What Do You Do in Your Dining Room?

Like many Americans, we live in an old home. Ours is 160 years old. The house is a “middle income” house and is less than 1600 square feet. There are six of us here, not including the cat, two dogs and bird. It’s *kinda* cramped, actually.

So my dining room does double-duty. We eat our meals in there on the great big cherry table. But we also have our television set with the DVD player and Playstation console. We also have some of our musical instruments in there– a bass guitar, an electric guitar, and two crate amps (Marshall and Peavy). It’s a little crowded but we are able to get around. I’d put the TV and stuff in the living room if I could, but that’s where my home office is and it’s also full of desks where the kids do school. We don’t exactly have the typical American home layout….

What do you do in your dining room? Because families are smaller and because many Americans eat out more frequently, it seems that the dining room has become the “extra” room. Some folks have musical instruments in there. Others have their desks in there. We’ve toyed with the idea of eliminating the dining room altogether, but because we do eat together, I need a central table. (The kitchen is too small).

How do you use your dining room?

The Boys Cook!

Am I a good mom or what???? LOL I got my boys cooking!!!!

Look, here’s the proof!

They made a pie for the holidays. Woohoo! The boys expressed some apprehension when I asked to make a pie (we gals were very busy with other jobs at the time), but I threatened them with no allowance if they didn’t get off their lazy butts encouraged them on. They took to heart my swelling words of bravery and exhortation and tarried on with great courage.

I don’t have a photo of the pie but let us say it turned out magnificently.

My daughter looks like she’s had a little too much eggnog in this photo. But have no fear. She’s always like that. Too much new jersey energy, maybe.

P.S. If you want your male family members to cook anything, always praise their dishes no matter how terrible they taste.

HAHA! I’m kidding, though. The pie was delicious.

And the boys reveled in a job well done.

My New Christmas Tradition

OH SO full of calories but it was a delicious treat for Christmas dessert! (I passed over the pie — too filling — to enjoy a cup of this). I found it while looking for red wine for Christmas dinner. It was affordable so I thought I would try it. I used to LOVE dairy egg nog as a kid but now that I am older, it’s too sweet for me.

This New England Nog was so wonderful! Not too bitter, not too sweet. Just perfect for a Christmas treat. I’m going to get it every year, I hope.

I looked up some recipes online, to see if I could find something comparable to make myself. Wow, this stuff takes a lot of diverse liquors. I really don’t want to buy brandy, rum, and TWO types of whiskey JUST to make this nog every once in a while. :-p Not unless they make “mini” sized versions.

If you know of a good eggnog recipe, let me know! I’d like it to have as little alcohol content as possible.

In other news, we watched the movie “A Christmas Carol” for the holidays. Yes, that very old one that we saw as kids, starring the amazing George C. Scott. In it, Mrs. Crachitt makes “Christmas pudding” and we were all very curious what that was made of. In the movie, the pudding is black, and I wondered if it was blood pudding?? That grossed the kids out but I told them that long ago on the Celtic isles, food could be scarce in the winter and a person ate what they could.

Anyway, I did a little digging and found out that Christmas pudding goes back to the Middle Ages. It is made of flour and plums and a whole bunch of other ingredients. It’s boiled in a cloth bag and stored to age. Then, before serving, it’s covered with brandy and set afire. Wow! In olden times, people might place custom made coins in the pudding. Whoever got the coin got “good luck” for the year. I remember seeing “The Great Dictator,” a Charlie Chaplin movie, and in it the characters each get a coin in their pudding (Chaplin swallows them all, lol).

Ya learn something new every day! LOL

How was your Christmas? Did you discover anything new or start any new tradition?

MUST HAVE Vintage Signs

Ever since I was a little girl and I dug an old, discarded Sunbeam Bread tin sign from a junk pile, I have loved retro signs. Since I renovated my kitchen last year, I have been slowly collecting and adding them to my kitchen walls. I wish they weren’t so durn expensive, and I could kick myself for listening to my parents telling me to toss that old Sunbeam sign… because my walls are still as bare as ever!

Here are a few of my favorites that are currently on my wish list… when I can afford them.

Just the right amount of sass and frass.

Traditional AKA Boring Thanksgiving Dinner

Every year, I make the same basic, traditional (AKA, boooooring) Thanksgiving dinner: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, pie. Last year I think I did something REALLY exciting and made deviled eggs, woohooo. I love the holiday, but when it comes to the feast, I am horribly dull and uncreative. I think may do something REALLY wild and get canned pie mix or something! How’s that!? Yeah, I think it’s about as exciting as free online dating, too, mmhmmmmm…

I don’t know why my brain just goes tilt when holiday meals roll around. I’m honestly not much of a “foodie.” I like plain meals. I LOVE turkey and my mouth is watering just thinking of having that… but I never liked making (or eating) the very fancy-schmancy meals that grace the table like a work of art. It seems that it’s a burden to cook on the holidays. Like everyone else, I want to relax and sit down and just BE QUIET without running around, working on stuff. But the holidays is a lot of cooking, lots more cleaning, and by the time I can sit down, folks are ready to go. :-p

What about you? Do you like to cook up a big storm? Do you make amazing dishes for the holidays? If so, do you want to cater my holiday meal, LOL?

I guess I’m just not domestic enough for it. I prefer to hang with the guys, talking about tools and politics and hunting and stuff.

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