about the kitchen like baseballs and rained down on me. I was afraid for my life before I got it shut off.
I am not a gadget or machine person usually preferring to use my own hands. So I am a little hesitant to try the dough hook, who knows what could happen.
We have watched two Christmas shows so far. The first, Charlie Browns Christmas Tree. Remember that old classic? We enjoyed it.
Then last night we watched the CMA Christmas show. It was really good. Our favorite folks are Band Perry a very talented trio of two brothers and their sister and her voice is amazing. Also Little Big Town are an extremely talented foursome. They sing so beautifully their voices just melding perfectly together. But I have to say the star of the evening was Jennifer Nettles. She is nine months pregnant ready to give birth at any moment and there she is in all of her huge baby bump glory singing her heart out with that incredible voice of hers. She did an excellent job of being the MC for the evening.
Well off to make cookie dough and then perhaps a hot buttered rum. Seems I am a little chilled today.
Only four days till Christmas.
I best make haste.
So here we are once more. The end of the world at 3:11 PST 12/21/2012? I wrote yesterday regarding this event.
I for one will be relieved when tomorrow is over. I am tired of hearing about it as it keeps one on edge even though you may not recognize that it does so.
For one thing in our lives we take everything on faith as we know so little.
We are here on this planet we know that, but we do not know where we came from, or where we are going if anywhere when we die. Everyone, every religion, every seeker of truth and culture has an idea but no one knows totally for sure. So we rely on our faith and really do not think about it much as we are so caught up in our daily lives.
So when something like this comes up it does make you think. There are certainly enough scenario's that have been talked about so take your pick. Or pick none of them and choose your own.
Have you ever thought, how did the Mayan culture get so smart as to know the cosmos's so well? They were mathematical genus's. Where did that kind of intelligence come from in that day in age? Everyone else was living like cavemen and knew very little. These people were Indians living in the jungles but yet they knew almost as much as our greatest physicist and scientist know today about the universe. How could they be so knowledgeable unless someone who did know instructed them. Anyhow something to wonder about.
My mind does not let these kinds of questions rest as I want to know the answers. I have always been a seeker of truth. That is what is called an agnostic. I am however am a Christian agnostic. Meaning a seeker of truth but one that believes in God. I know we have a soul and that soul does not die.I have my reasons for truly believing this as I had an experience that made this fact very clear to me.
So I am comfortable with death and do not fear it though I do not want to die as long as I am enjoying life and healthy I want to stay with my loved ones as long as possible.
I have idea's about what happens when a soul crosses over into another dimension but there again it is just an idea as we do not know for sure. All is taken on faith and our own reality.
So the talk goes in circles and nothing is ever established in fact. So I will leave this subject and hope to be here tomorrow on my keyboard typing away but if not well look for me elsewhere.......I will be around.
Blessings.
