December was a difficult month.

 On December 2nd, at 4:30 p.m. we held our precious James Mason in our arms at the vet, unexpectedly having to say goodbye to him. We took him home to hold his little body and let his little sister BreeBree, on the left above, say goodbye, and the next morning our son Gurn came over to help RH build his casket and dig his grave next to Otis and Milo's. 

To all my fur baby moms and dads reading this, it just never gets easier, does it?

Our December changed then, became quieter and centered around helping BreeBree get through it just as she helped us. 

She and I, and she and RH, snuggled a lot this month. We watched some Christmas movies but not with the happiness normal to the season.

Between necessary chores around the house, I'd hold BreeBree on my lap, a blanket around both of us, and watched episode after episode on television of Homeworthy on YouTube, the Christmas episodes. Do you know the channel where homeowners give you a tour of their homes? 

I took a picture of one of my favorites but can't remember her name. She's an interior designer but started off years ago making elaborate beaded Christmas ornments for Neiman Marcus like these trees she did for herself years ago.--[later: her name is Cora Brown from NJ and actually she is a jewelry designer.]

And I watched Christmas at Belmont University, from here in Nashville, live-streamed on Prime. How amazing that this special show that RH and I went to in person several times years ago was now available to watch live from the comfort of home, BreeBree on my lap.

I didn't do my normal reading of my collection of vintage Christmas books. Instead, I shared many of my collection in Christmas gifts to family. 

My Libby app brought me this book from Louise Penny...

I had long looked forward to its arrival since the release of the book but gave up after a few day after realizing that it was doing nothing for my Christmas spirit, as much as I love the author.

Instead I searched for a light Christmas "beach read" and found this one that takes place in Edinburgh, Scotland, set in an old bookshop. This I could listen to.

And so we made it through December, week by week, very little festive baking done but enjoying the comfort of the Christmas tree and lighted garlands and the automatic battery candles I found last year through blog friend Kim's blog that came on at 4 each darkening evening. There were also the comforts of many texts and phone calls coming from our four amazing children.

And then the week before Christmas there was a visit from out-of-town family that brought laughter and good talks and future plans to discuss and reminisces of wonderful memories. 

And Christmas came.

As I get ready to publish this it is only a few hours till midnight on New Year's Eve. 

I was determined to publish at least one December post in a month when I had meant to publish many so I'm thankful I'm doing it now, barely.

God bless you all and just in case I don't manage to post in early January, Happy New Year to each of you.

Can we pretend today is January 2nd?

Can we pretend this is the day after New Year's Day 2024 and I'm publishing this blog post in a timely fashion? 

Only two days before, on New Year's Eve 2023, my pretty Karen Adams calendar was posing for a picture for the last time that year.

December's page was almost too pretty to say goodbye to and I still hadn't opened that green tube holding "Stress Away" that was a Christmas gift from my daughter-in-law, a roll on essential oil product that I've used for at least 8 years. 

Boy, was I going to need it along about January 20th when this happened in our front yard...

That's right, a big salt truck slipped backwards into our yard and wasn't able to get back on the icy road. 

After watching vehicle after vehicle slide into the ditch  of our long road frontage that afternoon we were first very happy to see the salt truck come to the rescue. That is, until he slid backward into our yard and broke our water meter and line and we were not only without water but water began spewing out into the yard, soon giving us an ice rink. Oh, and the white car is where someone in the neighborhood abandoned his car there and walked home. 

The good ending to that night was that three trucks and four supermen from our local utility district came and worked in the dark to restore our water. And as far as we know, in all the vehicles up and down our street that landed in the ditch that day, no one was hurt. 

Now, back to pretending it's January 2nd! I'm going to attempt to embed a video of our family Christmas party on December 23rd hosted by daughter-in-law Court in our old Valley View.

I hope that works! It was a wonderful night with everyone there except for our dear daughter Christy and son-in-law Bryan who now live in northern Florida. But her sons Luke and Alex were there with Alex's family. In fact, we had four generations of our family there including our four great-grandchildren! 

It was such a joy to join together as a family at the house that was our home for over 26 years. While there I couldn't help remembering all the Christmases and Thanksgivings and birthdays that were celelbrated and all the good times in the kitchen cooking and eating together. I'm so grateful to Court for hosting all of us!

Now, on to New Year's Eve. Let's have dessert first, shall we? Last post I told you I was going to make a Boston Cream Pie so I must show you that, but don't expect a cake where the chocolate glaze just drips down the edges because if a little chocolate is good, more is better.

A homemade cake deserves a pretty presentation so my Boston Cream Pie went on my milk glass cake stand and called for damask napkins and my wedding silver and wedding china. The television is set on YouTube's Hobbit House fireplace.

The cake was the best Boston Cream Pie I've ever eaten, including the first piece I ever had, in a Miami Beach restaurant when I was 18.

We did share our cake with our firstborn son and his family but RH and I looked forward all day to our slice at night until it was gone. 

This was a Cook's Illustrated recipe back when my dear Christopher Kimbell was Cook's Illustrated and I subscribed to the magazine for years. If you search for Wicked Good Boston Cream Pie you can find where food bloggers have the recipe for it. I now find Christopher Kimbell on his podcast, Milk Street. 

I did end up making braised salmon with caramelized onions from my Mediterranean cookbook by Nancy Harmon Jenkins.

And made potato salad to go with it. I froze individual portions of the salmon that make delicious lunches.

 That's pickled green beans on the plate too, part of a big gift box from Court.

On New Year's Day we got busy in the kitchen early. RH washed and cut two large bunches of collard greens for me. They do quickly cook down.

I also had black-eyed peas cooking early, soaking them overnight first, and Rancho Gordo's are the only dried beans I buy. Here's my last order from them of dried beans and their wonderful spices. I even gave Rancho Gordo products for Christmas gifts! 

After getting the collards and black-eyed peas cooking, I started on the pork loin roast.

That's prunes and apricots in the final gravy.

 I begged for a break in football games while we ate and got to watch a favorite Christmas movie.

Do you recognize it? I should have cropped out our red sofa. 

I'll end with a quotation that was the inspiration for my pork roast recipe, even though mine did not end up as beautiful as the one in the quotation from a favorite old 1975 book.

The Omars always ate dinner by candlelight. It was restful, provided a cozy atmosphere, and seemed right in the old house in which they lived. Barbara Omar was an expert in bringing forth the beauty from everything she touched, and she never minded the extra work. She was an excellent cook and the dishes she served often resembled magazine displays. He was a lucky man to have such a wife...He turned his attention back to their meal--the pork roast was almost too pretty to carve, he joked, so beautifully decorated with apricots, stuffed prunes, and parsley. This was the life he loved--a dear family which showed its love, good food, and the warmth of home.

                         From The Golden Acre by Thyra Ferre Bjorn 

I want to be Barbara Omar when I grow up! 

I'd like to sincerely thank those who read this terribly long post--even if you just scrolled through, which I wouldn't blame you for doing! 

RH and I wish you a safe and blessed 2024,

Dewena

Coconut Cake, Top of the List, Almost

 

No, we haven't had snow yet. I made this coconut cake when we had a beautiful snowfall on January 3, 2022 because it just didn't get made before Christmas of 2021.

But I'm thinking back to November of 2020--you remember that year, don't you? The year the world shut down and many of us had Thanksgiving in our house, alone?

That November I started watching every new Hallmark Christmas movie premier. Religiously. It had been that kind of a year.

 

I even kept a pen and notebook nearby and titled a list--"What Hallmark Movies Taught Me About Christmas."

Top of the list was...Baking is good!

Fruitcake is top of my baking list (my White Fruitcake with no citron posted here "Stir Up Sunday") 

Coconut Cake is not far behind. 

 One of my favorite childhood Christmas memories is of Mama making her Coconut Cake with lemon filling on Christmas Eve and it being refrigerated overnight and eaten cold on Christmas Day.

It was a serious project requiring Daddy's help in poking an ice pick into the eyes of the fresh coconut to save the coconut water to pour over the warm cake layers, tediously removing the shell from the meat, and finally grating the coconut meat, sometimes resulting in scraped knuckles. 

 

It was a cake straight from heaven!

Foolishly neglecting to secure Mama's recipe before she left us for her heavenly home, I've tried several recipes. One was very good and also very time consuming:

See my post Tamar Adler's An Everlasting Meal here!

I finally found a recipe that was very close to Mama's in Eugene Walters, American Cooking: Southern Style, a Time Life book and a fascinating history of Southern cooking.

I have four cookbooks from the Alabama author, who I "met" through Pat Conroy's cookbook. He taught me never to use the black dust that you put in salt and pepper shakers, that the essential oils in peppercorns help with digestion when freshly ground. Although RH still demands his black dust.

I wish I could link to Mr. Walter's recipe for Coconut Cake with Lemon Filling but it's not online. I will link to a recipe I substituted for his frosting recipe that required me to boil to 239 degrees. I found one at addapinch.com. It was delicious even though not like Mama's. Maybe hers was whipped cream based?  But I did make Eugene's recipe for cake instead of the one at add a pinch--those 8 eggs separated won me over--and I am going to put his recipe for lemon filling at the bottom of the post because it's become my foolproof go-to recipe for that. 

 

Full Disclaimer: I did not buy a fresh coconut and poke out his eyes! Despite using Baker's coconut flakes the frosting was excellent. It was one of those times when we didn't see any family to share my baking with so eventually the remains went to the birds. 

 

Take my word for it, RH had hardly turned around and all our resident crows and bluejays were fighting over their dessert of the day. 

Eugene Walters Lemon Filling:

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/4 inch bits

2 tablespoons finely grated fresh lemon peel

2/3 cup strained fresh lemon juice [I did not strain it]

1 cup water

Combine the sugar, cornstarch, salt and 2 beaten eggs in a heavy 2 quart saucepan and mix well with a wire whisk or wooden spoon. Stir in the butter bits, lemon peel, lemon juice, and water. When all ingredients are well blended, set pan over high heat.

Stirring the filling mixture constantly, bring to a boil over high heat. Immediately reduce heat to low and continue to stir until the filling is smooth and thick enough to coat the spoon heavily. Scrape the filling into a bowl with a spatula, and let it cool to room temperature.

What's top of your baking list for Christmas?

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Gifts and Rabbit Trails

 

 

It becomes increasingly embarrassing for me once again to blog when I've been MIA so long.

Nevertheless, when I have this photo of my darling granddaughter opening a Christmas present from Mimi and PawPaw how could I not?

How many 7 year olds want a purple hummingbird feeder for Christmas? I had to get her to pose again for this picture since I didn't get a shot of the big smile on her face when she first pulled it out of the Wild Birds Unlimited sack. That smile was there! I hope that the feeder and the other hummingbird accessories we gave her will bring her much joy next spring when once again the "living helicopters" return. 

Just as she and her big sister and parents bring us so much joy when they take that 3 hour drive and come visit us. 

 

 It's so tempting to try to catch you up on all the things that have occurred in my life since I last posted here but I won't. Maybe I will mention that RH and I celebrated our 60th wedding anniversary since I last posted here. There was a whole post planned about that but it never happened.

Rather than write about more happenings during my absence, I'll ask you if your holidays have been lovely, too? I hope so!

Here's a quote from a book I recently read that's led me to reading more of her novels:

The hummingbird is a living helicopter. It's also the most beautiful of animated beings. And with all that, the female is a dedicated homemaker. A perfectionist."

                        Margaret Culkin Banning 

                        I Took My Love to the Country

That makes me appreciate even more the tiny birds who will one day feed at my granddaughter's purple feeder, especially the females who don't get as much notice as their colorful male mates.  But I'm not going to go down that rabbit trail. Not now, anyway! 

 

Favorite Christmas Books: A Christmas Book

 

My copy of A Christmas Book by Elizabeth Goudge is a 1967 First American Edition. It is a compilation of Christmas stories taken from seven of her novels and two complete short stories. One of my favorites in the book is from Goudge's novel Island Magic, a book I haven't yet read but want to because of the details of Rachell du Frocq's pretty rooms and the other domestic details.

Those things matter to me as much as plot does. The setting of Island Magic is on Guernsey of the Channel Islands, an added bonus as I loved Goudge's other novel set there, Green Dolphin Street.

At the time of the book's setting in 1888, the residents were mainly of French blood but were subjects of Queen Victoria.

 

 Here are a few of Goudge's descriptions along with pictures from my Island Magic-inspired Christmas Day breakfast of Canadian bacon, fried potatoes, stuffed eggs, yeast rolls, and applesauce--only mine was served at Christmas Eve dinner last year.

 

From Island Magic:

The breakfast was wonderful.

Ham and boiled eggs and steaming coffee and jam and fresh rolls and, most marvelous of all, an island speciality, the goche détremper, a milk cake always baked early on Christmas morning to appear on the breakfast table. Colette helped Sophie to open the oven door and take it out. Its exquisite milk-white freshness was faintly tinged with golden brown on top, and its lovely crisp smell filled the whole kitchen and floated out to greet the churchgoers as they drove into the courtyard, cold and famished.

I couldn't find a recipe for goche détremper online but my French dictionary says it means left to soak.

 I googled Milk Cake and chose Taste of Home's recipe [here] to try and the simple breakfast cake was delicious! [I used whole milk, not 2%.]

 Actually, it is almost exactly the same recipe as for Vasilopita (Greek New Year's Cake) except it doesn't have grated lemon rind and isn't topped with confectioner's sugar, and there's no silver coin in it. I should have asked my friend Poppy about this as her Vasilopita might be very different from either recipe.

 

Here is a description of Goudge's Rachell's parlour. I could never duplicate it in my pictures but I can see it in my imagination and I hope you can, too.

The sun-filled parlour, shut away from the clamor of dinner and washing up, was fragrant and peaceful as the inside of a flower. Part of the tronquet de Noel, the yule log, was burning in the grate and its blue and yellow flames, whispering sweetly, lit up with the sunlight the soft little gillyflowers and forget-me-knots on the curtains, the delicate fluted china, the Chinese dragons and the rosewood table. Rachell looked round on all her treasures and was comforted.

Those "strips of Chinese embroideries" sent home by an ancestor led me to google embroidered "golden dragons dancing on the wall," and I found this at 1stDibs:

 

Gorgeous! After googling it, 1stDibs kept sending me ads for it on FaceBook. Ha! Thousands of dollars! And the rosewood table I found from Scully& Scully was $4,500!

Rachell is exhausted by evening--what mother is not on Christmas Day evening?

She looked around her pretty room for comfort. She looked at her French carpet, its pinks and blues faded to the colour of a dove's breast, at the miniatures over the mantelpiece and the French gilt mirror, at her tea-set patterned in blue and scarlet and gold, and at the stiff-backed chairs that her grandfather had given her grandmother...she was comforted.

 

She glanced around the room. The willow pattern china and the warming-pans...

My own English Allertons blue willow was a gift from my parents, a box full of pieces bought at a Methodist church thrift store, treasures that remind me that they thought of me when they saw these dishes. And I know exactly how Rachell felt because I also look around my rooms at night when work is done and take pleasure from my own pretty things. And if that's wrong, it's too bad.

 Altogether, from these descriptions, I can close my eyes and see Rachell's parlour, and I can see her kitchen: "The sparkling kitchen shone like a glow-worm in the darkness of the world all around them."

Sigh!!

You can find Elizabeth Goudge's A Christmas Book at Amazon [here].

 

Used hardcover copies start at $249.95. I searched everywhere for less expensive copies to show you but even the few paperback 1991 editions were very expensive. Even on Abebooks the two copies start at $241.24. There were none currently on eBay. I hope my children are paying attention to the small fortune in Mom's Christmas book collection and that they don't toss them after I'm gone!

 

May your Christmas Day be filled with health and love, even if it can't be filled to the brim with loved ones this year. It's still the day we celebrate the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem. Rejoice!