White(out) Christmas

Under the heading of Be Careful What You Wish For, last week I was bemoaning the fact that though we had some snow, temperatures and rain forecast for 12/21 and 12/22 suggested all that would remain by Christmas Day would be the ugly gray stuff at the sides of the road.

The kids - now 29 and 31 - and I went on our annual movie-at-Christmas-break outing on the 23^rd (the new Star Wars), and were pleasantly surprised to find it was snowing when we came out of the theater.  Late in the afternoon, the front yard looked like this.

A close look will show you all the snow came from the left side – see what’s on the tree, and the odd oval of clear ground underneath.  Weird, isn't it?

And then the news and weather started talking about a storm, and around dinnertime on Christmas Eve it started snowing again.

And it snowed.

And when we got up on Christmas morning, it looked like this (notice the bushes in the second picture ... the third picture is NOT out of focus - the fuzziness is the snow pouring down).

And it snowed while we opened presents around the Christmas tree.

This is what it looked like in the afternoon (see those same bushes now?).

And it snowed during the night.

From an article in this morning’s local paper (online!):

"… a record 34 inches of snow fell on the city on Monday, according to the National Weather Service in Cleveland. …  another 8 to 16 inches of snow is expected in Erie County through Tuesday night, with 4 to 8 additional inches expected through Wednesday evening, when an issued lake effect snow warning is expected to expire.”

Not sure how much we have here, though Wonderful Husband said this morning there’s about 18 inches in the driveway, which was plowed yesterday around noon.

This morning… (bushes?  what bushes?)

I hope you all had a lovely day yesterday!  Please stay safe.

>^..^<

Christmas is coming...

Our tree won’t be put up till tomorrow – my daughter’s getting here tomorrow evening and we’ll decorate it Monday and Tuesday.  And bake.  And play Christmas carols.  I took all next week off from work!  (yeah, I’m a little excited)

If you’re interested in seeing non-tree Christmas decorations, then you’re in the right place (I'm really enjoying the things some of you have posted about your own Christmas decorating!).  Let’s start in the living room.

This crèche is the one that was in my family’s living room when I was a kid.  It was banished to a box when my mom got a larger, nicer one when I was in high school but this is the one I’ve always loved.  The stable is heavy cardboard that’s either printed with a wood grain or has a paper coating on both sides and the background is a separate piece that fits onto tabs on the back.  All the figures are securely glued in place (except one can remove the baby Jesus from the manger).  It has a cardboard, glitter covered star that will fit into a slit on the top of the stable, but I use one I made from a wad of silver tinsel stitched into a ball and hung from the ceiling with nylon thread – you can see the bottom of it at the top edge of the picture.

I have quite a few angels that we put out at Christmas – my mother collected them and I display my favorites.

One of Homespun Elegance’s annual ornaments – I bought the chart at the Spirit of Cross Stitch Festival merchant mall in 1995 and stitched it up a couple of  years later.

On the mantle are a few more of my mom’s angels, and our stockings hang below.  Mine is on the left – my mom made it when I was about a year old.  On the right is the one I made for my husband for our first Christmas together … but he insisted our son use it (and shame on me, I never made Wonderful Husband a replacement).  My daughter’s is in the center – that one was so much fun to design and stitch.  I entered it at the Woodlawn Needlework Show the following year and got a second place ribbon for it!

Everyone with kids has at least one school Christmas project they display year after year, right?  My son made this wreath in … kindergarten, I believe.  I love it because he wanted his to be different from everybody else’s and made the wreath from RED handprints with GREEN thumbprint berries!

One summer when I was 10 or 11, my mom decided to make a project she saw in an ad at the back of her McCall’s Needlework magazine.  This was back in the ‘60s when those were large format magazines – the size that Life magazine was originally.  The inside back cover was an ad for lots of Christmas needlework kits, but Mom just worked from the picture (which was about an inch and a half tall) and made her own.  The wise men have bits of old earrings and necklaces as their jewels.  Watching her do this, of course I wanted to make something too!  The same ad included a set of ornaments – little animals in stockings – so I made one with a cat.

Oh my, more felt.  I made this from a kit in 1979 or 1980.  I remember enjoying the felt appliqué, but I got really tired of sewing on all the sequins and beads!

Another (felt) kit with lots of beads and sequins.  I made four of these for gifts and then made one for myself from the leftover bits.  The one on the left is from the kit (this one was my mom’s), the right side guy is Mr Scraps.

My buffet in the dining room.  After Christmas I may get the other side of the red runner hemmed!

In the family room, more of my mom’s angels hanging around on the bookcase.

And a set she gifted me with when I was 13.

And lastly, at my back door, holiday penguins.  Saw these little guys in CVS one year and couldn’t resist.

It’s been snowing since early this morning and I’m such a child when it comes to this weather – it always delights me.

If you're still here, I want to thank you for indulging me!  Happy holidays!

>^..^< 

TUSAL - December 2016

TUSAL, what’s that? Check Sharon’s It’s Daffycat blog HERE for an explanation of the Totally Useless Stitch Along.

Oh dear, the holidays have done me in. My poor little film container is completely empty, not one tiny snippet of thread does it contain. I did shorten two pairs of pants and I guess I could count those thread bits, but … nah.

Probably the only thing I really could count this month is crumbs.

Cookie crumbs…

… cake crumbs …

... and there were pie crust crumbs and cranberry orange nut bread crumbs and apple cake crumbs, too.

But no orts.

Boo.


>^..^<

just in case anyone's forgotten the 80's were all about excess...

... you should see the Christmas dessert I just finished making.

You're now wondering what in the world the 80's have to do with Christmas dessert, right?

Quite a while ago (I know it was years and years because it was before she moved into a retirement home), my mother in law ripped a dessert recipe out of a magazine and mailed it to me. It looked delicious, but we had a standard Christmas dessert already (chocolate mousse with Grand Marnier, which we haven't made in years) *and* a fall-back Christmas dessert (chocolate bread pudding with rum whipped cream), so I said, "gee, thanks, Mom, we'll have to make that some time," and tucked the recipe away.

Last year at Christmas, my family felt the chocolate bread pudding was a bit over the top and we should try something "new." At some point during the year the decision was made to try that cake recipe my mother in law sent all those years ago.

Cannoli cake.

Sounds good, right? You should see the picture from the magazine! *slurp* Well, in the course of a couple hours, I've gone from oh good, it's a sponge cake, that's nice and light to oh dear god, we're all gonna die after eating one bite! In my mind, this recipe is no longer called cannoli cake, it's called Overkill. Oh, look at that, the recipe's dated September 1989. *headdesk*

Cannoli Cake
recipe from Good Housekeeping magazine, September 1989

6 large eggs, separated
1 cup granulated sugar, separated
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons water
2 3/4 teaspoons vanilla extract, separated
2 large oranges
2 tablespoons orange-flavored liqueur (optional)
1 32-oz container ricotta cheese
1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened
2 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar, divided
mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
3 tablespoons milk
2 cups heavy or whipping cream

In large bowl, beat egg whites at high speed until soft peaks form. Continuing to beat at high speed, gradually add 1/2 cup sugar, a tablespoon or two at a time. Beat well after each addition and continue beating till sugar dissolves and stiff peaks form.

Preheat oven to 375F. In small bowl at low speed, beat egg yolks, sugar, salt, water, 1 teaspoon vanilla, baking powder and the flour.

Gently fold about one third of the egg white mixture into the yolk mixture, then fold yolk mixture into remaining egg white mixture in the large bowl.

Spoon batter into ungreased 10" x 3" springform pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, until cake is golden and top springs back from light touch. Invert cake on wire rack to cool (so it doesn't collapse). Cool completely.

Grate 2 teaspoons zest from oranges, set aside. Squeeze oranges for 1/3 cup juice (1/2 cup if not using liqueur). Add liqueur to juice, set aside.

In large bowl at low speed, beat ricotta, cream cheese, grated orange peel, 1 cup confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla till smooth. Stir in 1/4 cup mini choc chips.

Gently loosen cake from pan; cut into two layers. Brush cut sides with juice/liqueur mixture.

Place one layer, cut side up, on plate; spoon filling and spread to edges but leave center mounded up/rounded for dome effect. Cut wedge out of top cake layer (so it doesn't crack/break); arrange layer and wedge atop filling.

In small bowl at medium speed, beat butter, milk 1 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar, 3/4 teaspoon vanilla until smooth. Add more milk if necessary until frosting has easy spreading consistency.

In large bowl at high speed, beat cream until soft peaks form. Fold confectioners' sugar mixture into whipped cream. Spread frosting over top and sides of cake.

Melt 1/3 cup choc chips; put in decorating bag with writing tip (1/8 inch hole) or waxed paper cone, or baggie with corner clipped off. Pipe chocolate on top of cake in spiral design from center to outer edge; quickly (VERY quickly - this stuff sets up fast in the cold whipped cream buttercream frosting), before chocolate hardens, use toothpick or small knife to draw lines from center to edge, approximately 1 1/2 inches apart on edge of cake. Alternate direction of lines to give spiderweb effect.

Refrigerate until filling is firm, about 3 hours.

16 servings

* * *

On assembling the cake, it seems to me that the ricotta could be cut to a pound and a half, and the whipping cream to one and a half cups - all I could think (again and again) was how was it all gonna fit???

Merry Christmas!

  

 

>^..^<

deck the halls....

In the time-honored tradition of if Susie jumped off a cliff, would you go do it too? I'm sharing a few pictures of my Christmas tree and favorite ornaments.

So, Christmassy things:

Tree (duh). I really have no idea why we always put it in front of a bookcase instead of by the window...

And a few favorite ornaments. The Santa bell was my very favorite ornament as a child. After I was grown up and married, my mother gave it to me for my tree. I love the little netting angels - this one's "new" (gotta love ebay), but very much like ones on the trees my parents had.

The summer of the year I was 11, my mother decided to make a wall hanging of the three wise men. She got the idea from an ad on the inside back cover of her McCall's Needlework magazine (anybody else remember when it was really large, bigger than the original Life magazine?) where some company was selling Christmas needlework kits. Mom made the hanging from felt and used bits of old earrings, bracelets and pins for the majis' jewels, and watching her work, I really wanted to make something myself. She had me look through her stack of Needlework magazines for ideas, and I found a picture of a different kit (it was probably on the same page as her wise men hanging), one with four little stockings each holding a different animal. Over the next few days, I snipped and embroidered and sewed and embellished, and made a little stocking kitty to go on the tree. Oh, I was so very proud - I was sure it looked exactly like the tiny little picture in the magazine. You know what? Forty years later, I'm still happy with how it turned out. :)

I made the little angel when my kids were small, the same year I made a Waldorf school-style doll for my daughter, but the lamb's the reason for including this picture. When I was little, there was a story in my sister's Christmas Golden Book about a Christmas Tree Lamb. Loved the story ... decided that when I was big enough to have my own tree, it would have a Christmas Tree Lamb. Found this cute little guy in a gift shop shortly after I got married, and just a couple years ago I was able to locate a copy of the story.

>^..^<

Delightfully tacky treasure

Yes, believe me, I know it's excruciatingly tacky (husband has been telling me so the whole time I was searching for one), but I am insanely delighted with my latest ebay treasure. I don't mind in the least if you laugh.

We had a pair of these when I was a kid, but my parents had used them at their first house and felt they didn't "fit" the one I grew up in, so I was able to convince them to put one up only one year. That pair died a sad, lonely, mildewy death in a basement closet.

Santa's suit is fuzzy and he lights up (or will, when I get the appropriate bulb).

Santa wreath, Santa wreath, la lalala lala...

>^..^<