Christmas Now and Then

Annie

and

I

just

watched

Now and Then

the perfect

little movie

to watch

after

trimming

the

Christmas tree

It

is

starting

to feel

like

Christmas!

My

wish

of

finding

an

uNshEaREd

Fir

or

Pine

Christmas tree

(one that doesn't look like a upside down ice cream cone)

in San Luis Obispo

was

an

IMPOSSIBLE

task!!!

l

was

hoping for a

happy

tree

(like this one)

but

BIGGER

but,

alas,

we went

for the smell good tree.

a

Grand

Fir

Backing up

......

it

is

tradition

for

the whole family

to decorate

the

Christmas

Tree.

Sometimes

I sigh,

looking at the

Pottery Barn catalog,

or

Romantic Home Magazine

or

Country Living Magazine

The

Christmas

trees are

always

perfect!!!!

Our

Christmas trees

are

a

family effort..

a family event!

..

we

ALL

decorate

the

tree

into

a

handmade

beautiful

mess

of

Christmas Memories

It

is

increasingly

more difficult

to

corral

adult

children

-

I bribe them

food

always works!

This

year

we

decorated

our

fragrant

upside down ice cream cone

after

a bribery

of

delicious

cheesy

Fondue

paired

with

Four Vines Zinfandel

FYI

puppies

and

ornaments

NOT

a

good mix

Christmas 2010

silliness

abounds

.....

Memories

of

Christmases Past

John and his three brothers circa 1953

Santa, Andrew and Annie 1989


After the SLO Christmas parade 1994


First Christmas card as our "new" family 1997


Serious Christmas card 1998

with Bingo and Betty


Our first Christmas with Wally 2003


decorating the tree 2004


Christmas with John's Family 2004


Christmas in Paris 2002 (just before we opened Petit Soleil)


Christmas 2009

Finding

Christmas

pictures

from

years

past was quite a

task

lost disks,

fried hard drives,

misplaced albums

etc.

It made me sad

to have

lost

photographs

of

Christmases

past.

now

driven

to preserve

Christmas

NOW

and

in the future

hair today - gone tomorrow

Remember

that

Bible story

about

Samson and Delilah?

Samson

believed that

he

got his

strength

from

his

hair

Delilah

had

Samson's

hair

cut

and

Samson's

strength

was

zapped

(or so he thought)

That story

reminds

me

of

the

most recent

adventures

of

Huck and Phinn..

Huck

with hair

(powerful, mischieveous, sneaky)

Phinn

with hair

(punk rock - mohawk)

Call

me

Delilah!

Our

Dog Whisperer,

Tressie,

suggested

we

call

the

doggie salon

at

PetSmart

and

make

an

appointment

for

Huck and Phinn

...
Saturday

...

the report cards

Phinn


and Huckleberry

(Huck

wasn't

really very

receptive

to having

his

strength

aka

hair

shaved)

The

new

complacent,

non punk rock Phinn

IMG_0132">

and,

Samson,

aka

Huckleberry

notably

hairless,

calmer

less mischieveous

less powerful

.....

Kind of

nice

right now

..

I wonder if they will realize that it really isn't the hair

.........to be continued

Toulouse

and

I

have been

slacking

in the adventure department

...

maybe

because

of the

holidays?

or

the rains?

or just

because

we are

slacking

..

I take

that

back!!!

We

DID

go for

kind of

an adventure..

to

Target!

last Saturday,

the 1st Saturday of December

not

a

great idea

too many shoppers

all the cool stuff gone

I went

to TARGET

because

Kasey,

(from one of my fave blogs)

(lola b's)

showed

this cute

little

bird ornament

for a buck

from

Target.

I

adventured

to

TARGET

(with Toulouse)

to buy

20

of

those

cute

birds

decoupaged

with

sheet music!

We

scooted about

30

miles

to

Target

and this was the only bird left

it

was in the

"broken thing tub"

...

I asked

the

Target lady

for

more

birds

nope!

...all gone

The nice

check-out girl

gave

me

broken

bird

for

free.

She felt sorry for me,

I think.

She said

"Merry Christmas"

that was nice...

but

no

birds

I do have a

new

FAVE

recipe,

though!

it

is from

Tyler Florence's

new

cookbook

so so easy

and

the

chicken

was

really yummy!

Yup,

Chicken Strips!

I cut up two chicken breasts

seasoned them

and set them aside

Toasted

four pieces of TJ's sourdough wheat bread

and whirled them

in the

food processor

with fresh parsley and

about 1/4 c. Manchego cheese

...ta-da! fresh bread crumbs!

So,

on one plate - flour

on another plate - two beaten eggs

and on the third plate - the bread crumbs

Dregded the chicken in flour, then the egg and then the bread crumbs

and on to the cookie sheet

(I made some sweet potato fries to cook along with the chicken)

They

all

baked

for

about

30

minutes

We had them with

German Curry Ketchup

and

Hartley Ostini Syrah

I

ate

all

the

leftover

chicken!

A "Vintage" Cookie Recipe

Scary

that

my

little collection of

recipes

that I started

in

1972

can be considered

"vintage"

but

it

can

(It appears

that

many

of

our

idiosyncrocies

begin

when

we are little

.....some are positive

and some not so)

Recipe collecting,

baking,

cooking

FOOD

began

early

...

in my

vintage

years

I remember

delivering

quick breads,

yeast breads

cakes

and

cookies

wrapped

in cellophane

and

tied up

in

pretty

ribbons

to

friends

and

neighbors

at

Christmastime

(my bike

was

my mode of

transportation)

carrot bread

pumpkin bread

apple cake

gingerbread

whole wheat bread

oatmeal bars

molasses crinkles

.............and so on

I still use

my silly little

Holly Hobby

book

with my

hand- written recipes

today

...

R E A L L Y!

a happy

cookie

recipe

for

YOU

today!

Molasses Crinkles

1 c. sugar

1/2 c. vegetable oil

1 egg

1/4 c. molasses

mix

...

2 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp. fresh ground nutmeg

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

sift together

..

add the sugar mix to the flour mix

and

mix together

Roll about a TBS. of dough

into balls

roll

in sugar

Bake at 375 degrees

for 10-12 minutes

eat

a couple

or wrap

a few up,

hop

on your

bike

and

deliver

them

to

your favorite

peeps

When

you

own

a

bed and breakfast

you get

pretty

darn

good

at

b r e a k f a s t

...

making breakfast,

serving breakfast

eating breakfast

and

you

know

breakfast

doesn't

have

to really

be

in

the

morning

Brunch

Brupper

Brinner

it's

all

good

We

thought

Sunday Brunch

would be

the

perfect

grand

finale

to

the

long weekend

of

gratitude

and

eating.

Andrew

went

to

Petit

and

served

breakfast

and then he

came

over

to

EAT

breakfast

And

Annie's

BFF,

Toshi,

was

visiting

from

San Francisco

(she's a

first year law student - yikes!)

Toshi

is

vegan

vegan

is

a

challenge!

no

dairy,

no

meat,

no

butter

no

lox

(on the bagels)

hmmmmmm

Sweet Potato Hash

Sweet potatoes,

microwaved for 6 minutes,

peeled and cubed.

I sauteed them

in olive oil,

with

onions,

red peppers

green peppers,

garlic

and the secret ingredient

Smoked Spanish paprika

Annie

and Toshi

squeeeeezed

oranges

for

mimosas

not much

better

than

fresh orange juice

John

whipped

up

some scrambles

with fresh herbs

and chevre

(not for Toshi, though)

We had

bagels

with

Tofutti

(cream cheese, NOT!)

and

real cream cheese,

lox

and capers.

no guilt!

REALLY,

no guilt,

because

you can

spend

the

rest of the day

exercising,

hiking,

biking

or

not.

happy tummies had by all

.......

Thanksgiving Weekend

IMG_0071, originally uploaded by TTT with Toulouse.

I don't know if this little ditty fits the beginning of the thanksgiving holiday weekend, or the end.......
so much food, so many smiles and giggles, crazy dogs and SO MANY DISHES
it was a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

You bet I'm grateful....

Gratitude.

Isn't

that

a

perfect

word?

for me,

it

expresses

humility

and

awe

of

all the

good

around us

that

we are

blessed with

and

we

are

THANKFUL

for.

Thanksgiving

started

out

with

a

most

amazing

sunrise

It was a

chilly

morning

...

love it!

I

made

a

few dishes

the day before

the potatoes,

the butternut squash gratin,

bourbon pecan pie

and the

cranberry chutney

Thanksgiving day

was

all about

the

turkey,

dressing

killer pumpkin dessert

and the

Thanksgiving Day parade

(I don't really watch it,

or like it

but it was on the

TV

just because....)

Annie

decided

that

Huck and Phinn

needed

mohawks

We

had

Molly and Jenny and Maggie over

and Mary's brother

Peter

needed a

Turkey fix, too

We played

maybe

three

hours

of

CATCH-PHRASE

..way fun!

we ate

and ate

and

ate

...

I

am

grateful