Nailed It, Christmas Edition

Hope you had a lovely Christmas!  Mine was wonderful.  It was a nice and relaxing morning as we opened gifts, then had an amazing brunch.

Todd's Frittata

I wish you could smell the cheesiness in the picture above.  It was so yummy.  

Then we had an excellent prime rib dinner.  We had a special stash of my mom's buns!  My mashed potatoes were not as good as my Thanksgiving mashed taters, but they were acceptable.  I think I needed a combination of yellow and russet, and should have used the entire brick of cream cheese.  Live and learn. 

A Merry Christmas Dinner!

Enough about food.  I've been feeling extra crafty lately.  Christmas does that to me.  I love giving homemade gifts because you know they didn't get another one just like it yesterday from a relative, and the gift receiver knows you thought about them while making said project.  I didn't get to everything I wanted to make, but what I did make this year included:

• Homemade sugar scrubs, one old recipe and one new
• Homemade Ginger Hot Cocoa mix (since the guys at the office wouldn't appreciate a sugar scrub)
• A little painting for a few folks I haven't painted for in years past (old design, nothing new)
• And a risky new idea... (I finished at midnight last night)

But first, another story.

I've been on a search for a wreath that doesn't suck.  Why don't I search for a wreath that I actually like, or even that I love?  Thanks for asking.  Because I am extremely picky, and this search has been going on for years.  A wreath that I would love doesn't exist.  I hate fake flowers.  Cause, well, they LOOK fake.  I grow the real thing.  Why bother with an imitation.

I found a wreath at a garage sale for $2 last summer that is acceptable and which now hangs on my front door.  The flowers are obviously fake and they aren't made to try to look real.  It's a grapevine wreath (about the only kind I like) with big cabbage type roses that are red on one side and have a white/brown stripe on the other side that kind of looks like a wood grain.  It will do.

And then one day while flipping through catalogs shopping for Christmas, I found this one:
 

Napa Valley Style with a Napa Valley Price Tag

For those of you who didn't catch the price on this little beauty, it's $129.  Plus shipping.  Did I mention that I'm also cheap thrifty?  Also, there are little things about it that I'm not in love with--there is greenery that looks fake to me, although I love the eucalyptus.  The pomegranates are cute and don't look fake, but the apples look TOO perfect.  SEE HOW I AM?!?!?!!  I pick every wreath apart and focus on the things I don't like although I am proud of mentioning two things that I actually do like.

See the dehydrated orange slice at about 8 o'clock in the picture of that Napa Style wreath?  THAT was my inspiration.


So what do I get for a foodie-couple who describes their style as "minimalists" for Christmas?  Well sometimes it's tough.  But then I think of food (savory over sweet for them), because that is their greatest passion, to get an inspiration.  They also garden, so there are options down that avenue too.  Actually when I think about it, they really aren't hard to shop for at all!

The answer to my question is, a culinary masterpiece.  That orange slice triggered something inside my creative brain cortex--to make a food oriented wreath!  So off to Michael's I went.  I went up and down every stinking aisle trying to find the perfect food oriented options to attach to the perfect grapevine wreaths I chose.  I could go with little fake oranges and fake lemons & fake limes, and fake apples.  Or I could go with fake little peppers and fake artichokes, and fake carrots.  And then?  It will look... fake.  Forget it, I give up on these options because it's going to look HORRIBLE.  And fake.

But I didn't give up on the idea.  Instead I made a grocery store list which consisted of:

• Bay leaves (hubby acquired 100 leaves off eBay, thanks dear!)
• Blood oranges
• Lemon
• Red apple
• Garlic heads
• Sage (from my own garden)
• Chili peppers (from our kitchen cabinets, some are dried from our own garden) 

My hubby acquired the goods, and enlisted the help of a friend because our small-podunk town doesn't carry blood oranges.  Once I acquired my goodies, I started slicing very carefully on my mandolin slicer (that goes BOTH ways--very cool kitchen tool that chops slicing time in HALF). 

Then I placed my sliced pieces on wax paper lined cookie trays and baked at 125-150 degrees for a day.  I baked the garlic heads for about 3 days.  My sage dried nicely on it's own, since I picked it a few months ago, just had to keep it away from prying dog noses.  I've been planning this for months.

But I was nervous about the end result.  Because remember?  I'm really picky.  But I started assembling the wreath last night, and I couldn't stop until I was finished.  Here it is:  

My Homemade Culinary Masterpiece!

I think I NAILED IT!  EVERYTHING except the glue and the grapevine is edible.  Or was, before I dehydrated it.  Oh, there I go again, talking about food.  Also, it smells good.  The sage really gives it a nice fragrance.  

I think they are really going to like it.  It's pretty fragile though--I hope it makes it home with them without too many broken pieces.


This took an amazing amount of slices from an apple, a lemon and three blood oranges.  I thought I would have enough to make one for my own front door too, but I have to dry more fruit out before I can assemble my own.

Also, I'm a tiny bit worried that birds will try to eat the dried fruit from my front door.  Oh, the problems of living in the country....




So, what do you think of my culinary masterpiece?  Hope you had a great Christmas whether it was crafty or not!

Abbytail: The Homecoming

Our Abbytail took us on a dramatic roller coaster ride this past week.  We are exhausted and completely worn out.  We are also hopeful, excited, and thankful to be home at last.  We brought our little girl home.

Abby has fought a battle with IMHA and so far, she has been able to put up a great fight.  We still have a long road ahead of us with her continued recovery.  Thankfully we took her to the best place possible for care, VCA Mission Animal Referral and Emergency Center (formerly Mission Medvet).  They have great doctors and technicians.  Abby received 24 hour care.  She went up and down battling this horrible disease, and there were 2 times I was expecting the worst.  Then I would wake up and go visit her and find out that she has rallied.  She has fought so hard, she has made herself better.


We will continue working hard to make sure she stays better.  It's possible that she could have a relapse.  We will never know what caused this to happen.  It was not a tick.  It is going to take 6 months or more for her to be completely off her medications.  Until then, we'll continue to baby our baby.  You haven't even seen spoiled yet.  ;-)


Throughout our horrible battle, we had awesome friends supporting us along the way.  Many of you sent emails or called.  Suzie & Kevin loaned us a car so we'd go eat and they watched Keystone when we needed.  Suzie reminded me to take a shower, which I hadn't even thought about doing but felt so much better once I had.  Ray & Becky gave Abby a tomato in hopes that she would eat.  They all came by to bolster our spirits. 


We stayed with Suzie & Kevin one night, then the rest of the time, we slept in our RV behind the facilities (where Keystone could stay close to us as well).  Abby's "jail cell" was only big enough for one of us to sit/lie down with her at a time.  The other one of us would sit with the cage door open and sit right at the door.  Abby wasn't exactly trying to escape.  We usually tag teamed it, so one of us would be with Stones while the other would be with Abby.

 
It was so nice to be able to stay with Abby until I wanted to call it a night (usually around midnight).  I woke up around 8am and would head back in for the latest news.  They had no problem that "Abby's mom" or "Abby's dad" was there to visit all the time.  I got used to being called "mom", because I was often the only visitor there (besides Todd, of course, aka "dad").  We took her outside for potty breaks*, and we held her water bowl for her, and hand fed her.  She ate for us--and it took some coaxing to get her appetite back.  I truly don't think she would have fought so hard, if she hadn't had us right there beside her to help her through this.  The vet said she really perked up when we were there.  Once I heard that, I was in for the long haul.  Clean clothes are overrated.

*I wish you could have seen Keystone the first time he saw Abby in the middle of all this turmoil.  He gave her a royal sniffing over and was literally enthusiastic to be in the presence of his leader again.  It was very cute.  I think it helped him to understand what was going on, when they shared a potty break.

 
Here is Abby in her luxury suite:

Sad puppy not feeling well

We have our leader of the pack back.  She isn't going to be real energetic or aggressive for awhile, but we'll take it.  Having her here just sleeping is good enough for me.  She'll gain her strength back over time.  Before you know it, she'll be the boss again.

Things I've learned this past week:  Hug the ones you love, furry or human.  I think the extra hug grandma gave Abby last time she saw her had magical powers.  Never ever take them for granted, because you don't know when you'll loose them.  And treasure every minute you have with family and friends. 

One more thing, never pass up a chance to share a belly rub.

Happy tired puppy in one of her usual spots at home in the middle of the hallway.
Did someone order a belly rub?

It's Good To Be Back

I am so stinkin' happy to be back in the KC area.  We've seen so many great old friends within a 24 hour time span this weekend.  We saw Kevin & Suzie and the girls, Butch & Bev, Dave R (finally got to see him!), Mitch & Dawn and the kids, a ton of old and new pinhead friends at the pinball tournament last night, Ray & Becky, and Bill & Vera.  We've seen all these friends in the past day!  Wish I had remembered to take pics of the monthly pinball tournament last night to share, but I forgot.  I will remember next month.

 

We had a fabulous Mexican breakfast with Ray & Becky this morning.  I had (pork) salsa verde.  Mmmmmmm.  I can't wait to grow tomatillos, onions & cilantro in our garden and have a Mexican market in my own kitchen next summer.  The patron will be flowing.  (Note to self: buy an indoor lime tree.)  Rick Bayless is one of my favorite chefs.  I made one of his recipes last weekend and it was pretty good.  I am trying to make ourselves eat more vegetables.  I find that it is easier with Mexican food to do that.

 

We used to go to Mexican breakfast with Ray & Becky a couple of times a month back when we used to live here. It was fun finding a new dive with authentic Mexican cuisine.  You know it's good when you're the only table speaking English.  Speaking of tasty Mexican food, Ray slow cooked some incredible pork with arbole chilies all day yesterday.  He made soft tacos for us last night that I enjoyed even more than the salsa verde this morning.  I could eat Mexican food every day. 

It's definitely yummy to be back!