Sunday, December 25, 2011

Tis done.

The day is done, the food put away, and I am ready for bed.

My cousins sent mom this wonderful flower arrangement.  She was so very touched that they would remember her in such a way.  Since she came to our house for Christmas and the Christmas meal, she brought along her flowers to share with all of us.  I  think mom is looking pretty good for 85.

Well, if feels like today was just one single meal, about 4:30 pm.  I have been cooking for three days straight and my back is feeling it.  Now, my children informed me that we are not supposed to have turkey, which is what I had planned, for Christmas.  Was told several times that we never have turkey for Christmas, only Thanksgiving.  So, even thought I don't remember it that way, because I know I cooked a big old turkey last year, I gave in and made ham.  Actually our meal today was ham, green beans, dressing, sweet potatoes, fruit salad, pistachio salad, deviled eggs, rolls and then for dessert there were cookies, pumpkin pie, buttermilk pie, cheesecake, and pumpkin roll.  I also made ice tea in my new tea maker I got as a gift.  My youngest son, G, invited two of his friends that were not able to be with their families for the holidays.  One of the boys/men is not allowed to eat pork so I cooked a turkey breast for him.   I swear, like I do every year, that I am not going to make any deserts again.  There was one piece of buttermilk pie eaten, a couple of cookies as well.  I still have two buttermilk pies (well one piece missing out of one of those), two pumpkin pies, and two cheesecakes (already have one in the freezer) so it would seem I have a ton of sweets around here.  Just glad I didn't get around to making caramels or toffee.  I don't know what was going this year.  I usually run out of deviled eggs, have a whole tray full left over.  I even have a whole pan of dressing left over because I was afraid that with the extra guest there would not be enough and made an extra pan of it. Still have half of the first pan left over.  I will say that there were 9 of us for dinner and the 10 pound ham I cooked is almost gone.  I saved the bone for making beans though.  I know my bunch well enough that for the next week we will be eating beef for the most part.  Next Sunday I will do it all again for New Year's day.  Another ham, will have another bone for beans, but no dressing this time.  Am making mac and cheese.  Looks like I have the sweets all done though. Just going to put the leftover pies in the freezer for New Year's day.

So, am still determined to get back on track with my menu plans, so will be re-purposing the left overs from the two holiday meals.  Just not letting the family know that.  However, I am thinking that one of those ham bones is going to season a big old pot of brown beans and will be making the trip up the mountain with us for this ski trip my hubby has planned, and which seems to get growing in numbers as well.  This has been a such a budget wrecking month, between Christmas gifts, added groceries for everyone being home, the two holiday meals with in the same pay period and now this trip, that I will be concentrating an awful lot of energy on crunching our budget back in to shape for the new year.

Let me know if you have any favorite frugal recipes to share.

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