Saturday Meanderings

I tried to schedule nothing this week, but it seems I was just as busy as ever. Happy Saturday, friends. Can you even believe Thanksgiving is in 5 days? I love this holiday because there are no presents, just time with those you love and delicious food. My son arrives tomorrow from Chicago and we have plans to cook and bake~just perfection! It’s time again to review all the good things that happened this week so let’s get started.

Good News this Week

My daughter, Julianna, got accepted to graduate school at Embry-Riddle. She starts in January so we will be quickly searching for housing and moving her into the next chapter in her life. We will miss having her and her two pups and cat, but what an exciting new adventure. Her area of focus will be Cyber Intelligence and Security.

It’s That Time of Year

Exactly a year ago today, I made my very first Mary Berry’s Christmas Cake. Whether you like fruit cake or not, this one is so delicious and can be made up to 3 months in advance. Again, I am altering the ingredients a bit as I am not a fan of glacé cherries, so I am substituting pitted tart Montmorency dried cherries from Trader Joe’s.

The recipe also calls for 1.5 lbs of currants~which seems like alot. Since our local store only sells them in 3 oz. packages (and they are pricey), I am using dates instead. You need to soak the dried fruit in brandy or sherry for 3 days which is happening now on my counter. My dried fruit combination includes sultanas, dried cranberries, dried wild blueberries, dates and dried cherries. My friend, Christine is coming over and we will be baking two of these cakes together!

Also, the Great British Baking Show Holiday Edition is now available to view on Netflix. I am always so inspired by this and maybe I will find even more holiday baking recipes!

My husband just made a batch of Alton Brown’s Aged Egg Nog. This is the 3rd year making it and last year’s batch aged a full year before we consumed it at Christmas. However, by starting it now, it is still very drinkable immediately or in December. Truly delicious~here’s the recipe.

I am getting ready to dust off my panettone pan that I purchased last year and make this wonderful Italian holiday sweet bread. If you have never had panettone, you will not be disappointed. Trader Joe’s has smaller, individual size versions and Williams Sonoma carries a delicious chestnut one this time of year. Of course, Amazon has a large selection too.

The Oldest Living Person in the U.S.

Bessie Hendricks, the oldest living person in the United States, turned 115 last week. “It’s marvelous that we still have her,” her 90-year old daughter said. Hendricks was born in 1907. Her lifetime has seen 21 presidents, two world wars, and the sinking of the Titanic. She is the fourth oldest living person in the world. She resides at Shady Oaks Care Center in Iowa.

Wouldn’t you love to sit and have a conversation with her? Well, Happy Birthday, Bessie!

Magazines I love

I am anxiously awaiting the December/Winter issue of Chic & Country magazine. It is a virtual magazine, but I like the fact that I can peruse older issues on the computer. Each issue is packed with home stories, decor and styling ideas, travel features, food recipes, and every issue is advertising free (yay!). It’s $20 for 6 months or $25 a year for a subscription. You can find it here.

Recently, I met the Design Director for Milieu magazine at a book signing. In MILIEU, every story captures the look and feel, the mood and character, the style of a place—its milieu. The quality of the magazine is high-end and the photos are all provided by designers and photographers~very stunning. This is not a virtual magazine and they have 4 issues a year at $18.99/issue.

Do you subscribe to any magazines? Are they virtual or hard copy? I used to have all the magazines but stopped subscribing because I had difficulty throwing them out. I prefer to sit and turn the pages of a magazine, but with so much information online, I’m sure this industry has suffered.

Turkey Drive

Our neighborhood is again participating in a Turkey Drive with our police department and St. Mary’s Food Bank. This weekend I will be going shopping for turkeys with another neighbor. We raised $500 so far and hopefully that will buy us a good amount.

Does your community help your local food bank during the holidays? It’s such an important effort and we are always so happy to participate.

Christmas Creep

Have you ever heard of Christmas Creep? I had not until I read a blog post by my friend, Andrea from Design Morsels. Andrea has this very funny dry sense of humor and she calls it like she sees it. Anyway, I find this post very interesting and thought provoking. You can see it here and tell me what you think.

This Week’s Posts

I hope you had a chance to see my two posts this week on Mini Appetizer Boards for Thanksgiving and Cleaning and Caring of Roman Shades.

We are getting ready for our Thanksgiving guests and our trip up to the mountains for our holiday dinner. The grocery stores are already packed with people shopping for their ingredients. Hope to get all that done this weekend.

Wishing you a very happy and relaxing weekend.