Christmas Cookies

Blake and I both have a bit of Norwegian in us. It is really the only specific recognizable heritage that we both share. His grandma is also Greek and my grandma is Italian, and I'll claim a little bit of that too. However, the predominant cultural influence in both of our childhoods was the Norwegian. My grandma always made Lefse during the holidays and to this day I look forward to smearing butter and sprinkling sugar on that potato flatbread. Last year I tried my hand at making it myself.. turned out pretty good (if I may say so myself) ;).

I've been trying to make a new Norwegian dessert each Christmas. Last year I made små brød (small bread) that is kind of a scone dough in a pretzel/wreath shape. It was pretty good.

This year, thanks to my recent acquisition of a mysterious Jøtul iron during our most recent beach trip.
(Remember this?)

                        

Tonight, I put it to use! Through some research (Google) I discovered that this old cookie press is intended to make the following cookie:

Goro, also called Goro Kake

Ingredients:
  3 eggs
  1 cup sugar
  1 Tbsp. vanilla sugar (or 1 tsp. vanilla)
  1 cup whipped cream, whipped to firm peaks
  1 cup butter, melted
  1 Tbsp. brandy or cognac (optional - I didn't use)
  6 to 7 cups all-purpose flour
  1 tsp. freshly ground cardamom
  1/2 tsp. cinnamon (optional - I did use)

Preparation:
Trace a rectangular pattern the same size as your goro iron onto parchment or other paper; cut out. Spray goro iron lightly with cooking spray and heat, closed, over medium-high burner until a drop of water sizzles on the surface when opened.

Beat together three eggs, sugar, and vanilla sugar (or vanilla). Fold in whipped cream and melted butter. Stir in cognac, if using. Sift together 6 cups of flour, cardamom and cinnamon, then mix into batter. Add additional flour, if needed, until dough is very firm (it should be about the consistency of pizza dough).

Separate the dough into thirds, and roll each portion out on a floured surface to a 1/8" thickness. Place paper pattern on dough and cut squares the size of your goro iron.

Transfer each dough square to the goro iron, close iron, and cook the first side for 3-4 minutes, pressing the iron's handle together lightly to impress pattern upon the cracker (Note: keep a wet towel on hand to immediately wipe up any butter than leaks from the press). Flip iron and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes, until both sides of cracker are golden brown.

Transfer cracker to rack to cool; while still warm, cut into the individual sections and trim off outside edges (if desired). Repeat process with remaining dough (rerolling scraps as necessary).

These cookies originate from the 1700's and were considered an expensive cookie because of the specialty iron and all the butter, cream and sugar needed for the recipe. It was fairly time intensive and I can't say that I'm super excited to make these more than once a year! They remind me of a cardamom scented waffle cone. Kind of a cross between a sweet cracker and a cookie. Fairly plain and simple, but also elegant and tasty.

Black & White

We have had some serious fog around here lately. It has made for an interesting drive home from Pendleton at night but also a beautiful one. Something to do with a low pressure system that keeps the air stagnant in areas creates fog that doesn't go away. 

It has also been below freezing for over a week which causes freezing fog. This can be dicey on the roads but beautiful to look at. All week I've driven by this tree near Pendleton and finally had to stop and take a few pictures because I find it so intriguing. They're not the greatest photos, but I think you get the idea. Just wanted to share!

It is located behind a semi-truck sales lot (of all places).

Isn't it pretty!

 

It's crazy how the fog freezes layer by layer onto everything that holds still. This is a piece of tall grass by the side of
the road. I don't know if you can see it very well, but it's pretty neat in person!

This is a random picture, but I thought it was so strange how the frozen fog just coats everything, even the
fence and stray sagebrush that is stuck in it. 

How To Leave A Comment

I've had a few people mention that they are either having trouble commenting or aren't sure how to comment. I thought I'd make a comprehensive comment tutorial as a post, so that people can look at it as needed. If you know some of this, feel free to skip around. This post can also be found on the right side of the page between Labels and Archive.

I know that there have been times that I've tried to post on someone's blog and no matter what I try... it just won't go through. Sometimes blog servers have bad days too and the comments just won't work. Try again another day or let me know if it happens time after time!

To get started you click, "Comments" at the bottom of the post in the dark gray area. If someone has already commented it will say "1 Comments" (poor grammar, I know) or "2 Comments" etc. This will open up a new window, in which you can write your comment.

Generally, I type in my comment and then immediately select the text and right click, "copy", because there's nothing worse than typing out all those thoughts and having something go wrong and having to re-type it!

Next you type in those funny letters (see above). I know this is kind of a pain but it is a necessary evil. There are people out there that create programs to search out comment fields and leave icky or pesky comments. The word verification just ensures that you are, in fact, human.

Next, choose an identity. 

Because my blog is owned by Google, they give that as the first option. If you have a Google account, such as Gmail, Blogger or Picasa (but there are more), then you can log in with your Google username/password and leave a comment with that username. If you don't have one, you can create one by clicking that option and hitting "publish your comment."

If you have an account with another blog server or website, some of them allow you to log in with those accounts:  LiveJournal, WordPress, TypePad or AIM

 If you do not have any of those accounts and don't want to create them, you have two options.

You can enter your Name/URL:

This will post your comment with whatever name you enter and if you also enter a URL, then it will make your name a link to the website you enter. The URL has to be a website, and cannot be an email address - I tried that and it doesn't work. So if you don't have a blog or website, then just leave the URL blank and enter your name. This is what it will look like:

Your last option is to comment anonymously.

This is really a feature for people that want to share their opinion but do not want their identity known. Some people don't like having their name on the internet or just don't want to be associated with the comment they are sharing.

However, sometimes this is the only option that will work (at least that's what I've found on other blogs). So if you have to use this option and you want me to know who is commenting then just sign your name at the end of your comment. It will post your comment like this:

Hope this helps!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS!

Have I mentioned that I love Christmastime? Oh yes, that's right. I did.

Well this weekend we had a little getaway with our friends the Sauras. We went to Lake Chelan for a night and enjoyed some good food, wine tasting and attempted the world's second most difficult puzzle (VanGogh's Starry Night). Now, we are experienced puzzlers, but we got about a border and ten pieces into it and decided that it wasn't a one-night puzzle. I think that one will have to wait until our next long weekend at the beach!

Wine tasting with a view of Lake Chelan.

On Sunday, we did some antiquing and hunted for a long sought after gift - which cannot be named because 1) it was not found and 2) the receiver of the gift reads this blog on occasion. Someday we'll find this elusive item and then I will give it and share with the world what we found.

After antiquing... the real story begins. We made our way to Leavenworth, Wa where it, in fact, has been looking a lot like Christmas for some time now! They have a Christmas Lighting Festival each weekend from after Thanksgiving until the last weekend before Christmas. This was the first time experiencing this for all of us and it was quite enjoyable. Another first for all of us was eating chestnuts roasted on an open fire. The verdicts is mostly in on the chestnuts.. not all that great. Kind of tastes like a cross between a real sweet potato (not a yam), a parsnip and something else that I can't remember now... but you get the idea. Not really nut like at all, a little more like a root vegetable. I'm glad we tried it thought! It added to our experience!

We also got some Christmas shopping done and found the last few items on our stocking-stuffer list!

Waiting for the festival to start
in Leavenworth

After all the lights have been lit and we're about frozen!

We also {finally} took some pictures for our
Christmas cards.. this one didn't make the cut
but I do like it :)

Whitney and Jason

Hosting

A friend asked me to host a table at our church's Women's Christmas Dessert Party. She asked me because she know how much I like to bake. I also love to host. I really do. I enjoy the planning, the brainstorming, the intermittent periods of stress, but most of all, I enjoy the blessing. Or at least that's my goal - to bless people.

The requirements were:  Arrive by 5:45, guests would arrive at 6:30 and provide the following:

• table cloth
• a coffee carafe
• water pitcher
• centerpiece
• eight name tags
• reserved signs for seats that were filled
• eight party favors
• dessert for eight hungry women (some might not have time for dinner - like me!)

Here is what I came up with... I really wish they were better pictures, but I only had a few seconds to snap some:

Table cloth: check. Coffee carafe: check. Water pitchers:
check. Desserts: check, check and check. 

Name tags: check (actually made by my friend on
the left in the picture above).

 Reserved signs: Check. Party favors: Check.
The reserved sign is a book mark. It says,
"Sorry, I'm booked" hehehe. Doubles as a
favor and sign. But also the little black
 favor box has chocolates.

Centerpiece: Check.

This was my experimental dessert: Apple Pie Cookies.
Also served were my usual standbys
cheesecake and baklava. 

I wonder

I wonder what is going on right now in your life. I wonder what happened to you today. What happened just before you got in your car or before you answered that phone call. I wonder what happened to you yesterday to change you today. I wonder.

When I hear stories about someone's baby being born, someone's child meeting a milestone, a family member being in an accident, etc. I think, what was I doing just then? Was I complaining about something, was I taking my blessings for granted, was I busy or bored? What was I doing when this life altering thing happened to you?

It's so interesting to think about the six-billion-plus moments that are going on around the world right now. I can barely keep track of my own moments, but God keeps track of all of those moments.

I'm reminded at moments like this, when I'm milling the minutes away until my next task, that something is happening to someone right now. Something huge and exciting, something tragic, something life changing, or something just as normal as my moments right now.

I wonder.

Anticipation

I love Christmas. I love everything about it. I was realizing the other day that I might love looking forward to Christmas almost more than I love the actual day.

I love decorating (albeit simply) and watching the world get decorated. I love the crisp air, the red Starbucks cups and warm seasonal drinks, the wool coats and bright scarves. I love that the whole world - or at least the country - is recognizing the same season of giving that all started with God's gift to us (like it or not!). I love that songs about the birth of our Savior fill the airways, even in the most secular places. I love the list making and list finishing. I love that everyday has a bit of purpose in getting you toward that big day. I just love getting ready for Christmas.

All of these things bring back warm memories from childhood and stir up leftover warm-fuzzies from past Christmases. The anticipation of Christmas is the gift that keeps on giving - from a few days before Thanksgiving through the candle light Christmas Eve service. There is just something different in the air, the hopeful expectation is almost tangible.

: :

Part of this appreciation for looking forward comes from my friend Whitney. She always makes sure to have future plans so that she has something to look forward to during a busy week or stressful month. Whitney is also very good about making sure that we always have a plan for when we will see each other again soon after our latest get together. It has kept our friendship thriving. Through her, I've learned to make sure I always have something to look forward to - adding some joyful anticipation to every day.

On one hand, looking forward to something puts us at risk for wishing today away for tomorrow, but it can also be that that ace up a sleeve that you pull out to lift a crummy mood or brighten a long day. I have found that enjoying every moment of anticipation helps me to appreciate the days until something, instead of just wishing away time.

Anticipation is a way to stop and smell the roses along the journey. 

Where I Live

I was driving through an unfamiliar neighborhood the other day and came across a house style that I hadn't seen before. I thought to myself, "If we ever live here that might be the style of house I'd want." The thought surprised me. I'd been pretty set in my house style preferences for a long time. 

My long-standing 'dream' house is more of a traditional farmhouse look with two stories, window dormers and a huge wraparound porch. Of course in my mind that house is placed on ten or more acres in the country with green forest and a field surrounding it. That is how I grew up, and that is how I imagine raising our family. The trouble is that where we live doesn't have naturally green anything and certainly there are no lush green forests. 

The new house style was more fit for the desert and had a certain open air Italian look to it. Not exactly 'Tuscan' like we see a lot of, but reminded me slightly of an Italian villa - on a smaller scale. There were gated walkways and flower lined patios. It was pretty and natural in a different way. 

What really struck me in this rabbit trail of thought was the way I phrased this acceptance of a new house style "...if we ever live here..." 

Wait. 

We do live here.    We    live    here. 

I don't know why the thought was so foreign to me. We have lived here for over two years now. Yet still I couldn't wrap my head around the facts. It isn't, "if we live here" or "when we live here" the fact is that we already live here. 

There's just something about our life here that feels so temporary. I've never truly accepted the potential reality of living here long term. 

We don't own a house yet, nor do we want to own a house yet - especially not here. At least that has been our mindset anyway. It doesn't make financial sense to buy a house in a place where you don't plan on living very long. We realize that there will come a time when we have to decide. Do we settle here or keep trying to make our way west toward family? This is another story for another time. For now, we just keep praying that God will make it clear to us when the time comes. And He will. 

I wonder how I would have lived these past two years differently if I'd really accepted/embraced/lived our lives here. I wonder how I'll live the next two years differently trying to understand that this is where I live. No matter how much we want to live somewhere else, no matter how much we plan to live somewhere else and no matter how often we leave town to visit somewhere else. 

We live HERE. Today, tomorrow, and until we move. Can I really wrap my head around it?

Give Thanks

I always look forward to thanksgiving. It's about family, good food and time off of work to relax. It means spending a day in the kitchen with my two favorite and inspirational cooks while sappy Christmas movies play in the background.

This year did not disappoint. Family was gathered, delicious food was made, prayers of thanksgiving were offered up, food was devoured (and devoured, and devoured...) and movies were watched. It was exactly what I needed during this busy time of work and this season of hustle and bustle. The holiday gave me time to think, time to appreciate the blessings in life, time to cherish memories and time to make new ones.

This year I had a renewed appreciation for the reason behind the holiday.

I was looking through the materials in the well stocked office I share at one of my school buildings and I came across an old vocabulary curriculum that has different units for each season. No surprise, the unit for November was about the first Thanksgiving. There were pictures of pilgrims to color and learn body parts and clothing words, there were picture scenes with pilgrims and native americans to follow directions with and answer wh- questions after a short story. It was pretty cute. Not usually my thing but I knew that some of my students would love it and would do well with the repetition for the month.

As I read through the story and talked about pilgrims and asked the questions I realized that these kids had never heard any of this before. They had no idea what the first thanksgiving was about. When did we stop teaching this? Why did we stop telling the story? I know we water things down these days, even going so far as to rewrite history sometimes, but for them to have never heard of it at all... unbelievable. Then I realized how long it had been since I had heard the thanksgiving story... I had to do some research (and yes, by research I really mean Google).

Here are some facts:

In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn't until 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November. (source)

Good details but a little dry. Let's keep 'researching'...

The event that some Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated to give thanks to God for guiding them safely to the New World. The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days, providing enough food for 53 Pilgrims and 90 Native Americans. The feast consisted of fish (cod, eels, and bass) and shellfish (clams, lobster, and mussels), wild fowl (ducks, geese, swans, and turkey), venison, berries and fruit, vegetables (peas, pumpkin, beetroot and possibly, wild or cultivated onion), harvest grains (barley and wheat), and the Three Sisters: beans, dried Indian maize or corn, and squash. The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating "thanksgivings"—days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought. (source)

Now we're getting somewhere. The real thanksgiving story was about a group of believers that, in faith, moved to a new land to start a new life. A life without a crazy king that dictated what the people could believe, what version of the Bible to read and if they could read the Bible at all. The Pilgrims sailed to the New World in faith that God would provide. They agreed to seven years of hard labor, just to pay for their trip. Over half of the people that arrived on the Mayflower, didn't make it through the first winter. Yet they persisted in faith. It is amazing how God provided for them through the native americans (I'll be honest, it's hard for me to not say Indians). It is incredible to see how God wove our history together through the faithfulness of a few hard working believers that were willing to be a living sacrifice.

I know there are, and have been, many ways of looking at this somewhat forgotten story, but this year I want to remember the story that gives glory to my Father. Without this story, there wouldn't be mine, or yours.

I'll end with a quote about the pilgrims from William Bradford, par. 28 (a really interesting read if you have the time):  

"They cherished a great hope and inward zeal of laying good foundations, or at least to make some way therunto, for the propagating and advancing the gospell of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world; yea, though they should be but even as stepping-stones unto others for the performing of so great a work." (sic)

 I'm so thankful for their courage, faith and determination to be stepping stones toward a bigger story.

ASHA Unplugged

This was my first time going to the ASHA (American Speech-Language Hearing Association) Convention but it wont be my last. Here's why:

The biggest reason that ASHA was worth it was the CEUs (Continuing Education Units)! You can go to as many or as few sessions as you want but they will all (generally, with few exceptions) count for CEUs. Even poster sessions count. I needed a few more for this year, so I was worried about making sure I went to enough qualifying sessions. I was worried that if I had to leave one session early for another, that I would lose those CEUs. I wasn't sure how they would monitor it, since at other events it's a pretty specific procedure. At ASHA, it's more or less on the honor system and you just enter the codes from the sessions you attended on the website after the convention. So easy! Too Easy? We'll see.

The second reason that ASHA was worth it is the endless possibilities for information. There are session topics on every major area of our field and every niche area of our field. The exhibition hall is fun and full of resources. No matter what you're hoping to explore, discover or try, it's at ASHA. They also have tons of giveaways - you have to be specific about what you want to take away and say no to the rest - and a fun scavenger hunt with an iPhone app (SCVNGR) or text to win some pretty cool prizes (I didn't win - but it was fun). Here's a picture from one of the challenges in the scavenger hunt:

Yes, that's me and the Passy Muir man.

The third reason that ASHA was worth it was the people. Even though it's crazy a little intimidating to be around all those SLPs, it was so great to see friends, classmates and professors that you hadn't seen in years. It was great to catch up with classmates, old co-workers and friends. Here's a picture from a dinner that we arranged with some of the UPCD alumni (just a note- the crowns/tiaras are from the restaurant.. not an ASHA thing. There were a few more of us attending, but not everyone made it to dinner):

Left to Right: Donna Black, Emily (Alderman) Jones,
Me, and Tiffany Broaddus

All-in-all, ASHA was well worth the money for the CEUs, the mini-vacation, the professional recharge and the chance to catch up with friends or classmates. There were a few drawbacks though, that should be shared:

Apparently ANYONE can present at ASHA. Okay, I know that isn't really true, there is a screening process. It just seems like they let anyone present. There were some really great presenters. Some very well known presenters too, who's individual seminars could have easily cost the same as all of the ASHA convention. That said. There were some really horrible presenters. I'm talking about material that is outdated, undergrad level, poorly presented and straight up useless. I know there are different areas of interest and knowledge levels present, but it was a little frustrating to go to a session for 1-2 hours and feel less intelligent upon exiting. I guess I just had higher expectations for the level of professionalism and information that would be presented. I find that, in general, it is hard to find good continuing ed seminars, so I expected that at ASHA, it would all be good. NOPE! So - buyer beware!

It was also quite confusing and a ton of work to plan your day and pick the sessions you want to attend. You never knew if the one you picked would be full, and if you'd get a seat. It all worked out in the end, but it's a little stressful. You definitely can't plan back-to-back sessions, you need a good half an hour to get from one end of the convention center to another and to arrive in time for an actual seat.

As a side note, San Diego was GORGEOUS! I wasn't great about taking pictures, but trust me it was beautiful. Next year it is in Georgia... hmm. Here's a sad, pathetic picture just before I left of the view from the convention center: