Jeannie Marie & Company

When I was growing up we did not have a special meal for New Years Day. If my mother prepared a lucky dish, I never got the message. She may have, I was pretty lucky to marry into a family that did have a lucky dish. I didn't feel lucky at the time because I did not like sauerkraut and my mother in law insisted on at least a bite every New Years Day. If we were not together, she would call and check to see if we we making it. I loved my mother in law and she was a good cook, but her sauerkraut was always just heated from a can. I thought sauerkraut was too tangy, crunchy and horrible to eat and only fixed it for New Years Day. For ten years I suffered and cursed the tradition. I was never happy about New Years dinner. Then we moved to Saginaw Michigan and I met a friend, Sonja, who had been born and raised in Germany. Click here for the rest of the story

Picture me jumping up and clicking me heels! Yes!!! I have a whole year before the pressure is upon me once again! Well at least 11 months. I love Christmas day and all the family gathering and seeing my family opening gifts I chose for them, but the stress of getting to that point is unbelievable. Starting with no extra money to buy gifts, a medium talent for making them and receiving much more expensive gifts than I'm giving, I struggle with my self image! I have a wonderful family who make a credible fuss over my homemade items and it gives me warm fuzzies (can I use that 80's term still?) all over. That is what keeps me going. Life is short, it's amazing how quickly Christmas comes around again. I am just going to bask in the warm toasty house and enjoy my life until cabin fever or SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) sets in. I know it's coming, but not until February. Today I can just sip expensive, dark roast coffee that I found in my stocki...

Scented fruit has been made for centuries, a luxury item that people treasured. Air fresheners are well and good, but the scent is gone in minutes, it must be reapplied over and over. Even solids or plug in's eventually run out of steam and must be replaced. Fruit that is preserved with whole cloves and drenched in spices can last for years. This spicy scent makes winter more enjoyable while we are closed in and confined to a few rooms. Later when the windows are open and the fresh air wafts through the house, the light scent floats along with it. The fruit can be stored later in boxes, trunks or cupboards that will maximize the lingering scent. I have published the article and The directions to making your own scented fruit are here: It's a wonderful winter project for children, something that will brighten an overcast day and teach them the secrets of preservation.

I participate in a list serve which feeds posts from several hundred ladies into my mail box every day. My participation has been minimal these past few months while I've been working so hard on my writing, but I've been reading avidly. Yesterday someone posted about gingerbread. I love gingerbread and stay completely away from it. It only crops up rarely and usually I'm prepared to resist it as it always crops up close to Christmas. However, being only December 1st, it caught me off guard. I thought about the recipe all day and dreamed about it last night. I opened my mail and the post hadn't been deleted and I re-read it. It takes 10 minutes to mix. Good! It was ten minutes to nine and I wanted to watch Regis and Kelly. I shot off a reply that I would be making some today. I printed the recipe. Click Here for the rest of the story: