1) Being part of this blog, working with old friends and making new ones and always learning something new from cooks from all over the country. Like everyone has had an epic blog recipe fail!
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| All the Yankee Belles confess to recipe fails but apparently Virginia and I really like to document our woes in pictures. |
2) Having enough to eat and enough speciality groceries around to make my life easier. There are a lot of folks who are starving for the right food to eat and who have no grocery store with fresh food in their area.
Here I insert a shameless plug for one of my favorite charities to help people who are starving because of disaster or everyday poverty, Stop Hunger Now.
I bet you can think of a local food bank or charity you can give to in the new year. Hunger is one of those things we just haven't seemed to banish.
3) Speaking of food, I nominate my stuffing recipe as my favorite GAL recipe of the year (or half a year since I have only been around since May!) You can find it Here under New Traditions. Perfect for the New Year.
3) It has been the year of pie! Go ahead, I dare you to do a search for "pie" here on Yankee Belle. It is amazing how we all seemed to go on a pie rift! Pecan, Pumpkin, Sweet Potato and more. What's so stinkin' funny is Yankee Belle started off with a pie recipe. No wonder we all talk pie with youse on a regular basis. You can find the inaugural post here. And if you couldn't tell by my poor imitation, it's a great apple pie recipe by Ruthy.
4) A new grandbaby. Might not be a puppy but she is pretty cute as her older brother and sister are!
5) Surviving hospital food!
6) Giving up chocolate and living to tell about it!
Hope your year ends well and the new year starts with hope, anticipation and joy in blessings to be discovered.
What do you count as blessings this year?
Julie, ain't it the truth????? First, I'm a pie-lover. I have a love thing goin' with cake, too, but the pie affair???? DECADES IN THE MAKING!!!!! I just love a flaky pastry to death!!!!! And a perfect balance of fillings is heaven-sent in Ruthy's world. :)
ReplyDeleteI love the looking back, even through the painful times of life. Those are the character builders, the thoughts, the weavings, the "times of our life" as Kodak used to say.
Now there is no Kodak per se, but those old commercials are good memories! (I will spare you my rendition of SINGING THE SONG.... you're welcome.) :)
Blessings this year are lovely.... Having a new baby..... Keeping Jeter.... Building a graveyard garden for Grandpa and the uncles, a pretty place of rest and remembrance.... all my little people, grandkids and daycare peeps. Love 'em to pieces, I love the vibrance they bring to our lives. It is hard to grow old surrounded by small children.
And I love that I had the courage (hugging Virginia) to put a couple of indie books out to test the waters. That was a great learning curve and I'm delighted with the results. That test flight has groomed me for further space explorations!!! I'm reminded of the lines from "The Lost Christmas Eve" (Transiberian Orchestra) "Can you be this old and have your life just begin?"
This writing gig rocks.
Good on ya! Here's to a wonderful 2014.
DeleteSqueezes back! And I had the courage to sign another traditional contract after saying 'never'...
DeleteVirginia, do tell!! (If you can) :) congrats!
DeleteMissy, it's the Simon and Schuster 3 book deal for my self-published Austen series! Formal announcement and giveaway sooooooooon!
DeleteSo you did do it!!! Congrats!!!! :)
DeleteLove your reflections, Julie...especially the bit about the new baby not being a puppy. :-)
ReplyDeleteThis year has been a huge learning curve for me...and the lessons haven't all been easy, but I am thankful for them...especially the way they've brought me closer to the Lord. And books have been a huge blessing for me this year. A wonderful distraction. And hey, 2013 is the year I finally conquered pinterest and succeeded in creating boards and pinning things to them. Woohooo!!!!
Pinterest is a wonder and a time suck. But so much creativity there to inspire. Hope your 2014 is a bit easier for you.
DeletePINTEREST!!!!!!!! I love that book, "Is Google making us Stupid?" because of the neurobiology studies on brain function after all this flipping through screens and folding tabs and searching terms and bouncing back and forth... I wonder what those MRI's would show about Pinterest activity? Because my brain LIGHTS UP when I get on there...
DeleteAmen on Pinterest. Love it but get sucked in!
Delete2013 was quite the landmark year for me, in both the good and the bad. I thank God for the blessings of family and friends to "persist" (my word for the year) through the peaks and valleys of this year.
ReplyDeleteBlessings and hugs to you, Piper. We've had those years. I know a lot of folks are happy to look forward to 2014. Hope it is a fruitful year ahead with less rough patches.
DeleteLOL, and I never made a pie in my life. Except no bake pies. Do those count?
ReplyDeleteNo bake counts! So yes, you have!
DeleteNo bakes absolutely count! My kids' fave is still "Dream Pie" done with instant Jello pudding and Dream Whip.... so you do that in a cookie shell and you've got pie! It wouldn't be Christmas without a "Dream PIe".
ReplyDeleteI love the one that is cool whip, vanilla pudding, pineapple, pecans and coconut!
DeleteFor Christmas dinner we made a lemon curd, cream cheese, Dream Whip blended pie that was chilled. Hmmm. Still not sure about that.
DeleteI haven't made a real pie (one with 'from scratch' pastry) in several years. The older I get, the lazier I get! Grasshopper Pie has become our traditional Christmas Day dessert... at least, traditional since my mother died and is no longer providing us with her steamed carrot pudding topped with hot rum sauce. Chocolate cookie crumb base topped with a fluffy creme-de-menthe flavoured whipped marshmallow topping and then frozen. Now THAT's a tasty dessert in my books.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to all of the wonderful Seekerville cooks. You're an inspiration.
Carol, you had me at Grasshopper. Love it!!!!!
DeleteBut I want to know more about this carrot steamed pudding with sauce. Dare you come here and make it for us? What a fun, old-fashioned dessert that is! Oh, say yes, Carol!!!!!
Yum. And thanks so much for the New Years wishes. Back at you.
Deletesteamed carrot pudding topped with hot rum sauce
DeleteReading that twice... three times...
You must give the recipe. Or was that an auto-correct fail?
I've never heard of the carrot pudding carol! Sounds amazing.
Delete(I apparently like that word 'topped/topping' a little too much!)
ReplyDeletePie! I LOVE pie!
ReplyDeleteI've had a wonderful year with the publication of my first book (Mindy and I, both!) and looking forward to many more :)
It's also been a hard year in a lot of ways. But God is good.
All the time.
Looking forward to 2014!
Amen!
DeleteThat's so funny, Jan! From Seekerville, I remember you and Mindy as being writers for YEARS. It's odd to realize your first book came out this year!
DeleteBut publication is a whole 'nother level isn't it?
Virginia, ain't it the truth? But it's kind of nice that those lines can be converged or smudged now and that good writers are not simply at the mercy of which line they fit and which publisher has 3 openings this year, not two....
DeleteI love working with Love Inspired, I'm having a ball, but I like being able to produce books when I've got down time from them, books that can be put out by me. This taking the reins and controlling one's own destiny is a great move.
Danke.
yep this place seems to be pie or salad LOL!
ReplyDeletehmm this year I think I'm thankful that aside from being fat and getting a LOT of heartburn I don't seem to have food allergies...those are thoughts that have crossed my mind but have never really touched too close to home but I'm glad that when I'm in hurry I don't have to read the labels so closely.
also thankful my Sasha dog has held in there for me - she'll be 13 the end of Jan and I know she's slowed way down but she keeps going. not sure I could have dealt with another loss this year.
thankful I've tried more cooking this year too.
and speaking of cooking anyone had soda bread? found a super easy recipe which makes me suspicious- 3 cups self rising flour, 1/4 cup sugar, and can of ginger ale or lemon lime soda and bake for about an hour. is this a dry bread, sweetish bread? don't like the salty tasting crumbly breads...the note said it was good with butter or honey(but what the heck ain't good with butter?!)
Susanna
That sounds straight out of Little House books. And may your new year be blessed, Susanna.
Deletethe soda bread is from a gooseberry cookbook my friend got me for Christmas! hadn't thought out little house on the prairie...swiped some of my moms cookbooks when I was staying there this past week and think a little house cookbook was in the mix..
DeleteSusanna
LOL. True on the butter and honey!
DeleteSo fun to think back, Julie. I'm thankful or a good writing year, good health and an amazing family. I look forward to what 2014 brings!
ReplyDeleteYes, me too.
DeleteYou know I'm Irish + stuff but I've never developed a liking for soda bread. I love yeast breads, fresh and chewy or a little crusty, but I've never had a soda bread I liked, Susanna. One year, maybe twenty years back, my sister got me a book "Beard on Bread" by James Beard. A book full of bread recipes. And in that book he confessed to not liking soda bread, either! We became friends for life, LOL! (okay, not really, but you get it!)
ReplyDeleteI think some breads were born of necessity and lack of supplies, so folks did what they needed to get by....
Although Grandma Eichas's Cheese Danish was born of the depression and it's mighty good! She told me how she made it, letting milk "klabber" on the counter (go sour and curd, like yogurt) and then she'd hang it and let it drain in an old piece of cloth (gotta keep the flies away) and then she'd pat down the dry curds, mix them with sugar or maple syrup (we have maple trees naturally here so gathering sap in the winter wasn't uncommon). No eggs because they couldn't afford the pricier "laying" mash out of season... and then folded into her sweet dough recipe which was much the same... Warm a pot of milk on the stove. Let cool a little. Add yeast. Let it "work"... Then add flour and some sugar to make sweet dough. When it's easy to handle, knead thoroughly and let rise once.
How's that for a recipe? :)
Love the history of recipes.
DeleteAnything that starts with letting milk sour on the counter is a mighty interesting recipe!!
Delete