The simple pleasures. I bought John the Bon Maman French fruit spread nativity calendar again. It's one of the highlights of his day, right behind wine time. Being John, he keeps a running list of the flavors to see if they slip in any duplicates. Quality control.
On weekdays we eat a light breakfast (shredded wheat him, cottage cheese me) so around 9:30 start looking for a snack and cup of tea to get us through to lunch.
I'm a slap dash cook and not really into making fiddly things. Despite all the yummy-looking recipes, I've never bothered with hasselback potatoes. However, the sou chef knife engineer gets pretty excited when I set him to work slicing, and the more precise the better.
He cut these big russet potatoes cut into 1/8 inch slices in no time. The trick is not cutting all the way through, so the thing holds together. I guess the idea is to make a homely potato look pretty.
And bake some more...
Looks pretty good, but after 2 long hours in the oven they were still hard and rubbery. A flop. I honestly don't know what the big deal is on these. Give me a fluffy plain baked potato anytime. Or better yet, a tray of creamy, cheesy, scalloped spuds.
Switching gears. Today is St. Nicholas Day. For a scary Santa trip down memory lane, click here for a post written way back in December 2011. How did I come up with that weird stuff? :-)
I scaled back somewhat on the decorations this year. It still looks pretty, but not so claustrophobic in our small house. A perfect size tree, decorated in record time. Four big tubs went right back in the attic. I miss seeing a few things, like my old Mexican nativity set, but can enjoy it all the more next year.
These clean and easy battery candles are sure nice.
The funny elves I bought in Cripple Creek to cheer myself up after a sad winter visit to the nursing home. Memories are made of this. The creepy "antique" Santa face from Walmart, no less.
And a true family heirloom, Dad's old toy camel. Camel has survived a century of countless sticky little hands, cross-country moves and house dogs.
Not cuddly, he's made of scratchy wool and sawdust. His tail and neck yarns were loved off long ago, but he retains his dignity. Now retired and living under a cozy Christmas tree. I don't like thinking about what happens to our treasures after we're gone.
As John would say, "then don't think about it."
What weather. Snow and ice on the ground all weekend. A week of cold rain ahead, and shaping up to be a dozzy of a winter on both sides of the mountains.
It wasn't easy, but I found a new snow-plower in Twisp. Get this, he charges by the MINUTE like a taxi cab! That sounds outrageous, but his estimate for our driveway (20 minutes) was about the same as the flat rate our old neighbor charged. Hopefully it works out for both of us. I heard he's a single dad with young kids. Plowing is a short window of supplementary income for these local guys.
Onward into the heart of winter...
Not exactly Okanagan National Forest, but a pretty row of snow-frosted trees to pick from early yesterday morning. We bought a medium size Douglas Fir, the least expensive, for $60.
Back in the old days, McLendon Hardware had the cheapest trees in town. So relatively speaking, this is a bargain. Who knows what they cost now at the hoity toity West Seattle Nursery?
It's only money. Despite the work and mess, there's nothing like a fresh tree in the house at Christmas. We have more holidays behind us than ahead, and each one is precious.
Yes, it was as cold as it looks, and the side streets in our neighborhood glazed with treacherous ice. I put on long underware, parka, hat, gloves, boots and headed to the ukulele jam outside the brewery.
We did Christmas carols, most of them fun and easy to play. I love the old songs, which are perfect for group ukulele. But frankly it sounds like a train wreck when we attempt things like John Lennon's simple but difficult classic "Happy Xmas (War is Over.) His masterpiece "Imagine" is even worse. Most Beatles music is best left to the Beatles. Just my opinion.
A hour sitting outside would have been plenty, but of course they soldiered through for almost 2 hours. A bad thing happened. One of the players tripped on the rough patio and fell hard, hitting his head right in front of me. I was the only one who really saw what happened.
It was awfully upsetting and I still can't get it out of my mind. He said he was OK, and I hope and pray he is, but it was a nasty fall. Things happen so quickly. I was chilled inside and out after that, and happy to get back to our warm safe house.
Have a good weekend, dear friends and family.
Snowing again. It sure feels like the first day of meteorological winter. Fine weather indeed for sitting outdoors with my ukulele group! Well, I'll decide later. It's supposed to warm up to the mid-30's.
The brewery patio where they meet is just a few blocks from home so I could always leave early, but then you feel like a wimp with those hardy souls. Certainly more dedicated than this fair weather player.
We hope to get Christmas tree this morning in White Center. The McLendon Hardware store is about a 20 minute drive.
It's fun when December feels like winter, although we noticed our middle-aged gas furnace making some new sounds. Hopefully it keeps up the hard work for a while longer.
Kind of a yucky mix of rain and wet snow yesterday. Pretty at times, but it made a mess of the roads. Doesn't take much to throw everything into chaos here. And more snow on the way this week.
I fiddled the day away inside with a new toy, an Apple watch I got "free" with a bunch of those saved credit card reward points. I had a Fitbit, but it didn't get along with my iPhone. Fitbits are big on measuring steps, 10,000 a day being the arbitrary gold standard.
No surprise, the Apple watch is more sophisticated. Among many other snoopy personal things, it tracks your daily activity, exercise and standing. Standing? I blew through the activity goal by noon (hey, I'm a busy person) but at the end of the day still behind on just standing around. One of my least favorite things to so.
Oh well. I refuse to set that buzzy alert to move every 45 minutes. At my age, don't you think a person should be allowed to sit down with a book or take a little afternoon nap without being goaded by a watch? Ha!
Anyway, like so much technology, what a time-waster. Here we are the end of November and I haven't even written the Christmas card letter, bought a tree, much less decorated the house. John is already badgering me about what Christmas cookies to make. He's crazy about dates, and his mother made a date nut ball cookie. It's a diabolical recipe, because you have to roll the scalding hot dough into little balls. I don't make them very often. Along with that, the standard decorated sugar cookies, coconut dream bars, shortbread, Russian teacakes, etc etc.
