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Happy New Year!

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Up the Hill, Down the Hill Old One, lie down, Your journey is done, Little New Year Will rise with the sun. Now you have come to The foot of the hill, Lay down your bones, Old Year and lie still. Young one, step out, Your journey’s begun, Weary Old Year Makes way for his

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BLOG NOTE— Please excuse the formatting inconsistencies in the posts below. These are a result of importing Big Food, Big Garden, Big Life from a blogger platform to the WordPress platform. Wonderful Kat has put fixing this on her to-do list. Thanks, Kat!

“The decline of Christmas”

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"The decline of Christmas"

“OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN THE APPLE STORE: THE DECLINE OF CHRISTMAS AND THE LOOMING TECH NIGHTMARE“ Instapundit links to this article by Joel Kotkin at New Geography. Kotkin begins: In the past, this season was marked by a greater interest in divinity, the family hearth and the joy of children. Increasingly our society has

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Goose Gumbo

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Goose Gumbo

The richest gumbo ever in the history of mankind If you think you’ve seen this gumbo before, you are right & wrong. RIGHT: Mr. Big Food has made Turkey/Duck Gumbo El Dorado many times. But it’s not every day he roasts a Christmas Goose so that we have leftover goose for goose gumbo. WRONG: You’ve

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“Nature Noble”

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"Nature Noble"

Rocky Recollect that the Almighty, who gave the dog to be companion of our pleasures and our toils, hath invested him with a nature noble and incapable of deceit. –Sir Walter Scott, The Talisman (1825) from The Quotable Dog Lover (Patricia M. Sherwood, ed., The Lyons Press, New York, 2000)

“Christmas”

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"Christmas"

I have a number of books tagged “Christmas” in my library of crappy old books. Some are stacked up on the coffee table. Others are scattered about the joint. (That Grandma Moses book on the floor by Snoopy’s Lights & Display Contest is open to “Waiting for Christmas.“) One unassuming little volume, Great Sermons on

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“Guy Food” Christmas Eve

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"Guy Food" Christmas Eve

Mr. Big Food’s Southern antipasto: It’s Southern because it has pickled okra and chow-chow Wednesday is “guy food” night. (Meatless Monday, Fancy Tuesday, etc. We are fans of order– of a certain sort– here at the Farm.) Southern antipasto was followed by fried barbecue-seasoned oysters and boiled shrimp.What. A. Feast. Thursday is Heritage night. Tomorrow is

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Here We Come a Carolling da da dadada la

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Here We Come a Carolling da da dadada la

Truth be told, there was no singing involved. We went calling on our neighbors this Christmas Eve. We brought along fruitcake! I’ll have better photos of the cake in candy shells soon.  What a nice way to spend a few minutes with neighbors. The first invited us to Saturday lunch with his hunting club buddies

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I hear tell

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I hear tell

I can make those candle stubs redder. But I cannot for the life of me figure it out. It was all I could manage to do to take the picture in NO LIGHT and do a little post tweeking.  But I cannot for the life of me figure out how to make the candle stubs

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Recipe: Sue’s Ma’s Fruitcake

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Faithful commenter ‘suek’ has shared her mom’s fruitcake recipe.  From the comment thread, we also learn that Sue’s Ma always said, ” ‘No pineapple!’ … because the pineapple (and the immediate surrounding cake) would mold, even if faithfully “watered” with Bourbon. ” But JudyDee’s is fine! Sue’s Ma’s Fruitcake1# butter1# sugar1 dozen eggs4 oz liquor1# flour (3

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Are We Still Talking About Fruitcake?!?

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Are We Still Talking About Fruitcake?!?

Another in what is becoming a long line of fruitcake posts… . Candied grapefruit rinds ready to be filled with fruitcake batter and baked My fruitcake turned out to be one of those “Wow! This is delicious but I’m never doing that again” productions.  Gumbo pot filled with fruit and flour and spices Kitchen table

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About Those 12 Cups of Sugar…

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About Those 12 Cups of Sugar...

The rinds of eight grapefruit halves All I want for Christmas is another kitchen* and another gumbo pot. (JK) It’s gotten to the point where each of us has to schedule time in the kitchen for our various cooking & baking projects. I had to transfer my eight grapefruit halves’ rinds from the gumbo pot

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I Hope You Like Fruitcake

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I Hope You Like Fruitcake

Because that’s like 370 pounds of raisin there– not to mention the currants and candied this & that and local pecans.  I hope you like fruitcake.This is funny. Independently, both Mr. Big Food and I thought that we would make a fruit cake. (Great minds & all.) And then we realized we both had the same

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Goose Hunting

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Goose Hunting

For reasons we can discuss some other day, we are not making our usual trek to My Mother’s House for Christmas. We are having Christmas here on The Farm. Mr. Big Food decided he’ll cook a Christmas goose. Therefore, we need a goose. And what better place to go hunting for a Christmas Goose than

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Who needs lights & displays?

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Who needs lights & displays?

Photographs courtesy of Daughter C* We went to Woodland the other evening. You may– if you’re still following along– recall Woodland from Christmases past.  No photographs were modified To say that this year’s Woodland Christmas display was disappointing is probably unfair to the display, such as it was. We discussed this on the way back

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December

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December

“Winter” by Grandma Moses December  by Aileen Fisher I like days with a snow-white collar and nights when the moon  is a silver dollar, and hills are filled with eiderdown stuffing and your breath makes smoke like an engine puffing. I like days when feathers are snowing, and all the eves have petticoats showing,  and

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The Best of Intentions

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On the evening of December 1, 2014, it was my intention to post every subsequent evening about a Christmas story. I had my crappy old books about me– well, except for the two I cannot find. And I got off to a good start. The Fir Tree. Charlie Brown. Dadadadadadada da. da da da. But alas. I

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