Holidays – Page 2 – Little House on the Fairy Hill

Holiday Mindfulness

It’s 5 days until Christmas, and between work, life and holiday preparations, it’s a little chaotic around here. With packages and holiday cards left to mail, and not yet even started on my wrapping, it’s easy to get lost in the list of to-dos. All that work on the Salsa Verde turned into gifts, with gorgeous tags made by my artist husband. My spiced nuts are packaged up into gift bags and being delivered along with the salsa and cookies.

Modern life is so busy. Not only are our houses supposed to be decorator-perfect but we’re always supposed to be doing something fun. Creative. Interesting. Instagram-worthy. It’s not enough to do enough – the pressure to do more and more is overpowering. Yesterday after Connor’s first-grade concert, then it was class party. We have Elves on our shelves, Advent calendars to fill, and even the kids at my daughter’s riding class were giving out gifts. “I was supposed to do that?” I wondered, not for the first time, as I rushed out after to buy a last-minute gift for my daughter’s teacher.

No wonder we’re all so tired.

Which means that this is the moment for some mindfulness.

We’ll do more baking this weekend, but it’s also going to be fun – Eli and Connor have an outing planned this weekend, while Kiera and I go into Boston with her close friend and the friend’s mom for a day of exploring. We have a very special house guest coming to visit too – our former intern resident from last summer, H, is returning to us for a night. We’ve missed her.

So it was time to remember that somehow, some way, the holidays always come together, and I know it will this time too. I don’t have to do everything perfectly, and if yet again I don’t get to making homemade truffles, it’s ok. There’s always next year. I have to remember that teaching my kids that holidays are a time of rushing and stress is not the message I want to send.

Instead, I want to send the message that yes, we put effort into things that make us proud to give, but what’s really important is what we give to one another. There will be busy nights between now and Christmas, but ultimately it’s more important that Connor gets to wrap the gifts we’re sending to Auntie Liz and Uncle Joe over general perfection. If dinner is ham and cheese and Cheerios occasionally, it’s hardly the end of the world. If the Christmas cards arrive at some houses on the 26th, we’re not exactly committing a cardinal sin.

So this morning, after making sure the bunnies had food and water and were making it through the cold, I tossed in some laundry, put on the coffee and just..sat. Looking at our tree. Collecting my thoughts.

Breathing.

It’s ok to put it down sometimes. No, it’s more than ok. It’s necessary. If your friends come over and there’s clutter in the corner, whatever. Did you feed them? Do they love you? Is their presence more important than whether you did everything perfectly?

Today, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to go get my hair done, I’m going to work, I’m going to make something easy for dinner, and we’re going to sit and watch a movie. Maybe we’ll make some sugar cookies, maybe not.

We are here, warm and safe, surrounded by love. We have enough, and some left over to give to those less fortunate than us. Are the tree lights perfectly spaced? No. Am I going to get everything done? Nope.

Will I do the things that really count? Yes. Yes I will. So will Eli, as he always does. This year, our first year as a family, I don’t just want to celebrate what we’ve done, but also who we are. We’ve accomplished a lot, sure. But none of it matters if we’re harried and snapping at one another.

So sit. Breathe. Look at the lights.

Remember you do enough. You’ve bought enough, baked enough, cared enough.

You are enough.

Holiday Spiced Nuts

I finished the last of my work travel for the year, getting home late on Thursday evening, just as the kids were getting ready to head off to NYC with their dad and his parents, celebrating not just Christmas but his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. While the kids were having fun watching the Rockettes and checking out everything the Big Apple has to offer, Eli and I headed into Boston for a night, to the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum, then dinner in the North End and a little holiday shopping.

We got home this afternoon after a stop at the grocery store, and I got into serious nesting mode – we’re 10 days to Christmas, and we still have a lot to do. Other than a few bottles of wine to give away, we’re basically done with all but the baking of things and mailing of a few packages and well, all the Christmas cards. Just a little behind.

Since those packages have to be mailed out ASAP, and I always want to include some of my homemade treats, I set out to make my Spiced Nuts, which are a great addition to boxes of cookies and fairly addictive. I took the original recipe from a book called Food For Friends by Sally Pasley Vargas, which, if you like to give food gifts, is worth ever cent of the $4.35 that Amazon is currently selling it for and then some. I tweaked the recipe to combine it with a recipe my Great Aunt Sally used to make, and I think the edits I have made turned both very good recipes into even an even better one.

I’m a huge fan of giving cookies and homemade things as gifts, but I tend to like things that are savory more than sweet myself, so most gifts of sweets get eaten by the other people in my life. These nuts are a the best combination of salty, sweet and spicy, perfect for a cheese board, in a basket of goodies, or for a hostess served with a bottle of wine. Ideal for cold January nights in front of a fire too.

Most of all, while a little time intensive, they are absurdly easy, with 2 caveats: Don’t stray far from the kitchen when cooking – nuts go from browned and yummy to burned very quickly. These are great to make when you are already in the kitchen preparing dinner. And prepare the walnuts separately from the almonds and pecans – they burn easier.

You will need:

2 Cups Pecans
2 Cups Almonds
4 Cups Walnuts
3 Cups Sugar
1 1/2 Cup Water
4 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil (don’t substitute olive oil here)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
dash or two of cayenne (if you aren’t going to have small people eat them – if they might, skip this)
2 large foil-covered baking sheets

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Mix together the cinnamon, salt and pepper in a small container. Set aside.
Combine the sugar and the water and turn on low heat. Add the first 4 cups of nuts and bring to a low boil for 5 minutes.

Remove the nuts with a slotted spoon and spread out on the first baking sheet in a single layer.

Bake for approximately 25 minutes, watching to ensure that the nuts brown but do not burn
Repeat for the walnuts, using the same sugar water.
Remove the baked nuts from the oven and move into a heap on the foil.
Sprinkle each pile of nuts with 2 tsp vanilla, then oil, then half of the spice mixture, stirring to coat.

Spread the nuts back into a single layer and return to the oven for approximately 10 minutes, watching closely.

Remove from the oven and let cool. Combine the nuts into a container. Use within 10-14 days.

In Search of Thanksgiving

I used to think that the endless proclamations of gratitude and blessings around this time of year were a bit disingenuous. I was cynical at best, and not terribly convinced of the goodness of humanity at worst. Why today, and only today? But something changed – maybe it was my children’s arrival in the world. Maybe it was the recognition that cynicism is the worst of all things, creating a false sense of superiority that prevents us from really enjoying what’s in front of us. Maybe it was the return of an eternal sense of wonder when I took up gardening. I don’t know – but whatever it was, it was a gift.

Thanksgiving is a funny holiday – like many things, the stuff we celebrate and what actually happened are kind of different. A bunch of white people – including a couple ancestors of mine – arrived after a long boat ride to a place they had never been, getting here too late to plant anything to feed themselves. They assumed that the land was theirs for the taking without, you know, ever asking. Turns out that was the gift of a smallpox epidemic arriving in advance of said boat full of people, which left the land empty. A lot of the boat people starved. Also turns out that lack of food leads to tragedy – half of them died, and only 5 women were left at the end. You would think we could have held on to that lesson and made feeding the hungry our top priority going forward, but humanity has short memories.

In 1621, the first full year of the Mayflower settlers, there was a successful harvest in Plymouth, and the settlers did feast. Whether this was the first Thanksgiving or not is in question – other players include Virginia in 1619 and 1623, or when, in 1637 Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop did declare a day of Thanksgiving after colonists slaughtered 700 Pequot men, women and children. I’m not sure killing people is much to be thankful for, but that is what happened. While the colonists would have starved some more if not for their native neighbors, the goodwill between the parties didn’t last long, and it’s never really returned.

All that history aside though, I still think Thanksgiving is a thing to celebrate. First, it’s our one holiday here that revolves around family and food, rather than gift giving or candy. It’s literally a celebration of coming together with those different from you, which has a lot of good lessons for all of us about building bigger tables, and the discussion about who belongs at them. It’s a message to stop and take stock of what you have, not what you are missing, and who you have. It’s a reminder that some folks are lonely and have nowhere to go, and you can help with that. It’s a reminder that the sharing of food is one of the building blocks of human society. And it’s a reminder that most of us in modern society need to stop and make a list not of the things to acquire on Black Friday, but of the things that make our lives full and rich and blessed.

And for me, one day out of 365 days each year isn’t quite enough for that, but it’s a good start. I think today should be for remembering and acknowledging that American history isn’t just red, white, blue and success, but also one of tragedy and oppression – and a commitment to doing better. Let’s not just pardon some turkeys here, let’s actually figure out how to pardon – literally and figuratively – some of our fellow humans. The ones with less than us. The ones who said or did something cruel. The ones we have no emotional charity for on a typical day, whomever those are.

I try to remember at least one thing I am grateful for, every day. Whenever the litany of life’s annoyances take over, I make a list – my children, my husband, my home, my family, that I am warm and safe and well-fed, when so many aren’t, the sunset after the rain, my wonderful friends who make my life so much more beautiful and colorful. And it works. Whatever it is, whatever is on my mind, slowly becomes less powerful. Gratitude, thankfulness – they have huge power to change the human perspective from what you lack to what you have, and to find strength to bring that gratitude into the world. Thanksgiving becomes an action rather than a single day of the year.

For all the people and possibilities that have brought me to where I am in life, I’m so grateful. For all of it, thanksgiving.

And to you and yours as well. Whether you are eating turkey and stuffing or just sleeping in, may it be a wonderful day for you and yours.

Dianas_Baths_2019

Early Holiday Preview

gardengate_001 — Garden Gate at Dusk – Photo by Eli 5 Stone

November arrived, and with it the cold. The other night it rained, and in the morning I found ice pockets in the downed leaves in the front yard. The chickens seemed confused by the cold when we let them out to roam, and the heat lamp in their coop is on full-time now.

There’s nothing left to do outside other than tidy up the garden and yard for next year and prepare for the winter holidays, which are my favorites. It’s time for a pot of chili and a fire in the wood stove.

It’s almost time to start baking for the holidays. Maybe it feels early, but this is the time to start thinking about it. There’s a few things that we always make – my friend Claire’s gingerbread cookies, sugar cookie cutouts, and others that I’ll blog about, but most important is our very simple Peppermint Bark. This is a great thing to make early and store in the refrigerator until it’s time to give gifts. And it’s SO easy, and even small kids can do it with a little supervision

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Here’s what you need:

A double boiler or two pans, one with about an inch of water placed below one that is absolutely dry. If water hits melting chocolate, it will make it grainy, but the water in the pan below will keep it from burning.

3 cups milk chocolate chips
3 cups white chocolate chips
Crushed candy canes
Sheet pan
Wax paper

Cover the sheet pan in wax paper. In the double-boiler, over low heat, melt the chocolate chips. Spread onto the wax paper-covered sheet pan, and wash out the chocolate pan. Dry it completely either using an oven burner or a towel. Repeat with the white chocolate chips, spreading carefully on top of the milk chocolate so they don’t combine.

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While still warm and soft, sprinkle in crushed candy canes. Place in the fridge to chill. When ready, break up into 2-3″ chunks and put in goody bags or boxes. Let the kids eat the scraps and shards that aren’t big enough to give away.