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Homemade Holidays

Here’s the list…

Don’t be afraid. It’s not a nasty old “to do” list. Well, wait…maybe it is. But not the nasty part. It’s the fun kind. The sitting-in-front-of-a-good-movie-with-a-project-on-my-lap-kind. These are some of the things I’m taking on for Christmas. A few are actually in the works and some are still just on paper. And I admit, a couple will likely never see the light of day. But I’m gonna make a valiant attempt. Because I think, homemade stuff is just…better.

When I was a kid, every few years my mom would say, “Let’s make presents for each other this Christmas.” At the time, I’m sure I thought, “Not a chance,” so the projects would never even get started. Ultimately, we’d end up buying something for each other at Woolworth’s, a few days after the school break. It wasn’t until I was a bit older that I realized that those words were mom’s attempt to rein us back in from all the craziness that holiday commercials can suck a kid into. That, and to keep us from spending every penny we had when we had so few. Sadly, we didn’t cooperate too well with her good intentions–if I remember right.

It’s different at our house now.

“Handmade,” to me is such a sweet word–beautiful even. My children have given me so many gifts over the years.  Surprisingly, most of the home crafted ones are still around. Probably, because the gifts made by the hands we love, are sheltered, and guarded and kept safely treasured—held carefully close–just like the sweet things that created them.

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Thankful People

We are an enthusiastic bunch where I come from, and that means taking advantage of every opportunity to celebrate any good thing that comes along. We start hanging colored lights before Halloween and resist taking them down till after Valentine’s and we’re perfectly willing to put up banners and flags and balloons for anything in between.

I suppose one explanation for this party-people-type behavior is that we really, truly, love to gather, and play, and sing, and dance, and nibble, and feast for a monumental day. . . or for no reason at all.

But even coming from the original “Whobilation,” place, I’ve noticed a strange thing. People everywhere–not just here–are starting the festivities way earlier than ever before. Now don’t get me wrong. I love that I can turn on the radio, right now and find just as much Christmas music as I want. I enjoy the lights coming on all over the neighborhood, and I even get a kick out of Christmas ads on the radio.  But…

…what happened to Thanksgiving?

I’m not actually ready to skip it, even in the mad furry to get to Christmas cheer.

I want this time to feel grateful. I need it, because it makes me a better person…or at least it keeps me trying to be. I want to remember the things that really matter…and be grateful for them–always.

So, I may put up my lights before the next storm. And I may play my Grinch cd before we make all that stuffing. And I may move the nativity box a bit closer to the garage door. But I utterly refuse to submerge myself in the “magic of Christmas”– until I’ve filled my cup to the brim with pilgrims and leaves and cornbread and turkey…and the joy of giving thanks, for all of it.

 

“The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.”

~H.U.Westermayer~
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Marvelous Pumpkin Bread

I’m about to say something that may be shocking to you, so be brave. I’m taking a deep breath…letting it out. Here goes.

I don’t actually like pumpkin pie.

I know, weird. I do like a lot of other stuff made with pumpkin, but the pie doesn’t do it for me. I love the look of it and the smell of it, but alas–it tastes raw, so I skip it. It must be because after some serious research, we found–to my dismay–that my family is pretty much the only one in America whose forefathers did NOT come over on the Mayflower. I figure it screwed up the pumpkin pie enjoyment microchip in my brain. At any rate, in order to keep the scent of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg wafting through the house at this time of year–as it should–we make pumpkin bread. It is a fabulous replacement for pumpkin pie and P.S…it doesn’t taste raw.

Word to the wiser-than-me…Don’t double this batch. It comes way too close to sloshing over the side.

One more thing…

I usually make a bunch of little loaves, rather than 2 huge ones. For two reasons–First, I think it feels more like a delicacy to have tiny bites of something special.

Second, whenever I use 5 or 6 smaller pans, I put them all on one cookie sheet–because it’s easier to get them in and out of the oven. But what I’ve found is that the loaves are so much more moist when baked this way. I haven’t tried the cookie sheet thing with the bigger pans, but it works perfectly for the little ones.

Pretty dang good exchange for the aforementioned undesirable pie.

Heh, heh.

 

 

Pumpkin Bread

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup water

3 cups white sugar

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1- 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease three 7×3 inch loaf pans. Shake cinnamon sugar into pan and coat all sides.

In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin, eggs, oil, water and sugar and blend well. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.

Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Marvelous Pumpkin Bread
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • ⅔ cup water
  • 3 cups white sugar
  • 3½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1- ½ teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ½ teaspoon ground cloves
  • ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Grease three 7x3 inch loaf pans.
  3. Shake cinnamon sugar into pan and coat all sides.
  4. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin, eggs, oil, water and sugar blend well.
  5. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger.
  6. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended.
  7. Pour into the prepared pans.
  8. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven.
  9. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

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A Pile Of Leaves

“We spend most of our time and energy in a kind of horizontal thinking. We move along the surface of things. . . but there are times when we stop. We sit still. We lose ourselves in a pile of leaves or its memory. We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.”

~James Carroll

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Come On Out…

I dare you . . .

If someone told me there were fairies just outside my bedroom window, I would believe them. It helps, I suppose, that I believe in them in the first place. I don’t really have space in my head for the creepy things–you know, ogres and trolls and all that. But I am ok with pretty stuff. . .  sprites, mermaids, fairies. . . I’m thinking real hard about unicorns too. I actually hope the whimsical creatures are here with us–just hiding and laughing at how easy it is to hide from us. The idea of something magical flitting around, just barely outside my window gives me goose bumps. . . the good kind. Because if they are there–really there, then we just don’t know so much, do we?

And today. . . I really like that.