Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday! You wouldn't believe what my sweet husband did! He managed to round up not only all the kids, but a cake and my favorite ice cream and pull it all together for a surprise party! I am so impressed!

What a wonderful surprise! No other gift could be as precious! I am so blessed! Thank you, Cliff - thank you, Family! Love you all! 

From left to right: Daughter Laura, Daughter-In-Love Christy, Son Will, Me, Daughter Meredith, Grand-daughter Sarah (in the pink boots), Daughter Becca and Grand-Daughter Abrianna

There's nothing like a nice, cozy fire!

Yes, indeed, we are having winter. It has been years since we have had so much snow in the Shenandoah Valley. The kids here actually only wear hats and mittens once or twice a winter, so when the first real blizzard came, everyone was in a panic for hats, mittens & boots! Everyone seems outfitted now, since this is the 3rd storm we've had since Dec. 18th, 2009. We are starting to call them "weekend storms", since they seem to come on Thursday and Friday!

A friend is coming from Richmond to visit us in the mountains tomorrow and I wanted to be sure to remind him to prepare for mountain weather. And you, too, should be prepared for bad weather, wherever you are. Pack a couple of warm blankets, a first aid kit, drinks, food & a warm change of clothes in your car and keep it in the passenger area - not the trunk - if you possible can. (What if you couldn't get in the trunk for some reason?) Think about where you are going, what you may encounter between here and there and plan for it. You absolutely cannot depend on someone rescuing you if there is an emergency. Oh, yes, probably someone will come along eventually, but you can get very cold and hungry waiting.  Don't take any chances with your health or safety - be prepared!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Christmas was wonderful! We had Christmas at our house on Christmas Eve, blending some traditions, creating new ones. We have a "new" Christmas tree this year. Instead of hunting for a "real" tree, we were blessed to find a beautiful artificial tree. You couldn’t tell that it's artificial unless you really looked closely at the needles. You'll laugh when I tell you that I found it at our nearby dumpster back in September, packed neatly in it's own immaculate and original box! It came from Wal-Mart in 1989 and at that time cost $139!!  I love it because now I don’t have to be in a hurry to take it down!

Christmas Eve, all of the kids came (adult children and grandchildren) and we had cookies and eggnog and watched the little ones open presents. Each child had 3 presents, one of which was a new pair of heavy mittens (handmade by Grandma!), a bag of their favorite cookies to take home and a handmade ornament for their tree at home.

We did not buy presents for the adult children, but we did give them food gifts. Everyone brought something for the little ones. We all had cookies & eggnog before presents…

Notice the little hand making it's way toward the Peanut Butter Blossoms! That is my grandson Robbie, who loves peanut butter and chocolate combinations of any kind.

At the end of the evening, when people started going home, we gave the adults their presents to take home. Each package had a jar of homemade chili, banana bread in a jar, a bottle of homemade eggnog, a tin of homemade cookies & 1 other present – red zinger tea for dauhter Laura, saffron rice pilaf for Becca, hand lotions & soaps for Meredith and hens and chickens for Will to plant by the walk at his new house.

                                

On Christmas Day, Cliff & I had a wonderful breakfast together of scrambled eggs (from our hens - look for an entry on home-grown eggs in the next day or so), bacon, toasted homemade bread & some of our homemade eggnog. Our own children were having Christmas in their homes with their kids and other family members, so we attended the large extended Hall Family Christmas Dinner at Cliff's Mom's house. It is nothing to see 30-50 people come to Mom's for Christmas. We all opened presents and Cliff gave several jars of apple butter away for Christmas presents, which reminded me that I had LEFT all the banana bread in jars at home! Fortunately, we see everyone regularly, so we'll just deliver them as late, but well-intentioned gifts!

I keep a journal of each Christmas, with photos and recipes, detailing what went well, how we decorated, what was happening then and what we could do to improve things. This year, I was actually knitting the finishing touches on Sarah's mittens when she was HERE, waiting for the rest of the family to arrive. So, I would certainly say that I need to get started earlier and finish a little earlier! My goal this year is to have everything done and WRAPPED by Oct 31st! If I start right now, I can do that and make sweaters instead of mittens!

I was in such a rush, having not yet recovered from nursing Cliff through shingles and everyone and everything else through 2 feet of snow and 3 solid days of plowing (18-20 hr days), that I forgot a lot of pretty basic things. I left out 6 of the 18 eggs for the eggnog, forgot to make labels for the banana bread in jars and then even forgot to take the banana bread in jars to the big family Christmas dinner to give them out! But we all had fun, no one noticed my faux pas and we'll do better next year!!!

If you like eggnog, here is the recipe for ours (with the RIGHT amount of eggs!) - you can still have it for New Year's Eve! Enjoy and hope you all had a very blessed & Merry Christmas!

Kristen's Eggnog Recipe

 3 quarts whole milk
1 c heavy cream
18 fresh eggs (homegrown if possible)
1½ c sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tsp nutmeg

Beat eggs, vanilla & nutmeg in food processor. Pour sugar through dry funnel into gallon milk jug. Add eggs & milk & shake well. This makes about 1 gallon.

Kristen's Whole Wheat Bread Mix

To me, one of the best aroma’s in the world is fresh baked bread. And I can’t think of anything better to eat than fresh, hot bread, just sliced, slathered with real butter.

Everyone regards fresh bread as a big treat, but really, it is not hard to make fresh bread everyday if you want to. I’ll tell you my secret – I have all the dry ingredients pre-measured into gallon-size zip closure bags. Each bag has a large label with the remainig necessary ingredients and directions on how to make the bread.

I also make a smaller label with the date. Usually, I make 6 bags at a time, since that exactly uses up one 5 lb bag of whole wheat flour.

Using this system, I can make 2 loaves of fresh bread in about 15 minutes, not counting the rise time, but which does include proofing the yeast. And, since everything is pre-measured, there will be less dishes to wash. The cost may vary depending on where you live and the cost of ingredients, but each loaf costs me about 65¢ to make.

This recipe is my basic whole wheat bread recipe. I have made this for years, and this is the bread my daughters learned to bake when they were first starting. It is a good, hardy everyday bread with a nice grain, but you can also doll it up with raisins, sunflower seeds – whatever you’d like to make a multi-grain kind of bread. Cut the dough in half, roll it out flat, spread melted butter, sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar & raisins, roll it back up (like a pinwheel) and you’ll have an excellent cinnamon raisin bread. Shape it into rolls, make a soft pizza crust - the variations are endless.

This bread is has a nice crust, so if you like a crunchy crust, you can brush it with egg white or melted butter, or do nothing. I like a softer crust, so when they come out of the oven, I brush each loaf with melted butter and cover lightly with plastic wrap and a dishtowel and let it sit for a few minutes. This makes a nice, soft crust but doesn’t turn the bread soggy.

Give this recipe a try and tell me what you think!

Kristen’s Whole Wheat Bread Mix

In a 1 gallon ziplock bag, add the following:

4 c white flour
2 ½ c whole wheat flour
¼ c. brown sugar
1 tsp salt
¼ c gluten (optional)
Seal & label.

One 5 lb bag of whole wheat flour is enough for 6 batches (equivalent to 12 loaves).

Be sure to label these with directions, especially since they have the rest of the ingredients listed! Not only are the mixes convenient, they make great gifts. I like to print the labels are printed on Avery 8160 size shipping labels so they look like this:

Whole Wheat Bread Mix

1. 3 c warm water, 1 Tbsp yeast, 1 Tbsp sugar in bowl, 1/3 c olive oil in large mixer bowl. Proof yeast by waiting 15 min to see if the yeast begins to bubble.

2. Add bread mix. Use dough hook to mix or mix & knead by hand. Let rise in bowl.

3. Remove from bowl, divide into 2 loaves. Shape, put in lightly greased pan & let rise. Preheat over to 350°. Let dough rise until nearly double.

4. Bake 30 min.

Makes 2 loaves