20 Favorite Things

Oprah is off the air, unable to share her Holiday Favorite Things, so I thought I'd share some of mine to inspire some gift-giving.  These are also much more reasonably priced.

 

 1. My mom's handmade pot holders with scrap material:

 2. Stainless steel bowl set from Pampered Chef.  I got this set for our wedding & use all three sizes often.  I especially like the rubber bottom & the covers.  I think this set is $75-80, so definitely on the pricier side.

 3.  Whirley-Pop Stove Top Popcorn Maker.  This is the only way we make popcorn & it makes the best!!  Fun & Fast.  I recommend getting the Whirley-Pop brand, which you can find at kitchen stores & Farm & Fleet, I believe.  Sometimes they only stock them around Christmas time.  Under $30.

 4, 5, & 6.  Mini Serving Spatula ($7.50), Baker's roller ($22.00), & jar opener ($14.00)--all Pampered Chef.  I love the spatula for multiple dishes: desserts, casseroles, etc.  I use the roller the most for pizza dough.  This can opener is a life-saver; works the best of any I have owned---useful for all sizes of jars.

 7.  I received this initial mug from my sister Chelsea last year for Christmas & it's always the first one I grab on the maybe once a week occasion I have coffee or hot chocolate.  From Pier 1.

 8.  Colored and labeled cutting boards.  I like knowing that we are at least attempting to keep our chicken cutting board separate from the veggie one, even if washing probably removes all bacteria anyway.  We received these as a wedding gift and I use them often.  I think they were from Target.com.

 9.  My grandma's hand-knitted dish rag.  It is the only type I use to wash dishes. They work well & wash up well.

 10.  For a bit of Christmas spirit:  nutcrackers!

11.  Cookie jars:  the penguin was a gift from Eric's mom last Christmas (from Bath & Body Works of all places) & the cute mischievous snowman was a gift from my previous co-worker, Judy (I believe she found him at Tuesday Morning).  I love them!  And, yes, they are both empty.

12.  Harry & David's Pepper & Onion Relish.  This is sweet & soooo good on a block of cream cheese, served with crackers.  Everyone always is pleasantly surprised with the sweet taste and it looks so festive.  Another option is to mix it in with cream cheese for a dip, but I like it best poured over the top.  The classic recipe is the way to go; skip on the other flavors like chardonnay, etc.

 13.  My mom's hand made felt-lined wool mittens made from recycled sweaters.  They are proven to keep your hands warm during football games, winter parades, and other outdoor activities, even if every other part of your body is freezing.  All are different with a multitude of colors & patterns.  She & her sister Sue sell them for $25 a pair.  (Not that you need it, but good advertisement, huh, Mom!--minus the funny angle, I cannot get it to rotate for the life of me)

14.  We have been really enjoying the scent of this candle.

 15.  Zak! bowls.  I have loved these for years & finally actually found them on sale at an art shop trying to make room for new inventory.  The large one makes a great popcorn bowl.  They are made from recycled material and sell at most kitchen stores.  The large bowl usually goes for around $20 with a lot of color choices.  www.zak.com

 16.  Hand-stitched dish towels.  Eric's mom's friend Marlene makes these & sells them per order.    I like this lady design, but she also has a cute baby animals set, birds, fruits,etc.

 17.  Under Armour running gloves.  These worked well for the fall while riding bike or other outdoor activities where I needed some warmth, but not too much.  I like the palm grip & the fleece on the top of the thumbs in case you need to rub your nose!  These were a Christmas gift, I imagine they are not the cheapest just based on the brand.

18.  Tip of the Tongue.  I love this game.  In search of a new game one year, I read the good reviews on Amazon & decided to try this game.  It was inexpensive ($8.99), so I figured it was forth taking a chance.  It is so fun because you can be really good at trivia games, but still not do well.  It asks a good mix of easy & difficult questions, but you only have a few seconds to answer.  It's fast-paced & fun for all ages.

19.  Bezzer Wizzer.  I also really enjoy this trivia game.  I has good categories, but isn't as impossible as Trivial Pursuit and you can trade topics to suit yourself & possibly make it more difficult for others.  I love almost all games, especially at Christmas time, but in case you are on the look-out for good party games, I do not recommend Quelf.  It's been advertised a lot this season, but it's not very fun.  I really think some pot-smokers created that game, in the midst of activity.

20.  I bought these Minnetonka moccasin slippers last year at a cheese store/gas station off the free-way near Black River Falls, WI.  They have a huge selection of styles & colors.   I think I paid around $30 for them.  They are extremely comfortable; I wear them everyday in the winter around the house.

Hope this sparks some Christmas gift giving ideas!  If there are other bloggers out there, I'd love for you to share your favorite things.  I need ideas, too.

P.S.  This post is strictly from me only, not Eric.  I showed him this post & I said, "this is nice, isn't it" & he responded with "if you like things that are dumb." ha ha

Eric's 33rd & Thanksgiving

We had two quiet, yet very nice, celebrations this week.

Eric turned 33 on Nov. 22.  We stayed in and had spaghetti and meatballs (using the meatball recipe from here).  We also watched the movie The American since it was the free Hot Title at the library (not for an nostalgic reason)--it was ok.  We ended the night with Eric once again dominating in Scrabble.  He claims he got lucky on few with getting bonus points.  I was just proud I had more 3+ letter words than I usually do!  And we did have some cake after all, a DQ ice cream roll, which we are still eating.

Eric stayed home for Thanksgiving day, mostly to watch the Packers.  We made smaller portions of our favorite dishes (sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green bean casserole) and bought a rotisserie chicken.  I've seen people buy these often, but I had never tried one.  We both thought it was okay; although much better than making a turkey & having way too many leftovers.

We are thankful this Thanksgiving for family, each other, Eric's job, a nice place to live, new adventures and opportunities, health, and plans to drive home for Christmas this year!

Celebrating our Heritage: the Art of Lefse Making.

We were very fortunate to have Eric's mom, June, fly for a visit last week.  We had a great time going for soup & sandwich lunches, a little shopping, tour of Eric's building, the college bookstore, exercise class at the retirement home, the movie The Help at a restored theatre, church, and made lefse!!  Eric & had made lefse with his mom and aunts, Jan & Jean, many years ago, but this time we were more involved.  We used a recipe that June had obtained from an excellent lefse maker in Ridgeland, WI.  I would like to see what recipe my Grandma Moen would have used, since I heard she made the best!

Lefse

4 cups riced potatoes

1 Tbsp. sugar

1  tsp. salt

1 cup flour

1/4 cup veg. oil

1/4 cup evaporated milk

• Boil the potatoes & rice them while hot. (we also mashed them prior to ease ricing).  Scoop a total of 4 cups riced potatoes into a paper towel-lined bowl, 1 cup at a time.  Cover with more paper towel & seal container.  Refrigerate overnight or several hours. 

• Empty each set of 4 cups into a large bowl (separately, 4 cups at a time), work out lumps with your hand, and add 1 cup flour.  Mix. Then add rest of the ingredients: sugar, salt, veg. oil, & evaporated milk.  Mix.  Knead well on a floured surface and roll into about a 12" roll.  Refrigerate at least an hour.  

• Slice into about 1" chunks and roll with ribbed and fabric covered pin.  Using lefse turner, roll it off pastry board, roll onto griddle & grill.  We found that 385 was the ideal temp, but every griddle is different.

• Using lefse turner, lift onto towel & cover until cooled.  Store in sealed bag.

Peeling the potatoes the night before.  We then cut & boiled them.

Potato ricing.  This is an old ricer from Eric's family.  This is one of a few styles.

Four sealed containers with 4 cups of riced potatoes in each one, surrounded by paper towel.

Working out the lumps prior to adding the flour & other ingredients.

Post kneading, rolling it out into a 12" roll.

If they are too soft and sticky, add more flour.  If too dry, add more evaporated milk.  Cover and refrigerator for at least one hour.  We started the first part in the morning, put this in the refrigerator and went for lunch.

The dough cut into 1" sections.

We received this awesome lefse set for our wedding from my cousins Lisa, Brad, Tina, Tracey and families.  The Heritage griddle is on the right. The kit included the pasty cloth and board, lefse turner, and ribbed rolling pin with 2 cloth covers.  I believe they found it all on Target.com

On the left is the 1" balls of dough in flour.  The rolling station---Eric perfected this, figuring out how much flour to add and roll a nice circle without holes.

Using the lefse turner to carefully remove the dough to transfer to the griddle.

Grilling the lefse.  Our first 3 were quite hard, as we had the heat too high & it kept bubbling up.  We found 385 or so to work well.  During this process, the lefse needs to be attended & pat down any bubbles with the turner.  I also use a paper towel to clear off the flour in-between, brushing it off the side of the griddle onto that paper towel on the left.

Grilling was my job.  The afternoon process (minus all the steps prior the past refrigeration) took many hours.  I think we were grilling lefse from about 2:30-7:30.  If you had two griddles, it could go a lot faster.  It was nice to have 3 people, but you could do it with 2.  Actually you could do it alone, but it would take even longer.

June's job was cooling, bagging, and making sure Eric had enough dough ready to be rolled.  Here she is covering the hot lefse in a towel.

Our finished project!!  It was so delicious.  I said it was the best lefse I had ever had, but it is possible that I have never had it so fresh.  My favorite way to eat it is with butter & sugar, but I saw a cookbook that has 91 ways to eat lefse, so there other options.  I wish I could say we will be eating this for a long time, but we are actually almost out already.  I think we have about 5 slices left on the counter & one package of 8 in the freezer.  We may have to make some more again soon!!!  Overall, we didn't think it was as difficult as we thought it would be, just time consuming.  We really got the hang of it.  Makes for a fun, family event!!

Winter is Here

Looks like we are now at the start of our first Saskatchewan winter.  It snowed for the first time last Sunday, creating a beautiful scene but I was thankful we had a short drive to church and no other driving plans that day.  I don't mind the snow, minus the fact that it can interrupt plans.  Since the temp. has been about 28F, the snow has stayed and we added about 3 inches the other night.  I didn't think it was too bad that we only beat WI to the snow by about 4 days, although it is now in the 50s there so I imagine the snow is all gone.

Saskatoon is called one of "the sunniest cities in Canada."  We had a gorgeous summer and fall (except I really missed seeing the red colored leaves---it's just too cold up here to get that color).  Saskatoon's other nickname is "the Paris of the Prairies," which I think is a bit of a stretch.....

We finished up our last golf outing the weekend before last, even wearing hats & gloves.  It was so fun to get out to golf many times this summer.  To show how poor I was when we started, I improved 20 strokes this season.  I'm looking forward to getting new golf clubs, as I got mine on the cheap from a girl at work in IL and they really are too long for me.  Although they sure beat the set I had before that-- light blue & wooden!  My friend Chuck used to laugh at me when I got those antiques out.

Eric's mom, June, has been visiting this past week.  More details about our week to come, including our debut lefse-making!

Montreal Bagels

We have a great cheese store in town that also sells pasta & pasta sauce that they make on site (have yet to try either) and a variety of sausages.  Eric took this photo because he could not understand how one can buy all their meat & cheeses in under 10 min.

I bought a bag of Montreal bagels, as I'd heard they are "the best."  When I got home to have one for lunch, I cut my finger tip fairly bad while attempting to slice it.  Imagine cutting yourself with a bread knife---not the best cut.  With my quick first-aid skills, I pressurized, elevated, & iced and for the most part my finger will be fine.  Although it kept me up in the night throbbing.  I've decided the Montreal bagels are good, but not worth-slicing-your-finger good.

In other news, I took my OT board exam.  I am so glad that is over so I can move on with my life.

Thanksgiving more than Christmas?

I've been leading an exercise class every Thursday morning at a retirement center, which gives me a chance to talk with some older locals.  Today the topic was about Christmas, as I was asking if they decorate early since they don't have Thanksgiving in late Nov. (the answer is yes, they usually start decorating around mid-Nov).  This lead to an interesting convo about their perceptions about American holiday celebrations.

They believe that Americans really go all out for Thanksgiving, but then do not celebrate Christmas as much.  I told them that isn't the case where I am from, but I do agree Americans celebrate Thanksgiving more than Canadians.  They figured that is because they adapted Thanksgiving from the Americans and moved their celebration up to their harvest time, around October 10th.  They said they cannot believe all the hotels are full around Thanksgiving or the decorating and table spreads they see on American tv.  I have heard the sentence, "yea, but Thanksgiving is way more important to you than Christmas" more than just today, so it must truly be what the people in Saskatchewan believe.  I'm a bit curious to see how they go "all out" for Christmas.