Christmas Eve!

Best wishes for a very Merry Christmas / Prettige Kerstfeest!  Today, after  Paul's post-surgery visit with the doctor, I'll be making a traditional French-Canadian tourtiere (meat pie) for dinner and a Dutch kersttulband for dessert.  The tulband is rich fruitcake that looks like a turban, but I'll use a bundt pan instead since that's the pan I have.  This will be my first try at this Dutch specialty.  I don't think we ever had one when I was growing up so it will be interesting to try.  

I have perfected the recipe for tourtiere over the years to approximate the pies I used to get from my former secretary, Mary.  She and her husband used to make them to sell every year, and after I requested a smaller size for me, they started making that size also.  After he passed away, the recipe was lost, so I tried a variety of spices before I got what I think is close to the original.

Tourtiere – French Canadian Meat Pie

A Barre classic, especially around the holidays.

Prepare a 2 pie crust and put the bottom crust into a pie pan.  I use refrigerated pie crusts and usually roll them out a little more before putting them into the pan.

In a skillet, break up 1 lb. ground pork (or a mix of beef and pork) and combine with:

            ½ c. water

            2/3 c. minced onion

            1 clove garlic, minced

            1 t. salt

            ½ t. thyme

            ¼ t. allspice

            ½ t. sage

            ¼ t. dry mustard

            ¼ t. ground cloves

            1/8 t. pepper

Bring all to a boil, reduce to medium low, and cook for about 25 min., stirring periodically.

Meanwhile, boil two small potatoes, skinned and chopped.   When cooked, mash and add to the meat.  There should be about a cup.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

Place the meat mixture into the pie crust and top with the other layer of crust.  Crimp edges and cut a few slits in the top.   Beat an egg with 1 t. water to make an egg wash for the top of the pie.  At this point, you can freeze the whole thing, but defrost before baking.

Bake for about 45 min. or until crust is golden.  Serve with rolls and a salad.  

Christmas preparations

We assembled the Christmas tree Wednesday, and I decorated it yesterday.  It's finally beginning to look a lot like Christmas here!

I had a heck of a time taking a picture since it's right in front of the glass door.  Yesterday the glare from the sun on the snow outside washed it out, and this was taken this morning because it's raining and gloomy.  

Chris built two ladders hinged together at the top with shelves that come off for easy storage.  I cut white batting to fit the shelves and then set my Christmas village on it.   There are three shelves and a top shelf (12" x 12") which has my scary old Santa from the 1950s on it.   There's plenty of room for packages below on top of a piece of red fabric.  Next year I'll figure out a way to hide the cords along the back rails, but I just wanted to get the tree up and lit.  I will seek out a few more buildings for the Dept. 56 "New England Village," too.   Chris says this is "just" a prototype, but I like it.  He will stain the ladders a maple-ish color.

The stockings are hung, the Chex Mix has been made, and we have packages under the tree.  Bring on Christmas!  May yours be jolly and warm!

Favorite books of 2018

By my own count and that of goodreads.com, I didn't read as many books this year as last.  But I immersed myself in several of note.  Here's my list of favorites:

• Enchantress of numbers - Jennifer Chiaverini.  The life of Ada Byron who some felt should get credit for inventing the computer along with Charles Babbage.
• The watchmaker of Filigree Street - Natasha Pulley.   Confusing, engrossing Steampunk.
• The secret diary of Hendrik Groen, age 83 1/4 years old.  Groen is a nom de plume but his life in a government-run nursing home in N. Amsterdam is very funny as well as sad.
• Celine - Peter Heller.   Based on the author's mother, Celine is a 60+ private eye who finds lost people.  She and her steady, Maine native husband Pete set out to find a missing photographer who may have staged his own death.
• The aviator's wife - Melanie Benjamin.  Fictionalized biography of Anne Morrow Lindbergh with, I'm told, lots of mistakes and fiction.  Still, it's very involving and quite a contrast to Reeve Lindbergh's Two Lives which I thoroughly enjoyed, too.
• Tallgrass - Sandra Dallas.  This was a re-read for me and tells of life in and around the Amache Japanese Relocation Center outside Granada, CO, which we visited in the fall of 2017.  One of Dallas' best.
• Heart Spring Mountain - Robin MacArthur.  Finalist for the VT Book Award, poetically written, and very involving story of a daughter searching for her addict mother after a major hurricane.
• Lethal white - Robert Galbraith.  #4 in the Cormoran Strike series features Robin more than in the past in a long, complex story.  Excellent surprises throughout.
• Shell game - Sara Paretsky.  Equally complex and involving installment in the VI Warshawski series.
• The Kingdom of the blind - Louise Penny.  A completely different sort of story in the Armand Gamache series but just as fulfilling.  Penny's books are always well written and thoughtful, more about family and friendship than solving a mystery.
• The woman at the window - AJ Finn.  This was a commercial success so I didn't want to like it, but I was swept away from almost the first page.    It's creepy and sad, and I still am not sure who the villain really was!

I can't say which was my favorite, but The woman at the window was the most surprising.  I guess I would have to choose Celine if I absolutely had to.  Heller's The dog stars was a favorite several years ago.

A mystery of yesteryear

Back in 2011-12, someone in my local guild organized a mystery quilt which turned out to be Bonnie Hunter's "Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll."  I chose Christmas fabrics because I had a lot of them, and I like red and green together.  I mixed in non-holiday fabrics with the others, but as it progressed I really didn't like it.  Now I'm not sure if it was all the fiddly little pieces or the way it turned out.  The pieced border was the hardest part.  But now I get this quilt out every year at this time, and I like it.  That's my hope for this year's BH mystery, "Good Fortune," that I've been keeping up with.

Yesterday I finished the second clue which took me most of the day.  But what a feeling of accomplishment!  I bag up all of the finished pieces - last week's red and neutral four patches and this week's blue and neutral half-square triangles - and store them in a shoebox.  Hope I can say the same at this time next week.

A finish and a work in progress

I joined a placemat swap recently because it only involved making two placemats for someone by February.  My "secret sister' wanted them with a Christmas theme, and, since I love working with Christmas fabrics during the season, I finished them yesterday.  I'll pack them up and get them mailed so that she can enjoy them during this year's holidays rather than next year's.  But I won't share a photo in case she reads this blog! 

I am turning my attention back to quilting the red, white and blue Dutch quilt which was set aside while I finished a few other things over the last couple of weeks.  I still have to make one more November block for my Low Volume Sampler, but I guess I'll push it into December.  Here's what I have so far, incorporating Splendid Sampler, Moda Blockheads, orphans, and any other 6" blocks I might feel like making.

I will probably rearrange the blocks when I sash them before quilting to end up with five sections made for this year-long project.  The first blocks have incorporated pieces from a set of linen "dishtowels of the month" that my dear friend Yve gave me years ago.  They are a special memorial as she passed away suddenly last January.

Another snow day

My across the street neighbor, Winnie, took this photo of our neighborhood yesterday.  That's a little bit of our garage showing along with the 8-10" of heavy, wet snow we received.  This was the third major snowstorm we've had this season.  Or was it the fourth?  I have lost track!  Others posted photos of turkeys, foraging through the snow in their yards.   Maybe if the weather gets all this snow out of "its" system, "it" will leave December unscathed?  We can hope.

The snow kept us housebound but also warm and cozy.  Although I often make a special lunch like pancakes on a day like yesterday,  I wrapped Christmas presents and put together packages to mail instead.  I have six ready to go out but will only mail the two that need to go the farthest today.  One is for my sister Jacqueline in the Netherlands, and the other for my mom and sister Jenny in Colorado.   Having a small, far-flung family means getting most shopping done early, and now I have just a little more shopping for my two guys here at home.

I took a little time to water plants, search for a holiday table decoration for the Thursday night library staff appreciation dinner, and change our door quilt to the tree Paula made me last year.    I had made 17 key fobs for the library staff, so made and attached little "thank you" tags using the computer and a new rubber stamp.

Then I got busy quilting.  I had to unpick a couple seams on my latest Splendid Sampler block and then I started on some placemats for an exchange.  They aren't due at my secret sister's until February, but she asked for a Christmas theme, so I'm hoping to get them to her in time for the holiday.  Last year I put in a bid for a batch of fabric from another quilter's de-stashing, and quite a bit of it was Christmas-related.  While cutting out half square triangles, I again mentally thanked Wendy for her generosity.   I have some glitzy black fabric for the placemat backs and will rummage around for some dark green binding.

Holiday cooking

I'm going to try to cut back on holiday baking this year.  We don't need all those yummy extra calories, and I have plenty of quilting and reading to keep me occupied instead.   I do plan to make Karen G.'s ginger cookies because it wouldn't be Christmas without them.  And I hope to try making a Dutch "tulband," a bundt-shaped fruit cake.

But yesterday I couldn't resist making some Passion Pear Jam because our jam reserves seem to be running low and I wanted some for gift giving.

I do love the colors of home made jam as the jars are all lined up and cooling.  My former mother-in-law used to make this along with her world famous spiced pear, but I never asked her for the recipe.   Luckily, my Canadian quilting friend Karen H. had one to share.  Passion Pear has an orange, a lemon, some chopped maraschino cherries, and a can of crushed pineapple along with the pears, to give it that lovely color like marmalade.  I have Mom C.'s spiced pear recipe and made some last fall, but when I went into the cupboard to put this batch away, I noticed only one strawberry and one spiced pear in reserve.  Looks like I'd better make a little more jam after the holidays.