RH and Dewena
1960
The real me is the woman in this window, manual typewriter in front of her but holding a pencil posed over paper. Deer nibble at shrubbery on snow-covered lawn, fodder both for her writing and for her life. Or are they the same thing? [Picture by illustrator Adrianne Blair in Faith Baldwin's Face Toward the Spring.]
My Valentine's Day decor is sparse and all ends up in my kitchen. I honored the Day on a pretty little pink blackboard my granddaughter made me two Christmases ago.
And put a fabric heart in the handle of an odd lid I found at Goodwill and hung on the wall.
I found this vintage St. Valentine's Day card in an antique store many decades ago.
Last week I took everything off my open kitchen shelves and cleaned everything, the top shelf with RH's help. A couple of years ago I took everything decorative off the lower shelf and filled it with glass jars of rices and beans, etc. that I used frequently but I began to miss having pretty stuff there. So most of the food items went in the pantry (which is a coat closet back near our bedrooms) and I brought in some favorite pretty things.
A small English platter went up, all of these fish making sense to me as I could easily give up all meats and only eat fish. Not so, RH.
I can't resist showing you my asparagus candle again. When RH's brother was letting me choose things from his estate sale inventory a couple of years ago, this vintage asparagus candle and two large orange "coral" candles I display on top of my china cabinet were some of my favorite finds. I love this candle!
On the door to the kitchen porch I display seasonal tea towels year round, mostly vintage. I just packed away my Christmas vintage tea towels and despite not having any vintage Valentine's towels, felt like these make a nice February showing, especially the cherries in honor of President George Washington. I know, I know, the cherries were a myth but I don't care.
I'll show this last picture to answer a question that Melanie recently posed, Where do I keep all my different china patterns?
Some are kept handy on this dry sink in the kitchen. Always my Blue Willow, now topped with winter patterns. At Christmas a stack of Spode Christmas Tree was there, easy to grab, and in summer I keep a stack of blue and white Independence Hall plates. Sometime I'll try to get pictures of the other places I stash china.
I always feel I should apologize for so many pictures but I do love seeing pictures from my blog friends' kitchens and hope some of you do too.
Please stay well, everyone! Our daughter is sick with COVID for the third time in a year and is feeling absolutely crummy. And yes, it is possible to have it that many times because there are at least three variants out there.
Be safe, be kind to yourself and others.
Paperwhite narcissus are such a joy to me. This is my second batch, the first one started in early December. I order 24 Ziva bulbs and use most of them in three or four containers around the house for Christmas. I put polished rocks in the containers, fill with water up to barely touching the bulb and keep them cool and dark for almost two weeks until roots are full and small pale green shoots appear when I bring them out.
We had snow there at Valley View that day and RH caught Katie Belle crossing the barn bridge.
Here at Home Hill this past week there weren't many paw prints in our beautiful snow. Our dachshunds said No thank you when asked if they wanted to go potty.
But I loved the beautiful and rare 8 1/2 inches of snow we got here. From the first day it started falling, I couldn't keep away from the windows...
until the pond froze solid...
and even when we had to keep faucets dripping and doors under sinks open.
Of course I'm not the one who had to go outside and feed the birds.
Or climb ladders to thaw ice dams or to shovel paths clear.
And you already know that I'm not the one who spent hours outside when the salt truck ran over our water line.
But I loved every minute of our snow and was sad to see the rain melt it yesterday.
What I did do, always do when it snows, is cook. Not the grilled cheese, tomato soup and Rice Krispie Treats I always made when I had children at home for snow days but what we were craving; salmon mousse with dill sauce for me, pinto beans for RH, and strawberry shortcake for both of us.
The Salmon Mousse was from one of my favorite cookbooks, Helen Exxum's Cookbook, 1987. and it was from The Gordon Lee House in Chickamaugua, Georgia, served at charity fundraisers with celebrity guests attending.
And here's the pinto beans I fixed, Rancho Gordo's that are the creamiest pinto beans ever.
Normally, my pinto beans have a whole bunch of chopped cilantro added to it but we weren't running to the grocery store on our snow day. I do add a bottle of Guiness Stout to mine after the beans are tender and lime juice, chicken or beef broth, olive oil, bay leaf, cumin, thyme, salt and pepper. And sometimes a ham bone goes in the pot after the beans are tender when I have one in the freezer.
No cornbread with our beans this night because I had my buttermilk biscuits as the shortcake for our Florida strawberries.
What's your favorite thing to cook when it snows? Do you ever crave something weird like I do? Has anyone ever eaten Salmon Mousse? I bet not, thus no recipe here.
January is almost over. How has it been for you, on a scale from 1 to 10? Compared to some years, I'll give this one a 10. That's right, a 10. And this is from someone who always used to agree with author Abbie Graham:
I am not wholly committed to January. I do not entirely trust it as a month.
God bless you, dear family and friends. In January and always.
"When it snows, ain't it thrilling?"
Only two days before, on New Year's Eve 2023, my pretty Karen Adams calendar was posing for a picture for the last time that year.
Boy, was I going to need it along about January 20th when this happened in our front yard...
After watching vehicle after vehicle slide into the ditch of our long road frontage that afternoon we were first very happy to see the salt truck come to the rescue. That is, until he slid backward into our yard and broke our water meter and line and we were not only without water but water began spewing out into the yard, soon giving us an ice rink. Oh, and the white car is where someone in the neighborhood abandoned his car there and walked home.
The good ending to that night was that three trucks and four supermen from our local utility district came and worked in the dark to restore our water. And as far as we know, in all the vehicles up and down our street that landed in the ditch that day, no one was hurt.
Now, back to pretending it's January 2nd! I'm going to attempt to embed a video of our family Christmas party on December 23rd hosted by daughter-in-law Court in our old Valley View.
It was such a joy to join together as a family at the house that was our home for over 26 years. While there I couldn't help remembering all the Christmases and Thanksgivings and birthdays that were celelbrated and all the good times in the kitchen cooking and eating together. I'm so grateful to Court for hosting all of us!
Now, on to New Year's Eve. Let's have dessert first, shall we? Last post I told you I was going to make a Boston Cream Pie so I must show you that, but don't expect a cake where the chocolate glaze just drips down the edges because if a little chocolate is good, more is better.
This was a Cook's Illustrated recipe back when my dear Christopher Kimbell was Cook's Illustrated and I subscribed to the magazine for years. If you search for Wicked Good Boston Cream Pie you can find where food bloggers have the recipe for it. I now find Christopher Kimbell on his podcast, Milk Street.
I did end up making braised salmon with caramelized onions from my Mediterranean cookbook by Nancy Harmon Jenkins.
That's prunes and apricots in the final gravy.
I'll end with a quotation that was the inspiration for my pork roast recipe, even though mine did not end up as beautiful as the one in the quotation from a favorite old 1975 book.
The Omars always ate dinner by candlelight. It was restful, provided a cozy atmosphere, and seemed right in the old house in which they lived. Barbara Omar was an expert in bringing forth the beauty from everything she touched, and she never minded the extra work. She was an excellent cook and the dishes she served often resembled magazine displays. He was a lucky man to have such a wife...He turned his attention back to their meal--the pork roast was almost too pretty to carve, he joked, so beautifully decorated with apricots, stuffed prunes, and parsley. This was the life he loved--a dear family which showed its love, good food, and the warmth of home.
From The Golden Acre by Thyra Ferre Bjorn
I want to be Barbara Omar when I grow up!
I'd like to sincerely thank those who read this terribly long post--even if you just scrolled through, which I wouldn't blame you for doing!
RH and I wish you a safe and blessed 2024,
Dewena