A Morning's Work

I woke up to whizz at 5:45 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep because I was thinking about all I want to get done today, so I got up around 6 o'clock and started my day.  I did my yoga, then I started my Christmas making.  First up was English Toffee.  This is an old, old recipe Mom got from Marv Glickman, a baker friend of theirs from dance club.  We've made it every year since probably the mid-60s and we never get tired of it.  I've gotten smarter and make it in my cast iron Dutch oven instead of a big cast iron skillet because it kind of swells up as it cooks and it's always been hard to stir enough so it toasts and doesn't burn.  It's so yummy, I can't wait until it's cool enough to break apart.  Maybe I'll slide it into the back seat of the van in the garage... it's cooler out there than in the house.

Next up was Chex Party Mix.  That, too, is an old recipe from Mom.  It's different than the "traditional" Chex mix recipe on the back of the boxes today so that's the one I go with.  I add a bag of pretzel sticks and a small box of original Cheerios, a pound of deluxe mixed nuts (no peanuts) and a pound of cashews, and this time I made a batch and a half of the "sauce" to pour over it.  It's cooling right now and will probably be ready for sampling after lunch.

Somebody brought pimento cheese pinwheels to the Knitting Guild holiday party the other night, I had one, so I had to make a batch of pimento cheese of my very own.  That I made yesterday since it's supposed to overnight in the fridge, so it's ready for my lunch today.  Mmm, homemade pimento cheese spread on white bread, yum.  I used Rosanna's recipe, she was one of SIL1's wedding attendants and brought some pimento cheese sandwiches for the attendants to eat while they dressed.  I managed to nab the last half a sandwich (that I had to share with Mom and Durwood) and got DD to weasel the recipe out of her.  (No, this is NOT all that's left, this is what didn't fit into the mayo jar I emptied when I made it, it's traditional to put the spread back into the jar.  Waste not, want not, you know.)

Since it's not winter here I crocheted some more snowballs last night at knitting, and I intend to make more this week.  It's so warm here that the parsley's still green, the forsythia's budding, and the spiderwort's up 6."  Now granted these are fairly early spring things so they don't mind a little chill but they are not supposed to be doing this in mid-December.  What's going to happen in spring?  Huh?  Tell me that.  Will there be blizzards?  Someone said it's an El Nino year.  *throws hands up*

December 12--Frank Marchese Inc.  You could tell they were mother and daughter, they have the same smile.  Marian had her arm around Chloe but Chloe held herself stiff, she didn't lean in.  Now I understand that the photographer probably posed them that way but you can see that Marian is drawing her daughter in and Chloe is resisting.  Did they laugh when the photographer released them from the pose?  It looks to me like the smiles fell from their lips like autumn leaves as soon as they stood and turned away from each other.

I did have enough yarn to finish that crocheted hat last night but darned if I can find it to take its picture.  I'm sure I put it into my basket before leaving our meeting room but maybe it fell out.  Oh well, we meet in Goodwill and I was going to donate it anyway so I guess I did by accident.  Now I've talked about a pimento cheese sandwich enough that I'm going to break with my usual habit and have lunch right now.  I hate to say it but I'm kind of wishing for snow.  Sacrilege, I know.  Sue me, it's Christmas--although I don't want it to storm when DD and SIL1 are driving up next Saturday.  So it's a conditional prayer/wish.
--Barbara