January Happenings

January is slipping by....

I can't believe that January will soon be a memory.

I have had 2 stomach bugs, and an ear infection so far this year.  Saying goodbye to January will not be a problem for me..

Pintrest Happiness

I have been cooking and making crafty items from Pinterest lately.  I must say, I am addicted to Pinterest!  I found this delicious salad posted by The Pioneer Woman. I love Pioneer Woman.... She is fabulous!!  I have been following her blog for years...  And, a few years ago, my husband took me to Houston to a book signing.  We waited in line for hours!  But, I got my cookbook signed, and she gave me a t-shirt!  How cool is that??  I have bought all of her cookbooks published since then as well as the childrens books, and the novel she has written :)  All are fabulous.  I have never tried a recipe from her cookbooks, or her website that wasn't fabulous!



All the ingredients - ready for chopping!  Lots and lots of chopping....  but, worth it!

Look at all the pretty ingredients!!  A food rainbow :)

Asian Noodle Salad - look under my "Salad" board on Pinterest for the link.

My husband also grilled some chicken kabobs with peppers, and tomatoes - just delicious!

 

Pantry Cleaning

I cleaned, and cleaned, and cleaned the pantry.  It was a mess.  But now it is nice and neat. I love my organized and clean pantry.  Trying to click off those New Year's Resolutions.  Organization is one of my keys to happiness, and have sorely neglected that part of me these last few years.  This year , however, I am determined to be organized!  Happy to start with the pantry :)

 

Snow in Texas

 

It has snowed in the North Houston area!!! Well, it is actually sleet...but I'm counting it! Can you see it on the purple cabbage leaves?

As long as it doesn't hurt my cabbages, I'm ok with it.  It is supposed to be 27 degrees tonight, and 77 on Saturday!  That's south Texas for you!

 

I hope everyone is happy and warm this evening!

~ Joeby

 

 

 

 

Merry Little Christmas

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.  And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,  Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."  ~ Luke 2 :8-14

 

Merry Christmas!

 

I hope that your Christmas is full of

love and happiness.

~ Joeby

Winter Time

Short Days

Warm Attires

Crackling Fires

Low Lights

Early Nights

Love & Care

Crisp Air

Snowy Hopes

Winter Time

 

It is hard to believe that it is only 3 days until Christmas!!  I love the days leading up until Christmas.  We have several traditions.  A couple of my favorites are riding around to look at Christmas lights in our pajamas, and eating popcorn in the car.  I also love making home made candy to give to friends.  I have been busy making candy in the last couple of days.

Fantastic Fudge, Cookies & Cream Fudge,

and Pecan Pie Balls

The Pecan Pie Balls are a new addition to the candy making day (I found the recipe on Pinterest, and it is fabulous).  I have been making the Fantastic Fudge since I was a teenager!! 

Fantastic Fudge

4 cups sugar

1 (13 oz) can evaporated milk

1 cup butter

2 cups marshmallow cream

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

 

Butter sides of a heavy 3-quart saucepan.  Add sugar, milk, and butter.  Cook over medium heat to a soft ball (236º on a candy thermometer) stirring constantly.  Remove from heat; add chocolate chips, marshmallow cream vanilla and nuts.  Beat until chocolate melts.  Pour into a buttered 13 x 9 inch pan.  Score while warm.  Cut when cool and firm.

 

Savory French Toast

I was at the doctor a couple of weeks ago and ran across a recipe in the magazine in the waiting room.  I was there a good while, had little to no cell phone reception, so I looked at a germy magazine while waiting.  I usually do not touch the magazines, because, I mean, you are in a doctor's office, so people are sick there....  But, I looked.  And, found this great looking recipe.  I unfortunately do not remember which magazine it came from.  I also had to "invent" the recipe.  I should have taken a picture of the recipe with my phone, but didn't do that either.  But, this recipe came out great, so all is well :)



I made this for dinner a couple of Sunday's ago.  My husband and daughter LOVED it, and so did I.  I made extra so my husband could have it for breakfast or lunch at work the next day.  We love having "breakfast" for dinner at our house.  We do this most Sundays, and really enjoy looking for new recipes to try.  This one is a keeper. 

I am thinking about making this recipe and a sweet French toast, as well, for Christmas morning.  We will see.  I will have to take a survey from my family and see what happens. 

 

Joeby's Savory French Toast

Serves 4

8 Slices of bacon (or more if you're like me and nibble while cooking...)

1/2 onion chopped

10 cups fresh baby spinach

salt and pepper to taste

3-4 eggs (3 if large, 4 if medium)

1 cup milk (or 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup cream)

1/2 cup freshly grated nice-quality parmesan cheese (go ahead and get the good stuff)

4 (1-inch) slices of challah bread or sweet rolls (such as Hawaiian rolls)

1 Tablespoon butter

 

Fry bacon in nonstick skillet unil nice and brown.  Remove from skillet, and pour off all but 1-2 tablespoons bacon grease.  Add onions and saute until nice and soft and a little browned.  Add spinach to the skillet, add 1 tablespoon water.  Cook spinach with onions until the spinach wilts.  Salt and pepper to taste. (you may not need salt since you are using bacon grease).  Remove spinach from skillet and keep warm alongside the bacon (I usually put my items to keep warm in the microwave).

Whisk eggs and milk (cream) then add parmesan and mix.  Pour milk mixture over bread slices and soak about 1 minute on each side.  (If there is extra milk mixture when you are done, go ahead and soak extra bread for a quick lunch or breakfast the next day).

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in skillet. Fry the bread until golden on each side. 

To plate - put one slice of bread on each plate and top with 1/4 of the spinach-onion saute, and 2 slices of bacon!  It is very...very good!!!

Christmas Around the House

 I usually force paperwhites each year.  I love the smell and the tradition of doing something

from year to year. 

Lovely red amarillis this year!!

 

I hope that the days leading up to Christmas have been pleasant for you.  My husband, daughter and I attended the Houston Symphony Handel's Messiah performance last evening.  It was lovely.  We ate at a fabulous Italian restaurant - Nino's - on W. Dallas in Houston before the performance last night. Highly recommend it :)

I hope you have a great evening!

~ Joeby

December 20

"Christmas is not a time nor

A season, but a state of

Mind.  To cherish peace and

Goodwill, to be plenteous in

Mercy, is to have the real

Spirit of Christmas."

~ Calvin Coolidge

I can't believe today is December 20th...and it is almost over, at that!

December has flown by for me.

I have been crafting and cooking around my house pretty busily this past week.  Today, I made a coconut pound cake.  It is a great recipe.  I got it years and years ago.  About 25 years ago or so, I believe.   I wish I could remember who the recipe originated from....but, I do not. 

Delicious Coconut Pound Cake

The cake is incredibly moist and delicious!  I love coconut, and this is very coconut-y and fabulous.

Coconut Pound Cake

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

4 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

½ tsp. baking soda

3 cups flour

½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

1 Tbs. coconut flavoring

1 cup pecans

1 cup coconut

Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs (one at a time).  Mix soda in buttermilk.  Mix all other dry ingredients together and mix alternately with buttermilk mixture to butter mixture.  Mix well.  Add flavoring, nuts and coconut.  Bake in greased and floured tube pan for 1 hour and 20 minutes at 350°.  About 10 minutes before cake is done, mix 2 cups sugar, 1 cup water, 4 Tbs. butter and 1 tsp. vanilla.  Cook for 5 minutes.  When cake is done, punch full of holes (I use a wire skewer).  Slowly pour sauce over cake (this takes a while).  Continue until all sauce is used (this may seem like a lot, but the cake is well worth it).  Let cake set in pan over night.  Next morning, run a knife around the sides of cake and around tube in middle and remove from pan.

 

Crafting

I need 10 little gifts for a party that I am attending tomorrow.  It is my card making club.  We are playing a dice game that involves the rules similar to dirty Santa, were you can steal from each other :)  Well, we have a $2 limit on each gift, so I decided to be creative and make most of mine.  I decided to make these little picture frame pin cushions.  I think they are very cute.  I am keeping the purple one, and taking the orange for one of my gifts.

 

I also made this little nativity from some supplies that I already had.  I think it is precious!!  I have enough materials to make myself one.  So, I will be adding to my nativity collection this year after all :)

 

I also made this coaster from wool scraps and an IKEA cork coaster.  I love how it turned out.  I am planning on making myself one :)

 

I hope that your Christmas plans are coming along well.  I have made several other things and plan to share some more recipes tomorrow if I have a chance.

I hope that the Spirit of Christmas is filling you with Peace and Goodwill towards yourself and others.

~ Joeby

 

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Ev'rywhere you go;
Take a look in the five-and-ten, glistening once again

With candy canes and silver lanes aglow.

 

I can't believe that it is so close to Christmas!

I am VERY behind...

We had a death in our family over Thanksgiving, my sweet father, and I am having a hard time getting into the spirit of Christmas...

My husband, daughter, and I started our decorating this past Saturday.  I am determined to be filled with the Christmas Spirit soon...

 

Winter Gardening

 My garden is coming along.  It has been really cold (for the North Houston area) this past week, and several of my more tender vegetables have died (green beans, eggplant, and tomatoes).

 

The cold-hearty Swiss chard is looking fabulous!  The colors are fantastic, and adds happiness to my garden.

 

Big pot of lettuce!  I love these little greens.  I snip off a salad with sissors, and the lettuce regrows!!  It is fabulous!  Mixed greens.

 

I brought in some lettuce (the larger leaves are romaine) to have for dinner the other night.

The lemon tree only had 2 lemons on it this year....It had over 500 last year!!! 

 

Raw Brussel Sprout Salad

 

Shaved raw brussel sprouts (very thinly sliced - I used a mandoline).

 

I got this recipe from my good friend, Paula.  She had it at a resturant in Houston (and even took me there :), and then found the recipe.  I pretty much keep this in my refrigerator to nibble on at all times...

 Finished salad - ready to eat!!!

 

Raw Brussel Sprout Salad

1 pound of shaved brussel sprouts

1/2 - 1 cup of toasted walnuts (chopped finely)

1/4-1/2 cup grated parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese

2-3 Tablespoons olive oil

1 lemon - juiced (can add a touch of grated zest, too)

salt and pepper to taste

Mix together and refrigerate an hour before eating.

(I used more nuts and cheese than the original recipe - and those amounts are listed above - feel free to play to suit you tastes).

 

Decorating for Christmas

 

It is beginning to look like Christmas around here!!!  I love all of our decorations, and really love to add to the collection each year.

 

Darling Texas Nativity made by a friend - love it!!!

My trees!  I collect bottle brush trees, and love to mix and match with other trees. 

Pretty bird ornament from my wildlife tree that I have in the dining room.

Sweet hand made bird house ornament that we got in Juneau, Alaska in September.

I collect nativities.  (After blogging, I realize that I collect many things...hmmm). 

This little nativity is only about 2 1/2 inches tall :)

Beautiful snowflake ornament (from Pottery Barn - a few years ago).

 

I am sitting here watching Monday Night Football with my husband, but I have watched several Christmas shows today.  I love Christmas shows, and have a nice collection of Christmas movies.  I think my favorite is "The Homecoming" the first Walton's movie that the series originated from.  Poor Gramps (my husband's father - who lives with us), has had to watch it like 3 times in the last couple of weeks :)

Where ever you are, what ever your circumstances, I hope that you are beginning to get in the Christmas Spirt like me.  I know the sweetness and goodness of the Christmas Spirit can bring us happiness regardless of your personal beliefs, troubles or griefs.  May goodness touch your lives this day!

~ Joeby

 

Expressing Gratitude

"As we express our Gratitude,

we must never forget that the

highest appreciation is not to

utter words, but to live by them."

~ John F. Kennedy

 

I have been thinking about gratitude and Thanksgiving a lot this week.  I am so lucky to live in a free country.  To be surrounded by people who love me and who I love.  I pray that I never take any of my rights, or privileges for granted.  I love the month of November because it naturally draws us to think of the things we are thankful for. 

It may be silly, but I am thankful for this little blog.  It has gotten me crafting and being a little busier than I was before I started the October blog-post-a-day.  I have always been crafty and love to cook and garden, but I needed the boost from October :)
 

Book Club

This past Tuesday I hosted our monthly book club at my house.  I decided on fondue (no pictures...) as the main food item.  It was delicious!!!  Really, how can you go wrong with melted cheese?  I added artichokes and chopped spinach, too.  Look on Pinterest for ideas.  I would post the recipe, but I just mixed and matched several recipes, and unfortunately didn't write down what I came up with...

Black Bean and Corn Salsa

I almost always make this recipe when I have a party at my house - it is very good!

 

Black Bean And Corn Salsa

2 cans black beans - drained and rinsed

1 1/2 cups corn (I use frozen and just barely cook in the microwave, to un-thaw)

3-5 chopped tomatoes

2-3 chopped jalapenos (to taste)

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup fresh lime juice (use fresh - much better)

salt and pepper to taste



This is about 1/2 of the recipe.  I thought to take a picture after we had been eating a while.

 

Oh my goodness....this cake was beyond delicious.  I wish I had gotten a better picture.  I doubled the icing recipe...  And, trust me, you will be glad you did!!!  I'm not sure that I can put the recipe on my blog since I didn't come up with it myself, or change anything (it doesn't need changed..).  So go to hersheys.com and look under their recipes.  I need to get more savvy on links....  New Year's resolution :)

 

More Sugared Cranberries

 

I posted my recipe for Sugared Cranberries on 11/11.  I got the idea to put some in my sparkling water the other night.  Well, it was delicious!! 

I made a little "bar" scene to show you how pretty the cranberries look!!

This is my first glass :)

I had several...

Aren't these Ralph Lauren glasses delightful?  I got them at an antique store back in the summer.  There were 5 for $20!!!  I saw them at Macy's last week, and they were WAY more than that.  I can't believe I got such a good deal!  They are nice and heavy and really pretty. 

 

Sheep Nativity

I collect sheep, and Nativities!  My sweet husband gave me this precious Sheep Nativity as a surprise this week.  When I came into the living room, he had it waiting on me.  I was SO excited.  I will be putting all of my nativities out this weekend, I think.  I am really trying to wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate for Christmas.  But, I am not sure.  I just love my Christmas things.  I'm thinking I have waited long enough!!

 

Cooking Today

I got up this morning hankering to make a batch of raspberry/cranberry jam.  It is beyond delicious!!

It is a very thick jam, and I find it turns to "sugar" quickly.

You may need to share with others to use it all up :)

Cranberry Raspberry Jam

1 cup chopped unsweetened cranberries (fresh or frozen)

3 cups whole raspberries (fresh or frozen)

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1 package powdered pectin

8 cups sugar

Combine cranberries, raspberries, and lemon juice in a large nonreactive pot. Bring to a boil.  Add the pectin.  Return to the boil.  Add the sugar slowly, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil again, and boil for 1 minute, or until the jelly sheets off the spoon.  When ready, pour into hot sterilized jars.  Cover with new hot clean hot caps.  Put in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.  Remove from boiling water bath and let set on counter for 24 hours before storage.

Aren't they gorgeous??  So yummy.  I'm having jam and toast for dinner tonight :)

One of the best uses is with brie.  Way, yummy!!!

 

Cooking Mood Continued

I went with some of my stamping/ card making friends to Houston last week.  I kinda wanted to go to IKEA, but we didn't.  So, that got me to thinking about the IKEA meatballs.  My daughter loves them.  I "like" them, but love my own meatballs (ha ha).  Well, I saw a recipe on pinterest for IKEA meatballs.  Well, me, being me, couldn't follow the recipe exactly. 

So here is my version:

 

 

Meatballs and Mashed Potatoes

 

1 1/2 pounds ground beef (I used sirloin)

3 mild Italian sausages (from a package of 5 - Johnson Bros.)

1/4 cup of fresh herbs (I used - thyme, rosemary, oregano, and basil) - Ones I had in garden

1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs (I used progresso)

1 egg

dash of nutmeg and cinnamon

salt and pepper to taste

Squish together with hands and roll into small (golf-ball) size balls.

Place on a cookie sheet.

Let meatballs set until your oven broiler heats up.

The broil (with rack about in the middle of oven) for 11 minutes.

Turn over meatballs, and broil an additional 7 minutes.

You may need to adjust your times, based on your oven.  You want them slightly browned - but not too dark.

 

I mashed potatoes with butter and cream (I know...getting ready for Thanksgiving already...).

 

Gravy -

1 1/2 Tablespoon butter

1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour

Cook over medium heat to make a roux.  Cook for 2 minutes.

Add 2 cups beef broth

Stir and stir (I use a whisk to make sure its smooth).

Add 1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning (or save some fresh herbs from above - use more if using fresh)

salt and pepper to taste

When it was "done" I added a teaspoon of my fresh Cranberry/Raspberry Jam!  It was a really good addition.

 

I hope that your week has gone well!  Pause a few minutes right now, or this weekend and think of things you are thankful for. 

 I promise it will make your day and weekend better!

~ Joeby

Looking forward to Thanksgiving!

Last night I was thinking about Thanksgiving and how thankful I am that it is drawing near!  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  All about eating, visiting, and family!!

I thought I would post a few pictures of my last year's Thanksgiving table and decorations.

 

 

Only 4 of us last year for the Thanksgiving meal.

 

I love bittersweet...  I had some bittersweet plant, saved from the year before, that I cut into pieces and put in some of my turkeys that have openings in the tops - probably old floral arrangement containers.

A couple of my favorite turkeys are the black and white salt and pepper shaker above.

It is easier to decorate a larger table, but I really thought these items were a pleasant addition to our little kitchen table.

It remained warm last year right up to Thanksgiving.  The herbs you see pictured above are from my garden.  It has already gotten chilly in the North Houston area and has even frosted this year, and my herbs aren't looking so good right now.

 

I hope that your Thanksgiving plans are coming along nicely.  I am so excited for Thanksgiving!  I LOVE the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and then the dog show that comes on afterwards!  I love to watch those while cooking and puttering around the kitchen. 

May we all pause this year to consider those things which we are truly thankful for. 

~ Joeby