Food! Glorious Food!

The opening song from the broadway musical, Oliver!, seems like the perfect title for my post about Christmas and Birthday presents I received................ no farm machinery this year!

Up first........... Birthday gifts.  My birthday was the week before Christmas, so it all kind of blends (good cooking word there) together.

DD (darling daughter) shopped Amazon and found this wonderful recipe box.  (Apparently recipe boxes are very out of style since it is so easy to just google whatever recipe you want.)  I was so in need of a new recipe box.  The old one was crammed so full you couldn't pull the cards out.  This one even has a nice slot on the top to stick the recipe card in to hold it up so you can see it while you are cooking!  (I had to point that out to DD - she didn't even realize how cool it was!).  Then she wondered if the recipe card for banana bread would even fit in the slot since it has so much stuff spilled on it that it has gotten quite thick!  (Obviously I needed this cool slot thing before now.)

The divider tabs in my old box were also worn off, and you couldn't find anything in it.  We had several family discussions about where to place certain recipes...........should Crab Fettuccine go under seafood, entrees, or pasta?  

The Hubs got me a new red kitchen aid hand mixer.  There really wasn't anything wrong with the old GE mixer except that I had worn part of the blades of the beaters off (wonder what food that stuff ended up in?) and it was basically easier/cheaper to get a new mixer than to replace the beaters.  This new one is so quiet that I hardly notice it running!  I am also using some birthday cash to replace the blender (had to hold the lid together to use it.....it had been a wedding gift), so another red kitchen aid appliance is scheduled to arrive on Monday!  And my sis got me some dip mixes from Deal's Orchard in Jefferson.  For Christmas they brought us Deal's cider and popcorn!  Food, Glorious Food!

For Christmas Santa (aka The Hubs) brought me a new red kitchen aid stand mixer!  (Are you seeing the theme has changed from Green farm equipment to Red kitchen equipment?!)  I had wanted one of these for so long............ I spent Christmas Eve in the kitchen and got so frustrated with the old stand mixer (not that old, just never really worked correctly) that I unplugged it and carried it to the garage sale box in the basement.  When The Hubs was helping with the dishes, he commented that there was more goo on the outside of the mixer bowl than the inside...........I told him the bowl could join the mixer and all of its attachments in the basement.  

The best part was hearing the "shopping" story.  DD was shopping with him and she had already told me that he took FOREVER!  She said he was comparing prices in different places and constantly trying to figure out how to get the best deal (I told her he probably wasn't going to get to write this gift off on his taxes like he did the green farm equipment, so he really had to get the best deal!).

Then he had to share about his great deal.  He now knows all about Kohl's Cash!  By purchasing the mixer (and some really nice Cuddle Dud slippers - see it's not all about food) at the right time, he generated enough Kohl's Cash to get the pasta attachments FREE! 

I have to say that it does working amazingly well.  I mixed up 3 kinds of pasta dough in the time it used to take me to do 1.  And the pasta cutter is so fast..........no more turning the crank a million times.  And it takes up less space than my old pasta cutter and attachments..........yes, the garage sale box is overflowing!  We also mixed up pizza dough last night for supper.

I tried tomato basil fettuccine...........

Saffron spaghetti and rosemary herb fettuccine............

I put all the pasta in the freezer as we are still consuming Christmas leftovers.  That was a trick since we brought home half a beef from my parents.  And we had just butchered 2 pigs at Thanksgiving.

I have never seen my freezer so full.

This is the freezer above the frig in the basement that hardly ever gets used.  We also got special Pampered Chef forks for doing pulled pork, a mat for the oven to collect spills, soup mugs with sealing lids, and a starter herb garden (from one sister-in-law) so I can grow my own herbs for cooking and the other sister-in-law gave us a beautiful hand made ceramic planter so I have something to transplant the herbs to.  

I even received a couple of Bath and Body candles (which the hubs says are to light when I burn something in the kitchen and want to cover up the smell).  One is Spiced Apple Toddy and the other is a Caramel blend................see, it's all food related!

And lest my quilty friends be disappointed that there has been no mention of any type of sewing in this post, I can tell you that the new red stand mixer weighs more than even Lizzy the 201, my heaviest sewing machine!  Probably should have left the reindeer extra carrots for that delivery!!

Christi

December is Flying By!

This might be the prettiest pecan pie I have ever made!  The hubs' favorite pie is pecan.  The day before Thanksgiving, I was making this pie for our turkey dinner the next day and when I went to turn the oven on, it said "feature not available".  Excuse me?  You're an oven.  Baking is not a FEATURE, it's pretty much your sole purpose!  I immediately callled the local appliance business (we know them, go to church together, I was Nick's piano teacher, he was in DD's class at school)..........and I remembered that we had lost power for just a couple of minutes the evening before, so I went down to the breaker box and flipped the breaker a couple of times and it finally came on (the clock had always been working, so I hadn't realized there was a problem until I went to start baking a pie).  I hastily called Nick back (he was already out the door, but I caught him!).  

Of course the Hubs showed up even though he was really busy that morning (obviously that pecan pie was important), and we had to flip the breaker a couple of more times to get it to start heating.  Here are my awesome kitchen helpers - making sure it's going to work!  They say a watched pot never boils!  The pie did get baked, the rolls made, the turkey cooked, and it was a wonderful meal.

I made 2 more zipper pouches for the nephews' girlfriends.  Don't you just love the plaid!

DD did all the Christmas decorating while she was home on break.  She even ordered me cork lights for this hand painted bottle I got as a gift last year.

I had the wonderful opportunity to proofread a paper for her.  I've done a couple of more since and still have one to do.

One of my piano students left this note on my computer.  He was hoping that I (meaning DD) had this movie.  She does, so he will probably come watch it with her over Christmas break.  He's 9.  

I went down to Rolla to spend the night with DD and attend Jingle & Mingle at her church.  It was really good and a very fun evening.

Not much sewing has been happening.  I am trying to do the Tiny Tree blocks from Temecula Quilt Company's blog.  The blocks measure 2.75".  Here are the first 4.

I was able to get the next 4 done last night!

We seem to be very busy and not much is getting accomplished.  At least my gifts are purchased and wrapped.  No holiday cooking/baking has been done.  Maybe we will just diet for Christmas this year!

Merry Christmas!

Christi