Recipe for a Happy New Year

Portland Head Light

Sunday begins a fresh new year.  I always look forward to making changes and a "clean slate" in the new year!  Below is a recipe for a Happy 2012 New Year!   The author of this recipe remains unknown.

Take 12 whole months,

Clean them thoroughly of all bitterness, hate and jealousy,

Make them just as fresh and clean as possible.

Now cut each month into 28, 30 or 31 different parts,

But don’t make up the whole batch at once.

Prepare it one day at a time out of these ingredients.

Mix well into each day one part of faith,

One part of patience, one part of courage,

And one part of work.

Add to each day one part of hope,

Faithfulness, generosity and kindness.

Blend with one part prayer,

One part meditation, and one good deed.

Season the whole with a dash of good spirits,

A sprinkle of fun, a pinch of play,

And a cupful of good humor.

Pour all of this into a vessel of love.

Cook thoroughly over radiant joy,

Garnish with a smile,

And serve with quietness, unselfishness,

And cheerfulness.

Follow this recipe and I know you’ll have a very happy 2012!

I look forward to continued friendship and 
blogging with current and new acquaintances!

XO

Mary

Playful Nomes

A little playful winter decoration on my walkway.

XO

Merry Christmas!

Duke

Merry Christmas from our home to yours! I hope your holidays are truly wonderful! Thank you for taking the time to follow my blog. Thank you for reading my posts, and for your very kind comments. I truly appreciate your friendship.  I leave you with this lovely poem.

The Kerry Christmas Carol

Don't blow the tall white candle out

But leave it burning bright.

So that they'll know they're welcome here

This holy Christmas night!

Leave out the bread and meat for them,

And sweet milk for the Child,

And they will bless the fire, that baked

And, too, the hands that toiled.

For Joseph will be travel-tired,

And Mary pale and wan,

And they can sleep a little while

Before they journey on.

They will be weary of the roads,

And rest will comfort them,

For it must be many a lonely mile

From here to Bethlehem.

O long the road they have to go,

The bad mile with the good,

Till the journey ends on Calvary

Beneath a cross of wood.

Leave the door upon the latch,

And set the fire to keep,

And pray they'll rest with us tonight

When all the world's asleep.

The Gift . . .

 
How lucky am I to receive this wonderful cookbook, The Boston Cook Book by Mary J. Lincoln. This book belonged to my husband's grandmother, and was given to him by his cousin to give to me! The book is signed by the author and dated "October, 1911" - just over 100 years ago! I can truthfully say, it's my oldest, and now dearest cook book.

A little water damage, but who cares!

Here's what I found out about the author, Mrs. Lincoln. Her book, Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book: What to Do and Not Do in Cooking (1884) was a highly influential book that provided recipes from multiple sources and emphasized the science and nutritional aspects of cooking. It also help set the pattern of how cookbooks and recipes were to be formulated with consistent measurements and is a fore-runner to the Fannie Farmer's The Boston Cooking School Cookbook.  Fannie Farmer was one of her students!

Below is a recipe from the cookbook that I thought would befit the holiday season,  please enjoy!

Plum Cakes

1 cup butter

2 cups brown sugar

Yolks of 3 eggs

Whites of 2 eggs

1/2 cup of milk

1/2 cup of dark molasses

1/2 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoonful cream of tartar

1/2 pound raisins, stoned and chopped (plums?)

1/2 pound currants

2 tablespoonfuls any fruit syrup

4 cups of flour

2 teaspoonfuls mixed spices

If not dark enough, add a little melted chocolate.  Bake in small tins, and frost part of them with the remaining white of egg.

Baking instructions

Bake in a moderate oven (that's it for instructions)

(I'm guessing 350 degrees, until cakes are done, about 20 - 25 minutes.

This treasure fell out of the book after my little photo shoot!

Bake, eat and enjoy!

Silent Night . . . in Veteran's Park

We stumbled across a pleasant surprise in Old Orchard Beach, Maine last evening, when we drove by Veteran's Park, the band stand had been dressed for the season!  There were other lovely decorations too, I'll post about them later.  For now, please enjoy one of our favorite spots in Old Orchard.

Normally this park is buzzing with people, and in six months it will be buzzing again.  We love to sit in the bandstand, catch the sea breeze and people watch, you see EVERYTHING at the beach in the summer, not so much in the winter, most people cover up out of necessity to avoid frost bite!! LOL!!!

For the want of warmth and longer days . . .

While I truly enjoy the holidays, the decorating, the cooking and yes, even the gift giving I felt a sudden need for warmth and longer days.  It's beginning to get seasonably cold in New England, burrr.

 I did not post about this past Labor Day weekend, so when I was looking at my photos a smile came to my face.

 It was a lovely weekend, shared with great friends.  Susan at  From Beyond My Kitchen Window and her devilishly handsome husband joined us for our annual Fort Williams State Park Labor Day Art Show in Maine.

We had a light luncheon of tomato pie before we began our excursion.

A beautiful prize winner!

In all the years I've been going to this art show, the weather has NEVER failed us!  

 We finished out the day with lobster rubens and blueberry pie back at the cottage.

Happy Weekend!

Happy Birthday . . .

Wishing a very Happy Birthday to my one and only!  XOXO

Warning: Not for the unorganized . . .

I have been on a cleaning frenzy, especially where my refrigerator is concerned!

The first cleaning was "just because" I thought it was time.  The second cleaning

about a week later - I had spilled fish juice, talk about stink!

The third cleaning happened when I discovered I had purple splattered

eggs in my egg bin.  How on EARTH did that happen?  My blueberries defrosted

 and leaked off the plate and ran down the back of my refrigerator!

What a mess!  As you can see, I didn't realize how bad the

 "blueberry murder" was until I took the entire drawer out!

 Scrub, scrub, scrub . . . 

See how organized and pretty she is now!

 I love organization!  A special thanks to my husband for 

organizing everything as I washed and handed it back to him!

What a dish!

We have an extra seat at the table, would you like to join us?  I love using my Christmas dishes and other table top toys!  I started collecting these dishes when I was a teenager, and I still love them today!  It was considered VERY decadent to buy dishes that I would only use for a few weeks a year - mom was correct, but I did it any way!  


Then at my bridal shower, mom added 8 place settings, plus many serving pieces to my 8 place settings - then she started collecting her own pattern!  LOL!!!


Happy Weekend!