Welcome to Fern Valley

Here in central Alberta prime farm country,my husband Martin and I work together raising beef cattle and Appaloosa horses. Fern valley appaloosas have long been known for their quality of temperament conformation and color.I have recently rediscovered a love of writing and have published 2 collections of poetry. "Telling Tails" and Tails Trails and Campfire stories" . I look forward to a future spreading my wings as an author and as a horse woman .

Sunday 29 December 2013

"Fixing dinner" and returning to a wonderful tradition in a new way

Hello everyone, I have  finally surfaced from  my turkey com lol and am  back to post , about... Turkey!
Just  briefly mind you . I was looking at all  the leftovers  form Christmas  dinner and thinking, hmm, how many ways  can we  "remake " leftovers  to be something new. When a post I saw on Pinterest a while back  came to mind. Now a lot of the recipes and ideas on Pinterest look  like a  great idea, but some  don't turn out quite the way they are pictured. here are a few  examples  from  the net.



So I wasn't sure , but I thought , what the heck, lets give it a  go. 
I didn't so much  follow a recipe as I did an idea, but long story  short ,I made  Savory stuffing and turkey muffins. and...
they  were awesome! 


Served them  with  some home made  Turkey  soup, and a  dot of my Auntie Elsie's home made cranberry  sauce! Which is a wonderful  family tradition, she makes it for us every  year,and the store bought stuff?? nope can't  stand it after having this .

Christmas  day was wonderful, spent the morning at my sisters home enjoying  a  wonderful brunch and  visit with  family, then  returned home to prepare the dinner. We had a full house , with mom and  dad, Martins dad, and all but one of Heather and Mar'cs family as Deanna, joining her sweetie for dinner at his family home. 
One more added guest was my dear  friend  Cindy, who found herself on her  own for Christmas  day, so she  to joined the family meal, and was a huge help to me in prep and cleanup.
Sorry , o pictures, I just plain  forgot, we enjoyed  dinner and visit , then all sat  down  to watch a movie and wind down.It was quite simply perfect.
And made  more so by the gift I received  from  Martin  that he did not know he gave me. He bought me an I pad, a wonderful gift in itself, but the part he didn't know was that I could download the Kindle app to it.

Now let me  back track a little , for many years,each Christmas I would receive a book from  my grandfather, usually one of the Dick Francis series, he passed away several years ago, and I have really missed that tradition, reading the book Christmas night and boxing day, smiling all the while knowing he had already read it, himself, very carefully so as  not to crease the spine, and we would then share out thoughts.
I did buy one for myself the next year or so ,but it was not the same.
Then the author also passed away, so it seems that  was that.

Well Dick Francis has a son, Felix Francis. And he has taken up the torch and written a book based on one of the much loved characters in the series. and that is the gift , Martin did not know he bought me . I downloaded the new book,"Refusal" and maybe because it is a few years later, or because I read it on my I pad,I don't know, but the pure  joy I found in reading that book was just like in times past!
Couldn't of course  call my granddad to talk with him about it , but ,it still felt  pretty good. And maybe I can  discuss it with someone if anyone else chooses to join in my Christmas  reading tradition and  have a look?
The only downside to this is that my love of reading has awakened and I  may have trouble getting my nose out of the books again for a while and forget to blog! LOL

Or maybe it will start me  writing again? hard to say either  way I am a very happy girl. I did also receive  wonderful thoughtful gifts  from  my family, they all know me so well .And I hope they enjoyed  what I gave to them.
Yet another  tradition  will be followed, in a new  way,  mom has  long  been a fan of the ballet, as were Heather and I  for many years, Mom has  taken Heather's  girls to several, and Deanna  commented it would be  nice to go tot the Nutcracker when it was presented  just before Christmas.
We did not make it to that , and mom is no longer able to go as it is too long and evening for her, but Heather, Deanna, Tara and I will be taking our Christmas  gift  from  mom and  dad, tickets to the Ukrainian Ballet's presentation of "Clara's  Dream" (an adaptation of the Nutcracker) on January 10!
So here's to a wonderful Christmas  full of tradition old and new , and a  wonderful new year to come!
Stay safe and  warm  my friends

7 comments:

aurora said...

Those muffin's are a great idea. Everything sounds wonderful, enjoy!!

kden said...

Those Pinterest pics are funny, nice to know the flop pics aren't yours. The muffins look great, I just usually go straight to the soup after we're tired of turkey. I don't buy the canned stuff anymore either, I make the relish with fresh oranges. I'm glad you had such a wonderful Christmas all the way around.

C-ingspots said...

Your holiday sounds just lovely! Anytime we can relax with family, friends, food and thankfulness...we are living life to the fullest. Happy New Year Sherry!

Nicole said...

Mmmmm those look awesome! Sounds like they were tasty too! :)

WishIHadAHorsey said...

Yum! Those look wonderful :)

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

Yammy ! I like it, everything looks delicious
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