Lessons Learned from a Homemade Christmas

My family has always made a big deal out of holiday feasts. If you haven't noticed we like food. :) Even though we like to eat as healthy and as natural as possible we have always used canned or bagged products for certain recipes. For example the cream of mushroom soup in our green bean casserole has traditionally been Campbell’s.

After I discovered that a wonderful thing like marshmallows could be made at home and the quality was far greater than anything you could purchase at the store, I began to take more advantage of my kitchen. I have been making all sorts of things at home with much less effort then I ever thought possible. This year I decided to make everything from scratch. The only thing I did not do was grow my own ingredients or lay my own eggs ... oh, and I did not toast my own onion toppers for the casserole ... but I'm sure I can learn how to do that for next year.

The meal was AMAZING!! At least I thought it was. There was a bit of a salt issue with the turkey. Steve and Nathan both still like the texture of the Campbell’s mushroom soup better but they agree that the taste of mine was good. I left the turkey up to mom this year. She did such a great job on her smoked Thanksgiving turkey that I wanted to let her repeat it. This time she decided to do a salt brine and then smoke the bird. Having never done this before we had no idea how salty the final product would be. She followed a recipe and we learned that for us cutting the amount of salt in half would’ve been just fine. Lesson Learned. Still tasted good though.

I learned that jellied cranberry sauce turns out perfect even if you add the sugar at the wrong time. I learned that making soup is time consuming but tastes wonderful and frozen mushrooms create a lot of liquid. Dinner rolls are super easy. Did you know that bread stuffing can be made with moist bread and not dried bread crumbs? I didn't know that. I was running out of time for our 6 pm dinner schedule and realized I had forgotten to dry the bread crumbs, following my mother's advice I just added less liquid and it was great! White mashed potatoes are just buttery goodness; I can't really say more than that. Freshly ground nutmeg and cinnamon mixed in mashed sweet potatoes baked with homemade marshmallows on top can be eaten just by themselves as a delicious dessert. I do have to say that my pumpkin pie was not a perfect 10 like the one I made for Thanksgiving however, it would still get a score of about 8. If you love whipped topping you have got to make it yourself at least once in your life. It is so cool! It only takes about 3 minutes and it looks like flawless white puffy clouds ... and the taste ... oh ... you just have to make it yourself to know.

There are two reasons this Christmas dinner was wonderful. One is the fun I had preparing it along with the knowledge and experience I gained while in the kitchen for 6 + hours. And the second is the fact that everything I prepared was Jacob friendly. I made sure that the ingredients I chose to use were all natural and because I made everything myself, there was no need for extra chemicals and preservatives like the ones found in store bought foods.

As my time management skills improve I will begin to incorporate more homemade cooking into our daily lives and not just on holidays.

I hope everyone had as wonderful a Christmas as we did!

Cosmic Brownie Points

Have you ever had a person in your life that has the ability to evoke uncontrollable emotions within you? A person whose very existence irritates you? The mere site of that person makes you wish that your heart would stop beating just so you wouldn't have to face hearing them speak again. An accidental thought about that person makes your skin crawl so much that you feel the need to bathe in order to wash away the disgust. A person who no matter how harshly you treat them, or how brutally honest you are with your feelings about them … or, no matter how many times you run screaming bloody murder when you see them approaching … they just won’t go away. They just don’t get it or they just don’t care.

Unfortunately I have people in my life that evoke those types of harsh, extremely powerful emotions. I am doing everything in my power to control and release those feelings in a positive way, but it is painfully hard. At times I think a wonderful release from these people would be to watch them spontaneously vaporize into a pile of ash just like in the old cartoons. They are in the middle of speaking and *poof* all that is left is a grey pile of ash with a set of curious blinking cartoon eyes on top, a janitor with a broom and dust pan walk in from stage left sweep up the pile and then exit stage right. I would then smile and go about my day happily. You might be thinking “that is awful, how can you wish someone to be vaporized?” It is easy, they are irritating and annoying, my life would be a lot less stressful if they weren’t a part of it and I am in a position that I can’t remove them or myself quickly enough … so cartoon style vaporization is a viable option.

I am a believer that we invite things into our lives and we do have a certain level of control. That being said I am fully aware that the people that cause me this grief are in my life because I allow them to be. I will say though that I did not invite them to be who they are. They did that themselves. There are bound to be some cosmic brownie points awarded to me for my effort to calmly deal with this daily torture. I just know in my heart that at some point either in this life or the next I will be rewarded. I have to believe this or I would go insane.

For those of you who are suffering with a similar type of “person” I am truly sorry. I feel your pain and misery. Know that you are not alone. During times that you are forced to deal with your “person” take a moment to think of all the victims like you in the world that are dealing with a far more irritating “person” and be thankful your's isn’t that bad. It might actually help you focus on staying calm and getting through it. Running and screaming in the opposite direction might be effective also, it didn’t work for me but it is worth a shot.

For those of you who do not have a “person” please pray for us!

I am so happy and grateful that I can do dishes.

In order to follow along with my goal of being happy and grateful for the things I have I am going to explain why I am happy and grateful that I can do dishes.

I have the physical ability to stand at the sink and wash dishes. I have a house with a sink and clean hot running water to wash them in. I have detergent that kills germs so I can eat off clean dishes after I hand wash them without getting sick. I have a dishwasher that is leaking and causing water damage to the sub floor which has forced me to find great joy in a job well done as I stand in front of my sink staring at all the beautifully hand washed dishes. I am also happy and grateful that I have multiple people in my home that enjoy using several extra dishes every day, thus multiplying my dish washing joy.

According to my landlord sometime after the new year I will have new reasons to be happy and grateful for a functioning dishwasher. I am happy and grateful that I have that joy to look forward to.

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas!

OK so this is technically the second snow of the season ... but the first one was just flurries so it doesn't count.

At the beginning of each season I think to myself "Oh I love this time of year!" and then by the end of that season I am so thankful the next one has begun.

Well I am thinking that again right now. Oh, I love this time of year! The fresh snow that hasn't been touched and gives everything a flawless coating of white perfection is like looking at a priceless painting. It is so relaxing to snuggle on the sofa under a comfy blanket, sipping hot cocoa starring at the falling snow through a large picture window while the lights of the tree reflect in the glass. After the snow has piled up sufficiently and you’re a wee bit wired from the caffeine in the cocoa, getting all bundled up and making your mark in that once perfectly flawless blanket of white in the yard is just plain fun.

Life is full of struggles for many right now and I hope that everyday those of you who are suffering can find happiness in something. Having joy for even just a fraction of a moment as you count the points of a snowflake that landed on your window is a step in the right direction.

The entire Lewis Family wishes everyone a safe and happy Christmas Season!

Reason #101 Why I love the Winter Holidays – LEFTOVERS

This Thanksgiving we spent with Steve’s family at his parent’s house. It was great to see everyone and watch the kids play. I did make the homemade marshmallows for the candied yams and they were delicious again. My only regret was that I didn’t use more of them. “Tom” the turkey was juicy and perfectly browned. Trina, our niece-in-law (please forgive me if I misspelled your name) made wonderful little spinach stuffing balls. We all over indulged ourselves as tradition dictates that we should. Being one who loves photos I of course documented the meal with my camera as I do every year.

Jacob decided he wanted to work off some of the calories from dinner and jumped on the stationary bike for a while.



It is inevitable that at some point Steve will be in front of a computer with his parents.


My mom stayed home and smoked a turkey using the outdoor grill in a true Kansas City fashion. It turned out awesome. She was proud of herself and we were pleased to return home from Steve’s parents with all of our leftovers and add them to hers.

We are in leftover heaven. In order to preserve the culinary delights that came from this Thanksgiving holiday we have carefully prepared and frozen several stocks and packets of meat for future meals.

A few nights after the holiday my mother took my made-from-scratch bread stuffing and combined some of her smoked turkey for our dinner that night. She added a few more spices and some stock to liven things up a bit. It was fantastic and super simple because it was from leftovers.


I think that one of my new years resolutions this year will be to prepare more holiday style meals during non holiday times. There are 365 days in each year, why should we only eat well for 30 or so of them.

I hope everyone had a Great Thanksgiving!! I’m excited to start preparing for Christmas!!