Kate Collins's Blog, page 321

What's on YOUR Christmas Table?

By Lorna
(with apologies to our vegetarian friends)

Before the turkey had time to cool on our Thanksgiving table, we were already discussing what to have for Christmas dinner.
 
Holiday meals are pretty much the same in my family.  We start out with snacks and drinks.  For family affairs, this ritual cannot begin without pink dip and potato chips.  (The dip is very easy:  8 ounces of cream cheese, ketchup, mayo, two tablespoons fresh grated onion, and two tablespoons of milk or cream.  I can't give you the exact amount of ketchup and mayo -- the actual recipe has been lost to time.  I just keep adding until it feels right.  Mix. Chill. Enjoy!) We also have cheese and crackers.  This year I'm contemplating a hot dip to go along with the goodies . . . then again, if we fill up on junk, will we have room for what will be a far too big dinner?

For dinner, we seem to have the same veggies year after year:  Brussels sprouts, rutabaga, roasted potatoes, creamed onions, and a recent addition, butternut squash.  (My brother makes it and it's fantastic.  Odd fact:  he will not eat it.  Go figure!)

Here's what was discussed for the entree.
Spiral HamUsually ham is our Easter staple, and I've never really been a fan of it -- until last year.  We had a spiral ham that was absolutely delicious.  We got the leftovers and ate a ton of sandwiches and at least every couple of days ate the easy-peasy Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe that I included in Bookplate Special.  Oh, I feel like Pavlov's dog just at the thought of that wonderful spiral sliced ham dinner.





Prime Rib RoastWhen I was growing up, we had a prime rib roast most weeks for our Sunday dinner, so I always wondered why so many people think it's such a big deal.  Of course in those days, you could get a prime rib roast every week of the year.  These days, it's been made the favorite of the restaurant trade and the only time we ever see them is at the holidays.

Of course, no prime rib is worth eating if you haven't made Yorkshire pudding.  Oh, I love it, especially if the oven and fat is hot enough ant it puffs up all golden and crispy.  Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.  I'll eat it both ways.

Roasted TurkeyWhy were we even CONSIDERING another turkey when we had barely begun to eat the one that had been nicely sliced on the table?  But, there we were debating the merits.  My Dad, Bless his Heart, and my Uncle were not fans of turkey, so in years past we would always have a pork roast and a turkey.  Dad's gone and my Aunt and Uncle now have dinner with their immediate family so here we were discussing the possibilities.  I voted for the ham.  Mr. L wanted to save the prime rib for my Mother's birthday dinner (in the week after Christmas), and the rest of the table voted for roasted turkey--again.  The logic being that we only really eat the bird twice a year--even if it's a month apart.  Let's go for turkey again.

Okay, this is not a hardship on my part because I get the leftovers (again) and I love to make turkey pie, turkey soup, turkey salad, sliced turkey sandwiches, and even turkey curry.  (There'll be a recipe for that in the upcoming Booktown Mystery #5--Sentenced to Death.)

So, what will be on YOUR Christmas dinner plate next Saturday?

Do You Eat Your Veggies?

By Heather

I was making dinner last night (chicken, baked potatoes, and veggies) and found myself making two kinds of veggies. Steamed broccoli and frozen green beans (the fresh ones this time of year are scary). The broccoli was for my husband and my husband only. The kids have never liked it, and while I tolerate it, I don't want to eat it. Ever again. And at my age, I think I've earned that right of refusal.

When my husband asked why I didn't eat it anymore, I told him the simple truth. Life's too short. It's way too short to eat foods that you don't like just because they're good for you.

Of course he, being the jokester he is, had to say something along of the lines of life will be too short if I don't eat my broccoli.

It's a chance I'm willing to take.

I'll eat green beans, squash, zucchini, peas, carrots (mmm, my favorite!), corn, peppers, and plenty more. I think I can skip the broccoli. And the cauliflower. And, okay, the brussel sprouts, too. It's not like I'm skipping out altogether and having cupcakes for breakfast (we won't count that day last week...).

How about you? Do you eat your veggies? What's your favorite? Least favorite?

What Kind of Diva Are You?

Christmas is nearly here, barely a week away! It's every domestic diva's favorite time of year. I always say that each of us has a little bit of domestic diva in us.
What kind of diva are you?

1. You mailed your Christmas cards

A. The day after Thanksgiving.

B. This week.

C. Mailed? E-greetings are nice and you don't have to send them until Christmas Day.

2. When you trim your tree, you

A. You lay out all the decorations on the dining room table so they'll coordinate perfectly when you hang them on the tree. You always have more than one tree, and each one has its own theme.

B. Make hot chocolate, put on a Christmas CD, and have fun decorating with the kids.

C. Pay neighborhood kids to put it up and hang ornaments. It always looks like Charlie Brown's tree anyway.

3. Go od news! Your in-laws are coming! You

A. Set up a special tree in the guest room and decorate it with gingerbread cookies the kids made just for Nana and Papa.

B. Nestle candles in fresh pine and berries on the dresser and add some Christmas pillows to the bed and chairs.

C. Seriously consider booking a cruise and leaving a note on the door. You relent and get them a hotel room.

4. It's December 16th. You're supposed to go to a cookie swap t onight.

A. No problem. You baked a dozen different kinds of cookies and they're ready to go in adorable cookie bags on which you hand-painted glittery snowmen.

B. You baked five batches of cookies, one a week for the last five weeks. Three batches have been consumed. You'll take the other two batches and bake more this weekend.

C. No one said they had to be home baked. You buy them at a bakery and bring them in a Rubbermaid container so it will look like you made them.

5. It's the last day of school before Christmas break. You

A. Bring homemade cupcakes decorated with snowflakes and Christmas trees for your child's entire class, and a lacy shawl that you crocheted for the teacher.

B. Bring a platter of Christmas cookies for the class and fudge for the teacher.

C. Stop by your favorite cafe for a latte and a cookie with your child on the way home from the pageant. Teacher? Whoops!

6. Your holiday decorating

A. Was finished by the last day of Thanksgiving weekend.

B. Is almost done, but the little snow village with lights isn't quite finished yet.

C. Consists of a wreath for the front door and antlers for your cat -- if you could only remember where you put them . . .

7. Christmas dinner will be

A. Standing rib roast with horseradish. Twice baked potatoes with white truffles and porcini. Peppermint chocolate cheesecake flambé for dessert.

B. Roast turkey, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, three kinds of stuffing, cranberries, and a Yule Log for dessert.

C. In a Chinese restaurant with fortune cookies for dessert.

If you have picked mostly A, you are a Natasha. This is your season to shine! You love crafts. There's nothing too difficult or time-consuming to tackle. You always have the best decorated house in the neighborhood, and you deliver baskets of your famous Christmas morning croissants to all your neighbors every year.

If you have chosen mostly B, you are a Sophie. You love Christmas, but you also like to take the time to smell the cinnamon and nutmeg. Your kitchen is decorated for the season -- a good thing since family and friends like to hang out there.

If you have selected mostly C, you are a Nina Reid Norwood, an anti-diva. You'd really rather go on that cruise and let someone else do all the work. No cooking, no dishes, no decorating or (ugh) putting everything away again. But your inner domestic diva slips out and shows around the holidays. You want everyone to have a good time, and you love to eat, so you might just be caught making hot chocolate and a Christmas morning casserole.

No matter what kind of domestic diva you are, Merry Christmas! Remember to relax and savor the special moments.

Read more about Natasha, Sophie, and Nina Reid Norwood in the Domestic Diva Mysteries. The first in the series, THE DIVA RUNS OUT OF THYME, was nominated for an Agatha award. The most recent release, THE DIVA COOKS A GOOSE has a holiday theme. Visit Krista at her website http://divamysteries.com and Mystery Lover's Kitchen http://mysteryloverskitchen.com where she blogs with other culinary mystery authors.

All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth

Remember when life was that simple?

Today's kids (okay, and adults) have a list. Can you say, "electronics"? Here are a few of the online lists of most wanted Christmas gifts:
Apple iPadKindle, Nook, etc.Digital Camera (with video capability)Xbox, Wii, PlaystationLaptop 3D Ready TVAccessories (to go with the above)See any pattern? You don't have to be an amateur sleuth to figure out this one.
Don't get me wrong. These things are on my list, too. Especially the Kindle and Wii.

But now that I've launched my kids - college, independent living, finally!, I try to include something more meaningful.

Last year, I began cookbooks for them - pretty binders, paper with a nice border, and a few of their favorite family recipes. I also included some of the ingredients I knew they didn't have, like spices. Or that were expensive, like tenderloin for the family's favorite stir fry. They loved it.

In fact, my oldest son called yesterday to make sure I was adding a few more recipes this year.
Isn't that sweet?
When the electronics break or become obsolete, that cookbook and its recipes will still be going strong.

Baking, Wrapping, Stirring the Fudge Pot

Boy, have I been busy since I posted last week. Not only was there a lot of writing business
on my plate, like copy edits for the next Kelly Flynn Knitting Mystery, but I also had to find time to start my holiday baking. Suddenly, there were mailing deadlines popping up in front of my eyes.

First---daughter Serena (South Pole Serena), mentioned she'd "love" to receive some of my chocolate mint fudge and gingersnaps while on the Antarctic meteorite research trip. Oh, and by the way----I had to get everything shipped by last week in order for the package to have a prayer of being delivered to her in the field (ice field, that is) during December. Yikes! That meant I had to spend the first three nights of last week baking & making fudge.


Next, oldest daughter Christine, who lives in Fairfax, VA, in the DC Metro area, told me the family might leave "early" for a holiday trip to my in-laws home in Crown Point, Indiana. Yikes, again! I'd made the fudge & gingersnaps, but I hadn't wrapped any of the presents. Christine, son-in-law Tim and my grandchildren make up the lion's share of my shopping list. That's a lot of presents to wrap. As soon as I finished baking/fudging the first 3 nights, then I started wrapping presents Thursday & Friday nights. Whew! But I got it done. That way, I was one of the first people at the post office that Saturday morning to get the boxes priority mailed so they'd arrive in time.


There was no time for any baking, wrapping, or even licking a fudge spoon this weekend. I drove to Denver on Saturday morning and did two signings at BORDERS Bookstores. On Sunday, I left even earlier and headed for Colorado Springs, where I did another two signings at BORDERS Bookstores. Pikes Peak Writers, a Colorado writing group of which I'm a long-time member, was sponsoring a large author signing in several BORDERS stores. I hadn't had a chance to visit with some of my south Denver & Colorado Springs writer friends in a while, so I grabbed the opportunity. The weather cooperated beautifully. Sunny & mild in the high 40's. But---both events consumed each day. Believe me, by the time I made it home to Fort Collins Saturday and Sunday nights, I had zero energy for food or wrapping presents.But now, the lion's share of the gifts are in the mail and now it's on to the next stage of holiday baking: Pumpkin Walnut Bread & Cranberry Orange Nut Bread. Oh, yes----and more fudge.

How are you doing on your shopping, wrapping, baking schedule? Are you finished? Haven't started? Halfway through? And what are some of the holiday goodies you'll be making?

A Strange Occurrence

by Kate Collins

As I sit in my kitchen, working at my laptop and trying to keep from freaking ou t about the horrendous winter storm outside – being alone in bad weather, in danger of losing power, is soooo not fun – I'm going to write about something positive. Amazing, in fact.

Two weeks ago, I got an email from my friend and fellow Cozy Chick J.B. Stanley, entitled "A Strange Occurrence." In her note, she recounted how she had collected condolence cards from many of you to forward on to me, but sometime after she mailed the box to my home address, she received a call from Tiffanys in New York City, informing her that they had received the box instead. It seemed she had reused a mailing box that had originated at their store, and somehow, in transit, the mailing label with my info had peeled off, leaving their address beneath.

That was the strange part of the story. Now here's the amazing part.

Every year for the past ten years, my husband gave me a special gift at Christmas and it always came in a Tiffany's box. One year he even put a lump of coal in one of their blue boxes just to make me laugh, then gave me the real gift, of course. This year, sadly, Christmas is going to be very hard to get through because my beloved soulmate won't be with me, physically anyway.

But because of an amazing set of coincidences, I still got my Tiffany's box! And inside I found lovely cards and notes, some yummy treats, a Christmas candle, and even an angel. They came from J.B. and from many of you. The box arrived at a time when I really needed it, too.

So from the bottom of my heart, I thank J.B. and everyone who sent cards, and also to all of you who've written notes and facebook messages and blog comments, too. Thank you for uplifting me. For reaching out. For taking time out of your busy lives to send a message of comfort. I am so blessed that I can't begin to express my appreciation. And it seems I need to thank my Greek, too, for one more Tiffany's box.

Living the Unspoken Life

by Leann

For many, this season brings joy and bustle and connections and decorations. For me, no matter how much I understand my past, no matter how well I accept what happened and forgive those who were supposed to love me unconditionally, there are days leading up to Christmas where I am overcome with sadness. It is a sadness so deep and profound, I cannot explain it and I cannot contain it. Some might label it self-pity, but as I explore these feelings, I don't accept that explanation. It is a wound never healed that is ripped opened at this time of year. Perhaps this happens, I think, because Christmas is about children, about giving and loving and being there for others. But there are many of us, the children of alcoholics, the children of abusers, the children who were too sensitive, and far too willing to bear the burden of all their family's dysfunction, who remember Christmas past as some of the most painful days of their lives. I know about you and you know me. We understand each other.

I have recently come to comprehend that as one famous someone said,(I honestly do not know who that is), children live the unspoken life of their parents. I take this to mean many things: you do what they could not, you are who they wished they could be, you do what you think they could not. Because you must. Another favorite quote goes something like this: "If you want it done perfectly, ask the child of an alcoholic to do it." That is all part of the unspoken life. There is no perfect, I have learned. There is no fixing the unfixable. Yet the need remains to repair, to go back in time and to find that perfection. Impossible. A dream. A wish. Love. Magic. All the things that Christmas represents.

The unspoken life has, on a less morose note, led me to books and writing and the ability to give myself to the world and be accepted. For most of the year, that is enough. It is good. It drives me. The unspoken life of my parents, I believe, was to be the best, to achieve the most, to leave the world a better place. I hope I am living that life. But at Christmas, the sadness is almost too much to bear.

What about some of you? Do you understand? Have you been there? Are the holidays bringing more sadness than joy? How do you make it bearable?

Santas, Santas everywhere!

By Lorna

Last week I blogged about my Christmas tree and how I loved some special ornaments.  Several readers asked me to show pictures of the Santas my Dad carved.

Backstory:  My Dad did most of his carving back in the 1990s.  He even won a prize for one of his Santas which, unbeknownst to him, had been entered in a carving contest in Beria, KY by his former carving buddy.  Dad's Santa won first prize!  (He carved one just like it for me, too--you can see it on the right.)

I don't know why he carved so many of these little tree ornaments--bored, I guess.  But he did. The little guys below are the original 20 I've been hanging on my tree for the past 10-15 years.



The one in the top right hand corner is one I asked him to make.  You see, I bought something similar at a yard sale for a quarter, and I wasn't sure where it was made or by whom.  Someone in China?  Some craftsman (or woman) here in the states?  It was real, hand carved and painted, but it didn't hold any meaning for me.  So I asked Dad to make one for me and it would be special because HE carved it.  He did, and it was.  (Look at the detail on it below.)



After my Dad passed away in the fall of 2009, I found quite a number of carvings he hadn't finished, and bunch that he had but just never got around to giving away.  They're mine now!


I love the fact that, while they may look alike, they're all actually quite unique.  Look at the eyes and noses on these little guys, and how different their beards look.



I always looked forward to Christmas and getting something wonderful my Dad would make, be it a carving or a lovely piece of furniture.  I'm so sad that'll never happen again, but I have so many wonderful items that he made -- and he always made them with love.

How about you--what do you have that is terribly special because someone made it for you with love in their heart?

Painting History

First, the winner of a signed copy of Truly, Madly from last week's post is Amy (comment # 8). Amy, please email me (heather@heatherwebber.com) with your postal address, and also let me know if you'd like the book personalized to you or to a friend.

Painting History
by Heather

I've been painting lately.  Son #1's room has a nice fresh coat of Gobi Desert, which despite the claims of having a built in primer still took three coats to cover the existing navy blue. But I digress.

I'm the painter in the family, and quite good at it if I do say so myself. But I'm messy. Very, very messy. It became clear early on in my painting endeavors that I needed a painting "outfit." I unearthed an old sweatshirt and sweatpants, and voila. My "uniform" was born.

Once upon a time those items of clothing were gray. But after numerous household projects, they're now...well, rainbow colored. And each color splotch carries a memory. The bright yellow? The kitchen color before its current hue of gray-green. Both boys have/had navy blue in their rooms--I have plenty of those splotches. Red, son #2's bedroom. Turquoise? My daughter's room. Dark green, the basement... Each color brings me back to another place in time, and each holds a special memory. That once-gray sweatsuit is probably something I'm going to have to save forever, me being the sentimental person I am.

The kids' bathroom needs a makeover, so I think I'm going to have to add to my sweatsuit's palette...and add another memory.

What's your favorite wall color? My house is almost all green. Green, green everywhere!

Ellery's Cozy Mystery Contest

It's that time of the month again - your chance to win a $10 gift certificate to Mystery Lovers Bookshop.
I'll give you one line from a contemporary cozy and you have six days to email me the title and author at elleryadams@comcast.net
Please DO NOT POST the answer. You can certainly post a comment, but no title or author name in the comments, okay?
Here's the line: "It may be blasphemy to say it here in Texas, but if William Travis and his men had defended the Alamo the way Bree defended Alice that day, General Santa Ana would have scooted back to Mexico with his tail between his legs."
Ellery's hint: The subject of this book is one of my favorite comfort foods - no matter how cold it is outside!