The Best Christmas Tree Hunt Ever! (and Chili!) redux!

The first Sunday afternoon in December is our church's annual Christmas tree hunt. Even though this year was a bit different, it was still the best Christmas Tree Hunt Ever!

The differences?

Well, it was a bit warmer this year, which means melting snow and mud - not the best place to take dogs who are a bit low to the ground. So Thatcher had to miss out this year. :(

The second difference? Our family is growing by leaps and bounds. There were nine in our family group at the tree hunt and chili supper this year. Nine. Six of us and these three fantastic young people who like to hang around with our daughter (Josh) and two of our sons (Kris and Katie). We took two pots of chili!

The third difference? Last year's tree was a giant. And yes, they really do look smaller in the forest! This year's tree is perfect. I'll include pictures next week. :)

The final difference - because of the warmer temperatures, the snow was perfect for making snow men!

Here's my friend Rachael with her masterpiece:

The boys held off destroying theirs with snowballs until after the picture:

Daniel and Jadin gave me their patient smiles (after all, they wanted to get the picture over with so the snowball bombardment could begin!). Then Colin gave me his "camera smile." He really doesn't look like that all the time!

But the tree hunt was successful.

And we all found the perfect tree for our respective homes and families. Isn't Scott's and Adrienne's tree cute?

And now it's time to enjoy last year's post and the fabulous chili recipe!

The Best Christmas Tree Hunt Ever! (and Chili!)

When you live near a National Forest full of pine trees, there's really no excuse not to go cut your own Christmas tree. Especially when you live with some outdoors-loving guys, and your church has an annual Christmas tree hunt.

So, how do you hunt a Christmas tree?

First, grab a couple handy sons who like to carry sharp objects.

Add a third son whose talent is avoiding cameras (hi, Jacob!).

Throw in a rowdy dog, a patient husband, and about thirty friends (and a few more dogs, just for good measure).

And then head for the hills. Make sure you're bundled up before you start your search!

Of course, if you're legs are short, it helps if you have a strong dad to pull the sled :)

The problem with hunting for a Christmas tree is that the "perfect" one is always around the next corner. In fact, doesn't the one on top of the cliff look beautiful? Sorry, it's too big!

But seriously, with all these trees to choose from, where do you start?

Some are too big, some are too small. Some were blown down in last year's storm, some have grown crooked.

But eventually, you just have to pick one. After all, it's 3:30, we have a twenty minute hike back to the car, and sunset is at 4:15. So we pick one.

And haul it back to the car (this is why you make sure you bring a couple sons with you!).

Thatcher thinks the whole process is fascinating. And why can't we go find those deer he keeps smelling?

When we arrive back at the parking area, it's time to load up. Puppies first.

Add the all-important tree tag that gives us permission to remove the tree from the forest...

...and tie our prize to the top of the car.

Whew! A successful hunt!

Now it's time for the whole crew to head back to the church for our annual Chili Supper! And there's one of my Sunday School students making sure she's first in line :)

But before we know it, the chili is gone, and it's time to head home.

Now, isn't that the saddest sight you've ever seen?

But no worries - I have the recipe for the chili our family brought!

Jan's Savory Chili

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1 onion

3 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes
3 (14.5 oz) cans small red beans
2 cups beef broth
1 Tablespoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
3 Tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon salt

Brown the meats and onion together. Put all ingredients together in a crock pot. Cook on low for about 9-10 hours.

Serve with any toppings you like. A dollop of sour cream is particularly tasty.

This chili isn't hot and spicy - there are just enough of the spices to give it a warm, savory flavor.


So, time to share. Where do you find your Christmas tree?

Apple fritter cake and small joys

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I have a delicious apple fritter cake to share.

 First, a few pictures. We like to hike up around the city. It's a small town but we've hardly ever met other people up on the trail. It's a great (no travel) way to get out and get some exercise. Here's our dog, feeling the freedom. This day was overcast, but still warm. Now, it's only a few weeks later and I can't imagine standing up there in the frigid wind!

Those tiny dots are my kids waving for me to taking the "short way". I declined. I like my knees just the way they are, thanks. I'll leave the almost vertical descending and ascending to them, and go the long way around.

On the way, I ran into a hungry tiger! It was close, but I managed to run away with only a few nibbles and the gum missing from my pocket.

So, I didn't get any pictures of the process but I do have ONE picture... an it's got my dirty oven in it. Ah well, we're all friends here.
Rachelle McCalla posted this bit of deliciousness on facebook and the original post at The Domestic Doozie is here.  She has better pictures of the process, anyway.

domesticdoozie.blogspot.com

I modified the recipe just a little, cutting the butter in the cinnamon topping and making the drizzle maple flavored. :) Pop on over and check it out. All I can say is YUM and "it's all gone". I really did taste like an apple fritter, too. Or an apple fritter/ maple bar cross, after my modifications.

Until next time! I hope everyone is healthy and doing well as we go into winter. Feel free to stop by my author page Mary Jane Hathaway or my blog The Things That Last.

Buttermilk Pie from The Belle

Missy, here. And I thought I'd take you on a photo journey of our Thanksgiving. :)

First, I wanted to share something wonderful that we've enjoyed this fall season. It smells…delicious! :)

Hand soap from Bath & Body Works

Next I wanted to share my favorite dish from Thanksgiving. Cornbread salad! I'm waiting for the recipe from my sister-in-law's mother-in-law. I'll share it later. It was A. Mazing.

Also, here's a beautiful arrangement from a recent Sunday at our church. Mums and cotton!

Speaking of cotton…Here, in the background is some South Georgia "snow"...

Yep, that's cotton growing out there behind the kids. Most had already been harvested, but we spotted some fields still growing. When you're looking at acres and acres, it surely does look like snow!

Now for more food! Here's one of my pies I baked for lunch with my husband's family. It was a totally new recipe. There's nothing quite like trying something out on a house full of 50 family members! So after I took this photo, I cut out a little sliver and had a bite, then had a couple of my kids do a taste. I was prepared to leave it at home (aka eat it at home). :)

But it turned out yummy! They all voted that I take it to south Georgia with us.

I got this recipe from Desserts from the Famous Loveless Cafe by Alisa Huntsman. I love this cookbook! I'll share my version of the pie.

Vanilla Buttermilk Pie

from The Loveless Cafe (Nashville, TN)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

The recipe calls for a partially baked crust. I didn't have time. So I used a store bought rolled crust and placed it in the pie pan. (Sorry, I didn't take photos!)

In a mixer with whisk attachment (recipe calls for food processor), put:

1 cup sugar

1 stick softened butter (calls for unsalted but I used salted)

¼ cup all purpose flour.

½ vanilla bean, seeds scraped out (I didn't have a bean so used vanilla extract)

Pulse to combine mixture.

3 eggs-- With the machine running, add one at a time.

Scrape bowl.

With machine running, add in 1 cup buttermilk until just blended. Pour into shell immediately.

Bake 40-45 minutes until custard is set.

Cool slightly and then refrigerate the pie. Serve chilled.

I hope you'll try it! This was a bigger hit than my pecan pie. :)

www.missytippens.com

P.S. Be sure to watch for some Seeker Boxed Set Collection sales starting Saturday!

Turkey a la King

I had never made Turkey a la King before.

I don't know why I've never made it, maybe because there was always plenty of gravy to make turkey biscuit pie or turkey and rice or turkey and dumplings????

Whatever the reason, his head or his shoes, He stood there on Christmas Eve, hating the Whos...

OOOOPS!!!!

Wrong story!

Back to Sunday! My son-in-law Jon loves turkey a la king and this year they can't go to Minnesota for the holidays, so I wanted to do something just nice for him. He's such a good, caring man.

He loved it! Homemade biscuits and homemade cream sauce, and he was so happy! :) And that was the best part of all, seeing Jon smile.

And making fun of him, just a little!!!

So this is the recipe and it was super easy:

Turkey a la King

4 cups cubed turkey
2 cups mixed veggies


For sauce:
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 cup flour
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste, a dash of nutmeg works well here, too, if desired.

Melt butter, mix with flour to make "roux" then whisk in chicken broth. Heat to thicken. Add milk and cream and seasoning. Heat. Add turkey and veggies. Heat over medium heat, stirring so bottom doesn't burn, just long enough to heat everything through.

I made homemade biscuits to go with this, but egg noodles are wonderful... or croissants, or packaged biscuits. Honestly, the sauce was so delightfully delicious, no one will care what form of carb-crazy deliciousness you serve this on, they'll just eat too much and be grateful!

And for the first time in several years (I am so ashamed to admit this!!!) I actually had my act together enough to have the Advent wreath ready for the first Sunday of Advent... It's simple and sweet, the way I like Advent to be. A time of cool stillness, waiting...

Simple food, simple times, simple faith....

And another cute kid!

Do you love the shirtless child in late November? :)

And here is what the Turkey ala King looked like since my camera was giving me agita while I worked this week! And I'm not even Italian!!!

And Grandpa bought Vanilla Holiday Nog for the kids.... He is now their favorite, which doesn't seem fair, right? Since I'm the cooker and baker and story teller? One jug of deliciousness upped his status exponentially!

Kids are easily bought! But I did save them a big box from Kohls so they can turn it into a ROCKET SHIP!!!!!

Because you can never have too many rocket ships!

Ruth Logan Herne loves the holidays, she goes a little wild with twinkle lights and loves egg nog, she bakes way too many cookies and then eats them, and then can't fit into her jeans.... But she shares cookies, too, so that makes it mostly all right! You can find her hawking her books and sharing her joy on facebook or stop by her website and blog to see what's going on... She loves company, and coffee. When the two are mixed together, everyone's happy!

All those leftovers

You've probably seen recipes galore for Thanksgiving leftovers...

But what if what's left over isn't a turkey, but a veggie roast?

Last week I shared the nut loaf my daughter and I made last year. It was heavenly. This year she wanted to try something different. It was called a nut loaf, but it was much lighter on the nuts and heavier on the vegetables.

I took pictures as we went.

First we assembled the lentil and brown rice mixture.


In a separate pan, we sauteed shredded carrots, celery, mushrooms, red onion, and shredded kale.

Then everything got blended together.

That got molded into a loaf (with the overflow in a pie tin because we wanted to compare textures).

I'll be honest, I liked last year's nut loaf better, but this made for a lovely veggie loaf.

After eating leftovers for 3 days, I wanted something different.

So, I had some really (REALLY) tart cranberry sauce that my daughter made. I added a bit of coconut palm sugar and some frozen pineapple and it made a delicious sweetly tart sauce to douse the loaf with. Yum.

I also melted American cheese on some leftover loaf for lunch. Clearly it made a lot!



Then there was leftover dessert.

This really had nothing to do with Thanksgiving. I was in a big fancy store )that shall remain nameless) and they were selling containers of snickerdoodles. After many days of pie, the cookies appealed to me.

Blah.

They had no flavor. It really tasted like someone had put plain sugar cookies in the snickerdoodle box.

So, I took some of the pecans left over from the yams and I mixed them with the coconut palm sugar and placed the lovely mix on my cookies and baked for a few minutes. Much better.

Plain cookies

sugar and pecans

All better!

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Chocolate All the Way

Well, it's that time of year again. Time for me to decide on the best cookie recipe to take to my friend, Drenda's, annual cookie swap next week. But while I'm doing that, I thought it would be fun to revisit one of the recipes I've taken in the past. 

Triple Chocolate Knock-Out Cookies have so much chocolate, you can't help but sigh with holiday bliss.

For these scrumptious cookies, you will need:

• 2 1/2 sticks butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 ½ tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup cocoa
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• ¼ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. ground chipotle pepper
• 2 cups white chocolate chips
• 1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used the Ghirardelli 60% cocoa)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy, scraping sides occasionally. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla and mix to combine.

Sift dry ingredients together. Including the pepper. I promise, it won't be hot. It'll just give it a little kick. But if you don't believe me, simply increase the cinnamon by another 1/4 to 1/2 tsp.

Now add the dry ingredients in small amounts to the butter/sugar mixture, mixing after each addition until blended. 

Gently stir in the white and chocolate chips. 

The batter will be VERY stiff, so consider it an upper arm workout.

Now, drop by tablespoonfuls onto a baking sheet (I used a cookie scoop for this). 

Bake 8-9 minutes. Cookies should be done, but still soft.

Let cool on baking rack and enjoy!

All right, gang, here's where I messed up. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product!!
But there in here somewhere.

I guess I was busy singing Christmas carols or simply so eager to get them on a platter and over to Drenda's that I forgot. But envision a chocolate chocolate chip cookie. 

I love these because A) of all the chocolate and B) they're a nice twist on standard chocolate chip cookies. Not that there's anything wrong with chocolate chip cookies. No way, no how. But one of these with a cup of coffee, tea or milk... Mmm, mmm, mmm!

I can't think of a better way to ring in December. After all, it is the most wonderful time of the year.

Now it's your turn. Have you started your holiday baking? What's your favorite thing to make?