Our Atomic Christmas Decorations

Last winter the kids and I began an adventure redecorating the house. Instead of the dark warm colors that my husband preferred, I told the kids I would go along with anything they could agree on... and they chose atomic midcentury. So this neutral-loving mama is now living in the brightest shades of turquoise, lime, and tangerine possible. It's bright and airy in here, and looks nothing like it did a year ago. 

In keeping with our "new house" we have altered our holiday decorations to match. Which means that for Christmas we are steering clear of the traditional reds and greens, and going for ultra-bright teals and lime green instead.

For our tree we went back and forth between a white or tinsel tree... but decided on white in the end. I love the way it's not so big as to take over the living room, but not so small that it disappears. The tree skirt was handmade from fleece and pompom trim, and really helps bring out the bright colors we were looking for. 

At the front door we chose a simple white wreath. I haven't decided whether to add some bright color or not, so for now it will stay simple. A few bright ornaments MIGHT find their way onto this eventually, but I'm still undecided. 

There's always next year! 

 

 

 

 

 This sweet singing yeti has been a part of our Christmas decorations for a few years now... and the pail of smiling snowballs has been in our home since the kids were young. Indoor snowball fights are a frequent evening occurrence here, and Mr. Yeti looks quite cozy sitting atop the gossip bench I upcycled last year.   

Cryptids are pretty popular in our house, and I fell in love with these smaller yeti figurines LAST year, but by the time I went to buy them they were sold out. When they came back this year, I ordered them within the week... yep I was THAT girl, Christmas shopping in September. They look ever so sweet with the tiny sweet shops I found in the Target dollar spot last year, and add a fun playful display to the top of the tiny console we built from a pair of $20 desktop drawer units from IKEA.

 

With a kitten tearing about the house swiping things from surfaces, we chose to keep our fireplace/tv-stand very simple with tiny stockings attached via Command hooks. Personally, I love the simple look here!

 

Between the kitchen and dining room, our cabinets have a built-in display niche. This has always been a favorite place to display larger seasonal goodies. 

I found these tinsel trees on clearance last year, and the blowmold penguin jumped into my cart this year as I was on my way to the dog food. Where we live, outdoor decorations don't work well between the extreme temperatures and thieves... but this was the perfect way to bring that midcentury feel to our house without worrying about it disappearing! 

(and my daughter absolutely adores penguins!) 

   

This sweet snowman is another favorite piece that's been in our house for quite awhile now. It is on the SUPER skinny table we built to go behind our sofa, as a coffee-table substitute. 

 

I WOULD put this on the table as a centerpiece... but Berlioz has informed us he is the only table decoration we need. It's his afternoon napping-spot, and so far I have been unable to convince him that a soft rug in the sunspot on the floor would be a better option. So on the end of the kitchen counter these adorable deer sit in a snowy little lantern. I found them on clearance last winter, and the dollar-spot trees from THIS Christmas were the perfect finishing-touch. 

 It is SO bright and SO festive in here... and yes, the bright colors are starting to grow on me. 

This is our happy home.

 

Thankful for 2020

I am thankful for 2020. 

It sounds crazy because this year has been SO hard in SO many ways, but I am... I'm thankful for this year. Not for the pandemic that's beyond terrifying. Not for the racial issues that fester like an ugly cancer on our country. And not for the ongoing political migraine that defies logical comprehension. But I am thankful for this year.

I am thankful for the time with my kids. This year we have played more board games and Mario Cart than ever before. We've listened to radio dramas and watched chick flicks. We've walked around lakes, picnicked in the living room away from the mosquitoes, created an in-home arcade to celebrate absolutely nothing, and laughed for no reason at all. 

Christmas happened in July, and Halloween was spent in our bathrobes. Our weekly movie and game nights have become the high-points in our lives and taken on a life of their own. We've stayed home because it was necessary, but we were never "stuck" here... we've made the best of things, spending the time enjoying just being together, and I wouldn't take that back for anything. 

I am thankful for Berlioz. Discovered under our house on July 9th, was an abandoned 7-week old underweight mite-infested kitten. After a week of trying to find him a home, we realized WE were the home he had chosen... and we needed him as much as he needed us. 

This tiny frightened baby is now a sleek 6 month old adolescent who naps on the dining room table, shreds boxes for our recycling bin, and absolutely lives for chin-rubs and napping on our feet. He has turned our world upside-down, showing us that we don't need decorations below shoulder-height, computer keyboards are for standing on rather than typing, and that if we walk past the chaise our ankles are forfeit.

The dog still growls at him and will rush him any time they are together, but at nearly 13 years old - we are letting her be grouchy. She sleeps most of the day now anyway, so we have given her space away from him where she can snooze in silence. We continue supervised  introductions, and whenever he gets the chance Berlioz will boop her nose with a clawless-paw or nibble at her ear... we honestly don't know if he's trying to be friendly or simply enjoys making her growl, but either way he hasn't tried to hurt her and is clearly curious about the fluffy white growly-thing. 

He arrived in our life filling a hole we didn't know we had, just when we needed him most... and has become an integral part of our little family. 

And... I am thankful for safety. For our silver anniversary, I gave myself a gift: the gift of freedom from an abusive husband. For 7 months now I have slept in my bed feeling safe, we are free to see the doctor when we need to, and our bills have been paid before their due-date so we no longer live with constant bill-collectors threatening to take away our home. 

I am taking my mother's maiden name. It is also the name of my Scottish clan, and seemed the most fitting as I am not returning to my childhood, but am now someone else; someone with deep roots, who is stronger because of her past. 

For 25 years I stayed silent, praying he would become the man he promised to be. For 25 years, I lived with multiple forms of abuse and a husband unwilling to stop hurting his family. The story is long and complicated, but this year I am thankful for the crisis center who helped us break free, for the pro-bono lawyer who is helping with my divorce, and most of all - the feeling of security I have knowing that when I lock the front door each night, I have not locked us in with what made us unsafe.

2020 has been hard. I miss seeing people. I miss visiting the zoo every week. I miss being able to browse the dollar spot at Target in a leisurely manner. But I am thankful for 2020... because it gave us time to be a family together, it gave us our sweet little Berlioz, and it gave us freedom & safety. 

Yes, I am thankful for 2020.

It's the Great 25th Birthday, Charlie Brown

 

Most people probably imagine a sophisticated 25th birthday. 

My son is not most people. 

He kicks autism's butt on a daily basis, and most people don't even know he struggles. Sure, he will always need help with random things, and yes we've had our share of struggles of frustrations. Every once in awhile however, it shows up in the oddest of hilariously unexpected ways, and THIS is what we choose to focus on.

One way that it manifests, is in truly not caring about his own birthday. He loves celebrating his sister's birthday, and goes absolutely CRAZY as self-appointed point-man for Christmas decorations, but couldn't care less about his own birthday. Asking him how he would like to celebrate tends to result in shoulder-shrugs, eyerolls, and a mumbled, "meh... whatever..." Two years ago, all he said was "mangoes." So he had a mango birthday, with mango-themed meals and desserts, mango paper-lanterns, a mango tee-shirt... since he rarely requests anything EVEN for his birthday, when he gives me even a single word I'll run with it. 

This year when I asked him what he wanted to do for his 25th birthday, keeping in mind that we're still keeping distant... he said he wanted to watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. 

Challenge accepted, Little Man... challenge accepted. 

I started by finishing a project that has been on my to-do list for two years; creating a pumpkin diorama. I purchased the pumpkin two years ago, and the Linus figurine a year ago. A little moss, a few miniature dollhouse goodies and some x-acto work with foamboard & gilitter, and we had a cute pumpkin that will come out every year now. 

I found a Snoopy wall decoration to go over our television, and some paper plates & napkins that were perfect. 

For dinner, we picked up a pair of cheese pizzas from our favorite gluten-free take-and-bake shop, and added black olives to mimic Charlie Brown's zig-zag shirt before baking them. 

With our furnace not working properly, we all curled up under "Linus Blankets" and watched the movie while noshing on pizza, and his requested apple crisp with vanilla ice cream. 

 It was a small birthday, but that's the way my guy rolls. He loved it, which is what counts. 

Happy Birthday, Little Man!

 

My Faerie Tale Wardrobe

I first read the Narnia chronicles in the early 1980s, and have read them every winter since. I have peeked in hundreds of wardrobes, and daydreamed about having tea with Reepicheep for decades. I have always said that if I was ever lucky enough to own a wardrobe, I would paint the interior to look like Narnia. 

About a year ago I picked up a secondhand IKEA children's wardrobe. It's small, but deep enough for standard adult hangers. It holds my clothes, my outerwear, my shoes and purses, my makeup and jewelry... absolutely everything I wear fits in here, and I love how easy it is to get to my things when a drawer would be too much for my arthritic fingers to maneuver. It was more functional than "fun," but it suited my needs perfectly. But that pea-soup green? Oh my, YUCK!

 Knowing that I planned to remove the back anyway it was easy to decide to paint the exterior, but a simple coat of paint would never do for the doors to Narnia. I wanted something special. After months of contemplating, Pinterest surfing, window-shopping online stores, and waiting for sale prices I finally had everything I needed to transform my "blah" little wardrobe into a fulfilled childhood fantasy. I would paint the outside to be a meadow before the distant Misty Mountains of Middle Earth from my other favorite childhood books;  also in tatters from being read every autumn since my girlhood days.  

I began by emptying the wardrobe and removing the back, the hanging bar, the shelves, and all shelf-supports. By the end of the first day I had a single coat of paint on the wardrobe frame.

It took "FOREVER" to finish the painting with all five colors, but after a week I had finally finished adding ombre cubbyhole and shoe shelves, and 7 layers of the Misty Mountains of Middle Earth to the doors. FINALLY it was time to add my stickers. 

On the doors, I added a set of flower wall stickers found on Amazon to simulate the meadows of Middle Earth. I love how they turned out, and how peaceful the closet now looked. 

The flower stickers came with a few extras, which I put on the right-hand side since that side of the wardrobe doubles as my headboard. It's a small touch, but it looks oh so sweet.

When I removed the back for painting, it evaporated. I discovered later that the original finishing-nails had been replaced by 1" ring-shank nails, but had planned from the beginning on replacing it with panelboard for strength and durability. Once the doors and shelves were reattached, I picked up a panel of Eucaboard from Home Depot, then cut a door-mural found on Etsy down to size, and added still more paint to finish the back.

It took me two weeks from start to finish since I worked on this as a side-project. But the finished wardrobe is absolutely everything I could have possibly imagined. The soft purples, the mountains, the flowers, the forest... absolutely everything was exactly like I'd pictured it. 

Now that everything is put back, my tiny corner is officially my cozy little happy place. From my tiny comfy slipper chair with the birch tree ambient light and my little art nouveau wall planter full of wildflowers, to the soft delicate colors, baskets, and spinning organizer for my jewelry and makeup... everything here is perfect for my needs, and looks like I stepped into my two favorite faerie tales. 

It was absolutely worth 37 years of waiting for this dream to come true.

 

 

 

 

Garden 2020: Harvest Begins

The nights are getting longer, the evening air is beginning to chill, and it's time to begin contemplating whether we have enough fat fluffy socks for winter. I's harvest season in our itty bitty garden.

 

We have had more salad greens and herbs than we've needed all season long, but now it is tomato time.

Earlier this week we harvested and ate a pint of fresh tomatoes and the three biggest purple carrots. We now know that purple carrots will stain your mouth DARK purple for over an hour and are waiting to harvest the rest for a spectacular purple-carrot cake for my son's birthday. 

 

This morning I picked a second pint. of tomatoes, and found a softball-size melon in our melon patch. The peppers are full-size and ready to begin changing color, and the bees are happily pollinating the tomato blossoms that are still emerging every day. 

 

It is my favorite time of year... when the garden begins to show the fruits of our labor, when the summer heat begins to dissolves into sweater-weather, and when the air starts to smell of changing leaves and bonfires. It's time for the crockpot to begin simmering bedtime cider, and pumpkin waffles on lazy day-off mornings.

 Every spring we plant hope.

Every fall we harvest blessings.

It's time to enjoy the fruits of our labor,

as we enter a season of change.

 

Garden 2020: Waiting for Memorial Day

Tomatoes

Peppers

This is the point in our gardening when we begin the transition from indoor to outdoor with the seedlings. There are still 3 weeks until our last frost-day so the garden itself is still fairly empty, but our seedlings are enjoying hardening-off and catching breezes during the day.

Peas

The tomatoes will be moved to larger pots for the second time this week, and the peppers are finally starting to look promising. Our peas are up and about 6" tall, and the few herbs that we have are looking great.

This week, we will be planting our frost-hardy carrots and Tom Thumb lettuce. Our beans, cucumbers, purslane, spinach, and melons will be
waiting until Memorial Day.

 The beautiful, insanely fragrant stars of our garden right now are the lemon trees. Lem dropped all his leaves in shipping and has been making his comeback all winter long. There are no blooms yet, but he looks so much healthier than he did 8 months ago! Ada, on the other hand, has been flowering prolifically for 3 weeks now. She is perfuming the entire dining room, and just now when I was taking photographs there was a fat bumblebee loitering sleepily as he pollinated her for me. I tried to catch him, but apparently, he's camera-shy.

There is plenty to do in the garden already; daily bringing the seedlings in and out, watering, pinching, feeding the worms... What we love most however is the fact that it never takes more than 20 minutes to "putter" everything into perfect order in our tiny oasis. Would you like to take a peek? 

Family Date Day: Quarantine Arcade

With a pandemic outside our doors, our monthly family date days have become a challenge. This is inarguably the LEAST of our concerns right now. BUT with a son who is working long, physically demanding hours and a daughter who works even longer, mentally draining hours - we take our downtime very seriously. When the shelter-in-place order went through, the SECOND thing I asked my kids was, "What would you like to do about date-days?" And the answer after a few minutes of blank stares and shoulder shrugs was, "What about having an over-the-top game day?"

Family Game Day is a weekly event in our house. It's the first thing that gets added to the calendar each week, once we know what my son's work schedule will be. Every other week we flip-flop between "unplugged" when we play board and card games, and "plugged" when we compete in PS4 and Wii games. How do we change that into an event? The only thing I could think of was turning the living room into an arcade.

I was 4-14 during the '80s. Arcades and arcade games were absolutely everywhere. But I didn't set foot in an arcade until I was 22, and I was in a Chuck E Cheese ONCE during the whole of the 1980s. Likewise, we never owned a gaming system when I was growing up. The closest I got to arcade games was the occasional game of Frogger on my cousin's Atari, and watching my Mummy play Mission Impossible on the Commodore 64 and purposefully running the agent down the shafts just to hear him scream again... and again... and again... So when my son developed a passion for vintage arcade games, I had extremely little experience with these blip-blip 8-bit noisemakers.

In my quest to transform the living room, I began with a pair of gift cards from MyPoints I'd been saving "for a rainy day." With these, I hunted about on Amazon and purchased teeny tiny tabletop versions of Skee Ball and Whack-A-Mole. These were for a new surprise and to help set the proper mood. A PS4 retro game (since I was informed that the one I THOUGHT we owned was for a console we got rid of years ago) and a new book of Mad Libs (for when mama's decrepit eyeballs can't stare at screens any longer) were added to the cart as well, along with some popcorn seasoning and a box each of movie-theater candies. All that needs to be purchased now is a pair of pizzas from our favorite pizza take-and-bake that happens to still be open and offers online ordering and contact-free pickup... AND just sent me a coupon!

Because I am a strong believer in ambiance when setting up these family fun events, I then pulled out the printer and got to work creating decorations... cheesy homemade 80's style. With the help of three vintage arcade-y free fonts from FontSpace I soon had enough printed goodies to color and cut, to fill an entire wall in the living room. Several hours and more than a little bit of cramped-hand later I was able to transform this...

into THIS!!!

 My son already owned a few things that made perfect decorations next to the TV, and I set up scoreboards for four different games along with a few movie suggestions that are theme and period-appropriate.

So this weekend, while we stay safe inside our home, we will be "at the arcade" - playing games, snacking on all sorts of goodies, laughing 'til our sides hurt at how terribly BAD mama truly is at arcade games, and watching retro movies.

It's not a trip to the zoo... but it's something to look forward to. Which is all we need for right now.

Scottish Fare: Irn Bru Recipe #2

Today I thought I'd try something naturally sweet with another bottle of our Scottish Irn Bru. I wanted to try cupcakes.

Due to pandemic-shortages at the store, it ended up being more prudent to make a poundcake. So Irn Bru poundcake, with Irn Bru icing it was.

Now to be fair, I have to admit that while I LOVE cake... I don't tend to prefer poundcake. It's a bit too sweet and far too rich for my everyday tastes. But in working with what I had on hand, I figured that cake was cake... and if I didn't end up liking it, there's a 24-year-old starveling in the house that will happily gobble up any baked goodie he sees lying around.

To keep things simple, I used a very simple recipe:
1 1/2 c gluten-free all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c raw sugar
 3/4 c softened butter
3 eggs
and 1/4 cup Irn Bru

Preheat oven to 310F and grease a bread pan (in hindsight, I should have also floured it!) then set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar, then slowly add the flour in thirds.
Add the eggs one a time, then pour in the Irn Bru and mix just until combined.
Pour into pan, and bake for 80 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

For the glaze, I mixed 2 Tbsp Irn Bru with 1 cup powdered sugar. (and only used half of it)

The cake did not rise quite as much as I wanted, but with gluten-free baking that's always a possibility. It had a beautiful buttery crispy crust on the top, but the minute I went to release it from the pan... the crust evaporated. (I did try a crumb, and yes it tastes positively divine!) And I didn't need nearly as much glaze as I'd made, but I am a frosting girl so that may be personal preference.

How did it taste? The cake itself was far more buttery than I wanted, and honestly, I couldn't taste the Irn Bru - it just tasted of sugar and butter. The texture was lovely, however; with a delicate melt-in-your-mouth crumb. The glaze itself DID taste of Irn Bru and was quite good - but when you mix a too-sweet drink with straight sugar, you get something that's painfully sweet. I paired the tiniest of slices with an extra-strong cup of Edinburgh tea and enjoyed it as a sugary sweet, rich buttery treat.


Would someone else like this? Absolutely! If you like rich, buttery sweet cake and soda-flavored glaze, this would be amazing. For me, I will stick to the occasional cupcake.

But it was a fun adventure. The color is a beautiful pale orange and the texture is divine... and while I personally would not choose to eat this, I am sure that my son will love it once he gets home from work. Because just between you and me... I made this for him. Unlike my daughter and me, HE likes poundcake... and his waistline will not suffer from eating an entire cake!

Garden 2020: When crisis inspires gardening

In times of crisis, people return to gardening. It happened in WWI and WWII with Victory Gardens, and it's happening this year with the current pandemic. Seed stores are selling out, and potting soil can't be found anywhere. The uncertainty of not knowing if the grocery store will have what we need when we visit, coupled with an urge to do SOMETHING when we feel as if the whole world is falling apart, seems to whisper to us the memories of our grandparents' yards - with their raspberry hedge bursting with juicy treasure, and neat rows of squash just waiting for the Thanksgiving table.

Gardening is known to be therapeutic. It has been proven to help reduce anxiety and depression, reduces stress, and can lower blood pressure. When special tools and care is taken, it can help keep fingers and wrists limber to slow the progression of arthritis, and it counts as low-impact exercise. Even if you yielded nothing else... wouldn't that be enough incentive to start a garden this year?

This is our 14th year of urban container gardening. Because I'm being asked a LOT of questions right now from people on multiple continents about our garden and how we do what we do... I wanted to start this year's gardening posts by sharing where we began. Because yes, our garden may look like we know what we're doing NOW... but it took us a LOOOONG time, and years of trials and errors to get here. Please, ask away. If I can help even one person avoid some of the mistakes we learned the hard way... that would absolutely make my day!


This is what our garden looked like near the end of the season, in 2007. The first photo is the "south half" and you can see: tomatoes that aren't planted deep enough and barely produced, pumpkins that never fruited, (though they did make a beautiful arbor!) and carrots that were tinier than a baby's pinkie and bitter when we finally picked them.

The second photo is the "north half" and here are: pumpkins that didn't get enough light and never grew, herbs that produced too MUCH and bolted before we could use them, and - honestly I've forgotten what we tried in the orange and black pots... it might have been peppers, or possibly salad greens. *shrugs* Whatever it was, however, you can clearly see that by August they had barely done a thing.

I want to share this because I've heard a few friends say that they lost interest in gardening when their first year didn't look like our 10th... 12th... 13th...

Please, don't compare and DON'T give up! This is where we started. This is what our first year looked like, and it has taken us 14 years of learning, failure, and slowly saving up to acquire some of the more pricey tools that we now have in our little oasis. Small space gardening IS worth it... but it takes time and patience. Two tomato plants in 5-gallon buckets and a pair of favorite herbs would be better than where we began. Start small. Learn slowly. And add one or two things each year.

For our garden this year, we are needing to make allowances as we may not be able to purchase our precious herbs. Life will go on, and we will plant what we can. We might have extra salad greens where the herbs would normally grow. Adaptations will be made, or we'll do without. But our 2020 oasis has begun.

Here is a quick sneak-peek at our 8'x16" deck garden as it sits mostly dormant, awaiting our Memorial Day planting this morning.

Scottish Fare: Imported Tea and Marmalade

This week we are continuing our adventure with imported goodies. Because we like tea so much, we chose Edinburgh looseleaf tea to try. And to go with the tea, some marmalade.

Why marmalade when I make my own? Because while marmalade has been made with quince fruit since Ancient Roman times... ORANGE marmalade, as it turns out, is legendarily Scottish!

This week I prepared breakfast for dinner. We love breakfast foods, but when your son works retail and a pandemic forces him to work overtime - breakfast looks like whatever I can bake with my eyes half-opened at 5am. So every few weeks or so, we have a full breakfast... at dinnertime.

For dinner, I made a broccoli and Dubliner cheese crustless quiche and our favorite oatmeal scones.

The scones are my own recipe. Years ago, when gluten-free foods were still more of a novelty and recipes were few and far between, I wanted a hearty breakfast scone rather than a cakelike dessert scone. But I couldn't find a single recipe! It took several tries, but here is our recipe:

1 1/2 c gluten-free oat flour
1 1/2 c gluten-free rolled oats
1/2 c potato starch
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 c applesauce (for extra protein, substitute 2 eggs)
2/3 c almond milk soured with
1/2 Tbsp lemon juice (for extra protein and probiotics, substitute 2/3 c buttermilk)

Preheat oven to 400F
Mix together dry ingredients, then add wet ingredients and mix just until blended.
Turn out onto a silpat or parchment-paper covered baking sheet and with greased hands, pat into a circle 3/4" thick. It WILL be wet!!!
Using a greased knife or pastry cutter, slice into 8 wedges - separating slightly.
Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until edges just begin to brown.
Serve hot or cold... but we think hot is best!

We found the tea to be much milder than we expected. Being used to Irish Breakfast tea we were expecting a powerfully bold tea and instead, this was a very nice "basic" tea that would go with anything.

The marmalade was wonderful! I make my own jellies, jams, and preserves because American condiments tend to be too sweet for my liking. This was NOT too sweet; it was nice and tangy, with a good dose of the bitterness left intact from the orange peel. If I had made it myself, this is what I would have made... and now I'm inspired to try adding honey to my own marmalade recipes!

These were foods that we eat all the time, and we really only tried the imported versions out of curiosity. While I might not buy them again simply because of their higher prices, they were both quite delicious and we enjoyed them very much!

Scottish Fare: Irn Bru Recipe #1

When I started looking into Scottish recipes and traditional foods, one that showed up, again and again, was Irn Bru. Apparently, it's the OTHER Scottish drink for those who aren't in the mood for whiskey. While I was planning on sticking mainly to homemade recipes, we did want to try just a few imported goodies as well - and Amazon just happens to have a supplier on this side of "the pond." We placed an order for three authentic Scottish goodies, and they arrived JUST before the coronavirus quarantines started shutting things down. We will be trying them over the next few weeks.

Our first imported goodie was Irn Bru. 

What is Irn Bru? It's a BRIGHT orange carbonated drink. (For those that know about my allergies - this has Yellow #6 in it, NOT Yellow #5 - I checked SIX TIMES - so it's safe for those with a tartrazine/salicylate allergy!) I've seen it described as tasting like bubble gum, citrus, and my favorite " a combination of rust, battery acid and pure magic." When our 6-pack arrived, in trying to cut the bottles from their blister wrapping I accidentally dropped a bottle and broke the seal, so we shared a bottle last week to see what we thought for ourselves. WE think we tasted: a nondescript citrus flavor, a medicinal/energy drink flavor, and possibly something floral - which sounds ghastly, but worked, in a strange way. It was, however, MUCH  sweeter than we'd expected so rather than simply drinking all 6 bottles we are experimenting with Irn Bru as a recipe ingredient. 

Our first attempt is based on - but heavily modified from - THIS RECIPE for slow cooker Irn Bru chicken. I had PLANNED on simply using a vegan substitute for the chicken, but in the interest of not visiting the store for what I didn't have on hand while self-quarantining, I ended up needing to substitute roughly half the ingredients. So if you'd like to know how this dish tastes in the UK, PLEASE follow the link and try their version. I based all my substitutions on the fact that the original recipe is described as a sweet-and-sour dish, and simply used what I had on hand. So for my make-do or do-without vegan-version, here's what went into my slow-cooker: 

2 12oz packages Quorn meatless pieces
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tsp roasted garlic
20ml balsamic vinegar
60ml V8
30g cornstarch
1 bottle Irn Bru

I dumped everything into the slow cooker, gave it a few good stirs, and let it run on medium-high for 3 hours. Every hour I gave it a good stir because my little pot is prone to sticking. Otherwise, I left it alone.

Because this was supposed to be a sweet and sour dish, I served it over rice. And... we liked it! It had an American-Chinese flavor, not unlike a mild sweet-and-sour chicken. Were I to make this again, I would add a nice heaping tablespoon of ginger, and some broccoli. It's not at all what we expected, but it's good.

Will we be making this again? I'm not convinced that it's worth the splurge-y price of an imported soda. I WOULD try this again with a properly strong ginger beer, however! But for cooking a savory dish with a funky new soda? Yes, it was definitely worth the attempt, and for someone who can get their hands on Irn Bru - I would definitely recommend this as a fun recipe to try.  
 

Scottish Fare: Cock a Leekie Soup

For Saint Patrick's Day each year, we enjoy our favorite must-have Irish recipes:

* Irish apple-cake with Irish breakfast tea
* Irish cheese with homemade soda-bread rolls and apple wedges
* beautiful bowls of colcannon
* shepherd's pie or a lovely pot of 'tattie stew...

Every year looks pretty similar, and since these are all family favorites we don't mind at all. But this year I wanted to change up just one meal - and with our carb-heavy potato obsession during the month of March, I thought I'd try for a soup.

Cock a Leekie Soup... another Scottish dish with a funny name. This one actually makes sense when you think about it - it's chicken and leeks. Yep, it really is that simple.

After comparing over a dozen recipes, it became quite obvious that I'd had this soup. Thousands of times, in dozens of variations. It's soup, so there are as many recipes as there are cooks in the kitchen but here are the basics:
Chicken - I used a 12oz package of Quorn for a vegan version.
Chicken stock - since our chicken was vegan, I used enough vegan bouillon for 6 cups of water.
Leeks - come in packages of 3, so that's what I used.
Carrots - 2 medium-large carrots.
Potato - the recipes call for EITHER potato OR barley... with our gluten allergy, potato it was! I used 2 medium.
Other random ingredients - seriously, it's soup... I think I saw everything imaginable including FRESH PLUMS as optional extras! I kept things simple this time and opted for nothing but the basics.

Everything went onto the back burner, to simmer for 2 hours. And what we ended up with was... MY basic soup recipe! When the fridge is running empty, or the sky is gloomy, or someone has the sniffles... this is the soup that I make! Sure, sometimes leeks are hard to find so I'll substitute onion. Sometimes I'll add celery and thyme. Sometimes I'll add paprika, and sometimes we're out of Quorn, so I'll add an extra potato to the pot instead. But this is MY soup!!!

I have heard the theories of ancestral memories before. But I had no idea that the soup I make when I'm in the kitchen without a recipe and without a solid plan for a meal... is an old Scottish standby! And the truly ironic thing is that I suffer from GERD - but while onions make my tummy rebel, leeks have never bothered me. So in its proper form, this soup becomes happy-tummy food!

Heh... my tummy knew I was Scottish, before my head! This isn't a matter of planning to add a new recipe to our book, this is a recipe I've unknowingly carried in my head all along!

Scottish Fare: Rumbledethumps

I am of mixed Celtic heritage.

Every March we gravitate towards Irish recipes. Not wanting to limit ourselves to a single day, we eat Irish fare all month long and have acquired dozens of favorite recipes.  And like any good Irish family, that means we go through more than our share of potatoes... and inevitably end up with a few lost tatties hiding in the bottom of the spud bin. You know the ones - barely worth peeling and small enough that they slip down to the bottom, where they sit growing eyes and wrinkles until you find them staring up at you. 

My Mummy traced our Irish ancestors to Counties Cork, Kerry, and Tyrone in Ireland. And I am proud of my Irish roots... but I am MORE Scottish. My Granduncle took a DNA test that came back 98% Northern Great Britain... and Mummy's OTHER side is full of Highland clan names! My own DNA is 2/3 Northern Great Britain - which is SCOTLAND!!!

So this year with my Celtic blood begging for hearty heritage-fare, a desire to try something new, and a bin of little lost tatties making eyes at me, I decided to see if I could find a few authentic Scottish recipes.

I didn't find a few, I found 40. And most of them had the most amazingly fun names like cranachan, cock-a-leekie soup, Strathbogie mist, skirlie, stovies, clapshot...

...and rumbledethumps. I HAD to try rumbledethumps. Who WOULDN'T want to eat something with a name like that? I checked over a dozen recipes and discovered that rumbledethumps are essentially Irish colcannon that's been baked. We LOVE colcannon! From October through April, we make it at LEAST once, sometimes twice every week... and usually make enough to ensure leftovers as well!

Armed with my new knowledge, I carved the eyes from all my lost little tatties and began what I am hoping is the beginning of a weekly Scottish adventure... because I have GOT to try some of these other funny names as well!

I won't bore you with a recipe for mashed potatoes, because anyone who's been in the kitchen for any length of time knows how to prepare them and has their own favorite version. I have been mashing potatoes since I was 7, and have dozens of ways to prepare them, depending on my mood and what may or may not be in the fridge at the moment.

For this dish, I hand mashed my cooked tatties, milk, butter, and a dash of salt and pepper, substituting buttermilk for our regular almond milk this time because it makes the taters taste extra special, and I had some on hand.

To this, I mixed in an equal amount of chopped fresh cabbage. You COULD use less; I've seen recipes for as little as 1/4 cabbage... but this way I can justify a slightly larger portion because it lowers the calories and carbs of the total dish! I smoothed the colcannon into my baking dishes and topped them with cheese. Because I found recipes with every possible type of cheese and wanted leftovers, I made two pans; one with American cheddar, and the other with Kerrygold Skellig. Then I popped them into a 375F (190C) oven for 30 minutes.

Baking the cabbage made it less crunchy than we're used to, but it still had enough texture to add interest, and the 'taters took on a rich buttery twice-baked quality that was absolutely divine.

Despite having the exact same ingredients, this is completely different from colcannon... but every bit as enjoyable and easy to make! We all loved it, and have decided that this is definitely one for the family cookbook.

Rumbledethumps were a complete success, and now I can't WAIT to try more Scottish recipes! Who knows what amazing treasure we'll discover in my next kitchen adventure?

History Day: Roaring 20's NYE

In 1990, my parents suggested playing card games to ring in the new year. For 18 years, we played cards with my parents to ring in each New Year.












In 2008 my mother informed us that she was getting to old to stay up that late, and suggested that we come over for New Years morning instead. Turning to the kids, I asked what they wanted to do instead and they suggested a Wii-competition. So we danced in the New Year before driving to my parents house to visit the swans that winter along the Mississippi River.

Last night was my 30th Family Game New Years Eve. My kids have literally never rung in the New Year any other way. The food has changed to accommodate changing diet needs, family members have left us, and the games have changed as the kids have grown. But the tradition of playing games throughout the night and into the next day with plenty of finger food treats has never wavered. 

It was well over a year ago that my daughter pointed out that for this NYE we would be returning to the 20's again, and suggested that we have a Roaring 20's New Years Eve party. We discussed, we planned, we pored over vintage cookbooks and Pinterest - and we found that apparently "EVERY" party worth going to in the 1920s was a celebration of seafood and booze... which posed an interesting challenge in our family. So my daughter and I set to work creating an anachronistic "Prohibition-Approved, Fish are Friends not Food" interpretation of the iconic 1920s party.

Because this was going to cost a little more than our traditional NYE party to pull off, we decided to do a 1920s theme for our church's Trunk or Treat as well - which gave us a little more budget to work with, but it also meant that everything we did needed to fit into the trunk of our car.
  
The first thing we knew was that we would need plenty of feathers and pearls. So in June we started haunting the thrift stores to find secondhand pearl necklaces that we could use.

I watched Hobby Lobby sale ads for MONTHS, and have discovered that their feather decorations simply do not go on sale. So we kept the feathers to a minimum, and used paper and glitter to fill the rest of the space.

In the dining room, my daughter used a black feather boa, some of our thrifted pearls, and our glass icicle ornaments to create a lavish chandelier. In the living room I took foamboard and PLENTY of gold glitter, and created a marquee for the fireplace.

Our vintage milkglass vases held a pair of feather centerpieces; one in the living room with our desserts, and the other in the dining room with the food.

My daughter created an embroidery hoop chandelier with glitter and velvet cardstocks to hang over the living room dessert table, based on the one that she made for her Egyptian Mummy Party five years ago.

 It was the food that caused us a few problems. After quite a bit of discussion, we decided to make a pair of mocktails, and create food that LOOKED as if it could have been served at a 1920s party.

Along with our loaded baked potato Chex Mix, we tried Cherry Manhattan, and Mint Julep mocktails. The Manhattan was SO strong that we actually poured it down the drain as inedible. Something about the combination of lapsang souchong tea and bitters was just too much for our palates. The mint juleps were okay, but my daugher and I thought they were WAY too sweet and resorted to plain tea while the boys drank the sugary sweetness.

My biggest splurge was a set of 3 ounce shooter glasses with itty bitty serving spoons. Years ago I watched a David Tutera wedding with sliced grilled cheese sandwiches and shooter glasses full of tomato soup, and have been wanting to recreate that look ever since. To go with this, we had a mashed potato bar and served our 'tatties in ice cream sundae cups, and we stacked veggie crudites into the shooters with dip and bamboo skewers.

For dessert we made buttermilk cupcakes, chocolate dipped strawberries, and vegan chocolate tofu mousse layered with cheesecake in the last of our shooter glasses.

I turned on a playlist of 1920s era music, we set out our games and lit the mercury glass candles, and I... was fast asleep by 11:15. 2019 was not an easy year, and after less than 3 hours of sleep and a day of food prepping apparently my body had plans that I wasn't aware of. So I left the partying to the kids, and THEY watched an era-appropriate movie and played a few games.

The decorations sparkled. 
The drinks were weird.
The food was amazing.

2020 will be a year of radical change for us. I'm glad that we ushered it in, with style.