Making Decorated Cookies for Christmas

There are so many Christmas cookie favorites but it doesn't take a lot of skill to make decorated cookies for Christmas.  In fact, you can buy your cookies and then ice them yourself.

Decorated Christmas Cookies 

You can also take a basic cookie and decorate them.  Just start with the basic decorator cookie icing recipe.

Mix Icing

Make your colors in bottles so that you can squeeze the ends of the cookie with the icing.

outline your cookie and

then fill in with the color you want.

Walla!  Your decorated cookie.

Christmas cookies are so much fun and fun to decorate.  They can be used for a Christmas Cookie Tree.

Have fun baking for Christmas

Special Occasion Cheesecake - Christmas

Anyone who loves cheesecake will get into the swing of things by making some one's Christmas Day a memorable one.  

There are so many recipes for good cheesecake that it is hard to pick one.  I have one but due to a family tradition, my daughter has banned me from sharing it. So needless to say, I have to rely on other good recipes for this edition of my blog.

Let's start out with perhaps the simplest of cheesecakes and make them individually in a a mold such as the ones shown above.  The link takes you to the recipe for making this delicious cheesecake individually for your family and friends.

Next on our list of cheesecakes is one that is just that a cheesecake made in a heart shaped cake mold and not decorated  With this cheesecake you have the best of all worlds in that you can use the recipe above and leave it up to the individual to use the topping of their choice while enjoying the cheesecake flavor.

Since I can't use my own recipe, I'm suggesting that you use the recipe of the one that I linked you to for the rest of these Christmas offerings.

The first is my personal favorite.  It is a cheesecake decorated with fruited jello and whipped cream topping.

A good portion of the people prefer strawberry topping with their cheesecake.

Blueberry Mini Cheesecake

Others are partial to blueberries.

My final suggestion takes a little more decorating ability and is made with two cheesecake made to form a snowman.

Whether you top these off with whipped cream or not is totally an individual preference.  I vote for with whipped cream.

Try these for that special someone in your life in their favorite flavor.

Thanksgiving Memories from My Youth

I grew up in Aspinwall, a suburban town just north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Thanksgiving Day brings back a jumble of memories from the 1950's.

In our house my Dad was a cook in the Army and he always took over the Thanksgiving turkey and how it was cooked.  There was never any problem with that because in the 1950's Thanksgiving was a true holiday and nobody and I mean nobody worked Thanksgiving Day.

The stores were not open on Thanksgiving and if you forgot something or were out of something you had to borrow it from a neighbor because there wasn't anywhere to shop for it.  One Thanksgiving, as a young mother, I had forgotten something and I drove around three boroughs looking for a store to buy it.  To my surprise, there was just one shop open on North Canal Street in Sharpsburg that carried produce.

My grandfather, was always in charge of the pies.  No one could make a better crust than my grandfather and I always judged a pie from my youth on by the crust and not the filling.  He started early in the morning so that the oven was empty in time for the Turkey to be put into it.  He would make pumpkin pies and a mincemeat pie.  I never tasted the mincemeat because I was a picky eater and didn't like the looks of it at that time.  To this day, I couldn't tell you what a mincemeat pie tastes like.

Not our A&P but very similar store from the 50's

We had an A&P grocery store in Aspinwall and my Mom would send me with my Dad to do the shopping for what was needed.  I remember that my Dad's brother, Uncle Bill, worked as a butcher at that store even though he lived in Pitcairn which was clear on the other side of the city.  The pies needed evaporated milk and spices.  My mother didn't make her own cranberries and jellied cranberries were bought in a can.  I remember that I always had to have cranberries with poultry or beef because as I said, I was a picky eater.

truck similar to Jim and Tony's that came around the streets twice a week

The stuffing needed celery, onions and green pepper.  Sometimes she would buy the produce from Jim and Tony who would drive a produce truck through our borough selling fresh vegetable.  She also bought the potatoes from him.

Butcher Counter similar to McCafferty's

The turkey was always bought from McCafferty's Butcher Shop, which was in Beck's Grocery Store on Center Avenue, around the corner from our house.  My grandfather wasn't rich but he always contributed to the table by buying the meat that was being served for Sundays or holidays.

Stuffing cooking in the skillet in batches

My mother made her stuffing the night before Thanksgiving from crust of bread that she had saved in a paper bag and then broke by hand into little pieces to be sauteed in the iron skillet in batches.  As we got older my brother and I would help by breaking up the stale pieces of bread crust.  She would put the batches into the large soup pot and then stored it on the back porch which was always cold enough to serve as an extra refrigerator for my Dad to stuff the bird in the morning.

Thanksgiving was a day of anticipation and there was nothing for us kids to do but wait for the deliciousness that was happening in the kitchen.  Grace, My friend, and I would go for long walks on Thanksgiving just to get ready for the big meal we were anticipating.  I remember that Thanksgiving was usually the day of the first snowfall in our area and Grace and I would walk to the Box Factory and find a sheet of discarded cardboard and slide down the side of the on ramp to the Highland Park Bridge.  That was the closest we could come to an actual sled ride when the snow was just a dusting and to us it was loads of fun.

When we got home the house smelled glorious with turkey.  My Dad always got the honor of carving the turkey with my Mom's silver carving knife and fork that came from her mother before her.  Dad preferred dark meat but my plate had to have white meat.

Dinner started with Grace to thank God for the abundance of what were were about to eat.  With Grace being said, we devoured several rounds of filling our plates with the simple meal on the table.  Turkey with cranberries, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, corn were the meal of the day.  Sometimes, broccoli, cooked carrots or peas were added.  We never had room for pie after dinner and it was always saved for later in the evening.  I don't know why but as soon as dinner was over, I found myself sound asleep on the couch.

That's was Thanksgiving from my youth.  I'm sure everyone has similar stories to tell.

Sunday Farmer's Market in Aspinwall, Pennsylvania

Sundays are great for going to the Aspinwall VFD Flea Market.  Find that treasure and to support your Aspinwall Volunteer Fire Department.  The flea market for the 2020 season was cancelled early due to corona virus restrictions but has been up and running for the past three months.

Open for business through the end of October, weather permitting, the best farmer's market can be found in Aspinwall, Pennsylvania at the AVFD Flea Market.  This year we moved the firemen's coffee to the pergola in the parking lot.  The AFVD has coffee and other items for sale.  Above are our tee shirts and lawn signs that can be purchased to support your local firefighters.

The vendors are located on Freeport Road.  Parking is along the reailroad tracks and street parking but we are available on the Port Authority busline.  So come on down to Aspinwall to view some of the best vendors on the flea market trail.

If you haven't tried one of the firemens' hot dogs you have missed out on a real treat.  All beef and loaded with flavor that only the firemen know how to do.  Unfortunately, we cannot sell them this year due to the virus restrictions.  But for those of you who want one!!!!!  The AVFD will be selling their famous hot dogs from the firehall October 8th. from 5 to 7 PM.

The farmer who is featured here has been a vendor at the flea market for many years.   The young people who sell their vegetables come from a family that has a history of selling door to door in Aspinwall with their fresh cut meats and vegetables.  As a child I remember them coming to our street with their eggs and produce.

Freedom Farms in 2018

While the flea market itself has many vendors that display their wares, the main attraction each week is the local produce.  Being at a Port Authority bus stop is another feature that allows many people who don't drive to attend this weekly event and buy items that they can carry home on public transportation.

What is especially good is that all of the produce is professed to be locally grown and the young people who run the stand are from a local farm.  This farming family started out in a smaller location in a corner of the lot.  They have since moved to the center of the lot taking up three prime spots selling their produce from the truck and collapsible tents.  They are in the center of attention each week.

The flea market doesn't need any more publicity because it is run by the Aspinwall Volunteer Fire Department and has been for many years.  As in any event worthwhile attending, parking is at a premium since the event itself is held in the community's public parking lot and attendees need to find parking on nearby streets.  But the result of your trip is well worth the time it takes to visit the stands of this hard working volunteer organization.

In Pennsylvania, senior citizens who live on limited means are presented with four gift certificates for fresh vegetables early in the season to be used over the summer months.  Each certificate is worth $5 and must be spend entirely on produce that is locally grown.  Freedom Farms is a local grower and they do accept these certificates in payment of their fruits and vegetables.

Darden Foods - Bahama Breeze in Orlando

While we were in Florida, I took a tour of a popular timeshare and was rewarded with $100 worth of Darden Food Gift Cards.  We normally visit Olive Garden when we have gift cards but being in Orlando we felt adventurous and decided to try Bahama Breeze instead.  Having fourteen in our party we called ahead to let them know what time we would be arriving.  The restaurant staff was very accommodating and were ready for our arrival.

So off we went in two cars.  Since there were four families each driver made two trips to take us from the timeshare to Bahama Breeze.  There is a driveway but the handicapped entrance is off to the side nearer the rear parking lot.

Once inside we waited in the lobby for the second car to arrive with the rest of our family with the son in the wheelchair floating back and forth to the porch area where he could smoke.  Once everyone was at the restaurant we were seated in a double booth area with the tables pushed together so that all fourteen of us could sit together in family style.  Even with us throwing off their arrangement with a wheelchair in the party and the need for a high chair, the staff made every effort to make our meal pleasant.

The menu boasted everything from a Cheeseburger that my son, Bill, ate and declared on Facebook to be the best cheeseburger he had ever eaten.  This is quite a boast since he is so particular about foods and places I shop for them.

Being a seafood restaurant my daughter and I selected the shrimp linguini with a side salad which I had no problem polishing off.  I'm not fond of alfredo sauce but there was just right blend of garlic in the sauce that it was just what the doctor ordered for me.

The rest of the family enjoyed a multitude of selections from the children's menu to a miriad of fish and chicken dishes.  Even with all fourteen of us eating the final bill only came to a little over $250.  To me that is affordable dining.

Meatloaf Burgers - Half the time of Meatloaf

Meatloaf is the most popular way to make and eat ground beef because of the goodies that make it a cut above an ordinary hamburger.  My son, Bill, who hated to wait for anything came up with this originally and I have to admit it takes nothing away from my meatloaf recipe especially since I love my meatloaf on a bun or slices of bread.

Using the same recipe as you would for my no frills meatloaf, you can cut your prep to table time in half.


This tasty form of the popular favorite only takes half the time to bake in the oven and can be eaten plain for dinner or as a meatloaf burger.

Tool used to form the ground meat patty

It just takes a handful of your meatloaf mixture to form your patty.  I use the egg tool to measure the patty.


Be sure to press down in the middle so that your burgers cook evenly and then put them onto a foil lined pan to cook at 350° oven for about 30 to 45 minutes.  Once the top is browned you can be remove from the oven.  I use the tool that is used to keep an egg in one spot in the skillet to form my burgers.



Now that you have the recipe and the instructions, it up to you if you want to wait the time it takes to make a full meatloaf or not.  Happy eating.

Flower Explosion

The growing season for flowers was slower than in past years.  During a similar winter a few years back, I was disappointed when I found the bulbs from the previous year's lilies unearthed in my little side garden by my entrance stone.  It seems my neighbors were not so nice when they were walking their dogs because they dug them up for me.  I took them out and dried in my basement to replant them in the Fall.  The bulbs took nicely and I now have a profusion of Lilies in front of my new Madonna that is a replacement for the one that was stolen.

I wanted to add some new plants this summer but had not made up my mind what to plant.  I love lilies of the valley but they only bloom once each year and then you have greens the rest of the year.  I may do those and then I wont have so many weeds showing in the garden.  My neighbor gave me some from her garden but when my other neighbor was weeding for me last year he pulled them out.  This year yet another neighbor gave me some from her garden when she was thinning them out.  Hopefully, these will take hold and I wont have to do anything there in years to come.



I'm not a good gardener.   My grandfather had a green thumb and could grow anything.  Each year he went to the greenhouse to pick out something new for his garden.  I just want to get something growing that will come up year after year and look nice.

This year I bought some annuals that were left at the garden center too long and I planted them between the Asian Lilies and the front of the garden.  I got some delphiniums and lantas.  They are just starting to come up and will fill the void for the rest of this growing year.

If you have any suggestions on what to put in such a small planting area, please comment so I can consider your suggestions.

Doughnuts The Old Fashioned Way

As a child I remember my father would bring home a package of cake doughnuts, just plain old cake doughnuts with no powdered sugar, no chocolate, no cinnamon on them.  It was just a package of a dozen plain cake doughnuts.

You can still buy the packaged brands of these doughnuts or you can go to the supermarket and buy some from the bakery section.

There is Bella Christi Bakery in Aspinwall where they make a smaller version of these doughnuts right in their sales room as patrons are coming in to purchase baked goods.

It is very easy to make these simple doughnuts.  I prefer to use my deep fryer to make these but you can do it in a cast iron frying pan filled with 2-4 inches of oil with the flame set on high.

Mix 1-1/2 cups of flour with 1 c. sugar, 3 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, 2 tbsp. soft shortening, 2 eggs and 3/4 c. milk.  Blend on slow speed in your mixer and then stir in 2 additional cups of flour.

Put dough on well floured surface. Roll around lightly to coat with flour. Roll dough 3/8 inch thick. Cut with floured doughnut cutter.

Slide doughnuts into hot oil using a slotted spoon, turning them when they rise to the surface with a slotted spoon.  Don't use a fork to turn the doughnuts so that they don't get saturated with oil. Cook 2 to 3 minutes or until golden brown on both sides. Remove carefully from oil with your slotted spoon. Drain the doughnuts on brown paper.  I use the paper bags from the grocery store for this.  Paper towels work just as well but are more expensive to use.

Serve plain, sugared, or frosted. When you are done with your doughnuts, you can make a batch of doughnut holes to use up all of your batter.

The best way to eat cake donuts is using them in a Hot Fudge Sundae such as the ones we used to get at Sweet William Restaurant.  Cake donut on the  bottom with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream and a cherry on top.

Enjoy our version of old fashioned doughnuts.

So That's What Goldfinch Looks Like

When you live to be 70, you think that you have seen it all or had all your "first times"  but I was proven wrong in a most surprising way.

Never in my lifetime have I seen a goldfinch but I did that day.  I was sitting on my deck and out of the corner of my eye, I spied a speck of yellow fly out of my neighbors dense foliage and over the top of the garage roof next door.  I thought to myself that must be a wild canary and I looked up wild canary the next time I came inside.  What popped up was a picture of a goldfinch.

Since I saw the yellow speck in my lazy part of the day, I just registered it a question for when I actually went back into the house.  A short while later, I noticed a beautiful yellow bird with the black cap and v-shaped black wings sitting on a rung in my other neighbor's fence.  To my wonderment this bird stayed perched there for several minutes letting me take in the beauty of a first time experience.

I had never seen such a bird in all my born days except in nature books and I was thrilled beyond words to have seen it.  As a young adult my neighbors owned a greenhouse and neighborhood flower shop.  Mister Blaha was a great outdoors man and he loaned me several books, one of which was a bird guide.  Since I have long since lost that book, I now rely on my internet for my sightings.

As you know I spent two months in 2011 just attracting birds to my deck with a selection of seeds in various bird feeders and did a whole list of the birds that I had seen and heard.

This beauty never visited my feeder but that is understandable since I have now read their migration habits and what types of flowers attract them.  They are attracted to seeds and since my neighbor recently planted a sunflower in his yard that is as tall as an elephants eye.  I'm guessing that it should be going to see about now and I attribute the attraction to that plant.

I will never again make the mistake of thinking that I have seen and done all my "Firsts."

National Doughnut Day

It seems like it was a long time getting here, NATIONAL DOUGHNUT DAY.  As a lover of doughnuts, it was a long hard 12 months.  The first Friday in June.

Last year I went to Giant Eagle at around 8 am and in the entrance was a table full of boxes of a dozen doughnut assortments.  I'm particular and wanted mostly chocolate this year so I went back to the bakery where the selection was slim pickings until a bakery worker told me they had a special section today in honor of the day over by the fresh baked breads.  Wow!  They had long johns with white cream and Bavarian cream.  No jelly doughnuts this year.  All the regulars were there such as glazed, raised with sugar, white and chocolate cake doughnuts with white, chocolate or maple frosting.

This year is an even better deal, "$3.99 a dozen." There were racks and racks of fresh doughnuts just waiting for the shopper who was there for the special.  Usually the price is $5 on Fridays.

A selection of Giant Eagle doughnuts

I'm a kid again or at least a kid at heart.  I love raised doughnuts.

Dunkin Donuts Assortment

They can be glazed,

 sugar coated,

 iced

  or even be long with white cream

inside them.  It makes no difference.  I just love doughnuts.

I'm not fond of the the Boston cream though.  As a child we ate cake donuts.  My son prefers the Boston cream and I'm always sure to get at least two of those for him.

I remember my neighbor making raised donuts.  She used a biscuit cutter to cut out the doughnut and then a whiskey glass to cut out the hole.

She didn't use a fancy grease fryer.  She just used a pot and a slotted spoon to turn and lift the doughnuts out of the grease onto brown paper bags to absorb the grease.

She then dropped them into another paper bag filled with granulated sugar to coat the doughnuts before placing them on a tray.

What a wonderful day today because I get to fill my sweet tooth with my favorite breakfast food. . .a wonderful raised doughnut.  Happy National Doughnut Day.

Happy Mother Day Memories

I know everyone has a special feeling and thinks that their children or grandchildren are the most precious children in the world.  My perspective on the subject is no different.  I have three generations of grandchildren.  That is to say, some are grown ups ranging in age from 19 through 32.  Then there are the three that range in age from 8 through 14.

The youngest two came to visit me for Mother's Day a few years back bringing me the most precious gift any mother or in my case Mema could ask for.

They made this card.  It is filled with real rose petals that are encased in a vinyl coating.  DJ was so proud of it that he read it to me himself.

Rose are red,

Violets are Blue,

We picked these

rose petals just for you.

I'm now a great grandma.  The oldest is headed into teen years with the youngest just one year old.

I'm the happiest grandma in all the world and I thank God for the blessings he has given me.