Part 2 of my Holiday tips 2014

Tip#7 A dear friend who is no longer with us taught me to make sure  lots of pictures are taken or have people take pictures and encourage your quests to send them to each other.  William took pictures at my wedding. He made sure I had pictures of everyone who came and four years later it is William is no longer with us.   

  

in loving memory of William Lampie

 Get those selfie shots and try to get the group shots.  Get the kids together a make a scrap books or ornaments next year.  These pictures make great Christmas cards, invitations and keep sakes. There are always a few people who don’t like pictures, try a distract them. Snap pictures of them helping the kids make cookies or have one of the children give them a kiss on the cheek if it’s an elder. My favorite, hand me a baby, I don’t like my picture taken, but if you hand me a baby my focus is not on the picture it’s on the baby. I like to take pictures with my good looking friends, they make me look good. Plan a few shots like ones with Grandparents. If you have someone recovering from cancer and they have a bald head ask them if you can have family and close friends take pictures hugging them. Sometimes finding a prop, example, an Easter bonnet, reindeer horns, a turkey suit, matching t shirts, wings or funny hats make pictures easier! Have fun. When you look back at these old pictures you’ll thank me.

Tip#8 Share the recipes. Give and get recipes of your favorite dishes by just asking. If the person says when you ask just tell them you want to have the recipes for the next generation. Some recipes really don’t have written recipes so ask can you come over and watch or learn how. You can also ask to video how to cook Aunt Terrie’s dish for family only. My own family lost my Grandmothers and my Aunt Julia’s recipes when they died.  Think about making a family cookbook. This year I am  teaching my son to make my  legendary Gumbo, I've been saving this recipe.

Tip#9   Clean up and the take home plate grabbers.  Remember, I said plan a head, assign a couple of guests to help. Most people don’t mind helping out and it makes them feel a part of the house.  Don’t count on them to do it prefect. Everyone has their own way of doing things, so be happy for the effort and don’t waste too much energy on things being done absolutely you way.

 My rule is to cook extra, but I will limit how many plates someone takes.  It is a balance, I want left overs, but not more than we can eat.  You know you’re in trouble when the person gets out the car with a roll of foil and plastic containers! Or they say hello to the food before they greet you!

 If someone says Dad’s at work, can I take him a plate? Sure. It is the person who brings nothing and does as little as possible, but who wants to be fed for the week whose feelings I will get hurt.  I don’t care if they take a plate, but often else someone at my table maybe struggling and needs the food.  When I am aware of a need I make containers/plates myself in advance for the guest.

Tip#10 Kick them out!  I don’t know how many events I have hosted where it is 1 am and I was up at 6 am, with things to do. There are people in the house laughing and dancing. Kick them out at a reasonable time or keep them till breakfast. Depending on who it is and if someone in the household is staying up. Those who stay late are just comfortable and having a good time. Sometimes time flies.  It’s ok to lovingly kick them out, they’ll be back. I like to put a start and time in the invite. I plan for 2 hours after the event for talking and laughing and clean up. Just like I plan for people to be late at the start. Just my note, if you have been doing shots all night, you take keys, hand out blankets and pillows and lock your guests in.

  

Holiday tips for the holiday entertaining 2014 part 1

Here are my tips for the holidays for 2014

 Please keep in mind I am a big lover of Thanksgiving. It is by far my favorite holiday.

 Tip #1 Plan a head:   First, I develop a menu. My family is used to me celebrating a different culture thru food on a yearly basis. During the year,  I pick 2 cultures I am most interested in learning about and then I attempt recipes to practice a few dishes to see if I can come up with recipes I like or to figure out my sides. Thanksgiving Day with a house full of hungry tummies is not the day to play guessing games.  My Thanksgiving dinners are large and involved. Over the years, we have had some mishaps like overdone/underdone meat, and dishes we forgot to put out.  One thanksgiving the whole stove died.  My ham was browned beautifully on the outside but the inside was not done. I had to slice it up and risk the meat drying out. It didn't, and that year I have to say it was just luck over skill. I thought we were going to have to grill everything, but my husband and brother fixed the stove.  Talk about stressed! We ate a bit late that year but all in all it was a great thanksgiving.

 Long story short, stuff happens, plan ahead and know what you’re cooking.

Tip#2 Dealing with family and friends. For some, dealing with family can be stressful. Again, planning ahead helps. Don’t be afraid to have thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant or try renting a place and add friends.  Inviting guess who are not a part of the family can assist in keeping those badly behaved relatives in check.   Keep your guest busy with cookie decorating for the kids and something for those who aren't watching the game. This will keep people busy giving them less of a chance to wear on your nerves. Plan for the guess to have something to do.   Games and karaoke are fun and something the older folks can do with the younger crowd. You have not lived till you get grandma rapping!  IF family is just too stressful, maybe have dinner with your work family or a romantic dinner for 2. Remember the object is to enjoy the holiday. My family, is a bit different, we love to laugh so it really doesn't take much for us to have a good time together.

Tip#3 watch the alcohol. I find drinking to be relaxing and fun with people I enjoy and like.  My rule of thumb is if I don’t like you, I’m not drinking with you. By removing the alcohol or at least limiting it to after dinner when everyone is full and hopefully content, you limit uncle Drink’em and Auntie Sauced  from starting arguments and making a mess of the holidays. If at all possible, make punch. You can lessen the amount of alcohol and lessen the effects too.

Tip#4 Have a backup plan. If you’re going to grandmas’ but you like left overs. Buy a turkey breast so you’ll have your own left overs.  Ok, so you’re not a great cook. Don’t be afraid to ask a friend or family member for help.  Don’t be afraid to ask the person who is doing the cooking for the holiday if they would mind cooking an extra meat or dish and showing you how. You have to provide the meat. If you wash the dishes, I’ll cook an extra dish. Maybe, you don’t like turkey, why not have steak and lobster, vegetable lasagna, something you do like, like pizza. 

 Tip#5 Grab a clean jar and place a note on the front saying every curse word is payable by .25 cents, arguing is a dollar a minute, and note football game trash talk permitted or not.  This outlines the rules of the house.  Having a  10 year old be in charge of collecting money from offenders puts the offender on the offensive, they now have to explain to a pre-teen why they broke the rules or why they don’t want to follow the house rules. Make your guest responsible for their behavior.  I would advise everyone in advance of the rules if you have a favorite uncle who has a potty mouth have him or her stick a $20.00 in the jar and after a while you will notice the group is encouraging people to watch their language. Oh, this money can go to band uniforms or for vacation. and let people know that too.  Make sure you have rules for behavior outlined. The worst thing that could happen, is that a relative won’t come back to bother you next year.

Tip#6 planning the potluck event, don’t be an afraid to ask for help with cooking. Call, text and email family and friends with a potluck sign up list.  Calling is the best way to get a commitment. And don’t be afraid to send reminder. Let people know if they don’t cook or don’t want to cook, money is fine. For money give clear dates as to when you will need the money.  Ask the question: are you going to join us for the holidays? And can you bring that yummy corn dish you made at work? Yes, shameful compliments about the food you are asking for almost always gets you that dish for your holiday event. Shameful compliments work on me even if I know I am being worked. One of my female friends makes the best bread. We ask Tara to make bread for holidays and birthdays because it is just that good. If fact one year we ate Tara’s bread as our dessert at thanksgiving. And I would do it again, and again and again….  

OK, now that I am out of tummy dream land. Send out a menu. Remember to send people thank you cards for you by bringing the dish. A simple thank goes a long way.  And don’t make a big deal out of those who don’t come. The holidays can be stressful and if the dish isn't going to be made right, I’ll take not at all every time.  I buy “just in case vegetables.” I can make steamed carrots, broccoli or make pasta, I make barbecued meat balls easily by.

Tip#6a.- What to do with the person who doesn't cook or you don’t want them to cook well because… give them another job. Ask them to help you with organizing the potluck, setup or clean up. If you are using the good China you may need dishwashers. If you are using the paper plates someone to gather and take out the trash. If you are using the good China you may need dishwashers. If you are using the paper plates someone needs to gather and take out the trash. If you are using the good China you may need dishwashers. If you are using the paper plates someone to gather and take out the trash.

 Tip#6b. -Make signs for the food to tell people what the food is, example, if there is nuts, sugar free, gluten free or pork.  Don’t forget the number #1 and # 2 signs: No food without hand washing, and no fingers in the food Please!

2014 my food adventure has been growing a garden and teaching myself to can

  This year my food adventure has been growing a garden and teaching myself to can.

I have always been intimidated by canning because my Grandmother, Aunt and great Aunts but the  “ C “in canning. My Grandmother,” God rest her soul”, she made the best bread and butter pickles I have ever tasted. I had been thinking of trying, because my husband can’t eat fresh tomatoes or fresh fruit due to the chemicals and additives which are added commercially.  Last December, one of the guys I work with Derrick, made and shared his pickles as a Christmas present to our department.  When I went to him to asked how he made the pickles, he told me .he did it with a mix and “if he could do it, I could do it” and so I did. First, I YouTube, a bunch of videos on the how to and how not to pickle.

Finally, I tried the pickle recipe I found on the simply canning site ttp://www.simplycanning.com/dill-pickle-recipe.html and the pickles came out great!! I went back to my friend who ate the whole jar in a day. My husband ate so many jars of pickles I thought he was going to turn in to a pickle!   

My granddaughter Jessie

With almost all the jars gone from my first batch I attempted my second batch. The batch was too salty. I tried different recipe and this one had the pickles salty. I went back to YouTube and learned how to fix salty pickles.  You have to soak them in cold water over night and then re pickle them in pickling brine. They are good for relish in my opinion, but the truth is I was just happy not to have to throw them out the second batch of pickles. So for my third batch I tried bread and butter pickles, pickled peppers, pickled radishes and pickled onions. They were yummy. OK, now I’m dangerous I have 4 different kinds of vinegar, 12 pickling spices have been pickling playfully.

  Ever since we bought our home 8 years ago I have been talking about starting a garden. When my boys were little, we would grow a garden together, so the boys had lettuce for salads at thanksgiving. But I hadn’t had a garden in almost 15 years. This year before my first surgery, I started a garden in containers, half the summer it sat untouched by me: no pesticide’s, no fertilizers, and no dead heading the flowers, with the exception of getting it watered. We grew bunching onions, bush beans, tomatoes, banana peppers, zucchini, jalapeños, bell peppers, sage, oregano, rosemary, parsley, sweet potatoes cucumber, mint, basil and peas. 

 

 

 My granddaughters went out daily to pick and to watch how the plants grow.  This little garden has been putting out fruits and vegetables almost every day, since March.  I call it the little garden that could… and it did I have been very proud of it.  Imagine the tomatoes tasted like tomatoes and the hot peppers tasted like peppers and the bell peppers oh yum. It was great and I am doing it again this year.

  Cranberry, and Raspberry Jam

3 1/2 cups sugar
1 whole orange, peeled
 and I took out the seeds,
And I used frozen raspberries about 2 cups left over from Summer. I used a bag of whole cranberries from the produce department at the local store. I washed and pulled the stems off all the cranberries.
 I let this mixture cook slowly and it made 5 1/2 pint jars. mix often. Medium heat about 20minutes.
Once the fruit was cooked down I  labeled this mixture into clean jars and  wiped the mouth and side of the jars  clean, processed the jars. And store. Great Christmas gifts.

** Recommend you make this jam in small batches. I used a bag of whole cranberries from the produce department at the local store. I washed and pulled the stems off all the cranberries.

 http://theviewfromgreatisland.com/2014/08/super-easy-hot-pepper-jelly.html

The taste is wonderful. I am actually going to make it up without the pectin to use as  a dip for my eggrolls.

 I just started making jams and jellies so far I have made apple pie jam, peach, cranberry and raspberry jam(my recipe), and hot pepper jelly. They came out pretty good. So I am going to keep trying. I still have plenty to learn. I haven't stated pressure canning yet.