How it feels depends on...
Christmas is an emotional time. Depending on what your childhood was like, your work situation, your health and that of your loved ones, it can be a real mixed bag this year. Finances seem to come heavily into it too. Enough? Too little? For what? This is a good time to face your reality, and set out to enjoy things, no matter what blocks seem to be in the way. You really don’t need to spend a lot for folks to like you.
Food is important too. Turkeys and ham dominate of course, and this is a time when you can either congratulate yourself on putting away a little in your budget for the past eleven months, or rack your brains to find alternatives. It is possible.
Thanks to our traumatic move this year we will be able to share our Christmas celebration with our family members, and it is such a special thought. The other good thing was that I’m completely unmotivated to feel pressure in gift-giving this year. The move saw to that!
Some things are treasured by family, no matter how humble. This is a good time to dig them out and look at them in the light of day. One of them in our family is the old button box.
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| The family button box, about 60 years old now. Still a treasure of memories for a daughter, granddaughter and now great-granddaughter! |
Then, this Christmas some carefully sorted bigger ones for my lovely little great-granddaughter. She’ll probably add them to the big box as she gets older and less likely to put them in her mouth.
All gift-giving was of “stuff” that someone else could use and enjoy. I have given some money to those who seemed to really need it, and for those who live out of Canada. Simply no point in paying huge postage bills, and adding to the landfills with wrapping.
Fav dishes
Food now, that’s a whole different thing!
Yes, my kitchen still begs to have the renovation begun, but I don’t think that will happen until the workmen have recovered from their Christmases, and the municipality experts have given our condo project their blessing.
But thanks to my beloved pressure cooker I will be contributing some rather nice-looking Brussels sprouts to our feast. I had prepared myself for a huge uptick in their price, but wow, the first thing I spied in the supermarket was a huge pile of them at a special, very low price.
Just in case you might like to try this fabulous way of preparing them, I’m sharing this old recipe with you! It does need a slow cooker/ crockpot, so I hope you have one.
Image via VickiW
For the twelve folks that I hope will enjoy this, I used the following...
First step ingredients
About 4 lbs Brussels sprouts, washed, bottom edge trimmed off, and cut in half.
½ cup pure maple syrup
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp salt
About 1 tsp ground pepper
For later on
1 ½ cups cranberries
1 ½ cups feta cheese ( crumbled and divided)
(Oh dear! Forgot to include the feta in the above ingredients pic! Must have been thinking of my son-in-law, who hates it!)
The first step ingredients are all going into the slow cooker, with the lid on. My slow cooker cycle is on my pressure cooker. Now they’re just going to cook slowly for about 2 ½ hours. You’ll find they still need more cooking until they are tender, so please test them by poking a sharp knife or a skewer into them.
After this first time, the sprouts need a gentle stir with a metal spoon.
At the same time, you’re going to put the cranberries into the mixture, and if you wish you can also add half the crumbled feta cheese.
Continue cooking until your test poke shows the sprouts are tender all the way through.
When you want to serve, add the reserved feta crumbled on top. This dish is best served warm, but it is easy to reheat, either in the microwave or on the stovetop.
I believe you’ll have great enjoyment from your company with this simple dish.
To all my dear friends and readers throughout the world - please know how much you are appreciated!
Image via VickiW
Until next time...
May you have the best possible Christmas, wherever you are. My heart aches for those of you who experience less fortune at this time. My biggest gifts this year have been to food banks.
