Lunch Plans

One of my quirks that makes Mike shake his head is my habit of eating a variety of snacks over a period of a few hours--sharp cheddar, some almonds, something leftover from supper, carrots with hummus, cucumber salad, a hard-boiled egg, whatever sounds good--as breakfasts and lunches on my days off instead of taking the time to "eat something real."  I don't think one way is better than the other, but it occurred to me this past week as I brainstormed ways to make this winter better for myself that taking the time on one of my days off every week to cook a "proper" dish that has some fondly-remembered significance to me would be a sweet habit to get into this winter.  Similarly, a friend from high school who is a marathoner mentally dedicates every mile of a race to a different loved one to get her through the hardest stretches and to refocus the endeavor for herself in that way.  Yes, yes, yes.  I've long thought the finest thing about my life is the beautiful people who have been in it, so why not honor them in the days ahead by measuring out the same ingredients and performing the same steps of measuring and boiling and baking that they did or do.  Yesterday I kicked off the project by cooking my grandfather's gnocchi and my grandmother's meatballs.  I cried once as I smelled the potato-flour dough and then again when I tasted my first bite.  I make the meatballs often, and I used to cook the gnocchi a few times a year, but neither Mike nor I should have the extra potato or white flour anymore, and I'm not interested in the healthier versions out there--I want Papa's heavy gnocchi or none at all--so it had been at least five years since I'd made these foods together.  I will modestly but honestly say I hadn't lost my touch:  My grandparents would have proudly recognized both their beloved dishes.  :)  Here's to the best of grandparents, here's to memories of Sunday dinners at their house the first 24 years of my life, and here's to all the LOVE.  How blessed am I.   

♥

A Lavender Christmas Breakfast Table

I woke up with a sore throat Christmas morning--The Christmas Cold revisited for the second time this month, a new record for me!--and am still battling it, the stuffed-up head, the runny nose, and the complete fatigue a few days later, but this Christmas was lovely.  As has been tradition each year we've been married, I made our Christmas breakfast cinnamon rolls late Christmas Eve (or in the wee hours of Christmas morning, since I went to bed at 2 am this time), but instead of setting the table in this year's color--last year the table was orange, 2013's was a buttery yellow and cream, 2012's was pink, and 2011's was aqua--I just frosted and covered the rolls and went to bed. 

I woke up at 7 am with the sore throat that didn't let me sleep any longer, so I got up, set the table in lavender, and made all the casseroles and side dishes that were to go with our supper.  'A good thing, as I would fall asleep almost seconds after eating that night. 

These two purple-winged cherub bookends are always on my shelves, but they struck me a few weeks ago as perfect for our Christmas table, so a lavender Christmas, it became.  The tiny cupcake and ball ornaments beside them were from my aunt Heidi years ago.  

Mom gave me the lavender napkins, candle, purple tinsel-garland, and the gorgeous Chickadee card this year with my Christmas gifts, since I'd mentioned the lavender table idea to her while home last month.  

The snowflake-shaped candle holder below was a gift from Aunt Laurie this year. 

The snowflake spreader was only twenty-five cents on clearance at Walgreens years ago, and I've used it every Christmas morning.  Mom found me the beautiful lavender snowflake ornament and hobnail ramekin-that-served-as-a-butter-dish below.

I'd forgotten until Christmas morning that I had thrown our usual snowflake-patterned lace tablecloth into the hamper a couple weeks ago when I'd noticed a stain on it, and since I wasn't up to doing last-minute laundry Christmas morning, I used a piece of leftover white kitchen curtain material over one of our lavender-patterned flat sheets.  I've spent most of the weekend sleeping and reading in bed and in my chair, but it's still been a sweet holiday.  As I was getting ready to leave for work last night, my supervisor called to tell me I didn't need to come in--BLESSED surprise!  ♥--so that gave me an extra night off to recover.  'Two more days off, so I'm confident I'll be starting the new year in better health.  And I wrap up this Christmas with a relieved "Whew! I pulled it off!" as I head back to bed.  :)  'Hope you've all had a sweet weekend.

An Early Thanksgiving

Mike and I decided Monday afternoon to have a Thanksgiving dinner together on Tuesday.  Since I work this Thanksgiving and Mike will be home with his family for the holiday--their first Thanksgiving without his dad--we hadn't made plans to have a just-the-two-of-us dinner at all, and I had kind of figured I'd just miss Thanksgiving this year.  Monday afternoon, though, that seemed stupid:  I had the next day off and wouldn't see Mike again until next week, so why would we not just celebrate on Tuesday?!  Last night was our little Thanksgiving, then, and it was a sweet one. 

It was the second consecutive Thanksgiving for this favorite vintage tablecloth of mine, a brown patchwork print that looks like something Holly Hobbie would throw onto her own table for the holiday.  I love it so, and it survived Mike's red wine with no damage, so all the better.  

As I did a couple Thanksgivings ago, I went with paper plates, which made things a bit easier.  I think 2013's simple orange-paper-plated dinner remains my favorite Thanksgiving table setting so far--the orange was just so warm and vibrant, as it was when we had an orange Christmas breakfast table last year--but this year's table was cozy even if a bit muted. 

We had turkey cutlets--neither of us like dark meat, so we never bother with a whole bird--Marie's zucchini gratin, our mushroom stuffing--that I just realized the recipe for is still in my list of posts as a draft, so I'll have to hit "publish" on that one soon--quinoa with just a bit of butter and salt and pepper stirred in, buffalo cauliflower because Mike wanted to try it, and green bean casserole.  Neither of us cares much about potatoes or gravy, so we skipped them, and since Mike was diagnosed with diabetes this fall, we went easy on flour-filled foods and bread products too.  Our mushroom stuffing was mostly mushrooms instead of the more equal bread cube-mushroom ratio it's been before, and we had no side-bread this year.  For dessert, we split a slice of chocolate tuxedo cake from the bakery.  Mike will be having his mom's apple pie and pumpkin pie tomorrow, so he'll be splurging a little more then anyway.

We watched Planes, Trains, and Automobiles over dinner, as has become tradition during our rather informal Thanksgivings here.  This was one of my and my younger brother's favorite movies when we were kids, and it continues to be, and now we all find ourselves quoting lines of it to each other throughout the year. It both tickled me and struck me as poignant to hear a few years ago that my brother and his wife were watching the movie while she was in the hospital to give birth to their dear Bianca--that this sweet film from our childhood was a part of those moments for him and his own family so many years later.  ♥ 

Stuffed didn't come near-enough to the table for pictures until after Mike and I had eaten and cleared things away, but he was his usual impossibly soft and adorable self all day, napping in just about every chair and even softly snoring while he did.  Love, love, love.  ♥ 

I added a chocolate turkey to our cake, as I did with our pumpkin pie on our first Thanksgiving together in 2007.  It took forever to find this tiny candy-turkey in the store; What seemed to be a hundred huge solid milk chocolate ones were displayed more prominently.  Is eating--or even just gift-giving--solid chocolate turkeys a thing that people do at Thanksgiving now?  At a Thanksgiving dinner I attended during my internship days in Wisconsin in 2004, one of the women invited arrived with a number of little foil-wrapped turkeys for all the children present, which struck me as such a thoughtful and fun offering, but the big--at least 6" tall--solid chocolate turkeys are new to me.  I'm sure they'd be gorgeous on a big-enough dessert or as part of a centerpiece, at least.  (And you can tell I work with children when Elsa's bust-topped Coronation Day cake is the first "big-enough dessert" that comes to mind.  :)

Mike did the dishes while I put away the leftovers, and another Thanksgiving had come and gone.

When I took my iced tea glass out to the kitchen sink, I found a soap suds heart dissolving before my eyes.  'One of my favorite found hearts, this one, and a fine finish to this Thanksgiving. 

A happy holiday to everyone celebrating, and a good day to you all.  ♥ 

Orange Christmas

As it did last year at Thanksgiving, an orange table felt like the way to go this Christmas morning.  Each of our four married Christmases so far, I've decorated our Christmas breakfast table in a different color--aqua in 2011, pink in 2012, a creamy yellow last year, and now orange too--and setting the table in it has become one of my favorite Christmastime tasks.  It is the last thing I do before collapsing into bed Christmas Eve.  I set it up while our cinnamon rolls for morning's breakfast are baking and after Mike has gone to bed.  It is quiet and calming and soothing to me, transforming a bare surface and a pile of set-aside-this-year's-color-items into a cozy and inviting table for us.  Christmas morning, Mike makes an egg casserole to go with my cinnamon rolls. 

I decided on orange on Tuesday and looked around the apartment to see what I had on-hand that would work.  A felted bird that had been hanging in the window was pulled down for a table decoration, pieces of orange gingham fabric were ultimately taped together to show up under the white lace snowflake  tablecloth, an orange cup worked as Mike's juice glass (I'm not a juice fan and didn't need one), a pumpkin-scented candle and an apple-scented one from Mom were deemed orange enough to fit the bill, orange star sprinkles and glitter were set aside for table decorations and cinnamon roll toppings, and an orange paper lantern that usually hangs in the kitchen ended up being temporarily taped to the ceiling above our dining table. 

I arranged a few cream and white village houses, snowflake ornaments, and trees around the table to fill in the bare spots a bit. 

An orange gingham gift bag from the drugstore was cut up and became two place-mats, and the two strips of it that were left after place-mat-making became what looked like a trivet for the cinnamon rolls but were actually just a couple two-inch-wide strips of gingham bag/paper stuck under the edges of the pan on two sides.  :)

Two fifty-cent orange-striped candies from the grocery store served as table decorations this morning and became Christmas tree ornaments when the table was cleared.  ♥ 

A tiny white plastic container that Mike's mom has sent a leftover pickled egg home to him in at Thanksgiving was transformed, with the help of the gift bag's orange ribbon and a small circle of the gingham bag itself glued into its lid, into a butter dish.  The snowflake spreader was a drugstore clearance item years ago. 

Stuffed, Stuffed, Stuffed.  ♥  I love his round head and his cheek-fluff and his half-black-half-white face and his paw lines.  He is such a sweetheart, just so dear.  You can see behind him that the orange gingham fabric under the lace tablecloth is really just scraps of fabric that barely cover the top; There is no "drop" or overhang with it, no.  :)  But from above!  From above, it looked good.  ;)

What is it about gingham that is so charming?  I love it in any color.  Dots don't do it for me, although I like them too, especially tiny dotted Swiss.  Stripes rarely make me swoon.  Plaids are pretty, but I've never smiled over one.  But gingham!  ♥  And orange gingham this morning!  Just looking at the pictures makes me happy. 

The village houses were both gifts from Mom and Aunt Laurie previous Christmases.  The tablecloth was a gift from my younger brother years ago.  The tree candles and trees were from Mom.  Mom also made the pillows on the chairs.  Some of the pots and pans were from my brothers and sisters-in-law.  Others belonged to my grandparents.  The table itself was a housewarming present from my parents for my first all-to-myself apartment back in 2002.  The drinking glasses were given to us by my in-laws.  Oh, this room--this whole apartment--is filled with so much love!  There are tokens of loved ones' hopes for us everywhere we turn, and setting the Christmas breakfast table always reminds me of that. 

We are blessed. 

It was a sweet morning. 

The snowflakes and paper lantern I taped to the ceiling never crashed down on to the lit candles during breakfast either.  A cup of fire-dousing water and a smothering quilt were at-the-ready just in case, reported the Lady of the House in her most-nonchalant-now-that-the-meal-has-passed-without-incident manner. 

I hope your own holidays are bright and beautiful. 

I know many are hurting over losses and transitions and that this can be a heartbreaking time of year.   My dad has been known to declare that "Better days will come," and I concur.  To be hurting during the holidays makes one feel freakishly lonely and lowly.  I have been there, as we all probably will have been at least once in our time here, and it makes these holidays that are filled with orange gingham and snowflake spreader glee all the more deeply appreciated.

Love to you all, and the brightest of days ahead for you.  ♥

Our First Three Christmas Breakfasts

I've  never been a breakfast person--I eat it every day, but I prefer to heat up some soup or make a sandwich instead of eating more typical breakfast foods, and I think my two-and-a-half-year stint as a breakfast cook permanently wiped out any fondness I ever could have found for the smells of bacon, eggs, or waffles--but the Christmas breakfast Mike and I share has become one of my favorite parts of the holiday.  It has been egg casserole and cinnamon rolls every year, and while the food is good (she says modestly), it is the table-setting and actual sharing of it that I love the most.  We enjoy a Christmas Eve dinner and a Christmas evening dinner too, but somehow it's our Christmas breakfasts that delight me. 

This was Mike's and my third Christmas in this apartment, and our third as a married couple.  I remember Dad asking me on the phone last Christmas what we'd had for breakfast, and I responded, "Egg casserole and cinnamon rolls--It's our tradition" and then laughing at that with him because it had been only the second Christmas Mike and I had done that.  'Quite a tradition!  :)  Our Christmas meal together before we married was always a belated supper  after we'd both returned from our parents' homes--Christmas 2011 was the first time we shared Christmas Eve, Christmas morning, and Christmas dinner together.  And it's sweet to be able to do that.  I had actually been scheduled to work this Christmas, but a coworker covered it for me, picking up some holiday overtime for herself, and Mike and I were quite grateful.  (I burst into tears when she said she would work it for me, I was that surprised and relieved.)  Our holiday together was extra-special this year, then, since we hadn't known until last week that we would, in fact, be together for it.  And this year's breakfast was sunny and sweet just like the two before it.

2011's breakfast table was in aqua with most everything on it a gift from loved ones.  The knit-look aqua mugs were from my mom.  The candlesticks too.  The lace snowflake tablecloth was a Christmas gift from my younger brother in 2010 and is now part of the tradition. 

Last year's breakfast table was pink.  The candles, trees, deer, house, church, and other little ornaments were all from Mom, Aunt Laurie, and (one of their younger sisters) Aunt Heidi. 

And this year's table was glowing and sunshiney, although that was an as-I-woke-up-Christmas-morning decision.  The yellow under the lace tablecloth was the yellow gingham bedspread I'd used on the table this past Easter.  It looked soft and mellow with the lace over it, which was nice.  While Mike slept in, I gathered the dishes from the cupboard and the ornaments off our tree that were yellow and cream, picked a couple yellow star sugar cookies for our plates out of the tin, and even found a lion and lamb amongst Stuffed's toys.  ♥  (Martha Stewart would shake her head.  That's okay.) 

The snowflake spreader was on Christmas clearance at Walgreens (drugstore) years ago for fifty cents or so.  :)  The trees and houses and ornaments and casserole dish were all gifts. 

Mom found me the brown deer at the flea market this fall and gave it to me last week.  The glass candle dish was the one Aunt Laurie had tucked into our cookie tin this Christmas. 

And now it is back to work for me after a blissful six days off.  I am blessed beyond measure. 

And it was absolutely a merry little Christmas.  ♥