Merry Christmas

Praying everyone has a Merry Christmas.
Praying everyone remains safe.
Praying everyone has love and someone to love and be loved by...even if it's only a furry four-footed creature :)
Praying you know, or will know the Saviour's love for you.
Praying His joy will fill your life.
Blessings to all...
Lee

Yummy Bean Recipe

I discovered the Duggar family's website a couple days ago. You may know the name because they're the Christian family with 19 kids, and Michelle was expecting again but miscarried recently, and they have a tv show. She has some of their favorite recipes on their site and the one called Old Settlers' Baked Beans jumped out at me, so I tried this recipe yesterday. It was so good, I ate too much. And then I had the last small bowl of leftovers for lunch today. And I want to make some more...soon!

I didn't have all the specific ingredients, but I don't think my substitutions changed the flavor that much. In lieu of the Pork 'n Beans and the kidney beans, I used two cans of navy beans. And, because I know the P'nBs are already seasoned in a sauce, I didn't measure the other ingredients precisely and instead added a little extra of everything. Oh, and I remembered my mom would add molasses when she made baked beans when I was growing up so I checked my cupboard, and had just a little molasses left, maybe 1/3 cup, so added it. When I was making it, I cooked my bacon first, as I just don't like the texture of the fat on bacon so wanted to make sure it was more better done! and added the onions for a bit even before I added the ground beef.

This is definitely a keeper recipe. And so EASY. I remember having homemade baked beans quite often as a child, and always loved them but could never get them quite right even following my mom's directions. I think adding some finely diced red bell peppers, maybe a dash of vinegar or some smoke flavor could be some nice variables.

I Had a Visit From Family !

Family doesn't visit me very often. I live a long way away. Like 900+ miles from my closest family. Well, actually there are some 2nd cousins an hour away but we've never been in the habit of getting together except at our reunions which are held every three years. This past week though, my middle brother (#4 child of my mother) stopped in for an overnight visit. His original plan was not to come this far south but mountainous weather issues forced him to take the 'safe', albeit longer, route so I got to visit with him briefly for the first time since early summer '10.

Then I got a message, lol, through one of the game chats (which I hadn't looked at in 3 days) at the social network saying my cousin, his wife, m-i-l & son were at the happiest place on earth, and would we like to have dinner with them on Friday. It took them about 2.5 hrs to get here once they left there, so it was truly brief. They spent maybe only 20 minutes at the house and then maybe an hour and a half out at dinner. We have a favorite Mexican food restaurant that's close so that's where we went. What a treat. Family...in MY home. And two family visits in one week! So awesome.

Oh, it's Wednesday

So Marty left for work this morning as usual around 5:30. I get up about an hour later, take my shower and as I get dressed I hear doors closing downstairs; nope, it wasn't Nick up yet, so I hesitantly go down the stairs and all kinds of weird things are flying through my head, such as someone has broken in and needed the bathroom or was looking for drugs or something, or Marty lost his job, you know how it goes. He comes out, thankfully it was him, and he'd had to drive all the way home (about a 45 mile round trip) because he forgot his work laptop this morning. Then he had to drive all the way back to work in the height of rush hour traffic. Did I tell you that on Friday it took him three hours to get home? Two hours of that was on a single half-mile stretch between the office and the freeway...for no obvious reason...but there was no way to escape once you got stuck.

So I really will not complain about my morning and Nick's one, and only one, class for the day because of finals, and that I tried really, really hard not to lose my sanctification with traffic, stopping at the bank, the post office (remember the phrase about going postal?), nor the grocery store, nor that Nick decided he wanted to spend the afternoon with a friend that lives about 10 miles away. Instead, I'll just sigh really loudly and enjoy this:

Where have I been since Friday?

Here. Just puttering. Without much to say. It's like that sometimes. Saturday was busy with making a dessert for our annual church fellowship group's Christmas dinner. The meal is 'catered' by one of the classes members and volunteers and served buffet style. We had ham, roast beef, mac & cheese, mixed veg and salad. Desserts were 'pot luck' or 'divine providence'. Regardless of your preferred definition, they were sinfully delicious, and abundant, and hugely varied. The dessert I made was an Arabic cake, taught to me by a former co-worker back around 1980. Her husband was Arabic. The cake is called Harisi, and is made from butter, sugar, yogurt, and farina predominately. Before it's baked, it's cut into diamond shapes and a blanched almond half is pressed into each diamond. After it's baked, it's cut again along the same lines and a sugar, honey, water syrup is poured over it to soak in over an hour or so. It presented nicely, but for whatever reason, it seems only a few pieces were eaten and I have two foil pans remaining in my frig. Oh well.

Sunday was of course church, and I don't know that anything else was done. I worked some on the embroidery project I wrote about here. Monday was my PT appointment early afternoon, which cut into my day more than if it were earlier. In the evening I again worked on the embroidery project while I was waiting the arrival of my brother Eugene. He's been working at a huge oil refinery (he was a welder until he had an industrial accident, was retrained, and is now a QC inspector of welds) in Texas and was just laid off (but has no doubts he'll find work when he goes back) and was on his way to his son and dau-in-laws about 6 hours from here before heading on to the Pacific NW. It was a good time for him to take a couple weeks to travel. His girlfriend is there as her father just passed away. He got in around 8:30 last night and left shortly after noon today. Just a quick howdy ... that's kinda how my family is, lol, even after not seeing him in a year and a half! Originally he wasn't going to come this direction (this far south) but due to a winter storm putting snow in the mountains, he opted for the longer route. He didn't want to put money into snow tires or chains if he didn't need to, but I wonder what the extra cost in gas, and time, was. Regardless, I was glad to have a short time visit. We never know when those next times will be.

Fina-Lee Friday

• I've heard, but haven't yet researched, that our president(?) is trying to put in a bill (or has?) to add a 15 cent tax on Christmas trees to "improve the image of Christmas trees". Does the Christmas tree have a bad image? I wasn't aware.
• A couple weeks ago I saw a car carrier with nice new police cars on it. They were "Lexington Police" cars. Hmmm, were they headed to Kentucky but took a detour to the southwest? Maybe they were painted here? There is a Lexington in California, so maybe they were headed there. Or maybe they were taking a tour like the DC Christmas tree that took a month to get to DC.
• I wonder if some of the driver's I see have ever read the driver's handbook. Have I wondered that out loud before? Specifically wondering about the guy that stopped in the middle of the three lanes of traffic because of the emergency vehicle that was going the opposite direction on the other side of a curbed and tree-filled median.
• And the other driver that couldn't decide if he wanted to turn into a driveway or not and held up traffic while he contemplated the notion.
• Or the dudette walking in the parking lot that didn't have the sense to move aside to let the cars drive where cars drive, I wondered about her. Of course, she's a pedestrian, and I'm not aware of a walker's manual, but think there should be one...also one for bike riders - they should be licensed!!
  
• Why did the city put in a fully functioning traffic light on a street at an intersection where the cross street hasn't been constructed? Is that an example of the cart before the horse? Or an attempt to slow traffic in a posted 55 mph zone?
• Marty let me know last night because of some areas he needs to learn at with his job that he'll no longer be telecommuting on Friday. Bad for him, good for me. He has to endure Friday traffic, I have a 5th day to do what I do with my days in 'my' domain without interference-even if it's only in my mind. What will we do when he retires? I suppose I'm a bit 'selfish' in my territory.
• My sweet baby girl called yesterday inquiring as to our Christmas list. The whole gift area of Christmas is a struggle for me. It used to be because of lack of funds. But now it's more that there's nothing I really need and my big want is the kitchen remodel and a couple quilting-related very pricey items (like cabinet/table for my machine); same with Marty-doesn't need anything but maybe would like a 4WD vehicle for his photog outings (his car has >150K miles on it); Nick has a list...mostly things with a high price tag, too! The grandbaby's easy - toys, outfit at this age, but my daughter and son-in-law...that's the hard part. And I'm running out of time!
  

Turkish Delight

I've never had Turkish Delight before but in a store I was in today, they have some great ethnic foods, I thought I'd try. After all, wasn't it Edmond's favorite in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe? There were so many different brands, with different flavors, and some with pistachios, and some with walnuts. Too many choices tax my brain, give me only a few and I can choose easily, give dozens and I'll stand there for 15 minutes trying to decide. Finally opted for "traditional Turkish Delight" and gladly hastened to open it when I got home. Oh my, yes it is delish. But I think I would buy a different flavor next time. The 'traditional' is flavored as, and strongly tastes of, roses! What you taste, is how roses smell, which can be almost overpoweringly perfumy. And they're coated with powdered sugar, or maybe it's cornstarch. The rose taste lasts a long time afterward too. It won't stop me from finishing the box, as I said, it IS delicious. I'm not sure Marty or Nick will like it though, in fact, I'm pretty sure they won't because it does seem perfumy on the taste buds. Have you ever tried this ... candy?