Iwanna Wednesday - Looking for a few good Pilgrims!

This weekend I put away my Halloween decor and started putting out Thanksgiving stuff, but alas...I didn't have much. I have three ceramic turkeys and one little horn of plenty or Cornucopia.

I've been looking around for a while now trying to find Pilgrims, last year they were everywhere! Lurking around every corner, at HomeGoods, Goodwill, The Dollar Store and Walmart, this year they all went AWOL!

So what Iwanna for this Iwanna Wednesday is to show you some that I found online. Some wonderful and beautiful, some crazy funny and some that are just crazy! Follow me...let's see!

This one falls in the wonderful and beautiful category! I just love it, the cute little iron arms and the little basket and lantern and the base they put it on, looks like little, tiny, baby tiles! There is nothing about this one I don't love! Oh...well maybe I don't love the price too much, $34.50 for just one Pilgrim?  That's a bit too steep for me, but if you can't live without this little gem, you can find her at Jim Shore Heartwood Creek Collectibles at Main Attractions.

And this one also is wonderful and beautiful. It's the Pilgrim couple and an Indian couple. I love the little saying on the apron of each of the women too. Iwanna this set and they are on amazon.com but unfortunately they are currently unavailable *sigh*! What a surprise!

Here's a crazy funny one. These little guys are just so cute! I love their big feet and they are very patriotic with their little flag. This is Pete and Prudence Pilgrim and these are not too bad at $5.95 each...very affordable. These are from Designed to Be Sweet.

I don't know if these are crazy... crazy funny... or wonderful and beautiful. I can't quite make up my mind. I think the beaks give them that crazy vibe but the fact that they are squash make them crazy funny and the fact that they are such perfection and so unique makes them wonderful and beautiful in my eyes! And the way the little one is gazing up at the big one, can you say ahhhhh! This one is from distinctivedecor.com and it runs $14.50, another affordable one but out of my budget for trinkets. If it's not from The Dollar Store or Goodwill I won't usually buy it.



This next one is what I would just call crazy, what say you? I found these on ebay at $50.99!!! These are troll dolls, remember these? These were huge in the 1970's you could find them everywhere! But to make them Pilgrims??? Crazy, crazy, crazy...but cute. To a collector I'm sure $50 for them would be nothing. I'll have to keep an eye out for these guys at Goodwill!

And do you love Nesting Dolls? Who doesn't right? Well I love these Pilgrim Nesting Dolls, so cute and so easy to store. These I found on Etsy for a mere $65.00! You can actually customize these anyway you want.

And this last one is my absolute favorite, Iwanna this one cause it's so darned cute! I know it may be a little bit macabre, the Pilgrim lovingly kissing the sweet little turkey on the head when behind his back he has the hatchet ready and waiting and you know he's getting ready to swing it. But times were tough in Pilgrim days and you had to be brave enough to kill your own turkey. I'm really glad that now we can find them easily in the refrigerated aisles of our local grocery stores (sorry to any vegetarians). This little guy was also on ebay for $13.79 and "bonus" he's a salt and pepper shaker!

But I will keep searching in the after Thanksgiving sales and throughout the year and hopefully next year I will have a whole little Pilgrim Kingdom!

Happy Iwanna Wednesday and may all your Iwanna wishes come true!

 

A Birthday, A Recipe and Family for Biscocho Day!

This was a super busy weekend for being the last shopping weekend before Christmas. We also saw record rainfall here in Kern County. We broke the record last set in 1931!! Unbelievable! Unfortunately we aren't prepared for that much rain and right now we have a lot of flooding and fear of the Lake Isabella Dam bursting...so everyone is really very concerned. We hope the rain ceases soon even though the weather reporters predict it will last through Wednesday.

On Saturday my cousin David's family threw him a surprise birthday party. He was really surprised and we all had a really great time. We cousins all grew up together and it's not often we all get together, so it was so special to be able to see each other again.

Here's a picture of Cousin David and his family. David is the one with the ball cap on. His brother Steve is to the left of David, his sister Elpedia is beside him in yellow. His mom, Casi (my mom's sister) is in the long blue trench coat, then his other sister Mary Helen. Behind Mary Helen his brother Art (the oldest) and then the baby of the family, Hector. Isn't it wonderful that all his brothers and sisters were there to help him celebrate? I love you all so much!

The next day was my own dear mom's birthday. We had already planned to make Biscochos that day. Biscochos are a small, crispy cookie that we all grew up with. Our Tia Nico, my mom's sister would spend days and days before all holiday's making these cookies. She would then store them in empty coffee cans and no one left with empty hands, each family took home a coffee can filled with these delicious cookies. These probably aren't as wonderful as hers or maybe the memories of childhood can never match the present, but these are biscochos.

That's 20 cups of flour and 4 cups of sugar and 6 cups of shortening and 6 eggs plus lots of other spices and cooking ingredients. I'll share the recipe with everyone in a separate post tomorrow.

Since it was my mom's birthday we had a full house to help with the making of the Biscochos, so I'd like to share some pictures.

My job was to cream the shortening and the sugar. Last year my poor sister Lisa and I did it by hand. I forgot I had this beautiful pink Kitchen-Aid Mixer in the closet because my generous daughter April had given it to me for Mothers Day and I had never unpacked it! This mixer is the greatest! I just stood there watching everyone else work while the mixer did it all for me.

The harder job went to my sister Lisa and her youngest son Isaac (my Godson). Their job was to sift the dry ingredients and then blend the dry and wet ingredients by hand.

Here they are sifting. Isaac refused to wear an Apron! I think next year I'm going to get him a Bobby Flay manly apron!

Here Lisa and Isaac are blending dry and wet ingredients. My brother Fred is in the background, he was admiring my Kitchen-Aid Mixer.

Here Isaac is doing what we in spanish call "Amasando" (in English kneading). With 20 pounds of flour this is very labor intensive!

Isaac did a really good job, and before you knew it, it was time to start rolling out the dough! Everyone got a chance to come and roll out some dough and cut some cookies with a giant pizza cutter. They then placed them on the cookie sheets and my sister Lisa was in charge of baking them in the oven until they were that perfect golden brown. (A few batches were that perfect golden burnt color, but several members of our family love the burned ones, go figure!)

First up...Isaac under the watchful eyes of his Nana (grandmother).

 Then he and his mom made some together. See the little rolling pin? I scoffed at it when I saw it because it was such a tiny little one while the other one in the picture is mine. It turned out that everyone preferred the little one which belongs to my sister Lisa. Kudo's to you Sis!

 I didn't want to be left out, so of course I had to come and get in on the act. Don't we look like real cooks with Aprons and everything? Mine was a gift from my sister-in-law Connie and I love it! The one my sister is wearing was sewn by my mom, many, many years ago. She gave one to each of us girls for Christmas one year. The boys I believe received hand-made bathrobes that year.

Here I am again...I'm a Biscocho making machine!

 And since it's my blog...I'll post just one more picture of me :-D  As you can tell, I was pretty happy. This was a great day!

And here's my brother Fred again, popping in to check on how things are progressing. Don't worry Fred, the first batch will be ready soon!

Next up to make a batch of biscochos? Looks like it's my other brother Jaime and his daughters. The baby, Clarissa and the oldest Sarena.

Here's Jaime showing Clarissa and Lisa his technique. Jaime and his kids actually cook together quite a bit. Last year he and Clarissa made homemade scented soaps for everyone as Christmas presents. They were heavenly!

My sister Lisa and her nieces Clarissa and Sarena. I think Sarena's already sampling the first batch...she looks happy so they must be good!

Next up...my baby girl April had to make her batch too. Now April, that's a rolling pin...not a baton!

Ok, now she's down to business! Now she's got the hang of that rolling pin. She's a natural!

Biscocho making wasn't the only thing going on. We had lots of other activities happening. People would just float from one to the other.

We had some game playing going on in the living room, on the coffee table, under the Christmas Tree. That precious puppy Chorizo loved all the attention she was getting from everyone! I don't know who was winning this game of Sorry but here's Clarissa, April, my sister-in-law Connie (the gifter of the apron mentioned earlier) and my nephew, Clarissa's brother Gabriel.

The birthday girl, my mom also had some gifts to open! Here she is with my brother Jaime and Clarissa.

So what did you get mom? Let us see. Ohhhhh, how pretty, an Angel! Good job in picking this one out Jaime, Connie, Sarena, Gabriel and Clarissa!

There was also some visiting with Cousin David who had to come by to wish his Tia Tome (his Aunt Tome, my mom) Happy Birthday! Thanks for coming David! (His mom, pictured in the first picture on this post in the blue trench coat is my mom's sister.)

We also did a lot of picture taking so we could have the memory of this day forever! Here's my mom and her son's; my very handsome brothers, Fred and Jaime. Love you Bros!

My mom and her beautiful daughters :-D   My sister Lisa.and me!

My mom with her daughters and her sons.

My mom with some of her grandchildren. Missing were my brother Fred's children who came over later and my son who was AWOL for the day and my sister's son Sean who came over later and will be in a picture a little later in the post. Pictured from left to right, Gabriel, Isaac, April, Sarena, Clarissa and their Nana!

They insisted on taking a silly picture as well. . .they are kids after all :-D

My sister Lisa had purchased some miniature chocolate bottles filled with various liqueurs. I had one with Orange flavored Russian Vodka. Oh my gosh these are so good, but so rich you can only eat/drink one so no danger of getting drunk on these! If you compare the bottle to the little crystal twinkle light you can see how really miniature they are.

Here's Jaime and April both enjoying a chocolate liqueur. Don't worry, even though he's my baby brother and she's my baby girl, they're both way over 21!

My sister's son Sean was working but came by during his lunch hour to wish his Nana a Happy Birthday.

We ended the day by singing Happy Birthday to my mom and taking a group picture with her. We had to do this one is two shots. I'm in this one sitting in the chair.

And my sister Lisa is in this one sitting in the chair. I really need a tripod! Santa...if you're listening?

I can't imagine Christmas Day topping this day. What? Oh yeah, well yeah...true, there will be presents. But c'mon...this was the bestest day ever! Thank you all for making it so special!

Thank you Ale, Bebe, Little Fred and Adrianna for coming by later and spending time with Nana and for bringing that precious little Melissa to give her Nana a birthday hug before the day was over. I love you all so much!

Celebrating the Holidays - Memories of Christmas Past

I really wanted to join in on at least one Celebrating the Holidays with Marie at Emma Calls Me Mama and so I thought I would share this special memory from Christmas last year.

This memory is bittersweet as it's the last Christmas that we will share as a "complete" family. During the course of this year my mom and dad have separated and each gone their own way. My mother came to live with me and my dad lives alone in their old home. It's been a tough year for all of us, it's been about six months now and with the holidays nearing we're faced with "what do we do this year?" Not just with Christmas, but with Thanksgiving as well.

That's why the post you will read below has such special meaning, because it very well may be the last time that we gather as a family with both my mom and dad for Christmas and Christmas Tamale making.

I don't know what this holiday season has in store for us. I know that at 51 I'm a little old to hope for a Christmas miracle, but I hope for one just the same.

I hope you enjoy the happiness in the post from Christmas 2008.

CHRISTMAS 2008

Christmas for our family has always been about Christmas Eve, Tamales and Family. On Christmas Eve, we have a tradition of everyone getting together at my mom's house around 10am and helping to make tamales. From the youngest to the oldest, we all take part and have assigned jobs. This year the youngest was Melissa, who's two years old and her job was to entertain us, and she did an awesome job. The next youngest that really did help was Fred Jr and this year he was a trainee under Bebe's watchful eye in learning how to wash "hojas" (corn husks that are used to wrap the tamale in).
Then there's the "big guns", the seasoned veterans who "amasar" (knead the corn meal, chili powder, baking powder, salt, lard and meat drippings). For quite a few years now that job was left to my brothers. Here's a picture of them last year...But unfortunately Jaime had to work this year, so I had to step into his shoes and help my brother Fred "amasar". (And let me tell you, it wasn't as fun as it looks. My arthritis, was really acting up that day, but two Advil's and a beer really helped me get through it.)

Here's Fred's lovely hands hard at work.

Here's my sad pathetic hurting little hands trying really hard not to work!And so here we are ready to go...We have the Hoja's cleaned and ready to be used to wrap the tamales... We have both pots of masa, Fred's is on the right and looks really nice and smooth. Mine is on the left and I didn't have the strength left to smooth and pat the top, but it worked just the same!Here's the meat that my mom cooked up that morning. She uses beef and pork and then we shred it all up and she uses I believe dried California Chile's, but it could be New Mexico one's, I'm not really sure, to make the chili that is mixed with the meat and then she adds garlic and onion powder and salt and who knows what else. All I know is it's yummy, I can eat this just by itself in a flour tortilla.Last, but not least...the black olives. We are an olive family! We're only supposed to put one in each tamale, but during the year as we eat the ones that are frozen and heated up later you may find one, two, three, even four olives!

So I said that everyone helps, from the youngest to the oldest. Here's a picture of the oldest, my dad Federico. He's an old pro at tamale making and he loves to get in on this part. He's not to big on helping with all the preparations ahead of time, but when it's time to actually make the tamales, he's ready!Here's another pro, my sister-in-law Norma. She can whip those tamales out like there's no tomorrow. She likes to spread the masa on the corn husks and she then hands them to her husband (my brother Fred) and he puts the meat and olives in and wraps them. Norma makes hundreds of dozens of tamales during the season leading up to Christmas and she sells them. Want to place an order for Christmas 2009, just hit me up! I'm the hook-up.Here's the gang. My sister Lisa just arrived, she had to work half day and shows up right after work to get in on the fun. And my mom...she's the floor lady, the crew chief, the big kahuna, the boss! She's making sure Lisa doesn't dilly-dally too long, we have a schedule to keep!And Lisa wastes no time shedding her sweater and putting up her hair and she's hard at it!As the tamales are wrapped and completed, they are place in these plastic bins that my mom has out back in the "cuartito". Every Christmas she takes them out, washes them out and gets them ready for the big day. We try to make the tamales all a uniform size, so they'll cook evenly. As the crew continues spreading and wrapping, Fred and my mom start the cooking process by placing them in a certain way into the "olla" (pot). Don't ask me how they do it, I have no clue but there is quite of bit of expertise involved in this process. And I want to give a shout out to my brother Fred who has really stepped up in helping my mom in the kitchen this year. At Thanksgiving he has always carved the turkey, but this year he even made the gravy and it was super delish! He also made the gravy for my mom's birthday, but that's coming up in a different post. But again Fred...thank you!And Voilà! The finished product. These are a lot of trouble to make, especially since we usually make several dozens, but sooooooo worth it! Here's a naked one...unwrapped, mmmmmmm. See the black? That's the olives and the juice from the meat soaks into the masa and it's just heaven in a corn husk! Merry Christmas to us!Once they are all done and we've eaten our fill and taken some over to share with neighbors and friends, my mom freezes them and you can come over on almost any random Sunday morning and there will be tamales in the oven. As the years go by and all the kids get older, they will always have this memory of what Christmas Eve is in our family. Sure we have occasional fights and bickering while we make the tamales, but all in all it's a good time and we love being together and we look forward to it every year.

Well that was Christmas last year. I hope you enjoyed it and now click on the button below and visit other bloggers Christmas celebrations. I hope you come away with all these visits with the full spirit of Christmas, whatever it is for each and every one of us. Happy Holidays!