Visit our Popular Forums

Lily&Me · 11-24-2019, 05:24 AM

Thank you.

May all readers and followers here have a safe and happy holiday season, however you spend it.

Maggie

Lily&Me · 11-25-2019, 12:51 PM

It’s worth making this liqueur this time of year, just to look at its gorgeous color, which deepens a bit every day.

I have spent the morning peeling, coring and dicing up pears, then cooking with cranberries for a double batch of Cranberry Pear Conserve that I’ve been making for probably 20 years...tho I messed up the sequence and it’s not as pretty as it usually is

, it set up nicely and will be yummy and beautiful with fresh rolls on Thanksgiving.

We have temps near 60 until Thursday, when they will drop by 40 degrees by Thanksgiving morning.

Always good to have cool temperatures for holiday cooking.

tallytwo1994 · 11-26-2019, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lily&Me

It’s worth making this liqueur this time of year, just to look at its gorgeous color, which deepens a bit every day.

I have spent the morning peeling, coring and dicing up pears, then cooking with cranberries for a double batch of Cranberry Pear Conserve that I’ve been making for probably 20 years...tho I messed up the sequence and it’s not as pretty as it usually is

, it set up nicely and will be yummy and beautiful with fresh rolls on Thanksgiving.

We have temps near 60 until Thursday, when they will drop by 40 degrees by Thanksgiving morning.

Always good to have cool temperatures for holiday cooking.

Maggie,

I don’t recall reading about your Cranberry Pear Conserve before. Would you post this recipe too, please? Sounds like another nice way to use fresh cranberries. I’m going to try the cranberry liquor also. Thanks!

Carol

rmkrum · 11-26-2019, 11:05 PM

Oh do, pretty please, post that recipe! Sounds yummy.

Lily&Me · 11-27-2019, 05:43 AM

Gladly.

Cranberry Pear Conserve

6 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup fresh cranberries
1/2 cup water
3 cups chopped pears (about 2 lbs)
1/2 cup chopped nuts
2 tsp shredded lemon peel
1/3 cup lemon juice
6 oz liquid pectin (2 foil pouches)

Combine sugar, cranberries and water in large saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Add pears, nuts and lemon peel. Let stand 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mix pectin and lemon juice, add to mixture and stir thoroughly for 3 minutes.

Ladle into clean, freezer safe jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Replace lids, let stand on counter til cool, refrigerate or freeze.

I don’t use the nuts, and have successfully substituted orange rind/orange juice for the lemon.

This keeps a long time in your fridge, and for several years in the freezer.

I always double this recipe, using a whole bag of cranberries.

I got distracted this year and put the pears in with the cranberries, cooking them all, but it came out just fine, if not as colorful, and set up nicely.

Enjoy!

Lily&Me · 11-27-2019, 11:15 AM

So while I’m doing recipe roundup here, I’m going to add this delicious coffee cake recipe, which you can make the night before, refrigerate, then pop in the oven in the morning.

When you’re having guests for breakfast...

Overnight Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake

3/4 cup softened butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Mix together butter and sugar, beat in eggs and sour cream. Blend dry ingredients and add. Spread in greased 9x13 baking dish.

Top with mixture of 1 cup chopped pecans, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon.

Cover and refrigerate overnight. Bake @ 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Voila! No muss, no fuss breakfast!

Maggie

Lily&Me · 11-27-2019, 11:20 AM

On another note, I think I am going to visit this town in France while I’m over there.

A medieval town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, an easy day trip by train.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provins

When I read it is known for its roses, and rose products, that was the clincher for me.

Maggie

Mansderm161 · 11-28-2019, 05:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lily&Me

So while I’m doing recipe roundup here, I’m going to add this delicious coffee cake recipe, which you can make the night before, refrigerate, then pop in the oven in the morning.

When you’re having guests for breakfast...

Overnight Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake

3/4 cup softened butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Mix together butter and sugar, beat in eggs and sour cream. Blend dry ingredients and add. Spread in greased 9x13 baking dish.

Top with mixture of 1 cup chopped pecans, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon.

Cover and refrigerate overnight. Bake @ 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Voila! No muss, no fuss breakfast!

Maggie

Thanks for the recipes, Maggie. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Can't wait to catch up with you in Edisto!
Debbie

Lily&Me · 11-28-2019, 06:13 AM

Thank you, Debbie, and the same to you.

Edisto will be here before we know it...I’m already longing for it.

Maggie

Paddledipper · 11-28-2019, 07:11 AM

Happy Thanksgiving to you, Lily and the rest of your family! Still enjoying your posts and am looking forward to updates about your France trip.

Lily&Me · 11-28-2019, 07:23 AM

Thank you.

I have made cranberry liqueur, cranberry pear conserve, bread rolls for dinner today and the sour cream coffee cake awaiting company when they arrive.

All in the past 4-5 days, which is a lot of cooking and kitchen time for me who doesn’t do as much nor enjoy it near as much as I did back when hubby was alive to cook for and everyone came here for the big holidays.

Yikes.

House is tidied and vacuumed, fire is going in the wood stove, I am dressed with makeup carefully applied...now taking a well deserved break.

Have a wonderful day, y’all!

Maggie

Al and Missy · 11-28-2019, 09:35 AM

Happy Thanksgiving, Maggie! We returned from our month on the road in NC, VA, and GA to our daughter’s in Jacksonville where on Thursday 11/21 we welcomed grandson Hudson. Mother and son came home Sunday and are doing fine. I took the trailer home and came back Tuesday. Our other two cildren and their families came in yesterday for a big family Thanksgiving celebration, the first with everyone in many years.

We hope you have an enjoyable holiday with your family!

Al

Missy

Lily&Me · 11-28-2019, 03:53 PM

Hi, Al, and hugs to you and your sweet wife.

We are home and in our jammies...well, I’m in my jammies

...and I will not be going out shopping tomorrow.

Will haul some firewood and cook nothing.

Maggie

Lily&Me · 12-01-2019, 06:34 AM

Reading the Washington Post this morning...one of two e-subscriptions to newspapers I maintain

...there was an editorial about a young man’s recent personally catastrophic experience with delayed flights due to weather.

He hadn’t the financial means to rent a hotel room, nor otherwise properly care for himself over the several day delay, while the airline (which handled this badly) got to refresh its staff in shifts.

He was worn to a nub by the time he got to his intended destination...his point being more the financial disadvantage those living paycheck to paycheck experience when corporate America fails to step up in a crisis, and the emotional degradation experienced when we are caught up in an adverse event

But, what struck me were these particular words...

“that was the kind of clear-headed thinking I no longer possessed. The airline got to renew and rally its position with fresh people. I didn’t. Exactly what’s frustrating about crises like this is that, as I’m worn down, I’m expected to become more competent. Who responds brilliantly to exhaustion?”

This so clearly articulated end moment immediately struck a chord in me, and reverberated thru the emotional aftermath of several life experiences of my own, as well as the recent, prolonged emotional assault on my family member.

Have you ever been hanging on by your fingernails during a crisis, for what seems like forever? Emotionally drained, and feeling like you’re on your last nerve?

These experiences take a toll, and depending on their severity and duration may continue to do so for the rest of our lives.

And so, if this resonates with you, may you find some comfort in our collective human experiences...even if it doesn’t, may you bring empathy to those in these straits who may someday cross your path.

It feels odd not to be building up my staging area to head south in the Interstate right after Christmas.

Every December since 2007. I’ll still be going, of course, but not til February.

I’ve made several dozen hats and scarves, am back to prayer shawls for the time being...give my fingers something to do.

Going to make up some cookie dough to portion out into the freezer...my grands expect Grandma’s cookies, and I am happy to oblige.

Also have a day trip on the train to Chicago this month, to see the city in all its holiday glory, and to visit the humongous new Starbucks on Michigan Avenue!

Lily&Me · 12-09-2019, 09:52 AM

Been busy with winter things here, and getting ready for Christmas.

Have a gorgeous wreath on my front door, and a beautiful floral arrangement arrived Saturday from my kids, which is all the decorating I’m doing.

I don’t have the dinners here any longer, nor the overnights here with the grands, just a lot to put up and then take back down.

Decided to upgrade our stay in Glacier to a family cabin, which has a little kitchenette and it’s own firewood-included fire pit...watching this hungry horde consume food tells me we will want a little frig and the ability to make tea and hot chocolate, etc.

Go big or go home, right?

They are looking forward to it, strategizing about who should sleep in which layer of bunk in our sleeper car, what we will do on the train, books to brings, etc.

Seems a good time to teach them how to play rummy, which I learned as a child from my Danish Nana.

Some family drama lately I just haven’t the stomach to deal with. I’ve done all I can.

Christmas concerts with the grands, baking a few cookies, planning for Paris, finished a prayer shawl, etc.

My fifth holiday season without Doug, and lots has happened in this time period...as things do in life, ya know...but I feel my get up, keep going, carve out a new life and make changes as you need to approach has overall served me pretty well.

I have to say, tho I am still “me”, I feel I’m much different now, and how could I not be?

I am fortunate not to have been subjected to any open criticism of how I have grieved and managed my life since becoming a widow, tho I’m sure critics are there they have not shared with me. I know this isn’t the case for everyone experiencing profound loss, with painful critiques coming from hopefully well meaning others.

Reading Carolyn Hax this morning, she gives this response to a person critical of another’s approach to a first holiday without a loved one...

“ Am I missing something? It’s cookies. 

Grief doesn’t respond well to corrections. Unless someone is emotionally medicating with highly risky behavior, it’s better just to give extra hugs, let the sadness express itself and otherwise get out of the way.”

Good words to help the grieving with, and I am sharing them here as well as filing them away for later use.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season, however you celebrate, and may you have love, peace and kindness in your lives.

Maggie

mimiandrews · 12-10-2019, 05:51 AM

I am fortunate not to have been subjected to any open criticism of how I have grieved and managed my life since becoming a widow, tho I’m sure critics are there they have not shared with me. I know this isn’t the case for everyone experiencing profound loss, with painful critiques coming from hopefully well meaning others.

Maggie, let me thank you again for all your writings concerning your transition to widowhood. They were an immense help to me as I entered the same process of reinventing my life. Now, several years later, I think we're both doing pretty well.

Lily&Me · 12-10-2019, 06:11 AM

Thank you, Mimi, and I agree.

We are all more alike than we are different, is the truth.

Faced with new situations, we sometimes find ourselves in an almost fog, feeling our way thru and hoping we don’t trip and fall off a cliff.

And we seem to rarely see them coming...suddenly, one day, there it is and we are.

Finding our way, doing the best we can with what we have to work with.

Sigh. Life.

Maggie

Lily&Me · 12-12-2019, 11:37 AM

This is an excellent book, which I am reading for the second time.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...Winter_Journey

Based on a true story, about a massacre in Poland of Jewish townspeople by their neighbors.

https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-03-...-misremembered

Not for the faint of heart, but well worth reading, in my opinion.

Lily&Me · 12-12-2019, 11:43 AM

Minus a real tree, I must do something to bring some woodsy, seasonal scent into the little house.

So, a beautiful bag of potpourri picked up at Tuesday Morning and distributed around the main living area.

And, a batch of candles, scented with pine, cedar, orange and patchouli essential oils.

Perfect.

Lily&Me · 12-15-2019, 10:20 AM

I have been on a bit of a cooking/baking jag lately, as in actually cooking meals rather than foraging in the freezer for MRE’s left from previous episodes.

I do frequently find it difficult to get inspired to cook for myself.

Bread dough rising on the counter, vegetable beef with barley soup started and now on slow-cook in my small Instant Pot...and I made these little cuties a few days ago, after putting together a double batch of cut out cookie dough to portion out in the freezer for baking for the grands in the next couple of weeks.

Tiny mitten and tree cookie cutters, baked up and lightly glazed/decorated...yum!

Christmas cookies for one.