I come from a long line of amazing cooks. It should come as no surprise since one side of my family is Greek and the other is Italian. One of my favorites is my Greek Great Grandfather or fondly known as Popou lived to the ripe old age of 91. One of his recipes that later my Yiayia – his daughter, made her own. The recipe of these cookies are elusive because as I am finding some of the best family recipes are not easy to replicate because what’s written on the card isn’t always what actually goes into the mix. I’ve tried these cookies in the past and I never got it right. My mom even tried, she couldn’t do it either. I decided that I was going to try again, but tweak the recipe. Guess what? I GOT IT! I am so excited and I’m embarrassed to say that almost all of the 70 cookies that I made are gone. The entire family (and some neighborhood kids) have gobbled them up!
Simple ingredients, and even though the recipe gives some flexibility, it’s clear there is little flexibility if you want it to taste right! All along it’s been BRANDY, not Whiskey!
This is my favorite! I love looking at recipes in my Yiayia’s scrawly handwriting – it make me smile. I have her banana bread recipe hanging in my kitchen. I feel like a part of her is present because when I think of my Yiayia, I think of her cooking, sitting in her kitchen, enjoying one of her special treats. Do you see the final line – “reg. Flour ones” do you know what that means? The majority of my family recipes call for “soup bowls of oil” or “coffee cups of flour or sugar” apparently you use whatever you have on hand. It’s made some recipes a bit more challenging than others.
Coludies cooling – of course by now you know they aren’t called Coludies – it’s just our American name for them. These cookies aren’t super sweet, not salty, they’re crisp on the outside, tender on the inside and perfect with either a cup of coffee or big glass of milk. I feel like I’m ten again when I eat them!
Yum!
I have another nephew! A sweet, precious little fella that I can’t wait to meet on our next trip south to Tennessee. For Christmas I decided he needed his own painting as a gift from Auntie Annie. Since I was in one of my “mix it up” moods, I decided to do something a little different.
  
There is no doubt that he will grow up throwing a ball – dad is a lover of such things (yeah!) and since they live in Tennessee and proudly wear the orange and white – I couldn’t resist incorporating a little UT into the design. So a football field is my background with my painted card stock letters. I found that darling little banner when I went shopping for Wren’s painting supplies. I edged the whole painting in UT orange grosgrain ribbon to finish it off. I think it turned out cute and is a perfect addition to a little boys room – one who will undoubtedly have no choice but to love and honor his God, his Father and his Volunteers. Happy Birth to you little one – Auntie Annie can’t wait to meet you soon!
Thanks!
I might be some things, but one thing that I am not is someone who won’t admit they were wrong. I’m stubborn, but not an idiot.
So after all the stress, the issues, the tears, the waffling. It’s all worked out, just as it should have. Just as I should have let it – but perhaps we wouldn’t be HERE if we didn’t take the course we did. It’s one of those things in life, you’ll never know how things would have unraveled if you’d have taken another path. What the hell am I talking about, well here it goes.
Remember that post, that awful, tearful, heartbreaking post about letting Marcy go? Well here’s the follow up. We took Marcy to the Humane Society – one of their staff took her in his car down to Greenfield to meet a potential adoptee. It was AWFUL, saying goodbye, her leaning into me as we pass our car (as if to say – uh, we’re passing the car lady), loading her into his car – her big brown eyes looking at me like, “Where am I going and why aren’t you with me?” (I sort of have a Snow White view of animals and I pretty much believe every cartoon or Spooky Buddies type of movie that makes dogs and animals talk, I believe they silently have this dialog going on, bare with me). We cried, we ate Perkins, we went home. I received a phone call that her placement didn’t work. The other resident dog attacked her, and kept trying to get her every time he got within striking distance. She clearly emits “Alpha” phermones or smells or energy or something because this fella, wasn’t having it. She went home with the HS employee – with his 15 dogs – some of which I pray are outdoor dogs. She didn’t eat, she wouldn’t lay down, she just stood there until he put her blankie down and she finally curled up on it and didn’t budge until he brought her back the next day. Heartbreaking, right? She was happy to see us, we brought her home.
She was a slightly different dog, she wouldn’t leave my side, she was more social. In fact she didn’t even flinch when Cyd walked on her blanket on his way to me. Cyd starting coming in and sleeping on our floor again, whether we were there or not. She started coming in the house and her tail would wag a little and most of all if Cyd was getting attention, she’d trot away giving him his time and if she was the focus and he got all up in her face she dealt with it. No growls, no snapping. Like she was scared straight, I imagine her though process to be – “I didn’t like that experience, so I guess I better shape up or they WILL ship me out.” (Again, Snow White interpretation)
In the mean time we know a wonderful family that was interested in her, they met her and of course fell in love with her sweet disposition and calm nature. Not to mention her floppy lips and big brown eyes. After much discussion, their location, lack of fence and neighbor dog were possible issues. Ryan and I made a pact that if this didn’t work out – it was meant to be, WE were meant to be her owners and that WE would work on correcting any of the issues we’ve faced. So long story short, the family decided that it wasn’t going to work and a relief has settled in that Marcy is ours. I am sure we’ll face some frustrations, but for now her behavior and the issues we had have all but dissolved. Except the barking, that’s going to be a fun one to work on….
So like I said, I think the path that we had to take led us to this point, led her to this point. Maybe she wouldn’t have been so amicable with Cyd if she hadn’t had her experience “on the farm.” If we hadn’t tried to make it work with another family, I may have always wondered if this was suppose to be or not. All I know is we all seem happy and comfortable. In fact this morning I walked into mini-wild kingdom in our room. Aliza, our cat, on our bed. Cyd on the floor in front of the bed and Marcy next to the bed. In the moment I was furious, thinking “Seriously??!?!?! Now you three decide to be kumbaya?” Now, however it makes me smile and helps me know this was all meant to be.
I want to close with a big thanks to everyone and their super kind words – I can not tell you how touching and thoughtful and helpful they all were as I stressed about this entire situation (stressed so much my face resembles that of my 7th grade school picture – full o’ pimples). Thank you, thank you, thank you. You were right, I was wrong and I happily admit it!
not kidding taken this morning as they were both cuddling on top of me
I’m one of those people that shops year round for Christmas gifts. I listen keenly to friends and family to figure out the perfect thing to get them. My craft closet becomes overwhelmed with goodies for all my favorite people. I don’t like waiting until December to shop, I don’t like to shop in December at all. Fact is, I stay within the budget I set for myself SO MUCH BETTER if I shop year round and adhere to the list. In years past I’d wait to get a few things so I had to pop into the stores in December. I don’t know if it’s the music, the “sales”, the smells they pipe into their establishments, but I always ended up buying things I didn’t really need. “Oh – Jon would love this” or “That would be darling for Penny” you get the idea. I sit a few weeks before Christmas wrapping and organizing our loot under the tree and into boxes and I’d realize I have WAY, WAY too much. Then I’d hold back a few things for future treats or birthdays – a waste of money and time. So this year I didn’t. I didn’t shop in December. I mean I still went to the store for groceries and things of the like – but I went with a purpose and walked out. I was tempted, but I didn’t nibble. I am proud of myself.
One thing that I always think of, but rarely get around to doing is homemade gifts. I love them – seriously there is nothing more tender than a homemade gift in my opinion. Let’s be honest, most of us don’t need a thing – so food, treats, snacks are a perfect gift. I always look forward to my Christmas delivery of my girlfriend Leslie’s homemade Cinnamon rolls – they are usually our Christmas Day breakfast treat. Some of our friends bring cookies or sugared nuts, they are all marvelous and we devour them as fast as they arrive.
This year I had plans, this year Christmas was crazy, the month was insane and frankly I don’t know how I managed, but I pulled it off. Next year, I’m going bigger. Now when I say homemade gifts – I didn’t actually make some of my gifts from scratch. In October, I made a rare trip to JoAnn’s in Castleton and found adorable cookie bag/boxes by none other than Martha herself. I’ve always been under the misguided notion that I need to give TONS of cookies and treats to friends and they all have to be special one of a kind recipes. Then I realized as I saw images in Real Simple and Martha herself – that only a sampling is needed and if I don’t have time to make my mother’s finger cookies that take hours then I could use scoopable cookie dough and things from a box. Each of these bags would hold six cookies. Perfect! So for some of the staff that I am close with at school I delivered these cookies on our last day. I wish I had taken a picture – the presentation would have made my mom proud. I also made Chex mix with a friend and we delivered those to our maintenance and kitchen staff at school – a group of hardworking individuals that get looked over quite a bit. Last, but not least, I made my Yiayia’s Banana Bread – always a big hit – I made a large loaf for my friend Leslie and smaller loaves for some of our neighbors. I DID take a picture of Leslie’s, because early in September I went to Garden Ridge and purchased a Christmas loaf pan. I baked hers in a different pan and then placed it in the decorated pan and tied the top with a recipe card. My tags were one of my Martha purchases from JoAnn’s. I didn’t spend much, but that isn’t the point, its the love and effort that goes into it that matters. Leslie had wanted the recipe for a while – I put her off because I had this gift in mind.
I got to thinking though that things like this don’t have to be a “Christmas” event. I mean I can always bake an extra loaf of bread or set aside a dozen cookies for a surprise to someone I love.
So for this next year, my commitment is to do a bit more homemade not only for Christmas, but year round as well. That and I’d like to make a few more of my secret family recipes. We’ll see how it goes!
Thanks!
I’m tired of thinking about dogs – this has been quite a time for me. Silly, sad, pathetic, it’s okay – I’m sure there are some rolling their eyes - it’s all good. I’m going to talk about something other than dogs. Promise.
I’m in a funk – I’m going to admit. I don’t have much mojo, spunk, (awe-duck-she) some greek word my mom and Yia yia would use for “energy”. I’m sure it’s like most of the greek I know – greeklish – made up by my grandmother. Hilarious – I have a whole vocabulary of a made up language that only the maternal side of my family would understand. I digress.
I’m getting little things done around the house – finally painting the drywall patches that Ryan did after installing the kids new windows this mid fall. Finally getting new bedding and such for our bedroom after talking about it FOREVER. I finally cleaned out our bedroom closet (I’ve been waiting on Ryan for this one.) We’re finally gearing up to tile our entry, and knock out a wall, and dec-out a wall with hooks in our entry to corral our bags and jackets better. I’ve got plans galore, but no upmf to do them. I can blame it on a bunch of things, but mostly I feel like this year I’ve been a ghost floating along. Just popping from one thing to the next, no real plan, no real direction, no real schedule. I have intentions – so with that I’m going to make some resolutions, like everyone else around me.
I like the idea of intentions or being intentional – it at least means I’m going to try – and trying is worth something, right?
Here goes:
- I’d like to adopt another dog – after we properly place Marcy in a loving home. I really enjoy the two dog dynamic and I am looking forward to finding a companion to Cyd and to our family.
- I’d like to blog more, or be more consistent. I want to balance my painting, simplicity, gardening and photography better. I miss writing. Although I’ve been trying to write in my journal more, it appears its one or the other for me.
- I want to continue to eat more real food, cook more meals from scratch, eliminate processed food from our diets. I am looking forward to gardening again – I’ve been looking at plans and seeds already and am going to commit to can more of my food – I have tons of salsa and one jar of jalapenos, but I only ended up with two large quarts of tomato sauce for pasta – it was AMAZING and I wish I had more. I think about all the tomatoes I composted because I didn’t get to them in time. I think I need to do monthly canning over the summer so that I can plan to have more stock piled during these winter months. I also need to get back on my bandwagon of weekly and monthly food planning. We are planning on selling our chest freezer (cheap to a good home, msg me if you are interested) and buying an upright freezer. The chest freezer has been wonderful for storage – but if I’m going to be making multiples of meals and storing them, an upright will allow me to see better what I have. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found pounds of ground beef at the bottom after I’ve already bought yet another pound. I’m excited about getting this new appliance, I’m a total dork, I know.
- Simplify, simplify, simplify. There is ALWAYS room for improvement. I want to clean out our storage side and continue to purge our house of unnecessary things, things that bog us down, clutter, crap. I’m feeling overwhelmed, drowning. I’m going to tackle the storage side and the kitchen once the kids are back in school. They are our clutter havens.
- I want to be more present. Check Facebook less, write more letters to my friends that I don’t have the luxury of seeing everyday. Book a couple of get aways to see those said friends, time to visit and catch up, but also time for me to recharge. My batteries are way, way low. I’m not a good mom or wife or even friend if I can’t get away and take care of me. I wish I could go 150 miles per hour 24/7/365, but I can’t. I get burned out and selfishly I need time to myself for myself. It’s been over two years since my last solo get away – I need to get planning…
- I also want to be more present for my kids – I’m not a “on the floor playing” type of mom, never have been, and I’ve resigned the fact that I won’t be. I don’t like to play, plain and simple. I adore my kids, but I just don’t like to play. With that I need to find what does work now that my kids are getting older – force myself to do something other than read to them at night or barrage them with questions after school and at dinner. Penny goes to full day school next year – I vaguely remember our time alone together. Hell I vaguely remember anything these days. We’ve been swapping out or 8mm tapes to DVD’s and I’ve been watching all of our history as a family – it breaks my heart because I barely remember how little Jon was or the things Drew used to say – or what Penny was like as a baby. I find myself bitter too because so much of their youth – Drew and Penny was spent caring for mom, and ultimately grieving for her – so it’s almost like none of it happened. I want so much of that time back, but without the caregiver parts or mom’s death. But I can’t, so I move on and try to make the most of this time, I do have.
- Be less busy. I’m a busy person – I have at least four things going on at once. I’m a good juggler and multi-tasker, but I don’t need to be. I need to focus more, be less busy – which I think will ultimately help the “present” goal of mine. I need to say “No” more – I’ve improved dramatically and I’m not a martyr – I just need to say “NO” more.
Sweet kitty Aliza – she doesn’t get much face time since she’s a bit of a shy gal. That and she’s NEVER busy.
So there you go – intentions. We’ll see I how I fair – I wish to all my friends a warm and happy 2012 – may this year be the best yet!
Thanks!
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by Annie
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