2016 Resolutions

I didn't accomplish all of my resolutions this year, but I accomplished many of them!  I'm so proud of everything that I did, and tried to do this year.  Like most resolutions, I didn't keep all of them.  I had roadblocks tossed in my way.  You know what?  That's okay.   Life happens, things don't go the way we plan, and we adapt!  It's what happens in life!

Here's the list of goals that I set for myself this year:

1) Remodel the Hallway Bathroom
This is the third year this has been on the list.  I honestly thought it would happen this year.  But, this has been a year when we had a lot of unexpected expenses pop up.  The good news is that we had money set aside for the bathroom.  So, instead of remodeling the bathroom, we fixed other things...
It WILL be fixed next year.  Whatever money we have saved at the end of March will be the budget that we will be working with.  Yes, I'm putting this back on my list of resolutions for 2017.  I want to celebrate when this finally gets finished!
 

2) Improve My Health
This was my challenge for the year, and I believe I have done it!  All told, over the 3 years I've been actively working at losing weight, I've lost 40 pounds.  On average, that's a little over 10 pounds a year.  Not a lot all at once, and not as much as I want, but it is progress.

a) Lose Inches Off My Waist
My goal for the year was to lose a total of three inches.  That took longer than I thought it would! Eight months to lose three inches.  I'm happy to see those inches come off!  For now, I am content.  Those were 3 very hard inches to lose! 


b) Get My Blood Pressure Down into the Normal Range
YES!!  120/60!  No lecture from the doctor this year, instead I got a hearty "Keep up the good work!"
This time last year, my blood pressure was at 140/80.  Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!

c) Go Down at Least One Clothing Size.  
At least one.  The hard work of the last year has paid off!  I bought pants in the regular section of the store!!!!  Even better?  No elastic waist on these babies! I want to lose more.  My waist is still not under the "circumference" guidelines that suggest that women should have a waist measurement less than 35 inches.  Trust me, I'm working on getting that measurement down there!


3) Restart my Vegetable Garden
Due to a very wet spring and a hideous ant problem, no vegetable garden got up and going this year.  I don't know what I'm going to do this next year.  The herb garden is going strong!

4) Learn to Pressure Can
SO, we have a glass top stove.  Pressure canners do not work on a glass top stove because they can't consistently keep the temperature up high enough.  This one will be a wash.  Another epic fail.  If I ever do put in an outdoor kitchen, I'm going to make certain I have a propane or gas stove so that I can pressure can - and I'll be able to do it outside and keep the heat out of the house.

5) Daughter's Quilt
I have pieced it together!  It's sewn! It's pinned!  I want to get it finished before she finishes up at the Community College and transfers on to a 4 year school.

6) Clean Out and Organize the Carport
The kids did this for me when they were all home the weekend after Mother's Day.  Thanks guys!

Even more fun, my husband made this wonderful tool corral last back in October!  It's so nice to have everything organized and no longer piled up on the floor, next to the house. It was a dangerous tripping hazard that had snared us all at least once.

Bonus - there's enough space in that protected area in front of the tool caddy to put in the buckets full of rock salt for the winter!






7) Exercise Consistently
4 or 5 days every week.  Even better, I'm now keeping a hard copy journal with me when I go.  I get to visibly see my progress every time I work out.  It's an excellent motivator!

8) Clean Out 23 Things a Week
Originally, the goal was to clean out 23 things a month.  Then I changed it to 23 things a week.  For the entire 52 weeks of the year, that would have required me to get rid of 1196 things for the year.  I met that goal in May.


As of now, and the last Goodwill run, I have gotten rid of 2,000 things from this house.  Lots and lots of crap. The house is so much cleaner now than it was before.  I have more usable space in the basement.


9) Participate in the NoSpenduary Challenge
I originally found this challenge on the Frugal, Debt Free Life blog.  And I am so glad I did.  The challenge wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be, but I'm so glad that I did it!  It saved our butts when things broke.  I was attempting to pad the savings account to make a really nice working budget to remodel the bathroom.  That savings was busted as things broke and continued to break all year.  Can I say how glad I was that we had savings to fall back on?  It was a blessing to be able to pay cash to repair things and not to add it all onto a credit card at 19% interest (compounded daily, I believe).

So, what did that budget go for?

Daughter's teeth were fixed.  She had an abscessed tooth early in the year.  This required a root canal and a crown.  NOT a cheap fix, by any means.  Our insurance covered a little - very little - of the cost.  We paid the rest out of pocket.

The van is still running.  Not my favorite car, by any means.  It broke, twice.  I think the next time it breaks we won't fix it.  We'd like to have it last through most of 2017, if possible.  We'd like to have middle child out of school before we think about replacing it.  Ideally, we'd like to have both the younger kids out of college, but I honestly don't think that van is going to last two and a half more years...

The kitchen sink - and the counter underneath had to be replaced.  I'd like to thank Habitat for Humanity for giving us the skills to be able to pull out the sink and slide a new cabinet in place under the old counter top without breaking it.  Granted, we had to call in a plumber to work on the pipes, but he was worth every single penny that we paid....

The upstairs/hallway bathroom - we've got a leaking toilet.  The plumber installed a temporary fix, but the toilet is going to have to be replaced.  Long story there, very long story there.  BUT- we had the cash to pay him for the fix, and we have the cash to replace & install the toilet.  But, I don't want to do it until we can replace the floor, which means we replace the tub and deal with the yellow tile walls.....  I swear, it's like the book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie".

Dishwasher - died just before Thanksgiving.  New dishwasher installed earlier this month, paid for with cash. 

10) Visit One Place on my Bucket List
Niagara Falls!  We spent time on both the Canadian and U.S. side of the Falls.  I loved Niagara State Park.  If you ever have time to go, make a point of heading to the state park and walking the perimeter trail around the island.  It is absolutely gorgeous!

12) Scrapbooking
I need to catch up.  I know I had years that I didn't do this.  I went through all of the albums and found the years that I have not yet finished.  These are the years I am in search of:
2006
2009
2010
2011
2012
2015
Done and Done!  It's been years since I've been this caught up!


13) Walk or Bike a portion of at least 6 Rail Trails

Does the Rideau Canal in Ontario count?  I don't think it's an official Rail Trail, but it is alongside a canal, and at one time, there were rail tracks nearby.  It's officially a World Heritage site, so I'm going to add it.  We hiked a good 10 miles of it while we were in Ottawa!  Such a beautiful place!



This month, I hit up several trails the last couple of weeks of the month, going on my days off in the middle of the week.  Some of the days were a little chilly, but it was a lot of fun!

1) NCR Rail Trail
2) Rideau Canal 
3) Custis Trail
4) C & O Canal
5) Baltimore and Annapolis Trail
6) Savage Mill Trail


14) Pay off the big debt and one smaller one-
The big debt is gone.  It's nice to have one monkey off my back! 

The payments on the smaller debt have accelerated.  My goal was to have this paid off by December of this year, but it very well might be Feb. or March of 2017 due to the extenuating circumstances we've had this year.

15) The Recipes Tab
I nicely fixed up the recipe tab so that it is easy to find recipes that I've posted on here before.  For me, this is my online recipe book.  Some of the recipes are my own.  Some, I post direct links to other sites.  You might or might not choose to use it, but I use it on a pretty regular basis, and I've found out that one of the boys does, too.  He likes the fact that most of what I've listed is food he already loves and that everything is fairly easy to make and budget conscious.  (Hey Kiddo!  Glad you stopped by for a while!  Call your mother sometime.  She'd really like to hear from you!)

So, how did you do with your goals this year?

Book Review: Outlander

Claire Randall is in Scotland, celebrating her second honeymoon with her husband after the "official" end of World War 2.  Both Claire and her husband were involved in the war effort and have seen each other only occasionally over the seven years that they've been married, and this is their first opportunity in a long time to spend some serious time getting to know one another all over again.

Claire is an amateur botanist, and she has taken advantage of her time in Scotland to find out more about the native flora and fauna, and spend time with the people of the area, learning more about the healing properties of these herbs. She finds some particularly fascinating herbs up around a stone circle.  After one trip up with her husband, Claire goes back a second time to gather more herbs.  Through some strange twist of the cosmos, Claire is flung 200 years into the past - back into Scotland in the years immediately preceding the Jacobite Rebellion.

As Claire struggles to come to grips with her new reality, she finds love - a love so strong and so deep that it crosses the boundaries of time.  Surrounded by intrigue and uncertainty at every turn, Claire struggles to find her way back to her husband and her own time.  But if she ever finds the portal back to her own time, will this love keep her in this strange world?

Notice: This post contains Affiliate Links.

Pictures

Looking back over my pictures from the year, I found a few I wanted to share again!  These are my favorite pictures from this year!  Enjoy this romp down memory lane!

Chess board in the library in State College.

An working, up to date card catalog!

Luna will do anything to get her paws on pumpkin bread.

At the Udvar Hazy museum (Smithosonian) an Apollo capsule up for restoration.

The National Arboretum.

Cherry Blossoms in DC.

Cunningham Falls State Park

Urban Oasis at the Miller Library in Ellicott City.

Tiger makes that stretch look sooo good!

Downtown Frederick.

Botanic Gardens at Cornell.

Niagara Falls.  (Canadian Side)

Niagara Falls - from Niagara State Park. (Canadian Falls)

Parliament Building, Ottawa.

The Rideau River, Ottawa.

Monday Musings

It's been a busy week!  I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season.  It's been an interesting one for us.  I've been very glad to have all the kids home, and I've been enjoying spending every minute with them, playing games, chatting, and watching nonsense television.  It's helped to put life back into perspective.

We're happily enjoying our Christmas leftovers!  Dinner tonight is Salmon Pasta salad made with the leftovers from last nights salmon.  (We had both salmon and ham last night.)  I've got beans soaking right now.  I'm going to make a huge pot of bean soup tomorrow using the leftover ham bone and the leftover roasted veggies.  It should be great!

Santa came through our neighborhood on the back of the fire truck Thursday night.  I always love seeing Santa, and I enjoy how much the volunteer fire department enjoys riding around the neighborhoods, dressed as Santa and waving at the kids.  It's a holiday tradition I eagerly anticipate every year!

We put in a lot of time on Friday, making candy.  Here you can see the Buckeyes that we made.  Surprisingly, we still have a few around the house!  We're very slowly working our way through them.  They are one of my favorite candies!  We dip ours using forks to fish them out of the chocolate.  I know some people use toothpicks to drop them in and fish them out, but I've dropped a lot of peanut butter balls back into the chocolate when they've fallen off of the toothpicks.  I don't know that there's any difference in the finished product.  And  they seem to disappear at the same rate no matter how you finish them off!

Middle child set the kitchen table for Christmas dinner.  Do you see how he put every single utensil straight up out of the food?  It was something special!  

A side note here:  This year, I ordered a fruit salad and a large Super Food Side Salad from Chick Fil A to serve with our meal.  Let me tell you, the food was amazing.  The Super Food side salad is one of the only ways you'll voluntarily get me to eat Kale.  It came in a nice covered plastic tray that I was able to put directly out on the table.  The large fruit salad covered us for breakfast on Christmas morning, and the leftovers were put out with the desert that night.  I'm not receiving any compensation from Chick Fil A here, I just wanted to mention how amazingly helpful it was to have the fruit and salad already done for me.  All I had to do was pull it out and put it on the table.  It's a very much appreciated short cut!  

We didn't venture out anywhere today.  Daughter works at a major retailer, and she was working today.  She sent out a note a while ago, stating "Mission Status: Chaos has descended upon the floor.  Mission Abort.  SOS - Save Our Store."   Knowing what major retailers look like on the day after Christmas, I'm expecting a very tired young lady to walk through the door in half an hour.  Dinner will be warm and waiting for her not too long after she walks in the door.

Wishing you the best as we quickly approach the end of the year!

Thoughts and Prayers

If you get a chance, could you please send your thoughts and prayers towards the following people:

1) Coquito, of Amy's World.  He is in his second round of chemo now, and he is in the hospital until he finishes up this round - which will be sometime after the holidays.

2) Remi.  #TeamRemi.  Remi is a young lady who was born 3 months early.  Four months later, she's still in the hospital.  She is having problems breathing on her own. 

3) Youngest Child's Friend.  His mother passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday.  Hospitalized on Friday, diagnosed with cancer on Saturday, she was supposed to start chemo on Weds.  Her family buried her this morning. 

4) My cousin Mark's family.  His Dad passed away last week.  He was 94 years old, and a WW2 vet. 

5) My friend Sharon.  Her mother fell down two weeks ago.  She broke her hip, and hit her head when she fell.  The head injury killed her.

I know my friends are not the only ones who are suffering from loss this time of year.  So many of us are.  So in the midst of celebrations and presents and joy, take time to call a friends who is missing someone this year.  Once the funeral is over, people go back to their lives, with a giant empty space.  Give someone a call, and invite them out for coffee or a movie this next week. 

Home for the Holidays

I intended to write most days this week.  I intended to prattle on aimlessly about having my kids home for the week, and how wonderful they are.  Life got in the way.

On Tuesday, a friend of ours died unexpectedly.  She was 57.

She leaves behind 4 children, ages 22-27, and a loving husband.

She will be buried tomorrow.  The day before the Christmas weekend begins.

Please pray for her family during this time.

My normal prattling posts will return in a few days.

BTW, CALL YOUR PARENTS.  They love you more than you know and want to hear from you.

Too Many Words

Disclaimer Notice: This post contains Affiliate Links. 

 

Have you seen the television series "Outlander"?  It's based upon the book by the same name, written by Diana Gabaldon.  (An excellent book, by the way.)  It's a 600+ page fantasy story set in another time.

One of our regular patrons came up to the desk this week, he was returning his copy of the book.

"I'd like to register a complaint about this book" he said.

"Sure, what's the problem?"

"Well, I've seen the series and I wanted to read the book.  I tell you, this book is a serious disappointment.  I was expecting action.  Lots of action, just like on television.  Instead, what do I get?  Words.  Lots of words.  Words describing the scenery.  Words describing the clothes.  Words describing everything and basically no action."

I was reminded of the opening scenes to Princess Bride, where the grandfather promises the young boy a story filled with action, pirates, and sword fights.  Not even a paragraph into the story, the little boy interrupts the grandfather to complain that there's not enough action, and reprimands him for reading him "A Kissing Story". 

I stared at him, speechless for a moment, not sure what to say.  He laughed and smiled, and then pulled out his library card and asked if he could "put that next book in the series on hold.  I want to see if it's got just as many words as this one does."

What a great guy!  (And a great book, too.)

Too Many Words

East Columbia Library

Years and years ago, this was our library.  I remember when this library opened its doors!  I don't think we even had 3 children at the time!  We were there on opening day, and for the years that we lived in Columbia, this was our library of choice.  It was a long walk away from home.  It took us about an hour to walk over there - around a lake, under a road, past a grocery store, and around some playing fields.  We'd make an event of these trips!  I'd load the books up into the stroller and off we'd go.  We got there in time for story time, and then we'd pick out books, roam around for a little while, and then head back home.  We'd stop at the grocery store and pick up something for lunch - usually hummus and carrots or something like that.  We'd journey under the road and stop by the playground next to the lake, where we'd eat our lunch and play on the playground.  We'd then wend our way around the lake towards home, where three exhausted kids would fall into into a very exhausted afternoon nap almost as soon as we walked in the door.  Oh!  The memories!  Those were wonderful, wonderful days!  I didn't realize how much I missed them until I was roaming around here today.  The kids are all grown up now, but those were bright, wonderful days full of innocence and joy!

I was back in Columbia this week, and I took advantage of the opportunity to stop by the library and reminisce.  Some things have changed, and some have stayed very much the same.  

Are you ready to look at the library?

This is the view coming up from the soccer fields.  The community pool is to the right, and there's an elementary and middle school located just beyond the pool.  This side faces the parking lot.

A better view of the front doors.  The Senior Center is located in this building, too, just to the left as you enter the doors.

The adult reference desk is located just inside of the front doors.  (I can't imagine how cold this is in the middle of January!)

The Learning Commons.  This has changed since we lived here.   I love the new set up with the tables and the lamps!  It's much more intimate and feels warmer than the long rows of tables with the computers lined up.

Fun Fact: When the internet first became a "thing" back in the late 90's, I was a stay at home mother with three young kids.  I knew I was going to need to know how to navigate the internet in order to reenter the work force down the line.  Guess where I took classes to learn how to surf the web, navigate the computers, work Windows 95, and learned about Linux based operating systems?  This library, right here.  They had the long rows of tables then, and there were 4 or 5 of us in most of those classes, with one librarian helping us learn to navigate the intricacies of the web.  Thanks so much Howard County Library!

I still love this long view down through the Young Adult books!  That's a quiet study room at the end of the view.  It's got doors, tables and chairs, and outlets.  It's a pretty nice space!

That's the adult fiction section straight ahead.  I would make a beeline here with the stroller to pick one book for myself before heading over to the children's section.  Can you see that glass wall to the left, just behind the pillar and the arm chair?  That's another quiet study area.  Sorry I couldn't get a picture of that, but there was somebody working in there. 

This globe.  I can't tell you how glad I am this is still here!  We spent a lot of happy time here, looking at our world and investigating countries.  We'd find a country we wanted to know more about, and then we'd go search through the non-fiction books, find a few books about that country and check them out!

Along the back wall.  This is the individual/quiet study area.  Just behind me is the group study area.  Believe me, there were a lot of groups working back there!  Every single table was taken by at least two people, and there was a LOT of collaboration happening everywhere I looked!

Still my favorite walk!  From the central portion of the library, down the hall to the Children's Section!

The computers in the children's section.

Group study tables.

THESE!  My kids loved to curl up in these and read a book!

This was the original story room.  I remember going in here with the kids!  By the time my kids were out of preschool, the library was handing out tickets to get into story time in this space.  Not too long after, they moved the story times into the group meeting room.  When I walked past, it was packed!

The baby play area.  Lots of toys for little friends live back in this corner!

If you'd like to find out more about the East Columbia Library, you can visit their website here:
(And  you can see the awesome picture of the exterior of the building along the street.  Gorgeous picture, taken by a professional photographer!)

EAST COLUMBIA LIBRARY

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Middle child is taking his GRE's this afternoon.  The testing center he chose is located in Columbia, Maryland.  We used to live in Columbia when the kids were little.  So, I dropped him off at the testing center, and I've been taking a trip down memory lane.

I drove by the old house.  I was VERY disappointed to see that the new owners of the house cut down the "Climbing Tree" - a gorgeous flowering crab apple tree that was perfect for little kids to climb up into.  Our very own jungle gym, supplied by nature.  Every spring, that tree provided us with the most gorgeous flowers, and I'd leave the windows upstairs open at night so that the scent could waft over us.  I have pictures of the youngest child laying on a blanket under that tree, surrounded by flower petals.  In the fall, that tree provided the most gorgeous color, and all summer long, it provided shade and privacy to a house that was located JUST TOO CLOSE to the parking pad for the neighborhood!

It was cold, but I still got a short walk in down by the lake.  I need to go back when it's warmer.  That lake is beautiful, even when it's cold outside!  Alas, my coat was not warm enough for me to brave being outside for more than a few minutes.  The memories I have of taking the kids for walks around that lake.  The picnics.  The races they'd run.  Sledding down the hill in the winter.  OH, and the time the boys were racing their bikes around the lake, lost control of their bikes and took a header into the water!

I visited the library.  (More on that tomorrow.)

I stopped by what used to be a gorgeous patch of woods, but is now an office development.  That makes me so very sad. 

It's funny.   I worked not too far from here up until July, but I never really spent time roaming around the old haunts until today.  I'm glad I did.  Places that seem larger than life in my mind are still warm, wonderful places that I would gladly go visit again. 

But the one thing that hasn't changed is the people.  I'm currently sitting in a coffee shop, enjoying people watching, attempting to edit something I recently wrote and need to publish, and working on my Blog.  (What can I say?  I have a short attention span.  I multi-task well.)   There's a group of young people, home from college at a large table not too far from me.  They're playing board games, and having a marvelous time.  People are walking by, stopping, and hugging them.  They're also seeing people and shouting out to them.   Old neighbors, teachers,  friends of their parents, and high school friends.  While this is no longer my home, I love knowing that even in the middle of a city as big as Columbia, there are things that make this place home for other people.

When you come down to it, that is what makes memories special, isn't it?  The people and the places that populate that memory. 

Monday Musings

What a weekend it has been!

We sang in the choir for the Christmas Cantata on Sunday morning.  Dress rehearsal was Saturday, and we spoke with the kids by Skype on Sunday afternoon.  At least the cold and sore throat managed to hold off through the weekend.  It hit me hard this morning, though.

I finished reading the last of the picture books that were finalists for the Maryland Black Eyed Susan Awards.  Overall, I've found a lot of excellent books on that list!  I'm glad I've been reading from it, but I think I'm ready to take a break away from children's literature for a while!

Oh, I discovered Westworld on HBO Go last week.  Now there's an odd, quirky, but compelling tale.  I think I'm going to need to watch it more than once in order to get all of the details and nuances and stories within stories down.  Have you watched Westworld?  What do you think of it?

Lastly, little Coquito needs some prayers!  He's back in the hospital, going through his second round of chemo.  If you can spare a thought, a prayer, or some energy to head his way, I know the family would appreciate it!

I really need to start planning Christmas dinner soon.  Can you believe it's 12 days away?  Crap - I hate going to the store!  Which reminds me - I need to get Christmas cards out sometime in the next few days.  I don't think we're going to get letters into the cards this year!  (How and why did that ever become a tradition anyway?  Seriously... )

I hope you've had a great day!

Peanut Brittle

This was my Dad's favorite recipe.  I'm not as fond of the brittles as my Dad was.  I don't like how hard the nut brittles are.  I also vividly remember my Dad breaking teeth on a couple of occasions while eating peanut brittle.  So... consider yourself warned.  This is one of those recipes I made every year with my Aunts in the days after Thanksgiving.  I've made this recipe using cashews instead of peanuts.  It's still really hard, but I like cashews better, so I like the mix a little more.  I believe you can sub in any kind of nut that you want in place of the peanuts.

One last word of advice before you begin this recipe... once things move, they move fast.  Measure out all of the ingredients and keep them close by, ready to add in as you go,

Peanut Brittle
You will need a candy thermometer for this recipe.
1 1/2  tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup water
1 cup light corn syrup
3 TBSP Nature's Balance vegan butter + extra for buttering the pans
1- 2 pound nuts (Chop them up if you want...)

1) Using the Nature's Balance, (but not the part you've measured out, but the extra), butter two cookie sheets.  Place the buttered cookie sheets in a 200* oven while you work.  The warmth of the oven will help the brittle spread when you add it.

2) Mix sugar, 1 cup water, vanilla and corn syrup into a large, heavy duty saucepan.  Stir frequently until the candy mix reaches 240* on the candy thermometer.  (soft ball stage)

3) Add in butter and peanuts, stirring constantly until the temperature reaches 300*. (Hard ball stage)
Remove from heat and add the baking soda and salt.  Stir until the mix is light and bubbly.  (This is the coolest reaction!)

4) Pour half the mixture onto each sheet.  Cool completely before removing from the sheets and breaking into pieces.  (Truly, you can lift the entire sheet out of the cookie sheet.  My Aunts would break up the mixture with meat mallets.  A true Marylander would break this recipe up using crab mallets!)

Buckeyes

This was one of my Dad's favorite recipes.  I remember making batches of this when I was five and Dad was stationed in Vietnam.  We made a batch that filled an entire five pound coffee can with Buckeyes, and another with fudge.  The man loved chocolate, but he loved chocolate and peanut butter even more!

I have tweaked the family recipe to include non-dairy items.  The original recipe called for parafin was to be added to the melted chocolate.  I don't use parafin in my recipe - so for that reason the Buckeyes must be kept in the fridge.  Otherwise, the chocolate will melt.

Buckeyes

1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 TBSP Earth Balance Margarine
1 pound gluten free, dairy free chocolate chips.  (I use Good Life)

1) Stir together the powdered sugar, peanut butter, and butter.
2) Shape the mixture into 1 inch balls.  Place them on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper, and let them sit for an hour to dry out.
3) Melt the chocolate.
4) Dip the balls one at at time into the chocolate, and then removed to the wax paper.
5) Put the cookie sheet in the fridge or freezer until the chocolate hardens.
6) Store the Buckeyes in the fridge.

Super easy to make!  These little confections really are the personification of the phrase: "A minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips."

Tailor's Buttons

I originally published this post on Dec. 14, 2014.

 

Many years ago, when middle child was in second grade, he was in a "literature enhancement group" at school.  They read a series of books together, and then at the end of the series, the children had a large celebration party.  We were to send in something for the kids to eat that was related to the stories that they had read.  One of the books they read was a story about a tailor. As son and I tried to figure out what to make, I began to fixate on these things.  I'd had them before, but I couldn't remember what they were called.  Desperate for something quick and easy, we decided to call these things "Tailors Buttons".  The premise is very simple.  A pretzel, topped with a Hershey Kiss, topped with an M & M.  When I made them years ago, I used the circular pretzels, so that they would look more like buttons than this iteration does.  I still vividly recall the frustration involved with figuring out how high to set the oven, and how long to put these things into the oven.  I destroyed a full bag of Kisses before I finally struck upon the magic combination of time and temperature required to make these wonderful little concoctions.  They have become a family favorite!

Tailor's Buttons

Ingredients:

1 Bag of Pretzels

1 Bag of Hershey Kisses

1 Small Bag of M&M's

*Note - I have yet to find a way to make this recipe gluten and dairy free.  I'm still searching.  Let me know if you know of any gluten and dairy free version of M&M's and Hershey Kisses.  I really would love to know

Step 1: Pre-Heat oven to 350*.  Place pretzels in an even layer across the bottom of a cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.

Step 2: Unwrap all the Kisses and place each one on a pretzel.

 

Step 3:  Put the cookie sheet into the pre-heated oven for 5 minutes.  Check after 3 minutes, and every minute there after.   If the Kisses are soft and beginning to melt, pull them out.  It's really, really, really easy to burn the Kisses - a minute or two can make a big difference.

Step 4: Working Quickly, push an M & M into the center of each Kiss.  Cool completely before storing.  Make sure the chocolate hardens up again before you remove these guys to a separate storage container.  Note - I put mine in the refrigerator for a while.

The hardest part of this project is cleaning up the wrappers!

Cracker Toffee

The Large Sheet of Molten Goodness

Note: I originally published this last year, on Dec. 3, 2015.  

Do you have a favorite Christmas candy that you come back to year after year?  I have my favorite
candies that are rooted in long memories of time spent with my Dad's family getting ready for the holidays.  We would gather at my Aunt Rosie's house, and spend the days before Christmas making up these favorite confections for Christmas Day.   When my Dad was stationed in Vietnam, we got together and made a large batch of candy for him at Thanksgiving, and shipped it on the day after Thanksgiving.  It arrived to him just before Christmas - a melted mass of candy that he stuck in the fridge and nibbled on for days.
Until the day he died, Dad would make a mass batch of buckeyes, peanut brittle, fudge, and pralines, and then take a handful of each finished candy, toss them all together on a cookie sheet, and melt them together.

All broken up and ready to eat!

Fudge, Pralines, and Buckeyes are the time honored Christmas Candies in our family.  (I am not a fan of peanut brittle.)   The recipes are burned into my head, and I in turn have had my kids memorize them.  20 years ago, I found these delightful things and added them to our must make every year list.  If I have to take desert to a function this time of year, this is what I bring.    They're kind of like a bark, with a saltine base to them.  I experimented at home with the ingredients until I hit it right, and this is the recipe that I've used ever since.  I've posted this before, on my defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I might have also posted it on here before, but I don't think so.

This is my favorite Christmas candies to make.  It is quick and easy, and it is easy to make a vegetarian version.


Here's the recipe:

Cracker Cookies:
Saltine Crackers (1-2 sleeves)  I use Shaar Gluten Free Saltines
2 sticks of butter  (Use Earth Balance Vegan Butter or Coconut Butter to make it vegetarian.)
1 cup of brown sugar
1bag (12-18 ounces) of chocolate chips  (We use Good Life soy, gluten, dairy free chips)
1 cup of nuts, chopped (use your favorite kind of nut, and this part is optional)

Preheat oven to 350*
Line a jelly roll pan with foil, spray with non-stick cooking spray.
Place crackers on the jelly roll pan. Snuggle them up next to each other until the entire pan is covered.
In a small saucepan, melt butter with brown sugar over medium heat. Cook until the mixture comes to a rolling boil.
Pour the butter mixture over the crackers.
Bake the crackers at 350* for five minutes.
Remove from oven, pour chocolate chips evenly over crackers, return to oven for 2 minutes.
Using the back of a spoon, spread the chocolate evenly over the crackers.
Put nuts on top of the chocolate. (optional)
Allow to cool. Put the pan in the fridge... it'll set in about 30 minutes.
Break apart and enjoy!


*Note - I store these in the fridge to keep the chocolate and butters from melting.  

Monday Musings

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Recipes
This week, I'm sharing a few of our favorite family recipes for Christmas treats.  The recipes that I've been able to make gluten and dairy free, I have added those directions to the recipes.  If I haven't yet figured out a way to make them friendly to my allergies, I posted the recipe as is.  There is one that I adore but haven't been able to find everything I need to make it truly gluten and dairy free.  (Tailor's Buttons)  If you know where I can find the dairy free alternatives, I'd really appreciate your sharing that information!

Picture Book
I've been slowly working my way through the list of Black Eyed Susan picture books from the state of Maryland.  I read an amazing one yesterday.  It's a counting book.  But the pictures.  Oh my word, the pictures are amazing.  Hand drawn with pencil, the animals look like they are ready to jump right off of the page and into your lap.  Absolutely phenomenal.  The name of the book is Counting Lions, and it is written by Katie Cotton  and illustrated by Stephen Walton.  If you've got a young person in your life, it is definitely worth getting your hands on this book to share with them!




Boston Legal
Do you remember the series?  It starred Candice Bergen, James Spader and William Shatner.  Every week, the lawyers were called in to navigate the maze of the latest big court cases that called up moral questions the country was  facing at that time.  Well written and extremely well acted, the series quickly became a weekly staple in many homes.  We found the series on DVD.  We've been working our way through the series, thoroughly enjoying every moment!  We finished up Season Five (the last season) last night.  Once again, I am impressed by the job the writers and actors did bringing this series to life.




A Sad Loss
In some very sad news, we lost one of my mother's brothers over the weekend.  He was 94 years old, and a WWII veteran.  His family is going to miss him. He was a wonderful man who served his community for many, many years. 

I hope you find time to enjoy the beauty of the season this week!