Enjoying Your Family Celebrations

Where man sees but withered leaves, God sees sweet flowers growing. ~Albert Laighton

Family celebrations should be about creating lasting memories with the people we love. Don't let yourself become wrapped up in the perfect menu or trying to impress everything with your entertaining skills, especially if it takes away from the enjoyment of the day. Keep several things in mind as you plan your holiday:

1. Don't do it all yourself. Ask everyone to bring a dish for the holiday table. Use this as an opportunity to make family members feel good about contributing a dessert or dish to the celebration. Try to include everyone, even teenagers who can bake a batch of cookies. I loved to bake when I was a teen, and I have a nephew who makes an awesome chocolate chip cookie.

2. Keep the food simple enough that you won't be spending the entire day in the kitchen instead of visiting with family.

3. At the celebration itself involve children of all ages in some part of preparation. This may be as simple as carrying napkins to the dining area to be put on the table, to setting the table itself. Teenagers are the perfect age for carrying food to the table, rounding up extra chairs etc.

4. If you have little ones coming for the day stop by the dollar store or somewhere else and pick up cheap coloring books or activities to keep them busy before and after dinner.

I have a couple of easy recipes for Easter celebrations:

Crock Pot Ham and Scalloped Potatoes

Ingredients:
9 medium potatoes peeled and sliced
1 small sweet onion, sliced very thin
4-5 cups chopped cooked ham *see note
1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
dash or two of paprika

Saute the onion until soft and set aside. Layer HALF of the ham, potatoes and sauted onions in the crock pot. Season with paprika, salt and pepper, sprinkle with half of the cheddar cheese. Start over and layer the second half of the same ingredients. Pour the soup into a bowl, add the 1/2 cup milk and mix it well with a whisk. Pour over the top of all the ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-5 hours.

Note: Any diced ham can be used. It can be leftover from a bone-in or boneless ham, you can buy it at the deli, asking for it to be sliced thickly, or you can buy the large ham slices and chop.

Creamy Jalapeno Dip

This dip can be served while everyone is waiting for dinner, or later if you need a snack.

1-2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
16 ounces low fat or regular sour cream
1 package dry ranch salad dressing mix
2 tsp. garlic powder (not garlic salt)
Optional: 1-2 tbsp. fresh cilantro, minced

Place all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. You can make this the night before or first thing in the morning. Refrigerate and serve with tortilla chips or crackers.

On OFL I have several articles I've written with more Easter tips and recipes:

A Light & Festive Easter Dinner:
http://oldfashionedliving.com/easterdinner.html

Easy Ham Recipes
http://oldfashionedliving.com/ham.html

~Brenda

Old Fashioned Easter Ideas

We recently asked fans on our Facebook page if they were doing anything old fashioned for Easter.

Here were some of the comments:

Ann K - We always use onion skins to color eggs.
Great tip Ann! You can use onion skins (red and yellow), beets, cranberries, and several other natural ingredients to dye your eggs. These ingredients give off a wonderful earthy look. Here's more ideas for dyeing eggs naturally this Easter.

Kim P - I always buy my grand daughters and nieces kites to fly at my mom's on easter after our dinner and egg hunt. No one flies kites anymore so we have made it a family tradition. Last year a few of the grown ups even brought their own to fly.

Bianca G - Can't get any more old fashioned than Passover matzoh,  lamb, horeradish, and pickled fish.

So what about you? Doing anything old fashioned for Easter this year?

Here are some ideas for table decorations this Easter!

Turn a recycled white sheet into a spectacular Easter tablecloth by sponge painting bunnies, baskets and eggs in bright spring colors. Be sure to use textile paints so the tablecloth can be washed and used another year. Fabric paints are also available in squeeze applicators with glitter colors for decorating the sponged Easter eggs. Paint will need to dry at least 24 hours prior to use.

 Make a festive napkin ring by threading a sewing needle with narrow elastic thread and stringing jelly beans onto it. You may need to put a little vegetable oil on the needle to help it slide threw the candy. Tie off the ends to form a circle and slide it over the rolled napkins for a cute way to dress up the table. Add a solid colored doily under the plates for a festive way to dress up the table.

You can serve creamy lemon pie or light strawberry custard, strawberry almond pastry or let the kids decorate personalized tulip cookies. The menu options are endless but I suggest you keep the choices light and festive. Tableware does not need to match but keep to a color theme of bright spring colors or soft pastels.

If you are looking for something fun, try these Easter egg hunt ideas!

Baking Bread & Serving Salad for Twenty

Tomorrow I am bringing food in to my daughter's school for the Teacher's Dinner the PTO provides. I decided to bring a salad since last week I had blogged about greens and salads. I'm going to stop and get the ingredients at the last minute so it's fresh. I have a bottle of Ranch Dressing and a bag of Caesar Croutons purchased this weekend. I have apple bread in the oven tonight. This is the recipe I used:

Apple Bread

Ingredients:
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
3- 3 1/2 cups diced apples *see note
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Mix together the oil, eggs, sugar and vanilla til combined in a medium sized bowl.
In a large bowl sift the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Add the apples and mix in with the flour. Next add the wet ingredients, stirring with a large spoon until combined. Divide between two loaf pans that have been sprayed well with cooking spray or buttered. Place the pans on a cookie sheet and bake on the middle rack at 325 degrees F. for 1 1/2 hours. Cool, and slice.

Notes: I bought a bag of marked down assorted apples at the store, peeled and diced enough for 3 cups, but it was a little over, so I threw those in too. I also sprinkled brown sugar on the top of each loaf before baking. My oven runs hot and I lowered the temperature to 300 degrees F.

I like to cool and slice my bread before bringing it to potlucks or dinners such as this one at school. It's easier for people to put on their plates, plus it allows me to control the number of slices so everyone shares nicely:)





~Brenda

Spring Vegetable Recipes

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today I wanted to share a bit more on spring vegetables. I'm also wrote an article for OFL on growing peas in the garden, which you can read here: http://oldfashionedliving.com/The-Spring-Garden:-Growing-Peas.html

I have spring flowers and vegetables on my mind since this week it was sunny and between 50 and 65 degrees F. each day. I've been looking through more of my older cookbooks this week for vegetable recipes. The Good Housekeeping Cook Book (1944) had this beet recipe to try this season.

Young Beets With Greens

Wash, then cook very young beets and greens together until tender in 1/2 inch boiling salted water for about 25 minutes. Remove the beets and skin. Chop the greens, season with salt, pepper and melted butter or margarine and heat. Serve together.

Notes: Beets and their leaves can also be used in salads when they are very young. Take advantage of these tender greens before they grow too large. The young beets can be shredded or sliced thinly to use in coleslaw or salad recipes. Try adding them to layered salads. In Australia they also put shredded beets on burgers as a topping.

This is a recipe for a simple salad I've made often to go with dinner.

Simple Spring Salad

Ingredients:
10 ounce bag of mixed salad with spinach
2 cups sugar snap peas
2 cups strawberries
1/4 cup dried cherries
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup walnuts, almonds or pecans

Dressings: Blue cheese, French or Ranch

Place all of the ingredients in a large bowl and toss gently. Serve the dressing on the side.

~Brenda

Spring Salads to Brighten Lunch or Dinner

March is a tomboy with tousled hair, a mischievous smile, mud on her shoes and a laugh in her voice. ~Hal Borland

It's March and though it's only 46 here today you can still see the signs of spring. It won't be long and we'll be able to grow our own greens and the produce sections of our stores will start to bring in local growers. As a kid I thought a head of iceberg lettuce cut into chunks with dressing on it was a salad. It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized all the variety that was out there in creating salads.

Iceberg is really the least nutritious of salad greens, so use it with other greens or skip it all together and try something different.

Start with a mixture of greens for your salad first. Use a mixture of mild and crispy greens such as romaine, escarole, endive or Buttercrisp. Mix in spinach and a bit of arugula, radicchio, watercress which have a stronger taste. It's the mixture of the greens that make a good salad. If you use only one variety of lettuce it's not as tasty. Once you have decided on your salad "base", toss it gently, then add your other vegetables:

tomato
shredded carrot
cucumber
sugar snap peas
cabbage
radishes
red, green or yellow peppers
red onion or green onion
nasturtium petals
calendula petals (pull out discard center)
shredded raw beets
dandelion greens (untreated)
fresh peas, uncooked

Do be cautious of the dressings you use on your salads, because the fat and calories vary greatly. If you like a lot of dressing on your salad, consider light or no fat varieties. If you only use a tablespoon or two, then full fat dressings aren't as big of a deal. The creamy full fat cheese dressings are the highest in calories and fat.

I know the extras on salads can make all the difference to taste but remember that a small amount is always better because too much of a "extra" can make your salad worse than a double cheeseburger. Be cautious of:

Bacon
Cheese
Croutons
Dried fruit

Instead of bacon, try chopping turkey, grilled chicken or lean ham in your salad. Sprinkle a little bit of Parmesan cheese on your salad instead of cheddar cheese. Dried fruit can really perk up a salad, but only add a small amount. Fat free croutons are crunchy and not as bad as traditional Caesar type croutons. If you overwhelm your salads with creamy dressing and a lot of extras you aren't doing yourself any favors. The greens and vegetables really do have their own unique tastes, so don't drown them.

On OFL we have a very interesting article on using edible weeds:

http://oldfashionedliving.com/weeds.html

~Brenda

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Garden & Herb Questions and Answers

All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair, the bees are stirring, birds are on the wing, and Winter slumbering in the open air, wears on his smiling face a dream of spring." ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

A reader emailed us wanting to know where to buy lemon grass seeds and asked how to grow it. I thought I recalled that it couldn't be grown from seed, or at least not easily. I was pleasantly surprised to find out I was wrong. I had only bought plants in the past because it's not hardy in Zone 5.

The seeds are available from most seed suppliers such as Park Seed, or Gurneys. The seed packets will have instructions, but I do have a couple of tips to make it easier. Lemon grass seed should be just barely covered with a seed starting soil, then covered with plastic wrap after moistening the soil. It needs to be kept at 70-75 degrees F. to germinate. You want to basically make a little greenhouse atmosphere by covering the container with plastic and making sure it stays moist. On OFL we have an article on growing lemongrass from pieces of the herb: http://oldfashionedliving.com/lemongrass.html

I have a question about my jade plant.It is healthy and growing tall. But my issue is that it is only growing tall. It is not growing any branches out. It gets good light most of the day, at least what is required, the 3-5 hrs of direct sunlight, it gets new leaves, only on the top. Any suggestions on getting it to grow branches?

I hate to tell you to prune a plant that is healthy and doing so well, but I understand wanting it to be full, and not simply tall. You can cut the branches up to half their length to prune, but it's recommended that pruning is done in the fall instead of the spring. What you could do in the meantime is pinch off any tiny leaves that start growing at the top of the plant to encourage growth on the sides. You can set even small leaves in soil and they will root so you can start new plants. If you do this and it still isn't filling out by fall, then you can prune it.

I had a lovage plant for several years and 2 years ago it froze and didn't
come back and I am unable to find a place that sells them. Can you help me
find one? ~Donna

Lovage is SO easy to grow from seed that I would recommend starting a few new plants by direct seeding where you want it to grow or you can start the seeds ahead of time in a sunny window, then transplant outside later. Either way, you want to wait until all frost has passed. You can find lovage seeds in most garden centers, or online. It's a fairly common herb to grow from seed so it's easy to locate.

On OFL we have an article with growing instructions and recipes for lovage:
http://oldfashionedliving.com/lovage.html

~Brenda