Food

 I am taking part in The Write Tribe Festival of Words 8th – 14th December 2013.

       Food is a major part of any celebration.  Whoever coined the phrase eat, drink, and be merry knew what they were talking about!  With the gluttony of Thanksgiving behind us and Christmas just around the corner I am eagerly anticipating another big holiday meal.  Since I am the cook, the extra work associated with preparing a huge feast is largely up to me. 

        Christmas is full of time honored traditions and rituals and what’s on the menu is no exception.  Every year I bake a ham for dinner.  There are an assortment of sides and usually a special dessert.  One dish that has become a tradition is cheesy hash brown casserole.  It is a dish I prepare every year which the whole family looks forward to with eager anticipation.  It is that good!   It simply wouldn’t be Christmas without it.  No more than it would be New Year’s Eve without steaks on the grill with baked potatoes drizzled with cheese sauce.  Holidays bring the plate of deviled eggs to the table and dessert.  I rarely make dessert for the every day.  Holiday meals demand it!!  What would Thanksgiving be without pumpkin pie piled high with whipped cream?

     So while food is a basic necessity needed to survive, it also plays a major role in our holiday celebrations because we like to eat, drink, and be merry.   Where people gather there will always be food.  Lots and lots of food!!

Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole

1       bag of frozen hash browns thawed

      ½   C butter melted

1       C  sour cream

1       C  French onion dip

2       C  shredded cheddar cheese

1       can cream of chicken soup

½ C chopped onion

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. pepper

Topping

  2 C cornflakes

 1/4 C butter melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix ½ cup butter, sour cream, French onion dip, cheese, soup, and onion in large baking dish.  Add potatoes and toss to coat.

Melt ¼ cup of butter then add cornflakes.   Toss to coat.  Top potato mixture with the cornflake mixture.

Bake for 1 hour.

Hakuna Matata for the Holidays

     It’s December, but where’s the snow??  I am ready for it to start looking a lot like Christmas around here.  The tree is trimmed, my Santa collection is in place and at attention, but where is the glorious white stuff?  It has been cold enough for it, but no cigar.  Today the temps are in the mid 40’s and threatening to peak in the 50’s.  It is a potentially lovely day perhaps, but not for December.  There should be snow, and lots of it!!  Snow Miser, get out of the shitter and get to work!!  Heat Miser has taken over your territory!!  How will we ever build Frosty??

       Oh well, you can’t have everything in life.  Another day has dawned and a new month has begun and crazy a$$ me, I have signed up for another month of NaBloPoMo.  It is almost laughable considering the last couple of months I have went along for the ride only to fall short and not write every single day.  Bleeding hearts unite; did the world come to an end because I didn’t?  Well, hell no.   It didn’t but I felt guilty for my lapse just the same.

      So here I am, pondering just what the hell to write about.  I am letting my brains scramble and ramble along and allowing my fingers to spew forth whatever bitchery and tom foolery it will on this first Saturday of December.  Weekends are not for structure after all.  They are for sleeping in, being lazy, and hiding in a corner with a good book.  They are for mad dashes to the grocery store because lo and behold the flipping cupboard is almost bare again.  G0d the natives are pigs around here!  Wait that would include me too, wouldn’t it?  Well, it is the truth after all.  It is time to do all the laundry because there is nothing worse than waking up to face the day and not having one stitch of clean clothes to put on.
 

         It’s the weekend and there are no worries.  The bills are paid, at least the ones I plan on paying.  It is December.  If you haven’t decked your halls and hung your balls, it is time to get that party started.  It is time.  Christmas is just around the corner.  My husband was home 6 days over the Thanksgiving holidays and we got our balls together then and decked the halls.  We got our Christmas shopping basically done and all our jingly bells in order.  All that is left now is the odds, ends, and the wrapping.  Spreading holiday cheer sending out Christmas cards, indulging in Christmas sweets (shhhhh!!), thinking about the wonder of the savior’s birth, cranking the Christmas tunes to full blast, and having a merry little Christmas all month long is what December is all about.  Guess what?  I have fulfilled my duty.  I have written one merry a$$ blog and now I will leave you singing Hakuna Matata for the rest of the day until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.

H is for Home and Holidays

      Being a trucker’s wife, I have become accustomed to my husband not being at home.  It is part of life.  It doesn’t mean that after a while I don’t yearn for his presence, because I do.  There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t miss him.  I accept the fact he can’t be home and make money. 


       

       This last weekend was different.  It was a holiday, and there isn’t a holiday that goes by that he and I both don’t long for him to be home.  He isn’t always home for holidays.  I don’t like it, but it is what it is.  I can accept that he is gone most of the time because he has to be.  It is always a hard pill to swallow when he spends a holiday on the road.  We have small children, and lets face it, as hard as I try I will never be their Daddy.  Holidays don’t seem complete without him.

       Over the years there have been a good many holidays he has missed.  We have kept almost constant contact by cell phone, talking and sending pictures back and forth.  It is not the same.  He has no control over it.  The company he works for has stuff that needs delivered in the opposite direction, and someone has to take it.  I get that.  We need the money.  I get that too.  

        Lately my husband has been in a cycle of going out 3 weeks and coming home for 4 days, meaning he only sees home roughly 55 days a year including his vacation.   That isn’t a whole lot.  His scheduled time to be off is next weekend so I didn’t expect him to be home for Easter.  I steeled my resolve and planned an Easter for our kids filled with Je$u$, bunny baskets, egg hunts, and a baked ham for dinner.

        When Friday rolled around we discovered that he would be passing through for a delivery on Monday.  He could come home for Easter!!  He wouldn’t be here long and he would have to leave Easter morning to make his appointment on time, but he would be coming home!!  He arrived Friday night in time for supper and from that moment on the clock was ticking.  It was a whirlwind and I feel like I have jet lag, but we managed to celebrate Easter on Saturday.  The Easter bunny came on Saturday night to my kids delight.  Instead of preparing the ham I had bought, my husband insisted on barbequing chicken.  When you are a trucker’s wife, you learn to roll with it.  When he left at the butt crack of dawn Easter morning, I felt fulfilled, happy, and alive.  

        Couples that see each other every single night may never see how precious time spent together really is.  Every homecoming is a cause for celebration.  The kids and I are always out by the road to wave that big International into driveway.  I always fling open the truck door as soon as he gets stopped and the kids always climb into the truck in their eagerness to see him and be near him.  Holidays are always more spectacular when he is home.  Even after he left Easter morning, the glow of happiness still hung in the air and made each of our steps a little lighter and our smiles a little more exuberant.  Holidays just aren’t the same without him, and for him there just is no place like home for the holidays until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.

Surprise!!! I’m Home!

    When you are a trucker’s wife you learn to live with the fact that your husband will be absent for most holidays and special occasions.   At most trucking companies the only holiday you can bet money that your husband will definitely be spending at home is Christmas.  When my husband left home after a week’s reprieve with me and the kids, I didn’t plan on seeing the whites of his baby blue eyes until the first week of March.  The kids and I were resigned to another Valentine’s Day spent apart.  He had bought me a chocolate rose and my favorite conversation hearts before he left, so it was all good.  Our valentines for him would have to wait till he ever came back home.

     It was Valentines Day night.   The kids and I had eaten dinner and were settled on the couch watching “The Biggest Loser” on television.  If it is Tuesday, you can pretty well bet money that is where you will find me. I can’t miss that or “Parenthood”.  It is the only night I am religious about watching TV.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t miss “The Voice” on Monday night either if I can help it.  The rest of the nights I pretty much do my own thing: read, write, clean, or play games with the kids.  It didn’t really surprise me when my phone rang during the “Biggest Loser” and the caller ID announced my husband was on the phone.  He often calls this time of night to check in, talk with kids about how their day went at school, and to see if I am doing alright.

      He surprised me and told me he needed Mapquest and wanted me to look up how many hours away from home he was.  I typed in destination A to B and was shocked to realize he was only a little over an hour away!!  I thought he was out east somewhere!!!  I certainly didn‘t think he was anywhere near home!  “Move the pickup truck over, I am coming home!!”  Sphincter says what?  The dinner dishes weren’t done, the kids stuff was littered all over the living room, and he was coming home???  Usually I have plenty of warning before he comes home, but at practically bedtime I was in no frame of mind to do a thorough cleaning shakedown on the entire house.  At this late stage in the day, Mr. Neat and Tidy would just have to live with how the house looked because even if I had the energy to pull myself off the couch, the desire to clean was not there.  Let the chips fall where they may!  He isn’t company after all, he lives here too!

      At almost 11 PM he backed his semi into the driveway.  He came to the door with a big grin proclaiming “Surprise, Happy Valentines Day!”  It was a BIG surprise, and despite the fact I had to fix him something to eat at almost midnight, I felt blessed that we could be together for Valentine’s Day.  He got to see all the kids Valentines they had received from their friends at their class parties.  He got to see their school work.  Not only did he get a full tummy and a hot shower, he also got the roll in the hay he was looking for.  Every now and then one of life’s little surprises comes along and happens to not be bad news for a change.  It doesn't happen often, but when it does you realize how good life can be until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.

Favorite Holiday Traditions

     When my mom died, we all felt it was necessary to continue to include her in our Christmas celebrations. She was gone, but definitely not forgotten. My mother loved everything about Christmas. She took great pleasure in decorating the house each year. She loved to gaze at the twinkling lights on the tree.

 

     We would gather at her grave and begin our Christmas celebrations with her often bringing fresh flowers and Christmas balloons. We would decorate her grave much as she had decked the halls of her home. Sometimes we would sing her Christmas carols, while other times we would silently relay our love and Christmas greetings. Some years were snowier than others, and during the day my Dad often would visit the cemetery early to clear a path through the snow to her grave.

     By the time my Dad died, fiber optic trees were all the rage. My husband and I felt it was only appropriate that they both needed a new Christmas tree to celebrate their first Christmas in heaven together. After all, what could be more glorious than celebrating Christmas in heaven listening to angelic choirs sing? I found a small decorated fiber optic tree and my husband insured that it lit up the graveyard that Christmas Eve night.

     It has become tradition to visit my parents at the cemetery on Christmas Eve night. It wouldn’t be Christmas without this small tradition. My mom always joked that her grave would resemble the sorry state of Ebenezer Scrooge’s. I have made it my duty to insure that is never the case. Even now it is decked out with artificial poinsettias and a decorative Santa Claus, and on Christmas Eve like every other year we will put up the tree.

    

     Even though my parents are no longer living, by keeping them apart of my traditions they continue to live within my heart and the hearts of my little family in which they were an important part of. It would be a very blue Christmas indeed without our yearly trek to the cemetery. That is all I have to say until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.

All I Want for Christmas-BFF 145

     When I was a little girl it was a big deal to make a Christmas list every year. My mom and dad always encouraged me to. They cared about what I wanted for Christmas and moved heaven and earth to ensure that my Christmas wishes were realized. I would think long and hard about it often scanning the toy catalogs for ideas. Then I would present it to my mom and hope for the best. I always memorized the things I wanted most and made sure I told Santa Claus when I visited him, just to be on the safe side.

    

      As I grew older things began to change. Once my mom died, my dad took over the task of collecting Christmas lists. By then I was an adult, and my dad put a money limit to how much he was willing to spend for each of us. I would scour the Sunday ads of the newspapers for all the sales flyers and give my Dad the heads up for where he could find what I wanted for the cheapest price. Unlike my sister who was only ever interested in cold hard cash, I wanted presents to open!! I would construct my list showing the items I wanted including where he could find them on sale. Might as well get as much out of that dollar amount as I could, right?? I still was surprised, because I never knew what my dad would choose to get me off my list. Where my dad put a limit to what he intended to spend, my mother took my Christmas list and usually got every single thing on it plus. To say Christmas’s were merry and bright at our house was an understatement.

     Once both my parents were no longer living, the task of fulfilling Christmas wishes fell to my husband and me. As you get older you begin to understand how it all works. You still keep the spirit and fun of Santa Claus alive for your children, but you begin to pray for Christmas miracles and do the best you can to ensure your kids have a Merry Christmas. My kids haven’t produced a “list”, because I am sure they trust that I already know what they like and would want. Not only that, they know that Santa Claus knows what they want as well as how naughty or nice they have been. When I seen this challenge, I hesitated even writing it because I know the need for Christmas lists went out the window with our growing maturity and sense of responsibility to ensure we have a roof over our heads, heat, electric, and food in our bellies. After all, Christmas is only one day a year. You still need to eat, have shelter, and the bills paid regardless. Bill collectors don’t care if it is Christmas. They want paid. Period. Kind of heartless like Scrooge, but a fact of life.

     So this Christmas, my list has dwindled to a few things. Honestly, I don’t even have a list . I know all to well the state of the checkbook and the ever growing pile of bills. It almost seems pointless to make a list. Still, since I am pressed to make a list I want everyone in my little family to have something to open on Christmas day plus a Santa sock filled with small treasures and surprises. I want a Christmas meal with all the trimmings. Most of all, I want to be home enveloped in love, laughter, and happiness enjoying it all with my husband and children. Bless my sweet husband, he has always managed miracles and made sure each Christmas was better than the one before. He is my Mr. Make it Happen, my special Santa Claus.

     Since I am leaving it to chance, I will just have to see what transpires. That is all I have to say until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.

Tasty Tuesday: Baked Ham with Apricots

     Like most people I grew up eating tantalizing baked hams packed with brown sugar, drizzled with pineapple juice, and garnished with pineapple rings.  Ham was always a staple of the Christmas day and Easter feasts.  When I came across this recipe I had to give it a whirl!  I fell in love with the combination of flavors of the apricots, cloves, and ham.  This recipe soon became a favorite and an excellent way to spice up the ham for the holidays.

1 honey ham
1 cup brown sugar
1/8 tsp cloves
1 16 ounce can of apricot slices in syrup


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Place ham in a medium baking dish.  Spoon brown sugar over top and sprinkle with cloves.  Drain apricots, reserving 1/4 cup of syrup.  Arrange apricot halves, cut side up, in over ham, holding in place with toothpicks.  Pour the reserved syrup over ham.  Bake ham for 1 hour.  Slice and serve.  Bon Appetit!