“My kitchen is a mystical place, a kind of temple for me. It is a place where the surfaces seem to have significance, where the sounds and odors carry meaning that transfers from the past and bridges to the future.” ♥ Pearl Bailey
Here I am in my “temple,” making “Curried Pumpkin Pots” from my Autumn Book. I look like a mountain in Vermont in that apron, but I love it . . . I am a fall festival all by myself in my kitchen! The third best place for me after we got home. Number one, was of course, seeing my kitty; number two, we needed to go out on our walk and see how everything was doing out at the pond; and number 3, into the kitchen to nest like crazy and get ready for the holidays.
When I pull a card from my recipe box, where there are recipes from my mom, my dad, and my grandma inside, (and chocolates I saved from the QEII and a note from my girlfriend Sarah) and pick up one of my old wooden cooking spoons, I go right into that “significance,” where the “past bridges to the future.”
There’s no better time of year to feel that connection and all the traditions that come along with it, than now. And there is no better time for the nesting part of it, than when you are home (home!) from a long journey; you’re alone in your kitchen, with your birds scurrying around the feeders just outside the windows; your guy is making hammering noises outside on the rose arbor (men making hammer noises, or lawn mowing noises is an aphrodisiac to me), because right that moment you know that all is right with the world. ♣
But all is not quite right if your cutting board looks like this, not really! I promised you I would write about keeping your wooden things looking healthy, so this is the day; and here is the “before” photo! Because #1, I love my cutting boards and old spoons and #2, I really couldn’t be making beautiful fall food with dried up wooden things . . . it’s really just not done! 🙂 (I’m nesting, leave me alone.)
I’ll show you the cutting board first, because it’s basically the same method for the spoons . . . the thing that solves the problem is Mineral Oil. Because, unlike other kinds of oil, it will not go rancid. You can get it at the supermarket, or at the drug store, and keep it under your kitchen sink.
You can already see how much better the wood looks under the puddle of oil!
I use a pastry brush to paint the oil on. And since it has a wooden handle too, I soak the brush part in a bowl of hot water and dish soap when I’m done . . . no dishwasher for wooden things, it dries them out, takes all the color out of them, removes the patina of chicken soup and creamed butter and sugar, all those cookie juices you worked so hard to instill into these things. Just a quick hand washing for them is fine.
The cutting board is done; now here is the “before” picture for one of my favorite spoons . . . a spoon that knows all my cooking secrets and the inside story of every dinner party I’ve ever given. A very good girl.
And now, she is oiled. We let her sit, absorbing, while we do the others.
This takes no time at all. After they’re all done I let everything soak up the oil for a couple of hours; it will all disappear. See the “Sue” spoon in the middle? My dad made that with his own two hands. ♥ You can also find old wooden spoons, even handmade ones, sometimes in antique stores, and all they need is a good soapy washing and some mineral oil to bring them back to life, carrying all their cooking history with them, adding more “mystical” to your kitchen.
This pig board is another thing that’s been with me through thick and thin and cheese parties and sparerib servings too. I got him when I was in my early twenties and he’s followed me everywhere, from California to Martha’s Vineyard, from small apartment to New England house, through cookbook writing and Joe-meeting too. ♥
I never use wooden cutting boards for raw meat or fish, I have a plastic one for that. But every once in a while I will clean my wooden boards by sprinkling salt on them, rubbing them with lemon juice, then drying them well before I oil them.
Deep dark and delicious, that’s what they look like when they’re done. Ready to return to their spot next to the stove, ready for the holidays, ready to help bring the past, through favorite old recipes (my grandma’s Turkey Stuffing!), into the future, again, for another holiday season. ♥
Now your turn. I have a very special wooden thing that I think fits right into the realm of mystical-kitchen making, although, in the end, it will be up to you to complete the picture. It’s a starter kit, and truly one-of-a-kind, a little original piece of art in my mind . . .
Would you like to have this? I’m a big rescuer of old wooden recipe boxes. I can’t bear to leave them behind when I see them in antique stores, especially if they have some family’s collection of recipes in them. So I give them for gifts. When I found this one, it had divider cards in it and a few recipes; of course I have no idea where it came from, because like quilts, recipe boxes aren’t signed. 🙁 I made it a little more homey by writing words on the divider cards; I added my recipe for Sweet 
Potato Casserole (it’s used, as you will see; it came out of my box) . . . I also put in the words to the song Cinderella sang, a dream is a wish your heart makes, that I keep in my own box. ♥ One of you should have this box is what I think. It has plenty of extra cards in it for your own recipes. I wish I could do one for all of you, but I don’t have that many! It’s a way to say thank you for giving me such a wonderful welcome home! It’s so fun doing this blog and knowing you’re out there!!! As soon as I find out the name of the winner I will write a note on the little gift card that you see under the box, and tuck it inside. ♥
All you have to do to enter the drawing for this box is leave me a comment telling all of us about your favorite holiday tradition. Or, even just say hi, and you’re entered! You may already have a recipe box, but maybe you want to add your own recipes to this one for your daughter, son, niece or nephew. (If you’re one of the Daring Girls Club, tell your moms about this so they can enter and do it for you! :-)) And then be sure to sign the box with your name and the year. ♥ xoxo
It will fly off Martha’s Vineyard into your hands — we’ll wait a couple of days for everyone to have a chance to see this posting, then we’ll draw the winner and the wooden box will come, from my mystical kitchen to yours . . .
I love to pull out the ornaments for the tree, all wrapped in tissue paper and stored in the Christmas tins I’ve collected over decades. The ornaments are all different, made from everything from paper to ceramics to yarn. I can’t wait to do it again this year.
They all have a special meaning, don’t they?
We have a Christmas village that lights by remote control. We have our grand daughter convinced that the lights turn on when she says “Christmas is Magic.” Of course, when we hear her someone has to race for the remote and turn on the lights without her seeing. This has been going on for 8 years and delights us all. I don’t know how much longer it can continue without her catching on! Thanks for the fun give away!
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She’ll be doing it for her kids one of these days! 🙂
I love to cook on Thanksgiving using a verrrry old typed (on an old IBM selectric machine) recipe for stuffing. My mother sent it to me when I was first married in 1983. I treasure it so much since she died a few years later and I have only this recipe, and one for her delicious baked clams, to cook from. Making her stuffing recipe brings me great holiday joy!
I can just picture that recipe!
I have my grandmother’s handmade recipe book from an old calendar type book she must have gotten through the mail – it has lots of advertising in it. So sweet. She “pinned” (with her straight pins) recipes and little articles and poems she had cut out of magazines. Sometimes she glued them with the old fashioned yellow glue that cracks and crazes after it dries. Her handwriting is everywhere. It also contains lots of gardening tips. This is the best part – she covered it in 1940’s shelf paper! She would have loved you -for sure!!!!! I make her sugar cookies, nut bread, & pineapple cookies from that sweet little book every Christmas with the best part – my little granddaughter. At the age of 2 she could roll out dough like a pro because of all the playdough time!!!! It was amazing to watch her. Then after all that baking – I just have to rest my feet and watch the Bishops Wife with Loretta Young, Cary Grant, David Niven. Some years I have to watch it way more than just once!!!! For me, children make the holidays fun. Just watching their excitement makes me so happy and brings back memories of my own childhood. This year we will have 5 children here from 21 months to age 6! YIKES!
So fun! That book sounds absolutely priceless.
We have so many …but really I have to tell you, I have shared your blog with my Mom she takes care her grandkids everyday & she needs a little happy place to go to during naptime. So although we live 8 hrs away, we both pull out our snacks and read your blog a few times a week, It is the perfect happy spot to keep us going during the afternoon. this can be the most demanding part of our days!
Thank you for all you happy sunshine you bring to us:)
Emily
You are so welcome, please say hello to your mom for me!
We as a family always set a night where we drive around, children in pj’s and comfy robes, looking at all the christmas light displays. Stars are always shining, and we all get in the holiday spirit. Christmas Eve is spent at candlelight service. How special it is with all our friends and family singing Silent Night, light turned down, holding our lit candles, trying to hold tears from flowing down our faces , for it is such a beautiful scene with thankfulness and blessings for all of us to share.
Reading your little christmas book always starts my holiday season, especially with a first snowfall and yummy hot chocolate.
Thanks for the information of helping our wooden treasures. I also have a pig who could use some help.
That last sentence made me laugh!
Hi Susan! I just read your blog(I look forward to checking daily) I have my Grandmas recipe box, and I cherish it! I of course have my own too, in which I have old letters from my gram. What a keepsake that will be for my children and grandchildren! I too collect old wooden spoons and I will oil them today while playing Steve Terrel on the stereo and making a cozy home for hubby to come home to.
Bliss!
Thank you sooo much, Susan, for showing us how to take care of our wooden kitchen items!! My Great-Great Grandmother’s wooden bowl was handed down to me and I didn’t know what to do to take care of it!! The wood is in great need. Thank you!! I also wanted to tell you that one of our sons is courting a sweet young lady. We met her for the first time recently and I gave her a copy of your Autumn book!! She loves it like I do. I have loved your books for many years and give them as gifts to my friends! One of my favorite things to do is sit down with a cup of tea and spend some time in one of your books! That is relaxation!!
Thank you Mary!
I am lucky enough to have my Mom’s and my Grandma’s wooden recipe boxes with all their favorite recipes in them. (Don’t let this affect my chances in winning the one from you, though!!! It can be the 3rd in my priceless collection!) One of my favorite traditions we have (there are so many to choose from!) is gathering together on Christmas Eve with all my husband’s family. There are 12 cousins that were born in 9 years, and it always is a loud, funny, loving, delicious, family fest! All the cousins draw names, and now that they are older (the oldest is 23, the youngest is my son, who is 14), seeing the gifts that they thoughtfully choose for the others is so fun! Although each cousin only draws one name, all of the girls end up spending their own money on a gift for each of their girl cousins! All during dinner and the bestowing of gifts, all the kids and adults are catching up on everyone lives and families. Lots of laughter and fun stories (most of the kids are in college…all at different ones here in the Midwest – so we get lots of strange stories!) When we arrive home late that night, we always find a message from “Santa” reminding us to leave out cookies and milk for him, and to get to bed quickly so he can stop by our house! Thank Goodness for creative uncles that have great voices- my 22 year old girls still expect the answering machine to be blinking every year! We put the homemade pierogies from my mother-in-law in the frig for Christmas Day dinner, and scurry off to bed, just as Santa said! That is Christmas bliss!
Sounds perfect! Love the blinking answering machine!
Your post brought back so many wonderful memories of my dad who was a wood carver–hobby as he was a librarian at a university. He carved all the time, even walking down the street on the way to work. I have many pieces he carved and my wooden spoons are precious. He also did lots of birds, tiny ones standing on a base. I also have 4 duck heads he carved to hang costs on and one of my sons made them into a coat rack as a school project probably 20 years ago. It is in my breakfast room and I hang aprons I have made for my little grandchildren on it. My dad’s family is very large and everyone has pieces he carved. All are cherished.
I can just imagine! Wonderful!
Oh Susan I have “proper recipe box” written on a scrap of paper where I was jotting down a few things I’d like to have. I am a recipe saver/writer downer and have papers and scraps folded up all over my kitchen. What a wonderful treasure to have…fingers well and truly crossed. 🙂 My favorite holiday tradition is one I’ve carried on with my daughters started by my mom when I was a little girl: on Thanksgiving evening we pick at leftovers and watch Miracle on 34th Street. I truly look forward to it every single year.
Whether or not I have any hope of winning the recipe box is immaterial: your blog is my happy place where I feel warm, cozy, and welcome. Thank you!
You are welcome!
Susan-once again, your big heart that makes us all love the Heart of The Home becomes evident! What a lovely treasure, and another fun contest for all of us sisters! I think cookie making and sharing is a tradition I can share…I still use the same tried and true delicious confections that my mom was famous for, in fact last night I was pawing through old recipes and realized some were so very old and discolored, I can hardly read them! Some favorites are: Nutmeg Logs, Nanaimo Bars, Candi-dates, and Swedish Heirloom Cookies. ( I love my mom’s Betty Crocker booklets from 1960)! I go through dozens of cookies each year as gifts, and for my kids to feast on!
Can I ask you, on the oiling of the wooden kitchen items-would olive oil do the same thing, or go rancid? Also, doesn’t the mineral oil conduct any kind of flavor into foods that come into contact with it? Or do you let it absorb for a length of time that may prevent that from happening?
I have a good wooden spoon story to share: My guy has his ‘man cave’ in a garage where he spends many hours on motorcycles and such. One day I noticed he has a wooden spoon on his work bench out there, among wrenches, fenders, and manly bits and pieces of ‘stuff’. He told me that it was his moms and carried many memories for him! Of these memories, getting a spank or two from said spoon was included! So, I brought down to the mancave, MY mom’s wooden spoon comparable in age and use to sit with his. Well, after our conversation of getting a smart but loving tap with these ‘weapons’ we (ok, you are going to laugh, but it’s true) decided to give each other a smack with our mom’s spoon to see if it really hurt or not. It DID. Ok….a couple of kids (us) at an age that I cannot disclose for further laughter opportunities!!! out in the man cave with wooden spoons, and memories….Anyway, I brought mine back to my kitchen where it has reclaimed it’s rightful spot of wooden spoonship to continue it’s memory making…
Hi Deborah, Yes, Olive oil will go rancid; but mineral oil is odorless, and flavorless (I think, I didn’t drink any!), it absorbs right into the wood, isn’t even oily when it’s done. LOL on your story!
Susan, you really do know how to get the memories flowing! My grandmother was an incredible baker, and her specialty was Christmas cookies! She made dozens of different types of cookies – she started her cookie baking right after Thanksgiving each year. I am lucky to have some of her cookie recipes on cards that are almost 40 years old and religiously make these cookies each year in her honor. They are a family favorite and a Christmas tradition that I look forward to all year long! Thank you, Susan, for allowing me to publicly pay tribute to my dear grandmother who I miss so much, especially this time of the year!
My extreme pleasure Christine!!!
Love this post!! Well I love them all, but to be in your kitchen in the fall … cozy, cozy bliss :). I remember when I first discovered your books years ago and would look at every detail of your kitchen drawings. The vintage stove captivated me. Little did I think I would ever get to peek into the real thing someday. Thank you for sharing yourself with us, Susan.
It’s been so fun to read all of the comments and learn about special holiday traditions.
I can’t wait to pick up some mineral oil and spiff up my wooden spoons and cutting board. The SUE spoon is so very special and beautiful. Your dad sounds like an amazing man!
I think Christmas cookie baking is one of the strongest holiday traditions in my family. It just wouldn’t be Christmas without the Peanut Blossoms … rolled in red and green sugar.
Yum! Thank you Kim!
Thank you Susan for an inspiring post ~ I’m going to track down all my wooden “mystical” tools and give them the spa treatment this weekend!
Your blog is the BEST, but no surprise there since YOU are the BEST!
Thank you for a very thoughtful and generous chance to win what will definitely become someone’s heirloom! (And it’s that much MORE special with your wonderful additions AND that it will be winging its way from the Vineyard!)
I inherited my Mom’s recipe box, which was made of tin and included many of her and my Grandmother’s favorite recipes – I gave it to my daughter when she got her first apartment and was learning and experimenting in her tiny apartment kitchen.
Our family has gone through a few major changes in the last ten years… Christmas Eve used to be the big night (and I’m hopeful someday it will be again) but for now, Thanksgiving is the holiday we’re very honored to host.
My hubby brines the turkey and roasts it (delicious!) my daughter brings pies and I make everything else, including our “family” stuffing and sweet-potatoes-with-apples. I can hardly wait to see everyone gathered in our little dining room again, holding hands around our old oak table ~ bliss!
You make me excited for it too!
Thank you for your wonderful blog, you make every season special! Our tradition is decorating the Christmas tree with vintage ornaments filled with memories. I have ornaments that hung on my mother’s and father’s trees when they were children and many that were on our family tree when I was a child. It is fun to look at old photos from my childhood and find the ornaments on the tree that are still on ours today. I can remember watching my dad carefully taking the strands of gold and blue glass beads packed in cotton in a long cardboard box and helping him wrap them around our tree. Not so much fun is seeing ornaments from my childhood in antique stores today – guess that means I’m “vintage” too!
Whenever I think the world has gone haywire, all I have to do is read everyone’s comments, like yours Barb, and everything is good again! Thank you!
I can almost smell the pumpkin!
I can’t resist with the hope that someday my Prince (or special gift!) will come! I have a horrible mom secret for my holiday memory – it’s mimosas on Christmas morning. But it includes my children getting small sips/portions starting in their teens. Now as adults, they love that I was that cool mom who let them have a little bit of champagne in their Christmas morning orange juice. We laugh over photos of my son Danny with his VERY red, blushed cheeks from only that little bit of alcohol. (That same indicator served me well through his teen years!) Anyway, now you know that I was not ever going to win “Mom of the Year” during my kid’s teen years, but sometimes those memories are worth the crown! XXOO
Sounds good to me! It all seems to have worked out OK! 🙂
I loved seeing all of your wooden things! I would love that old recipe box. Today is my 2nd of 4 children’s 24th b’day so I am busy preparing for his birthday dinner tonight – his choice for years has been fondue!
Have a wonderful fondue birthday party!
Hi Susan – I have a big wooden bowl that was my grandmas – she brought it from Ireland when she came tothe US in 1885. I treat it with mineral oil once a year but i never thought of oiling my wooden spoons – but now i will! Happy Fall.
Happy fall Janice!
I have my grandmother’s recipe box…recipes in her handwriting describing dishes prepared with pure ingredients. My mother has an entire drawer of her own handwritten recipe cards…she always has a section of blank index cards in front of the drawer for visiting friends to fill out and add to her collection.
Hmm, holiday traditions….how to choose my favorite…Our Christmas tree goes up Saturday after Thanksgiving…has for the last 20 years…while the rest of the world is shopping, we have cocoa and listen to Christmas music while decorating the tree. My mother-in-law started a tradition of giving our sons an ornament every year, and I have continued that tradition since she is no longer with us….they have their “own” ornaments that they put on the tree…when they marry, those special ornaments will go with them to their own new home….
Perfect, they take a little bit of home with them.
Hi Susan,
I have so many favorite holiday traditions, I could do a month of blog posts of my own about them! And I will… I just love the holidays. I used to start listening to Christmas music on July 5… But I’ve grown since then and try to wait until at least late October (today would be a good day to start!)…
Of all the Christmas traditions we have in my family, my favorite would still have to be the one my mom started when she and my dad were first married. Each year, she (or Santa) buys a new ornament for each of us (now including daughters-in-law and lots of grandchildren). I liked this tradition so much that I carried it on when I married and had kids. At first, it was an easy and fun little thing to do… Now, with eight kids, it’s a little more challenging! It also means that each and every year, between my mom and I, our family obtains 20 new ornaments! Whew! For years, I’ve received either vintage Santa’s or crowns or castles, my sister always received angels and my brother got the soldiers. We try to find blown glass fish for my mom, who loves to fish, and my late and much beloved step father always seemed to get policemen or bobbies (he was English, but had no attacment to the police, so I don’t know how that came about, but it stuck!).
I think my very favorite ornaments are the ones that mom made. There were some lean years, but she never, ever cut back on a single Christmas tradition. There were always new ornaments, stockings, lots of cookies and candy and so much fun. It’s funny, but when I think back of the summer we spent making Christmas wrapping paper out of freezer paper, or when she’d be working on “surprises” before the holidays, I didn’t realize it was because we wouldn’t have much money that year… I thought it was just fun!
This year is going to be a lean Christmas for our family… and I am so glad. Instead of a lot of expensive gifts, there will be a few fun, but modest, ones, and some less frantic parents. There will be lots of making and sharing of cookies, lots of songs around the piano and lots of enjoying each others company. I think it might just be the best Christmas ever!
Take care, and welcome home!
Jake
P.S. How could I fail to mention Mary’s Mother’s Snowballs??? Just last weekend, I was forced (happily) to dig through some Christmas boxes to get your little Chiristmas book (my personal favorite). The calls for the snowballs start coming around this time of year and I seem to make an awful lot of them through January (or beyond). They are the FAVORITE Christmas cookie in my house, even though they are relatively new to us. The problem is the dough… I can’t stop eating it!
LOL. Yes, that pesky dough problem! I get the lean Christmas thing; there’s something about the magic which seems more, the less you have, the more you share and the whole orange in the toe thing for the stocking begins to really be wonderful! I don’t know about your 8 kids, but ours like the big boxes things came in better than the things!
So true! Max’s (he’s almost one) current favorite toy is the lid to his mom’s water bottle… he should be easy to please!
Yes, hide it now, wrap it up, and voila! 🙂
Love your apron Susan…a true glimpse of Autumn in Vermont! Thank you for the tips on cutting boards….my brother-in-law made a pig cutting board in high school shop class and he gave it to me! Yay…that was 39 years ago…he decorates my kitchen and inspires me to create yummy food…my holiday traditions have changed over the years with the passing of my mom-in-law Ruby…awesome cook(I have her recipes in my head) her grand daughter inherited her recipe box! Our precious only child, daughter Jackie went to heaven a year ago, so I suppose my recipe boxes will end up out there in some kitchen where they will be cherished as treasures like yours. This year Thanksgiving will be at brother-in -law Bob’s house starting new traditions..he also has his mom’s recipes in his head. I will bringing Pineapple Apple Salad with Pecans…kind of like Waldorf, but uniquely different, then the 2 days after Turkey Day I will have my Jackie’s art(“Faerie Dust Originals”) at the Winter Art and Craft Show in Nashville, Indiana. This will be the 5th year her giclee cards and prints on canvas will be presented.We have to keep her faeries and flowers out there! I will take the yummy salad for sharing since we can’t go out to eat for 2 days ,we share yummys in the back “dining”room.After the art show, it’s COOKIE time, dozens of Mexican Wedding Cakes, Swedish Spritz,Sugar Peace Doves, and lots of other family favorites…my mom always made penuche,divinity,and springerles…ahhh such warm memories! I have new memories and traditions to start, so here’s to US…let the flour fly! lol Love and “faerie dust” Mary
Let the flour fly! Love and faerie dust right back to you Mary, and prayers to heaven for your daughter Jackie.
Wow! you are over whelming… So nice that the younger people have you to remind them of all the great traditions for the holidays…What a wonderful role model you are, there is to much of the junk out there for the young kids .Many of the things I have done but Im still learning( I was 74 this year) Have 3 sons with wives that think im a little nuts. Would love to have a wooden recipe box…mine is metal and was a shower gift 53 years ago, if I dont win it I will ask my Hubby to make one out of old walnut wood we have.
Loved your tale of the boat ride,you’re a braver soul than me…I dont even like Cruise ships.
Thanks for all you do!
Hugs
Pat Beckman
Thank you too Pat, love hearing from you!
Oh my gosh ..this is the best post ever! I have one sister and we talk every morning ..I told her this morning I have such Christmas spirit!!!! So does she! I have been listening to soft carols for 2 weeks!! Reading all these wonderful traditions is heaven..my favorite so far is the mom and daughter sleeping under the tree. I am the auntie in the family and I now live in the family house. So I have Thanksgiving , a family Christmas party and Christmas Day…I adore it..I adore my family . We have a really old fashioned sort of Christmas .the old big lights on the tree. The old ornaments The same dinner that my heavenly mum made with gram kimballs Parker house rolls! My mum, Lottsies gravy ..every one starts calling a week before…” your going to make two pans of gravy right? Don’t forget to make extra rolls because I’ll eat at least 5 ! Don’t forget the soft oatmeal bread for midnight sandwiches.”. The whole thing is wonderful..and we park a picture of mum and dad on the table and pour them each a glass of champagne!! Thanks for starting this today ! I’m in heaven !
Loved that too, those lights as you’re falling asleep! How can you not love it all with Holly for a name?! 🙂
I also want to say to Mary my dearest thoughts to you and to your beautiful daughter…kisses to heaven!
xoxo
Holiday traditions are very dear to me and my children. One of my favourite traditions is to go to midnight mass. Just the sound of people singing on this special day sounds like angels singing and I’m sure I hear sleigh bells too. Best of all coming home from the village church with Lychgates. Coming home to the enchanted smell of Christmas – the pine needles, clementines , cloves. Best of all the simpleness of homemade hot chocolate with whipped cream with a candy cane to stir. It’s all made dreamier by the twinkle of the fairy lights and the crackling of the log fire. Oh I love Christmas it’s a magical and most wonderful time if the year.
Thankyou Susan for allowing me to share a little if my favourite holiday tradition. I can’t wait to read your blog everyday. I always wait in anticipation for the next episode in the life and times of my “friend” Susan. Xxx
Yes my friend Janey, I look forward to hearing from you too!
Oh Man – “my favorite holiday tradition” is, for me, a loaded question. I have too, too, too many to pick Just one. Everything Christmas is my favorite – foods, cooking the foods, eating the foods, smelling the foods, baking the foods, reading about the foods, the carols (which I already admitted on this blog somewhere else, I start listening to in the FALL [publicly] but i really listen all year [privately]), the movies, the tree, the ornaments, did I say the foods? the presents, making the presents, wrapping the presents, shaking the presents, being with loved ones, eggnog, Sepkulatius cookies (my grandfather was a Baker in Germany before he immigrated to America and brought his handcarved wooden “speck” (as we call them) boards on the boat here with him. Our family still uses those boards and still eats those cookies. I will pick this as my fav tradition if I HAVE to pick just one, since I believe my blood, my plasma, my very DNA smells of these incredible christmas cookies. Susan, you would adore this whole tradition and I would love to include you (since you left CA for MV it’ll have to be Skype…) in the next speck baking day at our house (which will be sometime Novemberish…) I will, of course!, send you a can of cookies the next day…they keep like champions! As to why these wooden boards are as good and useful today as they were 100 years ago, they are “buttered” every time they are used, as the dough is pounded into the carved figures – very apropos today’s wooden kitchen “tool-torial”.
I never had a doubt for a moment Karen, that you were secretly listening to carols year round! 🙂 Thank you!
Greetings Sweet Sue…You do NOT look like a “Mountain” (silly~Girl) 🙂 in Your Gorgeous Vermont Apron…You Do look like a “Fall~Festival”….I have Made Those Scrumptious Curried Little Pumpkin~Pots…from Your Magical “Autumn” Book (which I am reading during This Autumn Season…)♥ I Have & Use Wooden Cutting Boards & Wooden Spoons all The Time & I actually Clean them with Salt & Lemon Juice…But Now You have taught be how to Make them Shine…Mineral Oil! Thanks! & Oh How I Love Your “Sue” Spoon that Your Daddy Made with his Strong Hands…♥… 🙂 & You are so Right That Our Kitchens are Truly a “Mystical” Place…Let’s see… one of My Favorite “Halloween” Traditions…is with Taylor…My Grand~Daughter…each Season we pick out a few Perfect Pumpkins & We Carve The Best Jack~O~Lanterns…We Have so Much Fun getting Our Hands all Gooey taking out The Pumpkin Seeds…which we then Roast in The Oven…we Make Happy Faces & a scary Face or Two…we spend Hours in My Kitchen Creating Pumpkin Master~Pieces… 🙂 Taylor & I Never stop Talking or Laughing…Pure Enchantment….Traditons….Autumn~Joy….Halloween Magic…Very Mystical….Now about That Recipe~Box….Oh My Goodness…One of Us will Be Beyond Thrilled to Receive this…it will Be “A Dream…is a Wish Your ♥ Heart Makes”…….very Exciting Sweet Sue….so Glad You are Home…with Joe & Kitty in Your Magical Mystical Kitchen on Your Beloved Island! Have a Lovely Afternoon…stay Cozy & Warm My Friend! xoxo Poof!♫♥
Love you Angie . . . your adventures with Taylor are always magical!
♫♥♫♥ 🙂 ♫♥♫♥
Thanks for the reminder about our cutting boards. Mine is only about three years old, but I use it multiple times daily, so it already looks like it has seen years of use! (and that is just how I like it!) Believe it or not, I had never thought to also oil my wooden spoons. They do look very dried out, so I will be oiling them this afternoon. 🙂
I just got home from a motorcoach bus tour from my Kentucky home to New England. Although I enjoyed all 11 states I spent time in – Martha’s Vineyard & Kennebunkport were my absolute favorite places! I can see why you love your island so.
I adore that big orange bowl! My grandma used to have a green one very similar to it that I can remember her always using. Speaking of my grandmother, my fondest holiday traditions were spent at my Mamaw Opal’s, gathered around her big table enjoying her wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts. I sure miss my Mamaw!
I have a clear plastic recipe box that I picked up from a $1 store. I would LOVE to have that lovely wooden box instead! Thank you much for the opportunity.
My pleasure, glad you enjoyed your trip….I love Kennebunkport too, darling little town.
Glad you’re home safely, Susan. I, too, would be nesting after the nighttime adventure through rough seas after a cross-country journey you experienced. Whew! The blessing of a warm cozy kitchen and basking in fall surroundings, that’s tradition. My favorite tradition is a holiday baking day with my friend Judy and our five daughters (her two, my three). We begin the day with mimosas, munch on cookie dough and have lots of fun telling stories about them (the daughters) when they were little girls. How many stories do you think kitchens could tell? Enjoy your day and stay warm.
Yes, it definitely makes you count your blessings! If kitchens could talk! Heart of the home knows it all!
Thanks for the tips on oiling wooden cutting boards and wooden spoons! I inherited my Mom’s wooden salad bowl and salad tongs and knew to clean them that way, but I never thought of treating my cutting boards and spoons! Unfortunately, I’m not the cook my Mom was. My daughter inherited her love of cooking. She loves to experiment, whereas, I have to follow a recipe to the “T”. I love the smells in the kitchen during the holidays, however. I enjoy making fudge and Christmas goodies, and serving them with eggnog. Our favorite holiday tradition is, my daughter makes breakfast for us all on Christmas morning. Then our family gathers for a leisurely breakfast before opening gifts. (We have no grandkids, yet!!)
Sounds wonderful! Love Christmas breakfast!
Oh, how I love your wooden utensils and boards! They look so beautiful with the new coat of oil.
I collect wooden rolling pins and have about 15 hanging on an oak coat tree that I got at a garage sale for $5.00! It was the end of the day and they wanted to get rid of it!! Now, I’m inspired to oil them up good! I also have a wonderful wooden cutting board that my brother-in-law made for me for a wedding gift 37 years ago.
Thanks for your info to take care of the wooden things in my kitchen. I’m afraid I’ve been a bit lax!
How often do you oil them?
thanks,
Kate
I do the cutting board more often than the spoons, maybe a couple of times a month, or whenever it starts to look dry, I like that warm wood color!
Thanks! BTW, my favorite Thanksgiving tradition is home made sweet potato casserole. I kind of made up this recipe when I first got married, not wanting the traditional yams and marshmallows. It has pecans, brown sugar, butter and a little syrup in it. Very tasty! Our daughter has inherited the tradition for her family, too!
Sounds delicious!
I’m going to tell you a tradition for New Year’s eve…heehee! My husband and I live in Florida and we always go for a walk around our neighborhood that begins a little before midnight…and goes until we’re ready to come home! It’s such a beautiful time of the year to live in Florida! I would be thrilled to have the recipe box! I’m going to start looking for them in the Thrift store! You have such creative ideas…of course that makes YOU who YOU are! Thanks…and warm Hugs! Diane
Same to you Diane! Thank you!
Thank you Susan for sharing the “mineral oil” treatment for cutting boards. I still use my mother’s wooden pastry board and wooden rolling pin for making all of those fun Christmas cookies. (She received it for her bridal shower in 1948.) I will definately put mineral oil on my grocery list this week, and oil them up. Every December 24th I bake sugar cookies with my old cookie cutters I’ve collected over the years. It wouldn’t be the morning before Christmas Day without lots and lots of sprinkles and colored sugar all over the cookies…..and my floor! (My father used to love the burnt ones the best! Atleast that’s what he would tell me as a young girl baking in my mother’s kitchen.) If only your old wooden recipe box could talk…..I’m sure lots of yummy meals were made from within….what a great find!
Your father was sweet!
I enjoy making our traditional German meal for Christmas Eve. My girls are now old enough (25, 23 and 20) to be ‘in charge’ of the dessert, and each year it’s something new and wonderful and there is always much laughter in the preparation!
Wonderful!
What is it about recipes that hold such magic? You can just imagine the stories they could tell – the hands that wrote them, the meals they were served with, the people they were passed to. And if you come from a long line of messy cooks like I do, you can *see* the recipes from the splatters left behind. (They are almost scratch & sniff!) One of my favorite holiday traditions is silly, but a very vivid memory … every Thanksgivng, Christmas or Easter dinner we would have my grandmother’s relish tray and there were always ripe olives included. My sisters and I (and later, their husbands and children) would stick them on the ends of our fingers and eat them off our fingertips. (Much to the chagrin of my mother.)
We’re olive people too, I still surreptitiously do it sometimes! 🙂
this is my favorite blog of all time! I would love to have more time to nest and create at home – it’s so delightful reading about your adventures and cheery life. thanks for sharing it with me! (you do write this just for me, right?)
Just for you Nancy! 🙂 shhhhh.
We love our fruitcake cookies – long ago we all made fruitcake and let it get all yummy from Thanksgiving to Christmas and now we make these equally as scrumptious cookies.
Mmmmm!
My favorite tradition is when we put up the tree and decorate the house for Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving! It takes the whole day! My 2 30-something children are home and my husband takes the day off to do this. We put on ornaments that are decades old and new ones too, even ones my children made in school! My daughter puts up our Christmas scene and my husband helps with the outdoor decorating. We have leftovers from Thanksgiving for dinner- yum! At the end of the day we start a fire and relax in our Christmasy home with only the Christmas lights lit and watch “Christmas Vacation.” A perfect way to start the Christmas season!!
All together is definitely the perfect way!
Me too, Mom! I love you!
Now this just warms the cockles of my heart . . . mom and daughter saying Hi on my own blog! ♥
My favorite holiday memory is anything involving my mother’s cooking 🙂 over the summer she suffered a stroke and heart attack and can no longer cook or even remember her favorite recipes. I am taking over for her this Thanksgiving by slowly going through each holiday dish and trying my best to remember the ingredients based on taste, smell, and many many years of eating her feasts 🙂 unfortunately, she never wrote any of her recipes down. I am taking this message to heart by making sure that all of my own recipes are stored safely for my own daughter to use someday.
Those are such losses; we are still lamenting that we never got (and I can barely say this without kicking myself again) my grandma’s Peanut Brittle recipe. She never wrote it down, and I was always supposed to go over and learn it, but we got distracted and I never did!
I am the family historian. Besides genealogy, I am the keeper of recipes. I have a whole recipe box of family and extended family recipes. I have been slowly typing them into my computer and saving them to discs. I don’t want them to be lost. I have also been scanning in some especially precious ones handwritten by my greatgrandmother and grandmother so that they can be shared with the younger generation. I recently gave my niece, a new mother, the whole file of cookies along with some cookie make utensils as a gift. I hope to make a family cookbook someday. But right now the recipes won’t be lost.
Every family needs one of you!!!
Although I’m sure it could never replace your grandma’s recipe, I have what I consider to be the BEST peanut brittle recipe that a friend shared with me over twenty years ago. I’m very particular about peanut brittle, and this one is just unbeatable. I get requests for it every year during the holidays. I’m happy to share it with you, and everyone, if you would like. Just let me know!
I must have been raised by non-cooking/baking wolves, because I have so few memories of my mom or grandmothers making any of the wonderful stuff you all talk about from your past. 🙂 (I try very hard to make sure my daughter has memories of me baking and cooking!) I do remember my mom making those cookies you make using a cookie press, and they come out in little shapes. We would then dust them with red or green sugar. She gave me her press, made of COPPER, if you can imagine, along with the little discs. (Everything is plastic nowadays.) It’s so reflective of a different time. There is a whole set of discs with hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs for card parties. 🙂 Not enough people have card parties any more.
My favorite Christmas memory is from when we were little and would go to church on Christmas Eve. All the dads got together each year and put together little bags for the children, containing peanuts in the shell, candy canes, and an orange. (Probably goes back to a time when you needed some vitamin C in the cold months to keep from getting scurvy…) 🙂 Anyway, we were always so excited to get those goody bags at the end of the church service! I can still picture my dad handing them out to a roomful of giddy kids. 🙂
Sarah
Sarah
Love the non-cooking/baking wolves . . . have not run into that type! 🙂 of wolf. LOL. I would love your peanut brittle recipe if you are willing to share it. You can send it to my studio at [email protected]/~susanbs3/susanbranch/ — if that is really OK, but you don’t have to! I’ll still love you!
I just sent it to your feedback address. Enjoy! 🙂
Sarah
Got it! Thank you!
I thought while my canner was coming to a boil and I was getting out my recipe box from 1962 the year I was married, I would read your blog for today. What a wonderful surprise to have you writing about recipe boxes. I am “putting up” jalapeno peppers today and I needed my trusty recipe, even though I know it by heart after all these years. I love to hold the recipe box in my hands and think of all the times I have pulled it off the shelf.
Good thing to do today . . . wonder if it’s raining there?
I always remember my Mom making homemade noodles for Thanksgiving dinner–mixing the eggy dough, rolling them out and cutting them so thinly, then she would leave them drying in the utility room for a couple of days……so yummy with the turkey gravy, and ladled over mashed potatoes! Thank you for your lovely fall pictures and inspiration!
Ohhhh that sounds sooo good!
I wish I had a recipe box like this. I wouldn’t have lost so many family recipes. Sigh! But the good news is that if I win it, I will promise you that I will reach out to family members and rebuild the family recipes in my new pretty box – Signed and dated of course.
Excellent idea!
Welcome back to Martha’s Vineyard!!! I enjoy your life so very much…..you make me want to cook again. I’m so excited I might win the recipe box!!!!!!
I love homemade pie and homemade pie crust. There is nothing like a homemade apple pie fresh out of the oven!!!! There should always be one during the holidays..
You are so right, people don’t make enough homemade pie crust anymore, and its SO delicious!!! You are going to make someone’s day!
Our favorite holiday tradition is to think of anyone we know who either doesn’t have family close by or another place to go (for instance, for Thanksgiving dinner) and invite them–telling them we need a “stand-in auntie, cousin, uncle, etc. )–instant family!!! We end up with an eclectic (sp?) group with usually good conversation and fun!!! Fills out our table and makes us feel good. I’m going to fix the dinner anyway and it is no bother to put on another plate… 🙂
Lovely. Reminds me of the quote “Her heart was as big as her kitchen.” 🙂
Lovely Pat. Reminds me of the quote, “Her heart is as big as her kitchen!”
Hi Susan,
My Favorite thing to do for the holidays is….Have a Tea Party in the middle of the living room! I set a table and chairs with my beautiful tea pot that a dear friend gave to me. We make all kinds of nummy goodies. My kids just love it! We then go for a walk and if it is Christmas Eve we go caroling. I just love that the Holidays are here! I made pumpkin muffins today and then brushed melted butter all over them, then sprinkled cinnamon suger on them, like a donut soooooooo good! Happy Holidays <3
You’re making me crazy!
Dear Susan, I am so tickled coming here. I check your blog anxiously everyday hoping for a new surprise (posting.) You make my life all that much better, and have for years~ from the first book of yours that I bought~ way back when. Thank you so much for your bliss-filled life inspiration.
O’ and pleeeease enter me in the contest for the magnificient recipe box~hearts & fall gatherings
Carla
You are in! 🙂
It just wouldn’t be Christmas without Johnny Mathis “Merry Christmas” CD (actually we started this with an old 33 album—if you remember those)…..and burning a Bayberry candle to the socket on Christmas Eve (the saying goes “A Bayberry candle burned to the socket…brings health to the home and wealth to the pocket”).
I gotta get me a Bayberry candle! 🙂
Dear Sweetie-pie,
Our favorite family recipe tradition is a cookie recipe called Spekulatious Cookies. My husband’s Father & Mother (Fred & Lisette Richter) came here from Germany. Fred was a baker by trade & he brought with him our two hand carved Spekulatious boards. We passed them from family to family to make the cookies at Christmas time. Then Ernie’s sister Edith made copies of the boards so that each family could have their own boards. I have pictures of the boards & the cookies on my Facebook wall in one of my albums. Also the recipe…6 pounds of flour, 3 pounds of sugar, 2 pounds of butter plus a cube, cinnamon cloves, nutmeg, 2 level teaspoons Ammonium Carbonate ( Baking Ammonia),& milk.
That is one heck of a recipe! And you are a sweetie-pie for telling us about it!
Your Christmas Book that I bought all those many years ago when my children were young is our biggest source of tradition. We have to make the candy cane cookies, the sweet potatoes, the ham and on and on. If I don’t make them, my family is not very happy with me.
Reading all your stories in that book the first time made me all warm inside (and still does) and I wanted my children to grow up with the memories that you have of your childhood Christmases. Right down to running around outside with sleigh bells!
Thank you for being a part of our family for all these many years and helping me to give my children wonderful memories that they still cherish as adults today. We love everything Susan Branch!!
That is so NICE to hear! Thank you, it means we do all the same stuff at Christmas! Love to all of you!
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to our comments! 🙂
You continue to warm my heart!!!! I honestly think that we have made everything in that book and loved each and every item. Love!
Thank YOU for leaving one! xoxo
Well, what can I say other than your blogs/musings warm my heart each and every time I read them! I *wish* I had an “old” wooden recipe box–I just have a stuffed, overflowing folder! I loved seeing your handwritten recipes poking out…filled with love and special memories! I do have a homemade wooden “tool” box made by my dad’s loving hands–I cherish that beyond words.
Happy day!
I know how you feel about your tool box!
I have a wooden box that originally came from the Virginia Employment Commission that I use as a recipe box. It holds 5X7 cards. My husband gave it to me 35 years ago. It used to have letters that read “Connie’s Recipes” but those wore off years ago.
Interesting!
Susan, I think your recipe box belongs in my collection! I love my wooden boxes and would treasure having yours, call my girls and we “wood” admire it over coffee! Love and hugs to you!
Thank you Carol!
Love your blog and recipes. We are a baking family. Growing up we made lots of pies, especially at the holidays. There was always a little pie dough left for us kids. We rolled it out spread it with butter, cinnamon and sugar and rolled it up. Cut it into rounds and baked until just a teeny bit past golden. (Well we liked the especially browned ones!) The name of this concoction? “Little Funny Things.” I made them for my daughter and now my grandchildren and all the nieces and nephews who now make them too. And when the holidays roll around every year the first thing my 60 year old brother looks for is “Little Funny Things.” There’s still the kid in all of us. Thanks.
There sure is! 🙂
I have a wooden recipe box that I bought almost 40 years ago when I was a newlywed. It is so packed now that I can hardly close it!
We have many Christmas traditions, but for Thanksgiving, the things we always do are meet at my mom’s house (she’s 88 this year) and we sit around all day and read, play games and do a jigsaw puzzle. And we make the men do the dishes! No dishwasher in my mom’s kitchen!
Thanks for the tips for taking care of the wooden things in our kitchens!
Our men do the dishes too…and look very cute and competent in their aprons!
We have a holiday tradition, taught to me by an old friend. It is the Question Game. I fill a bowl with folded pieces of paper with a question written on each one. For example, one might be, “What was your favorite Christmas and why?” or “What was a memory of your mother that you cherish?” It is a great way for younger members of a family to learn about their relatives!
Love it!
I love this too Tracy!! I think we will be starting a new tradition this Thanksgiving. Thanks for sharing!
Susan, you truly bring back memories of happier times in the Midwest. My favorite tradition was decorating the entire house, including bathrooms for the holidays, particularly Christmas. I still remember one gentleman commenting that it was rather embarassing for him to be in the guest bathroom with an angel on a cloud watching him!
What a treat it would be to win the little recipe box – all of mine, including recipes have been lost along the way with many moves and the passing of the remainder of my family.
I have one precaution about mineral oil – it has always been my understanding that there is a food safe oil and a “medicinal oil”, and the two aren’t to be confused for use. Also, the food safe oil seems to absorb into the wood more quickly. It can be found at kitchen stores and places that sell wooden utensils.
I just checked it out on Wikipedia and it looks OK to me — they are both food safe; I just think the kitchen stores charge more for it.
Oh gee Susan, what a fantastic find you’re giving away…..precious recipes in that treasure of a box! Thanks for the lesson on oiling boards and wooden utensils!
Loved it! I collect old cutting boards. Here’s my story…my mom gave me a round cutting board with “B-R-E-A-D” carved around the edge, one that my grandfather made back in the 1890’s. It has a niche in the edge for a wooden handled bread knife. And I found a knife to go in that niche in Vermont in an antique shop. Ever since then, I’ve been on the lookout for more round antique cutting boards, and I have been able to add about 4 to my collection. One day my hubby decided to bake something in the oven and he turned it on to pre-heat. But what he didn’t know was that I had stored my wooden cutting boards in the oven….because…..I have a secret….my kitty jumps up on the counter, so I keep my counters free of anything that she could knock over. Well I smelled something burning, and I rescued my cutting boards just in the nick of time. So now my grandfather’s board is a little bit more darkly “seasoned”. The rest were OK. And I can’t wait to try your mineral oil trick! Welcome home Susan!!
Darkly seasoned will look wonderful with mineral oil! 🙂
i have my grandma’s recipe and tips for making the best turkey gravy at Thanksgiving, along with her old cast iron skillet and her spoon that grandpa hand carved for her, he made all her wooden spoons and i have most of her collection including the goat spoon. the goat spoon was used to keep the goats away from grandma’s pies as they cooled on the kitchen windowsill. the goats could jump up and bring the pies down so she swatted them with her wooden spoon that grandpa carved, it was used only for the purpose. it now sits in my proud collection of her old wooden spoons and they are oiled like yours are to keep them in good use. along with grandma’s recipe for gravy, i have her cornbread and oysters stuffing, her cranberry-pear sauce and her recipe for acorn squash with apples. grandma always stuffed her turkey with apples and onions for cooking and cooked the stuffing in a casserole dish. also have grandma’s collection of cookie cutters for all holidays and the seasons. love using them for our holidays together, and so far grandma’s recipe for turkey gravy is the best my in-laws have ever had, even beats MIL’s gravy. grandma did her gravy the old fashioned way with a flour slurry and the turkey dripping in a cast iron skillet whisking them together until smooth and no lumps. her secret was in mixing the water and flour before adding to the drippings. i still serve up her reicpes every Thanksgiving, cook the turkey her way and so far my FIL says its always the best turkey he has ever eaten. i can’t complain, i am grasteful and thankful to have them around for every Thanksgiving, even if pops did accidentally one year blew up the turkey…LOL!!!!!! 🙂
We mix the flour and water that way too…but we never had a goat spoon!
hi susan, i still prepare my gravy that way, equal parts water and flour in a small jar, put on the lid, make sure its on tight and shake, then add the mix to the gravy fixings. grandma raised the goats for their milk, she made cheese with the goats’ milk and she also raised cows for milk, and butter. she had rabbits and chickens for meat and raised her own veggies. the spoon was simply handy for swatting the goats away from the pies and it was never used for cooking..got to a point where that spoon was getting as smelly as the goats. i have it now and it is used to keep a kitchen cabinet shut.
I still make mine that way too! I love that this spoon has always been used for non-spoonlike things! Shows creativity runs in your family!
thank you Susan. when we first moved into our house here in Oregon, one kitchen cabinet would not shut securely, so i found the goat spoon and slid it between the handles and now the cabinet doors stay shut, and the cats can’t get them open, though they try very hard….hehehehe. 🙂
LOL!
How sweet of you to offer something like this! I do love recipe boxes, I’ve got one or two of my own, and also my sweet mother’s box with all of her original handwritten cards that I cherish. In fact, she passed away 5 years ago this Saturday; I always look through the recipe file then….it comforts me and makes me feel close to her. Anyway; traditional holidays! There are so many of them, but my favorite Thanksgiving one is this: I always spend the holiday with my sisters and families, and also my cousins and their families (our two Mom’s were sisters.). Since we’ve been doing it since we’re children and had to eat at the ‘little table’, we’ve never skipped a year. We always (at least the girls and neices/cousins) gather on Thanksgiving Eve to make the potato/bread filling; using the same recipe that we’ve used for EVER! I had to finally laminate the card, or it would have just become too dog-eared to read. We chop everything by hand, or it wouldn’t be the same. There is a ‘secret’ ingredient, along with so much butter, that it’s embarrasing. Let me know if you want the secret :). We figure that once we original cousins are too old and feeble to peel the potatoes that the ‘kid cousins’ will take over! We all love the bonding (and wine drinking) time! Much love! Jody
You know I want that secret!
it’s mixing a can of beef (yes beef!) broth into the mixture, once the potatoes, sauted onions and celery are mashed and the toasted bread cubes are folded in. Then, into buttered casseroles they go, with lots of dots of butter on top, and baked till crisp and golden. Email me at above, and I can give you the entire recipe! Love, jody
OK Jody!
My very favorite holiday tradition is done with my granddaughter. She is ten now and we have done this for years. We begin early to get a theme. You may think that the current holiday at hand would be the theme – and sometimes it is. But, the theme has an additional theme to it. It gives us a lot of time to do a lot of thinking – and dreaming. Then, it all gets put together on the holiday dinner table.
We begin setting the table early in the day, and by dinner it sometimes has re-developed several times. There is always a lot of chatter and giggling involved around these special meals.
I have recently started gathering a few *favorite recipes* of our family that I am going to put together for my kids. If I were to win the give-away recipe box I would designate that one for my granddaughter, Logan. She would LOVE it. I’m keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed !
Nicki
Say hi to Logan for us!
Well…this isn’t quite a tradition, yet, but it will be…..my son is raising heritage breed turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner. The fun has already started because they roam around our land in a gang and every so often the toms will spread out their fans and look just like the turkey crafts we made in grade school and I get to watch it all from my picture window.
I would love to win the recipe box to give to one of my daughters. Crossing my fingers. 🙂
Wild turkeys roam around our island . . . like you say, in gangs, but I think they would be like turkey jerkey . . . They are wonderful because they eat things that like to eat us (Ticks).
How darling! My favorite holiday tradition is hanging up stockings. I have a lovely one inspired by Little House in the Big Woods that a friend made for me. There is a stretched-out one from my mother-in-law who insists on stuffing the poor thing to death — and I love it. I am working on adding a handmade one to the cast!
With a name like Elf, don’t you have to? 🙂
Love the blog Susan and today’s quote from Pearl Bailey…so perfect for how I feel in my kitchen…and how many thank you’s can I give you for the help with wooden boards and spoons…mineral oil is on the list “to get”…I too have a piggy board and he needs oil very badly….thank you from him to you…thanks for the chance to win the recipe box…make it a great day!!!
Thank you Bev!
I’m building new Christmas traditions with my brother. We share an apartment now and have a brand new kitty that looks just like Girl Kitty! I’m learning to do things on a smaller scale and now get to learn about decorating with a kitty full of mischief!
Smaller scale makes everything easier, and new kitty makes it all more fun! 🙂 Love your name!
Hi Susan
Love your blog..so cosy..I am following it only since a few months ..but love your mail..its so nice to read all these things and the recipes too..since i live in the Netherlands i love to know what you cook and how you live on the other side off the ocean ..and try to make it too…I am a big fan off cakes .
never seen a wooden recipe box before..love old things and especially if they have origenal things still inside..found once a wooden child sewingbox..with still the spools and buttons inside..it was such a big treasure..and still is..love to look inside my box and hold it in my hands and wonder who used it..thats why I like old things it was importand..loved by some one.
Oh Holly you fit right in around here, so nice to hear that story!
I did not get past your first picture….I love that bowl. I had one once, not that color – more of a beige. It was perfect for serving popcorn, mixing cookie dough, etc. Then, someone other than me dropped it and it broke…I really miss that bowl. Now, I see yours in orange (would match my kitchen) and I love it all over again. Do you remember where you got it? I hope it was a recnt purchase as I have to add that bowl to my kitchen mainstays!!!
Cyndy (VA – FOGT)
Yes, I got it at LeRoux Home here on the island . . . it comes in all sizes and colors, they’re really light and very deep, a great cooking bowl …. call 508-693-0030 and tell Michael and April that I told you to call! Hope they have it!
My sister also had one that was gray and last year her daughter dropped and broke it. She was so sad. Fortunately, she was able to find a replacement
on line- maybe amazon or one of those. She paid a lot more than the original pa
al but it meant a lot to her. I hope you can find one at the place recommended or on line.
Gosh, I love the holidays!! A special tradition I’ve started with my children is our silver tinsel tree. It first comes out for Halloween where we decorate it in orange & black glass balls with a few spooky spiders & such tucked in & then those go away & it’s decorated for Thanksgiving. Soon it’s time to put those ornaments away & dig out special Christmas ornaments, some were my Mom’s & my Grandma’s. My children never met my Mom or Grandma but these ornaments are a special connection to them as we share their stories each holiday season. Yes, our tinsel tree is a truly special part of the holidays in our home.
That sounds fun, we should have a tree in our living room to decorate year round!
Dear Susan, One of my favorite aunts (my mom was the baby of 14 so I have lots of them!) taught me to sew, helped me make my dress for prom and gave me two of favorite recipes: church window cookies and forgotten cookies! I need your box to keep them in! Thanks for all you do! Jill
Your Aunt sounds wonderful! Lucky you!
My “new” favorite holiday tradition is one that my husband and I started the first year we were together – 6 years ago. The day before Thanksgiving we go and buy our Christmas tree! We then go home and put it up…and until Saturday to decorate it. Then we go shopping and buy a new “family” ornament with our names and the date on it. This past March, we got custody of my stepdaughter, so it will be the first time we can do this as a “real” family!
That will be wonderful for you! I love getting my Christmas tree Thanksgiving weekend!
Thanks for the chance to win the wooden recipe box! I have my grandmothers old wooden bowl she used for making bread and pie dough. Thanks for the tip on how to make it look good again.
Very welcome!
On Thanksgiving morning while the turkey is in the oven, we run the 5k Drumstick Dash (proceeds feed the hungry ). On Thanksgiving evening the Dickens village is unwrapped, piece by piece, and carefully set up on the buffet where it is lit nightly until Valentines Day. Even Santa stays in the front yard of his workshop until February 14. I can’t bear to take the village down even then!
Joe would love to move in with you. He would like the tree up until it crumbles to dust and I need to start the New Year with a totally clean slate, so we have to take turns! (Mostly, we have the clean slate.)
Ah, Christmas… my very favorite holiday! I have many favorite holiday traditions, but maybe my MOST fave is making my chocolate fudge using my mom’s secret recipe. I can’t tell you the secret because (1) then is wouldn’t be a secret 😉 and (2) you would think it’s weird…just like everyone who knows does. But take my word for it, it makes the fudge SO delish (and it’s safe of course)! It’s quite a process and it takes all day, but is oh so worth the time and effort…and it give me a chance to see my man’s muscles at work – stirring! (hehe)
I’d so love to have your special recipe box treasure! A few years ago, I lost my sweet grandma, who was an amazing Southern cook. Now, my mom’s memory is fading, and I’m anxious to get all the family recipes in paper for myself and – in a few short years – for my daughter!
Thanks! Love, Kristina XOXO
That’s a wonderful idea, you will be glad you did that I think!
Mmmm…I know I will be glad…and so will future generations! Can’t beat Grandma’s recipes! 🙂
Oh Susan! Oh what a wonderful gift! If I don’t win… well I’ll just have to hunt for a lovely wooden box of my own. I love it. I have many great holiday memories and it seems my favorites have to do with cooking. My 27 year old daughter and I bake Thanksgiving pies together every year – for years (sometimes my mom comes to cheer us on). The pie dough must be from scratch and we always fight (well, sort of) over who gets to use which pie plate. Then, one month later we meet up for the annual santa cookie bake! We sit at the table together and roll dozens of tiny red and white balls of dough (which will later be flattened slightly until they resemble roly poly santas that make us giggle). They’re always rolled out on my wooden cutting board… I’m stopping for mineral oil on my way home!
Great memories Sherryl!
I always wondered how to take care of my old wooden spoons and cutting boards! Thanks Sue!!!! Olive oil made mine sticky, I never thought to use mineral oil, I’m going to try that tonight! I would love to win that recipe box! it’s truly lovely especially with other peoples recipes in it~such a treasure! Such a lovely gift!
We have many Holiday traditions, but i think my favorite is still when my two Sisters, Brother, Brother in laws, Nieces, great Nieces and Nephews, my darling Husband, and my dear old Mom and Dad get together and we make Tamales before Thanksgiving to share at Christmas! Its usually on a Saturday in October, or very early November, we are busy in the kitchen, making the chile, the masa, adding the meat, and assembling them at the table, the guys help out until something facinating lures them off to the garage or backyard… The air is spicy with chile simmering, and Mom is testing the Masa~ the same way my Nana did it (her Mom), and we are chattering and laughing away..with a few glasses of wine to help the thirst! Its my dearest, most wonderful time, because my Mom is sooo happy and loves to cook with us girls, especially her wonderful tamales…you remind me of something to do this year.. This year Im going to give her a recipe card and a pen and ask her to write down her tamale recipe for me ..that would be the bestest give she could ever give me ( except when she gave me life!) She’s the best! And I’m better for it!
Love you Sue, thanks for reminding me of the important things!!!
Mmmmm Tamales! YOu are sososososo smart to get that recipe!
Love the tip on the mineral oil. I now have lots of work to do. I love decorating my kitchen and the rest of the house for the holidays. I, like you, change my decorations for every season/holiday. My mom has a wooden recipe box and I would love to have one too! Thanks for the chance to win.
My pleasure Shawn!
I love the apron!!! I also didn’t know to do that with my wooden spoons. My husband’s grandfather made many wooden spoons and we just treasure them. Now I know how to treasure them longer by taking care of them. Thanks for the tip. I enjoyed following you on your trip. Welcome home! Girl Kitty was definitely glad to help you unpack.
Favorite Holiday Tradition is on Christmas Eve sharing a bowl of Vegetable Cheese Chowder and deli sandwiches with my family. We’ve been doing that tradition for over 20 years and we still love it!
It’s the tradition that matters!
oops typo! I meant the Bestest GIFT she could ever give me! sorry, im at work..and typing this on my lunch!!! =)
My 30-something children began our best Thanksgiving tradition a few years ago when they took over the meal preparation. In early November, we begin by planning the menu during our Sunday family phone call. Since they’re all rabid sports fans, they developed a menu draft modeled on the sports draft format with rules detailed in an earlier, very “official” email from the Commissioner (my daughter who lives in Washington, D.C.). We draw numbers, and in order, declare what we want to have included in the menu (the commissioner always declares turkey automatically included), or a method of preparation There’s a lot of teasing and trading as we do three or four rounds, but it’s always a really good final menu with appetizers, main course and a dessert buffet… and everyone has at least a couple of their personal favorites (generally favorites of the rest of us as well!)
Then, on Thanksgiving Day, the kids take over my kitchen and produce the best meal ever. It’s a great way for them to reconnect and include the entire family (and significant others and guests) in the fun of the holiday. And all my husband and I have to do is set the table and enjoy!
That’s great . . . and what would be do without email? It’s really been such a big help on keeping us all together.
My mother-in law is older now and does not cook anymore. There is, however, a pan she used to use to make homemade stuffing at Thanksgiving. Its all beat up and dented and we still use it to make stuffing. It’s not Thanksgiving until the pan makes its appearance.
Cheryl
We have lots of happy traditions, from favorite foods (butter cookies, my braided egg bread) and special ornaments, but an old tradition came back in a wonderful way last year. All the years our kids were growing up the local fire dept would come around one Sat before Christmas with Santa on board. The kids are long since grown and that had become a memory. Last year, after dinner, we were sitting at the table with our daughter and 3-year-old granddaughter when we heard sirens outside. My daughter and I had the same flash of memory, grabbed Kaitlyn and ran outside. Sure enough, there was the fire truck with bright lights flashing in the dark, and Santa passing out candy canes. It was a shared moment of pure magic, when the past and present converged and life came full circle. Perfect!
Fantastic! Must have been amazing.
Susan, I have used your early cookbook for years and have just discovered your blog. It’s awesome! In the fall, I pull out my wooden boards and spoons for rebirth too, and get busy making my sweet cinnamon pumpkin bread with pecans from a little pecan store in southeast Texas. They are the best! Wonderful bread to wake up to in the morning and sit out on the patio with a hot cup of coffee. Now that our fierce summer is over my plants that were barely alive during the drought are flowering like spring. We back up to a creek with huge oak trees and we can watch birds, raccoons and tons of squirrels. Texas in the Autumn is truly a breath of fresh air. Enjoy your fall with the beautiful colors and I’ll enjoy it along with you in your blog. Thanks and love. Diana
I’m so happy for you…you guys deserve a breath of fresh air!
Happy that you are safely home! I felt your spirit here is California!
We have so many Holiday Traditions….but one that is special to all is the early morning making of Pizzelles at Thanksgiving and Christmas. The “starter” for the day!
Yum!
Well it is certainly prettier than my old shoebox LOL
Favourite tradition… most of my family traditions are back home in England with my family- because for one reason or another I can’t do them here (boo!).
I suppose my new favourite would be waking the kids up for Christmas day. Yes, I am usually the first one up LOL and the one who has to wake them up! because *I* can’t wait for them to open their presents!
I have problems with excitement too!
I’ve been trying for YEARS to perfect my Grandmother’s wonderful cornbread stuffing recipe for Thanksgiving. Last year, I finally got it right! My family cheered, and I hope my Grandma was smiling down from Heaven! She left the recipes behind, but the techniques and secrets–she took those with her! I know she was cooking with me last year, and decided to “reveal” the magic. Thank you, Mom! (We called our Grandma, “Mom”)
Congratulations! That’s truly a feat, there were some tricks in our grandma’s cooking!
How LOVELY!!!
One tradition in my house is the making of “snow cookies”. We’ve done it ever since my daughter was wee and she is now 21! The first snowfall of the year, not the tiny flurries that act as a herald to winter, the first snow that covers the ground….we make cookies. They are a warm spiced coookie with cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of cloves, easy to make and can be handled roughly by little hands and rolled out over and over. We squirt the white frosting flavoured with almond all over the tops in random snowflake patterns. When she was younger, they would make an appearance in her classroom for all her friends to enjoy:)
We write the date in the cookbook and have a wonderful record of all the first snowfalls for quite a few years now:) xox Here’s a picture of them! http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2029/2129272114_5caebd14d7_m.jpg
on the perfect plate too!
The wooden recipe boxes are so warm and homey with their mortise and tenon joinery. Thank you for the little tutorial on maintaining our wooden kitchen things – have you ever done that with your recipe box?
Yes, I do it with any wood that doesn’t have a finish on it.
Hi Susan,
I have 2 boys (3 if you count my husband) who are all “foodies”. Every Christmas morning I make the crepe recipe out of your “Heart of the Home” cookbook and they all 3 stand by the stove as I make them one at a time, with their plates in hand. The crepes are hot off the press, rolled with either cinnamon sugar or homeade jam and then topped with Vermont maple syrup – yum! I wouldn’t dare try to suggest any other breakfast. Now that both of my boys are in college, they appreciate them even more. I would love to start a recipe box of our favorites for them as they venture on to start their own traditions in the next few years…
mmmm, I would be in line with my plate too!
We cuddle on the couch together and watch Polar Express and love that Hot Chocolate song (very catchy!). Love to make cookies and have Santa leave a thank you note in the morning! 🙂
sweeet!
Your suggestions for keeping our wooden kitchen utensils and cutting boards looking “healthy” is so appreciated by this not-so-domestic goddess. I also have a wooden recipe box complete with recipes from my grandmother, it is one of my dearest treasures especially now that I am a grandmother.
I am always sad to find them in antique stores — they are the story of a family’s life — luckily, it doesn’t happen very often! So happy yours is cherished!
I think one of the favorite things we used to do as a family at Christmas is work on a Christmas themed puzzle together. It all started about 10 years ago when my parents had moved back to Texas from New Mexico and were actually within driving distance for us all to visit more frequently. I brought a folk art Christmas puzzle to help pass the time one year, and before the long weekend was over, each grandchild, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandma and grandpa has taken a turn or two at the card table and added a few pieces. When it was done I glued it all together and framed it as a rememberance of that year. We continued the tradition every year until a few of us moved further away, the grandkids got too cool to participate and grandpa couldn’t see well enough to do it. I still have the six or so puzzles we did over the years though, and treasure memories they envoke.
That would equal a fight in our family, 6 puzzles and 8 kids would never work! Lucky for you to have them!
I love to make a Gingerbread House with my kids!! They really enjoy the process and I love watching them!
Btw, I never got my mother’s recipes, so this would be quite a treasure!
Sheri O.
If you get it, you could put the Gingerbread house recipe in it for your kids!! Good Luck!
I love the way you write, you make oiling wooden items seem like a fun magical event instead of a kitchen chore that must be done.
I love recipes and recipe boxes and cook books. I only have 2 of my grandmothers recipes but they are in her handwriting so I cherish them.
You are lucky! Thanks Michelle!
Dear Susan!
I love your Mystical Kitchen.
I dream about your book. I love your books but in Polen i cannt to acquired.
I love your lovely blog, and i love your recept.
I make now my mystical Kitchen in my home witch my sons and husbend. I am happy. I can english a littel. Im sorry.
Pozdrawiam Cię z Polski z mojego domowego zakątka.
Iza
BEAUTIFUL JOB of English. So much better than my Polish! Thank you!!!
My favorite “Holly-day” tradition is a person rather than a thing ! My daughter, Holly, took it upon herself to think up an activity for us each year on Thanksgiving to bridge the gap between Thanksgiving Dinner and Raiding the Refrigerator in the evening. One year it was poetry and we read James Whitcomb Riley’s “When the Frost is on the Pumpkin”, another we made collages of things we were thankful for and she even commandeered her five brothers and sisters to put on a Thanksgiving play one year complete with Pilgrim hats and lots of laughs. I’m happy to say that she now has her own little brood and they are well-steeped in the tradtion of making their own memories.
She sounds great! Good job Cindy!
this will be my first Christmas without my Mom. I know it will be a difficult time but I’ve already put together an album of old family pictures and dug out her “special” cookies recipes….she ONLY made these at Christmas. I know she’ll be there in spirit.
Thank you for a beautiful blog site and I cherish all your books–makes each season come alive!
I’m so sorry. It must be so hard. Wishing you a serenely wonderful Christmas …. filled with her spirit.
Seeing a new email blog from you is a refreshing break in my day. It’s always fun to see what you are up to. I smile when I think about your twitters from the “twain”….that one fits my sense of humor perfect. Thank you for popping in to our homes and bringing sunshine (regardless of the weather outside!)
You’re so welcome, thanks for checking in with us!
I’m so glad you are home safe and sound with Girl Kitty! I don’t have many traditions but I love Christmas and all that goes with it .. the lights, tree, music (I start listening on Thanksgiving Day!), Oyster Stuffing (the best!) and of course, family and friends!!!
Who could ask for anything more???
I am, admittedly and unabashedly, a holiday nut. Of all my favorite holiday traditions, I would have to say that the single thing that reminds me most of the holidays is the Vince Guaraldi Trio, Charlie Brown Christmas music. Actually, I keep it in my CD player year-round! BUT, it is not the holidays without: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story on Christmas Eve. I always set up my New England village, tour Candy Cane Lane to see the incredible lights, have seafood on Christmas Eve, keep a Honey-Baked ham on deck to nibble on all Christmas day, and home-made egg nog!
And, of course, I have your Christmas book on display!
xo
All sounds perfect!