Monday, December 29, 2008

Leftovers

Have your holidays been marvelous? Ours have. I have hardly even noticed the wax from the menorah candles splashing onto my freshly painted windowsill and leaving colored waxy dents in the smooth white. Ahem.

But otherwise, it's been love and joy and ham around here. The ham recipe is up at wondertime over here.

Soon, we'll be taking the tree down. Sigh. But until then, we'll enjoy our family's rich and varied history. Ahem.

Love and joy to you. xoxo




20 comments:

  1. YES! That was like the best last minute holiday gift ever. I have been an avid fan/lurker/stalker for years now, and have always wanted to see what the KISS ornament really looked like. Thank you so much, Catherine! It's as glorious as I'd imagined. ;D

    Here's to a great new year!
    ~Sarah T in Ohio

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  2. Ah! The legendary KISS ornament! (Like Sarah, I always wondered what it looked like!)

    Hope you had a wonderful holiday!

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  3. KISS?

    I've been having a nice holiday, despite the virulent illnesses that have been running through the house over the past ten days. Suffice to say we are keeping the economy going soley through our purchases of Kleenex and children's Tylenol. Intrigued? More lovely descriptions on my blog, www.girlinaboyhouse.blogspot.com

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  4. Oops, I meant solely.

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  5. Lick it Up. Lick it Up. Whoa oh!

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  6. I think that your family tradition of celebrating a bunch of different holidays is so cool! I want to do the same with my kids. Καλα!

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  7. I think that KISS ornament even beats our Miss Piggy as an Angel ornament as a relic from the '70s. Lick it up, indeed.

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  8. My son came home with a surprisingly useful item from Sunday school - a Menorah Wax Catcher. We previously used an old cutting board to catch the wax drips, but this is much better and handmade. He decorated a large piece of construction paper with Hanukkah designs and then glued on the pre-printed candle lighting prayers. Then the whole thing was laminated so it would be able to withstand the wax. The size could be adjusted to fit a windowsill, if one preferred it to be free of waxy dents next year.

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  9. Those dents in your windowsill are just as precious as the marks where you record their height on the wall. They are what make a house a home. When you are old, you will run your fingers over their bumpy surface and reflect on all of your happy holidays there. Then you will dig out the menorah again and light it with your grandchildren, making more dents and filling them with memories.

    Happy New Year,
    Charlotte

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  10. Happy Holidays, Catherine. You were an integral part of mine as I made your wonderful caramel popcorn as neighbor gifts - everyone raved and the kids and I had much fun - thank you! And, it was fun to discover, as I was commenting on that recipe, that Disney does NOT like the word "cocktail." Hmmm...'tis a shame. Nonetheless, I will keep experimenting with my limited vocabulary...

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  11. We wait until after three kings (on the 6th) to take the tree down, and it always leaves a huge emptiness in our house. I love Christmas! Thanks for the wonderful recipes and great ornaments!!!

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  12. Just made the ham and peas for dinner. It was awesome! Is there a more satisfying feeling than making a great dinner and using up left overs? I love the new column with recipes. Your children are beautiful as always.

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  13. Oh, the KISS ornament! Sweet! Happy New Year!

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  14. Anonymous9:42 AM

    Love the ornament! We also leave our tree up until the 6th, but then I have to hurry and get everything put away for my husband's bday is the 12th! Happy New Year! Your gingerbread had been a big hit with our family this holiday. Thanks. Shari

    okay - carbwar is the word verify -are you trying to tell me something :-)

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  15. mmmm. Corn chowder. and just at the right moment for supper...

    I seem to have a knack of putting my foot in it when writing comments on this blog, but I'm gonna try again...

    I admit to being a little bit of a nay-sayer about the whole move to food writing thing. Not much, but a little. But here's one thing I love now. In music its called the 'folk process' a piece that is passed along between players getting adapted and changed a little each time to make something exciting and new, but with the stories, soul and history of the journey all wrapped up in it still.

    Thats how I feel about lots of these recipes. I make them, pass them on, make them slightly differently, add new stuff, savour and share the result. Like mixing up the types of beans and toasting tortillas to go with the dinner beans...and....and...

    Did I make it? Is anyone offended?

    Thanks for the sustinance Catherine

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  16. I'll just assume that holiday ham was kosher

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  17. Anonymous8:48 AM

    littlehouse--that was lovely. A perfect comparison. --Cathy K

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  18. This is unrelated to the holidays but don't know where else to tell you how much I enjoyed your Wondertime article on the birds and the bees. There were lines (the string one in particular) that had me laughing so hard I'm glad I was home alone. Thank you for this.

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  19. The sight of the Kiss ornament made me laugh so hard that I almost forgot we've been stuck inside, sick, for three weeks. I just wrote about our horrors over at MyNorth (http://community.mynorth.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2345865%3ABlogPost%3A9523), but then realized you, the forever fan of the neti, could have answered my title question just fine....as in, if you rub a neti pot long enough, will a genie appear?

    We're needing one around here....
    oh, and now I have to go hunt down the new Wondertime, because this whole birds and bees business is way too timely at my house-- unless, um, you were actually writing about, well, birds and bees.

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  20. Catherine,
    I wanted to tell you, by way of a compliment, that my husband's magazine (shameless plug here--grist.org) is having Michael Pollan visit their office tomorrow and some well intentioned, if somewhat masochistic, person thought it would be fun to do a potluck lunch for him (jeez, no pressure!). After a lot of brainstorming, my husband decided that what he most wanted to bring was your Thanksgiving crudite & dip recipe (which we call "crack" dip at our house).

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