Peppermint

One of my favorite flavors ever - peppermint.

Especially at Christmas time.

Nothing is more old fashioned than a candy cane.....



Or how about creamy, slow churned peppermint stick ice cream?



Then there are my other faves, like the dark chocolate fudge brownies with peppermint icing I made a few weekends ago;

Or a peppermint candy cane stir stick for your hot chocolate;

And the oh-so-addicting peppermint nougat candy.

Nothing tastes like Christmas more than peppermint.

Red Velvet Cake

So Thanksgiving starts the "holiday season" and with the holiday season all the holiday treats.

I do a LOT of baking during the "holiday" (CHRISTMAS) season.

A lot of baking, and a lot of eating. Too much, in fact.

Every weekend and sometimes even weekdays, my family finds an excuse for getting together and eating some feast of hearty, heavy food and decadent desserts. It is really terrible for people watching their weight. But nevertheless.....

I will feature certain desserts and dishes that my family counts among our traditional "holiday fare" all throughout this month - yum! (I may or may not include photos I took myself. I have no luck taking food photos. So most photos will be courtesy of some cooking website or another.)

So this past weekend the family was over for chicken curry and Red Velvet Cake. (I use a recipe from Southern Living Magazine.) I make it with cream cheese icing. It's just not the same with plain white icing.



I made it, and we ate half of it that evening. The next day my sister and I ate more..... and this morning I took the remaining 1/3 of the cake to my parent's house to get it out of my reach before I ate the rest of it for lunch.

Mmmmmmmmm

Fashion Decade: 1970s

Okay, I'm going to do it. I'm going to find some good things to say about vintage 1970s fashions. Because in my opinion, there is something salvageable from every fashion decade.

Not everything was horrible in the 1970's. Take away the gold, rust and avocado colors; the huge bell bottoms, polyester jumpsuits, Afros, sideburns, mega platform shoes, hideous prints, thigh - high go-go boots, and frumpy hippie styles and you have a few decent things to consider.

For one thing, there was Gunne Sax. Gunne Sax was founded in the late 60's, but really took off in the 70's. The older frocks have a "black label" and the Black Labels are hard to find. Most of the Black Labels have very elegant Renaissance styling - with high collars; laced bodices to resemble corsets; and materials like velvet and brocade.




Later in the 70s, the dresses took on a more "prairie revival", and turn of the century Victorian look; with gauzy fabrics, calico, pinafores and ruffles on the "prairie" frocks, and Leg 'O Mutton sleeves and high collars on the more Victorian styles.






In all my years of collecting, I have only ever found one essentially "true" Gunne Sax. I have two for sale in my etsy shop right now, but they're not the 70s versions; they're early 1980s styles that I will cover in another post at another time.

Suffice it to say, "Gunnes" are hard to come by in thrift shops and yard sales; but abundant on line. Most of them are in teeny tiny sizes.

Other nice things in the 1970s dresses department were sundresses, certain maxi-dress styles, some adorable mini dresses, and other romantically - inspired feminine things. (I can't show a zillion photos here, unfortunately.)Here is an example of a not-overly tacky 1970s cocktail dress in my Etsy Shop.

Some other neat things that are from the 70s, or 70s inspired include flare jeans (not as popular as skinny jeans are, but still)graphic tee shirts; headbands like the ones Taylor Swift frequently wears -



And Star Wars.

Okay, so Star Wars has nothing to do with vintage fashion - unless you count Princess Liea's groovy white dresses and outfits; especially my personal fave - the one she wore at the end of the first movie -





The movie came out in 1977; I was born in 1981; and my brothers indoctrinated me with Star Wars from a very young age. Princess Liea was always my hero; and still is.
When I got older people started telling me how much I looked like Princess Liea - I've even heard this from strangers.

How did I get off into Star Wars geekery?! (YES. I am a proud Star Wars geek.)

So.... I guess my point is; don't be tempted to throw an entire decade of fashion into the garbage just because a lot of horrible, unflattering, downright tacky stuff was created and worn at that time. There is always something good to be plucked from the tackiest of decades.

So now I have to go digging and see what I can find from the 80's to support this notion. Hee, hee........

What a Silly Thing

 

 

I bought this today, on my inventory shopping trip. It is ridiculous, yet charming and irresistible.

It's so..... pink. And flowery. Like a cupcake from The Cupcake Cafe. Like wearing the cupcake directly on your head.

My Dilemma

Shopping Season is upon us. And here is the dilemma:
(Although, by definition, this isn't an actual dilemma, to be honest. Just a problem.)

December - Christmas
January - Kevin's Birthday
February - Valentine's Day
March - My birthday
April - Our Anniversary

Gift giving for us gets problematic fast. When we were first together and in our first year of being married, it was OK. Now, after just (going on) three years, I find myself wondering, for the first time, what in the heck to buy my DH for the next five months of gift giving occasions.

That, and I know he can never figure out what to give me..... because I don't know what I want to begin with.

I guess it's because we're very content people. Content and quite satisfied with what we have.

Which, if you ask me, is a good thing.

So what do I buy the Man who seriously has everything?

We don't rush out to get every latest electric gadget; and are satisfied with our old cell phones and computers (I did buy myself a new desktop this summer, because I had to have the extra storage space for all my Etsy photos, etc.). And we're more than happy with our ONE TV and DVD player only. So buying electronics for him is out. No Wiis, no I pads, etc. (But maybe a GPS......?)

He was a contractor at one time so he has two or three of every power tool imaginable, and a fancy enclosed trailer to haul them around in.

He did diesel wrenching for a long time so he has every automotive tool there is to buy, and a tool box the size of a small pick up truck to stash them in. So no tools.

He has all manner of guns for his favorite hobby - hunting; and a pretty gun cabinet with a etched glass door to lock them in. He has multiple fancy hunting knives and fancy tooled sheaths to stick them in, and every other hunting accessory money can buy. But I have been wanting one of those huge safes for the guns/ammo - the safes that cost around $5,000. The problem is the $5,000. I don't have it. Dang.

His other hobby is horseback riding - and our horses lack for nothing, so there is nothing to buy him for horseback riding, either.

His other love is tractors. And he has two boxes full of those little die cast scale model replicas stashed away in the closet. So I am NOT buying more scale replica tractors and combines and trucks and things just for the sake of Holiday gift giving.

I thought I would buy him a nice wrist watch; until he professed his utter hatred of them; and lectured about how they "got in his way" and how he can "look at the clock on his cell phone for the time just as well"....... oh well. No wristwatch.

So I am stuck with clothes, CDs, DVDs, and maybe a nice bottle of some fancy Adult Beverage.

*sigh*

What am I going to do for the next 100 five-months in a row gift giving seasons?! We're only three years in...........................

Delicious Thanksgiving Memories

Okay, so I mentioned some really ethically important Thanksgiving memories in my last post; this time around will be much more delicious.

Our family's traditional Thanksgiving meal is more of the old fashioned "yankee" variety - despite our Southern home.

The thing is, my Mom is a Northern (Yankee) transplant, and my Dad is from the Deep South (Louisiana.)
I was born and raised in North Carolina, and consider myself a true Southerner - but it is my Mom's "yankee" heritage that is the foundation of our Thanksgiving meal in the Joubert/Pennell household.

Thanksgiving day always began with Mom's homemade doughnuts. Her delicious cake doughnut dough, lightly spiced and with a tinge of orange flavor, is deep fried in oil and then tossed in confectioner's sugar. They don't hang around long, because after my Dad is done putting a sizeable dent in the pile, my brothers usually finish them off.
Even after I got married and moved away, I still make Mom's doughnuts for Thanksgiving and Christmas; and my sisters and brothers still ask for them.

Our family usually has our dinner in the evening; after the guys get done with the hunting for the day.
(I am sorry if readers are offended by hunting - I realize some don't agree with hunting wild game. However, it is something my family has done forever - and we eat the harvest. I don't mean to offend!)

For years, when I was still living at home, my sister Naomi and I would go for a trail ride with our Dad while Mom watched over the turkey. Usually the weather was nice enough for us to saddle up and ride for a couple of hours before dinner.
We haven't done a Thanksgiving trail ride in a few years, though.

Ok, so here is our Thanksgiving menu in my family - year after year:

Turkey, and turkey gravy. (Gravy usually prepared by my brother Eli.)
Mom's bread stuffing (Not stuffed in the turkey, though. Yuk.)
Green Bean cassarole (Yeah, I know - not the most original, but a favorite nonetheless.)
Corn
Grandma's Waldorf salad (or, as my brothers like to say - "Waldork" salad)
Green Jello salad (Something I did several years ago, and it stuck)
Cranberry sauce and Mom's cranberry and orange relish
Mashed Potatoes.... made by my sister Noelle, who is ultra picky about how they're prepared.)
Pumpkin pie (Read the hilarious story about my pumpkin pie episode from last year HERE)
Pecan pie
Chocolate Pecan Pie (Introduced when my brother Eli married Sherry and she's been forced to bring it to Thanksgiving ever since!)
Pumpkin roll - (although, this is usually eaten for lunch and doesn't survive till suppertime. :))

What are your family's signature dishes at the Thanksgiving table? I'd love to hear about them!

Thanksgiving Memories........

As I was painting the windowsill in my kitchen in preparation for the big dinner here on Thursday, I was reflecting on Thanksgiving memories from my childhood....



One of the things I remember most is that we always invited one or more people to dinner that didn't have family nearby to spend the Holiday with. I'm sure at one point or another, we'd ask "why" we did that.... to which I am sure my parents replied that we did it to share our good fortune and feast of food with others who would otherwise be alone on Thanksgiving eating a TV dinner. I know they must have explained this, because as a child, I remember understanding it.

I remember my mother reading us a little book called the "Pilgrim's Primer" about the true story of "Thanksgiving", and Squanto, and how the First Americans saved the pilgrim group from starvation by instructing them about planting crops and hunting wild game.
And, how the first Thanksgiving lasted three days; and how they feasted on Turkeys, Deer, and seafood from the harbor, in addition to the corn and squash they had harvested.

I also remember putting on a little play about it with my sisters and brother, and a couple of the kids that came with their parents for dinner one year - complete with costumes.

These things make me very appreciative of my parents, and how they instilled in us an understanding of American History and tradition, as well as the spirit of giving to your fellow man, by demonstration - inviting a "stranger" into our home and extending to them our food and family atmosphere.
AND, the creativity it took for us to create a little "play" - thanks to my parents who always encouraged and pushed us to use our imaginations and creativity by making us read books and watch less TV.

I know, these are not the usual Norman Rockwell style Thanksgiving memories that conjure up visions of feast laden tables and Mom bringing in the glorious, golden brown turkey to a chorus of "Ooohs" and "Aaaahs".

I'll discuss THOSE memories later!

So this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for my parents, who taught us by their example - not just their words - that it is a good thing to reach out to those alone or in need.
And just as important, that they taught us the importance of American History, and the history behind the holiday. We didn't just eat a big dinner to eat a big dinner - there was a reason we had the big dinner: to give thanks as a Nation, to God, for all of our many, many blessings. This is one of many examples of my parents, and Grandparents, teaching us how to be a model American Citizen and realize how lucky we are to live in freedom in this country.

Thanks, Mom and Dad.