Merry Christmas

Hello Everyone,

Well, we are all down to the wire now!

I took pictures of the tree the other day during the snowstorm.  Every afternoon I would sit by the tree to relax and read for an hour.  It was so pleasant.  Years ago, I made these little stockings, one for every family member.  This year I hung them on the tree. 

 Last year I hung the stockings under the Breakfast sign.

Mr. Joe and I frosted what seemed like hundreds of sugar cookies.  I make them every year as the kids LOVE them.....so do I.  One year I ran out of time and didn't frost them under the guise that I was saving everyone calories.  That just didn't fly with the kids, and I was almost banned from future Christmas celebrations.

Here's the ultimate Christmas Tree at Calaveras Big Trees State Park.  We went for a walk with family there the other day.  It was a beautiful Christmas outing in the fresh air, blue sky and the majestic trees.

The trail was slushy but not too slippery.  We've been on the trail in the snow when it wasn't fun.  But the other day it was perfect.  Our granddaughter flew home for the holidays from Arizona State University and needed her giant tree and cabin 'fix' to last her until her next trip home in April.

Mr. Joe did really well on our walk without any breathing issues.  It's the farthest he's walked in months.  

My wish is that all of you have a wonderful Christmas spent with those you love.  We will be surrounded by family and share good times together.  That's what life is all about....making those precious memories.

Soon,

Lynn

Crab and Shrimp Bundles

Hello Everyone,

I'm sharing our Christmas Eve dinner recipe with you.  I combined two recipes and came up with this winner.

Begin by making the crab cakes.  Here in California, Christmas coincides with Dungeness crab season, but not this year.  The season has been delayed due to the migration of the humpback whales from becoming entrapped in the traps and buoy lines of the fishermen.  So, I will be using canned crab this year.  I purchase the large cans of crab claw meat in the refrigerated section of the meat department.  The cans are pricey but worth it.

Cape Fear Crab Cakes with Lemon Dill Sauce

1-pound fresh lump crab meat
1 tablespoon butter
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 scallion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped red bell pepper
3 tablespoons whipping cream
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Cayenne pepper to taste
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon each minced fresh basil and parsley
1/2 cup fine dry breadcrumbs (I use Panko)
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons each butter and vegetable oil

- Flake the crab meat and remove bits of shell and cartilage.
- Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet. Add the garlic, scallion and red pepper.
- Sauté for 2 minutes or until tender. Stir in the whipping cream, mustard and cayenne, ½ cup of the  breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese and the crab meat and mix lightly.
- Shape into 16 patties - 2 inches in diameter.

Lemon Dill Sauce
¾ cup mayonnaise
½ cup buttermilk
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dillweed
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

-Blend the mayonnaise and buttermilk in a bowl until smooth. Add the garlic, dillweed, parsley, lemon peel and lemon juice and mix well.
- Chill, covered, in the refrigerator until the mixture thickens.

Here is step #2.  Place a piece of smoked applewood bacon on the foil-lined baking sheet.  Place two large cleaned and shelled shrimp side by side on the bacon.  I sprinkle the shrimp with seasoned pepper.

Place a crabcake on top of the shrimp.

I forgot to take a picture of laying two more shrimp on top of the crabcake!  Then wrap the bacon over the crab cake and shrimp and secure with a toothpick.

Here are the bundles ready to pop into the oven.  I sprinkled paprika over the bundles.  I had a bit of shredded gouda cheese, so I sprinkled that on top too.  That is optional.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.  Place under the broiler for 1-2 minutes.  Serve with the lemon dill sauce.

I like this recipe a lot for two reasons.  It is delicious!  I can make it ahead of time and pop it in the oven while we are enjoying appetizers with a glass of wine.  I serve it with a salad and some sourdough bread, and we are in culinary heaven!

Even though I haven't been posting, I have been very busy making some of the blocks for my new block of the month which will be rolled out in July.  It sounds so far away, but I have to have the quilt finished by the middle of February and ship it off to New York for a photoshoot. I wish I could show you what I've been making, but you will just have to wait and be surprised.  

Mr. Joe had another CT scan last week and we met with his pulmonologist to go over the results.  His pulmonologist appears to be about 13 years old and is just as nice and knowledgeable as he can be.  He told us they brought in a hot-shot radiologist to read the results of the scan.  There are hundreds of tiny nodules in the bottom part of his lungs which are starting to calcify.  The radiologist compared this CT scan to the first scan from September, and there was no change.  That's a good sign and eliminates the big "C" diagnosis.  They think the nodules might be from something he aspirated.  Mr. Joe now has an inhaler which he needs to use when he has difficulty breathing.

Last week we had quite a bit of snow, so out came the snowblower.  I push the shovel around and try to look busy while keeping an eye on Mr. Joe while he uses the snowblower.  He felt so good he cleared our driveway and the neighbor's driveway because he knew they were coming up from the city for the week.  He did all of this without using the inhaler!  There are other days when he can't walk 20 yards without sounding like a locomotive chugging along.  These episodes are few and far between, but they scare me when they happen.  Now, when we are out and about, I carry the inhaler in my purse.

Our granddaughter is flying home for Christmas from college in Arizona.  She wants to have some cabin time, so she, our grandson and son arrive this Thursday for a few days.  

I know you are all just as busy as I am with only 5 days left before Christmas.  I appreciate the time you took to read through this post over you morning cup of coffee, or tea.  

Soon,

Lynn

Catch up Day

Hello Everyone,

So much has taken place since my last post.....all good.  I've been away from the cabin a lot over the past couple of weeks, so now I'm trying valiantly to get ready for Christmas and work on some projects.

We had quite the storm over the past few days.  Our little community received five inches of rain topped off by six inches of snow.  I put on my snow clothes, boots and Yaktrax's and headed out into the storm to take some pictures of the Calico Cottages flimsy. I felt like a little kid who got all dressed to play in the snow and then could barely move and had to pee.  My aunt used to call it getting "rugged up".  Mr. Joe knew if I didn't return in 15 minutes, he had to come out and scoop me up in case I went down and couldn't get back up.  You may laugh, but that has happened before when the snow was much deeper.  It's quite a helpless beached-whale feeling.

It was snowing so hard the quilt was getting covered in heavenly glitter.  Had I left it out for a full 15 minutes, it would have become part of the winter wonderland-scape.

We were nice and cozy in the cabin and didn't venture out except to get firewood and take Mazey to the powder room.  Our power flickered but never went out, so we enjoyed watching football and World Cup games.  I also spent hours at the sewing machine which hummed throughout the weekend.

I wish I could show you my 83 yards of sample fabric from MY fabric line.  I started working on my new block of the month.  I think I'm in heaven in my sewing room.

We celebrated Mr. Joe's major, MAJOR birthday the beginning of December in Livermore.  The original party was postponed in early November due to several family members having Covid.  Our daughter-in-law April, made matching shirts for all of us.

Mr. Joe had a special shirt.  He's going to wear this to his next Bocce Ball tournament.

We had a wonderful celebration with family and friends and tons of delicious food.

Mr. Joe is the youngest 80-year-old I know.  His doctors are telling him that too.  At my last writing I told you we were heading to the hospital so he could have a lung function test.  He passed it with flying colors and his doctor said....."for a man your age", you did really well.  Last week, he had a 4-hour heart stress test.  Again, the doctor said the same thing.  This week he's going to have another CT scan of his lungs to compare it with the scan taken three months ago.

His breathing issues are so erratic.  He can manhandle the snowblower around for 1-1/2 hours. Yet the day before he can't walk 50 yards from Whole Foods to Home Goods without finding a place to sit. I think he is allergic to shopping! It's a mystery and he has his pulmonologist flummoxed.  

More quilting is on tap for me today.  It is so cold and as of 5pm last night the snowplow had not been down our street.  When the snow is this heavy, all plows are tasked to keep the main highway passable, and the neighborhoods are secondary.

I hope you have a fun week preparing for Christmas.  I know I'll be busy!

Soon,

Lynn

 

Calico Cottages

 Hello Everyone,

I've been working on Calico Cottages, my newest design.  Many thanks to 'anonymous' who came up with the perfect name for this quilt.

I got as far as putting one of the inner borders on the other night and this is as far as I got.  It is just a figment of my imagination until I nail this idea down.  I try to be different when I design a quilt, and this one floats my boat.  I only used fabrics from my Marcus Fabrics stash.  I had hundreds of 1" strips already cut and were begging to be sewn into a quilt.  Now I still have hundreds of 1" strips left because I kept cutting more and more!

On the home front, we are in Livermore staying with our eldest son and his family.  Mr. Joe has been having some health issues and we've been here a lot lately while he undergoes many tests.  He started having breathing issues with sever shortness of breath and chest pain.  He would walk up to the garage and have to sit down once he got there.

After two chest x-rays, and an MRI, his doctor put him on a round of antibiotics. The antibiotics treatment consisted of only 3 pills......they are very powerful, but the side effects were 5 pages in length.  By the 2nd pill he felt better until the side effects of tendon pain kicked in, and this could last for months.  I call it 'pain of the day' as the pain rotates from one tendon to another.  You know the old game of head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes.  Well Mr. Joe hurts in all of those areas except for his head.

Let's fast forward two months.  Shortness of breath is back with a vengeance. Tendon pain is escalating.  A bronchoscopy of his lungs suggests sarcoidosis which is an abnormal collection of inflammatory cells in his lungs.  But the verdict is still out on this diagnosis.  The good news is that there is NO cancer!

Yesterday he had an ultrasound of his heart, and all is well with that organ.  I was teasing him that he has a heart after all, and he's not the Grinch.  His heart isn't 2 sizes too small, in fact I think he is the most compassionate and kindhearted person I know, except when he's constantly teasing his sister-in-law, Gail.

Today he is having a pulmonary function test.  This should be interesting and will hopefully lead the doctors in the right direction of a diagnosis and then a specific treatment.

This is probably more information than you want to know, but it feels good to talk about what is going on and why I've been pretty quiet lately on my blog.  We didn't tell our kids for months what was going on with their dad, and now I don't think that was the right decision as they want to be involved in every step of his journey.

So, after the test today, we will head back up to the cabin and into a fierce snowstorm.  Hopefully we can get buttoned up inside the cabin before the worst of the storm hits.  We have snow shovels and boots in the car just in case we need to dig our way in.  We will put Mazey to work with the digging part.

Keep Mr. Joe in your prayers for a sound diagnosis and treatment.

Soon,

Lynn