A Cozy Day

 Hello dear friends!  Happy first day of December!   I had every intention of writing another post in November, but life got in the way.  Last weekend we drove downstate to watch our grandchildren, Felix and Violet, in a community play.  I'm so thankful that they are growing up in a community that still treasures things like community playhouses and children participating.  They did a wonderful job!  And the next day our son, Erik, participated in a local craft fair.  Were there ever a lot of people there! And he made a lot of sales.  We are so proud of him; he's become quite the woodsmith. On the drive down everyone was so friendly wherever we stopped. I think it was the snow, it put everyone in a sort of "merry gentlemen" sort of mood.  On the return trip we meandered our way back home and stopped at some antique and thrift stores.  And at Tim Horton's for the last pumpkin donut of the year. It was a nice trip.

But today we are having one of those cozy days, I wish you all could experience.  It started with a spectacular sunrise; they have been particularly dazzling this winter.  There was just a skiff of snow on the ground, just to give the place atmosphere.   And oh!  How I wish you could smell our home right now!  Between the fire in the stove and the meatloaf in the oven, it is pure heaven!  Hamburger was on sale for $2.99/lb. this week, pretty unheard-of price of late, so we jumped at the chance to make one of our favorite meals.  The recipe is my variation of the meatloaf recipe from the Jimtown Cookbook:

Meatloaf

2 pounds of lean ground beef

1/2 lb. bacon

1 1/2 C. oatmeal

2 eggs

1 med. onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 C. sour cream

1/4 C. milk

1 tsp. thyme

2 Tbsp. dried parsley

2 Tbsp. dry mustard

salt and pepper to taste

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

2 Tbsp. maple syrup (I use my imitation maple syrup)

1 Tbsp. of a good mustard (not that cheap yellow mustard) I'm a mustard snob

Dice a couple of rashers of bacon (reserve the remaining bacon for the meatloaf top) and fry in frying pan.  Take the bacon from the grease and sauté the onions and garlic, drain. Combine with all the remaining ingredients except the syrup, mustard, and remaining bacon.  Put into a baking pan that fits the amount of mixture you have.  Top with the remaining bacon.  Stir together the maple syrup and mustard and pour over top.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until the center of the meatloaf reaches 165 degrees and is cooked through.  You all know when meatloaf is ready!  Drain the grease and serve. 

 Oh my! Tastes like the best Christmas sausage and even better the next day! We always serve ours with baked potatoes, since we are using the oven. No sense in wasting the heat!  And I always bake an extra potato to make my refrigerator potato rolls for sandwiches the next day.  I even use the grease from that was drained off the meatloaf for the fat in the roll recipe.  Waste not, want not!

Needlework

As this blog is in a way, my personal journal, please bear with me whilst I capture a few of the projects I worked on this month.  I started the Bright Be Thy Christmastide sampler last year but didn't finish it in time for Christmas, so I tucked it away with the decorations.  Nothing bores me more than working on holiday projects after the holidays have passed.  And the Holly Bears the Crown Sampler was just a little something that a whipped up whilst waiting to make the journey to the craft store to buy more yarn for a shawl I am knitting.  I'm trying to knit down my yarn stash, but I ran out of this yarn with a few more rows to go, so much for not adding to the stash!  Anway, I just used materials that I had at hand for the little sampler.  Most of my flosses and cross stitch fabric comes from the thrift stores and I dye them to come up with my own unique colors.  Some of those cross-stitch linens are outrageously expensive, and when it comes to these little samplers, whatever difference does it make, if it's not the exact same materials given on the charts? 

As I wrote, I dye my own linens as I like a primitve look to my works.  Here's how to make a dye for fabrics:

Onion dye

Gather as many onion skins as you are able whenever you are using an onion in cooking.  When you have around two cupfuls, put in a saucepan with enough water to cover.  Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer around ten minutes on a low heat.  Remove from the heat and allow the "tea" to steep overnight.  Strain.  Store in a jar in the refrigerator.  You can either reheat the "tea" and dip your fabric into it, allowing it to steep until it dyes to the color you desire, rinse and dry.  Or you can brush the dye onto the fabric and then dry it, without rinsing it.  Remember the fabric will look darker when wet then it will be when dry.  

BTW, one of the things I'm always on the lookout for during summer garage sale-ing and at thrift stores are interesting little frames to use in my needlework.

As I mentioned earlier, we stopped at some thrift stores on our return trip downstate and I was fortunate to find a stack of vintage The Workbasket magazines from the early 1950s for $1!  What a treasure.  While most of the patterns are pretty dated, it's a pretty sad statement about the condition of the world that today's children would not be thrilled to receive a bean bag or homemade doll dress in the Christmas stocking, but that has what the world has become, sadly.  Anway, what I do love about the magazines is that they have good old-fashioned, no-nonsense recipes.  I'm always on the lookout for recipes that use basic pantry supplies.  This year we had a windfall of apples, which I couldn't bear to waste.  We are not big fans of apple juice or sauce, but I canned a lot of applesauce, nonetheless.  I figured I can always use it for half, the fat while baking as I wrote about in a few posts back, or we can just learn to like it. Ha!  I also use some for  applesauce cake. It wasn't until recently that Jamie confessed, he doesn't like any types of spice cake. So, I guess I'll have to come up with other ways to use my canned applesauce.  So, I was thrilled to find this recipe:

Baking from the Pantry

Applesauce Icebox Cookies

3/4 C. shortening

1 C. sugar

1 egg, beaten

2 to 2 1/2 C. flour, or enough to make a stiff dough

dash of salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1/2 C. applesauce

1/2 C. chopped nuts (optional)

Cream together shortening and sugar.  Add egg.  Stir in the dry ingredients, alternately with the applesauce, using enough flour to make a stiff dough.  Stir in the nuts.  Form the dough into a roll in waxed paper and refrigerate overnight. Slice thin (I slice mine about 1/3" thick) and bake on greased cookie sheets at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes or until edges begin to turn light brown.  The recipe says this makes 7 dozen cookies, but they must have been sliced paper thin.  I got about 3 dozen.

  The dough was softer than most icebox cookie doughs I have made, but they did turn out nicely. And surprise, surprise! Jamie loved them, even though to me, they tasted exactly like a spice cake only in cookie form. To fancy them up for the holidays, you could add a dab of icing to top.  Maybe caramel or maple flavored?  Or maybe add some chopped dates. Or just make them plain as they are. There's something about icebox cookies that have such a homey and nostalgic texture and flavor.  Perfect with a cup of coffee or tea in front of the fire on a cozy December day. The sort of day, I am wishing for all of you, dear friends!

Hugs

Jane