Toffee...Yum!

This is a perennial Christmas treat at our house, and hopefully an appreciated gift for our family and friends. The recipe is simple but it does take about a half an hour of stirring....well worth it.

Toffee with nuts

1 lb. butter
2 cups sugar
chocolate chips or other chocolate...melted
finely chopped nuts...walnuts, pecans or almonds


We didn't use organic butter for this recipe, it's rather expensive (and we make a lot of toffee) plus I'm fairly certain this can't be considered a health food either way. Melt butter over medium heat in a large pan....actually one with higher sides than I used is preferred to keep butter from splattering...add sugar.


Stirring pretty much constantly is suggested, tho more important towards the end than at the beginning. The toffee will burn if not kept moving.


Somewhere in the process the butter kind of weirdly separates and stays that way until just before the toffee is finished cooking.


I don't have a candy thermometer but it's pretty obvious when it comes back together and has changed color to a nice golden brown....


...and dropped into a glass of water hardens to a hard/crunchy consistency.

Pour toffee onto a greased cookie sheet (oil spray) and after a few minutes the candy can be scored with a sharp knife so it will break easier after cooling, but this step can be skipped.

Spread with melted chocolate.....


...and add nuts.


All wrapped up and ready to go!

I used to be pretty crafty....honest

Many (many) years ago some friends and I participated in several craft bazaars. I think I might have made a bit of money (more likely I broke even but could make quilts with the left-over material scraps ....and a barn with the wood :)

I like them, but I would trade them in an instant to get back the ruined dough ornaments that my kids made.....sigh.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

...Finally!


I guess since we didn't trim the tree until yesterday (at Sam's request....and when your 20 yr. old son still wants to participate in the family traditions....that's a very good thing) we'll just have to keep it up 'til Valentines day....works for me.


Funny how putting up ornaments brings back such memories. Sadly, a lot of the kid-made ornaments have succumbed to the ravishes of time (most were made from salt dough and the cellar does not exactly provide archival conditions).
Every year we buy (ok, I buy) a new ornament....took us awhile to find one not made in China, but I love it (handmade in Peru). We try to remember where we were when we bought each ornament...several feature Disney scenes from our visits to the park.

One year my Mom bought each of the kids an ornament with their name on it...sort of. Wilson has always been a bit left out of the personalized items craze ...key chains, frames, and now ornaments prove that his parents stuck him with an odd name. So Grandma bought him the closest she could find and we were going to try to change it, but Wils decided he likes it the way it is....he's kind of odd that way himself. This year 'William' the Snowman adorns the top of the tree.

Maybe we should remove the hook?


Another year I was inspired by my brothers girlfriend who had made all these funky, silly, glittery ornaments out of dime-store toys. My favorites were the Rock-and-Roll 50's dolls ....

.... but just as intriguing was the glitter coated T-Rex....what's not to love here?


So, the kids and I took out our glue and glitter and plastic zoo animals and made ornaments as gifts. I thought they turned out great....not sure how the recipients of blue-sparkly rhinos felt....but at least we were fairly original.





This one was hand-made by Annie....last year. I'm so glad she has friends whose moms are wonderful about doing the crafty things I don't seem to do anymore....sigh.


And the tree wouldn't be complete without the stuffed gorilla ornament.

Ta Da!!!

True Meaning of Christmas

My yearly reminder....to myself :)


...And along the same vein....check out this

Freeze

We got our first freeze of the winter the night before last....always know it's going to be a cold one when we go to sleep by the sound of the wind machines in the orange orchards.
I don't protect my garden with plastic row covers, tho I am considering it. I know we could make them pretty inexpensively with PVC pipe and clear plastic sheeting, but so far we have had very little loss to cold weather. Everything looks droopy in the morning but happy and recovered by the sunny afternoon.



I can only remember one year, when the valley lost half it's citrus (97?), that we had anything actually die on us. But I wonder if we protected the plants we would get a bit bigger harvest. I'd like to try it next year with a few beds just to see. With brocolli, I have always worried more about the heat....they go to seed pretty quickly in the spring.


Since it started getting cold a few weeks ago the garden seems to have hardly grown at all, especially the lettuce. They look healthy and are able to breeze right thru the frosty nights, but seem to be in a state of suspended animation....waiting for a bit of prolonged sunshine.


These are my Christmas gifts or I probably wouldn't be worried at all. I guess more people will be getting homemade toffee instead of greens and dressing in their gift bags....darn.


omg...I just had a flashback to those people who gave apples on Halloween!

To Do List

Totally stealing this from my blog-buddie Julie....5 things to do before Thursday in honor of the 5 days till Christmas.....eek!

1. Decorate the tree...kind of pathetic that this is still on the 'to do' list but we've been trying to wait for everyone to be home so we can bond while we put on the ornaments. Two athletes and a working kid in college....not happenin'....now I just want it done!!!

2. Wrap gifts. Considering how few we bought this year, that won't take long :)

3. Make salad dressing, bread, and toffee for homemade gift bags....and pick lettuce out of garden to go with dressing.

4. Buy stocking stuffers...this year that'll be mostly candy and other little goodies.

5. Finish working on pics of Coach B's birthday....something I should have gotten done a month ago...sorry Daniela.

For my brother Mike

Maybe, if you're not sure how to spell it....you should just go with Semper Fi.

Semper Fidelis....Always Faithful...USMC

Too Funny....again!

Jose Cuervo Christmas Cookies 1 cup of water 1 tsp baking soda 1 cup of sugar 1 tsp salt 1 cup or brown sugar 4 large eggs 1 cup nuts 2 cups of dried fruit 1 bottle Jose Cuervo Tequila Sample the Cuervo to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the Cuervo again, to be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Turn on the electric mixer. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one peastoon of sugar. Beat again. At this point it's best to make sure the Cuervo is still ok, try another cup just in case. Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit. Pick the frigging fruit off the floor. Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaters just pry it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the Cuervo to check for tonsisticity. Next, sift two cups of salt, or something. Who geeves a sheet. Check the Jose Cuervo. Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find. Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over. Don't forget to beat off the turner. Finally, throw the bowl through the window, finish the Cose Juervo and make sure to put the stove in the wishdasher. Cherry Mistmas !

Surprise!

Look who's still here...or rather, look who's here again! Our, 'We have since found a home for puppy' didn't work out and he's back....and I'm keeping him....so there!

ps. he's almost doubled in size...yikes.

Where's my Bailout?

I'm plagiarizing TWO bloggers today.....Susan Isaacs (again) and my hubby....but I couldn't not share this with the 3 people who read my blog :)

Be Happy....it's Christmas!

First day of shopping for Christmas gifts and I'm ready to be done with it....and actually this was just a little side trip that Mom and I made before her doctors appointment, not even a real shopping expedition. I was almost to the checkout counter at Bed, Bath and Beyond when I discovered that the jewelry stand I had picked up for my dear daughter was indeed Made in China....back on the shelf it went. Perusing the selection of crock-pots for son away at college (hey, it was on his list) and I decided to get him the wine glasses he asked for instead (made in of all places...the USA :) Kind of cheated there tho, cause grandma ended up buying him the Made in China crock-pot at Target (and in case you're wondering, he doesn't read my blog).

With our finances in the sad state they are, Christmas shopping should be a fairly easy task....not much money to spend, not much stuff we can buy. The situation has kind of forced us to think about what Christmas is truly all about and Steve and I are more than OK with that....hopefully the kids will be too. I'm getting out the puzzles and the games and we are going to make toffee and watch movies and have fun, dammit!

Fun and Games at Grandmas...

...on Thanksgiving

One of our favorites....simple but still fun....and in case you're wondering, Nate won :)

Everyone loved the puppy.....

....even Scooby! Despite the fact that it appears he is being coerced in the photo, Scooby was very affectionate with the little guy; he was thrilled to have someone to play with :)

All this love is exhausting....

Football of course....

...and what family gathering would be complete without Big-Time wrestling?


Love to All! (tomorrow we'll talk food)

Too Funny...

...and too true!




Thanks to Susan Isaacs and my brother John (great minds think alike:)

A Question

Seriously, what is it that you are hoping to find here?

Good Article

I love coming across an article that expresses our ideology in such a succinct way....much better than I ever could. The following is an older post from a blog I regularly read called Little Homestead in the City. It was originally posted in Feb. 07 after a fairly serious freeze affected many of the crops grown on their property.

The Dervaes family has become nationally known for living almost completely self-sustained on a city plot in Pasadena. They even keep goats and chickens...pretty cool!

The idea of eating seasonally and buying locally are two of the reasons for starting our own farm project as well as encouraging us to continue digging up more grass :)

.........................................................

Tuesday more rain fell and what a blessing that was. The crops perked up and the warm rain certainly put us in a planting mood. In our south side seed starting nursery we planted all sorts of veggies even tomatoes. Knowing there’s still two months of winter left, we hope and pray that there will be no more cold snaps because it will take us months to recover from the worst hard freeze we had in years. We called our clients this week and said that we may have something for them by Friday, but in small quantities. Of course, they were thrilled we could bring them anything. One of our clients who buys quite a lot of our salad, and who was interviewed for the Times piece, noted that of all the months the article had to come out it had to go to print right when the deep freeze hit (and hit our salad crops hard). You could sense he was slightly frustrated that he couldn’t offer “the salad mentioned in the LA Times” at his restaurant even though people were coming in and asking for it.

There’s a lesson to be learned in all this. It’s a good course in seasonal eating - getting people to realize that localized food localizes natural cycles whether they be from global warming or freaks of nature. Nature is unlike a 24/7 grocery store where food is on the shelf no matter the weather. Perhaps if food was more localized and shelves bare maybe people would pay more attention the affect we are having on nature. So what if strawberries freeze in Oxnard or the citrus in the San Joaquin Valley, the stores shelves here in the Southland will never be empty. No, never! Instead we’ll truck, fly, export our food from hundreds of thousand miles away. Such artificial lifelines are buffering us from the effects of global warming - and contributing no doubt. The folks that grow our food supply are smack dab on the front lines of the changes global warming is having on our climate; however, we are so buffered from experiencing these slight (yet noticeable) changes they hardly affect or disrupt our daily lives/routines.

Global warming will not only affect our climate but our food supply. It’s frightening and frustrating, but you can take actions - small actions. Doing something is better than doing nothing.

- Anais Dervaes

.......................................

And my little disclaimer...I'm not entirely sure how worried I am about Global Warming. Not that I don't believe it's happening, but I think even the scientific community is not entirely in agreement about the causes and whether we can significantly affect climate change, good or bad. I've put my future in the hands of a loving sovereign God and that will not change with the weather.

BUT....I believe to my very soul that our God has entrusted us to cherish this earth and the resources we have. He expects us to use our intelligence in managing the land and taking responsibility for actions that will affect our children's future. Whether in choosing an efficient mode of transportation, combining trips to Visalia to do errands, riding bikes, walking, eating seasonally and locally, turning down(off) the heat and air conditioning, recycling, etc....we must be good stewards of the planet He created for us to live on.

Our goal is to take the best possible care of the gift we have been given.