Not waiting for life to begin: I am right smack in the middle of it. And life is exciting again.
Happy New Year, everyone. Thanks for reading my blog in 2015. I hope that the new year ahead brings many blessings to you and yours.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 910 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 15 trips to carry that many people.
Source: Coffee Dunkers
My college student is home and he had a request nearly as soon as he walked through the door: cookies!
So, I got busy in the Exile’s Kitchen and made two kinds last night.
Ginger Cookies are perfect for the Christmas season and great to dunk in hot coffee or tea, if you prefer. Here’s the recipe-
In a bowl mix together
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup molasses
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
In another bowl, sift together
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Then slowly combine dry ingredients to wet ingredients, just so you don’t make a mess. Then cover with plastic wrap and chill in the frig for about an hour. When thoroughly chilled, form into one inch balls and roll in colored sugar. I used red and green, because after all, it’s Christmas.
Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are slightly brown. Cool on a wire wrack and store in an air tight container. Makes about 3 1/2 dozen.
The second batch of cookies I made last night are super easy. Butterfinger Cookie Bars use the same recipe as my Perfect Peanut Butter cookies (see the recipe posted on August 1, 2015). Just add a bag of Butterfinger Pieces. They can be found at the store with the big W on it, in the baking section next to the pedestrian semi-sweet choco chips.
Instead of using a muffin top pan, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread the dough out in the pan. Spraying a rubber spatula with vegetable spray makes this part easy. The dough will spread out, while baking so don’t worry about not getting it perfect.
Bake at 350° for 15 to 18 minutes, depending on your oven. Cool slightly before cutting into bars. I use a pizza wheel to make the task a sinch. When completely cooled, store in a pretty glass jar. But they probably won’t stay in that pretty jar for long!
Merry Christmas from the Exile’s Kitchen and happy coffee dunking.
This recipe, using coconut oil, makes a great winter time scrub and a quick seasonal gift.
Source: Quick Gift
Winter has finally arrived in this part of the South. I could never live above the Mason Dixon line because cold weather dries my skin so badly. Here’s a recipe for a head-to-toe, moisterizing body scrub. (I use the scrub as a facial once a week, but usually daily, slathering it on right before stepping into the shower.) This creamy concoction enhances your regular body wash or beauty bar, leaving your skin soft and smooth.
Four humble ingredients, probably already on hand in your kitchen, make a luxurious spa-like scrub.
Here ya go:
20 heaping tablespoons of coconut oil
9 tablespoons of sugar
20 tablespoons of baking soda
the zest of 3 lemons
What to do:
In a big bowl mix all the ingredients together. I use my stand mixer and the whisk attachment. Beat on high till it’s fluffy. Spoon into jars with stopper tops. Tap the jars lightly to settle the contents. Printed boxes and tissue paper make wrapping easy. This recipe makes six 8 ounce jars.
Lemon zest gives the scrub a light yellow color and lightens blemishes. The baking soda softens skin. The sugar exfoliates and of course the coconut oil moisterizes.
Merry Christmas from The Exile’s Kitchen.
Note: As the base of this scrub is coconut oil, it will be solid in cooler temperatures and more liquid in warmer temps. If you would like, store it in the frig during the summer months.
Source: The Apple Lady
This Thanksgiving was very small compared to those of my childhood. Growing up, our house would be ‘chock-a-block’ full of relatives for nearly the whole week of Thanksgiving. I remember lots of great food, games of Rook, cribbage and backgammon. There would be a pool tournament and a dart competition. If you won, your name was added to the plaque that hung in the gameroom.
But time has a way of leaving childhood behind and my present is forever changing. This past year has seen many changes: Two marriages and a divorce. Sounds kinda like a romantic comedy for Hugh Grant to star in, doesn’t it? Only there has not been much to laugh or smile about, until recently.
My divorce was finalized last month and with it came a great sigh of -how can I put this?- resignation, relief, rediscovery. Yes, all of the above. Resignation, because life will never be as it was thirty years ago, and that’s not such a bad thing. Relief that, with the help of my family, friends and the Holy Spirit, the most trying time in my life is over and I have come out on the other side stronger than ever before. Rediscovery comes with reconnecting with my girlhood persuits. I’m writing again ( you’re reading it after all, right?). I’ve been to the symphony twice in two months; something I did as a girl growing up in Baton Rouge.
It was just a small gathering last Thursday. One brother, one cousin and her son, my youngest son and my mother and I. My cousin is from the New Orleans area and she brought a surprise for me. It is a painting of a serene lady holding a basket full of apples. The painting was our Grandmother’s and used to hang near the front door of her tiny apartment. As a girl, I used to look at the painting and imagine what the serene lady’s life was like.
The colors are deep aqua and light blue, with touches of gold and terracotta. She looks a bit tired from working in her orchard all morning, but has a slight up turning to her lips. She still has work to do, you see? And she is happy to do it. The apples will be taken into the kitchen to be washed and peeled for an apple pie. The pie will be served after a simple supper, with a piece being sent to the elderly, bedridden lady who lives up the street. The last piece will be wrapped in a linen towel and left in the garage window for the hobo who will pass through later that evening. There’s the symbol of a cat carved into corner of the pump house; the cat is a sign hobos used to indicate that a kind lady lived in the house. The serene lady is teaching her children the virtues of hard work and kindness.
Such were my childhood imaginings. I look forward to the day when I have my own home and a place to hang the painting. Maybe even my own apple trees.
Blessings for a wonderful season of kindness from the Exile’s Kitchen.
I burned the cranberry sauce years ago and my youngest son has never let me forget it. And just for the record, it’s easy to make cranberry sauce from scratch. If you serve something that slides out of a tin can like a red tird, shame on you! Cranberry sauce should be lovingly spooned next to homemade cornbread dressing and homemade sweet potato casserole and homemade green bean casserole-never ever, ever sliced and chunked onto your Thanksgiving plate.
The year I burned the cranberry sauce, my mother had called to tell me to make sure I made it because Uncle Bobby never really liked cranberry sauce before he tasted mine. Probably because all he’d ever had was that congealed stuff from a can. Anyway, I had gotten quite busy that morning getting all my cooking done and I got distracted. Yep, burned the cranberry sauce to a dark sticky mess in my stainless steel pot
“You burned the cranberry sauce,” my youngest son announced. “No cranberry sauce next to my turkey? What about Uncle Bobby? He loves your cranberry sauce.”
I gave a disgusted sigh.
” I’m not going to the store for more berries on Thanksgiving. Don’t say anything about my burning it and maybe no one will notice that there’re no cranberries.”
When dinner was served and plates were fixed, we all sat down to eat. The inevitable happened. Uncle Bobby looked at his plate, looked at everyone else’s plate, looked up and down the dinner table. He opened his mouth and took a breath.
Before Uncle Bobby could even ask, “Mama burned the cranberry sauce, Uncle Bobby. So, there won’t be any this year.”
My own son ratted me out.
Here’s my recipe:
1 bag of fresh cranberries, rinsed in cold water
1 cup white sugar
1 cup water
1/4 cup orange juice
pinch salt
pat of butter, optional
What to do:
Place rinsed berries in a two quart pot and turn burner to medium heat. Add sugar, water, orange juice and pinch of salt. I think the tiny bit of salt helps cut the bitter taste that cranberries sometime have and makes the taste brighter. Bring berries to a gentle boil, stirring to disolve the sugar.
The berries will begin to pop, as their skins split. You’re almost through with the cooking part, at this stage. When the berries foam up, turn the fire off. With a metal spoon, skim the pink bubbly foam from the top of the pot. If you want to, add the pat of butter. This helps reduce any foam that may remain- it’s kind of hard to get all of the foam out of the cranberry sauce.
Cool the sauce before placing it in the frig. It can be made a day or two ahead of turkey day. Which is what I should have done the year I burned the cranberry sauce.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving.
Blessings from the Exile’s Kitchen.
Source: Chocolate Biscuits
