Split Pea Soup

Combine in your large crockpot:

• 4 cups rinsed split peas
• 1 whole onion, peeled and nasty bit removed
• 4 large carrots
• 4 stalks of celery
• a lump of bacon ends, a little smaller than a fist.
• water to cover + 1 inch.

Cook overnight.  In the morning blend to desired texture.  Add salt and pepper.  Serve with fresh bread, cheese slices, and pickles.

Hearty White Bread

New bread recipe!  Loosely based on the recipe on the back of my Bob's Red Mill flour.  Did you know that Bob's Red Mill is an employee-owned company?  When I can't get to my local mill and have to buy at the store, Bob's the one for me.

Combine:

• 2 C white flour
• 1 C rolled oats
• 1/4 C wheat bran
• 5 t dry yeast
• 4 T sugar
• 1 t salt

 Add:

• 2 1/4 C hot water (tap, not kettle)
• 1/4 C oil

Beat at medium for 2 minutes.  Add:

• 1 C white flour
• 1 egg 

Beat on high for 1 minute. Add:

• 2 C white flour
• 1 C whole wheat flour

Knead until smooth.  Let stand in a warm place (I put it on my food dehydrator) and let rise until double.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Punch down and then divide and shape into two loaves.   Put into greased pans and let rise until double.

20 minutes.

Mary's Song by Luci Shaw

If you are not familiar with Luci Shaw's poetry, give yourself a gift this season and pick up one of her beautiful books.

Mary's Song

Blue homespun and the bend of my breast
keep warm this small hot naked star
fallen to my arms. (Rest ...
you who have had so far
to come.) Now nearness satisfies
the body of God sweetly. Quiet he lies
whose vigour hurled
a universe. He sleeps
whose eyelids have not closed before.
His breath (so slight it seems
no breath at all) once ruffled the dark deeps
to sprout a world.
Charmed by dove's voices, the whisper of straw,
he dreams,
hearing no music from his other spheres.
Breath, mouth, ears, eyes
he is curtailed
who overflowed all skies,
all years.
Older than eternity, now he
is new. Now native to earth as I am, nailed
to my poor planet, caught that I might be free,
blind in my womb to know my darkness ended,
brought to this birth
for me to be new-born,
and for him to see me mended
I must see him torn.

The Barn

The Barn

"I am tired of this barn!" said the colt
"And every day it snows.
Outside there's no grass any more
and icicles grow on my nose.
I am tired of hearing the cows
breathing and talking together.
I am sick of these clucking hens.
I HATE stables and winter weather!"

"Hush, little colt" said the mare,
"And a story I will tell
of a barn like this one of ours
and the wonders that there befell.
It was weather much like this
and the beasts stood as we stand now
in the warm good dark of the barn,
a horse and an ass and a cow."

"And sheep?" asked the colt. "Yes, sheep
and a pig and a goat and a hen.
All the beasts of the barnyard
the usual servants of men.
And into their midst came a lady
and she was as cold as death,
but the animals leaned above her
and made her warm with their breath.

"There was her baby born
and laid to sleep in the hay
while music flooded the rafters
and the barn was as light as day,
and angels and kings and shepherds
came to worship the babe from afar,
but we looked at Him first of all creatures
by the bright strange light of a star!

~ Elizabeth Coatsworth

Christmas stocking stuffer ideas

Some ideas, for your stuffing pleasure

:: reusable shopping tote
:: earbuds 
:: battery charger
:: batteries
:: bath poofs
:: tea 
:: stationary
:: octopus clips
:: scarves
:: toy mice for humans owned by cats
:: chewies and tennis balls for humans owned by dogs
:: postage stamps for anyone off at college
:: good cheeses
:: nuts
:: Christmas ornaments for young adults
:: pocket flashlights for the cars
:: chapsticks
:: Atlas garden gloves
:: hand-warmer packets for those in cold climates
:: tulip or daffodil bulbs
:: long matches
:: smoked oysters
:: SmartWool socks
:: Starbuck's cards
:: Trader Joe's cards
:: iTunes cards
:: pencils and erasers for school kids - especially home-schooling families
:: chocolate oranges
:: bottle of favorite fragrance
:: paint brushes and  other artsy supplies (hat tip to Audrey)
:: LUSH bubble bars
:: drill bits
:: hairclippies and rubber bands for little girls
:: sparkly glue

What did I miss ?

The annual Thanksgiving Checklist: 10 people, my house

Time for the annual Thanksgiving post.  I print it an put it on my cupboard door and then, when my brain freezes over, I just do the next thing.




because proper preparation and planning prevents poor performance!


at least 1 week before
1. purchase free-range turkey
2. finalize menu

• pumpkin soup - Jamie & I
• green salad of some sort - Jamie and I 
• marshmallow salad - mom
• green bean casserole - mom
• mashed potatoes - Jamie & I
• Roast Butternut Squash  - mil
• turkey - Jamie & I
• dressing - Jamie & I
• gravy - Jamie & I
• bread/rolls - Jamie & I
• dessert: pecan pie, pumpkin pie, apple dumplings - Jamie & I
• beverages - brother
• Trader Joe's cranberry sauce - brother

2. make up grocery list
3. make and freeze pie crusts
4. timeline food prep
5. confirm that the food thermometer works

Monday
1. grocery shop


Tuesday
1. make mashed potatoes
2. roast pumpkins
3. make pumpkin soup
4. mix up brine


Wednesday
1. pick up turkey
2. brine big turkey
3. mix up turkey rub
4. make dressing
5. prep sweet potatoes
6. mix up pecan pie filling
7. stage apple dumplings

Thursday
1. remove potatoes from fridge
2. rub down turkey if you didn't brine
3. make bread rolls

4. run & empty dishwasher
5. confirm garbage can is empty
6. sweep front porch and walk
7. stage tea station


12:00
1. make a thermos of coffee & prep coffee maker for next round
2. make sure you have eaten something sustaining
3. check your clothes: are you bespattered?

12:45
1. confirm small lamps and candles are on/lit
2. confirm dishwasher is empty
3. turn on coffee pot

2:00
1. dine

3:00
1. rest whilst others clean up.

5:00

1. set out desserts

2. receive second wave of guests.

3. listen to bluegrass jam session and chatter in a happy daze.

warts and all

And I don't mean this figuratively.

Fifteen years ago I took a warty-looking mark on my foot to my (former) doctor who told me it was a pressure point. So I ignored it.  Then about five years ago my "pressure point" sprouted numerous warty-looking babies.  My new (and obviously superior) doctor confirmed that they were in fact warts, all off-spring from the now very well-established Mother of All Warts.

We froze.  We Compound-W-ed. We injected bug venom. We froze and Compound-W-ed some more.  Last spring, we cut them all out. I had FIVE huge wounds in my foot, which I will not describe in detail. Just use your imagination and then some.

They came back and brought some babies with them.  Apparently all that fresh tissue is the perfect thing in which to grow new warts.

You are wondering, about now, why I am sharing this obnoxious information with you.  I'm wondering this too.  But since we got this far . . .


Last week I saw a dermatologist who prescribed Fluorouracil -- a topical chemotherapy -- and duct tape.  Weird huh?

Guess who has 3 fewer warts this week? 

And I suppose that is why I am sharing it.  If you are anyone you know is suffering from persistent reoccurring warts and you are not afraid of a tube of chemotherapy and a roll of duct tape, this post is for you!

But you will want to know that you won't be able to walk properly, as instead of getting better each day, the pain gets worse, as the treatment is basically to put on your body some goopus that eats holes in whatever it touches.