A White Christmas!!

Winter has arrived!! There is absolutely no doubt about that! Here in Central New York we received around 8 to 10 inches on Friday as a fast-moving storm moved through and wreaked havoc on the area all day. Of course, the husband believes that's the best time to go Christmas shopping...and he was right! The stores and restaurants were pretty empty!

This morning we have awoken to another round of the white stuff. Although it will be much worse north of us today, we already have 4 or 5 inches of new snow on the ground. To add to this, on the backside of the storm the winds will eventually turn into the northwest and send the lake effect snow off of Lake Ontario toward us. Significant accumulations are expected during the day tomorrow.

I wish I didn't have to drive in to work in the morning, but I am very excited to be able to safely predict a White Christmas!!

Four More Days!!

Every year Christmas seems to get a bit more hectic; but I guess that makes the satisfaction of getting it all done on time that much greater.

We got a late start this year with all of our holiday preparations and gift-buying, but with FOUR DAYS to go we are just about ready for the big day!! A few more packages to wrap...a few little things to pick up...pies and cookies and fudge to bake... But that is what makes it so much fun...the rush!! And the morning after, as we eat the left-over Christmas breakfast quiche, we'll wish we could wrap everything up and do it all over again.

But for right now, we can savor the anticipation as we tie the last few ribbons and sprinkle a little more sugar on the last batch of sweets. Everyone smiles a little more and complains a little less, and even the house feels a little cozier.

I love Christmas!!

TRACK SANTA ON CHRISTMAS EVE!!!

http://www.noradsanta.org/

Make sure you're in bed on time!! Track Santa on Christmas Eve as he makes his rounds throughout the world. Don't let him catch you awake!!

Click the Link Above!!

Great Grandma's Christmas Music

The holidays are such a nostalgic time. I've always wished I could have met my great grandmother. My mother had been very close to her, and she talked about her quite a bit when I was growing up.

Great-Grandma was born in England but was sent to an orphanage in Canada when she was very young, along with the rest of the girls in her family. She was adopted by an older couple looking for a boy to help with the farmwork...but they fell in love with her dark curls and bright blue eyes and took her home with them instead. (If this story sounds familiar, I suspect it's because Lucy Maud Montgomery brought to life a similar one with "Anne of Green Gables"!)

Many years later, a young man asked her parents for her hand in marriage and was told that she would not make a good housewife because she had learned to do farmwork and not the usual work of a woman. But, my great grandfather did not care. They married, and after he served in WWI, and their family had grown to include three children, they loaded their belongings onto a wagon and crossed the border into the United States, settling in the North Country...which is where I grew up.

I am proud to own several items that belonged to my Great-grandmother, including one of the trunks that she brought here with her. I also am the current care-taker of her collection of 78rpm records, which I like to think may have traveled underneath the rounded top of that trunk. It is an honor to me to own such a thing...and it is even more incredible to listen to the same sounds, scratches and all, that previous generations of my family listened to...and with the same technology, as I crank up the phonograph!

The video clip above is of "It Came Upon The Midnight Clear", performed by the Victor Oratorio Chorus. It is most likely from about 1915. (Sorry for how dark it is...it looked much better before I uploaded it...)

Merry Christmas!

I Don't Notice Anything...Do You?!

Eat Your Heart Out, Dr. Frankenstein!!

I have created life!! Yes, it's true...and I'm not referring to the people I live with who are affected by a mental illness that incapacitates their ability to change the toilet paper roll (see my blog entry from September 13th below)!!

I have created a sourdough starter that is breathing bubbly texture into my loaves of sourdough bread. This substance that I'm keeping in two jars at the back of my fridge resembles something most of us would frantically dump in the garbage and quickly remove from the house. But in actuality, it is a living, breathing, fascinating little science experiment that I have affectionately named Hector. You can see him proofing in the photo above.

My decision to try my hand at sourdough bread was partly due to the downturn in our economy that has many of us looking to save our pennies. But it also had something to do with my drive to bake and store food away at this time of the year, a primitive behavior that I am certain is present in anyone of the female gender, whether they want to admit it or not.

Bread is about as basic to human society as anything else I can think of. It is a simple food, and you don't need a commercial yeast product to make it. Sourdough is made using the natural yeast/bacteria that exists in the air around us. I will not explain the process here, but highly recommend the following link if you are interesting in trying it for yourself.

http://www.io.com/~sjohn/sour.htm

After reading instructions for sourdough starter on several different websites I chose to follow S. John Ross' well written steps as they made the most sense to me. A simple direction for a simple process. Nothing could be easier. Some folks try to complicate it, but people did this in covered wagons on the Oregon Trail. It's really NOT complicated.

I hope you will try it out, and wish you many delicious, inexpensive loaves! And now....I have to go feed Hector!