December 24, 2011

Everyone is asleep and Santa has already visited! Now it's time for me to blog and go to bed! There is a warm cosy fire and I really want to read right now, but I have a feeling morning is going to come early here!

Christmas Eve at our house.

This is such a typical scene. My grandma and Danielle. my SIL working the electric frying pans. They are always in this spot.  My grandma has the fish and Danielle is working the perioges. Look at my brother trying to sneak something like he's 8 years old. There is my mom in the edge of the picture. My guess is that these ladies are discussing the "doneness" of the perioges. See how my grandma is leaning. She's leaning like she has an opinion about something... 

 There are two perioge factions here. One likes them crispy on the outside and one likes them golden. They did half and half this year.  

I didn't even have one.... Shhhh.... Don't tell anyone.

Someday when that picture is different I'll be glad I took this tonight. As my grandma was coming in to fry the fish she said "Well this is probably the last time I'll be doing this...."

Though that is not the first time she's said that! She's said it for like 5 years.

She'll be 88 in April.

And everyone enjoyed their meal.

16 full bellies! We had people eating in the living room too.  Both sides. Siblings, parents, cousins, grandma and Bob. Everyone had a nice time

Why yes, those ARE fresh greens on the table....

My neighbors visited after dinner tonight and right this very minute my other neighbors next door are out on their deck SINGING CHRISTMAS SONGS..... Their deck is close to my porch and I have a door to that porch in my living room. They are loud, but boy are they having a good time!

Christmas is in the air!

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!

Now Go Plant Something! 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

Fa la la la la la la la la

I'll let you in on a little secret. I'm pretty much over Christmas at this point.   I've overindulged on food & drink & family (Don't worry, I told them this already-I think I gave my brother's wife instructions not to call until after New Years anyway.)

And Christmas songs. I started listening to Christmas songs at Thanksgiving which was clearly a mistake.  By Christmas Eve day I needed to put on  my iPod to drown it all out. I listened to Fleetwood Mac and my family listened to Bing and Frank (Oh my, high on my list of irritations is 50's style rat pack banter...."a Little Toddy for The Body"...ugh,...)

My husband, who, I think, fashions himself a great jolly old elf at this time of year, is working in conjunction with my daughter and together they have informed me that Christmas Music stays on until New Years Day.....She's particularly taken with  Oh Christmas Tree, by Andrea Bocelli. I've now heard it about 100 times.

So it was with some trepidation that I approached the Planetarium's  Laser Light Show Holiday Songs and Skies with Mr. Jack Frost today.   I swear to you, as I was getting ready to go, strains of Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree were wafting through the house.  I had reached my limit. 

At least I thought I had. My real limit was reached when I got to the ticket booth and presented my membership card only to be told that the membership does not cover laser light shows and that this extravaganza was going to cost $25........Oh joy, $25 to listen to more Christmas music....

But then we went in. And the music started and so did the lights. And my daughter had a BLAST......She was way more excited that I would have imagined. I even enjoyed it. The music was beautiful (Except for that overplayed Mariah Carey song) as were the images and lasers. They also interspersed the show with  the current night sky and the constellations,stars & planets that you can see right now. Very neat. Completely worth the $25.

There was some stupid banter from the Jack Frost character but at least it was no Bing and Frank.....

Theres a Whole Lotta Chopping Going On

Around here...


We've got a pretty delicious Thanksgiving meal planned this year. However, it seems that it has a lot of pieces. Vegetable pieces that is. So my Dad picked up my daughter this morning so I could spend the day chopping. Tomorrow we can start the actual cooking, but today I'm just working on getting the food to the point where we can cook it. On my list of things to chop-Shallots, Leeks, Garlic, Butternut Squash, Brussels Sprouts, Mushrooms, Bread (which I need to first bake for stuffing), herbs & bacon.

I really like this kind of meal prep when I have the time. If I do it this way, then the cooking goes much easier for us. Tomorrow I will bake desserts and assemble the side dishes that I can. By Thanksgiving much of the work will be done and we can just pop the stuff in the oven. My husband is completely in charge of the turkey, although I just made a pancetta sage butter for the outside of it. My fridge is filled with lots of butter and enough heavy cream to give anyone a heart attack.

Today I've got a fall scented candle burning and Christmas music (uugh, I KNOW) playing and I'm in a Zen chopping mode. I'm thinking of my family who will eat this food and thinking of it all as an act of love. I'm not at all bothered by the fact that I'm spending days on this meal that will be consumed in 30 minutes. That's the complaint of so many a woman who has slaved over something all day long only to see it completely devoured isn't it. I think if I was rushing to get it done and had to produce it in one day then that IS how I would feel. This way I get to enjoy the process of it without that feeling.

St Patrick and St Joseph

This is a neat week for our home. Tuesday we celebrated my Irish (through my Mulcahey Grandmother) roots with a St Patrick's Day dinner that featured Corned Beef and Cabbage, Irish music and dancing (Ok, technically the dancing was NOT Irish it was just the 3 of us bouncing around like rejects from a River Dance Audition.) Oh, and Guiness. But only 2 of us had that!!

This evening we celebrated my husband's Italian roots with a St Joseph's day dinner. (I guess any Catholics could celebrate St Joseph's day but I'm Catholic and had never heard of this before meeting my husband nor have I known anyone besides Italian Catholics to celebrate this. )

After pre-school, my girl and I headed over to Rubino's, the local Italian Specialty Food Store. As soon as you walk in this place you can smell it. That Italian food smell made up of cheese and pastry and spices and olive oil. I simply LOVE that place. They have the BEST home made sausage I have EVER tasted. TO DIE FOR. My favorite-Parsley, Wine & Cheese.

We purchased sauce for our Pasta Con Sarde. (and this was the actual kind we got!) St Joseph's Day Bread, Sausage, and Mini Canoli(Cheese, not cream!) Typically we have these St Joseph's day pastries called Sfinge and Sfogliatella but I didn't feel like driving to the Italian bakery in town too. The Cannoli were just fine!

After we did our shopping we sat at these little tables and had a slice of pizza for lunch. They have a HUGE array of lunch options from sandwiches to hot meals, to a special I saw today, Aunt Hattie's Tripe! We had a blast just sitting there eating and talking and watching people. I usually get the sauce early on account of my mother-in-law scaring me into thinking they might run out. (I took her some in Florida) but I think we may have started a new tradition of getting the sauce & accompaniments on the actual day-Making a special outing out of a simple meal of tradition.

Sometimes after saying grace before a special dinner or holiday we pause and each say "something nice about the holiday." as my daughter says. Tonight my husband said something about how we were celebrating Jeasus' earthly father. I said something relating to carrying on family traditions and my girl piped in with "I'm thankful that we get to eat this yummy bread!"

It was good!

Sam I Am

My daughter goes to a co-op pre-school 2x a week. The philosophy of the school is "Learning Through Play" so it's not a rote academic environment, which is one of the reasons we love it. She'll have enough of that when she's older. Having said that, she has leared a ton!

Being the reader than I am and really into children's literature for her, I'm thrilled that the teacher has done many all encompassing author units from, my favorite, Jan Brett, to Eric Carle and now Dr Seuss. These units are awesome because they read the books, and incorporate things like art projects and snacks and games and songs. The Eric Carl unit incorporated makeing a fngerpaint collage and cutting into pictures like Carle, so neat!

Last week they started Dr Seuss, and today read "Green Eggs And Ham." After lunch we went over to the library and borrowed more Seuss books and this evening for dinner, I made my girl-GREEN EGGS AND HAM! 2 drops of food coloring and some leftover ham from the freezer and she was good to go! It was a really fun, easy, cheap way to surprise her and bring school learning home!

Pierogi Making With Grandma Ruth

Today my grandma and I made 106 pierogi. We're Ukraininan so we call them Pedeha or Vereneke. (well we actually don't call them vereneke but a lot of Ukranians do)

Anyway, we made 106 of these and it took us 4 hours to do it. It was a slow process and it's a slow food as you roll out each piece of dough into a small circle. My grandma can't stand while she does it anymore so we sat at the table. And talked and talked. About all kinds of stuff. Funny stuff and sad stuff and meaningful stuff and gossip about her sister who is going all over the US with a new beau.

It reminded me that for eaons women have been huddled around tables or fires making Pierogi or tamales or homemade pasta or roasted wolly mammouth. More than just food was made around those community tables or fires. Now, in this time, in this place, cooking together is done so infrequently. (Heck, sometimes eating as a family is done infrequently) Last year I made them alone so its been 2 years since I've really cooked WITH my grandma. She's 85 this year, who knows how many more of these moments I get. How many times do I really get to slow down and talk to my grandma for 4 hours? When was the last time you talked with anyone for 4 hours? ( Leighanne and I talked for 4 hours at Starbucks the other evening and I'll tell you it was just as satisfying and less work.)

My grandma lives not far from my parents and I took them a plate for their dinner this evening. My father called both my grandma and I to tell us how much they loved them. The food of his youth made by his momma and daughter. How better to feel taken care of?

The ingredients for this meal are cheap, the experience is priceless.

Here are my two pierogi posts from last year if you are interested in my first attempt making them alone or the recipe.

Lonley Pierogi Maker
Pierogi Recipe

Halloween Candy!

I'm usually not one to post links to my older stuff but as I was buying Halloween Candy yesterday I realized I should re-post my Halloween Candy Strategy in case you've forgotten or are a new reader!!!

Happy Mother's Day

My Present:
4 yards of soil that my husband has been moving into my new garden for the past 2 days! (I also got a lovely framed picture of my girl and I
and a gift certificate to a local garden shop.) My husband also took my girl to see her grandparents and give me some uninterrupted time in the garden. We'll be grilling later. Pretty frugal, pretty fun and relaxing.

I will be having a mother's tea on Wed for the ladies in my life-done frugally and beautifully of course!!!

My Frugal Valentine!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

We've got some frugal Valentine fun going on around here today!

This morning when I woke up, my husband had taken some of my daughter's heart shaped foam stickers and and written his own messages on them (completely free!) and stuck them all around the house for me to find along with some chocolates! How neat is that! Along with that there was a nice note along with some chocolate flavored coffee waiting for me at the coffee maker. (Cheap)

Back in December I thought I bought too many Christmas presents for my daughter so I put some away for other occasions. Today I went into that stash and retrieved a baking set for her along with 2 new books and a silly little Elmo washcloth (Free for now as I already had the stuff! I think it was all only like $10 total when I bought it though) (and I know her Daddy bought her a puzzle yesterday too!) She'll be happy!

For my husband (Stop reading this if you are him!) I got 2 used books-1 that he wanted and one that I think he'll like, ($4) some face toner ($7) (ok this is a splurge because I don't even use this stuff!) and some nice chocolate. ($2.50)

All of these presents were wrapped in red tissue paper that I saved from Christmas(Free! I should add, my family laughed at me as I was collecting it!) Trust me-no one will like the gifts less because I've recycled the paper.

I think I'm getting a few presents as well! (which will not be too expensive)

Tonight we'll build a fire and spend time with the 3 of us. For dinner we are having rack of lamb ($7.95) that I got on sale a few weeks ago and some scallops that my in-laws gave us before they left for Florida(Free) (along with some sides and some wine) we'll build a fire and relax as a family. Maybe we'll put my girl's puzzle together. (ALL FREE!)

We don't get too fancy, we don't spend too much, but we'll enjoy our night! Romance is free-Presents are optional!

New Years Eve Lobster Tails

Ever since I was a little girl my family has celebrated New Years Eve with Lobster Tails! They are my FAVORITE! And I don't get them any other time of year (We will usually get whole lobsters any other time we get lobsters. The cost was $36 for 2 and they are 11oz each.

If this doesn't sound too frugal, I will tell you that my husband called every seafood place around our normal driving distance to see which one had the lowest price.

Also, I'll add that I think it's all about making choices. For instance, we hardly ever eat out. When we do, I love to go to a little Greek eatery that I have been going to for years. After 2 lunches, a glass of wine each and a tip, it's always more than $36. I'll tell you, as much as I love the Greek place, the lunch there is no match for 2 beautiful lobster tails. It's all about choices, and today I choose lobster rather than going out to lunch or ordering pizza a few times a month.

Christmas Planning 2008!

Yup, you read that right!!!!

First of all, as I stated sometime in early December, all of my Christmas shopping was done with CASH! Yeah me! It was no easy feat to be able to get to everyone on the list and stay within the budget. I worked selling A LOT on eBay and was stressed getting it all done. When I worked outside of the home, the cash for Christmas was easier to come by. It was getting time to complete the shopping and wrapping that was difficult!

Anyway, I decided that I'm not going to worry about it in December next year. I'm just going to go out and spend the money that I saved for Christmas.

That means I need to start saving-NOW.

So I took the budget from this year and divided it by 52. I have decided that come hell or high water, that amount is going into the savings account every week of the year. You may be shocked at what you need to put away each week to have your ideal Christmas. But if that number shocks you, what makes you think you'll have all of that sometime next December rather than 1/52 of that this week. Somehow I thought that was going to happen. Somehow it did! But not without some sweating and complaining by me. I'm not feeling like doing that anymore.

I'm taking the easy way out. I'm saving up!

Holiday Traditions and Rachel Ray!

So, during the 3 hours that I spent making 62 pedeha, my grandmother was apparently watching Rachel Ray.

One of the items on our Christmas Eve buffet is a dish made of sauteed mushrooms, celery and onion. It has gravy made from flour and butter to hold it all together. It's some Ukranian dish that has been on the table since before my dad was born. It's pretty good, not great, but good. But again, being a stickler for tradition, I need to have it on the table. My grandma is still making it every year at this point.

So this morning she calls to tell me that she's made the onions and mushrooms for tomorrow night already. And how am I feeling? And how did the pedeha turn out? And OH, by the way, she was watching Rachel Ray and decided that her (Rachel Ray's ) mushrooms look better than her own so she made those instead. Is nothing sacred! I'm sure she's right and I'm sure they are delish, but I just don't think Ukrainian peasants had wine to deglaze the pan with!!!!!

I tell you, that Rachel Ray is taking over the planet and frankly, it scares me.

Homemade Pierogi (Pedeha)

Last year, my grandma decided her pierogi (pedeha if you are Ukrainian like us and from now on what I will call these things) making days were over.

Being that this is something my mom has little interest in making, the task soon fell to me. Being I'm a family-history, make-things-from-scratch kind of gal, I embraced this (at least I did last year when Grandma came over to help and teach me) Well we were supposed to have a repeat performance of that but because of schedules and a nasty flu I caught (I'm better now thanks!) I was flying solo last night when I made them myself.

I made about 62. It took me 3 hours from start to finish. (OMG! I completely appreciated all the years my grandma made about 100 of these!) He's a secret. I don't even really like these things. I find them heavy and eat 1/2 of one each year. My mother-in-law told me that since I had been sick I should just hightail it over to the polish store and buy some. I couldn't do it! My dad and Brother LOVE these things. I couldn't host a Christmas Eve without having these for them. Mine don't have a fancy edge like the ones in the photo. But having homemade pedeha for my family IS a beautiful thing and I'm glad I did it. It was also really cheap (hence why poor Slavic countries have made them staples!) I would post the recipe but I don't think any of you will be making these any time soon! (If I'm wrong let me know and I'll post it!)