It's not too late to prepare for a Texas New Year.

• Our new year parties in Texas usually:
• includes Black Eyed Peas.  Even my northern bred SIL will eat these, click here for Texas Caviar recipe.
• A cold New Year usually inludes a soup or chili. Check here for a great chili recipe, try serving it over Fritos in individual bags.  Your guests will ask for the recipe and I don't mind if you take all the credit!
• Make your own chips from purchased tortilla's.  Try cutting out shapes using a star cookie cutter.  You can see how I made gingerbread man tortilla chips for Christmas here.
• Finger food is a must, make my sister's Tortilla Roll Ups 
• and if you have a couple of sweet potatoes left over, try my brother's Sweet Potato Cakes.
• Want a little sweet pick up?  Make my big girl grand's Rolo Cookies in just a few minutes!
• Those purchased flour tortillas are a budget friendly treat to make Peach or Apricot Jam Burritos.
• If bubbly is something you like to toast in the new year, try a "Designated Driver" punch.
• 1 or 2 bottles of carbonated beverage such as Sprite or Sparkling Grape Juice
• 1 carton ice cream or sherbert, softened slightly
• or a Shirley Temple Sangria
• Stir till sugar is disolved
• 2 bottles red grape juice (try sparkling grape juice)
• 1 Cup orange juice
• 1/4 Cup fine sugar
• Add fruit 
• 2 sliced oranges
• 2 sliced lemons
• 2 cored/chopped apples
• add 2 Cups club soda to give it a festive carbonated bubble

Happy New Year - drink responsibly, 

and if you do drink...please don't drive.

party links here

Gratitude Sunday

2012 has been a pretty good year around here and I am grateful;

for...

• snow glistening in the evening sun
• laughing with mom
• watching Hubs walk into the field with the little grands holding hands
• running water after low temps froze the pipes to the house
• toasting by a fire with a cup of creamy coffee
• watching horses appreciate hay bales and ice broken from the water source
• excited faces of loved ones opening gifts
• traditions that bind the family together. 

I sometimes link up to parties here...

Sweet Potato cakes

The younger brother likes to cook and he’s quite good at it.  For Thanksgiving he made the turkey, smoked a ham, made a sweet potato gratin and had left over cooked sweet potatoes.  He lamented a short while and came up with a sweet potato cake that everyone kept asking if it was a crab cake.  Here is his healthy low fat recipe.

Not a Crab Cake (Sweet potato cake)

·         3 sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed

·         ½ stick of butter or low fat margarine

·         ½ cup low fat milk

·         2 eggs, beaten

·         ½ diced jalapeno, without seeds

·         ½ small onion, finely diced

·         ½ teaspoon nutmeg

Mix all together and form small cakes (about a ¼ cup).  Bake 350 F 8-12 minutes.

party links here

Clam chowder for two

I've spent the last 3 weeks with my mother helping her prepare for surgery.  We've had some wonderful quality time together.  With slightly cooler weather and only the two of us to prepare meals for most days, I adapted this recipe for us. It's delicious and heart healthy.  Then I sat back and enjoyed watching her cheer and holler for the Dallas Mavericks...without much luck.

Clam Chowder for 2

• 2 slices turkey bacon, diced.  Cook 3 minutes in a skillet sprayed with cooking oil until translucent
• add 1/4 medium onion finely diced and browned
• add 1 medium russet potato, finely diced
• 1/4 cup frozen corn kernels
• add 1 can (10 oz) chopped clams with juice
• add 1 cup water

Increase heat to high and bring to boil 20 minutes, until potato is soft.

Reduce heat to low, add:

• 1/2 cup fat free milk
• 1/2 cup fat free half and half
• a big pinch of black pepper and  sea salt to taste.

Allow soup to simmer until slightly thickened.  Makes about 2 1/2 cups.

How to make your own croutons here.

party links here

For the birds... DIY Suet.

I was busy in the kitchen stirring up some home made bird suet when hubs walked through.  He casually strolled by, stretching his neck to catch a peak at what I was doing.  I think he may have been a little dissapointed I wasn't making cookies, but he smiled and said, "making bird gifts?"

I like that - bird gifts.  Here are some simple instructions to make suet that kids might enjoy making while on winter vacation.

On wax paper, lay out some forms like jar lids or cookie cutters that have been sprayed with oil so they release easily.  Google a suet recipe, or use the one listed below to make a slightly damp mixture.  Use a short piece of a drinking straw to make a hole to thread string or ribbon through.  Firmly press the suet mixture inside the forms and around the straw.  Let it completely dry at least 24 hours.  Gently remove the suet from the forms and remove the straw piece.  Thread string or ribbon and hang it out for the birds.

I imagined I'd make homemade envelopes or boxes like some cleaver Pinterest People...but that didn't happen.  :-)  Instead, I packaged up several in inexpensive sandwich bags to share with friends so they too could hang out bird gifts.

Suet recipe:

mix together:
3/4 cup flour
1/2  cup water
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
add
4 cups birdseed

See where I link up here

Merry Christmas

I hope you are spending time with someone you care about.  If that's not possible, I hope you contact them some way, whether by phone, e-mail, snail mail or prayer.  Remember to breath deeply and don't stress over the little stuff.  The big stuff will be taken care of by a higher force.

The night before Christmas Eve

we're busy as elves.  Hanging stockings by the fireplace, nibbling cookies and playing games with the family.  It's when I'm most aware of how lucky I am to be from a big family that loves each other unconditionally.  Mom sits in her chair soaking up the sight of her children, grand children, great grandchildren and one great great grand child. It's noisy and chaotic as we laugh and kid each other.  As the night winds down we coax the kids to bed, later than normal, and overfill the stockings for our traditional Christmas Eve morning party.  This is what we have labled as our Christmas Eve-eve.  It's my favorite day of the year.

faces are blurred to protect the "shy".

Make traditions!

Christmas light tour

We toured a really elaboratly decorated neighborhood in Wichita Falls this week. Some of my pictures turned out pretty decent, but of course justice is not done to the magic of the lights. Here are just a few of our faves.

They refer to this one as the "Asking Tree" because many wedding proposals have happened under it.
The next several pictures are taken under it, I see why it's a popular place for couples.

It's only a sampling, but I hope you enjoyed it!

There are 5 days left to participate in our Sandy Hook Elementary

party link up.  Read more here to see how your party link up will help.

A Christmas Story

Pulled from my Facebook archives to share with you.

Four days before Christmas 2010 I'm taking grand, who has been wearing a headband of reindeer antlers all day, shopping for a stuffed Rudolf.  We have been to a lot of stores.  

The next to last stop in Walmart, I put her in a basket facing me and headed through the door as she proclaims loudly, "I want a sticker!"  

I stopped almost at the same instant by the door greeter.  A small man of about 5'6" with a short trim white beard wearing a santa hat looked at Grand as her eyes opened wide and  mouth sagged open.  She sat stone silent for what seemed a very long time (in reality it was only seconds).  He finally said with a quaint little smile on his face, "are you one of my reindeer?"  

Grand slowly shook her head no.  He handed her a sticker and said, "now be a good girl".   

I rolled the basket around the corner and a little ways down the isle.  She finally found her voice.  

"Nini, Nini, do you think he was the REAL Santa?"  I responded, I don't know sweetie, he could be..."  

We continued down several isles before she spoke again.

"Nini, Nini...I don't think he was the real Santa."  

I responded, "Well, he might not be."  

Then she stated mater of factly, like I should have known... "I think he was an elf!"

I hope your holiday is full of magic.

You are ivited to a Party link with a Cause.

I know many of you are as heartbroken as I am over the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy in Newtown, CT. A few other bloggers and I have teamed up with  Kelley at The Grant Life and Adrianne at Happy Hour Projects link party with a cause. Both host a weekend link party that opens on Thursday afternoon. This week, they joined forces and also opened up the party to as many co-hosts who want to join to donate $0.05 for each link to the Newtown area's United Way. The thing is - that's not all. Some other bloggers heard about it, and also wanted to match 5 cents a link - so for this special party, for every link you add, $0.65 cents will be donated to the Western Connecticut United Way. Even more fabulous bloggers offered to help spread the word by co-hosting today's link party. So no matter what blog you are visiting when you read this, we all thank you for supporting the party and the cause. Because of how widely hosted this weekend's party is. links you add here will be immediately visible on several blogs! The details are below including who is donating, and what you should link today. Thanks for coming by!

Twisted art...wire silly!

I couldn't resist a little "twisted" humor. 

On the farm where my child hood home sits a walk through the pasture almost always includes picking up wire left behind from those small blocks of hay. Years ago hay was baled in blocks instead of those monstrously big rolls and they used wire to hold the bales together but now nylon twine is used.   Several fence posts around the barn hold abandoned wire pieces that sometimes get recycled for tying things together and this week, for crafting.   The wire is pretty rusty and easy to manipulate with pliers.  (Wear gloves...that rust and dirt makes the hands dry)  Because it's "Ho Ho Ho" season... I twisted some into a forest of wire trees to place on my mom's mantel and window shelf.

Some are sprayed white, some were left naturally rusty and a few have beads from a broken necklace added.  I enjoyed creating the trees for my mother and especially enjoyed visiting with her the past several weeks.

Several trees later I twisted a smaller piece into a sturdy bird nest.  One of my cousins said "Must have been a strong bird" when she saw it.  That made me laugh.

My party links are here...

Hallelujah - The Voice

Blogger day of silence

Snow fridge.

Well, techinically it is a refrigerator, but say snow fridge out loud with a musical lilt...it's funny.  While photographing my living room for the open house blog, a glaring white fridge in the back ground was not what I wanted to see.  So, a quick make over and tah-da... decor.  Literally, in less than 5 minutes he appeared there.  It helps that I had a stash of round and strip magnets on the side out of view.  A piece of orange construction paper, a strip of red tissue paper and a couple of green buttons attop peel and stick magnets make this a welcome guest.

Grateful Sunday

Gray skies damp with morning dew,

A squirrel checking the fountain for water caught there,

A cardinal swinging from a bird feeder,

Dove searching the path for left over bread crumbs,

Leaves breaking loose to float in the wind,

A rose bloom confused by warm winter days,

A day designated to the Lord.

20 lives that graced this earth

and brought joy while they were here.

Grateful Sunday

Wordless Wednesday

My Holiday House tour 2012.

Let it snow and enjoy nature.

The snowman vignette.  Those snowballs...just styrofoam, no crafting required! 

I'm decorating in two houses this year,  mine and mom's.  I'm spending a lot more time with her because  I can and want to. She's having total hip replacement in January and another in about March.  Several of my blogs recently have stemmed from some great quality time there.  If you still have your parents, I encourage you to take advantage of your time and share it with them.

Mantel

Pecans waiting to be shelled on the hearth.

A vintage decorative box, recycled vanilla bottle,
styrofoam "snow"ball on a vintage doily.

Break time happens here :-)

Fresh greenery and crepe myrtle branches from the yard in our ash bucket
with a few more snow balls.

The kitchen is where the holidays begin, those decorations can be seen here.

At mom's house:  You can see how we changed the old, way too big, fake tree into an adorable table top masterpiece here. the door DIY sock wreath  I made for mom here and check out the cinnamon/applesauce garland here.  If you're interested in seeing the fabulous west Texas sunsets or other things I found cool, check out my Instagram site here. You can find soup recipes that were adapted for the two of us that are heart healthy and diabetic friendly here and here.

Cinnamon applesauce ornaments

One of my favorite holiday smells is cinnamon and apples.  These are the simplest things to make and the smell is so rewarding!

Start with one of those individual serving cups that is 3/4-1 cup of applesauce and start adding cinnamon until you have a nice workable dough -about 4 oz.   I made the first batch with what was left in a big container of apple sauce.  Add slowly and stir gently, there will be a cloud of cinnamon rising up! It will be slightly sticky, so roll the dough out between wax paper to about 1/4" thick.  They shrink very little, so what you see is pretty much what you get.  If it seems a bit too sticky, sprinkle some cinnamon on the surface of the wax paper.  Cut out the shapes you want and place them on a cookie sheet.

 Use a straw to cut out a hole for hanging.  Dry them out in the oven set at 225 F for about 20 minutes.  They will not be completely dry, but you will be able to pick them up and turn them over. If you prefer, you can let them air dry instead if you have a couple of days to spare.   When the area around the hole appears dry (you'll know by the color change) you can string them up on twine or ribbon and hang on the tree, or make a garland, or tie onto packages.  Let your imagination run wild!

The wreaths in our windows are made from fresh Rosemary.  You can see how to make them here.