Celia Hayes – The Accidental Texan

Another journey around the sun, another year, another Christmas looming up rather like the iceberg loomed over the Titanic. Wee Jamie may be old enough this year to really appreciate it all, but with one thing after another, we didn’t so as much as we usually do to prep for Christmas. I was hustling to finish a romance that I began as a challenge, which I wanted to launch (read – kick ruthlessly out into the world and see if it flew) as a Christmas present for the public, or at least, that portion of the public who adores romance novels and consumes them like a box of gourmet chocolates.

Oh, we got the shopping done, gifts for each other and for Jamie, but the tree is minimal – even with gifts piled up around it (mostly to protect from Miso, Moose, Prince the Magnificent who love to play with the ornaments, or sleep on the tree skirt, and Persephone, who usually doesn’t care). We didn’t put out lights outside or put out much in the way of ornaments. The time just seemed to catch up to us, I guess. We did get the Christmas baking done, and distributed platters of cookies and fudge to the fire department, police substation, some local businesses and a sadly diminished number of close neighbors. Our next-door neighbor passed away late in the fall, as did some others that we had been close to, during the time we lived here. Some other neighbors moved … anyway, we only did two batches of fudge this year with whatever we had on hand left over from previous years, some pecan angel bar cookies and lebkuchen from a recipe that I had been intrigued by for a couple of years. (The lebkuchen was splendid, by the way – a soft bar version made with dates and raisins, and almond-flavored frosting. Recipe included below.)

We will have a splendid Christmas supper though – the usual Beef Wellington, and everything bought to fix for it, although puff pastry was a bit of a challenge to find.

We’ve got some big projects coming up in the new year, including getting my own car running again (since it sat for months in the driveway, as I was too jumpy about driving, after the accident with the Versa) getting Jamie started in regular school, and getting Return to Alder Grove in a print version – so I think we are just resting before the big push.

For the splendid lebkuchen; Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, grease and flour two 9 x 9 pans.

Sift together, 2 cups flour, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. baking powder, and 1 tsp. cinnamon

Beat together with a rotary beater till the mixture forms a ribbon; 1 pound dark brown sugar and 4 whole eggs.

Add 1 tsp. each of orange juice, lemon juice, vanilla extract, almond extracts to the egg and brown sugar mixture.

Gradually stir in the dry mixture, a little at a time.

When completely mixed in, add 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, 4 oz. chopped dates and 1 cup raisins.

Bake for about 25 minutes (or a little less; test the cake with a cake tester to see if it’s done).

Melt about 6 Tbs. of unsalted butter and add 2 Tbs. hot milk, ½ to 1 Tbs. almond extract, and enough confectioner’s sugar (about 2 cups) to make a frosting of spreading consistency. Frost and enjoy – we like the marzipan-taste of the larger quantity of almond extract, but can be reduced

We’ve never really gotten into the whole Christmas shopping thing – the whole rush-out-to-the-store and spend-gobs-of-money the day after Thanksgiving zeitgeist. First, because there’s never really been that kind of money in any of our families, and secondly because doing it all in a rush during December always seemed a bit pointless. I spent so much time overseas, when it came to Christmas presents for the family back in the states, it meant getting everything mailed by October, so presents had to be decided upon, shopped for, wrapped, packed and mailed late in the fall. That mental timetable has never died, so my Christmas present habits generally fell into a routine of picking up suitable gifts during the year, whenever I spotted them and stashing them away against the mailing deadline.

My daughter thinks that the whole Black Friday doorbusters thing, which had shoppers lining up at ungodly hours at various retailers and mobbing the place when the doors opened at whenever – has pretty much died. The few years that retail outlets even made a thing of opening with much ballyhooed bargains on Thanksgiving night was even less popular – and fortunately that has died the death as well. As commenters kept pointing out – it not only ruined family Thanksgiving gatherings for shoppers, but those of the poor employees as well. And as also kept being pointed out – the so-called bargains weren’t really bargains. They were marked up … so they could be marked down with great fanfare.

This year we did pop out to three different retail outlets, though – but not strictly speaking, for Christmas shopping. The first stop was the Ikea outlet, which opened a couple of years ago, just a hop-skip-jump away; and that was because it was cold outside, and we’d get our exercise walking through the maze. We wanted to see if there was anything new in the sample room arrangements, which are always sweet to look at (they change them out, regularly so there is always something new) and if Ikea had anything special in the way of Christmas things. But the parking lot was practically empty, there were some shoppers in the store itself, but not as many as we seen on other visits. Ikea items used to be more of a bargain – not so much, now. The packets of meatballs are more expensive, and the frozen salmon fillets are pricier than they used to be.

We did have to get milk at the grocery store – but we were passing the Goodwill store on the way there, and my daughter wanted to stop in, saying that this particular Goodwill outlet often has surprisingly high-quality goods. I’m OK with that – as I’m trying to replace many of the movies I had on VHS with DVD versions, and buying them used at Goodwill, yard sales and through the ‘used’ option on Amazon is the most economical way to go. (It’s a mystery to me, though – how some movies on DVD are available for a dollar or two, and others – of the same popularity, year of release, and everything else – are practically unobtainable.) I found half a dozen movies on my list and a TV series which I thought about before putting it back – and then adding it to my stack. Someone donated a lot of TV series collections, apparently. One of them was Little House on the Prairie – several seasons worth. I liked the books better than the TV series, so gave those sets a miss. But the one that I took had splendid opening and a rocking soundtrack, so what the heck.

The cashier who checked me out was about eighteen, I think, He asked, “All movies?”

I said, “One TV series – this one.”

“Looks cool … what’s it about?”

“WWII aviation in the South Pacific – the adventures of a Marine squadron known as the Black Sheep.”

“Never heard of it.”

“No, likely you wouldn’t have – but your Mom or your grandmother probably did.”

And that was our post-Thanksgiving in-person Christmas shopping; everything else was done online.

We went to see the Christmas tree lighting in old downtown Bulverde, where the highlight of the evening was Jamie falling out of his Radio Flyer red wagon, landing on his head and opening up the cut on the back of his head that he got the week before on the playground at preschool. He also managed to ninja out of the first bouncy house without either of us seeing him do it. Good thing he was dressed in his Christmas elf costume, and someone else spotted him at the next bouncy house in the circuit just as we realized he wasn’t in the first one. The kid moves fast as greased lighting.

So – on to Christmas. I plan to have the romance “Return to Alder Grove” available on Kindle by Christmas Eve, as a present for you all!

At some point late in the 1990s or early 2000s I was feeling economically flush. I decided that I would upgrade my kitchen pots and pans from the basic inexpensive lightweight stainless steel and copper-bottomed Revereware that I bought from the BX early on, and had carted from hither and yon ever since. I was working as an executive secretary for a small consulting firm which had some very good months which rewarded the handful of employees with some nice bonuses. The office I worked in was across the road from a very nice mall with a Williams – Sonoma outlet in it. This place enticed me, what with the nose-bleedingly upscale offerings in it, most of which I could never in a million years afford and was just too grounded to seriously consider anyway. But the opportunities to research quality kitchen items were available to me, through that store, and again on-line. After carefully reviewing that which was available at the Williams – Sonoma store and looking online – I decided on Chantal enamel-on-steel and in the cobalt blue colorway. Enamel because it was non-reactive to acidic things like tomato sauce, or sauces with wine or vinegar in it, and blue – because. Chantal then offered a full range of pots, pans, casseroles and bakeware in six or seven shades.  Blue, green, red, white, maybe orange? Besides plain steel and maybe copper … alas, they stopped offering the colors before too many more years passed. I guess there wasn’t all that much demand.

I think they had a warehouse in Houston, which was handy for my purposes. I bought a small frying pan, and a soup kettle, first, and was very pleased to see that the same lid fitted both. So the larger part of one of those bonus checks went to buying one of their larger sets, and I was so extatically happy with them that I picked up a few more individual pieces on sale: a saucier, a wok, and a stock-pot. The cooking pots and pans all turned out to be as advertised; readily-cleaned, heated evenly, the lids were borosilicate glass, and had a loop that fitted over the pot handle so that they could be hung together from my handing rack. I have only ever been able to break one lid, in all the time since, through dropping onto a concrete floor and landing straight on the loop.

I believe that for some period around that time, the Chantal enamel pots were also the set dressing of choice for the movies and TV, possibly for the distinctive colors and style: If you look closely at the scenes set in the Home Improvement kitchen, there are a couple of blue Chantal pots, and a tea kettle. In the kitchen set for the Home Alone movies, there are some red Chantal pots and pans on the kitchen island, or the stove.

Alas, it seems that just as I decided on a make of something for the household – pots, dishware, whatever, assuming that I will always be able to replace or augment my selection … they stop making it. It happened with the sturdy blue and white restaurant-style china plates, mugs, bowls and individual casserole dishes that I got from an outlet shop in San Marcos. Yep, as soon as I needed to restock due to breakage, that store vanished between one visit and the next. So it was with my Chantal blue – gone with the manufacturing wind. My daughter has managed to pick up a couple more useful pieces for me through randomly finding them at thrift stores, and I scan through eBay now and again, like for a replacement lid. The pieces are a bit more expensive on eBay – but I guess the brand was popular enough that at least they are available, and for a good bit less less than they were when new. They do last very well, although one of my favorite pieces got badly chipped along one side by the rotating arm of the dishwasher. That particular pot hasn’t shown up yet; I can only imagine that it was everyone elses’ favorite as well.