Merry Christmas and a Bright...Wonderful...New Year!

Hopefully you have and continue to celebrate the holidays with your loved ones.  It has been a difficult year to celebrate, being so close to the incident at Sandy Hook Elementary and the other in Beijing.  My heart and prayers go out to those families.  I hope that as wise people consider ways to lessen the chance of this occurring again, they will also consider whether the system for helping mentally ill needs fixing.  Nonetheless, I hope that you have been able to celebrate and honor your own family despite any tragedies or personal circumstances that may hinder joy in this holiday season.

I am keenly aware this particular season of the various sensory components of celebrating.  We watch the lights dancing on the Christmas tree.  We feel the warmth from a crackling fire in the fireplace.  We hear the old Christmas carols and the wonderful Christmas shows that we all have favorites of.  We relish the taste of homemade treats that come out only this time of the year.  And we especially hug a little tighter.

If you have been unable to enjoy the holidays, please somehow, some way, find help.  Whether it's counseling or if you just need an extra push to connect with family or friend, I hope you will find your way home, to a place filled with love and hope.  If what you consider "home" has been full of sadness or dysfunction, maybe it's time to build something new in its place.  Who can you connect with in a positive way?  What new traditions can you start?  How will you begin to stir hope in yourself?  Awaken your senses to a new beginning!  Awaken your senses to love one another.  That's what Christmas is for.

Maraschino Cherry Nut Bread

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

¾ cup sugar

 2 eggs

½ cups butter, melted and cooled

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. juice from cherry jar or vanilla extract

1 cup chopped walnuts

10 ounce jar (appprox. 1 cup) chopped maraschino cherries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour one 8 x 4 “ loaf pan.  Combine flour, baking soda, salt and sugar in large bowl, mixing well.  In smaller bowl, combine eggs, butter, buttermilk and juice or extract.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing only till moist.  Stir in walnuts and cherries.  Spoon batter into prepared pan and bake for 60 minutes.  Cool in pan before cutting.

Optional glaze:

½ cup powdered sugar

¼ tsp. vanilla extract

1 tbsp. milk

Mix together till smooth and drizzle over cooled bread before cutting.

Happy Veteran's Day

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Happy Veteran’s Day to all you wonderful vets and troops out there!  I hope you have a few good stories to tell about your military days.  I salute each of you for your sacrifice, and wish you all the best.

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Charlie Dee Melton

Dad used to talk fondly about his time in the U.S. Air Force, especially in his later years.  As I remember his stories, he was 19 years old when he enlisted.  He was mad at his dad—again—and decided he wasn’t going to live at home anymore.  Those were his party years…black and white photos show him standing proudly with fellow servicemen, or holding up a bottle of liquor trudging through snow with a big grin on his face.  There were also photos of him standing near a prized car.  He was known as “Tex” or “Reb” (short for Rebel), because he had grown up in Texas, in and near a small town called Savoy where Grandpa was a carpenter and built several houses from ground up.

He talked mostly about being in Alaska.  He loved it there, and wanted to drive up and see the country one more time.  He also spoke about being in the Philippines, and how you’d know when the noobs came in:  they’d get sunburned hanging out on the beach too long and smelled like vinegar which took the sting out of the burn.  It sounded like a rite of passage there!

Betty Ann Rassbach Melton

Mom also had a story to tell about his time in the military.  She was graduating from high school and sent her senior picture to her brother, who was stationed with Dad.  Dad saw the photo and asked who she was.  Mom’s brother grinned and said it was his girlfriend.  Dad replied, “not for long!” and started writing.  Mom used to have a stack of letters bound up with a ribbon that were from him, during the next six years he was in service.  In one letter—which I had only got to steel a read from after Mom had passed away, he asked her what she thought about a house full of little brats running around.  After leaving the Air Force, he traded in his party days, settled down and married the love of his life in her hometown of Menomonie, Wisconsin, bought a house, and he worked at the local Ford Motor Company dealership, up till in the 70’s when we moved to Texas during the gas shortage.  Oh, and he got that wish about a houseful of brats…there’s six of us kids!

1960 - Betty and Chuck Melton

Welcome - Again - to Down Home

Sat down a bit and let my mind wander from the stuff of business.  I’ve been pulled away from blogging here.  Not sure it really matters, because I’m not sure anyone really reads it.  Business has been rather slow.  It could pick up after the election results are in and we know where the country is going—wait.  I kind of liked wandering and wasn’t to keen on getting back on that stuff.

I’m almost fifty.  Been looking for a job to pull us through winter, but I’m getting the impression no one wants to hire anyone my age.  I’ve been reminded that a job, or business doesn’t really define who I am.  And I’m the culmination of all those fifty years, and it’s been a lot of accumulating!  I guess the reminiscing brings me back to my “down home.”  You have yours, and it’s probably different.  But it has molded us.  Some of it’s family and friends, and how they are wired, some is what we value, where we’ve been, what we’ve done.  Some of it might not be good…maybe even down-right shameful or maybe unfair.  The present that has preoccupied me so much lately has been uncomfortable.  Some of my past was too.  But worrying about it has taken too much of my time, and the meanderings of my mind bring me to the conclusion that there’s a lot there that is pretty darned good, both in the present and the past.  And probably the future will be okay.  The bumps have a way of working itself out, and when the present becomes the past, from what I’ve seen, it’s a lot easier to look there and see what’s good about it.

Closing in on fifty seems to be clarifying the fact that the stuff and the jobs aren’t as important to hang on to as the people who love you—or mildly like you!—and the good…your values, your good memories.  Be your most unique and random self, and have fun.  Love God, and love your family and friends.  Breathe.  Notice.  Live.

Irish Soda Bread

I haven't posted for awhile, and even longer a recipe, so I am posting my Irish Soda Bread recipe that I baked a few days ago.  I first used this recipe when homeschooling Kelcie and we were learning about Irish culture.  This bread has a wonderful flavor.  Expect the crust to be a little tough, but to me it just adds character to the homemade bread.  It's so much better than a loaf from the store!

IRISH SODA BREAD

4 cups flour (spoon in lightly, don't pack it in)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. sugar
2 cups buttermilk

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.  Thoroughly mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add buttermilk and quickly mix ingredients together, kneading lightly.  (Too much kneading will toughen the dough.)  Form a round loaf about as thick as your fist.  Place it on a lightly greased and flour baking sheet.  Cut a cross in the top with a floured knife.  Bake for 30 to 45 minutes.  When baked, the bread will sound hollow when rapped on the top with your knuckles.  Wrap immediately in a clean tea-towel to stop crust from hardening too much (this also somehow keeps bread from tasting like baking soda.)



With the weather cooling down and autumn upon us, what are you baking?  Please share!  : )