Christmas Eve in Alaska
It is late. Judy Garland is singing "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas" in St. Louis. The children are all nestled snug in their bed and the stockings are hung by the chimney with care. Pa isn't in his cap or his kerchief, but he is in bed and wouldn't hear a clatter if it hit him in the head...
We had a lovely ham dinner with twice baked potatoes, deviled eggs, whole wheat rolls. It seems like there was more than that but I can't remember and we all got so full we didn't eat any of the desserts (until now, I'm sampling the pies).
We had lots of breaks with tradition this year. Usually we have a breakfast for Christmas Eve but this year we had a wonderful ham dinner instead. (It was a whole, bone in ham with GREAT flavor, and Brian put water in the bottom of the pan and the meat was so soft and juicy. I have to say it was the best ham I've ever eaten.)
A friend at church loves to make whole wheat bread and she and Brian go back and forth on storing and grinding and using wheat - it's a huge, long-standing joke between them and half the ward. Anyway, this summer, we finally bought a bit of wheat and I forgot that I had bought a little hand operated mill. a couple weeks ago, Brian decided we better get a wheat mill (BOTH of us forgot we had bought the small hand mill) and he ordered an electric mill that should be here any day.
So our friend brought Brian a loaf of her wonderful whole wheat bread last week as a congratulations gift for his breaking down and getting a grain mill. It was so good we decided to try to make whole wheat rolls for our dinner. Brian was a trooper and ground the wheat in the little hand mill. He says it will have to be some heck of an emergency before we use that mill as our daily flour grinder... but he got enough to make the dough. He is a master of making bread dough in our bread maker. We wore out 2 other bread makers, but this one has a faulty bake cycle so we don't use it very often, but it is great for making dough and he makes wonderful dough combinations in it. So he made the dough and then I used my brand new Pampered Chef 13 x 9 inch pan which I bought specifically to bake rolls in. They turned out PERFECT.
sometimes when you go to a party or a demo and see a product and get sold on it and them come home and are so disappointed. Well, I am not disappointed in this pan at all. The rolls come out completely and more importantly, the pan has even heat, so all the rolls are the perfect amount of doneness. The glass pan I have used for 30 years has hard rolls on the outside and doughy ones in the middle... and I hate that. So I am happy as a clam with this purchase.
So the kids are exhausted. They have been working 14 hour days, 7 days a week - and of course the tubing business is very physical and outside in the cold and wind a lot which is so tiring. They got home around 6:00 and we had dinner mostly ready. Alicia thru some finishing touches on the eggs and finished the potatoes. Justin set the table. Before they came home, Brian had started a sweet dough in the machine for Alicia to make into the Christmas morning roll and she thru that together before we ate and it rose during dinner and the presents.
The other break with tradition is that Christmas day we are having dinner at the inn. We never leave home on Christmas day - at least we haven't for about 20 years. They are cooking prime rib and all our friends from church are coming and doing potluck again. We have dessert duty again. Brian made pies and we worked together to make a blueberry cheesecake dessert kind of thing. We will make some more stuff in the morning, I'm sure.
It was fun for Brian and I to work together in the kitchen again. We paced it out all day and built in rest periods and finally I had Brian bring my walker in so I could sit and work at some tasks, like peeling eggs and chopping potatoes. So much of the work and cooking that I used to do has fallen on him and he never complains and I really appreciate him taking over and it was very nice to be able to work together.
We had a lovely evening and we are thinking of you all. It was a humble Christmas in our house - more love that money was spent, but we are learning to like that kind of Christmas better. We are so grateful to be celebrating the greatest gift of all - the gift of a Savior who was born to redeem us, to pay for our sins, and to save us all. There isn't a better gift around than that...
HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL. Love, Charlotte
We had a lovely ham dinner with twice baked potatoes, deviled eggs, whole wheat rolls. It seems like there was more than that but I can't remember and we all got so full we didn't eat any of the desserts (until now, I'm sampling the pies).
We had lots of breaks with tradition this year. Usually we have a breakfast for Christmas Eve but this year we had a wonderful ham dinner instead. (It was a whole, bone in ham with GREAT flavor, and Brian put water in the bottom of the pan and the meat was so soft and juicy. I have to say it was the best ham I've ever eaten.)
A friend at church loves to make whole wheat bread and she and Brian go back and forth on storing and grinding and using wheat - it's a huge, long-standing joke between them and half the ward. Anyway, this summer, we finally bought a bit of wheat and I forgot that I had bought a little hand operated mill. a couple weeks ago, Brian decided we better get a wheat mill (BOTH of us forgot we had bought the small hand mill) and he ordered an electric mill that should be here any day.
So our friend brought Brian a loaf of her wonderful whole wheat bread last week as a congratulations gift for his breaking down and getting a grain mill. It was so good we decided to try to make whole wheat rolls for our dinner. Brian was a trooper and ground the wheat in the little hand mill. He says it will have to be some heck of an emergency before we use that mill as our daily flour grinder... but he got enough to make the dough. He is a master of making bread dough in our bread maker. We wore out 2 other bread makers, but this one has a faulty bake cycle so we don't use it very often, but it is great for making dough and he makes wonderful dough combinations in it. So he made the dough and then I used my brand new Pampered Chef 13 x 9 inch pan which I bought specifically to bake rolls in. They turned out PERFECT.
sometimes when you go to a party or a demo and see a product and get sold on it and them come home and are so disappointed. Well, I am not disappointed in this pan at all. The rolls come out completely and more importantly, the pan has even heat, so all the rolls are the perfect amount of doneness. The glass pan I have used for 30 years has hard rolls on the outside and doughy ones in the middle... and I hate that. So I am happy as a clam with this purchase.
So the kids are exhausted. They have been working 14 hour days, 7 days a week - and of course the tubing business is very physical and outside in the cold and wind a lot which is so tiring. They got home around 6:00 and we had dinner mostly ready. Alicia thru some finishing touches on the eggs and finished the potatoes. Justin set the table. Before they came home, Brian had started a sweet dough in the machine for Alicia to make into the Christmas morning roll and she thru that together before we ate and it rose during dinner and the presents.
The other break with tradition is that Christmas day we are having dinner at the inn. We never leave home on Christmas day - at least we haven't for about 20 years. They are cooking prime rib and all our friends from church are coming and doing potluck again. We have dessert duty again. Brian made pies and we worked together to make a blueberry cheesecake dessert kind of thing. We will make some more stuff in the morning, I'm sure.
It was fun for Brian and I to work together in the kitchen again. We paced it out all day and built in rest periods and finally I had Brian bring my walker in so I could sit and work at some tasks, like peeling eggs and chopping potatoes. So much of the work and cooking that I used to do has fallen on him and he never complains and I really appreciate him taking over and it was very nice to be able to work together.
We had a lovely evening and we are thinking of you all. It was a humble Christmas in our house - more love that money was spent, but we are learning to like that kind of Christmas better. We are so grateful to be celebrating the greatest gift of all - the gift of a Savior who was born to redeem us, to pay for our sins, and to save us all. There isn't a better gift around than that...
HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL. Love, Charlotte
posted by Brian & Charlotte Carper | 11:43 PM
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