Merry Christmas

Mt. Moosilauke

 Well, I made it here... finally! A few days late.

I'm enjoying a wonderful and magical festive season, I hope you are too. But has the time flown! Where did the last three weeks go to? I must say I'm noticing the short days more this year than ever before. Is it just me, or have the days actually gotten shorter? Someone said it's probably age related. The nerve. But the time between sun up and sun down sure does go by quickly (not that I experience the first 2 or 3 hours of sunlight.)

I thought I might get my yearly Christmas Eve video finished and uploaded yesterday but by the time I got around to working on tidying it up, it was already mid evening. It's uploading now, as I write this. I started making a virtual open house on the night before Christmas when the pandemic hit. There was a possibility I would forgo making one this year, but inspiration came, and not only that but I made one recapping my whole day. It's a half hour long! Hope it's not too boring. There is a mix of live sound, music, and voice over. Since several sections were filmed when the birds were awake I had to cut much of the sound. I have tried to be sparing on voice overs. Link to it is below. Best viewed in full screen mode.

Since I didn't get my tourtière (French Canadian meat pie) made yesterday, I made it today. The filling was finished yesterday so all that had to be done today was make the pastry, assemble the pie, and bake it. It's a traditional dish for which there are many recipes. I make something very similar to what my mother made. So delicious!

I use a pound of ground pork, a pound of ground beef, a shredded potato, a shredded onion, lots of allspice, lots of pepper, salt, and bay leaf for the filling. It simmers a few hours on the stove top. My standard pie crust works just fine for this pie: 2 cups flour, 1/3 cup butter, 1/4 cup shortening, 1 tsp salt, 1/3 cup water.

Then I made some mince pies this afternoon. The mincemeat is some I canned up a few years ago. Absolutely scrumptious! There's a healthy dose of brandy in the mince.

However you celebrate the holidays, I hope they are magical and beautiful for you.

Christmas Eve Open house video  ... (due to low lighting it's best watched full screen) :