Becka's blog

Since we celebrated Thanksgiving a little late we just got our Christmas decorations up this past weekend. I will be the first to admit that I'm a reluctant decorator. I agonize over decorating decisions knowing that I'm going to have to live with my choices for a long time. Fortunately I have a dear daughter who majored in interior decorating. She is not working in that field any more, but she still helps me with my decorating decisions. I especially miss her help when it comes to Christmas decorating.

Back in the last millennium when Nora still lived at home she made us these paper cubes that we can put on our Christmas tree lights.

The first set lasted through seven or eight Christmases and then she made us a new set a couple of years ago. I think she got the idea from a Martha Stewart magazine. (I found a number of sites on-line with directions when I googled folded paper cubes.) She made them from copy paper. I love the way they look on our tree and the way they diffuse the light.

I did make something new for our decor this year for our Thanksgiving centerpieces. I got the idea at a blog called 320 Sycamore. I couldn't find the exact glassware that she purchased, but came up with this combination at our local Dollar Tree. For Thanksgiving there were colorful leaves in the outer glasses and now for Christmas they contain nandina berries and leaves.

Here's a picture of our cat, Clementine in her favorite spot each December:

I'm thankful we could all spend a few days together last week. Meg, Jim, and Drew came down the day after Thanksgiving and spent the following week with us. Those of us who live in the area had to start back to work but tried to arrange our schedules to spend as much time as possible with them while they were here. It almost seemed like Christmas vacation to me because we had big family dinners and played games in the evening.

We also spent a lot of time playing with Drew. Here are a few pictures showing some of our activities:

Drew loves this library book about Thomas the train.

Rob loved reading to Drew.

Megan and Jim love reading too.

Drew hasn't quite gotten the concept of aunts and uncles yet. He calls Katie Uncle Katie. Here she is reading to him and Mark.

Nora is a nanny and she brought Samuel over one morning to play with Drew and the trains.

Since we had a houseful of people here for meals I was able to pull out some recipes that I rarely make for just the two of us. I made this Cornbread Casserole one evening and several family members asked for the recipe so I thought I'd post it here for them. I originally got this recipe from a radio program on WMUU (a local Christian radio station) many years ago. Barbara R. was the hostess of the program and Willie T., one of the announcers who pastors a local church gave the recipe. He said that a lady from his church would always bring it to church dinners and there was never any left. We ate it up before I could take a picture.

Cornbread Casserole
1 batch cornbread (recipe follows)
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 small onion, chopped
1 Tbsp. oil or butter
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 egg
a pinch of sage or poultry seasoning
2 cups of chicken broth
1-2 cups of chopped cooked chicken or turkey

Saute the onion and celery in the oil or melted butter until the vegetables are tender. Crumble cornbread. Combine with other ingredients in a greased crockpot. Cook on high for 2 hours or low for about 4 hours. (You could also bake this in the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour.)
Makes 5-6 servings, depending on appetites.

Basic Cornbread
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsps. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 cup cornmeal
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup oil

Stir together dry ingredients. Mix together milk, eggs, and oil and then stir into the dry ingredients just until they are moistened. Pour into a greased and floured 9" cake pan and bake at 425 degrees for about 20 mins or until cornbread tests done.

Enjoy!

Becka

I was planning to make a traditional pumpkin pie using a recipe from my tried and true Betty Crocker cookbook when DD Megan mentioned that she had made this pie and that it was really good. So, we had a new pie for our Thanksgiving feast this year. Megan has posted it on her blog but I will also post it since I know some of my readers cannot access blogspot.

Streusel Topped Pumpkin Pie

Pie Filling:
1 15 oz. can pumpkin
1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. ginger
1.4 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
2 large eggs

Streusel Topping:
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup oats
1/4 cup chopped pecans
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ginger
2 Tbsps. chilled butter

1 prepared pie shell (unbaked)

Combine filling ingredients and whisk together.
Combine streusel dry ingredients and cut in butter until mixture is crumbly.
Pour pumpkin mixture into prepared pie shell. Top with streusel. Bake at 375 degrees for 50-60 mins. or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Enjoy a new twist on pumpkin pie!

Becka

I've been baking pies for our Thanksgiving celebration. I had several requests for this pecan pie. Many years ago a friend in Michigan gave me this recipe and we have enjoyed it ever since. It's the best I have ever tried.

USDA Pecan Pie

1 unbaked pie shell
2 Tbsps. melted margarine or butter, cooled
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
pinch salt
1 1/2 cups dark Karo syrup
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup pecans (can use halves or pieces)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the pie crust. Place the pecans in the pie shell. In a mixing bowl blend together the sugar, eggs, and salt. Add the corn syrup and vanilla. Combine thoroughly and then pour over the pecans. Place the pie in the oven and then immediately reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake for 60-70 mins. It will still be somewhat soft and sloshy in the center but will firm up while it cools.

If the crust appears to be getting too brown before the pie is done you can cut the center out of a piece of foil to cover the edges of the pie.

Happy baking!

Becka

I've been keeping busy lately and have been rather negligent in posting. There were just three of us here for Thanksgiving day so we had chicken for dinner. We are having our turkey on Sunday when the whole family will be together.

Our neighbors cooked three turkeys outdoors in a turkey fryer and also roasted one in the oven. They very graciously shared a large plate of it with us. Rob and I had never tried fried turkey before and we found it to be very tasty.

With some of the leftover turkey I tried a new pizza variation that I read about recently at Tammy's Recipes. She has many delicious recipes on her site which you might enjoy perusing. For those of you who cannot access her site, here is how I made our pizza:

1 pre-baked pizza crust
about 1/3 cup Light Italian salad dressing
2 cloves garlic
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1-2 cups diced cooked turkey or chicken
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1/4 cup small spinach leaves (you could use fresh basil)
1 Roma tomato cut into thin strips
black pepper

Combine the salad dressing and the garlic and spread on the pizza crust. Top with the cheeses, turkey, onion, spinach, and tomato. Sprinkle with black pepper. Bake at 425 degrees for about 15 mins. or until cheeses are melted. Enjoy a fresh take on turkey leftovers!

Becka