it doesn't seem to matter

Struggling at the beginning of this month,
with the loss of family,
knowing that a cousin on another continent,
speaks more to me than those only a few hundred miles away.
Missing my mom,
missing my dad.
The season started bleak and
thinking of the cold, dreary, weary days of winter to come,
left my heart in grayness.
My sugar was high last night,
through my doings and
this morning,
but none of it seems to matter,
For no reason at all,
I woke up rejoicing.
Happy to be alive,
happy with my extended family,
who are close,
happy with this season.
For no real reason,
the grayness is gone
and joy is present!
Peace to all who may be troubled.

Christmas review

It is getting on to that time,
a bittersweet time,
for it is after Thanksgiving now,
but before Christmas.
I went back,
looking to see what i have written in the past,
and memories flooded me.
There are so many good things,
so many wonderful people,
that are no longer here.
I feel some what lost,
grasping for what i can no longer have.
Family and friends seem long gone away,
that is bitter.
The memories of the joys we shared,
that is sweet.
The celebration with the ones i love now,
this is the important thing.
Live now,
not in the past,
not in the future.
With Love,
not hate
and with no regrets.

Christmas time for me

it is that time of year
and the memories i have are full of fun and joy,
but my mood turns dark as i remember most of those people with whom i had such fun,
are no longer in this world
and the persons who are here are in titanic struggles
which make joy a luxury.
This is sadness to me
for i have loved the Christmas message
and the joy it brings.
So i will go away for this Christmas time
and seek quiet and find my joy there.

a cold snowy day

but our road was just plowed!
It is warm inside and
 i am cooking!
Going to bake some of my cookies today -
the fun, simple Greek ones (Kouludia, Kourambiethes).
There is a contest going,
but i can see i won't win because most of those who have tried my cookies are not voting,
sigh.
They are not sweet, but have powdered sugar on them,
so it kind of looks like today!

The recipe is here - enjoy!

Christmas 2012

I love to decorate for Christmas,
my mother acted like a little child around Christmas decorations,
These are Good times!
I decided to be different this year (when am i not?),
2 trees - one outside,
the other inside.  The inside tree is small, but really old fashion:



















The outside tree is more modern:


Of course i had to cook something and this is one of my favorite hot relishes and is dangerous
Using Ghost peppers and a variety of others - i boiled the ghost peppers to reduce the heat index (3,000,000 scovile units to maybe 1,000,000)  With lime and salt.  There are 2 women n the block who are expecting and i know this works!

I HAD HELP

today was the day to finish my cookie baking - two more to make and i do not think i would have dome it with out help.
I had help Friday, but today i had 2 to help.


Daughter



mother











Koulourakia and my own style of Kourambiethes.
light and airy was the result.






Kourambiethes



Koulourakia




My friend Irene, is very experienced in the kitchen, but with Indian food.  Her daughter was very good as well and i could not have done this with out them

the recipe is as follows...

Kourambiethes

(Joe's version)

1 cup whipped butter

1/3 cup raw sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon TANG

1 teaspoon orange peel (candied is okay) or zest

1 teaspoon anise flavor

1 teaspoon water

4 cups flour

1 1/2 cup pecans

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Beat the butter 30 seconds then add sugar and TANG and beat till fluffy.

Add zest or peel, nuts, orange and anise flavor and water.

Continue to beat until the mixture begins to  “ball” into clumps. (Sometimes I need to add more flour)

You may shape the cookie, keep in balls or “squash down”.  Your choice

Roll into balls and place on a baking tray and cook for 20 minutes at 350º F.

The cookies will have the edges just brown.

They must cool before removing from tray (but not cold).

Place on tray and cover with powdered sugar.

Eat at room temperature.

creations

With some  help i went a bit out of the box and started with some old fashion anise type cookies (Old Italian)










Then of course to baklava

in the pan

Seeing whats in them

Karidopida (a nut cake)

I also made an odd assortmet, for fun, of various sugar/nut cookies (too sweet for me)

The baklava is not too sweet (even with the syrup)

2 more on my list today

I am still a bit off the wall

These E mails still are getting to me. The last one was not so hateful, but it missed something important.
For those who read this and do not claim to be "christian", this tirade really does not pertain to you.
Those others, well read on.
We as a people or race like to blame everything on someone or something else.
We do not like to take responsibility for much of anything, yet in reality, most of the things we complain about, especially in this country, can be laid squarely at our own feet.
The lastest is to blame some organization for trying to take Christ out of Christmas, yet when the stores opened on Sundays, we were very happy and flocked to them, basically telling them we did not believe in a day of rest.
When the Christmas displays kept showing up earlier and earlier, we bought early, telling the stores that Christmas was only a commercial holiday and had no religeous significance.
Christmas is only a day, among many and is really not a particular day anyone was born, but a day some church fathers decided that such a day would be celebrated.
Giving is for every day, niot just for this holiday.
Ask the food pantries that serve those without. Thanksgiving and Christmas, their pantries are full, but coem summertime, they are begging for donations.
Enough of my stupidness.
I like to celebrate and I do enjoy this time of year and no one can take my spirituality out of this season, except me and I choose to embrace it!

Interesting times

One of the things that happened this last hospitalization was I lost most of my sense of taste- high salt, very sweet and spicy ( a friend gave me some home-made Indian chutney that seemed to penetrate the strange blank of yuk that coated my mouth). It finally left, but I still could not eat much (maybe just as well, I am still only about 190) and then I got to cook! One of my favorite things is to cook, sometimes I do well, sometimes not so well. Well Christmas eve was a great test, it was not overly complicated simple appetizers (from the can or just needing to be cut up) Shrimp, scallops, spaghetti and salad. The shrimp I did in a butter with garlic, shallots, a bit of lemon and white wine. Same with the scallops, with out the lemon.. Then I took the juice from that, thicken slightly and made the sauce for the pasta. It all worked, the shrimp and scallops were not over cooked, but tender and juicy, everyone raved, especially me, since I was not sure how i would do (Thanksgiving, I could not cook anything). I did it with out being exhausted (yea!) and tho I went to sleep early, it was a very good sleep. The only sad thing - I was only able to eat 4 shrimp, 1 scallop, a clam (I frogit to mention the steamed clams?) and 2 bites of pasta, oh well I'll get to eat again, some day.

Christmas

I have kind of strange attitudes toward Christmas. I am not overly religious about it, even tho the main issue is a celebration of the birth of Jesus, I don't particularly believe that this is THE day, but it is a great time to put the celebration. I also happen to hate winter, so any positive thing is important and this as a celebration beats every other holiday I can think of. The gift giving is minor to insignificant (read clearly here that I have no children), but the decorations are. They are bright and cheery and lift my heart nicely. I was introduced to the Italian fast (no meat) feast for Christmas eve some years ago and although I can not dream of following the entire set-up the way the Italians do, I Love setting something up that is similar or at least mimics it a little bit. I probably will not go to church this evening, the 11 PM services are to much for me this year. Love, kindness, friendship are the most important things all of this and I definitely have been given a lot of that this year. Thankfulness is big on the list too. So to all who read this, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and God bless you all, everyone!

Merry Christmas!

I usually send an internet Christmas card to those I know, because I am terrible in writing cards (and one card does it all). This year is no exception.
My first attempt had to be replaced by a second cause I had one graphic selected. (whoops!) It was a play on the words of a pop Christmas song.
Yes I still see double, so I patch one eye at a time and lose energy quickly with that along with other minor issues. Yes it is true, I have NOT healed yet, but things are working. I am suppose to get a call concerning SUNY school of optometry in NYC sometime today and try to get fitted for prism glass so I can see straight (the actual trip has me concerned).
I am dealing with what I would call a 'sour' stomach, something I never had in my life before this (it allowed me to really enjoy eating).
All my scraps seem to be rapidly healing, suddenly (including an allergic reaction to the non-allergenic flesh colored cloth tape when they drew blood).
The taste buds in my mouth appear to be returning to normal (There was an extremely bitter coating in my mouth which stopped all but the most intense flavors).
And the massive amounts of mucous my mouth was producing appear to be subsiding.
All in all very good.
One other strange thing - I have always hated the cold because it seemed to permeate every pore in my body. I still hate the cold, but it does not seem to bother me as much physically as it did.
I would definately say things are looking up!