Christmas « Oklahoma Pastry Cloth

Posts Tagged ‘Christmas’

Merry Christmas

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

Merry Christmas!

Christmas for all things Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ is up and running and I absolutely love the time of year! I would just like to take this time to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and to thank everyone for making this year so successful and exciting.

Sorry that this photo is so fuzzy. After fifty million pictures of the tree that were blurry and because all of a sudden everything in the screen appeared in Japanese, I realized that my camera was dying a low battery death.
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Our days of cutting down a tree and bringing it to the house are over. We have to be satisfied with a fake. Poor hubby’s allergies can’t handle the real thing.

Our kitty, Callie, thinks it’s a real tree and that tree skirt she’s lying on is really a forest bed of pine needles. The star ornament is from my childhood trees. It’s plastic!!!

This year’s theme is ‘silver and pearls’. Silver bows, silver pine cones, silver balls are all mixed in with our traditional ornaments. “Turn your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding and if you look for it as for SILVER and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord.” Proverbs 2:2-5 and “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine PEARLS. when he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” Mathew 13:45-46

We have a choo-choo train, that really blows smoke, chugging around the tree. I love the sound of the whistle. The cat hates it and the dog doesn’t really know what to think. Notice all of the plastic ornaments on the bottom row? They are also from my childhood. I put them on the bottom just in case the cat decides that they are acrobat rats hanging by their tales! I have a feeling that’s why my parents had plastic ornaments too. Four kids and glass Christmas ornaments make for a sure disaster.

The nutcrackers stand guard over the front entrance. I watched the Nutcracker Suite last night and I’m waiting for one of these little guys to salute me!

The garlands and poinsettas are placed in strategic locations.

My favorite part of decorating for Chistmas is setting out the Nativity scenes. I just feel a certain connection as if I am holding a photograph of a moment in time.

I have been very disheartened at what I have discovered in our stores. Most are not stocking Nativity Scenes anymore. I was trying to find one to replace a relative’s broken one and asked at the usual places. Not one place had a single set and the clerks really didn’t seem too worried about it.

Christmas is about the Nativity, but it is so much more than that. For Christians, it is a time of celebration and amazement because God came down and dwelt among men and showed His authority and His ability to provide for us. This nation has honored that belief for a long time. Please, let’s not take the Christ out of Christmas.

Have A Very, Merry Christmas!

MB

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Tags: Christmas, Christmas decorations, nativity scene, nutcracker
Posted in A Day In the Life Of An Okie | 3 Comments »

Christmas Cookies

Sunday, December 12th, 2010

And VERY Good They

Are – Jum-Jills!

Everyone has some traditional and tasty treat that is made year after year at Christmas. The internet is full of blog posts describing a favorite candy or cookie that is included in decorative tins, mason jars or pastry boxes for friends and neighbors. All of them are good and all of them make wonderful gifts.

My family is no different and I decided that I might as well join the flood of internet recipes with a family delicacy of our own. However, I will venture a bet that few other traditions are QUITE like ours. Ours is more than a cookie that has been part of our family world since I was a little girl. Our tradition is also a story about the cookie, with a happy ending, and, I’m quite sure, a moral which I have yet to figure out even over these past 5 decades!

Captain Kangaroo used to include a book on his show about a little old man and a little old woman who just wanted a little cat. They wound up with “hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats”. (That was before ‘quadrillion’ and ‘google’ were invented) It is a predicament we rural folk seem to find ourselves in all the time. Children all over the country were glued to the television as strains of an oboe and flute accompanied the pictures from the book one could swear were moving. A deep, pleasant voice intoned the story line. The book was written in 1928 by a German author, Wanda G’ag, and was a favorite in many households. A second book she had written in 1929 , however, does not seem to be as well-known. That is the one my family absolutely loved and it has now been read to grandchildren with an eye on great-grandchildren. The title? The Funny Thing.

The Funny Thing “looked something like a dog and also a little like a giraffe, and from the top of its head to the tip of its curled tail, there was a row of beautiful blue points.” He called himself an “aminal”. He ate good little children’s dolls. “And very good they are, good little children’s dolls.”

There is a little old man of the mountains named “Bobo” who is the hero and Bobo makes some little round balls from nut cakes and other items. He calls them “Jum-Jills”. Bobo tells the Funny Thing that the “Jum-Jills” will make his blue points bluer and his long tail longer. The vain Funny Thing gobbles them up and pretty soon his tail is so long that he has to sit on the top of a mountain, curling his tail around it, while the birds fly by and drop “Jum-Jills” into his mouth. The day is saved and no more good children have to suffer the loss of their precious dolls!

And so, when my mother was making the cookies in the recipe below, they immediately became “Jum-Jills” in our household and have been ever since. It is fun to take a batch to a group of young children, read the story and then hand out the cookies. It thrills them every time. So here is the easy recipe for “Jum Jills” so that you too can include them in your traditions! The recipe is also in our family cookbook along with other traditional recipes.

Ingredients for Jum-Jills

1 cup flour
1 stick real butter salted
3 tbsps powdered sugar
1 cup finely chopped nuts
powdered sugar for covering

I am using home ground, soft, white pastry, whole-wheat flour here, but you can use all purpose flour. I sift my flour because it is freshly ground. Also, I am doubling the recipe here because I was making a large batch. Here I am adding 2 cups of flour instead of one.

Next, add the powdered sugar. Because I am doubling, I am adding 1/4 cup + 1/8 cup instead of the 3 tbsps.

Have butter at room temperature and cut into chunks to make mixing easier and more uniform.

Mix until the butter is cut into the flour and powdered sugar mix, much like cutting shortening into flour for biscuits. The result should be a mixture of course crumbs.

Chop nuts in the blender or food processor or by hand. We use pecans, but almonds and English walnuts can be used as well. If using almonds, add 1/2 tsp. of almond extract per recipe to make almond “Jum-Jills”. Add the nuts to the mix and mix until the nuts are thoroughly incorporated.

Because I use the whole wheat flour, I have found that I need to add 1 tbsp of water per recipe. I am adding two tbsps here because I have doubled the recipe. If using regular, all-purpose flour, you can add a tsp of water if you find that your dough is not coming together.

The dough is ready when it forms a shaggy clump. The dough will seem dry, but that is ok because the butter is what makes the cookies soft and crunchy.

With a spoon, dip out a little bit of dough and roll it in the palms of your hands and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. You do not have to space them very far apart. Bake for 20 minutes in an oven that has been preheated to 350º.

It is great to make a lot of dough at once because it freezes well or keeps in the frig well for a quick bake. Just bring to room temperature and form your cookies.

When the cookies are done, let them cool slightly and then place several in a container with a tight lid that has been filled with powdered sugar. Shake carefully so not to break the cookies and coat the cookies with the sugar.

A plate of Jum-Jills will not last long around your house. And you might check to see whose points are bluer and whose tail is longest. You’ll know your culprits immediately!

A wide mouth canning jar makes a wonderful vessel in which to put cookies for a gift. The cookies will last even longer if you have a vacuum seal system that vacuums jars. Put a lid and ring in place and cover with brown paper or cloth. Attach a rubber band to hold the cloth or paper in place and cover it with a decorative ribbon. You can add a tag to wish your friend, neighbor or family member a Merry Christmas!