Merry (post) Christmas!

I apologize for the blog silence of the last few days! The truth is, I've been lazy. No other excuse. So join us as we celebrate Christmas.

Our big celebration day is Christmas Eve. Early in the morning, long before dawn, I took this photo.

(I also -- ahem -- took this photo, which actually turned out pretty cool despite the blunder.)

When the kids got up, we clear the kitchen table...

...and got ready for our annual Junk Food Feast. This is a congregation of every type of nutritionally-useless culinary rubbish we never, ever buy during the rest of the year. Long story short: After Thanksgiving many years ago, Don commented about what a pity it is I work so hard and make such a nice meal for Thanksgiving, only to repeat the same work load over Christmas. Somehow one thing led to another (aided and abetted by two eager children, no doubt) and before we knew it, we had started a tradition of having nothing but junk food for three days (Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day) in which no one has to ask permission to eat potato chips for breakfast -- and I go on a kitchen strike.

It's kind of a silly tradition, but it's fun. The advantage of this technique is by the end of three days, the kids are begging for Brussels sprouts. Don't believe me? What do you think we had with dinner last night?

Toward evening we made ready to greet some dear friends who always join us to open presents, a couple whose grown children live far away and always enjoy being with our kids. They've joined us every Christmas Eve since we moved to Idaho ten years ago, and the day wouldn't be the same without them.

Don made sure he had his father's cherished Bible handy.

While Don reads...

...Lydia interferes with the girls' concentration.

Then one by one Don hands out presents.

I tried to get a photo of some of Younger Daughter's presents, but the room was a bit too dark. However please note the pretty Victorian-style pleated choker that her older sister gave her, and which she adored.

For the first time since moving to Idaho, we decided to attend church on Christmas Day rather than Christmas Eve. This meant we could linger over our gifts, having coffee and tea (and junk food), and enjoying the company of our neighbors.

The aftermath.

Early on Christmas morning, I put the girls' stockings and an additional gift or two in the front room, near the woodstove.

Then I went out to feed the livestock. The day dawned clear, frosty, and beautiful.

I saw large flocks of Canada geese overhead.

We always feed the critters extra on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, because legend has it that animals are granted the gift of speech on Christmas night. We don't want them complaining to the neighbors that they're ill-fed!

We went to church, which was lovely. But after three Christmas Eve services, and one Christmas Day service, we can imagine the pastor was pooped. I can only hope he was able to relax and enjoy his family after church.

Later in the afternoon, while getting ready for some friends to come visiting, I managed to vacuum up Younger Daughter's choker. Not her fault -- she had put it on the table, but later I gathered all the gifts and tucked them back under the tree, where a dangling tie sucked the whole thing up. Don had to disassemble the vacuum to extract it. It had some damage, but I think it's fixable. Ug. My bad.

The day ended with a glorious display of color.

For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given:
and the government shall be upon his shoulder:
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

How was everyone's Christmas?

No white Christmas

A few days ago we had a pretty snowfall.

I'm not sure the animals agreed, but after all it's their choice not to tuck themselves under the shelter of the barn awning.

Nonetheless it was a very pretty snowfall.

Even grungy old tractor tires -- awaiting their chance to be put in the garden next spring -- are transformed by snow.

However a necessary hose, accidentally left undrained, caused problems. We hauled it inside to defrost.

The view across the fields was vast. It was snowing so hard that it was difficult to avoid getting snowflakes on the camera lens.

A solitary hen braves the white stuff.

After slipping and falling several times on a sheet of ice inconveniently disguised underneath the snow, I parked this cart on top so we would avoid the bad spot.

Major is easy to distinguish in this weather -- especially when he wears snow on his back.

I went for a walk to admire the views.

Turkeys.

And then yesterday the temperature rose and it rained and rained and rained. The snow first turned into sloppy slush, then disappeared altogether. This morning the pasture looked like this:

Ah well. As pretty as a white Christmas is, a brown Christmas certainly simplifies travel plans for those visiting others.

Basic spaghetti

In an effort to post made-from-scratch recipes for those readers who are just learning basic cooking, here's the recipe for Basic Spaghetti I made for Older Daughter's birthday dinner the other day.

The nice thing about spaghetti is how flexible it is. You can add or subtract any number of ingredients to tweak it to your particular taste. It can be meaty or vegetarian; the pasta can be homemade, store-bought, whole-grain, spinach, or any combination; the sauce can have spices and additives (such as mushrooms, onions, etc.) adjusted to suit. It's a wonderfully versatile dish.

In our particular case (or maybe I should say, in Older Daughter's particular case, since this was her requested dinner) I started with a pound of ground turkey. She doesn't care for ground beef (which is a pity, since we have so much of it when we butcher a steer) so we substituted ground turkey.

The turkey was frozen, so I slowly browned it at low temperature as it defrosted in the pot.

Unlike ground beef, ground turkey doesn't need any fat drained off. After the meat was browned...

...I assembled the other ingredients, in this case: canned tomatoes (my tomatoes didn't grow in last summer's garden so I didn't have any canned up) which I chopped up in a blender; tomato paste for thickness; salt, pepper, oregano, basil, and garlic for spices. I don't have a measure for the spices -- I just add things to taste.

I started by adding the tomato products...

...and then the spices. I also added a splash of vinegar and a pinch (quarter teaspoon perhaps) of sugar to offset the bitterness from the vinegar.

The secret to any spaghetti sauce is to let it simmer for at least half an hour or longer. That way the ingredients blend for a better taste (many people say spaghetti sauce tastes better the next day). But while simmering, be sure to cover it. Spaghetti sauce is so thick that it won't "bubble" -- it will explode into miniature sauce-bombs that will splatter everything unless there's a lid on the pot.

While the sauce is simmering, time to cook the pasta. If you're ambitious, you can make your own pasta from your own eggs and wheat. If you're short on time (or don't have a farm), pasta is cheap at the grocery store.

I usually boil water first, then snap the spaghetti strands in half before dropping them in. A dollop of oil into the cook water will help keep the pasta from clumping, and it helps to stir it once in awhile.

How "done" should the pasta be? Again, it's a matter of taste. Some prefer "al dente" (half-cooked), others prefer it well cooked. I test it by sampling a piece. Other naughtier types will take a piece of pasta and throw it against a wall or ceiling. If it sticks, it's done. (Ahem -- I've discouraged the girls from employing this particular method of testing.)

Drain the pasta...

...and ladle some sauce over it. We also enjoy sprinkling some Parmesan cheese on it. Voilà! A good hearty meal, especially on cold winter nights.

Feel free to add your favorite variations on this theme. I figure this is what I'll do for readers who are novice cooks -- whenever I make a basic dish (and let's face it, most of my cooking isn't fancy) then I'll post it as a tutorial.