The family tree.....

I was reading Martha Stewart's blog the other day and she had posted pictures of tombstones at a graveyard near her home in Bedford, NY. Most of the headstones were dated the 1800's. One was from the 1600's! She named names and speculated as to what their life must've been like, whether their kin was buried next to them or if there was something special mentioned on their headstone. I wonder if the current family members of those buried folk know their ancestors story?

I know some people would find this type of walk-a-bout creepy, but I don't. I spent many hours as a kid walking through old and forgotten mountain-side burial plots looking for past family members. See, my Mom was, and still is a little, into genealogy--searching and tracking our family history. She was the first one who introduced me to tombstone rubbing. That is when you use white paper up against a headstone that is a little too worn for the naked eye to make out. With charcoal or pencil lead you then lightly go over the white paper and voila'! you would have a charcoal relief of what the tombstone originally said. Plus it gave her a 'hard copy' of full names and birth and death dates that she could carry home in hopes of connecting-the-dots with other family members.

She's gone back many, many generations on my Dad's side and quite a few on her side of the family too. Oh, the stories she has told me about some very colorful folks in our family history. Not to mention the family scandal or two that had been swept under the rug for years upon years only to be uncovered by....my Mom. There were quite a few undocumented name changes, one or two illegitimate children, a couple of mistresses, a couple of altered birth certificates, some relatives who just 'disappeared' and some really, really weird cod's (cause of deaths). There are a few other jaw-dropping revelations and stories that I won't share here. Mom would be aghast that I've shared this much already! lol....Maybe I'll write a series of books one day about all the characters that build the base of my family tree. They make for some very interesting stories.

When I was a kid, these cemetery walks used to bore me to tears, but now I'm glad that Mom did all that research. It's pretty cool to look over your life as the pieced together quilt that it is. Every piece is not always pretty and the edges maybe a little (or very) ragged and frayed, but every piece fits together and it makes us, eventually, who we are....

October....

I'm sitting here in my office working. Well, 'working', because I am spending more time staring out the window. There is a longing in my heart today to be outside, not in the office. The leaves right now are just gorgeous. More and more of them are falling today though, as a breeze is blowing. My backyard is a sea of yellow, orange and red--both on the trees and on the ground...

"O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all....."

~Robert Frost~

The first cut is the deepest....

My daughter has spent the past two days trying out for her schools' basketball team. This was her first time trying out for a sports team, so the whole 'tryout' process was all new and very exciting. The two-hour tryouts Monday and Tuesday were filled with drills, dribbling, shooting and team dynamics. Last night, she found out that she did not make the first cut. Ouch. My girl turned from the computer screen last night after she did not find her name on the list and told us the news. Then the chin quiver started.....

ahhhhh, that first sting of disappointment and rejection as a kid. It's a tough, but necessary hurdle to clear in life. There are sooooo many important life lessons to be learned in this experience for her though. That you gotta try your hardest, no matter the outcome. That it's ok to be disappointed for a little bit. How to be a gracious loser. How to now be a cheerleader for her friends who made the cut. How to create a game-plan to practice for next years' tryout....the list goes on and on and on. As important as the life lessons are though, as a Mommy, it's still hard to watch my baby take that first big hurt.

The Spider House....

I started decorating for Halloween a couple of weeks ago. This is our first round of holidays in this house, so the task is to figure out how your gonna decorate it--with what you have or new stuff. Most of our existing stuff works on this house. I love bringing in the haybales with scarecrows and pumpkins. They will stay up all the way through Thanksgiving. The pumpkins that don't become jack-0-lanterns over the next week, will stay as their companions. The newest addition to this house were the spiders. I bought these 4 five-foot spiders to hang on the outside of the house. We now live in what is known as....the spider house.


The mums have just popped over the past couple of days. I bought them with only buds and no opened flowers. Now they are all in bloom. They were worth the wait. On the inside I have a black candle house surrounded by a ghoulish cemetary with creepy characters milling about. My favorite decoration for Halloween though has to be my merry band of handpainted ghosts. My MIL gave them to me, the first one all painted by her, the other five still bisque that I got to paint. They were one of my first ceramic painting projects. They've been in 3 different houses now, numerous moves and are not as quite as ghostly white as they used to be, but I love, love, love unwrapping them every year.

While I write this I am baking Pumpkin Cookies to sandwich with Maple Cream to give to a friend who is having a birthday tomorrow. Gotta run before they become roasted pumpkin cookies!

Leaves....

Who knew that my early morning drive to the drugstore this morning would have been so beautiful? Thank you God, for that sinus headache so I could enjoy your beauty! lol...

The drive to my house.....

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded
to it, and if
I were a bird I would fly
about the earth
seeking the successive autumns!

~George Eliot

A 'chili' weekend.....

When the weather turns cold I start cooking soup. In an effort to keep things lighter and healthier, I gravitate toward broth-based soups. A couple of days ago, I made homemade chicken vegetable and have been slurping on it for the past few nights. Yum! For this weekend though, I am making my absolute favorite cold weather food--chili. I LOVE chili...the meat, the beans, a little heat....mmmmmm.

But in order to have it to eat for the weekend, I will make it today. I believe that certain foods do get better when their ingredients are allowed to mingle for a day or two. Chili is definitely one of them. The beauty of chili, too, is that as long as you have the basics--tomatoes, spices and some beef/chicken broth, you can add whatever you want and make it truly your own! Extra meat, no meat, black beans instead of kidney beans or no beans at all, add some corn or extra onion. How 'bout some funky chili peppers that you found at the market? Beer? Zucchini? Absolutely!!! Chili is a cooks ultimate free-for-all dish. Then there are the toppings or no topping at all. Mine always comes with a side of homemade cornbread and that's all. This is my base recipe and usually I don't veer too far from it because I don't see how you can improve on perfection! But add to it whatever you like--that's the joy of this recipe!

One Pot Chili

1 Tbls canola/olive oil (whichever is fine)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 lbs ground beef or turkey
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 small can diced green chiles
2 1/2 Tbls chili powder
1 (28oz) can cup up peeled tomatoes, undrained
1 (15oz) can dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 (15oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
grated cheeses, sliced green onion, sour cream, cilantro, etc for toppings, if desired.

In a large stock pot, heat oil until hot. Add onion and cook over medium heat, stirring, until onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add ground turkey or beef and cook til just done. Add garlic and cook for another 2 minutes.

Stir in chiles, chili powder, tomatoes with their liquid, beans, salt and pepper. Heat to boiling, stirring. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, 20 minutes. Eat immediately or if you can, let the chili cool and refrigerate til next day. Reheat slowly, serve and top with cheese, sour cream or whatever you want!

Comfort food & big sweaters....

ahhhhhhhh, Fall. The beginning of the 'nesting' period for me. I love striking the fire, watching the leaves change and then fall. Enjoying the Charlie Brown specials for the 1000th time. The snuggling onto the couch on a cold night in my comfy sweats, soft sweaters and big, fuzzy socks. I also love breaking out my favorite comfort food recipes too...mmmmm.....mac n cheese, chili, soups, casseroles, etc....

For me, someone who has lost an incredible amount of weight (140 lbs!) and now has to constantly police what she eats to keep the weight off, this time of year can pack on the pounds! We move less, we wear bigger clothes and we eat differently (and heavier) than we do in the warmer months. There is a great article in the News & Observer today called "Maximize comfort, Minimize calories" that I found very helpful in making substitutions. It really is not about denying yourself all that good stuff, rather substituting for lighter dishes that will still give you that warm-in-the-belly feeling. There were some great suggestions in the article, like instead of big, heavy creamed up soups, how 'bout Tomato soup with cracked black pepper? For your favorite mac-n-cheese, use low-fat cheese instead of full-strength. Can I just tell you now--don't go 'fat free' on cheese, you might as well chew on a pencil eraser....seriously, just don't go there. On grilled cheese, use 1 slice of cheese instead of 2. For me, this equation would be: use 2 slices instead of my usual 4! = ) See? I cut it in half...that does make a difference!

I love the idea of a baked apple with maple syrup or a bowl of warm, homemade applesauce with cinnamon instead of double crusted apple pie. If you want that pie, make it single crust instead of double crust. Spiced gumdrops and jellybeans are a good little snack instead of leftover Halloween candy. Use chicken broth in mashed potatoes instead of cream and butter. Use maple syrup (natural source) in your sweet potatoes this year instead of all the brown sugar (processed source) and butter. The article also suggests other 'comfort' signals too, like when it's dark at 5 p.m. this winter, light a candle in the kitchen or put some mulling spices on the stove.

Don't set yourself up for unpleasant surprises this spring when you pull our your shorts and tank tops and find none of them fit. It's not about denying yourself or eating all 'rabbit food'... just some simple substitutions can help make these upcoming holidays and cold winter months a little lighter and healthier, yet still with all the comfort you want and need!