A Little Stitchin' and a Little Christmas

Gentle Friends, for some reason I've just not gotten the rhythm of this stitch and it's been some slow going... here's a snaperoo...

...I'm not sure why... I like the floss colors, I like the linen... I like the chart (it's very clear)... but ya'know when you get in that zone and it's all poke pull poke pull... that's just not happened with this piece... yet.  I think it's all about when I made the start of this piece.  Right in the middle of all the goings on around Christmas and the Holidays and now with it all wrapping up... this past weekend we (the Bell Choir) played at the Ephiphany Services yesterday morning for both the 8am & 10am Masses.  Things will start to get back to normal sooner than later and it'll all be fine.

 Since I'm still dwelling on Christmas, here's a shot from our Christmas dinner with friends...

...and remembering how I was out of commission and hot off the operating table last Christmas there was no Birthday/Christmas Cake for 2022, Rico can bake bread but cake is not his in his wheelhouse.  This year I stepped up to the plate, and here's a snap of the cake...

... if you've been following along on this here Blog for a while, "yule" remember one of my oldest Christmas traditions since I was a toddler back in Mississippi is to have for dessert on Christmas Day, a birthday cake for baby Jesus, reminding us all the reason for the season and making it a little less Santa Claus, but I digress... so through the years as we grew up and celebrated Christmas, my mom made all kinds of cakes.  Since her passing, I've kept up this tradition and have been making the Christmas/Birthday cakes... this year I made an Italian Cream Cake, what is Italian about this cake is far beyond my knowledge but I jazzed it up a bit with a filling between each layer of key lime curd. That little addition elevated this buttercream, pecan, and coconut concoction quite a bit and gave it a super citrus bite!! 

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That's about it for today sports fans.  Thanks for stopping by do stop again.  Stay Safe!

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar

A Little Start for the New Year and a Last Snap of Christmas...

Gentle Friends, I had kitted up a few projects anticipating a start once I finished up the SAL and my Christmas piece...I started one of them and got a bit stitched and became less enthused with the linen with every stitch...so I frogged that sucker all out, put the linen back into stash, and couldn't come up with a replacement from the pile, so I moved on to the next piece... I'll get back to the first one, after a trip over the Bay to Needle in a Haystack for a piece of linen that will work for the piece... here's a snaperoo of the piece I did start... a sampler...

"A Deleware Inspiration" - Heart's Ease Examplar Workes 

40ct LL Vintage Navy Bean

 Called for Belle Soie Silks

I've gotten the border structure in, the fill for triangles is Butterscotch and I'll get to that later on...  I really enjoyed stitching "Sojourner" the Califonia Sampler from HEEW... and who can resist the blue chickens that are on this one!!

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On New Years Day Rico and I headed over to St Ignatius Church to get a look at the Christmas decorations before they come down... it's a lovely church and was once again beautifully decorated for the Season!!  Here's a snap...

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That's about it for tonight sports fans.  

It's back to the grindstone in the morning so I'll sign off for now.  CYA next week.  Stay Safe!

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar

A Little More Christmas - 2021

Gentle Friends, I've been off-line for a few days as I had to "takedown" my office" and get ready for Christmas.  I work at our dining room table and needed it for Christmas dinner and so I boxed it all up and moved it into an upstairs closet.  But I'm back up and running... I'm off this week so not too much going on around here.  I have some snaps from the last couple of weeks... let's start off with a small (14 people) cocktail party over at our friends who live on Alamo Square here in the City... they have a super house dating back to the 1880s.  They were on lockdown last year so they didn't entertain a bit...  this year they wanted to do something smallish for their bubble... here is a shot of their spectacular tree...

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This is our Christmas Dinner table, for which I gave up my "office"...

Rico whipped up a really lovely centerpiece of red and white roses and red tulips... we are still enjoying it this evening... here's Baby Jesus' Birthday Cake this year...

... I made a lemon cake with lemon curd filling and lemon butter creme icing with fondant poinsettias for decoration...

... for dinner I made a really tasty brisket (if I do say so myself) Gratin Dauphinois (just fancy scalloped potatoes) green beans with almonds and some biscuits... enjoyed by everyone.

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Christmas Night, after all the hubbub, I finally finished up MCEV... here's a snap...

BBD - Merry Christmas Ella Vaugh

40ct LL Pear

Recommended Floss

10/31 - 12/25/2021

The changes I made... I removed what I think was supposed to be a cupola from the roof and added in the two chimnies making it a more Georgian house.  I also changed the name.  Everything else remains the same as charted.

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I hope everyone had a super Christmas!! 

Looking forward to a great 2022!!!

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That's about it for this evening.  I'll post my new start next week when it actually looks like something.  Thanks for stopping by do stop again!  Stay Safe!!!

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar

A Little More Christmas....

 Gentle Friends, with the lockdown now in full force here by the Bay and everyone having a much smaller Yuletide than usual I was not surprised to get an email from our friends over on Alamo square that have the "First of the Season" Christmas party every year.  This year would have been the 21st year of the party and although it didn't happen we were given a "Save The Date" for next year.... December 3, 2021.  Along with the email was a picture of this year's tree.  They ordered it back in February ... and decorated it over the Thanksgiving weekend... here's a snap...

... it's another beautiful tree... I've marked in ink on next year's calendar the date to look forward to.

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 I've gotten quite a few requests for the praline recipe... of course, I'll share.  It's a recipe I cobbled together from a few recipes I tried and also read about and tweaked it until I got it where I like it... and those that taste them like them so I must be doing something right.

Pecan Pralines

Ingredients

1 1/2 C White Sugar

1/2 C Packed Dark Brown Sugar

3/4 C Half & Half

4 Tbls Butter

1/8 teas Baking Soda

2 C Pecans - rough chop

1/2 teas Salt

1 teas Vanilla or Bourbon

Method

Get a piece of parchment paper ready on the counter to drop the pralines on, I use a piece that is about 20" x 20"  and can about 25 candies on this, also get the two tablespoons ready and waiting there to scoop and drop.

In a heavy pot toss the first 5 ingredients and over medium heat bring to boil and stir continuously so the mixture does not stick.  Keep on heat stirring until an instant-read thermometer reaches 211 degrees.  Add the pecans at this point and keep stirring until the thermometer reaches 236 degrees.

Take off heat and add the salt and vanilla. (I have also added bourbon instead of vanilla to this and liked it a lot but you can tweak the flavour to your taste)

Stir the mixture vigorously for 3 minutes and then drop by tablespoons full on the parchment.  Let cool completely.  I usually just let them sit there overnight and they are fine.  You can use the parchment a couple of times before it gets a bit rough.  This makes about 25 candies.

It's a pretty forgiving recipe, just get it to temperature and keep stirring so that it doesn't stick and it'll be fine.  You can also use walnuts, I've done it that way but I like the pecan better so that's what I use, but you could probably use any nut out there ... again tweak it to your taste!!

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There you go sports fans.  Thanks for stopping by do stop again.  

If you have any questions please feel free to ask.  Stay Safe!

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar

A Little Wish.......

Gentle Friends,  just a quick note to say...

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar

A Little "Grinchy" Thrifting

Gentle Friends, as you might remember I'm a big fan of Dr. Suess, and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is one of my favourite Christmas stories, cartoon and film.....so when I run up against some Grinchy stuff I snap it up...

,,, I found a great Grinch mug and a copy of the HtGSC game.  I've never seen the game before and was really happy to get a copy.  It's very much a child's game but fun all the same!!  - and - to find another great Christmas mug made me very happy it was great to add it to the "mug" collection which seems to grow ever larger!!

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There you go sports fans, thanks again for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little more Christmas 2017 - Part III........ We Have a Fun Lunch

Gentle Freinds,  as I said before it seems that I slept late, napped a bunch and even squeezed in a little stitching.... towards the end of the Christmas Holiday Rico and I headed downtown to meet up with some friends for lunch... we went to a new place to us... Samovar

... Samovar is located in a lovely setting the Yerba Buena Gardens a green oasis with a super waterfall that you can walk under...

and the gardens from the east are overlooked by the Museum of Modern Art.... 

after walking around we headed up to the restaurant...

... there is a wall of tea tins and samovars just in case you didn't realize they served tea and eats here......

... I ordered the Rusian Pairing.... the tea is served in a small French press...  this is a not very efficient wat to serve tea, as it cools off way too fast, but it looked nice... and was very good...

.... with the Russian Pairing the borscht was very good the chicken salad in the sandwich was very good, the bread was far too big and the side salad was all right, a little bitter..... but again it all looked great...

.... Rico chose the English pairing and here's what he got, the quiche he said was excellent, again with the salad a little on the bitter side and a nice scone, which was on the crumbly and dry side, but still tasty...  overall it was a fun lunch ... I would say my overall impression with Samovar is that the location and views are top notch, the food and service were just alright and a bit on the expensive side, I think for tea-time I will go back to Lovejoy's.  But, the company was excellent and it was a fun time sitting and chatting away with everyone!!!

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So that sort of wraps up the Christmas break for me, overall it went way too fast, but there were some fun times, good food super friends.  Thanks for stopping by do stop by again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little More Christmas of 2017.... Part II

Gentle Friends, Sunday, Christmas Eve  I finished up the Lane Cake... HERE's the recipe I used... and here's a snap of the finished cake...

 ... I had never made one before, and I was leary of the minimal amount of frosting that it called for so I made a full batch....and I ended up with lots and lots of extra fluffy white and what does on do .... you try to use it up....so I made some silly decorations with a jury-rigged pastry bag..... I couldn't find my real one.... and here's...

... the remnants in the kitchen sink.  Making this frosting brought back some really great memories as it was my mom's go-to recipe.... 7-Minute Frosting.  I had never tried to make it before but she made it all the time and always at Christmas for the Birthday cake.

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I also made the mushroom filling... 

... for the main event for dinner the next day....  here's the menu...

Christmas Dinner 2017

Beef Wellington 

(click for the recipe)

Roasted Winter Root Vegetables

Holiday Rice Pilaf

Parker House Rolls

Lane Cake

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Then on Christmas Day, it all came together......

... here's a better shot of the flower arrangement Rico made for the table...

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That's about it for today sports fans, I'll wrap up Christmas tomorrow, hopefully.  

Thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little Christmas Music

Gentle Friends... last night on the local PBS channel was the annual Morman Tabernacle Choir program... as usual, it was just lovely!!  I do love the music of Christmas... the following are three of my favorite carols of the Season...... enjoy......

Es ist ein Ros entsprugen

In The Bleak Midwinter

.... and one of my very favorites as it reminds me of my father 

(it was his favorite Christmas Carol).....

Stille Nacht (Silent Night)

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There you go sports fans, thanks again for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little Letter

Gentle Friends... I've always loved this part of Christmas folklore...... 

in 1897 a letter was sent by a child....

... and the editorial written by Francis Church of  "The Sun".......

Virginia, your little friends are wrong.  They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age.  They do not believe except they see.  They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds.  All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's are little.  In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.  He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.  Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus!  It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias.  There would be no child-like faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.  We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight.  The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus!  You might as well not believe in fairies!  You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove?  Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus.  The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see.  Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn?  Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there.  Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart.  Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond.  Is it all real?  Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus!  Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever.  A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

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There you go sports fans, something to think about as we head into the last week before Christmas....  Have a super weekend!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little Christmas Message

Gentle Friends, not much going on around here.....  except some Christmas stuff.... 

 I've not really stitched much in a couple of weeks........ so I'd like to share this....... my disdain for advertising is immense, it drives me crazy quickly.... however this short commercial just tugs at the heart - I think I've watched it about a dozen time and every time it gets me.........  

.....  gotta remember what's important this time of year!!!

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Take care,

edgar

Getting Ready..........

Gentle Friends, I reserve Tuesdays for some sort of baking or cooking Post... and today I thought I'd post about my determination to create a Traditional Christmas Cake..... 

... as I cast my mind back into my murky past I do not remember ever really enjoying "manufactured" fruit cake (and Christmas cake is basically a fruit cake). I think the part of the cake is not the cake but a specific fruit..... that basically makes me gag....  it is the candied Citron, and you find it in a majority of American fruit cakes.  I did however adore my Granny's "fruit cake."  She made it once a year and it was a family tradition that passed when she did.  Here "fruit cake" was mostly cherries, pecans and whiskey with a little candied lemon and orange peel - without a hint of citron - so I figure if I left out that detestable citron - the cake I make would be safe.  I really enjoy a heavy cake, I also enjoy dried fruits, booze, nuts and spicy things so why not try my hand at this cake?

I didn't have a recipe for this cake and so I started looking for one on the web - and find that there seems to be dozens of variations to the recipe out there for these lovely cakes.   All different amounts of ingredients and all sorts of fruits....   I've pulled together some of the more interesting recipes and sort of made up my own  - and I've be tweaking it to include a wider variety of fruits and nuts - like cranberries, pineapple, pecans and walnuts.

So, with that in mind "Stir-up Sunday " is on the horizon ( 11/22),

......get those fruits soaking and spoons ready!!

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That's about it for today sports fans, thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

Fall Peeps Treats

Gentle Friends, every season seems to encourage those people at Just Born to come up with some fun Peep Flavours to try ......  for the Fall they've introduced......

... Caramel Apple -  quite an apple smell when you open the package - and the caramel coating is caramel tasting, I found it to have an odd salty bite to each peep,

 the marshmallow peep was very apple-y!!...

.... the Pumpkin Spice......

... again,. there was a real spicy smell when I opened the package, the white chocolate coating was nice and the chicks were spicy.....  nothing to distinct, kind of like a spice cake blend.....

.... next up was a Peep I really wanted to try, the candy corn Peep, you know I like my candy corns and every year munch my way through quite a bit of the stuff.....

...again, when I opened up the package a very candy corn smell wafted out, and the chicks were nicely enrobed with the white chocolate coating, with the Peeps themselves tasty a little like candy corn!!

They also had some kitties......

....and these really tasted surprisingly like chocolate mousse.....

... the last up where the tomb stones, these were just regular Peep Marshmallow, but they were covered in a glittery grey sugar, like the regular Peeps that are covered in a sparkly yellow sugar......

I'll keep an eye out for any other Fall Peep treats I see, overall I kind liked the different flovours and will continue to try new ones as they come out.......

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If you been reading this Blog for any amount of time you know what a fan of Egg Nog I am.  Well, this has got to be the earliest I've ever seen any ever at any store.  We found this over the weekend out grocery shopping, and even though this Nog is a weak contender next to some of the wonderful Nogs we have here in the Bay area, it certainly hit that "Early Christmas Spot".....

......  so I hauled out a really nice bourbon I got last year and had a bit o'Christmas Cheer with my Hallowe'en cookie jar in full view!!! 

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....  and that, sports fans wraps up the Peep's and Treats Post here are Casa Chihuahua. 

Thanks for stopping by, do stop again.

Take care and Merry Christmas!!

edgar

Tree Decorating

Gentle Friends, over the weekend we decided that yes, we were putting up a tree.  For a little while it looked like neither of us could had the gumption or enthusiasm to get a tree up, lit and decorated.  

Once we got going it went up fast and the light got put on - Rico had an idea about this years tree -  to only use my silver ornaments with a few special others mixed in.......  so I hauled out the box of silver snowflakes and medallions and got to polishing  Now they are sparkly clean and up on the tree......  after tonight with the addition of a few other ornaments it will be a done deal.... and maybe I'll remember the camera....

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Thanks fro stopping by, do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar