The week leading up to Christmas and beyond

(This post might be a bit long because.....) Busy times all around what with picking up a few smallish gifts/treats, getting everything wrapped, decorating and figuring out how to fit in all our favorite foods throughout the days before Christmas. I do love this time of year, not only because of the spiritual aspects of the season, but also because it seems like many people are on their best behavior, using small acts of kindness to spread the good cheer around.

Let's start with a southern favorite - collards. I was in Walmart the other day and spotted a great looking double bunch of collards for a very good price and I was not to be denied! I got them cleaned up and cooked one day then let them develop their flavor overnight. The next day we had the collards with BBQ chicken quarters, half a sweet potato and cornbread. I forgot to take a picture but it was pretty & yummy. Here's a shot of the greens though.

Totally worth the effort, probably 5 meals worth
for the 2 of us to pair up with pork chops or ham.

Don't forget about the pizza, also a big time favorite and easy to throw together after a busy day.

I participated in a Christmas Brunch & Cookie Exchange on the 14th which was wonderful and rather low key with about 9 of us. Definitely less noisy and chaotic than last year with 20+. It's always a treat to spend time with ladies; neighborhood ladies, lady friends of ladies. I don't get enough of that now that I'm practically a recluse at times, lol. (Self-imposed I must add, I like my solitude quite a bit.) Anyways the Peppermint Crunch Chocolate chip & pecan cookies were a hit.

I don't do too terribly much decorating these days but I did get my mantle fixed and the tree(s) up. That was fun! We had 4 up; the micro tree I made from coat hangers last year went on the fireplace hearth, the fiber-optic mini goes in the dining room, another small tree on a table in the craft room and the 4' tree in the Florida room where all the festivities take place, and viewable by the neighbors across the lake.

Micro tree on hearth - so cute.

Mini fiber-optic tree in dining room

Craft room tree with some tiny
bobby-dazzlers for ornaments

Florida Room tree where the gifts
end up and our big meal is served.

Anyway, after that was all taken care of, I turned my attention to the treats I was taking to our neighborhood Christmas Dinner Potluck. I wanted to bring some gluten-free cookies and some regular ones, so first were the Pecan Pie mini muffins. I used 1 to 1 GF flour for these and they turned out just great. The recipe is on the Food page just below the header photo. So-o good. 

Pecan pie mini muffins. I made a 1 & a half batch and got about 50.

I also tried Peanut butter cornflake cookies with a few butterscotch chips in them - very addictive! Lastly were the Chocolate Brownie Peppermint macaroon bars, to die for - so moist with the brownie layer then a coconut, pecan and peppermint crunch macaroon layer on top. Several extra's went into the freezer for later, 😉. The Potluck was very nice. Lovely decorations, a nice turn-out and super good home-cooked food.

We have a wonderful neighbor that owns this great meeting hall
and she graciously allows us to use it at various times.

Merry Christmas! It's finally here, and what a beautiful start to the day, thanks Ed for capturing it.

Christmas morning, what a beauty. Crisp and cool too.

First things first, the gift giving, ahem, right after breakfast I mean, lol. Lots of fun stuff, cool tee-shirts from various Nat'l Pks for him, a dream interpretation book for me (what do those lost-in-the-airport dreams mean?!), a great new purse, and a slingshot for me!, a gorgeous framed pic of St. John's USVI featuring Trunk Bay for him, and some other odds/ends.

He's always been like this! Gotta love him.

My goodies.

Finally time for our Christmas dinner prep. We went with a Cornish hen again this year, as it's the right size to have for 2 special dinners, one on Christmas and one a few days later. This is our 50th Christmas together - YAY!

The hens, cut in half, with root vegetables
 to join the rest; cornbread dressing, rice and gravy.

The table got dressed, the Saraceni Blumond sparkling wine got chilled and around 2:30 dinner was served. So thankful to our Father for all our many Blessings.

We were going to get into the fruitcake that's been mellowing for a few weeks with our hot tea later, but were too full to partake. Dinner was MM-MM-good.

And as if that wasn't enough, I got my first video call (through FB messenger) from my gorgeous niece and nephew & his family from California. So wonderful to actually see everyone. It's been 20 yrs (I think) since we last met up in person, but we made some plans for a Colorado visit next summer. I sure hope it comes to fruition in some way, shape or form!! ❣️

Counter clockwise, beautiful Nicki, her brother Joe behind her, and his extended
family ending with his wife Deia and her Mom, visiting from Brasil.

That was so cool! A great way to end a wonderful Christmas. Thanks for coming along for the ride. I hope your Holidays were just as special wherever you were. Wishing you a Happy, Safe and Blessed New Year.

Early December; baking, visiting, craft projects.

 We're still finding plenty to do around here, between cleaning & organizing, crafts and sewing, computer maintenance and various cooking endeavors we stay busy. Busy is happy!

We seemed to have moved into our winter weather pattern, a bit gloomy at times but nice temps around 70°. Windows and doors opened for a big swath of the day.

The other day the Boss got busy on the windows and screens of the florida room, which run the whole width of the house. Thank you Honey!

He does a *much* better job than me - very thorough.

Meanwhile I did something for him (and me), I baked a fruitcake. Some people might groan but we love fruitcake, loaded with pecans, raisins and candied peel.  We split a slice with our hot tea after dinner & it can't be beat. 

I have more baking plans but this had to be done early so I could season it properly with bourbon before it's debut in a couple or 3 weeks.

An easy recipe which turns out beautifully
each time. You can find it on the 
svdreamtime.com recipe page if 
you are interested in checking it out.

I also managed to (finally) have a lunch meet-up with Nancy, a friend from cruising. We went to a deli/butcher shop, which turned out to be very popular with the lunch crowd, deservedly so. Saw this amusing "old-timey" sign when in line to order. We found a nice table out in their outside dining area and chatted away.

We joked about them needing another sign about using "inside voices" as some rowdy car salesmen were "conversing" (shouting) with each other, a little decorum guys.

I found a good price on ham shanks and bought one a couple of weeks back. Doubled down on collard greens too and had quite a feast on that, with lots of yummy leftovers.

Sliced ham ready to be bagged up and put in the freezer.

Collards and cornbread can't be beat. I sauté onions, chopped ham or ham hock in olive oil, add fresh minced garlic, chipotle sauce and chicken stock (1 C), then add the washed and chopped collards to the pot and let it simmer for a few hours. So good, and good for you too.

Mincing garlic has always bugged me. I've never found a garlic press that worked for me - until now, that is.. I love it.

I keep the peeled garlic cloves in the freezer, then 
do the rock-a-bye thing on them to get the above result.
So easy and quite an easy clean up too.

Got a few decorations out and set up our 2 small trees plus made up a couple of floral decorations too. It was fun. Here's a small countertop lighted vase that I put onto the kitchen counter. So pretty lit up at night.

Next blog I'll do a bit more show and tell on the outside decorations and on my newest sewing obsession.  Meanwhile, here's a shot of some of the fabric I will be using.

Wonder what I've got in mind?? We'll see.

On the computer repair front, the Boss was having some power issues with his 'vintage' HP. Since the battery was shot and was generating a CMOS error during boot, we ordered a replacement, then proceeded with making sure we had a good recovery usb and backup.  The next step was popping the skins and making the swap. I was nervous as I hadn't done any hardware maintenance on a laptop in a long time. I got started and got-er-done.

Pretty daunting, but knowing we had a new Dell on order helped
alleviate the jitters. I was so nervous I had to close the door to my work
room. I work well under pressure, just not so much with an audience.

That's it for this addition, thanks for stopping by, and we'll see you next time.
 

Homeward bound

 Sorry this blog is long overdue, but we got very busy at the end of Sept and we're still playing catch-up.  And so it went, the buttoning up of Rocky, our summer abode, and then on the road heading back to Florida and our forever home, where the cleaning, unpacking and organizing is still in progress.  The trip is about 1900 miles and usually requires 4 overnights. We take the 1st night in Fort Collins because by the time every little thing is done, all we want to do is drive down the canyon (45 miles of twisty, slow-going road), shower, eat and crash.  This year we took an extra night so that we only had a short 3-4 hour final leg before rolling into town. This gave us a few hours to work on opening the house up, get the water & fridge turned on, the place aired out, do a small shop and get squared away throughout the afternoon and evening.

The last week out west was pretty busy, and most especially the last couple of days before leaving. We had several boxes with canned/boxed foodstuffs that couldn't go into the car until the last minute for fear of bear activity, so our other "bring-backs" got piled up here and there inside the rig. In our down time, we watched the turkeys enjoy themselves around the park and up on the fence next door to us.

These turkey's got to where they liked sitting up on the fence and preening.
They would come into our park to browse for bugs, then fly up and preen,
then jump down to the property next door which is largely undeveloped.

One day while up at the laundry room I was sitting outside on the phone talking to my sister and I watched this squirrel stock up on pinecones. He'd race across the driveway and up the pine tree, pick out a likely pinecone, and with it in his teeth, race back to the shed and into his entry hole to stash it. I guess his eyes were bigger than his entry point! These cones got stuck and he couldn't get them inside, lol.

Not the best shot but here he is.

And so it began, the long drive back home, first through the diminishing hills of Colorado, and into the huge stretch of agricultural land in the mid-west.

I often wonder exactly what is being grown, sometimes
it's pretty obvious but other times it keeps me guessing.

 As we made our way through the Missouri/Tenn territories we found a few roads with light traffic - what a treat! Driving through big cities, even on the bypasses really taxes the patience of my DH.

Made it home in one piece, and a couple days afterwards, started the big cooking projects, which is fun for me!! 😀  A visit to my handy Publix for a ready-made pizza crust, got a pie made up for supper one night. I always keep on hand the fixings for pizza, it's an easy fix up.

Before the stint in the oven.

One of my first priorities is always to make up some of the dishes that I haven't made over the summer and get them stashed in the freezer for easy, delicious meals on those days I'm not feeling it. The ground beef, black beans and rice filling for stuffed peppers and burritos is a bit time-consuming, (the meat is fully cooked), but so worthwhile. I add plenty of onions, mushrooms and corn plus all the taco-type seasonings that "Tex-Mex" it up, Hatch chilies too. They aren't super spicy, just flavorful. Here's what I ended up with; 3 sets of stuffed peppers, (we ate one set), and 6 burritos. Yum in advance.

With a few tortilla chips these are a favorite. They freeze well
and reheat easily in a covered frying pan, a low oven or the microwave.

I pop these into a covered frying pan, nestled in a "dirty rice"
mixture, pour on some salsa and sharp cheddar, cover them and
let them heat over a low burner for a half hour or so, again more chips.

One of the veggies I love, LOVE most is collards, and you can get a big bunch, cook them and end up with some for the freezer. This time I used a big bunch of turnip greens and a big bunch of collards. Add a ham hock, sauteed onions & garlic, some chipotle sauce and homemade stock and you've got greens to die for, for days! I got 6, 4-serving batches, 5 of which went into the freezer. 😋

Still mopping, polishing and doing laundry, not to mention clearing up our overgrown, weed-infested palm tree beds, but early morning sunrises like this are truly something to be enjoyed with your sweetie and a cup of coffee.

Thanks for checking in, see you the next time.