Christmas Knitting and other stuff

*If you're a knitter...or simply have a significant other,...you must see this video. It'll give you a good chuckle. For me, it also reminded me of conversations in this house....

*Friday's edition of American Profile magazine, tucked into the daily newspaper (which I did not steal from my neighbor, by the way:•) included a recipe for Turkey Tortilla Soup. This morning I finally tackled the dreaded task of deboning the leftover turkey, and then I made this soup. Now that I've finished off a bowl of it, I can tell you it's really, really delicious.

I halved the recipe, because I wasn't sure if it would be a keeper or not. Next time I'll make a full batch. I didn't have any cumin, never have owned cumin, don't plan to own cumin, have no idea what it is anyway, so I left that out of the pot. In place of a can of chopped green chilies, I simply used a can of diced tomatoes with green chilies. That worked fine. Also, I had no Great Northern or navy white beans on hand, so I tossed in a can of black beans. And finally, I had no avocados on hand, because the only ones I've found in the supermarket lately are from Chile, and they don't seem to be as sweet and tasty as California avocados.

But what I did add was a dollop of sour cream, with which I crowned the crushed tortilla chips just before serving. Umm-um. Good.

*Recently I read or saw somewhere the suggestion of adding sliced lemons to the vase of a flower arrangement. I'd picked some holly stems from our holly bushes, so I added the lemon slices to that vase. I love the effect, and the holly doesn't seem to mind. I'm having all I can do not to drink the water from the vase, because it looks so tasty and fresh! Actually I should have taken this photo a couple of days ago, when the lemon slices were looking fresher than they look today. I'm sure you still get the general idea, though.

It's a beautiful, sunny, mild day here in southern Maine. I, however, want snow. The mountains of Maine have it, and ski slopes have been open for a few weeks, but so far all we've seen near the coast is a dusting of the white stuff.

*I was planning to start some serious Christmas decorating today, but here it is 12:30 p.m. and I still have several other tasks to do before getting to the decorating. Perhaps I'll start my decorating tomorrow. Last year I had no Christmas spirit; this year I'm already feeling the first twinges of Christmas Spirit, so I'm hopeful. I think reading this post from Lene in Finland has helped me tremendously. She does exquisite needlework and writes so beautifully...and English is her second language!

So those are my thoughts for today. Now to get to work.

P.S. The hat and scarf in the header are from Sock Yarn One-skein Wonders by Judith Durant. The book and several skeins of sock yarn were given to me for my birthday this year, so I've been having fun.

P.P.S The hat and scarf are not for my husband, nor will I be knitting him a sweater! He hasn't asked for ice skates, either. Which reminds me, when we were dating, he gave me a pair of ice skates for Christmas that first year. I thought that was such a clever and thoughtful gift. We used to do quite a lot of ice skating "back in the day."

Pies for sale

So that was Thanksgiving.

I confessed to a friend last week that Thanksgiving dinner is my least favorite meal to prepare during the year. It's so darned much work, and then there's all the clean-up. For some reason, Christmas dinner never seems to be as much work.

I like Thanksgiving itself, for sure. I enjoy having family here on the big day, and I definitely enjoy the food. I guess having the meal catered would be my idea of a relaxing day. I wish we'd had some snow, though. I like to have snow arrive in time for Thanksgiving.

But on to the various topics in this post. At our sorority meeting last week, our guest speaker, Nancy, showed us simple tricks for creating table centerpieces and other creations to spiff-up the holidays. My header photo is my table centerpiece for yesterday. (Sorry it's so huge. That's why I haven't used header photos in my recent posts. Suddenly the photos are huge and practically shout at you when you open my blog. {Update! I discovered I'd accidentally disabled the "shrink to fit" option for header photos. I've got it working again, so this header photo is no longer roadside billboard size}.)

I know. I know, I can hardly believe it myself! I made that?! Nancy urged us to use alstromeria as our fresh flower in an arrangement. She said it's inexpensive and lasts a long time.

So at Sam's Club on Monday, I bought a big bouquet of alstromeria for $5.00. Then I went to The Dollar Tree, which Nancy also recommended over AC Moore or Michael's, to get silk greenery. For $1 per bunch, I purchased various ivies and such. I also bought one of those green things that florists put in the bottom of an arrangement to hold both water and stems. (What are they called? Florist foam or something like that?)

Now I was in business.

I cut back the stems of the alstromeria quite severely (after first leaving them too long, which created a bizarre arrangement, if I ever saw one), arranged the flowers plus some greenery plus some gold bows on sticks, and voila! A Thanksgiving table centerpiece.

I'll use the same idea for making a Christmas centerpiece. In fact, I've already bought some silk poinsettia and Christmas greenery. It'll be just a matter of getting some more fresh alstromeria.

As you can see from this photo, Violet joined us for Thanksgiving dinner. She got caught up in the spirit of the feast and made "pies" for each of us. She took orders to determine each's favorite kind. I told her mine was lemon meringue. I asked her if she knew what a lemon meringue pie looks like. She replied, "No, but I can make it yellow." So that's all she needed to know. She drew apple and pumpkin pies also, cut them into wedges, and distributed them to all of us. Then she decided to "sell" her pies. That girl is always thinking.

Violet's mom brought with her a story book about wild turkeys. She remembered our story of the time a few years ago when over 20 wild turkeys spent several days in our backyard, roosting in the trees at night and looking ridiculous because they were such big birds in such spindly trees.

Rachel read the turkey story to Violet and the rest of us, then they went out onto the back deck to see if they might spot some turkeys. No such luck, although we did have a flock of 18 wild turkeys hanging around our property about two weeks ago.

Marjorie Standish helped me make this lemon meringue pie for dessert. If you're not familiar with Marjorie and her down-home Maine cooking, go here. This cookbook should be a staple in every kitchen. She walked me through making a lemon meringue pie from scratch, which I'd never done before. I'd always used Jell-o lemon pie filling for these pies in the past.

Rachel brought a delicious sweet potato pie. Now I know why Oprah gushes over sweet potato pie.

So that was Thanksgiving. Now it's time to move on to Christmas. My white Christmas cactus is heralding in the season by coming into bloom. And I'm off to a Christmas craft fair later this morning....

Dr. Oz and I are neighbors, practically

I happened to watch "207," a local t.v. show, last night and was surprised to see my very own Dr. Oz being interviewed by Rob Caldwell.

The bigger surprise, though, was hearing Dr. Oz say he has a home in Falmouth Foreside and has been spending time there for years. His youngest child, a son about twelve, was born in Portland, and one of his daughters loves Maine so much that she was married in Portland this past summer.

The Ozes like to sail, hike, ski when they're in Maine, and they love to visit the many Portland restaurants. Dr. Oz said he likes shopping at Shaw's supermarkets, too.

No wonder I'm such a fan of Dr. Oz. He and I are practically neighbors!

(Raisin and gin update: It's still brewing. I'll allow Ken to try his first "treatment" on Monday.)

Well, this is enough to make a person want a little arthritis!

As I mentioned I would in my last post, I tuned in to Dr. Oz yesterday to find out what he recommends for treating arthritis. Ken suffers from arthritis in his back and is eager to find some relief.

The treatment Dr. Oz suggested is about the last thing I was expecting: raisins and gin.

You heard me, raisins and gin.

Apparently this is a folk remedy from way back, and many arthritis sufferers swear by it.

The recipe:

Put a box of yellow (white) raisins in a glass bowl and cover with gin. Let sit for about a week, then consume nine (9) of the drunken raisins per day. Not eight, not ten, but nine.

I did a little googling last evening to see if I could learn more about this treatment. Here are a couple of sites I found:

Here

And here.

Here's one more.

Sitting on our kitchen counter is a glass bowl with raisins soaking in gin. Ken's rather disappointed to learn he'll have to wait a week before starting to take "the cure," but with luck the week will pass quickly. I know this for certain: I've never before seen him so excited to try a new medication.

I'm not a doctor, but I play one.

I try to catch Dr. Oz most days. I like the fact that he often recommends simple home remedies for problems for which my own doctor would immediately hand me a prescription.

Dr. Oz takes a more common-sense, less chemical-remedy approach. Take, for instance, his recommendation a couple of years ago for dry skin in the winter. My skin, especially on my legs, gets so dry that it itches like crazy. I'd tried various lotions and salves, all to no avail.

Dr. Oz recommended safflower oil. Bingo! I bought a generous bottle of safflower oil at the supermarket and started applying it liberally to my legs after I shower. No more dry, itchy winter legs for me. And I've still got enough of that safflower oil to see me into my 100's.

Then there was Dr. Oz's recommendation for removing a wart. For some reason, while in Hawaii last year, I developed a wart on my right forearm. Very strange. I'm not prone to wartiness, if there is even such a condition. But there it was, on my forearm, and it bugged me.

Dr. Oz said to apply a small piece of duct tape to the wart, thus cutting off its oxygen supply. I ran to the kitchen junk drawer, found the duct tape, cut out a very small square, applied it to my new wart, and waited.

It took prehaps ten days to get rid of the wart, but get rid of it I did. Gone. No sign it was ever there.

Now, the big experiment which just might qualify me as an amateur surgeon: skin tag removal.

I had a skin tag for years right square in the middle of my chest, just below the bra line. I often feared I would accidentally tear it off, maybe with the nylon pouf thingy while in the shower.

Dr. Oz said to tie a piece of string or dental floss around the tag, cutting off its blood supply. I first used the only dental floss I had: waxed. Wrong choice, because I couldn't tie a good, tight knot with the waxed floss. After a few days of humoring the floss and the skin tag, I switched to a piece of string. Tied a good, tight knot. Waited a day or two and noticed Ms. Skin Tag had turned black. In another day or two she was noticeably withered. In another day or two she'd fallen off! No pain. No nuthin'.

So I've solved three problems so far without benefit of doctor's appointment or prescription. Tomorrow Dr. Oz will be discussing treatments for arthritis. I plan to tune in. I don't suffer from arthritis, but Ken does. I hope Dr. Oz suggests a simple home remedy for that.

It's all about Molly's comfort...and who can blame her?

It's Seek-the-sunbeam Season in this house, at least for our dog, Molly.

When fall arrives and the sun travels lower and lower on the horizon, wonderful, warm, nap-taking spots are created on our kitchen and front hallway floors.

Molly takes advantage of them.

If I'm not sure where she is at a given moment, I just look for the sunbeam and there I find Molly.

Sometimes Molly falls into such a deep, luscious nap that she doesn't notice the sun beam has moved on without taking her with it.

Sometimes she can kill two birds with one stone: keep an eye on the neighborhood and soak up some vitamin D.

Sometimes she just wants to be left alone to relax and enjoy the beautiful day, from the sidelines.

How to melt a heart

I have always enjoyed receiving heart-felt notes from nieces and nephews. Many of my nieces and nephews are only ten or so years younger than I (Sorry for the reminder, Cheryl), so I have notes from them dating back to the late 50's. I find it touching to picture a little hand holding a large pencil or pen, working hard to make the letters correctly. Probably the tongue is poised at just the correct angle from the mouth, too, in order to make sure all focus is on the work at hand.

It's fun to come across a note when I least expect to, buried somewhere in my disorganized pile of memorabilia.

Now, it's my little great niece Violet who writes notes to Uncle Ken and me. She and I practically share the same birthdate. Her birthday is just three days before mine (Oh, and sixty years).

Violet and I got together to celebrate our birthdays a couple of weeks ago. Violet arrived carrying her latest art work: A carefully crafted card with many words and happy drawings.

I love the frisky tails she puts on her "a's." Sometimes the frisky tail crowds out the letter to follow, such as a "y," but no matter.

Violet is at her best when she has markers and crayons in hand. She gets right to work, drawing fairies and chickens and houses with curtains blowing unabashedly in the apparently wide-open windows.

For my birthday card, Violet drew a happy heart and, best of all, a flower with multicolored petals. I wish someone would create a hybrid flower with exactly these colors on each petal. I'm not sure the flower's stalk needs to be quite as sturdy as this one, but if it is, all the better.

The pain of turning 65 was eased quite a bit by little Violet, age five.

Elves and crime

Got any little elves in your life?

If so, these elf slippers might be just the ticket. The pattern is free, from here, and it's sized for babies, toddlers, youths, and adults. I offered to knit a pair for Ken, but he declined.

I've had trouble mastering the "w&t" maneuver in this pattern, which frustrates me because I've done the "w&t" in other knitting patterns, but the felting process hides all kinds of gaping holes and what-not.

It's fun to pull the formerly huge, loosely-knit slippers from the washing machine and see slippers that an elf would undoubtedly be proud to wear.

Now, about crime. Apparently I've been committing it, maybe in my sleep. I was home alone last Friday afternoon when the phone rang, and the conversation went like this.

Me: Hello?

Him, loudly: HELLO.

Me: Who is this?

Him: You know who this is.

Me: I'm afraid I don't.

Him: IT'S YOUR NEIGHBOR.

Me:?

Him: Look, you've got to stop stealing my newspaper out of the box each morning.

Me: What????

Him: I'm tired of it. I don't know what the frickin' news is because you're stealing my newspaper each morning.

Me: You must have the wrong number. I'm not stealing your paper.

Him: You know you are. And it's got to stop.

Me: What number are you trying to call?

Him: Why did you suddenly change your voice?

Me: I didn't change my voice. I know you have the wrong number. What number are you trying to call?

Him: Yes, you changed your voice.

At that point, I could see the conversation was going around and around, so I hung up. And I haven't heard from "him" since.

I promise I'll quit stealing newspapers. And why am I stealing them, if we pay a hefty subscription price to get our OWN newspaper each day?