Among many of my favorite things to do for the Holidays is to watch the TV specials. Now granted, I own most of these on DVD, and yet every year I prefer to watch them on TV, with commercials. Strange I know. Last night I watched a new one called Shrek the Halls. Which was actually pretty cute but will never compete with the classics of my childhood. I've already seen on TV, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Charlie Brown Christmas, but it never is Christmas to me until I see Rudoph the Red Nose Reindeer. Perhaps it is the fact that I am somewhat of a misfit myself and so I can relate to Rudolph and Hermey the Elf...I mean I had Hermey saying “I want to be a dentist” as my outgoing message for my answering machine throughout undergrad school...and no, I didn't want to be a dentist. Is it the timely message to accept others as they are, for everyone has a purpose in the world? No. It's the Bumble. I love the Bumble( aka. The Abominable Snow Monster of the North). He … [Read more...]
Family “recipes”….
I've mentioned before how in having this blog, many a family favorite has been shattered. Here I had visions of my mother slaving over homemade baked goods, only to find out that my mother was basically Sandra Lee(ironically, she makes everything from scratch now). Growing up at Christmas time my mom always had Date Nut Bread. I always turned my nose up at it because I was not a fan of dates as a kid. But as I grew up, so did my taste buds and I learned to love the bread...especially for a breakfast treat. So the other day I called my mom to ask her to email me her beloved Date Bread recipe...and then it happened. The silence. The silence I have grown to learn that means, oh shit, I must now admit that I used a box mix to make it silence. It was that silence again. Apparently our family treasured recipe was a box of Pillsbury Date Bread Quick Bread Mix. Ugh. Now granted she did add to it, using fresh dates and chopped nuts, but still. Yet another blow to my ego. :) So if you would like … [Read more...]
You say Potato, I say Daring Baker Challenge….
I have a gift. A gift for killing food scales. Not sure why I have this gift, but I am out 5 food scales in the last 3 years alone. Now a days most things are written in cups and tsp, etc and so I held off on buying a food scale this time around. But when I saw that we were making potato bread, and that I need ounces of potato I browsed Amazon.com and found one. This time around UPS helped me out and my food scale came to me mutilated and in pieces. Well crap I thought. I was already to make potato bread and even planned my meal to include it. So I decided I would make it anyway. What was my solution. Well, I stood on my scale holding an empty bowl. I have one of those scales that tells you not only weight, but body fat(oh the horror!), how much water is in your body and so on. So after I weighed myself I went and added some mashed up potato to the bowl and re-weighed myself...till I “gained” a pound. :) It worked. So I sent back my food scale and didn't get another one … [Read more...]
It’s the holiday season…
I wont say it is the most wonderful time of the year(we all know that is when hockey season starts) but it comes darn close. I am SUCH a sucker when it comes to Christmas...throw a little red and green glitter on something or paint a little gingerbread man or tree on it and suddenly I want it. I scream consumer Christmas. Not to worry, I do know the true meaning of Christmas...I did grow up watching the Grinch and Charlie Brown Christmas after all. Christmas was also the time of year to mess with my mother. I used to annoy her by refusing to buy Christmas wrapping paper, instead buying regular birthday paper and then writing in the word Jesus after each time it said Happy Birthday. My mom was not a fan. She was also not fan of most of my wrapping styles. See my mom gets a little Martha Stewart about her tree. She didn't used to when we were little kids, but as we got older she took control of the tree. She likes the balls, ribbon, tree skirt, wrapping paper, etc...all to match. To … [Read more...]
