Speaking memories at lunch

Lunch today was nothing incredible--rotisserie chicken, alfredo sauce, with macaroni, asparagus, fresh spinach, toasted French loaf with garlic butter, fresh pineapple with blueberries, and a homemade chocolate cookie (for him, I was full). No photo was taken. But we had a lively conversation. I try to tell stories he hasn't heard before (and that I haven't heard either). 

He gets sort of mixed up on the dates. I do remember those. We met in March 1959 and married in September 1960, so it's been 65 years since our first date. We both remembered what we wore because we went to the St. Pat's Ball. He wore his grandfather's sport coat and I wore a friend's lace red dress. 

 I think what started the conversation at lunch today was a photo I had of him in 1975 when he was super skinny. He had propped his painting up against our Ford Pinto in the drive way so I could take a photo.  And he then looked like the guy I met in 1959. In those days some of us didn't know each other very well. I went to summer school in Maine that summer, and he worked in Indianapolis the fall of 1959 while I was at U. of Illinois, so actually, we were practically strangers. We had both been engaged before, and to my knowledge they are also both alive.

I can't seem to find the photo I showed him today in his skinny days, but I remember I bought him this suit in the boys' department at Lazarus. 1974. And that helmet hair I was wearing was all the rage.

Christmas Eve dinner

I was setting the table for Christmas Eve dinner using the hand painted gingerbread boy plates and thought the silver looked really dark, so I flipped to my blog for my silver cleaner recipe, which I'd forgotten (only 2 ingredients). I came across this blog from 2010 written at the Lake.

"At our summer home on Lake Erie in Lakeside, Ohio, we wash and dry the dishes together. At home we have a dishwasher. This is such a pleasant, companionable task we often say we'll do it in Columbus, but we never do. And as he washes, and I dry, my husband says the same thing every evening, "How can two people create all these dirty dishes and silverware?" So, I go through it piece by piece--this fork was used for cat food, this spoon was for the Cool Whip, this spoon served the main dish, this one the vegetables. It's like talking to a toddler who asks "why," you explain, and he then says, "but why?" "

Our menu tonight:

bratwurst

potato salad

cauliflower soup

corn, frozen fresh in summer 2023

fresh fruit--green grapes, cantaloupe, blueberries, strawberries

Out of practice

 I'm serving Christmas dinner tonight--Christmas Eve.  Then tomorrow we'll have left overs.  That works out well because Christmas is on Sunday this year, and our church will have a 10 a.m. service.  It's not hard to throw a few sandwiches and left-overs on a paper Christmas plate if you don't get home until 11:30.

However, I'm more than a bit out of practice.  I made the potato salad yesterday and cut up some of the fruit. So this morning I've been making sweet potatoes with brown sugar glaze, mixing up the onions, red peppers, mushrooms and bacon for the green beans that are steaming, putting the rest of the fruit together, and getting the ham ready to go in the oven about 4 p.m. But the messiest thing was the scalloped corn.  I don't make it often because Bob hates, loathes, despises corn.  I need a few guests if there is even the smell of corn. But after 62 years of cooking, I've made it many times. You should have seen the kitchen!  I must have used every pan and bowl I owned, and checked the computer 5 times (couldn't find my old recipe if I even had one).  I even pulled out my Mom's red Hall's mixing bowl looking for her magic to be sure it would come together.

Yesterday I opened a can of worms, or at least a box of pictures and letters, and they were spread all over my office floor.  We decided we needed to put all our home made Christmas cards into one album.  I found an empty album, but Bob found a better one, so today he inserted all the cards we could find, beginning with 1985.  I think there are 29 in the album.  When we lived on Abington, he made silk screened cards a few years, but they are the wrong size for this album.  My college roommate Dora, who is a profession artist, made lovely cards, and we have them arranged in a frame as a piece of art. dora hsiung - fiber artist - fiber art

A taste of fall

Today we enjoyed a taste of fall--about 77 degrees here in Columbus. Our noon meal we ate on the deck--grilled salmon with honey/cinnamon glaze, butternut squash, steamed cabbage, salad of orange sections and onion slices on fresh spinach leaves topped with shredded carrots. Bob got some chocolate chip cookies, but I'd already eaten 2 while baking them this morning. A perfect day. We began eating our main meal at noon about 6 months ago.

Christmas meme from 2006

 I'm looking through my blog for Christmas menus using pork roast, and found this meme from 2006.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Egg Nog, definitely. I purchase it, then cut it in 1/2 with skim milk. We can't tell the difference.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree? We wrap--my husband always gets his under the tree first. My daughter's gift wraps are really elaborate and artistic. Mine are reused bows and paper.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? We have white lights outside, and colored on the tree.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No. We have open season on kissing in this house.

5. When do you put up your decorations ? Ours are up from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? It depends if I'm doing Christmas Eve or Christmas day. Lately it's been boneless pork roast with an orange cranberry glaze.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child The excitement. Particularly to see what doll clothes my mother had made.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Santa wasn't part of our tradition--I always knew the story, and sort of hoped it was true, but realized about age 7 it wasn't. My husband, however, was a true believer, until he noticed that under Santa's red suit was a shirt the same as his uncle's (Santa used to stop at his Grandmother's.)

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We did when I was a child, and when our children were young. Now we open them all on whatever day they are with us.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? No theme except tradition. We have very old decorations--some from our first Christmas in 1960; some handmade by our children. I used to buy one or two each year and date them, but don't any more.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? It's fun to see it fresh and white around Christmas, but I'm always anxious for it to melt to make better driving conditions.

12. Can you ice skate? No. I tried it a few times as a child and found it very difficult. Spent a lot of time sitting on the ice.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My father was discharged from the service in December 1945, and I remember that Christmas Mother got us (my 2 sisters and me) a doll house. It continued well through the grandchildren, and maybe great granchildren, being redecorated many times.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? The coming of Christ for our salvation.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Although I don't make them anymore, my husband's grandmother, Neno, made a fabulous sugar cookie cut-out.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Christmas Eve services at our church with lighted candles singing "Silent Night."

17. What tops your tree? An angel.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving presents? Giving.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Although it is secular, I love "White Christmas" sung by Bing Crosby. I heard it first in California where it was damp and foggy and we were homesick for Illinois. It makes some sense because it was written by a Jew, Irving Berlin, about a Californian.

20. Candy Canes Yuck or Yum? OK for decorating, but I never eat them. Fudge would be my choice for Christmas candy.