Snow and Rain, oh my!!

The rain this past week has been unbelievable even for Oregon! With rain measuring over 7 inches in one week, our ground is sodden, wet and squishy if there ever was such a word.

Starting the week, we had quite a bit of snow and I enjoyed watching the falling snow create a winter wonderland. Once the snow ended, the rain began and didn't stop until today when there was a bit of sun showing; but that didn't last long either because when I was outside, I felt raindrops again.

Mike and I were fortunate because our power did not go out and we were able to stay warm and dry. Learning how to live without power can be trying and hard on those who don't know how to cope with it. Living on the farm growing up, my family lost their power on a regular basis - sometimes living without power for several days. One time when we lost power, my mother had homemade rolls rising and a pot of soup on the stove. When I got home from school, she had the camp stove out finishing up the soup but had to throw away the rolls. We bundled up and stayed dry with a fire in the fireplace. After supper, we all sat around the table bundled up with a lantern playing card and board games to. pass the time away

Hearing of the power losses in both Oregon and Washington reminded me I should have some type of emergency kit ready in case our power went out. Here's the recipe for a simple but important reminder to keep things, "In Case of Emergency."

Emergency Kit

First Aid Kit
Bottled water
Sleeping bags
Camp stove
canned food in the Pantry that needs little or no heating
Powdered milk
Flashlights for every member of the family
Extra toilet paper
Games to play to pass the time away
Books to read by light of the flashlight

Replace the food on a regular basis so you have fresh non-outdated food. I'm sure I forgot something on the list, but you can build your kit specifically for your family. My daughter's family lost their power in Washington and she did a great job coping and adapting to the difficult time until the power came back on.

First taste of snow!

The appearance of snow outside my window this morning brought back so many memories of growing up on the farm. The winter months would bring their excitement of snow, riding on the tractor while my Dad would clear the snow or building the biggest snowmen of all time. My bother and sister would make snow forts too so we could throw snowballs at each other. Or even walking with my brother in the snow trying to trip each other so we'd end up in the snow either face down or face up.

My mother would bundle us up with our farm boots, woolen gloves, and baggies. Yes, I said baggies. My mother was a genious when it came to improvising!! She would let us put on the gloves and boots, but then we would add the baggies to our gloves held in place by rubberbands and also the boots were covered in plastic bags held in place with rubber bands. Who knew back then you'd be able to find tools like rubber bands and baggies doubling as winter wear gear....Yep, she was a genious, and yes, our hands got cold but they stayed dry. Same for the feet.

After playing outside until our hands were frozen (at least we thought so), we'd end up standing or sitting next to the fireplace warming our hands and feet with a cup of hot cocoa. What warm and cozy memories of the snow. Even to this day, I get excited about the snow and didn't get much sleep last night anticipating the first sight of the snow this morning.

My mother would also make ice cream snow so this is the recipe for this post. If you do make this, be sure to get your snow from a clean source (most snow now isn't as clean as it used to be). Growing up, making the ice cream snow was almost as much fun as playing in it.

Ice cream snow

2 cups of snow
1/2 cup of cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons of sugar

Keep the snow cold while mixing your other ingredients together. Then pour the cream mixture over the snow and scoop the snow into either a cone or dish. Enjoy.

What is Retirement?

During my 40's, I had it all...a new college education, a wonderful brand new home for myself and my daughter, a new career and of course a new husband who came with 8 children and bunches of grandchildren. Finding a new career was an exciting time in my life - about 15 years later than most career minded people but I got there with the help of my folks and other family members.

Thinking of retiring wasn't in my volcabulary back then and "somewhere down the road" I was going to retire, maybe when I was 65, hahaha. I don't think I ever wanted to retired. Sometimes peoples' plans don't coincide with God's plan for their lives and in this case, my life. I got laid off from the new career but God gave me another job and in this new job, I met a family who became life-long friends. Career-wise it wasn't the most demanding job, but I did enjoy it until God decided I should make another career move.

At 50 my husband and I made a decision maybe I needed more education so I took an accelerated Master's course and got an MBA. Who in their right mind would take a 2 year course in 18 months? Yep, ME!!! It wasn't easy but I graduated in a class starting out with 11 people and ending up with only 5 graduating on time. Those were crazy times but through this I got the job of my dreams in 2006. This job was demanding, but rewarding in its own way and soon I was part of an association where I sat on a Board of Directors and was considered a "high powered executive". The job also demanded I commute to Portland adding another layer of stress.

In 2009, only 3 years after receiving my dream job, I lost the job and was looking again for a new position utilizing my education and skills. Now honestly, who would hire someone in their 60's in an executive position? Not many people and, I found I would interview for a great position, but as soon as someone saw me, I would not get the job due to my age or disability (bad knees).

I started praying and asking, "God, if you want me to work, find me a job. If not, I guess I'll be retired." The job never came to fruition but applying for Social Security Disability was one outlet. I thought if I can't work, I'll see if I qualify for benefits. No one gets SSDI on their first try....that is except me. God was definitely telling me something about time to retire. I guess at that point, I needed an attitude adjustment regarding retirement.

So after all this, what is retirement? I've heard on the news there are approximately 2,000 baby boomers retiring every day. Is retirement all play, staying at home doing nothing, or just letting life slip by? I've come to the conclusion retirement is a new and exciting career change. I get to sleep in (don't have to be on the road to Portland by 5:30 every morning and don't have to plan meetings, be in charge of meetings, etc.), make anything I want for supper (doesn't matter how long it takes to cook - I have time), learning new hobbies to keep me busy, write a book, or even volunteering a few days a week.

I've learning to accept my limitations and embracing retirement albeit in a different sort of way. I volunteer at a home twice a week babysitting a wonderful baby, I'm learning to use a new sewing/embroidery machine and I'm working on my book, "Shelter from the Storm" which I hope to finish in 2012 (Lord willing). Maybe I'll even start a new book after the one I'm working on is finished. Who knows. But the main thing is I'm learning to be retired and not fighting it.

Now for the recipe from this "retired" person. I've acquired a taste for croissants from Williams Sonoma. These don't take any time except they do cost so here's the recipe.

Go to the Williamssonoma.com website and hunt for food. Order one of the boxes of croissants. Follow the directions on the label and enjoy. Serve warm or use them as sandwich bread. These items were one of Oprah's favorite things she gave away every year on her show. Now that's taking it easy with being retired and cooking!! Have fun Baby Boomers retiring!!

Memories of Grandchildren exploring Grandma and Grandpa's house

The Christmas celebration is over, decorations are coming down, Christmas lights are finally off and the New Year will be here at the end of the week. The highlights this year were many. There isn't enough space to mention all of those highlights but I think attending Jonah's first birthday party and our family Christmas stand out the most.

Helping Sarah with all the preparations for Jonah's first birthday turned out to be fun as Sarah and I tried to figure out how to do things and make them work - like the green marshmallow trees. I laugh when I think of how we tried several things to make them stand up all by themselves and they turned out looking amazing.

Watching our three littlest grandchildren last week, seeing the wonderment in their eyes as they explored every nook and cranny of our house was precious. Noah and Chloe (2 1/2), and Jonah (1 1/2) noticed all the sparkly decorations, bows, greenery, and tree decorations. The three children shared toys, cars, books and other items together as each gift was opened and played with. The room seemed like chaos but this chaos was a controlled chaos and I sigh and just smile when I think of all that occurred during our special Christmas time with family.

I'm finding it hard to transition from Christmas to making any New Year's resolutions for the new year, but this next year I do want to focus on finishing my book and then hunt for someone to publish the finished product.

As for a recipe to share with this post, I am reminded again of that elusive little green marshmallow tree my daughter and I tried to make for Jonah's birthday. So if you find yourself wanting to make any green trees in the future, here you go with the recipe.

Green Marshmallow tree

1 bag of large marshmallows
12 oz of white premium chips
2 cups Rice Krispie cereal
1 bag of long pretzels
1 roll of Marzipan
green powdered color
brown color, either gel or powdered

Take some of the green color and toss with the cereal. This will turn the cereal green but keep the cereal dry.

Melt the chips until just melted.

Take a marshmallow and stick a pretzel in the middle, Next coat the marshmallow with the white melted chips. Immediately roll in the green cereal. Put the coated marshmallows into a container so they can stand up and harden.

Next, take a small amount of the marzipan and add the brown color to it. Do this by kneading in the color. Make a small ball of the marzipan and stick the pretzel end of the tree into the marzipan. Place the tree back into the container to again set and harden.

The trees should stand up by themselves and you've got something totally edible. Enjoy.

Christmas is here....Let the celebrating begin!!

This week is Christmas and first of all, I am reminded of the ultimate gift God gave to me in the form of His son, Jesus Christ. Without this gift I would be nothing and I would have nothing. Jesus has given me the strength to perservere when I thought all hope was gone. He also gave me the strength I needed to start a new life in 1985 with my daughter. Remembering back on those days of being a single parent to a 3 year old, I wanted the holidays to bring the best memories I could possibly give my child.

One of the traditions I had was to have my daughter go to bed on Christmas Eve and then when she was asleep, I'd jingle some bells and run into her room and tell her, "Santa just left and those were the reindeer I heard." She believed me until she turned older, and I think she didn't want to spoil my fun and didn't tell me for a few years just so we could jingle the bells and proclaim Santa came to our house.

I also remember those days when my dad would take my daughter shopping for a Christmas present for me. I was always humbled by my dad's actions because he would do this for Mother's Day as well.

When I started celebrating Christmas with my new "blended" family, I tried to make traditions by decorating EVERY (yes, I said EVERY) part of the house. I had theme rooms. Our living area downstairs was the Santa room with the tree; the family area where we spent most of our time was the angle and nativity area because this is why we really celebrate Christmas; and of course the kitchen and bathrooms were decorated with snowmen. I would even have our girls decorate their rooms with lights and fake trees so they would have something of their own. Of course their friends would come over and call my house, "the Christmas house" because of EVERY part of the house had something to do with Christmas.

Another tradition I started when our kids were small was to give each person (including the gentlemen) Christmas stockings in their Christmas stockings. (One of the first things I did when I remarried was to make everyone in the family their very own Christmas stocking. As our kids got married, I would make their spouse or their children a Christmas stocking to match.)

Since the kids have all left home, I haven't been decorating as much and in fact in the past few years, I haven't even done the outside lights. With the twins coming from Washington DC and our newest grandson coming from Washington State, I decided this year, I'd bring all the glory back to the house and make it kid friendly so the little ones will remember Grandma and Grandpa's house as a house of wonder and delight.

I'm also pulling out all the stops in the food area this year. We are having baby back ribs and turkey for our celebration plus Red Velvet Cake, cookies galore and all the favorites my family enjoys. So for this post, I'm going to give you my favorite sugar cookie recipe. I've mentioned before my grandmother would always put out sugar cookies at Thanksgiving time and I could never find the exact recipe she used, but I did find a recipe comparable. Enjoy and continue to make those traditions with your families as you celebrate this season of joy.

Grandma Reimer's sugar cookies

1 1/2 cups softened butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar

Cream the above ingredients until light and fluffy.

Add 2 eggs and beat well. Add 5 cups flour, 4 teaspoons baking powder, and 1/2 cup milk and mix well. Regfrigerate for 3-4 hours until firm or overnight. Roll out to 1/4 inch thick and use your favorite cutters. Place on parchment lined cookie sheets and bake 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees.

Before these cookies are baked, you can sprinkle colored sugar on top or frost them and design them once they are cooled. Use a buttercream frosting.

Even Good cooks have a bad day!!!

Have you ever had one of those days when you go, "What was I thinking?" Sunday night I made cookies for the gun club as usual. I don't know whether it was because the time was the middle of the night, or I just "wasn't thinking," but I screwed up my own recipe. Looking back I just laugh at myself because even I make mistakes sometimes while cooking.

Even Good cooks have a bad day....

I made my original peanut butter cookies according to my own developed recipe because they are so good and I don't use a recipe book. I got to the flour mixture and I put in five cups of flour just like I usually do. The cookie dough didn't look quite right but I didn't think about it. After putting the cookies onto the cookie sheets to cook, I went to put the flour away.

Okay, so this is where the, "What was I thinking" part came in. I always keep a 1 cup measuring cup in the flour bin but when I got to looking at the cup, it said 3/4 cup. On no!!!! Instead of using 5 cups of flour I used 5 cups of 3/4 cup flour. No wonder the cookies looked different. Even my husband said they weren't as good as they normally were.

I immediately took the wrong sized measuring cup out of the bin and replaced it with the right size measuring cup. But I got to thinking, "Did I use the wrong amount of flour for my Thanksgiving rolls?" Or, "Was the last batch of cookies right???" Like I said before, I laugh at myself trying to figure out if I used the right measure of flour in the most recent items I've baked. You can imagine next time I make someting, I will make sure I use the right amount of flour and use the appropriate size cup for measuring.

This brings me to the recipe I'm going to share for this post. Christmas is right around the corner. Last year I shared some Mennonite German recipes. This year, I'm going to share my own original recipes I've developed over the years and the ones my family loves. This recipe does use only 3/4 cup of flour. (LOL)

Decadent orange brownies

1 cube butter melted
orange zest of two oranges, fresh
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon orange flavoring
2 eggs
3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix the above ingredients in the order they are listed and pour into an 8x8 square pan. Bake at 350 minutes until the brownies are slightly set. When cool, frost with an orange buttercream frosting, cut into squares and serve with ice cream.

Orange buttercream frosting

2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup softened butter
splash of cream milk or cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
zest of one orange
1 teaspoon orange flavoring
1/2 teaspoon vanilla flavoring

Mix together and add enough milk or cream to spreading consistency. These are so good and since I don't like chocolate sometimes, the freshness of the oranges make this a good holiday treat.

Thanksgiving, Baby Limas and Butter Croissants

As I was sitting at the table yesterday during our Thanksgiving dinner and watching my family, I had bittersweet memories of my mom and dad who celebrated their last Thanksgiving with us two years ago. I remember mom saying, "These are the best baby limas I've had in a long time."

By this time, dad wasn't eating much and he apologized for not eating more turkey and all the fixings. Somehow though he managed to eat a whole piece of pumpkin pie with whipped cream.

There are some traditions in my family that started when I was a little girl and one of these was my mom would make her famous Butter Croissants and baby limas.

This year, 17 of my family members came to dinner and of course I had to fix the baby limas. Now I know most of you don't even know what baby limas are, but they are a smaller version of the butter bean and they are green, but they taste heavenly for those of us who grew up with them. I add a splash of cream, a pat of butter and pepper when I fix them. Since not everyone likes baby limas, I only made one package of them yesterday. What surprised me though was everyone was eating them and I only got a small spoon full when it came time for me to dish up. Even little Jonah ate them and he said, "mmmmm" which means he liked them too. Yay for baby limas!!!!

But back to my mom's Butter Croissants. I knew I was having a large crowd this year so I made a double batch at one time. I had never done this before and they turned out great. The recipe I'm sharing today as I look back on those fond memories of my parents is the Butter Croissants because they are easy and anyone can make them. Even those who don't know how to cook....you can't mess these up.

Mom - thanks for all the great recipes and especially these tasty morsals everyone has to have at Thanksgiving.

Butter Croissants

4 cups flour
1 cup cold Butter

Cut the butter into the flour until the flour looks like pie dough or the butter has been reduced into pea size morsals. Place the bowl in the refrigerator while you make the "wet" ingredients.

In 1 cup warm water, mix 1 package and set aside to grow a bit or 5 minutes.
In another bowl, mix 3/4 cup evaporated milk, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 cup melted butter plus 1 egg. Add 1/3 cup sugar. Now add 1 cup flour and mix well. A few lumps are okay.

Add the yeast mixture to the other "wet" ingredients and use a knife to mix the butter/flour mixture into the "wet" until the butter/flour is just moisetened. Do not overmix.

Cover and refrigerate over night or you can let this sit in the fridge for up to 2 days. Cut the dough into 4 equal balls. Roll each ball into an 8-10 inch circle and cut into 8 pie wedges. Roll each wedge from the large end to the small end and place on parchment lined cookie sheets. Repeat with each dough ball. Let rise at room temperature for 2 hours.

Bake at 325 degrees until light golden. Remove from pan onto a cooling rack. Makes 36 rolls. Enjoy hot out of the oven or save until later. To reheat the rolls, heat the oven to 325 degrees and put the rolls into the oven to heat for 5 or so minutes.

Our family likes these even frozen. Go figure..... but enjoy.