Beautiful Winter Wonderland!

Today is one of those days where the winter scenery is just beyond gorgeous!  Everything is covered in a wet snow, plus the humid snowy mist has covered every branch and every object in a snowy/frosty rime.  It is not a sunny day, but everything is like a winter wonderland postcard out there.  I am not the world's best photographer, and I don't have a very expensive camera, but I tried hard to capture the beauty I was seeing today.  I think I need a better camera and a lot more expertise, but here goes anyway - perhaps you will get the idea.  God has brought so much beauty into an ordinary day!

This is the view from my kitchen window!   I never mind washing dishes in the sink when I have this to look at!  The lake in the background is what we call Two Squaw Lake.  It is just starting to freeze over.

Standing at the edge of the woods.

This is the view from my living room window.

Standing at the edge of the pond.

Looking the other way out of the living room bay window.

The beauty of the northwoods in the winter always amazes me.   It is so peaceful out here.  I simply could not imagine living in the city.
     Soon the sun will come out and melt all of this beauty, so I must enjoy the scenery while I can!  And using my little 16 year old Kodak Easy Share camera was the best I could do.............

My "Different" Northwoods Christmas Tree

This year I decided to do something really different for a Christmas tree.  I didn't really feel like putting up the regular traditional tree in the living room, moving all the furniture around, and going through all the work just for myself and my husband.  This year I wanted to keep things simple and easy, and do something that would cost nothing.  So I decided to put up a tree of sorts on the closed in porch, which is the entrance to our home.  This way there would be no mess, and no furniture moving or rearranging.   I went out to the woods and cut off some branches of a couple poplar trees that we want to get rid of this spring, as they are growing in a place we don't want.   I put the tall branches in a big gallon sized glass jar, then strung a couple sets of mini lights, and used some cloth folk ornaments I made several years ago.   The "tree skirt" is fabric from my crafting stash.  The final result , in my humble opinion, is "cute" - don't you think?  We have mostly poplar trees and hardwood trees like maple and oak and ash and very few pines up here.   So this seems very fitting for a Northwoods themed tree!

My table top tree is about 4 1/2 feet tall.    It makes a nice entrance for coming into my kitchen!

A little different view.

A close up view.   Not much snow outside yet this year.

It is getting towards evening, and you can see some of the lights.

Later this week I will put up a small artificial tree on my kitchen counter, about 3 ft tall, with white mini lights and silver and gold ornaments. I usually put up quite a few decorations throughout the house, but this year I am keeping things very simple and putting up only about a third of what I normally do.  Hopefully this will give me more time to do baking and cooking and visiting friends, bringing them goodies.  Every year I always feel too rushed and wish that I had more time for visiting.   This year I will make the time!
     Speaking of Christmas - the whole "Black Friday" thing seems crazy to me!  Oh, I DID go shopping, but not for anything that most people shop for, like you see on the news.  I went to a local thrift store and bought a couple of Christmas books for 25 cents each.  Then I went to the fabric shop and bought two 5-yard pieces of lovely flowered fabric for some future project.  The fabric was only $1.99/yd, which is a good price!  Then I went to Menards and bought a couple strings of outdoor lights.  Finally I went to the bakery for a couple sweet rolls and to the supermarket for a few grocery items.   I certainly did not see any crowds or fights where I shopped!  I can tell you there is NO way I would stand in line for a TV set or some techno gadget.  For one thing, I hate techno gadgets, and I don't even own a TV set.  We gave up on TV several years ago, and we do not miss it at all.  Besides, I can watch anything I want to online for free, at least until streaming services are not free.  I just like to watch news and special events anyway.   Everything else on TV these days is trash, to my way of thinking.   It is much more enjoyable to spend an evening playing cards or Scrabble with my husband, or neighbors, or just reading a good book or sewing on some project.   Some evenings I just enjoy playing the piano or my accordion.
     Anyway, I just wanted to share with you my little unusual Christmas tree this year!

A Favorite Holiday Cake

I love to cook with seasonal ingredients, and at this time of the year I really like to use cranberries!  Here is one of my favorite cakes, one that I bake every year around Thanksgiving or Christmas.  It is a rich, tender pound cake with plenty of cranberries and nuts in it.   Pound cakes are an old fashioned type of cake.   I remember my grandfather loved pound cakes, and many of the Sunday dinners or holiday meals when I was growing up included pound cake for dessert.  At Christmas time there would be slices of pound cake and slices of nut kolach almost always for dessert on Christmas Eve.  I found this recipe for Cranberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake years ago in a Taste of Home magazine and it has been a favorite ever since.
     This recipe makes a good sized Bundt cake, so use your biggest pan.  If this cake is too big for your family consider inviting friends or neighbors over for a slice or two and some tea!  Or, better yet, put several thick slices on a fancy plate and give it to someone who might be a little depressed or who could use a special kindness,  or a shut in,  or a lonely elderly person.  You can buy lovely plates at any thrift store for practically nothing.  I have seen great looking holiday plates for a quarter or 50 cents.  Wrap up a plate full of cake slices with plastic wrap and a pretty bow, and go visit someone!  In this crazy, stressful world it's not hard to find someone who could use a friendly little visit!  I like to keep a supply of extra plates on hand just for this purpose.   If you don't have any pretty plates to give away, wrap up a sturdy piece of cardboard or a clean large meat tray in pretty wrapping paper, and that will also make an attractive gift.
     As an aside, today while baking this cake, we were having an ice storm.  Thick ice coated everything outside.  It was so cozy and warm inside today while I baked this cake, and the whole house smelled wonderful!

Icicles formed all along the porch and ice coated everything outside today.

Anyway - Here is the recipe:

CRANBERRY CREAM CHEESE POUND CAKE

1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 c. butter (2 sticks)

1 1/2 c. sugar 

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla 

4 eggs

2 1/4 c. flour (DIVIDED)

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder 

1/2 tsp salt 

2 c. fresh cranberries, but in half

1/2 c. chopped nuts 

Preheat oven to 350.  Beat cream cheese, butter, sugar and vanilla until smooth.   Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each.  Combine 2 c. flour, baking powder and salt.   Add to creamed mix and beat until smooth.  Mix remaining 1/4 c. flour with cranberries and nuts and fold into the batter.   Spoon into a greased and floured 10 inch Bundt pan.  Bake for 65-70 min, until cake tests done.  Let stand 5 minutes, then turn from pan onto a plate.  When cool drizzle with a powdered sugar icing or just powdered sugar if desired.   I usually just sprinkle powdered sugar over the cake, as I think it is rich enough without icing. 

The batter fills a large Bundt pan about 3/4 full.

The baked cake with powdered sugar on top.

A slice of the pound cake.  This cake can be either coffeecake or dessert!

My Early Christmas Gift from my Sister

Forgot to mention that my sister and her husband gave me a very nice Christmas gift when we were in Indiana for our early celebration!  As many of you know, I have been a collector of "all things Dutch" for about 30 years.  I just love all the colorful chalk ware from the early 1950's when these Dutch figurines were so popular.  They surprised me with a new kitchen clock - check out this absolutely cute item!

I have it hanging on the side of my wall oven cabinet.

What an adorable and charming addition to my kitchen!   Thank you to Diana and Dan for a great gift!!  They sure surprised me!

I also went to a wonderful Christmas concert when we were in Indiana, put on by Perry Como's grand daughters.  They have a group called The Company, and they sure are excellent singers!  The show was filled with songs from the 40's, 50's and 60's and plenty of old holiday tunes done by Perry Como.   The costumes and dancing were great.   But unfortunately I forgot my trusty camera that evening, and I can't seem to figure out how to get the photos from my little cell phone onto my computer.   As soon as I figure that out, I have some good photos of the program.   I don't have an i Phone, just a flip phone, so that might be a problem?  Some technology is a little beyond me!

While on the subject of Dutch collection items, here are some other wall items that are not chalk ware that I have added over the years.   I just love the older windmill items and paintings. 

The painting at the top is very old, done in 1910.  You can see in the kitchen that I have lots of smaller items along the walls and on shelves near the sink. 

This is one of my favorite paintings.  It is also very old from the turn of the century.  The scene evokes a more peaceful time era, and I think the painting is very 'soothing'. 

Years ago when I lived in Rhode Island, I had this stained glass windmill made for my kitchen at that time.  When we built this new house, a neighbor had a cabinet maker put the stained glass into a custom door for the kitchen as a house warming gift!  It really ties in the whole theme of my Dutch kitchen, don't you think?

This stained glass windmill was originally made at a shop in Newport Rhode Island in 1977 for my kitchen back then.  It now sits in my new kitchen here in Minnesota. 

The Easy Way to Clean a Garden

It was a beautiful warm day today, and we decided to get one of the 3 garden areas  ready for winter.   That is always a big job!  We spent an hour taking away tomato cages, untying things, removing marker stakes, and wires and anything else that didn't belong there.   Then Harold got out the Lo-Boy tractor and just mowed the whole thing.  Another day we will remove the brush hog mowing attachment, and put on the tiller attachment and just turn everything under.  No need to remove old cabbages or tomatoes or squash - it will all get composted over the winter easily by getting chopped up now.   We have two other garden areas to do yet, but the weather is supposed to hold for the remainder of the week.   We won't have many warm days like these!  I have already planted my garlic in the greenhouse like I did last year, and it is covered with straw for the winter.   Next spring it will come up and grow through the straw, and that's when I remove the straw covering.

Harold starts to mow everything down.  You can see split cabbages and tall plants in the background.    No problem for the powerful brush hog attachment!

What a difference!  Almost done.

Here in northern Minnesota our trees have shed their leaves over a month ago.   Everything is brown and dry and dead.   When we were in Indiana last weekend, the trees were in peak colors.   It was nice to enjoy the fall colors there, because we sure have short-lived fall colors up here!!

This is the view from my living room window.   I will be looking at these dry plants and trees until the snows start - which will probably be very soon!

Early Christmas Celebration With Family

This weekend we went to Indiana to visit family and celebrate Christmas a little early.   The reason is that my sister has cancer and is going into a hospital in Chicago for a bone marrow transplant in December.   She will  be there all during the month of December, and perhaps part of the early new year.    So we all decided that we would have our family Christmas a little early this year, and combine the celebration with Thanksgiving, too!  It was a wonderful family time.  We had lots of food, everyone received a few gifts, and we played games and had much laughter.

The buffet table was loaded with plenty of food:  chicken, Polish sausage, ham, stuffed cabbage, several casseroles and plenty of vegetables.   What is not pictured are the desserts -  a blueberry cheesecake, pumpkin pie, cookies, and candy, too!

We sat around and enjoyed a little more dessert, and plenty of laughter.

The kids were at the "kid's table", and adults were at the main dining table or at tables in the living room.

We played a musical game to determine the order of gift opening.

Because my sister Diana has many tests and trips to Chicago before she enters the hospital, we kept decorations to a bare minimum.   Do you remember the aluminum Christmas trees from the 1950's?   A 4 color light wheel shines colors of red, yellow, blue and green on the aluminum tree.   These were so popular back then.

We opened gifts downstairs.

Even my mother had something to open.  She is shown here with a new cozy blanket, and some cookies and fancy soaps.

I made a Christmas quilt for my sister to take to the hospital.   But she is holding the quilt sideways!!

My two great-nephews, and my two great-nieces.

I am pictured here in the back with my niece Becky, her son Zachary and her husband Jerome, and my husband Harold (in the middle)  and my 94 year old mother Frances.

My sister Diana is the second from the right.  We all wish her the best of luck with the transplant procedure!

After all the excitement, and while the women were cleaning up the kitchen, guess what some of the men were doing?   Yep - snoozing!

It was a long 765 mile trip by car and took 16 hours of driving, but we drove there and back safely.  What a weekend of blessings!