Santa Visits the Neighborhood

   

       Multiple sirens sounded loudly on the next block last night and we despaired for whatever household might be experiencing a fire during the pre-holiday season. However, the din stopped and started several times and we realized that it must be the local fire department transporting Santa Claus on his yearly neighborhood visit (each night a different neighborhood in the city is targeted for merriment). The dinner hour had just passed so most families were at home; children and adults poured out of front doors into the unseasonably balmy air to greet the jolly fellow, receive a candy cane and perhaps pose for a quick photo before he moved on. Altogether a welcome surprise and a lovely custom of our city.

Hangin' Kitty

     Even while resting, Little Miss Molly has a penchant for "hanging around".

Christmas Cookies All Wrapped Up

     Christmas baking starts a day or two after Thanksgiving at my house when leftover cranberry relish is incorporated into a nutbread batter and baked in tin cans. The breads are wrapped well and placed in the deep freezer, where they are soon joined by mini loaves of Christmas Bread (essentially banana nut bread brightened with maraschino cherries and semisweet chocolate chips). Cream cheese spritz cookies and cutout sugar cookies are baked and added to the freezer in mid December, and finally, chocolate covered mounds cookies are formed, dipped and stored in the very back of the refrigerator. The sugar cookies are iced and decorated on the night before the trays are assembled. The final product is a festive array of holiday treats.

     Daughter-in-law (the school teacher) requests three cookie trays in lieu of a Christmas gift and I am happy to comply. Double batches are not that much more work and she is thrilled to bring the trays to share with various groups at school. This year I've discovered Press'n'Seal, which adheres to the platters and helps keep the cookies in place. While not as pretty (transparent) as clingy plastic wrap, I am a staunch convert to the newer product.

Mounds Cookies for Christmas

    

      Pictured here from start to finish, these holiday cookies are as tempting as the candy for which they are named. The several steps necessary for making them demands a couple of hours but can be split into two sessions. The stiff dough of confectioners sugar, condensed milk, butter, pecans and coconut was mixed and shaped into balls in the morning. Refrigerated till early afternoon, they were then ready to be dipped into semisweet chocolate melted in the top of a double boiler, with a half-cake of paraffin added for shine. In order to have enough of these Mounds Balls for several planned cookie trays, it was extremely important to make these on a day with no kitchen visitors (to prevent subtle thieving, of course!)

Christmas Almanac

     This little gem is a compilation of all things Christmas, and it's the kind of book that can be read at intervals - you can put it down and easily pick it up later. It is chock full of stories, customs, history, recipes, and all sorts of helpful tips. All of these tidbits are presented in an appealing format, with modern merry-making interspersed with venerable traditions. Perhaps the most delightful thing about the book, however, is the manner of illustration. Vintage pictures and artwork create a fanciful, nostalgic atmosphere. A few minutes with the Almanac in hand is a transport into a simple yet magical holiday realm.

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Eggs Anyone?

     Are brown eggs healthier than white? While the food industry encourages this consumer belief, according to the Egg Nutrition Center in Washington, D.C., one color egg is not more nutritious or more flavorful than another. Possibly brown eggs cost more because the chickens that produce them are costlier to maintain. Cultural differences have long dictated the use of brown or white eggs, for example brown are more popular in the United Kingdom and white in the United States.

     In our house, Pop prefers brown and I use white because they are cheaper (and I discern no difference in taste). However I do think the two together provide a lovely picture of contrast.

Doughnuts on a String

     The girls have grown up quite a bit since this day at the farm but still giggle with pleasure upon remembering the fun - a beautiful autumn day and a simple, old-fashioned game of doughnuts on a string...

Thanks for Cranberry Tea

     Thanksgiving is, of course, a day set aside to give thanks. It is also a time to celebrate food. While our grocery stores and markets offer endless foodstuffs on a daily basis, they take on a different personality in November - warmer, cozier and perhaps a little closer to our roots. An emphasis is placed on traditions and cooking from scratch therefore natural, unrefined products such as whole vegetables and poultry take center stage. Even the most commercialized chain stores resemble a country market at harvest time.

                                                                                              Cranberry relish is a refreshing Thanksgiving staple at our house. Made from chopped fresh berries and an orange, its tartness is tempered with a little sugar. However, last year I was introduced to cranberry tea and it has become a real favorite not just for the holiday, but for the whole winter season. The berries are simmered in water, then the juice of a lemon and an orange are added, along with some sugar, cinnamon and cloves. After steeping and straining, the tea can be served hot in a mug (wonderful on a wintry afternoon - a crockpot for serving if a crowd is present). The tea is equally appealing poured cold and garnished with a citrus slice and if one is inclined, a splash of rum converts the pretty garnet beverage into a sparkling cocktail!

Elk

     Elk are familiar to me only as part of the motif for Northwoods style home decor. They are one of North America's largest land mammals and are native to my Midwest home (but were largely gone by 1865), so I was prompted by the news recently to become a little more intimate with the creatures. It seems that St. Louis County is experiencing a shortage of funds and has to make budget cuts. A proposal was made to close several parks, one of which was Lone Elk, a wildlife preservation area that is home to bison, deer, elk. waterfowl and turkey. While there has been a great public clamor against the idea, I felt a predispositon to visit the park, perhaps for the last time  if funding does not become available.

     This bull and one of his harem (there were three other females not far away) were quite unperturbed by our presence. Although shot with a 250mm zoom, they were nonetheless very close to our car. And when papa elk stood up to stretch and stared right at me, I was glad to have followed the rules posted at the park entrance, "Elk Rutting Season - Please Remain in Vehicle at All Times!" He was a magnificent creature.

The Old Farmhouse

     Our part of St. Louis county was originally a combination of forest and fertile farmland. The explosion of suburbs that began in the 1950s has reached the northern county limits, with the rare exception of the remnants of a family farm here or there. The farmhouse pictured here still  retains several outbuildings, but no other vestige of the constant activity that transpired for a lifetime or two. There are no furrowed fields or chickens scratching in the dirt. There is no flapping clothesline and the pump is rusted from disuse. But saddest of all, and more evident when the trees are bare, is the state of the poor house - it is slowly sinking in the center, and its appearance is almost cartoon-like. The graying clapboard siding, the screened porch, the window and the green door all remain intact, just slightly askew. I love this reminder of another life and time, but mourn its slow demise.

Apples to Applesauce (with or without long peelings)

     According to Guinness World Records: “The record for the longest unbroken apple peeling is held by Kathy Walfer (USA) who peeled an apple in 11 hours 30 minutes with a peel length of 52.51m, 172ft 4in, at Long Ridge Mall, Rochester, New York on 16 October 1976”.

     My great-aunt  always said that an unbroken apple peeling is a sign of a good cook. My apple peelings don't get too long because I am always popping pieces in my mouth (or someone else's). I have an apple corer-peeler-slicer that's been used a few times but it's cumbersome to use, a nuisance to clean and the slices are too thin for my taste, so I prefer to use a good knife instead, and in the end, the same amount of time is probably used. Plus I can sit on the back porch or in the tv room while peeling.

     A bowl of peeled Golden Delicious apples soon becames a pan of chunky slices on the stove which soon becomes a bowl of applesauce. Very lightly sweetened and spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and a dash of cloves, the applesauce is good either warm or cold, and doesn't last very long!

Cherry Tomatoes - A Late Harvest

     Cutting up and pulling out tomato plants at the end of the growing season is not a task I relish - the vines are scratchy, smelly and clingy. But as I hacked at the outer stems, removing them to a bin, I found a hidden bounty. Perhaps because we haven't been hit with a really hard frost yet and because they were protected by a tangle of vines and leaves, dozens of large clusters of Sweet Million cherry tomatoes remained to be harvested. This welcome yield enhanced my chore and I filled two large bowls with the fruit, which ranged evenly from firm and unripened to juicy and ripe. The green fellows were chopped and cooked with onions, sugar, spices and vinegar, and the result was a sweet tart relish to store in the refrigerator.

Some of the perfect red specimens were saved for salads and the rest were sliced for drying. The halves were placed on a parchment-lined pan, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with a little salt.

With the oven set at 200 degrees, the tomatoes took about eight hours to dry. After nibbling several (to make sure they were done, of course), I placed them in an airtight container in the refrigerator. In a week or two, they will be a wonderful chewy addition to an artisan bread, asiago perhaps, or a simple pasta entree.

Snow Dog or Leaf Dog?

     A husky is quite at home in snow but at this time of year Nikki must make do with a leafy carpet instead. He has been known to scratch the leaves away, and sometimes the grass, to make an earthen bed in which to recline, but on this day he just stretched out and appeared content enough to rest atop, or rather, among all of the scraps of autumn.

Autumn Trail Ride

     An outing to the stable several years ago provided me with one of my favorite fall photos. It is not a gorgeous display of color or landscape but rather a study of details: the patient plodding horses and their contented passengers, the rough craggy surface of the limestone wall, the scattered leaf piles on the gravel road, and the filtered sunlight dappling all. Also interesting, and serving to highlight the very busy foreground, are the hazy forested hillsides in the distance which disappear into a faint horizon.

Vampires and Pinwheels

     Now it is November but Halloween images still haunt my house (at least until Saturday when I can put them all away!) The last story of vampires was read yesterday and feted with pinwheel cookies. Orange and chocolate dough provided the appropriate colors. Rolled out and rolled up, the buttery log of dough was refrigerated for a few hours, then sliced thin and baked. The cookies were melt-in-your-mouth tender - no milk (or fangs) needed!

A Frightfully Delightful Halloween

     Newly carved, this  unconventional but very simple Jack-o-Lantern is lit with a votive candle and ready to greet trick-or-treaters.  Placing the plastic spiders atop the pumpkin did not bother me but looking at the photo is slightly unnerving. Spiders are my nemesis, the only creature on earth that scares me, so I understand the dismay on Jack's face!

Entering My Haunt

     Nothing in the front of my home screams of a modern Halloween - no inflatable monsters or robotic zombies. Rather I prefer strategically placed suggestions of All Hallows Eve, the dead and their spirits (all in good fun, of course), like the small tombstone rising alone among the shrubs and plants at the beginning of the front walk.

     A little further along the walk, a bleached skull rests among the dead leaves and the last struggling flowers of the season. One immediatedly wonders where the rest of the skeletal remains lie.

     And lastly on the front porch next to the door is an ordinary potted fern on an iron stand. But wait, what dwells beneath the fronds? A menacing blackbird, perched on the top half of another skull, peers at visitors and guards his haunt. Perhaps I have been inspired by historian Steven Loud's interepretation of the holiday - the festival of Samhain, meaning Summer's End, was by far the most important of the four quarter days in the medieval Irish calendar, and there was a sense that this was the time of year when the physical and supernatural worlds were closest and magical things could happen...

Felt Fellows for Halloween

     These retro Jack-O-Lanterns were fun to make (and small enough to be easily portable for moments snatched from lunch hour). Each was easy to cut and assemble with a few basic embroidery stitches, including a blanket stitch for the outline and french knots for the eyes. I remember working with felt as a child - simple projects and ornaments - so this enterprise was nostalgic and somewhat comforting. Pop even admired the tallest pumpkin's smile, pictured below.



BIG Pumpkins

     A big pile of big pumpkins is put in perspective by adding a little girl to the scene. No problem here -navigating the pile is fun - an orange obstacle course!

c. 2005

"and it was all yellow"

     The lyrics to a Cold Play song came to mind last week when I looked up into an ash tree in the back yard. The sunlight filtering through the boughs rendered the color even more brilliant. When viewed from another direction (below), the yellow ash leaves were remarkable in their contrast to the silver maple just beyond, which was still cloaked in green. Interesting changes and beautiful surprises appear almost daily during autumn's tenure.

Cupcakes with Caramel Apple Frosting

     Boss's Day coincides with apple season so these cupcakes were a no-brainer. A quart of apple butter in the refrigerator was begging for some use other than biscuits or toast, so I combined and adapted a couple of recipes and the result was Caramel Apple Frosting. Cooked butter and brown sugar provided the caramel aspect, and then the apple butter, cinnamon, milk and confectioners sugar were stirred in. The cupcakes were simply homemade vanilla, a good foil for the flavorful frosting. The cakes were pretty on a red serving plate with a fall theme and the boss loved them!

(Didn't notice Miss Molly inching into the photo shoot till her inquisitive little nose was over the plate! Hmm maybe she thinks she's the boss.)

Sharing a Cool One

    Newest little neighbor, Makayla, and nosey husky, Nikki, have had a cautious relationship even with a fence between them. (Children, and some adults, are quick to ask if he is a wolf, or if he bites - we forget that his looks may be intimidating because his nature is so sweet.) Anyway, on a recent warm day, Nikki was interested in Makayla's drink and I explained to her how to share it with him by drawing water into the straw and then ejecting it. Whether he was really thirsty or just enjoyed the game is debatable, but Makayla got quite a kick out of the exchange and of her new-found friendship with Nikki.

Adventures with Sourdough - Pretzels

     The sourdough starter was ready and waiting, but we didn't need any bread or rolls today. Our St. Louis Cardinals will play in Game One of the World Series tonight however, so pretzels seemed to be a good choice - a snack for the seventh-inning stretch. After the dough was mixed, kneaded and proofed, we formed the pretzels and dropped them into boiling water, thirty seconds on each side. Placed on an oiled cookie sheet, the pretzels were then sprinkled with coarse salt and baked in a hot oven. They turned out quite lovely - crusty brown with a soft interior, and best warm from the oven. The signature sourdough essence added an interesting punch of flavor, and served with a dip of melted cheddar cheese, these chewy fellows were pronounced a hit!

Mums - Overnight Sensation

     Sunsets and thunderstorms are magnificent flourishes of nature but sometimes the smaller displays are just as miraculous. This chrysanthemum resisted the brutal summer heat, growing considerably larger than in past years. I photographed it one day because I thought the number of buds was stunning, but the real surprise appeared almost overnight when every single flower popped open. The massive mound of color was breathtaking and the cheerful little blooms inspired smiles and delight. I can't remember a more welcome autumn gift.

"If you would be happy for a lifetime, grow Chrysanthemums." (a Chinese philosopher)

Discovering Cross Stitch

     Grandmother introduced all five of her granddaughters to various types of sewing projects. As the only one who continues to enjoy embroidery, I have amassed several boxes of floss and aida cloth, books and patterns, needles and hoops. When I started a Halloween project recently, Rissy was present while I hunted for the correct color of floss. In one of the boxes, she found some squares of cotton fabric stamped with simple cross-stitch designs and immediately asked if she could have them and if I would teach her. I was rather dumbfounded but extremely pleased at her interest. I was even more thrilled when she persisted at her project for the better part of an afternoon and several more in the following weeks. Growing up and growing away from her own Grandma has been delightfully postponed for a short while.

Tiny Melon

     This is the sum total of my watermelon crop. Rissy and I watched the vine and its only fruit for weeks for signs of growth and as the summer waned, we gave up hope. At the first frost, however, she insisted on picking the miniscule melon and cutting it open to see what it held. We were quite surprised to find a juicy red interior containing black seeds, a typical but compact watermelon, so I guess the joke was on us. The average-sized apple in the picture below was included for scale.