White Christmas Tree Revisited

Our Christmas tree this year was on the simple side. It was so refreshing to leave all the decorations in storage and only take out the white lights.  Our needle-less poplar, though not the stately birch I wanted, needed little tending other than the occasional reminder to the kids to leave the lights alone.  No watering, no needles on the floor every five minutes, and no sticky sappy fingers on the kids. There weren't even that many ornaments to take off-just a few homemade applesauce/cinnamon ornaments, jingle bells, and candy canes.  It was sweet, simple, and somehow matched the country Christmas image I had in my head. The lights twinkled just as bright, the candy canes hung just a nicely, and the magic of a Christmas tree was there even if the green wasn't.  I'll definitely do this again. Perhaps it will become our own unique Christmas tradition.

My Kitchen Quirk

What kind of a cook are you? I've asked myself this question many times in recent years and the answer is always the same. I'm a self-described haphazard cook.

What do I mean by haphazard cook? I don't follow recipes. Most of the time.

I do follow recipes, especially if it's the first time I've made something, but my staples (spaghetti sauce, meatballs/meatloaf, chili, etc.) are all cooked without me looking at a recipe for more than an idea of what spices I should use. (I've never followed a recipe for making pasty, lasagna, or stew.) Even when following a recipe, I will often measure things out in pinches, palms, or "That looks about right" instead of tablespoons or teaspoons. It's happened where I've started making one thing only to stop halfway through and turn it into something else. Prime example-I was making chicken pot pie recently but the filling came too runny so I left it as a thin gravy and served it over biscuits instead. The next night, I thinned down the gravy with milk, added a cup of cheese, and voila, I had cheesy chicken soup. I've even tried combining random leftovers that sound like they might be good in hopes that something yummy is created. (example:diced leftover round steak, leftover navy beans, a can of diced tomatoes, and leftover chicken stock made a really tasty soup.)

Cooking like this guarantees I will never make the same dish taste the same twice but I like not knowing how things will turn out. That uncertainty makes it fun in a way. There is one thing, though, that L would like if I could cook it the right way every time. He's not a fan of VERY well-done steaks and that, unfortunately for him, is about the only way I seem to make them.

Our White Christmas...Tree that is

Being as it's the start of December and, thus, the Christmas season, decorating has been foremost on my mind these days. I've already conned myself into putting up white lights outside. Ostensibly, those lights are to provide light for the stairs but deep down I know the truth. I'm dreaming of paper chains, popcorn garlands, and candy canes. My recipe book 'magically' falls open to the recipe for sugar cookies even though I'm looking for meatloaf. So what's keeping me from getting things decorated? The fact that my house is in bits and pieces yet. I'm constantly moving piles/furniture/construction materials from here to there to make room for something else. There is precious little room in the house too, since we aren't able to use the bedroom yet. So my forlorn decorations will have to wait. However, this doesn't mean I haven't thought about decorating-especially The Tree. Since I have a monkey for a son and A is a human vacuum cleaner, I decided I didn't want to deal with needles falling from branches, watering a tree, or watching a tree topple over several times. Fake trees are out too since I don't want to store one til next year so my options were rapidly decreasing. Then I remembered an idea L had-why not use a birch tree instead of a spruce? The more I think about it, the more it sounds kind of cute-I'm thinking white lights, red bead garland, and candy canes as the main decorations. No needle mess to clean up, no watering, and it can be secured directly to our floor so I won't be hearing Timber! several times a day. Best of all, we have an overabundance of birch on our land but spruce, pine, and other such Christmas tree varieties are far and few between. Yes, I think I'm going to enjoy my white Christmas tree this year. No guarantees next year's tree will be white though.

House Update

Things have really been happenin' around here lately. The house is moved, the basement is almost done and they moved the addition up to the house today. There's still plenty to be done (backfilling, building the staircase/addition, finishing up the waterline, etc) but each day's work brings us closer to the finish of this phase of the project. It's amazing how much has been accomplished since the end of October. Hopefully we'll be done with the immediate work by Christmas but, if there's one thing I've learned since we decided to do this, is that there are no guarantees and it's best to be flexible. Hoping to get some pics up soon now that we have high speed internet. (L decided it was time to get the faster stuff. We've had it for about an hour and let me tell you, I'm loving it. :P)