A Christmas Cookie Tradition

This blog post is going to be very short, but I want to document it for my book. As I wrote in 2018 https://www.thecabincountess.com/2018/12/traditions.html my daughter loves traditions. She is a very busy person with a demanding job, but she always makes time for certain traditions. Making Christmas cookies with me is one of them. This year it was three days before Christmas but we managed. It is actually a good thing because if we make them too early, the favorites get eaten and the others get stale. 

The exciting part is that Dylan, who is a man now, actually asked if we were going to do it this year. In 2018 it was only my daughter, Ewan and myself. Gradually over the next few years, a few would show up but not with the enthusiasm they had this year. They all came in Christmas sweaters and put on Christmas music. Dylan brought his girlfriend, there was Melissa. Jack and Ewan plus Heather of course. The only grandchild missing was Sam. He arrived home from college late last night and was exhausted. My other daughter was busy or they would have also come. 

The first thing we did was eat lunch. I made a big pot of vegetable beef and barley soup and Heather brought subs.

After lunch it was time to buckle down. I had made all the cookie dough in advance but it still took a long time. I made gingerbread people just because it's "tradition" and they like decorating them. They get pretty silly and I love to hear them laugh even if the final product looks like an elementary school project. They filled piping bags and went to town. No one likes or eats these cookies, but they are fun and very messy.

Next it was time to unwrap the Rolo and Peanut Butter cups to use in a couple recipes. It is a pain so I love having all the extra hands.

Then the baking began. It's amazing how helpful older children can be. Dylan's girlfriend did the dishes as we dirtied them, The others helped with certain tasks. 

The kids love to play games so a gathering isn't complete without a game of some sort. Sometimes I wonder how they can be related to me. I don't like games, I never have. At every family gathering they play something. Today it was a game called Ticket to Ride.

 Melissa on the other hand, decided to take a nap. 

It was a perfect day. Everyone was happy and excited. A double blessing, I will see them again on Christmas Day. The snowplows had blocked my driveway and mailbox. I was tired from shoveling and kind of overwhelmed with random stuff plus the thoughts of a long winter. I appreciate everyone who got me back on track. 

Merry Christmas To All

Tallow is Not For The Birds Anymore

I am such a "with it" old gal that I like to follow all the latest trends on social media. That's a lie. I am not "with it".  I know this every time I listen to my grandchildrens conversations. I don't understand much of what they talk about. I have to make my own fun by inventing, creating and generally make messes I have to clean up. My latest is a work in progress. 

I watched videos and posts recently about making lotions, face cream, soap and candles from tallow. Tallow is made by rendering the impurities out of beef suet. I have done it many times. It is how I make my outdoor birds food for the winter. I usually melt the suet and stir in a variety of seeds. Then I pour it into a form and wait for it to harden. This is what beef suet looks like before rendering.

That was my intent this time until I stumbled upon other uses for tallow. Making suet into other products is new to me, but I wanted to try. I bought an extra large package of beef suet. There was enough for the birds and for my experiments. I cut it into small pieces because it melts much faster that way. The first time I tried it years ago, I put the whole chunk into the slow cooker. Two days later it was still melting and the house was quite smelly. Imagine having a rendering factory in your kitchen. However, learning the hard way is a good way to learn. I didn't make that mistake again.

A few days ago I did cook some of the suet in a slow cooker for twelve hours. I stirred it now and then but it was an easy process. At the end of that time the suet was melted and the "cracklings" were floating on top. Cracklings are the browned bits left over in the rendering process. All suet has a little meat and debris inside. Rendering cooks out all of that leaving pure fat. For bird food I don't remove them. The birds love pecking at the bits. For lotion or soap the tallow has to be purified. It requires a few extra steps. 

For that I melted the rest of the suet. Apparently grass fed organic suet is the best, but sometimes it's hard to find. I think if it's a choice of not having the exact ingredient or having nothing, I will take the substitute. The slow cooker works great for this but I have found an even easier method. I cooked it in the instant pot. Instead of 12 hours, it only takes 3-4 hours. When finished the cracklings and little bits are strained out. The oil is then cooled in the refrigerator. When it has hardened, it can be broken up and melted again. Then it is strained again either through a coffee filter or a fine mesh sieve. Again it is cooled, melted and strained. This has to be done 4 or 5 times until there is no moisture left in the pan or on the piece of tallow. The piece is white and hardened. It sounds like a lot of work but each process is mostly waiting for the next step.

Finally the piece is ready to be melted for the final time and put into a large bowl mixed with jojoba oil, olive oil or another oil plus essential oils. This product is supposed to smell neutral but I think it still smells a little "beefy".  The essential oil helps but I still have to figure that out. The smell is less with every melting so I just have to determine how many times to do it. After the fat has cooled for about an hour, it is time to whip with a mixer until it looks like frosting. The added oil makes it soft enough to apply at room temperature. If you put it in a clean jar, the shelf life is a year or more.

Now for the experiment. I am not a person to use many cosmetics or make up but old age does dry out the skin. I am going to try this. If you see me and I look many years younger, it's working. If not, oh well.  Apparently tallow skin care products have a lot of good properties. It is a healthy fat. Think about it, we are animals and most of us have fat so this just provides moisturizing with a product natural to us. It isn't like putting foreign chemicals on our skin. It's simple biology. It has a lot of nutrients like vitamin A, B12, D, E and K. It has omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, it is anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial. How can I go wrong? I will only use it at night in case I smell a little like a burger. I don't have a husband to offend and I don't have a dog, so I don't worry about having my face chewed off.  It's all good.

Life is a Double Edged Sword

My life at this older age is a double edged sword. I experienced both yesterday. When you get to my age and situation, you can do whatever you want when you want as long as you are physically and mentally able. I don't run marathons or climb mountains even though I would like to. I do have some brain cells left. I ask my daughters regularly if I have many "dings" in my incompetence file. So far, so good. That is the positive edge. On the other hand things happen where you may need to find the help, advice and expertise of others even if it feels embarrassing and makes you feel not very smart. That's the negative edge.

When I got up yesterday morning, it was exactly the same as the day before. I padded out to the kitchen and made coffee, I made the bed and gathered up some laundry to wash, then I got ready for the day. I put a load in the washer and went to brush my teeth. Thank goodness I hadn't gotten into the shower yet because I had no water. After a moment of panic, I got a grip. I went down to the breaker box to make sure I hadn't somehow tripped a breaker. Then I turned off my washer which was beeping and flashing with red lights. There was no water on the floor which had happened a couple months ago. My next step was to call a plumber. Fortunately I have a really good one who actually answers his phone. He told me he would come over in a couple hours. Maybe it pays to be a gray haired damsel in distress. Since I overthink everything in my life, I had already thought my yard would have to be dug up and the septic replaced or my well pump would need replacing. I usually don't start with the worse case scenario, but I did this time. As it turned out the problem was solved quickly. It was a problem with the pressure tank. I handled it fine but it would have been nice to troubleshoot the problem before going into panic mode.

That was the negative edge of the sword. The other edge is doing whatever I feel like. I have been known to go to Kwik Trip at closing time for ice cream. Last night I was thinking about the Cranberry-Apple pie I made for Thanksgiving. I didn't like how stiff it was so at 9:00 pm I decided to make a pie. I had made chunky applesauce earlier in the day and had that cooling in the refrigerator. I had some leftover cranberry sauce (both jellied and whole berry) and two pre-made pie crusts. The Thanksgiving pie I made used the apple pie filling recipe I posted in a previous blog https://www.thecabincountess.com/2024/11/apple-pie-bread.html mixed with homemade cranberry sauce. It tasted good, but I didn't like the texture. The year before I just used un-thickened chunky applesauce mixed with cranberry sauce. It was much better. By 9:30 pm the pie was in the oven and by 11:00 pm I was eating a slice because I wanted to. It was pretty darn good so I ate a slice for breakfast too. Carbs at bedtime help with my sleep or so I try to convince myself. It's either contentment or a blood sugar thing. Whatever it is, it works.

While the pie was baking I mixed up some dough to make crusty bread. I left the dough to rise overnight, and I baked it in the morning. 

I won't be going out for a Wisconsin fish fry on this cold Friday night. I have chili, crusty bread and pie. 

After writing this I realize everyone's life is a double edged sword. We all have good and we all have bad. How we balance it all is the key.  We can rely on others and still take care of ourselves.

The Tale (Tail) of Two Grandsons

It has been a busy month that involved two of my grandsons. Both were enjoyable, but one was easier than the other. One involved riding in a car for an hour. The other was much more involved. Have you ever made a Centaur costume? Nope me neither.

Last week I posted on Facebook that I attended a performance in the AL.Ringling theater in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Dylan, my oldest grandson, was in a play called “Something Rotten". Dylan has been in plays since he played Oliver in middle school. He continued through high school and college. In this play he was Nigel Bottom for those familiar with the play. He sang and he danced and it was very enjoyable. I had to google the play to see what it was about, but that was my only preparation. We just bought a ticket and showed up. All the work and preparation was done by the Baraboo Theatre Guild, and we had no responsibility. 

My next experience was different. My second to youngest grandchild Jack was in a performance of a Percy Jackson musical called The Lightning Thief. Jack is a junior in high school and this was his third show. It was this past weekend, but the process began a month or more ago. The play is full of mythological characters and a variety of costumes. 

My daughter offered to help and therefore so did I, by default. She ended up getting the title of Costume leader and Props master. She started as a mom volunteer and ended up with a lot of responsibility. She helped organize the set construction, painting and anything else that needed doing. She made a three headed dog,  Medusa headgear, pants to look like goat legs and took care of a multitude of details no one noticed but it made the play complete. 

By far the most difficult project was a Centaur costume. For those who don’t know, a centaur is half man and half horse. We had the young man but needed a horse's rear end.

My daughter had the help of a friend to make the bones of the horse. She works out at a local gym and asked the owner/physical therapist for advice about the anatomy of a horse. He is familiar with human anatomy, but I guess he knows about horses too. They got together PVC pipe, nuts, bolts, chicken wire and foam. They created the framework of a horses rear section. 

The next step was making the legs and covering the body. That's where I came in. She had a basic pattern but had to draw it out to get the size in proportion. Then I made pillows in the shape of a horse leg. These pillows had to fit over the PVC pipe that was jointed. It was trial and error all the way with a lot of error.

In order to cut costs we recycled a lot of supplies and went to thrift stores. Schools don't have a big budget for anything these days. 

I took an old sheet, cut out the shape and stitched it up. Then Sarah, my daughter, stuffed it with the stuffing from an old pillow. I know at this point they look like uncooked turkey legs.

She had to take the legs back to the carcass a few times to see if they were the right size. After some tweaking, pushing, pulling and stuffing/unstuffing, it was good enough.  The hooves were also created.

The next step was covering the legs with fabric. Since that much fabric would cost a lot, we found some old quilted curtains at the Goodwill store. Not exactly horse hair but the color was good.

Now to make the leg pillow covers and figure out how to get them on the legs. It was a two person job, that was for sure. Now they look like roasted turkey legs. 

Some bolts had to be inserted in the top of the leg so they could eventually be attached to the body.  Thank goodness for our special advisor because we had no idea where the joints went. Horses legs bend opposite to a human leg.

At this point it looks like it is almost done. WRONG! Next we had to figure out how to put it on Jack's body and attach the hooves. At first we thought it could be strapped to his waist but it ended up to be too heavy, so we needed a shoulder harness like a backpack. The hooves were just attached with metal strapping material which proved too weak so they had to be enforced with stronger metal, lock nuts and a lot of glue.  Originally we were going to have strings attached so the legs could be manipulated but that just complicated things and we scrapped that idea. We were going to put wheels on the bottom of the feet but gave up on that too. I said trial and error and that's what happened over and over again.

While this body part was being worked and reworked, I had to make pants out of the same curtain fabric. Since everything had to be put on easily between scenes, the pants were simple pull on pants. I sewed fur on the bottom of the pants and the hooves were fit over Jack's own shoes. A little beard and mustache finished out his outfit.

I added some fur to the horse legs, a blonde wig for a tail and it's SHOWTIME.

 

 

It turned out pretty well. By the end of the last performance it was a bit tattered, but not too bad. The horse looked a little tired and wanted to sit down, but we all did.

 

Dry Mix For Scalloped Potatoes

I would love to write about things I think about and recent current events, but it just causes comments that I need to delete. I don't need the stress. Being an older woman already makes me invisible and open to criticism. It's amazing what people can say when they don't know you, so what do I do? I cook, even if it is for myself. I had a birthday a few days ago and wanted comfort food. This is the result.

 

What is this? It is a dry mix to make Scalloped Potatoes. I really like them but making them from scratch requires planning ahead and having the proper ingredients on hand. The scalloped potatoes at Costco are really good, but the carton is too big for me and they don't freeze that well. This dry mix is perfect for me. I can quickly make the portion I need. I would like to give credit to the person who came up with the original recipe but I don't know where I got it. The original recipe included dried chives and minced onion but I left that out. I actually made half the amount in this recipe because I don't need so much. I stirred all the dry ingredients together and stored it in a quart jar. I sealed the jar with a vacuum sealer.

Scalloped Potato Dry Mix

 

2 Cups powdered milk

1 Cup flour

1 Cup cornstarch

1/2 Cup dried parsley 

2 T. salt 

4  t. mustard powder 

2 t. pepper

1 t. garlic powder 

1 t. Italian seasoning 

Put 3 cups of peeled and sliced potatoes in a buttered baking dish 

Mix together 1/2 Cup of dry mix and 2 3/4 Cups water.

 

Pour over raw potatoes. I added a 1/2 cup of diced ham. You could add some diced onion if you like that flavor.

 

Dot with 2 T of butter

 

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

 

Apple Pie Bread

Today I was doing my normal morning chores as best I could, and I noticed I had some apples that needed attention. I usually make my own apple pie filling and these would be perfect. This is how I make it.

Apple Pie Filling

4 apples (different varieties require different cooking times)

2 T. butter  

1 t. cinnamon (more or less depending on your taste)

1/3 cup sugar

3 T. water

4 t. cornstarch

2 T. water

Peel, core and chop or slice 4 apples

Melt 2 T. of butter and 1 t. cinnamon

Stir the apples into the melted butter and cinnamon, then add 1/3 cup sugar and 3 T. of water

Cover and cook them for about 5 minutes or until they are starting to soften

Next dissolve 4 T cornstarch into 2 T water

Add this to the hot apples. Stir until the apples are soft and the filling has thickened. Boil for one more minute.

This filling can be used to make a pie or eaten like chunky applesauce. 

I was going to freeze the filling until Thanksgiving, but I changed my mind. I had seen a Apple Pie bread recipe on Facebook. It called for one can of apple pie filling. I figured my homemade filling would be the same thing. I found one can of filling equals slightly more than 2 cups of filling. This recipe makes about that amount. 

Apple Pie Bread

1 can apple pie filling, mashed (or 2 1/2 cups of homemade filling)

1 yellow cake mix

4 eggs, slightly beaten

1 cup self rising flour

1 T. cinnamon

1 chopped apple

I had purchased a yellow cake mix at Walmart in the clearance aisle.  It was a Dolly Parton edition for $.75. I haven't tried this mix before but it's just cake mix. How bad can it be?

I had eggs and cinnamon plus another apple.

The only thing I didn't have was self rising flour, but that is easy to make.

Self Rising Flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

Just mix all the ingredients together. If you use a mixer, add the apple pie filling and extra chopped apple last and mix in with a spoon.  This makes two loaf pans. Sprinkle some cinnamon and sugar on top before baking.

Bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

No Murders in this Building, Just a Carrion Plant

Two years ago a very generous neighbor of mine gave me the starts to some plants. They were a pencil cactus plant, a variety of a snake plant and a type of cactus I wasn't familiar with. At some point I posted photos of these on Facebook. I heard from my uncle Jeff telling me that this type of cactus blooms. It hadn't up to this point so I thought conditions must have to be perfect for that to happen. He told me not to water it all winter and it would blossom, but be aware it doesn't smell good. I waited all summer and it grew well but I didn't see any buds. Then it happened. On October 14 I was looking out the window as I often do. I had recently brought the plants inside because we were expecting frost. I did a double take because there were buds on the plant.  If you look carefully, you can see two buds. I am not sure how long they had been there, but I was excited to see them.

I had no idea what the blooms would look like or how long it would take. I researched the plant. This is what I found. It is a Carrion plant from the species Stapelia gigantea from the genus Stapelia. That meant nothing to me but then I read they are also called corpse flowers or stinking flower not to be confused with the gigantic African corpse flower. Now I understood the warning about the smell. It is actually a spine-free succulent, and it isn't a cactus at all. I waited and waited. Every day the blossoms got a little larger. Two weeks from the day I discovered the buds they were larger than a golf ball and slightly smaller than a tennis ball. They were quite large for the size of the plant and looked a little like a balloon.

I went away for a few days. I was sure it would blossom while I was gone, but when I got home everything looked the same. Patiently I waited. Every morning and evening I checked for clues. Then 30 days from when I spotted the first sign of a bud, I saw a crack in one of the buds.

At this point I set up the time lapse feature from my cell phone camera. A short time later, I captured this happening. 

As I watched both blossoms eventually opened.  One by one the petals popped open. They actually made a popping sound. They are so beautiful.

It has been an exciting day. I don't know how long the blossoms will last. My barrel cactus blossoms last only one day. These flowers already look like they are fading. I only hope I don't get any visitors for a while. They will surely think I have a dead body hidden in the basement. The blooms are pretty but they do smell like rotten hamburger.  I only hope it dissipates quickly. 

My other plants have also done well. The pencil cactus has grown very quickly and is interesting. It only has very tiny leaves. Apparently it is quite toxic which I didn’t know. I don’t have small children and pets so I’m not really worried, however it’s good to be aware. The plant is really large and will need to be trimmed back eventually.

 The other was a variety of the snake plant.  I'm sure it has a scientific name but it's just a shorter version of the snake plant.

 Next summer they will all return to the outdoors. Maybe if I am lucky the Carrion plant will bloom again and the other plants will flourish.