for anytime or all the time

i've mentioned in previous posts that i am not a baker. however, there is one recipe that even I, cannot mess up. trust me. i (with the help of our youngest) have baked 18 loaves and counting of this yummy-scrummy chocolate chip pumpkin bread since the wednesday before thanksgiving.

my dear friend and former neighbor would bring this to us every once and awhile. she also would bring us cake*pops*, cookies, soup. i miss her living so close....and i miss her cooking for us.

a few months after she and her family moved back to california, i made cookies. all by myself--they were pretty good too. when the boys came home from school i had them sitting on a plate with ice-cold milk. guess who made you cookies? the boys guessed amy. all the way from california. c'mon.

so here's her recipe:

3 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
*mix above ingredients in large bowl.
add following ingredients--mix:
3 c. sugar
3/4 c. water
1 c. oil
1 small can pumpkin
4 eggs
1 (6 oz) pkg. chocolate chips
*grease loaf pans w/crisco. bake at 350degrees for:
1 hour for 4 small loaf pans
or 1 1/2 hours for 2 large loaf pans
let cool a few minutes, then turn out on rack.

i've made a teeny-tiny adjustment out of the idea i could make this a teeny-tiny bit healthier. i substitute 1/2 cup applesauce in place of 1/2 cup of oil. i still use a 1/2 oil. you could skip the chocolate chips. i've thought about doing it....but, i'm scared. what happens to people who pass on chocolate? it can't be good. ;)


best
deborah
p.s. you can move back here amy. that photo at the top of the page--it's from miami or bangladesh. not michigan. not even my backyard.

what i asked for....

i have a confession: this weekend i made my first turkey dinner--complete with dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy. yep, my very first. ever.

when dreaming about christmas this year and my intentions for the holidays, i realized that i truly have everything i could ever want, materially. perhaps, even more than i really want. new gadgets don't make my skirt fly up or curl my toes in the way they to do for some people. and i have plenty of sweaters. however, what i did want was time with those that mean the very most to me--those relationships and doing things--making memories that will last a lifetime.

so after r's basketball game (which they won in double overtime....phew, that was exciting!!!!) my folks headed back to our house. they were coming to teach and supervise their turkey making recipe and methods (tent-foil steam roasted, just like my grandparents used to do. i swear, my dad looked so much like my grandpa folding the aluminum foil so precisely--very engineer-like). i followed all directions. with hardly any back-talk;) really--you measure the celery and onions? really? this much butta'?

r played board games with my folks and won *legitimately*--says my dad, while big red and i hand-washed the china.

what a fun and sweet and lovely night. we also decorated one gingerbread house and made two kinds of cookies. alright, the cookies were from an envelope mix--because really the fun is in the rolling out, shape making and decorating. well--b says it's in the *eating*.


later we caught the last hour of "it's a wonderful life". and, you know, it really is.


best
deborah

our family tree

i changed my header photo. it is from our big christmas tree.

it is so much how i feel at christmas--bright and happy and nostalgic.

that stripe-y ornament is from my grandparent's. not just from them--but from the trees they had each year. i'm pretty sure it is from the 1930's.

the turquoise bulb is straight from my own parent's very groovy silver aluminum tree. that tree had it's own rotating light wheel that would cast red, blue, yellow on the tree--and for a brief few seconds the yellow would become green and the blue would turn all violet before turning red. those turquoise, magenta and purple balls are all circa 1962. i remember sprawling out on the floor staring into that light wheel, while listening to my dad's christmas records on the stereo.
this is probably the last year we had that groovy tree--1972. (it says so on the back of the photo. it also says i am 5 years 4 months) and maybe, the last year my mom had that totally remarkable hair. i can almost smell the "adorn" hairspray. my mom wasn't in many of my childhood photographs. she did most of the picture-taking. well, because as you can see my dad did not count or give us any warning to smile or anything. i think my mom is telling my little sister and i to say....*cheese*. i'm pretty sure my mom doesn't show up again in a photo until the early 1980's. in those days, the self-photograph wasn't so common. but i digress.

and then there are the ones we--big red and i have collected. all together on one tree. traditional christmas--passed from one generation to the next.

i love this family tree of ours.



best
deborah

abundant gratitude

100. 100 things. last but not least. the woman, the book and page that started my gratitude journey.

100. "simple abundance: a daybook of comfort and joy" by sarah ban breathnach.
i love this book. it is a book of days, a return to the basic, simple abundance in our lives. a gift in 1996....and ever since.
january 14th is the page that changed my life. seriously. i've kept a gratitude journal since 1996. that's a long time. part of that time, my journal was typed out--online, part handwritten--in books.

at a women's retreat that year--1996, i led a session on gratitude journals.
this is the journal from that weekend. i know when that retreat was from the journal entries tucked inside. so much has happened in fourteen years.

it's funny, i'm still most grateful for the same things now as I was then--plus another son to love.


best
deborah

attitude of gratitude

i am thankful for songs and music, painting and sculptures, movies and literature everyday. some days, hard days--they pull me through. do you ever feel that way? and some days, the right song at the right time is like a blessing. a friend loans you a book just when you need it most? i love when that happens. these nine things are like that for me. enjoy. :)

91. jack johnson's song, "better together"....alright, pretty much anything jack johnson's does or is;)
92. dave matthew's song "you might die trying"
93. "night" by elie wiesel

94. mark rothko's painting #24
95. the sound of music with julie andrews
96. "wonder" by natalie merchant
97. any book or story by anne lamont
98. genesis 1
99. genesis 2


best
deborah

accessible thanksgiving

continuing on--as for me, thanksgiving is so much more than a day in november. it's a mind-set--a way of life. i am grateful for:

81. libraries
82. hospitals83. parks
84. schools
85. art museums
86. police and fire stations
87. theaters
88. places of worship
89. community gardens
90. post offices

best
deborah

cornucopia

the pineapple was not cooperative.

that's pretty much all i have to say about that cornucopia of fruit.

r and i baked. the one thing i can bake. the one thing that always turns out pretty and yummy. it's a thanksgiving miracle every year. i am thankful.

so we're busily cooking and baking.

tonight we'll watch "a charlie brown thanksgiving". we loooooove charlie brown in this house. i will pull for charlie brown. and will be mad at lucy. again.

when r heads to bed, big red, b and i will watch "planes, trains and automobiles".
i love that movie. it's steve martin and john candy. what's not to love? here's a clip. steve martin's character, neal is just trying to get home for thanksgiving with his family when he finds himself stuck with del, john candy's character.
big red and i try to watch this every year. it's perfect while waiting for stuff to come out of the oven.

i'll be back with more of my 100 things....in the days ahead.


best
deborah