Holidays, Recipe

Thanksgiving yesterday was most excellent. S and J did not in fact show up with their new baby -- we were kind of wondering when they said they'd be there, and apparently the day after having the baby was what convinced S that maybe taking it easy for a few days was a good idea! But everyone else was there and many good conversations were had, as well as a lot of good food, of course!

The gift exchange was brought up at the end of the gathering, to clarify amount to spend on gifts. They're lowering the amount from $25 to $10 since times are tight. Doris said that if people wanted to still spend up to $25 they could, but the main thing was choosing a little something that was thoughtful and meant you were thinking of the other person, and that in fact it had never been a problem for folks to spend less than that but she thought that had been lost over time and needed to be reiterated. Further discussion on what to do next year will happen later, probably after Christmas. I think I overheard someone suggesting joke gifts for next year.... if that comes up as a serious suggestion I'll be counting myself out, thanks.

Uncle D said he'd be thrilled if we dropped gifting entirely as he felt the whole holiday was a fraud in its current incarnation. Thanksgiving is his favorite holiday because it's just folks getting together and sharing good food and good times. He was pretty funny -- said he didn't really need anything anymore, and if he did he went down to their equivalent of a transfer point to get things (I guess they have a book exchange and other things like we do at ours). I wouldn't mind dropping the whole gifting thing myself!

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This is the orange jello salad I made for Thanksgiving. My mom used to make stuff like this when I was a kid, although most often she made the lime version for Christmas.

Orange Jello Salad

3 packages of Orange Jello
Hot water
1 15 oz. can of Mandarin Oranges
1 20 oz. can of Pineapple chunks in juice (or slices and chunk it yourself)
1 12 oz. can of evaporated milk
1 16 oz. container of small curd cottage cheese

I had two containers, one larger than the other, so I put one packet in one and two in the other. But you could start off with them all together and then pour into containers, as long as you can keep track of how much is in each one...

Pour gelatin into container(s). One cup of hot water per packet, stir until gelatin dissolves.

Next comes 1 cup of cold liquid per packet. I use 1/2 cup of evaporated milk per packet and 1/2 cup of juice from the cans of fruit per packet (remaining juice is a tasty treat for the cook!). Stir in and then set in fridge until it has had a chance to cool and start to gel a little.

Bring back out, and if it isn't in the dish(es) you want to serve in at this point, now is the time to do this.

Divide and add in the cottage cheese, mandarin oranges and pineapple so that one third goes with each packet's worth of jello. Stir so the fruits and cheese more or less evenly distributed. Put back in fridge and let it continue to set. Voila!

*** Notes ***

Yes, lots of packaged/canned stuff. In the case of the pineapple though it's absolutely necessary. Raw pineapple and also some other raw fruits (listed on package) will keep the Jello from gelling. Also, you can use low-fat evap. milk and low-fat cottage cheese and it doesn't affect the taste. I don't use sugar-free jello because a number of us can't handle the fake stuff in significant quantities.

Measuring of fruit and cheese was by eye, but feel free to figure out the measurements if you like, for making smaller quantities. Mandarin oranges and pineapples do come in smaller sized cans, although I'm afraid you're stuck with leftover cottage cheese and evap. milk. Actually, I had a little bit of evaporated milk leftover, probably because of imperfect measuring (yes, even with a measuring cup), so we put the extra tablespoon or so into some hot cocoa -- yay, no leftovers! Making jello salad isn't as exacting as some types of serious cooking or baking.

Oh, and if you're using a jello mold, remember to use 1/4 cup less liquids. The jello needs to be a little more solid if it's going to be free-standing (don't worry, that reminder's on the packet too).

My MIL requested I make it again this year, and she took some of it home with her for later :D Yes, it's tasty!

tanka, misc.

23 Nov

Ah, the wintry skies
Such clear and bone-chilling cold!
The dark crystalline
sky reveals the signs of home
and brings such warmth to my heart.

***
Choir practice got off to a rough start yesterday as we forgot the plug-in part for the electric piano and L's pipe had fallen out of his jacket either at home or at R and M's house yesterday. So we made do with Todd's (our host and one of our singers) laptop -- they found an online keyboard and also a performance of Sitivit Anima Mea (very different from how we do it, but gives the general idea). L thinks that this may have worked to our advantage though, as we succeeded in getting through the entire piece finally. Still rough, but a major victory nonetheless. He was commenting on how he thought folks were picking things up faster from having him hum the troublesome parts than when he's played them on the piano -- perhaps because voices have a completely different sound from piano?

However it happened, I'm just thankful it's working. Previously we were only managing to learn one stanza per week, and we had three stanza to go with only two more weeks to practice. Yesterday was an extra practice -- tonight is the regular practice. Then next Sunday is our last before BBM/Berg Yule, unless we decided we need one more extra practice.

***
It's very cold out. Yesterday it snowed but didn't stick. This coming week there's more snow in the forecast. We'll see what happens.

***
lady_jade01 looked at the vest I'm working on and thought I should undo some of the work I'd done on the front opening. I did and it does look better but is going to need more playing around to get it to work. I want a different vest pattern for the next vest :( I know I can make it work, but really, a pattern ought to have complete instructions, especially for things that aren't typical modern construction.

Gift-making

I was just replying to harpnfiddle about gifting and she had commented on handmade gifts not costing as much as bought ones. Of course if one counted the time to make it.... the day of that concept being more generally accepted is coming, I think...

One year for the gift exchange I made a "book" using an Altoids can. I covered the surface with polymer clay, added various little decorative clay doodads, and after baking I also glued on gems (I pressed them in to make impressions and then removed them for baking, so the gems would have 'settings').

This was for my SIL K, who's Roman Catholic, so I took the prayer of St. Francis and cut and pasted it on my computer so that it would fit on several pages. Each "page" had a medieval border on it (some work I'd scanned into the computer ages ago). The font was some type of calligraphic Gothic.

Instead of separate pages I printed the pages in a long strip and folded them like an accordion (fan fold). Make sure to have a little extra bit of paper at either end of the strip. These extra bits will be folded under and glued to the inside of the box lids.

The idea was to make a tiny book that was like the old medieval treasure books. It actually took a bit of time to make it but I had a lot of fun with it. I was worried that she wouldn't like it because I wasn't sure how she felt about handmade things, but it had just seemed like the perfect thing at the time. Thankfully, she absolutely loved it :)

You can use Altoid containers (the rectangular ones of course, because they're hinged), but if you don't buy Altoids or have friends who do, some craft stores also carry blank tins. Tins and containers in general are great fun.

I also like decoupaging things, and boxes and tins are great candidates for making really unique things. Great little gifts in and of themselves, or you can put a little something inside too. In the old days people used to decorate all kinds of containers and cans -- cigar boxes, coffee (or other food) cans, candy boxes, etc. Keep an eye out for interesting things, you never know what trash could become a treasure.